^tS^^k^^iy^ L. /.. t^^'-TS'^^rr . fYl ^ "^^ ^• ^ ^ ♦H ^ !?' *-• ^ ^^ § § 1 . b :s .1 1 O 1 -^ 1 ^ |zi ^ 05 ^ '^ J;3 ^ Ph P4 **-» * > t ADVERTISEMENT. The ministers and elders of the Reformed and United Presbyterian Churches of Philadelphia, be- lieving that the times demand a full presentation of the subject herein discussed, held a meeting in the Cherry Street Church, Aug. 16th, 1858, at which. Revs. J. M. Willson, J. T. Cooper, and Ro- bert J. Black, were appointed a Committee to pre- pare, from existing treatises, a work in favour of the exclusive use of the Scripture Psalmody as the matter of the Church's praise. Rev. William Ster- ret was subsequently added to the Committee. At an adjourned meeting, having presented an out- line of the work, the Committee were unanimously authorized to proceed with its publication. The names of the ministers present, are as follows; Revs. J. M. Willson, S. 0. Wylie, David ISl'Kee, William Sterret, Robert J. Black, S. P. Herron, A. G. M'Auley, Francis Church, J. B. Dales, D. D., J. T. Cooper, D. D., G. C. Arnold, Robert Arm- strong and T. H. Beveridge. Elders: — Robert Orr, John Evans, R. Skilton, Wm. Blakely, Dr. A. S. M'Murray, Henry Floyd, William Crawford, Wm. Brown and others. Francis Church, Chairman. G. C. Arnold, Secretary. PEin- ,fttC. MAKlBb2 THSOLOGlC&Lj' !Um Bates them Hhe church hymns which had been in use since the second century;' and others describe them as Hhe old church hymns that spake of Christ as the incarnate Word.' But the Council speaks of them as the 'psalms.^ Now, while I freely admit that this term does not conclusively establish the fact, that these sacred songs were the Psalms of David, yet it furnishes a strong pre- sumptive argument in favour of this supposition. It will, I suppose, be admitted by all who are con- cerned in this controversy, that this term is more commonly used to designate the Psalms of inspira- tion, and that it is not the term usually employed In reference to the compositions of uninspired men. '^But, perhaps it will bo said that the qualifying phrase, psalms ^ in lionouv of our Lord Jesus Christy' -determines that they were songs composed by men HYMNS UNWARRANTED. Ill for the purpose of testifying to the truth of our Lord's divinity. To this, I reply, that such a con- clusion is by no means legitimate. All that ap- pears from the language of the Council is, that the psalms which were sung in Antioch had reference to Christ, and were in honour of him. Now, if the Psalms of David do bear testimony to the di- vine dignity and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ; and if they do speak of him as being a divine per- son, and yet as appearing in our world in human nature; and if the church, in the days of Paul of Samosata, thus understood the psalms, then, it was strictly proper and natural for these advocates of the truth of our Lord's divinity, to speak of the in- spired Psalms as being sung in honour of our Lord Jesus Christ. ''That the Psalms do celebrate the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ; that they do exhibit him to the Tiew of our faith, as a divine person, and at the same time, as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, it cannot be necessary that I should un- dertake to prove. It may be sufficient to refer to the numerous instances in which the Psalms are applied to the Lord Jesus, by the writers of the New Testament; and particularly to the declara- tion of our Lord himself, in which he says to his dis- ciples, Luke xxiv. 44, 'These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that 112 THE TRUE PSALMODY. all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.' "And while it is perfectly evident that Jesus Christ, in his person and work; in his divine dig- nity, humiliation, sufferings and death; resurrec- tion and ascension into heaven; is the great sub- ject of the Psalms, it is not less evident from the writings of the primitive Christians, that the Psalms were thus understood by them. And this beiag the fact, it was perfectly natural for them, when speaking of these divine hymns, to represent them as being sung in honour of the Lord Jesus Christ. In confirmation of what has just been said with regard to the sense in which the Psalms were un- derstood by the primitive Christians, it may be sufficient for my purpose to adduce the testimony of Justin Martyr, who wrote about the middle of the second century. In his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, in which the particular design of this learned Father is to prove that Jesus Christ is the IMcssiah promised to the fathers, the Psalms gene- rally are referred to, as furnishing the proof of his position. For example, Justin quotes the 110th Psalm as applicable to the Messiah. And then ad- dressing Trypho, he says, 'I am not ignorant that you Jews explain this Psalm, as though it referred to Hezekiah.' But he adds, 'The words them- HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 113 selves declare that it relates to our Jesus.' After having pointed out clearly the application of this Psalm to the Lord Jesus Christ, Justin addressed Trjpho in the following language: ^That I may convince you, that ye Jews do not understand your own Scriptures, I will mention another Psalm dic- tated to David by the Holy Spirit, which you con- tend was spoken with reference to Solomon, your king, but which, in reality, was uttered concerning our Christ.' It is the 72d Psalm to which Justin here refers; and after repeating the entire Psalm, he remarks, ^In the conclusion of this Psalm it is written, tlie liymns of David are ended.' And then he proceeds to show that the things spoken in this Psalm cannot apply to Solomon, as the Jews were wont to contend, but do relate to our Lord Jesus Christ. ''If, then, the primitive Christians understood the Psalms as referring to the Lord Jesus, as is abundantly evident from the writings of Justin Martyr and others, it was strictly appropriate and natural, when speaking of them, to represent them as being sung in honour of Him. And the lan- guage applied to the psalms which were sung in Antioch in the days of Paul of Samosata, very correctly describes the Psalms of David, as they were understood in the primitive ages of Chris- tianity. 10* THE TRUE PSALMODY. ^^If it were necessary to adduce further proof in confirmation of what lias been said in relation to the sense in which the Psalms were understood by the primitive Christians, it would be easy to multiply testimonies from the writings of Irenajus, of Cle- ment of Alexandria, of Athanasius, of Augustine, and others of similar character, who were dis- tinguished advocates of the truth. Indeed, these Fathers, instead of experiencing any difficulty in seeing their divine Kedeemer in the Psalms, ap- pear, from their writings, to have had Him pre- sented to the view of their faith every where throughout these sacred hymns. 2. "But that the Psalms, the use of which Paul abolished, were not Uhe compositions of modern men,' and could not have been set aside by him under the pretext that they were 'modern,' will appear from this consideration: That which he is said to have introduced, would be equally, if not in a greater degree obnoxious to the same objection. The Psalms which he removed were such as were in honour of the Lord Jesus Christ;' those which he appointed to be sung in their stead, were *in honour of himself.' Now, it is certain that none of the Psalms of David would be adapted to the purpose of celebrating the praises of Paul of Sa- mosata. And it is no less certain that any songs which were in honour of this enemy of the truth HY3INS UNWARRANTED. 115 must have been modern, and the compositions of an uninspired man. And though Paul was a he- retic, it cannot be supposed that he was so per- fectly devoid of common sense, as to urge as a rea- son for setting aside the existing psalmody of the church, a consideration which would apply with greater force to the exclusion of what he proposed to introduce. "I am aware, that it has been customary to sup- pose, that Paul introduced the Psalms of David in the room of those which he displaced. Neander says, 'he pi'ohahJy suffered nothing but Psalms to be used." Others not quite so modest, assert with- out any qualification, that it was the 'pompous Unitarian, Paul of Samosata, who first set the ex- ample of installing the Psalms in the place of ex- clusive dignity.' But where, I ask, is the au- thority for such conjectures, or for such unqualified afiarmations? The Epistle of the Council, by whose authority the heresy of Paul was condemned, says no such thing. ''So far from it, the express declaration of the Council is irreconcilable with such a supposition. The psalmody which, according to the Council, Paul introduced, was designed to celebrate his own praise; was in honour of himself And this could not have been an inspired Psalmody, but must have been a system of which man was the author^ 116 THE TRUE PSALMODY. ^^The conclusion, then, to wMch I am conducted, taking the language of the Council as my guide, and not suffering myself to be misled by the mere conjectures and suppositions of men, may be ex- hibited in the following propositions: 1. ^'The psalmody employed in the worship of God in the church of Antioch, in the days of Paul of Samosata, was a divine system. The psalms which were sung at that time, were in honour of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this character belong-s appropriately to the Psalms of David, for they speak of Christ and celebrate his glory. 2. "The daring impiety of the heretic Paul was manifested in this, that he took as much liberty with these Psalms, whose author is the Holy Spirit, as though they had been the compositions of un- inspired men. 3. '"The psalmody which he introduced was de- signed to celebrate his own praise. He appointed women in the church, on the great day of Easter, to sing songs in honour of himself^ the hearing of which was adapted to fill the pious mind with horror." * II. The Mediaeval hymnology. From the period at which we have arrived in our inquiries, the subject of psalmody in the time of the Papal apos- * Pressly, pp. 1G4-172. HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 117 tacy, is, of course, of little account in settling any controversy. As early as the age of Ambrose — who wrote many hymns — and indeed, from the third century, hymns, Greek and Latin, fast mul- tiplied. It was the age of rapid declension in knowledge, in purity, in fidelity to the word of God. Evils of every kind grew apace; soon reach- ing their culmination in the rise of the Antichrist. Passing over many centuries, we come to the mid- dle ages, when we note two facts. Theirs/', which we give in the words of the writer of the "Voice of the Christian Life." Speaking of the hymn-writers of this period, he says, "With one exception, all were monks, and the monotonous routine of mo- nastic life seems in their histories to have replaced the endless varieties of discipline by which our heavenly Father trains His children." "The one exception to the monastic character of mediaeval hymn-writers is King Robert the Second of France, author of the touching hymn, in which all his gen- tle nature seems to speak, 'Veni Sancta Spiritus/ and King Robert had certainly more of the monk than of the king about him. He seems to have been, if ever any man was, made for the cloister, and being forced into the publicity of the throne, he threw as much as possible of the colouring of the convent over his home and his court." '^' And *" Voice" &c., pp. 167, 1G8, 200. 118 THE TRUE PSALMODY. again, "We need only study tlie sacred poetry of tlie middle ages to understand why the pLoforma- tion was needed. One painfully expressed fact meets us at the outset. Of Mone's 'Collection of the Latin Hymns of the Middle Ages/ in three volumeS; one is filled with hymns to God and the angels; one with hymns to the blessed Virgin Mary; and one with hymns to the saints." The second fact is, that the Albigenses and Waldenses — God's faithful witnesses in southern France, and among the Alps — w^ere Psalm-singers. We quote from Dr. M'Master: "In the middle ages, the ages too of moral gloom and terrible superstition, the purest section of the church of God was found in the val- leys of Piedmont. Among the Waldenses were found the simplicity of the apostolic order, and the purity of evangelical worship. They sung, ''mid Alpine cliffs,' the Psalms of Scripture. And long before the Reformation dawned on Europe, they sung tbem in metre. 'The Albigenses, in 1210, were metre psalm-singers.' In those ages when darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness all other people, the Vaudois, as Thuanus, who was their enemy, relates, 'could all read and write. They were acquainted with French so far as was needful for understanding the Bible, and the sing- ing of Psalms.' It was required of those who were to be ordained to the ministry along with HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 119 other scriptures, to commit to memory ^ the writings of David.' Numbers of those, who, under the persecution of the Duke of Savoy, A. D. 168G, sought a refuge in the Swiss cantons, three years after, returned under their pastor, Arnaud, who was also their martial chief. Having overcome their enemies, and regained their native valleys, ^at the church of Guigon they engaged in worship, sang the 74th Psalm, and their colonel and pastor, Arnaud, preached on the 129th Psalm. ^ The morning-star of the Reformation used them. Wide- life is blamed by some for singing metre psalms. JoJui Huss, in the fifteenth, as Wickliffe had done in the fourteenth century, sung the psalms in verse. ^"^' These are very significant facts. Hymns made by monks or monkish men; and by none other so far as the record has reached the intelligent author of the "Voice," &c., while the only witnesses of Christ, in their purity and obscurity, adhered to the singing of Psalms. The lesson is an instruc- tive one. We will not forget it. III. The Reformed period. The Reformation in Germany, led by Luther, did not reject the use of hymns, although it repudiated en masse, Me- diaeval hymns. This same reformation, however, * M'Master, p. 71. 120 THE TRUE PSALMODY. retained not a few of the outward appliances of the corrupt system which had succeeded itj and in one instance, at leagt, approached too nearly the worst heresy of the Papal system.* It was far otherwise with the Reformation in the Western Church: sometimes styled the Zuinglian or Swiss Reformation, with which affiliated the same great movement, in France, Holland, and Britain; and also in some of the German states themselves. We quote again from the "Voice of the Christian Life,'' &c. "The Reformed Churches of France and French Switzerland seem to have had no li- terature corresponding to the hymns of Protestant Germany. Did the peculiar form which the Re- formation took in France, then, tend to quench the spirit of sacred poetry, or what other causes brought about this result? When we remembei that the same absence of an evangelical national hymn literature, springing up spontaneously as a national growth of the Reformation, which charac- terizes the Reformed Churches of France and French Switzerland, exists also in the sister Church of Scotland, it is impossible not to connect this fact with the similar form which the Reformation took in all these lands. None of the strictly Gal- •^ We mean the Doctrine of Consubstantiation held bj Luther. HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 121 vimstic communities have a 7ii/mn-hooIc dating hach to the Reformation. It cannot surely be their doc- trine which caused this; many of the best known and most deeply treasured of the more modern hymns of Germany and England have been written by those who receive the doctrines known as Cal- vinistic. Nor can it proceed from any peculiarity of race, or deficiency in popular love of music and song. French and Scotch national character are too dissimilar to explain the resemblance; whilst France has many national melodies and songs, and Scot- land is peculiarly rich in both. Is not the cause tlien simply the common ideal of external eccle- siastical forms which pervaded all the Churches reformed on the Genevan type? The intervening chapters of Church history are, as it were, folded up, as too blotted and marred for truth to be read to profit in them; and, next to the first chapter in the Acts of the Apostles, was to stand, as the se- cond chapter, the history of the Reformed Churches. Words were to resume their original Bible mean- ing; nothing was to he received that coidd not he traced hack to the Divine hand. Ecclesiastical order was to be such as St. Paul had established or had found established; clearly to be traced, it was believed, in the Acts and Apostolical Epistles. Thus the Book of Psalms became the hymn-book of the Reformed Churches, adapted to grave and 11 122 THE TRUE PSALMODY. solemn music, in metrical translations whose one aim and glory was to render into measure which could be sung the very words of the old Hebrew Psalms.""^ Passing to England, this author proceeds, "The Church of England is, in form, linked to the Me- diseval Church by ties far stronger and more nu- merous than the Lutheran Churches of Germany. The thinking people of England were, after the Marian exiles returned from the Continent, more strongly attracted to the Protestantism of Switzer- land and Scotland than to that of Germany. Thus, between Anglicanism and Puritanism, it happened that, until the last century, we cannot be said to have had any national, that is, airy y)eople& Jiymn- hooh at all. Probably no person or community ever felt any enthusiasm either for Stcrnhold and Hopkins, or Tate and Brady; and although some stray hymns have crept into our modern hymn- books from earlier days, until the eighteenth cen- tury we had no People's Hymn-Book; none, that is, that was placed on cottage tables beside the Bi- ble, and sung when Christians met, and chanted beside the grave. The Wesleys seem to have been the first who gave a People's Hymn-book to Eng- land; unless that of Dr. Watts may be called so, * ''Voice," &c., 262-254. HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 123 published about the beginning of the eighteenth centu)'!/. Not, indeed, that England was silent those two hundred years, or that the sacred chain of holy song was ever altogether broken in our country. We had our 'Te Deum' and Olagni- ficat/ and the English Psalms in the music of their own grand and touching prose — a melody as much deeper to our ears than any metrical manufiicture of the same, as the morning song of a thrush is, than the notes of a caged bird that has been pain- fully taught to sing two or three tunes. These were said in village church and quiet home, making rich melody in the heart, and pealed through the old cathedrals to choral chant, in a language 'un- derstanded of all the people.' The Prayer-book, with all its musical flow of choice words, floating down on its clear stream of pure English the song and prayer of the true Church of all ages, and the English Psalter, — this was the hymn-book of half our people; while in many a Puritan congregation the heroic purposes of the heart, the individuality of Puritan religion, which made every hymn sung as by each worshipper alone 'to God,' must have breathed poetry into any verses, and fused them, by inward fire, into a music no external polish could ever give. With the eighteenth century, however, the history of English Hymn-books must 124 THE TRUE PSALMODY. begin."* And of Scotland we need not speak. Her Reformers neither made hjmns nor sung them. Let us now sum up the history of Psalmody, and thus turn the objector's argument against him- self. 1. The "Psalms^ hymns and spiritual songs" of the Bible passed over to the New Testament Church. 2. There is not a shadow of historical evidence that any other hymns were sung in apos- tolic times in the worship of God. 3. Some he- retics did at an early period make and use hymns; but these earliest of human composures have disap- peared, leaving behind them only the fact that they once existed; or, at most, a few waifs which can- not be recognised or allotted to time and space. 4. The first known orthodox hymn-writer lived at the close of the second century, and there is no evi- dence that the single hymn which he composed was ever sung in God's worship. 5. Opposition was made at a later period to the introduction of hu- man compositions, while the Psalms of the Bible were held in the highest estimation, and were sung both in the East and in the West. 6. During the middle ages, the Waldenses sang the Psalms: hymns were made by monks and sung in the Po- pish communion. 7. At the Reformation the Psalms exclusively were used in worship in the ^ "Voice," &c., 255, 256, 259. HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 125 ••''strictly Calvinistic cturclies.'' The Lutheran churches, which retained some of the trappings of Popery, retaining also the use of hymns. 8. The practice of Calvinistic churches was based upon the principle, that the Bible is the only rule in worship. 9. The Church of England was then almost exclusively a Psalm-singing church. 10. No hymn book was found in the Western Re- formed Churches until something more than a cen- tury ago. Hence, 11. The Scripture Psalms were ever sung in God's worship in the purest days and parts of the Church — in the apostles' days, among the Waldenses, and in the most scriptural of the Reformed Churches. Whatever assistance the cause of hymn-singing may derive from the occasional use of hymns in times, either ancient or modern, when religion had begun to decline, or from their use among the fol- lowers of Anti-christ, we cheerfully allow it; but we do claim, that in using exclusively the Bible Psalms, we follow the " footsteps of the flock.'' III. The advocates of these other songs and hymns argue from analogy: we may compose and offer our own prayers, why not hymns also? Dr. Pressly thus satisfactorily disposes of this argu- ment. '' However plausible this argument may appear at first view, a little examination may satisfy the honest inquirer after truth, that it is entirely 11* 126 THE TRUE PSALMODY. fallacious. The things which are compared, are dissimilar, and consequently the reasoning is in- conclusive. Prayer and praise agree in one par- ticular, and that is, they are both ordinances of re- ligious worship. But in almost every thing else, they differ. And, therefore, it is a pure assump- tion to say, that because we may employ our own language in prayer, therefore it is proper to com- pose in our own language our songs of praise to God. Not only are these religious exercises dif- ferent in their nature, but, that God himself re- gards them in a different light, is evident from the fact that he has made provision for his church in the one case, which he has not in the other. But that the reader may see more satisfac'orily the dif- ference between these divine ordinal .