men of science, property, and influence, to patronize the best composers and the best performers of music, and to assist them by all proper means in their power, to bring their extensively useful art to a greater state of perfection. But there is a higher obligation lying upon ministers, churches, and religious societies, to exclude all light, vain festival music from the public worship of God, and to introduce a more sacred psalmody, which is adapted to enkindle and diffuse a spirit of true devotion through a whole religious assembly. And to come nearer home, I would seriously and earnestly exhort the people in this place to unite their influence and exertions in favor of the best kind of sacred music. This is a duty which the glory of God, the interests of religion, and your own spiritual benefit, lay you under indispensable obligations to perform. And should you faithfully discharge this duty, there is a fair prospect that the happy effects of it will continue and increase from generation to generation. But I would be more particular still, and entreat those individuals whom God has distinguished with a musical ear and a musical voice, to improve the precious opportunity which they now enjoy, of cultivating these talents for the service of their Maker. He has been pleased to favor you with a very able instructer;* and it now lies with you, whether you will bury your peculiar talents, and lose your past labor, or employ your future leisure hours in perfecting your knowledge of sacred music, which is a most noble and useful attainment. In this connection, I wish to impress upon your minds an idea which ought never to be eradicated. "Be not weary in well doing." It has been found by unhappy experience that after young people have learned and practiced sacred music awhile, they have become less and less attentive to it, until they have totally neglected it. I beseech you to retain the places which you now fill from Sabbath to Sabbath, and let no trivial cause deter you from bearing a part in the most delightful exercise of divine worship. Only remember and love your Creator, and sacred music will unite your hearts as well as your voices, and make you steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the high praises of God. Piety, poetry, and music, are intimately and happily united. And whenever you feel what you ought always to feel, the spirit of the gospel, it will afford you a peculiar pleasure "to speak to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." You will then go on your way rejoicing, and be continually preparing to join the general assembly and church of the first-born in heaven, in singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb for ever and ever. Amen.

* Mr. URI K. HILL.

NOTES.

NOTE I.

NATURE, independent of custom, has connected certain sounds with certain feelings of the mind.*

NOTE II.

The ear may be transiently pleased with the air of a song, but that is the most trifling effect of music. Simplicity in melody is very necessary in all music intended to reach the heart, or even greatly to delight the ear. The effect must be produced instantaneously, or not at all. The subject must therefore be simple, and easily traced, and not a single note or grace should be admitted, but what has a view to the proposed end. The artifice of fugues in vocal music seems in a peculiar manner ill-adapted to affect the passions.t

NOTE III.

A composer should make his music expressive of the sentiment, and never have reference to any particular word used in conveying that sentiment, which is a common practice, and really a miserable species of punning.

NOTE IV.

The influence of music over the mind is perhaps greater than any of the fine arts. It is capable of raising and soothing every passion and emotion of the soul. Yet the real effects produced by it are inconsiderable. This is entirely owing to its being in the hands of practical musicians, and not under the direction of taste and philosophy. For in order to give music any extensive influence over the mind, the composer and performer must understand well the human heart, the various associations of the passions, and the natural transitions from one to another, so as to enable him to command them in consequence of his skill in musical expression.§

NOTE V.

We have another instance of the little regard paid to the ultimate end of music, the affecting the heart and the passions, in the universally allowed practice of making a long flourish at the close of a song, and sometimes at other periods of it. In this the performer is left at liberty to show the utmost compass of his throat

*Gregory's Comparative View, p. 114.

Ib. p. 155.

† Ib. p. 129, 130, 141.

Ø Ib. p. 111.

and execution; and all that is required, is, that he should conclude in the proper key the performer accordingly takes this opportunity of showing the audience the extent of his abilities, by the most fantastical and unmeaning extravagance of execution. The disgust which this gives to some, and the surprise which it excites in all the audience, breaks the tide of passion in the soul, and destroys all the effect which the composer has been laboring to produce. The principles of taste in music, like those of the other fine arts, have their foundation in nature and common sense; these principles have been grossly violated by those unworthy hands to whose direction alone this delightful art has been intrusted; and men of sense and genius should not imagine that they want an ear or a musical taste, because they do not relish much of the modern music, as in many cases this is rather a proof of the goodness both of the one and the other.*

NOTE VI.

