p. 2 | The Science of Music by Mrs. F. B. Marsh

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 24, 1900

The Science of Music.

By Mrs. F. B. Marsh

MRS. F. B. MARSH.

(Goldfield, Colo.)

God is good; and it is his good pleasure to give us the kingdom. Let us lift up our heads and rejoice; for our light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon us.

And why should not a large place in our rejoicing be filled by music, not a dry routine of formal song, but music, heavenly music,—music upspringing from the heart filled with the joys of salvation, the heart beating harmoniously with the great heart of everlasting love? We read, in Eph. 5:18, this command, which should be esteemed a wondrous privilege: “Be filled with the Spirit.” The apostle continues: “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” Matthew tells us that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

Where is the Spirit that sang through Moses, and Miriam, and the Israelites in the days of old, when they contemplated the works of God—the Spirit that moved Deborah to sing praises, and caused David to indite so many joyful psalms?

Has the Spirit changed? Are there now no wonderful works of God to be remembered? Ah, the Spirit remains the same, and the glories of God call for songs of praise; but Israel’s head has hung like a bulrush, and he knew not to look up and behold the bright light that is in the clouds.

The world is not unmindful of the power of music. But music as the world knows it, is sought as a thing in itself, because of the pleasure thereby afforded the senses. And he in whom was prepared the workmanship of his tabrets and pipes in the day that he was created, is wise to make use of his knowledge of music to his own ends.

Is it not time for Christians to awake and claim their heritage as sons of God in the matter of song? God’s promise to Israel was that if they would walk in his statutes and keep his commandments, they should be the head and not the tail, and that the nations of earth should seek unto them because of their wisdom.

Sin has laid a mountain of obstruction upon the human voice, which no amount of mechanical exercise can remove. True, there are many vocalists who, after spending years in study and mechanical drill, manifest a freedom in the use of the voice which they knew not before. But the mechanical exercise did not give the freedom. The freedom came through the discovery of a principle. Mechanical exercise is but a medium through which attempt is made at expressing a principle. Obstructions are overcome as soon as the principle is fully grasped. The principle is rest.

Every manifestation of weakness on our part is to that degree an acknowledgment that we know not that experience which says, “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” Is not God honored as we manifest in the flesh his image and power? Was Jesus ever forced to admit that the enemy was stronger than he? Does it mean nothing that he says, “As he is, so are we in this world”? Can any service rendered to God in which there is not perfect freedom and rest, be all that it should be? Has not God repeatedly bidden us to render unto him the service of song? But oh, we are so crippled! Do we not remember that every manifestation of weakness in the voice is a testimony to the havoc wrought by sin? Are we in bondage to sin? Is it not written, “Sin shall not have dominion over you”? Who has not felt in the heart that indescribable longing to burst forth in a glad, free song of praise unto God for all his marvelous works? Is it an unlawful desire? Ah, no! And he says: “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” Who is ready to walk in the fullness of the freedom of the sons of God, gladdening the ears of heavy-hearted humanity with strains of heaven’s music, borne unhindered through the human vessel by the Spirit of God, thus manifesting to the world that God abides in the human temple?