FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON. D.D. 
 
 BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO 
 
 THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 
THE 
 
 PUBLIC WOESHIP OF GOD: 
 
 ITS AUTHORITY AND MODES, 
 
 HYMNS AND HYMN BOOKS. 
 
 JAMES GIBSON, A.M., D.D., 
 
 PROPESSOr. OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHUKCH HISTORY, FREE CHURCH COLLEGE, GLASGOW. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JAMES NISBET AND SON. 
 
 i:piNLur.GH : d. gRx^nt. Glasgow : t. Murray and son, 
 
 1 8 6 9. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/publicworshipofgOOgibs 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 The discussions in the following pages, witli tlie exception 
 of Chapters vi., vii., viii., first appeared as articles in the 
 Watchword. The author has been requested to publish 
 them in a separate form. Through the pressure on the 
 pages of that Journal, arising from the necessity of im- 
 mediate attention to other very important subjects, relating 
 to the great principles which it was established to illustrate 
 and defend, greater delay was occasioned in the publication 
 of these articles than was at first anticipated. 
 
 As the subject handled in them is not only of the 
 highest intrinsic and general importance, but likely, and 
 that very speedily, to occasion very serious differences of 
 opinion in the church to which the writer of them belongs, 
 it has been considered desirable to proceed with this 
 publication, without waiting to complete in monthly articles, 
 the design as first indicated. 
 
 The author has been requested to give them to the 
 world in this separate form. He has great pleasure in 
 complying with this request, inasmuch as, from the 
 arrangements made, and with the entire consent of all 
 parties interested, the already large circulation which they 
 have received through the pages of the Watchword, will 
 be very largely increased. 
 
IV Pr^EFATORY NOTE. 
 
 At a time when the great rule of action, not only in 
 the world, but to a lamentable extent in the professing 
 Church of Christ, seems to be, not how to please and 
 honour God, but how to please and conciliate the favour 
 of men, even in things divine, the writer of these pages is 
 not conscious of having any other end to serve, than to 
 be instrumental in promoting the glory of God, in the 
 defence of His truth, and the purity of His worship. 
 
 If these pages shall, by the grace of God, the blessing of 
 whose Holy Spirit is humbly invoked, be subservient to 
 that end, both he and all who have kindly contributed to 
 this publication shall have received an abundant reward. 
 
 Glasgow, Dccemler 25, ISGS. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Peefatory Not2, iv 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 Tea AiTthoiity and Modes, 7 
 
 The Word of God the Sole Authority and Rnlc, - - 9 
 
 Opinion of the Duke of Argyle, 11 
 
 The case of Saul, King of Israel, 13 
 
 Doctrine of the Westminster Confession of Faith, - - IG 
 
 The Denial of the Principle laid down in it leads to Eitualism, 18 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PE.VISE. 
 
 Opinion of Lord Bacon, 21 
 
 No Question as to the Duty of Singing Praises, - - - 23 
 
 Some Statements by Dr James Hamilton, - - - - 25 
 
 Dr Hamilton's Opinion of the Psalter, - - - - 30 
 
 Opinion of Romaine on Hymns, 33 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ALLEGED SCRIPTURE AUTHORITY FOR HUMAN HYMNS. 
 
 The State of the Question, 36 
 
 No Proof that Human Hjonns are "Prescribed " in Scripture, 37 
 
 Dr Hamilton on 1 Cor. xix. 26 ; Rev. v. 9, - - - - 38 
 
 Meaning of " Psalms, and Hymns, and Spiritual Songs," - 41 
 
 Extract on this point from "True Psalmody," ... 44 
 
 Opinion of President Edwards, ------ 4G 
 
 Opinion of Mr Barnes, 48 
 
 CHAPTER TV. 
 
 HISTORICAL ARGUMENT FOR HUMAN HYMNS. 
 
 Statement of Dr Hamilton — Pliny's Letter, - - . 53 
 
 Further Statement of Dr Hamilton, ----- 59 
 
 His Statement regarding Paul of Samosata Examined, - 60 
 
 Quotation from "The True Psahnody" on Pa til of Samosata, 64 
 
 Interim Report of Free Church Committee, ... 68 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 HISTORICAL ARGUMENT — continued. 
 
 Reformation Period, ' 71 
 
 '•Breeches" Bible— Geneva Bible, 73 
 
 The Principle of " not I'orbidden in Scripture" indefensible, 76 
 
yi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEK VI. '"''^ 
 
 SIODtIRN HYMN BOOKS — HOW INTRODUCED INTO PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 Opinion of Professor Arnold on English and German Hymns, 83 
 Pesults of introducing Human Hymns into Public Worship 
 
 in America, 85 
 
 When and How introduced into England, .... 89 
 
 Effects — Opinion of Mr Bennet, 90 
 
 Introduction of Hymns into Eelief and United Presbyterian 
 
 Churches in Scotland, 92 
 
 Into Presbyterian Church in England, - - . - 96 
 
 " Scottish H}Tnnal "—Hymn Book for Church of Scotland, 97 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HUMAN HYMNS— INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 
 
 Instrumental Music not so Dangerous as Human Hymns, - 104 
 
 Treatises of Drs Begg, Father and Son, on Organ Question, 108 
 Kemarks on an Article in The British and Foreign Evangelical 
 
 i2c^7'ezr, for July, 1860, 110 
 
 The Organ Question — Dr Pitchie and Dr Porteous of Glasgow, 118 
 
 Extracts from Introduction by Dr Candhsh, • - - 118 
 
 Policy of Dr Pusey and Party, 123 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 REVIEW OF SOME MODERN HYMN BOOKS. 
 
 United Presbyterian Hymn Book, 129 
 
 Character of American Hymn Books, 140 
 
 Hymn Book of Presbytery of Antrim, - - - - 141 
 
 Hymn Book of Presbyterian Church in England, - - 144 
 
 LettertoMr Pw A. Macfie, 149 
 
 New Congregational Hymn Book, 149 
 
 The Scottish Hymnal, - - - - - - - 151 
 
 Hymns for Christian Worship, by Ministers of Eree Church, 
 
 Glasgow, 154 
 
 Chants de Sion, by Malan, 157 
 
 Dean Stanley on the Psalter, 158 
 
 Opinion of W. E. Gladstone, M.P., - _ - - - - 161 
 
 Free Church Magazine, and Opinion of Sir Walter Scott, - 162 
 
 Conclusion, 164 
 
 Appendix A., Mr Macfie, M.P., 165 
 
 Appendix B., Do., 166 
 
 Appendix C, Summary Answers to Arguments for the Use 
 
 of Hymns, 1/1 
 
PUELIO WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 public lloi'sbip of (^oh—xh gidljontg aub ^obts. 
 
 No more important or vital question, whether in relation 
 to the way of a sinner's justification before God, the 
 manner of the believer's approach to God in acceptable 
 service, either in the discharge of private personal duty, or 
 of public social worship in the church of the living God, 
 can be raised than this — " How can a man come before 
 the Lord, or bow himself before the most high God?" One 
 great principle is applicable to every approach, viz., " All 
 things by the law were purged with blood, and without 
 shedding of blood there is no remission." This is still 
 applicable to everything in which man can find acceptance 
 with God. He must find it through the atoning and 
 purifying blood of the Lamb, slain in perennial efficacy, 
 before the foundation of the world. This is still the 
 "fountain opened for the house of David and for the 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness." 
 
 The object we have at present in view will not embrace 
 so wide a range, though it is one of vast moment to every 
 
8 PUBLIC WORSHIP OP GOD. 
 
 pious and earnest servant of God. It is limited to one of 
 the topics whose importance is above noticed, viz., to 
 propound and answer the question, Wherewithal, or how 
 shall men come before God in the public social worship of 
 the sanctuary? Is it in forms and ways of their ov/n 
 devising, or in the way authorised and appointed by God 
 Himself? One would suppose that, assuming that God 
 has appointed a way, there could be no other question 
 raised than this. What is that way? But is it so? And 
 to what does the divine rule apply? 
 
 Our Lord Himself has given the answer, so far as the 
 general principle is concerned, in that deeply interesting 
 interview with the woman of Samaria, as picturesque and 
 illustrative of eastern manners, as it is declarative of a 
 grand and majestic principle regulating the way of man's 
 approach to " the one living and true God." " Jesus saith 
 unto her. Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when yo 
 shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, wor- 
 ship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what. We 
 know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the 
 hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall 
 worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father 
 seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit, and they 
 that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in 
 truth." 
 
 It is very plain from this passage that our Lord alike 
 disapproves of and sets aside, not only all Samaritan inter- 
 mixtures of Judaism and paganism, but all Judaic will- 
 worship and traditionary accretions, as well as the whole 
 outward system of authorised Judaic typical worship, 
 reserving only for the church of the future, in aU time and 
 every place, that which could be described to be in reality 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. \) 
 
 "worship in spirit and in truth." Accordingly, this was 
 followed up by His inspired apostles, as the Spirit gave 
 them utterance, even as He promised should be the case 
 when He Himself was glorified. 
 
 It is reasonable to expect from such a Lawgiver, that 
 when He laid down the abstract principle and rule affecting 
 the whole human race in all future time, setting thus aside 
 all that was outward, and local, and traditionary. He would 
 at the same time indicate the way, or at least the source, 
 from which His people would receive light and guidance. 
 This He has done in His intercessory prayer for His dis- 
 ciples to the end of the world, "for all them who should 
 believe on Him through their word." John xvii. 17, 
 "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 
 . . . And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they 
 may be sanctified through the truth." 
 
 This way of the sanctification of God's people, it is 
 plain, must embrace all the means by which they can 
 worship and serve God, and by which they can be accepted 
 in so doing. The woed, then, and no human opinion, 
 speculation, taste, or feeling, must constitute the rule and 
 the directory — the unchanging Word of God, and not the 
 spirit of the age, nor any demands either for the sensa- 
 tional or aesthetic, nor shifting times and seasons. The 
 Spirit of God speaketh expressly to the reverse of following 
 the spirit of the age. After unfolding the great way of 
 justification, through the merits and righteousness of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, originating in the unsearchable counsels 
 of everlasting wisdom and love, Paul lays down the rule — 
 "I beseech you, therefore, brethren. ... Be not 
 conformed to the world, alupi, the age." This is a rule to 
 regulate the whole Christian life, and shutting out, in its 
 
10 PUBLIC WOESHIP OF GOD. 
 
 whole range, conformity to the age, and, above all, of 
 course, in the direct service of the living God. To all who 
 plead the demands of the age for their aesthetic fancies, the 
 question is always applicable, " Who hath required this at 
 your hand?" This is not a matter that can be classed in 
 the category of things indifferent, such as whether a man 
 is to eat herbs or eat flesh; or whether, as mere matter of 
 human appointment, one man likes to do certain things on 
 one day rather than on another. These have nothing either 
 religious or moral in them, more than the colour of a coat 
 or the shape of a hat. But even these must never be 
 imposed on the human conscience as matter of obligation. 
 To do so is the principle of all superstition, and of all reli- 
 gious tyranny, whether by priests or kings. Hence, on this 
 ground, it was that the Puritans, both of England and 
 Scotland, resisted the imposition of the "habits" or vest- 
 ments, by authority. Both parties knew that in themselves 
 such things were matters of indifference. But when im- 
 ppsed, whether by civil or ecclesiastical authority, the 
 Puritans resisted the attempt and the principle alike, as 
 Popish, and a tyrannical invasion of religious liberty, and 
 of the rights of conscience. The Charleses and Prelatists 
 held them to be indifferent, and punished the Puritans as 
 rebels, because, as they alleged, they resisted lawful 
 authority in things of no moment. Such is the result of 
 the theory of indifference — in other words, of open ques- 
 tions in the church of God. Let serious thinking Christian 
 men look to it. Politicians will care little for their 
 scruples when it may be safe to hold them " troublers of 
 Israel." 
 
 This view does not imply that every man is to act accord- 
 ing to his own liking in the public worship, and not to be 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 11 
 
 the subject of blame; either before God or His Church. 
 His Grace of Argyle seems to carry his views of toleration 
 rather far in a late lecture, when he quotes the words of 
 Paul in the 1 4:th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and 
 applies them to things not altogether indifferent in their 
 nature, but both moral and religious. He says: — 
 
 "How deep, how satisfying to the reason and the conscience, is 
 the doctrine of St Paul in respect to sin, when he defines it to 
 be sin against knowledge — disobedience to the light, whatever 
 that may be, which is within us. ' To him that esteemeth any- 
 thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.' ' AH things indeed 
 are pure ; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.' 
 ' Happy is he that condemnetli not himself in that thing which 
 he alloweth.' ' Let every man be fully persuaded in his own 
 mind.' St James is not less explicit: 'Therefore to him that 
 knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.' How 
 has the essential principle on which this teaching depends been 
 forgotten, neglected, contradicted, in the language of theologians ? 
 What deep and wrongful ojffence has been cast on the true 
 doctrines of the Cross?" 
 
 His Grace gives a definition here of sin which neither 
 Paul nor James ever gave, and then applies an inference of 
 his own, from things that are no sin at all, to sin itself. 
 In the first place, the Bible definition of sin is very different: 
 it is, " Sin is the transgression of the law." The law in its 
 summary is, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
 thy heart," etc., and "thy neighbour as thyself;" and Paul 
 quotes in another place, as the foundation of the Redeemer's 
 work in redeeming us from its curse, the negative definition 
 of sin, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all 
 things that are written in the book of the law to do them." 
 These are the two sides of what constitutes sin, and hence 
 the Westminster "theologians" most truly and justly, in 
 their " Shorter Catechism," which his Grace, as a Presby- 
 terian, is doubtless well acquainted with, define sin to be a 
 
12 PtTBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 " want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of 
 God." Any one who Mall look at the law of God in any of 
 its injunctions, whether as "Thou shalt," or as "Thou shalt 
 not," will at once see the perfect accuracy of this definition. 
 His Grace substitutes the " light within us," for the clear 
 law of God without us in the Holy Scriptures. But, again, 
 his Grace applies the words of Paul to what is really " sin " 
 — a transgression of the law of God; while Paul applies 
 them to things that are no sin at all, viz., the human, or, if 
 you will, Judaising distinction under the gospel of meats 
 and drinks, and unauthorised and uncommanded days. We 
 suspect that the "theologians" are more correct in this 
 instance than his Grace. But we hardly think it fair, as 
 the Duke does in his lecture, able and excellent in many 
 respects as it is, to make all " theologians " indiscriminately 
 answerable for all that he condemns, more than it would be 
 to make his Grace answerable for the sentiments and doings 
 of all dukes, or all clukes answerable for the sentiments of 
 his Grace. 
 
 Further, the passage in Pi,om. xiv., as quoted and applied 
 by the Duke of Argyle, is so far from lowering the standard 
 of duty, or apologising, or inculcating charity for what is 
 really sin, or contrary tc the gospel (of which latter Paul 
 says, " If any man preach any other gospel unto you, etc., 
 let him be accursed "), that it makes it a sin in any man to 
 eat or drink anything, or violate a day, about which he has 
 doubt in his own mind; and declares, in relation even to 
 the things in question, -which are neither moral nor religious, 
 that so tender must a man be in reference to offending God, 
 that he must, even in such indifferent matters, " be fully 
 persuaded in his own mind." " Happy is he that con- 
 demneth not himself in that ' thini? which he allowetL 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. IB 
 
 And he tliat donbteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth 
 not of faith; for whatsover is not of faith is sin." He puts 
 not the doubt on the side of God; but he takes the benefit 
 of it to himself. This is the apostle's idea of " sin;" very 
 different from that of his Grace of Argyle. 
 
 We have this principle brought out in the Old Testament 
 in the case of poor King Saul, for whom we have often felt 
 great pity, as Vv^e have done for Eobert Burns and Lord 
 Byron — so far as mere natural feeling is concerned, men of 
 noble genius and lofty natural sentiment, but withal 
 thoroughly ungodly and wilful, and even low and gross, in 
 their immoralities. Bat the infinitely compassionate Jeho- 
 vah makes no apologies, and demands no charity, either for 
 immorality or falsehood, though we are both to pity and 
 to pray for those who are guilty either of the one or of the 
 o^her. 
 
 The case of King Saul is both deeply interesting and 
 solemnly instructive, as related 1 Sam. chap. xv. Saul was 
 commanded to destroy Amalek, themselves, and their cattle, 
 for their wickedness and cruelty. But Saul, in the exercise, 
 as he thought, both of compassion and of religious wisdom, 
 and encouraged by the people, thought and acted differently 
 from the command of God: ver. 9-11, "But Saul and the 
 people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the 
 oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was 
 good, and would not utterly destroy them: but everything 
 that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly. Then 
 came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying, It repenteth 
 me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned 
 back from following me, and hath not performed my com- 
 mandments. And it grieved Samuel, and he cried unto the 
 Jjord all night," 
 
14 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 The prophet had both pity and compassion, and prayed 
 to God all night. But while he said, as his conduct 
 showed, "What am I, that I should withstand God?" he 
 neither sanctioned, nor did, nor apologised for, the unright- 
 eous thing: ver. 13, "And Samuel came to Saul; and Saul 
 said unto him. Blessed be thou of the Lord; I have per- 
 formed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said, 
 "What meaneth this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and 
 the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" And though Saul 
 repeatedly pleaded his good intentions, and laid the blame 
 of his disobedience to the command of God on the people 
 — nay, pleaded that he had obeyed the command of the 
 Lord, as he had done, so far as he thought it expedient: 
 the very principle in question of doing what he thouglit to 
 he right, yet was he "not thereby justified," for when 
 Samuel placed the matter before the Lord, He gave Saul 
 the solemn answer: ver. 22, "Hath the Lord as great 
 delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the 
 word of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, 
 and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as 
 the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and 
 idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, 
 he also hath rejected thee from being king." 
 
 The Lord would not accept as pleasing in His sight what 
 was uncommanded, even though good in itself; neither 
 Saul's will-wisdom nor his " will-worship;" and all his con- 
 fession of sin and humiliation and entreaties had no effect 
 whatever in setting aside God's righteous judgment. 
 
 On a previous occasion Saul, to all appearance very 
 sincerely, dreaded an assault of the Philistines before the 
 Israelites had offered sacrifice and " made supplication unto 
 the Lord," and as Samuel had delayed his coming, he took 
 
PUBLIC WOESHIP OF GOD. 15 
 
 tlie office into his own hand. *' And Samuel said to Saul, 
 Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the command- 
 ment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee: 
 for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon 
 Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue," 
 etc. (1 Sam. xiii. 13, 14), Now all this "is written for our 
 admonition." "The things which were written aforetime 
 were written for our learning:" so says the apostle Paul. 
 Can we then despise them? In regard to the false worship 
 of the Jews (Jer. xix. 5), God says, "which I commanded 
 not nor spake it, neither came it into my mind." 
 
 We have many other passages in Scripture to sanction 
 and enforce the great principle, not only that we must not 
 violate the direct commands of God in our service, but 
 must not presume to offer Him unauthorised worship, and 
 which He "hath not required at our hand." The reasons 
 are clear. He is too exalted and majestic for sinful mor- 
 tals to take such matters into their own hand, and to serve 
 Him with their own inventions. If He has revealed 
 Himself at all to ignorant and guilty men, surely it is 
 reasonable to think He would reveal how He should be 
 approached and served. If He has done so, and provided 
 all the means, it is the height of presumption in human 
 beings either to add to or take from what He has 
 appointed. "What things soever I command you, observe 
 to do it: thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish there- 
 from" (Deut. xii. 32). Our Lord Himself hands down 
 this great principle and command in His commission to 
 His apostles, and through them to the church to the end 
 of the world. Matt, xxviii. 18, 20, "And Jesus came and 
 taught them, saying. All power is given unto me in heaven 
 and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, 
 
16 PUBLIC WOUSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 baptizing them in the name of the Father^ and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost; teacliing them to observe all tilings 
 whatsoever I have commanded you: and, \o, I am with 
 you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." 
 His voice as the great Lawgiver and Head of His church, 
 from the beginning to the end, is one and the same. He 
 does not say, You are not to teach what I have forbidden, 
 but you are to teach to observe and do what I have com- 
 manded, and neither "add thereto, uor diminish there- 
 from." 
 
 Hence the Westminster divines, in words as accordant 
 with reason and the nature and fitness of things as with 
 the written Word of God, lay down, on the subject of 
 religious worship, the following propositions (Confession of 
 Faith, chap, xxi.): — "The light of nature showeth that 
 there is a God who hath lordship and sovereignty over all, 
 is good, and doeth good unto all, and is therefore to bo 
 feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served 
 with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the 
 might. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true 
 God is instituted by Himself and so limited by His oivn 
 revealed ivill, that He may not be worshipped according to 
 the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of 
 Satan, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy 
 Scripture." 
 
 The first principle is binding on all true Presbyterian 
 ministers and elders throughout the world, who have in 
 all countries owned the Westminster Confession of Faith. 
 as the confession of their faith; and, as Bible truth, it is 
 binding on all men. The special application to the par- 
 ticular modes of public worship, and the way in which it 
 has been complied with by manjr who have solemnly pror 
 
PDCLIC WORSIIir OF GOD. 17 
 
 fessecl it, may be afterwards considered. Mcantiaic we 
 remark, that this principle, instead of being a principle, 
 either of oppression on the one hand, or slavish submission 
 on the other, is the great charter of Christian liberty, and 
 of the elevated dignity of Christ's freemen; while the 
 opposite principle is not only the badge, but the instrument 
 of tyranny on the one hand, and of slavish submission to the 
 impositions and inventions of men on the other. It is no 
 slavery, and no degradation to submit to the commands, 
 and walk according to the rules prescribed by the Majesty 
 of heaven and earth. "I will walk at liberty, because I 
 seek thy precepts," said David. " Ye shall know the truth, 
 and the truth shall make you free," says our Lord; para- 
 phrased by the pious and immortal William Cowper thus: 
 
 " He is the freeman whom the truth makes free, 
 And all are slaves beside." 
 
 This is verified by the vdiole facts alike of individual 
 and of social history, civil and ecclesiastical. T/hat is the 
 history of individual and monkish fiinaticism? Not a 
 history, in the first instance, of bad men, but the history 
 of good men following their own inventions, and putting 
 in practice their ov/n devices, and being "wise above what 
 was written;" and the whole issuing in the excesses of 
 folly, and the most enormous crimes of lust and murder. 
 What is the history of the whole gorgeous and burdensome, 
 and even puerile, ceremonial and ritual of Rome, now being 
 copied and imitated in the Church of England at the 
 present moment? Not the history of things positively 
 forbidden by the Bible in so many words, but the history 
 of things v.'hich are "iioi prescribed in Holy Scripture." If 
 Qpe man is at liberty to plead for his own inventioDj 
 
18 PUBLIC W0E3HIP OF GOD. 
 
 because it is not forbidden in tlie Bible, wliy may not 
 another do tlic same for his, and forthwith set it up, on 
 the principle that all is lawful in the worship of God which 
 is not forbidden? What right have the anti-ritualists of 
 England, unless they adopt our principle, to disturb the 
 public peace by their present opposition] Nay, what right 
 have such parties to oppose the ritual of Antichrist him- 
 self? 
 
 Very different is the case when the Christian man and 
 the Christian church can demand, " By what Bible autho- 
 rity do you these things? and who gave you this 
 authority?" 
 
 Would that the professing church of Christ — would that 
 Christian men might seriously ponder, in the first instance, 
 the great principle to which we have given expression in 
 the words of the Westminster Confession of Faith. It is 
 one which seems to us just, reasonable, and scriptural, and 
 of unspeakable importance to the liberty and highest 
 interests of the Christian church, and their only security 
 against the irruptions of the Papacy, and the introduction 
 of its worst practices into the Church of England. We tell 
 them, and tell all men, that history, experience, and rational 
 reflection, show that men waste their breath against all such 
 inventions, and gratuitously disturb the peace both of 
 Church and State, if they cannot plead the authority of 
 the Word of God for what they are doing; and what is 
 more, they disturb it in vain — for ''will- worship," sanc- 
 tioned, will have its own way, and human nature, " priest 
 and people, love to have it so." Oh, many will say, men 
 are too enlightened in this nineteenth century to submit to 
 these things! Are they? Let what is passing in England 
 declare, and in Scotland too. Popery in all lands has had 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 19 
 
 men of as Iilgli talent, intellectual cultivation, and artistic 
 taste as ever graced the ranks of Protestantism. But what 
 have they done, or what will they do, against the follies 
 and vices of Romanism? They give their power, their 
 talent, and their influence "to the Beast," and the "Beast" 
 gives his " wealth " to them, and the poor people are the 
 victims of their delusions. But these things will not all 
 happen in our day ! Will they not 1 These things have 
 begun; and although the infidel powers are rising against 
 the Pope's secular dominion, and it may be overthrown, as 
 it was in France for a time; — what then? It will rise 
 again, unless it be consumed by the Word and Spirit of 
 God; by the breath of His mouth and the brightness of 
 His coming. Rome was nof built in a day, and it is only 
 a piece of unchristian selfishness to plead this fact for 
 unauthorised inventions in the worship of God. 
 
 We hope in some succeeding chapters to apply the prin- 
 ciples above discussed and laid down to the questions of 
 human hymns and instrumental music in the worship of 
 God, and to examine the alleged scriptural and historical 
 arguments in their favour, both in earlier and later times, 
 whether in Scotland and England, or in other lands; and 
 to examine and test the value, as compared with the 
 Psalms of David, of some English and Scotch Hymn 
 Books, Presbyterian and otherwise. 
 
CHAPTEE II, 
 
 In a former chapter wc acTvertGcl to the one way of accopt- 
 able access to GocI, \Yhether in personal duty or in private 
 or public worship — viz., through the efficacy of the atoning 
 and sanctifying blood of the Lamb. Hence Paul says, 
 through Him " we both (Jews and Gentiles) have access by 
 one spirit unto the Father." Confining ourselves to the 
 question, Wherewithal, or how shall men come before God 
 in the public social worship of the sanctuary? we laid down 
 and fixed, on grounds of Scripture and reason, the great 
 principle declared in the Confession of Faith of the West- 
 minster Divines, adopted by the multitude of sound Presby- 
 terians throughout the world, who are, indeed, the largest 
 body of Protestants in Christendom — viz., that God is not 
 to be worshipped by any imaginations or devices of men, 
 " nor in any other way not peescribed in the holy 
 Scripture." 
 
 Having illustrated and defended this great principle, we 
 showed that it is and has been the only security of Christian 
 and religious liberty — the only protection from burdensome 
 and superstitious rituals, whether imposed by ecclesiastical 
 or civil authority — by kings, or priests, or people. It is 
 important to notice that all these parties have been guilty of 
 such imposition, as the prophet of old, as well as the facts and 
 Jiistory of the Church of Christ, inform us^ and later times 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 21 
 
 declare. Thus says Jcremiali: "A wonclerfiil and Iiorriblo 
 thing is committed in tlie land. Tlie prophets prophesy 
 falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means: and tho 
 people love to have it so: and what v/ill ye do in the end 
 thereof?" The same prophet said also: "Lo, they have 
 rejected the Vford of the Lord, and what wisdom is in 
 them?" History reads the same lesson. 
 
 And thus says Bacon: "The master of superstition is 
 the people, and in all superstition wise men follow fools, 
 and arguments are fitted to prosper in a reversed order. 
 The causes of superstition are — pleasing and sensual rites 
 and ceremonies; excess of outward and pharisaical holiness; 
 over great revei^ence of traditions, which cannot but load the 
 Church; the stratagems of prelates for their own ambition; 
 the folloiuing too much of good intentions, which openeth the 
 gates to conceits and novelties; the taking an aim at divine 
 matters hy human, which cannot but breed mixture of 
 imaginations." These are noble statements, verified by all 
 history; and never did men at any time require to ponder 
 them more carefully than at the present moment, when tho 
 almost universal shout, even in the Christian Church, in all its 
 denominations, and in their varied aspects, whether super- 
 stitious, cesthetic, or sensational, is, " The people will have 
 it so." In this respect is it verified in too many cases that 
 " wise men follow fools;" and, in point of fact, in too many 
 churches and congregations it is neither the "wise men" 
 nor the godly men, but the bustling and the fickle, the 
 sentimental and the musical, that are regulating the solem- 
 nities of the public worship of God. It is not, What saith 
 " the Holy Scripture ]" But rather is there a plain defiance 
 to the command of Paul, who, in all matters of "will- 
 worship," says, " Touch not, taste not, handle not," " which 
 
22 PUBLIC WOESHIP OF GOD. 
 
 things have a show of wisdom in will-worship and humility." 
 To this course of procedure apply all those cases in the Old 
 Testament, where God severely punished unauthorised in- 
 terferences in His worship, even in the cases of kings and 
 others, some of whom were otherwise good men, and who 
 did, as men would now suppose, no moral wrong in the 
 matter of their interference; as in the cases of Saul, Uzziah, 
 and Uzzah. In the case of Saul, Samuel, we have seen, 
 laid down the principle as applicable to every age, and in 
 all times and circumstances: "Behold, to obey is better 
 than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." This 
 principle applies to everything, whether old or new, which 
 men introduce into the worship of God. Whether it can 
 be called an innovation, or a thing of four thousand years' 
 standing, if it is not actually authorised, nay, commanded, 
 or, as the Westminster Confession of Faith expresses it, 
 "prescribed in the Holy Scripture," it is at men's peril if 
 they introduce it. The Westminster Larger Catechism calls 
 it a "sin." 
 
 We do not forget that the said Confession, in laying 
 down the rule of faith, and excluding all traditions of men, 
 adds, " that there are some things concerning the worship 
 of God and government of the Church common to human 
 actions and societies which are to be ordered by the light 
 of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general 
 rules of the Word, which are always to be observed."" It is 
 plain that the " circumstances " here referred to are not 
 things belonging to the essence of divine worship, but to 
 matters of mere outward order, such as time, place, external 
 accommodation, and the like, but that even in these respect 
 is to be had to the ^^ general rules of the Word, which are 
 always to he observed^'' 
 
PUBLIC WORSniP OF GOD. 23 
 
 We now proceed to apply the great general principle 
 formerly expounded and illustrated, and now briefly re- 
 stated, to some of the special parts of Divine worship j^rc- 
 viously enumerated. 
 
 The first of these, if not in importance, yet viewed in 
 relation to God and the end of creation, viz., to give glory 
 to God, is PRAISE. How is praise in the public worship 
 of God, that being now our subject of inquiry, to be offered 
 to the Most High? 
 
 The great question now iriised on this subject is not if 
 we are to worship God, either in private or in the public 
 sanctuary, by singing Plis praise. There have been 
 mystics, monks, and others, who have thought it their 
 duty and their lofty privilege to indulge in solitary 
 and ecstatic, and, as they thought, seraphic contem- 
 plation, freed from all external or social distraction. 
 The Papists, in the spirit of their system, who make the 
 priest their substitute and vicar, as the Pope claims to bo 
 the vicar of Jesus Christ, devolve their public prayers and 
 praises on the priests, and that, too, in an unknown tongue, 
 and thus require not the power of reading for this end, 
 either in their own or in any other language.^ Nothing 
 gave them deeper offence, nor more excited their violent 
 and persecuting rage in France and other places at the time 
 of the Reformation, than the singing in their mother tongue, 
 by the Protestants, in their places of worship or religious 
 meetings, of the Psalms of David. Even in Protestant 
 England, upwards of two hundred years ago, a controversy 
 was raised on this point. Whether it was lawful to sing 
 psalms, or the praises of God at all in the sanctuary? — and 
 Dr James Hamilton seems to make use of this fact as an 
 indirect way of answering all who have any conscientious 
 
24 PUBLIC WORSHIP of god. 
 
 objections to tlic use of human hymns in the public vrorship 
 of God; as if, because he says these men were " conscien- 
 tious" (though, of course, fanatical), others, who object to 
 human hymns in the public worship of God, may be equally 
 "conscientious" and equally fjinatical; and we suppose the 
 inference must be, that we have no scriptural rule on tho 
 subject; at least, he certainly gives none. Addressing his 
 people in one of three lectures, subsequently printed in an 
 article in the British and Foreign Evangelical Review, and 
 since printed separately and widely circulated gratuitously 
 in the pamphlet form, he says — 
 
 " Perhaps you are not aware that there was ever any body of 
 Christians, besides the Friends or Quakers, who objected to 
 singing altogether; but two hundred years ago there was no 
 singing, nor music of any sort, in the Baptist churches of England. 
 You would bo apt to think it must have been a cold and com- 
 fortless service; but the good men w^cre conscientious. They 
 had paid far more for their principles than we are ever hkely to 
 do," etc. 
 
 Dr Hamilton then describes the way in which they 
 
 answered all Scriptural arguments against them, and then 
 
 continues — 
 
 " Nor will it do to denounce these men as pragmatical fanatics, 
 or narrow-n^inded pretenders. No doubt they were men of 
 strong convictions and unyielding temper, but they were sincere. 
 For a Christian to offer any oblation in the church which Christ 
 had not expressly authorised, they believed w;is as presumptuous 
 and as impious as it would have been for a Jew to come before 
 
 the Lord with swine's flesh They w^ere in earnest. 
 
 They had something to say for themselves. On the ground which 
 they occupied, they believed themselves impregnable; and we 
 incline to think that they were. We doubt if tiieir arguments 
 have ever yet been- refuted. . . . Their arguments were not 
 easily ansAvered, but their scruples have disappeared. Many of 
 the good men never were convinced, and never gave in; and 
 when, in the leading church in Southwark, after twenty years of 
 argument and effort, Benjamin Keach established singing, a 
 minority withdrew and took refuge, if not in a silent church, at 
 least in a songless sanctuary." 
 
PUBLIC WOnsniP OF GOD. 25 
 
 Dr Hamilton, in a note B., gives some historical notices 
 of this controversy, as raised and maintained by sundry 
 parties on both sides, as early as 1601, onwards to 1708. 
 But what all that lias to do vv^ith the question, " Y/hat is 
 to be sung in the public worship of God?" — except to 
 turn the views of those who may be admitted to be "con- 
 scientious " in maintaining the principle, that whatever it 
 is, it must have the authority and command of God, into 
 ridicule, and place them in the same category with these 
 *' conscientious " and "sincere," but manifestly fanatical 
 Baptists of those times — we cannot discover. Surely he 
 does not mean that when men are "conscientious" and 
 " sincere," you have no right to determine whether they are 
 right or wrong, and can apply no Scripture test to settle 
 the question. Such a principle would sanction monkery, 
 Mormonism, or any ism on earth; nay, the murders of St 
 Dominic and Eavaillac, and the work of Guy Fawkes, and 
 thousands of others — even ail the delusions and atrocities 
 of sincere heathenism. We are not so uncharitable as to 
 affirm that those who practised them were not " sincere." 
 But neither are we so blind or so sceptical as to affirm, that 
 therefore they were innocent in the sight of God in violating 
 every principle of religion, and practising in its name the 
 most horrid enormities. That we have no Scripture rule 
 to determine our own conduct will not be affirmed, or to 
 entitle us to condemn in theirs what is not according to the 
 Word of God and the "prescription of the Holy Scripture." 
 It will not be maintained that those who reason from 
 Scripture on this question are no better than conscientious 
 fanatics. We cannot examine the specific statements of 
 the above strange quotation. But if the passages of Scrip- 
 ture, which our author has quoted from the parties opposed 
 
26 rUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 to the Baptist non-psalm singers, have not convinced any 
 of the duty of publicly singing the praises of God, perhaps 
 we might recommend to them a little book printed some 
 fifty or sixty years earlier than those to which Dr Hamilton 
 refers in his note. It contains much that is truly admir- 
 able, and meets and answers, with point and acuteness, and 
 Scripture proof, not only the " conscientious " and " sincere " 
 persons of these times, but the conceits and arguments of 
 others, whether alleged to be from Scripture, history, or 
 advancing taste and civilisation. We may have occasion to 
 refer to this little book further on in the course of this dis- 
 cussion. We may here remark that v^e shall be surprised 
 if any one, after reading it, will concur with Dr Hamilton 
 in saying of these "sincere," non-singing Baptists, "Yv^e 
 doubt if their arguments have ever yet been refuted." The 
 title of the little book in question is the following: — 
 " Singing of Psalms, the Duty of Christians under the New 
 Testament; or, a Vindication of that Gospel Ordinance. In 
 Five Sermons upon Eph. v. 19; wherein are asserted and 
 cleared, 1. That we must Sing; 2. What we must Sing; 3. 
 How we must Sing; 4. Why v/e must Sing. By T. F., 
 Minister of the Gospel in Exon. James v. 13, *Is any 
 merry, let him sing psalms.' Psalm xlvii. 7, * For God is 
 the king of all the earth: sing ye praises with understand- 
 ing.' London, etc., 1653." 
 
