Saturday, February 13, 2010

04Jul1869, Speak Above One's Breath

DUFFERIN LODGE, July 4th, 1869.
—Church. At Miss Coutts's new church in the morning. Bishop Harris of Gibraltar preacht well. Responses and singing spiritless and sleepy to a degree : it seems impossible in England to have a full sound without a choir. Why don't people learn Public Worship from the Psalms ? "Sing praises lustily with a good courage." "Sing we merrily . . . make a cheerful noise." I believe there is a wretched prim notion among "respectable" people that it is improper to speak above one's breath.

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