OPENING OP THE NEW ORGAN AT ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL, WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 361, 19 March 1880, Page 5

OPENING OP THE NEW ORGAN AT ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL, WELLINGTON.

Not withstanding the very inclement weather — a fmious northwester, with heavy showers of rain— there was a very large attendance yesterday morning (7th Oct.) at St. Mary's Cathedral, on the occasion of the opening of the new organ. The instrument is a very good one, combining great softness, power, and expression, and being eminently suited to the building iv which it is erected, it produces a remarkably fine effect. All the artists who have played on it admire it much. Mr. Manning, the organist, brought ont'tbe full power of the instrument in the grand march from " Eli." The choir of St. Mary's, assisted by that of Te Aro, rendered Glover's Third Mass and other selections very efficiently, but, owing to the penitential season of Lent, the ceremonies of the Mass were less solemn than they otherwise would have been. The Rev. Father M'Namara officiated, assisted by the Rev. Father Coffey. The Bishop preached the following sermon, which, being both eloquent and instructive, deserves to be printed in cvtenxo :— " Praise ye the Lord : praise Him with timbrel and choir ; praise Him with strings and organs." (Pp. 150, 1, i ) " My dear brethren,— These are the words of the Royal Prophet, by which he invites mankind to praise God, not only by the divine gift of human speech, but also by song and musical instruments. The text seems most appropriate for the present occasion. The word organ, fiora the. Greek organop, which means instrument, has be<sn most fitly applied to what i«, indeed, the musical instrument by excellence. For it is many instruments in one ;itis a whole orchestra at the command of one performer ; it is a little musical world m itself, emulating the softest tones of nature, and the deep loud voice of the awful thunder. It is a wonderful production of the ingenuity of man, by which hs borrows from wood and metals a variety and strength of harmonious sounds which He beyond the compass of the human voice. No wonder, then, that the Catholic Church, the great organ or instrument of God for the salvation of men, has permitted in her solemn ceremonies the use of an instrument so proper to impart majesty and animation to her divine worship. For what can be more appropriate than to offer the tribute of all that is beautiful in nature at the footstool of the God of the Beautiful ? The Catholic Church is true to her name. She has a catholicity of means for influencing the soul of man. She captivates his intellect by the splendour and harmony of her doctrines, while she gains his heart and imagination ; she sanctifies his senses— his eyes, his ears, his ta3te, and his feelings —by her magnificent ceremonial and her use of the arts in the worship of Almighty God. She knows, indeed, and she loudly teaches, that religion does not consist in pomp and external show of ceremony. We must worship God "in spirit and truth," or there is no religion ; if worship is not in spirit and truth, its most imposing ceremonies are magnificent pageantry and nothing more. But she employs the arts in the worship of God for the vety purpose of helping us to worship in spirit and truth. She says with the inspired prophet, " Praise the Lord with timbrel and choir ; praise Him with strings and organs ; " but she adds with him '• let every spirit vi'aisc the Lord." (Ps. 150.) As she uses architecture, sculpture, painting, and poetry in her worship, so does she also employ vocal and instrumental music. Music is the art of producing and combining certain sounds, so f>s to please the ear and touch the heart. Its object is to move. -g Truth is the principle of music as of all the other arts. But |Pnth in general is not addressed to the ear ; it is enjoyed by the mind alone. Consequently, every truth is not susceptible of expression by musical sounds, and music is a language of a peculiar and restricted kind. Truth, in respect to it, consists essentially in rendering and transmitting the emotions or affections of the soul : music expresses only inasmuch as it moves. Now our feelings are as real as our reason. As real as reason is the love of the beautiful within the human soul, and, therefore, the Church, by appealing to this sense, does not silence reason, does not lead reason captive ; but acts upon another power in the soul — acts upon the heart — acts upon and sanctifies the imagination and the love of the beautiful. Hence her wise adoption ot the humble services of music. But music must never forget that, in the Church, she is only a handmaid, and not a mistress ; that her mission is to do honour to higher things than herself ; that she has to minister to religion, not to

