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christian people are often induced to make ventures in these schemes; and it is doubtless in the power of the sellers to extend their business among the members of our churches, by sending their advertisements through such channels, if the religious papers will lend their influence in this way. For ourselves, we should most decidedly decline the responsibility.

THE SONG OF THE AUTUMN WIND.

BY THE EDITOR.

'Tis evening: the hum of the village is still,
The bairns are abed, and we have our will;
So wife draw your chair to the first fall fire-
I'll stir it a little and make it burn higher-
Then give me your ear, and give me your mind,
While I sing you the song of the Autumn wind.
I heard it to-day in the deep brown wood,
As I thoughtfully walked or pensively stood;
It played with the twigs of the trees above,
It mourned in the pines like a sigh of love,
It lifted the leaves that had fallen before,
And bore them away with a rush and a roar.

I saw by the tree-tops that bowed in its way,
How it played o'er the forest and hurried away;
The broad mountain's side stretching down to the plain,
Was rolling in waves like a field of ripe grain;

And the dark blue clouds moved swiftly and high,
O'er the distant tops, through a troubled sky.

In the orchard near, half bare of its leaves,
Do you hear the song as it moans and grieves?
In the rustling vines o'er the garden way,
It mimics the rain on a showery day;
And the dirging willow o'er the fountain sighs,
Like sorrowing friends when a loved one dies.

O wife! do you hear how the windows drum
In the rooms above?-what a wintry hum.
At the eaves of the roof, and the sills of the doors,
The fall wind veers, and pries, and roars;

And the chimney utters a weary moan,
Like a spirit's grief that is lost and lone.

A mystic feeling rolls over my mind,
That echoes the song of the Autuinn wind;
The world without, as it fades away,
Doth shadow, O wife, our life's brief day;
And the peace within, with its light and love,
Foretells of a stormless Home above.

Sing on thy sad song-O lone Autumn Wind,
Sing dirges of sorrow to a world that hath sinned!
In wretches unsaved, and wanderers unblest,
Increase the deep sense of their wo and unrest.
And to home-bound pilgrims be thy lonely lay,
A voice both to warm and to cheer by the way.

1857]

Church Organs.

CHURCH ORGANS.

PREPARED FROM "ALT'S CULTUS"-BY THE EDITOR.

347

High

EVEN the external appearance of the noble Organ as it graces the gallery, shows it to be the Queen of musical instruments-by way of peculiar emphases called the ORGANON-that is "The Instrument"-the one which has a right to be the organ speaking for all the rest. up, opposite the altar, in both Protestant and Roman Catholic churches, it rests and reigns in majestic honor. With silvery richness, in ornamental regularity, standing side by side in harmony, are the principal pipes. To the right and left, in the largest class of organs are the gigantic bass-pipes, thirty-two feet in length. By either side, rising above one another are the smaller pipes, as children with their parents. Let but the throats of the thirty-two feet bass-pipes be opened, and you hear the majestic roll as mighty subdued thunder, as if to menace and over-awe the profane, whilst soft flute tones mingling in, breathe sweet peace into the troubled heart. Under the shrill blast of the trumpet bass, the spirit trembles as if the day of judgment were announced; while distinct utterances of the gamba di viol, or bass-viol pipes, seem to speak to us in almost intelligible human words, and the whole combination is strangely harmonious like the jubilee of a company of happy children.

The notes of the human voice alone the Organ fails to reach, after all the efforts that have been made toward its attainment. It has been made to imitate with incredible accuracy, and in a way to deceive the best ear, almost all other instruments, even to the kettle-drum, the music of bells, and the twittering of birds. These last additions have, in later times perhaps properly been regarded as useless; yet we can. easily forgive our pious forefathers, when after they had spent large sums with great readiness, for the construction of giant works of this kind, they also desired to enjoy the pleasure of seeing the cathedral looking organ surmounted with golden angels, blowing their trumpets and striking at intervals their silvery bells. Nor are these appendages to be so utterly condemned, seeing they not only gave pleasure to innocent and joyful childhood, but reigned pleasantly in the memories and associations of maturer after life. We would rather have in our child's memory the picture of an angel on an organ, than that of a demijohn or a whisky barrel; though perhaps he who is best pleased with the last, would be chief in condemning the first.

It naturally required a long time before the churches received such on ornament, and christian devotion such an organ for its expression. Like all great things, so also this giant work of art, grew forth from a small unpromising germ.

Who would have dreamed, as he contemplated the poor little pastoral pipe, with which the shepherds in ancient times were wont to pass their time in rude songs whilst watching their flocks in the vales, that from it

should be developed in future the collossal Organ of St. Peters at Rome with it one hundred Registers, and thousands of pipes! The pious Praetorius is certainly right when in his Organography," he says:

66

It is not possible sufficiently to thank the Almighty and only wise God, that He has given to man such gifts and grace from above, as to enable them to construct such a perfect, yea most perfect musical instrument as the Organ, and so to form and arrange it that with hands and feet, by key and pedal, God in the heavens may thereby be praised, divine worship greatly elevated and ornamented, and the people drawn and awakened to christian devotion."

