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THE TIME FOR MUSIC

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 19, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 41.

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THE TIME FOR MUSIC

By J. S. Washburn

The Uplifting Power of Song — What Music Will Do for the Soul — The Great Triumphant Songs in Heaven
By J. S. WASHBURN
WITH many, music is only the result, the expression, of joy; whereas true music may be and is not only the effect but the cause of joy. Not only is a time of joy and peace a time for music, but the time of sorrow and danger is the time for music; for true music will bring joy and peace in times of sorrow and danger.
Music — true music — is the sweetest voice, the most expressive language, through which true joy and gladness can speak. In music, the soul speaks its deepest, tenderest emotions, in thoughts too deep, too heavenly, to speak in words or even to define exactly to our own selves. Music that is music, is a heavenly language, divinely given to express heavenly thoughts that otherwise must forever remain unspoken. God speaks to us in music, and through music we convey His thoughts to others.

SINGING IN TRIUMPH

When God brought back His people from captivity to their own land, they said, “Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.” Ps. 126: 2. When the poor prodigal son returned to his father’s house, there was music. When we get home from our sorrow and care, Oh, then “the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
When the children of Israel were brought out of the Red Sea, and with a wonderful salvation were saved from the Egyptians, one day their cruel taskmasters, the next day their most feared and most terrible enemies, “then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation.”
When the people of God are at last victorious over the beast and his image, in the last terrific conflict, now rushing so swiftly upon us, then they will sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. Rev. 15: 3. Then the great choir of angels, ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands — untold millions, an innumerable company — shall sing the song of welcome and joy and triumph.
Oh, music of heaven, that language of earth cannot describe! I must hear that music, which the ear of man has never heard. Blessed harmony of angels and redeemed men! I must join in that glory song. And then, more glorious than all, the heavenly Father Himself “shall joy over thee,” thou lost one, returning home, “with singing.” What that glorious song will be, ear has not heard. What unutterable bliss to hear the Author of all melody sing for joy over the lost ones brought home by His love!

MUSIC BRINGS JOY AND COURAGE

But remember, sorrowing, sad heart, it is not only God’s will that we should sing in heaven, but we must sing here and now; for music is not only the result of joy, but it causes joy, courage, strength, and hope. All through the Bible are examples of music’s being used to strengthen the lonely and the sad, to bring victory in times of danger. Looking into the sullen, dark face of King Saul, in whose eyes lurked the awful glare of madness, David, the shepherd harpist, the sweet singer of Israel, with divine music banished the evil spirit. “So Saul was refreshed, and was well.” When the children of Israel met a mighty host, vastly greater than their own army, Jehoshaphat “appointed singers unto the Lord,” that they “should praise the beauty of holiness.” This music brought glorious victory.
Paul and Silas, with bleeding backs, their feet thrust up into stocks, sang in the Philippian dungeon. That was their victory. Jesus, just before He went out to be betrayed by the traitor, sang a joyous song of praise. Matt. 26: 30. When a boy and a young man, Jesus sang songs of cheer and gladness, in His humanity, in His loneliness and poverty. “Often the dwellers in Nazareth heard His voice raised in praise and thanksgiving to God. He held communion with Heaven in song; and His companions, as they complained of weariness from labor, were cheered by the sweet melody from His lips.”
O Jesus, singing in Thy poverty and humility and loneliness, so far from Thy heavenly home, teach us to sing when we are saddest, that music may charm away our sorrow, and bring down to sing with us the angel choir, which sang over Thy lowly birth in Bethlehem, and thus music may be Heaven’s voice to cheer and strengthen.

SONGS OF TRIUMPH AT THE DEATHBED

What is more comforting, at the funerals of our loved ones, than tender, sweet hymns,—“Asleep in Jesus,” “Meet again when time is o’er,” “There is an hour of peaceful rest,” “We lay us calmly down to sleep”! I shall never forget singing with others, by the bedside of a dying sister, triumphant and joyous in her last moments, at her special request:
“Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to Thy bosom fly.”
In the deepest sorrows, in time of our utmost trials, in the greatest danger and peril, in the great final crisis of the ages, the people of God will sing. “A marvelous change has come over those who have held fast their integrity in the very face of death. . . . Their voices rise in triumphant song: ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.’ . . . While these words of holy trust ascend to God, the clouds sweep back. . . . The glory of the celestial city streams from the gates ajar.” —“The Great Controversy,” page 639.