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Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole — »■ signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Stre film6s d des taux de reduction diff^rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour etre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est film6 d partir de Tangle sup^rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nicessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mithode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 •'(/,,■«■•'*"*''' K> ■WW" r^ THE OiGAN QUESTION %■ B CRITICALLY EXAMINED, ■c BY A Disruption Elder. -v^ %,'J >- Sf SEJQOnsriD EHDITIOISr. *s P*1L, 1884. I Free Press Printing Co., Richmond Street. /' # # ■ !l ».>'ii' >*?^ ,(*»■'« THE ORGAN QUESTION CRITICALLY EXAMINED. BY A DISRUPTION ELDER. li: u: The word Organ is derived from the Greek word Organon. It is the invention of Jubal, if the Hebrew word Hugab is correctly translated in our English version oi the Bible, It is the most perfect musical instrument known to man. It owes its present degree of perfection to Christian Forner, who, in the 17th century, invented the wind chest, by means of which an equal pressure of wind can be obtained in all the bellows. It is of various forms and dimensions. The largest is said to be in London, containing 183 stops, 4 manuals, with 10,000 pipes, and propelled by steam power. That in the cathedral church of Ulm is 90 feet high, 28 feet wide, its largest pipe is 13 inches in diameter, and is blown by 16 pairs of bellows. That at Seville has 100 stops and 5330 pipes, each stop being a particular set of pipes diflfering in pitch, but all having the same character of sound. That in Harlem is 103 feet high, and 50 fe'.t wide. That in Breslau has 3342 pipes, the largest of which weighs 382 lbs., and is 55 feet long. From the earliest period it was used by the heathen at their idolatrous worship and festivities. It was first introduced into the Christian church by Pope Vitalian in A.D. 666 — a strange coincidence, being the year corresponding with the number of the Beast. Notwithstanding the Pope'3 influence in that dark age, and subsequent ages, we learn from church history that that innova- tion was but slowly and very reluctantly entertained by the Christian church. The first that was known in the West was sent as a present to King Pepin by Constantinus Copronymus in A.D. 757, which he placed in the church of St. Corneille. In A.D. 1290 Marianus Sanutus introduced an organ into church service, which was then considered an innovation. Even in A.D. 1298 an organ was burnt in the Cathed- ral of Strasburg, which was supposed to have been done by the recusant worshippers. The student of history may easily see, that the Church of Rome, corrupt though she then was, struggled manfully against the innovation as blending Judaism with Christianity; for, says Thomas Aquinas, about six hundred years after its introduction, " in the old law God was praised with both musical instruments and human voices, but the Christian church does not use musical instruments to praise Him, lest she should seem to Judaise. It was strongly opposed in the Council of Trent, being retained in deference to the influence of the Emperor Ferdinand. In 1818, twenty-two]Jewish Rabbins, among whom were Mor- dccai Benet and Mosea Sopher, decided against it. From the days of Ilospinian to our own, its use has been a subject of debate. It was not common in England till the loth century. As to the origin of the innovation in the pure worship of the true God, we may trace it principally to the indolence, illitera- -ture and morals of the clergy of those times, combined with the mode of worship then prevalent. About this period, history informs us that, south of the Humbe.'; ther'. was scarcely a priest who understood the common prayerbook of the Church, or could translate the easiest Latin author into English. Tyn- dal testifies that they could not read their Portesses. At the councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, some of the Bishops could not sign their names. — Whitens Bampton Lectures, Nor did matters improve till the Reformation. Nor were thehr morals more com- mendable than their learning. These, say Clemangis and Lenfan, frequented the stews, and taverns, and spent their time eating, drinking, revelling, gaming and dancing ; surfeited and drunk, these sacerdotal sensualists fought, shouted, roared and rioted, and blasphemed God and the saints, and passed from the embrace of the to the altar. Gildas, in the 6th century, paints the character of the British clergy in the darkest hue. Pope Innocent states that the amount of christian knowledge necessary for the laity is to know that there is ;. God who rewards the good, and for bishops and pastors to know the Apostles' Creed, and believe what the Church believes. Edgar, the British monarch, in the loth century, assembled the British clery, and in a speech addressed to a full convocation of them, told them to their face that they were lascivious in dress, insolent in manner, and filthy in conversation ; that their time was devoted to revels, inebriations, debauchery and abominations ; that their abodes were the haunts of harlots, and the scenes of the play, the dance and the song, which, in noisy dissipations, was often prolonged till midnight and morning. In one year eleven thousand priests paid tax to their bishops for permission to violate the seventh commandment. — Daubene. Nor was this all, for such was the protection afforded the clergy in crime, that it was proved to Henry II. in the 12th century, in the fifth year of his rel- ence and corruption ; in rank equalling the nobility, and in hauteur preceding them*; instead of edifying the people with gospel doctrines and godly discourses, the time of worship was spent in singing and chanting numerous Psalms, to the exclusion of almost all other services. So much was this the case, that the human voice became enfeebled by such onerous exercises, hence a machine was substituted to regale the giddy and afford ease and repose to the deluded worshippers. Such was the general character of the clergy over all Europe in learning and morals when machine worship was introduced into the Christian church, nor did it improve till the Reformation — (Edgar's Variation, c/u 18.) In A.D. 816 it was enacted by the Council *The rulers of the Church were then in the habit of keeping 60 horses in their stables, and using such a variety of wines at their tables, that it was impossible to taste the half of them. The inmates of some monasteries complained of the austerities of the times, when they were at ordinary meals reduced from sixteen to thirteen dishes. — Bernard. Hence the enactment in one of the British councils, that an Archbishop's train must not exceed forty or fifty horsemen, and that of a Bishop twenty or thirty ; and that they must not visit their parishes wi*h hunting dogs.— f/art. Cardinal Wolsey used to sit in a chair of gold, sleep in a golden bed, and a cover of gold-cloth spread over his table during meals His household consisted of from five hun- dred to eight hundred persons, many of them nobles. ^ 1 j I THE ORGAN QUESTION CRITICALLY EXAMINED. of Cwtle-hyth (Ceale-hyth) that at the death of a Bishop, the following services were to be performed for the repose of his soul, the tenth of his property was to be given to the poor, all his slaves were to be liberated : at the sounding of a signal in the different parish churches the people should repair to the church and there sing thirty Psalms; and that every Abbot find Bishop shall cause six hundred Psalms to be sung, one hundred and twenty masses to be celebrated, all the servants of God to fast one day, and that for thirty days immediately after service seven bells of pater- nosters shall be sung for him. In return for the kindness of Ethelwolf to the clergy, it was ordered in A.D. 837 that the clergy should meet with their people every Wednesday in the church and there sing fifty Psalms, and celebrate two masses for the king and nobility, who consented to the famous grant. In A.D. 928 it was enacted that the clergy were to sing fifty Psalms for the king every "Friday in every monastry and cathedral church. And when death, the king of terrors, sealed the lips and closed the eyes of professing christians, the custom then was to wake the corpse during three days and three nights with continuous singing of Psalms before it was committed to its kindred dust and silent rest, hence the origin of machine worship in the Christian church, which, like many other corruptions, were copied from pagan- ism, and had their origin in necessity.