Jasper Republican, Volume 2, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 October 1875 — CONGREGATIONAL SINGING. [ARTICLE]

CONGREGATIONAL SINGING.

She sang in the fchoir and he preached in the pulpit: that was the beginning of it. When she' stood up and chanted he thought that an angel had stepped down from heaven. He was speedily robbed of his delusion when he turned his head and looked at her; she had finished her part and was whispering with the tenor, while the bass and contralto repeated the solemn strain—yes, actually whispering and laughing behind her fan! He was not aware that he was still gazing fixedly till she colored and dropped her eyes upon her notes, and let the music bubble from her lips as if by inspiration. Once or twice again during the service Mr. Gildersleeve cast a glance toward the choir, and discovered the lovely soprano still whispering and laughing, writing on the fly-leaf oi her hymn-book and passing it, or reading from slips of paper which the others passed to her. He looked again while reciting the finest passage in his sermon —the tenor was offering a paper of sugar-plums, and the soprano was nothing loth! Coming out of church, Mr. Gildersleeve said to one of his wardens: “We have excellent music. Pray what does the quartet cost the church?” Not that he cared particularly, but in order to open a conversation on the choir. “ Nothing—nothing whatever,” returned the warden. “ A voluntary choir —belong to the best families—best voices in town—great obligations—finest families—rich, influential and all that.” Plainly the church could not discharge a voluntary choir drawn from the best families, and to which the congregation was under such a burden of obligation, even though said choir laughed and flirted and ate caramels to a surfeit. “The finest families ought to teach their children better manners,” thought the Rev. Archy Gildersleeve. The following Sunday he had a nicely-prepared sermon touching on the subject, evolved from the text: “For the place whereon thou standest is holy groundbut still Miss Sally Sunderland smiled, and whispered with the tenor, and wrote nonsense on her fan, and chanted as if Heav-en-sent. “ What can they have to talk so much about?” wondered the Rev. Archy. Of course nobody took the sermon home, though Warden Wiseman —a widower oi some months, who wore his Sunday clothes on week-days since Mrs. Wiseman’s departure—said to the young clergyman: “ That was just the kind of sermon 1 like to hear; it hit off our tenor to aT: he’s always making eyes at Miss Sally and leading her into temptation with his everlasting gum-drops. I don’t blame the girl; but it isn’t seemly, flirting on holy ground, we all know!” Warden Wiseman had his own eyes on Miss Sally, and didn’t relish the tenor’s sugar-coated interference.

“ Congregational singing,” said Mr. Gildersleeve, “is a form of worship that I have always had at heart. I should like to establish it here. Could we not dissolve the quartet gracefully ?” “Just so,” said Mr. Wiseman, whose notion of grace was something heretical. But we all know that choirs are touchy; and the consequence was that on the next Sunday the singing seats were vacant, and Miss Sally, the soprano, sat silent in the family pew and listened to the congregational rendering of the chants, where Warden Wiseman led off, always a syllable or two in advance of the rest, and old Mrs. Crochet, who had sung in a choir at sixteen, quavered discordantly in her efforts to overtake the warden, or to drown her neighbor’s voice in the attempt, and where the entire body of singers wrestled bravely with the high notes and broke down dismayed. Mr. Gildersleeve cast a glance into the Sunderland pew, and Miss Sally was smiling saucily. Going out of church he made haste to reach that young lady. “ Why did you not join us in our attempt this morning, Miss - Sunderland?” he asked, quite pleasantly. “ Because I had been given to understand that my singing was not acceptable,” loftily. “Are you quite sincere, Miss Sunderland, in believing that your singing has not been acceptable? Daesn’t your conscience tell you that your singing was all right, was fit for the angelic choir, but that your co»du9t— abe»! I beg pardon,

