St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-10-07
VOL. XXlV.-NO. Al.

- AA1 W NOs IL
harmony and try to seek unconfecrated
sounds. 1t is absurd for millionaire
to steal
/ remark, also, that correctness ought
to be characteristic of church music.
While we all ought to take part In this
service, with perhaps a few exceptions.
we ought at the same time to cultivate
harmony, and we ought to love it.
There is no devotion in howl or
yelp. In this day, when there are so
many opportunities of high culture in
this sacred art, I declare that those
parents are guilty OF neglect who let
their sons and daughters grow mp
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 a 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 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 a Saviour's
crowning.
In order to a proper discharge OF this
duty, let us stand up, save as age or
weakness or fatigue excuses u.s. 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 bc
like an acclamation OF victory. You
have a right to sing-do not surrender
your prerogative. If in the performs
ance of your duty, or the attempt at it,
you should lose your place in the mu-
sical scale and be one C below when you
ought to be one c 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"
Again I 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 moro
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
ss245 singing men and singing women"
| In some churches it is almost consid-
cred q 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 Presbyterian church
| there was one member who came to mo
| when Twas the pastor of another church
in that city and told me his trouble,
how that as he persisted in singing on
| the Sabbath day a committee, made up
| Of the session Of the choir, had come to
ask him if he would not Just please 10
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.
| 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. I
| never shall forget hearing Frenchman
sing the 'sMarseillaise' on the Champs
Elysees, Paris, Just before the battle OF
Sedan, in 1870. / never saw such en-
i thusiasm before or since. As he sang
that national air, oh, how the French-
] men shouted! Have you ever in an
English nssemblage heard band play
| 'God Save the Queen? II you have,
| you know something about the enthu-
siasm OF national air.
Now, 1 tell you that these songs We
sing Sabbath by Sabbath are the ma
| tional airs of the Kingdom of Heaven.
and il 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 IL some of the best
anthems of Heaven were made up Of
some Of the best songs Of earth. May
God increase our reverence for Chris
tian psalmody and keep us from dis
gracing it by our indifference and friv-
olity.
/ When Cromwell's army went into bat
tie he stood at the head Of il one day
and gave ont the long meter doxology
to the tune of the "Old Hundredth." /"
and that great host, company by COM
pany, regiment by regiment. division
by division. Joined in the doxology:
Praise God. from W hom all blessings dow:
Praise Him. al creatures here below:
Praise Him above. ye heavenly host;
Praise Father. son and Holy Ghost
And while they sang they marched.
and while they marched they fought,
and while they fought they got the vic
tory Oh, men and women of Jesus
Christ, let us go into all our conflicts
singing the praises Of God, and then
instead of falling back. as we often do
from defeat to defeat, we will be march.
ing on from victory to victory. ''Glofis
in Excelsis" is written over many or
gans- Would that by our appreciation
of the goodness of GOD, and the mere,
of Christ, and the grandeur of Heaven
We could have '.Gloria in Excels;s- writ
ten over all our souls. .Glory be to tn,
Father. and to the1 I'D. and to the Hol,
Ghost, as it was in the beginning, i
now and ever shall be, world withou
end. Amen!"
Royalty's Early Serfaom.
Muzaffir-I-Din, shah OF Persia. wa
made the governor of province whel
he was quite small boy. though h
: had no work to do in connection witt
the office 0yyirU IN his fathers IcaI