THE MUSIC OF THE SANCTUARY.

A SERIES OF PAPERS BY THE REV. THOMAS RYDER.

No. I.-Music generally considered.

FEW subjects are of greater importance in church life than "The service of song." According to the custom of churches in general, the hour-and-a-half which a service usually occupies is devoted partly to prayer, partly to preaching, and partly to praise. Whether the time allotted to these exercises respectively is in just proportion to their value and importance, is a subject worthy of our earnest consideration. We ought to spend more of the time in the praise of God than we do; for long after the most eloquent voice is hushed by the needlessness of preaching, and prayers unnecessary by reason of the full satisfaction which heaven will afford, the "Service of Song" will continue throughout eternity. If, then, much elaborate preparation is bestowed upon the work of the pulpit, which, at most, continues but a few years, surely no less attention should be given to an exercise in which thousands of the people take part, and which will be carried on for innumerable ages. It is the design of this series of papers to awaken in all our churches a musical revival, that psalmody may be promoted step by step, until it be worthy of presenting to Him who is at once our wonderful creator, our constant supporter, and our kindest friend, and whose statutes ought to be "our songs in the house of our pilgrimage."

The following topics will be discussed :-Existing Defects and their Cure, Hymnbooks and Tune-books, Choirs and Organs, Methods of Improvement, &c., &c. The present paper is only introductory to the series, and deals with the question of music in a general way.

It is a matter of rare occurrence to meet with a person wholly indifferent to music. Here and there you may come across one to whom a national melody is a kind of torture, and the concord of sweet sounds an intolerable nuisance. A gentleman of my acquaintance is unable to distinguish between The Old 100th" and "The Blue Bells of Scotland:" and that simplest of instruments, the tuning-fork, is to him a most occult mystery. It is hoped such people find ample compensation in other arts or recreations, otherwise they stand in need of our tenderest pity and most benign commiseration. It is matter for congratulation among the lovers of music that such persons are few and far between.

Few countries are musically greater than England. The balmy latitudes of Southern Europe may produce a richer quality of tone, a wider range of compass, and a greater flexibility of voice; but for enthusiasm in the art, and for intelligent appreciation of its beauties, England stands unrivalled. The unmusical character of the nations wide of Europe is remarkable, especially Asiatics and Polynesians. It was once my misfortune to hear a Chinaman sing. It was exquisite torture. Such intense agony was depicted on the vocalist's countenance, it could not have been worse had he been undergoing some surgical operation. The music, if such it may be called, consisted of a series of undulating moans, that were a strange commixture, in nearly equal proportions, of the tones of a Scotch bag-pipe and those of a common hurdy-gurdy. The unmusicality of the Persians is proverbial. Some years ago, the Persian ambassador in England attended a concert of the London Sacred Harmonic Society in Exeter Hall. After the performance, he was asked by a friend which piece in the oratorio he had liked the best. He unhesitatingly replied, "The first." "What, the overture ?" inquired his friend. "No, no," he replied, "not that, I mean what they played before the gentleman moved the stick about.' It was evident then, that he referred to those preliminaries of scraping, blowing, &c., generally known as "tuning up.”

So much for oriental taste. English people should rejoice that their lot is cast in a land of song. Music forms no unimportant part of our national greatness and glory; and it is safe to say that England would not have occupied so exalted a place among the isles of the earth" had her sons and daughters loved and appreciated music as little as those of China and Persia.

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Music is one of God's greatest blessings to mankind. It seems to be one of the few things that came forth from heaven, which Adam did not forfeit on his expulsion from Eden; and which, as a precious heir-loom, has descended from generation to generation, filling its possessors with joy and gladness, and acting as a useful handmaid throughout the progress of civilization. We see its effects on all sorts and conditions of men. It can do what nothing else can. The mother often finds the lullaby the most effectual cure for the wakefulness and restlessness of her infant,

