Decline and reformation in worship

The early Christians, like the Jewish worshippers in the synagogues, praised God in the words of the psalmists, having no musical accompaniment. This is reiterated here, and specific reference is made to it, because there are those who declare that the singing of the Psalms should always be with musical accompaniment, for it is averred that the word "psalm" designates a song sung to the accompaniment of a lyre. The Biblical use of the term "psalm" reveals the falsity of that assertion. For example, a psalm was none other than a psalm when sung in the synagogue without the use of a musical mstrument. Professor Binnie stated, "the general idea expressed by Psalm is a poem framed to be sung rather than read" (The Psalms p. 5). In the Epistle of James 5:13, the downcast Christian is exhorted to pray, and to the happy believer the exhortation is, "Let him sing psalms". English scholars who produced the Authorised Version were accustomed to indicate in the marginal notes even matters of small importance and if 'psalleto' in the epistle of James meant to sing with a musical accompaniment, they would have indicated such in the margin.

If the Apostles had used musical instruments in praising God, no doubt the practice would have been maintained in the church. But there is the dearest evidence that the apostolic and sub-apostolic Church refrained from rendering inanimate praise. Also, the use of instruments in the praise of God was unknown in the Christian Church for many centuries. Congregational singing was a characteristic of the worship in the synagogues, and became an equally helpful feature in the worship of the Christian Church. Consequently in Jewish synagogues and in Christian churches the Psalms were sung by the congregations without the employment of any musical instrument. After a few centuries the Christian Church lost much of its pristine spirituality, and this led to the rise of the Papacy. This in turn, led to a debasement of Christian worship, both in reference to its spirituality and mode. Pope Gregory (590-604), abolished congregational singing and restricted the singing to professional choirs. The congregations were bereft of their divinely-given right to take part in singing the Praise of God. Another circumstance was that the people became increasingly ignorant of the Psalter, which generally had maintained its pre-eminence as the manual of praise in the church. Another untoward factor was that the Latin language fell increasingly into disuse, so that few in the congregations understood it, but the choirs continued to sing the Psalms in Latin. This led to a greater ignorance of the contents of the Book of Psalms. These two unscriptural practices of the Papacy, with their baneful effects, largely continue to this day. To the people the Psalter became a fountain sealed, and the worship became in spirit and mode increasingly unlike Apostolic worship. The late Bishop of Durham, Handley Moule wrote of the Christians in apostolic days meeting "in some Christian upper room, devoid of every semblance of decorative art and dignified proportion, only to listen to the Word, to pray and praise in the name of the Crucified, and to eat and drink at the simple Eucharist, the rite of thanksgiving for the Master's awful death" (Messages from the Epistle to the Hebrews, p.267).

Under the influences of successive popes and their councillors, the Christian Church degenerated. Throughout the mediaeval period, there were but few rays of divine light. Upon that darkness broke the light and in a very large measure the darkness disappeared. The light which scattered the spiritual darkness was the Word of God applied by the Holy Spirit. The dissemination ofthe truths of God's Word and the workings of the Holy Spirit produced the results known as the Protestant Reformation. The Reformers were not the purveyors of a new religion or of new doctrines and practices, for they sought to lead people back to the fountain-head, the Word of God. In doing this the thoroughgoing Reformers acted on the Scriptural principle of admitting into the divine worship only that which had the sanction of God. They were greatly helped in carrying out the task of bringing the Church into conformity with the Apostolic pattern. They rejected all so-called holy days other than the Lord's Day, abolished the mass with its altar and sacrificing priests, forbad the use of the crosses and crucifixes as religious symbols, prohibited auricular confession, priestly absolution, the use of incense and candles, and abolished the elaborate service of music and the many other unscriptural and therefore unauthorised methods of worship. But their work was equally constructive for they reintroduced the right of congregational singing and restored the Psalms to the people, in their own languages, as their manual of praise. Prayer was shorn of its many superstitious accretions, and was set forth as the direct approach to God, by the individual, in faith, through Christ the only Mediator. The Word of God was set forth as the only rule of faith and practice, and tradition, papal pronouncements and the decrees of Church councils were all subordinated to the Word of God, and were all to be tested by the Scriptures. By moulding divine worship after the simple mode prescribed in the Scriptures, they totally reformed a great portion of the corrupt church, so that it was restored to its pristine glory. Indeed the church regained very much of that light, strength, zeal and scriptural soundness which had characterised the church in the days of the Apostles.

