History of Instrumental Music in Paganism and Christian Churches

The first appearance of instrumental music in church worship was about the sixth century A.D. The exact date of its introduction varied in different localities; but it can safely be concluded that there was no general practicing of it until after the eighth century, and even after this date it was long resisted by leading religionists. The quotations to follow present historical information about the practice of the primitive church regarding music. The scholars who are quoted all concur that instrumental music was not part of the worship of the primitive church.

John T. Willis 2. "Sing" is vocal; "make melody" is instrumental. Psalms 33:2-3; 144:9; 149:1, 3 make this crystal clear. Amos 5:23 further verifies this reality.  People forget that God turned Israel over to worship the starry host because of musical idolatry at Mount Sinai. The Levites were under the KING and the COMMANDERS of the army: they made war and not worship. We will examine these passages in context.

"There is no example of the use of mechanical musical instruments being used in worship at all by the early Church. If it is simply a matter of choice as many members of the religious world today claim, it would seem rather ironic that the members of the earlier congregations did not seem to understand this and use them. It is an obvious fact from study of the New Testament that the church after its beginning was under the influence and guidance of the apostles, who were guided by the Holy Spirit. We also know from the study of the bible, musical instruments were used in worship under the Law of Moses. It would seem that if they were acceptable in New Testament worship the early church would have continued their use. The truth of the matter is, in each of the verses of the New Testament where worship with the singing of hymns or praises or Psalms is spoken of the instructions are simply to sing which implies the use of the human voice. We will look at these later as we proceed. The question is did the early church just not like instrumental music, or did they recognize the fact there was no biblical authority for their use? We have no example, no command, and no implication of their use in the early church.

On the contrary the Bible NEVER uses the "music" word in the sense of worship along with singing. All of the Old and New Testament examples are a MARK which says of such people: we will not listen to your word

w h y   T E N

T H O U S A N D

J U D G E S ?

Worship with music came from the pagan "gods." "There is no other tradition." What did Jude know (that we don't know) about the "Wandering Stars" and God coming with ten thousand of His host to execute Judgment? Christ and Satan Codex Junius II Apocalypse of Moses Devil Seduced Eve With Music Book of Jubilees Introduction The Book of Jubilees (c. 155 B.C.) First Book of Adam and Eve Second Book of Adam and Eve Jubal-Genun Summary The Cave of Treasurers The Sons of God and Daughters of Men Introduction to Enoch The First Book of Enoch Part A The First Book of Enoch Part B Jude Commentary on Enoch Jude/Enoch and Homer Second Book of Enoch Legends of the Fallen Angels Legends of the Punishment of the Fallen Angels Legends of the Jews - Cain Apocalypse of Adam   Lilith from Hebrew Myths Lilith or Naamah Demons and Music Gnosticism: Sophia-Zoe as the Beast-Instructor Sophia-Zoe The Origin of The World Sophia-Zoe: Hypostasis of the Archons Snake Female principle RHEA - SATURN: Orphic Instrumental Music   GREGORY NAZIANZEN NEW 4/14/04 Recognitions of Clement on Idolatry Book IV Clementine Homily VIII Fallen Angels and Demons Clementine Homily IX How Demons get control of men Hippolytus, musical sorcery Tertullian and the Fall of Women   Alexander Hislop: The Great Red Dragon Nimrod Parallels Jubal/Genun who used musical worship teams to control people as Lucifer. Nimrod's Team Alexander Hislop: The Beast From The Earth Alexander Hislop defines the worship of Babylonia

Classical Writers

Aristotle Politics 1341b

and all the instruments that require

manual skill. And indeed there is a reasonable

foundation for the story that was told by the

ancients about the flute. The tale goes that

Athena found a flute and threw it away. Now

it is not a bad point in the story that the

goddess did this out of annoyance because of

the ugly distortion of her features; but as a

matter of fact it is more likely that it

was because education in flute-playing has no

effect on the intelligence, whereas we

attribute science and art to Athena.

 

And since we reject professional education in the

instruments and in performance

 

(and we count performance in competitions as professional,

for the performer does not take part in it

for his own improvement, but for his hearers'

pleasure, and that a vulgar pleasure, owing

to which we do not consider performing to be

proper for free men, but somewhat menial;

 

and indeed performers do become vulgar, since the

object at which they aim is a low one, as

vulgarity in the audience usually influences

the music,

 

so that it imparts to the artists

who practise it with a view to suit the

audience a special kind of personality,

 

and also of bodily frame because of the movements

required)--we must therefore give some

consideration to tunes and rhythms, and

to the question whether for educational

purposes we must employ all the tunes and all

the rhythms or make distinctions; and next,

whether for those who are working at music

for education we shall lay down the same

regulation, or ought we to establish some

other third one (inasmuch as we see that the

factors in music are melody and rhythm, and

it is important to notice what influence each

of these has upon education), and whether we

are to prefer music with a good melody or

music with a good rhythm.

Plutarch (de Musica 1141C:30; 1142C:31) often mentions the two most well known kithara virtuosos Philoxenus of Kythera (c. 436-380 BC) and Timotheus of Miltetus (c. 450-360 BC). In his nomos the Persae, Timotheus claims to have invented "eleven-stroke meters and rhythms" on the kithara (Timotheus fr. 15, 229-33). The meaning is rather obscure, and some scholars believe that Timotheus added four more strings; it seems more likely, however, that Timotheus was an innovative player who embellished the melody with intricate rhythmic ornamentation. The great kithara soloists were sometimes ridiculed in comedies (e.g. Aristophanes. Wasps 1275 f.).

LEADER OF THE CHORUS

Oh! blessed, oh! fortunate Automenes, how enviable is your fortune! You have three sons, the most industrious in the world; one is the friend of all, a very able man, the first among the lyre-players, the favourite of the Graces. The second is an actor, and his talent is beyond all praise. As for Ariphrades, he is by far the most gifted; his father would swear to me, that without any master whatever and solely through the spontaneous effort of his happy nature, he taught himself to exercise his tongue in the whorehouses, where he spends the whole of his time.

Some have said that I and Cleon were reconciled. This is the truth of the matter: Cleon was harassing me, persecuting and belabouring me in every way; and,

when I was being fleeced,

the public laughed at seeing me uttering such loud cries; not that they cared about me,

but simply curious to know whether, when trodden down by my enemy, I would not hurl at him some taunt. Noticing this, I have played the wheedler a bit; but now, look! the prop is deceiving the vine!

Plutarch, Life of Marcellus, xiv. 65, and Quaest. Conv. viii. 2. 1, 7,

where Plato is

represented as "having been angry with

Eudoxus and Archytas because they employed

instruments and apparatus for the solution

of a problem, instead of relying solely on reasoning."

Plato Republic 531a

Or do you not know that they repeat the same procedure in the case of harmonies ?

They transfer it to hearing and

measure audible concords and sounds against

one another,

expending much useless labor

just as the astronomers do.

 

"Yes, by heaven," he said, "and most absurdly too.

They talk of something they call minims

and, laying their ears alongside, as if

trying to catch a voice from next door,

some affirm that they can hear a note

between and that this is the least interval

and the unit of measurement, while others

insist that the strings now render identical sounds,

 

Plato Laws 812d

Athenian: So, to attain this object,

both the lyre-master and his pupil must use

the notes of the lyre, because of the

distinctness of its strings, assigning to

the notes of the song notes in tune with

them; but as to divergence of sound and

variety in the notes of the harp, when the

strings sound the one tune and the composer

of the melody another, or when there results

a combination of low and high notes, of slow

and quick time, of sharp and grave,

Note:. i.e. the notes of the instrument must be in accord with those of the singer's voice. "The tune, as composed by the poet, is supposed to have comparatively few notes, to be in slowish time, and low down in the register; whereas the complicated variation, which he is condemning, has many notes, is in quick time, and high up in the register." (England.)

Plato Ion 534a

just as the Corybantian worshippers

do not dance when in their senses,

so the lyric poets do not indite those fine songs

in their senses, but when they have started

on the melody and rhythm they begin to be

frantic, and it is under possession--as the

bacchants are possessed, and not in their

senses, when they draw honey and milk from

the rivers--that the soul of the lyric poets

does the same thing, by their own report.

For the poets tell us, I believe, that the

songs they bring us are the sweets they cull

from honey-dropping founts

Note: The Corybantes were priests of Cybele or Rhea, mother of Zeus and other Olympian gods, and she was worshipped with wild music and frenzied dancing which, like the bacchic revels or orgies of women in honor of Dionysus, carried away the participants despite and beyond themselves. Cf. Eurip. Bacchae.

Plutarch Pericles 15.2

But then he was no longer the same

man as before, nor alike submissive to the

people and ready to yield and give in to the

desires of the multitude as a steersman to

the breezes.

Nay rather, forsaking his

former lax and sometimes rather effeminate

management of the people, as it were a

flowery and soft melody, he struck the high

and clear note of an aristocratic and kingly

statesmanship, and employing it for the best

interests of all in a direct and undeviating fashion,

Strabo Geography 9.3.10

As for the contests at Delphi,

there was one in early times between

citharoedes, who sang a paean in honor of

the god; it was instituted by the Delphians.

But after the Crisaean war, in the time of

Eurylochus,1 the Amphictyons instituted

equestrian and gymnastic contests in which

the prize was a crown, and called them

Pythian Games. And to the citharoedes2 they

added both fluteplayers and citharists who

played without singing, who were to render a

certain melody which is called the Pythian

Nome. There are five parts of it:

angkrousis, ampeira, katakeleusmos, iambi

and dactyli, and syringes. Now the melody

was composed by Timosthenes, the admiral of

the second Ptolemy, who also compiled The

Harbours, a work in ten books;3 and through

this melody he means to celebrate the

contest between Apollo and the dragon,

setting forth the prelude as anakrousis, the

first onset of the contest as ampeira, the

contest itself as katakeleusmos, the triumph

following the victory as iambus and

dactylus, the rhythms being in two measures,

one of which, the dactyl, is appropriate to

hymns of praise, whereas the other, the

iamb, is suited to reproaches (compare the

word "iambize"), and the expiration of the

dragon as syringes, since with syringes4

players imitated the dragon as breathing its

last in hissings.5

Strabo Geography 10.3.9

But I must now investigate how it

comes about that so many names have been

used of one and the same thing, and the

theological element contained in their

history. Now this is common both to the

Greeks and to the barbarians, to perform

their sacred rites in connection with the

relaxation of a festival, these rites being

performed sometimes with religious frenzy,

sometimes without it; sometimes with music,

sometimes not; and sometimes in secret,

sometimes openly. And it is in accordance

with the dictates of nature that this should

be so, for, in the

first place, the relaxation draws the mind away from human occupations and turns the real mind towards that which is divine; and,

secondly, the religious frenzy seems to afford a kind of divine inspiration and to be very like that of the soothsayer; and,

thirdly, the secrecy with which the sacred rites are concealed induces reverence for the divine, since it imitates the nature of the divine, which is to avoid being perceived by our human senses; and,

fourthly, music, which includes dancing as well as rhythm and melody, at the same time, by the delight it affords and by its artistic beauty, brings us in touch with the divine,

 

and this for the following

reason; for although it has been well said

that human beings then

act most like the

gods when they are doing good to others, yet

one might better say, when they are happy;

and such happiness consists of rejoicing,

celebrating festivals, pursuing philosophy,

and engaging in music;

for, if music is perverted when musicians turn their art to

sensual delights at symposiums and in

orchestric and scenic performances and the

like, we should not lay the blame upon music

itself, but should rather examine the nature

of our system of education, since this is

based on music.

Strabo Geography 10.3.16

Also resembling these rites are

the Cotytian and the Bendideian rites

practiced among the Thracians, among whom

the Orphic rites had their beginning. Now

the Cotys who is worshipped among the

Edonians, and also the instruments used in

her rites, are mentioned by Aeschylus; for

he says,

 

O adorable Cotys among the

Edonians, and ye who hold

mountain-ranging1 instruments;

 

and he mentions immediately afterwards the

attendants of Dionysus:

 

one, holding in his hands the

bombyces, toilsome work of the

turner's chisel, fills full the

fingered melody, the call that

brings on frenzy, while another

causes to resound the bronze-bound

cotylae

 

and again,

 

stringed instruments raise their

shrill cry, and frightful

mimickers from some place unseen

bellow like bulls, and the

semblance of drums, as of

subterranean thunder, rolls along,

a terrifying sound;

 

for these rites resemble the Phrygian rites,

and it is at least not unlikely that, just

as the Phrygians themselves were colonists

from Thrace, so also their sacred rites were

borrowed from there. Also when they identify

Dionysus and the Edonian Lycurgus, they hint

at the homogeneity of their sacred rites.

Strabo Geography 12.8.21

Writers mention certain Phrygian

tribes that are no longer to be seen; for

example, the Berecyntes. And Alcman says,

 

On the pipe he played the

Cerbesian, a Phrygian melody.