 Before dismissing this point, we cannot help asking, 
 What does our author mean to establish by the statement 
 immediately following the above quotation from his first 
 lecture? — 
 
 "But influences were at work far mightier than Benjamin 
 Keach, or any human advocate of psalm singing. There is such 
 a thing as sanctified good sense. ' Not the wisdom of this 
 world/ but the wisdom of a better; that fulness of light which 
 
PUBLIC WOESniP OP GOD. 27 
 
 comes sooner or later to the sinj^le eye — that moral invigoration 
 which, by elevating the spiritual stature, enlarges the theological 
 horizon — and partly the result of English sense, softening good 
 men's crotchets, partly the result of the great awakening of which 
 Whitfield and Wesley were the instruments, and which left no 
 church uninfluenced, the closed lips were opened, and roofs un- 
 accustomed to the voice of psalms resounded with God's praise; 
 and could the good men who sighed over the diluted worship of 
 their day, and the return to Hebrew rags as signs of departing 
 spirituality, could they rejoin their descendants in Southwark, 
 and resume their membership in the self-same church now wor- 
 shipping in Park Street or the Metropolitan Tabernacle, they 
 would fmd neither Poper}^ in the pews nor Judaism in the 
 pulpit; and perad venture as they come into the assembly, and, 
 from four thousand voices, heard ' All people,' or its companion 
 version, 'From all that dwell beneath the skies,' they might 
 catch the contagion, and confessing of a truth that God is 
 there — even Isaac Marlow might join the singers. In the 
 same icay, and on a hindred 2JrincipU— [the italics are ours]— 
 there are still some Presbyterians who think that in the wor- 
 ship of the great congregation, although there ought to be sing- 
 ing, nothing should be sung except the Old Testament Psalms." 
 
 Passing over this off-hand way of grouping all parties 
 into one common category of sincere but fanatical, we ask, 
 Does Dr Hamilton mean to teach that, as this question 
 cannot be determined on the one side or the other by 
 Benjamin Keach, or by any other mere human authority, 
 that then we have no other resource but "good sense," 
 or "the fulness of light, which comes sooner or later 
 to the single eye — that moral invigoration which, by 
 elevating the spiritual, enlarges the theological hori- 
 zon" — and that "English sense," and Whitfield and 
 Wesleyan revivals, are surer guides than the question, 
 " What saith the Scripture?" Is it meant, after all, that 
 the "spiritual stature" of the men of England in the 
 present day is higher than that of those of 1653-96? Or 
 are we to be referred to the internal light of Quakerism, or 
 the shifting human reason of some men, or of all the men 
 
L'o PUBLIC wor.snip or god. 
 
 of the generation in v»'liicli we may happen to live, as our 
 guide in regard to the great questions, How, or why, or 
 what, X\e must sing in the praises of God in the public 
 worship of Jehovah in the sanctuary? Though Dr 
 Hamilton " meant it not so," yet undoubtedly his words 
 seem to teach, and do teach, that men, and times and 
 seasons, and " English sense," and not the written Word of 
 God — in other words, that the inspirations of the inner 
 consciousness of the Theodore Parkers and Morells, and 
 the dictates of civilisation and progress, are to be our 
 guides in matters of such solemn moment. Though with 
 those who advocate and hold such a theory. Scripture 
 reasoning on the subject may be of little avail; yet amid 
 difficulties, and in the face of all ridicule, and all fancies, 
 and all opposition, we must always hold and teach that 
 " we have a sure word of prophecy to which we do well to 
 take heed." We maintain that "the word of the Lord 
 endureth for ever — whether men will hear, or whether they 
 will forbear." Has either " English sense," or the " awak- 
 ening " of Whitfield and Wesley, destroyed the influence of 
 your Cardinal Wisemans, your Doctors Manning or Pusey? 
 We speak not of their "moral invigoration," o^ their 
 " spiritual stature," though we would not like to say of 
 such a man as Dr Pasey, that he has neither "morality" 
 nor " spirituality," though sadly perverted by his position, 
 and by the principles which allow him to take other rules 
 of faith and conduct than "the Holy Scripture." For 
 high intellect, high cultivation and scholarship, high 
 eesthetic taste, such men are certainly surpassed by few — 
 and whether, then, would this strange statement upon 
 which we are commenting lead? Will any man tell us 
 how, with such a view, any one can confute these men, or 
 
PUCLIO WOESHIP OF OOD. 29 
 
 even logically or scripturally refuse to follow them'? But 
 we trust '^ we liave not so learned Christ," and rejoice that 
 we are reduced to no such straits either of logic or of 
 religion, and that we have the sure Word of prophecy " for 
 our guide." "We are thus earnest on this matter, because if 
 these statements of Dr Hamilton satisfy the reason and 
 conscience of his congregation, to whom they were ad- 
 dressed, and receive the sympathy of Presbyterian con- 
 gations in England, we are not surprised at the following 
 words in the Preftice to the " Psalter and Hymn-Book " 
 of the English Presbyterian Church: — 
 
 "Secondly. It has been considered desirable that the 
 collection (521 in number) should embrace a large number 
 of hymns and spiritual songs — a number much larger than 
 might be held to be sufficient for the wants of any single 
 congregation. Much diversity in habits of thought and 
 feeling, and great variety of taste, exist in every Christian 
 community, and it is right that in a book of praise, de- 
 signed for general use, fitting expression should be found 
 for all." Of course the same reason v/ill vindicate the 
 1000 of the Independents, and the 3000 of our American 
 brethren; but it is rather too much for fellow-mortals to 
 judge for them all. It is, to say the least, verging on the 
 theory of the rationalistic party in the Church of England, 
 that a national church should satisfy the cravings and 
 views of all parties in the nation. 
 
 We shall see in the sequel that the compilers of the 
 "Scottish Hymnal" proceed on this strange view of a 
 National Church Hymnal. 
 
 What, then, does Holy Scripture teach as to the great 
 duty of praising God, and especially how and with what? 
 
 It is one benefit in this question, that those with whom 
 
30 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 we have now to do, admit that we may not only publicly 
 sing the praises of God, but that we may sing the Psalms 
 of David. Some exceptional and modified statements we 
 may have to notice, when we come to the question of the 
 propriety or impropriety of human hymns, about spiritual 
 things in the worship of God. Meantime we rejoice in 
 such statements as the following, forming the first two 
 sentences of Dr Hamilton's first lecture: — 
 
 " Of devotional manuals, there is none to compare with the 
 Psalter. It is at once the best of hymn-books, and the best of 
 prayer-books." 
 
 Why we should seek a better if we wanted a hymn- 
 book, when we have the "best," or another prayer-600/i;, 
 which we presume Dr Hamilton does not wish, when we 
 have the best already, we are not illogical enough to dis- 
 cover. It may doubtless be our misfortune, but so it is, 
 and all his subsequent reasonings can never make anything 
 of human device better than the "best.'' But that there 
 may be no mistake, Dr Hamilton says again, p. 4, 5: — 
 
 " And what we said at the beginning we now repeat. If the 
 best of prayer-books, this Hebrew Psalter is also the best of 
 hymn-books. Of all devotion, whether sung or spoken, it is 
 the model; at once the sublimest and the safest; at once the 
 most exalted and most sober. It is the only entire book in tho 
 Bible which God has given expressly to aid and guide the wor- 
 sliip of man; and whilst some of its strains come down to the 
 cradle, others ascend to a height of Scriptural communion, when 
 for a higher note a seraph's voice would be needed, and angels 
 take up the chorus. And whilst adapted to every capacity, in 
 its range of experience it includes any case, from the depths of 
 penitential remorse to the fullest and most exulting realisation 
 of God's friendship. And if the most comprehensive of manuals, 
 let it not be forgotten that it is withal the most catholic. No 
 sect refuses it, and none can monopolise it. The Episcopalian 
 chants it in his cathedral, and the Nonconformist in his chapel; 
 the Quaker reads it in his closet^ and its antiphonies re-echo in 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 31 
 
 the imperial sanctuaries of Moscow and Vienna; and just as 
 the hunted Covenanters sang it on the hills of Scotland two 
 hundred years ago, the Jew still sings it in the synagogues of 
 London. Its pages have often been blotted with the tears of 
 those whom others deemed hard and cold, and whom they 
 treated with suspicion or contempt. Its words have gone up to 
 God mingled with the sighs, or scarcely uttered in the heart- 
 broken anguish of those whom Pharisees called sinners, of those 
 whom Christians denounced as heretics or infidels, but who 
 loved God and truth above all things else. Surely it is holy 
 ground. We cannot pray the Psalms without realising in a very 
 special manner the communion of saints, the oneness of the 
 church militant and the church triumphant. We cannot pray 
 the Psalms without having our hearts opened, our affections 
 enlarged, our thoughts drawn heavenward. He who can pray 
 the best is nearest to God, knows most of the Spirit of Christ, 
 is ripest for heaven." — Fcrowne on the Psalms. 
 
 " Such are our views regarding the Psalter. For both praise 
 and prayer for the worship of God, whether sung or spoken, we 
 believe that it is not only the best model, but that it contains 
 the best materials." 
 
 We cannot help feeling that sucli splendid eulogiiims on 
 the Book of Psalms, by those who supplant their use by 
 human hymns, are, to say the least, both surprising and 
 incongruous. Had Dr Hamilton written nothing else than 
 this on the subject, we could not have conceived it possible 
 that he could have been an advocate for human hymns, 
 and even yet we cannot comprehend the constitution of 
 mind that permits any man thus to write and conclude, 
 and yet not only to be instrumental in virtually super- 
 seding these grand Psalms by an overwhelming multitude 
 of human hymns, but to be an eloquent advocate for the 
 propriety of doing so. 
 
 We do not stay to inquire v/hat Dr Hamilton means by 
 adding, in the same page, " Some Presbyterians still hold 
 that nothing should be sung except the Old Testament 
 Psalms." Does he not know that Episcopalians, as well 
 
o'j, ruELic woEsnip of god. 
 
 as "some Presbyterians," not only have held, but have 
 very generally acted on the same principle? We have, in 
 the course of our lives, both at home and abroad, attended 
 for months English Episcopal churches, where no other 
 Protestant worship could be found, and we never once 
 heard anything sung but the Psalms of David. Anything else 
 is a modern innovation in the Church of England. But let- 
 ting that point pass at present, we go on to say — We have 
 quoted with great satisfaction these most eloquent and 
 beautiful passages, both original and quoted, by Dr Hamil- 
 ton. But after saying Amen to them, we are perfectly 
 incapable of sympathising with the easy and yet somewhat 
 constrained terms with which they are immediately fol- 
 lowed — "But whilst we are free to sing it!" What? 
 "/>ee" to sing the "best" both in " model " and " mate- 
 rials!" and which all Christians, in all the world, have 
 sung, and do sing! 
 
 We would say with such a belief, not " But Vv^hilst we 
 feel free to sing it," but we feel free to sing nothing else, at 
 least nothing human. Y/ho entitles any one to serve God 
 with his ov/n — nay, with what he deems inferior or worse, 
 while God has given the " best," and a hoolc of the "best?" 
 or as some others express it, to give to the Psalms of David 
 the royal place in their praises of God; but they presume 
 to set on the same throne the songs, not of Zion, but of 
 men who may or may not have been even good or Christian 
 men. We doubt not but it was such things as these that 
 made the pious Romaine write in the strong terms which 
 follow. We regret we cannot quote the whole passage. 
 It indicates that the revived piety of the English Church 
 in last century was not confined to the followers of Whit- 
 field or of Wesley only, and that the duty of sin^in^ only 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 33 
 
 the Psalms of David, and the danger of setting them aside, 
 were ideas not confined, as Dr Hamilton writes, to " con- 
 scientious " Presbyterians alone, but shared in by the most 
 pious men of the Church of England: — ■ 
 
 " In the time of Justin Martyr, instrumental music being now 
 abolished, he highly commends singing with the voice, ' because,' 
 says he, ' psalms, with organs and cymbals, are fitter to please 
 children than to instruct the Church.' In the third century we 
 hear nmch of psalm singing. Arius was complained of as a 
 perverter of this ordinance; St Augusthie makes it a high crime 
 in certain heretics that they sung hymns composed by human 
 wit. The sense in which the Church of Christ understood this 
 subject has been, till late year?,, always one and uniform; now 
 we leave the ancient beaten path. But why? — have we found a 
 better? How came we to he wiser than the prophets? than 
 Christ, than His apostles, than the whole Church of God ? They, 
 with one consent, have sung psalms in every age. Here I leave 
 the reader to his own reflections. There is one plain inference 
 to be made from hence; none can easily mistake it. May ho 
 see it in his judgment, and follow it in his practice! 
 
 " Wliat! say some, is it unlawful to sing human compositions 
 in the Church? How can that be? Wliy, they sing them at 
 such a place, and such a place; great men and good men — ay, 
 and lively ministers, too, sing them. Will you set up your 
 judgment against theirs? It is an odious thing to speak of one's 
 self, except it be to magnify the grace of God. What is my 
 private judgment? I set it up against nobody in indifferent 
 things. I wish to yield to every man's infirmity, for I want the 
 same indulgence myself. But, in the present case, the Scripture, 
 which is the only rule of judgment, has not left the matter indif- 
 ferent. God has given us a large collection of hymns, and has 
 commanded them to be sung in the Church, and has promised 
 His blessing to the singing of them. No respect here must be 
 paid to names or authorities, though they be the greatest on 
 earth, because no one can dispense with the command of God, 
 and no one, by his wit, can compose hymns to be compared with 
 the Psahns of God. I uxmt a name for that man ivho should 
 pretend that he could make better hymns than the Holy Ghost. 
 His collection is large enough; it wants no addition. It is per- 
 fect as its Author, and not capable of any improvement. Why, 
 in such a case, v/ould any man in the world take it into his head 
 to sit down and write hymns for the use of the Chiu'ch? It is 
 
 C 
 
34: PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 just the same as if he was to write a new Bible, nob only better 
 than the old, but so much better, that the old may be thrown 
 aside. What a blasphemous attempt! and jet our hymn- 
 mongers, inadvertently. I hope, have come very near to this 
 blasphemy; for they shutout the Psalms, introduce their own verses 
 into the Church, sing them with great delight, and, as they 
 fancy, with great profit; although the w^hole practice be in direct 
 opposition to the command of God, and, therefore, they cannoi 
 j)ossib]y be accompanied with the blessing of God." 
 
 But the question recurs, Have we any Scripture authority 
 for human hymns in the public worship of the sanctuary? 
 
 We shall endeavour to give the answer, if not in the 
 words, at least as nearly so as our space and time will 
 allov/, of those who take the affirmative in the question, 
 merely premising that we do not conceal that we cannot 
 see the scriptural authority for human hymns in the public 
 worship of God, and calling upon our readers to notice the 
 true state of the question — 1. It is 7iot, whether it is lawful 
 for individuals to sing hymns of their own composition for 
 their own edification, or for individuals to sing the hymns 
 of other men who did the same; nor is it whether indi- 
 viduals — such as Prince Albert, an old Earl of Derby, or 
 Dr Cunningham* — have been edified on their death-beds, 
 yea, even converted, by hymns of human composition. We 
 are under no necessity of taking the negative in such ques- 
 tions, more than if the questions were about sermons in 
 similar circumstances. 2. The cj[uestion is not, whether it 
 is lawful to turn into verse a prose portion of the Word of 
 God, and sing it, either publicly or privately. But whether, 
 believing, as Dr Hamilton, we have seen, does, as well as 
 others who advocate the use of human hymns in the public 
 ■worship of God, that the Psalms of David are divine, and 
 
 * See Dr Hamilton's Lectures. 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 35 
 
 llio "best of liymn-books," and that " of devotional manuals 
 there is none to be compared with the Psalter," we have 
 any scriptural warrant for setting it aside, either in whole 
 or in part, or substituting for it, or overlaying it with 
 hundreds, nay, thousands of human hymns, in the public 
 worship of God? 
 
 Perhaps these questions may be best answered by ex- 
 amining the arguments of those who take the affirmative, 
 as all must do who, either in theory or practice, defend 
 and sanction the use of human hymns in the public worship 
 of God. 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 ^Jlfgeb Sti'iptm'e g.utljoritg for l^uman l^g^^''* 
 
 <y 
 
 Having in two preceding chapters established the great 
 principle that nothing is to be introduced into the worship 
 of God but what is prescribed in Holy Scripture, and 
 having reviewed some statements and principles affirmed by 
 Dr Hamilton in his "Three Lectures," we concluded by 
 proposing next to examine what is the amount of Scripture 
 authority, adduced by their advocates, for introducing human 
 hymns into the public worship of God. 
 
 V/e said we should endeavour to give the answer, if 
 not in their own words, at least as nearly so as our space 
 w^ould allow, merely premising that we call upon our readers 
 to notice the true state of the question. 
 
 1. First, The question is not whether it is lawful in indi- 
 viduals to indite and sing hymns of their own composition 
 for their own edification, or for individuals to sing the 
 hymns of other men who did the same. Nor is it whether 
 individuals, such as an old Earl of Derby, who had bene- 
 fitted from a hymn repeated to him by an old shampooing 
 nurse; or whether Prince Albert or Dr Cunningham had 
 received comfort on their deathbeds by a hynni or a para- 
 phrase; or whether men have been even converted by such 
 hymns. We are under no necessity of taking the negative, 
 more than if the question were about the lawfuhiess and 
 benefit of sermons in similar cases or circumstances. 
 
fUELIC WORSHIP OF GOB. o7 
 
 2. Second, The question is not whether it is lawful to 
 turn into verse a prose portion of the Holy Scripture, and 
 sing it either publicly or privately. That may be a ques- 
 tion, but it is not at present the question. But believing 
 as Dr Hamilton, we have seen, as well as others who advo- 
 cate the use of human hymns in the public worship of God, 
 that the Psalms of David are divine and the " best of hymn 
 books," and that " of devotional manuals there is none to 
 be compared with the Psalter," have w^e any scriptural war- 
 rant for setting it aside either in whole or in part, or substi- 
 tuting for it, or overlaying it with hundreds, nay, thousands, 
 of human hymns in the public worship of God ? 
 
 Perhaps these questions may be best answered by exa- 
 mining the arguments of those who take the affirmative, as 
 all must do who, either in theory or in practice, defend and 
 sanction the use of human hymns in the public worship of 
 God. 
 
 The first writer in defence of human hymns whom we 
 shall examine with a view to find any arguments from 
 Scripture for adopting them, in whole or in part, either to 
 set aside or supplement the " Psalter," is Dr James Hamil- 
 ton, in the "Three Lectures" already quoted. 
 
 We have a great deal in these lectures that is eloquent 
 and beautiful, and expressive of pious and amiable feeling. 
 There is much too that is plausible and ably stated; and, 
 perhaps, as a pleading for human hymns, there is nothing 
 of the kind to surpass it. We have, however, looked in 
 vain for any attempt at direct Scripture proof that they 
 are either "prescribed in Holy Scripture," or warranted, or 
 even allowed. This every man who defends the use of 
 human hymns in the public worship of God, and has 
 adopted and subscribed the Westminster Confession of 
 
38 ruBLic wor.snip of god. 
 
 Fciitli as the " confession of his faith," is bound to attempt, 
 and to satisfy himself and others that he has to some extent 
 succeeded, before he has any right to chiim the assent, or 
 even attention, of others to any of his pleadings. Some of 
 Dr Hamilton's pleadings, and some of the strange state- 
 ments in these lectures, we may have further occasion to 
 notice in the sequel. Meantime our inquiry is, What 
 Scripture proof does he adduce to vindicate the use of 
 human hymns in the public worship of God? 
 
 1st, Negatively, he does not — and we cannot assign the 
 reason — even quote Eph. v. 19, "Speaking to yourselves in 
 psalms and hymns and spiritual songs;" or Col. iii. 16, 
 " Admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiri- 
 tual songs;" still less does he attempt, like some others, to 
 argue from these words for human hymns. We wish to 
 believe that he was too well versed in their meaning and 
 their applicancy to the Psalms of David to venture on any 
 such critical attempt. But does Dr Hamilton make no 
 attempt at direct Scripture proof? 
 
 The following is the only passage we can find making 
 any show of it: — Lecture II., entitled "Hymnology from 
 the early times till Luther," commences as follows: — " From 
 1 Cor. xix. 2G, it is evident that new songs were amongst 
 the contributions which members of the Church offered to 
 the common fund of edification, and for which they were 
 sometimes only too anxious to obtain a hearing. These 
 * psalms,' whether improvised or prepared beforehand, the 
 apostle does not condemn. In days of fervour and first 
 love it was only natural that emotion should overflow in 
 metrical compositions set to music; but it was essential 
 that the proprieties of worship should be maintained, and 
 that the Church should have the power of deciding what 
 
PUBLIC AVORSHIP OF GOD. 39 
 
 was and what way not unto edifying. The gift of sacred 
 song, we believe, still lingers in the Church, like tlie gift of 
 preaching and the gift of prayer, and any one who liath a 
 psalm may publish it; but after it appears, it is for the 
 Church to say whether it shall be adopted and sung, or 
 passed over sub silentio. Of Christian hymns the New 
 Testament contains only a single specimen (Rev. v. 9); but 
 less than ten years after the death of the apostle John, in 
 his famous Epistle to the Emperor Trajan, giving an account 
 of the Christians and their customs, the younger Pliny 
 mentions it as one of their usages to assemble early in the 
 morning, and sing among themselves alternately a hymn to 
 Christ as to God," etc. 
 
 This is a somewhat curious passage. But what we have 
 chieliy now to do with it is, to ascertain if it affords any 
 scriptural authority /o?' human hymns. 
 
 On reading the above quotation, and the reference to 
 1 Cor. xiv. 26, we certainly had some dreamy recollection 
 that the words " new songs " were not in the passage, yet, 
 confiding in the writer, we concluded we were mistaken; 
 but when turning to the passage, we were not a little sur- 
 prised on finding no such words, and certainly anything 
 but an encouragement to introduce human hymns, either 
 on private or public authority, into the worship of God. 
 The verse occurs in a passage wliere the apostle is remon- 
 strating with the Corinthians against certain proceedings 
 which were not for ''godly edifying," and seems the 
 reverse of encouraging them. He says (ver. 2G), " How is 
 it then, brethren? When ye come together, every one of 
 you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a 
 revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done 
 unto edifying." Whatever was sung, and whether orderly 
 
40 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 or not, it was '" a psalm," and certainly affords anything 
 but encouragement to human hymn- writers either to *' im- 
 provise " or to publish them; and as certainly gives no more 
 right to " the church " to decree hymns than to decree 
 ceremonies for the public worship of God. Besides, the 
 question may be asked, Where does the Scripture give 
 authority to any kirk-session or presbytery, or even the 
 English Presbyterian Church in Synod assembled, or any 
 •'church," to decree or sanction either the one or the 
 other? No such decree is necessary to authorise the 
 singing of the Psalms of David. The Bible commands it. 
 
 It may further be asked, What authority has the writer 
 for assuming that the " psalm " spoken of was either 
 "improvised or prepared beforehand?" And if that could 
 be done then, and not condemned by the apostle Paul, as 
 the lecturer affirms, who shall condemn it now? If the 
 argument be good, let any one go through with it, and let 
 every one have a psalm, a doctrine, a tongue, a revelation 
 now, as well as then, of his own composition or devisive 
 utterance. The lecturer says further: — "Of Christian 
 hymns, the New Testament contains only a single speci- 
 men (Rev. v. 9); but less than ten years after the death of 
 the apostle John, in his famous Epistle to the Emperor 
 Trajan," etc. It was in the year 110, more than sevenft/ 
 years after the death of Christ. Still of this "famous 
 epistle " more hereafter. But what is this " single speci- 
 men " of a Christian hymn in Rev. v. 9 ? Was it sung in 
 a Christian congregation here on earth ? Was it the hymn 
 of an ordinary Christian, and a specimen of a human hymn, 
 and warranting the congregation addressed in these lectures 
 to sing human hymns in the public worship of God ? It is 
 none of all these. We cannot quote the whole passage,; 
 
t^UBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD, 4l 
 
 lut it is part of tlic vision which John saw in heaven — not 
 on earth, then, nor ever likely to be — " And they " (" the 
 four beasts and four-and-twenty elders ") '' sung a new 
 song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to 
 open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast re- 
 deemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and 
 tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us unto our 
 God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth." 
 The question whether this song might be sung is one thing, 
 but whether it authorises the singing of human hymns in 
 the public w^orship of God is another. However pleasing 
 and sentimental such a style of writing as that quoted from 
 Dr Hamilton may be, it is sad trifling with the Christian 
 judgment of any congregation as an argument for their 
 using human hymns to any amount or to any extent — if of 
 five or six hundred, of course of as many thousands^ if their 
 minister or church can collect them. 
 
 This is the whole Scripture proof attempted in these 
 " Three Lectures " by one of the most eloquent advocates 
 for human hymns in the public worship of God. 
 
 Are there no other Scripture proofs adduced by other 
 advocates of this practice in former or in present times? 
 
 As to former times, we find the following, which involves 
 both an argument for human hymns and an answer at the 
 same time. It is from the old book formerly referred to 
 in a preceding chapter, and printed in the year 1GG3, and 
 showing how little new" our modern advocates for human 
 hymns have been able to devise. The writer, in answer to 
 his second question, "What we must sing," says: — 
 
 "And this also is in the text (speald-ig to yourselves in 
 psalms, etc.): We mvist sing nothing but spiritual songs to the 
 Lord; but what these psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs 
 are, is another question. 
 
42 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 "The grecatest difference I find anion(,^st interpreters is tlie 
 difference between these; it being a matter of some difficulty to 
 distinguish them, so as to determine precisely what are psalms, 
 what hymns, and what spiritual songs. 
 
 " Many and various conceits of men I meet, with which I 
 shall not trouble you Avithal, being the most of them very 
 groundless. I know nothing more probable than this, viz., that 
 psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs do answer to Mizmoi'im, 
 Tehillim, and Shirim, which are the Hebrew names of David's 
 Psalms. All the Psalms together are called Tehillim, i.e., 
 2)raises or songs of praise. Mizmor and Shir are the titles of 
 many psalms — sometimes one and sometimes the other, and 
 sometimes both joined together, as they know well who can 
 read the original. Now, the apostle calling them by the same 
 names by which the Greek translation (which the New Testa- 
 ment so much follows) renders the Hebrew as an argument that 
 he means no other than David's Psalms. Besides, when the 
 Nev/ Testament c^uotes the Psalms, it means those of David, 
 and so the apostle speaks as takmg it for granted that they to 
 whom he Avrote knew what Psalms he meant. Sure I am that 
 David's Psalms are spiritual songs, if ever there were any 
 spiritual songs in the world. 
 
 "Yea; but some will object that the apostle means, not 
 David's Psalms, but such spiritual songs as shall be, upon 
 occasion, composed by some officer or member of the church; 
 for as in the primitive times there were some who had a gift 
 of psalms, so now also there are that have, if not the same, yet 
 the like gift; and such new songs, they grant, may be sung, but 
 not any other." 
 
 This objection, the reader will remember, is in substance 
 
 a part of the argument used in Dr Hamilton's "Three 
 
 Lectures;" and how is it disposed of 220 years ago? As 
 
 follows:— 
 
 " 1. In answer to this, I say first, that in the primitive 
 churches some had a psalm or spiritual song, dictated and 
 inspired by the Holy Ghost, though I dare not determme any- 
 thing peremptorily concerning their manner of singing these 
 psalms in the church. 
 
 " 2. I say, if any have the same gift now, they may do well 
 to show and use it for the benefit and edification of themselves 
 and others. But I suppose no sober man v/ill now pretend to 
 any such extraordinary gift^ which ceased in the church long 
 
PUBLIC WOESIIIP OF GOD, 43 
 
 since, as the gift of tongues, and other effects of the Spirit 
 extraordinary.'^ 
 
 Had the good man who thus wrote upwards of 200 
 years ago lived now, he would have seen that we had men 
 who professed to have the gift of tongues as well as tJie 
 gift of song, which they think themselves warranted to 
 propose and even prescribe for the public worship of God, 
 and that even in Presbyterian churches. But though it is 
 not done in the " Three Lectures," and not even an attempt 
 is there made to base an argument for human hymns about 
 spiritual things on Scripture authority, yet the attempt is 
 made by others, though wonderfully sparingly indeed. 
 Still it is necessary to attend a little farther to this part of 
 the subject. We deeply regret that our space forbids us 
 to transfer to our pages, at any length, the full discussion 
 of this and other points of this subject of the admirable 
 little treatise entitled, *' The True Psalmody," etc. But as 
 we write, not for the praise either of originality or of fine 
 writing, but of establishing the truth on a deeply important 
 subject, we shall avail ourselves of the following extract on 
 this part of the argument. Under the heading — "Chap. 
 III. Is there any warrant for maldng or using in the ivorship 
 of God psalms or hf/mns other than those ahead]/ provided hy 
 God for His churchV the writers say: — 
 
 " (3.) A warrant for the use of uninspired compositions 
 is sought in Eph. v. 19, and Col. iii. 16; and on these the 
 advocates of ' hymns ' lay the greatest stress. That these 
 passages will not bear the interpretation put upon them as 
 enjoining or favouring the use of uninspired songs, is thus 
 satisfactorily shown by Dr Cooper: — 
 
 " It is admitted by those who urge these passages as authoris- 
 ing the use of other songs than those contained in the Word of 
 God, that the 'psalms' vdiich we are here enjoined to sing are 
 
44 PUCLTC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 the' psalms of inspiration. We have the liighest authority for 
 regarding it as an admitted fact that the psahns here referred 
 to are the Psahns of David. We have the authority of the 
 'Princeton Eepertory' — a work published imder the auspices, 
 and sustained by the patronage, of the Old School Presbyterian 
 Church, and edited by men of superior learning and talent. In 
 the volume for 1829 the editors say, in an article entitled 'The 
 Sacred Poetry of the Early Christians,' 'We can hardly con- 
 ceive it possible that the Psalms of David could have been so 
 generally adopted in the churches, and so highly esteemed by 
 the best of the fathers, unless they had been introduced and 
 sanctioned by the apostles and inspired teachers.' Again, they 
 say: ' It seems more correspondent to Scripture usage to consider 
 the term psalms here as meaning the Book of Psalms, as 
 used in Luke xxiv. 44, and equivalent to /3i/3Xos ^aXfxojv^ Luke 
 XX. 42; Acts i. 20; to which the New Testament writers so 
 frequently refer for prophecies, proofs, and illustrations of their 
 facts and doctrines.' In another part of the same article the 
 reader will find the following remark, which will no doubt 
 commend itself to his good sense : ' As the first Christians were 
 drawn from the synagogue, they naturally brought with them 
 those songs of Zion which were associated with their earliest 
 recollections and best feelings, and appropriated them to the 
 services of the New Dispensation.' Olshausen, in his Com- 
 mentary on Eph. V. 19, says: '-^aX/xot (psalms) are i3robably 
 here the Psalms of the Old Testament, which passed from the 
 synagogue into the church service.' Bengel also calls them the 
 Psalms of David. Iri addition to this, we may adduce the fact 
 that the book of Dr Watts is professedly made upon an admis- 
 sion that the psalms here mentioned by the apostle are somehow 
 or other the Psalms of David ; for we have in this collection one 
 hundred and fifty psalms, which were doubtless made on this 
 presumption. We, then, surely have the very best reasons for 
 coming to the conclusion that all parties are agreed that the 
 apostle here refers to the Psalms of David. Indeed, the denial 
 of this would be attended with so many difiiculties, that we do 
 not apprehend that the friends of human compositions will be 
 disposed to take any other position. We wish the reader, in 
 the subsequent discussion, to bear this in mind. 
 
 "The true and only cpiestion, then, before us is, Have we 
 any reason for supposing that the 'hymns ' and 'spiritual songs' 
 here mentioned are anything different from the 'psalms?' lb 
 will not do to assume a diiTerence. That difference must be 
 proved in order to justify a resort to these passages, as authorising 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 45 
 
 the use of anything else than the Book of Psahns. The reader will 
 notice here that the burden of proof rests on those who take the 
 position that the hymns and spiritual son,c!;s here mentioned are 
 such as are not contained in the Word of God. Here is the very 
 question at issue between us and our brethren. It is appre- 
 hended that multitudes interpret these passages under the force 
 of their o\vn practice, and the preconceived views upon which 
 that practice is based. For instance, they are using, and have 
 been from their earliest recollections using, a book containing 
 religious devotional poems, under the distinct head of ' psalms,' 
 bearing in point of number an exact correspondence with the 
 divine collection, and also in point of sentiment some resemblance 
 to it. In addition to these, there is also a large number that 
 are published under the head of ' hymns.' As these are always 
 called hymns, and the others psalms, the idea associated with 
 the former word, as it occurs in these passages, is that they are 
 something like what is found in their book. Very little reflec- 
 tion, however, must suffice to show any person, that as these 
 passages were written by the apostle many centuries before the 
 existence of any hymn book now in use, so we must go to some 
 other source if we would ascertain the idea attached to this word 
 by the apostle when directing us to sing not only psalms but 
 hymns. The question for you, reader, to answer is just this: 
 How do you know, and what reason have you to give, that the 
 hymns mentioned by the apostle are not those which are contained in 
 the Word of God, instead of this hymn book of yours, which was 
 made ten, tv/enty, or fifty years ago? Now, if you can present 
 nothing more than the simple fact that in your book they are 
 called hymns, you must at once see that you have nothing that 
 in the least afi'ects the cpestion of divine authority. 
 
 "Perhaps you will be ready to say, Are the 'psalms and 
 hymns and spiritual songs' mentioned by the apostle only 
 different names for the same things? Suppose we say yes. 
 How will you prove that they are not ? How wiU you prove 
 that any one of the inspired collection is not a hymn or a 
 spiritual song? If you deny it, be so good as to give a good 
 reason for it. The only reason that I can conceive of as capable 
 of being given by you is that they are called by different names. 
 Well, be so good as to tell us the difference between statutes, 
 and judgments, and commandments, in the following passage 
 (1 Kings vi. 12): 'If thou wilt walk in my statutes, and 
 execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments, to 
 walk in them; then vdll I perform my word with thee.' Here 
 are different names, and do they not relate to the same things? 
 
46 PUELTC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 Are not God's statutes His judgments, and are they not both 
 His commandments? But suppose we say no, they do not mean 
 the same thing; psahns are not just the same as hymns, and 
 hymns are not just the same as spiritual songs. What, then? 
 Why, it appears that there is a difference. But the question 
 still recurs. What is that difference ? Is it the difference which 
 exists between what is inspired and what is not inspired ? Do 
 you not plainly see that unless you prove such a difference as 
 this, you have not touched the question at issue betv/een us? 
 We may imagine a thousand diflerences, but they have ]]o 
 relevancy to the point before us, unless they go to show tliat 
 these names are designed to express Avhat is inspired and what 
 is not inspired. Now, reader, this you can never do. You may 
 try it as long as you please, but you will fail in every effort. 
 This you will see to be the case before we are through with the 
 examination of this passage. 
 
 " Here we might with the greatest confidence leave the whole 
 question; God has given to His church a book of praise, and a 
 due regard for Him as its Author requires its use until those 
 who offer us some other book, on the ground that He requires 
 us to sing hymns and spiritual songs, show us that hymns and 
 spiritual songs are not to be found in this book." 
 
