We are on the whole a reserved people. It is not easy for us to! talk glibly about the deep things of life, "We find it much easier to talk' about the weather. And I am not saying this critically, because it is! the shallow people who talk easily about serious things, and the deep' people who are often tongue-tied. But here in public worship, by our regular presence and hearty joining in public praise we have an opportunity of expressing our praiseful souls without embarrasment. The ancient Psalmist had not much who claimed of gratitude, but whose gratitude never found expression. "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so," he demanded. Every emotion demands an express sion, as every instinct demands an outlet. May I diagnose the case of some of you and tell you what you are suffering from? You are suffering from choked up praise that is clamouring in vain for an outlet. You have no idea how much, better you would feel if during the singing of some of these hymns you would let yourselves go; or if, better still you would augment the choir' trid 0 place the gift of your mu: cal voices on God's altar. Do you recall what happened when Jesus, entered Jerusalem? People strewed branches in the way and sang "Hosannah! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!"
Some of the bigoted, narrow-minded, legalistic, officious people ob-Jected. Do you remember the re-Joinder of Jesus? "If these should hold their peace the stones would ery out." Exactly. There was an exhilaration that would find an out.
Let somewhere and somehow.
The Value of Sublimation That was where General Booth showed his genius. There were many superior people who frowned upon him and his methods. But like all great men, he knew something about psychology. He knew that emotion must not be suppressed. Take the case of a man has been addicted to swearing. Some well-meaning but insignificant person comes along and says, "My dear must not do that, it is very'
"But General Booth does not adopt that stupid attitude; he Knows that the poor man must use an expletive of some sort or he would choke; so he gives him trumpet or a trombone for his si plus breath, or a big drum for mighty muscles; he tells him when he hears a congenial sentiment to shout "Hallelujah, Praise the Lord." There you have a magnificent illustration of what the psycho-agists call sublimation. As the, Apostle James says, the- same tongue can either curse man or] bless God. But there is on thing' it cannot do and that is be silent.
Now the way of the Salvationist may not be your way and incidentally between ourselves, it is-not way. But never mind, it is his way. 'And who are we to say that he may not.have chosen the better part? This in any case is true; every' revival of true religion whether in ancient or modern days has bosn accompanied by a revival of song. Every new-found joy demands an new psalm. What.
Matthew Arnold's definition of And all emotion demands express To Each His Manner But there is, of course, no reason why expressions of emotion should be crude. They will naturally depend-upon the person. "Every man in his own order." The rough man will express his religion in a rough way and far better that he should do 0 than that he should be irreligious. Similarly _the- refined person will seek refined ways of] manifesting his gratitude to God. And people. of the Free Churches have in recent years shown a new appreciation of art in religion. The! Memorial windows in this church fare a witness to the fact that the members of Union Church share in. this new appreciation "of beauty. There has been a reaction from the position of our Puritan forefathers. Let us not be pharisaical for we are not big enough men criticize the Puritans. Every' generation has its own _emphasi: and they had their own witness to bear. But it is almost in our own day that beauty has came to be re-agnized as one of the ultimate values. And we seek, more perhaps than in by-gone days to "worship, the Lord in the beauty of holiness. And what more beautiful expression of the grateful spirit can there be than in soul-inspiring music? In the reading of the Scriptures and the sermon we have the prophetic witness to which we attach so great importance.. There, shall we say, you have the Synagogue; but man's spirit will never be fully satisfied with that. In the prayers and the praise we have the priestly witness on which we have put. insufficient emphasis, albeit by priesthood we mean "'the priesthood of all believers." There you have the Temple and an altar on which we offer the sacrifice of praise, And how can we better express our common priesthood than by joining. in common praise? To-day we reopen our organ. This inauguration service shall be the symbol of lour growing recognition of the place of praise in public worship.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.