 

And a certain pit that emits deadly eflluvia

is spoken of as Cerbesian. This, indeed, is

to be seen, but the people are no longer

called Cerbesians. Aeschylus, in his Niobe,

confounds things that are different; for

example, Niobe says that she will be mindful

of the house of Tantalus, those who have an altar of their

paternal Zeus on the Idaean hill;1 and again, Sipylus in the Idaean land;

 

and Tantalus says,

 

I sow furrows that extend a ten

days' journey, Berecyntian land,

where is the site of Adrasteia,

and where both Mt. Ida and the

whole of the Erechtheian plain

resound with the bleatings and

bellowings of flocks.

American Encyclopedia, Vol. 7, page 688, "The Pope Vitalian is regarded to have first introduced organs into some of the churches of Western Europe about 670; but the earliest trustworthy account is that of one sent as a present by the Greek emperor Constantine Copronymus to Pepin, King of Franks in 755."

Chambers Encyclopedia, Vol. 7, page 112, says: "The organ is said to have been introduced into church music by Pope Vitalian in 666 A.D."

Coleman, Lyman, Presbyterian scholar and author makes the following statements in his book, The Primitive Church, page 370-371, 376-377, "Both the Jews in their temple service, and the

Greeks in their idol worship, were accustomed to sing with the accompaniment of instrumental music. The converts to Christianity, accordingly, must have been familiar with this mode of singing...but it is generally admitted, that the primitive Christians employed no instrumental music in their religious worship...Such musical accompaniments were gradually introduced; but can hardly be assigned to a period earlier than the fifth and sixth centuries."

Professor John Girardeau, Presbyterian Professor in the Columbia Theological Seminary in Music in the Church, page 179, makes the following statement: "The church, although lapsing more and more into defection from the truth and into a corruption of apostolic practice, had no instrumental music for 1200 years" (that is, it was not in general use until that time).

Dr. Frederic Louis Ritter, History of Music from the Christian Era to the Present Time, page 28, We have no real knowledge of the exact character of the music which formed a part of the religious devotion of the first Christian congregations. It was, however, purely vocal."

Many other encyclopedias and early church histories could be cited to show the origin of instrumental music. All of them show definitely that its eventual use was a historical development, and not a revealed New Testament teaching. Thus, being something that was introduced centuries after the death of the apostles, it has no place in apostolic Christianity.

There were instruments of music of many and various kinds that were in use during the age of the apostles. Their never being introduced into the worship service by the apostles or the early Christians is conclusive evidence that they were undesirable as a means of expressing praise. Instrumental music is incompatible with the direction for singing given in the New Testament.

The Testimony of Religious Leaders

Today a vast majority of churches use instrumental music in worship, while the Primitive Baptist churches are among the few which do not, being content with the original New Testament practice of congregational singing. Even in many churches which do use the instrument, the practice is of only comparatively recent origin and often introduced over the protest of great Bible scholars and religious leaders. The following quotations will illustrate this:

John Calvin, one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church: "Musical instruments in celebrating the praise of God would be no more suitable than the burning of incense, the lighting up of lamps, the restoration of the other shadows of the law. The Papists, therefore, have foolishly borrowed this, as well as many other things, from the Jews." John Calvin's Commentary, Ps. 33.

Adam Clarke, the greatest commentator of all time among the Methodists: "I am an old man, and an old minister; and I here declare that I never knew them (musical instruments) productive of any good in the worship of God; and have had reason to believe that they were productive of much evil. Music, as a science, I esteem and admire; but instruments of music in the house of God I abominate and abhor. This is the abuse of music; and here I register my protest against all such corruptions in the worship of the Author of Christianity." Clarke's Commentary, Vol. 4, page 684.

Adam Clark: Christian Theology, page 248. " The church of Rome, in every country where it prevails or exists, has so blended a pretended Christian devotion with heathenish and Jewish rites and ceremonies, two parts of which are borrowed from Pagan Rome, the third from Jewish ritual ill understood, and groosly misrepresented, and the fourth part from other corruptions of the Christian system. Nor is the Protestant Church yet fully freed from a variety of matters in public worship which savours little of that simplicity and spirituality which should ever designate the worship of that infinitely pure spirit which cannot be pleased with anything incorporated with His worship that has not a direct tendency to lead from the heart and sensual things to heaven, and to that holiness without which none shall see the Lord. The singing, as practiced in several places, and heathenish accompaniments of organs and music instruments of various sorts, are contrary to the simplicity of the gospel, and the spirituality of that worship which God requires, as darkness is contrary to light. And if the abuses are not corrected, I believe the time is not far distant when singing will cease to be a p [art of the divine worship. It is now, in many places, such as cannot be said to be any part of that worship which is in spirit and according to the truth. May God mend it!

Of Amos 6, Adam Clark Notes that:

"There must have been a great deal of luxury and effeminacy among the Israelites at this time; and, consequently, abundance of riches. This was in the time of Jeroboam the second, when the kingdom had enjoyed a long peace. The description in the fourth, fifth, and sixth verses, is that of an Asiatic court even in the present day.

This explains why instrumental music is an "urban" and not a "rural" problem. Country folk are usually not basking in luxury nor are they effeminate--that kind go to town.

Verse 5. And invent to themselves instruments of music, like David] See the note on 1 Chron. xxiii. 5; and see especially the note on 2 Chron. xxix. 25.

I believe that David was not authorized by the Lord to introduce that multitude of musical instruments into the Divine worship of which we read,

and I am satisfied that his conduct in this respect is most solemnly reprehended by this prophet;

and I farther believe that the use of such instruments of music, in the Christian Church,

is without the sanction and against the will of God;
that they are subversive of the spirit of true devotion, and that they are sinful.

If there was a woe to them who invented instruments of music, as did David under the law, is there no wo, no curse to them who invent them, and introduce them into the worship of God in the Christian Church?

This source also supports the idea that the music of women was composed to fit the patterns of dance and were, therefore, more like what we would call a "song" than a chant or recitation of the prose form--

"The chant of ancient Hebrews was rhythmical, but probably free of fixed meter. Perhaps the only exceptions were the dancing songs of women, usually accompanied by percussion instruments." (Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, p. 466).

"I am an old man, and an old minister; and I here declare that I never knew them productive of any good in the worship of God; and have had reason to believe that they were productive of much evil.

"Music, as a science, I esteem and admire: but instruments of music in the house of God I abominate and abhor. This is the abuse of music; and here I register my protest against all such corruptions in the worship of the Author of Christianity. The late venerable and most eminent divine, the Revelation John Wesley, who was a lover of music, and an elegant poet, when asked his opinion of instruments of music being introduced into the chapels of the Methodists said, in his terse and powerful manner,

"I have no objection to instruments of music in our chapels, provided they are neither HEARD nor SEEN."

I say the same, though I think the expense of purchase had better be spared.

The word µyfrph happoretim, which we render chant, and the margin quaver, signifies to dance, to skip, &c. (Strong's parat)

In the sight of such a text, fiddlers, drummers, waltzers, &c., may well tremble, who perform to excite detestable passions.

John Wesley, the reputed founder of the Methodist Church, is quoted by Adam Clarke to have said: "I have no objection to instruments of music in our chapels, provided they are neither heard nor seen." Clarke's Commentary, Vol. 4, page 684.

Martin Luther, a distinguished reformer, "called the organ an ensign of baal." McClintock and Strong's Encyclopedia, Vol. 6, page 762.

Spurgeon, Charles H., recognized as one of the greatest Baptist preachers that ever lived, who preached for 20 years to thousands of people weekly in the Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle, London, England, did not have musical instruments in the worship. M.C. Kurfeest, Instrumental Music in the Worship, page 196.

Charles Spurgeon Psalm 149 Ver. 3. Let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp. They who from hence urge the use of music in religious worship, must, by the same rule, introduce dancing, for they went together, as in David's dancing before the ark (Jud 21:21). But whereas many Scriptures in the New Testament keep up singing as a gospel ordinance, none provide for the keeping up of music and dancing; the gospel canon for Psalmody is to "sing with the spirit and with the understanding." &emdash;Matthew Henry.

Ver. 3. Timbrel. The toph was employed by David in all the festivities of religion (2Sa 6:5). The occasions on which it was used were mostly joyful,

and those who played upon it were generally females (Ps 68:25), as was the case among most ancient nations, and is so at the present day in the East.

The usages of the modern East might adequately illustrate all the scriptural allusions to this instrument, but happily we have more ancient and very valuable illustration from the monuments of Egypt. In these we find that the tambourine was a favourite instrument, both on sacred and festive occasions. There were three kinds, differing, no doubt, in sound as well as in form; one was circular, another square or oblong, and the third consisted of two squares separated by a bar. They were all beaten by the land, and often used as an accompaniment to the harp and other instruments. The tambourine was usually played by females, who are represented as dancing to its sound without the accompaniment of any other instrument. &emdash;John Kitto.

EXPOSITION.

Ver. 6. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two edged sword in their hand. It seems they are not always on their beds, but are ready for deeds of prowess. When called to fight, the meek are very hard to overcome; they are just as steady in conflict as they are steadfast in patience. Besides, their way of fighting is of an extraordinary sort, for they sing to God but keep their swords in their hands. They can do two things at a time: if they do not wield the trowel and the sword, at least they sing and strike. In this Israel was not an example, but a type: we will not copy the chosen people in making literal war, but we will fulfil the emblem by carrying on spiritual war. We praise God and contend with our corruptions; we sing joyfully and war earnestly with evil of every kind. Our weapons are not carnal, but they are mighty, and wound with both back and edge. The word of God is all edge; whichever way we turn it, it strikes deadly blows at falsehood and wickedness. If we do not praise we shall grow sad in our conflict; and if we do not fight we shall become presumptuous in our song. The verse indicates a happy blending of the chorister and the crusader.

Note how each thing in the believer is emphatic: if he sings, it is high praises, and praises deep down in his throat, as the original hath it; and if he fights, it is with the sword, and the sword is two edged. The living God imparts vigorous life to those who trust him. They are not of a neutral tint: men both hear them and feel them. Quiet is their spirit, but in that very quietude abides the thunder of an irresistible force. When godly men give battle to the powers of evil each conflict is high praise unto the God of goodness. Even the tumult of our holy war is a part of the music of our lives.

Psalm 150

Ver. 1. In his sanctuary. wvdqb. Many have been the notions of the commentators as to the shade of meaning here; for the word differs from the form in Ps 20:2 vdwqm (from the sanctuary). The Vulgate adopts the plural rendering, in sanctis ejus, "in his holy places." Campensis renders it, ob insignem sanctitatem ipsius, "because of his excellent holiness." Some see under the word an allusion to the holy tabernacle of Deity, the flesh of Christ. Luther, in his German version, translates thus: in seinem Heiligthum, "in his holiness." The same harmony of comparative thought appears in the two clauses of this verse as in such passages as 1Ki 8:13,49 Isa 62:15.

The place of worship where God specially hears prayer and accepts praise, and the firmament where angels fly at his command, and veil their faces in adoration, are each a sanctuary. The sanctuary is manifestly here looked at as the temple of grace, the firmament as the temple of power. So the verse proclaims both grace and glory. &emdash;Martin Geier.

Ver. 1. Praise God in his sanctuary. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and the eastern versions, render it, "in his holy ones"; among his saints, in the assembly of them, where he is to be feared and praised: it may be translated, "in his Holy One", and be understood of Christ, as it is by Cocceius...Some render it, "for" or "because of his holiness." The perfection of holiness in him; in which he is glorious and fearful in the praises of, and which appears in all his works of providence and grace. &emdash;John Gill.

Conybeare and Howson, famous scholars of the Church of England, in commentary of Eph 5:19 say, "Make melody with the music of your hearts, to the Lord...let your songs be, not the drinking of heathen feasts, but psalms and hymns; and their accompaniment, not the music of the lyre, but the melody of the heart." Life and Epistles of St. Paul, Vol. 2, page 408.

J.W. McGarvey, well-known minister of the Church of Christ, "It is manifest that we cannot adopt the practice without abandoning the obvious and only ground on which a restoration of Primitive Christianity can be accomplished." What Shall We Do About the Organ?, page 4.

AQUINAS "Our church does not use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise God withal, that she may not seem to Judaize." (Thomas Aquinas, Bingham's Antiquities, Vol. 3, page 137)

AUGUSTINE "musical instruments were not used. The pipe, tabret, and harp here associate so intimately with the sensual heathen cults, as well as with the wild revelries and shameless performances of the degenerate theater and circus, it is easy to understand the prejudices against their use in the worship." (Augustine 354 A.D., describing the singing at Alexandria under Athanasius)

CHRYSOSTOM "David formerly sang songs, also today we sing hymns. He had a lyre with lifeless strings, the church has a lyre with living strings. Our tongues are the strings of the lyre with a different tone indeed but much more in accordance with piety. Here there is no need for the cithara, or for stretched strings, or for the plectrum, or for art, or for any instrument; but, if you like, you may yourself become a cithara, mortifying the members of the flesh and making a full harmony of mind and body. For when the flesh no longer lusts against the Spirit, but has submitted to its orders and has been led at length into the best and most admirable path, then will you create a spiritual melody." (Chrysostom, 347-407, Exposition of Psalms 41, (381-398 A.D.) Source Readings in Music History, ed. O. Strunk, W. W. Norton and Co.: New York, 1950, pg. 70.)