 For the full discussion of this point we must refer to the 
 " True Psalmody " itself. But as the opinion of President 
 (Jonathan) Edwards has sometimes been referred to in this 
 discussion, if not actually adduced in favour of human 
 liyrans in the public worship of God, we shall here quote a 
 passage from his works: — 
 
 " Another thing God did towards this work at that time was 
 His inspiring David to shov/ forth (Christ and His redemption in 
 divine songs, which should be for the use of the Church in public 
 worship throughout all ages. This was also a glorious advancement 
 of the affair of redemption, as God hereby gave His Church a 
 book of divine songs for their use in that part of their public 
 worship, viz., singing His praises throughout all ages to the end 
 of the world. It is manifest the Book of Psalms was 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.e., to the 
 man that was appointed to be the leader of divine songs in the 
 temple in the public worship of Israel. So David is called tha 
 
PUB'LIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 47 
 
 siceet Fsalmist of Israel, because he penned psalms for the use 
 cf the Church of Israel; and accordingly we have an account 
 that they v/ere actually made use of in the Church of Israel for 
 that end, even ages after David was dead; as 2 Chron. xxix. 30. 
 ' Moreover, Hezekiah, the king, and the princes, commanded the 
 Lcvites to sing praises unto the Lord, with the Avords of David, 
 and of Asaph the seer.' And we find that the same are appoiuted 
 i'l the New Testament to be made use of in the Christian Church 
 i II their vrorship. Eph. v. 19 : ' Speaking to yourselves in psalms, 
 and hymns, and spiritual songs.' So they have been, and will, to 
 the end of the world, he made use of in the Church to celebrate 
 the j)raises of God. The people of God were wont sometimes to 
 worship God hj singing songs to His praise before, as they did 
 at the Eed Sea; and they had Moses' prophetical song, in the 
 o2d chapter of Deuteronomy, committed to them for that end; 
 and Deborah, Barak, and Hanuah sung praises to God; but now 
 first did God commit to His Church a book of divine songs for 
 constant use." '^' 
 
 On the meaning of the phrase " spiritual songs," in Eph. 
 
 V. 19, and CoL iii. 16, we beg to quote another passage 
 
 from an authority who will not be accused of having any 
 
 prejudice against the use of hymns. It is extracted from a 
 
 passage in the work entitled "True Psalmody." The 
 
 writers say (p. 85) : — 
 
 "In the preceding remarks we have looked simply at the 
 names employed by the apostle in designating that v/hicli he 
 would have these Ephesians and Colossians to sing. We now 
 request the reader to give us his attention while we present to 
 his consideration some additional evidence, drawn from the 
 language employed by the apostle in connection with the use of 
 these three terms. 
 
 " (a.) These songs are called ^sjnritualsongs,' {'codaciri'-evfiaTLKai..'') 
 Tlie heathen made use of odes. In order to distinguish those 
 which the apostle would have them to use, he calls them ' spiritual.' 
 Now we apprehend that there is in the use of this term a proof 
 that the songs referred to by the apostle were those contained in 
 the Scriptures. If tlie reader will take the pains, as we have 
 done, to examine those places in the New Testament Scriptures 
 where this word occurs, he will find that in every instance wliere 
 the reference is not to created spirits, there is a distinct reference 
 * Edwards' Works, vol. iii., pp. 230-232. N.Y. ed., 1829. 
 
4S PUBLIC WOTISHIP OF GOD, 
 
 to tlie Spirit of God as the author of that to which the term is 
 applied. Tims 'spiritual gifts' are such as are communicated 
 directly by the Spirit. We shall here quote the words of Mr 
 Barnes on the word ' spiritual/ as it occurs in 1 Cor. x. 3, 4 : 
 ' And did all eat of the same spiritual meat, and did all drink of 
 the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock 
 that followed them.' ' The word spiritual here,' says Mr Barnes, 
 ' is evidently used to denote that which was given by the Spirit, 
 or by God ; that which was the residt of His miraculous gift, 
 and which was not the gross food on which men are usually 
 supported. It had an excellency and value from the fact that it 
 was the immediate gift of God, and thus called angels' food, 
 (Ps. Ixxviii. 25.) It is called by Josephus 'divine and extra- 
 ordinary food,' (Antiq. iii. 1.) In the language of the Scriptures, 
 that which is distinguished for excellence, which is the immediate 
 gift of God, which is unlike that which is gross, and of earthly 
 origin, is called sjnrihial, to denote its purity, value, and 
 excellence; compare Eom. vii. 14; 1 Cor. iii. 1; xv. 34-46; Eph. 
 i. 3. The idea of Paul here is, ' that all the Israelites were 
 nourished and supported in this remarkable manner by food 
 given directly by God.' Again he says, ' The word spiritual 
 must be used in the sense of supernatural, or that which is 
 immediately given by God.' In addition to tlie passages to which 
 Mr Barnes refers, let the reader consult Eom. i. 11; xv. 27; 
 1 Cor. ii. 13-15; ix. 11; xii. 1; xiv. 1-37; Gal. vi. 1; Col. i. 9. 
 Now let this meaning be attached to the word in the passage 
 before us, and we are brought to the conclusion that the songs 
 here referred to by the apostle are those which were ' given by 
 the Spirit, or by God,' which were ' not produced in the ordinary 
 way,' but which were ' bestowed in a miraculous and supernatural 
 manner;' and where will we find such songs, but those which are 
 contained in the Scriptures ? In smging the Psalms of David, 
 we know that we are singing such songs, for He himself tells us 
 that ' the Spirit of the Lord spake by him, and His wore! was on 
 his tongue.' That this is the import of the word spiritual, as 
 here used, is rendered highly probable from the circumstance that 
 the apostle has expressly mentioned the Holy Spirit in the same 
 sentence. 
 
 " (b.) Another reason for this interpretation is, that the apostle 
 directs to the use of these 'psalms, hymns, and spiritual 
 songs,' as the means of being 'filled with the Spirit.' Now, is 
 not the word of God, the very word of God, the means which He 
 makes use of in filling the hearts of His people? When the 
 Saviour prayed that the Father would sanctify His disciples 
 
ruBLTc vrossnir of god. 49 
 
 tlirongli ITis death, Ho adds, 'Thy word is truth.' There we 
 iiiust go, if we would be filled with the Spirit. Out of these 
 living wells we must draw water with which to refresh our souls." 
 
 The only other attempt at Scriptural argument is in an 
 arlicle in the Encyclopcedia Britannica, quoted by Dr 
 Hamilton, justly praised also at p. 31 of his "Three Lec- 
 tures," and ascribed to the late Eev. James D. Burns, of 
 Ilampstead. We suspect that it is from this article that 
 some Free Church advocates of human hymns derive vdiat 
 they call an argument for them from the writings of the 
 apostle Paul. Dr Hamilton does not, however, use the 
 argument for any such purpose. The writer says: — " At 
 what period hymns distinctively Christian were introduced 
 into evangelical worship cannot be exactly ascertained. The 
 apostolic writings speak of ' psalms, and hymns, and spiritual 
 songs,' and the last of these expressions has been supposed 
 to refer to the doxologies or fervent strains of thanksgiving 
 uttered by those who possessed spiritual gifts. We learn 
 from Philo [De Yit. Contemplat.) that "hymns of their own 
 composition were used by the Essenes or Therapeuta3, a sect 
 of Jewish ascetics, in their religious assemblies." There is 
 no Scriptural argument here, it will be admitted, for the 
 use of human hymns in the public worship of God. But 
 the writer adds: — " Michaelis and others think they discover 
 fragments of apostolic hymns in such passages as Eph. v. 
 li; 1 Tim. iii. 1-16; 2 Tim. ii. 11, which have a kind of 
 rhythmical flow." We have then a reference to "The famous 
 letter of Pliny," of which more in the sequel. But what 
 are the words of the passages to which reference is thus 
 made? The first is — "Wherefore he saith. Awake thou 
 that sleepcst, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give 
 thee light." The second is — " If a man desire the office of 
 
 P 
 
50 PUBLIC WOrvSIIIP OP-GOD. 
 
 a bishop, lie desiretli a good work." The third is — "And, 
 without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God 
 was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of 
 angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the 
 world, received up into glory." The last is — " It is a faith- 
 ful saying: for if we be dead with him, we shall also live 
 with him." 
 
 We hardly think it necessary to trouble our readers with 
 the Greek of these passages. We have looked at them in 
 Alford's edition of the Greek Testament, and glanced at 
 his notes. But he nowhere makes such a use of them as 
 some of those do to whom we have referred, and gives no 
 weight to the conjectures on this point which several 
 writers have indulged in. If by "rhythmical flow" is 
 meant euphonious Greek, we cordially assent. But we 
 engage to find hymns in every chapter, if not verse, of 
 Paul's e^^istles, if we be indulged in such a fancy. 
 
 So much for the support of Scripture to justify Presby- 
 terian ministers in using human hymns in the public wor- 
 ship of God, after they have solemnly engaged that nothing 
 is to be introduced into it but what is prescribed in Holy 
 Scripture. Of course we do not affirm that we have 
 adverted to all their reasonings from alleged Bible prin- 
 ciples; but we have adverted to all the Scripture texts in 
 proof. Hereafter we shall take up and discuss briefly the 
 alleged historical argument, or argument from early tra- 
 dition. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 fMoxml '^x^xxmtnt for pumaw fgmns. 
 
 "We concluded our last by intimating that we should next 
 take up the historical argument alleged for the use of human 
 hymns, in the public worship of God. 
 
 Having, as we think, clearly proved the total want of 
 authority, or of even appearance of authority, from Scrip- 
 ture, for the use of human hymns in the public worship of 
 the sanctuary, we might fairly, on the ground of the doctrine 
 of the Westminster Confession of Faith, refuse to enter on 
 this alleged historical argument. That doctrine is that — 
 " The acceptable way of worshipping the true God is insti- 
 tuted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, 
 that He may not be worshipped according to the imagina- 
 tions and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under 
 any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed 
 in Holy Scripture." This is the doctrine received, so far 
 as we have ever heard, without qualification, in any public 
 document of any Presbyterian Church, and here then the 
 question might terminate. But as the advocates for human 
 hymns in public vrorship make a good deal of the historic 
 argument, we must give it a hearing, and test its value. 
 
 Let it be observed, however, that unless a historical con- 
 nexion with Bible proof and authority can be made out, it 
 is not only of no value, but it is worse. It is pernicious. 
 It can only be of weight with Tractarians. True Protestants 
 9,dmit the validity of historic fact to silence objectors to 
 
a'l rUBLIC WOESHIP OF GOD. 
 
 Bible testimony — to confirm a Bible proof, not to them, for 
 they need no sucli confirmation, but to confirm it to those 
 who doubt or question it. Without the Scripture proof, 
 the historic, whether more near or more remote, is neither 
 more nor less than pure Tractarianism, Popery, Tradition, 
 and the Fathers. We wonder that any intelligent Protestant 
 can imagine that the practice of the early Church, without 
 connecting it with Bible fact and testimony, can be of the 
 slightest weight as authority to determine a Bible question. 
 Still more do we wonder that any Presbyterian Church, and 
 especially do we wonder that any committee of the Free 
 Church General Assembly, on the question of the use of 
 hymns in Divine worship, should have appointed a sub- 
 committee of learned doctors and professors of divinity and 
 of Church history to report on such a point. So it is, how- 
 ever; and at the time we write, they have been engaged in 
 this very useless, if not pernicious occupation, for nearly two 
 years— pernicious, we say, if it imply the principle that 
 mere primitive Church practice, outside Scripture fact and 
 history, is to be allowed any weight in determining so im- 
 portant a question. 
 
 If, however, it turn out that there is neither Scripture 
 authority, nor even any practice, that in any proper sense 
 can be called primitive — say even in the first century, and 
 none till the time when vast corruption had invaded the 
 Church, indicating the rise of human hymns in the Christian 
 public worship — then we are entitled to conclude that the 
 negative voice of history is fatal to the plea of the advocates 
 of human hymns, and indeed becomes a positive testimony 
 against their use. 
 
 Let us then consider what history teaches. We may re- 
 quote the words of Dr James Hamilton to begin with. He 
 
rilBLTC WORSHIP OF GOD. 53 
 
 says, p, 21, "Of Cliristiaii hymns, the New Testament 
 contains only a smglc specimen, (Rev. v. 9.)" We have 
 dealt with this specimen in our previous article. Dr H. goes 
 on — " But less than ten years after the death of the Apostle 
 John, in his famous epistle to the Emperor Trajan, giving 
 an account of the Christians and their customs, the younger 
 Pliny mentions it as one of their usages, to ' assemble early 
 in the morning, and sing among themselves alternately a 
 hymn to Christ as God.' To this epistle much value is at- 
 tached, as an important contribution to the historical evi- 
 dence; but if it is good for anything, it clearly shows that, 
 just as the Jews were wont to sing hymns to Jehovah, and 
 just as the heathen were wont to sing to Phcebus and Zeus, 
 so the Bithynian believers, to whom Peter addressed his first 
 epistle, were wont to sing hymns to Jesus Christ.'' 
 
 This is ail that Dr Hamilton says on this point — escaping 
 from it as quickly as possible, amid references to Jewish and 
 heathen customs in singing hymns. It cannot have escaped 
 the notice of any discerning reader at all competent to form 
 an opinion on the subject, that to make his argument of the 
 slightest v»'eight he ought to have determined, or tried to 
 determine, the foUov/ing points: — 
 
 1st, What were the songs which the Jev/s were accus- 
 tomed to sing to " Jehovah." Undoubtedly they were the 
 psalms — from the "Book of Psalms" — the New Testament 
 name for the collection. 
 
 2d, He ought to have determined whether these Bithynian 
 believers were all, or any of them, Jews. Peter's epistle is 
 addressed to the " strangers scattered throughout Pontus, 
 Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia," etc. Who were these 
 '' strangers scattered," these of the Oiao-Tropas ? Alford says 
 * of the dispersion,' " i.e., belonging to the Jewish dispersion, 
 
54 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 as in reference," " though," he adds, " there is no reason to 
 exclude Gentile Christians from among them, as forming 
 part of the Israel of God." 
 
 3d, He ought to have shown, to be of any use to his 
 argument, that there was no reason to believe that these 
 dispersed, believing Jews had ever heard anything of Messi- 
 anic psalms, the 45th, for instance, applied to Christ by 
 Paul in Heb. i., addressed to the believing Hebrev/s, or of 
 his reasoning in the Acts of the Apostles to prove that 
 Christ Jesus was the Divine Redeemer, whose resurrection 
 he proves from Psalm xvi. 10. 
 
 And, moreover, that they were more ignorant than the 
 Ephesian believers v/hom Paul admonished to " speak to 
 one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs," 
 which we have already shown to mean " psalms," all of 
 these names being used in the "Book of Psalms," 
 
 What is the proof that these "dispersed" used human 
 hymns? Pliny, writing to his master the Emperor, to ask 
 instruction as to how he was to deal with these persecuted 
 Christians, tells Trajan what he knew of them, to show 
 that they v/ere very harmless people, but somewhat num- 
 erous, obstinate, and superstitious, and that he was per- 
 plexed, as governor of the jorovince, how to deal with tlicm. 
 He details the examinations and the threats to which he 
 cruelly subjected them, polished as he was, and the effects 
 on the terror-stricken, in making them deny their i^tlaster. 
 " Omnes et imaginem tuam, deorumque simulacra venerati 
 sunt, ii et Christo maledixerunt. Affirmabant autem, hanc 
 summam vel culpse suse, vel erroris, quod essent soliti stato 
 die ante lucem con venire: carmenque Christo quasi Deo, 
 dicere secum invicem: seque sacramento, non in scelus 
 aliquod obstringere," etc. That is, "And all venerated thy 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 55 
 
 image, and tlie images of the gods, and cursed Christ. But 
 they affirmed that this had been the sum of their fault or 
 error, that they had been accustomed to meet before day- 
 break on a stated day, and to utter (dicere secum invicem) 
 together a song in turn to Christ as God; and to bind 
 themselves by vow to commit no crime," etc. Riddle, on 
 the word "invicevi/' gives it thus: — " 1. Alternately, by 
 turns — Cees. Cic; 2. Reciprocally, mutually, diligere, Plin. 
 Ep. to love one another; 3. On the contrary — Plin. Ep." 
 
 Taking Riddle's translation, it may clearly intimate that 
 they reported to Pliny that they did as Paul commands in 
 Eph. v. 19, " Speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, 
 and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your 
 hearts to the Lord;" and Col. iii. 16, "Let the word of 
 Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and 
 admonishing one another in psalms, and hymns, and 
 spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to tho 
 Lord." 
 
 Pliny reports their own account. But the idea that he 
 knew anything else, or troubled his head about the distinc- 
 tion between a psalm and a human hymn, is to our mind 
 utterly absurd. His whole letter proves that he treated 
 their obstinacy and proceedings with as much contempt as 
 Tacitus did, when he recounted the sufferings of lhe 
 Christians by the savage Nero, who set fire to Rome, and 
 charged the crime upon them. 
 
 We may remark the careless, off-Land way in which 
 writers on hymnology deal with simple words. One of 
 them, quoted by tho author of the article " Hymn," in the 
 " Encyclopa3dia Britannica," vol. xii,, ed. 8, renders the 
 words, " carmenque Ghristo quasi Deo dicere secum invicem,'" 
 " repeated liymns among themselves." The writer of the 
 
Ob PUBLIC WOESHIP OF GOD. 
 
 article adds, *' An early Christian writer remarks that, 'the 
 praises of Christ, the Word of God, were set forth iu psalms 
 and hymns of the brethren written at the beginning' 
 (Eusebius, lib. vii., c. 28)." We have examined this chap- 
 ter of Eusebius, and can find no trace of this allegation. 
 
 Now, what is this " invicem?" Dr Hamilton adds to the 
 passage already quoted the words which iranaediately fol- 
 low: — "These hymns," to Jeliovah, Zeus or Jupiter, Phoebus, 
 "would inevitably be constructed in metres, with v.diicli 
 the different nationalities were already familiar, and would 
 inevitably be adapted to well-known tunes. If there were 
 any modification, it would-be from the influence exerted by 
 Hebrew metre and music in communities whose first 
 teachers were Jews, and whose minds v/ere full of the 
 sacred Hebrew poetry." What inexpressible trifling ! To 
 write thus in proof of the propriety of introducing human 
 hymns into the public worship of God ! If it is an argu- 
 ment for anything, it is an argument to prove that Jewish 
 believers would use the Messianic Psalms in honour of 
 Christ whom they believed to be God. The "invicem" in 
 turn, or to one another, is really explained by Paul, 
 "admonishing one another," or speaking to yourselves," 
 etc., as we have already shown. But, in truth, one can 
 hardly treat this matter of Pliny's letter with ordinary 
 gravity. Nobody denies that carmen signifies hymn, song, 
 or, if you will, something sung; but whether a Psalm of 
 David, or a hymn of nobody can tell who, it is impossible 
 to say. All that can be proved is, that a few persecuted 
 Christians in Bithynia honoured the Lord Jesus Christ, by 
 a song of praise, before dawn in a secret night meeting. 
 But to raise an argument from this incident for the use of 
 human hymns in the public worship of God is simply 
 
PUBLIC V70RSI£IP OF GOD. 57 
 
 ridiculous. We have difficulty in restraining a smile at 
 men, especially men claiming to be grave doctors of 
 divinity, spending their own time, and the time of 
 church courts, with what we can only consider a proof of 
 utter dearth of argument. To be gravely told that the 
 heathen Pliny was writing "a State paper," and giving a 
 "judicial" decision, and reporting it to the Roman 
 Emperor, and so must be held deciding that the early 
 Christians sung human hymns, and not David's Psalms, to 
 Christ in the public worship of God, seems the very height 
 of trifling. Were it not that none are more grave than our 
 Eomanising Ritualists, earnest in their puerilities, it could 
 hardly be credited. The very last thing, we believe, the 
 heathen governor of Bithynia would think of was to be so 
 very definite on such a point, as to determine a controversy 
 of the nineteenth century. 
 
 Could the advocates of human hymns prove, by the 
 testimony of any sacred writer in the Acts of the 
 Apostles, or in any of the epistles of Paul, or Peter, or 
 John, or any other, that human hymns were used by the 
 authority of the Council of Jerusalem, or in their day in 
 the churches of Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, 
 or Bithynia, it were something to their cause. But to find 
 in this incidental allusion to a song, used, according to 
 Pliny, by some poor Christians in his province in a night 
 meeting, betokens a degree of credulity quite fitted to 
 believe in the verity of Peter's Chair, or Peter's Chains, in 
 the St Peters of the Vatican, or the St Peters ad Vincola, 
 in Rome. 
 
 But what is the next step in this argument for human 
 hymns in public worship, derived from alleged tradition? 
 "We shall avail ourselves again of Dr Hamilton's lecture. 
 
58 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF CxOD. 
 
 In continuation of the passage previously quoted, he says: 
 "There is probably no older song than the morning 
 hjiin, sometimes called 'Hymnus Angelicus,' which is pre- 
 served in the Codex Alexandrinus of the British Museum, 
 and which was undoubtedly used as early as the third 
 century. Eemarkable for nothing but its earnest simplicity, 
 it is purely Christian without any mixture of Gnosticism, 
 and might well have been sung by Bythinian worshippers 
 in the days of Trajan. According to the rules of Greek 
 prosody, it is quite irregular; and with its manifest ten- 
 dency to Hebrew parallelism, it is precisely the sort of 
 j)salm which in a Greco-Judaic church, like Corinth, one of 
 the worshippers might have sung: and just because of its 
 directness and simplicity, laying hold of all hearts, it was 
 treasured up and carried off, and repeated till it became a 
 standard hymn; aiid, circulating through many lands, it has 
 come down to us through several channels." 
 
 This whole passage, declaring nothing but probabilities, 
 assertions, and doubts, even as to dates, is besides fall of 
 internal proofs of the unreasonableness and even danger of 
 allowing human hymns, at the instance, it might be, of 
 simple Christians, Gnostic, Greco-Judtean, as the case 
 might be, to be introduced into the public worship of God. 
 This may be entertaining writing, but is anything but 
 argument. 
 
 We do not, however, think it necessary, in a historical 
 argument, to encumber it with specimens and conjectural 
 criticisms. We confine ourselves to the alleged authority 
 which Dr Hamilton adduces, for any connection with Scrip- 
 ture or apostolic practice, for the use of human hymns in 
 the public worship of God. Pliny's letter has the date of 
 the year 110. 
 
PUBLIC WOUSIIIP OF GOD. 59 
 
 But wliat have wc in the passage now extracted from 
 Dr Hamilton's lecture? We have a hymn, he says, "un- 
 doubtedly used as early as the third century." How early 
 in that century he does not state, whether in 201 or 299. 
 
 This is very small proof of connection with apostolic 
 times. By such a mode of proof of apostolic connection, 
 wo can very easily fasten upon the apostles, not merely the 
 first buddings, or even einorescence, but full fruit of some 
 of the worst corruptions of the Church. 
 
 We have next the following statement which may be 
 received as correct history, but what its authority can be 
 for the singing of human hymns in the worship of God, tlio 
 ]3oint which Dr Hamilton has been labouring to prove, it 
 is not easy to discover. He says again, Lecture IL, 
 " Greek hymns are not numerous; for Greece gave to the 
 gospel no Pindar, no Sappho. It was otherwise with a 
 country the nearest to the Holy Land, and v.diich is more 
 identified with early missions than any other. It was at 
 Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians, and 
 it was into the Syrian tongue that the New Testament was 
 first translated. In that language, so like the dialect of 
 Palestine in the days of our Lord, and so little removed 
 from the Biblical Hebrew, are preserved great numbers of 
 Christian hymns curiously composed in lines of four 
 syllables, or five, or more, as the case may be. We have 
 given the Morning Hymn of the Greek Church. The fol- 
 lowing is the Evening Hymn of Ephraem Syrus, a fourth 
 century father." 
 
 W^e are not writing a history of hymnology, and must 
 forbear quoting specimens. The above may be interesting 
 or amusing, but cannot be of the smallest weight to deter- 
 mine the question in hand. Clear it is, there are no exist- 
 
GO PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 ing specimens of Christian hymns of any sort earlier than 
 the beginning of the third century, and not the slightest 
 proof for several centuries that even those that existed were 
 ever formally, hy any ecclesiastical court, synod, or council 
 (and such there were, frequent enough to determine other 
 questions), introduced into the imhlic loorship. Even the 
 writer of the article " Hymn " already referred to, says, 
 " The first writer known to have composed hymns for the 
 worship of the Western Church is Hilary, of Poitiers, who 
 died A.D. 368." We know no one so absurd as to affirm 
 that no such hymns were either written or sung by any one, 
 or for any purpose whatever. 
 
 We might here end the discussion on this point. But 
 rather to show the utter v/eakness of the attempt to argue 
 from the practice of the primitive Church, than to oppose a 
 difficult argument, we shall notice the somewhat ludicrous 
 Paul of Samosata argument. Dr Hamilton, in his usual 
 style of pleasant narrative, rather than of thorough and solid 
 argument, introduces Paul of Samosata thus: — "When 
 Arianism was creeping in among the Presbyterians of 
 England a hundred and fifty j^ears ago, it found an obstacle 
 in the Trinitarian cloxologies then attached to the psalms; 
 and transforming itself into an angel of light, it urged that 
 these human additions should be omitted, and that nothing 
 should be sung in public worship except the Psalms of 
 David." 
 
 What does the writer mean by this statement? Could 
 he mean to insinuate that without a doxology the Psalms 
 of David were favourable to Arianism, and this too with 
 Psalms ii., xvi., xxii., xlv., cil, ex., cjuoted by our Lord 
 himself and His apostles, to describe and prove His atoning 
 death, His resurrection, and His divinity? Wc Y\'ili not 
 
PUBLIC WOESIIIP OF GOD. Gl 
 
 give expression to the feelings which spring up in our 
 bosom in reading such language in support of human hymns. 
 Was it human hymns that preserved the orthodox faith 
 with the Bishop Bulls, the Leslies, the Waterlands, older 
 Edwardses, and many others who defended the divinity of 
 Christ against Arians and Socinians in England? There 
 were none such then in the Church of England. Better 
 were it that she had none such yet, and then tractarian and 
 other sectarian hymns would not be so rife in promoting 
 error and sectarianism, and preparing, as they have done, 
 so many for going over to the tents of the " man of sin." 
 But, historically considered, what has this statement to do 
 wath "hymnology from the early times till Luther," the 
 subject of the lecture? 
 
 It serves as an appropriate introduction to insinuate the 
 same reflection against the " Psalms of David," as helping 
 Arianism, or even something worse, in "early times." 
 Accordingly the writer goes on: — "Going back to the 
 dawn (?) of Church history, it is instructive to find that 
 even then Christian hymns were a hindrance to heresy, and 
 then also men unsound in the faith pled for the exclusive 
 use of the Psalter. In that same Syrian Church of v^^Iiich 
 Ephraim was the ornament, but a hundred years before him 
 flourished an able man and a bishop who absolutely 'struck,' 
 and refused to employ the Church's hymns. Some sus- 
 pected him of a leaning towards Judaism, but it turned out 
 that he regarded Christ as a mere man; and under the pre- 
 text that they were an * innovation,' he banished the hymns 
 which crowned the Saviour ' Lord of all.' At last Paul of 
 Samosata was himself deposed for errors which we now 
 call Arian." 
 ! What is affirmed or assumed in this passage? 
 
G2 PUBLIO WORSHIP OF GOD, 
 
 Ist^ It is assumed that at this period the Church had 
 hymns — '^the Church's hymns" — and that these were 
 different from the Psalms. 2d. That Paul condemned the 
 "Church's hymns," of course human hymns, and substi- 
 tuted the Psalms as more favourable to Arianism. Sup- 
 pose all this had been true, what then? It would only 
 prove that far on in the third century they had human 
 hymns, but by whose authority used, no evidence is afforded 
 — or what Church, Church universal, or particular, or what 
 individual, used them, is not toldj and this, simple people 
 are to take as historical argument ! 
 
 But not one of these assumptions can be maintained, and 
 we shall endeavour to state the facts so far as anything like 
 history is to be found. 
 
 It is right to give Dr Hamilton the benefit of the follow- 
 ing note vfhich he appends to the above statement: — "The 
 Church hymns which had been in use since the second 
 century 'he banished as an innovation' (eine neuening,') 
 ' and in so doing he probably went on the assumption which 
 has subsequently been held by others that in the Church 
 those pieces only should be sung w^hich are taken from Holy 
 Scripture.' Neander, Geschichte, 1827, erste biind, p. 1010." 
 We do not understand the meaning of this very exact refer- 
 ence to the German of Neander, seeing the words quoted 
 are verbatim from Clark's Translation of 1847, vol. ii., p. 
 SGG. Dr Hamilton proceeds — " In this Neander accurately 
 renders the statement of Eusebius or rather of the Synod 
 by w^liich Paul v/as condemned: 'The psalms to our Lord 
 Jesus Christ he put down as innovations and the composi- 
 tion of modern men.'" (The CTreek we shall give after- 
 wards.) " A nick-name is very powerful, but it is some- 
 times well to know its pedigree. As far as we can learn, 
 
PUBLIC Vv'OllSIIIP OP GOD, 63 
 
 Paul of Samosata was the first who applied to Christian 
 hymns the nick-name 'innovations.'" 
 
 The word in Eusebius is " psalms," and neither " Chiircli 
 hymns "" nor " Christian hymns " — though Neander's trans- 
 lation suited the writer best for the time. 
 
 Let us examine this proof of an alleged historical fact. 
 Why does Dr Hamilton render the Greek word \}/a\/jLovs by 
 "Church hymns," and not by "psalms'?" Why does he 
 assert, contrary to all which he himself had previously 
 alleged, that these " Church " or human " hymns " " had 
 been in use since the second century 1 " Why does he 
 quote Neander when he assumes as " jjrohahle,^' what thi3 
 Paul did, and which if he had done he v/ould have acted on 
 a sound principle ? Why but to connect the name of an 
 acknowledged heretic with those in his own day who main- 
 tained a sound principle. He avouches for the accuracy of 
 this statement of Neander. Fortunately we have the power 
 of testing it. 
 
 The following is extracted from Eusebius at such length 
 as will enable us to determine the true state of the case. 
 We quote from the English translation published at Cam- 
 bridge in 1683, when the question of human hymns in 
 public worship was not agitated. 
 
 After describing the avarice, extortion, scandalous ambi- 
 tion, tyranny, and vain impiety of this same Paul, Eusebius 
 says — Book vii., ch. 30, "In his public discourses he reflected 
 upon those doctors of our religion that were dead, with all 
 miaginable scorn and petulency ; but he magnified himself, 
 not as became a bishop, but rather like a counterfeit and 
 impostor. He abolished the Psalms," (not " Church 
 hymns ") " which were usually sung in honour of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, as novel and the composures of modern men." 
 
G4 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 Dr Hamilton quotes the Greek to confirm his statement. 
 But why does he stop short, and not add what makes mani- 
 fest the real point and object of the historian, which was 
 not to show that by this conduct Paul objected to hymns 
 as an Arian, but to psalms in honour of Christ; as singing 
 *';:>sa^wis" in honour of Christ was an innovation, as Christ, 
 according to him, did not deserve such an honour. And 
 therefore to mark his impiety, Eusebius immediately adds 
 — " On the great feast of Easter, he appointed women to 
 sing psalms" — not in Christ's but "in his commendation," 
 ELS eavTov de, but to himself, " in the body of the Church, 
 which whosoever heard might justly tremble." 
 
 A more lame and impotent, we might say unfair attempt 
 to raise an argument in favour of human hymns out of this 
 Btrange incident can hardly be imagined, and cannot be too 
 jstrongiy condemned. Can any Christian man believe that 
 the audience would have trembled or been "struck with 
 horror," if this man had merely made the psalms of David 
 be sung in place of human hymns ? The whole point of the 
 transaction is, that this impious man made psalms sung in 
 honour of Christ be removed, Trauo-as, made to cease, and 
 psalms in honour of himself be sung in their stead. We 
 conclude this point by the following extract from the ad- 
 mirable little work "The True Psalmody," in which it will 
 be observed that the word "as" in the old translation is 
 the correct rendering of w?. 
 
 The Committee of the United Presbyterian and Eeformed 
 Churches in America, who prepared this admirable little 
 work, say: — "As to Paul of Samosata, we allow Dr Pressley 
 to speak: — ' There is a passage of history in connection with 
 the life of Paul of Samosata, which has sometimes been 
 referred to for the purpose of establishing the conclusion 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP ov GOP, 65 
 
 that Lymns of liumaii composition were in general use in 
 the primitive age in the Orthodox Church, and that it was 
 through the influence of heretical teachers that the Psalms 
 of David vv^ere introduced. It will at once occur to the re- 
 flecting Christian, that it would be something very strange 
 if it really were so, that the enemies of the truth should 
 manifest a partiality for a portion of the Word of God, 
 which has always been peculiarly dear to the humble prac- 
 tical Christian. But what are the fticts in the case just 
 referred to ? Paul of Samosata, v/ho rejected the doctrine 
 of the Lord's divinity, has been represented as banishing 
 from the Church in Antioch "the old church hymns that 
 spoke of Christ as the incarnate Word," and as introducing 
 in their stead the Psalms of David as being better adapted 
 to the promotion of his heresy.' " 
 
 That this portion of historj^, in so far as it stands con- 
 nected with the subject of Psalmody, may be set in its true 
 light, I shall present to the reader an extract from the epistle 
 of the Council of Antioch, which condemned the heresy of 
 Paul, together with the Latin translation of the learned 
 Valesius. Our information with regard to this matter is 
 derived from the proceedings of the Council. The original 
 may be seen in "Harduin's Acta Conciliorum," torn. i. 7, or 
 in the "History of Eusebius," lib. 8, cap. 30. 
 
 ORIGINAL OF THE EPISTLE. 
 '^I''aX,uo<>s- 0€ rovs p.ku eis rov KvpLOP 7/,uwi; iTjaovu Xpiarov Travaas, 'w? 
 CT] veioTepcou avopwv avyypdixp.ara; hs eavrbv oe, zv pLecrri tq eKKA'.-jaia rrj 
 p-eyaXv ttj rod Traayji rji-Lepa; \l^aX[xo}M1v yvvaiKas, IlapdaK^va^cpp 'wi/ 
 icat aKovaas av tls (ppi't^eiev. 
 
 TRANSLATION OF VALESIUS. 
 
 'Qiun etiani psalmos in hoiioroni Domini Jesu Christi cani 
 solitos, c[iiasi novellos, et a recentioribus hominibus conipositos 
 abohvit. Mulieres, antem magno paschse die in media ecclesiaj 
 
6Q PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 psalmos quosdani canere ad sui ipsiius laiidem instituit; quod 
 quidaiii audientibus horroreni merito incussent. 
 
 The scholar who examines the original will see that the 
 following is a literal translation. Paul " put a stop to the 
 psalms in honour of our Lord Jesus Christ, as though they 
 (had been) modern, and the compositions of modern men, 
 and prepared women on the great day of Easter, in the 
 midst of the Church, to sing psalms in honour of him- 
 self/' 
 
 It is unnecessary to vindicate critically this translation; 
 it is plain and obvious, and bears out fully our preceding 
 remarks. We have examined Harduin's " Concilia," and 
 corrected one or two slight mistakes in the Greek of this 
 quotation not affecting the meaning, and probably merely 
 typographical. 
 
 After a full and able critical discussion and proof, that 
 the early Churcl: perfectly understood the Messianic char- 
 acter of the psalms, .ind which some of our modern hymn- 
 ologists, contrary to the true Catholic faith of Christendom, 
 seem not to believe, Dr Pressly adds (and with this extract 
 we shall conclude this part of our discussion, not deeming 
 it of any use as argument, whatever it may be as literary 
 history, to enter on the mediaeval use of hymns), " I am 
 aware that it has been customary to suppose that Paul intro- 
 duced the Psalms of David in the room of those which he 
 displaced. Neander says, 'he 2-^obahly suffered nothing 
 but psalms to be used.' Others not quite so modest assert, 
 v,dthout any qualification, that it was the 'pompous Uni- 
 tarian, Paul of Samosata, who first set the example of 
 installing the Psalms in the place of exclusive dignity.' " 
 But where, I ask, is the authority for such conjectures, or 
 for such unqualified aflarmations? The epistle of the 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 67 
 
 Council, by whose authority Paul was condemned, says no 
 such thing. 
 
 " So fiir from it, the express declaration of the Council is 
 irreconcileable 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. 
 
