darchildre | (no subject)

Things I have meant to post about today, but have been away from my computer and thus unable to:

- So, someone donated a bunch of hymnals to my church. We've never had hymnals, so we're trying to ease into using them and today was the first time we did so. Which meant that I spent most of the sermon leafing through the hymnal. I wish to share with you John Wesley's Rules for Singing, which were in the front of the hymnal, because I find them utterly charming.

Learn these tunes before you learn any others; afterwards learn as many as you please.

Sing them exactly as they are printed here, without altering or mending them at all; and if you have learned to sing them otherwise, unlearn it as soon as you can.

Sing all. See that you join with the congregation as frequently as you can. Let not a slight degree of weakness or weariness hinder you. If it is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find it a blessing.

Sing lustily and with a good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard, than when you sung the songs of Satan.

Sing modestly. Do not bawl, so as to be heard above or distinct from the rest of the congregation, that you may not destroy harmony, but strive to unite your voices together, so as to make one clear melodious sound.

Sing in time. Whatever time is sung be sure to keep with it. Do not run before nor stay behind it; but attend close to the leading voices, and move therewith as exactly as you can; and take care not to sing too slow. This drawling way naturally steals on all who are lazy; and it is high time to drive it out from us, and sing all our tunes just as quick as we did at first.

Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he cometh in the clouds of heaven.

"Sing lustily and with a good courage." Isn't that marvelous?

- When I work on Sundays, I drive there straight from church. Sometimes, as today, I get there quite a bit early, so I spend the time reading in my car while I eat lunch. Today, I was starting The Haunting of Hill House, which I haven't read in far too long. Hill House has one of the best opening paragraphs ever so, being through with my lunch, I read it out loud. And then didn't stop.

I forget how much I enjoy reading aloud to myself, because I don't often have opportunity to do it. I flatter myself that I read aloud fairly well, with the right sort of book. I do quite nicely with Shirley Jackson and it was lovely, reading to myself all alone in the car with the rain tapping quiet on the roof.

I forget, too, how good Shirley Jackson is. I do occasionally find it a little disquieting, how easily and completely I identify and sympathize with her protagonists, but I love her stories and her characters and her use of language. I should buy a book of her short stories. I haven't read those in far too long either.