Favorite Songs and Hymns For School and Home, page: 0190

450 Of The World's Best Songs And Hymns, With Lyrics & Sheet music for voice & piano.

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	190
	My chief interest is in the music of the Bible. Thti Bible, like a great harp with innumerable strings, swept, by the fingers of inspiration, trembles with it. So far back as the fourth chapter of Genesis you find the first organist and harper, Jubal. So far back as the thirty-first chapter of Genesis you find the first choir. All up and down the Bible you find sacred music�at weddings, at inaugurations, at the treading of the wine-press. Can you imagine the harmony when those white-robed Levites, before the symbols of God's presence, and by the smoktng altars, and the	candlesticks that sprang upward and branched out like trees of gold, and under the wings of the cheru�bim, chanted the one hundred and thirty-ninth Psalm of David? You know how it was done. One part of that great choir stood up and chanted, " Oh! give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good!" Then the other part of the choir, standing in some other part of the temple, would come in with the response: " For His mercy endureth forever." Then the first part would take up the song again, and say, " Unto-Him who only doeth great wonders." The other
	THE PALMS.	J. Faurb.
	part of the choir would come in with the overwhelm�ing response," For His mercy endureth forever," until in the latter part of the song, the music floating back�ward and forward, harmony in accord with harmony, every trumpet sounding, every bosom heaving, one part of this great white-robed choir would lift the anthem, "Oh! give thanks unto the God of heaven," and the other part of the Levite choir would come in with the response: " For His mercy endureth forever." How are we to decide what is appropriate, especially for church music ? There may be a great many differ-	ences of opinion. In some of the churches they prefe* a trained choir; in others, the old style precentor. In some places they prefer the melodeon, the harp, the cornet, the organ; in other places they think these things are the invention of the devil. Some would have a musical instrument played so loud you cannot stand it, others would have it played so low you cannot hear it. But, while there may be great varieties of opin�ion in regard to music, it seems to me that the general spirit of the Word of God indicates what ought to be the great characteristic of church music.�Tabnage.