The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1904-06-18


81 VlStSSf0$NY learned so long
~y .s48 ago? Would the
sweet prattle of
your baby grow wearisome were 1t to
continue five, ten years from now.
when the baby form should have de-
veloped into the robust child and II
should have learned new and higher
expression than mere baby gurgles and
cooings? Do you grow weary Of the
stereotyped testimony and prayer Ii
prayer meeting of that brother or sis
ter who. ten, 20. 80 years ago had a
Christian experience. and has never
outgrown the swaddling clothes of its
first babe-in-Christ expressions? And
think you that God cares not when
children fail to grow and develop and
learn new songs out Of life's expert
ences to pour into His ear? That
which was once sweet music to His
ear has long since lost its melody, be-
cause 1t Is no longer expressive of life
and growth. We all need to learn new
songs to sing unto the Lord. The
Psalmist Is not giving expression to a
poetical and sentimental nothingness,
but is speaking words which contain
vital and important truth. The ad-
monition is important, 1t is needful,
and 1t is as pertinent to this day as 1t
was to the day when the devout singer
drew from the busy hum of active.
rushing, throbbing life. the sweet,
helpful, wholesome strains OF experience
and wove them into the sacred songs
we love to read. Every experience issued
in a new song to his Lord, whether 1t
was tending his flock out on the lonely
hillside, or serving the king within pal
ace walls; whether winning mighty vic
tories over the giant enemies of the
Lord. or fleeing for his life from the re-
jected Saul; whether ruling in right
eousness over the nation after the Lord
had triumphed over all his enemies,
or falling into grievous and awful sin
during an unguarded moment. And he
who was constantly singing new songs
to the Lord says to you and to me:
"Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song"
THE new song is essential to every
i Christian life. 1t is indicative of
growth Godward. 1t is the response
of the soul to the touch of God. There
are no new songs In the hearts and
mouths of some people because no ex-
perience in life Is ever allowed to
teach its rich spiritual truth and make
the soul cling in closer faith and fell
lowship to its Lord. The look is ever
downward and inward. II the world
gives to the pleasure and qualification
of the flesh and the natural man, there
is satisfaction, and agreeable compla-
cency, but no new song that reaches up
to God. If life brings its hardships and
trials, its privations and sufferings, its
disappointments and misfortunes, there
is grim, cherries endurance, but no
new song that reads in the experience
some new thought of God, some virtue,
some grace. The most untoward cir
cumstances, the deepest bereavement
may give birth to the sweetest song
How much of the beautiful expressions
in David's Psalms, suppose you, we
owe to the affliction, and peril and pri-
walton and failures through which he
passed? How much we would have
lost of Paul's writings II he had not
realized that "all things work together
for good to them that love God" and
was not constantly looking for inspira-
ton for the new song to sing. The
world sings when the sky is blue
and the sun is bright and everything
is smooth as the placid lake In summer
time, but the Christian is admonished
to sing a new song to the Lord out Of
every experience which comes In life.
The sanity Thomas Halyburton, an
Englishman, found new song for his
Lord when death robbed him OF his
much beloved son. OF that great be-
reavement he writes: This day has
been day to be remembered. o my
soul. never. forget what this day !
reached! My soul had smiles that al
most wasted nature. Oh, what a sweet
day! About half an hour after the
Sabbath, my child, after sharp con.
fiict, slept pleasantly in Jesus, to whom
pleasantly he was SO often given. !.
Jesus came to me in the third watch
Of the night. walking upon the waters.
He stilled the tempest In my
soul. and 10! there was great calm"
It was the new song which Thomas Ha-
1yburton was singing to his Lord.
DUT the admonition to sing . new
- song to the Lord must md In us
the response of the Psalmist: Il will
sing new song unto Thee. o God" 1t
does not come natural to US to sing the
new song unto God. any more than It
comes natural for US to be good. l.
comes only by determined effort upon
our part. Recognition Of the right Of
the Lord to ask and expect new song
from us should be followed by the pur-
pose to do All, how many. many OF
us realize the truth without making 1t
q part of US through determined effort?
The Psalmist declares Of God that He
hath put new song in my mouth