The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1899-09-13
A SERVICE OF SONG.
Rev. DR.. TaImage's Sermon on
Music in Religion.
MUSIC OF BIBLE TIMES,
The Best Music Rendered un-
der Trouble, God Meant All
to Sing. The Proper Music
For a Church.

vi q SlISl Viz
DR.. Talmage discussed most attrac
tive department of religious worship
the service of song. His ideas will be
received with interest by all who love
to lift their voices in praise in the
Lords house. The text is Nehemiah
vii, g., "And they had two hundred
forty and FIVE singing men and singing
women"
The best music has been rendered
under trouble. The first duet that |
know anything Of was given by Paul
and Silas when they sang praises to
God and the prisoners heard them. The
Scotch CovenanterS, bounded by the
dogs of persecution, sang the psalms OF
David with more spirit than they have
ever since been rendered. The captlvess
in the text had music left in them. and
declare that if they could find, amid
all their trials, two hundred and forty
and FIVE singing men and singing wo-
men then in this day of gospel sunlight
and free from all persecution there
ought to be great multitude OF men
and women willing to sing the praises
of God. All our churches need arousal
on this subject. Those who can sing
must throw their souls into the exercise
and those who cannot sing must learn
how, and it shall be heart to heart,
voice to voice, hymn to hymn, anthem
to anthem, and the music shall swell
jubilant with thanksgiving and tremu-
lous with pardon.
Have you ever noticed the construc-
ton of the human throat as indicative
of what God means US to do with it?
In only an ordinary throat and lungs
there are a direct muscles and 80 in
direct muscles that can produce very
great variety of sounds. What does
hat mean? 1t means that you should
Bingl Do you suppose that God, who
gives US such musical instrument as
that, intends US to keep it shut? Sup
pose some great tyrant should get pos
session Of the musical instruments Of
the world and should lock up the organ
of Westminster abbey, and the organ Of
Lucerne, and the organ at Harlem,
and the organ at Freiburg, and all the
other great musical instruments Of the
world. You would call such man as
that monster, and yet you are more
wicked if, with the human voice, a
musical instrument of more wonderful
adaptation than all the musical instru-
ments that man ever created, you shut
it against the praise Of God.
Let those refuse to sing
Who never knew our God,
But children Of the heavenly King
Should speak their joys abroad.
Music seems to have been born in
the soul Of the natural word. The
omnipotent voice with which God com
manded the world into being seems to
linger yet with its majesty and sweet
ness, and you hear it in the gralnfeld,
in the swoop of the wind amid the
mountain fastnesses, in the canary's
warble and the thunder shock, in the
brooks tinkle and the ocea1's paean.
There are soft cadences in nature and
loud notes, some of which we cannot
hear at all and others that are so terri
&c that We cannot appreciate them.
Tim aDimalculac have their music,
and the spiculs Of hay and the globule
of water are as certainly resonant with
the voice Of God as the highest heavens
in which the armies of the redeemed
celebrate their victories. When the
breath Of the flower strikes the air, and
wing Of the freely clea7es it, there is
sound and there is melody; and as to
those utterances Of nature which seem
harsh and overwhelming, it is as when
you stand in the midst Of great or
chestra, and the sound almost rends
your ear because you are too near to
catch the blending Of the music. So,
my friends, We stand too near the DESC
lating storm and the frightful whirl-
wind to catch the blending of the music
but when that music rises to where God
is, and the Invisible beings who float
above Us, then l suppose the harmony
is as sweet as it is ,Ic>us ndous. In TIE
judgment day, that day Of tumult and
terror, there will be no dissonance to
those who can appreciate the music. It
will be as when sometimes great Or
ganist; in executing some great piece,
breaks down the instrument upon which
he is playing the music. So, when
the great march of the judgment day
is played under the hand of earth
quake, and storm and confagration,
the world itself will break down with
the music that is played on it. The
fact is, We are all deaf, or we should
understand that the whole uni
verse is but one harmony-the stars of
the night only the ivory keys of great
instrument on which Gods fingers play
the music Of the spheres.
Music seems dependent on the law Of
acoustics and mathematics, and yet
where these laws are not understood at
all the art is practiced There are to-
day 500 musical journals in China
Two thousand years before Christ the
Egyptians practlced this art. Pytha-
goras learned it. hasus Of Hermione
wrote essays on it. Plato and Aristotle
introduced into their scools, but have
not much interest il that. My chief
interest is in the music of the Bible.
The Bible, like great harp with in
numberable string, swept by the fingers
of inspiration, trembles with it. So far
back as the fourth chapter Of Genesis
you find the first organist and harper
Jubal. So far back as the thirty-frst
chapter Of Genesis you find the first
choir. All up and down the Bible you
find sacred nlusic-at wedding, at inau-
gurations, at the treading of the wine
press. The Hebrews understood howt to
make musical signs above the musical
text. When the Jews came from their
distant homes to great festivals at
Jerusalem, they brought harp and tim