Singing in Families by Emma E. Sturges

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 24, 1871

Singing in Families.

By Emma E. Sturges

In ancient times among the families of Germany it was a common practice with parents to teach their children hymns and spiritual songs. The children had thus useful employment afforded them to fill up the time which otherwise would have been spent in idleness, or something worse. They acquired a taste and cultivated a talent for singing. To this simple practice may be attributed, in a great degree, the finely cultivated musical talent of German people.

Nothing so cheers the family circle, nothing so unites sisters and brothers, parents and children, as blending heart and voice in hymns of praise around the family altar. Take the family where parents and children are accustomed to mingle their voices together in song, and you will find, in almost every instance, that peace, harmony and love prevail, and the great vices have no abiding place. The songs of childhood and youth are never lost, they echo on in the soul through scenes of joy or woe. The cold river of death can silence them only for a little while, for music is a science carried on in Heaven.

It should be practiced in every family; for it is one of the most important parts of our self-culture. The child is never too young to listen to this Heaven-ordained science, the sooner the better, for taste and appreciation can be early trained; and one can “grow in music” as he “grows in grace,” and by-and-by be permitted to join in singing that “new song” the song of the redeemed.

EMMA E. STURGES.

Fairfield, Conn.