John Chrysostom Homilies Acts Chapter 7, Acts 7, Stephen Against Law, Temple and Ritual

John Chrystostom In Colossians Paul Not "singing" but "teaching and admonishing."

CLEMENT "Leave the pipe to the shepherd, the flute to the men who are in fear of gods and intent on their idol worshipping. Such  musical instruments must be excluded from our wingless feasts, for they arc more suited for beasts and for the class of men that is least capable of reason than for men. The Spirit, to purify the divine liturgy from any such unrestrained revelry chants: 'Praise Him with sound of trumpet," for, in fact, at the sound of the trumpet the dead will rise again; praise Him with harp,' for the tongue is a harp of the Lord; 'and with the lute. praise Him.' understanding the mouth as a lute moved by the Spirit as the lute is by the plectrum;  'praise Him with timbal and choir,' that is, the Church awaiting the resurrection of the body in the flesh which is its echo; 'praise Him with strings and organ,' calling our bodies an organ and its sinews strings, for front them the body derives its Coordinated movement, and when touched by the Spirit, gives forth human sounds; 'praise Him on high-sounding cymbals,' which mean the tongue of the mouth which with the movement of the lips, produces words. Then to all mankind He calls out, 'Let every spirit praise the Lord,' because He rules over every spirit He has made. In reality, man is an instrument arc for peace, but these other things, if anyone concerns himself overmuch with them, become instruments of conflict, for inflame the passions. The Etruscans, for example, use the trumpet for war; the Arcadians, the horn; the Sicels, the flute; the Cretans, the lyre; the Lacedemonians, the pipe; the Thracians, the bugle; the Egyptians, the drum; and the Arabs, the cymbal. But as for us, we make use of one instrument alone: only the Word of peace by whom we a homage to God, no longer with ancient harp or trumpet or drum or flute which those trained for war employ." (Clement of Alexandria, 190AD The instructor, Fathers of the church, p. 130)

CLEMENT "Moreover, King David the harpist, whom we mentioned just above, urged us toward the truth and away from idols. So far was he from singing the praises of daemons that they were put to flight by him with the true music; and when Saul was Possessed, David healed him merely by playing the harp. The Lord fashioned man a beautiful, breathing instrument, after His own imaged and assuredly He Himself is an all-harmonious instrument of God, melodious and holy, the wisdom that is above this world, the heavenly Word." Ö "He who sprang from David and yet was before him, the Word of God, scorned those lifeless instruments of lyre and cithara. By the power of the Holy Spirit He arranged in harmonious order this great world, yes, and the little world of man too, body and soul together; and on this many-voiced instruments of the universe He makes music to God, and sings to the human instrument. "For thou art my harp and my pipe and my temple"(Clement of Alexandria, 185AD, Readings p. 62)

ERASMUS "We have brought into our churches certain operatic and theatrical music; such a confused, disorderly chattering of some words as I hardly think was ever in any of the Grecian or Roman theatres. The church rings with the noise of trumpets, pipes, and dulcimers; and human voices strive to bear their part with them. Men run to church as to a theatre, to have their ears tickled. And for this end organ makers are hired with great salaries, and a company of boys, who waste all their time learning these whining tones."  (Erasmus, Commentary on I Cor. 14:19)

EUSEBIUS "Of old at the time those of the circumcision were worshipping with symbols and types it was not inappropriate to send up hymns to God with the psalterion and cithara and to do this on Sabbath days... We render our hymn with a living psalterion and a living cithara with spiritual songs. The unison voices of Christians would be more acceptable to God than any musical instrument. 

Accordingly in all the churches of God, united in soul and attitude, with one mind and in agreement of faith and piety we send up a unison melody in the words of the Psalms." (commentary on Psalms 91:2-3)

Modern melody means: "A series of single tones." That demands unison singing.

Justin Martyr a.d. 110-165 "Simply singing is not agreeable to children (Jews), but singing with lifeless instruments and with dancing and clapping is. On this account the use of this kind of instruments and of others agreeable to children is removed from the songs of the churches,  and there is left remaining simply singing." (Justin Martyr, 139 AD)

MARTYR The use of music was not received in the Christian churches, as it was among the Jew, in their infant state, but only the use of plain song." (Justin Martyr, 139 AD)

VARIOUS SCHOLARS

ALZOG "St. Ambrose and St. Gregory rendered great service to church music by the introduction of what are known as the Ambrosian and Gregorian chants.... Ecclesiastical chant, departing in some instances from the simple majesty of its original character, became more artistic, and, on this account, less heavenly and more profane; and the Fathers of the Church were not slow to censure this corruption of the old and honored church song. Finally, the organ, which seemed an earthly echo of the angelic choirs in heaven, added its full, rich, and inspiring notes to the beautiful simplicity of the Gregorian chant" (Alzog, Catholic Scholar, Church Historian of the University of Freiburg and champion of instrumental music in worship, was faithful to his scholarship when he wrote, Universal Church History, Vol. 1, pp. 696, 697).

AMERICAN "Pope Vitalian is related to have first introduced organs into some of the churches of Western Europe about 670 but the earliest trustworthy account is that of one sent as a present by the Greek emperor Constantine Copronymus to Pepin, king of Franks in 755" (American Encyclopedia, Volume 12, p. 688).

BARCLAY "If God is spirit a man's gifts to God music gifts of the spirit. Animal sacrifices and all manmade things become inadequate. The only gifts that befit the nature of God are the gifts of the spirit - love, loyalty, obedience, devotion" (W. Barclay, The Gospel of John, Vol. 1, p. 161).

BARNES "Psallo" is used, in the New Testament, only in Rom. 15:9 and 1 Cor. 14:15, where it is translated sing; in James 5:13, where it is rendered sing psalms, and in the place before us. The idea here is that of singing in the heart, or praising God from the heart" (Albert Barnes, a Presbyterian, Notes on The Testament, comment on Eph. 5:19).

"There was no deficiency in the amount of offerings. It was admitted that they complied in this respect with the requirements of the law; and that they offered an abundance of sacrifices, so numerous as to be called a multitude, a vast number. Hypocrites abound in outward religious observances in proportion to their neglect of the spiritual requirements of God's word." (Barnes, Isa., P. 66).

"Micaiah in irony, until adjured in the name of God, joined Ahab's court-priests, bidding him to go to Ramoth-Gilead, where he was to perish; or Elijah said to the priests of Baal, cry aloud, for he is a god; or our Lord, Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers; so Amos bids them do all they did, in their divided service to God, but tells them that to multiply all such service was to multiply transgression." (Barnes, Albert, Amos, p. 282)

"What they offered, was the best of its kind, fatted beasts. Hymns of praise full-toned chorus, instrumental music! What was wanting, Israel thought, to secure them the favor of God? Love and obedience. If ye love Me, keep My commandmdnts. And so those things, whereby they hoped to propitate God, were the object of His displeasure... And yet so secure were they that they did not offer was the sin or trespass offering." (Barnes, p. 299).

"Doubtless they sounded harmoniously in their own ears; but it reached no further. Their melody, like much Church-music, was for itself, and ended in itself. 'Let Christian chanters learn hence, not to set the whole devotion of Psalmody in a good voice, subtelty of modulation and rapid intonation, quavering like birds, to tickle the ears of the curious, take them off to themselves and away from prayer, lest they hear from God." (Barnes, Albert, Amos, p. 300)

Albert Barnes condemned their practices by defining what Amos described--

"That chant to the voice of the lyre, accompanying the voice of the lyre with the human voice, giving vocal expression and utterance to what the instrumental music spoke without words. The word, which Amos alone uses in this one place, describing probably 'a hurried flow of unmeaning, unconsidered words, in which the rhythm of words and music was everything, the sense, nothing; much like most glees. The E.M. 'quaver' has also some foundation in the root, but does not suit the idiom so well, which expresses that the act was something done to the voice of the lyre, accompanying the music, not altering the music itself." (Barnes, Albert, Amos, p. 303).

"An artificial, effeminate music which should relax the soul, frittering the melody, and displacing the power and majesty of divine harmony by tricks of art, and giddy, thoughtless, heartless, souless versifying would be meet company." (Barnes, Albert, Amos, p. 303).

Albert Barnes condemned their practices by defining what Amos described--

"The central meaning of the Arabic root is "anticipating another," then hurry, negligence, excess, inadvertence in act, and, in speech, exaggeration in praise, and 'got the first word,' 'spoke precipitately, the tongue outrunning the sense.' Walid... says that the corresponding Arabic participle is used to those 'who extemporize poetry, i. e. sing extempore without thought." (Barnes, Albert, Amos, p. 308).

David as authority

"they employed on their light, enervating unmeaning music, and if they were in earnest enough, justified their inventions by the example of David... The word can mean no other than devise. He introduced into the Temple-service the use of the stringed instruments, the kinnor, (the lyre) and the nebel (the harp) in addition to the cymbals. Whence these, in contrast to the trumpets, are called the instruments of David." (Barnes, Albert, Amos, p. 308

Improvizing and inventing

"It is commonly used with abstract nouns as, devices, evil, vanity; but always in the meaning of 'devising,' 'inventing.' It is used of those gifted by God 'to devise devices,' as it is explained, to work in gold and in silver and in brass and in setting of stones (Ex. 31:4, 5). It is used also of war-like machines." (Barnes, Albert, Amos, p. 308)

Albert Barnes defines Entertainment

"they introduced them to their feasts of revelry, and thus made them the occasion of forgetting God. Forgetfulness of God in, connection with music and dancing, is beautifully described by Job." (Barnes, Isaiah, p. 128)

"The Nabathaeans of Arabia Petrea always introduced music at their entertainments, and the custom seems to have been very general among the ancients. They are mentioned as having been essential among the Greeks, from the earliest times; and are pronounced by Homer to be requisite at a feast." (Barnes, Isaiah, p. 128).

"the music was designed to counteract the effects of inebriety; for as wine discomposes the body and the mind, so music has the power of soothing them, and of restoring their previous calmness and tranquility." (Barnes quoting Plutarch, Isaiah p. 129)

David's part: "So the Levites stood ready with David's instruments,

God's part: "And the priests with their trumpets. -- 2 Chr 29:26

"All had hitherto been preparatory. Now Hezekiah gave orders that 'the burnt offering--i.e. the daily morning sacrifice should be offered upon the Brazen Alter in front of the porch, thus restoring and reinstituting the regular Temple-service. A burst of music gave notice to the people of the moment when the old worship recommenced." (Barnes, p. 416).

"There was no deficiency in the amount of offerings. It was admitted that they complied in this respect with the requirements of the law; and that they offered an abundance of sacrifices, so numerous as to be called a multitude, a vast number. Hypocrites abound in outward religious observances in proportion to their neglect of the spiritual requirements of God's word." (Barnes, Isa., P. 66).

"What they offered, was the best of its kind, fatted beasts. Hymns of praise full-toned chorus, instrumental music! What was wanting, Israel thought, to secure them the favor of God? Love and obedience. If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And so those things, whereby they hoped to propitiate God, were the object of His displeasure... And yet so secure were they that they did not offer was the sin or trespass offering." (Barnes, p. 299).

Of legalistic-effeminate religion in Corinth that might be filtering into all of the churches it is said--

"This mountain was covered with temples and splendid houses; but was especially devoted to Venus, and was the place of her worship....and it was enjoined by law, that one thousand beautiful females should officiate as courtesans, or public prostitutes, before the altar of the goddess of love. In time of public calamity and imminent danger, these women attended at the sacrifices, and walked with the other citizens singing sacred hymns... Foreign merchants were attracted in this way to Corinth; and in a few days would be stripped of all their property...It became the most gay, dissipated, corrupt, and ultimately the most effeminate and feeble portion of Greece." (Barnes, Albert, Introduction to 1 Cor., p. iv).

