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I I Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur Pages damaged/ Pages Andommag6es Pages restored and/oi Pagos restaur6es et/ou pelliculies Pages discoloured, ixtained or foxet Pages d^solories, tschet^es ou piqu^es Pages detached/ Pages d6tach6es Showthrough/ Transparence Quality of priri Qualitr special instructions, we find no wickedness preferred but the charge that « they were wont to rise up a great while before day to meet together, to sing a hymn to Christ as God : (secum hwicem,-) one to another amomjst themselves .•" which exactly expresses St. Paul's meaning in the words translated " speatdng to yourselves:' or " to one another:' Now the respomive system of music, to which allusion is here made both in the text and in the citations from early Christian writers, which is in 9 use in the Cathedrals oi" England, and, indeed, generally throughout Clnistendoni, has been sup- posed to come doAvn to us from the time of St. Igna- tius, who is said first to have taught the Christian Church at Antioch to sing alternate verses of Psalms in responsive strains. But even if this tra'Mtion be considered !)y some unworthy of con- fidence, we may say with the great and judicious Hooker, " Whether Ignatius did at any time hear the angels praising God after that sort or no, what matter is it? If Ignatius did not, yet one which m.ust be with us of greater authorit}^ did." The custom is traced by the prophet Isaiah to the bles- sed angels themselves, who are described as singing the praises of Jehovah in alternate choirs : '' I saw the T.ord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up ; above it stood the seraphims ; and one cried to another," or as the margin more literally and more forcibly expresses it, " this angel cried to this."* From this example of the highest authority, then, Ave may say tluit responsive singing fulfils the appa- rent intention of the heavenly n\ind, agrees also with the practice of the Jewish and the Primitive Church, aiMl certainly brings out more satisfactoi ily than any oti:er method the sense of Holy Scripture itself. In addressing you on tiiis subject in this place I do not forget, and would have you also remem- ber, tlijit the nh)re sclent ijlc and yrofessioiuil part belongs to others, the practical it is my special * Isaiah vi. 1-3. 10 prerogative to guard and exemplity. This em- braces that Sacred Mmic which is used in the service of Almighty God : for the science of music is infinite in its range, divine in its origin, a special gift of God to man. " Music," says Luther, " is a fair gift of God, and near allied to divinity. Next unto theology I give the place and highest honour unto music." Paley, in his well known work on Natural Theology, enumerates music among the evidences of the love with which all creation abounds; that whereas the Creator might, had He so willed it in His anger, have made every sound a discord, He has peopled the very air which encompasses us with the ministrations of harmony, and has caused that the sv^eet sounds of nature shall indefinitely preponderate over such as are discordant and grating to the ear. God gave the human voice, and endowed it with the gift of exerting a powerful influence over the mind and heart. It can stir in a moment all the passions and affections of man's rough nature. Joy, grief, loyalty, patriotism will spring into being and active exercise at its bidding. But in this place we have only to do with its power of creating and stimulating religious devotion. All persons are not equal ly musical. All have not an equal power of souilding in song and by the voice, guided by the nuisical ear, the praises of God. The Giver of all good gifts has distri- buted with nc little inequality the power of the human voice to produce vocnl musical sounds. 11 But, whatever the inequality, whatever the degree in which the faculty is possessed, much, douhtless, depends on early culture and constant painstaking as time rolls on, ^ It is not my province to speak of music and singing in any other respect than as an element of public worship, and amid the comprehensiveness and expansivenessof the sulyect, I confine myself to this. As a rule no one should be silent in the .service of the sanctuary. Some perhaps cannot sing. But how many could who do not ? And this is enough to warrant all our exhortation, and the aj^peal which is made. I have alluded briefly to the music which abounds in nature, to the link which is thus established between mankind and the God of na- ture. But see what a position it holds in Scripture ! The inventor of nnisical instruments has received a commemoration among the very eai-liest records of inspired history. And the author of the " Para- dise Lost" suggests that the melody of the human voice was one of the gifts consecrated to the ser- vice of the Creator in the time of man's innocfency. It is evident to an ordinary reader of the Bible that nuisic and singing are interwoven with the very texture of Holy Writ from beginiMng to end of the Inspired Volume. God has expressly sanctioned the element of mus-.c in His public worshi]). He has enjoined its use both vocal and instrumental. Knowing what was in man, know- 12 iiig that the mind and heart and soul are aftected deeply and truly and devotionally by musical sen- sations, He has been pleased to declare His accept- ance of an attractive service which, whilst it does the Creator homage, raises the soul of the creature into an atmosphere of reverence and devotion. So that the instinct is from above, not from below ; it is of heavenly not of earthly origin. Without entering at length into the many pas- sages which any one may find for himself, I will re- fer you to the important