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parlor, in the concert room, at the opera, if your conscience will allow you to go there, but not in the Church of God, particularly in a Church where the music forms so small a portion of the services. The conviction is growing upon the mind of the Church that every effort of the spiritual Christianity of the age should be bent toward making the masses of Christian worshipers do at least a part of the singing of every public service. One characteristic of Methodist singing it should not lose, namely, its extemporaneousness, spontaneousness, adaptation to the sense or narration of Christian experience, the application in social worship of a single stanza or a stirring chorus to a specific case. Spiritual songs may be as sedulously cultivated as ever; spiritual ditties should be discountenanced ever.

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The latest phrase of the book-publishing mania is flooding the country with Sunday-school note books, in which every species of poetical trash is associated with lower than ballad music to initiate the rising generation into the mys teries of Christian song. The burden of a large number of these wretched ditties is the praise of the Sunday-school itself, in place of the praise of God. This is an undoubted evil, and needs immediate reformation. The style of our Church music will rise with the general rise of music and musical taste in the country. Our public schools are doing well, but not so well as they should do in this matter. The absurd custom is still followed of teaching music to classes in the mass instead of individualizing the lesson, and making each pupil sing independently as he reads or recites his languages or mathematics. When all understand the notes, as every one who has been through one of our public schools ought to do, and can read a plain piece of psalmody, hymn tune books will be of use. At present, it is perhaps safe to say that from one half to nine tenths of our choir singers, especially females, cannot read the commonest music at sight.* Holding up music books is sheer affectation. Put hymn tune books into their

* When Handel was about to bring out the "Messiah,” wishing to try some of its pieces, he sought for some one who could sing at sight, and was recommended to one Janson, who managed so badly that the composer, purple with anger, and swearing in four or five languages at once, cried out, "You schountrel! tit you not tell me dat you could sing at soit ?" "Yes, sir," replied the cathedral singer, "but not at first sight." Our choir singers, like poor Janson, sing at sight, but not at first sight!

hands, and it would at least save the ridiculous farce so often witnessed, of bobbing the head like a shuttlecock between the tune book and the hymn. It has always seemed singular to us that professional singers will come upon the stage and sing all the evening without a scrap of words or music before them, while the singers of a Church orchestra cannot recollect the twenty or thirty notes of a tune sung over four or five times a Sunday, and perhaps half the Sundays of the year. Of our own hymn tune book we have already incidentally noted the main deficiency, namely, in that department which it is at present impossible adequately to supply, the particular meters. If we were to indicate another deficiency it would be to point out the absence of some thirty or more of the most popular tunes of the age, mostly by Lowell Mason, and other composers of acknowledged merit. One third of our hymns are in particular meters, one third of the hymn tunes are in particular meter. Of these, twenty-five are by old authors, twenty-five more, or so, by new authors, and acceptable, some of the rest are passable, but mainly they are trash, which might and ought to be banished for something better.

We can think of no more fitting conclusion to this article than a brief exhibit of the efforts made by the associated choirs of New York City and vicinity for the promotion of sacred music in our branch of the Christian Church. Last year they addressed to the General Conference the following memorial, which, for its concise exhibit of the whole subject, is worthy of a prominent place in the history of the Church:

To the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, held in Philadelphia, May, 1864, this Memorial of Choristers and others is respectfully presented:

BRETHREN AND FATHERS,-The place which music has ever held in the Church, and the part it has performed in the success of Methodism, establishes its importance.

While some denominations of Christians, by artistic skill unattainable by the masses, have excited admiration, it has been the purpose of the Methodist Church that music should be the medium and instrument of fervent spiritual devotions, adapted to all.

In this, as in other matters of Church polity, our puritanic affinities have caused us to lean too strongly away from ceremonials, and thus we have not sufficiently cherished the science of music, or kept pace with the advanced state of society.

It is true we have not been without efforts, which have at least

fixed the love of music and sacred song in the affections of our people stronger perhaps, and more widely diffused than in any other body of Christians; yet it is apparent that we are, as a denomination, without a musical literature or satisfactory professorship.

We need music of an elevated and devotional character, wedded to our incomparable poetry, by which both shall be engraven upon the memory of our people, producing a oneness of taste and practice. Then shall we accomplish the prophetic desire: "Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee!"

The efforts hitherto made have been diverse and sectional, and have not secured the regard and sympathy of our wide-spread membership. A more extensive movement is now contemplated. Already a society has been formed and is in successful operation, designing to associate the choirs of the Methodist Episcopal Church of New York and vicinity, and also extend its correspondence and sympathies throughout our connection.

This society of the "Associated Choirs" is about to call a Convention of choristers and others interested in the music of the Church, by which a concord of views may be had, and plans devised which may obtain the desired results.

