Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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l k i tha; nrable^ stating ( 'Cannot ht»ar tha^^BIch makes to «ar and the ear oc the spirits above us a music as complete as it is tremendous. The day of judgment, which will be a day of uproar and tumult, I suppose will bring so dissonance to the ears of thpse who can calmly listen; although it be as when some great performer is executing a boisterous piece of music, he sometimes breaks down the instrument on which he plays, so it may be on that last day that the grand march of God, played by the fingers of thunder and earthquake and conflagration, may break down the world upon whic i the music is ex* -ecuted. Not only is inanimate nature full of music, but God has wonderfully organized the human voice, so that in the plainest threat and lungs there are fourteen direct muscles which can make over sixteen thou- send different sounds, and there are thirty indirect muscles which con make, it has been estimated, more than one hundred and seventy-three millions of sounds! Now, X say, when God has so constructed the human voice, and when he has tilled the whole earth with harmony, and when he recognized it in the ancient temple, I have a right to come to the conclusion that God Joved music. I propose this morning, in setting apart this organ for sacred us?, to speak about sa cred music; first showing you its importance ■nr) then stating some of the obstacles to its advancement. I draw the first argument for the im portance of sacred music from the fact that God commanded it. Throngh Paul He tells us to admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and through David He cries out, “Sing ye to God, all ye kingdoms of the earth.” And there are hundreds of other passages I might name proving that it is as muen a man’s duty to sing as it is his duty to pray. Indeed, I think there are more commands in t e Bible to sing than there are to pray. God not only asks for the human voica but for instruments of music. He asks for the cymbal, and the harp, and the trumpet, as well as the organ. And I suppose tnat iu the last days of the church, the harp, the lute, the trumpet and all the instruments of music, whether they have been in the service of righteousness or sin will be brought by their masters nnd laid down at the feet of Christ, and then sounded in the* church’s triumph, on her way from suffering into glory. ‘‘Praise yo the Lord!” Praise Him with your voices. Praise Him with stringed instruments and with organs. I draw another argument for the import ance of this exercise from the impressiveness of this exercise. You know something of whnt secular music has achieved. You Jmow it has made its impression on govern ments, upon laws, upon literature, upon whole generations. One inspiring national air is worth thirty thousand men as a ■landing army. There comos a time in the battle when one bugle is worth a thousand muskets. I have to tell you that no nation or church can afford to severely economize in music. Many of you are illustrations of what sacred song can do. Through it you were brought into the kingdom of Jesus Christ You stood out against the argument and the warning of the pulpit, but when, in the sweet words of Isaac Watts or Charles Wes ley or John Newton or Toplady, the love of Jesus was sung to your soul then you sur rendered, as armed castle that could not be taken by a host lifts its window to listen to a harp’s thrill. There was a Scotch soldier dying in New Orleans, and a Scotch minister came in to give him the consolations of the Gospel. Tno man turned over on his pillow and said, “Don’t talk to me about religion.” Then the Scotch minister began to sing a familiar hvmn of Scotland that was com posed by David Dickenson, beginning with ords: the wor Oh. mother, dear Jerusalem, When shall 1 came to th?e? He sang it to the tuna of “Dnndoe,” anl everybody in Scotland knows that; and as he began to sing the dying soldier tnrnel over on his pillow, and said to the minister: “Where-didyou learn that?” “Why,” re plied the minister, “my mothar taught me that ” “3o did mine,” said thodying Scotch sold er; and the very foundation of his heart was upturned, and then and there he yielded himself to Chnst. Oh. it has an irresistible power. Lather’s sermons have been forgot ten, but his “Judgment Hymn” sings on through the ages, and will keep on singing until the blast of the archangel’s trumpet shall bring about that very day which the hymn celebrates. I would to God that those who hear me to-day would take these songs of salvation as messages from heaven; for just as certainly as the birds brought food to fear of criticism. The vast majo^^^fpeo- ple singing in church