f,
ignorant of the fact that music can never be immoral in itself, but
only through evil associations. St. Augustine took a different view of
music from St. Jerome. When he first heard the Christian chant at
Milan he exclaimed: "Oh, my God! When the sweet voice of the
congregation broke upon mine ear, how I wept over Thy hymns of praise.
The sound poured into mine ears and Thy truth entered my heart. Then
glowed within me the spirit of devotion; tears poured forth, and I
rejoiced." Here we have an illustration of how music intensifies and
exalts the emotions of educated men. St. Augustine's devotion "glowed
within him" when he heard the music. It is for this power that the
church has always employed music as a hand-maid; and those
ecclesiastics who would to-day banish it arbitrarily from the church,
know not what a valuable ally they are blindly repulsing in these
days of religious scepticism. As Mr. Gladstone very recently remarked:
"Ever since the time of St. Augustine, I might perhaps say of St.
Paul, the power of music in assisting Christian devotion has been upon
record, and great schools of Christian musicians have attested and
confirmed the union of the art with worship."

But the greatest musical enthusiast in the ranks of mediaeval churchmen
was Martin Luther. To judge by the extraordinary influence which music
had on him, Luther must doubtless be classed among the lowest of
savages, if Dr. Hanslick is right in saying that it is on savages that
music exerts its greatest influence. He wrote a special treatise on
music, in which he placed it next to theology. "Besides theology," he
wrote in a letter to the musician Senfel, "music is the only art
capable of affording peace and joy of the heart like that induced by
the study of the science of divinity. The proof of this is that the
devil, the originator of sorrowful anxieties and restless troubles,
flees before the sound of music almost as much as he does before the
Word of God. This is why the prophets preferred music before all the
other arts ... proclaiming the Word in psalms and hymns.... My heart,
which is full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by
music when sick and weary."

Luther had a good voice and a knowledge of musical composition. He
played the flute and the lute, and in church he introduced
congregational singing, in which the people took an active part in
worship by means of the chorales. It is related that, as a child, he
used