It should be said, however, that the inventory of its values mentioned above applies to only a comparatively small part of the Gospel songs offered to the public, just as the accepted standard hymns are a very small part of the formal hymns from which they have been gleaned. Usually its faults are aridity, vapidity, and shallowness. Yet in all these shortcomings, specimens of equal weakness and futility can be found in verses by accepted hymn writers.
The better Gospel songs are after all the sincere expression of a certain stage of culture of mind and soul. That stage may not be high nor admirable, but it must be allowed its spontaneous expression.
Every generation has had its own ephemeral hymnody and will continue to have it in spite of all the scolding critics. When our religious people stop writing and singing new songs and are satisfied to sing over and over again the songs of preceding ages, it will prove that the process of ossification has set in and that vital force is passing away. Better that literary unskillfulness and mediocre musical talent shall continue to write, better to have ephemeral, shallow, and unsatisfying songs written by the thousands, than that the impulse to express spontaneously the vital godliness within should be entirely lost.
THE SINGING CHURCH
PART II
HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF HYMNS
Chapter VII
APOSTOLIC ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
In considering the origin of the Christian hymn, one must remember that it is an outgrowth of man’s innate impulse to express his feelings in hymns and songs. That impulse is constitutional; man sings because he was so made that he cannot help singing.
Furthermore, the Christian hymn is the natural development of the Hebrew psalm, just as Christianity is the consummation of the Jewish religion. The two systems of religion are related as closely as the foundation and the superstructure of a great temple. We shall find the Hebrew voice of worship not only leading the songs of the Apostolic Church, but through all the succeeding ages sounding the controlling note of all Christian praise. David and the sons of Asaph led the choirs and congregations in chapel and church and cathedral as truly as they did those in the temple and synagogues. Christianity gave the Psalms a larger, more inspiring message and a more literary and more musical setting; but the thrumming of David’s harp has been heard through all the long centuries and is still heard around the world.
The Greek atmosphere in which the Early Church developed might be supposed to have influenced the character of the Apostolic hymnody; but the Greek Christians were not literary in culture, and the Greek religion had no congregational singing. It took several generations before it began to affect the form and music of the Christian hymnody, but eventually it was to become a formative force.