A certain gentleman published in London, in the year 1786, a Tractate on Church Music; being an extract from the reverend and learned Mr. Peirce's Vindication of the Dissenters. The editor of this Tractate obtained and published the following recommendations of it.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM THE REV. DR. PRICE, DATED APRIL, 1786. "I have read these extracts from the excellent Mr. Peirce's Vindication of the Dissenters, with much satisfaction. I cannot but strongly disapprove instrumental music in churches. It is a deviation from the simplicity of christian worship, which has a dangerous tendency, and may terminate in all the fopperies of popery.'

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM THE REV. DR. KIPPIS, DATED MAY 5, 1786. "I have read with attention the Tractate on Church Music, taken from Mr. Peirce's Vindication of the Dissenters, and entirely agree in opinion with the ingenious and learned author. The use of instrumental music in christian worship has no foundation in the New Testament, which is the standard of our faith and practice. If once we depart from this standard, there will be no end to innovations. An opening will be laid to the introduction of one superstition_after another, till the simplicity and purity of the gospel service are wholly lost. Every thing, therefore, which tends to divert men from a rational inward devotion to external pomp and ceremony, ought to be discouraged as much as possible."

* Gregory's Comparative View, pp. 159, 160, 162, 163.

VOL. II.

51

SERMON XXIX.

SAMUEL.

JANUARY 18, 1824.

AND Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him. -1 SAMUEL, iii. 19.

SAMUEL was born of pious parents, who had a tender concern for his spiritual good, and who early lent him to the Lord as long as he lived. God was highly pleased with their conduct, and manifested his approbation by making their child a subject of his special grace, and an instrument of promoting his own glory. It is not easy to determine when God sanctified Samuel; but it seems by the account of his dedication in the tabernacle at Shiloh, that he was then a subject of special grace; for it is said, "he worshipped the Lord there." Whilst he was a youth, and resided with Eli the priest, God endued him with the gift of inspiration, and ordained him a prophet. After this, it is said in our text, " And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground." The mode of expression here intimates, that God afforded Samuel his constant presence. It is, therefore, the design of the present discourse, to show what was implied in God's being with Samuel. And,

I. This implied, that God preserved his life and health. His mother seemed to have an apprehension, for some reason or other, when she consecrated him to God, that he might be shortlived; for she said, "she lent him to the Lord as long as he liveth." She ardently desired that his life might be protracted, and God gratified her desire. Accordingly it is said, "Samuel grew." While other children died, Samuel lived, and grew in stature and strength. God graciously preserved his life and

health in a dying world, and lengthened out his days to the common period of human life; so that before he left the world he could gratefully say, "I am old and gray headed." Long life is often represented as the natural effect and temporal reward of early piety. "Come ye children," says the Psalmist, "hearken unto me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days? Let him depart from evil, and do good: seek peace and pursue it." Divine wisdom says, "By me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life increased." Again we are told, "The fear of the Lord prolongeth days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened." It was in mercy to Samuel, and a reward of his early piety, that God preserved him from diseases and dangers, and carried him in the arms of his providence, even to old age. God watched over him every day and every where, and kept him as in the hollow of his hand, and as the apple of his eye, from the arrows of death. With long life he satisfied him, and showed him his salvation.

II. God's being with him implied, that he preserved him from moral, as well as natural evil. He lived in an evil day, when there was no king in Israel, and every one did that which was right in his own eyes, without any legal restraint. At such a day, iniquity abounded, and the love of many waxed cold. All orders and ages of men had grown corrupt, and every kind of error, delusion and vice prevailed. Samuel therefore was greatly exposed to be carried away by the torrent of moral corruption, and nothing but the presence of God could preserve him from being overwhelmed and destroyed. But God was with him and he with God; for he lived as seeing him who is invisible. A love to God, and a sense of his constant presence, made him hate and avoid every sinful course. The happiness he enjoyed in walking with God and contemplating his character, his ways, his word and works, weaned him from the world, and made him look down with disdain and aversion upon those lying vanities, which engrossed the attention and pursuit of the vain and irreligious. He committed the keeping of his soul to God, who would not suffer him to be tempted above what he was able to bear, but with every temptation made a way for his escape. It is remarkable that we do not read that he ever went astray, but, through the whole course of his long life, kept himself unspotted from the world, and uncorrupted amidst a corrupt and degenerate people. This was certainly owing to God's being with him, and restraining the native depravity of his heart. It is easy for God to keep the heart of those who constantly lean upon him, from every evil affection, and guard them against all the fiery darts of Satan,