LITERARY NOTICES by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · May 24, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 21.

LITERARY NOTICES.

By Editor

“The Joy Bells of Canaan: Burning Bush Songs No. 2.” Muslin or manila covers; 127 pp; price 20 and 15 cents. Published by The Burning Bush, 999 Park Ave., Chicago, Ill.

This collection of hymns contains a number of the ringing Gospel melodies of the day and a few of the old familiar tunes that are never worn out; but many of the others are poor. The poetry of those that have been altered to harmonize with a certain belief has been badly handled in the rearrangement. Some of the more familiar tunes have been “arranged,” and not helped in the “arrangement.” The book also contains a considerable number of new songs. In these, while the music is passable, the verses are far below the standard in poetical merit. What reason or poetry or worship is there in such as this:

“Each saint is a priest and has bells about his feet; Rich fruit intermingles and makes their ring most sweet. The holy and the holiest are open now to all, But we still need the bells, and the fruit prevents a fall.”

Or compare the following couplet with one of the psalms of David:

“One night I went to meeting to hear them sing and shout, And there I got salvation and found the secret out.”

Or think of singing such nonsense as the following and calling it one of the Joy Bells of Canaan, offering it as a hymn of praise to our Lord:

“Then this prophet forth was sent, that old Nineveh might repent; But instead of that to Tarshish he set sail. O, the winds began to blow; overboard did Jonah go, And he found a mercy-seat inside the whale.”

We protest that God is not honored in any such composition as the above, nor are hungry souls fed or drawn to Christ. If writers of music were as choice of the words they set to music as they are of complying with the laws of musical composition, the Lord would be more honored in the songs heard in the house of worship.