place assigned to music and singing in the regulations of the Jewish Church. And in so doing I am referring to the principle which runs through the whole of the Old Testa- ment dispensation showing what the will of God • was in such matters for His chosen people. There are many things which were peculiarly intended for the chosen nation alone, which pointed to some striking event in their i)ast history or to some hidden mystery of the future ; but some things there are which remain as the outline of a service applicable to the Church in all a^^es, furnishing- CD J C? criteria by which to try principles, and examples by which the practice of the Christian Church may be guided. Now whatever difference of opinion there may be as to other matters of cerem.onial in the Jewish Church being a, ground for imitation now, there will, I think, be none concer iiing that musical ele- ment of public worship comprising singing hymns and chanting psalms which David the organizer of the Temple .service adopted, Asaph ehiel' of the .singers pre.scribed, and Jeremiah prophet and priest so.nctioned ; and which the Apostles and their Jewish converts did not abandon even in the Temple in which they worshipped until the overthrow of Jerusalem, as recorded in Scripture and Ecclesiastical History. The writer of the Second Book of Chronicles, then, thus describes the Dedication of Solomon's Temple,— II Chronicles v. 11-14. "And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place," where they deposited the dedicated treasures and made the solemn induction of the ark into the oracle : (for all the priests that were present were sanctified, and did not then wait by course :) for so great was the multitude of sacrifices to be offered on this occasion, that the whole body of the priests, who were capable of .service, were employed at once : " also the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Ileman, of Jeduthun," who were evidently the leaders of the choir, for we read that " David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph,and of Heman,and of Jeduthun," who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals, with their sons aiul their brethren, instructed in the .songs of the Lord " being arrayed in white linen," a custom perpe- " tuated in all tlie Cathedrals of the old country, " .stood at the east end of the altar," in the choir I suppose, " and with them an hundred and twenty 14 priewts sounding with trumpets : it came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one," all joining evidently in full chorus, " to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord ; and v/lien they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying. For He is good : for His mercv endureth for ever : that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord." Thus the Lord took possession of His Temple by the cloud, when, with one consent, the Levites were singing the praises of His everlasting goodness and mercy. Now it seems to me that, with the difference of the use of the Organ, which with all the modern improvements and the state of perfection to which that instrument is brought, may well be considered to comprehend all the variety of the combined instruments in use in the Jewish Church, we have here what may be called a complete Cathedral choir, and indeed a perfect Christian anthem sung in the middle of the Temple service, before the King addressed the whole assembled congregation. But the music of the Christian Church is found- ed on a Divine Original, on the practice of our Blessed Lord Himself who joined in the Eucharis- tic Hymn with His disciples : for " when they had sung an Hymn they went out into the Mount of Olives." Whatever hymn it was, certain it is that the Incarnate God sang, and fulfilled the Psalmist's prophecy, '* In the midst of the congregation will r praise Thee." 4 15 i!% We are to remember, too, tliat the Services of the Church on earth are but the type and shadow of the service and worship of Heaven. St. John's Revelation tells us something of heavenly worship. When an express revelation was made to the belov- ed disciple of mysteries too great to be at once di- vulged, the glimpse of the heavenly glory contains a similar picture and similar expressions. There we find perpetual music and singing. " I heard a voice as the voice of many waters." It was the voice of a multitude, blended, swelling into louder chorus, profound, solemn, sublime : the mysterious voice of harpers harping with their harps, and the unceasing Angelic song. It matters not whether you regard the words of St. John as descriptive of the present, or prophetic of the future, or as only an accommodation to human ideas, the great prin- ciple remains the same, and the words of a great poet of the present day are strictly true that "Music is an echo from heaven." It may be as ancient as the creation of angels, the morning stars who shouted for joy. But whatever part music and the melody of the human voice may have played in time past, what- ever part in the world of spirits in the disembodied state in Paradise where they are enjoying the deep quiet of a heavenly home the saints departed may hold in the praises of Christ's Church, or saints below may catch of heavenly melodies, we know, upon the testimony of the Scriptures themselves, that the Song of Praise is to reach on, and on, un- 10 dying and undiminiwlied into the boundless future of Eternity, the type of the worship of angels. So that it has been well said, "Other arts— painting, sculpture, or architecture— have their own special charms, and their own characteristic properties towards the representation of the sublime and the beautiful, but their relations are with the material, and their place is on the earth. When the