* — (Reeves' Life of Columba.) In these times public worship consisted chiefly in Psalmody ; in some churches and cathedrals this exercise was continued uninterruptedly day and night by a constant succession of priests and laity ; even private devotion in those times consisted in singing a prodigious number of Psalms as the most effectual way of appeasing the wrath of Heaven and atoning for the sins of the living and the dead. Nor was vocal music the only part of divine worship that was performed by substitution; it was only a part of a system of worship by which almost every act of worship was performed by other agency than that of the understanding and heart of the worshipper. Fast- ing had the same privilege; a rich person, who had many friends and dependents, might dispatch a seven years' fast in three days by procuring eight hundred and forty to fast 'with him on water and vegetables. So might preaching. Livings were then held by foreigners, who never visited the countries in which these livings were, nor understood the language of the people they were bound to instruct, so that unless they preached by proxy the people received no in- struction at all, and the preaching that was then prevalent was composed of legendary tales and anile fables, which were ill adapted to enlighten or edify the hearers; and, to stifle opposition, the same Pope ordered the service to be conducted in Latin, for be- fore that worship was always, conducted in the lan- guage of the people. Some of these foreign pluralists even as late as the 14th century, held not fewer than twenty livings, which they never saw, and from which they derived ample revenues, indeed sometimes more than the then reigning sovereign of Britain. Nor was this all, livings given in Commendam were often kept vacant during the commendator's life, and sometimes during several lives, to the deprivation of extensive parishes of all religious instruction. A New Testa- *According to the- Rule of Columbanus, published in Rome by Luc HoUtein Deep in 1661, the Culdean Monks sometimes at certain hours sung thirty-six Psalms and twelve anthems, and in A.D. loaa the Council of Worms commuted a fast of one day for the singing of fifty Psalms, and the singing of fifty Psalms for one hundred i'aty\^'»xXvmi.~FUMty. ment then would cost $200,* and all ranks seemed to consider their priests so expert at saving souls as mountebanks are at performing tricks, and quacks at curing diseases, and that there was nothing to be done but commit their souls to their care and the business could not be miscarried. Nor need we wonder at such ignorance, as at that time few had books and fewer could read them, and fewer still could buy them, from the fact that King Alfred gave an estate for one vol- ume on Cosmography ; and if a book was then lent, it was und;r a bond with good security that it would be safely and duly returned to the owner, (See Mosheim on the "State of Religion during the 9th Century.") "But," say the pro-organists, "we are conimandec'i by God in Ps. 150 to praise Him with the organ.' True, but that command refers to tem- ple worship, with which we have nothing to do, literally, more than with the expression, "Be not merciful to any wicked transgressor." — Ps. 69, v. The temple, I say, all the services of which were shadowy and typical of good things to come, and received their completion in the antitype — Christ, under whose ministry we now worship, not according to the mode of worship practised in the temple, but according to the mode prescribed in the charter of the Christian church. "But," say the pro-organists, "there is no special injunction for the abolition of . instrumental music in Divine worship, therefore it must still be scriptural to use it." If we associate with Chrisitan worship every part of the Mosaic ritual against which there is no special injunction, we shall have a strange heterogeneous commixture of Judaism and Christianity. Is there any special injunction for abrogating the prohibition of boiling a kid in its mother's milk ? which implies a prohibition of dress- ' ing meat with butter in the art of cooking, or for the annual capitation tax for the service of the sanctuary? or for the appropriation of the hundredth part of the produce of the land for the support of the priesthood? or for the triennial eucharistic feast for the poor, the stranger, the widow, the fatherless and the orphan? ' or has the command against the sewing and wearing of heterogeneous commixtures been abrogated by special injunction ? Some of them implying one of the cardinal points of Christianity, that we are not to mingle our own righteousness with that of Christ's as a ground of justification . So it is with the 1 50th Ps. , the command in the letter is dead, but in the spirit alive. In the Mosaic ritual, God was to be praised with instruments of His own appointment, and so in the Christian church. He must be praised with the instruments that He Himself prescribed, the spirit and understanding of the worshippers. Man has no better right to choose or to change the mode of wor- shipping the Deity than to choose or change the object of worship. Moreover, that the payment of tithes formed part of the worship of God when the Mosaic ritual was known only in the councils of Heaven, that they were in force during the Theocracy and till the dispersion of the Jewish nation, that Christ did not censure the Jews for their punctiliousness in the payment of tithes, but for the omission of what was of more importance, and that there is no special in- junction given in Scripture for their abolition are facts too well known to require proof ; yet. from New Testament development, few would have the presump- *In the reign of Edward I., the price of a Bible, fairly writ- ten, was .£37. Til-" hire of a labouring man was three half-pence a day. It would, therefore, have required the earnings of 5930 days, or, excluding Sabbaths, eighteen years and two hundred and eighty-six days, tor a labounng man to have bought a Bible. tier on lant as t on \ whi wit the chu THU OKOAN QUKSTION CRITICALLY RXAMINKD. > tion to mtintain that goipel minister^ have a right to or a claim on an hundredth part of the produce of the land for their support, or that they should be maintained as the Aaronic priesthood was, although their support on Scripture grounds is as valid as that of the latter, which may be attempted with as much propriety and with as much Scripture evidence as to maintain that the praise of God should be sung in the Christian church as It was in the Jewish ritual. But if it is urged that the command is to be understood literally, and that it is binding on us also timt^, as it was on the Jews tAeft, if so, then we must praise Him with the trumpet, harp, timbrel, psaltry, cimhal, and the dance, all these are included in the command as well as the organ. The dance formed part of Jewish worship, and the command is as imperative to introduce it into Christian worship as the organ. What God joined lei not man separate. Except in the case of Jeph- thoh's daughter, there is no mention among the an- cient Israelites of dancing, but in connection with sacred songs and religious solemnities. But it is agreed that most of the Psalms have a primary and secondary meaning. Thus, the "nd Psalm appears to be an inauguration hymn composed by David, the annointed of Jehovah, when with Him, crowned with victory and placed triumphant on the sacred hill of Zion. Yet, in Acts 4, xxv., we find the Apostle declaring it to be prophetic and descriptive of the exaltation of Christ, and of the opposition raised against the gospel both by Jews and Gentiles. In the 8th Psalm we suppose the writer to be setting forth the pre-eminence of man over the rest of the creation, but in Heb. 2, vi., we are informed that the supremacy conferred on the second Adam is there treated of. Of the i8th Ps. we are told in 2nd Sam., 22nd, that David spoke it before the Lord when de- livered out of the hands of his enemies and of Saul ; yet in Ro. 15, ix., it is adduced as proof that the Gentiles would glorify God for his mercy in Christ. In the 19th Ps., David seems to be speaking of the material heavens; yet Paul, in Ro. 10, xviii., applies it to the* preaching of the Gospel. The 22nd Ps. Christ appropriates to himself, and the 1 8th v. was , actually used by the chief priests when they reviled Him. — Math. 27. In the 40th Ps.,we might suppose that David, in his own person, was declaring that obedience is better than sacrifice; yet, in Heb. 10, v. , we learn that he is speaking of the ipcarnation of Christ. In the 41st Ps., we might suppose David to be speaking of the revolt of Ahitophel ; yet, in John 13, xviii, we find it applied to the traitor, and so of. others also ; and although all the Psalms are not quoted by Christ and his Apostles, yet what they did- quote serves for a key to the rest of them, the fathers who lived in purer times understood them thus, and so expounded them. Therefore, may we not suppose that the 1 50lh Ps. , in its primary meaning, refers.to the instruments to be used in Temple service, and in its secondary meaning to those recommended by Paul — the spirit and understanding of the worshippers. But the Scriptures are not silent on, nor do they leave us in doubt how we should praise God — in spirit and understanding, says the Apostle. In I. Cor. 14, xv., it is so plain in the original that one may suppose that nothing but prejudice against the simplicity of gospel worship, blindness, or a determination to sup- port a cause, could induce any person of piety to dis- pute its meaning. The original stands thus, " Ti oun esti proseuxomia to pneumati, proseuxomia de kai to not, Psalo to pneumati, Psalo de kai to noi." The conjunctive adverb ottn always connects the preceding context with the sequence — the answer to the question in the verse. The expression Ti oun esti it equivalent to the Latin quid est egitur, to which faciendum or fieri is understood bv retaining the gerund in thecon* nection it may well be translated, what must be doni then? (in view of the context). Then comes the Apostle's answer, not in the third person, but in the first, indicating both the conclusion at which he ar- rived, and the resolution he had formed, and leaves them for the guidance of the Church in fu'.ure ages, which conclusion is that the spirit and underrtanding of the worshippers are the only scriptural instruments for