SERMON V.

FIFTH PANEL-THE MUSICIAN.

"Praise the Lord with harp; sing unto Him with a psaltery, and an intrument of ten strings. Sing unto Him a new song. Play skillfully with a loud noise."PSALM XXXiii, verses 2 and 3.

MUSIC is none of man's invention. The mediums by which it is drawn out and made manifest may be and undoubtly are; but music itself is of God's creation. In all that God has made, there is music. Bring together, as God has left them, all His various works, and there is harmony. Looking at them, listening to them as they have been interfered with by man, then oftentimes we have the inharmonious sound. No matter where we go, or to what we listen, we are compelled to acknowledge that music is found in all things. It is heard in the voice of the bird as it soars on high, happy in its freedom, and rejoicing in its own song. It is heard in the ringing ripple of the gently-flowing river as it meanders along through the meadow and makes all nature glad. It is heard in the dashing roar of the ocean's waves as they rush

against the mighty rock or gently die and sigh upon the shore. It sounds in the gentle sighing of the summer breeze, as well as in the roaring tempest of the winter wind. It is heard in the merry laughter of the little child. As the bars ring on the granite in the quarry we hear music, and as the hammer falls upon the anvil in the smithy music, too, is there. In the field and in the dwelling, in all earth and heaven there are ringing the sounds of music. Surely then, that which is so clearly God's and so universal, claims our attention, and not only so, but may be associated with our religion and with our religious services. Every divine gift, no matter what it is, should be closely examined. I mean that it should be examined in a religious point of view, and that if we find it is God's gift, then we ought in the public service of God's house, to declare our convictions, and if possible to show how far these gifts are beneficial to the world, how we can best use them, how we can make them answer the end for which God has given them, and if we are satisfied that this faculty of music is a gift of God, then it becomes our duty to examine it, and in connection with our religious services to recognise it. For these things, and especially for this one gift or faculty, we should in our public worship express our gratitude, and the higher the degree of our spiritual life the more clearly should we discern the goodness of God; the more fully should we appreciate what He has given us for our pleasure. The Divine Himself has

stamped music with importance by associating it with the most important events of our existence, which I trust we shall be able to prove before we close this discourse. Music was known and practised in the earliest days of the world's history. In the very beginning of this Book-I think in the fourth chapter of Genesis-we read of Jubal being father of all such as handled the harp and the organ. I am not going to say that it is the same kind of organ which we know in our day, but there is little doubt that it was an instrument composed mainly of pipes, and the most important events recorded in sacred and profane history have had music associated with them. There must be some importance then to be attached to music, and it does not require any great amount of eloquence or logic to prove that nothing has ever equalled music in attracting the masses of mankind. Nothing has ever had such power in quelling the evil passions of a mob; nothing has had such power of raising to the highest degree of joy, vast companies of people; nothing has ever equalled music as an expression of joy. Every class in every clime rejoices in music. The heathens have their musical instruments. It is true that the instruments are rude, and give not forth the sweet sounds to which we are accustomed from instruments so perfect as we have them in our own land, but we have often ourselves listened with unspeakable pleasure to the sounds of music which have gone forth from those rude instruments in the hands of heathens, and we have seen the heathens,

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as they have listened to the strains coming from those instruments, rejoicing and rising in their joy, until all the better passions and higher feelings of their minds have been aroused. And have we not many of us heard and felt the influence of what we have heard, as in Scottish lands, the shepherd has thrown off the strains from his pipes; as the ploughboy sitting in the stable in the evening, has discoursed on his flute; and some have listened to the boatswain as he has played his violin in the forecastle; to the cabin boy as he has drawn out his flutina in his berth? And. perhaps there are some here to-night who recollect, as I can myself, how, in the northern parts of the kingdom the old coach guards have awakened the echoes as they have passed through in the dead hours of night, by discoursing music on the cornet. Hearts have leaped as the sound of Church bells has floated on the air, and few sounds are more delicious than these. It has been our fortune sometimes to stand on an eminence in the country, a few miles distance only, surrounded by Churches from which the bells have been ringing forth calling men and women to worship, and as the stillness of the summer Sabbath morn has been felt by us, so has the sweetness of the ringing bells been enjoyed by us. Children have danced with joy as the piano has given forth its notes, and men have sat spellbound beneath the power of the organ's voice; while young, middle-aged, and old, maiden and mistress, servant and master, alike rush to the front

at the sound of the passing regimental band. Under the influence of music the hardest hearts have been softened, even to tears. The man whom we should have thought could not weep has turned aside his head as he has listened to the sweet strains of music. The sufferer in his agony has been soothed, as Saul was soothed and delivered from his fearful thraldom as he listened to the voice of David's harp. The depressed have been lifted; the sinking heart has taken courage; the despairing soul has bounded forth again, and the toiler has pressed on his way strengthened and upheld, as the result of music. Hear what the poet Pope has said of it

"Music the fiercest grief can charm,

And fate's severest rage disarm.

Music can soften pain to ease

And make despair and madness please;
Our joys below it can improve,

And antedate the bliss above."

And so it has been proved. In the battle field and with the prospect of a day of blood and slaughter, our soldiers have gone forth in the morning of the day cheered by the notes of music. By it they have been encouraged in the fight, and they have celebrated their victory by its loudest and noblest strains. And so, as we have passed through life have we noticed what solemnity has seized the busy and rushing crowd as the notes of the "Dead March in Saul," accompanying some corpse to its lasting resting place, have fallen on the ear. And who has not felt the inward stirrings of the Divine power as