The ledger. [volume] (Gaffney City, S.C.) 1896-1907, September 30, 1897, Image 5
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I
THE LEDGER: GAFFNEY, S. C„ SEPTEMBER 30. 1807.
Tup POWER OF MUSIC
IMP^TANCE OF CONGREGATIONAL
/ SINGING IN CHURCHES.
Rev. I>r. TaJmr.ce Say# There Are Foot
Schools of Singing, the New One IVIng
the School of Christ — Helps ami Oh*
Stacies.
Washdjqtox, Sept. 20.—Dr. Talmngo
in this discourse rallies the churches to
more hearty congregational singing * 111 ^
calls upon instruments of music to join
in the praiso of God. The text is li
Chronicles v, 18, “It cam© even to pass,
as the trumpeters and singers were as
one, to make one sound to lx; lu ard in
praising and thanking the Lord.
The temply was done. It was the
very chorus of all magnificence and
pomp. Splendor crowded against splen
dor. It was the diamond necklace of
the earth. From the huge pillars crown
ed with leaves and flowers and rows of
pomegranate wrought out in burnished
metal down <ven to the tongs and
snuffers made out of pure gold every
thing was as complete as the God direct
ed architect could make it. It seemed
as if a vision from heaven had alighted
on the mountains. The day for dedica
tion came. Tradition says that there
were in and around about the temple ou
that elay 200,000 silver trumpets, 40,000
harps, 40,000 timbrels and 200,000
singers, so that all modern demonstra
tions at Dusseldcrf or Boston seem
nothing compare*! with that. As this
gre;;t f ound surged np amid the precious
stones of the temple it must have seem
ed like the river of life dashing against
the amethyst of the wall of heaven.
The sound arose, and God, as if to show
that he was well pleased with the mu
sic whieh his children make ;n all ag« v ;,
dropped into the midst of the temple a
cloud of glory so overpowering that the
officiating priests were obliged to stop
in tho midst of the services.
Sacred Music.
There has been much difere - ior. as 'o
where music was Loin. 1 think that at
the beginning, “when the morning stars
sang together and all the sons of God
shouted for joy,” the earth heard the
The cloud on which the uiige’.i
the
.at glit-
echo.
stood to celebrate tho creation was
birthplace of song. The stars t!
ter at night are* only so many la ys of
celestial pearl on which God’s fingers
play the music of the* spheres. Inani
mate nature is full of God's stringed
and wind instruments. Silence itself—
perfect silence—is only a musical rest
in God's great anthem of worship.
Wind among tho leave.*:, insict hum
ming in tho summer air, tho rush of
billow upon loach, the ocean far out
sounding its everlasting ps-lm, the
bobolink cn tho edge of the forest, the
quail whistling up from the gw. s, are
music. While, vi iting Ulaekwoli s
island I heard, coming from a window
of the lunatic asylum, a very s""C t
song. It was sung by one who had lu: i
hey reason, and I have come to believe
th4t even the d• ranged and disordered
elements of natere would make mush?
to our car if we only had acutenes s
enough to listen. I suppose that even
the Bounds in nature that sire discordant
and repulsive make harmony in God's
car. You know that you may come v)
near to an orchestra that the sounds arc
painful instead of pleasurable, and I
think thsit we stand so near devastating
storm and frightful whirlwind wo can
not hear that which makes to God’s ear
and the ear of tho spirits above us a
music as complete as it is tremendous.
1 propos* to speak about sacred music,
first showing you its importance and
then stating some ct the obstacles to its
advancement.
I draw the first argument for the im
portance of sacred music from the fact
that God commanded it> Through Paul
he tills us to admonish one another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Through David he cries out. “Sing yo
to God, all ye kingdoms of the earth.”
And there are hundreds of other pas
sages I might name, proving that it is
as much a man’s duty to sing as it is
his duty to pray. Indeed I think there
an* more commands in the Bible to sing
than then? arc to pray. God not only
asks for the human voice, but for the
instruments iff music. He n*ks for tin?
cymbal and the harp and the trumis t.
And 1 suppose that iu the last days of
thochurch the harp, the lute, the trum
pet and all tho instruments of music
that have given their chief aid to the
theater and bacchanal, will lx? brought
by their masters and laid down at the
feet of Chri.- tand then sounded in the
church’s triumph on her way from suf
fering into glory. “1 raise ye the Lord!”
