If, Mr. Editor, there is any justness in these observations; if instrumental music is an inroad upon the spirituality of the New Testament worship, and a departure from the example of the primitive church; then it is not its "tendency to create a unison of voices, which must tend so materially to produce a unity of feeling;" nay, it is nothing less than the direct command of God that can authorize its introduction into his worship.
Some may think this paper attaches too much importance to Instrumental Music, especially when discreetly and soberly used, in divine worship. But the use of it at all, involves a dangerous principle; and if the church of Christ allows one erroneous form to encrust itself upon her, that will soon attract to itself other evils of the same kind, until the whole is degenerated into one common mass of corruption.
Anti Musicus.
POETRY.
STANZAS.
While, through the regions of the skies,
Unceasing Alleluias rise,
Why are the songs on earth so few?
And why not here unceasing too?
O Thou, whom there they praise, once slain,
But, living, and shall ever reign,
In copious streams thy Spirit pour,
And waken man from shore to shore;
Then universal joy shall rise,
And earth shall emulate the skies.
Oh! the glad morning! when the song
Of heavenly praise shall flow along,
From beauteous field, and hill, and dale!
When cedar mount, and olive vale,
Shall burst in glorious singing forth;
When east and west, and south and north,
Have but one theme, The Lamb who died!
The Conqueror, though crucified!
Then rays from heaven on earth shall shine,
And make these regions too—divine!
REVIEWS.
Memoir of the Late Rev. Joseph Hughes, A.M., one of the Secretaries of the British and Foreign Bible Society. By John Leitchild. pp. 498.—Ward.