BENEDICT "In my earliest intercourse among this people, congregational singing generally prevailed among them. . . . The Introduction Of The Organ Among The Baptist. This instrument, which from time immemorial has been associated with cathedral pomp and prelatical power, and has always been the peculiar favorite of great national churches, at length found its way into Baptist sanctuaries, and the first one ever employed by the denomination in this country, and probably in any other, might have been standing in the singing gallery of the Old Baptist meeting house in Pawtucket, about forty years ago, where I then officiated as pastor (1840) ... Staunch old Baptists in former times would as soon tolerated the Pope of Rome in their pulpits as an organ in their galleries, and yet the instrument has gradually found its way among them.... How far this modern organ fever will extend among our people, and whether it will on the whole work a RE- formation or DE- formation in their singing service, time will more fully develop." (Benedict, Baptist historian, Fifty Years Among Baptist, page 204-207)

BEZA "If the apostle justly prohibits the use of unknown tongues in the church, much less would he have tolerated these artificial musical performances which are addressed to the ear alone, and seldom strike the understanding even of the performers themselves." (Theodore Beza, scholar of Geneva, Girardeau's Instrumental Music, p. 166)

BINGHAM "Music in churches is as ancient as the apostles, but instrumental music not so . . . The use of the instrumental, indeed, is much ancienter, but not in church service. . . In the Western parts, the instrument, as not so much as known till the eighth century; for the first organ that was ever seen in France was one sent as a present to King Pepin by Constantinus Copronymus, the Greek emperor. . . . But, now, it was only, used in princes courts, and not yet brought into churches; nor was it ever received into the Greek churches, there being no mention of an organ in all their liturgies ancient or modern." (Joseph Bingham, Works, London Edition. Vol. 11, p. 482-484)

BINGHAM "Music in churches is as ancient as the apostles, but instrumental music not so." (Joseph Bingham, Church of England, Works, vol. 3, page 137)

BURNEY "After the most diligent inquire concerning the time when instrumental music had admission into the ecclesiastical service, there is reason to conclude, that, before the reign of Constantine, ;is the converts to the Christian religion were subject to frequent persecution and disturbance in their devotion, the rise of instruments could hardly have been allowed: and by all that can be collected from the writings of the primitive Christians, they seem never to have been admitted." (Charles Burney, A general history of Music, 1957, p. 426)

CALVIN "Musical instruments in celebrating the praises of God would be no more suitable than the burning of incense, the lighting of lamps, and the restoration of the other shadows of the law. The Papists therefore, have foolishly borrowed, this, as well as many other things, from the Jews. Men who are fond of outward pomp may delight in that noise; but the simplicity which God recommends to us by the apostles is far more pleasing to him. Paul allows us to bless God in the public assembly of the saints, only in a known tongue (I Cor. 14:16) What shall we then say of chanting, which fills the ears with nothing but an empty sound?" (John Calvin, Commentary on Psalms 33)

CATHOLIC "Although Josephus tells of the wonderful effects produced in the Temple by the use of instruments, the first Christians were of too spiritual a fibre to substitute lifeless instruments for or to use them to accompany the human voice. Clement of Alexandria severely condemns the use of instruments even at Christian banquets. St. Chrysostum sharply contrasts the customs of the Christians when they had full freedom with those of the Jews of the Old Testament." (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 10, pg. 648-652.)

CATHOLIC "For almost a thousand years Gregorian chant, without any instrumental or harmonic addition was the only music used in connection with the liturgy. The organ, in its primitive and rude form, was the first, and for a long time the sole, instrument used to accompany the chant. The church has never encouraged and at most only tolerated the use of instruments. She enjoins in the 'Caeremonials Episcoporum', - that permission for their use should first be obtained from the ordinary. She holds up as her ideal the unaccompanied chant, and polyphonic, a-capella style. The Sistene Chapel has not even an organ."" (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 10, pg. 657-688.)

CATHOLIC "We need not shrink from admitting that candles, like incense and lustral water, were commonly employed in pagan worship and the rites paid to the dead. But the Church, from a very early period, took them into her service, just as she adopted many other things indifferent in themselves, which seemed proper to enhance the splendor of religious ceremony. We must not forget that most of these adjuncts to worship, like music, lights, perfumes, ablutions, floral decorations, canopies, fans, screens, bells, vestments, etc. were not identified with any idolatrous cult in particular but they were common to almost all cults." (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. III, pg. 246.)

CHAMBERS "The organ is said to have been first introduced into church music by Pop Vitalian in 666. In 757, a great organ was sent as a present to Pepin by the Byzantine Emperor, Constantine, and placed in the church St. Corneille as Compiegne." (Chambers Encyclopedia, Vol 7, p. 112)

See Adam Clark on Amos and others

CLARKE "But were it even evident, which it is not, either from this or any other place in the sacred writings, that instruments of music were prescribed by divine authority under the law, could this be adduced with any semblance of reason, that they ought to be used in Christian worship? No; the whole spirit, soul, and genius of the Christian religion are against this; and those who know the Church of God best, and what constitutes its genuine spiritual state, know that these things have been introduced as a substitute for the life and power of religion; and that where they prevail most, there is least of the power of Christianity. Away with such portentous baubles from the worship of that infinite Spirit who requires His followers to worship Him in spirit and truth, for to no such worship are these instruments friendly." (Adam Clarke (Methodist), Clarke's Commentary, Methodist, Vol. II, pp. 690-691.)

CLARKE "I am an old man, and I here declare that I never knew them to be productive of any good in the worship of God, and have reason to believe that they are productive of much evil. Music as a science I esteem and admire, but instrumental music in the house of God I abominate and abhor. This is the abuse of music, and I here register my protest against all such corruption of the worship of the author of Christianity. The late and venerable and most eminent divine, the Rev. John Wesley, who was a lover of music, and an elegant poet, when asked his opinion of instruments of music being introduced into the chapels of the Methodists, said in his terse and powerful manner, 'I have no objections to instruments of music in our chapels, provided they are neither heard nor seen.' I say the same." (Adam Clark, Methodist)

COLEMAN "The tendency of this (instrumental music) was to secularize the music of the church, and to encourage singing by a choir. Such musical accompaniments were gradually introduced; but they can hardly be assigned to a period earlier than the fifth and sixth centuries. Organs were unknown in church until the eighth or ninth centuries. Previous to this, they had their place in the theater, rather than in the church. they were never regarded with favor in the Eastern church, and were vehemently opposed in many places in the West." (Lyman Coleman, a Presbyterian, Primitive Church, p. 376-377)

CONYBEARE "Throughout the whole passage there is a contrast implied between the Heathen and the Christian practiceÖ When you meet, let your enjoyment consist not in fullness of wine, but fullness of the spirit; let your songs be, not the drinking songs of heathen feasts, but psalms and hymns; and their accompaniment, not the music of the lyre, but the melody of the heart; while you sing them to the praise, not of Bacchus or Venus, but of the Lord Jesus Christ" (Conybeare and Howson, Life and Times of the Apostle Paul, comment on Eph. 5:19).

DICKINSON "While the Greek and Roman songs were metrical,

the Christian psalms were anitphons, prayers, responses, etc., were unmetrical;

and while the pagan melodies were always sung to an instrumental accompaniment, the church chant was exclusively vocal" (Edward Dickinson, History of Music, p. 54)

DICKINSON "In view of the controversies over the use of instrumental music in worship, which have been so violent in the British and American Protestant churches, it is an interesting question whether instruments were employed by the primitive Christians. We know that instruments performed an important function in the Hebrew temple service and in the ceremonies of the Greeks. At this point, however, a break was made with all previous practice, and although the lyre and flute were sometimes employed by the Greek converts, as a general rule the use of instruments in worship was condemned." Ö "Many of the fathers, speaking of religious songs, made no mention of instruments; others, like Clement of Alexandria and St. Chrysostom, refer to them only to denounce them. Clement says, "Only one instrument do we use, viz.  he cord of peace wherewith we honor God, no longer the old psaltery, trumpet, drum, and flute."

Chrysostom exclaims: "David formerly sang in psalms, also we sing today with him; he had a lyre with lifeless strings, the church has a lyre with living strings. Our tongues are the strongs of the lyre, with a different tone, indeed, but with a more accordant piety."

St. Ambrose expresses his scorn for those who would play the lyre and psaltery instead of singing hymns and psalms; and St. Augustine adjures believers not to turn their hearts to theatrical instruments.

The religious guides of the early Christian felt that there would be an incongruity, and even profanity, in the use of the sensuous nerve-exciting effects of instrumental sound in their mystical, spiritual worship.

Their high religious and moral enthusiasm needed no aid from external strings; the pure vocal utterance as the more proper expression of their faith." (Edward Dickinson, Music in the History of the Western Church, p. 54, 55)

FESSENDEN "This species. which is the most natural, is to be considered to have existed before any other... Instrumental music is also of very ancient date, its invention being ascribed to Tubal, the sixth descendant from Cain. The instrumental music was not practiced by the primitive Christians, but was an aid to devotion of later times, is evident from church history. (Fessenden's Encyclopedia of Art and Music, p. 852)

FINNEY "The early Christians refused to have anything to do with the instrumental music which they might have inherited from the ancient world." (Theodore Finney, A History of Music, 1947, p. 43)

FISHER "Church music, which at the outset consisted mainly of the singing of psalms, flourished especially in Syria and at Alexandria. The music was very simple in its character. There was some sort of alternate singing in the worship of Christians, as is described by Pliny. The introduction of antiphonal singing at Antioch is ascribed by tradition to Ignatius ... The primitive church music was choral and congregational." (George Park Fisher, Yale Professor, History of the Christian Church, p. 65, 121)

Andrew Fuller: Works of Andrew Fuller, Vol. 111 Page 520. "The New Testament speaks of praising God by singing, but further it says not. Paul speaks more than once in his Epistles to the Corinthians of instruments of music, but as not being used in religion. He described them as being necessary to war, but not to worship; and speaks of them in a language of degradation, as "things without life, giving sound" The histories of the church during the first three centuries affords many instances of the primitive Christians engaging in singing; but no mention, that I recollect, is made of instruments. Even in the times of Constantine, when everything grand and magnificent was introduced into Christian worship, I find no mention made of instrumental music. If my memory dies not deceive me, it originated in the dark ages of popery, where almost every other superstitions are more prevalent, and where the last regard is paid to primitive simplicity? (Andrew Fuller, Baptist, Complete works of Andre Fuller, Vol 3, P. 520, 1843)

GARRISON "There is no command in the New Testament, Greek or English, commanding the use of the instrument. Such a command would be entirely out of harmony with the New Testament." (J.H. Garrison, Christian Church)

GIRADEAU "The church, although lapsing more and more into deflection from the truth and into a corrupting of apostolic practice, had not instrumental music for 1200 years (that is, it was not in general use before this time); The Calvinistic Reform Church ejected it from its service as an element of popery, even the church of England having come very nigh its extrusion from her worship. It is heresy in the sphere of worship." (John Giradeau, Presbyterian professor in Columbia Theological Seminary, Instrumental Music, p. 179)

Green "Amos, we are told, is the sharpest critic of musical instruments in pre-Christian times. through him God expresses a preference for justice and honesty over bloody sacrifice and its attendant music of song and instruments. This sentiment, we are told, was revolutionary, making part of a similar change felt over the civilized world... And overall view of the evidence, McKinnon thinks, reveals a relationship between the three elements: a higher conception of God, a rejection of sacrifice, and a rejection of musical instruments." (Green, William M, Pepperdine College, in Restoration Quarterly, v. 19, 1966).

born c. 335, , Caesarea, in Cappadocia, Asia Minor [now Kayseri, Turkey] died c. 394 , ; feast day March 9

Gregory of Nyssa: Making of Man as a Musical Instrument

HASTING If instrumental music was not part of early Christian worship, when did it become acceptable? Several reference works will help us see the progression of this practice among churches: "Pope Vitalian introduced an organ in the church in the seventh century to aid the singing but it was opposed and was removed." (James Hasting, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics.)

HUMPHREYS "One of the features which distinguishes the Christian religion from almost all others is its quietness; it aims to  repress the outward signs of inward feeling. Savage instinct, and the religion of Greece also, had employed the rhythmic dance and all kinds of gesticulatory notions to express the inner feelings . . . The early Chrisitians discouraged all outward signs of excitement, and from the very beginning, in the music they used, reproduced the spirit of their religion-an inward quietude. All the music employed in their early services was vocal." (Frank Landon Humphreys, Evolution of Church Music, p. 42)

Killen: "It is not, therefore, strange that instrumental music was not heard in their congregational services . . . In the early church the whole congregation joined in the singing, but instrumental music did not accompany the praise" (W. D. Killen, The Ancient Church, pp. 193, 423).

KNOX "a kist (chest) of whistles." (John Knox, Presbyterian, in reference to the organ)

KURTZ "At first the church music was simple, artless, recitative. But rivalry of heretics forced the orthodox church to pay greater attention to the requirements of art. Chrysostom had to declaim against the secularization of church music. More lasting was the opposition to the introduction of instrumental music." (John Kurtz, Lutheran Scholar, Church History, Vol 1, p. 376)

LANG "All our sources deal amply with vocal music of the church, but they are chary with mention of any other manifestations of musical art . . . The development of Western music was decisively influenced by the exclusion of musical instruments from the early Christian Church." (Paul Henry Lang, Music in Western Civilization, p. 53-54)

LEICHTENTRITT "The Biblical precept to "sing" the psalms, not merely recite, them, was obeyed literally, as is testified by many statements in the writings of the saints. Pope Leo I, who lived about 450, expressly related that

"the Psalms of David are piously sung everywhere in the Church."

Only singing however, and no playing of instruments, was permitted in the early Christian Church. 

In this respect the Jewish tradition was not continued. In the earlier Jewish temple service many instruments mentioned in-the Bible had been used.

But instrumental music had been thoroughly discredited in the meantime by the lascivious Greek and Roman virtuoso music of the later ages, and it appeared unfit for the divine service. The aulos (speaking into the air) was held in especial abhorrence, whereas some indulgence was granted to the lyre and cithara,

permitted by some saints at least for private worship, though not in church services. It is interesting to note that

the later Jewish temple service has conformed to the early Christian practice and, contrary to Biblical tradition, has banned all instruments.

