The Pen
5
EPIPHANY AT ST. AUGUSTINE’S
One star, one candle, a flood of song
which makes all hearts one, are sym
bols of the spirit of Epiphany at the
first service of that season at St.
Augustine’s.
Seldom has there been a year when
all seats were not filled with men and
women, with college students, and
small children. *'
One bright star shines from above
the altar. The three kings, faithful
pictures of the men of old, go before
the choir, proceeding to offer their
gifts and their songs to the Christ
Child. A single candle burns on the
altar, in the shadow of the evergreens.
This candle symbolizes the Child, the
Perfect Light.
Hundreds of people stand in awe,
aware of nothing in the little stone
chapel but the absolute communion
of the Epiphany spirit, the manifesta
tion of Christ. Every breath becomes
a note of praise, and the tiny candle
burns on, calmly, peacefully.
When the hymns are sung, the chil
dren’s voices become louder than the
choir. This is their way of showing
that they, too, belong.
From the symbolic light, a flame
is taken which in turn is given by
the three kings to lovely slender
tapers held in the hands of every per
son.
The choir is a picture of old Eng
land as the tapers light their faces.
The girls in capes and Canterbury
caps, the boys, regularly vested, stand
in the aisle, while the congregation
passes out between them as they sing.
Once outside, the college girls form
themselves into a cross, holding high
their lights. In this manner they
march around the campus singing
hymns of the season until the tapers
are burned out.
When man himself can praise with
such reverence and beauty, think how
great the blessings of the God who is
the source of infinitely more and
deeper love!
MUSIC AND LIFE
Music has often been regarded by
many as a beautiful, highly emotional
medium for the expression of the
aesthetic sublimities to which the hu
man soul can aspire. As such, it most
certainly occupies a very definite place
in the human equipment for the com
bating of life’s complexities, for with
out a means of expressing itself, the
soul withers and dies, much as a
rare flower does when deprived of
necessary stimulation. But few peo
ple have ever viewed music in the
light of an everyday essential, a vital
cog in the ordinary human mechan
ism; when an effort is undertaken to
reveal this relationship, the puritan-
"ical adherents to the art immediately
become horrified at the prospect of
literal desecration of that which is
sacred. In total disregard of such
bigoted circumscription, however, let
us briefly note some practical connec
tions which serve to bind music’s
transcendent characteristics to life’s
eternal mysteries.
First, let us consider the three
fundamental essentials upon which all
music is based, namely: rhythm, bet
ter known as definite pulse; melody,
the succession of pleasant auditory
sounds; and harmony, applying to
definite arrangement as to pattern and
euphonious regularity.
Having observed these elements in
their own realm, our next task then,