I was about to speak too frankly, as you might think.” “My conduct, Mr. Gilderaleeve,” said Miss Sally, “ is a private affair, subject to no one’s dictation !” “ Exouse me if I say that you have made it quite public!” Mr. Gilderaleeve was beginning to feel nettled; this pretty piece of temper held neither him nor his cloth in much reverence or regard, certainly. “Ido not presume to dictate,” he pursued, “ but let me ask you, in all friendliness, if you think the house of prayer a suitable place for trifling and flirtation?” _ i “Mr. Gilderaleeve,” said Sally, “nobody ever dared speak so to me in all my life! Our dear old rector, Mr. Tabernacle, used to kiss my hand when we met, and thank me for sitting in foe choir and say that it did his old eyes good to see me there! I wish he were alive!” Mr. Gilderaleeve smiled. Who knows but he would have liked to follow foe example of Mr. Tabernacle ? But he said, instead; “lam afraid that Mr. Tabernacle was both blind and deaf;” which tffad a much mote ungracious sound In foe bars of a pretty woman than he intended. Miss Sunderland rewarded him by opening her fine eyes very wide, and looking as if he were foe first specimen of his kind that had ever come within her ken. “Yon have taught me, Mr. Gilderaleeve,” she said, “ that your religion is not inconsistent with rudeness. I wish you goodmorning!” and she swept past him, shaking out an odor of sandal-wood from her silken fallals, and left him standing, crestfallen and astonished, in foe pathway. What pained Mr. Gilderaleeve more than anything was foe simple fact that Miss Sunderland was not in her pew on foe following Sunday; in truth, it seemed to him as if foe church were quite empty without her. He hoped that at foe last moment, just before the organist should cease his voluntary, she would come softly stepping up foe broad aisle in her India muslins and rose-colors; but not she. He could not prevent his mind from wandering away from foe text now and again—for foe man was mortal, like foe rest of us —nor help hoping that she might he absent from town, or a trifle under foe weather; anything rather than that his foolish words should be .capable of driving a young soul from foe mercy-seat, from all the holy influences that to his mind resided in foe service and ritual, turning foe earthly eyes heavenward; from foe inspiring presence of invisible saints, apostles, martyrs, and all foe heavenly host. He felt disheartened when foe day was ended. He had come to Eaglethorpe with all his spiritual enthusiasm kindling for foe work before him, and here his most deliberate' act had resulted in shuting out this sweet woman from foe ministrations of the temple! He made it his business to call up at Sunderland Hall that week and try to remedy his mistake. He found Miss Sally at foe piano, foe room still echoing with her voice; but she left it directly,-in spite of his earnest request that she should proceed with foe passage from Mozart’s Twefth Mass. “ I came,” he said, presently, “ to make sure that no one was ill at foe Hall. Not seeing any of the family I had fears.” “ You are very good to trouble yourself so far about your neighbors’ souls,’’ frigidly, as if she had said: “ You are foe most meddlesome man alive!”

“Nay, but that is the duty I have made my choice and my pleasure,” he said. “I will call grandmamma,” she interposed. And presently the little old lady came hobbling down-stairs on her cane. But Miss Sally failed to return. Mr. Gildersleeve went home with a heavy heart. He had meant to do so much good in his parish—to battle so bravely with wrong, to restore harmony and good-will toward men; while here he was creating discord and ill-feeling with every word, and perhaps becoming the means of closing heaven against the girl whosf welfare—spiritually, let us hope—-had-suddenly become dearer to him than his. own! Old Mrs. Sunderland, Miss Sally, and Mr. Tom, a fast young man, were all that were left of the lamily at the Hall. Perhaps, if there had been a father or mother, Mr. Gildersleeve would have felt himself relieved of responsibility in a manner; but when Sunday after Sunday went by and no-Miss Sally illuminated the great empty pew he began to feel as if he had indeed mistaken his calling, especially when it came to his ears that she had given up her class in Sunday-school and resigned her situation as treasurer of the Dakota League, and even went picknicking with Tom on Sunday afternoons, and played rollicking airs Sunday evenings for the amusement of his companions! Mr. Gildersleeve was at his wits’ end; but he was determined to make one desperate effort, and solicit Miss Sunderland to join his confirmation-class. Whenever he called at the Hall she was sure to be out or engaged; therefore he wrote her a note, tender as a mother’s, eloquent as a lover’s, begging her, for her soul’s sake and for his own peace of mind, to come forward and forget injuries in remembering love that passeth understanding “Tell Mr. Gildersleeve,” said Miss Sally to his messenger, “ that this is my answer;” and she held his letter in the gas flame till it shriveled and dropped. The surprised messenger reported her faithfully. Mr. Gildersleeve was in despair, particularly as he overheard landlady saying, after he had exchanged one Sunday, “ Miss Sally Sunderland was to church yesterday, sure’s you’re a sinner; what’s going to happen? I didn’t think she was going to meddle with religion, never no more; they ain’t got no religion to spare at the Hall, no way, and it does seem as though Mr. Gildersleeve oughter exert hisself and bring ’em tup

