The night is proverbially a time of festivity and song.
The cares and business of the day are then over; the taxed mind and the wearied
muscles seek relaxation; the stillness of the evening invites to those pleasures
which cannot be enjoyed amidst the bustle and din of business; and the darkness
calling off the mind from the outdoor duties and gaieties turns it to those
domestic or social or festive gatherings, where the gladness of the heart
testifies its existence by singing and the voice of melody.
But the vast majority of these songs are earth-born, and
designed only for earthly ends. The bacchanalian chorus, the moonlight serenade,
the orchestral concert, the parlor melody, the love-lorn ditty, and the
trumpet-rousing strains of martial music are each of terrestrial birth; and
though they may deeply affect the heart, rousing it to wildest joy or sinking it
to pensive sadness yet are they evanescent, and soon are among the things of a
forgotten past.
No such songs, though sung with unrivaled art, though swelling
with delicious melody, though rich in tones of "linked sweetness long drawn
out," satisfy the soul. Who that has listened to the most rapturous
songs, to those which in our imagination come nearest to angelic harmony has
not, as its last cadence fell on the ear, and its last echo died away, felt a
pang of sorrow that such tones must die as fast as they are uttered? that, with
a soul fitted to enjoy such vocal richness, we can obtain it so seldom and so
briefly? And to all this, has there not often been joined the wish: Oh! that
there were songs that would never cease to thrill! Oh! that there were voices
that would never lose their tone and melody by age! Oh! that there were places
where we might ever abide, and listen at will to the treasured melodies of
tongue and harp in their loftiest manifestation!
There are such places, there are such voices, there are such
songs. Yet when I tell you of them, the very hearts that profess most to desire
them will turn away with scornful looks, and perhaps deride them as the
outbursts of hot-brained enthusiasm or of canting hypocrisy. But sneer as you
may curl your lip until it becomes rigid with scorn mock until you have
exhausted the vocabulary of calumny, and defame until you are startled by your
own blasphemy; I tell you in a freedom that invites investigation, and with a
boldness that challenges denial, that the religion of Jesus Christ furnishes
such songs, tunes such voices, and opens such places of perpetual and sublimest
melody; for the mansions of glory forever resound with saintly voices singing
the songs of Moses and the Lamb.
[William Bacon Stevens]
✞✞✞
Job 35:10 ... But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night;
Exodus 15:1 ... Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
Psalm 42:8 ... Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
Revelation 15:3 ... And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. ❤