Praise him with your voices. Praise
him with stringed instruments and with
organs.
Secular Muoic.
1 draw another argma nt for the im
portune'.* of this exercise from the im
pressiveness of the exercise. You know
Hoim thing of wh it secular music has
achieved. You know it has made its im-
pre: :ion upon governments, upon laws,
u]siii literature, upon whole genera
tions. One inspiring national air is
worth 80,000 men as a standing army
There conies a time in the battle whoa
one bugle is worth 1,000 muskets. la
the earlier jiart of our civil war the
government proposed to ceonomi/.o ha
bands of music, and many of tin m were
Bent home, but the generals in the ar
my sent word to Washington: “You
an* making a very great mistake. Wo
am falling back and falling'kick. Wo
have not enough music. ” 1 have to tell
you that no nation or church can afford
to severely cconomi'/.i iu music.
Why should we rob the programmes
cf worldly gay. tv when we have t:o
Tmmy appropriate songs and tunes com-
posed in nur own day, as well as that
magnificent Inheritance of church
psalmody wlii<*lt lias come down fra
grant with tin devotions of other g u-
erations—tunes no more worn out than
when oar greatgrandfathers climbed
up on them from the church j»ow to
glory? 1> r old souls, how they used to
Bing! Mel in those days there were cer
tain tunes married to certain hymns,
and they have lived in peace a great
while, these two old people, and we
have no right to divorce them. Bom as
we have been amid this great wealth of
church music, augmented by the com
positions of artists in our day, we ought
not to to tempted out of tho sphere of
Christian harmony and try to seek un-
consecrated sounds. It is absurd for a
millionaire to steal.
Many of you are illustrations of what
a sacred song can da Through it you
were brought into the kingdom of Joses
Christ. You stood out against the warn
ing and the argument of the pulpit, but
when, iu tho sweet words of Charles
Wesley or John Newton orToplady, the
love of Jesus was sung to your soul,
then you surrendered, as an armed cas
tle that could not betaken by a hoet
lifts its window to listen to a harp’s
trill.
There was a Scotch soldier dying in
New Orleans, and a Scotch minister
came in to give him the consolations of
the gospel. The man turned over ou his
pillow and said, “Don’t talk to me
about religion.” Then tho minister be
gun to sing a familiar hymn that was
composed by David Dickenson, begin
ning with the words:
Oh, mother denr, Jerusalem,
tYken shall I eome to thee ?
He sang it to the tune of “Dundee,”
and everybody in Scotland knows •that,
and as he began to sing the dying sol
dier turned over on his pillow and said
to the minister, “Where did yon learn
that?” “Why.” replied the minister,
“my mother taught mo that. ” “So did
mine ” said tho dying soldier, end til
very foundation of his heart was up
turned, and then and there he yielded
himself to Christ. Oh, it has an irre-
sistible power! Luther's sermons have
been forgotten, but his “Judgment
I Hymn” sings on through the ages ami !
will keep en singing until the blast ol
the archangel's trumpet shall bring
about that very day which the hymn
I* celebrates. I world to Cod that yen
weald take these songs of salvation f..*?
messages from h aven, for pst as cer
tainly as the birds brought food to liii-
jiib by the brock Cherith so these wing
ed harmonies, God sent, are flying to
your soul with the bread of life. Open
your mouth and take it, O hungry Eli
jah!
Kimtliinc Music.
I have also noticed the power of ra*
en d song to soothe perturbation. You
may have come in here with a great
many worriim nts and anxieties, yet
perhaps in the singing of the first hymn
you lost them all. You have read iu the
Bible of Haul, and how ho was tad and
angry and how the boy David came in
and played the evil spirit out of him. A
Spanish king was melancholy. The
windows were all closed. lie sat iu
the darkness. Nothing could bring hi::u
forth until Fraudi carao and discoursed
music for three or four days to him. < >n
the fourth day he locked up and wept
and rejoiced, and the windows w o
thrown opea and that which all tho
splendors of tho court could not do tho
power of song accomplished. If you
have anxieties and worrimouts, try this
heavenly eh: rm upon them. Do not sit
down on tho bank of the hymn, but
plunge in, that tho devil of care may
be brought out of you.
It also arouses to action. Do you not
know that a singing church is always a
triumphant church? If a congregation
is silent during the exercise, or partially
silent, it is the silence of death. If
w hen the hymn is given out you h< ar
I the faint hum of here and therea father
and mother in Israel, while the vast
majority -are silent, that minister of
Christ who is presiding needs to have a
very strong constitution if he does not
get the chills. He needs not only the
grace of God, but nerves like whalebone.
