ABOUT four or five hundred years ago, there was a monastery situated on the edge of the great Fens in England. These Fens are huge swamps with little islands here and there. In this monastery lived a number of good men, who taught some of the children nearby, and these good men would go out maybe at night and walk barefoot many miles through the swamp to nurse and look after some sick person.
When these monks came to the monastery they sang their morning and evening hymns clearly, and well; but as years went on their voices got hard and cracked from living near all this water. The monks felt very sad about this, especially one, who called all the others together and they talked it over; now one of the monks had been at a monastery farther North, where there was dry air, and he said that there was a young monk there who sang beautifully, and he suggested that they should ask the Prior, the head of the monastery, to allow the young monk to come and sing for them. When the Prior was asked, he said that it was a good idea, and that he himself had been thinking about their poor singing. Then a monk was dispatched to ask the Prior of the other monastery to let the young monk come and pay them a visit, so after hearing the reason the Prior agreed.
Now this young monk was very proud of his accomplishment and thought that he was better than anybody else, while on the other hand, the old monks of the Fens were very humble and unassuming.
When the two monks arrived at the monastery, the young monk received a hearty welcome, and when a little later on, the time came for the evening hymn, and they all went down to the Chapel, they asked the young monk to sing for them; so he, glad of an opportunity to show off his powers, willingly complied, and sang beautifully; the monks listening entranced.
After the hymn the monks retired to bed.
In the middle of the night the Prior had a dream. He seemed to see one in white shining robes who said:
“How is it that there was no hymn this evening?”
Then the Prior answered:
“The hymn was sung, and sung with great pathos.”
“Ah! but up in heaven we heard no singing; the sound cannot have gone through the roof. The young monk who sang was singing for his own glory, and not for the glory of God. Every evening until now we have heard a joyful hymn ascending to us in heaven, but tonight we heard no singing, and I was sent to see what had happened.”
“Would you have us send the young man away?”
“Yes, as he is not worthy to sing when he does so for the sake of being praised.”
In the morning when the Prior awoke be realized that it was a dream sent from God to him, and so he then called the monks and told them what he had dreamt, and so they decided to send the young monk away. After doing which they were content to go on as they were before.
I do not know what became of the proud young monk, but I hope that he became less proud and sang to praise God, and not to be praised.
Does not this show us clearly that we should sing to praise God, and not to show off our own powers?
ML 07/16/1916