Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-08-05

wretchedness of their abode and the
hunger of their looks and the hardness
of their lot. All, they know it better
than you can tell them! Show them
the bright side Of the thing, if there be
any bright side. Tell them good times
will come; tell them that for the chill
dren Of God there is immortal rescue
/ Wake them up out of their stolidity
by an inspiring laugh, and while you
send in help, like the queen Of Sheba
also send in the spices. There are two
ways Of meeting the poor. One is to
come into their house with a nose ele-
waited in disgust, as much as to say: 81
! don't see how you live here in this
! neighborhood 1t actually makes me
! sick. There is that bundle. Take it,
/ you poor, miserable wretch, and make
/ the most of it, Another way is to go
! into the abode Of the poor in a manner
! which seems to say: THE blessed Lord
sent me. He was poor himself. 1t is
not more for the good l am going to
try to do you than it is for the good
that you can do me-" Coming in that
spirit, the gift will be as aromatic as
the spikenard on the feet of Christ,
and all the novels on that alley will be
fragrant with the spice.
We need more spice and enlivenment
in our church music. Churches sit dis
cussing whether they shall have choirs
! or precentors or organs or bass viols or
comets. l say, take that which will
bring out the most inspiring music. If
we had half as much zeal and spirit in
our churches as we have in the songs
OF our Sunday schools, it would not be
long before the whole earth would
quake with the coming God. Why,
nine-tenths of the people in church do
not sing, or they sing so feebly that
the people at their elbows do not know
they are singing. People mouth and
humble the praises of God, but there
is not more than one out of a hundred
who makes a joyful noise unto the
Rock of Our Salvation. Sometimes,
when the congregation forgets itself
and is all absorbed in the goodness of
God or the glories Of heaven, 1 get an
intimation of what church music will
be a hundred years from now when the
coming generation shall wake up to it's
duty.
I promise high spiritual blessing to
any one who will sing in church and
who will sing so heartily that the peo-
pie all around cannot help but sing.
Wake up, all the churches from Bangor
to San Francisco and across Christen-
dom! 1t is not a matter OF preference;
it is a matter of religious duty. Oh,
for so times more volume of sound than
has ever yet rolled up from our church
es! German chorals in German cathe-
drals surpass 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 America? Soft, long drawn out
music is appropriate for the drawing
room and appropriate for the concert,
but ST. John gives an idea of the sOno-
rous and resonant congregational sing
ing appropriate for churches when in
listening to the temple service of heav-
en- he says: Il heard a great voice, as
the voice of a great multitude and as
the voice of many waters and as the
voice of mighty thunderings Halle
luiah, for the Lord God omnipotent
reignethr'
COunteracts All Trouble.
Join with me in a crusade, giving me
not only your hearts. but the mighty
uplifting of your voices, and l believe
we can. through Christ's grace, sing
5000 souls into the kingdom of Christ.
An argument they can laugh at, SER
mon they may talk down. but 5000
voiced utterance of praise to God is
irresistible. Would that Queen Balkis
would drive all her spice laden drome-
daries into our church music. "Nei-
ther 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 !.
cinnamon and cassia and frankincense
and all sweet spices together. oh
you say, II have not looked at it as
such. I thought it was a nuisance. 1t
had for me a repulsion. l held my
breath as though it were a malodor. l I
have been appalled, at it's advance. | /
have said, if l have any religion at all, /
1 want to have just as little of it as is /
possible to get through with" Oh,
what a mistake you have made, my
brother! The religion of Christ is a
present and everlasting redOlence. 1t +
counteracts all trouble. Just put it on
the stand beside the pillow of sickness.
It 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 soft I
bandage for the temple stung with /
pain. It lifted Samuel Rutherford into
a revelry OF spiritual delight while he /
was in physical agonies. 1t helped I
Richard Baxter until, in the midst of I
such a complication of diseases as per-
haps no other man ever suffered, he +
wrote 1.-THE Saints Everlasting Rest" |