the flies and butterflies, and the many insects which the oak nourishes. Fly-snappers and shirkes seat themselves upon the branches and lie in wait for the beetles. The tree-frog conceals himself among the green leaves and seizes his repast. The wood-pecker comes knocking upon the trunk and draws the fleeing vermin to the light of day. Wood-lice spy after the eggs which the great moths have laid in the chinks of the bark. When the acorns are ripe, the jays with beautiful blue wings, hold here their harvest holiday. Squirrels build their pretty houses between the broad branches, and gather for the winter a store of acorns. The ring-dove has her nest not far off, and leads her young ones out among the boughs. martin spies after eggs, the cuckoo watches for caterpillars, and the owl hovers about the tree in the night-time, seeking for a little bird.

The

Upon the highest summit of the king of the trees the eagle has his eyrie. Out of dry sticks he has built himself a nest here, and brings to his little ones young partridges and rabbits for food.

Toward men also the oak shows himself bountiful, dispensing gifts like a king. His superfluity of withered boughs he throws down to poor people, to warm for them their little room and cook the supper for the children. A mother comes carefully gathering the acorns under the tree. She will make acorn-tea for her sick child who will be cured by it. The oak gives his bark to the tanner and his wood to the carpenter, who hews out of it strong beams, which bear the iron bands of the rail-road. He drives also mighty oaken posts into the ground and builds upon them the high, beautiful houses. Whole cities are built up so, together with the churches and towers. On the sea-shore men make of the oak wood strong dikes, which restrain the wild waves and protect the whole land from overflowing. At the dock they fashion from it great beautiful ships that sail to distant lands and bring home coffee and sugar, chocolate and tea.

Thus mightily works the oak for the advantage and pleasure of men. No sharp thorns to wound the skin of man-no poison in its sap. Therefore it is greatly beloved by all. It is invited to every feast. Garlands and wreaths plaited from oak leaves adorn the city. When a valiant commander returns from bloody war, the enemy, after a hard conflict, being driven out of the land, all the warriors are decked with the foliage of the oak, and even upon the monuments and coins which commemorate the victory, oak leaves are twined about the names of the gallant braves, who, for the sake of others, nobly consecrated themselves to death.

As

THE BIBLE. Too few consider their indebtedness to the Bible. there are persons who are daily blessed by the genial beams of the sun, who never think of that luminary set in the firmament to shed light upon the earth; so all over our land may be found persons benefited by the Holy Scriptures, who never think of that heaven-descended book.

The Guardian.

VOL. XVI.-SEPTEMBER, 1865.–No. 9.

BIBLICAL MUSIC AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

BY REV. D. GANS.

Among the Fine Arts, Music, it is generally supposed, is the oldest. It seems to have been the result of the first fresh impulse of our estheticomoral nature. Lying in the original constitution of man, like the life in the seed, it needed only an ordinary occasion, such as the song of birds and the sighing of the breeze, to bring it out and put it into actual sound and harmony. Hence it is that Music is not limited to any section of the globe, to any time, or to any people, but is found wherever man exists. It seems to have grown out of the original harmony of the world, and especially the harmony which arises from the manifold parts of our being, which the human voice, in its ordinary tones, announces from day to day. The poet says, truly:

"There's music in the sighing of a reed;
There's music in the gushing of a rill;
There's music in all things, if men had ears;
Their earth is but the echo of the spheres."

We see this in the great antiquity of the Art of Music as connected with Jubal, the sixth from Cain, who lived some fifteen hundred years before the flood, of whom it is said: "He was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ" (Gen. 4: 21). There are very few things for which we can claim a more venerable antiquity. The instruments which we discover in the Bible, after the deluge, are, with some slight alterations and improvements, the same as those which existed before it, and the names of these same instruments occur even in the latest books of the Old Testament.

VOL. XVI.-17

In the earliest times, Music, in its practical use, is almost always mentioned in connection with the song and the dance. Thus, Laban, in chiding Jacob for stealing away privately with his daughters, says: "Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth and with songs, with tabret and with harp" (Gen. xxxi. 27). The females, more especially, seemed to have employed Music in this connection, from the earliest times. They danced with the sound of timbrels. Thus Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, celebrated the deliverance of the Israelites from the pursuit of Pharaoh, and the destruction of his hosts in the Red Sea. "She took the timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and dances. And Miriam said to them:

Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously;
The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.'

In Isaiah xxiii. 16, we see an intimation of a custom very similar to that which obtains in this and other countries, of companies of females passing through towns, making "sweet melody," as it is called by the prophet, giving, by this means, notoriety and prominence to persons who may be signalized in this way. Music was also, from the earliest even to the latest ages in the Jewish Dispensation, used in social meetings and public rejoicings. It was a medium between spirits and a natural expression of joyous feeling. At the anointing of Solomon as king, it was said that "all the people went up after him, and piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them." 1 Kings i. 40). The occasions of this kind are numerous in the Old Testament. Different applications were given to it in later periods. By David, Music was variously and impressively connected with the worship of the holy temple.

