THE NEW ENGLANDER. No. VII. JULY, 1844. MUSIC IN CHURCHES. In order that church psalmody may accomplish its high end in public worship, its various branches must be cultivated with a zeal corresponding to the general culture of the age. It must win to its service the best efforts of genius in poetry and in musical composition; and these labors in its higher departments, must be made to move and elevate the whole public mind by means of widely spread and judicious instruction in sacred music. The songs of public worship are one of the most powerful auxiliaries for accomplishing the ends of the Christian ministry and of the Sabbath. In the weekly assembling of a congregation, when the high and the low, the rich and the poor meet together, there is found a diversity of habits, of character and of temperament, which the unaided accents of instruction and prayer may in vain labor to unite and move with a pervading and deep emotion. The minister rises in the pulpit on Sabbath morning to begin the service. As he opens his lips to ask for the blessing of God, his voice sounds weak and thin; his words seem to flit away into empty air, or if they come back to him from the distant walls, they come back mingled with the noise of rustling garments, shuf Vol. II. 43 fling feet and the tramp of late comers. Thus he goes on, well reminded of his weakness, through the invocation, the reading of the Scriptures and of the hymn. If now the singing that is to follow be what it should be, how great a change soon comes over that assembly. The Christian psalm, when sacred words, rendered doubly sacred by long association, are uttered in full choral harmony-to what shall we compare it? It is not a stream nor a shower; it is rather the breeze from heaven, pervading all hearts ere its presence is known. The united voice of the choir speaks to all hearts. It is so pure and elevated that the most refined forget that they can criticise; it is so powerful that the dullest can not but feel. The heart torn with passion or cankered with care, has its tumult hushed; trifles and sinful thoughts have passed away, and the soul finds itself arrested and still in the presence of eternal things. Meanwhile the minister has shared to the full the influence which is uniting and kindling the hearts around him. The chill of depres sion with which he commenced has passed away. His heart is warmed; his hopes rise; he feels that he has found his people, and now when |