(^es, and the absolute necessity for provision in the one case, which is not necessary in the other; and conse- quently the fallacy of the conclusion which is drawn by those who reason from the one ordinance to the other; let us notice a little more in detail, some particulars in which they differ. "1. In prayer, we come to God to ask for those things which we need; but in praise, we ascribe to him the glory which is due unto his name. As our situation and circumstances are ever varying, our wants are very different at one time, from what they are at another. Our petitions must conse- HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 127 quontly be framed in accordance with our wants. But God is unchangeable, and his praise is alwajs the same. That glory which is proper to be as- cribed to his name at one time, will always be pro- per. No matter what may be our situation; whether we may be in prosperity or in adversity; whether we may be the subjects of joy or of sor- row, still God is to be praised for what he is in himself, and for the exhibitions of his glory which he has made in the works of creation, of provi- dence, and of redemption. And what ascriptions of glory are due to him, the Spirit of God has de- clared in those psalms, and hymns, and songs, which are the productions of his infinite wisdom. ^'2. In social prayer, one leads in the exercise, while others follow and unite with him in present- ing their supplications before the throne of grace; but, in praise, all simultaneously lift up their voices together in extolling the name of God. And hence it results, that in the exercise of praise, a written form is absolutely necessary, while in prayer, such form is unnecessary. And hence, as our songs of praise assume a character of permanency, which does not belong to our prayers, we can see an im- portant and obvious reason, why provision should be made for our assistance in the performance of the one duty, which was not considered necessary in the other. And in connexion with this con- sideration, I remark, — 128 THE TRUE PSALMODY. ^'3. That since, in singing Grod's praise, a written form is necessary, there is provided for the churchy in the word of God, a book of Psalms, while there is no book of Prayers. This is a fact which de- serves special attention. The infinitely wise God, does nothing in vain, and never works without de- sign. From every part of the word of God we learn that it is our duty, both to pray to him and to sing praises to his name. And while tlie duty in both cases is perfectly plain, it is no less evident, that God has made provision with regard to the performance of the one duty, which he has not thought proper to make with reference to the other. Not only are we commanded to sing psalms, but a book of Psalms which contains the songs of the Spirit of purity, of love, and of grace, is provided for our use. Men may say, that ' as we use our own language in prayer, so may we in praise;' but the fact that God has himself provided for us a book of Psalms, while he has given us no book of Prayers, rebukes the unwari'anted assertion. And from the provision already made for us by Him who knows the glory due to himself, there is no need for us to prepare songs of praise, unless we are disposed to adopt the presumptuous principle, that we are more competent to decide what is pro- per to be employed in praising God, than he him- Belf who is the object of praise. But in relation HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 129 to prayer, the case is entirely different. "While it is plainly our duty to pray, He with whom is the residue of the Spirit, has not thought proper to provide for us a collection of prayers. And con- sequently, in complying with the divine command, — 'In every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known un- to God/ — we must, from the necessity of the case, express our requests in our own language. The reader can, therefore, have no difl&culty in per- ceiving that the cases are dissimilar, and conse- quently, that it is by no means a legitimate conclu- sion, that, as we may use our own language in prayer, so may we in praise. But still further, — "4. Our Lord taught his disciples to pray, and gave them an admirable form of prayer, with re- ference to which he has said, 'After this manner pray ye.' But he gave his disciples no divine song, as a model of praise, according to which they were to compose their songs, with a direction, as in the case of prayer, to sing after this manner. And why, with reverence I would ask, did not the great Prophet of the church, furnish in the New Testament a book of sacred hymns, or direct some one of his Apostles to perform this service? The only rational answer which can be given to this inquiry, is, that he did not consider it necessary. He had already raised up a sweet Psalmist of Is- 130 THE TRUE PSALMODY. rael, wliom he had qualified for the work, and by whom he had provided for his church, such a col- lection of psalms, and hymns, and songs, as to his infinite wisdom and goodness seemed proper. ^^And with regard to the difference between these two religious duties, I observe once more, — ^•5. That as provision has been made in the case of praise, which has not been made with regard to prayer, so there is a promise of divine help in the performance of the duty of prayer, which is not given in relation to praise. It is graciously pro- mised by Him who is the hearer of prayer, — ^I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplications.' (Zech. xii. 10.) And as the Christian needs assistance in performing the duty of prayer, for which provision has not yet been made, we find it written, — ^The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.' (Rom. viii. 26.) Here then, we see that the God of grace, who knows what the Christian needs, has graciously promised divine assistance to direct us in the expression of our requests in prayer: 'We know not what to pray for as we ought; but the Spirit helpeth our infirmities.' We have no book of Prayers, in the use of which we HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 131 may make our requests known unto God; but we have the promise of the aid of the .spirit of grace and of supplications, to help our infirmities, and to instruct us how to pray. But there is no promise in all the New Testament, of the aid of the Holy Spirit, as tlic Spirit of psalmody, to aid us in pre- parimj our songs of prai»e. He, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, did not think proper to raise up, r.nder the gospel dispen- sation, a sweet Psalmist 0/ Israel, to provide for the church a system of songs, as he had formerly done; nor did he commission any of his Apostles to perform this service; nor did he promise to send his Spirit iu any subsequent age, to qualify any man for the execution of a work of such import- ance. And why not? The only satisfactory answer which can be given, is that such a service was unnecessray, since it had already been performed. '^It is then quite manifest, not only, that prayer and praise are religious duties, which are different in their nature, but that God himself regards them as so different, that in his infinite wisdom he has thought proper to make that provision for the use of his church in the one case, which he has not in the other. It is no valid objection to our reason- ing to say, that some of the psalms are termed prayers; that the language of prayer is employed throughout the psalms; and that in prayer we as- 132 THE TRUE PSALMODY. cribe praise to God. All this may be true. In these particulars and in others which might be mentioned, there may be a coincidence between these two exercises of religious worship. Eut still, it remains true, that prayer and praise are not only two different ordinances, but that God regards theni as different; and has made provision to aid us in the performance of the duty of praise, which he has not furnished for our assistance in prayer. And consequently, to say, that since it is proper in prayer to use our own language, therefore it is right to do the same in singing God's praise, is to reason after the manner of men, but not in accord- ance with the wisdom of God.^"^" IV. The right to make and use "hymns" is claimed to be a part of our Christian liberty: and, in this connexion we are reminded of the character of the New Testament dispensation as one of greater light, freeness and enlargement, than the old: and, perhaps, it may be suggested, likewise, that such as decline to use "hymns" are rather narrow- minded and illiberal. But, what is the Christian liberty of the Xew Testament dispensation ? Most certainly it is not a liberty to form our doctrinal belief, or rules of life, or religious observances, irrespective of the * Pressly on Psalmody, pp. 120-125. HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 133 Word and authority of Christ. It consists in part — tlie part which alone can have any relation to the issue before us — in our liberation from the bondage of the Mosaic ritual and ceremonial law. This was a burdensome service. But was it ever a '' bondage" to sing the Psalms of inspiration? to hold fellowship with the Most High in the ex- ercise of praise, in the very thoughts and expres- sions which He himself had furnished? It never was — none will dare to say so — and it is not now. This argument is a most decided example of that kind of fallacious reasoning which is styled "begging the question." The issue before us is, '^Have we liberty to make and sing in the worship of God, songs other than those of the Bible?" Yes — say these reason ers — we have this liberty, — because — we have this liberty! We answer, this is the very issue on which we are brought into con- flict; and you do not prove your position by assert- ing it, however often and confidently. V. It is said that songs composed by uninspired men, may be read with edification, and even uttered in musical, instead of mere speaking tones, by an in- dividual, and why not use them in religious worship ? We are not disposed to deny the premises here af- firmed. We do not go so far as to maintain that the human voice may not be used in singing, as well as in reading, other songs than those in which God 12 134 THE TRUE PSALMODY. is formally worshipped. But there must be, and iS; a wide difference between the singing of songs for recreation, or even as an expression of our own emotions whether sad or joyful, and the employ- ment of songs in the solemn and devout, prescribed worship of God. There is an ordinance of praise, which this reasoning leaves entirely out of view. Any one who is capable may write a religious essay. He may read it in the hearing of others. Any one may speak on religious topics in social inter- course. But there is still the ordinance of preach- ing, and the institution of the ministry, established and guarded by the will of Christ. Nor is every utterance of gospel truth by a Christian minister, the formal preaching of the Word. So, there is an institution of government and discipline in the house of God; and yet, it is competent to every Christian to admonish and warn his erring brother. Again, every act that we perform in our daily avo- cations should be done to the ^^glory of God;" and yet there are exercises properly and formally devo- tional. Every day should the Christian live unto Christ, yet is there one day in seven set apart, specially, for religious worship. As we peruse the Bible, and so in reading Christian biography, we may read many prayers, and be instructed and quickened by them, but there is still an ordinance of prayer. Any one may, under certain circuiu- HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 135 stances, put into another's hand^ a morsel of bread and a cup of wine, but there is, notwithstanding, the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. We may make pictures — these may represent scenes of deep religious interest, — the sufferings of the martyrs, the trials of the persecuted, or other events calcu- lated to stir up devout recollections, or grateful emotions: we may have them in our dwellings, we may look upon them; and be edified as we do so. Now, would we listen to one who would attempt to demonstrate that there is no ministry, no church discipline, no holyday, no sacrament of the sup- per, no formal prayer, by insisting upon the right, or the duty of private Christians to give utterance to the truths of the gospel, to rebuke the sinner, to lead a holy life, to ^'to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,'' to feed the hungry and minister to the sick, to read the prayers offered by the saints in their day? Or, from the lawful use of paint- ings in our dwellings, will any one of us, argue — we know who do thus argue — that these, and similar appliances, may be introduced into our places of worship as "aids to devotion?'' So, in answer to this argument, we say, there is an ordi- nance of praise, and when we inquire of the word of God, how this ordinance is to be observed, we find not only that it is a scripture ordinance, but also that provision has been made for its observance — 136 THE TRUE PSALMODY. and, as we shall see hereafter, for wise reasons — in a Book of Psalms, itself sufficient as a manual of praise. We must not confound, as this argument does the reading,* or even the singing of songs, however good, and the formal celebration in acts of worship, of God's high praises. But what is the ordinance of praise? Does it consist merely in the use of musical instead of read- ing tones ? And can there be so much difference between these two modes of uttering the same sen- timents, as that the one is allowable, and the other not? This is a very subtle form of the ge- neral argument which we have just considered. And we remark, (1.) That the same kind of reason- ing would be equally available, as we have seen, to confound other religious acts and ordinances with the doings of every day, or of the Christian life. (2.) It is not the mere use of singing tones, but the design of the act, and its circumstances, which we are here to consider, just as we do in reference to baptism, the Lord's supper, and laying on of hands in the act of ordination. Are we engaged in celebrating God's praise in song, according to his appointment, and in circumstances to which that appointment relates? If so, we must have * Erskine's Gospel Sonnets are excellent reading: but were never meant for "hymns," or used in worship. HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 137 regard to something more than the tones merely in which wc utter our praises. Wc must take with us the entire institution of praise as a part of the prescribed order of worship. Hence, (3.) It is most important to remember that we have a book, provided by Him whose name we magnify in song, and appointed for this very end; and no command or promise, regarding another. Had we a book of prayers in the scriptures — were we commanded to use this — were there no precept en- joining the use of any prayers not contained in this book — were there no promises of help in making prayers, the whole ordinance of prayer would be comprehended within this inspired li- turgy with the appropriate and prescribed restric- tions, seasons, &c. We have no such prayer book; but we have a hymn — or Psalm book, — similar in position, in reference to the ordinance of praise, as our supposed inspired prayer book to that of prayer. Hence, we ought to infer, that in singing praises^ this alone is to be used; whatever other uses we may lawfully make of song. (4.) If there were no difference between reading and sin^i^ins; we might omit the singing entirely, and only read Psalms and hymns! would this be the ordinance of praise? (5.) God has linked singing of Psalms to the ordinance of praise, and we should not cavil about it, as if there were no material difference. 12* 138 THE TRUE PSALMODY. (6.) While we do not undertake to assign the rea- sons for this divine ordinance, we may be at liberty to say, that song is a powerful medium of propa- gating sympathy, as well as of awakening it; and, again, that there are proofs abundant, arising chiefly from the peculiar power of songs over the faith, &c., of those that use them in their devotions, that it was not unbecoming the divine wisdom to make this restriction. VI. It has been said, that inasmuch as the mi- nister of Christ uses his own words in his public ministry, and may even quote a hymn, we may do so likewise, in singing praise: and this, for the reason, that preaching is a part of public worship. To this, it is enough in this place, to reply, that there is a vast difference between addresses made to God in song, and an address made to an assembled con- gregation; the preacher does not preach to the Most High — he speaks to the people before him. He who would confound these under the general name of '^worship" has yet to learn the proper na- ture of each part of our social religious exercises. VII. An argument is taken from the i-uct, that men have now the '^gift of song/' implying, it is said, that they may use it in providing songs for the church's use in her devotions. To this wc re- ply, (I.) The gift of song existed under the Old Testament, and yet none, unless such as were HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 139 specially i.)spircd of God, were employed in com- posing songs for purposes of devotion. (2.) We hear nothing of any poet in the apostolic Church undertaking to make hymns; not one hymn can be traced to the days of the apostles — and yet there were some, no doubt, who could have written ia metre. Paul could, we are quite confident, yet we have no hint of any attempt on his part, to make a hymn-book. (3.) If there be any validity in this argument, it takes a wide sweep. If the possession of the gift confers the right to use it in making songs for the church, who can refuse to adopt and sing any given hymn: the poet can claim a divine sanc- tion — authority direct from Heaven, and who dare repudiate any of his works ? (4.) The church, in her members, has the gift of speech! Is every one that can speak, entitled to claim the office of the ministry ? It is not enough to have the gift, there must be a warrant to use it for this specific purpose in the house of God. And so of song. Let those who have the gift show us a scripture warrant — we have seen that they cannot — to pre- pare us songs other than those of Jie Bible. (5.) There is still among men, and some of them Chris- tians, the gifts of sculpture, &c., must we employ them to provide us statues and ornaments for our churches? (6.) This is, again, a "begging of the question/^ We deny the right to use this gift /or 140 THE TRUE PSALMODY. this particular purpose. To establisli this right, thej must furnisli us witli better authority than the mere possession of the gift. VIII. It is affirmed that godly men have fa- voured the use of hymns — have composed and sung them during their lives — have been edified by them — and have died without experiencing any scruples upon this subject. The facts asserted in this argument; vre may admit. Devout men have so though t, and so acted; but the conclusion we utterly repudiate. To re- ceive all that even excellent men have held, would make strange work in the church. Many good men have lived in the belief of doctrines more or less erroneous, and have retained their errors to the last. Should we adopt these errors, or even tolerate them? Good men have differed in rela- tion to important matters of practice, as well as of faith. Some have been Presbyterians, some Epis- copalians, some Independents. The Jansenists — and some of these were pious men, held many of the errors of the Popish system, particularly the Papal supremacy. "What kind of a church that would be, which should attempt to combine in one system, upon the authority of the pious and devout, these heterogeneous, and often positively inconsis- tent principles can scarcely be imagined: certainly, it could not be described. We would have a parity HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 141 of the ministry and diocesan bishops! A prayer book, and no prayer book! government by sessions, by presbyteries, &c., and by the people, presbyters being excluded! The Pope acknowledged, and at the same time renounced as the Antichrist! To say nothing of a profession in the same church of conflicting opinions on important matters of faith. And as to the edification of good men by the use of such songs — it is not impossible that the truths which they may contain, may be employed for this end by the Spirit of God, even when the songs themselves are improperly used. Of this we have no need to judge. The truth is, in this whole matter, men are no rule of faith, or of duty. "To the law, and to the testimony. '^ The Word of God alone, is a "lamp unto the feet — a light unto the path." Men — good men — owing to the imperfection of human 'knowledge, may build upon the one foundation, "wood, hay, and stubble," and still be saved, while their works shall be burned up; (1 Cor. iii. 11-14:) but, surely, we are not bound, or even warranted to copy their errors — to appropriate their "wood, hay and stubble!" The safe rule is that which the Spirit furnishes, speaking by the great Apos- tle, " Be ye followers of me, even as I am of Christ." (1 Cor. xi. 1.) IX. It has been supposed, and urged, that the 142 THE TRUE PSALMODY. singing of the Psalms of Scripture, in a New Tes« lament sense, — "with our hearts and minds full of the New Testament commentary," is somehow a warrant for the making and using of hymns: and this upon the principle that "It cannot be wrong to express in words, in the worship of God, what it is rio-ht to conceive in thou^^ht/' It has also been stated, in this connexion, that "the most rigid advocates of an Old Testament Psalmody, first comment, and at the close of his commentary, the minister counsels the people to sing as he has expounded!'^ And it is added, "It comes to this, that we must choose between a prose commentary which can neither be remembered nor sung, and a metrical comment, which all may hold with their hands, and look upon with their eyes, and render vocal with their tongues." On this very singular argument for hymns, we remark, (1.) If we mistake not, the design of all comment is to ascertain and trace the true mean- ^ing of the scriptures — whether Old Testament, or New. (2.) We were not aware that the minister who expounds the word of God, imposes an ol>U- gaiion upon his hearers either to read or to sing the words of the Bible, "as he has expounded." We had imagined that expositors, whether writing or speaking, were "helps" and not "lords of the faith" of the hearer. (3.) If the Psalms are cor- HYMNS UNWARRANTED. I43 rectly expounded, the worshipper is aided in sino-- ing them "with the spirit and with the under- Btandinij;:" if incorrectly, he is not only at liberty to reject the comment, but bound to do so. (4.) If this argument is worth anything for the purpose for which it is adduced, it is equally available to a much greater extent: for it might as well be said, that the hearer is bound to read his Bible — any part of it — with the minister's comment in his mind and heart, as to sing a Psalm as it is ex- pounded. (5.) It seems to be taken for granted here, that New Testament truth is not in the Psalm, but is merely put into the commentary; for certainly, if this truth be there already, it can do no harm, and may do much good, to have the fact clearly set forth, as we are about to sing. (6.) If it be right to fix, by a metrical version, prepared as a paraphrase and not a translation, the meaning of a Psalm, and use this instead of the Psalm itself, why not apply this rule to the whole Bible, and re-write it, in the form of a paraphrase, so that no comments will be needed, and then put this into the '-hands" of the people as an infallible exposi- tion? Hence, (7.) The concluding statement of this argument is inconsistent with true Protestant- ism; for it advocates this very thing— the substi- tution of our own words as a commentary for the words of the Bible itself, in the exercise of praise. 