praising God in His Church. It appears from this verse that the Apostle, with prophetic vision, antici- pated this corruption, for the word "spirit" in this connection evidently stands opposed to artistic in- struments, and the word "understanding" stands opposed to worship in an unknown tongue, both of which were introduced by the same Pope about the same time, the result of which was that many of the .worshippers left the Church, seeing they were not permitted to worship the Deity with spirit and un- derstanding. — ( See Baxter's Church H istory . ) Pneu- mati and Noi, the Greek words for spirit and under- standing, are in the original what grammarians term the dative of instrument ; by the rule given in Greek grammars, the cause, manner or instrument is put in the dative, because they are the instruments pre- scribed by the true object of worship. In whatever connection we find the Greek verb Psalto associated with divine worship in the New Testament, it is to be performed, not with an instrument of art, but with one of nature, as the lips, spirit, heart, or mind — these are the only instruments authorized in the charter of the Christian church. The same word stands for mind and understanding \n tb" nriginal, and the word kardia — heart — is used syi) ) v.Mously with mind, generally implying the whole : oc; of man with all its faculties — not absolutely, but as hey are all one prin- ciple of moral operation, as they concur in doing good or evil. The word "spirit" also in the original stands opposed to the rites, ceremonies, and pomp of external worship. God desires not the clanking of machinery, but pure, holy and spiritual worship ; not the tinkling of brass and the flapping of bellows, bnt the emanation of a clean heart, real and unalloyed devotion. Under every dispensation, and in all pos- sible circumstances, on earth or in heaven, external services are no further acceptab^ than as they spring from love. But is there love in a system of worship, the aim and object of which is to please the creature rather than the Creator, to sacrifice principle on the altar of policy, and to purchase popularity at the expense of ^rtemac!e there were but few priests with one course of Levites, in the Temple there were many priests with twenty-four courses of Levites. In the Mosaic Tabernacle there was but one table of shew bread — in the Temple there were ten ; in the Mosaic Tabernacle there was but one golden candlestick — in the Temple there were ten ; in the Mosaic Tabernacle there were but two trumpets — ip the Temple there were one hundred and twenty. Since then it is admitted that musical instruments in the Tabernacle during their infancy were typical ; it must be admitted that they were typical in manhood during full and perfect development, for the Temple, with its worship and furniture, was the full and perfect development of the Tabernacle ; and, while it is ad- mitted that the priests with their instruments were typical, it requires more than human ingenuity to denude the Levites with their respective instruments of the same honour. On this point it should be re- membered that the Levites were, by God's special appointment, conseceated to the service ©f Jehovah as well as the priests, that they derived their support from the same source as the priests ; that they were the general though not the exclusive teachers of the people in morals and religion ; that, whenincapacitt.ted by age for the active duties of the sanctuary, they still guided their younger brethren in the service of the Lord ; that they were devoted to God instead of the first-bom ; that the first-born was a typr of Christ, and that tvpe and antitype had not the relation of object and image, but only that of substance and shadow.— Heb. 10, i. Now, had these I«viles ex- ercised their instruments on a thtme different from that of the priests, or over a different offering, or sacrifice, or altar, or at a different time, or had the place assigned them in the Temple when ofhcialing been different from that of the priests, there mijiht be some foundation for supposing that their instruments were not typical of the same as those of the priests ; but, as their song was the same, of the same duration, sung or played over the same offering or sacrifice, on the same altar, in the same part of the Temple, and that, too, by the same authority, it is legitimate to conclude that their instruments were typical, of the same as that of the priests - that is, trumpets. But what places the matter beyond doubt is the fact that the pen of inspiration distinctly states that the trum- peters and singers— that is, the priests and Levites — were as one to make one sound in praising God over the same offering or sacrifice. Now, it is evident from the nature of their instruments, that that oneness, or concert was not in identity of sound, but in tnd, aim and application, and, while it is admitted that the priests with their instruments were typical, it requires more than human analysis to exclude the Levites with their respective instruments from the same honour.— IL Chr, 5, xii., xiii., II. Chr. 29. xxvii., xxviii., Ez. 3, xi. Add to this, that as the Divine model of Temple and Temple service given by God to David, embraced all instruments of all manner of Temple service, and all instruments of every kind of Temple service — 1 Chr. 28, xiv — it is impossible logically to assign to Davidic instruments a rank inferior to other sacred utensils, or deny them the typical nature ascribed to other things in the same model, whose typical character was never questioned. "But," say they, "other denominations use it " A spent arrow from an empty quiver : the question is not what numbers do or practice in Divine worship, but what the Bible authorizes, for number is no criterion of truth : the majority was for the Golden Calf, and Pilate condemned Christ to please the people. " But," say our opponents, " David praised God with instruments, therefore it cannot be wrong to use them now." David never worshipped in the Christian church ; he was born 1085 years befare Christ. The mode of worship that was right then would be wrong now. To prefer the example of David to that of David's Lord is as foolish as to pre- fer the example of Homer's heroes to that of the Apostles of Christ. "But," say the pro-organists, "instrumental music is but a circumstance of wor- ship." Well, if so now, it must have been a circum- stance of worship in the Temple, also a dogma which is untenable, since it was essential to Temple service, neither is it a circumstance in Christian worship, for the artificial as well as the natural voice forms part of the worship. ' ' But," say they, " we mean well, and God regards the intention of the worshipper." So did the Samaritans, yet Christ told them that their wor- ship was wrong. Paul was sincere before his conver- sion, yet that did not justify his conduct. If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hearken to my prayers. — Ps. 66. " But," say the pro-organists, ' ' what is not forbidden is allowable. " By no means ; that dangerous dogma sanctions all the novelt ies of Popery : " Who required this of your hand. " — Isaiah I, xii. The want of command amounts to a prohibi- tion ; many things are forbidden by implication that are not by injunction. "But," say they, "God is praised with harps in Heaven." True, but they are TUB OROAN QUI8TI0N CRITICALLY EXAMINKI). of Divine mechanism, harped wilh ipiriH, the very inilrument* for which we conlend. To add volun- tarily to a rule of duty implies that God gave a defective rule j and to worihip the Deity in a mode which he did not order, in offering Mim the sacrifice of fools.— Ecc. 5, i. •• Hut," say they, "expediency pleads for it." Quite the reverse ; expediency may indeed lie pleaded for in behalf of some things relat- ing to the worship of God, which shoulil be regulated wi'ii discretion, such as lime, place and expense, but a , to the mode of worshipping the Deity, it is fixed oy the voice of inspiration, and is as immutable as Himself, except by Iliniself. Moreover, expediency implies difficulties, impediments, want of power, and restraints, all which are inconsistent with the sim- plicity and freedom of Gospel worship, and also in- compatible wilh the Apostolic injunction, "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ lias made you free, and be not again eniongled wilh the voke of bondage." The bondage here spoken of is the cere- monial law, of which instrumental music formed part, and terminated at the resurrection cf Christ, the antitype— Him who is greater than the Temple, and whose prescribed mode of worship cannot be tampered with with impunity, seeing that it was for outstepping the prescribed mo(|e nnd limits of the worship of Jehovah that two young priests were slain with fire from 1 leaven at the door of the Tabernacle. — Lev, 10, i. Nor can ony valid arguments from New Testament development be adduced on the grounds of expediency for singing machines, that cannot with equal propriety be adduced for praying ones, for both are declared by the pen of inspiration to be the same, the spirit and understanding of the worshippers, but not the spirit and understanding of the organist, who perhaps may be an infidel, while he leads the Psalm- ody of the congregation. The heathen, from time immemorial to the present time, worshipped their gods with machinery, in size from the quern to the ponderous fabric propelled by water power, night and day unceasingly praying to their dumb idols. Nor can we suppose that a wind