- tened and listened to the one song it was to
sing, and tried, and tried, and tried again, until at last its heart was full of it. Then, when it had caught the melody, the cage was uncovered, and it sang the song sweetly ever after in the light. (Text.)
(3001)
Solving Worry—See Contentment.
Son Conquered—See Worshiper, A
Mother.
Song—See Praise.
SONG AND HUMANITY
The teacher of music should bear in mind
that his subject is related to life in a profound
and many-sided fashion. The songs
of home and friendship, of religion and
patriotism, have no small place in the higher
life of humanity. To cite one example: I
have been present at a Phi Beta Kappa dinner
at Harvard when, at the close, the company
of scholars joined hands and sang together
Burns' song of "Auld Lang Syne."
I have heard the same song at a company of
ministers at a theological seminary reunion.
After the battle of Manila Bay, where the
British and American marines fraternized, as
the British men-of-war left the harbor, the
marines of both nations sang the same song.
It was the music of the plowman-poet that
best fitted as a parting-song of friendship
for the scholar, the theologian, and the marines
of two great modern nations. Read
the tributes to music of noted men of letters
like Carlyle and Newman. See how
they have been imprest by this art, which
opens into the world of the ear or sound—a
word which has its artists and poets, its historians
and dramatists, its architects and
builders, as the world of letters or of space.—W.
Scott, "Journal of the National Educational
Association," 1905.
(3002)
SONG AND SUFFERING
It is said of Charlotte Elliott, the author
of the "Invalid's Hymn-book," that tho she
lived to enter her eighty-second year, she
never knew a well day. Her sweet hymns,
such as "Just as I am without one plea,"
were the outpouring of a heart that knew
what it was to suffer. Like so many other
bards, she "learned in suffering what she
taught in song." (Text.)
(3003)
SONG AS A WELCOME HOME
In the mountains of Tyrol it is the custom
of the women and children to come out
when it is the close of day and sing. Their
husbands, fathers and brothers answer them
from the hills on their way homeward. On
the shores of the Adriatic such a custom
prevails. There the wives of the fishermen
come down about sunset and sing a melody,
listen for a while for an answering melody
from off the water, telling that the loved
one is almost home. How sweet to the weary
fisherman, as the shadows gather around
them, must be the songs of the loved ones at
home that sing to cheer them, and how they
must strengthen and tighten the links that
bind together these dwellers of the sea.
(3004)
SONG, EFFECTIVE
An African heathen chief from an inland
district was passing a mission school
in Livingstonia. He heard the children
singing their simple parting hymn. He sat
down and waited till they came out. Then
he asked the teacher "What were these children
doing?"
"Singing a hymn," she replied.
"What is a hymn?" asked the chief; "it has touched my heart. I should like the children of my village taught some hymns."
There has since been a school established in that chief's village, and the gospel is reaching the people through the simple messages carried by the children in song and story.
(3005)
Thirty men, red-eyed and disheveled, lined up before a judge of the San Francisco police court, says The Youth's Companion. It was the regular morning company of "drunks and disorderlies." Some were old and hardened, others hung their heads in shame. Just as the momentary disorder attending the bringing in of the prisoners quieted down, a strange thing happened. A strong, clear voice from below began singing:
"Last night I lay a-sleeping,
There came a dream so fair."
Last night! It had been for them all a nightmare or a drunken stupor. The song was such a contrast to the horrible fact that no one could fail of the sudden shock at the thought the song suggested.
"I stood in old Jerusalem,
Beside the temple there."
The song went on. The judge had paused. He made a quiet inquiry. A former member of a famous opera company, known all over
