I

THE VALUE OF CONGREGATIONAL SINGING

T

HE ideal form of church music after all is congregational singing, where every voice is lifted in praise and thanksgiving, in prayer and petition, in inspiration and encouragement and in earnest witness for divine truth. It is an audible representation of the communion of saints. It is the voice of the Bride of Christ singing His glorious perfections. In no other exercise, not even in prayer, is there such communion, such fellowship of feeling, as in the congregational hymn when all are singing. It is not strange that in all ages of the Church, even when music was at its rudest, it should have been cultivated and encouraged. When the song was taken from the congregation and given to choirs of boys and monks, it was both a symptom of the decaying religious life and an additional cause for its future and more rapid decay.

The German Reformation had no more striking manifestation of the change of spirit and conception of the religious life than in the restoration of the congregational hymn. And among the common people it was not so much the doctrine preached, not so much a sense of the imperfection and unworthiness of the Roman Church, as the congregational hymn, in which all could participate, that swept the masses into the fold of the reformers. In Germany the Reformation was a singing reformation, and the popular results were very largely dependent upon its culture. This was recognized by Luther's enemies who

said that he did more harm by his hymns than he did by his sermons, while Coleridge expresses his judgment that "Luther did as much for the Reformation by his hymns as by his translation of the Bible."

The great English Reformation under the Wesleys was likewise a singing reformation. They had no new doctrine to preach, for the Wesleys were doctrinally not far from the Anglican Church and differed from it only in putting spiritual vitality into the practical Arminianism that already controlled the thought of England. It was the spiritual hymns which they produced and which were sung from one end of Great Britain to the other that gave prominence to the whole movement. It is but just to give John Wesley the preeminence as the leader of the movement, and yet Charles Wesley was probably not far behind his more intense brother in the practical results. of his work and influence.

The New England revival in which Jonathan Edwards bore so prominent a part is so associated in our minds with his severe and even harsh doctrinal preaching that it comes as a surprise to know how large a place congregational singing had in it. I quote the testimony of Edwards himself to its value: "Our public praises were then greatly enlivened. God was then served in our psalmody, in some measure, in the beauty of holiness. It has been observable that there has been scarce any part of divine worship wherein good men among us have had grace so drawn forth, and their hearts so lifted up in the ways of God, as in singing His praises; our congregation excelled all that I ever knew in the external part of the duty before, but now they were evidently wont to sing with unusual elevation of heart and voice, which made the duty pleasant indeed."

The revival work of Moody in America and in Great Britain was accompanied by such musical manifestations, by such unanimous delight in the songs that they popularized, that it might be said of Sankey as it was of Charles Wesley, that his work was not very much less influential than that of his more prominent coadjutor. Wherever there is spiritual life moving among the general people, there is the popular congregational hymn. Here again, it is one of the results and one of the causes as well of the onward sweep of the religious life.

It is not difficult to see why the congregational hymn should have such value. Any one who has listened to a congregation that fully participated in the song cannot but have been impressed by its dignity and power. It does not greatly matter what the music is; the most shallow ditty when taken up by a great congregation suddenly rises to a dignity that seemed utterly foreign to its character before. It is exalted and sublimated not only by the volume of the sound which is so physically thrilling, but by the enthusiastic and hearty and sympathetic communion of the great assembly. Hence it is that the very shallow and artistically vapid "Hold the Fort," when sung by the great gatherings under Moody, had such overwhelming impressiveness.

The fact that congregational singing brings within the active plans of the service the voice and heart and will of every worshipper makes it practically valuable in achieving the results the minister desires. When by the exercise of sheer masterfulness, by persuasion, or by interesting and inspiring the congregation, he can succeed in securing the participation in the singing of every one present, he will produce the conditions in the attitude of mind and will on the part of the hearers which make suc

cess possible; such a responsiveness is established, such a knitting of the sympathetic natures of the assembly, such a unifying of the otherwise indifferent or antagonistic individualities, that the minister no longer has a mob of unrelated personalities to deal with but a great organism into which the units have been welded.

Then there is for the minister himself an inspiration in the congregational song that will key him up to his highest possibilities. The minister who can stand before a great congregation and listen indifferently to its united voice hardly has a place in the pulpit. While the song is preparing the congregation for him, it is also preparing him for the congregation. His own spirit and conception of the work will rise to the magnitude of the opportunity before him, and the manifestation of the diverse individualities uniting in one great responsive whole spurs him on to impress this composite individuality with his message. When such a congregation unites in praise of the Almighty, the spirit of the minister cannot but wake to a deeper spiritual apprehension of the God whose servant he is. It is a tangible realization of the sublime spectacle of heaven, where angels and archangels and the heavenly hosts respond in their adoration and praise to the Almighty. The pettiness and shallowness of the minister's self-consciousness cannot but vanish, and the tremendous responsibility of his opportunity must be impressed upon him.

But there are higher results to be obtained from the congregational song than the mere preparation of congregation and minister for the discourse. There should be in it an actual communion with God, and a stirring of the soul that will give aggressive spiritual power over the hearts and wills of the unsaved. It has often seemed to

me that no other devotional exercise of assembled saints can be so pleasing to God as the congregation lifting its united voice in His praise. The culminating moments in heaven's worship as portrayed in the Revelation occur when the combined voices of" thousands of thousands " of angels and every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, yea the great multitude which no man could number, sang the new song of accomplished redemption.

Furthermore, true congregational singing will react upon the souls of the individual singers, becoming a veritable moment of transfiguration, sharpening their spiritual apprehension, stimulating their religious feelings, and leading to fresh or renewed determination of loyalty to God and His laws. Unless each feels the stimulus of the added psychic and spiritual momentum of all the rest urging him towards a fuller, richer religious experience, this union of voices in the service of the sanctuary again becomes a useless exercise of pulmonary muscles.

The influence of really successful congregational singing is exerted also upon the unsaved persons in the assembly. Even in the realm of natural psychic law, aside from the spiritual and divine influences that are above natural law, such a union of mind, feeling, and will, sublimated and concentrated, must have an extraordinary influence upon outsiders. I have had in my experience some instances that could be explained only in this way. I remember once a young man who seemed wonderfully convicted in an intense meeting came forward to the altar and seemed brightly converted. Within twenty-four hours he was leading in a low dance in the neighbourhood, wilder and more reckless than ever; was it not