Not long since, on hearing it related that a certain minister was accustomed, in the stated exercises of the sanctuary, to pray for those able to labour hard through the week, but too ill to attend public worship on the Sabbath, our attention was especially directed to this suffering class of our fellow beings; and as the disease is far more prevalent than is generally imagined, and it is thought to be contagious—as whole families usually have it when the head is materially affected—and frightfully dangerous, it seems but an act of humanity to give the alarm.
Messages from the Lord are always true and seasonable, whether his words are those of rebuke or those of comfort. In each case too, the authority of the message is divine, and should not therefore be challenged. And the tenor of the messenger’s feelings must be according to the words which he speaks in the name of the Lord to his own generation, which was in a sadly degenerate condition. Its spiritual state, and the kind of message which the Lord gave him to deliver, caused his being distinguished as “the weeping prophet.” In times of backsliding, all who speak in the Lord’s name, and according to His mind, must be like him. The view which they have of the times they live in, and the kind of message which the Lord directs them to deliver combine to make them sad. The woeful condition of things around them casts its dark shadow on their face, and causes the gloomy and austere aspect for which they are condemned by those whom the Lord constrains them to rebuke.
First of all, then, on behalf of human hymns, it has been said, “We live now under a better and brighter dispensation than that of the Old Testament, therefore the inspired Psalms of David, and other Psalms in Holy Scripture, are insufficient.” But the question is not whether the dispensation under which we now live is better and brighter than that which preceded it, but whether, under this better and brighter dispensation, there is any security for better and brighter hymns than the Psalms of David, and whether there is a promise given to any man, or any body of men, of a richer unction of the Spirit—and not a richer unction only, but a specifically inspiring action of the Spirit, for the purpose of composing hymns for the public worship of God in the church than was given to him of whom it is written that, in his blessed swan song, he spoke as follows: “David, the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet Psalmist of Israel, said, The Spirit of the LORD spake by me, and his word was in my tongue” (2 Sam. 23:1). Is there any modern hymnologist in circumstances to say that? Dr. Adam must tell us who he is, before his argument from the greater brightness of the New Testament dispensation is of any worth, otherwise it is an argument, not only on behalf of hymns, but against the Book of Psalms.
Very little thought is given these days to the question of the propriety of using instrumental music in public worship services. It is not questioned. The fact that instrumental accompaniment was more or less unknown in Presbyterian Church in Scotland up to the end of the 19th Century comes as a surprise to people, as does the knowledge that the great Baptist preacher of the Victorian era, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, never used instrumental accompaniment in the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London.
There are two things in the text that claim our attention. There is a promise, and a statement of the circumstances in which that promise will be realised. The promise is, “there am I in the midst of them.” The circumstances are, “where two or three are gathered together in my name.” Let us attend to these points in the order in which they have now been stated.
Prayer is the element of worship which is most often mentioned in the Scriptures. From Genesis, chapter 4, when men began to call on the name of the Lord, to Revelation, chapter 22, when the church prays, “Come, Lord Jesus,” the Bible is full of prayer.
To establish purity of worship in the earth was an undertaking worthy of the Son of God. In the opinion of some, we believe, it had been a nobler enterprise of philanthropy to deal directly with man’s social state, to have rectified its inequalities, and provided for the secular interests of humanity, putting aside meanwhile the question of religion as of inferior importance—a world without God, or a God without worship, well according with their views. We suppose they would regulate heaven itself on the same principles and haply find fault with its blest inhabitants for making so much ado about devotion.
No part of the Christian worship is more plainly warranted by the oracles of God than the ordinance of Singing of Psalms. The ancient Hebrews practised it at the Red Sea before their system of ceremonial worship was prescribed them by God (Exod. 15). It was preferred to the most pompous sacrifices, even while the ceremonial observances remained in their vigour (Ps. 69:30–31). The divine obligation to it remained in full force when the ceremonial law, with all its rites, was abolished (Ps. 47:1–7; 67:4; 100:1–4; Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16; James 5:13). We have it enforced with the most engaging example of the angels who kept their first estate (Job 38:6–8; Luke 2:13–14; Rev. 5:11–12), and of apostles and saints (Acts 16:25; 1 Cor. 14:15, etc.); nay, of our Redeemer himself (Matt. 26:30). This exercise, performed in a manner suited to the dignity of the glorified state, will be the everlasting employ of established angels and ransomed men (Isa. 26:19; 51:11; Rev. 5:9–13).
Of the Prophet Isaiah, we are told by himself that he prophesied concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. By referring, therefore, to the history of these reigns, as they are recorded in the books of Kings and Chronicles, we may form a correct estimate of the character of the age in which he lived, and of the state of religion among the people whom he addressed;
Many think of evangelism as the great task of the church; it is not. Yes, without evangelism the church cannot function faithfully. Dead churches do not evangelize. Yet evangelism, though a great mission and task of the church, ranks below worship. Missions exist because worship does not. In heaven, evangelism does not exist; there, and on earth, the chief purpose of the church is worship. Worship ennobles our service; Scripture identifies church members as stones in God’s temple–the holy place devoted chiefly to worship (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21; 1 Pet. 2:4-8).