144 THE TRUE PSALMODY. (8.) The whole argument, if it have any force at all, is valid only against explaining the Psalms, and, if so, against explaining any part of the Bible. We now proceed, — II. To adduce some arguments against the use of uninspired hymns in the Church's loorshijy, whether domestic, social, or public. It can hardly be necessary to remark, that we do not object to the expression of scripture truth in rhythmical forms. An author may make "Gospel Sonnets,^' as well as '' sermons. '^ The only question is, regarding the use of them in the worship of God. Against this we argue. And, I. The praises of God were celebrated in song, for many centuries under the Old Testament eco- nomy, but only in inspired songs. We have al- ready seen, in one of our quotations from the pen of Dr. Pressly, that the Church in the patriarchal age, seems, so far as we have any light at all upon this subject, to have conducted the worship of God •without the use of song. Neither the Bible, nor tradition, gives any other evidence. That the poe- tical faculty was entirely wanting, is extremely im- probable. Yet none ever attempted, until inspired of God, to provide songs to be used in religious ex- ercises. Still more. In after ages, God was praised in song: but only in song as indited by the Holy Ghost. None ventured to obtrude their own HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 145 compositions upon the people of God as the matter of their praise. Hence, in times subsequent to David and Asaph, we find Hezekiah and Judah, in the great reformation accomplished in the reign of that good king, employing none other than the Psalms already furnished. (2 Chron. xxix. 30.) And so throughout the entire Old Testament dispen- sation. Poets there were, unquestionably; and yet, no Psalms or hymns were ever introduced into God's worship except inspired Psalms and hymns: none at all, after the canon of Old Testament scripture had been completed. This is an instructive and admonitory f.ict; to be met only by the clearest and most unquestionable warrant in the New Testament:: such a warrant as we have already seen cannot be adduced. II. There is no authority by which we are, or can be called upon to sing uninspired hymns. It needs no argument to show that the poet himself cannot make this demand upon us. We may re- fuse to sing his songs, and do no dishonour to God. Nor can the minister by reading from his place such songs, impose the obligation upon his fellow- worshippers to sing them. His audience may sit m silence and decline to respond to his call, which they cannot do, without sin, if able to sing, when called upon to unite in praising God in the "Psalmsj and hymns, and spiritual songs" of the scriptures^ 13 146 THE TRUE PSALMODY. upon wliicli he lias impressed the sanction of his own authority, any more than they can refuse to read His word, or wait upon the ministry which he has appointed. We might have in our posses- sion any hymn book, for half a century, unopened, confining ourselves to the Psalms of the Bible, and be guiltless before God : which we could not do if it had His authority and sanction as containing the matter in which He is to be praised in song. Nor has the Church any authority to make and enforce ithe reception and use of a hymn-book. For even in those churches in which hymn-books have been authorized in modern times — there was no such true church until of late — no scruples hinder the most severe criticisms upon the very hymns which have received the very highest sanction — criticisms affecting, not merely the poetry and the rhythm, but the very matter and entire character of the hymn.* And it is not impossible but that the whole book might be thus handled by various cri- tics, each adducing objections against such songs as might offend his views or his tastes. Hence, we are compelled to conclude that even those who have no difficulty in conscience as to the use of un- inspired compositions, are conscious that the church lias not been commissioned to prepare a book of * Instances of this will be given in the sequel. HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 147 hymns — tliat when the task has been undertaken, the book is still destitute of any authority that can claim its devout and conscientious reception and use. But we go farther. If these hymns have no authorized place in God's worship: if they are des- titute of His high sanction, they can be regarded in no other light than as "will- worship:" that is, worship of man's device, and, hence, not only un- profitable, but unacceptable; not only unacceptable, but offensive in God's sight, and so to be most carefully eschewed Thus, as we have seen, in our history of Psalmody, our reforming fathers thought. They rejected, on this principle, all mat- ter of praise in song, but that which they found prescribed and ordered of God, III. The employment of human compositions in the worship of God, does, in fact, set aside, at least for the time, the Psalms of the Bible. The advo- cates of hymns are not entirely agreed as to the pro- priety of using the scripture Psalms at all. Some go so far as to deny them any rightful place in New Testament worship. The great majority, however, admit that they maij be used, and that too, as a manual of praise, which He who is King in Zion, has provided and appointed. Hence, they are rather disposed, in most cases, to resent the imputation that they exclude God s Psalms 148 THE TRUE PSALMODY. from His own house, and assert that they claim do more than the right to sing other songs by times. On this we remark, (1.) That it suggests the in- quiry, whether they allow to the Psalms of the Bi- ble a place of higher authority, than they do to their own writings? Do they sing them because they are God's, and appointed by Him, or solely on the ground that they are selected by the wor- shipper for this purpose — or, it may be, allowed by church authority? If they can sing, or omit to sing them, as they determine at the time, alter- nating them with "hymns," it would appear to be quite dear that there can be no regard to God's ap- pointment at all; or, at least that that appointment is liable to be overruled, at any time, by the choice of the worshipper. This is the only fair conclusion from the premises; and yet we are far from affirm- ing that all who thus act, do deliberately subject a divine appointment to the taste, or judgment, or caprice of the worshipper: hut tliey act as if they did. (2.) Is it not evident — provided the Bible Psalms have a sanction which cannot be claimed for songs of man's composing, that the use of these songs in God's worship, at any given time, is de- rogatory to this authority and sanction? If the Most High has appointed the Psalms to be sung in His praise, and has fixed the seal of His appoint- ment to no other hymns or songS; — and this we HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 149 have already shown — then, does it not follow that in mingling a hymn in our devotions, we do, for the time, set aside an appointment of God, and this on the ground, expressed or implied, that we have found something better; for this occasion at least? Should we use, five times out of six, the Psalms of the Bible, we would really exclude them from their appointed place by the substitution of something else for the sixth service of song: for, if these Psalms be provided for our use, as God's ordained matter of praise, it is not merely when we choose to use them, that the command bears upon us, but all the time. (3.) The inevitable con- clusion is, that to mingle mere human hymns with the ''Psalms," is nothing less than to exclude the latter from the position they are entitled, as given of God, to occupy — is to make a divine appoint- ment to depend upon our own will. If we may set them aside for one time, we may, for the same reasons, and on no higher authority, set them aside entirely and forever. IV. Hymns, such as we oppose, are sectarian. Every hymn-singing denomination has its own hymn book. There is a xMethodist hymn book, a Baptist hymn book, a Congregational hymn book, or books, a Presbyterian hymn book, or books, a Cumberland Presbyterian l^mn book, a Universal- ist hymn book, &c., &c. This is a kind of neces- 150 THE TRUE PSALMODY. sity; acknowledged by high authority to be so. We refer to the Biblical Repertory, (vol. xviii. p. 505.) "The Psalmody of the Christian assembly has generally partaken largely of those character- istics of thought and expression, which arise from the circumstances of the people. In a divided state of the Church, w^hen the different denomina- tions are zealous for their respective forms of doc- trine and worship, the lyric poetry becomes strongly argumentative and polemical; addresses men rather than God; and is employed to defend and incul- cate theology, and to confirm the attachment of the people to their peculiar articles of faith. Hence each sect has its Psalmody. Both policy and con- science are deemed to require the hymns to coin- cide in sentiment throughout with the creed of the sect. And these doctrines are not only stated in poetical language, or language professedly poetical, and dwelt upon in a strain of devout meditation, !but are frequently inculcated in a sort of metrical argument, and appeal to persons not supposed to believe them.'' In opposition to all this sectarian perversion of this part of God's worship, the advocates of the exclusive use of the scripture Psalms hold large- minded and catholic views. That the church may become one in her vfeible organization, and in worship, some at least of their hymn books must HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 151 be sacrificed. They cannot all remain. Let them all be discarded, that the one and sufficient book of Psalms furnished by our Saviour himself, through the inspiring influences of His Spirit, may be alone made use of by all his people, in the holy exercise of praise. The coming unity of the church will abolish these uninspired hymn books, or, at least, exclude them from the sacred worship of God. V. It has been found impracticable — especially in the more enlightened and orthodox denomina- tions — to frame a hymn book universally accepta- ble, and of a permanent character. Change, change, change, has been written and re-written upon these efforts to get better songs for Christian worship than those of the Bible. We might here, very properly allude, once more, to the fact that every denomination Iras its peculiar system of hymns. Every new schism produces some change in the songs sung in religious exercises. Every new phase of doctrine; particularly when it puts on a visible form as the exciting cause and shibboleth of a new ecclesiastical organization, makes its ap- pearance in the shape of new hymns: destined themselves to illustrate, in turn, the inherent — and we believe insuperable — difficulty in the way of se- curing entire unanimity. In this connexion, we present, as quoted by Mr. Somerville, some testi- 152 THE TRUE PSALMODY. monies in regard to tlie estimation in whieli the majority of existing hymns is held by some, at least, who do not confine themselves to the use of Scripture Psalms. "A 'Layman' in the Neiu York Independent, Feb. 23, 1854, says — 'We have some two thousand pieces, which are called Psalms, or Hymns. Perhaps two hundred of them may pass for odes or lyrics, suitable for singing. Fifty more might possibly be selected by an expert.' The Boston Congregationalist, Feb. 15, 1853, has the following: — 'Professor B. B. Edwards believed that two or three hundred Psalms or Hymns would in- clude all which are of sterling value for the sanc- tuary. Unquestionably he was right. The popu- lar demand for new and more numerous hymns, it cannot be denied, arises in part from the wide dis- satisfaction with a large number of those with which our hymn books are filled. Let us have fewer and choicer. Let them be truly sacred lyrics, and not feeble prose, measured and amputated to the proper length, and afterwards still further mangled, at the mercy of men who wonder that David, (or rather the Holy Ghost, who spake by him) 'had not sufi&cient native sense to have com- posed his Psalms in proper metres, ready at once to be cantered through 'DeFleury, or paced through State Street." The Gla^-gow Examiner for Sept. 18, 1852, thus remarks upon the 'Hymn Book of HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 153 the U. P. Church/ ^^ The collection contains a great many beautiful effusions of sanctified genius, and not a few very trashy 'productions.' " The last hymn book of the Presbyterian Church (Old School) furnishes an example in proof of our statement, deserving of especial notice. This book is the result of a second and laborious attempt to prepare a proper hymn book. The first, which was compiled by a very able committee of the Assembly, and by the labours of a number of years, and which was long sung, was an acknowledged failure. The committee to whom was intrusted, in 1838, the task of revising it, pronounced in their report to the Assembly, the following judgment upon its de- merits. "On a critical examination they found many hymns deficient in literary merit, some in- correct in doctrine, and many altogether unsuitable for the sanctuary as songs of praise, for want of suitable sentiments, although not incorrect in doc- trine or deficient in literary merit."* But did this Committee, whose report and a new book, which they had compiled, were adopted in 1840, succeed any better in satisfying the whole body? The Biblical Repertory, conducted by the Professors of the Theological Seminary at Prince- ton, says, ^'We are free to confess that there are * Spirit of the Nineteenth Century, vol. ii. 582. 154 THE TRUE PSALMODY. many things in tlie book laid before the Assembly •which we think ought not to be there; hymns which we consider unsuitable for the worship of God. Some of them are mere sentimental effu- sions; some objectionable from the lightness of their measure, and others for their want of all poetic excellence/' Others agreed with the Re- pertory; and, just now, a spirit of dissatisfaction with their hymns begins to make itself manifest in influential quarters. The Southern Presbyterian, a paper connected with that denomination, referring to a difficulty which has arisen out of a late dis- covery that one hymn occurs twice in the book, says, "It is not enough to 'remove duplicate hymns;' those must be removed which are ^un- 2)oetical and lacking in lyrical merit.' It thinks some of the hymns would do very well as ' doc- trinal treatises, spiritual maxims, practical lessons, didactic essays, doctrinal argumentations and de- fences, very sensible, but very sedate and angular moralizings in verse.' Hence some of these 'are neither read nor sung, — not sung, because they are not fit for the purpose; and not read, because people do not novj go to the hymn book when they feel like reading.' And then proceeds thus: 'But it may be asked. What harm do those pieces in the book ? We reply, they encumber it; they are in the way when one is looking for hymns that are HYMNS UNWARRANTED. lOO hymns; tlicy increase tlie price, whilst thc}^ add nothing to the value of the volume. We say nothing about the credit they do us, or fail to do us, as a denomination making some pretensions to taste in poetry, as in other things. This is a ten- der subject, and we do not wish to give offence. Wonder if Dr. Dewey had not been recently look- ing over some of these pieces when he asked with so pompous, triumphant emphasis, 'What poem has Calvinism written?^'' A '^ greatly respected correspondent" of the Pres- byterian '' of this city, and ''who has given the subject," we use the words of the editor, ''much consideration," thus writes of the hymnology of the times, making no exceptions in regard to any- particular system: "Our hymnology is far enough from perfection. It has grave defects and ble- mishes. It needs emending and purging. It does not recognise and carry out, as a distinctive and controlling principle, this — that song, in the de- votions of the family and the church, is truly a ser- vice of worship. It abounds with hymns addressed to creatures, sinners, saints, angels, the living and the dead. These hymns are not the impassioned cry of an adoring soul, calling on all things to praise and magnify the Lord. That is of the very- essence of worship. But they reason, exhort, ex- postulate, promise; threaten; they moralize, solilo- 156 THE TRUE PSALMODY. quize — sometimes eulogize. They sing to frail, sinful, dying men — not to the great and holy God. And as our books liberally provide such composi- tions, ministers and people use them, and have used them, until the sense of their incongruity with the idea and fact of worship is almost or quite effaced.'^* Nor is there universal acquiescence in the com- mon opinion among such as use hymns, of the ex- cellency of Watts' " Imitations.'' Dr. K. J. Breck- enridge, a very competent judge, uses this language regarding it: " We freely confess that, for ourselves, we consider the Paraphrase of the Psalms, by Dr. Watts, the most defective part of our Psalmody; and only more and more marvel that such a mise- rable attempt should have acquired so much repu- tation." f Dr. Junkin, who holds a high position in the same body — Old School Presbyterian, — thus characterizes this attempt to improve the Psalms of the Bible : ^' Dr. Watts has attempted, professedly, to improve upon the sentiment, the very matter, and the order, and by various omissions and addi- tions, to fit the Psalms for Christian worship. This is unfair. If Pope had taken the same license with the poems of Homer, all the amateurs of Greek * S. D., in the Presbyterian, Nov. 20th, 1858. ■j- Spirit of the Nineteenth Century, vol. ii. 58G. HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 157 poetry in the -world would have cried — shame on the presumptuous intruder! But it is a pious and zealous Christian divine who has taken this liberty with the songs of Zion, and almost the whole church acquiesces in it. What would we think of the French poet who, proposing to enrich French li- terature with a versification of the masterpiece of the English muse, should mangle and transpose the torn limbs of the Paradise Lost, until Milton himself might meet his first-born on the highway and not recognise it? And must this literary butchery be tolerated, because forsooth the victim is the inspired Psalmist? Why should the Hea- ven-taught bard be misrepresented thus? Let us rather have the songs of inspiration as God in- spired them, and as nearly as is possible, and con- sistent with the laws of English versification. God's order of thought is doubtless the best for his church. If any one think he can write better spi- ritual songs than the sweet singer of Israel, let him do it; but let him not dress the savoury meat which God hath prepared, until all the substance and sa- vour are gone, and then present it to us as an imi- tation of David's psalms/' '^^ Thus, the effi^rts of one of the most intelligent, * Lectures on the Prophecies, by George Junkin, D. D., pp. 231, 233. 14 158 THE TRUE PSALMODY. and orthodox, and literary denominations in tliis country, have signally failed to procure a hymn book on whose merits they can agree. * They may try it again; but only to subject themselves to another mortifying failure. Among an ignorant people, or people of lax doctrinal views, it may be possible to secure a more general acquiescence in a volume of hymns. But this does not weaken — it rather strengthens the argument against hymns, derived from the apparent impossibility of attain- ing this in an educated and inquiring community. Now, it is, certainly, not unreasonable that we should demand of these churches that they suit themselves in a book of hymns, before they ask us to join them in the singing of hymns. Indeed, with what propriety — we had almost said, with what decency — can they call upon us to unite with them in laying aside, even in part, if there were no more, * The new hymn book, we might have said above, was severely criticised on the floor of the Assembly, by which it was adopted. The chairman of the committee, some- what disturbed by the unfavourable remarks upon the book, at length rose, and said, in substance, that he could sympathize with a good deal that had been said ; for after revising each hymn, time after time, — in all, some six or seven times, he had thought it " the meanest book he had ever seen," — adding, with a smile, "of course, I think better of it now." HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 159 tlie Book of Psalms in a literal rendering, and in the adoption of hymns in our devotions, while they are so far from being satisfied with their new Psalmody ? Wc have a Book which has stood the test of thousands of years; which, as wc have seen, has instructed, edified and cheered hosts of the saints of God, living and dying; and with which we are fully satisfied. * It is rather too much to ask us to desert the stable position we now occupy, and to enter upon seas of uncertainty — to subject ourselves to similar harassing toils in the hitherto vain pursuit of unity and uniformity in singing hymns of human composition — particularly as we have in the Psalms which the Most Hioli has s-ra- ciously provided us, ample matter for the celebra- tion of His praises. VI. The advocacy of hymn-singing has led to the adoption and utterance of sentiments which strike at the very fundamentals of Christianity. We begin with Dr. Watts — who "Imitated "the Psalms of the Bible, and also, prepared many of the hymns now in use. This favourite poet and hymn-writer allowed himself to speak of the Psalms of Scrip- ture in the following terms. " Some of them are almost oj^posite to the spirit of the gospel. Hence * Of the version used in our churches, we have some- thing to say iu the sequel. 160 THE TRUE PSALMODY. it comes to pass, that when spiritual affections are excited within us, and our souls are raised a little above this earth, in the beginning of a psalm, we are checked on a sudden in our ascent towards hea- ven, by same expressions that are — fit only to be sung in the luorldly sanctuary. When we are just entering into an evangelical frame — the very next line — which the clerk parcels out to us, hath some- thing in it so extremely Jewish and cloudy^ that it darkens our sight of God the Saviour. Thus by keeping too close to David in the house of God, the vail of Moses is thrown over our hearts. While we are kindling into divine love — some dreadful curse against men is proposed to our lips; as, Ps. Ixix. 26-28; which is so contrary to the new commandment of loving our enemies. Some sentences of the Psalmist — may compose our spirits to seriousness, but we meet with a following line, that breaks off our song in the midst; our con- sciences are affrighted, lest we should speak a false- hood unto God; thus the powers of our souls are shocked on a sudden, and our spirits ruffled — it al- most always spoils the devotion — Our lips speak nothing but the heart of David. Thus our hearts are, as it were, forbid the pursuit of the song, and then the harmony and the worship grow dull of necessity. Many ministers, and private Christians, have long groaned under this inconvenience — there HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 161 are a tlwusand lines in it — tlie book of Psalms — which were not made for a church in our days to assume as its own — I should rejoice to see — David converted into a Christian: there are many hun- dred verses in that book, (of Psalms) which a Chris- tian cannot properly assume in singing — as Ps. Ixviii. 