Tired Church Members | Page 4

lowest room." [37]
Other things follow close and easily upon that.
"Be courteous."--
"Let your moderation be known unto all men."
"Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do it all to the
glory of God."
And to people with hearts so set, that other vexed question of dress will
be easy; for all will be "clothed with humility";[38] and the spotless
garments will so far outshine the pearls and costly array, that no one
will miss them, nor wish them there.[39]

[1] I Cor. vii. 29.
[2] Job vii. 6.
[3] I Pet. i. 17.
[4] Rev. iii. 22
[5] Gen. xxi. 8.
[6] Gen. xxix 35.
[7] Gen. xix. 3.
[8] Job i. 7.
[9] I Sam. xx. 6.

[10] Gen. xxvi. 30.
[11] II Sam. iii. 20
[12] I Sam. xxv. 26.
[13] Judges ix. 27.
[14] Dan. v. 1.
[15] Isa. v. 12.
[16] Titus ii. 12.
[17] Gal. v. 21.
[18] I Pet. iv. 3.
[19] Ps. cxix. 63.
[20] I Cor. v. 10.
[21] I Cor. x. 27.
[22] I Cor. x. 28.
[23] Luke v. 29.
[24] Luke v. 29.
[25] Matt. x. 25.
[26] Eph. v. 4.
[27] I Cor. ii. 8.
[28] John xii. 1-3.
[29] Luke xiv. 14.

[30] Luke xiv. 14.
[31] Neh. viii. 10.
[32] Deut. xiv. 27.
[33] Isa. lviii. 7.
[34] Luke xiv. 12, 13.
[35] Matt. xxiii. 6.
[36] Matt. xx. 27.
[37] Luke xiv. 10.
[38] I Pet. v. 5.
[39] Sir Matthew Hale thus charged his grandchildren: "I will not have
you begin or pledge any health; for it is become one of the greatest
artifices of drinking, and occasions of quarrelling in the kingdom. If
you pledge one health, you oblige yourself to pledge another, and a
third, and so onward; and if you pledge as many as wilt be drunk, you
must be debauched and drunk. If they will needs know the reasons of
your refusal, it is a fair answer: 'That your grandfather that brought you
up, from whom, under God, you have the estate you enjoy or expect,
left this in command with you, that you should never begin or pledge a
health.'"

Music
"What do you mean by 'the world'?" said a gentleman to me. "I suppose
of course you rule out music and painting." So people judge; taking for
granted that whatever is pleasant, religion makes wrong. Rule out
music?--why it exorcised Saul's evil spirit! Yet even for the enjoyment
of sweet sounds there are laws and limitations.

It will be a good day when our so-called sacred music (much of it)
more nearly resembles that of old time and has less kinship with the
title of a little book yclept "Rhymes and Jingles." A paid choir (no
objection to that, if you can buy up their hearts as well) an operatic
organist, a silent, criticising congregation. Is there much praise in that?
much worship? much refreshment for a tired heart? Look how it was
when the ark of God, the visible sign of his presence, was brought
home to Jerusalem,--all took part in the music, from the king down; and
did it unto God.
"And David and all Israel played before God with all their might, and
with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels,
and with cymbals, and with trumpets." [1]
"The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after;
among them were the damsels playing with timbrels. Bless ye God in
the congregations, even the Lord, from the fountain of Israel." [2]
Not much like a quartette and its mute audience! Or how does this
compare, with the way we hand over the praise to some who do not
even profess to feel it?
"And David spake to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brethren
to be singers with instruments of music, psalteries and harps and
cymbals, sounding, by lifting up the voice with joy." [3]
There is not much "joy" like that behind most of the choir curtains in
our day; but by such means one would be pretty sure of good music.
We are not told whether the women took part in the ordinary public
music in the temple; but on all special occasions of deliverance and
thanksgiving they had their full share. We people in this Western world
are so silent in our joy as in our grief,--as apt to bow the head for
gladness as for sorrow,--we know nothing like those grand spontaneous
bursts of music that once resounded on the shores of the Red Sea, or
echoed through the hill country round about Jerusalem.
"Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord,
saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously." [4]

That was