Orthodox Jewish synagogues now object even to the use of the organ. (Hugo Leichtentritt, Music, History and Ideas, Howard University Press: Cambridge, 1958, p 34)

LONDON (London Encyclopedia says the organ is said to have been first introduced into church music in about 658AD.)

LORENZ "Yet there was little temptation to undue elaboration of hymnody or music. The very spirituality of the new faith made ritual or liturgy superfluous and music almost unnecessary. Singing (there was no instrumental accompaniment) was little more than a means of expressing in a practicable, social way, the common faith and experience. . . . The music was purely vocal. There was no instrumental accompaniment of any kind. . . . It fell under the ban of the Christian church, as did all other instruments, because of its pagan association" (E. S. Lorenz, Church Music, pp. 217, 250, 404)

LUTHER "The organ in the worship Is the insignia of Baal" The Roman Catholic borrowed it from

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature by McClintock and Strong (Vol. 6, pp. 757-759), we offer the following basic introduction to the worship of the early Christians.

"The McClintock and Strong Cyclopedia not only speaks, in general terms, of 'heresy largely pervading the church and making rapid headway' at that very time, but it specifies 'the appointment of singers as a distinct class of officers in the church' with 'the consequent introduction of profane music'; and why should not instrumental music have been introduced if the carnal wishes of the people called for it" (Kurfees, Instrumental Music in Worship. p. 123) 

It was the practice of the early Christians to praise God with congregational singing. Pliny in his letter to Trajan (103-104 A.D.) observed that Christians would "meet before day to offer praise to Christ). Tertullian (160-220 A.D.) and Eusebius (260-340 A.D.) described the praise worship of the church in their day thusly, "Arising at the dawn of the morning, they sang hymns to Christ as God" (Eccle. Hist. 3:32). Justin Martyr (100-165 A.D.) wrote, "We manifest our gratitude to him by worshiping him in spiritual songs and hymns, praising him for our birth, for our health, for the vicissitudes of the seasons, and for the hope of immortality " (Apology, 5:28). "Their psalmody was the joint act of the whole assembly in unison," according to Hilary (A.D. 355). Chrysostom (347-407 A.D.) wrote, "It was the ancient custom, as it is still with us, for all to come together, and unitedly to join in singing....all join in one song..." (Hom. 9: Vol. 12, p. 349). McClintock and Strong then conclude, "Such was the character of the psalmody of the early church..."

Under a section appropriately headed "Innovations" the authors note, "The appointment of singers as a distinct class of officers in the Church for this part of religious worship, and the consequent introduction of profane music into the church, marks another alteration in the psalmody of the church. These innovations were first made in the 4th century; and though the people continued for a century or more to enjoy their ancient privilege of all singing together, it is conceivable that it gradually was forced to die, as a promiscuous assembly could not well unite in theatrical music which required in its performers a degree of skill altogether superior to that which all the members of a congregation could be expected to possess. An artificial theatrical style of music, having no affinity with the worship of God, soon began to take the place of those solemn airs which before had inspired the devotions of his people. The music of the theater was transferred to the church, which accordingly became the scene of theatrical pomp and display rather than the house of prayer and of praise, to inspire by its appropriate and solemn rites the spiritual worship of God." John Waddey comments.

MCCLINTOCK "The general introduction of instrumental music can certainly not be assigned to a date earlier than the 5th and 6th centuries; yea, even Gregory the Great, who towards the end of the 6th century added greatly to the existing church music, absolutely prohibited the use of instruments. Several centuries later the introduction of the organ in sacred service gave the place to instruments as accompaniments for Christian song, and from that time to this they have been freely used with few exceptions. The first organ is believed to have been used in the Church service in the 13th century. Organs were however, in use before this in the theater. They were never regarded with favor in the Eastern Church, and were vehemently opposed in some of the Western churches." (McClintock and Strong, Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature, Vol 6, p. 759)

In section III, under Use of Instruments in the Church, McClintock & Strong continue, "The Greeks as well as the Jews were wont to use instruments as accompaniments in their sacred songs. The converts to Christianity accordingly must have been familiar with this mode of singing; yet it is generally believed that the primitive Christians failed to adopt the use of instrumental music in their religious worship." "...the general introduction of instrumental music can certainly not be assigned to a date earlier than the 5th or 6th centuries; yea, even Gregory the Great, who towards the end of the 6th century added greatly to the existing Church music, absolutely prohibited the use of instruments. Several centuries later the introduction of the organ in sacred services gave a place to instruments as accompaniments for Christian songs, and from that time to this they have been freely used with few exceptions. The first organ is believed to have been used in Church service in the 13th century.

MCCLINTOCK Sir John Hawkins, following the Romanish writers in his erudite work on the history of music, made Pope Vitalian, in A.D. 660, the first who introduced organs into the churches. But students of ecclesiastical archaeology are generally agreed that instrumental music was not used in churches till a much later date; for Thomas Aquinas [Catholic Scholar in 1250 A.D.] has these remarkable words, 'Our church does not use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise God withal, that she may seem not to Judaize.'" (McClintock and Strong, Encyclopedia of Biblical Literature, Vol. 6, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1894, pg. 762.)

MCCLINTOCK "The Greek word 'psallo' is applied among the Greeks of modern times exclusively to sacred music, which in the Eastern Church has never been any other than vocal, instrumental music being unknown in that church, as it was in the primitive church." (McClintock & Strong, Vol. 8, p. 739).

McClintock and Strong Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Vol. 6, page 759, "The Greeks, as well as the Jews, were wont to use instruments as accompaniments in their sacred songs. The converts to Christianity accordingly must have been familiar with this mode of singing; yet it is generally believed that the primitive Christians failed to adopt the use of instrumental music in their religious worship."

McClintock and Strong Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Vol. 6, page 759, "The Greeks, as well as the Jews, were wont to use instruments as accompaniments in their sacred songs. The converts to Christianity accordingly must have been familiar with this mode of singing; yet it is generally believed that the primitive Christians failed to adopt the use of instrumental music in their religious worship."

NAUMAN "There can be no doubt that originally the music of the divine service was every where entirely of a vocal nature." (Emil Nauman, The History of Music. Vol. I, p. 177)

NEITHENINGTON (Exclusion of instrumental music from the church of England passed by only one vote in 1562, according to  Neithenington's: History Of The Westminster Assembly Of Divines, p. 20)

NEWMAN "In 1699 the Baptists received an invitation from Thomas Clayton, rector of Christ Church, to unite with the Church of England. They replied in a dignified manner, declining to do so unless he could prove, "that the Church of Christ under the New Testament may consist or . . . a mixed multitude and their seed, even all the members of a nation, . . . whether they are godly or ungodly," that "lords, archbishops, etc., . . . are of divine institution and appointment," and that their vestments, liturgical services, use of mechanical instruments, infant baptism, sprinkling, "signing with the cross in baptism," etc., are warranted by Scripture." Ö "It may be interesting to note that this church (First Baptist Church of Newport, organized in 1644 cf. p. 88) was one of the first to introduce instrumental music. The instrument was a bass viol and caused considerable commotion. This occurred early in the nineteenth century.(Albert Henry Newman, A History of the Baptist Churches in the United States, American Baptist Publication Society 1915, p. 207, 255)

NICETA "It is time to turn to the New Testament to confirm what is said in the Old, and, particularly, to point out that the office of psalmody is not to be considered abolished merely because many other observances of the Old Law have fallen into disuse. Only the corporal institutions have been rejected, like circumcision, the Sabbath, sacrifices, discrimination of foods. So, too, the trumpets, harps, cymbals, and timbrels. For the sound of these we now have a better substitute in the music from the mouths of men. The daily ablutions, the new-moon observances, the careful inspection of leprosy are completely past and gone, along with whatever else was necessary only for a time - as it were, for children." (Niceta, a bishop of Remesian or Yugoslavia)

	EPHESIANS 5:17-20KJV	COLOSSIANS 3:16-17
	Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Eph 5:17 And be not drunk with wine, Allen: For Plato as for the Christians, there was another reason for disallowing instruments -- they stir up the emotions in excitement Niceta is keen to claim that the songs of the Church put out, rather than excite, the passions' Basil contrasts psalms, fasting and prayer' with auloi, dancing and drunkenness  ĭn-ēbrĭo Saturate, full of talk kat-auleō , A. charm by flute-playing, methuōn kai katauloumenos drinking wine to the strains of the flute katauloumenon subdued by a flute accompaniment, metaph., to be piped down, ridiculed, “gelōmenoi kai -oumenoi” mētrōa melē” Metroos the worship of Cybele, b. Mētrōa, Mother goddess: music played in her honour, Mele Melos3. melody of an instrument, “phormigx d' [mark of Apollo]  au phtheggoith' hieron m. ēde kai aulos” wherein is excess;  (Greek: vanity) The results of being drunk on wine luxŭrĭa Of style: “in qua (oratione), ut luxŭrĭo , wanton, revel, sport, skip, bound, frisk: Deliciis that which allures, flatters the senses], delight, pleasure, charm, allurement; deliciousness, luxuriousness, voluptuousness, curiosities of art; , to make sport paizō dance  4. play on a musical instrument, h.Ap.206: c. acc., “Pan ho kalamophthogga paizōn” Ar.Ra.230; dance and sing, Pi. O.1.16.  saltātĭo, David's naked dance. Paul always defines away all of the hypocritic arts. BUT, be filled with the Spirit; Eph 5:18       John 6:63b the words that I speak unto you,        they are spirit, and they are life.	Colossians 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Colossians 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:  Phĭlŏsŏphĭa,  doctores săpĭentĭa sermons, interpret, sects Cic.Off.2.2.5 Wisdom, = sophia Sophia , A. cleverness or skill in handicraft and art, in music and singing, poetry, divination interprĕtor , ātus (in tmesi interpres, to explain, expound, interpret, give expression to, translate; to understand, conclude, infer. A. To decide, determine 12, 29: “haec ex Graeco carmine interpretata recitavit,” Liv. 23, 11, 4; 45, 29, 3. Carmen, I. In gen., a tune, song, air, lay, strain, note, sound, both vocal and instrumental“barbaricum,” id. M. 11, 163.—With allusion to playing on the cithara Rom 8[13] For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Pathos emotion, to create passion, drama MY experiences Sophia cleverness or skill in handicraft and art, in music and singing, tekhnē kai s, poetry, in divination pleonexia assumption, one's own advantage. Financial gain Colossians 3:10 And have put on the new man,     which is renewed in knowledge     after the image of him that created him: Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom;
	Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns       and spiritual songs, [Scripture]	teaching and admonishing one another       in psalms and hymns       and spiritual songs, [Scripture]
	singing and making melody       in your heart to the Lord;	singing with grace       in your hearts to the Lord.
	always giving thanks      to God the Father for everything,      in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.	And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all     In the name of the Lord Jesus,     giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Niceta Remesian LITURGICAL SINGING De utilitate hymnorum (2) I am aware that there are some among us, and some in the Eastern provinces, too, who hold that there is something superfluous, not to say, suspicious, about the singing of hymns and psalms during divine service. Their idea is that it is unrestrained to utter with the tongue what it is enough to say with the heart. They base their opinion on a text from the Apostle's Epistle to the Ephesians: 'Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord.' There, they say, you have the Apostle stating that we should sing in our hearts, and not make a noise with musical notes--like people on the stage. For God, 'who searches the heart,' it is enough, they insist, if our song be silent and in the heart. I take a different view. There is nothing wrong, of course, with singing in the heart. In fact, it is always good to meditate with the heart on the things of God. But I also think that there is something praiseworthy when people glorify God with the sound of their. voices. I shall prove this by adducing many texts of Holy Scripture, but, first, I must appeal to the very text of the Apostle to refute, by what it precribes, the folly of all those who find there a condemnation of vocal singing. It is true, of course, that the Apostle said: 'Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms.' 7 But it is no less true that he meant us to open our mouths and move our tongues and loosen our lips--for the simple reason that no one can speak without these organs. Speaking and silence are as different as hot and cold. Notice, the Apostle says: 'speaking in psalms and hymns and canticles.' Surely, he would not have mentioned canticles if he wanted to imply that the person singing was completely silent. The simple fact is that no one can both sing and keep complete silence at the same (8) Praise issuing from a pure conscience delights the Lord, and so the same psalmist exhorts us: 'Praise ye the Lord because a psalm is good; to our God be joyful and comely praise.' 16 With this in mind, aware of how pleasing to God is this ministry, the psalmist again declares: 'Seven times a day I have given praise to thee.' 17 To this he adds a further promise: 'And my tongue shall meditate thy justice, thy praise all the day long.' 18 Without doubt, he had experience of the good to be derived from this work, for he reminds us: 'Praising I will call upon the Lord, and I shall be saved from my enemies.' 19 It was with such a shield to protect him that as a boy he destroyed the great power of the giant Goliath and, in many other instances, came out victorious over the invaders. (9) I must not bore you, beloved, with more details of the history of the psalms. It is time to turn to the New Testament to confirm what is said in the Old, and, particularly, to point out that the office of psalmody is not to be considered abolished merely because many other observances of the Old Law have fallen into desuetude. 20 Only the corporal institutions have been rejected, like circumcision, the sabbath, sacrifices, discrimination in foods. So, too, the trumpets, harps, cymbals and timbrels. For the sound of these we now have a better substitute in the music from the mouths of men. The daily ablutions, the new-moon observances, the careful inspection of leprosy are completely past and gone, along with whatever else was necessary only for a time--as it were, for children. Of course, what was spiritual in the Old Testament, for example, faith, piety, prayer, fasting, patience, chastity, psalm-singing--all this has been increased in the New Testament rather than diminished. Questia.com

PAHLEN "These chants - and the word chant (and not music) is used advisedly, for many centuries were to pass before instruments accompanied the sung melodies." (Kurt Pahlen, Music of the World, p. 27)

PAPADOPOULOS "The execution of Byzantine church music by instruments, or even the accompaniment of sacred chanting by instruments, was ruled out by the Eastern Fathers as being incompatible with the pure, solemn, spiritual character of the religion of Christ. The Fathers of the church, in accordance with the example of psalmodizing of our Savior and the holy Apostles, established that only vocal music be used in the churches and severely forbade instrumental music as being secular and hedonic, and in general as evoking pleasure without spiritual value" (G. I. Papadopoulos, A Historical Survey of Byzantine Ecclesiastical Music (in Greek), Athens, 1904, pp. 10, II).