 " The conclusion, then, to which 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 exliibited in the following propositions : 
 
 " ' 1. The psalmody employed in the worship of God in the 
 church of Antioch, in the days of Paul, was a divine system. 
 The psalms which were sung at that time were in honour of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. And this character belongs appropriately to 
 the Psalms of David, for they speak of Christ and celebrate His 
 glory. 
 
 " ' 2. This 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 composi- 
 tions of uninspired men. 
 
 "'3. The psalmody which he introduced was designed 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.' " 
 
 We have previously referred to a committee appointed 
 by the Free Church to report on the practice of the Primi- 
 tive Church. We have since seen an interim report con- 
 taining an abstract of some historical inquiries on the sub- 
 ject. It has only confirmed our previous opinion. We 
 have not space to examine it, and though we had, it would 
 only be waste of our space and of the time of our readers. 
 It has made nothing of Pliny, or of Paul of Samosata. It 
 merely refers to the rendering of "ws" by "quasi," "as if," 
 but it does not pretend to give it the meaning of " because." 
 It proves nothing. The paper then gives a variety of some- 
 thing like proofs that hymns of some kind had been written 
 
68 PUBLIC WOESIIiP OF GOD. 
 
 by various parties as early as a.d. 139, 200, 220, 230, 250, 
 329, 379, and on to the Council of Toledo in 633. It 
 proves that some Councils forbade the use of "private 
 psalms." This prohibition continued till the sixteenth 
 century. All this while there is no proof that the Church, 
 in any sense that could be called a church authority, either 
 enjoined, or sanctioned, or even practised the use of human 
 hymns in the public worship of God — still less is any attempt 
 made to connect such use with either apostolic practice or 
 Scripture authority. The document clearly proves that 
 hymns had been written, and as clearly proves one thing, 
 viz., that heretical hymns seem to have been as frequent as 
 orthodox. Scarcely any of them have been preserved, 
 Vv'hich cannot be said of the canonical psalms. 
 
 The document candidly admits, or at least makes clear, 
 that it is useless even to establish anything as matter of 
 fact. The following is its conclusion: — 
 
 " Suchis abare statemen j of unquestionable f-icts and testimonies, 
 omitting several v/hicli some members of the Committee think 
 relevant and important, but are considered by others more or less 
 doubtful. In judging of the conclusion to be drawn from them, 
 it is to be borne in mind that the evidence on such a subject must, 
 from the nature of the case, be cumnkitive, and that it is not to be 
 expected that each separate testimony should by itself be absolutely 
 conclusive. In particular, it may be doubted as to some of the 
 above statements whether they may not refer to Scriptural psalms 
 or songs, and as to others, wliether they speak of public worship. 
 With regard to the former, it may be observed that they may all 
 be fairly and most naturally understood of extra-Scriptural hymns; 
 and that they stand alongside of other statements Vvmich clearly 
 and expressly refer to such, and must be viewed in the light of 
 these. As to the latter, it must be remembered that we have no 
 satisfactory evidence of the existence of Churches in the modern 
 sense before the beginning of the third century. (Indeed!) 
 Christian worship until then being held, wherever it was safe and 
 convenient, as Justm Martyr expressly testifies (see Neander, 
 i. 396.) So certainly it was in apostolic times, when 'the 
 
PUBLIC WOESHIP OP GOD, CO 
 
 Cliiircli' was often 'in the house/ (Eom. xvi. 5, 14, 15.) 
 Hence the line of demarcation between the public and private 
 worship would not be very sharply drawn, especially considcriug 
 hov^ frequent and humble the meetings v/ould be; and hence 
 ifc is not likely that any Christian hymns which were deemed 
 suitable in the more familiar' meetings of believers, would be 
 considered inadmissible in public v/orship. 
 
 " It only remains to be added, that, on the ground of such 
 evidence as has been presented above, the most eminent modern 
 Church historians, of all shades of opinion, such as Neander, 
 Hagenbach, Kurtz, Hase, Dorner, SchafF, and Killen, state it is 
 an undoubted fact that hymns of human composition w^ere in use 
 in the Church from the earliest times." 
 
 But was there no church governiiient, no presbytery, no 
 bishop, no synod, no council, enjoining or sanctioning their 
 use? Was there ever such a document produced before as 
 evidence of a fact, and such a fact ? 
 
 We only remark on this last sentence, that the phrases, 
 " in the Church," and " earliest times," are equivocal and 
 incorrect. "In the Church," in the sense of existing as 
 they do now, where the Free Church exists, is very different 
 from being authorised and practised by the Free Church — ■ 
 and "from tlie earliest times" by the authority of tlie 
 Church, by sy nodical authority or general practice, we have 
 shown to be without the vestige of proof. 
 
 The historical argument therefore entirely breaks down. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 I^istorical girgum^nt Contimub. 
 
 Having, in the preceding chapter, satisfactorily, as we 
 think, disposed of any argument to be derived from the 
 practice of the primitive church in favour of any divine 
 authority for the use of human hymns in the public wor- 
 ship of God, we indicated the opinion that it is altogether 
 unnecessary to follow out the argument to be derived from 
 the history of mediaeval hymnology. To do so might be 
 very interesting as a subject of literary curiosity, and even 
 instructive and edifying as a study of church history, nay, 
 even as an aid to spiritual life and devotion; just as the 
 study of the theology of these times, or of the j\Ieditations 
 of Augustine, or the " Imitation of Christ " of Thomas ii 
 Kempis, or the sermons of Tauler, or the " Short Method 
 of Prayer," and other productions of Madam Guyon, or 
 any of the crowd of mystics may be. But this can no more 
 warrant us to introduce into the public worship of God 
 human hymns, than to appoint by church authority, for 
 public daily use in the worship of God, any of the devout 
 contemplations of the men of the present day for the public 
 ministrations of the pulpit, and thus open a wide door, it 
 might be, not only for sectarian error, but sectarian folly 
 and enthusiasm. This can never be a dansjer accruins; 
 from the book of Psalms, both divinely inspired and of 
 divine appointment, in the worship of God, as well as having 
 all the authority that can be derived from the practice of the 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OP GOD. 71 
 
 universal Church of Christ; no branch of which, though it 
 may in practice have superseded them by various human com- 
 positions, has ever formally dared to pronounce them unfit 
 to occupy their place; though we have had the opinions of 
 men of easy-going views doing something very like this. It 
 is of supreme importance that all we think, say, or do in 
 the service of God be on His own authority, being appointed 
 in His own Word. In listening to a sermon the hearers 
 may, and are commanded to try the spirits, whether they 
 be of God, and that by His Word. Every hearer can da 
 this individually for himself. But praise in the public wor- 
 ship of God is a combined and united act, in which all 
 ought to join, and join aloud, with open articulate voice. 
 You cannot do this, and yet be trying the spirit of the 
 human hymn at the same time. This you require not to 
 do when singing in your own tongue the Psalms, the book 
 of Psalms. The ordinary Christian knows they are the 
 Word of God, just as well as he knows that this is true of 
 any portion of the sacred Scriptures perused or heard in his 
 own tongue. 
 
 We might now come at once to the last point we in- 
 tended to touch upon — viz., briefly to notice some of the 
 hymn books now in use, and thereby illustrate the doctrine 
 we have stated. But perhaps it may be useful to glance at 
 the Keformation period generally, and especially as affecting 
 our own Church; keeping in mind that our object is not to 
 give a history of hymnology, but to examine any claim to 
 Scriptural authority for the use of human hymns in the 
 public worship of God. For this purpose the history of the 
 Pteformation period affords no great materials. It does not 
 seem to have entered into the minds of the Protestant re- 
 formers that the canonical Psalms were not sufficient for the 
 
72 PUELIC WOnSIIIP OF GOD, 
 
 public worship of God. Their great principle, " the Bible, 
 and the Bible alone, the religion of Protestants," seemed to 
 carry this idea along with it. Accordingly, when the minds 
 not only of the ministry, but of the laity, were set free from 
 the idea of the substitutionary services of a priestly caste 
 affecting, from the Pope downwards, to bo the vicars of 
 Christ, and standing to the people in the place of God, and 
 on whom the laity were to devolve all their spiritual respon- 
 sibilities for time and for eternity, — and when all owned the 
 duty, claimed the right, and enjoyed the privilege of unitedly 
 engaging in all the solemn services of the sanctuary accord- 
 ing to the comely order of the Word of God, in the preach- 
 ing, prayers, and praises of God's house, the psalmody, 
 especially, could no longer be left to the chauntings of 
 ghostly fathers in an unknown tongue, and to be a mere 
 sensuous round of sounds, expressive to them neither of 
 articulate words nor of articulate ideas. The reformers, 
 knowing from their Bibles that there was a book of Psalms 
 Vv^hich had been used without question as of divine appoint- 
 ment in the Church of Clod, both before and after the com- 
 ing of Christ, had them translated into the vulgar tongues 
 of their respective nations. Accordingly we have them 
 used in Germany, Geneva, France, and Switzerland, England 
 and Scotland, and all other Protestant countries. In this 
 respect there was a beautiful catholic unity, and at that 
 period nothing sectarian or heretical to disturb it. The 
 Preformed Church generally, in proportion to the distance 
 which they removed from the practices of Romanism, and 
 adopted the simple and severe Protestant principle, seems 
 to have thrown off every addition to their service, in all its 
 parts, which had not direct divine sanction, as prescribed in 
 the Holy Scripture. In their psalmody in the public wor- 
 
rUBLTC WORSHIP OF GOD. 73 
 
 ship nothing was left but an occasional and almost solitary 
 doxology at the end of the book of Psalms. 
 
 Hymns were extensively composed, but rather as " gude 
 and godly ballades" for popular use, and to counteract the 
 use of Popish hymns, rather than for the public worship of 
 God. This was the idea of Calvin and Beza, and was the 
 purpose of many of Luther's hymns, as well as some written 
 in Scotland and elsewhere — such as Wedderburn's " Psalms 
 and Godly Ballads." Anything to the contrary of this 
 adduced by the advocates of human hymns is mere conjec- 
 ture, and at least entirely of a negative character. For 
 whatever may have been the opinions of individual men, 
 whether of great or small name, or the occasional irregular 
 practice, the taste of private parties, or whatever the interest 
 or likings of printers might suggest or dictate, as in the 
 case of Andrew Hart, there is not a vestige of proof that 
 the use of human hymns in the public worship of God was 
 ever sanctioned by anything which could be called Church 
 authority, either in the first Reformation period or the 
 second Reformation period in Scotland. All this, too, at a 
 time when the Church was only struggling to get out of the 
 corruptions, and to shake itself free from the trammels of 
 Popery, and to provide itself with a book of praise accord- 
 ing to the Scriptures. 
 
 We have in our possession, and now before us, a curious 
 copy of the " Breeches " Bible, " imprinted at London by 
 the deputies of Christopher Barker, printer to the Queen's 
 most excellent Maiestie, 1599, cum privilegio." Affixed to 
 it is the " Booke of Psalmes, collected into English meeter, 
 by Thomas Sternhold, John Hopkins, and others. Con- 
 ferred with the Hebrew; with apt Notes to sing them withall. 
 Set forth and allowed to be suno- in all churches of the 
 
74 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 peoj^le together, before and after morning and evening 
 prayer; and also before and after sermon; and, moreover, 
 in private houses, for their godly solace and comfort, laying 
 apart all ungodly songs and ballads, which tend only to 
 the nourishment of vice and corrupting of youth, James v., 
 Colossians iii." 
 
 To this " Booke of Psalmes " are prefixed several of the 
 ancient hymns, with the Athanasian Creed, the Lord's 
 Prayer, and Ten Commandments in metre, and followed in 
 a similar way. It is to be remarked, however, that of none 
 of these is it said that they are " to be sung in all churches." 
 They were probably printed at the will of the " Deputies of 
 Christopher Barker," and for the purpose specified of the 
 "laying apart of all ungodly songs and ballads." 
 
 The same remarks will apply to other instances. Thus 
 we have in our possession, and now before us, a beautiful, 
 large, folio copy of the "Geneva Bible." "Imprime Pour 
 Jacque Chouet. M.DC.XLVI." Bound up with it, and 
 printed at the end, we have, with musical notations, " Les 
 Pseaumes De David, mis en Ptime Francoise, par Clement 
 Marot et Theodore Beze." To the Psalms there are added, 
 "The Ten Commandments of God," and "The Song of 
 Simeon," in metre, by " CI. Mar." 
 
 There is in all this no great proof of any strong love for 
 a human hymnology in the public worship authorised by 
 the Church. This Geneva Bible contains at the end the 
 Apocryphal books, from which it is pleasant to observe 
 that the " Breeches " Bible is free. But this fact is no 
 more a sanction of human hymns than it is of the Apo- 
 crypha. 
 
 The hymns or paraphrases to which we have referred as 
 printed in our copy of the " Breeches " Bible, are those 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 75 
 
 referred to in the following passage in a paper given in 
 to the Free Church Committee, 18G8: — 
 
 "111 1575 his (Bassandyne of Ediiiburo;h's) next edition came 
 out with full authority, and it contained live songs, two of them 
 from Scripture, the other three corresponding to hymns. There 
 were also conclusions or doxologies, and the whole circumstances 
 clearly prove that neither were there jjer inciiriam. The full 
 number of hymns ultimately was fourteen, but as some of them 
 were pretty long, and in several parts, their bulk was considerable, 
 equal in the number of lines to the first thirty-seven of our 
 collection of Paraphrases, or about half the Paraphrases and 
 Hymns together. Their titles are given, and were as follows : — 
 The Ten Commandments, Prayer, the Lord's Prayer, Veni Creator 
 Spiritus, Song of Simeon, Twelve Articles of the Christian Belief, 
 Humble Suit of a Sinner, Lamentation of a Sinner, Complaint of 
 a Sinner, Song of Mary, A Lamentation, The Song of Moses, 
 Thanksgivmg after the receiving of the Lord's Supper, A Spiritual 
 Song." 
 
 It is manifest that these songs or hymns were used so 
 close upon the times of Popery, and for such a specific 
 purpose as is specified in the title to the Psalms of Stern- 
 hold and Hopkins, that no possible argument can be drawn 
 from such facts to warrant the use of human hymns in the 
 public worship of God, or to entitle any one who has sub- 
 scribed the Confession of Faith, as the confession of his 
 faith, to cast aside the principle that nothing is to be used 
 in the worship of God but what " is prescribed in the Holy 
 Scripture," and more especially when the Westminster 
 Assembly itself authorised nothing to be sung in public 
 worship but the Psalms of David. In the Preface to the 
 " Directory for the Public Worship of God," they say that 
 " long and sad experience hath made it manifest that the 
 liturgy used in the Church of England (notwithstanding all 
 the pains and religious intentions of the compilers of it) 
 hath proved an offence, not only to many of the godly at 
 home, but • also to the reformed Churches abroad/' and 
 
76 PUBLIC woEsnip op god, 
 
 after enumerating many evils resulting from it, tliey pre- 
 scribe in opposition to it the general mode of worship, and 
 at certain times "a j)salm to be sung." 
 
 Even in the paper given in to the Committee of the Free 
 Church, as printed in Proof Report of May 1, 18GS, as the 
 result of the labours of a devoted advocate of human hymns, 
 the writer sums up as folio v/s:— 
 
 '• The discussions of the beginning and middle of the century 
 were in view when the Standards were accepted in 1647, both in 
 their utterances and silence on the subject. From Baillie's letters 
 it is evident that the matter was much canvassed in the 
 Westminster Assembly, and it was deemed advisable to dis- 
 continue the use of doxologies, not as being in themselves wrong, 
 but because Papists and Prelatists so unduly set by them. The 
 paper closes with the following statement of opinion as the result 
 of the survey it contains : — ' It can scarcely be a matter of 
 surprise that evidence on the subject is so scarce, and what there 
 is of so minute a character as to be tedious in its statement. 
 The conclusion warranted is, liov/ever, pretty clear, that these 
 songs and hymns were never formally sanctioned, but were, on 
 the other hand, never forbidden, though it was knovvm that they 
 were freely used, and that some parties in the Church — not 
 apparently very influential — objected to their use. As to the 
 distinction attempted to be set up, that they were allowed in 
 private, and not in public, it is neither consistent with the facts 
 — for we have seen that they were used in kirks and other public 
 gatherings — nor with the known opinions of the leaders of the 
 first and second Keformations, who not only recogiiized no such 
 distinctions in the worship of God, but even legislated for the 
 right conducting of " worship in private houses." The scanty 
 and occasional notices of the subject from 1542 to 1647 must be 
 held as so far favourable to the general use of the songs and 
 hynms, since, had the occasions alluded to been so exceptional, 
 the mention of the historians could scarcely have been so casual, 
 nor the silence of the Church against their use so entire. On the 
 other hand, the diversity of the number found in various 
 editions of the Psalter evidently betokens a considerable diver- 
 sity in practice. So that we are left with the conclusion that it 
 was one of those things designedly left an open question, 
 received by some, and refused by others; v/hile the discrimina- 
 tion shov/n in condemning Bassandyne's " Welcome Fortune," 
 
PUELIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 77 
 
 anrl allowing otliers to remain unchallenged, and the fact that 
 until the attempt of the Brunists there is no mention of a move- 
 ment amongst them, seems to indicate that those who did not 
 use them were either not very numerous, or not very decided in 
 their opposition." 
 
 We cannot examine the feeble logic of this passage. We 
 only remark that if everything that is " not forbidden " by 
 positive law, or not objected to by "influential men," may 
 be " left an open question " in the public v/orship of God, 
 then the v»diole outward system of modern and even Popish 
 Eitualism may be introduced as the fruit of " open ques- 
 tions." The only protection against it is the Canon of 
 our Confession of Faith, that nothing is to be introduced 
 into the Vv-orship of God but what is "proscribed in 
 Holy Scripture." Spiritual songs, or songs of the Spirit, 
 or Scripture songs, can never sanction the use of a man's 
 own songs, both in words and sentiment; in other words, of 
 human hymns at the discretion of fallible men, even 
 though these were not only "influential men," but a 
 General Assembly; which also not only may err, but 
 in numberless instances has erred, and that grievously.''' At 
 all events its decisions for the time being, unless guided 
 and limited by some fixed constitutional principle as that 
 just quoted from the Confession, must bear the stamp of 
 the party prevailing at the time. Hence the extreme 
 danger of meddling with the Church's psalmody on any 
 sectarian or latitudinarian principle; into which the history 
 of the Church proves all churches adopting human hymns 
 
 * If " influential men " were to be the rule of adoption, human 
 hymns would have had few suppoi'ters. Those Vvdio have persistently 
 agitated for them have seldom been "influential men;" but they 
 have made themselves troublesome or serviceable, as the case may 
 be, to " influential men," and the " influential men " were too feeble 
 %o dp without them; or too facile to resist them. 
 
78 PUBLIC WOESHIP OF GOB. 
 
 have extensively fallen; every sect having its own, and 
 completely hindering, if not destroying the communion of 
 saints in the public praises of God; an evil entirely avoided 
 by an inspired psalmody which all Christians do, and 
 certainly ought to acknowledge. This evil is clearly proved 
 by the very question raised in the Free Church as to the 
 propriety of sanctioning the common paraphrases never yet 
 sanctioned by any authoritative act of the Church of Scot- 
 land; and especially proved by selecting or rejecting what 
 the people of God are to sing in His own worshij), and that 
 from doubtful human compositions, and these too by some 
 men of doubtful religious and moral reputations; even 
 though sanctioned by the votes of a prevailing party in a 
 General Assembly ! This may be liberty for the imposers; 
 but we decline to acknowledge the right so to introduce or 
 reject at their will, or to take a committee, or General 
 Assembly, r'.s our guide and ruler in such a matter. If they 
 can truly say, Thus saith and thus speaketh the Scripture, 
 we bow submission. 
 
 Amid all the excitement for some "new thing," we have 
 not yet heard of any formal proposal to select or reject any 
 particular psalms of David for the public worship of the 
 sanctuary. These cannot be affected by debates as to what 
 was orthodoxy during last century, or heresy in the present. 
 
 No one can read with candid reflection any productionj 
 ivliether a 'pamylilet^ speech, or periodical article, written hy 
 any advocate for human hymns, without coming to the con- 
 clusion, that, to say the least, no system of human hymns has 
 yet been devised, or is likely to he devised, that can he safe 
 from this dangerous sectarian and latitudinarian element. 
 
 The adoption of poetical versions of certain portions of 
 Scripture, though experience has proved it to be one of do 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 79 
 
 small practical difficulty, we are not prepared to say is one 
 so clearly objectionable in principle, or so clearly excluded 
 by the authority of our Confession of Faith, as that of the 
 use and sanction by any church authority of human hymns, 
 though these hymns are about spiritual things; and which, 
 as we have seen, as even of paraphrases themselves, may be 
 anything but songs of the Holy Ghost. The Church of 
 Scotland has never as yet sanctioned, even in appearance, or 
 by authoritative toleration, any songs but "songs of the 
 Holy Ghost;" whatever irregularities or improprieties may 
 have been unobserved, neglected, or winked at, which is 
 often the case even with heretical opinions, or it may be 
 irreligious, worldly, or sinful practices. Such neglect or 
 unfaithfulness must not be pleaded, as our hymnologers now 
 do for the rightness and propriety of the things themselves. 
 The "use and wont" argument would sanction all the 
 abuses of moderatism, and in other days would have stereo- 
 typed the whole system of Popery itself. Our forefathers, 
 by God's grace, made " a blow at the root " of the whole 
 enormous system of falsehood and folly and puerility, by 
 the great principle laid down in our Confession of Faith. 
 On any other principle we defy the advocates of human 
 hymns to show that the ritualistic follies of England, or 
 even of Popery, in crucifixes, vestments, candles, incense, 
 etc., etc., Sive forbidden in Scripture. The principles we are 
 advocating are not only those of Scripture, but the safe- 
 guards of Christian liberty, and of true spiritual worship, 
 free from the devices, the doctrines, and commandments of 
 men. We cannot conclude this article without strongly 
 condemning the principle and conduct of some Free Church- 
 men, whom we could name, v/ho presume to introduce 
 human hymns into their congregations, and avow their re- 
 
80 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 solution to do so, who seek to compel the Church to yield 
 to their demands, by shouting the now too oft-repeated 
 defiance, " Libel us if you dare." This is not the language 
 of law and order, but of anarchy and contempt for lawful 
 authority. 
 
 At the moment this is passing through the press there 
 are parties making a collection of hymns for presentation to 
 the first General Assembly. On Vv'hat specific authority we 
 know not. It is not yet forgotten what was the fate of 95 
 hymns printed in this way by some Free Church Presbyters 
 of GlasgoWj names unknown. 
 
CIIAPTEE VI. 
 
 'Siohxn f irmit gjoob— gofa girirobiiccb into iuHic Hors^iir. 
 
 If the principles '»ve have previously laid dovv^n, and tlie 
 facts we have adduced, Cuan be successfully maintained, as 
 Vv'e think they can, and have already been in the previous 
 discussions, we might here end the controversy. But it 
 v/ill strengthen our argument if, ou a brief rcviev/ of some 
 modern hymn books, we can make out that they are very 
 unsatisfactory in every attribute that ought to characterise 
 the matter of the praises of God. If so, they can never bo 
 lawfully received as substitutes, either in whole or in part, 
 for the divinely inspired psalmody, whose authority and fit- 
 ness have never been challenged by the true Catholic Churcli 
 of Christ. Some individual men, it is true, have, as ignor- 
 antly as presun;ptuonsly, condemned it, or at least portions 
 of it, as unfit for the vv^orship of God, though these very 
 portions have been quoted and applied by our Lord Him- 
 self, and by Kis apostles, as the proofs that He was the 
 Messiah, the Cbrist of God, the crucified and now risen and 
 exalted Saviour of men. 
 
 It Vv'ill be admitted by all, that any psalmody v/hich the 
 authority of God v/ill sanction must be characterised by 
 vvhat is strictly true in doctrine, just in religious sentiment 
 and feeling, worthy of the Divine Majesty, as He is set forth 
 in the sacred Scriptures — that the style should be charac- 
 terised by majesty, sublimity, beauty, simplicity, without 
 
82 PUBLIC WOESHIP OF GOD. 
 
 effort, or exaggeration, or straining at effect; tlie figures 
 natural, intelligible by all, and devoid of all extravagance. 
 Have we not a psalmody of this kind in the "Book of 
 Psalms?" And have ^vc it anywhere else, in any of the 
 numerous hymn books now used in the public worship of 
 God in certain sections of the Christian Church ? Are they 
 such, as to warrant any church that has not yet sanctioned 
 them to follow their example, and to that extent to set aside 
 the Book of Psalms, which God himself has inspired and 
 sanctioned in His own v/orship 1 
 
 Yle shall endeavour, by examining some of them, to get 
 the materials of an answer, though we might almost hold 
 the stating of the question to contain its own answer, and 
 the discussion of it to be somewhat presumptuous. 
 
 We shall begin with the second question. 
 
 We have before us a goodly number of such books, and of 
 specimens selected from others, and shall take our examples 
 from them in the order of dates of publication, so far as we 
 can ascertain them. 
 
 We wish to remind our readers that our objection is 
 neither to the writing, nor readhig, nor singing of human 
 hymns expressive of religious sentiment, more than to the 
 writing or reading sermons. The difficulty and rare gift of 
 writing religious poetry, suitable to the dignity and glory 
 of the theme, are universally acknov/ledged. This doubt- 
 less arises in part from the intrinsic nature and grandeur of 
 the subject, and the incomparable majesty of the style in 
 which our knowledge of it is conveyed in Scripture, and with 
 which Christian taste and sentiment are thus familiarised. 
 In the department of Christian song our familiarity with 
 the psalms of the Hebrew bard has deepened this feeling 
 almost into an instinct. We suspect that, unconsciously to 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 83 
 
 themselves, the feeling in such writers as Mathew Arnold, 
 and others, is to be accounted for in this way rather than, 
 as he says, by a want of the Celtic element in the breast of 
 Saxons. Be that as it may, the Professor of Poetry in the 
 University of Oxford writes as follows: — "Our German 
 kinsmen and we are great people for hymns. The Germans 
 are very proud of their hymns, and we are very proud of 
 ours; but it is hard to say which of the two, the German 
 hymn book or ours, has least poetical worth in itself, or does 
 least to prove genuine poetical power in the people produc- 
 ing it. I have not a word to say against Sir Roundell 
 Palmer's choice and arrangement of materials for his Booh 
 of Praise; I am content to put them on a level (and that is 
 giving them the highest possible rank) with ]\Ir Palgrave's 
 choice and arrangement of materials for the Golden Treasury; 
 but yet no sound critic can doubt that, so far as poetry is 
 concerned, while the Golden Treasury is a monument of a 
 nation's strength, the Book of Praise is a monument of a 
 nation's weakness." After much valuable remark to the 
 same purpose, Professor Arnold adds: — " It is worth noticing 
 that the masterpieces of the spiritual work of Indo-Europeans, 
 taking the pure religious sentiment, and not the imaginative 
 reason, for their basis, are works like the Imitation, the Dies 
 Iroe, the Stahat Mater — works clothing themselves in the 
 middle age Latin, the genuine native voice of no Indo- 
 European nation. The perfection of their kind, but that 
 kind not perfectly legitimate, as if to show that when man- 
 kind's Semitic age is once passed, the age which produced 
 the great incomparable monuments of the pure religious 
 sentiment, the books of Job and Isaiah, the Psalms — works 
 truly to be called inspired, because the same divine power 
 which worked in those who produced them works no longer 
 
84 PUSLIC WORSHIP OP GOD. 
 
 — as if to show us that, after the primitive age, we Iiido- 
 Eiiropeans must feel these works without attempting to ro- 
 niake them; and that our poetry, if it tries to make itself 
 simply the organ of the religious sentiment, leaves the true 
 course, and must conceal this by not speaking a living 
 language. The moment it speaks a living language, and 
 still makes itself the organ of the religious sentiment only, 
 as in the German and English hymns, it betrays its weak- 
 ness — the weakness of all false tendency." — Arnold's Stud.y 
 of Celtic Literature, pp. 147-150. 
 
 We rejoice in seeing genius of any kind consecrated to 
 the service of God, and its subjective musings and medita- 
 tions expressed in verse suited to all tastes, ages, and classes 
 of men, and especially suited to nurse the young and tender 
 mind in the fear of God, and the love of our Eedeemer. 
 But for reasons already given, and many others that may or 
 might be given, the substance of our opposition is to the 
 right, dut}^, or safety of making human hymns anything like 
 regular, fixed, or authorised portions of the v/orship and 
 praises of God in the sanctuary; and what we wish now to 
 do is to inquire if the books of human hymns so employed 
 and sanctioned are such as to overthrow all the principles 
 wo have previously laid down and maintained. We need 
 not express our belief that hymns most orthodox in doctrine, 
 pious in sentiment and feeling, and worthy of perusal, and 
 beautifully harmonising v/ith the experience of the advanced 
 and the aged Christian, and admirably fitted to instruct and 
 interest the ycung, have been written; and a fev^r of them, 
 by such men as Yv^illiam Gowper and James Slontgomery, 
 exquisitely beautiful, and as well as others, written by 
 Orthodox, Evangelical, and Calvinistic men. But that does 
 not prevent the risk and danger of a false principle— viz.^ 
 
ruBLic v/onsuip ov cod, 85 
 
 tLat of introducing Iiuman hymns into the public worship 
 of God, — a principle which renders it impossible to exclude 
 heresy, sectarianism, and all the wild, and wayward, and 
 ever-changing vagaries of enthusiasm and superstition 'nto 
 the public worship of God: which ought to rest on His ov/ii 
 word and His own authority; which can alone be secured 
 by God's inspired psalmody; and which secures at once the 
 uncjuestioning confidence of every Christian saint, *' well 
 instructed in the kingdom," throughout the whole world. 
 
 With the view of illustrating this point a little more fully 
 than we have yet done, it may be useful to give a few- 
 specimens, not a regular history, of the way in which 
 Romanists, heretics, sectarians, and others have sought to 
 gain their ends by superseding, or so completely overlaying 
 the psalms of David hy their huge compilations of human 
 hymns, as almost, if not entirely, to bury them out of sight. 
 
 We have already adverted to the attempts made in the early 
 ages of the Church. We have glanced at the history of the 
 Eeformation period, both among Lutherans and Calvinists. 
 In modern times, the subject has been largely discussed 
 among the Presbyterians of the United States, ^vhere prin- 
 ciples and opinions in a wrong direction seem to run very 
 rapidly to seed, as well as in N'ova Scotia. In the writings 
 of the xicv. W. Somerviile, M.A., Nova Scotia, Dr Pressley, 
 Dr ilacmaster, and others, there is much very able criti- 
 cism, and extensive statements of historical facts, all bearing 
 out the views we have maintained. To save our ov;n time, 
 and the time of our readers, we shall avail ourselves of 
 some portions of their writings. 
 
 The evils arising from the iatrodnction of human hymns 
 among Presbyterians had risen to a great height in America. 
 In the "True Psalmody," of whic;h v,e shall yet avail our- 
 
86 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 selves, the compilers, in Appendix C, p. 183, under tlio 
 head, ^^Ilymn Writers'' say: — 
 
 " We cannot qnote farther at length. Bnt in the Appendix: 
 to the same most valuable little work, we have large proofs that 
 some of these American hymn books ' have freely used Catholic 
 (Eoman), Unitarian, Universalist, Swedenboroian, and other 
 collections.' A party charged Avith hymns selected from all 
 sorts, such as 'Burns, Miss Martineau, and others,' replies, 
 *What are the facts?' We do not know a 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, Bowriug, 
 Hemans, Martin eau's Collection, Pope, Sir Walter Scott, Tom 
 Moore, are all found. In tlie Nevv^ School Presbyterian Assem- 
 bly's book, Tom Moore holds an honourable ijlace, as he does 
 in the book of the Old School General Assembly, and Nettle- 
 ton's Village Hynms. When the General Assemblies join in 
 giving to the church Tom Moore's 'Come, ye disconsolate, where- 
 ever ye languish,' Ave think the Evangelist need not take the 
 pains to sacrifice its candour and veracity in order to reproach 
 the Plymouth Collection for having Tom Moore's 'Moch Piety.' 
 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 of 
 Moore, Bryant, Ware, G. P. Morris, Pierpont," etc. 
 
 We need not wonder that in such a state of things godly 
 men were aroused and alarmed. We have therefore pre- 
 fixed to this little work the following note: 
 
 " The ministers and elders of the Eeformed and United 
 Presbyterian Churches of Philadelphia, believing that the times 
 demand a full presentation of the subject herein discussed, held 
 a meeting in the Cherry Street Church, August 16, 1858, at 
 which Eevs. J. M. Willson, J. T. Cooper, and Robert J. Black 
 vfere appointed a committee to prepare, 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 Sterret was 
 subsequently added to the committee. At an adjourned meet- 
 ing, having presented an outline of the work, the committee 
 were unanimously authorised to proceed with its publication. 
 The names of the ministers present are as follows : — Revs. J. M. 
 AVjllson, S. 0. Wylic, David M'Kee, William Sterret, Robert 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 87 
 
 J. Black, S. P. Herron, A. G. M'Auley, Francis Church, J. B. 
 Dales, D.D., J. T. Cooper, D.D., G. C. Arnold, Bvobert Arm- 
 strong, and T. H. Beverid^i^e, Elders: — Robert Orr, John 
 Evans, R. Skilton, V/illiam Blakely, Dr A. S. M'Murray, Henry 
 Eloyd, William Crawford, William Brown, and others. Francis 
 Church, Chairman. T. C. Arnold, Secretary.'' 
 
 We have already noticed the introduction of hymns, 
 especially in Germany, at the period of the Reformation; 
 and their object, viz., to counteract the tendency of Popish 
 and profane, ungodly songs. The able writer of the 
 article " Hymn " in the " Encyclopasdia Britannica," says, 
 " In striking contrast with the number of hymns elicited 
 by the great religious awakening on the Continent, is their 
 comparative scarceness in the early Protestant literature of 
 England and Scotland. We know^ that in both countries 
 religious canticles were adapted to old and favourite tunes, 
 and widely diffused, but they were never so thoroughly 
 assimilated with the religious life of the people, and incor- 
 porated with its ritual, as in Germany. The sublime 
 poetry of the Bible satisfied the popular heart, while it 
 nourished the intellect and imagination; and the Psalms of 
 the Jewish temple were sung with clearer emphasis and 
 fuller response in the Christian sanctuary. The hymnology 
 of British Protestantism may be said to be the growth of 
 the last century and a-half, before v/hich period Germany 
 possessed a classic literature of sacred song. The rude 
 English version of the Psalms, by Sternhold and Hopkins, 
 was superseded by that of Brady and Tate — a sacrifice of 
 rugged strength to insipid smoothness and inflated verbo- 
 sity. Milton's attempts at translation only show that his 
 strong arm could not bend the bow of Ulysses. The Scot- 
 tish version, though in reality the work of an English 
 Puritan, has, with all its roughness and dissonance, pre- 
 
88 PUELIG WORSHIP 0? GOD. 
 
 served more of the vital spirit, the rich and pure arorna of 
 the Hebrew original." 
 
 As we have more than once indicated, our object is not 
 to give a history oi' hynmology, but rather, as subsidiary to 
 our Scriptural argument, to ascertain whether any support, 
 of any weight, can be obtained by the advocates for intro- 
 ducing human hynans into the public worship of God, from 
 the practice of the Primitive or Reformed Church. We 
 have shown that no such argument can be found. The 
 passage just quoted shows, that to whatever extent the 
 practice exists in Great Britain, it is of comparatively 
 modern date. It may be stated as a general fact, that the 
 practice has crept into the British churches by slow degrees, 
 if we may not say, by something like stealth, and indi- 
 vidual presumption and persistency, and not by any solemn 
 judgment of any Reformed Protestant Church, on the 
 ground of Scriptural authority and obligation, for the glory 
 of God in His public worship. Orthodox men, both lay 
 and clerical, such as Cowper, Newton, Toplady, Doddridge, 
 Montgomery, and others, wrote them as the expression of 
 their own devotional sentiment, and for the nourishment of 
 piety in the hearts of others. But their introduction into 
 any of the churches has been generally the fruit of the same 
 spirit, which, under the idea of aids to devotion, and the 
 gratification of a supposed taste, we cannot say for the 
 sublime, but for the beautiful and ornamental, if not for 
 the sensuous, has sought the introduction of the instru- 
 mental and ritualistic in music and outward forms. No 
 sober-minded Protestant can pretend that it has been 
 dictated by the desire of conformity to the patterns held 
 forth in the Word of God, or that the piety of hymn- 
 singing congregations or churches, either in doctrine or 
 
rUBLlC Y/Or.SHIP OF GOD. 89 
 
 practice, lia3 been deeper or more exalted tlian of those 
 who have devoutly adhered to the Psalms of David. As 
 little can any one deny, in consistency with fact and the 
 very nature of the case, that the effect has been, in too 
 many instances, to push aside and to overwhelm the Book 
 of Psalms by the multitude of human hymns. 
 