instrument and the sound of brass can be more acceptable to Jehovah (repulsive should I say?) when used without His order in divine worship than an hydraulic one, and the sound of water, seeing He is the Creator of both elements. But ex- pediency is not a moral agent or foundation on which to build in holy things; it may be, and often is, em- ployed to effect evil as well as good, vice as well as virtue, according to the caprice of the agent that employs it. It settles nothing permanently ; it de- thrones the jurisdiction of conscience, and by its operation morality is reduced to a matter of calcula- tion of profit and loss, and becomes subservient to the advancement of secular interests and passions, rather than a helpmeet to the advancement of Christian ethics and refinement. It is as often employed to crush freedom and virtue as to promote them. It fortifies the tyrant in his despotism, the most flagitious criminal in his horrid machinations, as well as the reformers and benefactors of mankind in their laudable undertakings. It is the offspring of worldly policy and low cunning, the growth of restraint and progeny of famine, rather than that of virtue and Godly edifi- cation ; it delights in the haunts of selfishness rather than in the glorious liberty of the children of God ; a lever whose fulcrum is as Protean and unreliable as it is unscriptural — a lawyer's last shift in a bad cause. In the case under consideration, it can only be em- ployed as a plea to promote the best interests of the Redeemer's Kingdom, for which we have neither evidence nor prospect, but the reverse, if we judge from past experience. Is it expedient to wound the feelings of the pious? to regale the giddy rather than edify the thoughtful? to place a stumbling-block before the weak and tamper with the strong? to produce a disruption in the Church? to introduce into the Church a baneful rag of Popery that com- mitted its fell work in days ofyore, and was expelled the Church at the Reformation ? To entertain the innovation of a foreign priesthood, that was the chief cause fur which two thousand Puritan divines laid on the altar of conscience all that was dear to nature, forwent every prospect presftnt and prospective, left their churches as funeral monuments of their religion, their abodes a lasting witness of the intolerance of their oppressors, passed their days in exile, or in dens and caves of the earth, rather than entertain this toy of Popery which the pro-organists now would fondly embrace and nourish in their bosoms. "For," say these Divines writing from exile, "why should we borrow from Popery ? The dispute is not about the cup and surplice ; there are other grievances that ought to be redressed or dispensed with, as the or/^an in Divine worship." — ?>tt Zuric Letters. Moreover, it is agreed by Divines that nothing should be done in Divine worship by human laws or expediency which cannot be determined bv Scripture. Therefore, let the pro-organists go to their charter, and there prove their right to that for which they are now pleading, and if successful they may obtain with honour the object of their desire, rather than drag it into the Christian church with drooping plumes through the back door of expediency under the frown of their more pious brethren. But expediency is permissive only in this case in things that are scriptural, therefore it devolves on the pro-organists to prove that the use of instrumental music in Divine worship is scriptural before they can consistently plead for its introduction into the Christian church, even on the ground of ex- pediency, notwithstanding they endeavor to drag this offspring of an Italian imposter Pope Vitalian I. into the Christian Church, through the elastic valves of expediency under the guise of aid and edification without a single text from the New Testament to support them, and against the practice of the primitive Church for the first 670 years. The npostle that was made all things for all men, that he might save some ; that could wish himself accursed from Christ for his brethren the Jews ; that condescended to circumcise Timothy to accommodate their prejudice ; that tem- porised with a Jewish rite (Acts 21, xxiv.) to rectify their judgment, modify their prejudice and promote his usefulness, would certainly introduce instrumental music into ihe Christian church as a most attractive expedient to conciliate the Jews and disarm their prejudice, had such been in accordance with the mind of the spirit. But, no ; there is not a single instance on record in the Volumes of Inspiration of Him or of any of the Apostles having recourse to expediency in thu mode of worship in the Christian church ; their expediency was relating to worship, not in worship. In the case of Timotljy, it was to render him more acceptable to the Jews ; and in that of Paul, to efface a slandet that was calculated to destroy his usefulness as a minister fii Christ ; Aaron's expediency in the mode of worship was indorsed with the frown of Heaven ; and that of Moses anent marriaee had no countenance from David's Lord. "But," say the pro-organists, " we use instrumental music to aid the voice, enrich the vocal melody and enliven devotion," Such aid is unscriptural, sinking the carnal in the spiritual, destroying the melody ofthe heart, therefore repulsive to God, But, although it would prove an ir si a f n f< ( r h { c Iv THE ORGAN QUESTION CRITICALLY EXAMINED. aid in acquiring the art of linking and the science of muiic, that aid ihould be employed in a preparatory inittitution, not in the House of God— higher aid •houid be aimed at ; nor can that plea justify its adoption more than the adoption of images and fosnries as an aid to prayer. Nor are our opponents more consistent on the plea of Christian forbearance, for they claim to be more enlightened and refined in Christian knowledge and sentiments than their breth- ren, yet plend forbearance from their less enlightened brethren, whereas the Apostle pleads for forbearance from the strong for the weak. Moreover, the radical idea of the term "forbearance" is that of withholding or restraining for a time the strict exercise of rigorous justice, and implies something amiss or wrong on the part of those who plead for it, and is in fact equivalent to a confession of error. That the beggarly elements for returning to which the Galatians were censured. Were ihc ', . . ''>f commandments, contained in ordin- ances; that the»b commandments were the ordin- ances — that is, the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish church — that these were abolished, blotted out, taken out of the way, and nailed to the Cross of Christ ; that instrumental music formed part of these, and that that part was appointed by Goa Himself, and that these instruments were typical of the joyful sound — the preaching and worship of Him who is the substance of all the types and shadows of the law of Moses — the true temple, altar, priest and sacrifice, David's Lord and son, are facts that cannot be disproved. Moreover, that the ceremonial law continued from Moses till Solomon, when it merged into the Temple; >that it was practised in its most scriptural form during that period, that instrumental music formed part of its worship as well as sacrifices — H. Chr. 29, xxv. xxvi., xxvii., xxviii. — that the Apostle in Heb. 9, x. sums up the ceremonial law without a single exception to consist in meat^ and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances, that is, external or sensuous ordinances of which instrumental music was One, and that all these were to continue bUt for a limited period, for, says the Apostle, imposed only — that is, appointed .vnfy — till the time of the Reformation, the Gospel dispensation is as plain as language can express it, and cannot be disproved, and unless the pro-organists prove that instrumental music was excepted, their plea becomes quite untenable. It is also worthy of notice that vocal as well as instrumental music was employed in Divine worship, before the ceremonial law was given, as well as in the Tabernacle and Temple after it was given ; that the former was re- tained in Christian worship we have ample proof, that the latter, we have none. Add to this that from the time of Moses till the ministry of Christ, and -during its continuance — the duration of the ceremonial law — the Jews were accustomed by Divine command 'to assemble on Sabbath and at other stated times in the Proseuche or Synagogue for the worship of God and to receive religious instruction from holy men ap- pointed by God for that purpose ; that there is no evidence that instrumental music was used in the Synagogue during that period, nor in the Temple -during the presence of our Lord, but was confined to the services of the Tabernacle and Temple chiefly in sacrificial services, are facts that cannot be disproved. The services of the Synagogue were moral, and the model from which the Christian church borrowed much of her discipline, whereas those of the Taber- nacle and Temple were typical and .vanished away ; nor is there in the Christian church any part of wor- ship corresponding with the model of Temple service, hvA corresponding with tha model of the service of the Synaeoguc she has much— Christian Circumcision and the Passover ; Baptism and the Lord's Supper— for these rites were never performed in the Temple, but in the Synagogue or in private houses. Besides, the Jews were commanded only to attend the services of the Temple thrice u year, those of the Synagogue every Sabbath. " Hut," say the