July 1927
431
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
singer, than to the Lord,” replied the pianist. “If it is necessary to offend any one, I can better offend a singer than offend God.” This attitude caused some tense ness of feeling for a time. The contralto sang, but the pianist adhered firmly to his decision. Later the choir director admitted that the attitude of the pianist was cor rect. God hasten the day when service of praise shall be rendered by consecrated people. A clean channel is essen tial for the message of the Gospel. L ove S o n g s F or C h u r c h S e r v ic e In another church it was a custom every Sunday even ing from 7:00 to 7:30 to provide a sacred musical pro gram, largely composed of Gospel songs. At different times musical help was secured outside of the church. One Sun day night the pianist was called to the choir room at five minutes to seven. There he found a fine baritone pre paring his songs for .rendition during the thirty minute musical period. “What are you going to sing?” queried the pianist, as the baritone pompously announced himself. “I have two love songs I am going to sing tonight,” re plied the singer. '“Love songs, love songs,” remarked the pianist,' “are entirely out of place in this service. We sing the Gospel here,” The singer was indignant and insisted that he would sing the songs. The pianist was equally insistent and declared that he would not insult the Lord by allowing trashy love songs at such a time and in such a place. Needless to say, the love songs were not sung. A hastily improvised Gospel song program was rendered and the spiritual atmosphere was unharmed. The enemy of souls is always busy in various ways to inject an element into our services which will destroy the work of the Spirit. He operates in a subtle way and it behooves every lover of the Gospel in all departments of Christian service to keep a careful watch on the musical programs offered in the Church, Sunday School and Young People’s meeting. M ifc Worried to Death O NE version gives Phil. 4 :6 as, “Do not begin to be anxious.” Many Christians not only begin to be anxious, but they live in an unbroken state of anxiety. But did anxiety ever make a way of escape out of a per plexity for anyone? It has spoiled many a life which otherwise would have been beautiful. Most of our worries are over things that never come to pass. A worrying woman once made a list of the possible unfortunate happenings which she felt sure would come to pass and be disastrous to her happiness and welfare. The list was lost, we are told, and to her amazement she recovered it a long time afterward; she found that not a single prediction in the whole catalogue of disasters had been realized. Anxiety is the poison of human life, the parent of much misery. It should have no place in the life of a child of God. As Maltbie Babcock says: “The life lived by the faith of the Son of God will find His word kep t: ‘My peace give I unto you.’ ” gfe a& Divorce Orphans The New York Tribune says 80,000 children become “divorce orphans” every year. America leads the world in divorces. The conflicting divorce laws in the various states make it possible to be married, single, a bigamist and divorced, all at the same time.
The S inging of Lies B y R o b er t H a r k n e s s
ANY people fail to appreciate the importance of singing the Truth. In our service of praise we sing facts, but often we find people singing a lie. The message they sing may be the Truth of God, but in applying it to them selves they may be singing something which
is not so. Sometime ago in a union campaign in a Missouri city, this fact was impressed upon the writer. The evangelist had delivered his sermon with power—the invitation for decision had been given and already many people had stepped forward, publicly acknowledging Christ as a per sonal Saviour. • Under the direction of the song leader, the great choir and audience sang: “Just as I am without one plea The writer followed his usual custom of doing per sonal work. Six rows from the front a young fellow sang this invitation. From all outward appearances he seemed to be singing an experience. Prompted doubtless by the Holy Spirit, to speak to him, the worker soon discovered that the young man was not a Christian. “Do you know you are singing a lie?” queried the worker. The young man stopped singing and looked confused. Again the question was repeated, followed by other questions, such a s : “Did you wish to sing a lie ?” “Did you realize you were singing a lie?” With a surprised tone the young man assured the worker he had no intention of singing a lie. His trouble was lack of thought; but the mere fact of drawing his attention to the circumstance was sufficient to cause him to pause and think. Such thinking invari ably leads to definite decision and very soon the young man made a public acceptance of Christ as his personal Saviour. He had been singing, “O Lamb of God, I come.” He had never come and there was no thought,of his coming in his mind. He was agreeing to do something which he did not intend to do. Thus many a time a person uncon sciously makes a statement in singing which if made in ordinary speech would involve definite action. T h e A c c o m p a n is t ’ s D if f ic u l t y Hypocrisy in singing is often in evidence in the regular church service. It is not by any means limited to the evan gelistic meeting. In a large church the writer was obliged to refuse to play an accompaniment because of a situation which had existed in the church for some time. One of the paid members of the choir, a contralto, was asked to sing. It was known that this choir member was a cigarette smoker, and had been connected in other ways with the most worldly element in the town. This fact prompted the writer’s suggestion, that if this singer had to sing, he would be obliged to refuse to play. The choir director resented the attitude of the pianist. Furthermore, he suggested that it would be an act of discourtesy to refuse to play an accompaniment for one possessed of such a beautiful voice. “I would rather be discourteous to a But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”
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