 It cannot with any truth be affirmed that the introduc- 
 tion of human hymns into the public worship of any 
 church, whatever may be the fact as to tim.es of temporary 
 excitement, has been the fruit of matured, solid, practical 
 piety in the church of God. Even in the history of revivals 
 in Scotland in remoter or comparatively recent times, at 
 Shotts, Cambuslang, Kilsyth, Muthil, and various parts of 
 the Highlands and Islands, the use of human hymns was 
 totally unknown. 
 
 On the other hand, it cannot be denied that human 
 hymns have been, and still are, largely made use of to 
 promote the sectarian viev/s of parties holding Armenian, 
 Tractarian, and other heretical and unsound views. Even 
 the partial and unsanctioned use both of ^^''^r''^ phrases and 
 hymns in the Church of Scotland, it is now universally 
 confessed, and made evident by the attempts now being 
 made by modern advocates of human hymns to purge them 
 out, has produced the same result. But v. hat is the pro- 
 posed remedy? To substitute others of their ov/n, for 
 whose superiority or soundness in the faith there neither 
 is, nor can be, any permanent security; and these, again, 
 to be superseded when a new party spriijgs up, in the march 
 of real or supposed progress, in its ovm imngination more 
 fitted to provide for the proper wuriilnp of God than all 
 who have gone before them — nay, with reverence be it 
 spoken, than the Spirit of God Himself, "speaking in 
 
90 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 j3sa]ms, and hymns, and spiritual songs," in His own 
 inspired words ! 
 
 The Arminian Methodists, under the leadership of the 
 Wesleys, have largely availed themselves of this source of 
 influence. In regard to the use of it by those who have 
 been the most successful agents of the papacy in Great 
 Britain, the writer last quoted, after specifying and charac- 
 terising the chief writers of hymns in England, adds: — 
 "The Christian Year, by Keble, may be noticed as having 
 contributed, equally with the Tracts for the Times, to the 
 success of the Anglo-Catholic reaction in the Church of 
 England. In these pensive, dreamy, soothing strains, we 
 have the logic of the Oxford schools turned into rhetoric. 
 The academic cloister and the Gothic aisle are the ' haunt 
 and main region' of his song. The white Levitical vestment 
 is his singing-robe, and you listen in the dim religious light 
 to a music like the lulling chime of church-bells." 
 
 To the same effect, and still further illustrating the 
 dangerous and pernicious influence of admitting into any 
 church the use of human hymns in public worship, we have 
 the following statement in the first Essay of the second 
 series of the work entitled, "The Church and the World: 
 Essays on Questions of the day in 1867. By Various Writers. 
 Edited by the Rev. Orhy Shipley, A.M."" The essay is by no 
 less a person than Yfilliam J. E. Bennet, and is headed, 
 " Some eesults of the Tp^actarian Movement." These 
 are stated with no small air of triumph. At p. 13j Mr 
 Bennet says : — 
 
 '' But the Trad, No. 75, brought forward, though, of course, 
 not without objection, the history of the Breviary, and suggested 
 these devotions as a foundation for future books in the JEnglish 
 Church: — 'It will be attempted to ^vl'est a w^eapon out of the 
 adversaries' hands, who have in this^ as well as many otte 
 
PUBLIC WOES HIP OF GOD. 91 
 
 instances, appropriated to themselves a treasure wliicli was ours 
 
 as much as theirs It may suggest character and 
 
 matter for onr private devotions, over and above what our 
 Eeformers have thought fit to adopt into our public services; a 
 use of it, which will be but carrying out and completing what 
 they have begun.' — {Tracts for the Times, No. 75.) In the 
 Breviary, which this tract in great part translated, various 
 hymns of ancient Catholic use are found, and from this source, 
 thus opened out to the Church, arose that immense flood of 
 devotional hymns which now form so popular a part of our 
 services. The Christian Year, in 1827, had led the way; but 
 even this may be justly set down as part of the Tract system, 
 springing as it did from one of their authors; but now, in 
 addition to this, throughout the Missal and the Breviary, many 
 old Latin hymns were quickly selected and adopted for church 
 use. Books of devotion also serving the same purpose Avere 
 issued, as e.g., Avrillon's Guide for Advent and Lent; Nonet's 
 Life of Christ in Glory; Pinart's Nourishment for the Christian 
 Soul; Horst's Paradise of the Christian Soul; and many beau- 
 tiful Litanies derived from ancient sources; the Lyra A-postolica 
 also, and Lyra Innocentium; and subsequently the Lyra 
 Eucharistica and Lyra Messianica; and other works which need 
 not be specified. These and such like books, in prose and poetry, 
 have lielped forward the movement, by training, supporting, 
 and advancing souls in thoughtfulness in meditation, in self- 
 preparation for the kingdom of God." 
 
 Again — 
 
 " Who can look at the services of the Church, when Tate and 
 Brady held sway, varied by Sternhold and Hopkins, and not 
 welcome with joy the cheering hynniody v^'ith which now the 
 Clnirch is full? Who will not look back at his schoolboy days, 
 and the days of his university teaching, if haply they were before 
 the year 1833, and remembering the many trials, temj)tations, 
 and sins which he was compelled to bear Avithout a guide, and 
 without any friendly priest before whom he could open his grief, 
 and not now rejoice to see the Church restored to the Catholic 
 love, the fciithful care, and the Avatchful direction which is 
 everywhere manifested in her renovated priesthood?" 
 
 It is needless to prosecute this subject farther. It is im- 
 possible to read tlie ordinary papers of the day narrating 
 the grotes(jue and puerile, but, withal, pernicious Komani§- 
 
92 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 ing exliibitions of the English Situalists, without perceiving 
 the important part that "hymnals" are made to play for 
 this purpose in their church services. And we may state it 
 as a great general fact that all parties who advocate, and 
 have introduced, the use of human hymns, are either posi- 
 tive advocates, or non-opponents of the introduction of 
 organs, harmoniums, etc., into the public v/orship of God. 
 
 Our space will not admit of more minute detail, else 
 many other proofs might be furnished in the same direction. 
 
 "We must now give two or three specimens of the wa^^ in 
 which such innovators have succeeded. Y7e have already 
 seen how, by dint of perseverance, by the self-interest of 
 printers, as well as by the labours of men neither, remark- 
 able for soundness in the faith nor practical piety or zeal in 
 the Christian life, the matter was managed during the past 
 century in Scotland, and though never receiving any authori- 
 tative sanction, some appearance of a tolerated, though 
 partial, use and wont has been pleaded for innovation in our 
 own psalmody in the present day. 
 
 The most distinct information as" to the introduction of 
 
 liymns into any Presbyterian Church is furnished by the 
 
 follov/ing extract. At the time to vv^hich it refers the Eelief 
 
 v/ere onty a comparatively small body: — 
 
 " As the Church of Scotland had been very confined in her 
 selection, admitting only what were strictly versions of parti- 
 cular portions of Scripture, and as the evangelical portion of the 
 community did not relish some of the improvements of Logan 
 and Blair, the Relief Church resolved to have a hymn bo:)k of its 
 own. Messrs Stev/art, Hutchison, and Dun took the lead in the 
 matter, and, it must be confessed, in somewhat of an unpresby- 
 terian way. They rather led than were guided by the Synod. 
 !Mr Stewart made a selection in 1792 of 180 hymns, which Le 
 printed and introduced into the worship of his church. The 
 opposition was considerable. He had to appoint meetings, to 
 reason the matter with his people. A few, rather than sing 
 
PUBLIC WOr.SIIIP OF GOD. 93 
 
 hymns of human composition, left the church. Hutchison and 
 Dun followed speedily in the wake of Stewart, addino- to his 
 collection a consideralble number of hymns, going over some of 
 the same subjects again, and thus marring the kind of systematic 
 order which had at first been observed. Tlie ice having been 
 broken, an overture was brought into the Synod in 1793 on the 
 subject. It was ordered to be transmitted to the different Presby- 
 teries, and the ministers were required to turn their attention to 
 it, that they might be prepared for its discussion at next meeting 
 of Sjmod. In 1794 the Court agreed to enlarge their psalmody 
 by literal versions of particular portions of Scripture, and also 
 by hymns agreeable to the tenor of the Word of God. A 
 committee v/as appointed to select, collect, and prepare them, and 
 submit them to the Synod for its adoption. Messrs Stev/art, 
 Hutchison, Dun, Strutliers, etc., v/ere appointed, and they found 
 themselves, even at that meeting of Synod, prepared to report. 
 To all appearance, this was barely keeping to the letter of the 
 law, and manifestly breaking it in spirit. As might have been 
 expected, and probably as was understood before their nomin- 
 ation, they recommended the adoption of Mr Stewart's collection, 
 with the additions of Messrs Hutchison and Dun, as being ;i 
 good selection of hymns, and already in use. The Synod 
 adopted their report, and recommended the ministers ' to use the 
 said selection in the praises of God, vdien they found that the 
 same v/ould answer the purposes of edification and peace.' 
 
 " This decision, and the hurried manner in which it was come 
 to, met with very strenuous opposition from tlie Eev. Mr Bell of 
 Dove Hill, Glasgow, who dissented, and gave in his reasons 
 written out at considerable length. He considered paraphrases 
 unnecessary — that the adopting of them opened up the way for 
 endless additions, for if one was adopted, why not another? 
 Besides, it was improper 'to introduce hymns of human composure 
 into the worship of God;' and lastly, the matter had been gone 
 into with too mucli precipitancy. 
 
 " The Synod allowed Mr Eeil's paper to be put on record, and 
 proceeded with their measure, but knowing well his v/eight of 
 character, and that similar sentiments were abroad in their 
 churches, they found it necessary to prefix to their hymn book a 
 preface which contains a very well written defence of the practice 
 of singing hymns in the public worship of God. They acknow- 
 ledged that the Book of Psalms should be preferred to every 
 other, but maintained that there is no reason why Christians 
 should not sing the songs of Isaiah, and of John, as well as those 
 of David and Asaph. From Eph. v. 18, 19, and Col. Jii. 16, 
 
9i PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 they considered that coimtenance was given to the singing hymns 
 and sacred songs, different from the Old Testament Psahns; and, 
 say tliey, it is matter of history, that the first Christians ' sang 
 hymns to Clirist as to God.' If churches use passages of the New 
 Testament in tlieir prayers, wliy not in their praises? In the 
 one case they even frame their addresses to God in tlieir own 
 words, keeping them in accordance with the Bible, and why not 
 in the other? The greater the diversity of spiritual matter in 
 songs of praise the better. It touches the different chords in the 
 human bosom, and thereby promotes devotional feeling. 
 
 " The opposition which at first appeared in various churches, 
 in the course of a few years died away, and the Synod hymn 
 book was very generally adopted." — History of the Else, Pro- 
 gress, and Frinciplcs of the Belief Church. By the Rev. Gavin 
 Struthers, D.D. Glasgow: FuUarton & Co. 1843. Pp. 374- 
 376. 
 
 The Free Church hymnologers are most ludicrously copy- 
 ing this example both in manner and in argument. 
 
 We have no definite information as to the way by which 
 hymns were introduced into the United Secession. The 
 only notices of the subject in Dr M'Kerrow's "History of 
 THE Secession" Church," which we can find, are the follow- 
 ing, vol. il, p. 199:— "The Synod (April, 1748) being 
 desirous to enlarge the psalmody, requested Mr Pvalph 
 Erskine to undertake a translation into metre of the songs 
 in Scripture, with the exception of the Psalms of David." 
 This, it will be observed, did not contemplate the use of 
 "hymns." Again, p. 371, Dr M'Kerrow tells us that a 
 petition was presented by a London congregation to bo 
 allowed "to make a selection of spiritual songs and hymns 
 to be used by their church in the praise of God along with 
 the Psalms of David." The matter was delayed till a future 
 meeting. They resumed the matter in September, 1811, 
 and the whole is so like the present proceedings of the 
 hymn party in the Free Church, that we must give the 
 extract entire; — "In September, 1811, this subject was re- 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 95 
 
 sumecl by tliem; and after some discnssion, tliey were 
 unanimously of opinion that the enlargement of the psal- 
 mody was 'a most desirable and necessary object,' The 
 Synod then agreed that they would take into consideration 
 at their next meeting whether permission might not be 
 given to the congregations under their inspection to make 
 use of the paraphrases and hymns published by the Assem- 
 bly (?) of the Church of Scotland; and, in the meantime, 
 they appointed a numerous committee to consider what 
 corrections it might be necessary to make in these para- 
 phrases and hymns, and whether it might not be proper to 
 make additions to them. This committee reported to the 
 Synod, at their meeting in spring in the following year, 
 that they had particularly examined the paraphrases and 
 hymns of the Church of Scotland (?), and they recommended 
 the appointment of a special committee to make a selection 
 from these and other paraphrases and hymns, for the use of 
 the congregations under their inspection; and, until such a 
 selection be made, that liberty be given to the ministers of 
 the Synod to make use of such of the paraphrases of the 
 Church of Scotland as might appear to them calculated to 
 promote the ends of edification. This recommendation was 
 adopted. A select committee was appointed for the object 
 now specified. Whether the committee made any progress 
 in the business intrusted to them I am unable to state. It 
 does not appear that any report was ever presented by 
 them to the Synod." 
 
 Dr M'Kerrow published his History in 1839, and as Le 
 could then give no further information on the subject, and 
 the negotiations for union with the Belief Church having 
 been begun before this, and the Atonement controversy 
 having sprung up, and caused no small heats and disseu- 
 
96 PUBLIC WOESTIIP OF GOD. 
 
 sions, we may assume that nothing more was done in tlie 
 matter of hymns till after the union of the two bodies in 
 1847; and it does not appear that it was then made a 
 matter of difficulty or even of discussion. We have not 
 ascertained the date of the first publication of the present 
 " Hymn Book of the United Presbyterian Church." We 
 have before us a copy published by William Oliphant & Co., 
 but without a date, and bearing to be " published by autho- 
 rity of the United Presbyterian Synod;'' and recently, we 
 believe, a new contract for the publication has been entered 
 into for live years, so that, of course, if another contem- 
 plated union take place, the Free Church, as in the case, we 
 presume, of the Relief Hymn Book with the Secession, must 
 receive the United Presbyterian book of 403 hymns and 
 22 doxologies as an instalment. 
 
 We have also before us the " Plymn Book" of the 
 "Presbyterian Church in England," authorised in 186G in 
 the following terms: — "The Synod . . . appoint a 
 committee of their number .... to complete the 
 volume for publication, and authorise them to issue it for 
 the use of the congregations within their bounds; and 
 hereby strongly recommend that when hymns are employed 
 in divine worship, this collection be adopted." This is 
 rather a singular minute, plainly implying that congrega- 
 tions have the matter in their own hands, and may use any 
 sort of hymns they please, though these 521 in number are 
 " strongly recommended." 
 
 Some curious discussions and proceedings arose connected 
 with the adoption of this hymn book, as brouglit out in an 
 extensive series of letters, etc., by H. A. M'Fie, Esq., of 
 Liverpool (now M.T. for Leith), all tending to shov/ what we 
 have entered upon this historical resume to prove, viz., that 
 
rUBLIC WOESIIIP OF GOD, 97 
 
 Lymns have almost universally, and so Ur as we have been 
 enabled to trace their history, been introduced into the 
 Presbyterian Church, not from any settled and devout or 
 Scriptural conviction of their religious necessity or import- 
 ance for promoting the great end of public worship — viz., 
 the GLORY OF God — but to gratify the tastes at first of 
 individuals and small parties of persons, chiefly enthusiastic 
 lovers of music, gradually acquiring strength, introducing 
 the innovation on their own authority, and in the long run 
 compelling the Church Courts to yield to their demands, or 
 rend the Church by strifes and divisions. This is certainly 
 the tendency of things by parties in the Free Church, as 
 well as in England. Individuals and knots of individuals 
 take upon themselves to introduce into congregations hymns 
 of their own choosing, nay, print collections, and publish 
 and circulate books of hymns without any authority, form 
 a party, and then defy any Church authority to touch them. 
 This course of conduct merits the strongest condemnation 
 of all who respect Church order and authority. It may bo 
 proof of zeal of a certain kind, but is certainly not consistent 
 with Presbyterianism, nor with Christian wisdom, or Chris- 
 tian love, nor with the respect due to the conscientious 
 convictions of men fully as competent to judge, and certainly 
 as honest and faithful as themselves. 
 
 We have before us " The Scottish Hymnal." It has been 
 prepared by a Committee of the Church of Scotland. We 
 have not the means, without more trouble and loss of time 
 than the benefit to be derived from the search would war- 
 rant, to trace the progress of the agitation that has led to 
 the production of this Hymnal. We may safely say that 
 parties, whether greater or smaller, that have succeeded by 
 mere persistency in introducing organs into the public wor- 
 
 Q 
 
98 
 
 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 ship of God, merely in obedience to popular clamour, at a 
 time when she is afraid to meet such clamour with a firm 
 hand, are not likely to want followers in the same musical 
 line, in insisting on the indulgence of their taste for free 
 scope in the singing of human hymns. 
 
 The "Report" prefixed to the 200 specimens of which 
 the Hymnal consists, details the steps which have been 
 taken in its production, brings out very clearly, in the view 
 of all impartial men, the absurdity of expecting that any 
 set of human hymns, selected by any party prevailing for 
 the time being, can ever satisfy for any length of time 
 any other party that springs up. " The idea," the Report 
 tells us, " of this Hymnal is, that it should represent fairly 
 all lawful and healthy diversity of opinion, feeling, and 
 taste in our national Church." This witness is true, as it 
 shows by selections from Miiman, Keble, and others, Broad 
 Church and High Church, or Tractarian. This is in reality 
 the true spirit of hymn books — utterly sectarian under the 
 j)retence of Broad Church charity. The names of the com- 
 mittee, consisting of gentlemen of all shades of opinion, 
 Ritualistic, Rationalistic, Esthetic, and some Orthodox, are 
 a guarantee that such is the nature of the " Scottish 
 Hymnal," but certainly no guarantee for its Scriptural 
 soundness, and a very sad authority for ruling the public 
 worship of God. 
 
 We may give, in illustration, the following extract from 
 the report, descriptive in fiict of the labours of all similar 
 committees pulling down and patching up according to the 
 taste of the times, but oh, how unlike the everlasting and 
 imchanging fitness of the Psalms of David: — "First of all, 
 two members of committee happened to be working on the 
 subject independently. When their compilations were 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 99 
 
 subsequently compared it was found that there was a very 
 large measure of agreement. This ended in a preliminary 
 volume, which was again and again gone over by the sub- 
 committee in St Andrews, both before and after being put 
 in type. Next, on the 23d March, a general meeting was 
 held, when the hymns were gone over one by one, about 
 forty rejected, twenty added, and a number of minor 
 changes made. At two subsequent meetings of committee, 
 a similar course was followed, but on a smaller scale, as it 
 was seen that the work of the first meeting had brought 
 the collection to represent very nearly the general opinion 
 and taste. The committee have adhered to the principle 
 of giving the text of the hymns, with a very few exceptions, 
 <ay originally written. This plan implies great labour in 
 point of research, but greatly facilitates agreement among 
 the members of committee, and secures real literary per- 
 manency, as compared with the results of any system of 
 arbitrary alterations. 
 
 " As to the number of hymns, probably about 200 will 
 be found needful for any collection that is to embrace all, 
 and only the best hymns. The last edition of ' Hymns for 
 Public Worship ' had 120 (of which 61 are here retained). 
 That 200 is a very moderate number is plain from the 
 following list of other books, which are some of the chief 
 of those used in making the present collection: — Book of 
 Praise, 447 hymns; Book of Praise Hymnal, 320; Lyra 
 Britannica, 6G0; Our Own Hymn Book (Spurgeon), 909; 
 The People's Hymnal, 600; Tract Society's Collection, 300j 
 Congregational Union, 748; Supplement to do., 239; 
 Hymns — Ancient and Modern, 273; The Year of Praise, 
 ?;26'^ Chorale Book (Winkworth), 200; United Presby- 
 
100 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 terian Hymn Book, 468; Bunsen's German Hymn Book, 
 440." 
 
 Beautifully charitable, but beautifully sectarian — a 
 "Hymnal" can be nothing else. It is human and not 
 divine. No wonder that the pious Eomaine said: — "I 
 want a name for that man who should pretend that he 
 could make better hymns than the Holy Ghost." 
 
CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 Ijiimnn; '§^mi\B — |n$tmmcnfiil Sfusk. 
 
 In a previous chapter on this subject we brought down, in 
 a brief review, the historical argument to the Eeformation 
 period in Europe, not because we deemed it necessary to 
 our argument, but to expose the utter want of any proof 
 from it of any authority for the use of human hymns 
 in the public worship of God, in our own or any 
 other church. Except for the necessity of consulting 
 brevity, we might have given most interesting additional 
 information as to the history of psalmody, both on the con- 
 tinent of Europe, in England, and in Scotland, where, at a 
 very early period of the history of the Reformation, the 
 Psalms of David, in the mother tongues, were introduced into 
 the public worship of the Church, and largely sung publicly, 
 and even privately, by all ranks, from the prince down to 
 the peasant, and the artizan. But we have not the slightest 
 proof that human hymns were ever used for this purpose. 
 Much most valuable information on this head will be found 
 in two numbers of Blackwood's Magazine for April and 
 May, 1818, The writer, whoever he was, had a complete 
 knowledge of the subject; and the articles show great learn- 
 ing and research, and a much higher and much juster 
 appreciation of the Psalms of David, and our several ver- 
 sions of them in England and Scotland, than some of our 
 
102 PUBLIC WOESTJIP OP GOD. 
 
 modern advocates for human hymns in the public worship 
 of the sanctuary. 
 
 We may finish this part of the subject by the following 
 summary: — 
 
 "It appears from these statements, 1st, That nothing but 
 inspired songs were sung in the Church in the earliest times. 
 2d, That the introduction of hymns of human composition was 
 an innovation introduced into the Christian Church after she 
 had entered on a course of declension, which not only met with 
 opposition, but was condemned by a Council of the Church so 
 late as the year 561. 3d, That it was by the abettors of error 
 that this was most practised, and that one reason why this was 
 dreaded by the orthodox, was the use which was made of it for 
 diffusing heretical opinions. 4th, That it was not till so late a 
 Council as that of Toledo in 633, when it is generally admitted 
 that Popery had become full blown, that it came to be approved 
 of. 5th, That even then it was not defended by an appeal to 
 apostolic authority, or as sanctioned by the practice of the early 
 fathers of the Church; on the contrary, it is admitted that it had 
 no countenance from antiquity, and the poetical compositions 
 reconnuended are of no earlier date than the fourth century, in 
 which Ambrose and Hilary flourished. Moreover, it is by an 
 appeal to other innovations, such as forms of prayer and liturgies, 
 that the new practice is sought to be vindicated, and by such a 
 trifling argument as that the hymns and doxolog'ies taken from 
 Scripture were not wholly free from human additions, which 
 they could scarcely be, unless they were sung in Hebrew. The 
 question now at issue, or which is practically agitated, is not 
 whether other poetical parts of Scripture, as well as the Psalms 
 of David, may be sung in the public worship of God, but whether 
 in public praise the Church is to employ only the inspired songs 
 with which we are furnished in the Scriptures, or hymns oi 
 human composition or loose paraphrases of Scripture, which, if 
 things progress as they are doing, threaten to supplant the 
 Psalms or put them in the shade in most of the churches. 
 AVhere, then, do the abettors of the practice of employing hymns 
 of human composition in the public praise of God find their 
 warrant for this? In the Bible? No, it is not to be found 
 there. In the practice of the Christian Church in the days of 
 her greatest purity? No; the evidence of anything of this kind 
 in her best days is wanting; yea, the opposite, we find, is fur- 
 nished. Where, then, is it found? In the same source to which 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OP GOD. 103 
 
 Puseyites have gone to find stepping-stones to carry them back 
 to Popery." 
 
 In the conclusion of our first chapter on this subject, wo 
 said that we hoped in some succeeding pages to apply the 
 principles above discussed and laid down to the questions 
 of human hymns and instrumental music in the public 
 worship of God, and to examine the alleged Scriptural and 
 historical arguments in their favour, both in earlier and 
 later times. This we have now done in relation to human 
 hymns; and shall proceed, in a few remarks, to apply the 
 principles and facts to the question of instrumental musio 
 in the public worship of God. 
 
 All Presbyterians who acknowledge the Westminster 
 Confession of Faith as the confession of their faith, must 
 receive the canon already so often adduced in these pages, 
 viz., that nothing is to be introduced into the public wor* 
 ship of God but vv^hat " is prescribed in the Holy Scrip- 
 tures." We have applied this principle to the question of 
 human hymns, and have proved that it excludes them from 
 the public worship of God, as having neither authority nor 
 warrant, either by express words, by necessary inference, or 
 approved example. Does the same principle exclude the 
 use of instrumental music in the public v/orship of God? 
 
 The answer to this question involves a slight modification 
 in the application of the canon of the Westminster Confes- 
 sion of Faith, from that of its application to the question 
 of human hymns, inasmuch as there is no shadow of Scrip- 
 ture warrant for the use of the latter in the Church of 
 Christ, either Old Testament or New; though there is an 
 apparent Scripture authority for the use of instrumental 
 music; we say apparent, because we can show that though 
 sanctioned in the worship of the Old Testament, under the 
 
104 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 then existing dispensation, in a system that was never in- 
 tended to " remain," but to " pass away," and involving no 
 moral perennial principle applicable, or even practicable to 
 all churches, and nations, and all states and duties of the 
 Church, whether missionary or fully gathered and organ- 
 ized, it is no authority to us under the now existing Christian 
 dispensation. Before entering on this, we are willing to 
 make the following admission, viz. : — that if human hymns 
 be sanctioned in the public worship of God, those who 
 sanction them cannot on any Scriptural ground object to 
 the same use of organs, or any kind of instrumental music. 
 Though both we hold to be contrary to the principles we 
 have laid down, yet we believe that the use of human hymns 
 is more objectionable than that of mere mechanical instru- 
 ments; and if you allow the former, you cannot refuse the 
 latter. The desire for both we believe to be very much 
 humanistic and aesthetic, rather than divine, and dictated 
 by the love — we do not say of the sensuous, but of the 
 musical. The use of mechanical instruments in the worship 
 of God, though not prescribed in Holy Scripture, and there- 
 fore contrary to the canon we have laid down, and mani- 
 festly conveying no tribute of rational praise to the Almighty, 
 nor divine instruction to the worshipper, yet can convey no 
 dangerous, sectarian, or heretical instruction. 
 
 Instead, therefore, of allowing any force to the allegation 
 made in the outset of this hymn controversy in the Free 
 Church, that the introduction of hymns had nothing to do 
 with the question of instrumental music, and the intro- 
 duction of organs to the Free Church, we hold, on the 
 contrary, independently of the fact, that those who adopt 
 the one almost always contend for the other; that instru- 
 mental music has some show of Scripture authority, while 
 
fUBLTC WORSHIl? OF GOD. 105 
 
 liiiman hymns have none; and once admitted, you cannot, 
 on any ground of principle, resist the introduction of the 
 organ, harmonium, sackbut, dulcimer, or psaltery, and, as 
 is frequent in England, flute, fife, or fiddle. In fact, the 
 use of human hymns in the public worship of the sanc- 
 tuary may be most pernicious. They have been so, may 
 be so, and are so in numerous instances; and in their very 
 nature are sectarian — injurious to the communion of saints 
 — as necessarily conveying the sentiments of those who 
 compose and adopt them, and not necessarily the truths or 
 sentiments of the Inspired Record. This we have already 
 demonstrated. 
 
 We venture to quote the following additional specimen 
 of what may be done, and is done, by the use of human 
 hymns, and which never could be done if the principles we 
 advocate were maintained and acted upon: — 
 
 PEENICIOUS NONSENSE. 
 
 (To the Editor of the Times.) 
 
 SiR^ — Mr Gr. F. Lee, of Biredorium Anglicanum celebrity, 
 writes to disclaim any connection with the Haydock Pig's Head 
 and Pat of Butter " Function." 
 
 Perhaps your readers would be glad to know what connec- 
 tion the service described in the annexed extract has Avith that 
 book to which Mr Lee has, I presume, sworn to conform — the 
 Book of Common Prayer. 
 
 Sept. 17. ^ F. G. B. 
 
 " Eleventh Anniversary of the A.P.U.C. 
 
 " The Annual Commemoration commenced with Even-song at 
 All Saints' Church (Mr Lee's), Lambeth, on the Eve of the 
 Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary." (Here follows a most 
 extraordinary farago of Popish puerility, and then the following 
 hymn was sung as the processional) : — 
 
106 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 *' * Hail ! of light and joy the day, 
 
 Told of yore by sages: 
 Clouds of doubt have passed away, 
 
 After darkest ages. 
 Wave the censer ! chant the song, 
 
 Loudly swell its chorus; 
 IMary's banner, borne along, 
 
 Floats in triumph o'er us. 
 
 " ' Type to fact hath given place. 
 
 Gifts for every station; 
 Ave! Lady, full of grace, 
 
 Mother of salvation! 
 This her natal-day, who came, 
 
 Sun of Justice bringing, 
 Praise her work and love her name, 
 
 Rend'ring God thanksgiving. 
 
 " ' Fairest Pearl of Time's broad sea, 
 
 Brightest Star of even. 
 More and better love we Thee, 
 
 Queen of earth and heaven! 
 Lead Thou to Thy Son and God, 
 
 Drear the way before us; 
 He Himself that path hath trod. 
 
 And His love is o'er us. 
 
 " ' Intercede when sin is strong, 
 
 Christ thy voice is heeding: 
 Desert tracks are parch'd and long. 
 
 Our desires misleading: 
 Pray a prayer that rise we may 
 
 When we fall or stumble; 
 So we wait the break of day. 
 
 Trusting, patient, humble. 
 
 "As times festal come and go, 
 Autumn's tints are warning, 
 
 Faith, and love, and hope must grow 
 For great Easter's dawning. 
 
 Thy sweet smile is for us stili, 
 Victors homeward wending. 
 
 Then stand round God's holy hill- 
 Share the song unending.'" 
 
 Eut wliile holding this opinion, we do not admit that the 
 use of instrumental music in the public worship of God is 
 authorised, much less "prescribed" to us in the Holy 
 Scripture. No more can be pleaded for it than for the 
 ceremonial worship of the Old Testament, now done away 
 in Christ, and by our Lord's direct authority in his inter- 
 view with the woman of Samaria in these words: " Woman, 
 believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this 
 
PUELTC WORSHIP OF GOD. 107 
 
 mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worsliip the Father. . . 
 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers 
 shall worship Him in spirit and in truth; for the Father 
 seeketh such to worship Him," — words which are as appli- 
 cable to organs as to the temple worship, as neither the one 
 nor the other can be carried and planted and set up in every 
 place, and at all times at which the heralds of salvation obey 
 the command, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
 gospel to every creature, baptising them in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching 
 them to observe all things, whatsoever I command you." 
 
 An answer to alleged Scripture authority for instruments 
 is well expressed by Dr Candlish. He says: — " I believe that 
 it is a question which touches some of the highest and deepest 
 points of Christian theology. Is the temple destroyed 1 Is 
 the temple worship wholly superseded 1 Have we, or have 
 we not, priests and sacrifices among us now? Is the temple 
 or the synagogue the model on which the Church of the 
 New Testament is formed 1 Does the Old Testament itself 
 point to anything but ' the fruit of the lips ' as the peace- 
 offering or the thank-offering of gospel times ? Is there a, 
 trace in the New Testament of any other mode of i^raise 1 
 For my part, I am persuaded that if the organ be admitted, 
 there is no barrier, in principle, against the sacerdotal system 
 in all its fulness — against the substitution again, in our 
 whole religion, of the formal for the spiritual, the symboli- 
 cal for the real." 
 
 At all times, and in all places, you carry the psalms as 
 easily as the gospels, and can sing the psalms as easily as 
 you can read the gospels. This is all in the spirit of a 
 religion fitted and intended to be universal, for the glory of 
 God, and the salvation of man in every clime, in every age, 
 whether in relation to savage or to sage. 
 
108 PUBLIC WOESHIP OF GOD. 
 
 We do not tliink it necessary to enter at largo into tlie 
 argument against the use of organs or instrumental music 
 in the worship of God. We have already shown that no 
 Presbyterian adopting in sincerity, and above all, no minister 
 of any church who in good faith has signed the Westminster 
 Confession as the confession of his faith, can run in the 
 teeth of the canon which declares that nothing is to be in- 
 troduced into the public worship of God which is " not 
 prescribed in Holy Scripture." 
 
 Our views on this subject will be found stated pretty 
 fully in an article in the Waichword for August, 1866, 
 and which we beg here to insert. It is headed, "The 
 Use of Organs and other Instruments of Music in Chris- 
 tian Worship Indefensible," and is written in connection 
 with a notice of a v/ork of Dr Begg of Edinburgh, 
 republishing a very valuable "Treatise on the Organ 
 Question," by Dr Begg's father, the late venerable and able 
 Dr James Begg, of Newmonkland, written at the time of 
 the Organ Controversy in the West of Scotland, in 1808: — 
 
 Our limited space prevents our giving a notice of this 
 important work suited to its merits. It discusses the 
 subject of instrumental music in Christian worship in its 
 various bearings — Scriptural, historical, practical, and con- 
 stitutional — as well as in its existing relations to the Churches 
 of the Eeformation. It establishes on a clear ground what 
 no Presbyterian can directly deny, viz., the great principle, 
 that nothing is to be introduced into the w^orship of God, 
 but what God Himself has " prescribed in Holy Scripture." 
 Any other principle in a matter affecting our immediate 
 approach to the throne of the Eternal, and our communion 
 with the Majesty of heaven and earth, the God of salvation, 
 and the Judge of all, whether in the matter of praise or 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 100 
 
 prayer, seems to us as contrary to all riglit notions even of 
 natural religion and common sense, as of sj^iritual Chris- 
 tianity. That God should be supposed to be pleased with 
 the frivolous sesthetics of frivolous men, (and the more 
 gravely put forth and pompously practised, the more 
 frivolous and puerile they are,) seems to us one of the 
 strangest vagaries into which men of piety and intelligence 
 have ever fallen. This is one among a multitude of other 
 proofs, that in matters affecting the Most High God, His 
 worship and service, and the way of acceptance v/ith Him, 
 the most highly cultivated, and the most superstitious and 
 barbarous, are much on a level — viz., the mere subjects of 
 the sensuous more or less refined, or more or less rude and 
 barbarous. We shall, in the sequel, briefly advert to the 
 way in which this portion of Dr Begg's volume has been 
 attempted to be dealt with. The whole volume is pervaded 
 with the sound theology, fulness of Scripture knowledge, 
 strong sense, shrewd sagacity, calm unruffled temper; but 
 withal, when occasion requires, racy humour and keen 
 satire, so characteristic of the pen of its esteemed author. 
 
 We cannot forbear singling out of this interesting volume 
 for special recommendation, the admirable " Treatise on the 
 Organ Question," by Dr Begg's father; the late venerable 
 Dr James Begg of Newmonkland, written at the time of the 
 organ controversy in the West of Scotland in 1808. It is 
 an able and learned discussion of the whole question, in the 
 clear, vigorous, terse, and manly style of that eminent 
 minister, to Vv^hose ministrations we had in early youth 
 the privilege of listening, glad to escape by a walk of four 
 miles from the dreamy essays of the Moderate in whose 
 district it was our lot to reside. 
 
