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Show f 4 V : '. musics !; ' i i " An addresf delivered . at' St. . Bernard's Seminary. Rochester; N. Y.. by ,Mr, ' W. P. Burke Of Peoria. Ills., on .. . ' the feast of St. Cecelia, 1S99.;' ' Among the beauties of earth there is none, it is said, which approaches nearer to Heaven than music. The exact relations which exist between the human soul and the vibrations of sound we do not know, but history attests that in all ages, among all races of men, civilized or barbarous, music has possessed that same wondrous power of stirring the human heart to its deDths and of awakening- memories as naught else can. Of all the conflicting emotions of which the soul is susceptible, music can be at once the expression and the cause. It calms or disturbs at will, brightens its hopes, increases its joys, soothes its sorrows, excites to anger and even to frenzy, or gently and softly soft-ly dispels passion and violence like stwne sweet memory of old that consoles con-soles us even while it reproves, and brings to the heart, by its gentle voice, an unhoped-for peace. But there is a higher power in music than all .this; a power which, though at first we may not so readily advert to it, yet, when the truth dawns upon us, iS none the less effective. This is its suggestive power. It is that which awakens our highest and holiest emotions, emo-tions, which lifts the soul above the range of mere sensation into the higher sphere of thought and revery; fn a word, it is that which! like an enchanter, en-chanter, carries the soul into realms which are not, it is true. "Heaven, but which seem to have nothing in common com-mon with earth. Man's life gives promise of what it does not accomplish. It promises immortality, im-mortality, yet it is mortal. It attracts at-tracts us by beginnings which faith alone brings to an end. 'We seem to hear. the voice of God, to feel His presence, pres-ence, but we are mysteriously stayed, our seekings are baffled on the very threshold of attainment. How often has this truth come home to us in the contemplation of the beau- ! ties of nature! All that wins by its loveliness, all that fills the eye with the grace of form and color, the ear with melody and the heart with longing, long-ing, all is. even though we little' heed ita import, a faint and partial insight into the beauty of God. a dim outline of His majesty and power: and yet, notwithstanding this faintnes-s of view, what wonders to the soul of man flo net tnese glimpses unioid: To whar mysterious yearnings and strange longings long-ings do they not give rise! The very hopelessness of the striving draws us on and gives a dignity and value to this life beyond our most sanguine san-guine hopes.- If such be the power of the mute and silent things among the beauties of r.i-ture.-what, then, must be that of mu-i mu-i sic, which Is. as- it were, the voice of I nature, the harmonious- expression of this hidden beauty! Who has not felt, while listening to the soul-stirring strains of some divine melodjv that sudden entrance of his soul into regions hitherto unknown? Quick as thought the dull. cold, commonplace things of life vanish from the mind; they fade from view to, give place to dreams - of higher worlds, to that pure sphere wherein "the mind sees farther than the eye and the heart feels deeper than the hand,"- ;This is that, inner world wherein, through the avenues of music, the human soul finds, a home, there to be given a foretaste of the harmonies of Heaven and to feel her kinship with God. . . - . . : It has been said that all Nature sings -- " : y a perpetual hymn to her Creator, and that all her -creatures take , part, each furnishing its humble yet none the less thrilling chord in ..the grand paean of praise. Thlsi.is.rnneed, true: but, after all, is it not th4 appreciative faculty of . man that comes, as it were! to the aid Of Nature;-tthat gives it life and soul and color through the spectrum of his ;own? Of herself Nature knows not the glory she; gives to her Creator, but in the mind and heart of man, all is turned to. account, thoughts of the Absolute and Supreme Being take form and substance, sub-stance, and then it is that the. hymn of praise wells up from the hearts of intelligent creatures, God's own image I and likeness.. v. ;; I Not only does man co-operate with I Nature in her hyimns of praise, but by I meana of his intellect he seemingly j penetrates into the very fibres of inani- "lanci, jiving mem me ana voice through the invention of musical instruments. Und-er the master's skillful touch the 'dumb chords of the harp become animate ani-mate and speak: wood, brass, copper, find a; voice, and man, when his soul is stirred and uplifted by a atorm of excited feelings surging within him. turns to these wondrous instruments and' makes them the vehicle of his soul's deepest thoughts, the outward rapturous embodyment of all his hopes and joys and sorrows; in a word, the expression of the inexpressible. Borne upon this flood tide of harmony, har-mony, the