POSEY "For years the Baptists fought the introduction of instrumental music into the churches...Installation of the organ brought serious difficulties in many churches" (Wm. B. Posey, Baptist, The Baptist Church In The Lower Mississippi Valley).

PRESBYTERIAN "Question 6. Is there any authority for instrumental music in the worship of God under the present dispensation? Answer. Not the least, only the singing of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs was appointed by the apostles;

not a syllable is said in the New Testament in favor of instrumental music nor was it ever introduced into the Church until after the eighth century, after the Catholics had corrupted the simplicity of the gospel by their carnal inventions. It was not allowed in the Synagogues, the parish churches of the Jews, but was confined to the Temple service and was abolished with the rites of that dispensation." (Questions on the Confession of Faith and Form of Government of The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, published by the Presbyterian Board of Publications, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1842, pg. 55.)

PRATT "The, First Christian Songs. - Singing in public and private worship was a matter of course for the early Christians. For Jewish converts this was a continuance of synagogue customs, but since the Church grew mostly among non-Jews, the technical forms employed were more Greek than Hebrew. The use of instruments was long resisted, because of their association with pagan sensuality." (Waldo Selden Pratt, The History of Music, 1935, p. 64)

RIDDLE "In the first ages of the Christian church the psalms of David were always chanted or sung. In the Apostolic Constitutions (Book II, P. 57), we find it laid down an a rule that one of those officiating ministers should chant or sing psalms or David, and that the people should join by repeating the ends of the verses. The instruments of music were introduced into the Christians church in the ninth century. There were unknown alike to the early church and to all ancients. The large wind organ was known, however, long before it was introduced into the churches of the west. The first organ used in worship was one which was received by Charlemagne in France as a present from the Emperor Constantine.' (J.E. Riddle, Christian Antiquities, p. 384)

RITTER "We have no real knowledge of the exact character of the music which formed a part of the religious devotion of the first Christian congregations. It was, however purely vocal." (Frederic Louis Ritter, History of Music from the Christian Era to the Present Time, p. 28)

ROBERTSON "The word (psalleto) originally meant to play on a stringed instrument (Sir. 9:4), but it comes to be used also for singing with the voice and heart (Eph. 5:19; 1 Cor. 14:15), making melody with the heart also to the Lord" (A. T. Robertson, Baptist Greek scholar, Baptist Studies in the Nestle James, comment on James 5:13)

SCHAFF "The use of organs in churches is ascribed to Pope Vitalian (657-672). Constantine Copronymos sent an organ with other presents to King Pepin of France in 767. Charlemagne received one as a present from the Caliph Haroun al Rashid, and had it put up in the cathedral of Aixia-Chapelle... The attitude of the churches toward the organ varies. It shared, to some extent, the fate of images, except that it never was an object of worship... The Greek church disapproved the use of organs. The Latin church introduced it pretty generally, but not without the protest of eminent men, so that even in the Council of Trent a motion was made, though not carried, to prohibit the organ at least in the mass." (Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. 4, pg. 439.)

SCHAFF "The first organ certainly known to exist and be used in a church was put in the cathedral at Aix-la-chapel by the German emperor, Charlemange, who came to the throne in 768AD. It met with great opposition among the Romanists, especially among the monks, and that it made its was but slowly into common use. So great was the opposition even as late as the 16th century that it would have been abolished by the council of Trent but for the influence of the Emperor FerdinandÖ. In the Greek church the organ never came into use... The Reform church discarded it; and though the church of Basel very early introduced it, it was in other places admitted only sparingly and after long hesitation." (Shaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Vol 2, p. 1702)

SCHAFF "It is questionable whether, as used in the New Testament, 'psallo' means more than to sing . . . The absence of instrumental music from the church for some centuries after the apostles and the sentiment regarding it which pervades the writing, the fathers are unaccountable, if in the apostolic church such music was used" (Schaff-Herzog, Vol. 3, p. 961).

SCHAFF "In the Greek church the organ never came into use. But after the 8th century it became more and more common in the Latin church; not without opposition from the side of the monks." (Schaff-Herzogg Encyclopedia, Vol 10, p. 657-658)

Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. 2, page 1702, states: "In the Greek church the organ never came into use, but after the eighth century it became common in the Latin church, not, however, without opposition from the side of the Monks...the reformed church discarded it; and though the church of Basil very early introduced it, it was in other places admitted only sparingly and after long hesitation."

SCHAFF (new) "The custom of organ accompaniment did not become general among Protestants until the eighteenth century." (The New Shaff-Herzogg Encyclopedia, 1953, Vol 10, p. 257)

SPURGEON "Praise the Lord with the harp. Israel was at school, and used childish things to help her to learn; but in these days when Jesus gives us spiritual food, one can make melody without strings and pipes. We do not need them. They would hinder rather than help our praise. Sing unto him. This is the sweetest and best music. No instrument like the human voice." (Commentary on Psalms 42:4) "David appears to have had a peculiarly tender remembrance of the singing of the pilgrims, and assuredly it is the most delightful part of worship and that which comes nearest to the adoration of heaven.

What a degradation to supplant the intelligent song of the whole congregation by the theatrical prettiness of a quartet, bellows, and pipes!

We might as well pray by machinery as praise by it."

(Spurgeon preached to 20,000 people every Sunday for 20 years in the Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle and never were mechanical instruments of music used in his services. When asked why, he quoted 1st Corinthians 14:15. "I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also." He then declared: "I would as soon pray to God with machinery as to sing to God with machinery." (Charles H. Spurgeon, Baptist)

SPURGEON "David appears to have had a peculiarly tender remembrance of the singing of the pilgrims, and assuredly it is the most delightful part of worship and that which comes nearest to the adoration of heaven. What a degradation to supplant the intelligent song of the whole congregation by the theatrical prettiness of a quartet, bellows, and pipes. We might as well pray by machinery as praise by it...'Praise the Lord with harp.' Israel was at school, and used childish things to help her to learn; but in these days when Jesus gives us spiritual food, one can make melody without strings and pipes... We do not need them. That would hinder rather than help our praise. Sing unto him. This is the sweetest and best music. No instrument is like the human voice." (Charles Spurgeon (Baptist), Commentary on Psalm 42.)

TAPPER "Both sexes joined in singing, but instruments of every kind were prohibited for along time" (Thomas Tapper, Essentials of Music History, p. 34)

THEODORET "107. Question: If songs were invented by unbelievers to seduce men, but were allowed to those under the law on account of their childish state, why do those who have received the perfect teaching of grace in their churches still use songs, just like the children under the law? Answer: It is not simple singing that belongs to the childish state, but singing with lifeless instruments, with dancing, and with clappers. Hence the use of such instruments and the others that belong to the childish state is excluded from the singing in the churches, and simple singing is left." (Theodoret, a bishop of Cyrhus in Syria, Questions and Answers for the Orthodox)

WELIESZ "So far as we can tell the music of the early Church was almost entirely vocal, Christian usage following in this particular the practice of the Synagogue, in part for the same reasons." (New Oxford History of Music, Vol 1, Egon Weliesz, 1957, p. 30)

WESLEY 'I have no objection to instruments of music in our worship, provided they are neither seen nor heard." (John Wesley, founder of Methodism, quoted in Adam Clarke's Commentary, Vol. 4, p. 685)

RESTORATION LEADERS:

CAMPBELL "[Instrumental music in worship] was well adapted to churches founded on the Jewish pattern of things and practicing infant sprinkling. That all persons singing who have no spiritual discernment, taste or relish for spiritual meditation, consolations and sympathies of renewed hearts should call for such an aid is but natural. So to those who have no real devotion and spirituality in them, and whose animal nature flags under the opposition or the oppression of church service I think that instrumental music would... be an essential prerequisite to fire up their souls to even animal devotion. But I presume, that to all spiritually-minded Christians, such aid would be as a cow bell in a concert." (Alexander Campbell, recorded in Robert Richardson's biography, Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, Vol. 2., p366)

FRANKLIN "If any one had told us, 40 years ago, that we would live to see the day where those professing to be Christians who claim the Holy Scriptures as their only rule of faith and practice, those under the command, and who profess to appreciate the meaning of the command to 'observe whatsoever I have commanded you' would bring instruments of music into a worshipping assembly and use it there in worship, we should have repelled the idea as an idle dream. But this only shows how little we knew of what men would do; or how little we saw of the power of the adversary to subvert the purest principles, to deceive the hearts of the simple, to undermine the very foundation of all piety, and turn the very worship of God itself into an attraction for the people of the world and entertainment, or amusement." (Benjamin Franklin, Gospel Preacher, Vol 2, p. 411, 419-429)

FRANKLIN "Instrumental music is permissible for a church under the following conditions: 1. When a church never had or has lost the Spirit of Christ. 2. If a church has a preacher who never had or has lost the Spirit of Christ, who has become a dry, prosing and lifeless preacher. 3. If a church only intends being a fashionable society, a mere place of amusements and secular entertainment and abandoning the idea of religion and worship. 4. If a church has within it a large number of dishonest and corrupt men. 5. If a church has given up all idea of trying to convert the world." (Ben Franklin, editor of American Christian Review, 1860.)

LIPSCOMB "Neither he [Paul] nor any other apostle, nor the Lord Jesus, nor any of the disciples for five hundred years, used instruments. This too, in the face of the fact that the Jews had used instruments in the days of their prosperity and that the Greeks and heathen nations all used them in their worship. They were dropped out with such emphasis that they were not taken up till the middle of the Dark Ages, and came in as part of the order of the Roman Catholic Church. It seems there cannot be doubt but that the use of instrumental music in connection with the worship of God, whether used as a part of the worship or as an attraction accompaniment, is unauthorized by God and violates the oft-repeated prohibition to add nothing to, take nothing from, the commandments of the Lord. It destroys the difference between the clean and the unclean, the holy and unholy, counts the blood of the Son of God unclean, and tramples under foot the authority of the Son of God. They have not been authorized by God or sanctified with the blood of his Son." (David Lipscomb, Queries and Answers by David Lipscomb p. 226-227, and Gospel Advocate, 1899, p. 376-377)

MCGARVEY "And if any man who is a preacher believes that the apostle teaches the use of instrumental music in the church by enjoining the singing of psalms, he is one of those smatters in Greek who can believe anything that he wishes to believe. When the wish is father to the thought, correct exegesis is like water on a duck's back" (J. W. McGarvey, Biblical Criticism, p. 116).

MCGARVEY "We cannot, therefore, by any possibility, know that a certain element of worship is acceptable to God in the Christian dispensation, when the Scriptures which speak of that dispensation are silent in reference to it. To introduce any such element is unscriptural and presumptuous. It is will worship, if any such thing as will worship can exist. On this ground we condemn the burning of incense, the lighting of candles, the wearing of priestly robes, and the reading of printed prayers. On the same ground we condemn instrumental music." (J.W. McGarvey, The Millennial Harbinger, 1864, pp. 511-513.)

MCGARVEY "It is manifest that we cannot adopt the practice with out abandoning the obvious and only ground On Which a restoration of Primitive Christianity can be accomplished, or on which the plea for it can be maintained. Such is my profound conviction, and consequently, the question with me is not one concerning the choice or rejection of an expedient, but the maintenance or abandonment of a fundamental and necessary principle." (J. W. McGarvey, Apostolic Timer 1881, and What Shall We Do About the Organ? p. 4, 10)

MILLIGAN "The tendency of instrumental music is, t in , to divert the minds of many from the sentiment of the song to the mere sound of the organ, and in this way it often serves to promote formalism in Churches" (Robert Milligan, Scheme of Redemption, p. 386).