 We cannot close this brief notice without callin"; atten- 
 
110 
 
 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 tion to an article professing to be a review of " The Organ 
 Question, Pro and Con,'' in the British and Foreign 
 Evangelical Review for July, 1866. 
 
 We deeply regret that of late this periodical, so powerful 
 in the hands of Dr Cunningham, has in a variety of articles 
 assumed a tone of easy-going liberalism on certain questions, 
 which to our minds is neither Scottish nor Presbyterian, 
 and, what is more serious, not always very high toned in 
 Scriptural argument. We fear that certain offshoots of 
 Scottish Presbyterianism in England are not making good 
 progress. We should like to see how they would look before 
 the shades of John Knoz and Thomas M'Crie. We do not, 
 however, affirm, because we believe the reverse, that the 
 writer of the article in question is domiciled in England. It 
 bears the marks of a certain school, who profess to be 
 intimately acquainted with Pliny's letter and Paul of 
 Samosata, and to whom the discovery of a hymn or an 
 organ in any so-called Christian congregation, orthodox or 
 heretical, in the second or third century, would be as great 
 a windfall a.s the remains of a wreck to some starving 
 islanders. The writer professes to give the pros and cons of 
 the question of organs as an impartial critic; and as the 
 most outstanding proof of the impartiality of this self- 
 constituted umpire, he devotes nine pages to the statement 
 of Dr Begg's arguments and illustrations, and eighteen pages 
 to his o'wn perco7itras. We have no faith in such 
 impartiality, even when maintained "intact" by "inverted 
 commas," and no reliance on the arguments of any writer 
 who does not openly and honestly declare his own 
 convictions. 
 
 This candid critic endeavours to lay on Dr Begg the blame 
 of raising a controversy on the subject, whilst his own review 
 
PUBLIC WOESIIIP OP GOD. Ill 
 
 is headed by two other publications issued in 1856, ten 
 years ago; whilst he cannot also fail to know that since that 
 period, organs have been tolerated in the English Presbyterian 
 Church, amidst periodical controversies on the subject; 
 whilst the United Presbyterian presbyteries of London and 
 Carlisle lately overtured in favour of organs; whilst the 
 Church of Scotland is now ringing with organs; whilst 
 we are told by him that a party in the Free Church are 
 determined to have organs introduced. He does not tell us 
 of what elements this latter party consists, whether any 
 ministers or professors are in its ranks — men who have 
 solemnly sworn that they will *' follow no di7isive courses 
 from the worship as presently practised," but will, " to the 
 utmost of their power," defend and maintain it. Plad these 
 particulars been given, we should have been better able to 
 estimate the moral position and consistency of the party in 
 question, if it does exist But meantime it is clear that the 
 controversy did not require to be raised, and was not raised 
 by Dr Begg, but that a volume in defence of sound Christian 
 principles of worship, however distasteful to this "impartial'* 
 critic, was highly seasonable and necessary,* 
 
 The following, in reference to this Free Church party, is 
 the language of a partizan, whose "wish is father to the 
 thought." We have been much accustomed of late to this kind 
 of thunder, by the advocates of change, and account it a 
 slander on the Free Church. The writer says — " Anyhow, 
 
 * The device of the reviewer is an okl one on the part of the organ 
 innovators. Dr Munro, of Manchester, complains of it in his speech, 
 published in 1857. His words are — " It is certainly a bold species of 
 tactics for the advocates of those parties who have introduced a new 
 element into our worship, and thus thrown into our courts and con- 
 gregations a bone of contention, to charge us who are resisting the 
 admission and retention of this novel element, with disturbing the 
 peace of the Chui'ch." 
 
112 PUELIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 it is the beginning within the Free Church of Scotland of a' 
 strife of which we may not see the end. A challenge thus 
 boldly given to all, and every one within her pale — and 
 their number is notoriously not small — v/ho conscientiously 
 deem instrumental aids in worship neither unscriptural nor 
 unlawful, can scarcely fail, we fear, (we hope?) to be ere 
 long taken up by some like eager, and better furnished 
 combatant on the other side." And yet this is the language 
 of a writer who can follow it up with the words, *' We would 
 desire to be considered as taking our place, not at the bar, 
 but on the judicial bench." We fear the writer desires in 
 this more than sensible men will grant. 
 
 His very first statement of the argument of Dr Begg, and 
 those who hold his views, is a mis-statemeut. Their thesis 
 is not as he affirms. " 1. That the use of instrumental aids 
 in Christian worship is unauthorised by the Word of God." 
 Stating it thus he has a very easy task in hand, as easy as to 
 show that animal sacrifices were authorised by the Word of 
 God. But their thesis is that instrumental music is not 
 ^^ py^escribed in Holy Scripture," in Christian worship. If 
 he maintains the propriety of the use of instrumental music 
 in the worship of God, he is, as a Christian and Presbyterian, 
 bound to show that it is " prescribed in Holy Scripture " to 
 the N"ew Testament Church. This he will not attempt. 
 But he should, as sitting on the "judicial bench," have 
 declared that this Dr Begg's opponents were bound to 
 prove. 
 
 The article has one advantage, that it shows how very 
 little the most eager and painstaking criticism can do to 
 make out an argument for the use of organs in Christian 
 worship: — 
 
 1st. It admits and cannot deny that there was no organ 
 in the synagogue worship. 
 
PUBLIC Y/ORSIIIP OF GOr>. 113 
 
 2 . It admits and cannot deny that there wasj no such 
 thmg as an organ heard of, in Christian worship, for six or 
 seven hundred years after the birth of Christ. 
 
 3d. It admits and cannot deny that the use of organs in 
 Christian worship was condemned by the early Christian 
 fathers, even down to the time of Augustine. 
 
 4th. It admits and cannot deny that the organ was con- 
 demned by the divines of the Reformation, and even 
 denounced in the homilies of the Church of England. It 
 tries to turn the edge of these outstanding facts by a special 
 pleading addressed to men's sesthetic tastes and imaginings, 
 and couched in high sounding language, fit for the latitude 
 of Rome or Vienna^ We think the writer might offer his 
 next contribution to the Duhlin Review. We promise him a 
 cordial welcome — we could almost point out an easy channel 
 of access. 
 
 There is only one pa-rt of his defence of organs which v/o 
 shall notice, viz., the attempt to turn aside the Scriptural 
 argument as maintained by Dr Bsgg and others. In truth, 
 the attempt has been anticipated in substance already. The 
 writer saj's on the "con" to Dr Begg, but the " conamore" 
 to his opponents — " 1. As to the question of Scriptural 
 authority. It is so far at least satisfactory, that by the 
 admission alike of all, instrumental aid in the worship of 
 God had once at least a divine sanction." An umpire on 
 the "judicial bench" should be impassable to "satisfaction" 
 or " dissatisfiiction." But we meet this statement as a 
 pleading for such "aid" by the fact that Abel's sacrifice of a 
 firstling of the flock had a divine sanction. May similar 
 sacrifices now be lawfully regarded as having divine 
 sanction in the Cliristian congregation? The same answer 
 jiieets all that is said about the use of musical instruments 
 
 U 
 
114 PUBLIC WOllSniP OF GOD. 
 
 in the psalms; — organs, timbrels, loud cymbals in the dance 
 —for the same psalms say, (Psal. Ixvi. 13, 15.) " I will go 
 into thy house with burnt-offerings. ... I will offer 
 unto thee burnt-offerings of fatlings, with the incense of 
 rams; I will offer bullocks with goats." If the argument 
 be good, go through with it. We demur to the definition 
 by the writer of the word psalm, but have not space to 
 refute it. One curiosity in this line we must notice. The 
 writer says : — 
 
 " Without it (aid of instruments) you cannot sing one of 
 the longer psalms through at all, the 18th or the S9th, for 
 instance, not to speak of that grand and impressive utterance, 
 which alone can do those matchless productions of the 
 Divine Spirit justice. In point of fixct, they never are thus 
 sung — sung continuously to the end, sung as their divine 
 Author gave them, without such aid." 
 
 Did the Reviewer ever hear them thus sung even with 
 such aid ? And does he seriously believe that any Chiistlan 
 congregation, even as a musical treat, would listen from day 
 to day while the great organ of Haarlem itself played through 
 the 119th Psalm? Yet this is the argument that is to settle 
 the question of organs in the Christian congregation ! The 
 writer says again: — 
 
 *' The argument from the Confession of Faith must stand 
 or fall with that from Holy Scripture. The prohibition of 
 any form or mode- of worship not appointed in the Word, 
 manifestly can have no bearing on a practice which, as we 
 have shown, has the express recognition in the Divine 
 Scriptures. It is explicitly sanctioned in the Old Testament, 
 and it is not forbidden in the New." 
 
 On this we can only remark briefly, in addition to what we 
 have already stated — 
 
rUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 115 
 
 The Confession of Faith, says nothing on the subject 
 directly; although, as Dr Begg has proved, it condemns, and 
 was intended to condemn, the use of instruments by impli- 
 cation, as well as all other Popish corruptions of Christian 
 worship. It states on ground of Scripture, the great prin- 
 ciple that to make anything lawful, the organ or anything 
 else, it must be "prescribed in Holy Scripture." Is this 
 admitted ? If so, and if organs were authorised and pre- 
 scribed, and must so continue, then the Christian Church for 
 800 years openly resisted the direct command of God. Our 
 Church has done so since the Reformation, and our ministers 
 all swear that they will defend this. Our missionaries do 
 the same, and the Church must now no more send forth 
 her missionary army without a band of well-appointed 
 organists, and a train of noble organs, than our armies must 
 go forth against our enemies without their trained bands of 
 artillerymen, and guns of scientific size and form. 
 
 We may make one remark on the averment that the use 
 of musical instruments in the worship of God is not con- 
 demned in the doctrinal creeds of the Reformation, not even 
 in Scotland. "Doctrinal creeds" deal with matters of 
 doctrine; and the Confession of Faith lays down the 
 doctrine that nothing is to be introduced into the worship of 
 God but v/hat is "prescribed in Holy Scripture." Does 
 the writer expect "doctrine" to be illustrated by every 
 detail of musical instruments, crosses, incense, dancing, etc., 
 etc.? Does he really believe, in opposition to the clearest 
 facts, that the Reformed Church of Scotland had neither 
 opinion nor feeling on the subject of instrumental music in 
 worship? It is painful to have to expose this small 
 sophistry. 
 
 We are sorry v;e have not space to expose the fiUlacies 
 
11 G PUELIC WORSHIP or GOD. 
 
 involved in tlie attempt to drag in the autliority of recent 
 proceedings in the Free Presbytery of Glasgow, as sanction- 
 ing the writer's perverted use of Old Testament authority. 
 Because that Presbytery asserted some use of the Old 
 Testament, and especially its authority in the ten command- 
 ments of the moral law — since most of its members hold 
 that all moral principles therein divinely enjoined, and all 
 moral social duties therein divinely approved — are binding 
 still, and refused to admit that every jot and tittle of it is 
 annulled, abrogated, abolished, therefore they must be held 
 to the proposition that all, even outward and ceremonial 
 things, in every point and particular, not excepting, we 
 suppose, " blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and 
 goat's hair, and ram's skins dyed red, and badgers' skins," 
 etc., etc., not specially forbidden in the New Testament, are 
 lawful and authorised in the worship of God in the 
 Christian Church ! ! We doubt if they will unanimously 
 agree to such a use of their views. God in His 
 providence determined the whole question by destroying 
 Jerusalem and its temple, scattering its people, and 
 making it impossible for the followers of Christ to 
 continue a sectarian worshij^, depending on any mere 
 material accompaniments, and practically demonstrating 
 that His people may and ought to " worship Him in spirit 
 and in truth," in every place j and at ail times, where two 
 or three can meet together. "VYe would humbly advise the 
 proper occupier of the "judicial" chair of the British and 
 Foreign Evangelical lieview to put in his protest against 
 doctrines that open the way clear, broad, and unentangled 
 — we do not say to all the pomp of Prelacy, but to the 
 whole ritual of Eomc itself. Its outward paraphernalia are 
 not expressly prohibited in the New Testament. The way 
 
PUBLIC WOESniP OF GOD. 117 
 
 to Rome is open if tlie doctrines of this article can be 
 maintained; and liowever subversive of our whole Presby- 
 terian principles this theory may be, it is at all times most 
 agreeable to corrupt human nature, and especially, to 
 the musical fraternity of this self-gratifying age, vastly 
 inviting. Rome will not come to us, but we can go to her. 
 
 The article winds up by giving under five heads what it 
 calls the status questionis, which is preceded by a disclaimer 
 of giving "any decided judgment in the case, either for or 
 against." Yet with strange self-deception, every statement 
 plainly indicates the leanings of the writer, rather than the 
 actual state of the question; and that, too, with tolerable 
 bitterness. One question he has not raised, viz., Does God 
 command, or demand, of all men, poor or rich, to worship 
 Him with such instruments of music as they can procure — 
 organs, fiddles, fiutes, bagpipe, or Jews-harps, as the case 
 may be; for no man can tell what was the actual form of 
 the musical instruments of tlie Jews 1 Unless the advocates 
 for instrumental music in the worship of God take up the 
 ground that the rich and poor must worship separately, and 
 that the gratification of using organs is for the rich alone, 
 they cannot suppose our words a caricature. 
 
 Finally, if the state of the question be, What is most likely 
 to minister gratification to the mere love of pleasant sounds, 
 common to man with beasts and birds? then the organists 
 must carry the day. But if the question with a human soul 
 be, Is my communion with God in praise best maintained by 
 raising my spirit with my own voice to God, or in being 
 distracted by the sound of an instrument played, it may be, 
 and generally is, by a godless hand? we shall leave our 
 readers to decide it. We strongly advise Presbyterians to 
 study Dr Begg's volume. We should like to see a deliberate 
 
118 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOT). 
 
 and detailed attempt to answer it on Scriptural grounds; 
 but inasmuch as honesty is better than aesthetics, we should 
 like to see this attempt made by one who shall make it plain 
 that he has the courage and honesty to follow out his 
 conviction, and who shall, at least, come into court with 
 clean hands. 
 
 In connection with this, we beg also strongly to recom- 
 mend a publication entitled: "The Organ Question: State- 
 ments hy Dr Ritchie and Br Porteous fw and, against the use 
 of the Organ in Public Worship, in the proceedings of the 
 Presbytery of Glasgow, 1807-8; with an Introductory Notice 
 by Robert S. Candlish, D.D., Edinburgh. Edinburgh: 
 Johnstone dh Hunter. London: Groombridge db Sons; J. 
 Nisbet <b Co. 1856:' 
 
 From the "Introductory Notice by Dr Candlish," we 
 beg leave to make the following additional extracts: — 
 
 " I wish I had for a httle the quiet ear of our friends who are 
 occasioning, if I may not say causing, the discussion of this 
 subject in Presbyterian Church Courts. I would like to point 
 out to them the very serious responsibility which they unwit- 
 tingly incur. I am not easily frightened by the name of schism, 
 nor would I frighten others, but there can be no harm in a timely 
 warning; and the warning is timely, at any rate, for as yet no 
 one, I believe, is irrevocably committed. 
 
 "In the first place, let the peculiar constitution of Presbyterian 
 Churches be kept in view. Where Congregationalism prevails, 
 either avovredly, as among the great body of English Noncon- 
 formists, or virtual^, as in the English Establishment, unifor- 
 mity of worship is not necessarily a condition of union. Among 
 our Independent brethren great diversity may be tolerated, for 
 no one is responsible for what another does; and in the Church 
 of England all sorts of hymns are allowed, and the service is 
 conducted in all sorts of styles, from the richest ritualism to the 
 baldest and barest routine. On the Congregational system, 
 every pastor with his people may take his own way — one using 
 instrumental music, and another condemning the use of it — and 
 yet the harmony of any association they form among themselves 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 119 
 
 may remain unbroken. This may or may not be a recommend- 
 ation of that system. That is not now the question. It is 
 enough to say that it is inconsistent with Presbyterianisni. 
 Those Presbyterians who disapprove, on conscientious and Scrip- 
 tural grounds, of a particular mode of worship — as, for instance, of 
 the organ — cannot divest themselves of responsibility by merely 
 excluding it from their own congregations. They are bound t(j 
 resist the introduction of it in all the other congregations of the 
 Church as Avell as in their own. 
 
 " Hence I would suggest, in the second place, the impossi- 
 bility of the question, if it be once raised, being left to the deci- 
 sion of individual kirk-sessions or congregations. It is easy, of 
 course, for those who are ready to sanction the use of instru- 
 mental music, or who reckon it a matter of indifference, to con- 
 sent to its being left as an open c|uestion, on which congregations 
 may agree to differ from one another. But if there be any, as 
 there undoubtedly are many, in all the British Presbyterian 
 Churches, who, rightly or wrongly, have come to entertain strong 
 convictions against the lawfulness of the practice, it is impossible 
 for them to acquiesce in the introduction of it, even in congre- 
 gations to which they do not themselves belong. On Presby- 
 terian principles, it is unreasonable to ask them to do so. A 
 controversy in the Courts of the Church becomes in these cir- 
 cumstances inevitable; and if it is an unnecessary controversy — 
 if it is a controversy which on either side might be com- 
 promised or avoided without violence to conscience — it involves 
 more or less the guilt of schism, or at least of what tends to 
 schism." 
 
 " All who are conscientiously opposed to it, who regard it aa 
 inexpedient and unlaAvful, unauthorised and unscriptural, nmst 
 feel themselves bound, as Presbyterians, to do their utmost 
 against a proposal to have it even tolerated. In their own 
 judgment it is an act of will- worship; and there is no plea of 
 conscience on the other side to which they might be bound to 
 let their own judgment defer. Nay, were it ultimately settled 
 by a majority of the Church collective, that the question should 
 be left an open one, still, in the face of a minority holdirig a 
 decided opinion on the subject, peace would be impossible. The 
 controversy would be handed down to kirk-sessions and congre- 
 gations, disputes would be interminable, and, in all probability, 
 almost as often as a party of strong-minded instrimientalists 
 succeeded in erecting an organ-loft, and displaying the ' kist o' 
 ivJnstles,^ some unmanageable handful of impracticable psalm- 
 singers would be driven away in sore disgust, to set up a taber- 
 
ho 
 
 PUBLIC WORSHIP OP GOD. 
 
 nacle of their own, where they might lift up their uiiaidecl voices 
 in the praise of God, after the good old fashion of their 
 fathers." 
 
 Again — 
 
 " Surely, if we must fall oat amonor ourselves, we might find 
 some worthier cause, in a day of rebuke and blasphem}-, than a 
 wrangle about such a poor innovation on our hereditary mode of 
 worship as our organic friends are for introducing. That .it is 
 an innovation, no intelligent man can deny; for I will not con- 
 descend to recognise intelligence in any man who at this time 
 of day would quibble about pitch-pipes and tuning-forks, or who 
 could make game of the whole affair by some abstract and 
 recondite disquisition on the identity of wind instruments, 
 whether livimr or dead." 
 
 Without determining whether the " kist o' whistles" men 
 or the "psalm-singers" are the "strong-minded men" in 
 any other sense than the wilful men, we remark that these 
 statements of Dr Candlish are as applicable to the question 
 of hymns now raised in the Free Church as to the question of 
 organs. We do not think it out of place here to call, and 
 to press upon the attention of those throughout our 
 country, whether in the Highlands or Lowlands, who 
 object to both, what they must expect if once the United 
 Presbyterians are joined to the Free Church, carrying with 
 them their book of 468 hymns, and some doxologies, and 
 their organ party, Dr Cairns at the head of them, as the 
 following facts will show, viz., that when the organ ques- 
 tion was discussed at the meeting of Synod, May, 1867, as 
 reported in the Daily Review, May 15, 136 members voted 
 for immediate permission to set up organs, and 232 voted 
 it was inexpedient in present circumstances (during Union 
 negotiations); Dr Cairns being in the majority, declared 
 that, as he had voted with those who held the views 
 
Public worship of god. I2l 
 
 of the minority nine years ago, but he held them still, 
 and cidded, "And which, if I were on the floor of any 
 united churcJi, I would state afresh, and endeavour, to 
 the best of my ability, to defend." We ask, what con- 
 fidence can be placed in men conducting negotiations 
 for union, avowing one set of principles at one time, 
 putting them aside at another, and resuming them again 
 when a "more convenient season arises?" and that, too, 
 after avowing, as they did in the Union Committee, 
 their acceptance of the words of the Confession of Faith, 
 that nothing was to be introduced into the public worship 
 of God but what is " prescribed in Holy Scripture." In 
 the course of the debate, Dr M'Ewan of Glasgow, who 
 proposed the motion to grant the prayer of certain memo- 
 rialists for liberty to set up organs, censured the policy of 
 delay, and most pertinently counselled " outspoken can- 
 dour," intimating that their " policy " would not shut the 
 mouths of "Dr Begg and Dr Gibson." This witness is 
 true. We wish we could say that it was true of certain 
 other Free Church men who seem willing to act on the 
 ** policy " of Dr Cairns. 
 
 Dr R. Buchanan has expressed similar views to those of 
 Dr Candlish. It is with deep grief we are forced, how- 
 ever, to say, from the ease with which some of our friends 
 have consented to make "open questions," and to find 
 no difficulty with differences in matters of faith and doc- 
 trine, which we deem fundamental, and which they once 
 strenuously maintained and contended for, that we hardly 
 expect they will make any stand, either on the question 
 of human hymns, or instrumental music, in the public 
 worship of God, which they will assert, as they have 
 done of the doctrine of the civil magistrate, and as some 
 
122 PUBLIC WOESHIP OF GOD. 
 
 occupying no inferior position have asserted of the doe- 
 trine of the Extent of the Atonement, that it is " outside 
 the Confession of Faith."* 
 
 It is unnecessary here to enter on the historical argument 
 on this subject. It is universally admitted that organs were 
 not introduced into the worship of the Christian Church 
 earlier than the eighth century. There is no instrumental 
 music employed even on the highest occasions, and there is 
 no organ in the Pope's own chapel; for one, among other 
 reasons, that it would be an innovation — a reason which 
 has not weighed with them in matters of much higher im- 
 portance. 
 
 Those who wish to see this part of the subject discussed 
 
 and settled with great ability and learning, both as respects 
 
 the Church of God in general, and in our own country in 
 
 particular, cannot do better than consult the writings of Dr 
 
 Porteous, and of the two Drs Begg, father and son, to which 
 
 reference has already been made. 
 
 * Since WTiting the above, we have seen an article on '•^Instru- 
 mental Masicin Public Worship,^' in the " Presbyterian," for October. 
 Its object seems to be to " deprecate a discussion " (on the subject) 
 " so hkely to produce irritation and distrust," and "to indicate some 
 reasons, in consideration of which, apart from the strict merits, men 
 of all opinions might unite in maintaining the status quo.'" The 
 article is characterised by the spirit now so common with those who 
 support it, and whose views it supports, viz., the low tone of expedi- 
 ency in church questions, rather than by any indication to main- 
 tain them, on the ground of Scripture, of constitutional principle, 
 and personal pledged obhgation. But we would suggest to 
 Dr Rainy, that if his views on the Union question be earned 
 out as soon as he and his coadjutors desire, he may save him- 
 self the trouble, as far as the United Church is concerned, of 
 deprecating *' discussion " either " on the merits " or on its expedi- 
 ency. The facts which Ave have previously stated show that it will 
 then be a foregone conclusion. It must, at the least, be left an 
 " open question," if a question at all. We venture to hint to our 
 "lai'ge-minded" friends that they Avill neither build up, nor hold up, 
 nor shut out the enemy from "the walls of Jerusalem" by such 
 halting and temporising counsels. 
 
PUBLIC WOESHIP OF GOD. 123 
 
 We earnestly pray that our own Church may yet prove a 
 faithful witness against all unscriptural innovation, and lati- 
 tudinarian opinion and practice, whether in doctrine, wor- 
 ship, or discipline — and that no desire to "lengthen her 
 cords," and no professions of wider love, will seduce her to 
 be a party in reality to paving the way to Popish or Prelatic 
 ritualism, if not bold rationalism, by admitting either into 
 her creed or practice anything not ^^ prescribed in Holy 
 Scripture,'' or by rejecting anything that is taught and pre- 
 scribed by the same great authority — the only ark of safety 
 or charter of freedom, " Ye shall know the truth, and the 
 Truth shall make you free." 
 
 We may conclude this chapter by an extract from the 
 September Number of the Benefactor. It details the 
 tactics of Dr Pusey and his party for bringing about union 
 with the Church of Rome. We may give it as a caution 
 to our hymnologers, and our scarcely concealed apologists 
 for organs, or rather as a warning to true Free Church men, 
 clerical or lay, to beware of the first inlets to ritualism in 
 the admission of anything into the public worship of God 
 not ^^ prescribed in the Holy Scriptures." 
 
 The following is what the Benefactor gives as the summing 
 up of Dr Pusey's advice to his friends to hold what they 
 have already gained: — 
 
 " This, then, is the thing to do. Let the advanced posts 
 remain as they are. Let each of those which is a little behind, 
 and only a little, gradually take up the same position, and let 
 this process be carried on (only without haste or waverinir) down 
 to the last in the chain. A story is told of a dishonest baker 
 who kept himself and his family at a nominal cost by purchasing 
 the very smallest leg of nmtton to be had, and exchanging this 
 for the next in size sent him by his customers, and repeating the 
 process until he had succeeded in obtaining nearly twenty pounds 
 of meat for his original six or seven, without any one customer 
 
124 PUBLIC WORSHIP OP GOD. 
 
 being able to detect the fraud in his own case. The cheating 
 baker may point a parable as the nnjust steward has done, 
 where there is only the ordinary parish routine, but, where the 
 preaching is honest and sound, let a gradual change be brought 
 in. A choral service, so for as Psalms and Canticles are 
 concerned, on some week-day evening, will train people to like 
 a more ornate worship, and that which began as an occasional 
 luxury will be felt a regular want. Where there is monthly 
 communion, let it be fortnightly; where it is fortnightly, let it 
 be weekly; where it is weekly let a Thursday office be added. 
 Where all this is already existing, candlesticks with unlighted 
 candles may be introduced. Where these are already found, 
 they might be lighted at even-song. Where so much is attained, 
 the step to lightening them for the Eucharistic office is not a long 
 one. Where the black go^vn is in use in the pulpit on Sundays, 
 let it disappear in the week. The surjDlice will soon be preferred, 
 and will oust its rival. It is easy for each reader to see how 
 some advance, all in the same direction, can be made, and that 
 without any offence taken. Only two things should be most 
 carefully observed as a rule. First of all, nothing should be 
 introduced without a plain and frank statement to the people. 
 Secondly, the innovations ought to be confined at first to extra 
 services put on for this very purpose." 
 
 How exactly do some Presbyterians, English and Scotch, 
 United and Free, follow this sage counsel in the matters of 
 hymns, harmoniums, and some even of organs. It is more 
 sage^ however, than Christian, 
 
CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 ^Mtb of nomt §tobnn pgm^ goob. 
 
 Hymn-Booh of the United Presbyterian Church. 
 
 Psalms and Hymns for Divine JForship, Prcsdyterian 
 
 Church in England. London, 1867. 
 The Scottish Hymnal, or Hymns for Public JForshlp, selected 
 
 by the Committee of the General Assembly of the Church of 
 
 Scotland on Hymns. May, 1868. 
 A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for the Use of the Pres- 
 bytery of Antrim and the Congrcr/ation of Strand Street, 
 
 Dublin. Belfast, 1818. 
 The Neiv Congregational Hymn-Booh Psalms and Hymns for 
 
 Divine TForship, p'epared by the Committee appointed at 
 
 the Annual Meeting of the Congregational Union in 
 
 England arid JFales. Held in London, May 8, 1855. 
 Hymns for Christian TForship, Compiled by severed Ministers 
 
 of the Free Church in Glasgoiv. 95 Hymns. Glasgow: 
 
 William Collins, Sons, & Co. 1866. 
 Chants de Sion. Ou Pectieil de Cantiques, etc. Par Ccesar 
 
 Malan. Geneve, 1828. 
 Sammlung von 150 Auserlesener Kirchenlicdern. Erlangen, 
 
 1853. 
 Blilthen Christlicher Dichtung Aus Allen Zciten der Kirchcy 
 
 filrjeden Tag des Jahres, Stidtgart. 1866. 
 Kindcrharfe, Liederbuch fur Cliristliche Sonntags — Schulen. 
 
 In the brief review whicli we intend to give, our object is 
 not either to make a comparative estimate of those above 
 
123 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 enumerated, or to institute an inquiry into the literary, 
 poetic, or even religious character of hymn books generally; 
 or even to criticise minutely those named at the head of 
 this chapter. Our object will rather be to endeavour to 
 ascertain whether the character of the hymnals already in 
 use is such as to afford a vindication of the party within 
 our own church, who are labouring hard to introduce into 
 it a selection of hymns, which, as they allege, have already 
 been approved by the Universal Church, or, in their own 
 words, " which have come into][general use in the Christian 
 Church." This language is both cautious and appropriate. 
 They have come, " if not into general use," at least into use 
 by the modes we have already in a previous chapter 
 detailed, not by any regular church authority, but in ways 
 most irregular, unconstitutional, and contemptuous of 
 Church order. "^ 
 
 We beg to recall the statement already made as to what 
 ought to be the character of everything used by the 
 authority of the Church in the public worship of God. 
 First, as to the subject-matter, our Confession of Faith says 
 — " But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is 
 instituted by Himself, and so limited by His ov/n revealed 
 will, that He may not be worshipped according to tlie 
 imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of 
 Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way 
 not prescribed in the Holy ScriiJturey 
 
 Second, We have already said — It will be admitted by 
 all, that any psalmody which the authority of God will 
 sanction, must be what is strictly true in doctrine, just in 
 religious sentiment and feeling, worthy of the Divine 
 
 * See Appendix 5f 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 127 
 
 Majesty, as He is set fortli in tlie Sacred Scriptures — that 
 the style should be characterised 'by majesty, sublimity, 
 beauty, simplicity, without effort or exaggeration, or strain- 
 ing at effect; the figures natural, intelligible by all, and 
 devoid of all extravagance. Have we not a psalmody of 
 this kind in the Book of Psalms ? and have we it anywhere 
 else, in any of the numerous hymn books now used, in the 
 public worship of God, in certain sections of the Christian 
 Church? Are they such as to warrant any church, that has 
 not yet sanctioned them, to follow their example; and to that 
 extent set aside the Book of Psalms, which God himself has 
 inspired and sanctioned in His own public worship? 
 
 On the other hand, nothing is more obvious in relation 
 to the great proportion of hymn books, than that they are 
 pervaded by a strain of exaggeration and effort at effect, which 
 betray the feebleness of the human being, and not the sim- 
 ple majesty of God speaking in the psalms; as when He 
 said, " Let there be light, and light was;" or, " Be still, and 
 know that I am God" — words inimitable in majesty and 
 divine simplicity; whereas hymns generally betray the 
 labour and effort of the' man, and are too often what 
 Wordsworth said of them, "a hubbub of words." There is 
 only one opinion as to the universally acknowledged diffi- 
 culty of writing religious poetry, especially religious hymns, 
 in a style suited to the dignity of the subject. 
 
 There is an almost equally universally acknowledged 
 difficulty as to the possibility of selecting a number 
 sufficient and fit to supply the alleged deficiency in the 
 Book of Psalms, for the requirements of public worship; or 
 rather, we should say, to satisfy the tastes of the various 
 parties who happen to attend it, and who imagine that they 
 have all a right to their special tastes being gratified, 
 
128 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 whether old or young, ignorant or wise, ritualistic or 
 musical, evangelical or rational. 
 
 The very multiplicity of hymn books, and the prevailing 
 discontent, notwithstanding, as to their fitness to be the 
 vehicle of Divine praise, some of the most strenuous 
 advocates for their use declaring that you could not select 
 from them all, and certainly not from the comparatively small 
 number heading this chapter and the other collections 
 previously enumerated, even one hundred hymns fit for the 
 public service of the sanctuary. This, together with the 
 continual subtractions, additions, and corrections, suggested 
 and being made — as comes out from the books them- 
 selves — is plain proof of the futility, not to speak of 
 the evil, of attempting cither to supplement or supersede or 
 supplant by such productions the " Book of Psalms." 
 
 One distinguished divine of too much good sense and 
 taste to be a lover of change in the matter of our psalmodj^ 
 when hard pressed from without, at last gave way, and 
 intimated his proposal to add twenty-five. But when the 
 proposal was about to be made, he struck out one very 
 popular hymn, and irresistibly suggested a ludicrous 
 association with certain "four and twenty black birds,'' etc. 
 Some unknown Free Church Presbyters of Glasgow printed 
 and published ninety-five, to be suddenly covered with 
 ridicule. We find the Committee of the Church of Scotland 
 this year striking out of a previous collection of 120 no less 
 than 59, and retaining 61, and their present collection being 
 madeupto what they call a "very moderate number,'* viz., 200. 
 A Committee of the Free Church have resolved of their 
 ov/n authority on the forward movement of presenting a 
 selection of we know not how many, by the system of 
 purging out old and inserting new, 
 
PUBLIC WOESHIP OP GOD. 129 
 
 What do all tlioso backward and forward movements 
 prove 1 Certainly anything but Christian satisfaction with all 
 such efforts ; and yet with such results in the past, with no 
 great guarantee that existing poetic genius or religious 
 exaltation, will surpass its predecessors, men continue to dis- 
 turb the church, and to flatter themselves that they can 
 improve upon the divinely appointed psalmody of God's 
 word. 
 
 Let us now take a glance at some of the hymn books 
 above enumerated. 
 
 We shall begin with the oldest in this country, according 
 to the date of the editions we possess. Let us recall some 
 of the elements that characterise the Book of Psalms, and 
 that ought to characterize all divine praise, say : — '' Majesty'' 
 or sublimity and simplicity " of the style." We begin with 
 the earliest Scottish Presbyterian Hymn Book, omitting 
 for the present the " Paraphrases and Hymns" used in, but 
 never sanctioned by, the Church of Scotland. As we 
 have not a copy of the Original Belief Book of Hymns, wo 
 begin with the United Presbyterian Hymn Book, PI ere we 
 beg it to be understood that we have no manner of sectarian 
 feeling against that church or any other church. We most 
 cordially and ardently adopt the words of the apostle John, 
 and the feelings involved and expressed in them, wherever 
 we find them applicable to any man or church by whatever 
 name known among men, viz., "I rejoiced that I found 
 of thy children walking in truth." Nay, more, just as when 
 we have met a countryman in a foreign land, our love to him 
 and our native country have been awakened and excited, to an 
 extent not experienced when we meet in our own country and 
 in our own home. So when we meet with one of another 
 church or denomination of Christians holding the truth, 
 
 I 
 
130 PUBLIC WOESHIP OF GOD. 
 
 Many such " if tlicy would" (or were called) " to testify," 
 would admit this. But with all this we must declare the 
 truth, and nothing but the truth, when called to speak to it. 
 We shall therefore not much regard any allegations either 
 of weak prejudice or bad feeling, too often uttered by 
 men who seem to have no other rule for their own 
 guidance. 
 
 The hymn book of " the United Presbyterian Church" 
 is not arranged in any order of subjects like some 
 others.* It seems to have been arranged rather on the 
 principle of the order of Scripture, selecting an Old Testa- 
 ment text in the order of the books from Genesis to 
 Malachi, with a parallel, or it may be two, from the New 
 Testament; when, after Hymn 216, the leading texts are 
 taken from the New Testament, with occasionally a reference 
 to a psalm. Though we desired it, we could not profess to 
 find f?ult with the general sentiment or tone of these hymns 
 as being contrary either to Scripture truth or Christian feel- 
 ing, viewing them simply as human hymns which any man 
 might indite or sing for himself; though even in this respect 
 we may afterwards give a specimen or two which at least 
 withdraw your attention from the great object of praise, to 
 consider whether the sentiment or doctrine expressed be 
 true and Scriptural. There is in many of them an over- 
 strained effort at the exalted, which contrasts most unfa- 
 vourably with the Psalms of David on the same subject. 
 We have noticed instances, too, of new versions of the 
 psalms -put into the " hymn book," which we deem greatly 
 inferior to the simple literal version of Kouse. Of the for- 
 mer kind we may take Hymn 20, " Unity of God," begin- 
 ning— 
 
 * This is done, however, in the Index. 
 
