MUSIC has its foundation in nature. Regarding it as simple harmony, it is not altogether fanciful to conclude, that there is music in all the works of God. The whole creation is a unit, made up of an infinite variety of parts. Hence we call it the universe. The parts which compose it, from the smallest atom to the largest world, are adapted and proportioned to each other with mathematical exactness. This law of proportions exists in sounds addressed to the ear, no less than in the magnitudes and motions of visible things. In pursuance of it, one may compose a tune with as much scientific exactness as he can calculate aa eclipse or construct a railroad.

On this law of proportions the science of music is founded; and because it is a universal law, extending through all nature-at least as far as the laws of nature have been investigated- some learned men have maintained, that the motions of the heavenly bodies may be expressed in numbers, corresponding to those which express the harmony of musical sounds, and that thus there is a "music of the spheres," inaudible, indeed, to us, but heard in heaven, to the praise of God An idea like this seems to have been entertained by inspired minds. Isaiah says,

Praise the Lord from the earth,
Ye dragons, and all deeps!
Fire and hail, snow and vapors,
Stormy wind fulfilling his word!
Mountains, and all hills,

Fruitful trees, and all cedars!
Beasts, and all cattle,

Creeping things, and flying fowl!"

These are specimens of the manner in which inspired worshipers were accustomed to conceive of the harmony of the universe, as uttering, in music, the language of praise to Jehovah. The revealed idea, in these passages, would seem to justify the conception of old Pythagoras, and of the immortal Kepler, in his "Harmonices Mundi," and to intimate that there are numbers and musical intervals in the motions and distances of worlds and systems, by which all nature is vocal with music, and suns and stars are

"Forever singing, as they shine,
The hand that made us is divine."

But however this may be, it is beyond all question, that the foundation of the science of music exists in the laws of nature. It is equally clear, that the art of music has its origin in the nature of man. Certain tones of the voice are the natural expressions of pleasure and pain. These are the germs from which music has grown up to be a universal language of emotion. There is, in our nature, an intimate connection between the emotions of the soul and the sense of hearing. Objects of sight address themselves more e-pecially to the understanding; but feeling expresses itself most readily in tones addressed to the ear. Joy, fear, anger, desire, and all the passions, have each a peculiar tone, which is understood by every human being. These tones, prolonged, and divided, and varied, and intermingled, and associated with rhythm, or poetic measure, constitute music or song, in which thousands may join in uttering the same tones, and expressing the same feelings.

It is certain, also, that the love of music, or of the excitement which it produces, is one of the most universal principles of the human soul. It pervades all tribes, all ages, all classes of human

beings. There are few, and perhaps none, who do not admit its power, in some degree, to affect the feelings. Insensibility to music must be referred to a defective organization, at least in the sense of hearing; while the whole conformation of some men is probably much better fitted than that of others to enable them to receive pleasure from this source. But it is difficult to conceive of a human system-of a set of nerves—which is in- || capable of being moved by music. In the beautiful language of Cowper,

"There is in souls a sympathy with sounds,
And as the mind is pitch'd, the ear is pleased
With melting airs, or martial, brisk, or grave;
Some chord, in unison with what we hear,
Is touched within us, and the heart replies."

And there is no limit to the refinement and elevation to which the art of music may be advanced. Its power is as immeasurable as the capacities of the human soul for pleasure or pain.

This natural taste and aptitude for music, had man remained holy, would have been to all a source of delight ineffable, like that which is felt in the music of heaven. For there is music in heaven. There was an occasion, as we are expressly assured, when "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." And on another and greater occasion, a multitude of the heavenly host came down, singing, in the hearing of mortals,

The gift of music to man, then, was an angelic gift. It was a good gift, intended as a source of happiness, and as an instrument of worship and praise; and had man remained in his first estate, he might have continued to possess and enjoy it, in a degree but a little lower than that of the angels. Every bosom would have swelled with grateful emotions, and every voice would have been tuned to the high praises of God. But this "Paradise" was "Lost;" and the prince of English poets, with his accustomed adherence to the truths of revelation, thus describes the occasion and consequences of the fall:

that delightful pledge of heaven's joy, became the servant of sin. In man, fallen, it was perverted and abused. His song was henceforth the

song of fools. His voice, so admirably fitted to celebrate the praises of the Most High, and to awaken in his own heart emotions of piety and reverence, was employed in setting off the festive ditty, and in giving interest and influence to the profane jest; or it was used to inflame the passions of the battle-field, by the death-daring strains of the war-song. And the song of the drunkard was substituted for the hymn of praise.

