crease our tunefulness; will add to the joyous enthusiasm of our songs and give added splendor to the Universal Symphony as we, nationally, go Singing through Life with God.

CHAPTER IX

SONGS AND SONGS

WHO can estimate or recount the variety of songs there are in the world? Any catalogue that gives a score, a hundred, a thousand, varieties is still incomplete. There are as many kinds of song as there are varieties of human beings—and they seem to be endless. And, unfortunately, while men manifest imperfection and allow human passions, frailties, desires, emotions, and prejudices to dominate them, there will be many songs that are not universal in their character, that have not good as their aim, and that, therefore, would be out of place in the Universal Symphony. These songs may be personal and individual, or they may be national and racial, yet, all alike, their fitness must be judged by their unselfishness, their general helpfulness, and the upward tendencies of their themes.

What has become of all the songs sung in honor of "lost causes ?" Songs to Prince Charlie; the songs of the South during the Civil War; the songs of Ireland prior to their subjugation by the Prince of Orange, or Cromwell, or whoever it was; the songs of the Poles before their country was parti

tioned by the "Powers;" the songs of the Indians just before some bloody conflict in which they were practically exterminated; the national songs of nations that have been swallowed up by other nations; the songs of tribes that have long since forgotten they were tribes-where have they all gone, and what effect have they had upon man, upon the deep down inner soul of him, as well as upon his exterior life that we call his history?

Cannot one hear distinctly the songs of the Crusaders those bands of the flower of European chivalry of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, who went forth from Europe to make freely accessible the Holy Sepulchre to the various pilgrims who sought some blessing by visiting the reputed burying place of Jesus the Christ? The unholy Saracen had seized Jerusalem, as far back as A. D. 631, but about 1065 the Turks began to block all free access to the grave of the Messiah of the Christian. Aroused by the fierce preaching of Peter the Hermit, and led by Godfrey of Bouillon, the first Crusade set forth to drive out the Turk, led by the Hermit and the uplifted Cross, singing hymns and martial songs, and vowing the destruction of the infidel. Seven other Crusades followed this first unsuccessful one, and it was not until 1270 that the agitation ceased. And from that time until December 10, 1917, when General Allenby and the British forces of his command entered the Holy City, the Turk has had

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practical possession of the most sacred city of Christendom.

While the Crusades were unsuccessful in the object they set forth to accomplish, they are a wonderful illustration of the Psalmist's declaration, that God maketh the wrath of man to praise Him. In spite of their positive assurance that God would fight with and for them against the Turk, the latter defeated and drove them from the land. Yet, though millions of lives were lost, the contact with the Arabs and others exerted a powerful influence upon occidental civilization, and undoubtedly laid the foundation for that great revival of learning, which began two centuries later, known as the Renaissance.

Now the question arises, were these songs of the Crusades, was the effort itself, pleasing to the Great Conductor? And so it may be asked of thousands of similar efforts. I am thankful I do not have to decide the question. Yet I cannot believe that God has ever listened to the songs of aggression, of the "warriors bold" of past ages, or the present, who have gone forth to slay and possess for their own selfish purposes. As soon could I believe that God urges on the burglar, the thief and the murderer.

I doubt much whether the tumult and shouting of war captains and fighting hosts of over-marching and triumphant legions, of cheering and yelling battalions drunk with the power of successful aggression; I doubt whether the forced and false hailings of kings

and kaisers, emperors and czars, the mock enthusi asm and half-hearted welcomes wrung from sycophant courtiers, grasping parasites, or half scared servitors; I doubt whether the maudlin revelings, the beer-soaked songs, the whiskey-breathed rejoicings of drunken students; I doubt whether the secretly sung and unvocal songs of the minters and misers of money, each piece unjustly wrung from struggling manhood, or filched by crafty cunning, by lies and deceit, from ignorant and trusting clients; I doubt whether the organ peals that ring from the palaces of those who have amassed their great fortunes by selling liquor that robbed men of their brains; I doubt whether the songs of haughty pride sung by the expensive automobiles, the luxurious yachts, the gorgeous clothing, the lavish jewels, the unnecessary and wasteful extravagance of food, the needless retinues of idle and sycophant servants of the stockmanipulators of Wall street; I doubt whether the selfish, heartless and cruel shoutings and songs of those who were willing to see trained gladiators slay each other to make a Roman holiday, or the ribald songs and frenzied cries of the bull-fighting arena, the cockpit or the prize ring; I doubt even whether the joyous songs of the pothunter, as he slays with his far sighted and deadly rifle the unsuspecting quarry of the mountains; I doubt whether any of these vocal or unvocal songs or choruses were or are ever heard with joy by God and His listening