In the 25th chapter of 1 Chron. you will find an interesting account of the numbers and offices of the singers that were appointed by David, to serve in the temple, amid the solemn worship of God. There were twenty-four companies, twelve in each company, including the children of families and others, led by the father. The praising of God in this way is called prophesying, because the music was of an inspired and prophetical character. It was always accompanied by instruments. In the 23d chapter and 5th verse, the fact is stated, that David, at one time, appointed 4,000 singers. If the idea of choirs in churches arose in this appointment, they can certainly not be called new inventions. The choir of the Levites performed their music, more especially at the great sacrifices. Music was also used by the prophets, for the purpose of elevating their mind and producing a frame of spirit adapted to prophetic inspiration. Thus Elisha, when he would be divinely instructed in regard to the rebellion of Mesha, in the reign of Jehoram, said to those who applied to him for information: "Bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him" (2 Kings iii. 15). Music was also used for the purpose of calming passion, and of harmonizing the mind in its disordered states. Thus David played before Saul, when his mind had become deranged. "And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took a harp, and played with his hands; so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil

spirit departed from him" (1 Sam. xvi. 23). Montgomery's Muse renders the sentiment thus:

"The lyre of Jubal, with divinest art,

Repell❜d the demon and revived the heart.”

This is, doubtless, the reason why so much account is always made of Music in asylums for the insane, where they are properly managed, especially of that order of Music which consists in harmony, as distinguished from melody simply, its tendency being to penetrate the confusion and restore the faculties of the mind to their original order and harmonious action.

From all we can learn of the nature of Hebrew Music, we are led to conclude, that simplicity was one of its marked features. By this we do not mean that it was defective in parts, but that these parts, originally, were few and very natural. Females were specially prominent, whilst instruments, used generally by the males, though frequently also by the females, were made to supply the heavier or undertones. Niebuhr says: "The beauty of the concerts consisted in this-that other persons repeated the Music that had just been sung, three, four or five notes higher or lower." The second verse was also sung often in a responsive way to the first, in a higher or lower tone. This was, no doubt, the style of the Music which Miriam conducted on the shore of the Red Sea.

1. "I will sing unto the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."

2. "The Lord is my strength and song,

And He is become my salvation;

He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation ;
My father's God, and I will exalt Him.”

This is the style adapted also to the 21st Psalm, and others.

1. The king shall joy in Thy strength, O Lord;

And in Thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice?

2. Thou hast given him his heart's desire,

And hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah.

The word selah is used, no doubt, in the sense of hallelujah-praise Jehovah.

It is not possible, from the intimations given in the Bible, to enter very precisely and in detail into the constitution of Music among the ancient Hebrews. Enoch Hutchison, in a very interesting book of 500 pages, called "Music of the Bible," published last year, does this more successfully than has heretofore been done. The general character of Bible Music, as we may judge to some extent from the nature of the instruments which were used in it, was vigorous, shrill and sharp, being composed of the voice, the harp, flutes and cymbals, and frequently the blast also of the trumpet. Sufficient is known, however, to constrain the conclusion that the chant was, if not the sole, at least the prevailing form of ancient Music. The peculiar form of Hebrew poetry itself fixes this fact. Besides, the chant, whilst it is of all forms of Music the most

highly artistic, is yet the most simple and natural; and, therefore, just such a form as we would naturally suppose would be the first to actualize itself and be adopted by a simple people. Thus, doubtless, all the Psalms of David were sung, and so, also, all the other musical portions of the Word of God. Nor has this form of sacred music lost, through the ages in which it has been borne to the present, any of its attractive features for the truly cultivated ear in the 19th century; although, as its history shows, it has been necessitated, in view of other forms which have since become popularized, to fight its way in the modern world, wherever it has come to prevail. When it was first introduced into Christ Church, New York, by Mr. S. P. Taylor, in 1808, it created quite a stir. The Senior Warden became so deeply moved by it, that he went to Bishop Moore and remonstrated very violently against the toleration of such "balderdash,” as he called it.

"What is your trouble?" inquired the Bishop.

"Trouble!" exclaimed the excited Warden, "why, sir, they actually chanted the Gloria Patri last Sunday."

"Does your rector sanction it?" inquired the Bishop. "He does," replied the Warden.

"Then," says the Bishop, "I will have it chanted in all the churches in my parish.'

The true merits of the chant are now, however, beginning again to be recognized. After having for a long time tried the new, we are commencing to feel, rather earnestly too, that the old is better; and where the chant has become reinstated for any length of time, such is the strong hold which it takes upon the worshipping spirit, that the thought never arises of exchanging it for another form. It brings back at once all the old and glorious words of worship which fell from the lips of sainted fathers, and connects the present with the past by such pleasant and strong ties, that we feel ourselves to be worshipping in the company of prophets and apostles, and breathing the very atmosphere of the early Church. Music commenced in creation,

"When the morning stars sang together,

And all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job xxxviii. 7).

It continued as the deep sound of original harmony, which God gave to the creature, all through the hoary ages of antiquity, filling the holy temple, allaying the turbulence of passion, soothing the aching head, conditioning the spirit for divine inspiration, giving shape and order to the festive joy, and every where unveiling the higher world of beauty and harmony, and sweetly luring men to its blessedness. At the birth of the Redeemer, angels caught the mighty strain, and chanted, saying:

"Glory to God in the highest,

Peace on earth, good will to men."

In this act Music was rebaptized, and directed still more definitely to the worship of God in His holy temple, The Saviour, Himself, added this consecration, when, on the eve of His crucifixion, and after He had instituted the Holy Supper and partaken with His disciples for the last