never want anybody else to bear them sing. Everybody is wait ing for somebody else to do his duty. If w< all sang, t&en the inaccuracies that are evi dent when only a 4ew sing would uot ts heard at all; they would be drowned out. God only asks you to do as well as you can and then, if you get the wrong pitch, or keej wrong time. He will forgive any deficiency of the ear and imperfection of the voice. Angels will not laugh if you should lose youi place in the musical scale, or come In at tin close a bar behind. There are three schools of singing, I am told—the German school, the Italian schoa and the French school of singing. Now, 1 would like to add a fourth school, and tha is the school of Christ. The voice of a con trite, broken heart, although it may not t* able to stand human criticism, makes bettei music to God’s ear than tha most artistii K rformance when tha heart is wanting, i ow it is easier to preach on this than it i to practice, but I sing for two reason*—first because I like it, and next, because I wan to encourage those who do not know how. 1 have but very little faculty in that direction yet I am resolved to sing. God has com manded it, and I dare not be silent. He call on the beasts, on the cattle, on the dragon to praise Him, and we ought not be benini the cattle and the dragons. Another obstacle that has been in the wa- of the advancement of this* holy art- has been the fact that there has been so much angry discussion on the subject of music. There are those who would have this exer cise conducted by musical instruments. In the same church there are those who do not like musical instruments, and so it is organ and no organ, and there is a fight. In another church it is a question whether the music shall be conducted by a precentor or by a drilled choir. Some want a drilled choir and some want a precentor, and there is a fight. Then there are those who would like in the church to have the organ played in a dull, lifeless, droning way, while there are others who would have it wreathed into fantastics, branching out in jets and spangles of sound, rolling and tossing in marvelous convultions, as when, in pyrotechnic dis play, after you think a piece is exhausted, it breaks out in wheels, rockets, blue lights and serpentine demonstrations. Some would have the organ played in al most inaudible sweetness, and others would have it full of staccato passages that make the audience jump, with great eyes ami hair on end. as though by a vision of the Witch of Endor. And ht who tries to please all will fail in everything. Nevertheless, you are to admit the fact that this contest which is going on, not in hundreds, but iu thou sands of the churches of the United States to-day, is a mighty hindrance to the ad vancement of this art. in this way scores of churches are entirely crippled as to a'l in fluence, and the music is a damage rather than a praise. Another obstacle in the advancement of Luis art nas oeea me erroneous notion that this part of the service could be conducted by delegation. Churches have said: “Oh, what an easy time we shall have. This min ister will do the preaching, the choir will do the singing and wa will have nothing to do.” And you Know as well as 1 that there area great multitude of churches all through this land, where the people are not expected to sing, the whole work is done bv delegation of four or six or ten prrsons and the audience are silent. In such a church in Syracuse an old elder persisted in singing, and so the choir ap pointed a committee to go and ask the squire if he would not stop. You know that in a great multitude of churches the choir are ex pected to do all the singing, and the great mass of the people are expected to be silent, and if you utter your voice you are interfer ing. There they stand, the four, with opera glass dangling at their side, singing, “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me,” with the same spirit that the night before, oa the stage, they took their partin the “Grand Duchess” or “Eton Giovanni.” My Christian friends, have we a right to delegate to others the discharge of this duty whica God demands of us? Suppose that four wood thrushes should propose to do all the singing some bright day when the woods are ringing witlj *" ‘oes. It is decided tnat lour wood thrushes shall do all the singing of the forest. Let all the other voices keep silent. How beautifully the four warble! It is really Ante music. But how long will you keep the forest still! Why, Christ would come into that forest and look np as He looked through the olives, and He would wave His hand and say, “Let everything that hath breath praise the into the harmony. My Christian friends, we have no taste for this service on