The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-09-08

and life. Music ought to rush from the
audience like the water from q rock
clear, bright, sparkling. IL all the 9TH
er part of the church service is dull.
do not have the music duh. With so
many thrilling things to sing about,
away with all drawing n stupidity.
There is nothing that makes me so
nervous as to sit in a pulpit and look
off on the 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 GROWING.
In order TO a proper discharge OF thi.
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 well as when upright We throw
u whole body into it. Let our song be
like an reclamation Of victory. You
have a right to sing; dc not surrender
your prerogatiye. If in the performance
OF your duty, or the attempt at il, you
should lose your place in the musical
scale n be one c below when you
| ought to be one G above, or you should
| come in half a bar behind, we will ex-
cuse you. Still, il IS better to do as
Paul says, n sing with the spirit
n the understanding also"
CONGREGATIONAL MUSIC.
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 worshippers cannot sing is of
no more use to them h 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 ali the
singing. There are but very few
churches where there are two hun
dred and forty and five singing men
and singing women"
In some churches it is almost consid-
cred a disturbance # a man let out his
voice to full ompas and the people
get up on tiptoe and look over be-
tween the spring hats and wonder
what that man is making all that noise
about. In Syracuse in a Presbyterian
church there was one member who
came to me when I was the pastor of
another church in that city and told
me his trouble-how that as he per-
sisted in singing on the Sabbath day
a committee, made VI of the session
and the choir, mad come to ask him if
he would not just please to keep still!
You have no 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.
HEAVENS NATIONAL AIRS.
I want to rouse you to a unanimity
in Christian song that has never yet
been exhibited. Come, now; clear your
threats and get ready for this duty or
you will never hear the end of this. l
never shall forget hearing a French
man sing the "Marseillaise'' on the
Champs Elysees, Paris, just before the
battle of Sedan in 1870. I never saw
such enthusiasm before or since. AS
he sang that national air, oh, how the
F~renchmen shouted! Have you ever
in an English assemblage heard a band
play God a the Queen?" IF you
have, you know something about the
enthusiasm of a national air. Now,
tell you that these songs we sing Sab
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 ong OF
Moses and the Lamb? I should not be
surprised at all if some of the best
anthems Of heaven were made up OF
some of the best songs of earth. May
God increase u reverence for Chris
tan psalmody and keep US from dis
grazing it by our indifference and fri
volity.
When Cromwelrs army went into
battle, he stood at the head of it one
day and W. out the long meter dox-
ology to the tune of the 'Old Hun.
dredth," and that great host, company
by company, regiment by regiment, di.
vision by division, Joined in the dox.
olOgy:
Praise God, from whom all blessing:
flow:
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, We 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 tn
victory. 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 Otter
do, from defeat to defeat, we will b.
marching on from victory to victory
, Gloria In Excelses' is written we
many organs. Would that by our ap
: probation of the goodness Of God, AM
!, the mercy of Christ. and the grandeu
of heaven, we could have Gloria L
|, Excelsis'' written over all our songs
{ GLORY to the Father. and to the Son
and to the Holy Ghost, as it was Il
the beginning, is now and e shal
, be, world without end. Amen!"