VI. STRANGE INDIFFERENCE TO HYMNS
The Minister’s indifference.
In view of the considerations and facts here marshaled, how strange is the general lack of interest among ministers toward their hymn service, toward the hymns themselves, their history, their meaning, the methods to be used in exploiting their great value. Is it saying too much to suggest that three out of five ministers have no adequate conception of the possibilities of hymn singing or appreciation of its value?
Indifference of the Congregation.
Outside of the lamentable weakness of egocentric human nature it is difficult to discover why the part of the divine service devoted to sacred song should be so utterly subordinated to the other parts of the sacred program; but that it is true is so evident to any reasonable observer that it needs little or no proof. The janitor religiously postpones opening or shutting windows, or shaking down the furnace, during the prayer, or sermon even, until the hymn is being sung. Members of the congregation seize the opportunity to leave the room, or to consult with others about church affairs in all too audible voices.
The hymn ought to be the consummate note of prayer and praise and devout meditation on sacred themes, the great co-operative climax in the worship of God. It is too often looked upon as a merely physical stimulus to liven up the tedious service.[9]
This ought not so to be! For the primary object of assembling the saints is united worship—united praise. There can be no true public prayer without an element of worship; but it has a recognition of personal needs and even wants. This human factor makes it a composite of the human and the divine and lowers its dignity. In genuine praise there is a forgetfulness of the human element and a rising into the pure realm of the divine. In true praise the human soul is unconscious of self and utterly absorbed in God.
Hence it is not too much to say that congregational song is the supreme element in all worship.