ppear to
have been any instruction for their singing in any other than the _treble_.
The organists in general are very good performers, but, however well that
office is filled, the voices of the congregation are wanting, by which a
great improvement would be given to the harmony. In two of the
congregations I happen to have a more numerous acquaintance, and know that
numbers of the congregation have excellent judgment and good voices, and
many are good performers on the piano-forte and harp. In conversing with
several of them on this interesting and (to me) sublime subject, I have
heard as an objection to their joining in the psalmody with any extensive
power, that there are no persons, exclusively of the organist, to lead the
voices, whether treble, counter, tenor, or bass, and yet what a delightful
opportunity do these new churches afford; in general the sound is well and
equally distributed.

The sublimity of this part of divine worship has been well expressed by
many of our poets, translators, and versifiers of the Psalms--one of them
speaks the feelings of a sincere congregation when he says,

Arise my heart! my soul arise!
Jehovah praise! sing till the skies
Re-echo his ascending fame!
Rejoice and celebrate his name!

this does not admit of a deadly silence in the churches; and another
excellent appeal to the true believer is made in the following beautiful
and sublime act of devotion:--

Salvation! let the echo fly!
The spacious earth around!
While all the armies of the sky!
Conspire to raise the sound.

It is the conviction not only of myself but of others who are in the same
order of the musical profession, that the means of drawing forth the
universal voices of congregations is by a number, not less than four, nor
more than twelve, being _appointed_ by the authority of the clergyman or
minister, to sing with correct harmony, and with rather a louder tone than
they might do if only an ordinary singer in the worship of the day as a
congregational attendant. Those four (or more) voices would have the
effect, in a few months, of producing a great improvement in the singing
by the congregation at large; but such an _appointment_ must not be
alienated from its main purpose. These voices, scientifically as they will
be exercised, must not sing in solos, duos, trios, or quartettes; they
must be faithful to their institution, and must _lead the congregation;_
not merely exhibit themselves, like