6. Varied Expression. Psalm xxii., xxxi., xxxvi., xl., xli., xlii., xliii., li., lxix., lxxi., lxxxix., cii., cxxx. Psalm i., xxxvii. 7. Didactic Sentiment. THE READING OF HYMNS. This department of pulpit elocution is one which requires, more than any other, the closest attention of the student. Our existing modes of education are so generally imperfect, as regards the early training of the voice, that habit is, in most cases, formed to defective and erroneous modes of reading, long before an individual has arrived at maturity. Few persons, comparatively, seem to possess the power of uttering the words of a lyric stanza, in the spirit of poetic feeling; and few, indeed, seem capable of reading verse without a false intonation, which, when applied to the beautiful language of the poet, makes it fall on the ear "Like sweet bells jangled, — out of tune and harsh.” Many pulpit readers are actually so little moulded, either by nature or art, for the exercise of devotional reading, that the loftiest inspirations of the sacred muse, become, in their hands, absolute doggerel to the ear. The associations of devotion are thus thrust out of the mind of the hearer, to make room for those of ludicrous incongruity. No reformation in the modes of public or of private life, is more urgently demanded by general sentiment, than a change, as regards the power of the Christian ministry to render the services of the pulpit appropriate and impressive in manner. In no respect is present deficiency so deeply and so generally felt, as in the preparatory act of - reading the hymn, which should be, in the reading not less than the singing of it,—the living voice of assembled hearts lifted to the throne of Infinite Majesty. The reading of the hymn should be the prelude by which both congregation and choir have their souls attuned to the sentiment of the sacred song, before entering on the performance of the accompanying strains of music. The best security for the appropriate and truly expressive singing of a psalm or hymn, is that just and impressive reading of it, which imparts its spirit to heart and ear. But to fulfil the apostolic injunction of "making melody in the heart," after a dull, cold, prosaic, or see-saw reading of the hymn, is a task next to impracticable. An attentive eye may, in fact,.see that, in such circumstances, the youthful and the thoughtless among a congregation, have, sometimes, as much as they can do, to preserve decorum. The situation of the student of theology, is by no means favorable to the acquisition of a command over the voice, such as the appropriate utterance of poetic sentiment, and, especially, in the lyric form, necessarily requires. He shares, in early years, in all the common disadvantages of imperfect cultivation of the vocal organs; and the sedentary and secluded life of his boyhood and youth, tends directly to reduce his power of organic action and expression. His daily life is one of intense cerebral action, in which the vital energies are withdrawn, to a great extent, from the muscular and nervous systems, which are the special apparatus of expressive action. As a student, he loses energy, and vivacity, and susceptibility, which are the necessary measures of his expressive power. The passive capacity of impression, which he has acquired by reading and contemplation, might, under a judicious system of proportioned culture, have been an element of vast effect; but its excess actually renders it an obstacle to expression. The receptive sensibility of the soul not being balanced by the power of utterance, oppresses rather than enlivens feeling, and quells rather than inspires the voice. Habit, and culture, and skill, are all required to render feeling tributary to expression. Passion and imagination are not less important to the reader than to the poet; and the discipline of these much neglected parts of man's constitution, is as valuable to the former as to the latter. Hence the great moment of personal cultivation and self-education in elocution, to him who would worthily occupy the pulpit, as the leader of an assembly met for the purposes of devotion. The power over human feeling which lies in a hymn appropriately read, is indescribable. It is difficult, indeed, for the most indifferent heart to escape from the appointed influence of the sanctuary, when the minister yields his whole soul to the sentiment and spirit of a hymn, and gives these forth in tones that come fresh from the great fount of feeling, and hallow the imagination with the presence of devotional associations. Add to such effects that of the well-tuned voice which breathes life and music into sound, and thus gives presence and audible beauty to the spirit of poetry; and the result becomes a combination which no man can resist, whose heart is not seared to every good influence.* Music is universally recognized as of divine ordination for the purposes of worship. But it is too generally forgotten that poetry is so also, and that, without the inspiration of the latter, the former is but the "sounding brass and the tinkling cymbal." The reading of the eminent servant of God referred to in the note to the preceding paragraph, ever indicated, in the tone and expression of "If I have ever been of any use, as an instrument of spiritual good, it has been, to a great extent, through the reading of sacred poetry: where I have had my choice of means, I have selected it in preference to any other. I would charge it on you, young men, to cultivate and cherish this invaluable aid to your usefulness." Such were the words of the late Dr. Nettleton to the students around his bed, during his last illness. the hymn, a soul baptized into its inmost sentiment and its deepest effect. His low-pitched, solemn, but sweet intonation could quell and absorb every heart in an assembled multitude, and cause the very frame of the hearer to thrill with the deep-felt sense of the reality of spiritual truths. The unlettered working-man felt, then, the efficacy of a human voice hallowed by genuine devotional feeling; and the cultivated student became aware how imagination, and taste, and ear, might all be rendered tributary to the deepest spiritual impressions. But, in addition to the usual disadvantages of imperfect culture, the clergyman, in the daily routine of life's active duties, has a host of impediments to the appropriate and impressive use of the voice, in conducting the part of public worship to which we now refer. He needs peculiar preventives to counteract unfavorable influences. He is called, not unfrequently, from the midst of active duties of a merely temporary, but, perhaps, of an exciting and absorbing character, to conduct the devotions of a weekday prayer meeting. He commences, perhaps, with the reading of a hymn, with the din and the bustle of business yet sounding in his ears, and its unavoidable cares yet lingering about his heart. Happy for him then, if his early culture had given him that instant susceptibility of feeling, by which the charm of poetry, lending its tributary aid to the spirit of devotion, the lines which he begins to read should instantly raise his soul to the height of seeing Him who is invisible, and inspire the power of uplifting the heart of the worshipping assemblage, by the utterance of a spirit attuned to the vivid tones of deep and genuine emotion! Without a degree of such effect, the reading of the hymn is but a desecration, and the meeting but a ceremony. Yet how often are such occasions found to pass unprofitably by, from, in part, this very circumstance! It were, perhaps, well worth while to inquire whether the coldness and deadness of heart which are so often lamented at such meetings, are not, in degree, owing to the absence of those appropriate expressions of the heart, which devotional poetry was meant to secure in the voice. Here, as elsewhere, there is a plain question of means and ends often overlooked, amidst a vain inquiry after remote rather than present sources of evil. The student, in practising the following exercises, should fix his attention on two points mainly, the deep feeling of the sentiment in each example, and the full expression of the heart in the tones of the voice. Next to these points ranks the correct "intonation," by means of inflection and "melody;" so as to keep the voice in tune, according to the form of poetry presented in each stanza. The full expression of feeling, is from our corrupted conventional habits in daily social life, which withhold the utterance of the heart, and muffle the sounds of the voice, -a thing which most students are apt to shrink from, under the very erroneous impression, that, if they give full and free vent to the emotion which a hymn inspires, they will appear affected or theatrically excessive in style, or deficient in judgment and taste. The elocutionist replies that genuine feeling can never be mistaken, and that such fears are unfounded. It is by listening to such suggestions that our prevalent coldness in hymnreading is produced. True elocution was perfectly exemplified in the noble and beautiful and impressive reading of the eminent individual before mentioned: no one ever ventured the insinuation that his manner was artificial or theatrical. What is needed is a full heart and a natural utterance, not labor and effort to reach a certain style or effect. Another source of defective hymn-reading, is the want of discrimination as to the proper difference between the tones of ordinary conversation and of prose reading, — in contrast with the appropriate style of utterance, which applies to the language of poetry; more especially when |