It is amazing how some people with
voice enough to discharge all their du
ties in the world, when they come i*:i ?
the house of God have no voice to dis
charge this duty. I really believe that
if the church cf Christ could rise up
and sing as it ought to sing, where wo
have 100 souls brought into tho king
dom of Christ there would bo 1,000.
How was it in olden time? Cajctnu
said, “Luther conquered us by bis
songs. ”
But I must now speak of some of the
obstacles in the way of the advancement
of this sacred music, and the first is
that it has b<*en impressed into tho serv
ice of satan. I am far from believing
that musk? ought always to lx? positive
ly religious. Refund art has opened
places where music has been secular
ized, and lawfully so. Tho drawing
room, tho concert, by tho gratifica
tion of pure taste and tho produc
tion of harmless amusement and the
improvement of talent, have become
very forces in the tulvaiieenu nt of our
civilization. Music has as much right
to laugh in Surrey gardens as it has to
pray in St. Paul's. L*i tho kindgom of
nature wo have the glad tiling of tho
wind as well as the long meter p aim of
the thunder. But, while all this is so,
evi ry obsi rvir has noticed that this art,
which God intciukd for the intprove-
meut of the ear, and tho voice, and tho
head, and tin* heart, has often lieeu im
pressed into the sty ice cf error. Tar-
tini, tin? musical composer, dreamed
one night that satan snatched from Ids
hand an instrument and played upon it
something wry sweet—a dream that
has i
voice
have been dovotad to Christ captured
from the church awl applied to tho pur
poses of sin.
Kciir of CrltldNm.
Another obstacle has I t en an inordi
nate ft ar of criticism. The vast majority
of people singing in church never want
anybody else to hear them sing. Kvery-
body is waiting for somcliody else to do
his duty. If wo all wing, thou tho inac-
curaeieM that an? evident when only a
few sing would lx? drowned out. G«*d
asks you to do as well as you can, nud
then if yon gn the wrong pitch or keep
wrong time ho will forgive any de
ficit nry of the ear awl impt'rfix'iinn t f
the voice. Angels will not laugh if yoj
■boulti lose yuur place iu tho wvuiical
ttcale or come in at tho close a bar be
hind. There an? three schtxils of sing
ing, I am told—the German school, tho
Italian school and the French school of
I singing. Now I would like to add a
1 fourth school, and that is the school cf
- Christ. Tho voice of a contrite, broken
heart, although it may not lx? able to
; stand human criticism, makes better
| music to Cod’s car than the most artia-
1 tic performance when the heart is want
ing. God calls ou the beasts, on the cat
tle, on the dragons, to praise him, and
we ought wit to be behiud the cattle
and the dragons.
Another obstacle in tho advancement
of this art has been the erroneous ac
tion that this part of the service could
bo conducted by delegation. Churches
have said: “Oh, what an easy time we
shall have! The minister will do the
preaching, and the choir will do the
singing, and wo will have nothing to
do.” And you know as well as I that
there are a great multitude of churches
all through this land where the people
are uot expected to sing. The whole
work is done by a delegation of four cr
six or ten persons, and the audience are
silent. In si.eh a church in Syracuse aa
old elder persisted in singing, and so
the choir appointed a committee to go
awl aak the elder if he would not stop.
You know that in many churches the
choir are expected to do all the singing,
and the great mass cf the people are ex
pected to be silent, awl if you utter
your voice you are interfering. In that
church they stand, the four, with opera
glasses dangling at their side, singing
“Rock of ages, cleft for me,” with tho
same spirit that, the night before on tho
stage, they took their part iu the
“Grande Ducbesse” or “Don Gio
vanni. ”
My Christian friends, have wo a
right to delegate to others the discharge
cf this duty which God demands of us?
Suppose that four wood thrushes propose
to do all tho singing some bright day
when tho woods are ringing with bird
voices. It is decided that four wood
thrushes shall do all the singing of the
forest. Let all other voices keep silent.
