The Spirit of PraiseTranscribed from “ The New York Choralist: A New and Copious Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Adapted to All the Various Metres in General Use. Anthems and Set Pieces. By Thomas Hastings and William Bradbury. New York: Published by Mark H. Newman & Co., No. 199 Broadway, 1847, page 35.[I transcribed this article in January of 2007 for another of my blogs. Please feel free to reprint as needed. I would appreciate, if you could the acknowledgement: "Transcribed by Mary Katherine May, owner of Quality Music and Books." Thank you, and God bless. ... babamarusia]
Is the owner of this volume associated with those who lead in the songs of Zion? A precious privelege! Delightful employment! It is the occupation of angels and of glorified spirits in the temple above. Prayer and the ministrations of the word will cease with the termination of earthly things; but praise shall endure forever. The blessed ones on high are never weary, never negligent. Their golden harps are always strung, and their voices forever in tune. The soft echoes of their minstrelsy have come down to us, that we may learn to emulate their strains and begin on earth the everlasting song.
But do we enter into the true spirit of praise? The manner of song has indeed its claims. There must, as we have seen, be melody, and harmony, and time, as well as verbal utterance, which is distinct and impressive; yet if there is nothing more than this, the office of praise will be deprived of its choicest influences.
But the reader of these pages goes a step farther. He delights in the exercise, and his feelings are often deeply interested. This is well. There is much in the commingling of harmonious voices, which is adapted to call forth the sweet sympathies of our nature. The pleasures of taste are very properly allowed to mingle with the fervors of devotion: but the danger is, that the former will have a preponderating influence.
You advance, then, an additional step. You carefully notice the sentiments of the psalm or hymn you are singing; and endeavor at all times to give them an effective utterance. This also is well. Strictly speaking, there can be no good singing without it. So much as this is expected of the vocalist at the oratorio, and the secular concert. Unless he rightly conceives of his subject, and appears to enter into the spirit of it, with becoming emotion, he is considered a dull performer. And shall the hallowed theme of the gospel be less appreciated by the singer, and be uttered with less emotion?
But the most important point yet remains to be considered. Do you enter into the spirit of religious song as a mere sentimentalist; or do you make the hallowed sentiments of the Psalm or Hymn your own, as in the immediate presence of the heart-searching God? To do the former is comparately easy. Even the infidel may become a successful personator of devotion. He can assume the sentimentalist in a religion which he despises, just as he may give the appearance of times so delightful that their real nature is liable to be misunderstood.
The true worship of God is a much higher exercise. You are speaking in the eloquence of song, in the midst of a worshipping assembly. We love to listen to your language, and to gather heavely fragrance from your breathing accents: but do you intend to be individually responsible for what you are uttering? When the hymn is didactic, do you feel any thing of the responsibilities of a religious teacher? When it is hortatory, do you really desire that there may be among the listeners an increase of practical godliness? When you say “have mercy upon me” are you personally engaged in supplication? When you say “Praise God in his holiness,” do you take delight in that attribute of the Divine Nature? When you say “Lord search my heart and try my ways” do you really desire that he may search and try you? When you utter the language of contrition, faith, hope, love, joy, do you really repent of sin, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, hope in God, exercise supreme love to him and rejoice in his government? If you can truly answer such questions as these in the affirmative, your lot is among the favored ones: You know the blessed privilege of those who have commenced the undying song. Sing on through your earthly pilgrimage with holy delight. The sweetest notes you here can raise, will prove but a faint prelude to the raptures which remain to be revealed – But if on the contrary, truth compels you continually to reply in the negative to such questions; then is it not too painfully manifest, that with all your pleasing sentimentalities, you are a mere personator of devotion, and know nothing of the peculiar priveleges which appertain to the holy office of praise? Continuing thus a mere formalist in religion, your songs however delightful to yourself and to others, must at last give place to interminable wailings!
Full well we know that even the Christian is not always on the mount of privilege. He is often in darkness and doubt – troubled with conflicting emotions, while his affections seem languid and his sensible comforts are few and feeble. He scarcely knows at such times, what he should pray for, or how he should give thanks. Still there is a wide difference between him and the mere sentimentalist. The one has at least, the willing mind – He desires to exercise right affections; and will sometimes be graciously accepted when he knows it not. There is but the ingenious mechanist who operates upon the human sympathies, the mimic painter who portrays the influences which surround him, or the studied orator who moves for the time being, in an assumed character.
Under this distinction we recognize two very different classes of singers. To which of them does the reader belong? Do not presume for a moment that any sacrifice of praise will be accepted of God which springs not from the deep seated affections of the heart. Secular music may admit feigned emotion: not so, the music which is devotional. Here every man is bound to bcome an actual, conscientious, spiritual worshipper. The bible plainly teaches this one method, and approves no other.
The object of this article is, not to undervalue musical cultivation, for there is need of unceasing efforts and accumulating numbers. But why amidst the enjoyment of sweet sounds, should the affections of the heart be withholden? Why should any one persist in offering to God, that same species of heartless homage which he himself would disdain to receive from a fellow worm? Oh there is guilt in this! “Offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person?” Is it not a shame to be offering from sabbath to sabbath, a professed oblation of gratitude and praise which one knows in his conscience ought never to be accepted!
Why should we not worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness? What has the Saviour done that he should be greeted with the mockings of heartless praise! What is there in the tender mercies of our Heavenly Father, in the love and condescension of the Holy Spirit, — O what is there in the ineffable glories of the Godhead, that can ever excuse us from rendering the full homage of our affections! It is through his infinite condescension that we are ever permitted to tune the notes of praise. And shall we abuse such a privilege as this? Shall the very offerings of gratitude become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal? And yet how prevalent is this heartless worship! To say nothing of the multitudes who are deficient in manner, — who bring, in this aspect, the lame and the blind in sacrifice – how many, even in the midst of cultivation and refinement have fallen into this sin. We see in many places a zeal for elementary drilling which sufficiently absorbs the attention of the pupils; and an increasing thirst for musical novelties, which is well night insatiable : but where, O where is the genuine spirit of praise! It never springs up unbidden, like the tares of the field. It comes not in the winning forms of pleasure to the careless heart. It withers and dies, even in the heart of the Christian, whose mind is engrossed by the details of art or enchanted with the pleasures of taste. Such a spirit will be connected only with holy living in other walks of duty; and be found in our songs of praise only as the result of Christian vigilance and private, persevering prayer.
Singers, like other men, are under the strong influences of habit: and if the spirit of praise is not assiduously cultivated during the hours of practise, it will doubtless be wanting in the solemn assembly. This we know both from reason and from painful experience. Singers and teachers should think of this, and act accordings. Let it never be forgotten, that, the precise influences which habitually prevail at the rehearsals, will inevitable characterize the offerings at the sanctuary.
How holy, how glorious is the God we worship! How wonderful are his perfections! “It is good to sing praises unto his name: from the affections of an overflowing heart. What can be more delightful than the songs of joy issuing from lips that taste the love of God! Such were the psalms of David; and such the songs of the primitive Christians and martyrs and reformers. Such are the songs we should cultivate. They will prove a rich foretaste of joys unseen and eternal.
Transcribed by Mary Katherine
May19 January 2007
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