truths which they may serve to impress on the eye of faith shall become visible realities, their occupation or mission will be over, and they will resign their office into the hands of that queen of all the arts who is alon'- endowed with the capacities for dis- charging it when time shall be no more." I may now say a few words as to the kind of i\Iusic which should be heard in the House of God. We shall all feel that this is best decided by the character of the words which are to be suno\ Surely ?io light and operatic music can be con- sistent with the solemn words of men " who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." The sul> jects of the Psalms, the Attributes of the All Holy Almighty God; the mystery of the Ever-blessed Trinity : the fall of man and his corruption : the misery and defilement wrought in him by sin ; the eternal counsels of the Father's love in the Gospel scheme of salvation, the Incarnation of the ever- blessed Son our Lord, His birth. His sufferings, His victories. His all-sufficient Atonement, the gift of the Holy Ghost, the conflicts of the Church, 4% 17 iS judgment Jincl salvation, the glories of heaven and the terrors of hell, are not subjects for strains such a.s the Avorld is accustomed and delighted to hear Devotional music, whether jul,ilant or plaintive should have a character of its own. It should btf sober, dignified, chaste, severe. The strains which may lawfully delight tho ear in places not specially hallowed by the promised presence of God are alien to the church, and should be banished from its sacred walls. The Bible and its simple severe grandeur are different from any other book and its colloquial phraseology. Church Music, the music specially chosen and adapted for the Lord's House should be similarly distinct in its style and charac- ter. And I suppose all will agree that the abundant works of the old Masters are not obsolete but still singularly adapted to our ideas and perhaps emi- nently superior to any other. And as our Blessed Lord Himself, to show that He is the author of what- ever is good and true in every age and in every coun- try, quoted old parables, proverbs, and maxims cur- rent among the people, so we may here adopt the language of one which He used for another purpose and say, with reference to the style and genius of the Church Music which has so long reverberated thoughout the time-honoured Cathedrals of the old country and been more or less adopted in our own, '^ No man having drunk old wine, straightway desireth new : for he saith, The old is better " Now we meet so frequently and statedly here, that It is useful occasionally to throw into promi- 18 iiencc some special part of the services in which we engage, that reflection and suggestion may bring us all to a clearer knowledge of what is required of us by Him, who watches the movings of the heart. I speak now with special reference to our Even- ing Service, when the whole Church is free and all are welcome in every part of the spacious building ; a musical service rendcxcd in unison : tunes chosen which may produce congregational psalmody, that none need be mere listeners, but all may join heartily, that one grand swelling sound of praise to God may resound throughout the capacious building, the choir doing its specific work of lead- ing all others, and not monopolizing all the words and music. In the chanting, too, the whole con- gregation are invited to join^ for with psalters pointed for the purpose, it is easy and soon ac- quired. The tones or melodies we use are very few and simple, and must already have become fami- liar to your ears, several words being put to the first or principal note of each half verse called the reciting note, the last four or five syllables having each a separate} note, to form' a cadence. There may be parts of the service in the morn- ing and afternoon, which the choir sing by them- selves, according to the arrangement of a Cathedral service^ in which the congregation are invited to Join " in spirit and understanding" if not in voice, as the service for the " Te Dcum" in the morning and the Anthem in the afternoon. But in addi- i /■ 19 i tioii to these two services, we have the third in the evening, a service more simple as to its music, in which the congregation are earnestly invited to take an active responsive part, and yet a service diversified in its very simplicity. I feel strongly that if we here, and our brethren in all the Churches of our Communion in the city can only bring the attendants on the public wor- ship of the Church, to feel a personal interest in, and take an individual part in the service, which is intended foi- all, there would be little fear of that most reprehensible practice of our young peo- ple and others,, from whom we might expect better things, violating the principles of consistency before God and the Church, and wandering off to strange pastures, or gratifying the lust of the ear for melodious strains or alien pulpit oratory in forbidden places, where a more showy and gor- geous ceremonial may ravish and entrance the sense and charm the ear, whilst leaving barren and untouched the deep feelings of the soul. I read in invisible yet distinct characters, over the threshold of the doorway of any sanctuary which is not our own, and would venture to bid any one to whom such caution may apply to read the same as a scroll of warning : '< As a bird that wandereth from his nest, so is a man that wander- eth from his place :" whether temporarily or per- manently. Such an one is in peril all the time, " as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare." 20 I may be allowed licre to remark the frmne of mind in which those shouhl be Ibiind, who engage in the service of God. TJiey should