“And with them Heman and Jeduthun, to sound aloud with trumpets and cymbals and the musical instruments of God. Now the sons of Jeduthun were gatekeepers” (1 Chronicles 16:42).
• Did God ever ordain instruments of music to be used in his worship?
• Can they be used in Christian assemblies according to the spirit of Christianity?
• Has Jesus Christ, or his apostles, ever commended or sanctioned the use of them?
• Were they ever used any where in the apostolic church?
• Does the use of them at present, in Christian congregations, ever increase the spirit of devotion?
• Does it ever appear that bands of musicians, either in their collective or individual capacity, are more spiritual, or as spiritual, as the other parts of the church of Christ?
• Is there less pride, self-will, stubbornness, insubordination, lightness, and frivolity among such persons than among the other professors of Christianity found in the same religious society?
• Is it ever remarked or known that musicians in the house of God have attained to any depth of piety, or superior soundness of understanding, in the things of God?
• Is it ever found that those churches and Christian societies which have and use instruments of music in divine worship are more holy, or as holy, as those societies which do not use them?
• And is it always found that the ministers which affect and recommend them to be used in the worship of Almighty God, are the most spiritual men, and the most spiritual and useful preachers?
• Can mere sounds, no matter how melodious, where no word nor sentiment is or can be uttered, be considered as giving praise to God?
• Is it possible that pipes or strings of any kind can give God praise?
• Can God be pleased with sounds which are emitted by no sentient being, and have in themselves no meaning?
• If these questions cannot be answered in the affirmative; then, query, Is not the introduction of such instruments into the worship of God antichristian, and calculated to debase and ultimately ruin the spirit and influence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
• And should not all who wish well to the spread and establishment of pure and undefiled religion, lift up their hand, their influence and their voice against them? The argument from their use in the Jewish service is futile in the extreme when applied to Christianity.
–Clarke’s Commentary, Volume II, pp. 610-611
The following observation is certainly applicable today… (SM)
• “My brethren, we ought to be ashamed to allow a Methodist commentator to lift up his hand more strongly, and use his influence more determinedly,and lift up his voice more loudly than we do against the introduction of things foreign to the simple worship of God” (Fred E. Dennis, Fifty Short Sermons II, p. 75)
