the time being conventional standards are set aside. East and West, North and South fraternize to the great advantage of all. People who have moved serenely along in a rut for years, suddenly discover themselves trying to explain their position—be it social, educational or religious. Timid souls who have cherished opinions which they dared not express come in contact with congenial spirits who seem not to have deteriorated under a similar process of thinking and the world becomes larger to them forthwith. Subjects tabooed in many an ultra orthodox community are here discussed from the platform or in conferences with a freedom which, while it is reverent, puts a premium upon common sense, lifts the religious thinking of great numbers of people to a distinctly higher plane and gives to their faith new vitality.

And finally the assemblies have an extent of influence which it is not easy to over-estimate. This is especially true in certain sections of the West where summer resorts are few and widely scattered. The Assembly, if it can supply healthful recreation, as well as instruction, has an increasing opportunity for usefulness. The growing interest in wholesome recreation as illustrated by the park movement in our cities will be felt more and more at the Chautauquas; for people who live on lonely farms throughout the year need to study the possibilities of recreation almost as much as do their far off neighbors in the crowded cities. Illinois and Iowa each support fully a dozen summer Chautauquas. In Kansas last year there were seven. The Assembly at Winfield in that state, commemorates its twenty-fifth anniversary this summer and Ottawa, has already passed its quarter century mark These two older Chautauquas have had no small influence in determining the character of the others in their state. The number of persons in attendance at many Assemblies reaches into the thousands. But aside from the transient crowds which are attracted by the fame of some popular speaker, the resident population is often very large. The city park at Ottawa, which constitutes the assembly grounds, accommodates a thousand tents. The people come from small towns in all the adjoining states, from Kansas City and other large centers and from prairie farms and little villages extending over a wide territory. Such an Assembly is typical of the variety of people and interests represented by the movement as a whole.

Sunday-school Hymns and Religious

Education*

WILLIAM P. MERRILL, D. D.

Pastor Sixth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, Illinois

Of necessity this paper must offer general suggestions, which must be seriously modified to suit particular cases. Schools differ in constituency, in material for musical work and in many other ways affecting this problem.

One general plea I would make at the outset, that we give to the Sunday School music all the attention and money we can spare. That probably means more than most of us are giving. One trouble all through our church worship is that we think of the music as the hunter thinks of the meat set in a trap. He has no intention of nourishing the bear with that meat; his only thought is to get him in the trap. If music is a proper part of worship treat it decently; if not, cut it out altogether.

There is a question of primary importance: What are the aims of religious music and of Sunday School music in particular? On this depends the entire discussion. If the aim be merely to catch, to amuse, to let the child enjoy shouting, then let him sing street ballads and popular songs. But we would probably agree that the music should have higher aims than this. I would suggest three as legitimate, even as necessary.

First, the worship of God. In these days of evolution, when we are so afraid of anthropomorphism that we almost hesitate whether to speak of God as "He" or "It" it is natural that worship should seem of small importance, that it may seem childish to speak of God as actually pleased by our praises. Now just because the church needs to emphasize anew the personality of God, in the face of the pantheism of Christian Science and the materialism of agnostic science, there is need of a revival of worship, the offering of praise to God because we owe it to Him. In such worship music must take a large place, larger now than ever before, A paper presented at the Sunday-school Institute, Presbytery of Chicago, April 10th, 1906.

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for music voices the deep feelings of the heart which men and women of culture are slow to express in words. Sidney Lanier defined music as "Love in search of a word." Is not music then the finest vehicle of worship for the modern mind and heart?

If worship be a real aim of music then the music should be worthy. We should be at least as careful about the songs we offer as the Hebrew worshippers were about the animals they brought for sacrifice.

The second great aim of religious music is the expression of religious life. Our songs are not only for the purpose of honoring God; they also aim to give expression to our faith, hope and love.

But the religious nature to which expression is to be given through Sunday School music is child nature. The music should fit the child-life. It should not express the religion of adults, nor too much that of adolescents. Hymns that voice a painful sense of sin, sad memories of the past, longings to escape from earth's desert to Heaven's paradise, are dangerous or ridiculous intruders in the Sunday School, if indeed they belong anywhere.