13, 16, and Ixxxiv. 3, 6, — Ps. Ixix. 28, and Ps. cix. are so full of cursings, that they hardly become the tongue of a follower of the blessed Je- sus. By that time they are fitted for Christian Psalmody — the composure can hardly be called in- spired or divine — I could never persuade myself that the best way to raise a devout frame in plain Christians, was to bring a Icing or captain into our churches, and let him lead and dictate the worship in his oion style of royalty, or in the lan- guage of a field of battle.'' * Another, Dr. James Latta, uses such language as the following: "Whether these Psalms {jnen- tioned, 1 Cor. xiv. 26,) were the effect of previous study and inspiration united, or of immediate sug- gestion, they were certainly not designed to inspire them — (the converts to the gospel) loith veneration and respect for the Psalms of David. Any person — will quickly perceive how remote psalms and hymns, formed upon it (the orthodox Nicene creed) * Preface to the Imitation, Works, Vol. 7, p. 24. 14* 162 THE TRUE PSALMODY. would be from the — doctrine of the Old Testament. Nor do I think (the introduction of the Psalms of David into the Christian church) was very honour- able to the cause of Christ. It deprived him of — divine honour — It deprived the asserters of his deity of all opportunity of bearing testimony to it in that part of their worship — It decided clearly in favour of that tenet of Arianism, that divine worship was to be paid only to the Father, and so had a direct tendency — to malce heresy trium- yliantr^ The Psalms of the Bible, unchristian in spirit, in doctrine, — unfit for devotion, tend to make he- retics, &c. ! How different this estimate of the in- spired Psalter, from the testimonies to its excel- lence which we have furnished so abundantly in our first chapter! And in whose service, but in that of the infidel, were Dr. Watts and Dr. Latta employed in putting forth such utterances against the Word of God? Others have gone nearly as far, in other forms, in this work of undermining the faith of the church. They have virtually denied that the church — we speak in reference to her ordinary members — has, in her possession, the word of Grod at all: asserting, substantially, that there is no Bible, except in the * Discourse on Psalmody, pp. 42, 51, 77. HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 163 original Greek and Hebrew. Mr. Black, against whose views on Psalmody, Dr. Anderson composed his able work, thus wrote some sixty or seventy years ago: "That there neither is nor can be any such thing as the uisjJi'rcd forms of the psalms in our language, unless an immediate revelation were made in that language: that it is not possible to re- tain the words and phrases of the original in any translation; that as a prophet is to speak in the language which is suggested to him, his words are justly called the words of the Holy Ghost; but that whenever a translation of that subject is made into any other language, the words of the language into which it is translated are no more the words of the Holy Ghost, than Greek is English." We need not pause here to vindicate the claim of our Bibles as they are in the hands of the people of God, to be, indeed, the word of the living God. This is part of our controversy as Protestants with the Po- pish apostacy. Another late writer, follows in the same strain; ^'The inspired songs of the Old Testament are writ- ten in Hebrew, and that has been a dead language to her ever since her (the Christian church's,) first existence. She might translate these songs: — but the songs themselves she could not use."* * Morton on Psalmody, p. 86. 164 THE TRUE PSALMODY. And; of course, — provided this be true of tlie Psalms, it must be equally so of any portion of the Bible, — and so, in his zeal against the exclusive use of the Scripture Psalms, this writer would take away from the plain people of God, the entire Word of God: for, if the translated Psalms are not the Psalms, then the translated Sermon on the mount, is not the Sermon on the mount: if translated Psalms occupy, substantially, the same position as the or- dinary compositions of men, which express scrip- ture truth, then are the translated epistles of Paul, to be regarded in the same light as other sound gospel teaching, — as to the inspired Paul's epis- tles, however, we cannot have them in our hands unless we can read Greek! These doctrines would deprive us of the Bible altogether: they would be- reave the church of Christ of any authoritative standard of faith and duty, accessible to unlettered Christians, and would hand these over to the teach- ings and interpretations of the learned, and espe- cially to the clergy. Thus the Papists teach, rea- son, and conclude. But this is not all. While at one time the claims of the scriptures in the vulgar tongue are brought doiun to the level of ordinary compositions; at other times, the writings of men are exalted so as to bring them up to the height, at least, of the translated word of God. "And if tlie subject mat- HYMNS UNW^\-RRANTED. 165 ter is inspired; that is enough; the. song is an in- spired song. For everybody knows, and the Doc- tor admits it, that the composition has its character from the subject matter. Every song, then, having for its subject matter inspired truth, is in reality an inspired song.'^* If this be so, then, every sermon which faithfully presents gospel truth, every acceptable prayer as well as every sound hymn, must be ^' inspired'^ also! And, then, so far from having no English Bible, as at other times seems to be taught, we have any tiumber of them — they are beyond computation! Another, of higher name, teaches, indirectly, the same singular doctrine. He says, ''Humaa composure, properly speaking, is something, whe- ther in prose or verse, composed by men, the sub- ject-matter of which is human views, wishes, con- cerns or interests. It is not proper to call a poem, the ground and substance of which is some doc- trine, precept, promise, &c., in the word of God, a ^human composure/" Dr. Pressly, among other judicious comments upon this remarkable definition of the phrase ''human composures," says, "The reader will perceive that the author of the ' Inquiry' does not choose to appear before the public as the advocate of the use of songs of ' human composure,' * Morton on Psalmody, p. 92. 166 THE TRUE PSALMODY. in the worship of God. And to extricate himself from this difficulty, he has invented a convenient definition of the phrase, 'human composure/ He maintains tliat a composition, which has been writ- ten and arranged by man, provided the matter of it be taken from the Bible, is not a 'human com- posure,' but is 'divine.' And according to this de- finition, every evangelical sermon in the world is a 'divine' composition! and Dr. Ralstou's 'Brief Explication of the Principal Prophecies of Daniel and John,' is a 'divine' book! Against such an abuse of language, for the purpose of elevating the compositions of men to a level with the word of God, I enter my solemn protest."* And well he may: for it is more than an "abuse of language" — it is false teaching, calculated to mar the faith of the church. It is not our purpose to enter into any detailed refutation of these heretical assertions and doc- trines. Every champion of the church's common faith, as against infidels, papists and enthusiasts of all sorts who pretend to share in inspiration, is equally bound with us to engage in this work. These are errors which assail the very foundations. We hold them up as beacons to admonish the reader to beware of entering upon that course of * Pressly, p. 22. HYMNS UNWAURANTED. 167 reasoning wliich has led to sucli conclusions as these, regarding the character and spirit of the Bi- ble itself, and as to the fact whether we have any Eible at all, in any other tongue than the He- brew and Greek, or even any Bible whatever, in- spired in a way far transcending all that ordinary, even good, teaching can claim. Nor do we design to affirm, or even insinuate, that all who favour the singing of hymns, have gone these lengths. An Alexander, or a Junkin, would revolt at teachings like these, as sincerely as we do. But to these results, not a few, as we have seen, have been driven in their advocacy of hymn-making and hymn-singing in the worship of God. Nor can we exempt from all blame, the de- nominations in behalf of whose practice in this matter of Psalmody these statements have been made: for we have yet to learn that these assertions and reasonings have been met by any such rebuke on their part, as they certainly deserve. It is no hallowed cause in which men not defi- cient in sagacity have felt themselves constrained, somehow, by an inexorable logic to defend their views at such an expense. If hymns cannot be vindicated, without disparaging the translated word of God and its claim to hold, when faithfully ren- dered, an incomparably higher place than the com- positions even of the most enlightened and experi- 168 THE TRUE PSALMODY. enced Cliristians^ their defence ouglit^ by all means, to be abandoned. VII. The introduction and the use of hymns, has been followed by the abandonment, to a very great extent, of congregational singing: and, even in do- mestic worship, there is, if we are not greatly mis- taken, comparatively little use of sacred song. Hymns and "Imitations" of the Psalms have been, in a vast number of instances, the precursors of va- rious appliances and arrangements in connexion with the musical services of the sanctuary; while these, again, have had the effect of closing the lips of the worshippers. So that^ except in social meet- ings, we may safely assert, that in most denomi- nations,* which favour the singing of uninspired songs, they often do not after all sing them, either in public or domestic worship! The great mass of the worshippers (?) in public service "sit mute" — to use an expression employed by a late writer respecting the Independent Churches of England, — while a few in the choir attend to this part of the services. Is not this, notoriously, the fact? too notorious to require any proof? And, not in this land, alone, but in others, although not every- where to the same extent, the use of hymns has * The Methodist denominations do still, ■we believe, re- tain congregational singing. HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 1G9 largely sent the entire "service of song" into some corner of the church edifice, committing it to a few, and these not always specially devout and solemn. In many congregations, the voice of a worshipper anywhere out of the choir-gallery, would be frowned upon as an unwarrantable interference with the ar- tistic efforts of the select few! As to the devotions of the family, in this country at least, we are quite safe in asserting that they are generally conducted in hymn-singing denominations by reading the scriptures and praying alone; singing praise is omitted. Dr. J. W. Alexander says, "This part of the service (family singing) has fallen out of the practice of many households, and (strangely enough) extensively in those regions where scien- tific music has been most boastfully cultivated.'' "It is a remarkable fact, that in those circles of the religious world which consider themselves the most accomplished, there are many families where sacred music receives no separate attention * * =5^; when the hour of family worship arrives, no liymn of-prahe ascends tv God * * *; our Christian daugh- ters, practising for hours a day under great mas- ters of singing, are sometimes unwilling to lend their aid even in the house of God.'' * * "We be- lieve that the revival of Psalmody in the house, would contribute to train voices for the sanctuary." "It is .mournful to think; that a service which was 15 170 THE TRUE PSALMODY. SO precious to our ancestorSj and which they made sacrifices to enjoy, even when under the sword of persecution, should die out in many Christian fa- milies in these days of peace, when there is no lack of worldly rejoicings, 'and the harp, and the viol, tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts/^' (Is. V. 12.*) There are exceptions: but the fact is indisputa- ble, that congregational singing, and singing in family worship have largely disappeared : f and a most singular fact it is. Claiming the right to sing anything they please — advocating a wide li- berty of selection — boasting that they have found hymns — multitudes of them — more suitable for New Testament service of sacred song; they do pro- bably — really sing nothing at all — in the public — it may be in the domestic worship of God! Having banished the "Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" which God has provided, adopting in their stead, either "Imitations'^ of them, or hymns, they have gone on to a practical disregard of the ordinance of praise itself! They neither sing the Psalms of the Bible, nor any other! * Dr. J. W. Alexander's Tliouglits on Family Worship, pp. 218, 224, 226, 230. I Some efforts are making to revive congregational Binging; but -with only partial success. HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 171 Not so the Psalm-singing churches. They re- tain con.Gjrcgational singing. In a very few in- stanccS; the choir principle may be adopted par- tially, but no where, we believe, can there be found a congregation which remits the exercise of praise to a few occupants of a gallery, And so of family worship. In Psalm-singing denominations, both in this country, and in Europe, the celebra- tion of God's praise in the songs of Zion, is one part of the exercises of family worship. On this we quote from Dr. Alexander: '' The use of Psalmody in family worship we believe to have been almost universal (he might have said universal) in the Old Presbyterian Church of Scotland, as il has been laudably hept up till this day. That it tended, in a high degree, to increase the interest of all con- cerned in the service, and to promote Christian knowledge and sound piety, we cannot for a mo- ment doubt." * All this has now mainly departed from one class of churches, while it has remained in another. Is there not a very solemn lesson, both of instruction and admonition to be learned from this? But why has sindng praise, been dropped so ex- tensively in connexion with the use of hymns? We suggest the following: (1.) The hymns lack an- * Thoughts, &c., p. 222. 172 THE TRUE PSALMODY. ikority. It is very difficult to make out the c^ll of God in the case of any given hymn at a given time. Even admitting that it is a duty to sing praise, the question rises as to the call to this duty in the given case. We have no doubt at all that this radical defect in the entire system of hymns, has wrought, gradually, but effectively, to produce the state of things vre now witness, and so many deplore. (2.) And, in part, arising from the same cause, the idea of worship has ceased to no inconsi- derable extent to be attached to the singing of hymns. We here use the words, and support our statement by the authority, of the writer from whom we have already quoted: "Is the true character of this service that of worship ? Probably few or none would, in form, deny it. Our hymn books, however, and the usage of many Christian minis- ters and people do deny it, in fact. At least they hold it as a mixed service, partly worship and part- ly not. They sing now to God, and now to crea- tures. They do this, not only in mere musical ex- ercises and recreations when there is no profession of worship, but also when households encompass the domestic altar and the great congregation waits before God. As a divine ordinance, then, the ser- vice of song is one of worship. This is the view of the Bible, the doctrine of the Church, the usage of heaven. Like prayer, it is worship in its most HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 173 direct form. What then? This. Thou shalt wor- ship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. No creature, man, or angel, may share this honour. It belongs exclusively to God. The con- clusion is inevitable and urgent. It reaches our hymn books. It demands a material change in their character. They are not formed on this de- finite and prime principle. Sometimes, indeed, they agree with it, as often they violate it. What- ever their compilers thought sufficiently pious and lyrical seems to have been inserted without a con- trolling reference to its fitness for the specific pur- pose of worship. They abound, therefore, with meditations, invitations, exhortations, expostula- tions, soliloquies, and even dialogues. Here they sing to creatures, and there to God; thus practi- cally teaching that the one is right and becoming as the other.''* (3.) The abandonment so large- ly of congregational singing, may be traced to that fondness for fine, scientific music, which has ever followed in the train of hymns, when used among a cultivated people. The associations of every day musical training and recreations, are readily trans- ferred to the Sabbath, and the sanctuary. It is all the singing of songs: men's songs. These may * S. D., in the Presbyterian, Nov. 27th, and Dec. 4th, 1858. 15* 174 THE TRUE PSALMODY. differ in their subject^ but they are one in their origin. Hence, unlike those who use the word of God alone in singing his praise, there is no parti- cular sense of incongruity in treating hymns as other songs are treated. — that is, made the mere vehicle of music, instead of employing music to deepen the impression of the sentiments uttered. Whether we have traced the causes of this state of things accurately, or not, our facts remain. They deserve high consideration. VIII. The use of hymns in religious exercises endangers the church's purity: hymns may be used and have been, in diffusing errors and heresy. That the songs used by the church in her devotions have no feeble influence upon her faith, we have already affirmed. The fact is beyond question. The notion of sacredness becomes, in some cases, attached to them. Their constant use impresses them deeply upon the mind, and upon the heart. Hence, error incorporated in songs and sung in de- votional exercises, occupies the most favourable po- sition possible. Corrupters of the faith have over understood this well; and, hence, have availed them- selves of the instrumentality of songs as a most ef- fective means of propagating their erroneous opi- nions. The Biblical Repertory, speaking of Bar- desanes, says, ''The Gnostic doctrines were poetic, and they were made popular, and widely extended HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 175 by the hymns and odes of this heretical poet, and those of his more distinguished son, Harmonius/'* Neander makes a similar statement regarding later generations: "and as sectaries and heretical parties often had recourse to church Pscdmody to spread their own religious opinions, all those songs which had not been for a long time in use in the church, were particularly liable to suspicion.'^ f And, finally, the Repertory, alluding to the partisan use which the various factions of the church made of song, says, "Thus one of the most sacred portions of the worship of the church militant, in which it was designed to approximate most closely to the services of the church above, degenerated into the mere watch-word of a party, and the signal for strife and controversy.'^ We .can trace, not very distinctly, but with suf- ficient clearness for the purpose of admonition and warning, the hurtful workings of this agency even in the hands of those esteemed orthodox. The au- thor of the "Voice of the Christian Life in Song,'' thus speaks of the "Anonymous Greek Hymns;" "If any difference is apparent between the theology of these early hymns and that of St. Paul and St. Peter, it seems to be this: the incarnation and na- tivity of our Lord seem in the hymns to fix the at- * 1829, p. 530. t His. ii. 318. 176 THE TRUE PSALMODY. tention, rather than his death and resurrection. The language would perhaps be rather^ 'I was de- termined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him incarnate/ than, '1 was deter- mined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified/ And in som© mea- sure the results of this difference may be traced. There is great rejoicing in Christ as the Restorer and Saviour, great adoration of Him as God mani- fest in the flesh, but perhaps less apprehensive of Him as the Redeemer of sinners, the Lamb of God, who has washed us from our sins in His own blood; and, therefore, less apprehension of the completeness of the redemption, and the blessed security of the believer, living or dead. From this tendency to make the manger, rather than the cross, the centre of the faith, prohahly arose those first misappre- hensions of the jposition of the Virgin Mary^ ichich aftericards spread so sadly J' * A perusal of these ''Hymns" shows clearly enough that this is no unfounded surmise. The same author, sets up a token of warning when speaking of the one hymn of Clement.""!" Through all the images here so quaintly interwoven, like a stained window, of which the eye loses the design in the complication of colours, we may surely trace, as in quaint old * Voice, &c., pp. 27, 28. f Clement lived at the close of the second century. HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 177 letters on a scroll winding through all the mosaic of tints, 'Christ in all/ And could the earliest Christian hymn bear a nobler inscription? Yet, at the same time, we must remember that whilst the truth of the earlj Christian writings bears pre- cious testimony to the Christian life of the times, their defects and mistakes bear, by contrast, no less valuable testimony to the inspiration of those ear- lier writings in which neither defect nor mistake is found. '^"^ Ephraem Syrus was the great ''orthodox'^ hymn- writer of the fourth century. But who was Eph- raem ? A monk of Mesopotamia — perhaps a pious man, but a believer in relics, in prayers to and for the dead, and in a kind of purgatory. The writer from whom we have just quoted, thus speaks of him: "His learning might seem foolishness to chil- dren among us, and his theology may fall far short 'of the fulness and simplicity of the apostles' teach- ing; but his heart seems to have been steeped in the Gospel histories; and, however dim might have been his explanation of the way of salvation, in those Gospels he surely found the Saviour, whom not having seen, he loved, and in whom he re- joiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory, re- ceiving the end of his faith, even the salvation of his soul.'^f * Voice, &c., pp. 45, 46. f Ibid., pp. 64-55. 