Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-04-19

gone up.' Yet songs fn the night Songs
In the night For tho widow who goes 10
get the back pay OF her husband, slain by
the ''sharpshooters," and knows 1t Is the
last help she will have, moving out OF u
comfortable home In desolation, death
turning back from the exhausting cough
and the pale cheek and the lusteriess eye
and refusing all relief. Yet songs IN the
nlghtI Songs In the night For the soldier
in the field hospital, no surgeon to bind
up the gunshot fracture, no water for the
hot lips, no kind hand to brush away the
flies from the fresh wound, no one to take
the loving farewell, the groaninR OF Others
poured into his own groan, the blasphemy
OF others plowing up his own spirit, this
condensed bitterness OF dying away from
home among strangers. Yet songs in the
night Songs in the night "Ah." SAID
one dying soldier, "teil my mother that
last night there was not one cloud be-
tween my soul and Jesus!' Songs in the
night! Songs in the night!
This Sabbath day came. From the affairs
of 10000 churches has snokedup the savot
OF sacrifice. Ministers OF the Gospel
preached in plain English, In broad Scotch,
In flowing italian, in harsh Choctaw. Gods
people assembled in Hindoo temple ami
Moravlan church and Quaker meeting
house and sailors bethel aud kings chapel
and high towered cathedral! They sang,
and the song 1oated off amid the spice
groves or struck the icebergs or fioated Off
into the western pines or was drownet In
the clamor OF the great cities. Lnmbermen
sang 1t and the factory girls aud the chill
dren in the Sabbath class and the trained
choirs In great assemblages. Trappers
with tho same voice with which they
shouted yesterday In the stag hunt
and mariners with throats that only
few days ago sounded In the honrse
blast OF the sea hurricane, they sang it.
One theme for the sermons. One burden
for the song. Jesus for the Invocation.
Jesus for the Scripture lesson. Jesus for
the baptismnl font. Jesus for the sacra.
mental cup. Jesus for the benedictiOn.
But the day has gone. 1t rolled away on
| swift wheels Of light aud love. Again the
again setting down the streets. Whole
families coming up the church aisle. We
must have one more service. What shall
we preach? What shall we read? Let 1t
be Jesus, everybody says; let 1t be Jesus.
We must have one more song. What shalt
1t be, children? Aged men and women,
what shall it bea Young men and maidens,
what shall 1t be? II you dared to break
the silence OF this auditory, there would
come up thousands OF quick and jubilant
voices, crying out: "Let 1t be Jesus! Jesus!
Jesus!''
1 say once more Christ is the everlasting
song. The very best singers sometimes
get tired; the strongest throats sometimes
get weary, and many who sang very sweet.
ly do not sing now. but hope by tho grace
of God we will after u while go up and
sing the praises OF Christ where we will
never be weary. You know there are some
songs that are especially appropriate for
the home circle. They stir the soul, they
start the tears, they turn the heart in on
itself and keep sounding after the tune
has stopped. like some cathedral bell
which, long after the tap OF the brazeD
tongue has ceased. keeps throbbing on the
air. Well. 1t will be home song In
| heaven, all the sweeter because those who
| sang with us In the domestic circle on
earth shall join that great harmony:
Jerusalem, my happy home,
Name ever dear to me;
When shall my labors have an end
joy and peace in thee?
On earth we sang harvest songs as the
wheat came into the barn and the barracks
we're filed. You know there is no such
| time on a farm rs when they get the crops
In and so in heaven 1t will be n harvest
song on the part Of those who on earth
sOwed In tears and reaped in Joy. Lit up
| your heads, ye everlasting gates, and let
| the sheaves come in! Angels shout all
through the heavens, and multftudes come
down the hills crying: Harvest homel
Harvest homer
| The Christian singers ana composers OF
all ages will be there to join In that song.
Thomas Hastings will be there. Lowell
Mason will be there. Beethoven and Mo-
| cymbals and the trumpets In the ancient
temples will be there. The 10000 harpers
| that stood at the ancient dedication Will
be there. The 200 singers that assisted on
that day will be there.
| Patriarchs who lived amid thrashing
| floors, shepherds who watched amid Chal.
dean hills, prophets who walked, with long
| boards and coarse apparel, pronouncing
woe against ancient abcmtnatious, will
meet the more recent martyrs who went
| up with leaping cohorts OF fire. and some
will speak OF the Jesus OF whom they
prophesied and others of the Jesus fol
| whom they died.
| Oh, what a song! 1t came to John upor
Patmos. 1t came to Calvin in the prison, il
| dropped to Ridley In the fire, and some
| times that song has come to your ear per
| haDs, for really do think it sometimes
breaks over the battlements OF heaven.
| Christian woman the wife OF minis
ter OF the Gospel. was dying In the parson
| age near the old church, where on Sutur-
day night the choir used to assemble and
rehearse for the following Sabbath, and
she said: "How strangely sweet the choir
rshearses tonight. They have been re-
hearsinG there for an hour" "No," said
some one about her, "the choir Is not re-
hearsing tonight" ''Yes," she said, 81
know they are. i hear them sing. How
very sweetly they sing"
| Now, 1t was not u choir OF earth that she
| heard. but the choir OF heaven. think
that Jesus sometimes sets nj ar the door OF
heaven, and passage OF that rapture
greets our ears. The mlnstrels OF heaven
strike such II tremendous strain the walls
| OF jasper cannot hold 1t.
I Wonderland this Is a question have
been asking myself all the service-wilI
you sing til. song? VIII I sing it? Not
unless our sins are pardoDed and we learr
now to sing the praise OF Christ will W
ever sing 1t there.
The first great concert that ever at
tended was In New York, when Julien 10
the Crystal palace stood before hundreds
OF singers and hundreds Of players upon
instruments. Some OF you may remember
that occasion. 1t was the first one OF the
kind at which was present, and I shall
never forget 1t. l saw that one man stand
ing and with the hand and foot WELD that
great harmony, beating the time. 1t was
| to me overwhelming.
But, oh, the grander scene when they
shall come from the East aud from the
West aud from the North and from the
South, "a great multitude that no man can
number" into the temple OF the skies, host
1