On Singing and Music

TO BE HAD AT FRIENDS' BOOK STORE,
No. 304 Arch Street, Philadelphia.
1885.
At a Yearly Meeting of Friends held in Philadelphia from the 20th of the Fourth Month to the 24th of the same, inclusive, 1885.
An Essay on Singing and Music contained in the Minutes of the Meeting for Sufferings was now read, setting forth the spiritual nature of true worship, the danger of depending on outward forms in religious meetings, and the disadvantages connected with the practice of singing and music as an amusement. Much unity was expressed with the essay, and it was concluded that it should be published and distributed for information and warning to our own members and others. Desires were felt that in thus issuing a renewed testimony to the principles of our Society, we may be individually aroused to the necessity of so living in communion with the Father of Spirits, and in subjection to the revelations of his Light in our hearts, that our meetings may truly be held under the overshadowing of the Divine Power.
Taken from the Minutes.
Joseph Walton, Clerk .

On Singing and Music.
We have been brought under a feeling of religious concern that the ancient testimony of the Society of Friends to the true nature of spiritual worship may be fully maintained by all who claim that name; and that they may be watchful against the introduction of practices which will undermine the support of this testimony, and thus lead those who profess to be the children of the Light, back into a dependence upon forms, out of which their forefathers in the Truth were brought by that remarkable outpouring of grace and spiritual power which marked the rise of Friends as a distinct people.
The fundamental doctrine declared by our Saviour, when He said, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing,” was steadily kept in view by George Fox and his fellow laborers. They clearly saw that Christ had ended the Jewish law, with its outward and ceremonial observances, and had introduced a spiritual dispensation, under which He, by his heavenly and eternal Light or Spirit, was to be the Leader, Guide and Helper of his people; that all was now to be done in and by Him; and that this was especially true of religious worship, which depends upon the enlightening, quickening power of his Holy Spirit.