Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1901-02-15

Tongues TO Sing" was suggested to
Charles Wesley by Peter Boiler, who.
after his conversion, said, Il had better
keep silent about it, No" said Yves
ley, IF you had ten thousand tongues Won
had better use them for Christ" And
then that angel of hymnology penned the
words:
Oh, for thousand tongues to sing
My dear Redeemer's praise,
The glories Of my God and King,
The triumphs Of his gracel
Jesus the name that Gains our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
It's music in the sinners ears;
IT'S life and health and peace
While much of the modern music is a
religious doggerel. a cOnsecrated non
sense, a sacred imbecility, | would like to
see some great musician Of our time lift
the baton and marshal "Luther's Judg-
ment Hymn" Yarmouth" Dundee"
"Ariel." "Brattlestreet." "Uxbridge,"
"Pleyel's Hymn" "Harwell," Antioch"
Mount Pisgah" and Coronation" with
few regiments of mighty tunes made in
our own time. and storm Asia, Africa and
America for the kingdom of God But
the first thing to do is to drive out the
dumb devil of the text from all our
churches
Do not, however, let us lose ourselves
in generalities. Not one of us but has
had our lives sometimes touched by the
evil spirit of the text-this awful dumb
devil We had just one opportunity Of
saying a Christian word that might have
led a man or woman into Christian life
The opportunity was fairly put before
us. The word of invitation or consolation
or warning came to the inside gate of the
mouth, but there it halted. Some hinder
ing power locked the jaws together so
/ that they did not open. The tongue lay
| fiat and still ! the bottom of the mouth
as though struck with paralysis We
were mute Though God had given us
/ the physiological apparatus for speech
and our lungs were filed with air which
/ by the command Of our will could have
made the laryngeal muscles move and the
vocal organs vibrate, we were wickedly
/ and fatally silent For all time and
eternity we missed our chance, or it was
n prayer meeting. and the service was
thrown open for prayer and remarks
and there was a dead halt-everything 81.
lent as a graveyard at midnight. Indeed
it was graveyard and midnight An
embarrassing pause took place that put Q
wet blanket on all the meeting. Men,
bold enough ON business exchange or in
worldly circles, shut their eyes as though
they were praying in silence, but they
were not praying al ALL They were busy
hoping somebody else would do his duty
The women flushed under the awfu
pause and made their fans more rapidly
iluttcr Some brother. with no cold
coughed, by that sound trying to fill III
the time. and the meeting was slain Blu
what killed it? The dumb devil Thi.
is the way | account for the fact tina
the stupdeSt places on earth are sOmt
prayer meetings. do not see how maj
keeps any grace if he regularly attend
them. They are spiritual refrigeratOrs
Religion kept on ice. How many of u
have lost occasions of usefulness? In
sculptor's studio stood figure Of the 90,
, Opportunity. The sculptor had mad
the hair fall down over the face Of tn
: statue so as TO completely cover it. an,
there were wings to the feet Whel
asked why he so represented Opportunity
/ the sculptor answered. The face Of III
5 statue is thus cov-syugup because we d
not recognize Jppoftunitv when /, comoe
f and the wings to th9tufset show that Or
portunity is swiftly gone"
e Public Recognition of God.
, But do not let the world deride tn
! church because of all this, for the dunn
l devil is Just as conspicuous in the worlt
The great political parties assemble a
the proper time to build platforms for tn
candidates to stand on. committee q
4 anch party is appointed to make the Dla'