The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1899-10-12

1
in our own day, a. well as that mag
nificent inheritance of church psalm
ody which has come down fragrant
with the devotions of other genera
tions-tunes no more worn out thar
they were when our great-grapdfa.
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 "xion." Were they overborne with
the love and glory of Christ, they sang
"Arich." And in those days there were
certain tunes married to certain hymns,
and they have lived in peace great
while, these two old people, and we
have no right to divorce them. what
God hath joined together let no mar
put asunder." Born rs we have been,
amid this great wealth of church mu-
sic, augmented by the compositions o.
artists in our day, we ought not to be
tempted out of the sphere of Christian
harmonyan try to seek unconsecrated
sounds. 1t is absurd for a millionaire
| to steal.
l remark, also, that correctness ought
| to be a 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
ourselves in this sacerd art. God loves
harmony, and we ought to love II.
| There is no devotion in howl or
yelp. In this day, when there are so
many opportunities of high culture III
this sacred art, l 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,
| SHuli VIC peS SS wv houi wv
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 n 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 l 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 ut coronation; do not let us
sleep when we come to q Saviour's
crUwning.
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 n right TO sing-do not surrender
your prerogative. If in the perform
ance of your duty. or the attempt at II,
you should lose your place in the rnu-
steal scale and be one below when you
ought to be one c above, or you shoull
come in half a bar behind, we will eX
says and sing with the spirit and the
understanding also"
Again | 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 oil the praying and
the choir all the singing! There ar.
but very few churches where there arC
"245 singing men and singing women"
In some churches it Is almost corsid-
ereu ulSturDance ii II man let OUT MS
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 ! 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 a committee, made up
of the session of the choir, had come to
ask him IL he would not lust please TO
keep still! You have n 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 "Marseillaise" on the Champs