choice of the opening anthem should be at least indirectly controlled by the pastor, and made to contribute to the definite purpose of the service. I do not mean that the words of the anthem, any more than the opening hymns, should bear directly on the theme of the sermon. That were shallow logic. The opening anthem should rather strike the emotional key of the service and so prepare the hearts of the worshippers for what is to follow. If he will suggest his theme and the nature of the desired sentiment to the choir, it will usually be sufficient.

There is other special music besides anthems that the choir can render in the development of the pastor's plans. Once in a while it will be effective to sing some Gospel song, giving it a little more emotional expression than is possible with the general congregation. Such pieces as "I Need Thee Every Hour," "Safe in the Arms of Jesus," "It is Well with My Soul," "Almost Persuaded," will be revitalized and made more freshly effective by such a method. Then there are responses either before or after prayer, which, if properly managed and not used too continuously and mechanically, will be very impressive and helpful.

A good choir, in sympathy with the church and its varied work, can be exceedingly useful outside of the regular church service. It can be of inestimable value in special services, both by making them attractive to outsiders and by deepening the emotional impression upon the people. They can be used occasionally in the special Sunday-school services and meetings with admirable results. For social gatherings of the church they can provide secular numbers that will add brightness and cheer. They can provide concerts for special objects, not

only to raise money for them, but to create general interest in them. The strategic value of the choir will be immense, if properly managed by a pastor who is a wise general.

XII

THE CHOIR IN THE CHURCH SERVICE

A

WORD or two regarding the actual work of the choir in the church service may not be

amiss.

Wherever it is possible, the choir should gather in a separate room and take their places in the choir loft as a body, marching in regular order. Personally I find it very offensive and distracting to see the choir straggling in one by one, taking off their wraps, fussing with their hats and ribbons, chatting, laughing, giggling. It is an unseemly introduction to the solemn work that is to be done, and the unseemly conduct easily carries over into the service itself. Where there is no separate room available, the best must be made of the situation. The director ought to have a frank discussion of the matter with the choir and secure a general agreement to secure the utmost possible decorum while the choir is gathering.

Where the room for gathering is available and the choir can enter in a body, the question of a processional will naturally come up. It is a very impressive and

effective exercise that will be advisable at least semi-occasionally. However, much will depend on its effect on the congregation. If there is a respectable minority that objects to it, as an aping after the practices of liturgic churches, it should not be done. Then there are persons of severe taste to whom the performance will appear theatrical and spectacular, and their sense of fit

ness must be respected as well as the conscientious scruples of the others. In such cases the processional will do the minority more harm than it will do the others good.

It is unfortunate that all musical people do not have good taste in millinery and dress. The artistic temperament of some singers seems in many cases to so overflow on the person, in a very inundation of spectacular headgear and gorgeous raiment, as to offend the taste and distract the devotions of persons in the congregation who have severer ideals. The dissonance between the vanity that prompts such excessive if not vulgar dressiness and the purposes of the assembly is so harsh, that it is not strange that there is frequent complaint. Even where there is no individual excess, there may be such lack of harmony between the colours worn by the different ladies that again there will be good cause for complaint on the part of persons of fastidious taste. I well remember how a choir looked one Sunday morning during a season when red was the fashionable colour. The shirt-waists of the ladies flamed in pink, in scarlet, in crimson, in cherry red, in purple red, in magenta, in carmine, in cardinal, in cerise. If some one had placed an arm across the keyboard of the full organ, the clash and clamour and discord could not have been worse.

There are two ways of preventing these unseemly displays of finery in the choir loft. One is for the director to talk the matter over with his more influential ladies and create a sentiment in favour of modest, inconspicuous clothes that will not only create but enforce an unwritten law that gay clothing shall not be worn in the choir, the offending culprit to be punished with merciless banter, persiflage and ridicule.

The other way is to introduce a regular uniform, either the traditional one of cassock and cotta with a "mortar board" for the ladies, or some less formal dress agreed upon by them. A surpliced choir is apt to rouse traditional prejudices as savouring of "popery " in many congregations. The gain is too small to warrant running the risk of harming "weak brethren," or of dividing the church by insisting on the regular vestments. In nine cases out of ten the best solution is for the men to wear their regular costumes and the women to wear plain black or shades of gray.

Many choirs make a very bad impression by the awkward, straggling way in which they rise. There should be special practice in rising promptly and uniformly in the rehearsal, so that this fault may be avoided. The director's signal should be so clear as not to fail to be understood by the choir and yet so inconspicuous that the congregation will not notice it. Not until the choir is standing should the organist begin the prelude of the anthem. In case the anthem has no formal prelude, the opening two or four measures may be played as such. The important point is that the choir shall get not only the pitch but the tonality of the music about to be sung.

Whether the director shall stand before the choir to beat time and direct the music, must depend chiefly on the size of the choir, although even a well-trained large choir may dispense with this aid. The amount of demonstration natural to the director must also be considered. If he is extremely nervous and active, given to varied and striking gesticulation, the help he affords the choir will be more than neutralized by the distraction he forces upon the congregation. On the other hand, if he is dignified and quietly expressive of the feelings to be given