Musical Service: Is It Right?

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1This tract is a plain and decided protest against the musical fashion of the day. The critical remarks are not equal to the general principles or the exhortations, for reasons already given in noticing “The Figurative Language of scripture.” Worship, says he, “is a matter of much more vital consequence than most Evangelicals seem to suppose. Let none speak or think of it, or of anything connected with it, as small or trifling. It is that in which God, the All-Great, delights. It is that which, as our Heavenly Father, He Himself seeks! It is the solemn eight-times-struck key-note of the New Covenant! Let us hear no more the vain and foolish words, ‘I like this,' or ‘I prefer that,' in connection with any of the principles or practices of Divine worship, but let us all humbly unite in offering our Father in heaven that which He so plainly told us He likes and we need.” Again, says he, “Musical service is wrong—as I. Unscriptural. II. Unreal. III. Selfish. IV. Sensuous. V. Worldly. VI. Uncongregational. VII. Unprotestant. VIII. Doing evil that good may come. IX. Injurious to the ministry.” Appendix B. shows that “there is no direct warrant for the use of instrumental music in the Church of Christ, either in the New Testament, or in any of the writings of the first three centuries.”
 
1. By a clergyman of the Church of England (Nisbet & Co.)