Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1897-1902, 1899-09-15

be tempted out of the sphere of Chris
tian harmony and try to seek uncon-
secrated 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 ex-
| ceptions We ought at the same time
to cultivate ourselves in this sacred
art. God loves 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 or
high culture in this sacred art. / de-
| clare that those parents are guilty OF
neglect who let their sons and daugh-
| tiers grow up knowing nothing about
music. In some OF the European ca
! thedrals the choir assemblies every
| morning and every afternoon OF every
| day the whole year to perfect them
| selves in this art. and shall We be-
| grudge 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 ether part of the church service IL
| 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 a pulpit and look
/ OFF on an audience with their eyes
/ three-fourths closed, and their lips al
! most shut. mumbling the praises Of
! Cod During one of my journeys l
! preached to an audience of two or
| three thousand 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 Savior's
crowning
In order to proper discharge or
| this duty. let us stand up. save as age
or weakness or fatigue excuse us.
Seated in an easy pew We cannot do
this duty half so we'll as when upright
we throw our whole body into it. lie.
our song be like an reclamation Of vic
/
not surrender your prerogative. If in
the performance of your duty, or the
attempt at it, you should lose your
| place in the musical scale and be che
G below when you ought to be one
c above. or you should come in half
a bar behind. we will excuse you, i'll.
it is better to do as Paul says, and
sing with the spirit and the under
standing 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 preaching and the elders
all the praying and the choir all The
| singing, There are but very few
churches where there e"two hundred
and forty and five singing men and
! singing women In some churches L
is almost considered a disturbance if
a man let out his voice to full COM
! pass. and the people get up on tiptoe
/ and look over between the spring hats
! and wonder what that man is making
all that noise about. In Syracuse,
! y. y. in Il 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 COM
mittee, made up of the session and the
/ choir had come to ask him if he
would not just please to keep still,
| You have a right 10 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 10 rouse you to a unanimity
IN Christian song that has never vet
been exhibited. Come. now clear your
threats and get ready for this duty. or
you will never hear the emu of this.
| never shall forget hearing a French
man sing the "Marseillaise" on the
| Champs Elysees. Paris. just before the
battle of Sedan in 1870. | never saw
such enthusiasm before or since. AS
he sang that national air on. how the
| Frenchmen shouted. Have YOU ever
in an English assemblage heard band
play God Save the Queen? If YOU
have. You know something about the
enthusiasm of a national air. Now.
| tell you that these songs we sing Sab
I bath by Sabbath are the national 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 no
! be surprised at all if some of the best
anthems of heaven were made up OF
some of the best songs of earth. May
I God increase our reverence for Chris
tan psalmody and keep us from dis
Sracing it by our Indifference and friv-
olity
When Cromwell's army went into
battle he stood at the head of it one
day and gave ont the long meter dox-
olOSy to the tune of the "Old Hum
dredth. and that great host, company
/ by company. regiment by regiment
division by division, joined in the dox-
Ology
Praise God from whom all blessings
flow;
Praise Him. all creatures here below:
Praise Him above. We heavenly host
Praise Father. Son and Holy Ghost"