use it, much less degrade and profane it by the introduction of worldly strains, however marvellous, which merely gratify the sonses and extinguish devotion. For this reason, in the Diocesan Synod held in Wellington two years ago, several statutes were enacted against a profane and theatrical kind of music in our churches, and, at the Benediction of tho Blessed Sacrament, solos, especially by ladie3, are strongly discountenanced. But when music is what it ought to be, how heavenly and divine a thing it appears ! Though ignorant myself oE the deep mysteries of so wonderful a science, and art, I may be permitted to speak at some length on that general music, that religious music which is in the hearts of almost all men, and of which the other music is only the manifold and varied form, admirable indeed, but vastly inferior to its source, as the ray is inferior to the sun. Music — that cadenced and harmonious expression of the soul singing its thoughts and affections— is something divine. It is divine, because it is a melody ; and God is an eternal melody : the conversation of the three adorable persons of the Blessed trinity forms a continual harmony in the diversity of their august relations. Music is divine, because God governs all thing 3 with harmony ; for every species o£ harmony in sounds, in colours, in forms, in proportions, is but a faint echo, a pale reflection of the melodious beauties hidden, deep in God. The harmony of the revolving ages would entrance us, says S. Augustine, could it strike our feeble ear. " Qucr si scntiremus, delectatione iaeffabili mvleircmvr" Epist. IGO, n. 13.) Music is divine, because it brings us peace and joy, and the whole life of God is infinite joy in eternal bliss. Music is divine, because in well-disposed souls it produces a divine effect ; it awakens the slumbering fibres oE the heart ; it thrills them as with an electric spark ; it lifts the heart above the earth, and then the soul dreams of heavenly things. One would say that a celestial spirit had beckoned to it to come and commune on unearthly themes in a language the moro profound as it is inarticulate and opens up unbounded horizons. The Church has especially remarked that music gladdens and soothes the heart of man, and, as one of the chief aims of Christianity is to rejoice the soul by holy delights, the Church appeals to the resources of harmony. Her intention is that her ministers should organise such festivals in her temples as afford legitimate satisfaction to both body and soul. "My heart and my flesh," says the psalmist, "have rejoiced in the living God." (Ps. Ixxxiii.) I How beautiful is the teaching of the Holy Fathers in the same sense. Listen to S. John Chrysostom : — ••' We are naturally," he says, "so fond of singing, that little crying babes are instantly pacified by a sweet voice. Nurses are aware of it, and often use the innocent stratagem. The same influence is noticeable even in many brute bea«ta, which go briskly on at the driver's voice and cheering song. Who has not heard the ploughman sing, or the tiller of the vine 1 The mariner sings as he trims his sail, and the handmaid as she turns her mill. Why this general law ? Because the soul knows , by a mysterious instinct, that singing comforts us in all things, making work lighter and more agreeable. And so Almighty God, seeing that this fondness of singing is deeply engrained in our souls, has been pleased to introduce pacred song into His Church, for the sake both of pleasure and usefulness. He has vouchsafed to render the task of holy meditation more easy and grateful." Admire, my dear brethren, the maternal tenderness of the Church and her thoughtful condescension for our desires and pleasures, in order to lift them up to God. Man naturally loves sweet music ; he blends it with all his works, and when he has no taste for it that is a sign that moral life is waxing faint in his bosom. So thought England's greatest poet : — " Since nought so stockish, hard, full of rage, " But music for the time doth change his nature : " The man that hath no music in himself, " isor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, '• Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils ; I " The motions of his spirit are dull as night, " And his affections dark as Erebus : '• Let no such mau be trusted." (Merchant of Venice, Act 5, sc. 1.) j The Church, aware of this tendency or yearning of the heart, lays hold of it to sanctify it ; she will hive music in her temples, so that man's pleasure may be divinely satisfied. Let us lift our thoughts still higher. There is one master-prin-ciple in all Christian Philosophy which gives us a deep insight into the worship and discipline oE the Catholic Church. It is this : whatever is seen, touched, felt, or heard in the world, can have a divine and supernatural meaning or purpose, can serve to reveal to us the understanding and love of invisible thing-. •« What is there," says St. Leo, "that truth does not speak by." Quid cst ver quod veritas non loquitur 1 Serm. 19 ) "* Even music which, to superficial minds, is a merely profane and world art, and usually serves for frivolous or hurtful dissipation, can become for the attentive ear a sort of sacrament disclosing profound and sublime mysteries. " Creatures sensibiles significant aliquid sacrum," says S. Thomas of Aquin. Sensible creatures have a sacred meaning in them. The whole of creation is a vast organ in the hands of God, who speaks or sings to man with myriad sounds or voices* God is the first architect that framed this wonderful temple of the universe. God is the first sculptor that struck with his chisel the marble rocks, and fashioned the-n as he would. God is the first painter that touched with his brush the flower of the valley, and tinged with deep azure the broad expanse of ocean. God is the first decorator that studded with gems the milky -way and spread his arch of splendour across the concave of his temple. God entoned the first triumphal son?, when he bade his angels, at creation's dawn, " slwxit for joy," and the " morning stars sing together ;" when the new-born world was ringing with his praises, 'until the intruder sin broke tha unly rsal chorus, tore the harp-strings from the angels, and jarred against nature's chime ; but then the same good and merciful God, by conquering sin and death, brought back the lost melody. Ec it was who sanctified the art of music ; He it was who declared that music should become in Heaven itself eternal. All other arts faint at the gates of the everlasting city. The chisel falls from the sculptor's