;

especially if she orders the swaying of her arms or the rocking of the cradle in strict time with the melody she is singing. The ploughboy sings as he drives his team, and he drives his plough the better for it. The shuttle goes more merrily through the loom when the weaver sings a song. The blacksmith deals his blows more deftly with a vigorous vocal accompaniment; and even the professional man who toils with his brains, finds the humming of a tune no insignificant help to the solution of a problem or the consummation of a plan. The soldier fights with increased courage at the sound of martial music, and the bugle has as much to do with victory as the bayonet. The only thing in the late Franco-Prussian war that could rouse the patriotism and valour of the indolent French troops was the stirring music of the well-known Marseillaise, which some of the regimental bands found it needful to play almost incessantly. The school is a happier place, and its studies are carried on with greater zest, when moral and religious songs vary the exercises while a home without music is a home with half the life gone out of it. And looking to that higher home which our blessed Lord is preparing for us, we know that music is already one of the chief exercises of the heavenly household, some of whom cease not, day and night, to praise the name of our God. On the other hand, it would appear that no music whatever is found in the world of the lost. In all descriptions given of that world, either by inspired writers, or through the imagination of Milton or Dante, dire discord and horrid confusion reign too paramount to allow of so glorious a king as music to become enthroned there. Proof enough of this exists all around us. Men who are absorbed in the gratification of base passions are never very fond of music, except when it is wedded to profane words. It would be fatal to the success of a burglar to sing, and so he does not even whistle. A miser is a very unlikely person to go round singing Christmas carols, and treasonous conspirators know no other music than that which gunpowder and nitro-glycerine can produce. You may begin to suspect that man who neither sings himself, nor cares to hear the music of others. Our great English poet, whose understanding of human nature is his world-wide fame, was not far wrong when he said :

"The man that hath no music in his soul

And is not moved by concord of sweet sounds
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils."

Few things are more elevating and refining than music. Not only will it prevent baser passions, but when care presses heavily and the spirit is brought low, the soothing strains of some sweet melody, or the joyful harmony of tuneful voices, will prove an antidote more specific than any drug, and lull to rest more effectually than the most renowned opiate. It removes ministerial depression more readily than the fumes of tobacco or the stimulating effervescence of champagne, and without any of their injurious consequences.

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Music must ever be regarded as a thing of NATURE. It is a discovery, and not an invention. Some books affirm that music was invented by one Guido, a Florentine, who lived at the close of the tenth century; but this is absurd, for music is (to use a common phrase) as old as the hills;" and probably had an existence long anterior to the creation of the earth. Guido may have been the first to write music by means of certain characters and signs, as he was doubtless the first to introduce solmization into the musical world; but music itself is doubtless born of heaven, and like the gay butterfly's wing or the snow-white lily, it bears the stamp of a divine origin, and illustrates the glory of God. The scale, as the succession of seven sounds is commonly called, is of no human construction; or if of human construction, certainly not so recent as the tenth century. It was recognized by the Greeks in the harp of Eolus; and the flute, harp, sackbut and psaltery of Nebuchadnezzar's day were in all probability tuned to its requirements. Solomon's magnificent temple service could not have been carried on without a full recognition of the scale; and it is quite safe to affirm that David would not have kept in check the ragings of a furious monarch had he not swept the strings of his lyre according to the principles of key-relationship as discoverable in nature. Jubal, "the father of all such as handle the harp and organ," doubtless received his instructions direct from God himself; and thus introduced, the construction of every

musical instrument since has been according to the teaching of nature, and must by no means be put down to the inventive capacity of man, i.e. as far as the scale with its tones severally sustaining a certain relation to the first or key-note.

The more we examine this fact, the more apparent it becomes. Truly speaking, music is no invention, but a discovery; and just as geology is that science which ventures to account for the stratified nature of the earth's crust which the eye beholds, and botany the science which is based upon the observations men make of plants and flowers, so music is the presentation of certain facts in regard to sound, which from time to time have been discovered. Music, then, is a natural thing. Take, for instance, the birds of the air. What can rival their flowing melody? The scale in a succession of octaves has often been distinctly recognised in the warblings of forest songsters. Note this marvellous fact. These birds observe semitones between the third and fourth, and between the seventh and eighth notes of the scale. It is the scale of nature, not the scale of Guido. But besides this familiarity with the scale so observable in the birds, mark with what infinite variety of tone they pour forth their melodies. They understand-at least they sing as if they did-passages containing staccatos and diminuendos, swells and rallentandos with infinitely greater delicacy of expression than the most gifted of human vocalists. Smaller creatures than birds, moreover, can sing a merry lay, for "Even insects tender, sing away their part,

Some, though very slender, seem to be all heart."

