an
playing in our churches. It is scarcely necessary to show what a large
field of good useful work is open to amateurs in this direction. We all
know that on the one hand parishes wholly agricultural--the other
suburban parishes in large towns--are utterly unable to pay for the
services of a professional player; while there is nothing so calculated
to lift up the heart of the congregations such as these are likely to
obtain, as good music. Would it not therefore be a pleasant duty for
anyone gifted with musical talent and leisure to qualify in the best
manner possible for this ennobling and helpful occupation?

The intending organ-player must ascertain that he or she has a gift for
music, and this need not be of the highest order, as even a small
portion of the gift can be improved with care, and fostered into
usefulness. A first rate ear can be a snare to those who trust to it too
much--although it is undoubtedly the best of servants, if kept in its
proper sphere of work. A very ordinary measure of talent, supplemented
by calm and good sense, clear power of thought, and determined
perseverance, will be a good foundation to start with. Good sense and
attention have more to do with the good music of ordinary persons (as
opposed, we mean, to remarkably clever ones) than people are apt to
think. It was said of Mendelssohn that music was the _accident_ of his
being; and there are many of whom the same could be said, with this
meaning--_i.e._, that the powers which make them succeed in music would
enable them to succeed in other great things if attempted.

We will therefore suppose the case of a young lady possessing a moderate
gift for music, desiring to improve it and herself, and to take up
organ playing with a view to real usefulness. She should first find out
whether her playing on the piano is perfectly correct, taking the
easiest possible music to exercise herself upon, and trying whether her
musical ear is competent to be her teacher in the matter of correctness.
If neither steady attention nor ear enable her to discover mistakes, she
had better consider that music is not the talent God has given her to
use to His glory. A musical ear may, however, be much improved by its
possessor. With even the smallest of voices she should join a choir or
madrigal society and learn to sing at sight. She should, when listening
to a musical performance, try to guess its key. She should endeavour to
know, without seeing, the sound