SINGING by Sarah M. Saunders

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 17, 1901

SINGING

By Sarah M. Saunders

SARAH M. SAUNDERS. (Battle Creek, Mich.)

We read in the Bible that Moses and Miriam sang unto the Lord, who had so gloriously triumphed in the overthrow of their enemies, the Egyptian host. Ex. 15:1-21. David spoke to the Levites concerning singing, instructing them to “lift up the voice with joy.” 1 Chron. 15:16. The apostle Paul says, “I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.” 1 Cor. 14:15. God has given us a voice for singing, thus enabling us to praise Him in song. In this age of culture and improvements the human voice has been cultured so much that sometimes it seems almost entirely to have lost its original music and melody. This culture, so called, first originated with operatic singing, and later was introduced into the choir of the Catholic Church, and still later was adopted by modern Protestant churches. Surely God is not praised, glorified, nor pleased with the singing we sometimes hear when those assembled on the Sabbath to worship Him, are invited to listen to a solo, duet, trio, or quartet, the singers making a display of their cultured voices. No doubt the sentiment expressed in the words of the hymn may be divine, but the congregation, as a whole, hears nothing but the sound, which to some persons seems more like shrieks, howls, moans, and sighs of the lost soul than like praise to God.

The apostle Paul asks how the people shall know when to say Amen, if they understand not what is said. He also says, notwithstanding the eloquence of learning, “Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.” 1 Cor. 14:19.