Promotive of such purposes, the society respectfully asks that a committee may be appointed by the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church to co-operate with said society and convention, by which the prestige of official sanction may be given to such measures and publications as may have its approval. For such purpose the subscribers hereto append their names.

JOHN STEPHENSON, President of the Associated Choirs.
L. A. BENJAMIN, Conductor.

NEW YORK, May 2, 1864.

This memorial was presented by Rev. R. S. Foster, D. D., of New York city, and referred to a special committee. The committee, in bringing in their report, stated that they could not give a better expression of their views than those expressed in the memorial, and asked leave to adopt that paper as their report. It was unanimously adopted, and a committee of five were appointed, namely: Rev. Thomas Carlton, of New York; Rev. Luke Hitchcock, of Chicago; Rev. John Lanahan, of Baltimore; Rev. James Pike, of Sanbornton Bridge, N. H.; Rev. Isaac S. Bingham, of Auburn, N. Y.

With the practical wisdom common in deliberative bodies, the General Conference took care that the members of the committee should be so widely scattered that there is no prospect of their meeting before the next quadrennial session.

In October last the associated choirs called a convention in New York city, which sat for ten days, and issued, as the result

of its deliberations, the following resolutions, which have not only elicited full notice from our own press, but have attracted attention in high quarters in other denominations:

Resolved, 1. That singing is an important element of divine worship; it is, therefore, our duty to aim at its highest perfection. 2. That singing is the part of public worship in which the whole congregation can unite, and therefore the assignment of this service to a select few, practically to the exclusion of the congregation, is at variance with the spirit of divine worship, and subversive of its purposes.

3. That singing is a religious exercise commanding our entire faculties, and is the mode by which many of our noblest aspirations and holiest feelings find expression.

4. That in churches of non-liturgical observances singing is the only opportunity for a common declaration of faith and public general confession.

5. That this Convention express as its conviction that the authorized version of hymns in use among us should be sacredly guarded from displacement in our public worship by a loose sentimental literature.

6. That a selection of hymns for Sunday-school purposes be embodied in the Church Hymn-Book, and engrossed in the general index.

7. That singing is a part of divine worship, in which instrumental music, when employed, should be subordinate an accompaniment, not a substitute.

8. That the human voice is the standard of perfection in music; and as accompaniment, not supersedure, of the vocal powers is the object of instrumental music in sacred worship, and as the modern organ, in its genera, combines in one instrument the excellences for such purpose, we therefore recommend the organ as the most suitable instrument.

9. That the importance of singing points to the necessity of regarding the wise counsel of our revered founder: "Let all the people be diligently instructed in singing;" we therefore recommend to pastors and Church officiaries that their several congregations be regularly assembled for practice in Church music, and our people are earnestly urged to attend thereto as a religious duty.

10. That in the attainment of science an educated professorship is a necessity; it is therefore recommended that we cherish those engaged in the profession of music, and that our Churches make more liberal appropriations for that part of Church service.

11. That while we fully recognize the importance of musical knowledge, and ability to sing "with the understanding," we are also persuaded that this is of secondary importance in the worship of God, and that the primary injunction to "sing with the spirit should cause us to commit the direction of such service to those who have also been divinely instructed.

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12. That the best form of book for congregational singing is that with hymns and tunes on the same page; and for compactness, the four parts written on two staves.

13. That, in such book, each meter should have a preponderance of tunes selected from those already in use, and most approved by our Churches.

14. That, for congregational music, tunes of extreme intervals or complicated harmony are not desirable.

These resolves tell their own story, and need no special comment from us. They go in heartily for congregational singing, and the subordination of choirs and organs to general vocal music. We indorse their doctrine. The tenth resolution calls for an educated professorship, and liberal appropriation for its support. When talent appears it is well to sustain it liberally, but money will never create it; and we have already shown that the Church fails to compete with the stage in attracting either composers or performers. It costs some of our metropolitan Churches thousands yearly for music, but they are not expended in teaching the people or inducing them to sing. It is doubtful if Methodism needs to go into any such outlay for the execution of its simple hymnody, or to carry out the injunction of the psalmist quoted in the memorial: "Let the PEOPLE praise thee, O God: let ALL the people praise thee!"

ART. IV.-DANA'S MANUAL OF GEOLOGY.

Manual of Geology: Treating of the Principles of the Science, with Special Reference to American Geological History. For the Use of Colleges, Academies, and Schools of Science. By JAMES D. DANA, M.A., LL.D., Silliman Professor of Geology and Natural History in Yale College; Author of a System of Mineralogy, of Reports of Wilkes's Exploring Expedition on Geology, on Zoophytes, and on Crustacea, etc. Illustrated by a Chart of the World, and over One Thousand Figures, mostly from American Sources. Philadelphia: Theodore Bliss & Co. London: Trübner & Co. 1863.

This is an excellent treatise on a most interesting and important branch of human study; and its publication will mark an era in the History of American Geological Science.

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