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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1891-1-2, Page 7JAN, 2, 1891, JHEBRI-15SELS POST SACRED MUSIC. .11Y BEY, no fi. AMASON, N, A, P• , am, II1SLENB, Dr, Timothy Dwight used to arty that there wore two qualificetions inclispeneable to anyone entering on the Gospel ministry—first, grace and ueoond, common sense. But bo °been bearing on the leeeou of as he grew to be au old man, with the dee. The w hymns will then time to the follower of the Man of sareful enough before setting out to Sorrows bet the hymn's M oil in scions that tie I.:Webers theirns corn fiaebatle sehool bo well ritten plexton'nevee pay the slightestwithieer, with isles r, eeneible meaning and heed when they get there that there pregnent with truth. ie any affinity between the hymn That the 'service of praise may and the tune they set to it. They produoo the gratest possible im• are quite satisfied if there be a reeeteit and leave the most ;mien sufficient number of notes in the effece let rho subject of the hymns line to get in all the syllables, Al. though the scholars may not be able to tell how it liae been done, this treatment lies killed many an itnpreesion made upon them in the claims. All the loving labor of the teaeher has often been almoot, if not wholly, destroyed by a mistake of tide kind, Forgive mo if I again illuetrate from my own eXperienee. When I was an assistant to an Old Country (thumb, I had occasion to preach e. sermon on "Christian se- tivity and energy." A.t the close I annoenced the 12th paraphrase to 00 sung : "Yo indolent and 'sloth- ful rise, view the ant's labors and be wise." The precentor rose up and sang (es only a Scotch, country precentor can sing for laborious and ponderous movernenl) the words to the tune 'Retreat.' I have forgotten what kind of a sermon I preached, but I remember the want of 'Obrietian energy and activity' in that singing, and I have no doubt it is the same with many who were its the audience. The tune couldhelp—nay, help—nay, almost compel—the singer to feel what he ie singing and sing it as he feels it. Take the hymn, 'Jesus, the very thought of Thee,' to the tune 'St. Agnes,' 'Durham,' and what other time could compare with that in reveal. ing the meaning of these words, and who can sing these words to this tune without being compelled to feel them reaching into the heart ? Let the tunes have some music in them. .None will be quicker than the children en fiading this out. Their ears are sharp and true, and will make larger demands now, per- haps, than in years to come. They soon know whether they have to do extra work besides interpreting the words, by having to put some music in the tune. Beware of these 'jingle -jingle' sirs. Sleigh bells are all very well to make a noise to ab. tract people's attention, but you dont want to nee them as chimes for a cathedral. If the hymn ie worth having a good tune to sing to it—it is a shame to slug anything else to it. The children will appro. elate your efforts to help them. They will reward you by the hearti• nese and feeling with which they take part. Don't be afraid, either, to take some of the higher clue music at times. It will be a reve- lation to the scholars. , It will be a discovery to them to find what music is really for and What a pow. er it has successfully to accomplish its purpose. It will appeal to them and impress them, though' they may not be able at first to join in as heartily in it, and it will excite a desire and a determination yet to .be. able to use that music as the inter- pretation of their own heart' thoughts. You have not far to seek it ; there is more or less lying hid- deu in every church hymnal. wider experience he reversed this order and put common geese find, for as ho said grace without common sense can do very little to fit a man for the ministry. So, regard to the Sabbath school would elmoet be inclined to putt attention to the service of praise in the first place. What I would imply is that, lied am studious and careful as they will, unless you have a pleasant, cheer- ftel devotional service of praise, the effects of the teaching will largely, if not wholly vanish in frivolity, or ennui, or in oritioiem, Who of us has not been in a Sabbath echo& where the eiuginig was such that, if the scholars had madem the une have a wider, fuller and more vivid Olnallillg to the scholar's as the leseone are road into them ; or, as they are used to supplement the truth taught in the class. The union of lesson and prams tend to unity of attention. The mind will instinetively bring the ono to bear on the other, The opening Psalm or hymn will bo a herald preparing the way for the teacher's words, the elostute praise will be a hammer driving the truth home to the heart. Let the praise not merely repeat the lesson, but lot it baits complement, shedding some other light, revealing a new aspect or summing up all ire a prayer, noise iu the same way on the out Attention to this will subseree side of the walls, they would have another purpose. It will give in. been arrested for disturbance of the peace; and who of us has not be - toned to the praise in. a Sabbath school rendered in such 0 way as would have made a funeral march seem light and frivolous beeitle it. And yet the parents of the children in the one school aro so irreverent ; while the parents of those in the other wonder why their children think religion so dreary. A. dis- erosion on our eubject will give us, I hope, a few hints that will help us while endeavoring to escape Scylla .also to steer clear of Charybdis and to keep a safe and prosperous course iu the happy mean. To aid clear- ness, divide my subject into the or tbodox three heads and an ap- plications :-1. What is to be sung ; 2. What to sing to it ; 8. How to sing it ; and the application, "Go thou and do likewise." First, then, what is to be sung in the Sabbath school. The day$ when it was thought sinful to allow anything but the Psalms of David to be sung are gone by uow. 111 the great majority of schools the hymn book has bee introduced as a BUO- plement. This is a wise and judi• cions step, anticipating the more urgent demands of the heart that have been developed by the spirit of our times. There could have been no grander language, no more soul -stirring sentiment to have met, the needs and to have interpreted the feelings of our covenanting tore - fathers, than the war Bongs of David. But with now ages and new eircum• stances, new wants assert of truth are brought to prominence. And while we keep as near tp our hearts the penitential and devotioual Psalms, many others that stirred to fire the souls of our warrior aece t• tore have little meaning to us. But it is not all loss. It is the grand feature and hopeful sign of our age, that the thought's of all are °enteritis round the life of Christ. Christian and agnostic alike find it in the ideal—it ie the problem of the latter it is the hope and goal and end-all of the fortuer. It ie only natural, then, that we should require other prone beside the Psalms to embalm the Saviour's nanee, to unfold His fluite variety of subject from Sab- bath to Sabbath. "The evil genius of dullness will be exorcised." A. child'e mind is quick an active as a, butterfly shipping from 'flower to flower, ever demanding something nes', something fresh. In the fleet flush of revelation in the world of ideas, it grasps an idea and immed- iately dismantle another, It etores them up. The years that are yet to come must bring the time for re. flection upon them. The mind of the child will become inert and at- rophied if there is no new supply afforded. Familiarity soon breeds contempt with him. I can remem- ber vividly to this day the weariness that the service of praise was to us iu one Sabbath school which 1 at. tended. We always or nearly al- ways, knew what was to be snug— the isinsoad paraphrase at the be- ginuing and the tenth hymn at the close: and sometimes, for a change the tenth hymn at the beginning and 85000,1 paraphrase at the end. We celled the superintendent "the, tenth bymn." This very quickness, this vivacity of the child's mind to which I have referred leads me to warn you of a danger. Beware of announcing any hymns that may receive a ludicrous application at the time. You know how easily one is moved to mirth in church—how yoa have a tendency to smile at what would not have moved you outside. 