178 THE TRUE PSALMODY. It may be said^ however, that his hymns may have been orthodox — that his errors found no place in them — and, hence, that Ephraem neither dif- fused nor confirmed errors by his songs. We ad- mit that his hymns contain much truth — and often beautifully and touchingly expressed. But they also contain more or less of his errors. The same writer — who admires him greatly — says again, " There is also a song of Ephraem's about Para- dise, the feet of whose mountains the highest waves of the Deluge could but touch and kiss, and reve- rently turn aside; where the sons of light tread the sea like Peter, and sail the ether on their chariots of cloud. And there is a hymn on the Resurrec- tion, full of beautiful images, or rather visions; the gates of paradise opening of themselves to the just; the guardian angel striking his harp as he goes forth to meet them, when 'the Bridegroom comes with songs of joy from the East, and the kingdo^m. of death is made desolate, as the children of x\dam rise from the dust, and soar to meet their Lord.' There is mention also of 2i fire to he 'passed through ere paradise is reached (a fire not purgatorial, but testing,) the unjust being devoured by it, and the just gliding through untouched."* We have here, with some idle fancies, an allusion to a "fire'' after * Voice, &c., pp. 53-54, HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 179 death, that might soon, to say the least, become "purgatorial." Finally, wc present as we find it in the pages of Dr. M'M aster, a stanza, from this author, recommending prayer for the dead. "Behold our brother is departed From this abode of wo: Let us pray in his departure That his guide may be propitious. Beatify him in the mansions above. May his eyes behold thy grace. Feed him with thy lambs."* These fanciful notions and erroneous views, thus incorporated with the hymns of so popular a wri- ter, could not fail to work injury. True, the age of Ephraem was one already quite distinctly marked by the adoption of many of the errors which de- veloped rapidly into the Papal apostacy. It is also true, that this monk was among the most or- thodox men of his day and place — he belonged to the East; but all the worse, when even he intro- duced into his hymns erroi-s of such a character. His general orthodoxy, and the acknowledged ex- cellence of many of his compositions, would give countenance, currency and stability, to the false, the fanciful, and the visionary. Poison is all the more dangerous when mixed with wholesome viands. When we come nearer to our own times — the * M'Master, p. 49. 180 THE TRUE PSALMODY. middle ages, and since, — we find the same agency used to establish errors. In the former, the monks sang, and others sang with them, of the "Virgin,'' and of the literal '^ cross," &c. "Long before error had been stereotyped into a creed, it has echoed from the hearts of the people in hymns. We need only study the sacred poetry of the middle ages to understand why the Reformation was needed. One painfully expressive fact meets us at the outset. Of Mone's ^Collection of the Latin Hymns of the Middle Ages,' in three volumes, one is filled with hymns to God and the angels; one with hymns to the blessed Virgin Mary; and one with hymns to the saints." * In our own day, what mean these confused sounds from the many denominational hymn books? Why such hymn books at all? The truth is, each embalms its peculiar views in song, and so endeavours to give them currency and per- manence. Hence, nearly every fresh schism of any magnitude in these bodies, gives rise to some modifications in the "service of song." That there is danger attending the use of unin- epired songs in our days, ive infer from the actual character of a large number of the hymns now in use. And this we prefer to give in the language of a writer upon whom we have already made a * Voice, &c., p. 200. HYMNS UNWARRANTED. 181 draught. ''The Plymouth compiler, in his 264th hjmn, offers to ' Christian congregations/ as a help to worship, this song to Mary: ' Why is thy face so lit with smiles, Mother of Jesus ! Why ? And wherefore is thy beaming look So fixed upon the sky,' &c. "Suppose we turn to the ^Lyra Catholica/ and from the same composition add another verse: ' Why do not thy sweet hands detain His feet upon their way? 0, why doth not the mother speak, And bid her son to stay?' "What! In our social and public worship sing to the Virgin Mary? That were downright Po- pery. Shades of Luther, Calvin, Knox! has it come to this? Were your great labours in vain-? Take care, thou excited Protestant. People who live in glass houses must not throw stones. You do in the service of song, in the house of the Lord, just as the Papists do. Protestants and Papists alike sing to creatures. The only difference be- tween them, in this matter, is not one of principle, but of taste. And here they have the advantage of us. They have a higher standard. They sing to the angels, to the apostles, to Mary, and the no- ble army of martyrs and confessors. We, on the contrary, excluding these, except now and then 16 182 THE TRUE PSALMODY. the angels, sing to all sorts of inferior creatures, and especially to sinners. These last have a large place in our hymnology. They are, indeed, highly honoured. We may sing to them in our worship at pleasure, though they would crucify the Saviour afresh. But what a prodigious stir would there be in our churches, should we venture to sing such stanzas as the above, to Mary! For our part, we condemn both.^'* It may be said, that the most objectionable Jiymns are excluded from the devotions of the more evangelical churches. That may be; but none the less are they in the hands of many professing Chris- tians, and in general circulation: claiming a status among the sacred songs of the age, and doing their part towards moulding its views. If we would occupy safe ground, let us keep to the "Psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs '* of the word of God. These are pure — in them, is no error. Thei/ will never contribute any thing to the, already sufficiently extended, injQuences that tend to mislead the minds and corrupt the hearts of sinful men. In some of these arguments we may find reasons ample to vindicate the divine wisdom and good- ness in linking the '^service of song" in the house ^ S. D., in the Presbyterian, Dec. 11th, 1858. PSALMS UNOBJECTIONABLE. 183 of God, with an inspired manual. To give license here to human ingenuity, hazards the interests of ti'uth and purity; tends to confirm disunion; fos- ters a worldly taste and undue fondness for mere vocal or instrumental melody; inflicts upon the church the evil of an insatiate desire of novelty and change: and may even put an end, as it has already done so extensively, to the joint and hearty co-operation of "all the people'' in the exercise and ordinance of praise. CHAPTER IV. THE SUITABLENESS OF THE PSALMS FOR NEW TESTAMENT WORSHIP, AND THEIR USE, VIN- DICATED AGAINST OBJECTIONS. The necessity for such a vindication of the in- spired Psalms, is certainly to be regretted. The very fact of their inspiration, should be, of itself, an answer to nearly every objection, and their ac- knowledged excellence (see Chapter I.) should be ample for the refutation of others. Our task here is rather an ungracious one, but must be under- taken, inasmuch as those who use hymns, not sa- tisfied with claiming a license to make and employ uninspired compositions in divine worship, have used no little ingenuity in the discovery of objec- 184 THE TRUE PSALMODY. tions to the employment of the Pscalms of the Bi- ble in celebrating the praises of God in our devo- tions. Some of these objections may bear more directly upon their exclusive use — some of them may be urged by those who after all admit the pro- priety of their use with some exceptions and modi- fications; some of them, as we shall see, go much farther, and assail the Psalms themselves. I. It is said that the Psalms speak of a Saviour to come, and, hence, are not suitable, nor designed to be used since His advent. We might satisfy ourselves here with the reply, that the use of the Psalms, by almost universal acknowledgment, ^'passed over to the New Testament Church:'^ in other words, that they were used in the apostolic church, and, of course, with apostolic sanction. This has already been amply shown: and also, that in the best and purest times, the Psalms have been held in the highest estimation as the matter of the church's praise in song: and that in every age they have been read and studied with singular sa- tisfaction and edification by the most eminent saints of God. By considerations such as these, we would confute this objection; so far, at least, as it em- braces a conclusion adverse to the use of the Psalms under this dispensation. We prefer, however, to meet the objection — premises and all — directly, in the words of Dr. Pressly: — "It is taken for PSALMS UNOBJECTIONABLE. 185 granted, in the objection, that if in the Psahiis, the church praises God for a Redeemer to come, therefore they are not suitable for the cliurcli now, since he has come. But it so happens, that every where in the Psalms, the Redeemer of tlie church is presented to the view of our faith, not as one who should appear in some distant age, but as al- ready engaged in the accomplishment of his Me- diatorial work. In the 22d Psalm, the Redeemer is exhibited before our eyes, as suffering in the garden and on the cross; and we hear him utter- ing the very words which dropped from his lips while suspended upon the cross: — 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' Again, he is presented to our view, as having triumphed over death and the grave, and having ascended on high; angels, principalities and powers, being made sub- ject to him. And the church praises him, not as. a promised Saviour, but as an ascendant and trium- phant Ptedeemer: — 'Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.^ (Ps. Ixviii. 18.) Permit me now to call the attention of the ob- jector to a difficulty in which his principle involves him. If it were true that the Psalms speak of a Sa- viour to come, and therefore are not suited to gospel worship, then those numerous psalms which speak 16-^ 186 THE TRUE PSALMODY. of a suffering, risen and ascended Saviour, were not suited to tlie worship of the Old Testament church, because the Redeemer had not then appeared in human nature. That is, though these psalms were given to the church by the God of infinite wisdom, to be employed in his worship, they were not adapt- ed to the end for which they were given! vaia man, who art thou that repliest against God? "But is it true, that the Psalms present the Sa- viour to the view of our faith, as one who was yet to come ? Is it really so, my Christian reader, permit me respectfully to ask, — is it the truth that in the Psalms given to the church under the Old Testament, she praised God for a promised Re- deemer, who had not yet come ? It is true that these Psalms were composed long before the actual ap- pearance of Jesus Christ in human nature. But it is no less true that these divine songs are the productions of that omniscient Spirit, before whose view all futurity is spread out, and things which were then future, are described by him as now taking place, or already past. For example, in the 22d Psalm, we hear our suffering Redeemer ex- Iclaiming, 'I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me; they pierced my hands and my feet.^ Again : This same glorious PSALMS UNOBJECTIONABLE. 187 personage is presented to our view, as exalted upon the holy hill of Zion, in the character of God's anointed King, and proclaiming defiance to the opposers of his kingdom: *Why do the heathen rag'c, and the people imagine a vain thing?' Again, he is described as coming to judgment, and all na- ture is summoned to pay obeisance to him: 'Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad be- fore the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth; he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth/ If the principle as- sumed in the objection were well founded, that psalms which exhibit a promised Saviour, who is yet to come, are not suited to gospel worship, it would then follow that a large portion of the psalms are better adapted to the worship of the church now, than they were formerly; for in them, the Re- deemer is described as already come, a man of sor- rows and acquainted with grief; as having risen from the dead; as having ascended on high, and as having received gifts for men. But the truth is, there is no force in the objection at all. Ever since the first promise of a Saviour was given to our lost world, Jesus Christ has been the only hope of sinful man. By faith in him, as exhibited to them upon the infallible testimony of God, be- lievers were saved under the Old Testament; and it is by faith in him, as revealed to us upon the 188 THE TRUE PSALMODY. testimony of God in the gospel, tliat believers now are saved. The merit of the Saviour's death was as effectual in securing the salvation of the be- liever, before he actually laid down his life a ran- som for many, as it is now. And those divine songs, in which his Spirit taught the church to praise him, before the period of his incarnation, are, in all respects, as well adapted to the edifica- tion of the church now, as they were in the begin- ning. Not only so — I do not hesitate to say, that they are now better adapted to this end, as, in con- sequence of the light which the gospel has reflected upon them, the fulness of their meaning may be more thoroughly understood.'** II. It is said that the Psalms are encumbered and obscured by Old Testament allusions and phrase- ology. Is this so? Most assuredly it is not. The entire statement is untenable. "We take for granted that the objection is not intended to bear against the record which the Psalms contain of God's gra- cious providence towards his church of old. The historical Psalms are as suitable now as ever for the service of praise. The facts recorded, and the power, energy, faithfulness and wisdom of God, as the Redeemer and King of his church, which these facts illustrate and magnify, are as appropriate to- * Dr. Pressly on Psalmody, pp. 93-96 PSALMS UNOBJECTIONABLE. 189 pics of praise in the heart and upon the lips of the New Testament worshipper, as ever they were. As to sacrifices and offerings, these are rarely alluded to in the Psalms, and in some of these in- stances they are only alluded to in the way of as- serting their inefficacy. Omitting such phrases as "sacrifices of joyfulness/' of "thankfulness/' of "righteousness/' which can give rise to no diffi- culty whatever, we find but five Psalms— ^other than historical — in which any reference is made to this part of the ceremonial service — nine, or rather seven allusions in all — some of them being mere repetitions in the same verse. Of these, three or four are introduced accompanied by the assertion of their absolute inefficacy. As to the remainder, we direct the reader to the following remarks from the pen of Dr. Pressly. " What, I would ask, was the meaning of the true worshipper under the law, when he came before God with such language as that employed in this psalm? (the 66th.) Did he depend upon the sacrifices of fatlings, of bullocks or of goats, for acceptance with God ? Most cer- tainly he did not. Through the medium of these bloody sacrifices, he, in the exercise of faith, looked to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world. He depended for acceptance with God, upon the same great Sacrifice for sin which is now the foundation of the Christian's hope. If then, 190 THE TRUE PSALMODY. the ancient believer could approach unto God ac- ceptably in the use of such a song; if; while he had before the eye of his body, a bleeding lamb, he had presented to the eye of his faith, the Lamb of God; if the language of such a song, raised in his breast pious affections, and aided devotion, why should such expressions, and sucli language 'sink our de- votion and hurt our worship,' since we have the light of the gospel to render their import more in- telligible? If these and similar expressions, did not 'bedarken the thoughts' of the ancient' be- liever, and hide the Saviour from his sight, why should they have on us so injurious an effect? If such language served to lead the ancient Israelite to Him who is the (desire of all nations,) why may it not now raise the thoughts of the humble Chris- tian, surrounded as he is with clearer light, to Him who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth?"* Mention is made, occasionally, of musical instru- ments used in the Jewish temple service. Similar language is used, moreover, in the Book of Reve- lation, which speaks (chap. v. 8, xx. 2,) of the re- deemed ashaving'Oiarps in their hands; " Of course this language cannot be taken literally: it must be figurative, and shows clearly that the allusions to * PresslYv 105, 106. PSALMS UNOBJECIIONABLE. 191 instruments of music in the Psalms ran j be appro- priated ])y the worshipper now in the same sense in which we explain these of the visions oT the Ee- velation: as expressive of the liveliness which should ever characterize the spiritual emotions and services of the saints of God. If countries, nations, mountains, &c., are men- tioned, as they occasionally are in the Psalms — either these are but specimens, or they are used synecdochically, a part for the whole; or to invest the song with life and spirit, upon a well-known principle, recognised by all the schools of rhetoric — particular objects put for general and abstract statements; while many of these objects, moreover, were typical of spiritual things. The truth is, no objection could be more ground- less than this one. The Psalms are singularly characterized by their adaptation to all times and lands. They are manifestly designed for all times and lands. They anticipate a time when all lands shall join in the worship of God, Creator, Redeemer, King. They have in them very little of the tem- ple. The Xew Testament itself, is almost as open to this objection as the Psalms. Mr. Sommerville thus pertinently discusses the matter in this aspect: ''The use of terms borrowed from the ancient eco- nomy, is authorized by the example of New Testa- ment writers. They describe the character, duties, 192 THE TRUE PSALMODY. the worship, and the privileges of Christians in the language of the people of Israel. The consistency of the language of the Psalms with the spirit and the institutions of the present time, will appear from the subsequent parallelism, suggested by a comparison of the terms employed by the penmen of the Psalms with those introduced in the New Testament: unless it should be said that there is something ^Jewish and cloudy' in the writings of Christ and his Apostles, which is removed by the more lucid modes of speech which some of their more spiritual followers may teach us to use: — PSALMS. NEW TESTAMENT. Ps. xlvi. 4. There is a Heb. xii. 22. But ye are river, the streams of which come unto mount Zion, and shall make glad the city of unto the city of the living G^oc?, the holy place of the ta- God, the heavenly Jerwsa- bernaclee of the Most High. levi. Rom, ix. 6, 7, 8. They xlviii. 2. Beautiful for situ- are not all Israel which are tion, the joy of the whole of Israel: neither, because earth, is Mount Zion, on the they are the seed of Ahra- sides of the north, the city ham, are they all children: of the great king. li. 18. but, in Isaac shall thy seed Do good in thy good plea- be called. That is, they sure unto Zion : build thou which are the children of the walls of Jerusalem, liii. the flesh, these are not the 6. Oh that the salvation of children of God: \i\x\.ihQ chil- Isracl^Qxe come out of Zion! dren of the promise are count- When God bringeth back the ed for the se^ff. Gal. vi. 16. PSALMS UNOBJECTIONABLE. 193 captivity of hisjoco;??^, Jacob shall rejoice,and Israel shall be glad. Ps. xxvii. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his Temple, xlviii. 9. We have thought of thy loving- kindness. God, in the midst of thy Temple, lii. 8. But I am like a green olive tree iu the house of God. Ps.liv.3. For sir angers are risen up against me, and op- pressors seek after my soul. cxxxvii. 4. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land ! Ps. cvi. 4, 5. Remember me, Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people : visit me with thy salvation: that I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the glad- ness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheri- 17 Peace be on them, and upon the Israel of God. Jno.ii. 19. Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this templs, and in three days I will raise it up. 1 Cor. iii. 16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of Goddwellethinyou? ITim. iii. 15. That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God. Eph. ii. 19. Now, there- fore, ye ai'e no more strangers Q.VL(i foreigners, but fellow- ci- tizens with the saints, and of the household of God. 1 Peter ii. 9. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation^ a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath calleiJ you. Col. i. 12. Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be par- 194 THE TRUE PSALMODY. tance. cxxxii. 9. Let thy vriests\)Q clothed with right- eousness, cxlviii. 14. He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints ; even of the chil- dren of Israel, a people near unto him. Ps. xlii. 4. "When I re- member these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I •went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day. cxxii. 3, 4. Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact toge- ther: whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Ps. 1. 5. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with takers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Eph. i. 10. That in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him. Heb. xii. Ye are come unto the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assem- bly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven, to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the INIediator of the New Covenant. Luke i. 32. The Lord God shall give unto him (Jesus) the throne of his father David. Eom. xii. 1. I beseech you, brethren, by the mer- cies of God, thatye present PSALMS UNOBJECTIONABLE 195 your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. 1 Pet. ii. 5. Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spi- ritual sacrifices, acceptable to God hy Jesus Christ. Heb. xiii. 10. We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle. Rev. xvii. 5. And upon her forehead was a name writ- ten. Mystery, Bahylon, the great, the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth. xviii. 20. Rejoice, over her, thou heaven, and ye holy Apostles and Pro- phets; for G^ocZhath avenged you on her. "Before a comparison of the mode of expression used in the Psalms with that which is found in the New Testament, every objection to the use of the Songs of Zion, on account of the frequent al- lusions which they contain to the nature and cir- cumstances of the religious institutions of Israel, vanishes. It is not intended to make the impres- sion that there is no allusion to the types in the Book of Tsalms, which is not found introduced by me hy sacrifice. Ixvi. 15. I will offer unto thee burnt sa- crifices of fat lings, with the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats, cxviii. 27, Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of ihQ altar, xliii. 4. Then will I go to the allar of God, unto God my exceedingjoy. Ps. cxxxvii. 1, 8. