Do you conduct a song service, or do you just sing songs? Do you choose your numbers with the idea of progression, or do you sing just any song heedless of its content just so long as the people know it? There is a difference, and that difference is vital to the spiritual growth of the church.
Why do we have a song service? Surely not just to fill in time, or to drown the noise of conversation. It would be little less than blasphemous to express the deep fervor contained in most of our hymns and gospel songs and yet have no higher motive than to be merely doing something until the meeting begins. No! Singing is a part of worship. We sing to honor God. Yet much of our singing is far from worshipful and as it is conducted can bring little honor to His holy name.
Interpretive congregational singing is an art, and the leader should be an artist. Often we just sing notes. We say words but do not express thoughts. Test it out sometime. Listen to a congregation sing some familiar hymn like "Faith of Our Fathers," and note whether the people really sense the pathos of the poem. The second stanza speaks of sacrifice and death, and concludes with the thought that to die for God would be a sweet fate. Death is a tragic word, yet as we sing of it in some of our hymns we say the word with meaningless formality.
Singing is more than notes and rhythm; it is harmonious speech. Expressionless speech is monotonous. So is expressionless singing. It need not be expressionless. It can be and it should be the truest expression of the soul in praise, petition, or testimony.
It is the responsibility of both the song leader and the accompanist to help the congregation to sense the meaning of the words. Think of the contrasting thoughts in A. J. Gordon's beautiful hymn of resignation, "My Jesus, I Love Thee." How often that sacred poem is mutilated if not murdered in the house of its friends —thoughtless, heedless, ruthless friends ! Notice these words of pathos in the second stanza : "I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow"; or even those in the third stanza that speak about the death dew lying cold on one's brow, and then try to explain the incongruity of an intelligent adult congregation singing them in meaningless monotony. The climax of the poem comes in the last stanza, the opening words of which transport us to the "mansions of glory and endless delight." The thought of that eternal day when sorrow is ended and death is no more, when the glittering crown of victory adorns the brow of the overcomer, should surely be sung in a voice different from that which describes the agony of our suffering Saviour.
"Singing is a part of the worship of God, but in the bungling manner in which it is often conducted, it is no credit to the truth, and no honor to God. There should be system and order in this as well as every other part of the Lord's work."—Evangelism, p. 506. This inspired comment and counsel should challenge us. Singing is musical speech, and speech is important. Jesus said, "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." Would the words in our congregational singing justify or condemn us ?
We sacrificed something when in our modern setting of hymns we put the words between the music lines. In the old style the words were set off separately, sometimes even on the opposite page. The lines of the poems were usually marked to indicate the way the congregation should sing them. Of course, it was harder to sing the harmony when the words were thus separated. But having brought the words and music together, we have now left the accompanist and the singers to sense the meaning of the words and give the proper expression. We can pardon a congregation if it fails to interpret the thoughts. But when a song leader just waves his hands in meaningless rhythm, that is unpardonable, "Bodily exercise profiteth little," said Paul, and it is unprofitable unless the leader really leads the congregation into the atmosphere of true worship. Mere arm swinging is ungainly, and when the song leader's sole objective is to give the rhythm, then we do not need him, for the accompanist is able to do that.
Such a leader is truly neither use nor ornament.
The apostle Paul said, "I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also." No less an aim should be ours. To catch the true spirit of the hymn or song, to understand and interpret its message, is not only important, it is imperative if our singing is to be to the glory of God. The counsel of the Lord is : "Select hymns with music appropriate to the occasion, not funeral notes, but cheerful, yet solemn melodies."—Evangelism p. 508.
The purpose of a service of song is to bring the minds of all into focus. Or, to change the figure of speech, it is the plowing and harrowing of the soil, getting it ready for the sowing of the seed. Therefore there should be progression in the selection of the numbers to be sung. Each hymn should lead into the thought of the next. It should be the development of the definite pattern. That is the leader's responsibility.
And in giving the number, he can lead the congregation into the thought of the next song by a few appropriate words.
Random selection is ridiculous. Only one thing is worse, and that is to invite the congregation to call for their favorites. How can there be any proper progression with such a method, or rather lack of method? We are told it is our "duty to put some skill and study and planning into the matter of conducting religious meetings—how they shall be conducted so as to do the greatest amount of good, and leave the very best impression upon all who attend." (Review and Herald, April 14, 1885.) Methods that call for neither study nor skill, which reveal neither planning nor progression, cannot lead men to worship Him who made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters. The very heart of our message is a call to worship. We must sense the responsibility of preparing the multitude to worship God in spirit, in understanding, and in truth.
R. A. A.