11 this is so with you how much more so with eltildrem whose very vivacity makes them couneot things so quickly and bring thorn into striking and often incongruous coutraet. I can re• member a party of Sabbath school whole -es 3etting off in wagons for a pie nic. The superintendent was at the hese of the procession, standing up in the wagon and beating time with his arms, for the hymn "Hold the Fort." Could you wonder that the children laughed when they came to sing, "See the mighty host advancing, Satan leading on ?'' If the praise of the Sabbath school. is to bo benefieial, we meet sets that every allusion will be reverent, and that there is nothing to divert or graces, to express our love and to destroy tbo feeling. breathe our desires. Our hymns Let us see that the hymns are are to answer this demitnd. Whitt suited. Let the tenet, bo varied. could we do without snail hymns as these :.--"How Sweet the Nemo of Jesus Sounds" ; "I Lay lily Sits on Jesus" • "Rock of Agee Cleft fur Be careful that the precentor hts not a meagre round of only two or three times which he has to go over and over again, like one of these 1 give the same warning now in regard to tunes that I gave in cion• nection with the hymns or psalms. Beware of the incongruous. Avoid anything that would'near or deatroy. A. hale want of care, or thought, or foresight may let loose all the powers of destruction. A faithful souree of mischief were those tunes with repeats of the closing line. Happily they are filet die - Me ?" Your children ate to be the cheap musical instruments that you ampnpaetahreinng tchuoidy dying oat. But now crop up to cameo practical men and women 'of the /my in the stores. ib will kill the a . very future. Let them learn at the be- effect of the best hymn to set it to a clieaster in serVineNot ginning that religion IS practicel thread bare tune of whioli the long ago a friend worshipped 1115 too,—able to adjust its blessings to scholars are more than tired. It is church in ------ a, They the no v demands of the 'heart de like dreseiug the statue of s Grecian veloped by the changing of the ages. moll 10 a seeond.hand suit, illy Let there be good hymns in the Sabbath school experiences were Sabbath schools. unfortunate in some respects. Iu. Let there be good hymns, 1 say. the first school I ever attended—far There are hymns and hymus. Let back uow so as to be a dim memory there be some preteneioue to poetry —about the only thiug I recollect about them. Just as they ere true is that the superintendent, who was poems will they be the best express. elms the precentor, had only two ions your own thoughts and lesites. tunes --and two sueli tunes for a It is the tiniest poetry that is the Sabbath school 1 'Cloleshill.' and beat and most feeling interpreter of 'Benger'—minor tunes and heavy your secret heart. I, for one, could at that. Bat they were most 5.0 - find little profit iu singing such a commodating tunes, an extra drawl hymn as this : lengthening, them out to do a long metre psalm, or a quaint slur short - "A soft awed voice from Eden stealing sash as bah to angels .known, ' ening them up to do a short metre. Hopets cheering song is over thrilling, Weeised to watch his ineenuity. It is bettor farther on," This wee an economical and utili- But the hymn is by no means tarian way 01W:eating tames, but ib "better farther on" Let there be was not iuspiring. If the precentor some sense iu the hymns that are to is alive, ho would not only vary his be sting. There acorns to me little time, bub Will bring a new one now eau° in euch worth, as these :..,.. and then to waken the children's We're going home, we're going attention ; to excite their ambition home, we're going home toimorrow, and to have a greater store ab cone - The sentiment te not true. Wo are mated that he may wield with hap. asserting the truth of what we can. Pier efface the varied eubjeote of not possibly kuow. Let the sonti which he has to treat. relent of the hymns be correct. The For this is one of the essentials malts sentiment of Buck a hymn as in good singing and the a'ssolute that, "Oh, To Be Nothing, Nobhiug, criterion in choosing a tune, that it is atom suited to the prayer of a fittingly interprets the thotights of Bahaman than of a Christian, The the prialln or hymn to which it is sentiment of finch another 08 "Go Duty Thy Sorrow," is suited rather CO the Grecian stoic or the fatalist Olnlobingato We arc now .prepared to famish the following City Papers in connection with 'THE) 'ST" —.FROM NOW— Until January 1st, 1892: London Advertiser „..