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. daughter of Babylon, who art to he destroyed; happy shall HE be that rewardeth thee, as thou hast served us. 196 THE TRUE PSALMODY. Christ and his Apostles to describe spiritual things. But we find them using figurative language de- rived from all the leading and primary characters of the former economy; and in this they furnish an evidence of the correctness and consistency of Christians, putting the name of the type to ex- press the thing tj/jjijied." * Finally, even Dr. Watts himself — who seems to have originated this objection, and certainly has stated it most strongly, has the following : "Before thine altar, Lord, My harp and song shall sound The glories of thy -word." III. It is said that the Psalms are not adapted to a season of religious reviving. This objection could scarcely be offered by one acquainted with the Psalms themselves, and with their history. We have already asserted and shown that the Psalms do give expression to the liveliest Christian emo- tions and affections — that they have been singularly esteemed and loved; habitually read, and studied, and sung, by many of the most spiritually-minded and devoted of the servants and ministers of Christ. Surely, the Apostolic church was a living and ac- tive church, but it is acknowledgecl that the Psalms were then sung; and so fiir as the evidence goes, * Sommerville, pp. 24-27. PSALMS UNOBJECTIONABLE. 197 no other religious songs. The Waldenses sang the Psalms and nothing else in their Alpine val- leys; and in their seasons of persecution found in these inspired Psalms, strength and hope. The French church, and the churches of Switzerland, used nothing else in song, during the palmiest days of their religious life; while these sacred songs contributed no little to the spread of the gospel.* These Psalms constituted the only Psalmody of the Scottish church in her first and second Refor- * The following is taken from Lorimer's "Protestant Church in France," p. 19, Phila. ed. "In 1535, the Scriptures were translated into the French language, by Olivetan the uncle of the celebrated Calvin, and shortly- after the Psalms of David were turned into verse by one of the popular poets of the day, and set to melodious mu- sic. This last undertaking was attended with remark- able success. There had been nothing of this kind be- fore, and so the whole music of the people was perverted to sinful and superstitious purposes. Now, the national genius was enlisted on the side of truth. " This holy ordinance,' says Quick, 'charmed the ears, heart and af- fections of court and city, town and country.' This one ordinance alone, contributed mightily to the downfall of Popery and the propagation of the gospel. * -^^ * No gentleman professing the Reformed religion would sit down at his table without praising God by singing. Yea, it -was an especial part of their morning and evening wor- ship to sing God's praises." 17* 198 THE TRUE PSALMODY. mations. These were the songs whose melody was heard in the cottages, in the glens, in the moors, and on the mountains, and often on the scuffold and at the stake, in the dark days of Scottish per- secution. In these Psalms, the multitudes who waited upon the preaching of Livingston, celebrated Grod's praises in that day of the Lord's power when five hundred souls were converted by means of one sermon at the Kirk of Shotts. The thousands who turned to the Lord, flocking as "doves to their windows" during the season of genuine and exten- sive reviving subsequent to that day, used none but Bible Psalms. These Psalms were the sacred songs of the revived church in Irehmd, in the days of the Bruces, the Welshes, the Blnirs, the Cun- ninghams, and Livingstons, when lirge districts were aroused and turned, almost as one man, to God.* The early Presbyterians of this country, used none other, during those ''golden days, when souls were enlightened with such a knowledge of Christ, as if the light of the sun had been seven fold, as if the light of seven days had poured at once on tlie worshipper with healing in every beara."-|- The Bible Psalms are adapted to any season of * Reid's History of the Presbyterian Church in Ire- land, f Webster's History, p. ]24. PSALMS UNOBJECTIONABLE. 199 genuine reviving of religion. They bavc been tried. They have never been found wanting. The revi- ral to which these Psalms are not adapted, should itself be suspected. IV. It is said that the Psalms are difl&cult to understand; and, perhaps, it may.be insinuated that this is Yirtually acknowledged by some wlio use them, inasmuch as they formally explain thorn in their public exercises. This is an objection which we would not be surprised to find in the mouth of a Papist, who on this alleged ground, refuses the Bible to the common people, and refers them to what he styles the plainer and safer teaching of a priest: but we would hardly have looked for it from any one, who, as a Protestant, holds that the Bible is not an unintelligible book. We admit, indeed, that the Psalms, in common with other scriptures, are characterized by an inexhaustible fulness of meaning: but we deny that they are^ in any pecu- liar degree, hard to understand. The truth is, they are much more intelligible than many other portions of the Bible. — They present fewer difficult passages — scarcely any in fact; and in the main, are singularly clear. They have ever been favourite reading: the pious have enjoyed them with a special relish. They have found none of this as- serted obscurity in these sacred songs, but rather an unusual, and, generally, transparent clearness, 200 THE TRUE PSALMODY. ■while the less studious, or thoughtful, or spiritual, alone complain that they are obscure. We quote with satisfaction the following judgment of the dis- tinguished Dr. Horsley: "Of all the books of the Old Testament, the book of Psalms is the most ■universally read; but, I fear, as little as any under- stood. This cannot be ascribed to any extraor- dinary obscurity of these sacred songs; for of all the prophetic parts of the Scriptures they are cer- tainly the most perspicuous. But it is owing, partly, I fear, to some dulness of the faculties of the natural man upon spiritual subjects. — There is not a page of this book of Psalms in which the pious reader will not find his Saviour, if he reads with a vieto of finding him; and it was but a just encomium of it that came from the pen of one of the early Fathers, that it is a com.plete system of divinity for the use and edification of the common people of the Christian church/^* Scott the dis- tinguished commentator says, "There is nothing in true religion, doctrinal, experimental and prac- tical, but will present itself to our attention while we meditate upon the Psalms. And hardly an occasion of praise and thanksgiving can be con- ceived, to which some portion of them, faiths fully rendered in poetical versions, may not be ap- * Quoted by M'Master, p. 131. PSALMS UNOBJECTIONABLE. 201 plied with peculiar energy and propriety: and in- deed the Christian's use of them in the closet, and the minister's in the pulpit, will generally increase with the growing experience of the power of true religion in their own hearts.^' ^ A correspondent of the "Presbyterian Magazine/' bears like testi- mony. " The very excellence of the book of Psalms has — in this — its effect. Their depth of matter, their spirituality, their sublimity, their transcend- ent elevation of devotion, raise them above the comprehension, and above the standard of devo- tional feeling of ordinary Christians. It is a fact, that Christians of deficient attainments often find themselves more edified in reading other books than the Bible, and really relish them more. But the higher Christians rise in gracious experience, the higher is their esteem for the pure word of God, until at length, every human production becomes insipid in comparison therewith. As it certainly can have no good effect to promote in the public mind, a preference of other books, to the Bible, so it is conceived there can no good effects arise from pro- moting in the public taste a preference of other compositions to the Psalms the Holy Spirit hath inspired. "f * Preface to Psalms, f Presbyterian Magazine, July 1822, quoted by M 'Master. 202 THE TRUE PSALMODY. As to the exposition of the Psalms, if this is an acknowledgment of such obscurity in the Psalms as is impenetrable to ordinary intellect, why not ap- ply the same principle to other Scriptures? to the Sermon on the mount? to the Ten Commandments? to the Lord's Prayer? These are explained — and re-explained, in every pulpit; but who imagines that he is confessing, while engaged in such an ex- ercise, that the Bible is unintelligible? These ex- positions are all ^^ helps:" they aid the reader; the inquiring; the Christian. And so with the "Ex- plaining of the Psalms:" it is designed as a help to the better understanding of the Psalms, and to quicken the mind and heart, as the worshipper is about to enter upon the exercise of praise. Yet, even this is entered upon but rarely, compared with the whole number of times the Psalms are sung. Finally, if there be in the Psalms a depth of mean- ing — if there be some parts of them requiring in- vestigation, this is a reason for the careful study of them — a reason for endeavouring to bring up the Christian intelligence to a higher level, and not a reason for degrading the exercise of praise to the level of the heedless and uninquiring capacity. V. It is said, that the Book of Psalms is un- suitable for the use of children. If so now, it must have been fully as much so, at the least, when God gave it to his church. Besides, what- PSALMS UNOBJECTIONABLE. 203 e^er force there may be iu this objection, the Esalms share with the rest of the word of God. Part of both are intelligible, not to infants, but to children of some development and education; and- as they grow in ability and wisdom, and, of course, more capable of understanding the scriptures, they become better acquainted also with the Psalms. The children of the Jews, of the Apostolic church, of the French, Swiss and Holland Reformed, of our Scottish forefathers — were not compai-atively deficient in Christian knowledge: nor are the chil- dren of the Psalm-singing churches now. None of them have lost anything by the want of little religious songs. Instead, their minds were and are strengthened by early familiarity with songs so superior in acknowledged excellence. We go further. We deny that the Psalms are uninteresting to the young. Many of them — as thousands can testify — are highly attractive, and become, from an early age, imprinted upon the hearts of the children of the church. This is all that we can fairly ask. It were a singular princi- ple to apply to the worship of God, that every thing in it, must be adapted throughout, or even mainly, to the easy comprehension of the very young. Must we have a "child's Bible as well?" VI. It is said that the Psalms are not adapted to the condition and experience of every worship- 204 THE TRUE PSALMODY. per. If this be an objection, it must have been, as some we have already noticed, an equally solid rea- son why the Psalms never should have been sung in the worship of the church, either in Old or New Testament times. The objection is, moreover, equally jrood against any hymn book whatever: for the special circumstances, the experiences, &c., of all the worshippers, will scarcely ever be identical in any worshipping assembly. And, finally, this objection leaves out of view the fact, that in sing- ing Psalms, God is praised. And, hence, the joy- ful Christian may praise Him for deliverances wrought for the sad and afflicted: the sad and af- flicted may praise Him for the promises and tokens of his favour which fill the heart of the emanci- pated believer with joy and gladness. Both can celebrate his works of power and of mercy in be- half of His church and kingdom: while both may see in the tones of grief and sorrow, and again, in the notes of exultation and triumph, the heart of a Sa- viour once suffering, now exalted. VII. It is said that churches which use hymns are more prosperous — grow more rapidly — than those that do not. It might be enough to reply, that mere statistics settle no principle or moral or religious truth. Eorae reasons in this very way. Few Christian communities have grown as rapidly as the Mormons or the Spiritualists. But does the ob- PSALMS UNOBJECTIONABLE. 205 jection state the fact? It may be that, in some localities and times, the assertion of the objector may be true. But it is not true when we regard the matter as we should, in a more comprehensive spirit. When has there been a more rapid increase in numbers than in the Apostolic age? or in the era of the Keformation ? If Psalm-singing churches do not grow so rapidly now, it must be owing, not to their Psalmody, but to other causes. Again, mere growth in numbers is no criterion of a church's real prosperity. Growth is, indeed, eminently desirable. It is a ground of rejoicing — high and holy — when multitudes flock to Zion; but we must look beyond this: we must have regard to other elements of true and lasting prosperity. If mere additions to the numerical strength constitute any argument in behalf of doctrines and practices, then Presbyterianism is less worthy of acceptance than Methodism, for the latter has grown the most rapidly: Methodism less worthy of acceptance than the Baptist views and system, for the latter grows most rapidly of all. Does the Most High endorse all these varying doctrines by blessing with in- crease those who hold them ? And is His appro- bation, in the degree of it, to be measured by this increase? The fact is, the Most High may and does bless his own truth, even when it is presented intermingled with some error: to ascertain what is 18 206 THE TRUE PSALMODY. truth, we have but one resort — ^'the law and the testimony/^ Still, we do not admit that the growth of the Psalm-singing churches is even in this day so much less than the growth of others, as the objection re- quires. We believe they will bear scrutiny well on this point. Most of them, so far as we can judge of statistics, are not far behind any of their contemporaries. And should there even be some ground for the objection, may it not be owing rather to the fact that the use of the Psalms has generally been found associated with a closer adherence to scriptural requirements in the admission of mem- bers, and a more careful discipline exercised over those within ? VIII. It is said that the spirit of some of the Psalms is inconsistent with that of the New Testa- ment — in fact, that some of theiii are unchristian. This objection is thus stated by Dr. AYatts, "I have been long convinced, that one great occasion . of this evil arises from the matter and ivords to which we confine all our songs.* Some of them are almost opposite to the spirit of the Gospel; many of them foreign to the state of the New Testament, and widely different from the present circumstances * In 1712, Songs of Presbyterian Churches "confined" to the Psalms. PSALMS UNOBJECTIONABLE. 207 of Christians. Hence it comes to pass, that when spiritual affections are excited within us, and our souls are raised a little above this earth, in the be- ginning of a Psalm, we are checked on a sudden in our ascent toward heaven, by some expressions that are most suitable to the days of carnal ordi- nances, and fit only to be sung in the worldly sanc- tuary. While we are kindling into divine love, by the meditations of the loving-kindness of God, and the multitude of his tender mercies; within a few verses, some dreadful curse against men is pro- posed to our lips, which is so contrary to the new commandment of loving our enemies." To this we reply, — (1.) That assertions of this kind would be altogether consistent — coming from those who deny the inspiration of the scriptures; or rather, from those who go farther, and condemn the Bible as a bad book: but we cannot understand how such an objection can be offered, or thought of, by any one who believes that the Psalms are a part of the inspired word of God. It does appear to us very like the language of blasphemy, if it be not the language of infidelity. (2.) It is a fact sufiiciently remarkable, that those very Psalms which are styled pre-eminently "cursing psalms" — the 69th and the 109th — are among the number of those Psalms which we can on the most unques- tionable testimony, identify as directly appropriated 208 THE TRUE PSALMODY. to the betrayer of our incarnate and suffering Sa- viour. They are both quoted, and in the most strik- ing manner, in the New Testament — Acts i. 20, — and are spoken of as "scripture — which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David, spake before concern- ing Judas/^ (3.) Our Saviour himself used these very Psalms: they are his language. In proof of this we have but to examine the Psalms themselves, taking with us the above inspired interpretation of them. It will be seen that the speaker is no other than Jesus Himself. It is He that speaks of the traitor in the terms of fearful but just denunciation, which Dr. Watts, and many since his day, have ventured to denominate unchristian?* (4.) Finding these and similar utterances in the Psalms, it would be wisdom in the objector, to study carefully their import, and then, seek to have his mind and heart brought into conformity with the Spirit of Christ speaking in them — a spirit of eternal justice and holiness. (5.) If we must do so, however, let us inquire, whether the Spirit of Christ in David did really move him to utter unchristian sentiments? Here we quote from Sommerville: "If the Psalms have been dictated by the Holy Grhost — if by the Spirit * Let the reader turn to these Psalms and satisfy him- Eelf in this respect. PSALMS UNOBJECTIONABLE 209 of Christy who speaks not of himself, but speaks what he hears, the character of the author deter- mines the character of the Book. An unholy per- son may assume the character, and speak the words of purity; a man of cruelty may write a book and transcribe in it the language of clemency and mercy; but a holy and a merciful man never can be sup- posed, without supposing a contradiction, to em- ploy language impure and malicious, and calculated to excite or cherish impurity and revenge in the hearer or the reader. Whoever, therefore, thinks he discovers cruelty and revenge, or any other anti- ehristian principle, set forth and encouraged in the Book of Psalms, must either deny that it has been given by inspiration, or admit that he totally mis- understands* its spirit, its language, and its ten- dency. If the objection before us be founded in truth, the Book must be expunged from the Bible. Its pretensions are spurious, and its presence is a stigma upon the character of God. But we have already seen that its claims are supported by the same authority which sanctions the other Scriptures, and that the denial of its inspiration involves the rejection of the Old Testament and the New. If God, the author, be holy, there is nothing unholy in the Book of Psalms, or calculated to encourage unholiness; if God be merciful, there is nothing ia it inconsistent with mercy, or calculated to en- 18* 210 THE TRUE PSALMODY. courage cruelty; if God be love, there is nothing in it contrary to the spirit of love, or calculated to encourage hatred or revenge; in one word, there cannot be anything in the Book opposed to any perfection of the Divine character, or failing to re- commend conformity to God upon the part of man. Whoever, therefore, quarrels with the spirit or matter of the Psalms, sets himself in opposition, not to man, but God, for he implicitly imputes to God whatever he charges upon his word. ^^Or again. The inspiration of the Psalms and of the New Testament being taken for granted, if the Psalms do not manifest the same spirit, incul- cate the same doctrines, enjoin the same moral duties, prohibit the same sins, which are set forth in the New Testament, it follows that the Holy Ghost is inconsistent with himself. But it would be no difficult matter to show that the spirit, the doctrines, the precepts, the prohibitions — in a word, the design and tendency of both are the same. And we know that the Old Testament saints — we know that David possessed and exemplified that very character which the Gospel of Christ recom- mends. Will any man venture, upon mature con- sideration, to set declarations from the pen of Da- vid, especially remembering that it was guided by the Spirit of God, the expression of whose inflexible justice, of whose detestation of sin, of whose de- PSAl^MS UNOBJECTIONABLE. 211 termination to-punisli it, — to dl wliich holy men of God have been enabled — to which David was enabled to say, Amen, — he may have mistaken for the language of unforgiving cruelty; — will any man venture to set declaration s, the spirit and design of which maybe misunderstood, in opposition to facts? Are malignity and revenge rashly to be imputed to the man, who found his enemy in a cave, — his enemy who had attempted his life, who was at that mo- ment in pursuit of him, attended by three thou- sand men, that he might overtake and kill him, — and would not put forth his hand against his per- son, though urged by his followers? Will we at- tribute malignity and revenge to him who, coming into the camp of his adversary by night, and find- ing him and his men asleep, neither injured him nor would permit another to do it, though solicited, and could show the sword and cruise of water which he had carried away from his head, a testimony at once of his own power to have taken revenge, and of the simplicity and ingenuousness of his temper and conduct? Was the man malignant and revengeful, who, when an ungrateful rebel in the day of ad- versity cursed him and vilified his character, could say, profoundly resigned to the award of Heaven, ^Let him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord hath bidden him/ And shall we join with the many who have conspired to vilify the character 212 THE TRUE PSALMODY. and the words of the sweet singer of Israel, even at the hazard of charging the Spirit of Christ with want of consistency? God forbid. * * * Once more, and I dismiss this branch of the inquiry: Is such language as this cruel? 'Cut them off in thy truth.'' 'I will bring again from the depth of the sea; that thy foot may be dipped in the blood of enemies, the tongue of thy dogs in the same/ ^ Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.' Is it in- consistent with the spirit of the Gospel, to use it with the character of the Christian ? Mark the consequences. Then the words of Paul, moved by the Holy Ghost, not merely writing to the church, but to a bishop of the church, must share in the same condemnation. 'Alexander the cop- persmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works.' (2 Tim. iv. 14.) If the spirit manifested in such portions of the Psalms as those quoted be unchristian, by what spirit shall we say the Apostle was actuated ? If the Psalms be inconsistent with the Gospel, then Paul must be inconsistent with himself, for in the sixteenth verse we read, 'At my first answer no man stood with me, but all forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.' Let him who is straitened in the use of some portions of Zion's songs, explain the consistency of the fourteenth PSALMS UNOBJECTIONABLE. 