It must have early been observed that the reed pipes made by the Shepherds, did not give forth one and the same sound; but that those which were longest and thickest gave a deep sound, while those which were short and thin struck a higher note. Reed pipes of different lengths and thickness were now joined together with wax, which made an instrument capable of giving forth as many different sounds as there were pipes; and this was the simple structure of the Syrinx or Flute of Pan among the Greeks. In this way men were gradually led, perhaps by reflection, but more probably by what we call accident, to discover that the same pipe could be made to vary its tones by holes made into its sides, which changes the performer could readily effect by opening and closing these holes with his fingers. It was next discovered that instead of using the human lungs, air could be forced into the pipes from a leather bag; and thus was the bag-pipe discovered. The next step was easy and natural, namely to apply a sliding machine, by which those pipes to be used could be opened, and those desired to be silent, could be closed, by means of keys to be worked with the hand.

This advance created an instrument mentioned by Daniel, the Maschrokitha, in the English Bible rendered flute, and in the German, trumpet. Dan. iii 5. This, the learned say, was an instrument, like the Syring of the Greeks, made of seven pipes joined together, enclosed in a small box, open at the top, having its valve below. On one side of the box was a handle whereby it was held to the mouth, on the other a touchboard, and in front a mouth-piece through which the player supplied the instrument with wind.

Larger than this was another instrument, the Ugar, in the English Bible rendered orgau, and mentioned early in sacred history. Gen. iv : 21; Job xxi: 12--xxx: 31; Psalms el: 4. This was probably at first only a single pipe; but there is evidence that at a later period it grew into a compound instrument of twelve metal pipes. It is said that it was of such powerful capacity, that when played in the temple, the people throughout all Jerusalem could not understand one another in conversation.

Next came the Hydraulus or Water-Organ, the invention of which Tertullian ascribes to Archimedes who died A. C. 212; but the credit of which Virtruv and Pliny give to Ktesibius, a machenist of Alexandria, A. C. 120; who if he did not invent the instrument yet greatly improved it. It is said that the Emperor Nero was taken with such a strong ambition to improve this instrument, that he sometimes neglected to attend to the business of his government, and at other times unduly hastened what he had to do, in order to devote his time to his favorite

1857.]

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This instrument had nothing peculiar, except that water was used in the air aparatus to aid in producing and regulating the wind for the pipes It was of course rude and imperfect compared with the

present Organ. In the time of Augustine, who died A. D. 604, Organs were already pretty large in size, and so improved as to be supplied with wind by means of bellows. Mention is also made of the organ by Cassiodor, who died 562, from which it appears that the instrument had reached a considerable degree of perfection in his day, and its music was much admired.

In France the Organ seems to have been still a new and remarkable thing in the time of Pepin, A. D. 752 to 768. Eginhard mentions with special point, that among the gifts which the emperor Constantine Kopronynus in 757 sent to the King of France, was an Organ. A second Organ was received by Charles the Great, from the emperor Constantine Michael as a gift in 787; which, according to a description given of it by a monk of St. Gall, combined the deep rolling as of thunder with the loquacity of a Lyre or Cymbal.

These Organs, however, were only used at home in the palace. It was not till the year 822 that Ludwig the pious, had an Organ built for a Father in Venice, which was erected in a church in Aachen. This, so far as known, is the first instance in which an Organ was used in divine worship, in a Western church, while in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire it was only used at Concerts and in the Theatre.

Having now brought our history of Organs down to the time when they were first erected in churches, and employed in the public worship of God, we reserve what remains to be said on this subject for our next number.

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SILENCE OF THE BIBLE.

EY ALFRED NEVIN, D. D.

FROM Some men's questions more can be learned than from other men's answers. From some men's silence more instruction can be derived than from other men's speech. Indeed, it has become a proverb, that it is evidence of wisdom to know when to keep quiet.

"Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread."

The sciolist, whose pride is as great as his ignorance, will express himself freely on subjects on which the profound scholar prefers to be mute. The one knows, the other does not, that an insufficient explanation of a difficult thing is worse than none. Many a man has lost a cause at the Bar by not submitting it without argument to the good sense of the jury. Many a physician has lost the confidence of the public by attempting too much, or by showing in his talk a want of power of diognosis, which seasonable taciturnity might have concealed. Many a man, in entering gallery of paintings, or sculpture, where art has placed its grandest achievements, has betrayed his utter lack of aesthetic cultivation, by a boisterous and pretentious manner-the very opposite of that subdued frame, which such productions always generate in those who have taste to appreciate them. Many a man, by opening his mouth out of due time, has sadly changed the impression which his appearance and mien had previously made.

It was remarked by a distinguished scholar, in speaking of the Bible, that "there is such fulness in that book, that oftentimes it says much by saying nothing, and not only its expressions, but its silence are teaching, like a dial in which the shadow, as well as the light, informs us." Beautiful and truthful representation! We are learning, ever learning! not only in the roaring city, but also in the noiseless forest; not only in the excitements of the day, but also in the calm midnight-hour; not only in the "quiet might" of the beautiful light, but in the thick darkness that brings worlds to our view, which, but for its gathered curtains, would never have been visible at all; not only in the raging of the storm, but also in the hush which precedes it; and not only in the brilliant saloon, with its cheerful crowding throng, but also in the chamber of death, where the corpse of a loved one is lying, with a fixedness that seems to mock the agony that has been occasioned by its removal.

Even so are we ever learning from the pages of inspiration, not only when we gaze upon the high hills on which Revelation has poured the effulgence of its beams, but also when we stand and look upon the valleys, and chasms, and blanks, which have been left, and can find no other vehicle for our feelings than the words, to which an Apostle himself was driven, "O, the depth !"

I like the assumption or silent recognition of God's existence, at the beginning of his record. How wise was this, in comparison with what

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