artist eeemlngly . overleaps the limitations of his art. breaks "until, .by the potent spell of his rev-try, rev-try, he seems to touch upon the very borders, cf Heaven. Cardinal Newman, in his own inimitable inim-itable way, thus speaks of the higher powers of instrumental harmony: "Let us take another instance," h says, "of an outward and earthly form or economy econ-omy under which great wonders unknown un-known seem to be typified. I mean musical sounds- as. they are exhibited! most perfectly in instrumental harmony. har-mony. There are seven notes in the scale, make thorn fourteen, yet what a slender outfit for so vast an enterprise! What science brings so much o;it of so little, out of what poor element does seme great master in !t create his new world! Shall we say that all this exuberant ex-uberant inventiveness is a -mere ingenuity in-genuity cr trick of art without reality, w'lhout meaning? We may do so, and then,-perhaps, we elhall account the sci-I sci-I ence of theoloy to be a mere matter of words, yet as there is a divinity in th theology cf the Church -v.-h-ch thoso who feel oannct corr.munioat'?, so there is a!-.?o !n this, wonderful creation of sublimity and beauty of "which I ?m speaking. Is it possible 'that this- in exhaustible evolution : and disposition of notes so rich,-yet so simi le, .:;o intricate, in-tricate, yet so .regulated; so various, yet bo majestic, should be a mere sound that is gone and perishes? Cai: it be that these mv-stcrious ct:--rings of the heart and keen emotions and strange yearnings after w know-not know-not what, and awful Impressions trorn we know not what, should be wrought in us -by that which is.unsub-stantial is.unsub-stantial and comes and goer, and be-' rlns and ends in itself? It not. so. It cannot be. No, they have escaped from Eome higher sphere. They are the out pourings cf eternal harmony In the medium of created sound, they are echoes from our honn?, they are the voice.? o? anels or the magnificat of Saints, or the livinar laws of divine governance ckt the Divine attributes. Something are they which we cannot know, which we ' cannot comnass though mortal man has the power of elicitlnE: them." What a world, of meaning lies in these sublime words! The. more we study them the more do we realize their truth. We seem- to penetrate the secret se-cret depths "of music, "to discern the reality of- which ita chords are' but the type and figure, to peer into that future fu-ture world cf whicih earth is but the promise and the token. ' Though alt muitic, sacred and profane, pro-fane, rr ay be said to enjoy this divine prerogative, yet it" is seemingly within the especial province of sacred music to foreshadow the melodies of Heaven The loftiest flights cf earthly harmony har-mony give up their secret for the meet part to comparatively few. Not so. however, with sacred aews. There is a divine simplicity in it all which, like the wcrds oJ Him to whom it is-. addressed, ad-dressed, unites the profoundest truths with the Amplest terms. ...What depths of joy and peace, and cor.colation and ecstacy lie within' the tsoul of relision! j Deerp faith and ardent love. The heart and not the mind is the fountain oi it all, for the heart has thoughts which 1 the mind knows not cf. It has hopes and longings which are holier than words, and hence it is that the language lan-guage cif the heart is a universal language, lan-guage, it speaks to the peasant as well , 13 king, to lowly as we'll as great. Of this valuable truth our Holy Mother, th.3 Church, has ever been mindfuS. From the very dawn of her history he --adopted this heavenly medium of praisa . Through her it became the handw-aid of religion. In the penitential peniten-tial -season the melancholy sweetness cf the "Mrserere" rises like a plaintive supplication to the throne of mercy, tellinsr'of the justice of God, tempered and softened by His love. 'On the joyous feasts of our" Blessed Mother, the Salve Reginas of earth are blended with those of Heaven to express ex-press a common gladness, while on the glorious Christrma morning the majestic majes-tic strains of the "Adeste Fidelis" thrill with joy and exultation every fibre of our being, fcr it carries us in spirit to that midnight scene in Bethlehem when the angels of Heaven, hovering over the she'.oheirds and their flocks, hymned their glad hosannas to the infant in-fant God, and proclaimed to all the world the joyous tidings of peace and gooa win to men. Thus does sacred music tell rs of things divine. Like Saint Cecilia of old, to whose met'.odies of earth were blended blend-ed the retrains from Heaven, the Church commingles the voices of her childrenwith those of the Saints, for she knows that the melodies of earth -are echoes, faint but fascinating, of the ! fweet and loving voiced!' God and of the canticles of praise before Hla i throne; and. finally, that these stirrin.33-of stirrin.33-of her children's hearts are the first j thrill of the love and adoration which 1 will find itsr rapturous fulfilment in ai blissful eternity. v , j |