It has been said that "singing is as much an act of worship as is prayer." It is possible, of course, to make a wrong interpretation of this simple statement. Worship is an individual act. It is not something that someone else does for you and which you accept from a distance. It is a personal experience, not a wholesale acknowledgment of another's devotions. Therefore, if singing is to be an "act of worship," then it requires participation.
Is there not a tendency to substitute choir numbers for congregational singing? In some places it is not uncommon to supply "special music" in place of both the second hymn and the last. The congregation takes part possibly in "Old Hundred" and the opening hymn. Someone prays for them, a group sings to them, and the minister talks to them. When the activity is, of necessity, largely from the rostrum and choir loft, would it not be well to give all three hymns to the congregation, the choice governed by a direct and pointed bearing on the sermon of the morning?
If an anthem is sung by the choir, and it is to approach the benefits derived from a hymn sung by the congregation, it must be technically within the grasp of the choir. We read in the Testimonies:
"The singing should not be done by a few only. All present should be encouraged to join in the song service. There are those who have a special gift of song, and there are times when a special message is borne by one singing alone or by several uniting in song. But the singing is seldom to be done by a few. The ability to sing is a talent of influence, which God desires all to cultivate and use to His name's glory."—Vol. VII, pp. 115,
Oh, how singers do love to sing heavy songs of great technical difficulty ! This might indicate, if nothing else, that the singing ascends no nearer heaven than the rafters of the church.
You cannot sing as an act of worship with self looming large in the performance, any more than you can pray a prayer that has been prepared so as to sound well rhetorically, with all the polished smoothness at your command. You may be thinking of how beautiful a prayer you can make. To the extent, in music as in prayer, that one seeks admiration or praise for his service, he robs it of true devotion or worship. Before God listens to the voice, He looks on the heart. Not how elegant, but how sincere!
A congregational hymn tunes the heart for the reception of the Word, and if the minister would sing softly enough to hear that powerful surge of tone coming from those who are there to be helped, he would receive a fresh inspiration to perform a more effective service. This unified act of singing is a powerful agent in merging the congregation in heart as well as in voice.
"Though pleasing to the ear when very well rendered, and capable, when all the conditions are favorable, to stir the emotions for the moment, elaborate musical services. seem poor indeed when compared with simple, hearty, and devotional services which appeal to the spiritual nature of man, and in which all can take part.
"Elaborate choral music may be a pleasant thing in itself, but intruding where it is not required, it may (so far from being a help to devotion) be a hindrance, and even tend to make men forget the true object of worship. That choral services delight the sense of hearing in careless people seems very probable; but there is no good reason to suppose that listening to them makes such people devout. They please rather than edify.
"Silence is not praise, and listening to singing, and thinking how beautiful it is, is not prayer."—Chapters on Church Music, by R. B. Daniel.
Let us avoid any tendency to reduce the active participation of the congregation in worship, and guard against stealing from them the precious benefits they should derive from the singing of hymns.