PINKERTON "So far as known to me, or I presume to you, I am the only 'preacher' in Kentucky of our brotherhood who has publicly advocated the propriety of employing instrumental music in some churches, and that the church of God in Midway is the only church that has yet made a decided effort to introduce it" (L. L. Pinkerton, American Christian Review, 1860, as quoted by Cecil Willis in W. W. Otey: Contender for the Faith).

STONE "We have just received an extraordinary account of about 30,000 Methodists in England, withdrawing from that church and connexion, because the Conference disapproved of the introduction of instrumental music to the churches. The full account shall appear in our next. To us, backwoods Americans, this conduct of those seceders appears be the extreme of folly, and it argues that they have a greater taste for music, than they have for religion. Editor." (Barton Stone, Christian Messenger, vol. 3, No. 2, Dec. 1828, p. 48 in bound volume)

WEST "Apostasy in music among 19th century churches that had endeavored to restore New Testament authority in worship and work began, in the main, following the Civil War' In 1868, Ben Franklin guessed that there were ten thousand congregations and not over fifty had used an instrument in worship." (Earl West, Search for the Ancient Order, Vol. 2, pp. 80, 81)

Some Important Dates

A.D. 200

"Christianity had ceased (about AD 200) to be the close brotherhood which it was at first; it had developed a complicated organization, with a marked distinction between clergy and laity; the conception of priest and sacrifice had won a place. And as the body changed, so did its worship; the place which had sufficed for the simple, informal gatherings of the first Christians was no longer adequate" (Shaff-Herzog, Architecture, p. 264).

Tertullian of Carthage condemns attendance at the theater and circus, with all their music, because they are pagan and immoral. He describes the immoral aspect of these shows and is severely critical of the influence brought about by the use of instruments. He is shocked to see that Christians attend these shows. (from Green on McKinnon, p. 36)

A.D. 360

"But considerable prominence was given to the hymns by the Gnostic, Bardesans, who composed a psalter of 150 psalms. However, the 59th canon of the Synod of Laodicea, 360 A. D., enjoined that 'No psalm composed by private individuals nor any uncanonical books may be read in the Church, but only... the Canonical Books of the OT and NT." Int Std Ency., p. 2494

"In competition with pagan musical art, congregational singing began to wane. Basil states that he had 'the Psalms rendered by skillful presentors after the manner of the triumphal Odes of Pindar, the congregation joining at the closing verse, with the accompaniment of lyres." Int Std Bible Ency., p. 2494A

"This urge to use professional art to compete with others quite naturally led to the use of professional presenters. It is important to note the earlier statement that the use of music was often in the professionals.

Psalmody thus came to be increasingly the monoply of trained singers, and the 15th canon of the Council of Laodicea, 360 AD, proscribed that 'no others shall sing in the church save only the canonical singers...who go up into the ambo and sing with a book." (Int Std Bible Ency, Psalms, p. 2494a)

A.D. 398

"There indeed are flutes and harps and pipes, but here is no music of sounds unsuitable. But what? Hymns, singing of psalms. There indeed the demons are hymned, but here the Lord of all, God... For these songs to the lyre are none other than songs to demons." (John Chrysostom, quoted by Green, p. 37).

While St. Ephraim left the Scripture and composed hymns in Syrian to be sung by choirs, he nevertheless denounced instruments:

"Where kithara playing and dancing and hand clapping find place, there is the beguiling of men, the corruption of women, the sorrow of angels and a feast for the devil... Today, to all appearances, they sing psalms as God ordained, and tomorrow they will eagerly dance as taught by Satan. Today they contradict Satan and tomorrow they follow him... Let it be far from you that today, as one loving Christ, you listen attentively to the reading of the divine Scripture, and tomorrow as a criminal and a hater of Christ you listen to lyre playing." (St. Ephraim, quoted by Green, p. 37-38).

There was early warning against using the musical practices of the theater and of paganism in the Christian assemblies. That the churches were acutally using instruments is in doubt.

"Where the lyre and the flute are sounding, where every type of musician makes noise along with the cymbals of the dancers, those houses are unblessed, and no way differ from theaters. I beseech you, let all of this be taken from our midst. Let the house of the Christian be accustomed to psalms and hymns and canticles." (Gaudentius, bishop of northern Italy, ? A.D. 354-440, quoted by Green, p. 39).

"We render our hymns with a living psalterion and a living kithara with spiritual songs. The unison voices of Christians would be more acceptable to God than any musical instrument. Accordingly in all the churches of God, united in soul and attitude, with one mind and in agreement of faith and piety, we send up a unison melody in the words of the Psalms" (Eusebius, 4th Century, Commentary on Psalms 91:2-3).

A.D. 510

"But Durantus, however, contends for their antiquity, both in the Greek and Latin churches, and offers to prove it, but with ill success, first, from Julianus Halicarnassensis, a Greek writer, Anno 510, whom he makes to say that organs were used in the church in his time. but he mistakes the sense of his author, who speaks not of his own times, but ot the time of Job and the Jewish temple." (Giradeau, p. 159)

A.D.660

"The use of organs in churches is ascribed to Pope Vitalian (657-672)...The attitude of the churches toward the organ varies. It shared to some extent the fate of images, except that it never was an object of worship...The Greek Church disapproves the use of organs. The Latin Church introduced it pretty generally, but not without the protest of eminent men; so that even in the Council of Trent a motion was made, though not carried, to prohibit the organ at least in the mass." (Schaff's History of the Christian Church)

"Pope Vitalian is related to have first introduced organs into some of the churches of Western Europe, about 670; but the earliest trustworthy account is that of one sent as a present by the Greek Emperor, Constantine Copronymus to Pepin, king of the Franks, in 755." (The American Cyclopedia, Vol. 12, p. 688).

"Next, for the Latin church, he urges the common opinion which ascribes the invention of them to Pope Vitalian, Anno 660; but his authorities for this are no better than Platina and the Pontifical, which are little to be regarded against clear evidences to the contrary." (John L. Girardeau, Instrumental Music in the Public Worship of the Church, 1888, p. 160.

A.D. 700

"In the Greek church the organ never came into use. But after the eighth century it became more and more common in the Latin Church; not, however, without opposition from the side of the monks...The Reform Church discarded it; and though the church of Basel very early introduced it, it was in other places admitted only sparingly and after long hesitation." (Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 1702).

A.D.1250

While historians are not certain the best evidence is that instruments became frequent between 1000 to 1300 A.D. However, as we will see later the organs were played for their own effect and not to enhance singing which was still understood to be a method of teaching. Just as in some of the early reformed churches, the organ was played before and after singing and often more as entertainment than as worship.

"The Greek word psallo is applied among the Greeks of modern times exclusively to sacred music, which in the Eastern Church has never been any other than vocal, instrumental music being unknown in that church, as it was in the primitive church. Sir John Hawkins, following the Romish writers in his erudite work on the 'History of Music,' makes Pope Vitalian, in A. D. 660, the first who introduced organs into churches. But students of ecclesiastical archaeology are generally agreed that instrumental music was not used in churches till a much later date; for ..

Paul outlawed OUTWARD MELODY by leaving it in the human heart or spirit.

Thomas Aquinas, A.D. 1250, has these remarkable words: 'Our church does NOT use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise God withal, that she may not seem to Judaize.' From this passage we are surely warranted in concluding that there was no ecclesiastical use of organs in the time of Aquinas. It is alleged that Marinus Sanutus, who lived about A.D. 1200, was the first that brought the use of wind organs into churches, and hence, he received the name Torcellus. In the East the organ was in use in the emperor's courts, probably from the time of Julian, but never was either the organ or any other instruments been employed in public worship in Eastern churches; nor is mention of instrumental music found in all their liturgies, ancient or modern." (McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia, Vol. 8, p. 739).

"...although lapsing more and more into defection from the truth and into a corruption of apostolic practice, had no instrumental music for twelve hundred years (meaning clear evidence of use) and that the Calvinistic Reformed Church ejected it from its services as an element of Popery... The historical argument, therefore, combines with the Scriptural and the confessional to raise a solemn and powerful protest against its employment by the Presbyterian Church. It is heresy in the sphere of worship." (John Girardeau, professor in Columbia Theological Seminary, Instrumental Music in the Church, p. 17).

"Let us pause a moment to notice the fact, supported by a mass of incontrovertible evidence, that the Christian church did not employ instrumental music in its public worship for 1200 years after Christ. It proves what has been already shown from the New Testament Scriptures, that the apostolic church did not use it in its public services, and surely the church ought now to be conformed to the practice of the apostolic and of the churches whose usages they modelled according to the inspired direction of the Holy Ghost. It deserves serious consideration, moreover, that notwithstanding the ever-accelerated drift towards corruption in worship as well as in doctrine and government, the Roman Catholic Church did not adopt this corrupt practice until about the middle of the thirteenth century." (Theodoret, quoted by Girardeau, p. 161).

"They [the Puritans] disallowed of the cathedral mode of worship; of singing their prayers, and of the antiphone or chanting of the Psalms by turns, which the ecclesiastical commissioners in King Edward the Sixth's time advised the laying aside. Nor did they approve of musical instruments, as trumpets, organs, etc., which were not in use in the church for above 1200 years after Christ" (Giradeau, p. 134).

We noted earlier the quotation about the use of the lyre in the congregational response but it is not clear that this was in the worship assembly as opposed to the very common social activities and processionals through the city.

While organs were placed in a few churches in the 7th century and used by musicians for practice, there was no clear use for worship for over 1200 years:

A. D. 1322

The literary comments show that the early church was just as opposed to the use of complex singing styles as it was to the use of instruments:

"Pope John XXII, denounced the encroachments of counterpoint, alleging that the voluptuous harmony of 3ds and 6ths was fit but for profane uses." ((Ency. Britannica, Art. Music).

The reason for this opposition was that it interferred with singing as a method of teaching Scripture.

c. A.D.1500

"Frank Harrison in his study Music in Medieval Britain finds no evidence that any instruments but the organ were normally played in church. The organ did not accompany but played before and after singing. The liturgical use of other instruments was rare before 1500." (Green on McKinnon, p. 41).

Following the Reformation there were two schools of thought which impacted what the new churches did with the accumulated practices of the Catholic church.

Two of these practices involved the replacement of congregational singing by hired clergy singers,

the introduction of the organ and other instruments, and the introduction of idols into the architecture of the buildings. [flags, penants, paintings]

The prevailing Lutheran (Roman Catholic view) was that if something was not explicitly prohibited by a statement such as "thou shalt not have an organ in thy church building" then it was prohibited although Luther strongly opposed the instrument. The other prevailing view was that unless the Bible authorized the use of instruments then it was presumptious to add them.

"The Reformation unsealed the Psalter, so that Christ's people might once more drink freely of this fountain of salvation...The Lutheran Reformation restored congregational singing. By 1524 Luther had versified Pss 12, 67, and 130. (Int Std Bible Ency., Psalms, p. 2494A).

The practice among Reformed churches was spotty. For instance, many of the churches removed the idols, painted over the art, and destroyed the organs but some continued to use them. his continued use by the reformed church in Basel was not without opposition: Erasmus (Desiderius), the man who produced the first Greek New Testament (1517), which became the Textus Receptus, had the following to say:

"Like most religious reformers, Calvin relied on song by the people, and discourages musical instruments which he compared to childish toys which ought to be put away in manhood. So deeply did his teaching sink into the Genevans, that three years after his death they melted down the pipes of the organ in his church, to form flagons for the communion. And his principle were adopted widely in Britain." (W. T. Whitley, Congregational Hymn-Singing (London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1933, p. 58).

"One of the developments in which Beza was of great assistance was in Reformed psalmody. Zwingli had opposed music in public worship and it was a century or so after his death before the Reformed Churches in which his influence was strong departed from that precedent. Calvin did not go as far as Zwingli, but confined the use of music to contgregational singing in unison of metrical versions of the Psalms and Canticles." (Kenneth Latourette, p. 760).

"We have brought into our churches a certain operose and theatrical music; such a confused, disorderly chattering of some words, as I hardly think was ever heard in any of the Grecian or Roman theatres. The church rings with the noise of trumpets, pipes and dulcimers; and hymn voices strive to bear their part with them...Men run to church as to a theater, to have their ears tickled. And for this end organ makers are hired with great salaries, and a company of boys, who waste all their times in learning these whining tones." (Commentary on 1 Cor. 14:19).

"It is to be observed the church did not use organs in Thomas' time; whence, even to this day, the Church of Rome does not use them in the Pope's presence. And truly it will appear that musical instruments are not to be suffered in the ecclesiastical offices where we meet together to perform for the sake of receiving internal instruction from God; and so much the rather are they to be excluded, because God's internal discipline exceeds all human disciplines, which rejected this kind of instruments" (Kurfees, quoting Cajetan, a 16th century Cardinal, p. 176).

In Holland, the use of instruments was virtually forced upon the church because the state or city owned the old buildings.

"Although Calvinist consistories of the sixteenth century wanted no organ music, they could not remove the organs from the premises because church buildings were the property of the city. The city councils realized the value of the great Dutch organs and wanted people to enjoy them.

They appointed city organists to play frequent recitals. A convenient recital time was Sunday morning, just before and after the service." In time it was argued that if the organ was to be used it should play only psalms and hymns to lead the congregational singing.