By many persons this music of nature is unperceived, and others regard it as a delusion. There are, doubtless, exceptions in nature in regard to this, as in almost everything else. It would indeed be difficult to discover music in the midnight hoot of owls. Yet even these and other unmusical creatures, are but uttering variations upon the notes of the scale. Almost all the sounds that strike on the ear are consonant with the laws of the musical scale. For instance, the horse, when he neighs, almost invariably runs down a full octave; and when the donkey gives his well-known "he-haw," it is usual for him to do so by means of the interval of a flat seventh. The cuckoo's note is just as plainly produced by the interval of a major third; and, as a rule, the voices of nature properly accord with the principles of musical science as laid down in modern treatises. The musical soul will ever find delight in searching this out. We shall recognize the fact in the rippling cadences of the brook as it glides over its pebbly course. The mountain cataract will suggest to us the celestial chorus like to the sound of many waters; and when the thunder peals, nature opens her great diapason, and thrills the whole earth with her mighty music.

Nowhere, however, in the whole realm of nature, has music a more exalted throne than in the human heart and voice; and we shall be ungrateful to nature's God, by whom we have been so "fearfully and wonderfully made and so curiously wrought" -if we do not avail ourselves of every facility for acquiring skill in the vocal art, that so when we "enter into His courts with praise, and into His gates with thanksgiving," we may worthily magnify and extol His wondrous name.

AMY IN

SWEET! my Amy! my child! with what tremu

lous hopes

I kissed thy soft cheek on the day of thy birth; Thou hadst travelled the distant invisible slopes, The path of child spirits from God to His earth, And I blessed thee so lately from heaven.

I have heard thee, my Amy, unthought of by
thee,

Sing sweetly of paradise, angels, and God;
Half believing that only to look was to see
The footprints of angels with thine on the sod,
For I listened while thinking of heaven.
When, my Amy, I watched thee in suffering fade,
While grief chilled my soul with its night-
mist and rain,

With what passionate anguish of spirit I prayed
Till the starlight of hope was near shining again
On me weeping and jealous of heaven.
Ripley.

HEAVEN.

O the hands crossed for aye on the innocent breast,

The lips that were closed like an evening
flower,

And the face wreathed in smiles of ineffable rest,
I gazed on them last; but the woe of that hour
Would have slain me if doubtful of heaven.
And at times, O my Amy, I stand by thy grave,
All tearful and sadly I stand there alone,
When the beautiful sunlight will seemingly lave
Each flower that has grown, and illumine the
stone,

As if shining of purpose from heaven.
Thou art with me, dear Amy, I see thy fair face
So silent, so calm, and so tenderly bright,
Midst a myriad more in some radiant place,
When lo, thou art gone, it is suddenly night,
But the dream was a vision of heaven.

E. HALL JACKSON.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FIDELITY TO OUR PRINCIPLES AS NONCONFORMISTS.

BY THE REV. E. C. PIKE, B.A., BIRMINGHAM.

ACCORDING to a dictum somewhat extensively received, Nonconformists are divided into two classes, the pious and the political. This division is ostentatiously proclaimed by those who do not know any better, and likewise, it is to be feared, by some who do. There is a certain shrewdness in this way of putting the thing, for, as few dissenters like to be thought not pious, many are frightened at the idea of being considered political. Thus the number of those persons upon whom churchmen can benignantly smile with safety is increased, and the number of those dangerous individuals who presume to seek religious equality before the law is proportionably diminished.

Now, if piety be incompatible with politics, the conclusion is as inevitable as it is unfortunate, that society must be governed solely by the children of the devil; and those lords spiritual, in whom church people so much rejoice, must be an impious lot.

When men whose chief pastors are politically appointed bishops, and whose prayers require the sanction of politicians before they can be presented to God, denounce their nonconforming neighbours as political dissenters, it is, to say the least, not more consistent than "Satan rebuking sin." We say to them, "You live in a political atmosphere-bask in the sunshine of political favouritism-commit injustice behind political ramparts-play tricks with religion under political protection-your church is steeped in politics. At the risk of being stigmatized as political people, we shall venture still to cry shame on your monopoly, and to endeavour by lawful and peaceable means to help you to a truer life."

The kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom, and essentially different from the kingdoms of this world. The latter legislate for temporal purposes, depend for their existence and authority upon force, and are capable of modification according to the changing moods of men. But the divine kingdom which Christ has founded deals with everlasting interests, is secured in the affection of its citizens, and will admit no human interference with its constitution. Truth is what the servants of Christ have to propagate in the world, and it can only be propagated by moral and spiritual agency. No one can become a Christian against his will, and the attempt to force Christianity upon anyone must end in disaster. Cæsar may collect his taxes from tribes which have been conquered by his sword, and compel the service of those who have become his slaves; but the bond-servants of Jesus Christ are held simply by the despotism of love, and it were treason to the "Crown of Thorns” to deal with them after Cæsar's fashion.

