Music in the Home by Clemen Hamer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 7, 1916

Music in the Home

By Clemen Hamer

CLEMEN HAMER

Music may be made a great blessing in the home, as well as a pleasure, or it may become just the opposite. It all depends on whether it is regarded as a gift from God, to be used to his glory, or merely as a means for the gratification of self.

Fathers and mothers, should you see in your child the gift of music, do not deny him the privilege of cultivating it as far as possible, lest by so doing you may be held accountable for burying a talent. But all the time seek to impress upon the young mind that this gift comes from God, and show how it may be used in his work.

There is always need in God's service for consecrated musical talent, and it will be available if the right standard is held up before the youth in our homes.

Let us keep the standard of our music high. We are careful to choose the purest, most elevating literature for our homes. Shall we not be just as careful to have in them only such music as will elevate and refine, and lead to purer, nobler thoughts and better lives? The cheap, commonplace sheet music, the sentimental and often vulgar songs that many sing for a little while and that then drop into the oblivion they deserve, should find no place in the Christian home. The greater part of the popular music of the present day is to pure music what the yellow-backed novel is to good literature.

Music may be the means of binding the hearts of the members of the home together, of helping to make it the most attractive place on earth. Father, do not lose patience if your daughter sings or plays when you, perhaps, have come home tired, and desire to rest. How thankful you should be that she is with you, and that she is light-hearted enough to sing!

How much happier is the home that echoes the voice of song than the one where strife and contention are heard! What pleasanter picture can be imagined than a comfortable home, with father, mother, sons, and daughters gathered to welcome the Sabbath, lifting their voices not only in prayer, but also in songs of praise to their Maker. Though the boy you love so well may sometime wander away for a time from such a home, and from the God you serve, the memory and influence of the prayers and songs which went up from your family altar will never leave him.

Let us make music one means of binding the home together, and of drawing us nearer to God, who gave us voices with which to praise him.