be imbued with reverence, faith, and love, as they utter God's own words in the presence of God Himself Utter- ing words with the voice without any mental effort to grasp the meaning as they fly past the lips, carelessness of manner, indevotion, irreve- rence, are habits of rapid growth, and if no cau- tion be sounded, and receiced, degenerate into solemn mockery. Look at our services through- out. Of course, I refer to the Singing. Prayer, Preaching, and Reading, are separate topics. Some of the words of the Anthems are words which will be used hereafter coming from the lips of the Lord Himself as the authoritative invitation of admission to the joys of Heaven, and as the judicial sentence of banishment to the woes of hell ! AVe deprecate the mere luxury of hearing. We would desire to do away with the mere lust of the ear. We would that the concord of sweet sounds, in whatever degree produced and developed, should serve the purposes of devotion, of drawing out the highest efforts of the really spiritual mind. Only reflect how much is annually spent on the development of ihis art for secular purposes ? Of time, of industry, of talent, of money ? And this City, happily, is not backward in the culture and practice of the musical art, but has many friends who (in the most laudable and per^- 21 severing irianner) cultivate the taste, develop the capabilities, and raise the tone of all who have iiny ear and any heart for music. For let it not be for a moment thought that any disparagement of such eftbrts is intended. But should not so holy a gift be religiously exercised in rendering praise to the Creator, as well as pleasure to the creature, in speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs ? Jn this point of view, I put in the claim of music on the community, and especially on the worshippers at the Cathedral, and exhort them to sustain the effort which is now being made for the mutual benefit of all, and for the glory and praise of God. Because in proportion as the chant- ing, the singing, the melody of Service and of An- them, fail in elevating the soul, they fail in tlieir high object, and degenerate into empty perform- ance which would be better carried out elsewhere than in God's House and Presence. So that we must aim, brethren, at bringing you to this House of God, for better reasons than be- cause others come, at inviting your voices to swell the strain of praise in public worship for other rea- sons than because it alibrds a sense of gratification or relief. We invite you to offer a worthy sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God, "the fruit of your lips giving thanks to His name." And, lastly, study to " give none offence :" to bo no stumblingblock in a weaker brother's way. I sliould like to exhort the youths who sit in the Chancel, and lead our voices in praise, to hear me, to listen, and to obey. 52 Let no hurried conduct in Church disqualify you, my young brethren^ as ^icceptable worshippers before God. Let no unbecoming manner and de- meanour cause offence to the devout and the reve- rential, and so bring dislike and disrepute on the very service we are seeking to improve. Do not despise your own youth, and think irreverence n . crime, because you are young. Samuol was younger than any boy in the choir when he lay down in his place in the Temple of the Lord, heard God calling unto him, " Samuel, Samuel," and answered, " Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth." Your services in the Temple, I maintain, are nou less honoured, nor less honourable, nor less responsible, than were Samuel's of old : nor were Samuel's privileges and opportunities of growth in grace superior to yours. So that I preach " Samuel" to you as a pattern and a guide, an example and a copy, attainable by you all. Re- member, too, that you are each and all responsible to God for what has now been said to you in the name of the Lord. May you all, as Choristers, unite with us, in heart and voice, in our services here ! May you, as Choristers, grow in grace, in meekness, and in godliness ! and may the prayer which we have so often used together before en- tering the House of God be verified ! May you " finally be found worthy to sing the praises of God in the choirs of heaven !" And as for us, brethren, while the happy sys- 23 tern of chanting and singing one to another, of " speaking to one another in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs," should make us beware of offering the unacceptable service of the lips only, it should also make us "joyful in the house of prayer." What solemn associations are here, though our Cathedral is not yet eight years old ! what inspir- ing thoughts may surround us as we worship ! The songs we are invited to sing, the hymns we use, are the songs of angels, the songs of just spirits before the throne of God. Our services, however imper- fect, are intended to render us meet for the per- fect services of the Church Triumphant, to join the chorus of the sky with those whose record is on high, whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, whose spirits in the blessed peace of the intermediate state in Paradise, are looking out with joy for the daAvn of the morning of the resurrection day. Hei'e indeed, alas, the finest voices may conceal the coldest and most unloving hearts, and the best and holiest may be the least melodious. But there, blessed be God, all shall be gifted with song, all voices shall swell the melody of heaven, all hearts and all voices shall be in tune, uttering a perfect language, l)reathing a worship spiritual, pure, and true. And this shall be the Song, accompanied with the sweepings of the harps of the angels of hea- ven, the Worthiness of the Redeeuier ! " worthy 24 - is the Lamb th