March 1932
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
111
J. B. N ield
MUSICAL HERITAGE By J. B. NIELD * Los Angeles!"California
D r . R eginald H eber , late Bishop of Calcutta, wrote many fine hymns. In “The Son of God Goes Forth to War” are these lines occurring in the last stanza: They climbed the steep ascent of heaven, Through peril, toil, and pain: O God, to us may grace be given To follow in their train. One of the greatest perils to the church and home to day is that boys and girls are growing into manhood and womanhood and have not “laid hold” on part of their spir itual birthright and heritage, that is, a knowledge, of the great treasures of Christian hymnology. How poor is the life of a man or woman who does not have stored away those treasures of Christian verse which enrich and en noble mahhood and womanhood and bring comfort and cheer at all periods of life! The great hymns of the church have truly come to us “through peril, toil, and pain.” ne of th e worst sins of modern youth is taking things for granted, merely taking things for granted, ignor ant of the struggles, the sufferings, and in many cases, the bloodshed which has been the price paid for our great musical heritage. Apathy and indifference are often the children of ignorance. Ingratitude for what has come down to us through the struggle of the centuries and through the church is the worst sin of all. T he B lessing of O ur H ymns Christian song, what a blessing it has been! Volumes could not contain all the good it has done, nor count the lives of those who have been redeemed, reclaimed, com forted, strengthened, and blessed by it. How drab our ser vices would be were it not for the sweet songs of- Zion! The psalmist said, “My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord.” And to David, the courts of the Lord were praise and song as well as sacrifice and prayer. The sound of harp, the trumpet call of the Levites, the sounding cymbals, and the great chorus of trained singers, consecrated to their temple office, had a marvelous charm for him. How great is our debt to the Hebrew race for giving us the true lyric outbursts of song! Where did this mighty river of song have its source? Was it not in the religious life of a people who feared and loved Jehovah— * Director of. Music, Bible Institute o f Los Angeles, and Choir Master, First Presbyterian Church, Hollywood, Calif.
the spontaneous expressions of nationalism and religion at their highest combined points ? This culminated in the school of the prophets under Samuel. David, the sweet singer of Israel, was a product of this- school and era. From a tiny stream, as in Miriam’s “song of triumph,” it broadened into a great and mighty river in the Psalms of David. In the Psalms, we have the highest and noblest ex pression of lyric outburst that the world has ever known, and also the purest in form. It has been the pattern for the church in every age. Jehovah set His seal upon this form of musical expression, and praise, no less than sacrifice, was henceforth considered an integral part of worship. If we would know the meaning of the-words, “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness,” let us read 2 Chronicles 5 : 9 to 13. T he A rt of W orship The ritual, or art of worship, is today almost lost. It is no wonder; for some churches have no truly risen Lord, so why sing, “Alleluia, Christ is risen” ; others have no divine Son of God, so why bother about “Hark, the Herald Angels,” or “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” ; while millions care not about the unsaved in other lands, so why sing, “We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations,” or “Waft, Waft Ye Winds His Story” ? There is no story to tell or sing about, when it is considered that Jesus was just an ordinary baby, who grew into a good man, was a lov able character, a fine and kind-hearted teacher. But the man who knows he has been lifted through grace has the kind of Christ to praise and sing about that the Bible declares. The reason that worship is a lost art is that the object of wor ship has become commonplace. Christ is merely man to many. A man cannot worship something on his own level. He must cry out to some one far above him, covered in that spiritual realm of the infinite, with that mystical sothe- thing which sometimes seems so near, and yet at other times so far away—almost unapproachable. hTF the holiness of the divine Son of the Everlasting Fa- ther does not strike a sense of awe into the soul of the worshiper and make him want to say with Isaiah, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips,” he does not get to the first step in worship, which must be awe. The glory, the holiness, the purity, the justice
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