Show A Little More Singing SALT LAKE CITY November 6 ISSG To the Editor of THE EJCSALO The idea of singing in the Sunday meetings some of the old tunes that arc dear to the hearts of many religious people is acceptable Choirs generally are fond of singing something more showy which is all very well in its way and probably suits the younger people better than hearing the plain old tunts But congregational singing is liked by many ana should be encouraged to some extent anyway by the choice of simple music In some meetinghouses Spurgeons Tabernacle in London for instance congregational singing is considered the thing But variety is good and likely to please more people than is one line of singing of any kind In one of the meetinghouses in the eastern part of the city it was recently re-cently announced that singing would constitute a more marked feature of the services than heretofore This is commendable com-mendable Indeed why not The Catholics make much of music in their church services and other religions people might multiplytheir music and their devotio nal songs in their Sunday services with pleasure and profit A hymn or anthem a prayer another hymn or anthem a long sermon ser-mon or two or three discourses another hymn anthemand a benediction benedic-tion make a long service and to the youthful is a dry and tedious seer ice A little more music would enliven matters mat-ters considerably If there were two or more speakers it would be a pleasanter I pleas-anter service if there was some singing after each speaker I recollect a Methodist preacher named Brooks who when he felt the thread of his discourse running rather dry would ask the congregation to sing a verse or two They would start off with something like this The opening I heavens around me shine With I beams of sacred bliss etc This gave the preacher time to rest and recruit and he would start off again after the singing with new spirit and yet would not preach longer than others do without a halt Mr Brooks was a lively energetic man a converted fox hunter and general sportsman a country squiro and a good revivalist But he did not think a long preach was everything He had discovered that a little more singing by way of variety was a great relief helping both speaker and hearer When Moody and Sankey were here I they gave a musical melange of about half an hour before the preaching began and the idea was good and pleasing The plain old tunes should not be sung too slowly or they would drag should they be sung too quickly or the effect is marred still worse as in the case of the negro congregation who sang the Old Hundredth in a style as lively as if it were dance music In Shakespeares Stratfordon Avon many years ago i recollect hearing a brass band play the Old Hundred very well on Ike street A religious Methodist woman standing by remarked re-marked that it was better than anything any-thing else the band played grander and more soulful to her 1 also recollect one preacher who had no music in his soul He did not know one tune from another and he considered consid-ered singing at all only a concession to other peoples fancies inexplicable to him A good long talk was what he delighted de-lighted in But with most people it is different also with SALT LAKES I |