My Sunday School was once finishing a song, when a lady came out laughing. I asked the cause of her mirth and she said it upset her gravity completely to see little children, with life's brightest days before them, singing "O Wait, Meekly Wait, and Murmur Not."

There is another aim of religious music, not so high, perhaps, yet real and worthy. It is culture. Religious music should bring the user of it into touch with true poetry and music. This is especially important in the case of a child. His tastes are beng formed. The music he uses will form his artistic standards, and his artistic standards will do more than we sometimes appreciate in the formation of his character. Have you noted the change in Kindergarten music in the last ten years? Before that there was a feeling that anything bright and pretty would do for the child. Now, in the best Kindergartens every song is a work of art in words and music, simple, but true to the canons of art. If "culture is one-fourth of life" we should pay attention to that which produces true culture.

Keeping in mind these three aims, Worship, Expression and Culture, let us consider the material to be used.

Of making many hymn books there is no end, and many of them are a weariness to the flesh, if the flesh have a sensitive ear. I offer these suggestions:

I. We should rule out unsparingly doggerel and musical trash. We should adopt and adhere to a high standard. Reform is urgently needed in this respect in schools otherwise well conducted. Schools which would not tolerate on the walls pictures violating the canons of art, yet allow hymns and tunes that are worse than any religious pictures ever painted or printed. Ragtime and similar trash should be unceremoniously driven out. We should not put on our music committees people whose ideal of good music is embodied in a song in which the children can yell, and having a refrain which they can sing readily after hearing it once. Some people would think an air like "Mr. Dooley" a fine one for Sunday School use, if only it were set to words about "Our Heavenly Home," and such people have the strange fate of being on music committees.

Nor is it only the music which is bad. Some otherwise sensible churches allow in their schools hymnals containing the worst and cheapest words. The church of which I am pastor had, when I came to it, a Gospel Song Book in the Sunday School. Looking through it one day I found a hymn which began:

"A doubly pious way consists,

When we our offerings bring,
In recollecting God exists
In every living thing."

That was bad enough, but one of the verses following reminded us that whenever we speak, "Heaven's gold-foiled phonograph is writing every word." If that hymn is still in existence its latest edition probably contains verses on the X-Rays and Wireless Telegraphy. A friend has told me of hearing children in Sunday School singing a hymn, of which the last words of each

stanza were:

"My brother, you know how it is yourself,
Put your cookies on the lower shelf."

Such hymns and the tunes that accompany them are distinctly antagonistic to all three of the right aims of religious music, Worship, Expression and Culture.

2. We should make a clear distinction betwen that which is easy and that which is cheap, between that which is attractive and that which is catchy.

Children should have easy and attractive music, of course, but too often we think that to be easy it must be cheap; and that to be attractive it must be catchy. I know a hymnal in which all the music is high-class. Yet it has a wonderful success in mission schools. I have taken boys with no musical training at all, and, with no great effort have trained them to sing effectively and sympathetically the Gloria from the Twelfth Mass, and a simplified version of the Hallelujah chorus. There is abundance of music sufficiently easy and attractive and yet neither cheap nor catchy, but permanent and worthy.

3. Use to some extent the church music. The use of music in Sunday School affords an opportunity to train the child for the enjoyment of the church music. Much of the latter, however, is unsuitable for use with children, but there are standard hymns the children can sing; and they should sing them to the standard

tunes.

4. Be careful in the use of the so-called evangelistic music with children, if you use it at all. There is grave doubt in many minds as to the wisdom of mass evangelism for children. But there is no doubt that it is unwise and unnatural to use evangelistic hymns as an emotional stimulant for the child. His songs should express child-religion, which is distinctly not of the evangelistic type. Some Gospel songs are eminently fitting and useful for children. But the great body of them are utterly unfit, even dangerous for children to use.

In conclusion we must keep in mind the legitimate purposes of religious music and make our Sunday School singing serve those ends. It is for the worship of God, and should be of such a character as to cultivate reverence. It is for expression of the religious nature and should express the true child-nature at its best and highest. It is a mighty means of culture and should give the child contact with the best art. We need to arrange our Sunday School music in the light of Jesus' solemn warnings against those who cause little children to stumble and His rich promises to those who minister to His little ones.