Democratic messenger., 1904-12-10
Calnage
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaae, ID. ID.


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
songw
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 excelled.
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-
ductions OF all other poets who have
yet appeared. Raphael and Michael
Angelo and Murillo and Leonardo da
vinci 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 aud
Gluck and Haydn and Mozart and
Chopin and Mendelssohn and Wagner
are master musicians to us because
they surpass all other musicians in per
fection 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 musi-
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 in their
minds there were harmonies far better
than those that they have given us.
Their masterpieces fell far short OF
their ideals. In their rhapsodies and
dream lives they were 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 combina-
tions 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 worlds became to the
great musical masters 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 CON-
poser entered the house and. seating
himself at the piano. began to play 1t
himself Beethoven seemed to be lost
improvise song to the moonlight"
Then he went on. hearing the voices Of
the unseen world and reproducing them
as part of his matchless song called the
moonlight Sonata" After he had fin
ished he rushed out of the house. say
ing to his companions: do not talk to
me! Let me hasten to my room that
may write out that dream of the moon
light while l 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 1900 songs. or.
like Schmolke, they may have written
over 1.200 musical pieces.
"sing Unto the Lord q New song"
David, the psalmist, was great mu-
sical 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 Bach's hymns played he cried
out i'm ecstasy. THANK God, ! learn
something absolutely new" 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 new song" in
the Ninety-sixth Psalm. but we find
them in the Ninety eighth and in the
One Hundredth 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 il 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 II will be we cannot conceive.
but we know the theme that will In
spire it, II is the theme of salvation.
the incarnation of the Son of God. the
coming to 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. in the first place
should no a cheerful song IL shOuld