The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-09-20
DIR, TALMAGE'S SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE Blythe NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: Music in Observation-Disclosures
Between Music as an Art and Music as
an Aid to Devotion-Sational Airs OF
the Kingdom of Heaven.

an Aid to Deyotfon-Sational Airs OF
the Kingdom of Heaven.
Copyright. Louis Klopsch. 1891
WASHINGTON, D. CDR. Talmage, in this
sermon, discusses q most attractive depart
ment OF religious worshiE-the service Of
song. His idea will be received with in
terest by all who love to lit their voices In
praise in the Lords house. The text Is
Nehemish VIII, 81, "And they had two hun
dred forty and five singing men aud sing
ing women"
The best music has been rendered under
trouble. The first duet that I know any,
thing OF was given by Paul and Silas when
they sang praises to God and tho prisoners
heard them. The Scotch Covenanters,
bounded by the dogs OF persecution, sang
ths psalms OF David with more spirit than
they have ever since been rendered. The
captives in the text had music left In item.
anil I declare that II they could find amid
all their trials 70 hundred and forty and
five singing m. and singing women 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 1t shall be heart to heart,
voice to voice, hymn to hymn, anthem to
anthem, and the music shall swell jubilant
with thanksgiving and tremulous with
pardon.
Have you ever noticed the construction
OF the human throat as indicative OF what
God means US to do with it2 In only On
ordinary throat and lungs there are four
teen direct muscles and thirty indirect
muscles that can produce very great
variety Of sounds. What does that mean2
It means that you should sing! Do you
suppose that God, who gives US such
musical instrument as that, intends US to
keep 1t shutp Suppose some great tyrant
should get possession or the musical in
struments OF the world and should lock up
the organ OF Westminster abbey, and tho
organ OF Lucerne, and the organ as Haar-
other great musical instruments OF the
world. You would call such man as that
q monster, and yet you are more wicked II,
with the human voice, O musical instru-
ment OF more wonderful adaptation than
all tho musical instruments that man over
created, you shut 1t against the praise Oh
God.
Let those refuse to sing
Who never knew our God,
But ch ldren OF the heavenly King
Should speak their joys abroad.
Music seems to have been born In the
soul OF the natural world. The omntpo-
tent voice with which God commanded the
world into being seems to linger yet with
Its majesty and sweetness, and YOU hear 1t
In the gralnneld, IN the swoop OF the wind
amid the mountain Businesses, In the
canury's warble and the thunder shock, in
the brooks tlnkle and the oceans paean.
There are soft cadences In nature, and
loud notes, some Of which We cannot hear
at all, and others that are so terrific that
We cannot appreciate them.
The animalcula have their. music, and
the spicula OF hay and the glo5ule OF water
are as certainly resonant with the voice OF
God as the hlghes. heavens In which the
armies OF the redeemed celebrate their
victories. When the breath OF the flower
strikes the air and the wing OF the f1ref1y
eleaves it, there Is sound and there Is mel
ody. And, as to those utteranees OF nature
which seer harsh and overwhelming, 1t Is
as when you stand In the midst OF a great
orchestra 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 desolattng storm and
the frightful whirlwind to catch the blend
ing Of the music; but when thar music
sises to where God Is, and the Invisible
The harmony Is rs sweet as II Is tremen-
lous. In the judgment day, that day
" tumult and terror, there will be no
issonance to those who can appreciate
The music. It will be as when some
ames asgreat organist, In executing
Iome great piece, breaks down the in
strument upon which he is playing tho
music. So whom the great march OF the
Judgment day is played unde. the hand OF
earthquake and storm and conlagration
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 universe Is but one harmony
the stars OF the night only the ivory keys
OF great instrument on which Gods fin
gers play the music Of the spheres.
Music seems dependent on the law OF
acoustics and mathematics. and yet where
these laws are understood at all the art Is
practiced. There are to-day 500 musical
Journals In China. Two thousand years be-
fore Christ the Egyptians practiced the art.
Pythagoras learned 1t. Lasus OF Herm olne
troduced 1t into their schools. But have
not much interest in that. My chief inter-
est is in the music OF the Bible.
The Bible, like O great harp With innu.
merable strings, swept by rhe fingers OF in-
spiration, tremble5 with it. So fur back US
the fourth chapter OF Genesis you find the
first organist and harper-Jubal. SO far
back rs the thirty-arst chapter OF Genesis
YOU find the first choir. All up and down
the Bible you find sacred music-at we'd
dings, ut inarguratlons, at the treading of
the wine press. The Hebrews understood
how to make musical signs above the mus
ical text. Whom the Jews came from their
distant homes to the great festivals at
Jerusalem. they brought harp and tlmbrel
and tru unpet and poured along the great
Judaean highways a river OF harmony un-
til In and around the temple the wealth OF
q nations song and gladness had accumu-
lated. In our day We have division OF
labor In music, and we have one mau to
make the hymn, another man to make the
tune, another man to play 1t on the piano
and another man to sing 1t. Not 80 In
Bible times. Miriam, the sister OF Moses,
a do1ology, set 1t to music, clapped 1t on a
cymbal and at the Same time sang 1t.
David, the psalmist, was ut the same time
poet, musical composer, harpist and singer,
and the majority OF his rhythm goes Vi
bIratlng through all the ages.
There were In Bible times striuged in-
struments-a harp OF three strings played
by fret and bow; harp OF ten strings,
responding only to the fingers Of the per-
former. Then there was the crooRen trum.
pet, fashioned out OF the horn Of tho OK or
the ram. Then there were the slstrum and
the cymbaIs, ciapped In the dance or
beaten In the mur.h. There were 1000
Levltes, the best men OF the country,
whose only business 1t was 10 look after
the. music OF the temple. These 1900 Leyltes
were divided into two classes aud oficl-
ated on different cnys. Can you Imagine
the harmony when these white robed Le-
vites, before the symbols OF GODS pres
ence, and by the smoking altars, and the
candlestieks that sprane upwar! ami
brauched out like trees OF gold, and under
the wings OF the rherubm, chanted the
One Hundred AID Tiirty-sIxsh Psalm
OF David? Do you know how 1t
Was done One part Of TINT GreNt