hand on beholding his magnificent ideals realised and far surpassed ; the painter ilings away bis brush in view of the glorious colouring beyond the stars ; the poet no longer breathes the song of hope, but enjoys eternal fruition ; the architect plans and builds no more, when he enters the everlasting palace of God ; all the other arts resign their mission, but glorious music survives them all, and flying in. as it were, through tile gates o£ light, she gives lessons to the angels, and the architect and the sculptor, and the painter and the poet become for eternity the children of song. But music has a prior mission 0:1 earth. She is intended to lift us up to God ; she is to lend us wings to soar aloft an 1 be united with all that is beautiful, true, grand, noble, graceful, and regular ; for all that in ihe ideal point of view is God, or the image of God. Religious mubic. especially, effects these wonders. The organ in partfcular has something majestic, solemn, grave, mellow, sweetly mournful, which steals over the soul, masters it, and leads it up into a purer region where its •' conversation is in Heaven." The organ is the emblem of Christ. Know you not that Jesus Christ, whom we adore, is universal music, universal harmony ? He is the centre of the woild ; the mainspring, the keynote of creation. " Omnia in ijiso constant,'' says S. Paul—'- In him all things consist" (Col. i. 17). He makes the universe one immense concert, delightful to the Creator's car. He is the great organist of the world. From every touch of His hand there issues an infinite flood of harmony such as no other hand can cause. Let me explain.

We arc told by holy writ that God made all things for Himself and His glory. Omnia ]>ropter semetipxuiii ope rat us r-tt Deux. Glorio,m tiwatn alterh non tlabo. Now to fully understand this we must know what is meant by glory, what glory God can derive from His creatures, and how that glory comes to Him from Christ and Christ alone.