213 and sixteenth verses of the fourth chapter of the second epistle to Timothy, and he shall find him- self near an enlargement. Another consequence follows. The saints enter into the regions of love and peace, with all the cruelty and revenge of earth about them. ^ And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?' Finally, God must delight in carnage, and be chargeable with en^- couragins: cruelty in his people. The great God has a supper, to which the fowls of heaven are in- vited, that they may ^eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all, free and bond, both small and great.' ^I heard,' says John, 'another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people.' This must be the voice of God himself, for who else claims the saints for his own? And what does the voice proclaim in addition to a call to come forth from among the children of mystical Babylon ? Reward her even as she has rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her 214 THE TRUE PSALMODY. double. Rejoice over her, tbou heaven, and ye holy apostles, and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.^' (Rev. vi. 10; xviii. 4-6; xix. 17, 18.*) (6.) Finally, we affirm, that it is one of the true and godlike excellencies of these Psalms — whatever sentimentalists may say — that they do celebrate the awful justice of God, the most right- eous Lawgiver and Judge, "to whom belongeth vengeance'' — his justice in vindicating his truth, his people, and the claims of his Son, and in visit- ing as they deserve, the malignant and impenitent enemies of the Person, the throne, the grace of Jesus Christ. Let us hear Tholuck. " In modern times the opinion seems to obtain, that love to enemies is enjoined as a duty in the New Testa- ment only. The gratuitousness of that opinion is apparent from consulting correct translations of Lev. xix. 18; Ex. xxiii. 4, 5; Prov. xxiv. 17, 18. 29; XXV. 21, 22; Job xxxi. 29. To form a right estimate of the misgivings alluded to, we should consider the end contemplated hy punisliment. The common view is that with God and the pious, punishment springs from love and contemplates the improvement of man. But what is to be done if you have to deal with an incorrigible sinner? The end of improvement therefore cannot exhaust * Sommerville, pp. 43-49. PSALMS UNOBJECTIONABLE. 215 the purpose of punishment. Philosophy agrees with Christianity, that the specific purpose of pun- ishment is retribution ; i. e., the welfare of the individual is to be disturbed in the same measure as he has disturbed or infringed upon the law of God or the state. Hence it appears that to deny the punishment of a hardened sinner (not on per- sonal ground, but from a sense of the holiness of the divine law,) is as little to be regarded as evi- dencing moral imperfection, as it would be to de- sire that those who are susceptible of improve- ment, should by means of correctives be brought to their senses. The objection is met, if it can be shown that the imprecations and prayers for Di- vine punishment do not flow from the vindictive disposition (viz., personal irritability and passion) of the Psalmists, but from the motives just now alluded to. Those supplications would then cor- respond to the earnest desire of a good monarch 3r a just judge to discover the guilty that justice might be administered, and the expressions of Da- vid, the private individual, ought to be referred to those noble motives which developed the prin- ciples he uttered when a king. (Ps. ci. 8.) "The Psalmists frequently state sentiments like the following as the motives of their prayers for the punishment of their enemies: that the holiness of God and his righteous government of the world 216 THE TRUE P&ALMODT. should be acknowledged, that the faith of the pious should be strengthened, that they should praise God, that the haughtiness of the ungodly should be brought within bounds, that they should know that God is the righteous judge of the world, and that the fulfilment of his glorious promises should not fail/'* IX. It is said that if we sing the Psalms we must also sing the titles to the Psalms: and as some of these titles allow the use of instruments, that we must also use them. It is added, that, in the Hebrew Bible, the title is often marked as the first verse. To this we remark: (1.) That at best, this can be no argument against using the Psalms. If the titles were really meant to be sung, or if the Psalms were designed to be always sung in con- nexion with the instruments referred to — this much would be gained by the objector, hut no more. (2.) Does any one believe that the title "Psalm of David,'' &c., was ever meant to be sung? or ever was sung? or that no Jew was allowed to sing these Psalms in the ordinary services of religion without using the ''harp," &;c. ? (3.) As to the division of Psalms into verses, as these are marked in our Bibles — this is a modern affair altogether. (4.) The authenticity of these titles is not universally * Tholuck on Psalms, p. 42, 43. SCOTTISH VERSION OF THE PSALMS. 217 acknowledged. Let this point be settled first. (5.) We follow, in omitting the titles, the exam- ple of our prose version, which never marks the title as being part of the Psalms. (6.) When the objector can tell us precisely what these instru- ments were, it will be time enough to inquire about their claims. In fact, they belonged to the tem- ple, and were not used in the ordinary worship even of the Jews. In fine, we repeat: as to many of these objections there is a spirit in them so adverse to a scriptural faith, and a true piety, that the very fact that they are adduced on behalf of the use of hymns, consti- tutes a distinct, and, by no means, feeble argument against them. A cause which resorts to such a course of reasoning, is not a good one. We should ' fear and eschew it. CHAPTER y. SOME REMARKS UPON THE SCOTTISH VERSION OP THE PSALMS. We have thus far kept before us but one defi- nite proposition — the Psalms of scripture faithfully rendered, the Church's sufficient and appointed manual of praise, to the exclusion of all uninspired hymns and songs. W"e have sought to establish 19 218 THE TRUE PSALMODY. and vindicate this proposition irrespective of every question regarding the merits of a particular ver- sion. And here we might leave the entire subject; for, we are persuaded, that if our proposition were generally admitted, there would be little contro- versy in reference to the particular version in which the Psalms should be sung: all would be resolved into the single inquiry — important at the same time — as to the claims of any version, or, professed version, to be a true and accurate rendering of the words and sentiments of the inspired Psalmist. This could be quite readily and amicably settled, as it has been settled in other ages, and in other landS; to the eotire satisfaction of the church and the people of God. It is well known, however, that the controversy on the subject of Psalmody, has, of later years, been largely complicated with that of the merits of the version, usually styled "the Scottish version.^' Of this version, the advocates of the use of hymns have — many of them — allowed themselves to speak in terms expressive of everything but respect. They speak of it rather scornfully, as "Rouse," or, as "Rouse's Psalms." They criticise with the ut- most severity, its rhythm, and its grammar; while, with some exceptions, they do notwithstanding, admit its fidelity to the original Hebrew. They •seem, ic a word, — we refer still to the many, not SCOTTISH VERSION OF THE PSALMS. 219 to all, — to view it as deserving only of the most contemptuous treatment, and assert that it holds its place in the esteem and love of the Psalm-sing- ing churches merely through the power of preju- dices imbibed by early education and long usage. Hence, we feel ourselves warranted, if not obliged, to append, as we now propose to do, a few remarks upon this particular version. And, 1. It cannot, with a due regard to scriptural truth, and a proper reverence for a faithful transla- tion of the word of God, be styled "Rousc,'^ or ^•Rouse's Psalms," nor even in absolute terms ^^ Rouse's version." True, indeed, this version is mainly due to the labours of an eminent scholar and gentleman of that name, a member of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster. But it is also true — that the version as it came from his hands was subjected to the most careful scrutiny, first in England, by the Assembly of Divines, in the year 1645.* They made amendments. It was then, transmitted to Scotland, and again ex- amined and revised with the utmost care. Alton, in his Life of Alexander Henderson, refers to this version of the Psalms as follows: "The version of the Psalms by Roos (Rouse,) was intended not only * Neil's History of the Puritans, vol. i. p, 888 Lon- don, 1837. 220 THE TRUE PSALMODY. for the Church of Scotland, but also for that of England, during the general prevalence of Presby- terianism. After all pains in England had been bestowed upon the Psalms, they were sent down to Scotland in portions for further consideration. The Church of Scotland appointed John Adam- son to revise the first forty Psalms, Thomas Craw- ford the second forty, John Row the third, and John Nevey the last thirty Psalms. The commit- tee were enjoined not only to observe what needed amendments, but also to set down their own me- thod of correcting. It was recommended to them to make use of the travails (i. e., labours) of Kow- allin, Zachary Boyd, or any other on that subject, but especially of the then existing Paraphrase (ver- sion) so that whatever could be found better in any of these works might be adopted. The ver- sion thus purified by the Scottish committee was sent to all the Presbyteries of the Church, who transmitted their observations to the original com- mittee. These reported their labours on the re- marks from the Presbyteries to the Commission of the Assembly for Public Affairs. After the Com- mission had revised the whole, they were sent to the Provincial Synods, and through them again transmitted to the Presbyteries: and after their further consideration, the version, thus fully pre- pared, was sent up to the General Assembly. The SCOTTISH VERSION OF THE PSALMS. 221 version so prepared was then 'allowed by the au- thority of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, and appointed to be sung in congrega- tions and families/' (1649:) and thus it was finally adopted, superseding, by its acknowledged merits, the versions previously in use both in Scotland and England. Hence, this translation is not absolutely '' Rouse's." It has received the imprimatur, after amendment, of the most learned Assembly, perhaps, ever convened on earth, and of another — the Scot- tish Assembly — not much inferior. Now, we have an English Bible; a translation from the original Hebrew and Greek, made by forty-seven learned men of the English Universi- ties, who divided themselves into six companies for the purpose.* They had been called together by king James I. Did we know, as we do not, the name of the particular individual who prepared the first draught of the Book of Proverbs, what would be thought of the spirit of the professing Christian man, who would indulge, habitually, iu speaking of the book of Proverbs, not as the Pro- verbs of Solomon, but as "Bilson's Proverbs," or '^ Smith's Proverbs :" f or even as ''Bilson's ver- * Neal's History, vol. i. 454. f To these men the pub- lishing of the translation was committed. We use their names for illustration merely. 19* 222 THE TRUE PSALMODY. sion," or ^'Smitli's version?" Would tliis be tole- rated as decent, or becoming? We think not. How do a large part of the religious community now, regard the contemptuous flings sometimes made at our English Bible, as ''King James' Bi- ble?'' Luther translated the Bible into the Ger- man tongue: what would be thought of the man who would constantly speak with contempt of the German Bible^ as if it were not God's Bible, but '< Luther's ?'' And yet none of these translations were subjected to such scrutiny of competent au- thority and learning, as this version, which grave men permit themselves scornfully to speak of in no other terms than "Rouse's Psalms," or at best, "Rouse's version:" sometimes asking whether Dr. Watts had not as good a right to make Psalms as Rouse. 2. In view of the facts which we have just pre- sented, we are, certainly, at liberty to pronounce, very decidedly, the "Scottish version" to be an accurate rendering of the original. We are aware, indeed, that attempts have been made to disparage it even in this respect, but they have signally 'failed. In fact, it is even less liable to the charge of inaccuracy than our generally faultless English Bible. Where it differs from the prose, compe- tent judges pronounce most frequently in its favour as really the more accurate. Hence, SCOTTISH VERSION OF THE PSALMS. 223 3. Between this version and Dr. Watts' ^'Imita- tions/' for example, there can be no comparison on the score of fidelity. Dr. Watts did not profess to render the Psalms into English verse: his design was, and so declared, to make Psalms, taking the Scripture as a kind of basis. Hence, he never called his work a ^'version;" he says "he imitated'^ the Psalms of David, "in the language of the New Testament." How he has peformed his work, Dr. Cooper has thus shown: "He (Dr. Watts) express- ly says, in his preface, ^It must be acknowledged that there are a thousand lines in it, (the Psalms of David,) which were not made for the church ia our days to assume as its own.' Of course they have been omitted. Where, then, is the imitation of these thousand lines? He further tells us that he ^has entirely omitted several whole psalms, and large pieces of many others;' where is the imita- tion of these psalms? But has he left them out as unfit to be used in the worship of God? No; had he merely done this, our feelings would have been far less shocked. He has given the whole one hundred and fifty ^Psalms of David, in metre,' though several whole psalms, and large pieces of many others have been entirely omitted, according to his express declaration. Let us look, for in- stance, at the 109th psalm. The original, as we have it in our prose and in our metrical trans- 224 THE TRUE PSALMODY. lation, contains thirty-six verses; that of Dr. Watts contains six verses, and there is not an idea in the one to be found in the other, unless it be the ad- dress in the first line, ^God of my praise/ The psalm, as it comes from God, is taken up with a fearful description of the awful doom of his impla- cable enemies, and is applied in the New Testa- ment to Judas. The subject of Dr. Watts' imi- tation — of Dr. Watts' ^ version,^ is ^Love to ene- mies from the example of Christ.' Can there pos- sibly be a greater perversion of language than to call this a version of the 109th psalm? and yet they charge the friends of an inspired psalmody with excluding Dr. Watts' 'rich and beautiful version of the Psalms from the sanctuary.' What would he think if the Apocryphal psalm, in the Septua- gint version of the psalms of David, were published to the world, and used in the worship of God as one of the psalms of David, and shall he think it 'strange' that we are unwilling to admit into the sanctuary, as a version of the psalms of David, psalms which, in the language of the pious Eo- maine, ^are so far from the mind of the Spirit, that I am sure if David were to read them, he would not know any one of them to be his?' How could we regard with feelings of complacency their in- troduction into the sanctuary, as a version, be- lieving, as we do, with Professor Alexander of SCOTTISH VERSION OF THE PSALMS. 225 Princeton, that they are ^ all intended to be used in public worship:' and believing, also, with the same author, that 'the arrangement of the Psalms was the work of Ezra, the inspired collector and redacteur of the canon/ No, we cannot so regard their introduction. We must continue to protest against it, however strange our opposition may ap- pear to the admirers of what they call ' Dr. Watts' rich and beautiful version of the psalms.'"* 4. We do not, however, claim perfection for the Scottish version of the Psalms. AVe are well aware that its rhymes are frequently defective, that it contains some obsolete words, and that its rhythm is sometimes at fault. This is only saying, what all acknowledge respecting our English Bible, — that it is susceptible of amendment. But like that Bi- ble, the work of amendment will need to be gone about very cautiously, lest the fidelity of the words and the vigour of the style be impaired in the pro- cess. But is this version so rude as is often asserted? Is it justly, and necessarily oflfensive to a culti- vated Christian taste ? We say, without hesitation, it is not. We have ample evidence that it is not; for it has commended itself to not a few of the best * What Drs. Breckenridge and Junkin think of Watts' 'Imitations" we have already seen. 226 THE TRUE PSALMODY. minds for its evident faithfulness, its fulness, its nervous energy, and even for its highly lyric cha- racter of style. Nor do we go back to the days of the Westminster Assembly for our proofs. We find them in the fact, that this version is now used, or has been, even in these late days, with satisfac- tion by men whom the world knows well as singu- larly accomplished — such men, for example, as are now, or others who lately were, the ornaments of the Scottish and Irish Presbyterian Churches: to say nothing of many in the Psalm-singing churches in this country. We have other testimonies. The emi- nently accomplished and pious author of the ^'Life of Faith^' — Romaine — thus replied to some who thought it strange that he should use the version of Sternhold and Hopkins. "They wonder I would make use of this version, which they think is poor, flat stuff, the poetry is miserable, and the language low and base. To which I answer, they had a scrupulous regard for the very words of scrip- ture, and to these they adhered closely and strictly; so much as to render the versification not equal to Mr. Pope. I grant it is not always smooth; it is only here and there brilliant. But what is a thou- sand times more valuable, it is generally the senti- ment of the Holy Spirit. That is very rarely lost. And this should silence every objection — it is the word of God. Moreover the version comes nearer SCOTTISH VERSION OF THE PSALMS. 227 to the original than any I have ever seen, except the Scotch, of which I have made use, when it ap- peared to me better expressed than the English. You may find fault with the manner of ekeing out a verse for the sake of the rhyme, but what of that? Here is every thing great and noble, although not in Dr. Watts' way or style. It is not like his fine sound and florid verse; as good old Mr. Hall used to call it, Watts^ j^^^Q^^- I ^o not match those psalms with what is now admired in poetry; al- though time was when no less a man than the Rev. T. Bradbury, in his sober judgment, thought so meanly of Watts' hymns as commonly to term them Watts' whymns. And indeed compared to the Scripture, they are like a little taper to the sun : as for his psalms, these are so far from the mind of the Spirit, that I am sure if David was to read them, he would not know any one of them to be his.'' * M^Cheyne — himself a poet, says ^' The me- trical version of the Psalms should be read or sung through, at least once a year. It is truly an ad- mirable translation from the Hebrew, and is fre- quently more correct than the prose version." Even Sir Walter Scott, no mean authority in matters of * This same Romaine wanted words to describe what he thought of those who supposed they could make "better Psalms than those of the Bible." 228 THE TRUE PSALMODY. taste and poetry, says, "The expression of the old metrical translation, though homely, is plain, forci- ble, and intelligible, and very often possesses a rude sort of majesty, which perhaps would be ill ex- changed for mere elegance. I have an old-fashioned taste in sacred as well as profane poetry : I cannot help preferring even Sternhold and Hopkins to Tate and Brady, and our own metrical version of the Psalms to both. I hope, therefore, they will be touched with a lenient hand.'^ Eufus Choate of Boston, is, at all events, a man of taste. H'e has said: "An uncommon pith and gnarled vigour of sentiment lies in that old version: I 'prefer it to Watt^r It were well, indeed, could the fidelity of this version, be combined with a more entire exemption from the minor faults which attach to it. But, in the mean time, we would, with myriads of the saints of God, prefer to have the word of God as the matter of our praise, rather than the most flowing and smooth of mere human utterances. APPENDIX A. Psalms for both Testaments. In addition to the more direct argument by which we have established in our 2d chapter, the perma« nent appointment of the Book of Psalms as the church's manual of praise, we quote the following from the pen of the learned author of " The Typo- logy of the Scriptures/^ embodying in our quota- tion the high commendations of this Book from the pen of another distinguished writer: — % ^' These psalms are chiefly summaries, in a poeti- cal and impressive form, of great truths and prin- ciples, derived from the past acts and revelations of God, by some of the most gifted members of the church, and accompanied with such pious reflec- tions and devout breathings of soul, as the subjects naturally suggested, through God's Spirit, to their minds. In them is expressed, we may say, the very life and essence of the symbolical institutions and manifold transactions in providence, through which the members of the old covenant were in- structed in the knowledge; and trained to the ser- 20 229 230 APPENDIX. vice of tlie true God — and so expressed as to be most admirably fitted for forming the minds of all to right views and feelings concerning God, and enabling them to give due utterance to these in their exercises of devotion. But was this the cha- racter and design of the Book of Psalms merely to the Old Testament church? Is it not equally adapted for the suitable expression of pious feeling, for a help to devotion, for a directory of spiritual thought and holy living, to the church of the New Testament? Is there a feature in the divine cha- racter as now developed in the gospel, a spiritual principle or desire in the mind of an enlightened Christian, a becoming exercise of affection or a matter of vital experience in the divine life, of ■which the record is not to be found in this invalu- able portion of holy writ? And how could such a book have existed among the sacred writings cen- turies before the Christian era, but for the fact that the old and new covenants, however much they may have differed in outward form, and however the transactions respectively connected with them may have been inferior in the one case to the other, yet were alike pervaded by the same great ^ truths and principles? Thus the Book of Psalms, standing mid-way between both covenants, and serving equally to the members of each as the hand- maid of a living piety, is a witness of the essential identity of their primary and fundamental ideas. There the disciples of Moses and of Christ meet as on common ground, the one taking up as their most natural and fitting expressions of faith and hope, the hallowed words, which the other had been wont to use in their devotions ages before, and then be- PSALMS FOR BOTH TESTAMENTS. 