The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-08-06

Il ~ 1bSoE ~ III lue gOOQueSS OF OVQ q
the glories OF heaven, 1 get an intimation
of what church music will be a hundred
years from now, when the coming genera
ton shall wake up to its duty.
Singing m . Religious Duty.
I promise a high spiritual blessing TO
any one who will sing in church and who
WI; sing so heartily that the people all
arc md cannot help brit sing. Wake up
all the churches from Bangor TO San
Francisco and across Christendom! 1t is
not a matter OF preference. 1t is a mat
ter of religious duty. Oh, for 10 times
more the volume of sound than has ever
yet rolled up from our churches, Ger
man chorals in German cathedrals sur
pass US, and yet Germany has received
nothing at the hands of God compared
with America. And ought the acclaim in
Germany be louder than that Of Amer
lea? Soft, long drawn out music is ap-
propriate for the drawing room and ap-
propriate for the concert, but st. John
gives an idea of the sonorous and reso-
nant congregational singing appropriate
for churches when in listening to the
temple service of heaven he says: II
heard a great voice as the voice of q
great multitude, and as the voice of many
waters, and as the voice Of mighty thun-
derings. Halleluiah, for the Lord God
o~mnipotent reigneth!"
Join with me in a crusade, giving me
not only your hearts, but he mighty up
lifting OF your voices, n l believe we
can through Christ's grace sing 5000
souls into the kingdom OF Christ. An
argument they can laugh at, a sermon
they may talk down, but a 5000 voiced
utterance Of praise to God is irresistible.
Would that Queen Balkis would drive all
her spice laden dromedaries into our
church musicI Neither was there any
such spice as the queen Of Sheba gave
King Solomon"
Now, / want to impress you with the
fact that religion is sweetness and per-
fume and spikenard and saffron and Gin
namon and cassia and frankincense and
all sweet spices together. "Oh," you say,
81 have not looked at it as such. I
thought it was a nuisance. 1t had for
me a repulsion. I held my breath as
though it were a malodor. I have been
appalled, at it's advance. I have said if I
have any religion at all / want to have
just as little of it as is possible to get
through with" Oh, what a mistake you
nave made, my brother! The religion Of
Christ is a present and everlasting redo
lence. It counteracts all trouble. Just
put it on the stand beside the pillow Of
sickness. 1t catches in the curtains and
perfumes the sitting air. 1t sweetens
the cup Of bitter medicine and throws a
glow on the gloom Of the turned lattice.
1t is a balm for the aching side and a
soft bandage for the temple stung with
pain. 1t lifted Samuel Rutherford into a
revelry Of spiritual delight while he was
in physical agonies. 1t helped Richard
Baxter until, in the midst Of such a COM
plication of diseases as perhaps no other
man ever suffered, he wrote 1.-THE Saints
Everlasting Rest" and it poured light
upon John Bunyan's d~ungeon-the light
of the shining gate of the shining city.
And it is good for rheumatism and for
neuralgia and for low spirits and for con-
sumption. 1t is the catholicon for all
disorders. Yes, it will heal all your sor-
rows.
The Remedy For Sorrow.
Why did you look so sad this morning
when You came in? Alas, for the loneli-
ness and the heartbreak and the load that
is never lifted from your soul! Some of
you go about feeling like Macaulay when
he wrote, eff ] had another month of
such days as l have been spending, I
would be impatient to get down into my
little, narrow crib in the ground, like a
weary factory child" And there have
been times in your life when you wished
you could get out of this life. You have
said, "Oh, how sweet to my lips would
be the dust of the valley" and wished
you could pull over you in your last
slumber the coverlet Of green grass and
daisies. You nave said: "Oh, how beauti-
fully quiet it must be in the tomb! I
wish / was there"
/ see all around about me w~idowhood
and o%rphanage and childlessness; sad
ness, disappointment, perplexity. If /
could ask all those in any audience who
have felt no sorrow and been buffeted by
no disappointment-if I could ask all
| such to rise. how many would rise? Not
one.
A widowed mother, with her little
child, went west, hoping to get better
wages there, and she was taken sick and
died. The overseer Of the poor got her
body and put it in a box and put in a
wagon and started down the street to-
ward the cemetery at full trot. The lit
tie child-the only child-ran after it
through the streets b~areheaded. crying:
Bring me back my mother! Bring me
back my mother!w And it was said that
| Us Tue people lOOhSu Ou anu saw ueK cry
ing after that which lay in the box in the
wagon, all she loved on earth-it is said
the whole village was in tears. And that
is what a great many Of you are doing
| chasing the dead. Dear Lord, is there
no appeasement for all this sorrow that
see about me? Yes: the thought Of res
direction and reunion far beyond this
scene Of struggle and tears. They shall
hunger no more, neither thirst any more,
neither shall the sun light on them mol
any heat, for the Lamb which is in the
midst Of the throne shall lead them to
living fountains of water, and God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes
Across the touches of your sick and
across the graves Of o. 6ead l fling
this shower of sweet spices. Queen Bal
kis. driving up TO the pillared portico OF
the house Of cedar. carried no such pun,
gency Of perfume Gs exhales today from
the Lords garden. 1t is peace. 1T is
sweetness. 1t is comfort. 1t is infinite
satisfaction. this gospel / commend te