pro-organist», "in- strumental music was introduced into Divine worship by David without Divine authority, and God approved of it." By no means; instrumental music was first introduced into Divine worship by Moses, by order of Jehovah. David added to the numV)er of instru- ments, but he never introduced a single instrument without the express order of Jehovah. — IL Chr. 29, xxv. — for so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets, says the Bible. " But," sny they, "instru- mental music was not added to the cereironial law when given to Moses in the Tabernacle, ii.i.iefore it can form no part of it." If it was not then added to the ceremonial law, the ceremonial law was llien added to it, and also to other parts of it which were employed in the worship of God, before the ceremonial law was given to Moses in the Tabernacle, but after- ward embraced in the Mosaic ceremonial law. By parity of reasoning, the pro-organists may reject as part of the ceremonial law the Passover, sacrifices, the distinction between clean and unclean animals, the prohibition of blood circumcision, and others, as these were employed in Divine worship before the ceremonial law was given to Moses in the Tabernacle, but afterwardit embraced in and incorporated in the Divine code. Moses, by the command of Jehovah, formed for the nation a full and regular system of ceremonial laws, such rites as had been before in use. He sanctioned with new authority and prescribed • with particular care the proper time and manner of observing them. For some time only two instru- ments were used in Divine worship, and from time to time the number was increased ; but none was ever added without the express order of Jehovah. — Num. 10, ii., II. Chr. 29, xxv., xxvi., xxvii., xxviii. To Moses was given the Divine model for the Taber- nacle, with all its furniture — Ex. 25 — and to David the Divine model of the Temple, including a\\ instru- ments of all manner 0/ service, and all instruments of every kind of service—!, Ch. 28. xiv. — consequently Davidic instruments were not omitted. The Teinple was the perfect development of the Tabernacle. The one hundred and twenty trumpets, with their Levitic kin, during the reign of Solomon, formed part of the ceremonial law as well as the Mosaic trumpets. The high priest was a type of Christ, the priests and Levites of, His ministers ; the different instruments with their different sounds and voices might typify the different instruments and tongues that would be employed in future ages to propagate the joyful sound of the gospel. But if instrumental music formed no part of the ceremonial law, as the pro-organists allege, of what law then did it form part, for it must have formed pan of some law. It is certain that it formed no part of the Moral Law, for if it did Christ would have used it, nor yet of the Judicial Law ; and al- though it had, that would avail nothing, for it also was abolished as well as the Ceremonial Law, except what was founded in the laws of nature, and common to all mankind ; therefore, it must have formed part of the Ceremonial Law or of none, for the Jews had only these three. To maintain that it formed part of of none, that is that it was a xiXeper se, is untenable, for by Divine command INum. io,x.,II. Chr.29,xxv.) it was ordered to be an accompaniment to sacrifices and offerings, therefore, being part of the ceremonial THE ORGAN QUESTION CRITICALLY FXAMINED. law, it was swept away with the Temple and its worship, consequently the commissioned servants of the Lord who planted the Christian church never used it, and we are in duty bound to follow their example. Besides, if instrumental music formed no part of the ceremonial law, then the ceremonial law could be properly k^-pt without it; but take away instrumental music from the ceremonial law, and to keep it accord- ing to God's appointment would be impossible. The Temple service could not be carried on according to God's appointment without the Levites (an order not in the Christian church), and the Levites could not discharge their respective functions without their re- spective instruments, more than an engine would operate without its cylinder. The conclusion is irre- sistible and plain as any demonstration in Euclid that it formed not only a part of it, but a most essentiii! part too, otherwise sacrifices did not, for by Divine command the one formed part of the Temple service as well as the other, and they were both abandoned at the same time by the same authority — Christ and His Apostles. Further, the moral law has its reason within itself, and finds its end directly and immediately answered in the obedience which it receives ; but the ceremonial law had its reason without itself, and viewed its end beyond itself in something other than what it was actually performing; and as every whole is com- posed of its several parts, and every part of a body partakes of the nature of the body of which it formed pait, if instrumental music formed part of the moral law it must have had its reason within itself. But what reason had it within itself? None. Or did the moral law in any way receive any part of its end directly and immediately answered by instrumental music ? None. Then it could not have formed part of it. But view it in connection with the ceremonial law, and we see its reason be)'ond itself; we see also its end indirectly and inimmediately in the future, for during its action we see it contemplating something other than what it was actually petibrming, for while beholding a band of priests and Levites exercising their instruments over a sacrifice typifiying the death of the Son of God, we behold in type the heralds of the Cross, recommending Christ the one and only perfect sacrifice as the only way of salvation to a guilty and perishing world, whereas no such rational explanation can be given of its use and extinction in connection with any other la .v. Also, the Lord Jesus declares that he came not to destroy the laws, but to fulfil them. But to fulfil a law is not to abrogate it, but to answer its requirements by obedience. Then if instrumental music formed part of the moral law, it was consecrated by Christ and is still in force ; but there is no evidence that Christ in any way consecrated instrumental music or answered its requirements by His obedience to the moral law, consequently it must have formed part of some law other than the moral. But there is ample evidence that He fulfilled its re- quirements just as He fulfilled the requirements of otJier parts of the ceremonial law, for He fulfilled every part of the ceremonial law, by bringing to pass all that is typified, as well as He fulfilled the moral law by His active and passive obedience. He offered Himself a perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. His humanity on the altar of His Divinity — the sacri- fices and offerings offered during the Levitical law were the type of His own perfect sacrifice and offering. Instrumental music was the divinely and essentially appointed accompaniment of these sacrifices — essen- tially, for so much was this the case that they could not be offered according to God's appointment with- out it. — Num. to, X., II. Chr. 29, xxviii., I. Chr. 28, xiii. , xiv. Now, to maintain that a divinely appointed rite which was an essential accompaniment to the most solemn part of the ceremonial law formed no part of it, is both presumptuous and untenable ; if it formed no part of it, it was both useless and unnec- essary in its connection. But to maintain that the Deity appointed as an essential accompaniment to the most significant part of His own worship what is both useless and unnecessary impeaches His wisdom ; and as it is evident that every part of the ceremonial law was abandoned on meeting its antitype, and as instru- mental music was abandoned with altars and sacrifices of which it was an essential and divinely appointed accompaniment, it is impossible to assign a satisfac- tory reason for its disuse and absence in the primitive church, otherwise than is assigned for altars, sacrifices and other parts of the same ceremony. The fact is, vocal music formed part of the moral law and is still in force, being consecrated by the Head of the Church, whereas instrumental music— its accompaniment — formed part of another law which merged into its antitype and vanished away — ^just like prayer and its accompaniment incense ; the former, like vocal music, is founded on the moral law and is eternal, the latter on the ceremonial law and was abolished. The Jewish converts appear to have understood this dis- tinction well, for notwithstanding the rigid tenacity with which they adhered to their ancient ritual, and the zeal of the Apostles to prevent their engrafting the Jewish ritual on the worship of the Christian church, till Popery unfurled her banner in the Vatican, not a voice is heard in favor of Davidic instruments, nor a single interposition of Providence for their pre- servation, nor a sigh of regret for their absence, but a woe is denounced against those who use them. — Am. ch. 6. And as it was to prove that their end was accomplished, God permitted them to be carried into captivity to grace the triumph of a heathen emperor and consecrated to a heathen goddess. Besides, he not only fulfilled the laws, both moral and ceremonial, in every point, even to the minutest, in completing their designs, in fulfilling their predictions, and in accomplishing what was intended in them. — Math. 5, xvii., xviii. But He also magnified them and made them honourable. — Isaiah 42, xxi. By His suffering in bearing its curse. He magnified and honoured the holiness and justice of the moral law. By His death He magnified it and made it honourable by giving it a lustre, greatness, glory and majesty in t le sight of all worlds. He magnified and honoure(' circumcision ' by shedding the first part of His blooc while under- going it. He magnified and honoure.'