Once again praise ascended to God in the singing of the songs of Zion - the Psalms - unaccompanied by instrumental music. Once again prayer became direct, spiritual and powerful and was no longer a superstitious performance. Once again the Scriptures were given their right place in Christian worship, and multitudes listened eagerly and receptively to the Word of God read and expounded. Once again the two sacraments were given their Scriptural place in the Christian Church, and became an additional source of blessing to the worshippers, for they were no longer treated as superstitious rites. Once again the Psalter became a fountain unsealed, and millions drank of the pure water of that fountain. Once again many walked "in newness of life" doing the will of God as set forth in His Word.

Luther and Calvin
It is well-known that the subject of worship engaged the serious attention of the Reformers. Martin Luther and John Calvin differed in their attitude to the mediaeval mode of worship. Luther sought to conserve much of it. Calvin sought to abolish all parts of that worship which lacked divine sanction, for he was much more logical and consistent than Luther. The latter sought a compromise between the worship of Rome and that of the apostolic Church, even as doctrinally he failed to make his teaching thoroughly Scriptural. Luther held that whatever was not explicitly forbidden in Scripture was permissible. For example, his doctrine of consubstantiation was neither that of the Middle Ages nor of Scripture. The consequences were that Luther favoured a highly ceremonial form of worship, whilst Calvin held to that Scripturalness which had characterised the worship of the Apostolic Church. It would be wrong for anyone to regard the example of either Luther or Calvin as infallibly correct. Men should be followed only in so far as they follow the Scriptures. This citation from The Story of the Church by Dr. G. P. Fisher, indicates the unscriptural character of many parts of the public worship of God as practised by Luther. "Private confession before communion he neither rejected nor did he make it obligatory. Exorcism in connection with the rite of baptism was retained by him. It was not until 1543 (three years before his death) that the custom of elevating the host in the Lord's Supper was dropped in Wittenberg. The altar was furnished with candles and the crucifix. . . The organ was still used. . . The churches were decorated with pictures, the subjects being scriptural. The "church year" was reformed but not given up by the Lutherans. The great festivals connected with the life and work of Jesus - the Advent, Christmas, with Circumcision and Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, Whitsuntide, and the festival of Trinity - were retained, as were also the days commemorative of the Apostles, the day of John the Baptist, and the feasts of the Annunciation, Purification, and Visitation of the Virgin Mary. Even the day in honour of Michael the Archangel, and that of St. Lawrence, a martyr in the third century, were not abolished." (pp. 420-1).

In contrast with Luther, Calvin adopted the Scriptural principle that the mode of worship is not something for man to devise but has been prescribed by God. Luther can scarcely be regarded as a reformer in the matter of worship. On the other hand, Calvin fostered a form of worship which closely approximated to the Apostolic mode. He laid special emphasis upon the exposition of the Scriptures, the directness of prayer, the rendering of praise by the congregation singing Psalms without musical accompaniment. It is true that Calvin allowed to be used in praise several Scripture Canticles, especially the song of Simeon (Luke 2:29-32), but quite early the Reformed churches excluded from worship the singing of the canticles of Scripture, for they came to recognise clearly that the Psalms only were the divinely appointed manual of praise. The fact that for a time Scriptural cantiles were sung in the Genevan churches, has been used by some writers to claim that Calvin favoured the singing of hymns in worship. This is to do that great reformer an injustice; for Calvin was resolute in holding that uninspired songs such as hymns should be rigorously excluded from worship, for they lacked the necessary divine sanction.