| The Beauty of Self Control |
Chapter 15 |
Page 6 |
If we would have such musical outflow in our lives we must keep love in our hearts. Nothing but love makes music. Hate is always discordant. One of the finest things the world has heard in recent days is the news of the movement for a treaty of international peace. This is a sign of the coming fulfillment of the glorious reign of peace of which the prophets spoke, when wars shall cease, when the nations shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. There is a picture called Peace. It is of a quiet meadow scene, with a cannon lying amid the grass and flowers. A lamb is feeding there. The warlike gun is now part of the picture of peace. But the gun, even resting, spoils the picture. Here is something better. A tourist tells of visiting a little village in Germany where the church bells that rang on Sundays were made of cannon that had been used in the Franco Prussian War. Instead of belching forth death, the guns now proclaim peace. Dr. Jowett tells of a shop where he saw workmen making Boer shells into pots and dishes. That is precisely what the prophet foretold concerning the changing of implements of war into the implements of peace. Every Christian should help to make it true that nations shall learn war no more. Then would the angel’s song, “Peace on earth, good will to men,” become part of the glad life of the world.
This life of song – psalms and hymns and spiritual songs – should be the music of every Christian community, of every Christian home. How much broken music there is in many homes! Instruments out of tune make discourdance in the music. Musical people speak of certain harsh sounds in instruments as wolf notes. There are wolf notes in the music of some homes where violent tempers are indulged, where jealousy, hate, lust, the wild utterances of passion, mar the music. The word of Christ dwelling in the heart would produce a life of song – “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs – should be the music of every Christian community, of every Christina home. How much broken music there is in many homes! Instruments out of tune make discordance in the music. Musical people speak of certain harsh sounds in instruments as wolf notes. There are wolf notes in the music of some homes where violent tempers are indulged, where jealousy, hate, lust, the wild utterances of passion, mar the music. The word of Christ dwelling in the heart would produce a life of song – psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” – every jarring discord hushed into harmony. That is what Christian peace is. That is what love is.
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