The empire of Christ being incomparably nobler and grander than any other, it is an unspeakable humiliation for Christians in matters pertaining to their faith either to submit to the control or to rely upon the support of any secular power. Many within the Anglican Establishment are keenly alive to the degradation of enduring secular control, but they are strangely insensible to the greater degradation involved in receiving state patronage and in using national property for the purposes of a sect. We would respectfully recommend those who were so loth to part with the old Church rate, and who cordially welcome the substitute which a Liberal government has of late furnished, if they cannot look up and behold the pure law of Christ, at least to observe the picture which Shakespeare gives of a high-minded, though heathen Roman

"For I can raise no money by vile means;

By Heaven, I had rather coin my heart,

And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring
From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash,
By any indirection."

But we are afraid Thomas Moore is a truer interpreter of average state church

men

"Resolved:-such liberal souls are we,

Though hating nonconformity,
We yet do think the cash no worse is
That comes from nonconformist purses."

Fidelity to our Principles as Nonconformists.

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Surely I dishonour Christ if I allow ungodly men to appoint the teacher who is to instruct me in divine truth, and to prescribe the form of prayer by which I am to approach my God. I hold, however, that I dishonour Christ still more if I treat a fellow creature unjustly in His name.

We believe the political union between church and state to be inevitably degrading to Christianity and dishonouring to Christ, and therefore we regard conformity as a sin, and nonconformity becomes an important duty.

But we are practical people, and it is well for us, therefore, not merely to insist that State Churchism is from the nature of the case an evil thing, but also to observe the evil way in which that State Church works, to which we refuse to conform. There are different parties in the Church of England, as by law established, and in all of them we find what may serve to deepen our sense of the importance of being faithful to our principles as Nonconformists.

In this Anglican Establishment we find men who preach sermons and write books, wherein professedly, in the interest of truth, they set aside the authority of those scriptures which He who was "the truth" revered; wherein also they seek to undermine the great doctrines of the gospel; to rob us of the "exceeding great and precious promises" of God, and to extinguish that light which cheers our hearts in respect to the mysterious world towards which we are hastening, and who thus reinvest death with its terrors and hand back to the grave its victory.

We find in this establishment learned and devout men, who are capable of exposing the assumptions and fallacies of scepticism, Hebrew warriors who smite the infidel Philistines hip and thigh, but some of the most redoubtable of them are themselves the votaries of a system of priestism and sacramental efficacy. We admire the scholar, but we detest the priest. We appreciate the devotion of the men, but we are not blind to the disastrous influence of the system. It would be wrong also to forget that the High Church party contains many in whom there is little to admire, men who are mere propagandists of priestly pretensions. Did the time permit I could give abundance of proof that over many a fabric of the boasted "bulwark of protestantism" might be fitly inscribed, "Here lies the road to Rome."

Take, however, two sentences from "the Priest's Prayer Book"-"The outward elements of Bread and Wine do not cease to be what they were before, but they become what they were not before; even as in the beginning God breathed the breath of life' into that body of clay, which He had created, and 'man became a living soul;' and as in the Incarnation, the Word became flesh, and two Natures were united in one Person without 'confusion of substance.' "The consecrated Sacrament is the same Body which was crucified, only presented to our sight under another form.'

These men will tell simple rustics that "Wherever there is Holy Communion Jesus himself is present at the altar, just as really as He was present on earth when the little children were brought to Him. You can only see a little bread and wine; but that bread and wine really is the body and blood of Jesus.”

A Birmingham vicar said the other day, "What then we receive is not as you know mere bread and wine, but the Body and Blood of the Lord, yea, the Lord Himself. We should be most careful to receive it, not only with increased feelings of humility and reverence, but with outward tokens of respect and adoration, and especially to preserve it from all chance of profanation."

There are not two greater foes to man in this world than infidelity and priestism, and both of them flourish abundantly in the church as by law established. Can, then, the "no" with which we greet the invitation to conform be too emphatic? or can the importance of fidelity to our principles as Nonconformists be exaggerated ?

Sad, however, as it is that the truth of God should be explained away or grossly misrepresented in the nation's name, and to a large extent at the nation's expense, the eccentricities of conscience amongst all parties in the church, shock our moral sense still more.

In common with others, High Churchmen, who preach a doctrine of the real presence as dangerous and more crafty than that of the Romanist, have subscribed to this statement in the 28th article:-"Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine) in the supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by Holy Writ; but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions." If their conduct be consistent, we may well ask, Why did the martyrs of the Reformation suffer