Among all nations music has always formed a part of public worship. "Praise," it has been aptly said, " is the appropriate language of devotion. A fervent spirit of devotion instinctively seeks to express itself in song. In the strains of poetry, joined with the melody of music, it finds an easy and natural utterance of its elevated emotions." Among the pagan nations of anticpiity the singing of songs constituted indeed a great part of the religious worship. In all their re- ligious festivals and in their temples they sang to the praise of tlieir idol gods (comp. Gerbert, Musica Sacra, vol. i, Pr«f. ; Kurney, IJist. of Music). Yet no nation of antiquity made such extensive use of music in their worship as did the Hebrews (sec the preceding article), especially in the time of their prosperity (Saalschiitz, Gesch. u. Wiirdigung d. Tempel-Musik d. Ilibrdtr [lierl. 1829]). Not only in the Temple, but in their syna- gogues and in their dwellings the Jews celebrated God with sacred hymns. See P.sai.m. From them the use of music and choral singing was adopted by the primi- tive Christians (see 1 Cor. xiv, 15, 26 ; Col. iii, 16). Says Coleman, " The singing of spiritual songs constituted from the beginning an interesting and important part of religious worship in the primitive Church" (Pnl. and Hit. p. 321).
I. Earli/ Cht^istian L'sfl^e*.— Grotius insists that we have in Acts iv, 24-30 an epitome of an early Cliristian hymn; and it would appear from a close examination of other X.-T. Scripture passages that even Christ him- self, in Ids final interview with his disciples before his crucifixion, sung with them the customary paschal songs at the institution of the sacrament, and by his exam- ple sanctified the use of sacred songs in the Christian Church (Matt, xxvi, 30\ In the opinion of Miinter, the eminent Biblical arclueologist, the gift of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was accompanied with poetic inspiration, to which the disciides gave utterance in tlie rhapsodies of spiritual songs (Acts ii, 4, 13, 47). Tliere are also many other N.-T. passages which clearly indi- cate the use of religious songs in tlie worship of God. Paul and Siks, lacerated by the cruel scourging which
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they had received, and in close confinement in the inner prison, prayed and sang praises to God at midnight (Acts xvi, 25). The use of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs is moreover directly enjoined upon the churches by the apostle as an essential part of religious devotions "(Col. iii, 16 ; Eph. v, 14, 19 ; James v, 13). The latter epistle was a circular letter to the Gentile churches of Asia, and therefore in connection with that to the Church at Colosse is explicit authority for the use of song in the religious worship of the apostolic churches (comp. Walch, De Hymnis EcclesicB Apostolicce).
As the Hebrews worshipped God in their homes by sacred song, so the N.-T. people also did not restrict these acts of devotion to their public places of wor- ship. In tlieir social circles and around their domes- tic altars they worshipped God in sacred song ; and in their daily occupations thej' were wont to relieve their toil and refresh their spirits by renewing their favorite songs of Zion. Persecuted and afflicted — in solitary cells of the prison, in the more dismal abodes of the mines to which they were doomed, or as wandering exiles in foreign countries— they forgot not to sing the Lord's song in the prison or the mine or the strange lands to which they were driven. In connection with the passage from Ephesians, the apostle warns those whom he addresses against the use of wine and the ex- cesses to which it leads, with reference to those abuses which dishonored their sacramental supper and love- feasts. In opposition to the vain songs which, in such excesses, they might be disposed to sing, they are urged to the sober, religious use of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. The phraseology indicates, too, that they were not restricted to the use of the psalms of David, as in the .Jewish worship, but were at liberty to employ others of appropriate religious character in their devotions. Says Coleman, " The Corinthians were ac- customed to make use of songs composed for the occa- sion (1 Cor. xiv, 26). And though the apostle had oc- casion to correct their disorderly proceedings, it does not appear that he forbade the use of such songs. On the contrary, there is the highest probability that the apostolic churches did not restrict themselves simply to the use of the Jewish Psalter. Grotius and others have supposed that some fragments of these early hymns are contained not only, as above mentioned, in Acts, but perhaps also in 1 Tim. iii, 16. Something like poetic antithesis they have imagined to be contained in James i, 17 ; 1 Tim. i, 1 ; 2 Tim. ii, 1 1-13. The expression in Kevelation, ' I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last,' has been ascribed to the same origin, as has also Rev. iv, 8, together with the song of Moses and the Lamb (Hev. xv, 3), and the songs of the elders and the beasts (Rev. v, 9-14). Certain parts of the book itself have been supposed to be strictly poetical, and may have been used as such in Christian worship, such as Rev. i, 4-8; xi, 15-19; xv, 3,4; xxi, 1-8; xxii, 10-18. But the argument is not conclusive ; and all the learned criticism, the talent, and the taste that have been em- ployed on this point leave us little else than uncertain conjecture on which to build an hypothesis" (p. 325).