Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1906-02-15
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!: SUNDAY SERMON :
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\ A Scholarly Discourse by +
8 Bishop Burgess. 9
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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Brooklyn, N. Y.-BishOp Burgess
preached Sunday morning in the
Church of the Redeemer The occasion
was the dedication of the beautiful
memorial organ, gift to the church
The bishop spoke on "Church Music"
The text was from Psalm xciv:9: "He
hat planted the ear, shall He not hear
He that formed the eye, shall He not
see?" Bishop Burgess said during his
sermon:
This organ, which we dedicate to-
day, to the glory of God, has been
| placed here in memory Of one who was
faithful and devoted worshiper in
| This church, George Parker. There is
peculiar appropriateness In the gift,
for church music appealed to him with
an especial power. To make this part
If our worship worthy Of our church's
! traditions, to make its ritual, when
ritual of some kind was necessary
seemly and historic, he was willing to
sacrifice his time, his money, his
strength. 1t has seemed to me that
It would not be out of place for me to
speak to you to-day of church music
and to trace its history so that we may
be better able to estimate the value of
what must always be an adjunct to the
service, the handmade, not the mis-
tress, Of worship.
The Bible never seeks to prove the
existence of God. The prophets, poets,
philosophers, historians Of the Old Tes-
! lament, as we'll as the Apostles and
Evangelists Of the new, everywhere as
sumo the Being and Personality of
God. They do not argue for this posi-
ton. They simply claim it as their
right. Only the fool, and lie only I'M
der his breath, can deny the existence
Of God. But If any argument Is limited
| at, it is rather this argument from de-
sign, which is to-day, after all, the ad-
vance of modern science. considered
! the most cogent of them all and which
Is struck off at white heat, as it were,
! In this glowing sentence of tho Psalm
ist, "He that planted the ear, Shall He
not hear? He that formed the eye,
shall He not seeY The writer may not
have known, perhaps, as much of
human anatomy and Of the physiology
of the brain as Professor James, he
may not have been as cOgnizant of the
delicate structure of the eye and ear
as one of our modern specialists, but
the marvels and the beauty were be-
fore his mind in all their power when
he wrote those words. 1t is an argu-
ment which the fool alone can set
aside, that such things do not come by
| chance and that in the Supreme Being
something corresponding to hearing
and seeing exists, that the music which
delights the ear of man is known to
God, and the glow of the sunset, the
| sweet unfathomable beauty of the
world, of the stars and of the flowers
! have their existence primarily for God.
| The Mortified philosopher may call out
"anthrOpOmOrphism," but for my part
| do not fear that as much as the i'm
personality of panthesm or material
ism. If it is true, as Professor Sholcr
says, that the naturalist has right
to conclude that the universe is under
the control Of power in ways like unto
the mind of man then surely we have
n right to believe that all our art. our
music, our architecture, our paintings
and sculpture are heard or seen by God
and are pleasing or unpleasing TO Him
according as they are or are not found
ed upon the principles of truth. Let us
not argue about this. Let MS assume 1t
HOW dS we SIDtuh VI tlluiNh
We can watch their ways with our
microscope, but we dare not assert that
they do not hear commands and live
in world of the source of which we
know nothing. SO with the universe
We can plow the heavens with the
telescope, but We know not that what
we call the music of the spheres has no
existence and that 1t Is only a poets
fancy which asserts that the heavens,
the stars and the planets accompany
the sons of God in their praise of the
Father in Heaven.
In all civilized nations I believe music
has always had some connection with
religion. The Greeks had no doubt
carried it, as they did every art they
touched, to high grade Of excellence.
In Plato we find music Is constant
source of illustration. In those days,
as in these, they had the mere musi-
clan. who prided himself on his ear
and lost the poetry and the meaning
of the art. THE musicians" one OF
the characters says bitterly. put their
ears in the place Of their minds
"Yes," replied Glaucon, II like to see
them laying their ears alongside of
their neighbOrs' faces, some saying,
That's new note others declaring
that the two notes are the same" But
for Plato music had a deeper signifi-
cance and in one single sentence he
: brings out its connection with morals.
"Simplicity in music" he says, "was
the parent Of temperance in the soul,'
n truth which we need to remember
to-day as never before.
But to the Hebrews the art was sa-
cred. Miriam with her timbals and
her dances accompanied her song of
victory. The majestic rhythm Of the
Psalms were blended, no doubt, with
an equally majestic music. When the
people were carried away into captiv-
lty their conquerors wanted to hear
them sing their beautiful national airs.
But the young voices refused to an
swer. "HOw can we sing the Lords
songs in strange land?" Browning
has dramatized the scene, but the peo-
pie must have been naturally musical
, when the shepherd lad could come with
his harp and drive away the worst
melancholy from the heart Of the trou-
bled monarch.
l doubt not that our Lord loved the
music of the Temple and that one
happy moment in Holy Week was
when the children Of the Temple, pre-
sumably tho boys who sang this daily
service cried out in homage to their
prophet, Hosanna to the Son Of David!
The history of early church service
Is obscure, but at the beginning of the
seventh century Gregory the Great, the
Bishop of Rome, created new era
and probably a reform in the art by
Introducing what was known as the
Erapnrian tones or modes. I have not