The greatest need for every Seventh-day Adventist is to know God, to be filled with the love of God, and to be a living witness in saving souls. This is the essential meaning of religion. Not a theory of doctrine, but a consecration which will result in a life of service—this is our need.
We must remember that consecration itself does not take the place of training or do away with the need for developing one's talent. Nor does consecration, conversely, ensure that one's taste of art, literature, and music is suddenly elevated, and therefore needs no further guidance.
A musician who appreciates and enjoys some of the great masterpieces may have just as deep a consecration to God as the humble individual whose level of appreciation is the simplest hymn tune. In fact, his music talents increase his responsibilities.
"The uneducated man who is consecrated to God and who longs to bless others can be, and is, used by the Lord in His service. But those who, with the same spirit of consecration, have had the benefit of a thorough education, can do a much more extensive work for Christ."—Christ's Object Lessons, p. 333.
Our schools and colleges were established wisely through the leading of the Spirit of prophecy to give consecrated young people needed training in music as well as other subjects. It is to be expected that a consecrated young person in the ninth grade .will find his taste for music greatly improved by the time he reaches the sixteenth grade, if he conscientiously gives himself to study.
There is a kind of secular music which no Christian will choose, because it smacks of the world. But in the class of acceptable music a Christian will find much which takes no training to appreciate, such as good folk songs, marches, and simple music. He will also discover that as a Christian he can learn to appreciate some of the greatest works of the masters.
In the field of religious music we will find some religious songs that are patterned after the popular waltz, love song, or ragtime, which the Christian would do well not to choose. The Christian musician has a wealth of music to use, ranging from the simplest kind to the complexities of the organ works and the Passion according to St. Matthew by Bach. The measure of his appreciation will depend on his training and his level of culture.
The wise gospel musician, who is engaged in some phase of the work in which he is using music to influence souls, will realize that he must adapt his taste in music to the people for whom he is working. This means that frequently he must lay aside his advanced cultural attainments and use a good type of music on the level of the group for whom he is working. He will plan to present music which is representative of the beauty and dignity of the words of the Scripture and the Spirit of prophecy.
There is a place in the plan of God for those who become thoroughly trained musicians. Not every individual can ascend the heights of spiritual discernment with Paul, or can thrill with the beauties of the "Sanctus" chorus of Bach. But for those who have reached this peak it is a real experience which has truly been the foretaste of the surpassing beauties of the heavenly music which no mortal ear has heard. "There will be music there, and song, such music and song as, save in the visions of God, no mortal ear has heard or mind conceived."—Education, p. 307.
