New Britain herald., 1926-01-13

prIuse or a gooden boN, which men call a stradivarius violin-and what happens? Celestial music! So sweet SO perfect, that sensitive women are swept away in ecstasy, all their sorrows forgotten. and strong men weep for very joy! Mar velous isn't it1 We are not at the bottom yet of all the souls subtl, alliances. We are sure. however, that harmony as it expresses itself in sound, Is flesh and blood relation 10 whatsoever is highest in us, Plato saw this, when he associated music so closely with education In virtue. Browning put it all Into three lines, where in Pauline he speaks Of
 Music, which is earnest Of heaven, seeing we know emotions strange by 1t. not else to be re- vealed."
 There is nothing which--properly considered - leads us deeper than does music into the heart Of things, There Is nothing which brings us more convincing evidence that man belongs 10 spiritual order and is related intimately and irrevocably to world unseen. A great English cssayst once said that
 The process Of producing music may be described as a process of disengag!ng spirit from matter"
 On one side, metals, woods, wires, strings and pipes are subdued from their roughness and wrought to tnenesl On the other side. human hands, eyes, ears, breath. are train- ed to cooperate with these clements in a certain way The result is that sounds are produced, notes higher and lower, united in combination that we call harmony. and all this complicated business creates a new sensation in the human mind and heart. What Is there in me that responds to the pulsing vibrations of a great organ and enables me to experience whole ranges of sublime emotion? What is there at the back Of a minor key that can make the soul feel as though it were losing paradise all over again? What is there behind the upward swell Of Fanders "Hallelu1ah Chorus" which makes us fell as if we saw Heaven opened, and the Holy Angels, and , the great God Himself"
 All sorts of answers have been given through the ages. For my self I prefer a simpler and moro Christian answer. This! That man, as the Bible has 1t, is made in the image of God. And our human faculties are in their way a replica of the Divine powers. Man is mus ical, then, because---in an infinite way-God Is musical. The emotion which you and I get out of music is an emotion which He has put into 1t. The great composers, then, are not inventors or creators. They arc, rather, mediators. interpreters Of the music 10 be found in God, And through this music we get 10 know more of what God thinks and feels. We said a moment ago that
 Whenever and wherever created, things have stood face to face with their creator, they have straight way burst into melody"
 And SO they have. The birds lift ling their futeike voices in the grove at sunrise! The angels sing ing their magnifcat as they sweep over sleeping Bethlehem to the beat of soft, throbbing wings. And all followers of the t-Child-right down to this present moment--as they gather to sing their Christmas carols in our churches and our pub lie squares, in our schools and in our homes.
 Music is the one great and ac- ,ccpted international language.
 And Christmas is the one great festival in all tho year which men are celebrating now all round the world!
 sat last Sunday afternoon listen ing 10 the Choral socIcty's prcduc- Ition Of the Messiah" As I listened I looked out over that audience, and l saw there faces of almost every tyne and nationality known in New Britain. II was marvellous To sac them th"ro in ono building, men and women Of every Xian sect and denomination In OUT city. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of wist- ruL Wolahipful faces, No church n The city could have held them all, end no minister, however eloquent, cOul1 have drawn that great audi cnrc toF thcr. But there they were. and there they remained, drawn to- G'thrr and held together by these glorious words frCm Scripture 10 th" music that only Handel roul make, And when one stops 10 think that there is hardly land under tho sun, where Christmas music is not being sung today, he comes 10 realize not only the harmonizing power of music, but the cohesive .roTcr Of faith in Jesus Christ. whosn birthday we celebrate this week, Truly "in Him all things hold tog' ler." And when you have That porl.Ct combination where the stories o' tho Christ are sci 10 beau 'iful music, there is nowhere these songs cannot go and nothing they cannot do, We are told that the Bible may ha rad today in five tundrod anl i1tty-savcn languages and dialects, But what mos of us do not know Is that Luthcr's little lullaby which you and l learned on our moth"r's knee
 Away in a maneer TO crib for
 His hod
 The httro Lord Jesus lal1 down Ills
 SWr"t head,