ter
factories, grander architecture, finer equipages, larger estates,
richer opulence.

Again: when our cities are purified the churches will be multiplied,
purified, and strengthened. Now, denominations, and the individuals of
the different sects, are often jealous of each other. Christians are
not always kindly disposed toward each other; and ministers of the
gospel sometimes forget the bond of brotherhood. In that day they will
be sympathetic and helpful. There may be differences of opinion and
sentiment, but no acerbity, no hypercriticism, and no exclusiveness.
In that day all the churches will be filled with worshippers. We
have not to-day, in the cities, church-room for one-fourth of our
population; and yet there is a great deal more room than the people
occupy. The churches do not average an attendance of five hundred
people. The vast majority do not attend public worship. But in the
day of which I speak there will be enough church-room to hold all the
people, and the room will be occupied. In that time what rousing songs
will be sung! What earnest sermons will be preached! What fervent
prayers will be offered! In these days a _fashionable_ church is a
place where, after a careful toilet, a few people come in, sit down,
and what time they can get their minds off their stores, or away from
the new style of hat in the seat before them, listen in silence to the
minister--warranted to hit no man's sins--and to the choir, who are
agreed to sing tunes that nobody knows; and, having passed away an
hour in dreamy lounging, go home refreshed.

I pronounce much of what is called "church music," in our day, a
mockery and a farce. Though I have neither a cultured voice nor a
cultured ear, no man shall do my singing. When the storms, and the
trees, and the dragons are called on to praise the Lord, I feel that
I must sing, for I know more about music than do the dragons. Nothing
can take the place of artistic music. The dollar that I pay to hear
Parepa or Nilsson sing is far from being wasted. But, when the hymn
is read, and the angels of God stoop from their thrones to bear up
on their wings the praise of the great congregation, let us not drive
them away with our indifference. I have preached in churches where
fabulous sums of money were paid to performers, and the harmony was
exquisite as any harmony that ever went up from an Academy of Music;
and yet, for all the purposes of devotion, I would prefer the hearty,
out-brea