Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-12-09
Calnase
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmase, ID. d.


the approaching Christmas festivities,
which, the preacher contends, should
be characterized by cheerfulness, kind
ness and beneficence to the poor and
the distressed. The text is Psalm
xcvi, "Oh, sing unto the Lord a new
song"
The finest OF pictures is yet to be
painted; the most perfect sculpture is
yet to be chiseled; the best of poems is
yet to be penned; the sweetest and the
most inspiring of songs is yet to be
composed. We speak of the master po-
cts, artists, sculptors and musicians as
though the poetical and artistic deeds
of the past could never be excellSd.
This, however, is not true. Homer and
Virgil and Scott and Wordsworth and
Burns and Tennyson and Longfellow
and Lowell and Poe are master poets
to us merely because their poems excel
in beauty of expression or delicacy OF
rhythm or depth OF thought the pro-
auctions Of ali other poets who have
yet appeared. Raphael and Michael
Angelo and Murillo and Leonardo da
Vinol and Turner are master artists to
us merely because no artists have yet
appeared who could approach them in
perfection OF form and glory of color
Beethoven and Handel and Bach and
Gluck and Haydn and Mozart and
Chopin and Mendelssohn and Wagner
are master musicians to us because
they surpass all other musicians in per-
lection of harmony and grandeur Of
conception. No composers before them
and none since have attained the mas
terry that they reach in their sublime
art.
But, though these old master must
clans are masters to US, they were not
masters to themselves. They struggled
continually to give expression to high
er and nobler conceptions that they
were never able to write. Even I'm their
minds there were h0rmonies far better
than those that they have given us.
Their masterpieces fell far short Of
their ideals. In their rhapsodies and
dream lives they We're continually ex-
ploring whole realms of perfect sound
harmonies which were continually cry
ing to them: "Set me to music. Play
me upon the piano or the harp. Sing
me In solo and oratorio." The result
was these old masters were continually
trying to make more perfect combins-
lions OF sound, TO echo to mortal ears
the strange, weird, transcendent voices
that were calling TO them out Of the
musical worlds OF perfection"
To imprison behind musical bars the
perfect voices which they heard in
their strange worldsobecame to the
great musical masters n life's passion.
One moonlight night Beethoven was
walking through one OF the streets of
Bonn. Suddenly he heard from an
opened parlor window some one play
Ing one of his sonatas. 1t was SO beau
tifully rendered that the great COM
poser entered the house and, seating
himself at the piano, began to play it
himself. Beethoven seemed to be lost
In drsamlsnd. He said, Listen: will
improvise song TO the moonlight"
Then he went on, hearing the voices of
the unseen world and reproducing them
ne part OF his matchless song called the
Moonlight Sonata" After he Had fin
ished he rushed out OF the house, say
Ing TO his companion: do not talk TO
mel Let me hasten To my room that 1
may write out that dream Of the moon
light while yet remember It." All
great musicians. like beethoven, are
continually reaching out for new COM
binations OF song. They do this even
though. like Count Zinzendorf, they
may have written over 1000 songs, or,
like Schmolkc, they may have written
over 100 musical pieces.
"sing Unto the Lord a New sonE.y
David. the psalmlst, was great mu-
steal composer. He always strove to
originate new musical themes. II he
could not compose new ones, then he
wanted to hear what some one else had
composed. The first time Mozart heard
one OF Bachs hymns played he cried
out Iii ecstasy, Thank God, learn
something absolutely newv' so David
again and again In his psalms cries out
for something new In musical praise
We not only find the words OF my text,
Sing unto the Lord a new song" in
the Ninety-sixth Psalm. but we find
them in the Ninety-eigkth and I'm the
One bundredth and Forty-ninth, and
we also find the same words in the
book OF Isaiah. The song they longed
TO hear will yet be sung in the heaven
~ land. The Seer OF Patmos caught
the echo OF II as he listened to the new
song that no man could learn but the
host that had been redeemed and stood
around the throne. What exquisite
music it will be we cannot conceive.
but we know the theme that will In
spire 1t. It Is the theme OF salvation,
the incarnation OF the Son OF God, the
coming 10 earth OF that Divine Being
whose birth among us we are about to
celebrate. Let the same theme inspire
our humble strains; let us even now,
as we mediate on that wondrous
event, attune our hearts to that glori-
GUS harmony.
Our holiday song. I'm the first place,
should be a cheerful song II should
not be sung in a minor key; it should
not be dirge or requiem, a lament or
dead march In SAUL" it should not
be an antiphony for the mathis of the
dead; IL should be Joy on the wing; it
should be the chorus OF Laughing Wa
sers;' IL should be a hosanna, a hal
ieiuiah. paean, doxology and q
praise. Tears and sobs have no place
In the new song which we should sing
during eur coming holiday season.
What said David in reference to this
new song-make sad song unto the
Lord? No. In seven distinct places In
the Psalms the great singer of Israel
cries. MAKE joyful noise unto the
Lord" The first great essential OF our
coming Christmas song should be
cheerfulness. We should hear it In ev-
cry sound that is uttered; we should
hear 1t In the loud notes; we should
hear it in the soft notes as well.
A Cheerful Message.
The new song OF Moses and the
Lamb should be cheerful song. And
yet the strange fact is that many peo-
pie. when they try to sing their gospel
songs, have the chargers which they
harness to their musical chariots walk