length become so identified with Romanism that we think them essentially Romish.

Paul and Silas in prison sang praises to God; the primitive Christians, as noticed by the heathens, sang hymns. Here is divine precedent, holy sanction; and as long as the music suits the words and subserves the thought it can not be too excellent. On a building you may lay out too much money in an age when many churches, rather than a few magnificent ones, are needed, but you can not lay out too much money in the purchase of music; twenty shillings will buy the very choicest specimens, and your leisure hours for relaxation in cold winter nights, and the exercise of your voice, which does you good, will enable you to be one of the congregational choir, I think it very hard that, while a Romish priest has only to ask the ladies of his congregation to turn themselves into sisters of mercy or charity, I can prevail on so few of my congregation to take their place and give their ministry in the choir— the noble ministry of praising God. It is essential to effective general singing in a congregation that there be a powerful concentrated choir.

It is the peculiar excellence of music that it is not an ornament added to praise, but an auxiliary to its manifestation. Music is not for impression, an influence from without, but for expression of an inspiration that is within. It is not designed to pour into the heart new feelings, but to unload the full heart and give egress and utterance to its otherwise unutterable emotions. A soul full of joy instinctively sings. Music is the language of joy-the catholic tongue of all glad hearts in all lands; other things seek after God, if haply they may find him, but music professes to have found him, and stands ever ready to sing his praise. The waters rush from the hills into the plains below

in search of the Lord of the earth--the flame of fire mounts upward in search of the Lord of heaven-the mountains, like great watch-towers, lift their heads far up into the sky, looking for the Judge of the worldthe flowers burst from their buds, looking for him whose smile gave them their tints; but Music has not to look for him-she has found him-and her perpetual function is to celebrate his praise and unfold his glory, and show how excellent is his name. It is remarkable that in every portrait of a future state of joy and felicity sacred architecture and painting are rarely or scarcely alluded to. "No temple in heaven" is a fixed characteristic. Living stones laid on the everlasting Rock, and cemented by love and lighted up by the glory of God and of the Lamb, is the grand metropolitan cathedral of the age to come; no painting or statuary is there, for the living forms of beauty and of glory transcend all picture and render worthless the grandest production of the chisel: but what vindicates my subject, and renders it worthy of a lecture, is the fact, that in all the disclosures of the glories of the blessed, music, and song, and praise, and thanksgiving, hold a prominent place. "A voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants." This is a solemn and sublime solo or recitative. Immediately after a chorus of symphony and music, "as the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of mighty waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth'

I desire now, in few words, to obviate, or rather anticipate, a few objections to sacred music, as well as try to guard against its abuse. No musical attraction, however excellent, must draw you to join in a worship that is idolatrous, or to unite with company ungodly

and profane. This is important; it is the disregard of this that has made pious minds hesitate to recommend the study of music; pure in its place, it becomes pernicious when thus perverted. It must be borne in mind that there is in this country a rapidly-increasing taste for sacred music. It is no longer a question, Cultivate or not cultivate? but, Shall we suffer it to pass over to a service either profane or superstitious, or shall we advocate and uphold its application to divine and holy purposes? At this moment the Jesuits, driven by late revolutions from the continent, are watching with lynx eyes for any and every plank on which to float into power, and one of the means they are usurping is music in Popish worship and music by Popish teachers. I know some of our friends think Popery and Jesuitism are perfectly distinct. I do not think so; I regard Jesuitism as the very essence of Popery the corrosive sublimate of Popery-the concentration of all its evil and the combination of all its powers for the corruption of mankind. Numbers of Jesuits have become teachers of music ostensibly. teachers of Popery really. You must resist the devi! in whatever shape he comes, whether building grand cathedrals or writing sublime oratorios, whether with trowel or with trumpet. The grand plan I know for preventing a musical taste from identifying itself with idolatry or with the opera, is to point out the need and source of a new heart. Yet it may not be useless to invite Christians, not indeed to enter into competitorship with Rome, but to give a little more attention and patronage to this exercise, retaining the severest simplicity, and yet reaching forth to greater excellence. Nor do I wish to encourage a mere musical exhibition before the congregation. I want the whole congregation to be one grand choir, each member taking his

part; and for this purpose there ought to be four leaders instead of one. I want not an organ for the audience to listen to, nor a choir for it to applaud, but one or other, just to sustain, and lead, and regulate the congregation. Nor do I identify my advocacy of sacred music with any one way of advancing it. Many spiritual and devoted men entertain strong objections to oratorios as ordinarily performed. My remarks are not to be interpreted as either laudatory or condemnatory. I must say, however, I can not endure the idea that the sufferings of the Savior should be turned into a mere musical gratification; and still less the idea that a mere worldly man, fresh from the boards of the opera, should be the performer in such an exhibition; nor less do I dislike to hear an audience shout encore after some deep and piercing delineation and expression of sorrow or solemn truth, as if its music were all its charm, and the words used merely to make room for the music. This is to make use of God for our music, and not to make use of music for the sake of God. But are these things inseparable from music? Is it impossible to secure Christian men of musical attainments? Can the Young Men's Christian Association do nothing in this matter? May not this lecture suggest a new subject for your meditation? Here allow me to commend to your attentive perusal an admirable little work by Mr. Binney, which shows that under that severe logical head of his there are deep springs of beauty, and of sympathy, and harmony, like the fissures in the granite rock, rich in green herbage and sweet flowers. "The Service of Song" has many good suggestions. It has been urged that the study of music leads to dissipation, that musical men are not of tho most temperate or domestic habits. If it be so, it is deeply to be deplored; but surely there is no essential

connection between music and wine: Apollo and Bacchus are not Siamese twins; wine-glasses, and quavers, and semibreves, are not sisters, nor even second cousins. In the natural world, Music and Temperance are plainly sisters. The blackbird, thrush, canary, and nightingale, all exquisitely musical, only drink water, and smoke nothing but fresh air. A grove or wood in spring echoes with feathered musicians, each a teetotaler, temperate without a pledge, and ever singing and never dry. I do believe that if music has, in any instance, fallen into bad hands, it is very much the fault of those who are satisfied with music in the worship of God, any thing but worthy of the sublime themes of Christianity. Why should the psalmody of our congregations be a penance to a musical ear? The Gospel does not call on us to stop the musical ear or blind the tasteful eye, but to enlist the sympathies of both in favor of the grand and sublime service of Christianity. If Protestants will practically despise music, the devil, intimately acquainted with its powers, will seize and secure it for the play-house; and the Pope, no less acquainted with its attractions, will engage it for the mass-house, and detached from its primeval fellowship, the worship of God, it will become the ally of idolatry or banqueting, and revelry and bacchanalian excess. The desecration of the purest things is always greatest; an angel falling becomes a fiend; music perverted becomes a ministry to sin and Satan. I know the heart is the chief element in all worship, and spirit, and truth, more acceptable to God than all besides; but if you have music at all, why not have the best music and in the best manner? I do not advocate florid music any more than florid robes or florid architecture, but severe, simple, solemn music, beautifying the house, and furnishing a channel for the expression of the praises of the bride of the Lamb, till that day arrive when all ears shall