AFTER THIS MANNER SING YE by Thomas Robert Williamson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 1, 1902

AFTER THIS MANNER SING YE.

By Thomas Robert Williamson

“O COME, let us sing unto the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth; and the strength of the hills is His also. . . . O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.” Who does not recognize the voice of inspiration in the majestic swing of a psalm like that? How easy to see that when Isaiah or David or Habakkuk sweeps the praiseful lyre, the matter of rhyme is of small account.

When holy men sing by the promptings of the Holy Spirit, how the souls of God’s people rise with them in glorious adulation of the Creator. And no doubt the songs and lyrics of the Bible, from the victory paean of Moses clear through, wherever they occur, to where John hears the shout of the unbroken universe, with the full diapason of all resonant and sonorous things,—thunders, voices, atoms, harpers harping with their harps, ringing, singing together, “The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth,”—no doubt they are all intended for us of the lower world to fashion after in our attempts at the praise of God. To fashion after, but not necessarily to copy literally. The disciples asked to be taught to pray, and Jesus answered, “After this manner pray ye,” and then gave them what has been called ever since the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus never said use just these words and this form alone. O, no. He left it to the fervent heat of thankful hearts throughout the world to send to the throne of grace warm and tender orisons that should clothe the feet of our Father with petitions of urgency or songs of jubilation. God never intended that praise or prayer should have a stereotyped form never to change. No matter how varied the style of expression may be in the Scripture hymns and addresses to the Deity, it is still left to human souls to voice there own needs in their own chosen way. Only “after this manner pray ye,” and sing ye.

The worshipers of idols pray sometimes by simply repeating a word innumerable times. A missionary asked a heathen, “What are you doing?”

“I am praying.”

“To whom?”

“To no one.”

“And for what?”

“For nothing.”

Hawaiians believe that if they can gain possession of the garment of an enemy, kneel upon it and pray, they can pray that enemy’s life away. Hindu praises are only repeated and reiterated shouts of “Ram” or “Swami,” or “Om mani padmi om.” Many Roman Catholic prayers are mere repetitions of the names of saints beaded on the rosary.

After the Bible manner pray ye, and after the Bible manner sing ye.

God is our Father, kind and true, His stars, His flowrets, light and strew All pleasant paths below. The noblest deeds our life affords, The purest thoughts, the kindest words, Should to His service go.

And so it will be if our prayer and praise are after the Bible manner.

Some have taught and advocated, and a denomination holds, that our praises to God should be voiced only in the sacred psalms; but there are continual swellings of the heart that spill over into felicitous and happy verse; that wing the ardent, earnest thought heavenward in the very spirit and harmony of Bible utterance. Would it be right to throw aside as worthless, and ignore, the helpful hymns of Watts, of Wesley, and of many before and since their time, upon whose words, as chariots, the souls of great assemblies have gone soaring and singing upward to the very gates of pearl?—No; it is enough if we observe the injunction to pray and sing not in the same phrases always, but in the manner of Bible bards and Bible teachers.

THOMAS ROBERT WILLIAMSON.

Oakland, Cal.