. the Passover by keeping it and becoming our Passe /er. He mag- nified and honoured the altar by becoming the true altar HimseK. He magnified and honoured the sacrifice by ottering Himself the only perfect sacrifice. But how did He honour instrumental music, the essential and divinely appointed accompaniment of sacrifice, the most significant part of the ceremonial law, except in antitype, by preaching the gospel, we defy our opponents to unfold. Further, if the instru- ments of David were not typical and abolished, tell what constitutes abolition ; that they were disused and abandoned and were spoken of with contempt — I. Cor. 13 — by the founders of Christianity, and for centuries afterwards, is undeniable. Now, if these are not proofs sufficient, tell what is, for we have no better proof of the abrogation of other parts of the Jewish ritual which arc neither disputed nor retained, and whose antitype is unknown. — I. Chr. 28, xv., xvi. But have we not a good evidence that the instruments of David were abolished in the New Testament as we Di THE ORGAN QUESTION CRITICALLY EXAMINED. ' » If P' have that they were adopted in the Old Testament. For David praised God with both voice and instru- ments ; David's Lord abandoned them, and praised Him with voice only. David ordered the Jewish church to praise God with both voice and instruments ; Paul ordered the Christian Church to praise Him with spirit and understanding. David recommended mu- sical instruments ; Paul spoke of them with contempt. David's instruments terminated with the Temple, and were peculiar to its worship ; Paul's instruments are sealed in the charter of the Christian church, and had the patronage of David's Lord. Besides all this, at the institution of the Lord's Supper, being the in- stitution of the Christian Church, we have for our example and guidance all the parts of Christian wor- ship, viz. : Prayer, Praise, Exhortation and Com- munion, Till this juncture both instrumental and vocal music formed part of Divine worship, but at this turning point of abolishing Judaism and instituting Christianity, the Head of the Church, in presence of all its members, abandoned the former and Retained the latter. His Apostles followed His example, and and the primitive church adhered to that example of Christ and His Apostles for six-hundred and seventy years. Now, at that juncture of abolishing Judaism and of instituting the Christian church, why did the Head of the Church abandon the former and retain the latter ? and why did the primitive church adhere to that example for centuries ? is inexplicable if in- strumental music is still permissive in Christian wor- ship. The example of Christ and His Apostles with that of the primitive church, being the highest au- thority that we could have, is our only authority for the change of the Sabbath, we have the same authority for the. change in the mode of praise; if it is vnlid in the former, it must be valid and binding in the latter. Why, then, retain the one and discard the other? if it be permissive to change the mode of ^^raise, it must be permissive to change the Sabbath also. The bondage to which false brethren endeavored to bring Paul is the Jewish ritual, and lending the influence of his example to engraft the Jewish ritual on the Gen- tile converts is the sin for which Paul rebuked Peter. It is God's prerogative to prescribe His own worship. Christ, as Lord of the Sabbath, changed the Sabbath, and as Head and Law-giver of the Church, changed the mode of praise ; but man has no better right to change the mode of praise than the mode of praver, nor to apply machinery to the service of praise tii..i to the service of prayer, seeing that the Head of the Church prescribed the same instrument for both. — I. Cor. 14, XV. In view of these, combined with the undeniable fact that the ceremonial law and Temple service could not be kept according to God's appoint- ment without Davidic instruments, which is an irrefragable proof that they formed part of it, and also that we have the same authority for rejecting instru- mental music that we have for rejecting the Jewish Sabbath. Therefore we, with the primitive church of the first seven hundred years — the divines of the two Reformations — the true Church of Scotland from the time of Knox to the present — the Puritans and Covenanters who bedewed our simple scriptural wor- ship with their tears and sealed it with their blood — conclude that instrumental music formed part of the • beggarly elements that were taken out of the way and nailed to the Cross. " But," say the pro-organists, " there is nothing in the Bible against instrumental music in Divine worship, and submitting to human authority in things indifferent for the sake of peace." It may just as well be said that there is nothing in the Bible against fuming a cigar during Divine wor. ship, or a bag-piper strutting in the chancel with his drones in order ; for most certainly it is as scriptural and as pleasant to see in a Christian assembly a Celt inflating his bag, screwing his drones, and modulating his chanter, as to witness a pianist or an organist flapping his bellows, twisting hi? keys, and adjusting the gear of his machinery. Nothing against it? Tell what is against candles, crisms and crosses — against robes, vestments and holy water — the baptism of bells and quadrupeds and other trappings of an apostate church. Nay, more; is there anything in in Scripture against the marriage of father and daugh- ter, except analogy? — Lev. 18. If analogy, then, is enough to prevent such union, much more should the example of Christ and His Apostles be enough to prevent such praise. "Nothing against it !" As the law of God is perfect, the silence of inspiration is much against it. The Head of the Church appointed two Sacraments in His Church, but he said nothing against seven. Then are the Romanists orthodox in their increase? He commanded His disciples to bap- tise all nations, but He said nothing against the bap- tism of bells and quadrupeds. Then are the Roman- ists sound in extending this rite to inanimate objects? According to this mode of interpretation, any number of additions may be made to the Divine Code, but the Bible says that nothing should be added. — Deu.4, ii., Pr. 30, vi.. Rev. 18, xix. But if there is nothing against it, tell what is for it? What in the Old Tes- tament but that it was used in connection with a sys- tem that was never perfect, that was local and typical and never intended to remain? And what in the New Testament ? Nothing; for while we have pre- cept and example for singing, for playing we have none, but the fashion of a selfish age, which subordi- nates the Divine to the human? And what in history but the corruptions of Popery ? Whatever God com- manded is not indifferent, for His own praise— the most solemn part of His worship — He prescribed not only the song but the instruments also. But it is not with God's silence that we have to do in the worship of the Deity, but with His commands? and as to submitting to things indifferent (if there are such) it would be acknowledging in those who have assumed the office of government in the Church a power or right that the Head of the Church never gave them, the pretension to which is derogatory to His honour, and it would be surrendering the liberty wherewith Christ has made His people free, and in which they are commanded to stand fast. •' Nothing against it !" This is Jesuitism to the core, confiding in negative rather than positive evidence, relying on the unwritten rathen than on the written Word of God, preferring the silence of the witness to His solemn declaration. Is the example of Christ and His Apostles not against it? Is the practice of the primitive Church for the first six hundred and seventy years, its opposition to it for the next six hundred years, and the fact that it is still opposed by the most pious of the land, not not against it? Is this not the very proof that we have for the change of the Sabbath, the example of Christ and His Apostles with the practice of the primitive Church ? If it is proof in the one, it must be proof in the other ; if it is ample proof for the change of the Sabbath, it must be ample proof for changing the mode of praise in the assembly of His saints. Suppose that the Israelites blood-stained the side-posts and upper parts of their doors according to order, and some other part without order, would that fulfil the command of God, meet his approbation, or pass with impunity, by stating that there was nothing against it? ik it not evident that in all God's com- lO THE ORGAN QUESTION CRITICALLY EXAMINKD. mands there is a prohibition implied, from the fact that when God ordered Moses to speak to the rock that water might come out of it, he spoke to it as ordered by Gc^, and also smote it without his order, for which smiting he sinned and forfeited the honour and privilege of entering the promised land; yet might Moses, in extenuation of his crime, plead before Jehovah that God said nothing against his smiting the rock. Moses outstretched his commission, did more than he was ordered to do, therefore sinned ; so do we when we introduce, or