earth, what will we do in heaven, where they all sing, and sing forever? I want to rouse you to a unanimity In Christian song that has never yet been ex hibited. Come, now! clear your throats and get readv for this duty or you will never hear the ena of this. I never shall forget hearing a Frenchman sing the “Marseil laise” on the Champs Ely sees, Paris, just before the battle of Sedan in 1870. I never saw such an enthusiasm before or since. As he sung that national air, oh! how the Frenchmen shouted! Have you ever in an English assemblage heard the band play “God Save the Queen?” If you have, you know something about the enthusiasm of . a national air. Now, I tell you tuat these songs we sing Sabbath by Sabbath are the national airs of Jesus Christ and of tho kingdom of heaven, and if you do not learn to sing them here, how do you ever expect to sing the song of Moses and the Lamb? I should cot be sur prised at all if so ne of the best aqjhems of heaven were made up of some of the best songs on earth. May God increase our rev erence for Christian psalmody, and keep us from disgracing it by our in liffarance and frivolity. When Cromwell’s army went into battle, be stood at the head of them one day, and gave out the long meter doxology to the tune of the “Old Hundredth,” and that great host,company by company, regiment by regi ment, battalion by battalion, joined in the doxology: Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise llltn, all creatures here below; Praise Rim above, ye heavenly host, Praise Fatner. Son and Ho.y Ghost. And while they sang they marched, and while they marened they fought, and while they fought they got the victory. Oh, men and women of Jesus Christ, let us go into all our conflicts singing the praises of God, and then instead of failing back, as we often do. from defeat to defeat, we will bo marching on from victory to victory. Glorjr to the Father and to the Son and ta the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning* is now and ever shall be, world without on-' Amen. xhf.re la a kind or a summer girl out here in the West whom you never read of in the papers. Her neighbors do not associate her with cool white dresses, idleness, novels, and ham mocks, but they thiak vastly more of her. She is the kind of a summer girl who puts up fruit in the hot kitchen, who is her mother’s help, and who knows more about the ingredients for making a peach cobbler than she does about tho latest style of a lawn-tennis dress. She is the Western man’s ideal of all a summer girl should be, and all wise men of the East agree with him after they have tasted some of her cooking. Tf a man will let his children b« idle, he should not wonder that they get into mischief, and do something to disgrace him before they get throngh. All the men who ever amounted to anything had to work almost as soon as they could walk. If nine out of ten of the boys and girls of 12 or 15 years had to sum up the work they do through the day, it would not amount to more than two hours at the most. The rest of the day is spent in idleness, and idleness is the foundation of trouble. No one ever amounted to anything by having a good time, but that seems to be the greatest hope most Barents have for their children. A Baltimore man who had endured the terrible pangs of a jumping ear- ache for eleven years went insane with delight when he was cured recently. You generally get substantially the same effect when you elect man in ured to the lowly walks of life to a fat and honorable office. It is prosperity, not trouble, that is bard to bear. Te is! York Poatr TOLD From the sha| judge whether th^ for beauty and has” appropriate for the it,’says the Washiuj shade df at. least,! is of da| finest st skin. If she' glace kid il feet fit, wh! that the fin| the hand did exact in all on so as to hs : nd just whei The delicate! • ver (ells thel mo which is particular in r glove will exd upon which it isl ample, au eiglit-bu 1 quetaire will be we the theatre, a fout church, and Biarri stitched glove havj for shopping travel If the wearer has sition, it will appei- occasionally pullin r gloves. If she hasl occasional downwc ful though appareq rangement of the 1^ keen observer of t* If the hands are. around for inspect wager that kid gly with the wearer, glove shows an u’ slightly soiled g)| without betraying! WELL PROVIDED Miss Brabazon Mrs. Grim wood, H r.eepoor, rejoices i a most magnifice wedding dress is s usual run of wU every woman v| about it. The tral the heaviest, ric B satin. All aroum. and reaching wayj| there is a thick,* white chiffon. T skirt in place a: finish for the so; plainness of the u front of the ski four deep floun point lace. ThesJ overlapping onejy is laced iu froii point lacr