2.—PRAISE.
The truth which has been demonstrated in previous chapters is again assumed, that the manifestations of God, in Christ Jesus, would, when brought into efficient contact with the soul, produce that active holiness in the heart which is man’s greatest good. And as the end to be accomplished depends, under God, on those truths which are developed in the great plan of mercy being impressed upon the mind and the heart, it follows that those means would be used which, from their nature, are best adapted to give influence and impressiveness to the great truths of revelation.
The influence of music upon the emotions of the soul is well known to every one—
‘There is in souls a sympathy with sounds;’
the soul is awakened, and invited by the spirit of the melody to receive the sentiment uttered in the song. Sweet, affecting music—not the tone of the piano, nor the peals of the organ—but a melodious air, sung by strong and well-disciplined voices, and accompanied by the flute and viol—such music reaches the fountains of thought and feeling; and,
‘Untwisting all the links that tie
The hidden soul of harmony,’
it tinges the emotions with its own hues, whether plaintive or joyous; and it fosters in the heart the sentiment which it conveys, whether it be love of country or of God, admiration of noble achievement, or of devoted and self-sacrificing affection.
The power of music to fix in the memory the sentiment with which it is connected, and to foster it in the heart, has been understood in all ages of the world. Some of the early legislators wrote their laws in verse, and sang them in public places; and many of the earliest sketches of primitive history are in the measures of lyric poetry. In this manner the memory was aided in retaining the facts; the ear was invited to attend to them; imagination threw around them the drapery of beauty, dignity, or power; and then music conveyed the sentiment, and mingled it with the emotions of the soul. It was in view of the power of music, when united with sentiment adapted to affect the heart, that one has said: ‘Permit me to write the ballads of a nation, and I care not who makes her laws.’
When the effects of music and poetry upon the soul are considered, we can perceive their importance as means of fostering the Christian virtues in the soul of the believer. They should be used to convey to the mind sublime and elevating conceptions of the attributes of Jehovah; to impress the memory with the most affecting truths of revelation, and especially to cherish in the heart tender and vivid emotions of love to Christ, in view of the manifestations of Divine justice and mercy exhibited in his ministry, his passion, and his sacrifice.[41]
[41] ‘The proper drapery for music is truth. It is its only apparel, whether as applied to God, or as used for the cultivation of man.’—Erasmus. [Back]
There cannot be found, in all the resources of thought, material which would furnish sentiment for music so subduing and overpowering as the history of redemption. There is the life of Jesus—a series of acts Godlike in their benevolence, connected at times with exhibitions of Divine power and of human character, in their most affecting aspects. And as the scenes of Christ’s eventful ministry converge to the catastrophe, there is the tenderness of his love for the disciples, the last supper, the scene in Gethsemane; the Mediator in the hall of judgment, exhibiting the dignity of truth and conscious virtue amidst the tempest of human passion by which he is surrounded. Then the awful moral and elemental grandeur of the crucifixion; the Saviour, nailed to the cross by his own creatures, crying, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do;’ and then, while darkness shrouds the sun, and ‘nature through all her works gives signs of woe,’ he cries, ‘It is finished, and gave up the ghost.’ Thus did the dark stream of human depravity roll,
‘Till a rainbow broke upon its gloom,
Which spanned the portals of the Saviour’s tomb.’
Such exhibitions of sublimity and power, when clothed with the influence of music, and impressed upon a heart rendered sensitive by Divine influence, are adapted to make the most abiding and blessed impressions.
‘My heart, awake!—to feel is to be fired;
And to believe, Lorenzo, is to feel.’
It follows, from the preceding views, that in selecting the means to impress the mind with religious truth, and the heart with pious sentiment, music and poetry could not be neglected. There is not in nature another means which would compensate for the loss of their influence. We do not mean to say that their influence is as great as some other means in impressing the truths of revelation upon the soul; but their influence is peculiar and delightful, and without it the system of means would not be perfect.
We see, therefore, the reasons why music and poetry were introduced as a means of impressing revealed truth, both under the old and the new dispensations. Moses not only made the laws, but he made, likewise, the songs of the nation. These songs, in some instances, all the people were required to learn, in order that their memory might retain, and their heart feel, the influence of the events recorded in their national anthems.
Music held a conspicuous place in the worship of the temple; and under the new dispensation, it is sanctioned by the express example of Jesus, and specifically commanded by the apostles; the example is given in connection with the institution of the eucharist, which was to commemorate the most affecting scene in the history of God’s love; and the command is in such words as indicate the effects of music upon the heart: ‘Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Upon this subject, as upon some others, the apostolic churches fell into some abuses; yet the high praises of God and the Lamb have always been celebrated in poetry and music by the church of Christ. One of the first notices of the Christians by pagan writers speaks of them as ‘singing a hymn to Christ, as to a God;’ thus showing that the principles established in the preceding views were recognised by the early disciples, who used music as a means of fostering in their hearts love to the Saviour.
As in the case of the primitive Christians, so every regenerated heart delights in such spiritual songs as speak of Christ as an atoning Saviour. And those only are qualified to write hymns for the church whose hearts are affected by the love of Jesus. On this account some of the hymns of Cowper, Charles Wesley, Watts, and Newton, will last while the church on earth lasts, and perhaps longer. Thousands of Christian hearts have glowed with emotion, while they sang,
‘There is a fountain fill’d with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.’
Or,
‘Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee.’
Thousands have been awakened to duty and to prayer, by that solemn hymn,
‘Lo, on a narrow neck of land,
’Twixt two unbounded seas I stand,
Yet how insensible!’
And it would not have been possible for any but a Christian poet to have written the lines,
‘Her noblest life my spirit draws
From his dear wounds and bleeding side.’