Annotations Upon Popular Hymns, Vol. 1 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Annotations Upon Popular Hymns, Vol. 1Madame Antoinette Sterling once said with great spirit to me, They say that I preach in my singing; 501 do; 501 try to do; so I mean to do always! And no one that ever heard this gifted artist with her clear and distinct enunciation, her matchlessly pathetic tones, her magnetic impulse forcing tears in his eyes when he could not stop to notice that she had tears in her own - no one who ever heard her in her wonderful way preach The Lord is my Shepherd, or Oh, rest in the Lord, wait patiently for him, could doubt whether Christ's love might be offered in the strains of a contralto hymn.To begin with, this whole plan, like everything else in the work of our Master, is a matter of faith - of living faith and experimental confidence. The man who attempts to conduct a praise service must believe that it has a veritable existence of its own, that it is a helpful and sure rewarder of him who diligently seeks it; any misgiving is ruin. It is not to be looked upon as a musical entertainment, nor can it be put forward as a make shift for a sermon; it is nothing, nothing at all, unless it is what it purports to be, a sanctuary service of adoring and grateful praise of Almighty God. The minister must be just as devout in it as he would be at a communion the choir must not suffer themselves to be beguiled into imagining it as a fresh and beautiful opportunity for a parade or display. It is simply a service for a worshipful people, full of joyous love and thanksgiving to their Maker.Hence it should be treated as an instrument of prodigious energy either for good or for evil. It must be used, therefore, with supreme care lest it should be retorted into a danger and a discouragement, reacting upon the congregation like an Afghan's boomerang. There is not in all our treasury of resources a more potent force than this of real honest singing of God's praises by masses of men, women, and children.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.