231 queathed as a legacy to succeedinp:; generations of believers. So intimately connected were they with the affairs and circumstances of the dispensation, which was to vanish away, that they one and all took their occasion from these, and are fraught throughout with references to them; and yet, so ac- cordant are they to the better things of the dispen- sation that abideth, so perfectly adapted to the ways of God as exhibited in the gospel, and the spiritual life required of its professors, that they are invariably the most used and relished by those, who are most established in the grace, and most replenished with the blessing of God. It was con- fessedly carnal institutions, under which the holy men worshipped, who were employed by God to in- dite these divine songs, as it was also the transac- tions of an earthly and temporal life, which formed the immediate ground and occasion of the senti- ments they unfold; yet where in all scripture will the believer, who 'worships in spirit and in truth,^ more readily go to find language for ex- pressing his loftiest conceptions of God, for por- traying his most spiritual and enlarged views of the character he is called to maintain, or breathing forth his most elevated desires and feelings after divine things? So that the Psalms may well be termed, with Augustine, ' an epitome of the whole Scriptures,' and a summary, not as Luther said, of the Old Testament merely, but of both Testa- ments together, in their grand elements of truth and outlines of history. ' What is there necessary for man to know,' says Hooker, 'which the Psalms are not able to teach? They are to beginners an easy and familiar introduction, a mighty augmen- 2o2 APPENDIX. tation of all virtue and knowledge in sucli as are entered before, a strong confirmation to the most perfect among others. Heroical magnanimity, ex- quisite justice, grave moderation, exact wisdom, repentance unfeigned, unwearied patience, the mys- teries of God, the sufferings of Christ, the terrors of wrath, the comforts of grace, the works of Pro- vidence over this world, and the promised joys of that world which is to come, all good necessarily to be either known, or had, or done, this one celes- tial fountain yieldeth/ We may, therefore, con- clusively appeal to the character of this extraor- dinary book, as confirmatory of the general views, which it has been our object to establish. It ren- ders clear as noon-day the perfect identity of those great truths and principles, on which both econo- mies were founded as to the institutions of worship, and the providential dealings respectively connected with them. And as we know the one to have been all arranged in preparation for the other, con- sequently in pre-ordained connexion with it, we thus learn what was the real nature of the resem- blances, which formed the connecting link between the things of the two covenants, and, how we are to explain the one as types and the other as anti- types. '' ^ APPENDIX B. The correspondent "S. D." of the Presbyterian — from whom we have taken some facts in regard to the hymns now in use, but without intending to * Fairbairn's Typology, &c., pp. 60-63. Ed. 1852. PSALMS — ^ALL SONGS. endorse all his tbeories — denies that the Psalms were all intended to be sung, even under the Old Testament dispensation; of course, while he finds fiiult with the hymnology of the age, he also de- nies the appointment of the Book of Psalms, as a whole, for the use of the church in New Testament times; quoting as his only authority — for he gives no argument — Dr. Davidson of England. AVe also can give authorities much superior in their charac- ter to that of a writer who was obliged to relinquish, on account of his Rationalistic views on the subject of Inspiration, the position which he had long held as Professor in the Lancashire Independent Theolo- gical Seminary. Dr. J. W.Alexander y speaking of the Psalms, says, ^^ all intended to be used in public worship." Tholuchy a comparatively orthodox German, (In- troduction, p. 2,) "The Psalms have ever since the first century, formed an essential part of Christian worship." Herder, another of the same stamp, says of the Book of Psalms, "It is the hymn book for all times." Edwards, the most eminent theologian of the Western world, in a passage from which we have quoted already, but which we give here in full, is most express. He says, — "Another thing God did towards this work, at 20* 234 APPENDIX. that time, was his inspiring David to show forth Christ and his redemption, in divine songs, which should be for the use of the church, in pubhc wor- ship, throughout all ages. * '*' * This was also a glorious advancement of the aJBfair of redemption, as God hereby gave his church a book of divine songs for their use in that part of their public wor- ship, viz., singing his praises throughout all ages to the end of the world. It is manife&t the hook of Psalms ivas given of God for this end. It was used in the church of Israel by God's appointment: this is manifest by the title of many of the Psalms, in which they are inscribed to the chief musician, i. c, to the man that was appointed to be the lead- er of divine songs in the temple, in the public worship of Israel. So David is called the sweet Fsalmist of Israel, because he penned psalms for the use of the church of Israel; and accordingly we have an account that they were actually made use of in the church of Israel for that end, even ages after David was dead; as 2 Chron. xxix. 30. ' More- over, Hezekiah the king, and the princes, com- manded the Levites to sing praises unto the Lord, with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer.' And we find that the same are appointed in the New Testament to be made use of in the Christian church in their worship. Eph. v. 19 : '■ Speaking to yourselves in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.' Col. iii. 16: 'Admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual sones.' So they have been, and ivill, to the end of the icorld, he made use of in the church to celebrate the praises of God. The people of God were wont sometimes to worship God by singing songs to his praise before; as they did AUTHORS OF HYMNS. 235 at tbe Red Sea; and they had IMoses' prophetical song, in the 32d chapter of Deuteronomy, com- mitted to them for that end; and Deborah, Barak, and Hannah, sung praises to God: but now first did God commit to his church a book of divine songs for constant wse."* APPENDIX C. Hymn Writers. We have barely touched in Chapter III. upon the character of the hymns now in use, nor do we propose to do so here. Many of these are very nice songs: some of them beautiful in sentiment and in style; some of them very touching and pa- thetic; but there are some facts in regard to the au- thorship of some of the hymns sung in evangelical churches, that should be known. A hymn book was compiled a few years since by Rev. H. W. Beecher, the (*) correspondent of the ^'Indepen- dent/^ In reference to this book, the Evangelist, he says, '^Charged that in collecting hymns we have gone quite beyond the ordinary excursions of evangeli- cal compilers of hymn books, and have freely used 'Catholic, Unitarian, Universalist, Swedenborgian, and other collections/" The compiler thus vindicates himself and his collection: — * Edwards' Works, vol. iii. pp. 230-232. N.Y.,Ed. 1829. 236 APPENDIX. ^^Our reply is a denial that we have gone where other evangelical compilers have not gone. There is scarcely a collection made within thirty years, that has not been indebted to Catholic, Unitarian, and C'^?iiye;-sa?/s^ collections. Th.e Church Psalmodi/ prepared by Lowell Mason, and Dr. Greene, one of the oflficers of the American Board of Foreign Mis- sions; The Psalmist, the standard Baptist collec- tion, edited by Baron Stow and S. F. Smith, and adopted by the Board of the Baptist Publication Society; and especially the Methodist Episcopal collection, approved by Bishops Hedding, AVaugh, Morris, Hamlin, and Janes, published by the Me- thodist Book Concern, and now generally used by that denomination; the Lutheran collection, pub- lished by the General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, — all these, and many others, are indebted largely to Catholic, Unitarian, and Universalist collections. As for the Swedenbor- gian collections, we cannot tell how much we may owe to them, as we have never seen one/' The author says again: — "The Evangelist charges that in the Plymouth Collection there is a ^ large admixture' of the hymns of Bryant, Chapin, Furness, Willis, Mrs. Hemans, Tom Moore, L. E. L., (Letitia Landon,j Longfellow, Mrs. Sawyer, Whittier, Festus Bailey, Burns, Miss Martineau, '^ and others.''' And thus answers: — "What are the facts? We do not know of a * An Atheist. AUTHORS OP HYMNS. 237 single evangelical collection of hymns which has not introduced the hymns of some or many of these authors. In the book of the General Association of Connecticut, hymns of Bryant, Pierpont, Bow- ring, Heraans, Martineau's Collection, Pope, Sir Walter Scott, Tom Moore, are all found. In the New School Presbyterian Assembly's book, Tom Moore holds an honourable place, as he does in the book of the Old School Greneral Assembly and Net- tleton's Village Hymns. When the General As- semblies join in giving to the church Tom Moore's * Come, ye disconsolate, ichere'er ye languish,'^ we think the Evangelist need not take the pains to sa- crifice its candour and veracity in order to reproach the Plymouth Collection for having Tom Moore's ^m^ockpiety.' In the Baptist Collection may be found Mrs. Pollen, Bulfinch, hymns from Martineau's Collection, Tom Moore, Mrs. Hemans, Pope and Willis. The Methodist Collection contains hymns oi Moore, Bryant, Ware, G. P. Morris, Pierpont,'' &c. The only vindication proposed is, ''If the hymn is good, we are not to go behind it. * * * The hymn is to stand for itself." This may satisfy some, but we are much mistaken if the plain people of God are prepared to offer the Most High the effusions of all sorts of heretics. This is a painful * A favourite hymn with many ; a hymn moreover, if we mistake not, with rather a remarkable history for a hymn. Moore was a Papist, and a very free and lus- cious poet. 23S APPENDIX. feature of modern hymnology. The hymns of such writers may be good poetry and pretty reading, but to use them in God's worship, is, we think, most offensive to Christian faith and feeling. How dare a worshipper come before God, with thoughts and words, which, it may be, an open enemy of Christ has furnished him ? The Reformed Church of Germany — a section of the large Protestant body — seems to have come to this conclusion. At the Conference of the present year, held at Elberfield, it was decided that '■'-only hymns tchose authors are hnoion to he truly regenerate Christians shall he received/' Consistently carried out, this deci- sion will exclude from this service, all but the Bi- ble Psalms; for how is it to be determined beyond possibility of mistake, that the authors of any others, are "truly regenerated Christians?*' APPENDIX D. In connexion with the argument of our third chapter, in regard to the use of hymnS; an inquiry , arises, whether songs, such as those which are often prepared and sung on anniversary occasions may be consistently sung? In this we remark, 1. That were Christians agreed in reference to the subject in the aspect in which it has been before us — the use of hymns in worship — this inquiry would give little trouble. If such songs were used at all, it would be only as patriotic songs, for ex- SINGING OF SONGS. 239 ample, are sung on public occasions, or as songs are sung in private circles, for musical recreation or practice, and not under the name of devotion at all. 2. Whether they are so sung, generally, in the circumstances to which we allude, we cannot tell. We presume, however, tbat in many cases, the idea of worship does not present itself to those who use them It certainly cannot, in instances of which we have seen notices, in which the chil- dren, and perhaps the adults of a congregation, unite in singing a song prepared as an expression of their welcome to a pastor: and in all such like in- stances. Still, 3. Inasmuch as these are not ne- cessary: as there is no obligation to use such songs: as the propriety of their use may be often, at least, doubtful : and inasmuch as these are associated in some degree, perhaps largely, in the public mind with the use of hymns in the worship of God, and may be regarded as such worship, we think it is not only wisest and safest, but required of us, to avoid them. We might add, that this whole thing is liable to what we regard as very gross abuse: for example, we have seen a statement of a pastor being sung to on the Lord's day by an assembled Sabbath school! APPENDIX E. The following summary answers to arguments for the use of hymns, and to objections to the use of 240 APPENDIX. the Psalms in worship, are taken from a conde>nsed summarv on the subject of Psalmody annexed to Rev. R. J. Dodd's "Reply to Morton." "It is objected — 1. 'That the singing of uninspired composition, in divine worship, is not forbidden in the word of God/ Answer. Neither are we forbidden to observe seven sacraments. In determining whether or not this or that particular service should be made a part of God's worship, the absence of divine ap- pointment, amounts, in all cases, to a prohibition. 2. 'That good men have composed hymns to be used in divine worship, and sing hymns of human composure.' Answer. — 1. The best of men are liable to do things which will dishonour God, and injure the church. 2. There are many good men who would not dare, either to compose a song to be sung in divine worship, or to offer to God a song composed by man. 3. 'That those who use human psalmody, are more numerous than those who use only the book of Psalms in singing God's praise/ Ansiuer. — 1. It was not always so; and the time may yet come, when it will cease to be so. 2. The multitude are not always — nor have they hitherto commonly been right^ in matters of faith, and reli' gious practice. 4. 'That we are allowed to compose our own prayers, and, by parity of reason, ought to be al- lowed to compose our own songs of praise.' Answer. — 1. Right or wrong, it is a matter of BRIEF ARGUMENTS. 241 fact, that most worshippers neither do nor can com- pose their own songs of praise. 2. God has given us, in the Bible, a book of Psalms, but no book of Prayers; and promised to the church a Spirit of prayer, but not a Spirit of psalmody. 3. In prayer we express our own wants; in praise we declare God's glory. If we can frame a form of words, suitable for the former purpose, it by no means fol- lows that we are equally competent to compose a form of words for the latter purpose. 4. The or- dinances of prayer and praise dijffer in this, — that in the former the thoughts suggest the words; and we should therefore use the words which they do suggest; whereas, in the latter the words are de- signed to suggest the thoughts, and therefore we should use words, if such we can obtain, which can suggest none but appropriate thoughts. 5. Our wants are always changing; and, therefore, our prayers should vary : but the glory of God is ever the same; and therefore the same collection of songs will serve for the expression of his praise, from age to age. 5. ^That there is, in the New Testament, autho- rity for singing songs composed by men.' First: we are referred to the fact that Christ and his dis- ciples sung a hymn. Matt. xxvi. 50. Answer. — 1. Let it be proved that the hymn sung by our Sa- viour and the disciples, was not one or more of the Psalms of David. It is supposed by the best com- mentators, to have been the great liallel, consist- ing of the Psalms from the lloth to the 118th in- clusive. 2, Our Saviour was better qualified, and had a better right to compose hymns than Dr. Watts, John Wesley, Philip Doddridge, &c. Second; It 21 ^l!^ APPENDIX. is argued that Paul enjoins the use of uninspired psahnody when he says, Col. iii. 16, 'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teach- ing and admonishing one another, in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs; singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord/ Some argue from the first clause of the verse, ' Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom;' explaining the phrase, 'the word of Christ/ to mean either the ■whole Bible, or the New Testament; and alleging that the apostle enjoins the use of songs drawn from the whole word of God, or from the Xqw Tes- tament in particular, Ansiver. — 1. Let it be proved that this expression means either the whole Bible, or the New Testament, and not simply, the princi- ples of the gospel. 2. Let it be proved that the Apostle enjoins upon the church, to compose songs, drawing the matter of them from what he denomi-- nates ' the word of Christ.' Others reason from the use of the three terms, ^psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs' in the latter clause of the verse. Ansiver. — 1. No good reason can be assigned, why any one of the psalms of inspiration might not, in reference to different aspects under which it may be viewed, be denomi- nated a 'psalm, hymn, and spiritual song/ Such a use of language is not uncommon. God says, Ex. xxxiv. 7, 'forgiving iniquity, and transgres- sion, and sin.' 2. If these three terms designate three distinct kinds of devotional poetry, let it be proved that the Book of Psalms does not comprise songs of these three different kinds. 3. The Jews applied the terms psalms, hymns, and songs, in- discriminately to the Book of Psalms. — See Jose- BRIEF ARGUMENTS. 243 pliiis, Phllo, Sec; and tlie same may lave been done by Paul and the primitive Christians. 4. In the Scptuagint, which was the translation of the Old Testament in use in the days of Paul, some of the psalms are, in their titles, designated psalmos — a psalm; others, ode — a song; and others, al/e- luia; which last is a word borrowed from the He- brew, and when used as a noun in the Greek lan- guage, is equivalent to hi/mnos — a hymn. Why may we not suppose the Apostle has allusion, in this verse, to these three terms used in the Septu- agint version, as titles of different psalms? Third: it is inferred from 1 Cor. xiv. 26, that the Corinthians brought to their assemblies psalms composed by themselves, under a supernatural im- pulse of the Spirit, and of course not contained in the book of Psalms. Answer. — Let it be proved that the Psalms, by the unseasonable utterance of which they disturbed their assemblies, wore com- posed by themselves under an impulse of the Spirit, and not selected from the Book of Psalms. 6. 'That the Book of Psalms is hard to under- stand.' Answer. — 1. If there are some passages in the Psalms hard to understand, so are there in the other scriptures. — 2 Pet. iii. 16. 2. It is no harder to understand the psalms when we sing them than when we read them. 3. The more we use them, the better will we understand them. 4. Tie have a better opportunity of understanding them than Old Testament worshippers had; and we are sure the Book of Psalms was their psalmody. 5. If we are unable to understand the Psalms, much less are we able to compose songs which will supply 244 APPENDIX. their place. 6. If any man does not understand the Psalms, let him, under the direction of their divine Author, endeavour to ascertain their mean- ing. 7. The psalms are not, in general, hard to understand. There is, indeed, an unfathomable depth of meaning in them; but no man finds fault ■with a well on account of its depth, if the water rises to the surface. There can be more divine truth, and true devotional sentiment found on the very face of the inspired Psalms, than can be ob- tained from those which are uninspired, when they are worn threadbare. 7. ' That the Psalms are not adapted to New Testament worship.' Answer. — 1. God never changes, and of course his praise is always the same. 2. The Spirit of God was better able, in the days of David, to pre- pare songs suited to New Testament worship, than men are now. 3. The Psalms everywhere speak most clearly of Christ and his mediatorial work, kingdom and glory; and are, by the Apostles, co- piously quoted in illustration of the way of salva- tion. 4. They make less reference to the pecu- liarities of the old dispensation, than some books of the New Testament do. 5. We have no Book of Psalms in the New Testament, and no command to prepare one. 8. ' That the Psalms contain sentiments adverse to the spirit of the Gospel; abounding with sharp invectives against personal enemies, and being, in many instances, expressive of revenge, &c.' Ansioer. — It is blasphemy. 9. ^ That the Psalms are not sufficiently copious to furnish a complete system of psalmody.' BRIEF ARGUMENTS. 245 Ansicer. — 1. God is no more glorious now than he was in Old Testament times; and if the Psalms were sufficient then for the expression of his praise, they are still sufficient. 2. It is too much for any man to take upon himself to decide how copious a system of psalmody ought to be. 3. The Book of Psalms actually contains an incomparably greater abundance and variety of matter than all the hymns which were ever composed by men. 10. ' That we have no good metrical translation of the Psalms.' Answer. — 1. Let those who think we have no good metrical translation of the Psalms, improve some of the versions in use, or make a better one. It is surely easier to make a good translation of God's Psalms, than to compose songs better than those which He has made. 2. It is better to sing, in divine worship, an imperfect translation of those songs which God has composed, than to sing the best songs which men can make. 3. We have a good metrical translation of the Psalms. There are, in the Scottish version of the Psalms, it is true, some blemishes. It contains some uncouth forms of expression, and some words which are now ob- solete; and its versification in many instances is far from being smooth. But, for the most part, both the phraseology and the versification are very good; and it must be allowed by those who have examined it, that its fidelity to the original Hebrew is not much, if it all, inferior to that of the prose trans- lation of the Psalms, in our English Bible. "These few observations are submitted to the judgment of the candid and intelligent reader. Though they may not be blessed as a means of re- 21* 246 APPENDIX. claiming any from the practice of using human psalmody, yet if they serve to establish some in their attachment to the Psalms of inspiration, the writer will not consider his labour lost. Christian worshippers will one day see eye to eye, on this, as on all other important points. In the mean time, all the fearers of God can, with confidence, com- mit the interests of Christ's truth, so far as they are involved in this controversy, to the manage- ment of Him who brings order out of confusion, and light out of darkness; and praying, 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,' rest assured that very soon, in songs appointed by Jehovah's own high authority, the devout worshipper will everywhere ^give to the Lord the glory due unto his name/ "Praise ye the Lord; unto him sing a new song ; and his praise, In the assembly of his saints, in sweet Psalms do ye raise. Let Isr'el in his Maker joy, and to Him praises sing; Let all that Zion's children are, be joyful in their King. "