Glory, according to B. Thomas, is the clear knowledge of excellence accompanied with the praise of that excellence — clara notitia cum. lande. Thus, a man is glorified or receives glory in the world when any great quality or excellence of his is fully known by his fellow-men and he is praised for it accordingly. Lot us apply these notions to God. In God we must distinguish two kinds of glory which are widely different — His intrinsic glory and His extrinsic glory. The intrinsic glory of God is the one which He gives Himself eternally in the Blessed Trinity, H3 knows Himself infinitely, and therefore gives Himself glory equal to that knowledge — that is, infinite glory. This glory is essential to Him, and wholly independent of the creation. But there is nnother sort of glory called mttirard or crtrinsie, which is derived from creatures, and therefore is dependent on the fact of God's having freely created the world. Now this gloiy redounds to God in a very different manner according as His creatures are irrational or rational. God beholds the irrational creation, the heavens, the earth, the minerals, the plants, the animals ; He sees that they arc perfect in their way ; that is, they exactly realise the idea which God intended them to reproduce. God knows the qualities or excellencies which He has put in them, and praises Himself for them. His glory, strictly speaking, docs not come from them but from Himself. Not so with regard to rational creatures, that is, angels and men. They are able, by the light of intelligence, to know God and His perfections, so as to praise Him and glorify Him as their sovereign Lord and last end. But here arises a grave and splendid problem. Supposing God determines to derive from such rational beings a glory worthy of Himself at all points, an adequate glory, how can He do so ? God, being infinite, claims infinite glory. But all creatures are essentially limited, or finite, and therefore utterly unable to give their Maker infinite glory. I see God standing on His eternal throne and looking around on the fair face of His creation. He appeals to the greatest saint, to the highest scraph — '• Give me,*' He says, " give me glory like myself, infinite." But all creation lies prostrate in adoring silence. Then God solves His own problem. The second person of the adorable Trinity shall assume that creation, deify it, and so enable it to give infinite glory. This was done by Jesus Christ, that is, by the mystery of the Incarnation. God the Son, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, took — in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by the operation of the Holy Ghost— a human nature— that is, a body and soul like onrs in all things except sin, but without a human personality. In Christ there is only one person — the Divine person, but two natures— the Divine nature which He has from all eternity and the human nature which he took in time. Now, it is an indubitable principle that in every rational being of a compound nature the dignity and merit of every action are attributed, not to the inferior nature or faculty, but to the person. So in man. When 1 say I walk, I see, I speak— l refer what I do to that something in me which rules the rest, which is the centre of attributions ; in other words, I attribute it to the personality in me. In like manner, in Jesus Christ the actions which He performed with nis human nature — with His soul or body, with His mind or heart, with His eyes, hands, ears, senses — are' referred for their dignity and merit to f .he Divine personality in Him ; and, as that personality is infinite, it follows that the actions become of infinite worth and dignity. It is always a God that acts even iv human faculties ; a fi jl p 'nys, a God walks, a God adores, a God knows, praises, loves. Ninr, indeed, God can appeal to His creation for infinite glory, and His appeal is answered to the full. By Jesas Christ every degree of cieation is deified and enabled to .sing a hymn of infinite praise. By assuming human nature God the Son took np the whole of creation, from its lowest to its highest limit ; for man is a microcosm — an epitome of the whole world, both material and spiritual. Iv his body ho sums up the minerals, the vegetables, and the animals : that is the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, as th^y arc scientifically denominated. In his soul he is like the angels ; he sums up. he epikn ises the spiritual world, or the world of spirits. This body and soul were assumed by the second person of God in the God-man Jesus Christ ; and so in Christ all the world returns to God, all the world is deified, all the world pours forth praise and glory to God simply infinite. Hence Jesus Christ is the great and sole organ and organist of God's infinite glory. But— oh sublime destiny !— we are called to join Christ in his

production of this divine harmony. l»y becoming one with Him through grace and charity in. this world and by eternal glory in the next we can enter this universal concert, we can sing n hymn worthy of God's infinite excellence In the name, therefore, of Jesus Christ, the Sovereign, Artist, I now consjera'c this line new organ to the service of God. May it long be hciv the echo of divine thoughts and words, and carry up to Heaven in. harmonious strains the expression of our deep love and gratitude. May it leach us the secret oE melodies superior to any earthly sounds. To Cluist the Word, who is so to speak the universal music of the world, J commend thee, oh organ, noble emblem o£ the God-man. Be true to thy mission ; teach men, by thy thrilling notes, thai there are sounds beyond this world, and that every human soul is an immortal breath in a fragile organism. Tell them that this soul is now a poor exile in a vale of tears ; but that, if faithful to Christ, it will ere long join the concerts of the angels in everlasting bliss. Amen. As the organ has a pretty front most tastefully painted, it contributes not a little to adorn the gallery, which has b^en enlarged, according to the design of Mr. Charles O'Neill, architect ; and Mr. Farrell, the eminent organ builder, deserves great credit for his prompt and perfect erection and tuning o£ the instrument, the workmanship of which he greatly admires.