attempt to introduce, into the Christian church what the Head did not order. It was tht's by going beyond the parting injunction of the Master Himself that the Clergy in every age corrupted the Church. — Matt. 28, xx. The apostolic fathers were much opposed to instrumental music in Divine worship ; so much so was this the case that they put allegorical interpretations on the texts that mention<;d it — thus, the ten-stringed instrument sig- nified the Decalogue, the psaltry the tongue, the lyre the mouth, the timbrel the resurrection of the body, the organ the body, the strings the nerves. The Apostolic Constitutions, an ancient book of high authority, excludes it, and in no ancient Liturgy has it any place. Clemens Romanus, the companion of St Paul, was the first to establish the head singer to begin the Psalm and lead the assembly — (Pop. Cycl. Art. Singing) — yet there is no evidence that he either employed, recommended or permitted any instrument other than that of nature. About ihirty- two years later, Justin Martyn says that singing with lifeless organs — musical instruments — is childish. About A. D. 360, Clement of Alexandria says that organs are fitter for beasts than for men. About A. D. 370, Basil says organs are the instruments of the race of Cain. About 380, Chrysostom says instrumental music was permitted to the Jews because of the imbecility of their souls, but instead of the organ we must use the body to praise God. About 400, Augustine and Jerome speak in the same strain. In 364, the Synod of Loadicea introduced regular songs which were sung by persons appointed for that pur- pose, yet there is no evidence that any instruments other than those of nature were employed, recom- mended or sanctioned. At the beginning of the 4th century, the Western Churches, through Ambrose, received a regular church music similar to the East- ern, and the information that we have about it taMes with the above. Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) put the first wedge in congregational singing. As to the Reformers, Luther says that orga4is are among the ensigns of Baal ; Calvin says that instrumental music was not fitter to be adopted into the Christian Church than incense and the candlestick. The thirty- two commissioners appointed by King Edward VI. to report on the mode of worship condemned it. The petition that was presented to the Commons against It in 1562 was lost only by one vote. Knox said that the organ was but a chest of whistles. In the national Synod of Middleburg, 1581, and in that of Holland and Zealand in 1594, it was resolved to obtain the magistrate's authority to lay musical instruments aside and discontinue their use. During her purity, the Church of England, in her homilies on the time and place of prayer, strongly condemns it in Divine wor- ship. The Puritans of England struggled against it, the retention of which was among the grievances that compelled many of them to resign their livings, being also one of the grievances which one thousand minis- ters of the Church of England, in a petition laid at the feet of King James in 1603, and for which two thousand, in the reign of Charles II., resigned their livings.— Zuric Letters, Neal, His Puritans. The framers of the W. M. Confession of Faith were op- posed to it, for in May, 1644, the Scotch Commis- sioners wrote to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland then in session, stating among other things, with thankfulness to God, that the great organs of St. Paul's and St. Peter's were removed. — Bailey's Letters. Nor does the W. Minister Confession of Faith afford the pro-organists any support for their pet idol ; it enjoins that the worship of God be regu- lated by the positive commands of His Word, not by omissions. Its words anent-singing are : "In singing of Psalms the voice is to be tunably and gravely ordered, but the chief care must be to sing with the understanding and grace in the heart, making melody unto the Lord, that the whole congregation may join therein : everyone that can read is to have a Psalm Book." Hence we have a command for vocal and congregational singing, but for playing we have none. The committee of Divines appointed by Parliament in 1653 to draw up a list of Fundamentals, afforded no place for instrumental music, stating that God is to be worshipped according to His own will — hence with heart and voice. Fasting formed part of Jewish worship; Christ, His Apostles, and the primitive Church consecrated it by their example, but to instru- mental music they afford no higher authority than to the Romish Mass. *That Christianity was introduced into the British Isles by the Apostles and their contemporaries, that the Culdees were the primitive apostolic teachers of these isles from the time of the Apostles to the Re- formation, that they taught the Bible faith and never submitted to the doctrines of the Church of Rome, although the Pope employed his selectest influence and profoundest machinations for that purpose ; that, owing to their influence, the Pope's supremacy was not fully established in Scotland till the loth, nor in Ireland till the 1 2th century ; that they determined all disputes in doctrine by the Volume of Inspiration; 'i. The Gospel preached in Britain in the earliest times. — Tertullian, Ori^cn, Athanasiiis, Chrysostom, Amobius. 2. Preached in Britain before the defeat of Boadicioe, A. D, 61. — Gildas. 3. Preached among the Celtic nations, of whicn Britain was one, by the Apostles. — Irenaeus. 4. rreach>'d in Britain by the Apostles. — Eusebirts, Theodo- ret, Nicefilwrns. 5. Preached in the extremity of the Ayest by St. Paul.— Clement Romatiius. 6. Britain included in the West, and the boundary of the Gospel to the West. — Catullus, Eusebius, yerome, Amobius, Theodoret. 7. Preached in Britain by St. Paul. — Venantius, Fontunatus, Sophronius. 8. Preached in Britain by the disciples of St. John. — Buch- anan, Spotsivood. Confirmatory of Gildas' testimony. ' 9. St. Paul sent to Rome in the and year of Nero, A.D. 56. — Eusebius, yerome, Bede, Frecalphus, Ivo Platina, Magda- burgici, Petavius, Scalliger Capellus, Simson, 10, Pampania Graecina and Claudia Kefina, two British ladies at Rome at that time. — Tacitus, Martial. 11. Pamponia Graecina accused of foreign superstition, A.D. 57. — Tacitus. !». Caractacus' family sent to Rome, A.V).$i.— Tacitus, 13. Caractacus' family returned to Britain in A.D. 58 or 59. — British Triads and Tacitus. 14.— Paul's first imprisonment expired in A.D. 58 or 59. — Ac's of Apostles, 28, xxx., compared with Eusebius, yerome. I J. — Caractacus' father introduced Christianity to Britain. — British Triads. 16. — Baronius, on the authority of some manuscript in the' Vatican, states that the Gospel was first preached in Britain A.D. 35, hence nine years before the organization of the Church of Rome. — ynmieson, Bede, Stuart, Gordon, Ledivich, Usher. Caractacus was prisoner in Rome during two years of Paul's imprisonment there ; both were liberated in 50. The British Triads state that three missionaries accompanied Bran, the father of Caractacus, to Britain. THE OtlQAN QUESTION CRITICALLY EXAMINED. tt The that they would neither keep company with, nor eat, nor even remain in the same abode with the emissaries of Rome, maintaining as they did, that the Apostle John, from whose disciples they declared they received their doctrine, was in all respects equal to Peter, from whose disciples the Romish entitsaries declared they received theirs ; that they kept their faith and retained property till A.D. 1625, the time of the Reformation ; that even then their ministers were in the habit of officiating as precentors in their assemblies, and there is no evidence that they used or sanctioned in Divine worship any instrument other than those of nature, are facts that can never be successfully disputed. Nor were these holy men indifferent to the character, qualifica- tions, purity of doctrine and training of students for the ministry, from the fact that they were required to spend eighteen years at study before they could be admitted to ordination. Nor were they and their adherents insincere in their profession from the fact that in the beginning of the 4th' century, during the Dioclesian persecution, not fewer than eight hundred and eighty-nine of them sealed their Christianity with their blood. Nor were they indifferent as to the mode of praise, seeing that in A.D. 620 not fewer than 1200 of their clergy fell in their opposition to the Gregorian chant when sent to the British churches. — McClintock Eelcyc. Art Psalmody. Add to this, that it was decided in the Apostolic Council (Acts 15) the parts of the ceremonial law that were not abol- ished, among which instrumental music had no place, and that Paul declares (Acts 20) that he taught the whole counsel of God, and kept nothing back that was profitable ; but he did keep instrumental music back, therefore it is unprofitrble in Divine worship and superadded; that according to our most reliable statisticians (Dieterici) the Eastern Church has eighty- nine million adherents who never admitted, and still repudiate any instrumental praise in Divine worship, except heart and voice. It is now over twelve hun- dred years since this relict of effete worship was in- troduced into the worship of an apostate church, and we see it still with tardy steps but climbing over the wall through the back door of expediency. The fol- lowing are some of the objections that may be urged against its use in Divine worship: — (i) There is no evidence that