BIRMINGHAM MUSICAL FESTIVAL. 215 



every one staying away performs a laudable act of self-denial ; if, 

 instead of examining by the test of our own reason whether the ac- 

 tion reprobated may not only be innocent, but even praiseworthy, 

 we take its sinfulness for granted ; if, instead of trying the ques- 

 tion on its own merits, we seek for palliations, excuses, or benefits, 

 which maj"-, in some measure, counterbalance the supposed evil ; we 

 then suffer human authority to usurp the power to which no man 

 can justly lay claim — that of arbitrarily enforcing on others his own 

 standard of right and wrong. Lest our readers should suppose that, 

 in the instance of festivals no one could be found to follow so imbe- 

 cile a course, we can assure them that we have perused more than 

 one notice of the Birmingham meeting in which the writers, while 

 professing to be friendly to music, regret that an object so pure as 

 the charity should be forwarded by means partaking of sin ! Our 

 opinion of charities we have already stated ; let us now show that 

 the opponents of sacred music are, through their ignorance of hu- 

 man nature, actually opposing their own avowed object, the spread 

 of true religion and piety. 



For the benefit of such cavillers, we beg to state that a large pro- 

 portion of the pleasure derived from sacred music is caused by the 

 operation of Veneratioti and Wonder (the faculties which give the 

 instinctive knowledge of the Deity and the desire to worship him) ; 

 and if Ideality throw her glowing mantle over the mingling vibra- 

 tions, what reason can be adduced why those to whom the talent is 

 given should not impress upon tones the same attributes which awe, 

 and at the same time delight, the soul in the Psalms and the Book 

 of Job ? Who was ever absurd enough to maintain that the sub- 

 lime poetry of the sacred volume withdraws the attention from the 

 simple idea ? and that, in perusing the Bible, we are delighted, not 

 with the truths it inculcates, but only with its figurative language 

 and lofty imagery ? The example of the inspired writers should 

 teach us that the surest means of diffusing religion and piety among 

 tlie mass of mankind is to press each vagrant feeling into the service 

 of tlie Creator, and thus fan the too often dormant spark into an 

 enduring flame not to be quenched with this mortal existence, but 

 destined to burn with ineffable splendour throunh the vista of eter- 

 nity. How many wlio repair to the liouse of worship with spirits 

 harassed by the troubles of the world or deadened by its cares, feel, 

 tlirough the soothing and elevating influence of sacred harmony, 

 their souls attuned to prayer and praise ? And what if the "high 

 cmbowed roof," underneath which wc assemble to partake of the in- 

 tellectual banquet, belongs to a building unconsccrated by man ? 



