INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 55, 29 July 1875, Page 6

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.

TO THB EDITOR.

* Sir, — In the opinion of very many who are earnest about the present, and anxious as to the future, the arguments in reference to instrumental music as an aid to devotion, lately discussed in the Church's Courts, appear extremely unsatisfactory — at least as reported by the press. Pew or none of ordinary reading and intelligence but know that ihe Presbyterian section of Protestantism, at the first, shook off the delusions of Popery to a fuller extent than did the other sections of the Reformation movement. Scotland, now long- the centre and model of Presybterianism, reached a riddance from the Romish system of error which, from various causes, no other protesting community were then able to reach ; and the use of instrumental music in public worship was one -of those questions on which special attention was fastened, and in reference to it the conclusion arrived at was, that its employment in the worship of the Christian Church was unwarranted by the Word of God. By creed and by catechism, by commentary, and by controversy, Presbyterians have, taking in generations, been unanimously taught to be loyal to the Bible, and to hold fast the dearly bought inheritance of the great Reformation, for both of which they have oft been called on to fight ardently and long.' Whether right or wrong, whether good or bad for them, they have long been trained in the belief that the organ or other instrument has, from the Sacred Scriptures, no sanction for its use in the sanctuary services of the New Testament. In fairness to those now opposed (and they are ninety per cent of the Church) for the change, to them so great, there should surely be presented reasons of palpable weight, or probabilities pretty well supported by argument. It is hard for persons to be asked to forgo their convictions and change their belief in reference to a matter instilled into their mind for generations." It is hard, in reference to this question, to be called on to abandon accustomed belief in the Bible, the creed, and the catechism, and in the intelligence and candor of their leaders in the Reformation, and all, too, without argument, except what (as far as given to the public) is of the feeblest nature, and bearing but remotely on the main question at issue. It is very hard to be required to cast off old and cherished convictions, believed to have been well founded, and adopt their opposites, and these, too, having but the shadowiest arguments in support of their being at all true. There is the warrant of Heaven for asserting that to be tossed by winds of doctrine is unsafe, extremely for a human soul j and it is within sobriety to assert, that few secondery things, or none, perhaps, are more fatal to a church's weal than lightly to change her position, or without cogent argument to cast from her her long and reasonably cherished traditions. The Presbyterian Church was reared on what was believed to have been a well-cleared foundation. Her principles were few and well chosen. They may be summed in these two — The fullest right of private judgment ; and the exclusive authority of God's word for the dogmas of faith, and for the ordinances and elements of divine worship. On these positions stood j every reformer, indeed British and Continental, but circumstances so favored that, in Scotland, these were codified and adopted with a conclusiveness and resulting efficacy attained, we believe, nowhere else. The Presbyterian Church has been at least, apparently conservitive, hut her prominent and strong assertion of the right and liberty of private judgment teaches, that where change j is demanded, change should be made; ; but from her other principle, the ex- \ elusive warrant of the Divine Word— -it j is required that the arguments for, and \ the advantages of the change, be laid in their own native weight before the \ members and adherents composing the < Church. i

This question of the use of the organ is asking the Presbyterian Church to go back and not forward. Whether she did right or wrong in casting out instrumental music may be reasonably discussed; but for her to adopt it is, so far as it is concerned, to go back for centuries. Her position { on the point was — efficient vocal praisd rendered to God from the congregation's sefcVihat though the Mosaic Churd^HßH Christian. Church from its _t_______\ n&&meant to make use

of indirect worship-— that 'ihere i should be nothing without life to £ive soundshould he, neither organ nor incense, neither altar rior ark to be looked at. Some say there can be nq harm in the use of an organ, or of its parody, the harmonium. We are no judges of what in the circumstances may be hurtful; or helpful ; nor is it ours to lay down with what or how God is to be worshipped. If the history of morals and religion teach any thing, it is evident there is a limit to the safe use of aids to devotion, and of the ornamental in Divine worship. An embelished sanctuary service may entertain the audience, while the pious element is withering to die. It was in the darkening of the darkest time of the dark ages that the organ and other . artificial ;!aids to devotion came into current use, and that with the plea of relieving the thickening gloom, and of quickening the felt dying j but the centuries preceding the Reformation are proofs that the remedies only intensified the maladies. The platform of the Christian worship has a higher one than that of the Mosaic, which consists in its directness and simplicity, in its being personal and unaided. The more effective the service, the more really is God worshipped, and the more abundantly is the human soul benefitted and blest. And this is equally true of the Church's system of service, as it is of the individual in his approaches to his Maker. The only allowable and safe embelishnient is, that the necessary and cardinal parts of the Scripture be performed with such order and decency as conduce most to edification and gravity. History proves that any thing more is not a help but a hindrance to the creating or the increasing of piety. One deep conviction in the minds of the reformation leaders (and it is strongly expressed in the confession, catechism, and commentary of the Presbyterian section), was this, that to the mind of both inspirer and speaker of the New Testament, there should, on the wor-ship-platforms of the Christian Church, be no foreign element; be nothing there but the personal ; the calvos of the lips conveying to Him who is worshipped, the thoughts, the faith, and the affections of the worshippers. With them it was a strong conviction, that so Jesus and his Apostles regarded the worship-platform of the Church they were planting — that there should be on it neither altar nor aric ' to be looked at, neither incense to be smelled at, nor thing without life giving sound to be listened to.

Whether that conviction was ill or well founded is a competent matter for investigation. So is it perfectly competent to raise the question as to whether the Presbyteriaa Church has been right or wrong in her attitude towards foreign aids to devotion ; whether she has done well or ill in so long excluding from her worship the aid of the organ. But surely it is not fair in the face of such long cherished and deep convictions for any man, or a few men, to allege as has been done, that all the while the t^ing was perfectly scriptural, and be able to support the aliega-, tion by only the frailest arguments, by assumptions ill defined and apparently irrelevant, and by conclusions that utterly fail to carry conviction, except in a mind where it was already nearly foregone, and needing little more than the balance's dust to become convinced. These somewhat general remarks have so extended,, that room is not left to deal at present with the special arguments which have been advanced. If you favor me with a space in your paper, I shall endeavor to deal with them on a future occasion. Hoping that my wish for such space, and also for the present, shall meet with your approbation. — I am, <fee, J. Waters.

The Manse, Warepa,