Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-09-04

distinction between music as an art
and music as a help to devotion.
Though q Schumann composed it,
though q Mozart played it, though a
Sontag sang it, away with it if it does
not make the heart better and honor
Christ
Why should we rob the programmes
of worldly gayety when when we have
SO many appropriate songs and tunes
composed in our own day, as well as
that magnificent Inheritance of church
psalmody which has come down fra
grant with the devotions of other gen.
erations-tunes no more worn out than
they were when our great-grandfather
climbed up On them from the church
pew to glory? Dear old souls, how
they used to sing! When they were
cheerful, our grandfathers and grand
mothers used to sing COLCHESTER"
When they were very meditative, then
the boarded meeting house rang
with South Street" and est. Ed
mund's." Were they struck through
with great tenderness, they sang
woodstock Were they wrapped
in visions of the glory of the
church, they sang 'Zion." Were
they overborne with the love and glory
Of Christ, they sang ariel" And in
those days there were certain tunes
married to certain hymns, and they
have lived in peace a great while, these
two old people, and we have no right
to divorce them. "What God hath
Joined together let no man put asun-
der" Born as we have been amid this
great wealth Of church music, aug
mented by the compositions of artists
in our day, we ought not to be tempted
out Of the sphere Of Christian harmony
and try to seek unconsecrated sounds.
It is absurd for a millionaire to steal.
God Loves Harmony.
I remark also that correctness ought
to be a characteristic of church music.
While we all ought to take part in this
service, with perhaps a few excep-
lions, we ought at the same time to
cultivate ourselves in this sacred art.
God loves harmony, and we ought to
love it. There is no devotion in q howl
or yelp. In this day, when there are
SO many opportunities of high culture
in this sacred art, / declare that those
parents are guilty Of neglect who let
their sons and daughters grow up
knowing nothing about music. In
some Of the European cathedrals the
choir assemble every morning and
afternoon of every day the whole year
to perfect themselves in this art and
shall we begrudge the half hour we
spend Friday nights in the rehearsal
of sacred song for the Sabbath?
n OF 1,a ri
and life. Music ought to rush from the
audience like the water from rock
clear, bright, sparkling. If all the 9th
er part Of the church service is dull,
do not have the music dull. With so
many thrilling things to sing about,
away with all drawing and stupidity.
There is nothing that makes me so
nervous as to sit in a pulpit and look
off on an audience with their eyes
three-fourths closed and their lips
almost shut, mumbling the praises
Of God. During one Of my journeys
l preached to an audience of 1900
or 5000 people, and all the music
they made together did not equal one
skylark! People do not sleep at a
coronation; do not let us sleep when
we come to q Saviour's crcwning.
In order to q proper discharge of this
duty, let us stand up, save as age or
weakness or fatigue excuse US. Seated
in an easy pew we cannot do this duty
half so we'll as when upright we throw
our whole body into it. Let our song be
like an acclamation of victory. You
have a right to sing; do not surrender
your prerogative. If in the performance
of your duty, or the attempt at it, you
should lose your place in the musical
scale and be one G below when you
ought to be enc G above, or you should
come in half bar behind, we will eX-
cuse you! Still, it is better to do as
Paul says, and sing with the spirit
and the understanding also.'
Congregational Music.
Again, 1 remark church music must
be congregational This opportunity
must be brought down within the
range Of the whole audience. A song
that the worshiperS cannot sing is of
no more use to them than a sermon
in Choctaw. What an easy kind of
church it must be where the minister
does all the preaching, and the elders
all the praying, and the choir all the
singing! There are but very few
churches where there are 'two hun
dred and forty and five singing men
and singing women"
In some churches it is almost consid-
cred a disturbance If man let out his
voice to full compass, and the people
get up on tiptoe and look over be-
tween the spring hats and wonder
what that man is making all that noise
about. In Syracuse in a Presbyt terrain
church there was one member who
came to me when I was the pastor Of
another church in that city and told