How beautifully the four warble! It is
really fine music. But bow long will
you keep tho forest still? Why, Christ
would ocme into that forest and look
up, as ho looked through the olives, and
he would wave his hand and say, “Let
everything that hath breath praise the
Lord,” and, keeping time with the
stroke of innumerable wings, there
would be 5,000 bird voices leaping into
the hanacay. Suppao this delegation
of musical performers were tried iu
heaven. Suppose that f< >rr choice spirits
should try to do the singing of the up
per temple. Kush now, thrones and do
minions and principalities! David, L«
still, though you were tho “sweet sing
er of Israel!” Paul, keep quiet, though
you have come to that crown of rejoic
ing! Richard Baxter, keep still, though
this is tho “Saints’ Everlasting Re t!”
Four spirits now do all the singing.
Bet bow long w< - Id hw n Po quiet?
How long? ‘‘liaikluiah!” would cry
some glorified Methodist from under the
altar. “Braise the Lord!” would •dug
the martyrs from among the thrones.
“Thunks be unto God, who giveth us
the victor}’!” a great multitude t f re
deemed spirits would cry—myriads of
voices corning into the harmony and the
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harmony. My Christian friends,, if wn
have no taste for this a rvicc on earth
what will we do in heaven, whe re they
all sing and sing forever? I would that
our singing today might be like the Sat
urday night rehearsal for the Sabbath
morning in the skies, and we might be
gin not/, by the strength and by tho
help of God, to discharge a duty which
none of us has fully performed. And
now what more appropriate tiling can I
do than to give out the doxology of the
heavens, “Unto him who hath loved us
and washed us from our sins in his own
blood, to him be glory forever!”
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Here is a case of inherited blood taint
which resulted in what threatened to be
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man or woman with the slightest taint
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whose Y’cins flow with the impure inher
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No child who has a trace of bad blood
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Mr. W. A. Clayton, of Addie, N. C.,
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“ My three-year-old boy had the worst
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144,000 breaking forth into ono accla
mation. Stop that loud singing! Stop!
Oh, no. They cannot hear me. You
might us well try to drown the thun
der of the skj’ or beat Lack the roar cf
the sea, for every soul in heaven has re
solved to do its own singing. Alas, that
we should have tried on earth that
which they cannot do in heaven, and,
instead of joining all our voices in the
praise of the most high God, delegating
perhaps to uneensi crated men and wo
men this most solemn and most delight
ful st rvicc!
SpartiURn; Muuic.
Music ought to rush from tho audi
ence like tho water from a rock—clear,
bright, sparkling. If all tin? other part
of the church service is dull, do m t
have the music dull. WHi so many
thrilling things to sing about, away
with all drawling and stupidity. Tlicitt
is nothing makes me ro nervous as, to
sit in a pulpit and look off on an audi
ence with their eyes three-fourths closed
and th< ir lips almost sliut, mumbling
tho praises of (!od. Dr.ring my roc nt
abseneo I preached to a large audience,
and all the music tiny made together
did not equal one skylark. People ri »
not sleep at a coronation. Do not let us
sleep when we come to a Bavit.ur’s
crowning. In order to a proper discharge
of this duty let us stand up, save as ago
or weakness or fatigue excuses us. Sat
ed in an easy pew we cannot do this
duty half so well as when, upright, wo
throw our whole hotly into it. Let our
song be like an acclamation of victory.
You have a right to sing. Do nut sur-
rendt r your prt rogative.
We want to rouse all our families
upon thissubjeet. Wo wuutoaeh family
of our conga cation to bo a singing
school. Child’sh petulance, obduracy
and intractability would be soothed if
we had more singing in tin* household,
and then our little ones would be pre
pared for the groat congregation on bnb-
buth day, their voices uniting with our
voices in the praises of the Lord. After
a shower there are scores of streams
that eorm> down the mountain side with
voices rippling and silvery, pouring in
to one river and then rolling iu united
strength to tho sea. {so 1 would have all
the families in our church send forth
tlie voice of prayer and praise, pouring
ft into the great tide of public worship
that rolls ou and on to empty into tho
great, wide heart of God. Never can
we have our church sing as it ought un
til our families sing ns they ought.
There will bo a great revolution cn
this subject in all our churches. God
will como down by bis spirit and rons ?
up the old hymns and tunes that have
uot Is*- it more than half awake since tho
time of our grandfathers. The silt nt
pews iu the church will break forth in
to music, and when tin* conductor takes
his place on the Sabbath day there will
beu grt at host of voices rushing into thi?
3I1CN*S,
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CJ-OTIIITSG,
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MR. W. A. CLAYTON,
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