it is acceptable to God; (2) It is a departure from Scripture foundation, for in the New Testament — the charter of the Christian church — there is not a single text that authorizes or permits its use in Divine worship by precept, example, express ■words or legitimate inference; (3) It is a violation of the 2nd and 4th commandments, playing not being a work of necessity or mercy ; (4th) The Apostle Paul speaks of musical instruments with contempt, and the prophet Amos of Davidic instruments with disapprobation — Cor. 13, Amos 6; (5) It is engraft- ing the Jewish ritual in Christian worship— lending the influence of his example to engraft the Jewish ritual on Gentile converts is the sin for which Paul rebuked Peter; (6) It is will-worship, an expedient for pleasing God which the Bible does not authorize, thus preferring the will of man to the will of God — Gal. 2, xi.; (7) It is worshipping God with artistic machinery, with proxy and with hands, instead of with heart and voice as God demands (Acts 17, xxv.) thus sinking the spiritual in the material, accom- modating the pleasures of the world to those of re- ligion, and reconciling God and Mammon; (8) It tends to destroy congregational singing, diverts the mind and attention of the audience from the proper object of worship, and destroys the harmony of con- gregations ; (9) It is tampering with the conscience of the weak, which is sin against Christ — I. Cor. 8, xii., xiii., Rom. 14, xxi.; (10) There is no provision for the expense of it, had it been of God's appointment He would have made provision for the expense of it, as under the Old Dispensation. The money expended on it should be devoted to missionary purposes. It is worthy of notice that in the ancient foundations of conventual, collegiati and cathedral churches, there is no provision for an organist; (11) It implies a deficiency in the New Testament as a rule of worship, impeaches the wisdom of Christ, and usurps His regal prerogative as King and Legislator of His Church; (12) It is opposed to the example of Christ and His Apostles, and contrary to the practice of the primiti\ j Church and the doctrines of Divines of the two Re- formations ; (13) There is no evidence on record that it ever produced spiritual impressions or generated holy affections, it only ministers to the animal tastes of man; (14) It involves the principle that the Church has power to institute as to manner and matter of worship, which principle lies at the foundation of all the persecutions and superstitions that ever spread over the Christian world ; (15) It is one of the char- acteristics of the Mother of Harlots — Rev. 18; (16) It is worshipping God by artistic machinery, to worship the Deity with human machinery implying that God will accept the sound of brass to the emana- tions of a contrite heart is one of the most masterly assaults and profoundest wiles that ever Satan, in the garb of light, attempted on the Church of Christ since the expulsion of our first parents from Paradise; (17) It is a violation of the ordination vows of office bearers of the Presbyterian Church and a slur on the intellect of the primitive Christians, martyrs, reform- ers and fathers, who merit the highest respect and reverence of posterity, men of holy spirit and dead- ness to the wdrld, who preached faithfully and fear- lessly the truth as it is in Jesus, who lived for God and with God, and for the good of souls, who opposed error and innovations in every form, and whose acts are referred to in difficulties and danger till the present time, who struggled, fought and died for the privileges which we now enjoy, bedewing them with their tears and sealing them with their blood, fathers whose re- ligious and self-sacrificing achievements shed the highest honour on our natve, made us the envy of surrounding nations, and raised us to a pinnacle of greatness from which nothing but intestine foes can ever thrust us down, and shall we, their descendants, tamely foster this bastard of an Italian impostor, l;rought into the Church through the elastic valves of expediency when Christianity and Paganism were struggling for the ascendancy as the religion of the State, and terminated in a virtual compromise where- by the ritual of the latter was applied to illustrate the creed of the former. The incipient of error is like an avalanche that carries ruin and death in its pro- gress ; specious and gaudy in its approach, it capti- vates its admiriog votaries with its fascinating hues, but while it captivates the eye it deceives the heart, and finally engulphs its votaries in ruin and woe. A glance at the progress of innovations in the Church of Rome will fully illustrate the matter. In the 1st century her faith was spoken of with approbation over the whole world ; in the 2nd, she sts^Igered ; in the 3rd, she dallied ; in the 4th, Mass was introduced; in the 5th, auricular confession ; in the 6th, the Ma- donna and Purgatory ; in the 7th, the title of universal bishop, the celibacy of the clergy, Latin into the ritual, the investiture of Bishops and the pallium ; in the 8th, the worship of images; in the 9th, the as- sumption of the Madonna and the horrid doctrine of / 12 THK ORGAN QUESTION CRITICALLY EXAMINED. 1* transubsUntifttion; in the loth, sufifragesfor the dead, commemoration of souls in purgatory, and the canon- ization of saints: in the iith, Saturday was conse- crated to Mary ; in the 12th, the prohibition to translate the Bible to the vernacular tongue, and the increase of sacraments from two to seven ; in the 13th, the Rosary and the Feast of Corpus Christi ; in the 14th, Jubilee; in the 15th, the cup taken from the laity; in the i6th, sale of indulgences; in the 17th, infallibility of the Pope— till 1870 it was not defined whether infallibility was in the Church, Council, or Pope, or in these together; in the i8th, the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ; in the 19th, the dedica- tion of the month of May to Mary, the solemnity of the heart of Mary and the Immaculate Conception, and of the one hundred and twenty novelties* of Romanism, nineteen-twentieths emanated from the Clergy. If such has been the progress of error, the fruits of innovations and their results from a small beginning in a church whose faith and purity of wor- ship were endorsed by the pen of inspiration, what better fate can any other church expect under the same pilotage, if she admit into her bosom through the elastic valves of expediency, the very adder that first allured and then stung her wayward sister to death. Indeed it was this baneful expediency of temporizing with Christianity for the accommodation of Paganism that first opened a door of admission for all the corruptions in the Church of Rome. Nor can we find in sacred history any wilful departure from the prescribed mode of worship or tampering with things sacred that passed with impunity. In the case of Aaron, his expediency to please the people resulted in the death of three thousand. In the case of Jeroboam, a similar offence cost him his kingdom. In the case of Urijah, his obsequiousness as man- pleaser and innovator is a disgrace to his memory and a warning to all who minister in holy things. The violation of God's prohibition to rebuild the wsdls of Jericho was punished with death five hundred and forty years after the threat was uttered. In fine, the singing of a well-trained choir is superior to and more attractive than that of any instrument. We have good authority for stating that the singing in the church of St. Petersburgh is richer than that of any instrument. Wesley, a name that will always carry influence in anything went the praise of God, states in April, 1788, thertwere about 900 or 1000 present, and when they all .itng together, and none of them out of tune, the melc^y was beyond that of any theatre, besides the spirit with which they sung, and the beauty of many of them so suits the melody, that I defy any to excel it, except the singing of angels in our Father's House. During the progress of the Reformation in Germany, the singing of a single hymn decided the adherence of a whole district to the Reformers, and in several other instances it decided the resolution of whole cities. Hence the remark of Cardinal Cajeton "that by the introduction of con- gregational singing (for before that it was confined to the priests and the choir) Luther accelerated the progress of the Reformation more than by all his sermons and publications." To maintain that any instrument of man's device equals one of God's crea- tion in Divine worship contradicts itself and savours blasphemy. Besides, God has not only created the ear to delight in melody, but He has also created a most wonderful instrument of music for every man, which, when properly cultivated, has the command of every semitone and subdivision of note, swell, or trill, and not so exposed to injuries, nor so liable to imperfections as an artificial one, but is so clear, rich and sweet where well trained and used as to be the highest of comparison in these points for the flute, clarion, piano or organ. Add to this that vocal has many advantages over instrumental music, in the fine blending of its tones, in the endless variety of its intonations and expressiveness, and in the support which it derives from its contact with the soul. This is the true organ, the organ of nature, the organ David recommended for Christian singing, the organ of Christ and His Apostles and martyrs, an organ guided by the spirit and understanding, and inflated with every emotion of the soul.