1 Chronicles 25:1, 3 Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun… Prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals; "Who prophesied with a harp." The point suggested is that music, which is skill of hand, may help song, which is skill of voice. The term" prophesying" is variously employed in the Scriptures. Sometimes it seems to stand, in a very general way, for sharing in religious worship. At other times the idea of instructing people in the will of God, as it had been immediately revealed to the speaker, is prominent. And at yet other times there is reference to the fore-announcing of coming events. Here, in the passages before us, the element of instruction is the prominent thing, or the exerting of a gracious influence on others by music, which should bear direct relation to the culture of their spiritual life. And this is the proper and the high function of religious music. Consider - I. INSTRUCTION AS THE EQUIVALENT OF CULTURE. This involves a large view of instruction, as bearing relation to the whole man - heart and feeling as well as mind. For the purpose of a man's instruction - edification, soul-culture - there need not be a direct appeal to his intelligence, because his receptive faculties are not limited to his intellect; a man receives even more through feeling than through brain and mind. But in an age when there is an extravagant worship of knowledge, this point needs consideration and prominence, in order that better attention may be paid to the means for reaching the religious sensibility. John Howe has a sentence which may bear on this possibility of culture otherwise than through a man's mind. He says, in one of his most serious moods, "Nor do I believe it can ever be proved that God never doth immediately testify his own special love to holy souls without the intervention of some part of his eternal Word, made use of as a present instrument to that purpose; or that he always doth it in the way of methodical reasoning therefrom. It is plain that in our general education a thousand other influences than the intellectual reach us and aid us, and other men than those who can be called intellectual influence us; and we may be sure that the same is true of the education of our soul's spiritual life. Let our idea of instruction pass into the larger, broader thought of culture, edification, and then we see that - II. MUSIC MAY BECOME AN IMPORTANT AGENCY IN SOUL-CULTURE. By many and various illustrations the refining, ennobling, educative influence of music may be shown. 1. Childhood songs implant the first seeds of good. 2. Rhyme bears direct relation to memory, and materially aids the retention of good sentiments and thoughts. 3. Music has a soothing power, as seen in King Saul; and often becomes a moral preparation for the due reception of instruction in the milder aspects of truth and the gentler forms of duty. 4. Music often finds relieving expression for emotions, either of joy or of sorrow, which are too intense for language. Music I Oh how faint, how weak - Language fades before thy spell I Why should feeling ever speak, When thou canst breathe her soul so well?" Illustrate by Mendelssohn's 'Songs without Words.' 5. Music bears direct relation to religions feeling. Sounds of music bear a twin influence with the sights of nature: both bring home to human hearts some sense of the eternal harmonies and beauties of the worlds unseen, and of the glorious God who is above and in them all. Then the gift of music, as well as song, must lie on God's altar. Of the earth-temple, as well as of the heavenly, it must be true, "As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there." - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals: and the number of the workmen according to their service was: |
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