PUBLIC WOIISHIP OF GOD. 131 
 
 1. Thee we adore, the Sovereign Lord 
 
 Of earth, and seas, and worlds unknown; 
 All were created by thy word, 
 They ail depend on thee alone. 
 
 2. In thee, Lord, our hope shall rest, 
 
 Fountain of peace and joy alone; 
 Without thee, what can make us blest 
 On earth below or heaven above ? etc. 
 
 Why a tame hymn like this, when we have in the ordinary 
 
 jDsalms some half-dozen expressing, in loftier dignity and 
 
 nobler style, the sentiment of God's sovereign unity and 
 
 grace? Thus Ps. Ixvi.: — 
 
 1. All lands to God, in joyful sounds, 
 
 Aloft your voices raise. 
 
 2. Sing forth the honour of his name, 
 
 And glorious make, his praise. 
 
 3. Say unto God, How terrible 
 
 In all thy works art thou! 
 Through thy great pow'r thy foes to thee 
 Shall be constrain'd to bow. 
 
 4. All on the earth shall worship thee, 
 
 They shall thy praise proclaim 
 In songs : they shall sing cheerfully 
 Unto thy holy name. 
 
 5. Come, aud the works that God hath wrought 
 
 AVitli admiration see: 
 In's v/orking to the sons of men 
 Most terrible is he. 
 
 8. Into dry land the sea he turn'd, 
 And they a passage had; 
 Ev'n marching through the flood on foot, 
 There we in him were glad. 
 
 7. He ruleth ever by his pow'r; 
 
 His eyes the nations see : 
 let not the rebellious ones 
 Lift up' themselves on high. 
 
 8. Ye people, bless our God; aloud 
 
 The voice speak of his praise: 
 
 9. Our soul in life who safe preserves, 
 
 Our foot from shding stays. 
 
132 PUBLIC v70Esnip of god. 
 
 Again, compare the above hymn with the common version 
 of Psahii xcvi. : — 
 
 1. sing a new song to the Lord: 
 
 Sing- all the earth to God. 
 
 2. To God sing, bless his name, shew still 
 
 His saving health abroad. 
 
 3. Among the heathen nations 
 
 His glory do declare j 
 And unto all the people show 
 His works that wondrous are. 
 
 4. For great's the Lord, and greatly he 
 
 Is to be magnify'd; 
 Yea, worthy to be fear'd is he 
 Above all gods besidco 
 
 5. For all the gods are idols dum"b, 
 
 Which blinded nations fear; 
 But our God is the Lord, by whom 
 The heav'ns created weroo 
 
 6. Great honour is before his face. 
 
 And majesty divine; 
 Strength is within his holy place, 
 And there doth beauty shine. 
 
 7. Do ye ascribe unto the Lord, 
 
 Of people ev'ry tribe, 
 Glory do ye unto the Lord, 
 And mighty pow'r ascribe. 
 
 And again, Ps. xcix.: — 
 
 1. Th' eternal Lord doth reign as king. 
 
 Let all the people quake; 
 He sits between the cherubim s. 
 Let th' earth be mov'd and shake. 
 
 2. The Lord in Sion great and high 
 
 Above all people is; 
 
 3. Thy great and dreadful uame (for it 
 
 is holy) let them bless. 
 
 4. The king's strength also judgment loves; 
 
 Thou settlest equity; 
 Just judgment thou clost execute 
 In Jacob righteously. 
 
PUULTC WOUSHIP Oi' GOD. 133 
 
 5. The Lord our God exalt on liigb, 
 And rev'rently do ye 
 Before his footstool worship him: 
 The Holy One is he. 
 
 Why should such a hymn displace these and other psalms 
 
 to the same effect — majestic in sublime simplicity, and 
 
 varied in expression? 
 
 Again, to vary the subject, take Hymn 58, entitled 
 
 " Confidence in God," with texts, Ps. xxvii. 1-3; cxviii. 
 
 7-12; Heb. xiii. 6:— 
 
 1. God is iny strong salvation, 
 
 "What foe have I to fear; 
 In darkness and temptation, 
 My light, my help is near. 
 
 2. Though hosts encamp around me. 
 
 Firm to the fight I stand; 
 What terror can confound me 
 With God at my right hand? 
 
 3. Place on the Lord reliance; 
 
 My soul, with courage wait: 
 His truth "be thine afiiance 
 When faint and desolate. 
 
 4. His might thine heart shall strengthen. 
 
 His love thy joy increase; 
 Mercy thy days shall lengthen : 
 The Lord will give thee peace. 
 
 What possible end, either for gospel sentiment, devout 
 feeling, or simplicity of expression, even for a child, could 
 be gained by superseding the words of Ps, xxvii., as in the 
 common version, as follows? — 
 
 1. The Lord's my light and saving health, 
 
 Who shall make me dismay'd? 
 My life's strength is the Lord, of whom 
 Then shall I be afraid? 
 
 2. When as mine enemies and foes, 
 
 Most wicked persons all, 
 To eat my flesh against me rose. 
 They stumbled and did fall. 
 
134 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 3. Against me though an host encamp, 
 
 My heart yet fearless is : 
 Though war against me rise, I will 
 Be confident in this. 
 
 4. One thing I of the Lord desir'd, 
 
 And will seek to obtain, 
 That all days of my life I may 
 Within God's house remain; 
 
 That I the beauty of the Lord 
 
 Behold may and admire, 
 And that I in his holy place 
 
 May rev'rently enquire. 
 
 5. For he in his pavilion shall 
 
 Me liide in evil days ; 
 In secret of his tent me hide, 
 And on a rock me raise. 
 
 6. And now, ev'n at this present time, 
 
 Mine head shall lifted be 
 Above all those that are my foes. 
 
 And round encompass me : 
 Therefore unto his tabernacle 
 
 I'll sacrifices bring 
 Of joyfulness; I'll sing, yea, I 
 
 To God will praises sing. 
 
 Once more. Psalm cxviii. is virtually set aside, and the 
 above words of the hymn substituted. Let any one read 
 the psalm from beginning to end, and he v/ill instantly 
 perceive the inferiority of the hymn. Why such a hymn, 
 with the forty-sixth Psalm at hand ? 
 
 1. God is our refuge and our strength. 
 
 In straits a present aid; 
 
 2. Therefore, although the earth remove. 
 
 We will not be afraid: 
 Though hills amidst the seas be cast; 
 
 3. Though waters roaring make. 
 
 And troubled l)e; yea, though the hills 
 By swelling seas do shake. 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 135 
 
 4. A river is, whose streams do glad 
 
 The city of our God ; 
 The holy place, wherein the Lord 
 Most high hath his abode. 
 
 5. God in the midst of her doth dwell; 
 
 Nothing shall her remove: 
 The Lord to her an helper will. 
 And that right early, prove. 
 «....•■ 
 7. The Lord of hosts upon our side 
 Doth constantly remain : 
 The God of Jacob's our refuge, 
 Us safely to mamtain. 
 
 And so on to the end of that glorious psalm of martyrs in 
 
 all ages. 
 
 We are told by hymnologers that there is no mention in 
 such psalms of the " sweet name of Jesus." But is there 
 in the hymns in question"? But what Christian minister 
 what Christian elder, nay, what Christian child, who has had 
 a godly father or mother, does not know who the Piefuge 
 of the believer is? Does any soul ever sing such a psalm 
 without rejoicing in that name as " ointment poured forth," 
 as the way into this Kefuge, and in the Holy Spirit, who, 
 in God's infinite grace, has guided him into it? It is very 
 shallow piety indeed that needs all this to be put in words 
 in a song of praise. 
 
 It is not the nature of truly lifting up of the soul to God 
 in trust, and hope, and joy, to do it in the details of a 
 doctrinal and theological discussion, whether in thanksgiv- 
 ing, in penitence, or prayer. So the psalms express the 
 essence of them all. What Christian congregation in this 
 land does not know the Redeemer, the name of Jesus, and 
 the Holy Spirit ? Did David not know it when he sang 
 Psalm Ixxxviii. 1 — 
 
 " Lord God, my Saviour," (my Jesus) " day and night, 
 Before thee cried have I,'- etc. 
 
136 ttlBLTO WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 Xay, did Abraham not know it when he "saw his day afar 
 off, and was glad V Our Lord himself ha-th amply taught 
 us, both personally, and by His inspired apostles, that they 
 did; and are we not to know it when we sing Psalms il, 
 xvi., xxii., xxiii., xlv., ex., cxviii., and many others'? 
 
 To sing these psalms with our gospel light, is to enjoy 
 the communion of saints from the beginning of the church 
 on earth even until now — a communion in praise, at least, 
 which sectarian hymns from their very nature completely 
 destroy, and raise the spirit of controversy rather than 
 kindle the lofty flame of pure devotion. Who does not 
 know what is the child's true hymn — "The Lord's my 
 Shepherd?" What child does not know who He v/as — 
 the great and the good Shepherd, who givcth His life for 
 the sheep, and who " carrieth the lambs in His bosom;" and 
 who said, " Suffer the little children to come unto me"? 
 
 We may glance at another specimen, and by no less a 
 poet than James Montgomery. It is Hymn 81, entitled, 
 "Messiah's Kingdom." It is a version of the seventy- 
 second Psalm. It is greatly inferior to the common version, 
 and adds no one iota either to its dignity or beauty, but is 
 inferior in both. We cannot give the whole; but take a 
 verse or two of the hymn: — 
 
 4. He shall come down like showers 
 
 Upon the fruitful earth; 
 And joy, and ho])e, like flowers, 
 
 Spring in his path to birth. 
 Before him, on the mountains, 
 
 Shall Peace, the herald, go; 
 And Eighteousness, in fountains, 
 
 From hiU to valley flow. 
 
 For he shall have dominion 
 O'er river, sea, and shore, 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 137 
 
 Far as the ea^gle's pinion, 
 
 Or dove's lisht wins; can soar. 
 
 The tide of time shall never 
 
 His covenant remove; 
 His name shall stand for ever, 
 
 His great best name of Love. 
 
 The " eagle's pinion " or " dove's light wing " is poor on 
 such a subject. Thus concludes the hymn: — "His great 
 best name of Love." Christ is called Jehovah, our 
 HiGHTEOUSNESS, but nowhcre in the Scriptures our 
 Love. " God is love "—God the Father, God the Son, 
 and God the Holy Ghost — but the special function of 
 Messiah was to be His people's Righteousness, that 
 thereby the grace or love of God might abound. But our 
 present object is rather to show the utter want of any 
 necessity for accumulating hymns, greatly inferior in the 
 qualities of true taste to the psalms which they set aside 
 and supersede. Let the reader, then, look at the parallel 
 verses of the common version of the seventy-second Psalm: — 
 
 1. Lord, thy judgments give the king, 
 
 His son thy righteousness, 
 
 2. With right he shall thy people judge, 
 
 Thy poor with uprightness. 
 
 3. The lofty mountains shall bring forth 
 
 Unto the people peace; 
 Likewise the little hills the same 
 Shall do by righteousness. 
 
 4. The people's poor ones he shall judge, 
 
 The needy's children save; 
 And those shall he in pieces break 
 Who them oppressed have. 
 
 5. They shall thee fear, while sun and moon 
 
 Do last, through ages all. 
 
 6. Like rain on mown grass he shall drop, 
 
 Or show'rs on earth that fall. 
 
138 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 7. The just sliall flourish iii his days, 
 
 And prosper in his reign: 
 He shall, while doth the moon endure, 
 Abundant peace maintain. 
 
 8. His large and great dominion shall 
 
 From sea to sea extend: 
 It from the river shall reach forth 
 Unto earth's utmost end. 
 
 17. His name for ever shall endure; 
 
 Last like the sun it shall : 
 Men shall be bless'd in him, and blcss'd 
 All nations shall liim call. 
 
 18. Now blessed be the Lord our God, 
 
 The God of Israel, 
 For he alone doth wondrous works, 
 In glory that excel. 
 
 19. And blessed be His glorious name 
 
 To all eternity: 
 The whole earth let his glory fill. 
 Amen, so let it be. 
 
 We have no wish to call in question the orthodoxy of 
 this collection of hymns, but we have said that we might 
 have to give a specimen or two where at least your devo- 
 tional feeling is interrupted, till you are satisfied of the 
 truth of the sentiment. For instance, we find in Hymn 125, 
 instead of the words of Psalms cxlv. and cxlviii. referred to, 
 entitled " Universal Praise," the following stanza: — 
 
 Lord of hosts, and God of grace! 
 Now within this holy place, 
 Pardon'd, purified, may we 
 Mingle holy melody; 
 From each bosom may it rise, 
 Incense like, to purer skies. 
 
 This is hardly the language to describe a Protestant 
 Presbyterian place of worship. Why put such words in 
 place of those of the psalms? — 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 139 
 
 Thee all thy works shall praise, Lord, 
 
 And thee thy saints will bless; 
 They shall thy kingdom's glory show, 
 
 Thy power by speech express. 
 
 Or Psalm cxlviii., beginning "Praise God," and in so 
 glorious a strain to the end, instead of the feeble hymn now 
 quoted: — 
 
 2. Bold shall I stand in that great day. 
 For who anght to my charge shall lay? 
 Then this shall be my only plea, 
 "Jesus hath lived and died for me. " 
 
 It is no doubt true that the Bible says, " Who shall lay 
 anything to the charge of God's elect ? It is Christ that 
 died; yea, rather, that is risen again." But it is a very 
 different thing for any sinner, and for a whole congregation, 
 to take up such words, and say, I am one of the elect, and 
 Christ lived and died for me. The Bible authorises no 
 such easy and presumptuous confident assurance. It ex- 
 horts, on the contrary, to labour to attain to it, and to 
 ascertain it by the evidence of the practical life. But we 
 have no wish to prosecute this point further. We are 
 struck, however, with one thing — that is, the absence in a 
 great number of the hymns of the great element which the 
 advocates for human hymns profess to be so great a deside- 
 ratum, and wanting, according to them, in the psalms, viz., 
 the " name of Jesus." 
 
 The hymn entitled " Golgotha," 235, is another very 
 doubtful specimen, whether as to taste or meaning. It 
 begins thus: — 
 
 Let me dwell in Golgotha; 
 Weep and love my life away. 
 While I see Him on the tree, 
 Weep, and bleed, and die for me. 
 
140 PUBLIC WOESHIP OF GOD. 
 
 Irrespective of the subject-matter of the doxologies, we do 
 not like a series of titles, such as the following: — "To the 
 Trinity," " To the Lamb," " To Jesus Christ," " To the 
 Trinity," "To God," "To God," " To the Trinity," " To 
 Jesus Christ," "To God," "To God," "To God," "To 
 Christ." 23. "To God," with " Halleluah" seven times 
 repeated. Why thus mingle these designations, as if " God" 
 and the "Trinity" were something different? All this 
 incongruous mixture could not be exhibited by simply 
 taking the Book of Psalms. 
 
 In connection with these remarks we may introduce, as 
 characteristic of hymn books in America, as well as in 
 Britain, the following extract from the " True Psalmody:" — 
 
 " V. It has been found impracticable — especially in the more 
 enlightened and orthodox denominations — to frame a hymn 
 book universally acceptable, and of a permanent character. 
 Chano-e, 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 has 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 
 appearance in the shape of new hymns; destined themselves to 
 illustrate, in turn, the inherent — and v/e believe insuperable — 
 difficulty in the way of securing entire unanimity. In this 
 connexion, we present, as quoted by Mr Sommerville, some 
 testimonies in regard to the estimation in which 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 New 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 GongregationaUst, Feb. 15, 1853, has 
 the following : — ' Professor B. B. Edwards believed that two or 
 three hundred Psalms or Hymns would include all which are of 
 sterhng value for the sanctuary.' Unquestionably he was right. 
 
rUBLTC WORSHIP OF GOD. 141 
 
 The popular deinand for new and more numerous hymns, it 
 cannot be denied, arises in part from the wide dissatisfaction 
 with a lariie number of those with which our hymn bool^s 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 b}^ him) ' had not sufficient native sense, to 
 have composed his psalms in proper metres, ready at once to be 
 cantered through ' De Fleury, or paced through State Street.' 
 The Glasgow Examiner for Sept. \.Q, 1852, thus remarks upon 
 the ' Hymn book of the U.P. Church:' ' The collections contain 
 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 atcempt 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 achiowUdged failure. The Committee to whom 
 was entrusted, in 1838, the task of revising it, pronounced in 
 their report to the Assembly the following judgment upon its 
 demerits : ' On a critical examination, tliey found many hymns 
 deficient in literary merit, some incorrect in doctrine, and many 
 altogether unsuitable for the sanctuary as songs of praise, for 
 vv^ant of suitable sentiments, although not incorrect in doctrine 
 or deficient in literary merit.' " 
 
 We may next notice, and that very briefly, another hymn 
 book by a party who, it seems, did not think the Psalms 
 of David favourable, as Dr James Hamilton said some 
 English Arians did to their views, and therefore objected to 
 any gospel doxologies being added. It is the hymn book 
 of the Arian Presbytery of Antrim, published 1818, who 
 seem to have thought that something else would serve their 
 turn better than the Book of Psalms, they therefore say in 
 an "advertisement:" — 
 
 "In a selection of this nature, the compiler may be influenced 
 by considerations that will not readily occur to the reader, A 
 
142 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 psalm-book is calculated for a promiscuous body of different 
 sexes and various ages, conditions, and understandings. It is 
 not a work either of taste or devotion, singly, but of both con- 
 jointly. Some devotional pieces may be too philosophical, sen- 
 timental, or poetical; others too doctrinal, enthusiastic, or 
 prosaic. What is suited to the wants or likings of a multitude 
 may not please every individual. Taste and devotion have, 
 therefore, been occasionally sacrificed to each other. There are 
 also some didactic subjects, very proper to be introduced after 
 sermons, that hardly admit of the embellishment of taste, or the 
 pathos of devotion. The reader will observe some edifying 
 pieces not adapted to';psalmody. These were thought worthy of 
 insertion for private perusal, or to be committed to memory by 
 young persons. 
 
 " Some doctrines are so offensive to the societies for whose 
 use this compilation is principally intended, that they are care- 
 fully avoided. As to others,, the same scrupulosity is not 
 observed: for, with respect to them, there may exist a diversity 
 of sentiment. This selection may, therefore, be thought defec- 
 tive, but it will not disgust by a pertinacious obtrusion of 
 doctrine. 
 
 " Invocations and apostrophes are considered as merely poeti- 
 cal ornaments, sanctioned by David, the Prophets, and St Paul, 
 without always implying belief in the agency of the persons or 
 quaUties invoked and personified. 
 
 " The names of the original authoi-s are not prefixed, because 
 most of the hymns have been repeatedly altered, abridged, en- 
 larged, and mingled, by so many hands, that they would in their 
 actual state be disclaimed by their composers. '^ 
 
 After this advertisement, the reader will not expect any* 
 thing very high in poetical taste or evangelical sentiment. 
 He will see that Arians can avail themselves of this channel 
 of hymns, to shut out, at least, all that conflicts with their 
 own view^s, and withhold from the poor people the light of 
 psalms thai; point to a Divine Messiah. We give two or 
 three verses as specimens of the sublime in taste and correct 
 in doctrine! Under the head "Adoration," we have the 
 following: — 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OP GOB. 143 
 
 HYJSIN X. Higli on a throne his glories dwell, 
 An awful tlirone of shining bliss: 
 Fly through the world, Sun, and tell 
 How dark thy beams compared to his. 
 
 HYMN XI. Eternal power, whose high abode 
 Becomes the majesty of God! 
 Infinite lengths beyond the bounds 
 Where stars revolve their little rounds. 
 
 HYMN XII. The wnigs of every hour shall bear 
 Some thankful tribute to thine ear; 
 And every setting sun shall see 
 New works of duty done for thee, 
 
 HYMN XV. My God, whose all-pervading eye 
 
 Views earth beneath, and heaven above, 
 Witness, if here, or there, thou seest 
 An object of my equal love, 
 
 HYMN XVII. He reads the language of the silent tear. 
 
 And sighs are incense from a heart sincere; 
 He marks the dawn of virtuous aim, 
 And fans the smoking flax into a flame. 
 
 HYMN XXIX. By thee prepared, the night and day 
 Alternate walk the etherial way. 
 Thy art the light's thin texture spun, 
 And with it clothed the jocimd sun ! ! 
 
 Was tliere ever more silly and iiieaningless bombast? 
 
 We have 300 such hymns for ordinary and special occasions, 
 with a supplement, containing the anthems, doxologies, etc., 
 used in the Second Presbyterian Church, 1844. 
 
 We need hardly say, that it is the farthest possible from 
 our minds to insinuate that the other hymn books on 
 which we remark are of the same character and cast as this 
 Arian collection. But we have seen enough to show that 
 the principle of human hymns, or the system of human 
 hymns for public worship, affords equal facilities to the 
 Piomanist, the Tractarian, the Kationalist, the Arian, and 
 the Unitarian; and that, too, when a congregation, all join- 
 
144 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 ing in loud and articulate voice, cannot "try tlie spirits 
 Avlietlier tliey be of God/'* They can do so in the sermon, 
 or even prayer, but they cannot do so when they " sing 
 aloud," and with one heart and voice, desire to glorify God. 
 There is no such obstacle in singing the songs indited by 
 the Spirit of God. If the poor people had had the Psalms 
 of David, the il, xlv., cii., and ex., for instance, v/ith the 
 (omment of the Holy Spirit, in Heb. i. 8-14 and vii., in 
 their hands, they might, even in an Arian chapel in Antrim 
 or Dublin, humanly speaking, have had some chance of 
 hearing of their God and Saviour and Great High Priest, 
 the Lord Jesus, the Son of God. This hymn book makes 
 that an impossibility. Such is the danger of such a prin- 
 ciple. Let us hear no more, by Free Churchmen at least, 
 of Paul of Samosata, or English Arians, striking out Christian 
 doxologies from the end of the Psalter. A hymn book will 
 greatly better serve their turn. 
 
 "Psalms and Hymns for Divike Worship" is the 
 general title of the hymn book of the " Presbyterian Church 
 in England," adopted and recommended l)y the Synod in 
 April, 18G6. According to the title the book gives in the 
 outset the whole Book of Psalms, and is thus, in our view, a 
 great improvement on the United Presbyterian Plymn Book, 
 It thus seems to give the royal place, as some of the advo- 
 cates for hymns say should be done, to the Eoyal Psalmist; 
 but to us it seems a somewhat doubtful liberty for 
 human beings to take, to place on the right hand of 
 the King the productions of some hundred competitors 
 for the throne — and these many of them confessedly 
 not only not pious Christians, but not even very moral 
 men; and though men of poetic talent, yet not always 
 m'ich fitted to express the religious experience of the godly. 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OP GOD. 145 
 
 But more than that, when we consider that the Royal 
 Psalter is indeed and in truth only the penman of the 
 Holy Spirit, inditing what were to he the songs of Zion 
 for all ages, and did serve for the experience of the 
 church in all her purest, most living, tried, and suffering 
 times, we cannot lay aside the deep sense we entertain, as 
 the pious Romaine did, of a process, to use a nov/ familiar 
 phrase, of " levelling up " human hymns to a higher place 
 — certainly of more frequent use — than the songs of the 
 Holy Spirit, or of "levelling down" the songs of the Holy 
 Spirit to as low, nay, to a lower place than the songs of 
 Dryden, Milman, Keble, Maurice, Logan, Wesley, or even 
 names of higher celebrity for piety and orthodoxy in the 
 Christian church. Whatever their genius, for reasons 
 already assigned, they could never deal, either in poetry or 
 prose, with the great "things of God," and the "things of 
 man " in relation to God, in a way even approaching to the 
 immediate dictates of the Spirit of God, in all the attributes 
 of style that constitute the peculiar glory of the word of 
 God. The thing is impossible; and hence the immeasurable 
 inferiority of all religious poetry to that of the Bible, felt 
 and universally acknowledged. Its effect, besides, is to 
 lower the sense in the mind of the worshipper of the un- 
 approachable dignity and exclusive supremacy of the 
 inspired words. In ftict, the objects intended to be gained 
 by such compilations, as expressed by the compilers them- 
 selves, imply all this, as quotations already given from 
 some of them plainly enough indicate. In the book 
 now being noticed, while the difficulty of securing " literary 
 merit" along with the spirit and "v/armth of their utter- 
 ance, in regard both to doctrine and experience," is con- 
 fessed, we have it candidly intimated as follows: — "Secondly, 
 
146 rtJBLIO WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 It has been considered desirable that the collection should 
 embrace a large nmiiber of hymns and spiritual songs, a 
 number much larger than might be held to be sufficient for 
 the wants of any single congregation. Much diversity in 
 habits of thought and feeling, and great variety of taste, 
 exist in every Christian community, and it is right that in 
 a book of praise designed for general use, fitting expression 
 should be found for all." Did it not occur to those who 
 thus wrote to ask themselves, What became of the godly 
 Christians of the true Catholic Church in every age, and of 
 all the Keformed Churches, Presbyterian and otherwise, who 
 had nothing but the Divine Psalter to meet all their "tastes," 
 "habits of thought and feeling," till the modern supply of 
 human hymns was provided? Were their faith and piety, 
 their godly living, their doing and suffering for the glory of 
 God and of His Christ and His cause, less real, earnest, 
 and enduring, than the bustling, demonstrative, muscular, 
 and yet withal compliant religion of the present day? Who 
 will aflirm this? 
 
 But again, Dr James Hamilton, in his lectures delivered 
 to prepare the minds of his congregation for the reception 
 of this book, concludes his first lecture thus: — "And, dear 
 friends, if you are true Presbyterians, you will 'look not on 
 your own things, but on the things of others.' You will 
 come to the house of God not merely for your own spiritual 
 enjoyment, but with a desire that others also should profit. 
 Even though the sermon should not be always the sort of 
 thing which you like to hear, you will be tolerant of it, 
 and perhaps will send up a prayer for a blessing if it be 
 adapted to any description of hearers. And if you really 
 wish the theology and organisation of our church to spread 
 in this great realm of England, ^you must have some con- 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 147 
 
 sidcration for English tastes and usages f — [the italics are 
 ours] — "and if our English brethren have taken the trouble 
 to learn Scotch so as to understand your minister, I should 
 feel it a graceful courtesy if you would learn a few lively 
 tunes, and sing a few spiritual songs, so as to make our 
 church a more pleasant Sabbatli home for English Presby- 
 terian worshippers." 
 
 When we commenced the series of papers now being thus 
 separately published, we delayed their publication for a 
 considerable time owing to the lamented death of the amiable 
 and pious author of these lectures, and now that he is gone 
 to his rest, we must forbear to express some feelings excited 
 by such motives being addressed to any congregation, to com- 
 mend to their acceptance either the principle or the system 
 of introducing human hymns into the public worship of 
 God, to the practical discredit, and even partial exclusion 
 from the "great congregation," of God's own Book of 
 Psalms. 
 
 But we must remark that the English people of any 
 orthodox denomination, never had, if they have even yet, 
 any dislike to the psalms in the public worship of God, till 
 a vitiated taste was formed by the introduction at compa- 
 ratively recent dates, as we have shewn, of sectarian hymns 
 of various kinds — certainly not to the advantage of sound 
 doctrine or enlightened piety. We have always condemned, 
 even as matter of sound Presbyterian policy, not to speak 
 of principle, what our English, or rather Scotch English 
 Presbyterian friends call " adaptation" to English tastes. 
 The English don't require Scotchmen to imitate what they 
 can do better themselves. We did not before imderstand 
 that Scotch Presbyterian ministers in England preached in 
 " Scotch," though if they did it in purity, or, in other words. 
 
148 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 in old vigorous Saxon, the Englisli would understand them as 
 they did John Knox when he preached to them the " pure 
 evangel." We venture to predict thatj as hitherto, such at- 
 tempts at " adaptation" will entirely fail. It Yv\as not by 
 "adaptation" that Puritanism, that Presbyterianism, and 
 even the Westminster Confession of Faith, were approved 
 and established by the Parliament of England. In present 
 commotions " adaptation" will not promote and settle the 
 peace and prosperity of the Churches. A Scriptural basis 
 will alone ever be honoured to do it. 
 
 In relation to this " Boole of Psalms and Hymns" the 
 same general remarks made in relation to the United Pres- 
 byterian Hymn Book apply. The hymns and their authors 
 are very much the same. We have not now space to make 
 any specific criticism, especially to any extent. As a book 
 of sacred poetry, or rather of poetry about sacred things, 
 we have no other fault to find with it than such as is 
 applicable to all similar productions that put themselves in 
 a position demanding comparison with the Book of Psalms. 
 They bear the characteristics incidental to all similar at- 
 tempts, namely, those of overstrained effort and exaggera- 
 tion, infallibly indicating the weakness of their human 
 origin, when handling the things of God. If there were no 
 Book of Psalms divinely indited, of such number and length 
 and such variety as to serve with divine propriety all the 
 purposes of the praises of God in the sanctuary, there might 
 be some apology for good men doing their best to supply 
 the want. But the very number and variety of such at- 
 tempts, and the universally acknowledged deficiency of them 
 all, should teach men the wisdom, in relation to the Psalter, 
 of the saying applied to other works of God — " God never 
 made his work for man to mend," 
 
PUBLIC AVOESHIP OF GOD. 149 
 
 We liave. as in the United Presbyterian Hymn Book, 
 doxologies, hymns to the Trinity, to each of the persons in 
 the Godhead, versions of psalms, and many other subjects — 
 amounting in all to 521. At the time this book was in 
 preparation, letters were published by Robert Macfie, Esq., 
 of Liverpool, now M.P. for Leitli, criticising pretty minutely 
 many of the topics and much of the phraseology of this 
 compilation. We cannot enter into particulars. But at 
 the time of receiving copies of these letters, the writer sent 
 to that gentleman the following note, which all his subsequent 
 reading and reflection have confirmed: — 
 
 Dear Sir, ^ Oct. 31, 1866. 
 
 I have read, with interest, yoar letters on 
 the English Presbyterian Hymn Book. I very much concur in 
 all the remarks you have made. 
 
 Most of the things you have pointed out seem to me as 
 objectionable in taste as in Bible accuracy of statement. Of 
 course I may be considered a partial witness. But the inference 
 forced upon me by your letters is — that the task of compiling a 
 hyinn book, even the tenth part of the size proposed, to be free 
 from such defects, is hopeless. 
 
 Further— That the effect of such publications is to supersede 
 the Psalms of David, with no advantage to true devotional 
 sentiment, but with mucli encouragement to mere humanistic 
 gratification.* 
 
 As reference was made in the chapter on the manner in 
 which hymns have been introduced into the churches, to 
 this gentleman's authority on that point we shall give, in 
 an Appendix, an extract from what he calls " a contribution 
 to some future annals." t 
 
 We should now notice the " New Congregational Hymn 
 
 Book — Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship. Published 
 
 for the Congregational Union of England and Wales." 
 
 Prepared and authorised at the Annual Meeting of the 
 
 * Sec Appendix A. t See Appendix B, 
 
150 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 Congregational Union of England and Wales, lield in 
 
 London, May 8, 1855. 
 
 It contains 1000 liymns, or pieces in verse. Many of these 
 
 are versions of the psalms chiefly, though not only, by 
 
 Watts. Of this sort there are 251. The remaining 749 
 
 are of the usual kind — with doxologies and national hymns. 
 
 We cannot make specific remarks. The 251 psalms are 
 
 no improvement in versification upon Rouse's Old English 
 
 Version. But that is matter of taste, not of principle. We 
 
 cannot of our own knowledge say what is the fact; but it 
 
 can hardly be but that the 74:9 human hymns must greatly 
 
 supersede the 251 versions of the psalms in actual practice. 
 
 Of course the remarks already made on this head must 
 
 apply in greater force to this large collection. Some of them 
 
 are also liable to criticism, as might be supposed, alike in 
 
 style as in sentiment. Take, as an example, the following 
 
 stanzas of Hymn 356, by C. Wesley, headed by the words, 
 
 ^'Behold my Servant,'' Matt. xii. IS: — 
 
 1. Servant of all, to toil for man 
 Thou didst not, Lord, refuse; 
 Thy Majesty did not disdain 
 To be employed for us. 
 
 4. As done for thee, do thou receive 
 Each humble work of mine; 
 Worth to my meanest labour give. 
 By joining it to thine. 
 
 Again, Hymn 375, by C. Wesley, with the heading — 
 
 "/6' it nothing, all ye that pass hy .?" — Lam. i. 12: — 
 
 3. He answered for all; 
 
 come at his call, 
 And low at his feet in astonishment fall; 
 
 For you and for me 
 
 lie prayed on the tree; 
 The prayer is accepted, the sinner is free. 
 
PUBLIC -WORSHIP OF GOD. 151 
 
 This may be Arminiaiiism, or it may not; but when we 
 go into a place of worship to join, especially in the praises 
 of God, we wish to be sure we can do so without having to 
 debate with ourselves theological dogmas. 
 
 " The Scottish Hymnal," for the Church of Scotland. 
 Perhaps, as the production of a section of Scottish. Presby- 
 terians, we should have taken up this hymnal at an earlier 
 stage of our remarks. 
 
 We have already noticed the circumstances in which it 
 has been compiled, and the principle on which the com- 
 pilers tell us they acted — viz.: "The idea of this hymnal is 
 that it should represent fairly all lawful and healthy diversity 
 of opinion, feeling, and taste, in our national church." This 
 " idea," when we consider the various opinions known to 
 prevail in the national church, as well as those entertained 
 by several of the gentlemen whose names are given in the 
 list of committee, we can hardly be called uncharitable if we 
 stand in serious doubt as to what is likely to be the result 
 of their labours, in compiling a book, even of 200 hymns, to 
 be used in the public worship of God. It can be nothing 
 else than negatively defective, or positively sectarian.. We 
 agree with them in the propriety of excluding what they 
 call, " the prosaic class of merely doctrinal hymns." If 
 they wish to be non-sectarian, why supplant or supersede — 
 even by 200 competitors — the 150 of the Book of Psalms? 
 We are unable to discover any solid reason. Scope for 
 variety in the music, so as to afford to the musical portion 
 of the community their quota of gratification, whatever may 
 be the effect in relation to the general body of devout wor- 
 shippers, is the most prominent reason that we can discover. 
 
 We do not think the " Scottish Hymnal" superior either 
 in taste or sentiment to the United Presbyterian or English 
 
152 ruELTC Yror:SHip of god. 
 
 Presbyterian hymn books. lb only adds another to the 
 unsuccessful attempts made by so many parties, each find- 
 ing fault with their predecessors in the same line, to com- 
 pile anything that may for one moment he compared to the 
 divinely inspired Psalter, justly styled by Dr Hamilton 
 " The best of hymn books" and the " best of prayer books." 
 We cannot afford space for a special analysis, but take 
 two or three specimens, indicative of the spirit of exaggera- 
 tion, and straining at effort, and devoid of noble, Scriptural, 
 and divine simplicity. 
 
 *' LovG is the fuJJiUiji'j of the laiuy 
 
 HYiSIN LXXXV. Blest be thy love, dear Lord, 
 That taught us tliis sweet way, 
 Only to love thee for thyself, 
 And for that love obey. 
 
 A prayer to be enabled to do so would be fully as appro- 
 priate. 
 
 " JVho loved me, and gam Himself for iv.eP 
 
 HYMN XCII. love divine, how sweet thou art! 
 When shall I find my willing heart 
 All taken up by thee ? 
 I thirst, I faint, I die to prove 
 The greatness of redeeming love, 
 The love of Christ to me! 
 
 Is this really Christian experience? 
 
 Yf e might give, as another specimen of unreal exaggera- 
 tion, as far as Christian experience goes in Hymn 146, 
 " Nearer, my God, to thee," etc. 
 
 Hymn 158 has the text prefixed — "We have not an 
 
 high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our 
 
 infirmities." The first stanza is — ■ 
 
 When our heads are bowed with woe, 
 When our bitter tears o'erflow, 
 "When we mourn in sorrow drear, 
 Jesus, born of woman, hear! 
 
PUBLIC WOJ^SaiP OP GOD. 153 
 
 The last line is tlie refrain of tlie six stanzas of wliicli tlie 
 liymn consists — not one word directing to the priesthood of 
 Christ, or its nature, and we doubt exceedingly the propriety 
 of addressing prayer to Christ simply as " born of woman," 
 and not as the eternal Son of God, yet wearing our nature. 
 
