SACRED MUSIC AND PSALMODY CONSIDERED.

BY

THE VENERABLE

H. K. BONNEY, D. D.,

ARCHDEACON OF LINCOLN.

(PREACHED IN LINCOLN CATHEDRAL.)

COLOSSIANS III. 16.

Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with

hearts unto the Lord.

grace in your

THE great Apostle to the Gentiles is, in these words, addressing himself to the Christians of Colosse, a city on the river Lycus, in Phrygia and Asia Minor, which was long ago destroyed. On its ruins the town of Khonas has since been erected, and is under the dominion of the Turk.

The inhabitants of this city and of the nation in which it stood were, during the time they were in a state of heathenism, much addicted to debauchery and corruption of morals, particularly in their manner of worshipping their lifeless images, whose praises they celebrated in inflammatory language, and in a wild and licentious.

manner.

66

To guard, therefore, the disciples of this city from relapsing into a practice so debasing in itself, and so offensive to the GOD of all purity, he earnestly exhorts them to let the doctrine which CHRIST taught, and which He instructed his disciples to teach, be often recollected by them;" and that, with the greatest prudence, they should instruct and admonish each other, "with the VOL. III.

C

Psalms of David," and other "hymns" recorded in holy Scripture, and with the " songs" which had flowed from divine inspiration, "singing" them with true devotion, or grace in their hearts, unto "the LORD."

Of the same import is that passage of St. Paul to the Ephesians; in which he says "Be filled with the SPIRIT, speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the LORD:" in other words, performing this cheerful service with devout affection; a melody most pleasing to GOD.

The great Creator has so constituted the nature of the human species*, that there is a mutual sympathy between the passions of most men and the harmony of sounds, which, by their variety, will change and transport them into a correspondent variety of dispositions. They will elevate them into joy, and the next moment deject them into sorrow. They will incite them to indignation, and again soften them into love. There is no affection, no state of mind, which harmony cannot express or imitate; and, by that imitation, so accommodate itself as to govern and control us at its will. As "by mourning with those who mourn, and by rejoicing with those who rejoice," it can exhilarate the one and console the other; so by the same power, sympathizing with the other affections, it can excite the dull, quicken the inactive, moderate the eager, and allay the troubled spirit. There is scarcely any state of mind that it cannot confirm, nor feeling so irksome that it cannot change or ameliorate. Various are the passages of Scripture which point out the effect that it has upon the sensitive faculties of man. In Isaiah, "Ye shall have a song, as in the night when

*See W. JONES's Sermons.

a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the Mighty One of Israel *."

Agreeable to these notions are the sentiments of a well known writer of our Church, in his discourse on the words, "Sing to the LORD with a psalm of thanksgiving." (Ps. xcviii. 6.) "Man," he says, "is an instrument of GOD in his whole frame. Besides the power of the voice in forming, and of the ear in distinguishing, musical sounds, there is a general sense or sympathetic feeling in the fibres and membranes of the human body, which renders the whole frame susceptible of musical emotion. Every person strongly touched with music, must be assured that its effect is not confined to the ear, but is felt all over the frame, and to the inmost affections of the heart; disposing us to joy and thankfulness on the one hand, or to penitential softness on the other†.” And if harmony have this influence over our spirits by its natural power, by the bare efficacy of sounds, when separate from sense and signification, in a more exalted degree by the organt, -that noblest of all musical combinations, through the manifold application of pipes and stops, in its fullest compass, and most soothing modulations, or in the command of both in the rising and declension of its swelling movement,-if, I repeat, harmony thus separate from sense and signification can command and subdue the spirit, how much greater efficacy must it have when it is adapted to high and heavenly matter, and that matter arranged and measured by poetic numbers, the bare recital of which is known to make an impression upon

The earliest of which, in the West of Europe, was that sent by

the Emperor Constantine to Pepin, in 757.

the mind, superior to music; such as the spiritual poems dispersed throughout the Scriptures, all the produce of inspiration, whether they be the compositions of Moses or of David, or uttered by the voice of angels.

This captivating influence of harmony combined with verse, is experienced and acknowledged by most men, to whatever place they resort. In the heathen inhabitants of Colosse, (would that it were never so in Christian communities!) it had been degraded and desecrated to evil purposes. But that was, and is, the perversion and prostitution of the best things. The true and original design of them was to record, to thank, and to praise the Almighty. Those "famous men," alluded to by the son of Sirach, who "found out musical tunes, and recited verses in writing," designed both for the service of the sanctuary, and they are most powerful auxiliaries in the house of prayer, to awaken and promote piety, to comfort and edify the people of GOD. They are of constant advantage to the devotion of those who frequent the place of worship from a sense of duty; and they have unexpectedly produced the conversion of some, (subject to the operation of the HOLY SPIRIT,) who had only visited it out of curiosity. The power of heavenly harmony, breaking through their hardened infidelity or indifference has been permitted to soften them into shame and contrition.

These cases may be accidental and extraordinary; but yet the ordinary influence of music in churches, where the organ leads the congregation and covers many defects of the voice, is great and profitable. It is known to have brought many of all conditions and inclinations to the place of worship, who otherwise would have gone to no

* Ecclus. xliv. 5.