der some sort of conviction, if he knew his duty!” Mr. Gilderaleeve groaned in spirit! Wasn’t that foe very result toward which he had bent his best enetgta* Ahd how miserably had he failed! It seemed as if his mere presence in Eaglethorpe hindered her spiritual advancement; that under foe hand of another pastor she might grow in grace and blossom into all Christian virtues. It began to appear plain to him that he had not been called to help her on foe way, to make her election sure; that not into his hands had been committed foe precious task of opening heaven to her—he was not worthy of such blessedness! However painful it was to him he would seek another field; it should never he said of him that he had willfully hindered a soul from heaven—and her soul! He sent in his resignation. A parish meeting was called, and they quarreled and expostulated, and finally notified Mr. Gilderaleeve that they should not fill the pulpit for three months, at foe end of which time it would he at his option either to resume his duties or not, as foe spirit moved. He thanked them, and took foe noon train for foe city. Within ten miles of Eaglethorpe two trains collided, and when Miss Sally Sunderland dashed up to foe railway track on her horse, Scamper, in a mad gallop through foe woods—she could not have told whither—she came full and suddenly upon foe ghastly melee. She threw up her arms at foe sight, and grew hot and cold by turns; two men were bringing a mangled human being toward a rude ambulance which they had constructed; foe face, amidst all its bruises, was terribly familiar to Miss Sunderland. She never knew when or how she alighted from Scamper. She did not hear him galloping home bare-backed, to frighten Mr. Trim out of his wits ; she heard only foe stifled groans that came from foe livid lips of foe mangled man before her, with whom she had dared to trifle but a while ago, as she tore up portions of her clothing, and helped strangers to bandage his wounds, and dropped hot tears over him and repentant sobs, and cried out in her agony that she had driven him away, that she had killed him, and begged him to hear her sing to him once again, and to open his eyes and live for her sake, forgetful and careless of foe presence of hy-standers. And when, at length, Mr. Gilderaleeve did open his eyes, it was to meet foe tear-bedimmed face of Miss Sally bent over him, all its dimples at rest,' all its brilliant color faded, all its crael disdain swallowed up in bitter anguish. “ You have forgiven me,” he whispered, feebly, “you have forgiven me! Thank God, I shall not hinder you any longer. I was going away because I seemed to be keeping yon from Him—and because— l believe I loved you!” “ How could you love me! Such a dreadful girl! I thought you detested me, and I — l —you know I loved you all foe while!” “Thensing to me, dear,” he asked; and Miss Sally’s heart consented, her countenance beamed, her lips parted and palpitated, but no melody flowed forth, alas! Just as some grow gray from terror in a single night, so in a single day she had lost foe power to sing. The neighbors called it a visitation of Providence : foe doctors gave it another name. The pulpit of Eaglethorpe was vacant for twelve months and better, and when Mr; Gilderaleeve at last returned to it he walked with two crutches and Mrs. Gilderaleeve again sat silent through foe congregational singing!— Harper's Bazar.