 Hymn 185 is one under the general heading, "Baptism 
 and Childhood." It has prefixed the words, " Suffer little 
 children to come unto me," etc. 
 
 In this hymn the following is the third stanza: — 
 
 " Make it," (this child) " Head, thy member now; 
 
 Shepherd, take thy lamb and feed it; 
 Prince of Peace, its peace be thou ; 
 
 Way of Life, to heaven, oh lead it ! 
 Vine, this branch may nothing sever. 
 
 Grafted firm in thee for ever.'' 
 
 What confusion of metaphor is here ! What assumption 
 that each such child is actually by baptism a branch of the 
 true vine; and the only doubt expressed, whether, while 
 it is so, it may not bo severed ! 
 
 Would as many stanzas of the hfty-first Psalm not be 
 infinitely more appropriate, and certainly more intelligible, 
 even to children? 
 
 What sort of taste is it that concludes Hymn 191, under 
 the heading, " The Lord's Supper," and beginning, "Jesus, 
 to thy table lead us" ? etc.: — 
 
 Lead us by tliy pierced hand. 
 Till around thy throne we stand, 
 In the bright and better land. 
 
 Would not the words of Psalm cxviii. be a much nobler 
 v.'inding-up of a communion service 1 — 
 
 19. set ye open unto me 
 
 The gates of righteousness; 
 Then v/ill I enter into them, 
 And I the Lord will bless. 
 
10 i PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 20. This is tlie gate of God, by it 
 
 The just shall enter in. 
 
 21. Thee will I praise, for thou me heard'st, 
 
 And hast my safety been. 
 
 22. That stone is made head corner-stone, 
 
 Which builders did despise: 
 
 23. This is the doing of the Lord, 
 
 And wondrous in our eyes. 
 
 24. This is the day God made, in it 
 
 We'll joy triumphantly. 
 
 25. Save now, I pray thee, Lord; I pray, 
 
 Send now prosperity. 
 
 26. Blessed is he in God's great name 
 
 That Cometh us to save, etc. 
 
 Of none of all these hymnals can it be said that they 
 excel in divine simplicity, or are specially fitted either for 
 children or grown men, weak in the faith. Their language, 
 generally speaking, is inflated, unnatural, and unreal. 
 
 If such are to be the results of the labours of our hymn 
 committees in tlie present day, we would entreat them to 
 give them up. What guarantee do any of them afford that 
 they shall be successful, or that they shall succeed when 
 all that have gone before them have signally and confessedly 
 failed? 
 
 We may briefly glance at another comparatively recenfc 
 compilation in the same line. It is that entitled: — 
 
 " Hymns for Christian Worship. Compiled by several 
 ]\Iinisters of the Free Church, Glasgow." 18G6. 
 
 It is not ushered in by auy preflice, and v/e have no 
 means of determining what the special public object of the 
 compilers was; unless, as we have seen, what has been the 
 practice of all such innovators — viz., by doing the thing, 
 and forcing others to comply, or raise discussion and division 
 when they refuse. We will not characterise this line of conduct 
 in so grave a matter. It was taking a serious step, and 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 155 
 
 especially in siicli form as to involve every member of the Free 
 Church Presbytery of Glasgow in the possible responsibility. 
 We now advert to it, only as a specimen of the way in which 
 things are too often done, as we have already abundantly 
 shown. Comparatively few as the number of hymns is, the 
 compilation has a good many of those usually given in such 
 collections. It neither gives the names of authors nor com- 
 pilers. If it be a specimen of what we are to expect from 
 some who are now engaged, we understand, in a similar 
 occupation, it docs not promise much either for the taste or 
 doctrinal sentiment of any collection they may produce. 
 
 It has some, which, though not original, are somewliat 
 peculiar. There are some in the usual form of such pro- 
 ductions addressed to the Persons in the Godhead, and to 
 the Trinity. Hymn 14, beginning, ^' Creator Sjnr it I hij 
 u'hose aid,'' etc., goes on in stanza second thus: — 
 
 2. Thrice Holy Fount! Thrice Holy Fire! 
 Our hearts with heavenly love inspire. 
 
 The third stanza has the following lines: — 
 
 Let God the Son be glorified, 
 
 Who for the world's redemption died. 
 
 Hymn 15 begins thus: — 
 
 Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, 
 With light and comfort from above. 
 
 This is a most unwarrantable mode of praying to God. 
 
 One other specimen of this hind we may give. It is in 
 the fourth stanza of Hymn 80, beginning, '^For thee, 
 letter country,'' etc, : — 
 
 4. The Gross is all thy splendour, 
 The Crucified thy praise. 
 
 We have not space to give proofs. But there are other 
 hymns of theology no less doubtful, 
 
156 PtJELIC WORSHIP OP GOD. 
 
 The following is a curious specimen, as poor in poetical 
 taste as it is in sentiment: — 
 
 ,HYMN XXXVII.— So rest, my Eest! 
 Thou ever blest. 
 
 What does this mean 1 Is it a prayer for rest to Christ ? 
 or what 1 It goes on : — 
 
 2. Here hast thou lain, 
 
 After much pain, 
 Life of my life reposing; 
 Kound thee now a rock-hewn grave, 
 Eock of Ages closing. 
 
 4. To me the tomb 
 Is but a room 
 
 Where I lie down on roses; 
 Who by death hath conquered death, 
 Sweetly there reposes. 
 
 5. The body dies, 
 (Naught else) and lies, 
 
 In dust, until victorious, etc. 
 
 C. Meantime I will, 
 
 My Jesus, still 
 Deep in remembrance lay thee; 
 Musing on thee, in death 
 Be with me, I pray thee. 
 
 It is for this playing on w^ords and miserable doggerel 
 that we are expected to put aside the glorious old psalms I 
 
 It is true this is a translation from a German hymn iu 
 the collection named at the beginning of this chapter, viz. — 
 *' Sammlung von 150 Auserlesener Kirchenliedern," etc. 
 
 1. So ru-hest du, 
 meino Euh, 
 In deiner Grabes hohle, etc. 
 
 4. Sie wird mir sein, 
 Eiu Kiimerlein, 
 Da ich auf Eosen liege, etc. 
 
 It is even badly translated; but whether by the Glasgow 
 
PUBLIC WOES HIP OF GOD. 157 
 
 Free Cliurcli Presbyters or not we cannot tell, as any one 
 who knows German will see by comparing the above English 
 version of the last stanza: — 
 
 6. Indess will ich, iiiein Jesu! 
 Dich iu mein Seele seiiken, 
 Uiid an deiner bittern Tod 
 Bis ill Tod gedenkeu. 
 
 The only specimen we have at hand fit to be compared 
 
 with it are the fixmous lines quoted by Dr Andrew Thomson, 
 
 in his controversy with Mr M'Gavin, from the Nile Street 
 
 Hymns, published by no less a man than the late Mr 
 
 Greville Ewing: — 
 
 So Samson, when his liair was lost, 
 Met the Philistines to his cost; 
 Shook his vain locks with sad surprise, 
 Made feeble tight, and lost his eyes ! 
 
 We can hardly advert, even generally, to the merits of 
 some of the other collections we have named. 
 
 The " Chants de Sion," by Malan, are in many respects 
 excellent, all pious, and, generally speaking, sound in 
 evangelical sentiment. They, however, all take the tone of 
 the high doctrine of assurance, which the author not only 
 held was the attainment of ail Christians, but was especially 
 his own. The collection is addressed to such. His views 
 come strongly out in his introductory address, in the high- 
 flown language, of which the following words may be 
 taken as the sum and substance: — "Notre force est en la 
 joie de I'Eternal." 
 
 We have gone into these details to show the utter hope- 
 lessness of making any collection of hymns for the public 
 worship of God which will not bear the stamp of human 
 weakness, of the peculiar prejudices, feelings, and even errone- 
 ous, or at best heedlessly expressed views and opinions of the 
 
153 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD, 
 
 compilers. Why all this, we again and again ask, with the 
 book of inspired psalmody, to be at once, and as much con- 
 fided in by the devout worshipper, as the Bible in his 
 mother tongue is to be confided in by the believing humble 
 Christian 1 
 
 We conclude this paper by some extracts from writers 
 competent to judge; we do not say as to all that constitutes 
 true piety, sound doctrine, and true Christian experience; 
 but certainly of such taste and genius as to be able to dis- 
 tinguish between what is lofty and appropriate in style and 
 sentiment, and what is the reverse; and whose opinion is 
 the more to be trusted, that if they had prejudices, it can- 
 not be said they were on the side of evangelical orthodoxy. 
 
 We wish we could transfer to our pages the twenty-fifth 
 of Dean Stanley's Lectures on the " History of the Jewish 
 Church." We can only give a few brief extracts, without 
 reference to pages. It is headed the "Psalter of 
 David:"— 
 
 " But, even without reckoning these accompaniments, 
 the Book of Psalms is, as it were, a little Bible in itself It 
 is a Bible within a Bible; in which most of the peculiarities, 
 inward and outward, of the rest of the sacred volume are 
 concentrated." 
 
 " The Psalter, thus freely composed, has further become 
 the sacred Book of the world, in a sense belonging to no 
 other part of the Biblical records." ..." 'From 
 whatever point of view any church hath contemplated the 
 scheme of its doctrine — by whatever name they have thought 
 good to designate themselves, and however bitterly opposed 
 to each other in church government or observance of rites, 
 you will find them all, by harmonious and universal consent, 
 adopting the Psalter as the outward form by which they 
 
PUCLIC "WORSHIP OF GOD. 15& 
 
 shall express the inward feelmgs of the Christian life.' 
 It was so in the earliest times. The Passover Psalms were 
 the 'hymn' (?) of the Last Supper. In the first centuries 
 psalms were sung at the Love Feasts, and formed the 
 morning and evening hymns of the Primitive Christians. 
 'Of the other Scriptures,' says Theodoret, in the fifth century, 
 'the generality of men knew next to nothing. But, the 
 Psalms you will find again and again repeated in private 
 houses, in market places, in streets, by those who learned 
 them by heart, and who soothe themselves by their divine 
 melody.' ' When other parts of Scripture are used,' says S. 
 Ambrose, ' there is such a noise of talking in the church, 
 that you cannot hear what is said ; but when the Psalter is 
 read, all are silent? They were sung by the ploughmen of 
 Palestine, in the time of Jerome, by the boatmen of Gaul, 
 in the time of Sidonius Appollinaris. In the most barbarous 
 of churches, the Abyssinians treat the Psalter almost as an 
 idol, and sing it through from end to end at every funeral. 
 In the most Protestant of churches — the Presbyterians of 
 Scotland, the Nonconformists of England — psalm singing 
 has almost passed into a familiar description of their ritual. 
 In the churches of Kome and of England, they are daily 
 recited, in proportions such as far exceed the reverence 
 shown to any other portion of the Scriptures." 
 
 Dean Stanley gives ample authorities in the margin. Wo 
 regret we cannot give his illustration of his next point, viz., 
 " Its use by individuals," — the long and deeply inter- 
 esting array of names, comprising theologians ancient and 
 modern, reformers, kings, princes, statesmen, warriors, 
 martyrs, patriots — our Scottish Wallace being one of them 
 — who were cheered, and consoled, and strengthened by 
 the Psalter. It would be an ample set-off against a hymn 
 
IGO rUBLIC WOSSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 wliicli had been the favourite of Prince Albert, or an Earl 
 of Derby. 
 
 Again, — " These various peculiarities of the psalms lead 
 us, partly by way of contrast, partly by a close though 
 hidden connection, to their main characteristic, which 
 appears nowhere else in the Bible with equal force, unless 
 it be in the life and words of Christ Himself. The ' reason 
 why the psalms have found such constant favour in every 
 portion of the Christian Church, while forms of doctrine '■'* 
 and discourse have undergone such manifold changes, in 
 order to represent the changing spirit of the age, is that 
 they address themselves to the simple, intuitive feelings of 
 the renewed soul.' They represent 'the freshness of the 
 soul's infancy, the love of the soul's childhood, and, there- 
 fore, are to the Christian what the love of parents, the 
 sweet affections of home, and the clinging memory of 
 infant scenes, are to men in general.' ' God, thou art 
 my God; early will I seek thee.' ' My soul waiteth for 
 thee before the morning watch.' " It is Irvine v/ho thus 
 writes again, as quoted by Stanley. 
 
 One other passage we must quote: — 
 
 "The Psalter is especially prophetic of Christ, because, 
 more than any other part of the ancient Scriptures, it enters 
 into those truths of the spiritual life of which He was the 
 great Revealer." 
 
 Yet, after all these, we find Free Church ministers and 
 elders complaining that neither they nor their children can 
 understand the psalms, nor find Christ in them. We are 
 forced to say that such parties seem to think that children are 
 never to be men, and men are always to be children. V/e 
 
 * He miglit hare said, And human hymns, — It is Edward Irvine 
 who so wiites. 
 
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 161 
 
 tliink the elder in the Wynds was a much better thinker. 
 Mr Macoll, in his book on the Wynds, says: — "Much of the 
 stability and rooted strength of the work" (of revivals) "I 
 attribute, among other subordinate causes, to the continuous 
 and intelligent use of the psalms through all the exciting 
 work of the first years. I remember when one of my elders 
 proposed in the session, two years after the work com- 
 menced, that we should introduce hymns for the sake of 
 those of weaker capacity. ' No,' said another, * let us bring 
 them up to the psalms.' " Mr Macoll had previously expressed 
 the opinion that hymns would not stand exposition. 
 
 Mr Gladstone, now Premier of England, no mean autho- 
 rity on any question of Grecian literature at least, notwith^ 
 standing all his admiration for it, said in bis speech as Lord 
 Eector of the Edinburgh University, November, 18G5:— 
 " But if the first among the problems of life be how to 
 establish the pure and restore the balance of our inward 
 being; if the highest of all conditions in the existence of 
 the creature be his aspect towards the God to whom he 
 owes his being, and in whose great hand he stands, then 
 let us make our search elsewhere. All the wonders of the 
 Greek civilization heaped together are less wonderful than 
 is the single Book of Psalms." We certainly do not think 
 the clamour for ever-changing hymns, to suit the spirit of 
 the age, a proof of advancing taste and civilization, and still 
 less of the advance of lofty piety or progress in the divine 
 life; but very much the reverse. 
 
 We shall close these extracts on this head with one from 
 the Free Church Magazine of the year 1847, when high- 
 toned principle still bore the stamp of Disruption times. 
 We quote from it because of the testimony of its editor, and 
 especially because it embodies the opinion of a man of 
 
162 PUBLIC "WORSHIP OF G015. 
 
 acknowledged genius, and competent to give a judgment on 
 such a subject. In an article headed, " The Paraphrases/' 
 the editor says: — 
 
 " We cannot, after the attention we ha,ve given to the 
 matter, avoid also marvelling that, while there has never 
 been wanting some one to contend for the integrity of the 
 church's standards, or, in times of declension, to record her 
 backslidings, the same jealousy has been very sparingly 
 extended to the materials of her praise. Nothing seems 
 to have been more easy of accomplishment than the intro- 
 duction of changes here, and nothing more speedily buried 
 in oblivion than their entire history. A fataUty, indeed, 
 appears to have attended this thing. It seems utterly 
 forgotten, at present, that the paraphrases now in use 
 superseded another collection, more pure, more spiritual, 
 and more conducive to the edification of Christ's body. 
 Nay, so speedily has obscurity enveloped all the proceedings 
 of our Paraphrasts, that their names and labours are, in 
 many cases, difiicult of extrication. It seems not to have 
 fared better with those who attempted, at various periods, 
 to check their restless desire for new hymns; for it is a 
 singular fact, that Dr Beattie's able letter on the improve- 
 ment of psalmody shared the fate of one of the most 
 judicious things which Sir Walter Scott ever wrote. Sir 
 William Forbes omits all allusion to the doctor's critique 
 in his biography, and Lockhart makes only the most 
 transient allusion to the Baronet's Psalmody Correspondence 
 with Principal Baird. 
 
 " We have no desire, however, to revive the debate in the 
 church courts. On the contrary, we rejoice that the 
 Paraphrase Committee is defunct. We hope it will never 
 be revived." 
 
PUBLIC WOUSHIP OP GOD. ^ 163 
 
 Sir Walter's opinion is given in a note, as follows: — 
 "The expression of the old metrical translation, though 
 homely, is plain, forcible, and intelligible, and very often 
 possesses a rude sort of majesty which perhaps would be 
 ill exchanged for mere elegance. Their antiquity is also a 
 circumstance striking to the imagination, and possessing a 
 corresponding influence upon the feelings. They are the 
 very words and accents of our early reformers, sung by 
 them in woe and gratitude, in the fields, in the churches, 
 and on the scaffold. The parting with this very association 
 of ideas is a serious loss to the cause of devotion, and scarce 
 to be incurred without the certainty of corresponding advan- 
 tages. But if these recollections are valuable to pe'j'sons of 
 education, they are almost indispensable to the edification 
 of the lower ranks, whose prejudices do not permit them to 
 consider, as the words of the inspired poetry, the versions 
 of living or modern poets, but persist, however absurdly, in 
 identifying the original with the ancient translation. I 
 would not have you suppose, my dear sir, that I by any 
 means disapprove of the late very well chosen paraphrases- 
 but I have an old-fashioned taste in sacred as well as pro- 
 fane poetry; I cannot help preferring even Sternhold and 
 Hopkins to Tate and Brady, and our metrical version of the 
 psalms to both. I hope, therefore, they will be touched 
 with a lenient hand, and I have written a long letter, that I 
 might satisfy you in what a serious point of view I regard 
 anything connected with our national worship, as well as of 
 the consideration due to any request of yours." 
 
164 PUBLIO'WORSHIP OP GOD. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 When we find such men as those previously cited, and 
 multitudes of others, including the genius and piety of all 
 ages, exerting all the efforts of their loftiest talent to indite 
 their glowing eulogiums on the psalms, and telling their own 
 experience, and the experience of saints innumerable; nay, 
 when we find Paul and Peter proving from the psalms that this 
 is "very Christ;" when we find our Lord himself appeal- 
 ing to what is " written in the Book of Psalms concerning 
 Him," it is diSicult to repress the strong language appropriate 
 to the rebuke of some of the men of our day who can speak 
 small about the psalms as not suited to them. Let them 
 study, and pray, and condescend to learn; for they are not 
 fit to criticise, and judge, and prescribe for mature knowledge, 
 and ripe and experienced piety. Let them cease to disturb 
 and agitate the Church, by attempting to do what, their very 
 labours are demonstrating, all others before them have failed 
 to accomplish. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Note A. — Page 149. 
 
 lln Macfie, in a letter to the Weekli/ Beview, August 7, 
 
 1866, says: — 
 
 " I have no hesitation in saying that throughout the hymn 
 book there is an ultraism in the statement of gospel truths, or of 
 our current view of gospel truths, which is new, unscriptural, 
 and dangerous. It is not wise (is it faithful? certainly not) to 
 overstretch, or take even the outer limits of truth. Will it not 
 cause a recoil, and ruptures? If produced by going beyond 
 Scripture, who for these effects will be to blame ? " 
 
 Mr Macfie gives ample proof in his letters of bad taste, 
 doubtful doctrine, and constrained exaggeration. Take one 
 or two instances: — 
 
 HYMN LXVIII.— " At His left hand, and His right, 
 The rocks were rent asunder." 
 
 HYMNS CLVIII., CLXV., as '' Boly Dove:''-^ 
 
 " Return, holy dove, return." 
 Or ''Heavenly Dove'' (342), or this (384):— 
 
 " Thy soft wings, Celestial Dove.'' 
 
 HYJMN CLXV.~"Holy and blessed Three, 
 Glorious Trinity, 
 Wisdom, love, might,'' etc. 
 
 HYMN GLX.—" Holy ScriiJturer— 
 
 4. " Here consecrated water flowSj 
 To quench my thii'st of sin." 
 
166 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 Without committing ourselves to every one of Mr Macfie's 
 varied criticisms, we adhere to the statement of the letter 
 given at p. 149, and regret we cannot give a greater number 
 of specimens. 
 
 Note B.— Pages 126, 149. 
 
 "Without vouching for the perfect correctness of the 
 following statement by Mr Macfie, it seems to carry the 
 marks of truth on the face of it : — • 
 
 "A COXTRIBUTIOX TOWARDS SOME FuTURE AnNALS. 
 
 " At this time, the Presbyterian Church in England, moved by 
 the same healthful breeze which, throughout all the churches, was 
 impelling a triumphant wave of public opinion towards hymnody 
 more ample and more characteristically Christian, afresh took into 
 consideration the question of superseding, for a better, the collec- 
 tion which they had adopted in 1857. But differences of opinion, 
 as was to be expected, arose, and no formal resolution was adopted 
 in favour of a new collection. Nevertheless, one of their elders, 
 whom the Church much esteemed, associated with himself, in an 
 informal and private manner, certain of the preaching and non- 
 preacliing elders, chiefly resident in and near London, and of these 
 constituted a voluntary Committee, who accordingly set to work 
 to select many hymns. After they had made a selection, it is re- 
 corded that they sent to each of the preaching and teaching mini- 
 ters of the Church a copy, and sometime afterwards, not to these 
 only, but to a representative non-preaching elder of almost every 
 congregation, a different copy wherein was music. The request 
 was probably, at same time or times, made, that the Committee 
 should be favoured with any remarks which recipients might 
 desire to offer. It is doubtful, however, if many replies were 
 given. Paucity and imperfection of replies, indeed, could be no 
 matter of wonder, inasmuch as it was not by authority of the 
 Church that the application was made. Moreover, that any 
 should devote much time to critical and minute inspection, 
 though most necessary, was, in such a case, not to be expected, 
 as the Church might reject the work; and was not as yet 
 required, seeing «ne thing surely could be relied on, according 
 
APPENDIX. 167 
 
 to all precedent, viz., that the Church would not be hasty in 
 givincr the book its final imprimatur; but, on the contrary, would, 
 after formal approval, if it should have a mind for that, submit 
 the book in its probationary condition, if not to the Presbyteries, 
 at least to the body of the Church through the members of 
 Synod, for a sufficient time to allow of leisurely examination, 
 reflection, and perfectionation. That the Committee, as a matter 
 of fact, did not circulate the book with adequate wideness and 
 in sufficiency of time to secure this object, there is indirect proof, 
 for one person, whose taste may be questionable, but whose interest 
 had been proved by his printing and sending to every minister 
 of the Church notes and suggestions upon the existing collection, 
 and who had otherwise exhibited interest in hymn books, never 
 had a copy sent to him till long after the Synod adjourned, and 
 then only an incomplete copy. He did indeed get loans 
 in sufficient time to enable him to make some hasty pencillings, 
 which he had not time left to pursue to the end. Such as these 
 were, there is no reason to believe that as much had been done 
 by other persons more qualified and better entitled; and little 
 wonder, for nobody could have anticipated that the book would 
 be off-hand referred to a Committee, (mostly consisting of the 
 very men who, in combination, had executed the plan by which 
 work that in ordinary circumstances the Synod should have 
 undertaken was performed — undoubtedly with zeal and honour- 
 able motives — by them instead; and this, v/ith instructions) to 
 report during the sittings of the Synod; still less could it be 
 supposed that at that same Synod, and in a hurried manner, 
 when there was no time for due deliberation, would the book be 
 adopted. Yet such a thing did happen. A resolution was 
 passed, of which the following is the substance: — 
 
 " That the Collection had been most carefully prejjared. — Yet, 
 after the Synod closed, it was proved that, however careful the 
 collecting had been, there had been no due care in regard to the 
 hymns collected. 
 
 " That the Collecting had been done by a large number of the 
 Ministers and Elders of the Church. — A statement which is ex- 
 plainable on the supposition that what some would reckon small, 
 the Synod deem large. 
 
 " That copies of the first draft of the Collection had been sent. — 
 Not, however, by the Church, but by jirivate individuals, and, 
 therefore, with no authority that ensured attention. 
 
 " That thereby amjyle 02)portunity for examination and discus- 
 sion was afforded. — Opportunity of a sort, no doubt, if there wa? 
 ^ will, but was it availed of? 
 
168 PUBLIC WOESHIP OF GOD. 
 
 " That as it novj stands, the Collection emhodies the results of 
 criticisms and suggestions from all quarters of the Church. — 
 How many such ameliorations is not even hinted at. 
 
 " That no serious objections have been made. — The reason why 
 may be inferred. There had not been the examination and dis- 
 cussion, for which there was ' opportunity.' But objections have 
 been made since that are most serious. 
 
 " That, the Rqmrt says, it had been universally admitted tha% 
 as a whole, the -Collection is an admirable 07ie. — Anybody may 
 pretty safely say this, but vdiat does it amount to ? 
 
 " That, the Report also says, the accompanying Music is of a 
 very high order. — This must have been taken for granted on a 
 limited amount of examination. Was there more warrant in 
 regard to the previous equally laudatory and emphatic asser- 
 tions ? 
 
 " That therefore a Committee was appointed to consider the 
 emendations suggested in the Bejwrt. — Which emendations could 
 not be very thorough, for all was done during the spare hours of 
 a hard-worked Synod; a7id generally to complete the volume. 
 
 " It would require very great confidence in any collection, 
 that it has been thoroughly scrutinized, to warrant the represen- 
 tative of any Coinmitteo to propose a resolution so partial and 
 (in a sense) partisan in its aspect. 
 
 " The Synod, however, did adopt it; and, soon after, the evil 
 of undue haste became disappointingly apparent. The Collection 
 was found to be one-sided, inasmuch as, throughout, it contra- 
 dicted what students regard the most Scriptural opinions in 
 regard to the future state; unsafe, inasmuch as, by overstating 
 Bible revelations in regard to the Godhead, it created difficulties 
 in the way of receiving the truth, and tended thereby to Uni- 
 tarian error — ritualistic and superstitious — inasmuch as it con- 
 forms to Eoman and High Church fancies, as to angels, priesthood, 
 the sacraments, and the sacredness of places. 
 
 " Two other features, which, so far as appears, had never 
 before been considered, also came to light, viz.: That the 
 Scriptural order of prayer, and Scripture doctrine as to the offices 
 of the blessed Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, were (be it 
 deferentially said) either disregarded or overridden; and that 
 the Collection was so framed as to deprive the Church certainly 
 of nearly a half of its favourite Paraphrases, and too probably in 
 the end of the time-honoured Scotch Version of the Psahns. 
 
 " The leaders of the movement in London were well sujDported 
 by a newspaper which it was at one time expected would be the 
 organ of the whole Church. That paper did not indeed advocate 
 
APPENDIX. 169 
 
 the Book, but it raoro efiectnally served the satisfied promoters 
 by withholding most of the letters that were sent it, not anony- 
 mously, by a considerable contributor to the fund for starting 
 and maintainmg this vehicle of intercommunication. 
 
 " The executive of the Committee also did what they could to 
 carry the point on v>^hich their heart was set, by withholding 
 information during the progress of their work. 
 
 " At last a book was ordered to be printed for sale, as the ful- 
 filment of their task, which contained, besides other peculiarities, 
 a number'of hymns that were never before published, and so had 
 not the test of public use in their ftivour, as well as a number of 
 hymns that were not in the book when submitted to the Synod, 
 and therefore cannot be held to have its approval and sanction. 
 Emendations certainly have been made, but they merely affected 
 details, and were fewer than regard for exact truth demanded. 
 Pervading faults, fundamental error, had not been eliminated 
 nor neutralised. 
 
 " The English Presbyterians had a noble example before them. 
 Twice had the Church of Scotland distinguished itself for 
 scrupulous regard to truth and taste. The preparing, revising, 
 and perfecting of their good old psalms was a work of years. By 
 way of contrast, its English sister approved of a collection of 
 525 hymns, composed by irresponsible persons, and selected 
 without authority, on no acknowledged principle, and adopted it 
 joer saltum. 
 
 " The Church of Scotland, after like elaboration of a few 
 paraphrases and hymns, issued a collection of great value, con- 
 taining almost nothing objectionable or doubtful, in such manner 
 that by ' monopoly,' (to use its oavu expression,) cheapness was 
 secured, and the power of further improving was doubtless 
 retained without interfering with publishers' private property — - 
 a precautionary poioer of great practical value, the want of lohich 
 the Presbyterian Church in England may often have urged as an 
 insuperable difficulty in the ivay of amendments that certainly 
 will he greatly desiderated. 
 
 " The confidence reposed in the English Committee was so 
 great and so generally diffused, that the sound of alarm might 
 have been ineffectual; remonstrances of reiterated character might 
 not have been heeded, if a representation from some commercial 
 members of the body addressed to the good Moderator had not 
 stimulated him to plead with the Committee for at least delay, in 
 order that a preliminary issue might be examined and the truth 
 and cogency of the numerous new objections be subjected to 
 proof. 
 
170 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 " It therefore became the Committee's duty to consider whether 
 or not they should yield to the recommendation, one perhaps 
 almost unjDrecedented and never in any case slighted by want of 
 concurrence. The reasons for yielding are obvious enough. It 
 was clear to all parties that without delay the opponents could 
 not be satisfied. It was plain too that new matter in the way 
 of objection had arisen, and indeed was distinctly specified. 
 There could not but be consciousness that unusual haste, and a 
 certain degree of closeness, had marked part of the procedure. 
 To all which was necessarily superadded other considerations, 
 such as a sense of the vital importance of being assuredly ortho- 
 dox, and of giving no misleading sound where the tendencies of 
 the age towards externalism were alleged to have rendered 
 meanings ambiguous and dangerous, and, on the other hand, of 
 not giving a dogmatic sound on points where Scripture and the 
 standards of the Church had not spoken authoritatively. The 
 force of this last consideration could not but be great. Love to the 
 brethren, weaker brethren they might be dictated, no less. Catho- 
 licity, and especially regard for the Presbyterians of other Churches 
 with whom union was then a matter of hope, urged similar 
 caution. One reason above all constrained to delay and re- 
 examination. It is this: that the influence of hymns as a 
 source, yet not a sj'stem, of doctrine, though silent and casual in 
 its mode of action, is far more pervasive and powerful than that 
 of Creeds and Catechisms. How incumbent, therefore, that even 
 the feeblest appeals and monitions should be heard — every care 
 taken to exclude dubious matter, for the sake of the uninstructed, 
 who have not had the corrective advantage of the old Scottish 
 domestic theological training, and of the young, who may, in the 
 course of nature, grov/ up to be one day the bulk of the people 
 and the formers of the Church. 
 
 " It was felt that little harm could be caused by delay, and 
 that much good, though no doubt further work and cost, might 
 be the result. But the Committee would not grudge this, if the 
 honour of the truth and of the Church was one hairbreadth 
 aiiected. They would not be the cause of heart-burning, nor 
 even seem to carry things with a high hand." 
 
APPENDIX. 171 
 
 Note C. 
 
 The following summary of answers to arguments for the 
 use of liymns, and to objections to the use of the psalms 
 in worship, are taken from a condensed summary on the 
 subject of psalmody, annexed to Kev. K. 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 sacra- 
 ments. In determining whether or not this or that particular 
 service should be made a part of God's worship, the absence of 
 divine appointment, 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 nume- 
 rous than those wlio use only the Book of Psalms in singing 
 God's praise.' 
 
 Ans'icer. — 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 religious practice. 
 
 4. 'That we are allowed to compose our own prayers, and, 
 by parity of reason, ought to be allowed to compose our own 
 songs of praise.' 
 
 Answer. — 1. Right or wrong, it is a matter of fact, that most 
 worshippers neither do, nor can compose their own songs of 
 praise. 2. God has given us, in the Bible, a Book of Psalms 
 
 * It is curious, that as this is passing through the press, the 
 highest judicial authority in England has decided that the rule of 
 judgment is not that, what is " not forbidden " is allowable, but what is 
 not^2^rescribed in the Prayer Book is forbidden. This vindicates the 
 principle of our higher rule, viz., what is prescribed in the Holy- 
 Scripture, 
 
172 PUBLIC WOESHIP OP GOD. 
 
 but no Book of Prayers; and promised to the Clmrcli a Spirit 
 of prayer, but not a Spirit of psalmody. 3. In prayer we ex- 
 press our own wants; in praise we declare God's glory. If we 
 can frame a form of words, suitable for tlie former purpose, it 
 by no means follows that we are equally competent to compose 
 a form of words for the latter purpose. 4. The ordinances of 
 prayer and praise differ 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 designed 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, authority for sing- 
 ing songs composed by men.' First: we are referred to the 
 fact that Christ and His disciples sung a hymn. Matt. xxvi. 50. 
 
 Ansiccr. — 1. Let it be proved that the hymn sung by our 
 Saviour and the disciples, was not one or more of the Psalms of 
 David. It is supposed by the best commentators to have been 
 the great halld, consisting of the Psahns from the 113th to the 
 118th inclusive. 2. Our Saviour was better qualified, and had 
 a better right to compose hymns than Dr Watts, John Wesley, 
 Philip Doddridge, etc. Second: It is argued that Paul enjoins 
 the use of uninspired psalmody when he says, Col. iii. 16, 'Let 
 the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom ; tea,ching 
 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, 
 Hhe vv'ord 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 New 
 Testiment in particular. Ansivcr. — 1. Let it be proved that 
 this expression means either the whole Bible, or the New Testa- 
 ment, and not simply the principles 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 denominates 
 * 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. 
 Answer. — 1. No good reason can be assigned why any one of 
 the psalms of inspiration might not, in reference to. different 
 
APPENDIX. 173 
 
 aspects under which it may be viewed, be denominated a ' psidm, 
 hymn, and spiritual song/ Such a use of language is not un- 
 common. God says, Ex. xxxiv. 7, ' Forgiving iniquity, and trans- 
 gression, 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, indiscrhninately to the Book of Psalms. — See Josephus, 
 Philo, etc. ; and the same may have been done by Paul and the 
 primitive Christians. 4. In the Septuagint, v/hich was the 
 translation of the Old Testament in use in the days of Paul, 
 some of the psalms are, in their titles, designated ^9.5(x/mos — a 
 psalm; others, ode — a song; and others, alleluia; which last is a 
 word borrowed from the Hebrew, and when used as a noun in 
 the Greek language, is equivalent to hymnos — a hymn. Why 
 may we not suppose the Apostle lias illusion, in this verse, to 
 these three terms used in the Septuagint 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 impulse of the Spirit, and of course not 
 contained in the Book of Psalms. Answer. — Let it be i^roved 
 that the psalms, by the unseasonable utterance of which they 
 disturbed their assemblies, were composed 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 understand.' 
 Answer. — 1. If there are some passages in the psalms hard 
 to understand, so are there in the other Scriptures.— 2 Pet. ill. 
 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. We have a better oppor- 
 tunity 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 their place, 6. If 
 any man does not understand the psahus, let him, under the 
 direction of their divine Author, endeavour to ascertain their 
 meaning. 7. The psalms are not, in general, hard to under- 
 stand. 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 obtained from those 
 which are uninspired, when they are vrorn threadbare. 
 
174 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. 
 
 7. ' That the psabns are not adapted to New Testament wor- 
 ship.' 
 
 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 prepare songs suited to New Testament 
 worship, than men are now. 3. The psabns everywhere speak 
 most clearly of Christ and His mediatorial work, kingdom, and 
 glory, and are, by the Apostles, copiously quoted in illustration 
 of the way of salvation. 4. They make less reference to the 
 peculiarities 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 per- 
 sonal enemies, and bemg, in many instances, expressive of 
 revenge,' etc. 
 
 Answer. — It is blasphemy. 
 
 9. ' That the psalms are not sufficiently copious to furnish a 
 complete system of psalmody.' 
 
 Ansiver. — 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.' 
 
 Ansioer. — 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 trans- 
 lation 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 wliich God has com- 
 posed, 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 obsolete; 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 at all, ' inferior to that of 
 the prose translation of the psalms in our English Bible. 
 
APPENDIX. 175 
 
 These few observations are submitted to tlie judgment of 
 the candid and intellio-ent reader. Though they may not be 
 blessed as .a means of reclaiming 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 eje, on this, as on all other important points. In the 
 meantime, aU the fearers of God can, with confidence, comniifc 
 the interests of Christ's truth, so far as they are involved in 
 this controversy, to the management 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 wiU 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. 
 
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