The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-09-08

nificent inheritance of church psalm
ody which has come down fragrant
with the devotions of other genera
| tions-tunes no more worn out than
they were when our great-grandfa-
theirs climbed up to them from the
church pew to glory? Dear old souls,
how thsy used to sing! When they
were cheerful, our grandfathers and
grandmothers used to sing "Colches-
ter" When they were very medita-
tive, then the boarded meeting house
rang with South Street" and St. 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
"Arich." And in those days there were
certain tunes married 70 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 asunder." Born as we have been,
amid this great wealth of church mu-
sic, augmented by the compositions of
artists in our day, we ought not to be
tempted out of the sphere of Christian
harmonyand try to seek unconsecrated
sounds. 1t is absurd for a millionaire
| to steal.
! I remark, also, that correctness ought
to be characteristic of church music.
While we all ought to take part in this
service, with perhaps few exceptions,
we ought at the same time to cultivate
| IL - II
harmony, and we ought to love it.
| There is no devotion in a howl or a
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 assemblies every morning and
every 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?
Another characteristic must be spirit
and life. Music ought to rush from the
| audience like the water from rock
clear, bright, sparkling. If all the other
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 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 I preached to an
audience of 1000 or 1900 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 a Saviour's
crOwning.
In order to proper discharge of this
duty, let us stand up, save as age or
weakness or fatigue excuses us. Seated
in an easy pew we cannot do this duty
half so well as when upright we throw
our whole body into it. Let our song be
like an acclamation of victory. You
have right to sing-do not surrender
your prerogative. If in the perform
ance of your duty, or the attempt at if,
you should lose your place in the mu-
steal scale and be one below when you
ought to be one c above, or you should
come in half a 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"
Again l 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 preach
ing and the elders all the praying and
the choir all the singing! There are
but very few churches where there are
''245 singing men and singing women"
In some churches it is almost consid-
cred disturbance if man let out his
voice to full compass, and the people
get up on tiptoe and look over between
the spring hats and wonder what that
man is making all the noise about. In
Syracuse in a Presbyterian church
there was one member who came to me
when I was the pastor of another church
in that city and told me his trouble,
how that as he persisted in singing on
the Sabbath day committee, made up
of the session of the choir, had come to
ask him if he would not Just please TO
keep still! You have right to sing.
Jonathan Edwards used to set apart
whole days for singing. Let us wake up
to this duty. Let us sing alone, sing in
our families, sing in our schools, sing
in our churches.
l want to rouse You to an unanimity
in Christian song that has never yet
been exhibited. Come now; clear your
throats and get ready for this duty.
never shall forget hearing Frenchman
sing the "Marseillaise" on the Champs
Elysees, Paris, just before the battle of
Sedan, in 1870. | never saw such en-.
thusiasm before or since. AS he sang
that national air, oh, how the French
men shouted! Have you ever in an
English assemblage heard a band play
God Save the Queen?" If you have.
you know something about heenthu-
siasm of a national air.
Now, tell you that these songs we
sing Sabbath by Sabbath are the ma
tional airs of the Kingdom of Heaven,
and if you do not learn to sing them here
how do you ever expect to sing the song
of Moses and the Lamb? ! should not
be surprised at all if some of the best
anthems of Heaven were made up of
some of the best songs of earth Nav
God increase our reverence for Chris
tian psalmody and keep us from dis
gracing it by our indifference and friv-
olity.
p7so1n D(.INL h. l. ~ L