$ 25 2 London Free PT088 2 25 Toronto Globe ......... ...,2 25 Toronto 25 Toronto Empire 2 25 Now le Mc Time to Subscribe. Cash Must Accompany Cruet's, AnnnEss,— W. T-C1Mrt, POST Publishing House, Buessere, KING OF WEEKLIES! LA -11 PRESS TsitibiLthed hale a Century. LONDON, - ONTARIO. The !lands's:nest Printed Paper in Canada, 775 CASII OPPORTUNITIES Offered to the Public. The. publishers of the LONDON WitaiitY FIIPIlt fares aro happy to aum.unce that they have set apart the sum of S'10000,00 (ON THOUSAND DOLLARS IN GOLD), to bo divided amongst subscribers whose names may be found on the subscription lista March lst, 1811. The allotment will be made as follows :- 1 Crand Allotment of $100.00-$100.08 4 Allotments of 25.00- 100.00 20 t1 1100— 200.00 2.00- 100.00 1.00-300.00 .50-200.00 50 Is it 300 CI II 400 &I 775 The allotment will take place under the pergision of a Committee, March the 2nd, Those to whom the allotments may fall will thereupon receive a notification of the feet and a coupon for the amount will he' iesned, payable at the counter of the FREE PUlisH ()MOD Oil and after March Och, and will be forwarded to them. There are yet four months during which persons wishing to be Winded in these hand- some allotirents, may Wine in to share by etileteribing to the VIEBNLY FREE PRESS. Price, One Dollar per year. It will be soon that by this scheme o DIVISION OF PROFITS, those poisons to the number of 779, selected from all the names en our sobscription listovill receive a handsome recognition by having plauad ti their credit, or paid in cash, sums of money varying from Ho. to 9100.00 sash. Now is the Unto to subscribe 1 $1000.00 FRI FOR MANESS! As my Goods were Saved from the Fire in such Excellent Condition am enabled to Resume Business AT ONCE. CHRISTMAS NUMBER. In addition to the above magnificent offers all subscribers to the 'WEEKLY nen Penes whose names may be on the list December 81st, for 1891, will roneive a gift of our forthoominte splendid ItoggsTitaTED Onius'retts NUJIDER7 now become so poplar throughout Western sang a hymn to a tune that repeat- 0""itio ; bat no others will be ,ontitled to a s e.tpy of it ed part of the last line eight times. Therefore, now is the time to subscribe, as Ibis not to be wondered at that few were able to sing to the close of the verse that mailed with : "Stir up the stu—stir up the stu—oto„---atir up the stu—pid heart." In the tunes you rise, you have a mighty force for good, an elevating power that no other gift of God possesses of a like kind ; you have a power that will appeal to everyone in the °lase whose force the young• Therefore, now is the time to subscribe. efit' cannot mise and till" will Charin L' p0105, ((((1 oonod5d 00 bo 005 bsst Iromldy the oldest. See thou that you use nee entiner unneda. TheAgricalltural Depart - this God-given instr„ment with ietlttri8ttlifigalge.ogiiereO'teri; skill. Nowa in Pull by Telegraph, R.11.111.1oim Pract:cal and Useful gityon each We come now to our lash division into IT= irtTi ettiarili teft.3 Story rams entering the subscription lists on or before 914 of December next, will be en- titled to the DOUBLE ADVANTAGE of securing a copy of the CHICIsTAIAS NultnEx, as well as participating in tho Inmate of the DIVISION OF PROFITS, as previously sot forth. Ni person, however, whose name is not on the sUbscription' list, Doc, Est, for 1891, will bus ontitled to that consideration, YOU WILL FIND ME IN WILSON'S BRICK BLOCK, prayerful, cerefnl and thoughtful reNnas practicidly skilled in Perm 1Vork. SI - Telephone, Mall end Correapon(lenc0 Up to ho NOW TO SING Tola OYU Nd IND TOMOS. Mull. of untilicallonb Special Market Depart- " flow te 'nog thoee byteme and 111,'.`ine.!,1011 Pt; erIVIToPkis fgi.f.ftleargtii."' and wider treatment than I can LARGE $1.00 PAPER I taus." This ought to have fairer 1,1 (lees or 0,1ur and upwards, Vio. clash, gave ib now, It is, perheps, the , mattlrog Oe 1890 FRU, moat important head of all. Lot there be but a glimmering of Haase gob your stibseriptioe tummy at onoo deed; in the word, and the expression to Fte.:Pness Ovra, London., Ont., which, if with. which you sing them will dilly awl ;merely mailed, will bo at cunt lust, bring it out. Let there be bet the Please writs your name and Post °Ince gliost of music iu the tune and your address distinctly. A e Melee 1 expreimion will give it for the time being a tangible body, FREE PRES8. PRINTING co, Always remember the expression LONDON, CANADA. set. Time are careless mon in tn singiug, When Opie,the pain ter, °yeti profession ; and there are pre, teas asked by cc yowls tableb how he ceutora who, while they may be (Continued on Page 0.) AUNTS WANTED EVERYWHERE. 8end for Sample Copy. 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