Yet the power of music and the love of music remains, amid all this ruin. This is proved by the universal propensity of men to employ it in scenes of revelry and vice, and by its efficacy in bearing on its abuses in their downward course to hell.

This, therefore, is one of the perverted powers of man-not destroyed-which God would restore to his own service. He accordingly seized upon this natural aptitude for music in the human race, and made it the ground of an ordinance in his church, the object of which was to restore this faculty in man to its proper and original exercise, as an instrument of worship. Hence, in the history of music, there is a broad distinction between the music employed in religious worship, called Sacred Music, and that which is merely secular and profane. Their elements, it is true, are the same; and the difference between them is, that they are adapted and used for different purposes --sacred music, to strengthen and elevate our re. ligious feelings, in the worship of God; and secular or profane music, to please, excite, and inflame the affections and passions of the natural man. We have to do, however, in this article with sacred music alone. We leave out of view the lower uses of the musical art, and its abuses to purposes positively and flagrantly sinful, desiring only to know and to teach the will of God concerning this delightful accompaniment, this divinely-appointed helper of religious worship.

That singing, as a part of religious worship, is an ordinance of God, is amply proved by scripture. The following considerations are in point.

In the descriptions and injunctions of worship by the sacred writers, prayer and praise are usually associated; and, from the earliest times, praise was expressed in music. "Sing praises," is the scripture injunction in respect to this part of worship. It might be inferred, therefore, that, as early as men began to call upon God in prayer, they began also to praise Him with music and song; and it is remarkable that, in the very chapter, Gen. iv., in which it is recorded, that “then began men to call upon the name of the Lord,'"

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we read of one who "was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ." There were music, then, and musical instruments, long before the flood; and doubtless they were employed in worship.

A few centuries after the flood, as in Gen. xxxi., songs and musical instruments are spoken of, as if they were in common use. All nations, also, from the earliest times of their history, have associated music with their worship. There is no way to account for this, but to presume that it was enjoined in the first revelations of God to men. One of the earliest of the songs of Israel on record, is that which they sung on the shore of the Red Sea :-Exod. xv., "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.
The Lord is my strength and song,
And he is become my salvation.'

"And Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her, with timbrels, and with dances. And Miriam answered them,

Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.'"'

From this time onward music was cultivated

among the Hebrews. In the days of the Judges we read of schools, or colleges of the prophets, one part of the design of which was to train up persons to sing praises, both vocally and with various instruments. In the first book of Samuel there is described a company of these prophets, who came down from the hill where their school was, prophesying with the psaltry, the tabret, and the harp. In the days of King David, music was carried to a still greater height, and reduced to a more regular system. Great numbers of singing men and singing women were employed. For the service of the tabernacle, he appointed four thousand Levites, who were divided into twenty-four classes, and marshaled under as many leaders, and whose business it was to sing and to perform instrumental music in public worship.

The one hundred and fifty psalms also, which are recorded in the Old Testament, are all adapted to be sung. Concerning many of them, we are expressly told on what occasions they were performed, and with what instruments they were accompanied. These show how prominent a place was assigned to music in the Jewish worship. And it is not usage only that establishes the ordinance of music as a part of worship, under the law. It is often expressly enjoined, as in the case of the 105th Psalm, which David gave into the hands of Asaph and his brethren to sing.

LOVE not alone the gay,
The beautiful, the bright;
For youth will fade away,

Like day beans into night. But love the heart that's pure,

How plain soe'er the face; Such love will long endure, Such love cannot debase.

Love not alone on earth

Those transient things of life,

Who like the rainbow's birth

Soon fade 'midst shadowy strife;

But love the power that made

All that to man is given, Whose spirit doth pervade The universal heaven.

Love all things, great and small,
From man to tiny flower;
Created they were all

By an Almighty power,
For "God is Love" we know.
Whate'er may be our lot

In life, then, let us sow

The Love that dieth not.