Singing Down Anger by Beecher

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 15, 1872

Singing Down Anger.

By Beecher

I REMEMBER a remarkable instance which occurred in my father’s lecture-room during one of those sweet scenes which preceded the separation of the Presbyterian church into the Old and New Schools. At that time controversy ran high, and there were fire and zeal and wrath mingled with discussion; and whoever sat in the chair, the devil presided. On the occasion to which I refer, an old Scotchman, six feet high, much bent with age, with blue eyes, large features, very pale and white all over his face, and bald-headed, walked up and down the back part of the room; and as the dispute grew furious, he (and only he could have done it) would stop and call out, “Mr. Maudera-a-tor, let us sing ‘Salva-a-tion;’” and some would strike up and sing the tune, and the men who were in angry debate were cut short; but one by one they joined in, and before they had sung the hymn through they were all calm and quiet. When they resumed the controversy, it was on a much lower key. So this good old man walked up and down, and threw a hymn into the quarrel every few moments, and kept the religious antagonists from absolute explosion and fighting. It is the nature of hymns to quell irascible feeling. I do not think that a man who was mad could sing six verses through without regaining his temper before he got to the end.—Beecher.