The age-herald., 1898-01-02

(COnIlnueQ IrODl NCilt LII o6SC
 meath the. shadow of the pyramids, within the precinct of the walls, where the names of Isis and Osiris were uttered with re- vered and bated breath, and in the lowiy dwellings of the slave, Israel sang his lam entations and songs of bondage. Oh, won- der! Israel was still Israel! But hut and temple were alike to disappear and give place to the arch of heaven and the hymns of bondage to be substituted by anthems of freedom and victory
 Under a calm midnight sky weary watch CTS lie gazing, perhaps, at the star-gem- med space above them. Suddenly the blue vault of heaven was glorified by sh ming light and on the astounded human ears fell the angels song: "Glory to God in the Highest, Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men" The birth of the Son of Man is told in song. Think of it! How can you but exalt music when God the Father selects it to be the vehicle of the grandest message ever sent from heaven to earth. Can you say after that, it is merely an amusement? You have only to listen and it will always speak to you of heavenly things.
 Twelve men are sitting at table; they do not know it, but they have just been par takers in the most potential rite ever cele- brated. There was still jail between them and the Master. They must have been seated for long time, for the night has come down, and outside they can hear the songs and shouts of the rejoicing people, gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. They have been listening for the last time. perplexed, grieved and won- dering at the words of the beloved Teacher. "And when they had sung an hymn, they went out unto the Mount of Olives"
 And they sang an hymn" In all history I know of few sentences which contain more than this. What would the church not give to sing the, at once, communion and crucifxion hymn, its Master and Founder Himself sung?
 One great difficulty in the way of popu- lar and correct conception of music is that we not wont to regard it as we do anything else, but put 1t aside with the feel ing that it so much part of another world from ours that it would be impossible ever to get en rapport with it. On the contrary, the tone realm is only one of the great parts which make up the great whole in natures intellectual laboratory. great composition has as clearly defined a plot as any work of fiction. It Is as logical in its development as the profoundest treat ise. It's rhythms are as varied and rich in their meanings as the most complex of modern poems Its proportions must be as perfect and its shading as delicate as the most carefully designed work of the paint CTS art, always however, with this excep- tion: That while the painter. sculptor or author at best only reproduce objects and characters from real fife. the musician, from the unseen, unknown. unseeable, un- knowable. creates combinations of sound Tor which there Is no counterpart, unless 1t be the unseeable, unknowable. which is ln a mans nature, hidden inscrutably from himself. True, the composition of high order is frequently in the popular vernacu- lar, too scientific, too hard to understand. There is a demand for something simpler, fresh and childish, hence in Europe we find the ''Volklieder' folk-song.
 There is no more fascinating fed for