Therefore, "Calvinist consistories gradually and grudgingly accepted the organ as well." Thus just as it was with David, it was not principle but concession which allowed music to be used." (The Biblical Doctrine of Worship).

A.D. 1469-1534

"It is to be observed the church did not use organs in Thomas' time; whence, even to this day, the Church of Rome does not use them in the Pope's presence. And truly it will appear that musical instruments are not to be suffered in the ecclesiastical offices where we meet together to perform for the sake of receiving internal instruction from God; and so much the rather are they to be excluded, because God's internal discipline exceeds all human disciplines, which rejected this kind of instruments" (Kurfees, quoting Cajetan, a 16th century Cardinal, p. 176).

Early writers spiritualized the musical instruments to be the mouth of the prophets whom God "plucked" in order to deliver His Word exactly as He wanted it taught or sung. Calvin agrees that the only way to exalt God's glory is to repeat the words which He has given for that very purpose:

"When we sing them, we are certain that God has put the words into our mouths, as if He himself sang within us to exalt His glory." Calvin quoted in Int Std Bible Ency., p. 2494B

Calvin's Psalter used a free formulation but depended heavily upon the Scriptural psalms and other Biblical sources.

A.D.1562

"Six alterations were proposed [one of which was] that the use of organs be laid aside...When the vote came to be taken...forty-three voted for them, and thirty-five against; but when the proxies were counted, the balance was turned; the final state of the vote being 58 for, and 59 against. Thus it was determined, by the majority of a single vote, and that the proxy of an absent person who did not hear the reasoning...decided...that there should be no relief granted to those whose consciences felt aggrieved" (William Hetherington, History Westminster Assembly of Divines, p. 30).

A.D. 1594

The Synod of Holland and Zealand adopted this resolution:

"That they would endeavor to obtain of the magistrate the laying aside of organs, and the singing with them in the churches, even out of the time of worship, either before or after sermons."

A.D. 1600

"Justinus , he observes, saith that the use of instruments was granted to the Jews for their imperfection, and that therefore such instruments have no place in the church. We [Bellarmin and the Catholics] confess indeed that the use of musical instruments agreeth not alike with the perfect and the imperfect, and that therefore they began but of late to be admitted into the church. Belarmin lived from 1542 to 1621." (Girardeau, p. 65)

added because of transgressions

A.D.1714

"The first organ accepted into a New England church was set up in King's Chapel of Boston in 1714 (Church of England). The second was not installed until 1733 at Trinity Church in Newport, Rhode Island. As late as 1800, it is estimated that there were less than 20 organs in all of New England" (Shelly, p. 104-104).

A.D 1810-1815

"The strict order of the Church Fathers that only one instrument should be employed, i.e., the human voice, has been observed in the Syriac, the Jacobite, the Nestorian, and the Greek churches to the present day. So also the synagogue did not use any instrument in the services up to 1810, in which year the organ was introduced in Seesen, Germany" (Idelsohn, quoted by Bales , p. 259).

"The modern organ in Reform Synagogues as an accessory of worship was first introduced by Israel Jacobson at Berlin in the new house of prayer which he opened for the Shabu'ot festival, June 14, 1815...(because this one was closed because errother Jews brought suit) The members of the Reform party succeeded in building and dedicating their first temple on October 18, 1818, at Hamburg, where they set up a fine organ, but employed a non-Jewish organist" (Isadore Singer, Jewish Encyclopedia)

"It is still banned by rigid adherents to old ways; but in ordinary conservative congregations it is unhesitatingly employed at weddings and other services on week days" (Ibid., p. 134)

An attempt was made by "Reform" Judiasm to export its heresies to Russia. Dr. Max Lillienthal (1814-1882) set up the groundwork for government-sponsored Jewish secular schools in December 1841. However, his best-laid plans were put to an end by the great Lubavitcher Chasidic rabbi--thr Tzemach Tzedek. Generations afterwards his discendent was was thrown down a flight of stairs after the Russian Revolution. Reform Judaism began in Germany just after the Napoleonic emanicipation.

The synagogue services were shortened, the vernacular and music were used and group replaced individual confirmation.

The Reform Judasists believe that divine authority lies only in the written law of the Old Testament. Many limit their religious practices to the ceremonial laws of Pentateuch.

Covering the head at worship, dietary laws, and the wearing of phylacteries are seen as anachronisms. They do not believe in the messianic restoration of the Jewish state and the return to Jerusalem. They hold to the faith of the coming of a messianic age rather than a belief in a personal Messiah. Israel is seen as a place of refuge for persecuted Jews of the world.

A.D. 1851

In 1851 Alexander Campbell claimed that "to all spiritually minded Christians such aids would be as a cow bell in a concert." However, an organ was introduced in Cincinnati in perhaps 1855 and in Midway Kentucky in the early 1860's. The history of this trauma in the church is well documented in numerous books.

A.D. 1840s-60s

A Jewish Reform church in Charleston, S.C. introduced an instrument in 1844 by a divisive vote of 46-40.

In discussing the proliferation of musical instruments in New York churches, the New York Herald, 1868, said "The Baptists only, as a great body, have held aloof and kept the letter of their original simplicity."

A.D. 1859

"In my earliest intercourse among this people (the Baptists), congregational singing generally prevailed among them... In many congregations the old pitch pipe was seen in the hands of the leader of the singing, and by degrees small instruments of music were introduced into the singing galleries, where extra efforts were made among the performers, and finally the bass viol, then the he plus ultra, the perfection of instrumental music, became a permanent fixture in a portion of our congregations. Strong prejudices, however, for a time existed in the minds of our old members against all kinds of musical instruments, and church difficulties arose on this account. But by degrees these prejudices subsided as the people become more and more interested in the performance of their singing choirs, and as their congregations were augmented by the new attractions in their religious worship...

"...The changes which have been experienced in the feelings of a large portion would as soon have tolerated the pope of Rome in their pulpits as an organ in the galleries, and yet the instrument has gradually found its way among them, and their successors in church management, with nothing like the jars and difficulties which arose of old concerning the bass viol and smaller instruments of music." (Dr. David Benedict, Fifty Years Among the Baptists, 1859).

"A small organ was obtained by a joint stock company, which, in the end, became a permanent fixture in the house. This clever little concern, still alive in another congregation, took the place of all the inferior cymbals on which our singers had hitherto depended for instrumental aid, and by degrees became favorite with all the people, howevermuch some of them had previously been biased against any artificial aid in the melody of the sanctuary, and, indeed, to the attractions of the gallery rather than the pulpit, some people slyly ascribed the full houses which we generally enjoyed." (Dr. Benedict, Quoted in Gospel Advocate, 1951, p. 56).

A.D. 1880

"Men still living can remember the time when organs were very seldom found outside the Church of England. The Methodist, Independents, and Baptists rarely had them and by the Presbyterians they were stoutly opposed. But since these bodies began to introduce organs, the adoption of them has been unchecked. Even the Presbyterians are giving away, and if we read the future by the past, we can hardly doubt that in a few years, unaccompanied singing will very seldom be heard. Yet, even in the church of England itself, organs did not obtain admission without much opposition." (John Spencer Curwen, Studies in Worship Music, p. 179, In 1880).

"The second premise, namely, that instrumental music is, in connection with the public worship of the church, not commanded by Christ, either expressly or by good and necessary consequence in his Word, is acknowledged to be true by all consistent Presbyterians. One would, therefore, argue that they would exclude it from the public worship of the church; ans so, indeed, they have done until a comparatively recent period" (Girardeau, p. 201, 1888).

"Not until the early days of the Reformation was the plea for congregational singing made. Wycliffe and Huss urged a return to the principles of St. Paul, and their plea was repeated with great urgency by Luther, Calvin, Crammer, and many others...In the meantime the organ had fallen into disrepute in all but the Lutheran churches, partly because of its expense, but mostly because it detracted the people from their worship, obscured the words, and interfered with the liturgical action...Toward the end of the nineteenth century a change began to take place in church music that involved a turning away from the conception strongly advocated by the Reformers and deeply embedded in the Reformation tradition. This change of attitude...produced a remarkable increase of interest in a more professional attitude toward church music...All this conspired to undermine the Reformation victory of music for, of, and by the people...

Whether in prayer, praise, or preaching, it is the words that make worship uniquely Christian, and it is primarily through the meaning of words that people come to understand the meaning of Christian symbols and sacraments." (Lowell P. Beveridge, quoted by Jividen, Worship in Song, p. 77-78).

A.D. 1900

"In Popery there was a ridiculous and unsuitable imitation [of the Jews]. While they adorned their temples, and valued themselves as having made the worship of God more splendid and inviting, they employed organs, and many other such ludicrous things, by which the Word and worship of God are exceedingly profaned, the people being much more attached to those rites than to the understanding of the divine Word." (Girardeau, p. 165).

Speaking of the liturgical movement among Roman Catholics in 1914 it is said

"Instead of the members of the congregation being simply spectators and hearers of what was done in mass by priest and choir, it would have them share in it... As a further step it taught the members of the congregation to give the responses to what was said by the priest. In some places it encouraged the congregation to join in singing the mass, often stressing the Gregorian music which had gained fresh favour in the nineteenth century through Papal initiative." (Latourette, p. 1362-3).

Opposition To Additions

The opposition to the introduction of instrumental music in the restoration churches has been attributed by at least one writer as being the "product of southern red-necks" or "a frontier mentality." And it is not uncommon to assume that continued opposition flows from a reactionary mentality. However, opposition has occurred in all religious groups, by the very best of Biblical scholars, and almost always based upon the notion that instrumental music was connected with the Mosaic Temple services, that they were not used in the Synagogues, that they were not specifically authorized by the New Testament, that they were not used for about 1200 years, and that their introduction has always created division and discord. We quote just a few examples.

Opposition to the Demise of Psalms

"There was some opposition to the use of such hymns, on the ground that they were not taken from the Scriptures; and this could only be overcome by age and usage" (George Park Fisher, History of The Christian Church, pp. 65, 121).

Opposition to Antiphonal Music

"The Fathers of the early Church were virtually unanimous in their hostility toward musical instruments" and to the notion that this was based upon its use in the various cults, he says: "The fact that instruments were not used, however, is related to the positive Christian attitude toward music which was characterized by an enthusiastic fostering of psalmody, a type of music performed unmetrically and without instrument." (McKinnon, quoted by Bales, p. 260).

"The Fathers of the Church...in accordance with the example of psalmodizing of our Savior and the holy Apostles, established that only vocal music be used in churches and severely forbade instrumental music as being secular and hedonic, and in general as evoking pleasure without spiritual value." (Mckinnon qouted by Bales, p. 261).

Not only was there opposition from both the Eastern and Western writers, but the opposition was never overcome by any recourse to Biblical evidence but both antiphonal singing and instrumental music was introduced from the market-place to the actual worship services in order to compete with heretics who were winning converts through their celebrative gatherings.

"At first church music was simple, artless, recitive. But the rivalry of the heretics forced the orthodox church to pay great attention to the requirements of art. Chrysostom had to declaim against the secularization of church music. More lasting was the opposition to the introduction of instrumental accompaniment" (Church History, John Kurtz, Vol. 1, pl 176).

Opposition to Choirs

"Just now there is a commotion among the choirs of some of the city churches, which extends to the congregations, growing out of high bidding for leading singers--one church bidding over another. It is said that one Presbyterian church has offered a lady who sings in an Episcopal choir the sum of eigh hundred dollars per annum to change her position. In another Episcopal churdh the choir is being reconstructed on a basis of expending some twelve hundred per year for music. In other churches there is uneasiness in the choirs, and all are looking for something better. The church that has the most popular choir draws the largest miscellaneous audiences.." (Millenial Har., 1868, pp. 280-285, quoted by Kurfees, p. 232).

Opposition to Instrumental Music

"The use of organs in churches is ascribed to Pope Vitalian (657-672)...The attitude of the churches toward the organ varies. It shared to some extent the fate of images, except that it never was an object of worship...The Greek Church disapproves the use of organs. The Latin Church introduced it pretty generally, but not without the protest of eminent men; so that even in the Council of Trent (1545-63) a motion was made, though not carried, to prohibit the organ at least in the mass." (Schaff's History of the Christian Church)

"It is to be observed the church did not use organs in Thomas' time; whence, even to this day, the Church of Rome does not use them in the Pope's presence. And truly it will appear that musical instruments are not to be suffered in the ecclesiastical offices where we meet together to perform for the sake of receiving internal instruction from God; and so much the rather are they to be excluded, because God's internal discipline exceeds all human disciplines, which rejected this kind of instruments" (Kurfees, quoting Cajetan, a 16th century Cardinal, p. 176).

"Like most religious reformers, Calvin (A.D. 1509-1564) relied on song by the people, and discourages musical instruments which he compared to childish toys which ought to be put away in manhood. So deeply did his teaching sink into the Genevans, that three years after his death they melted down the pipes of the organ in his church, to form flagons for the communion. And his principle were adopted widely in Britain." (W. T. Whitley, Congregational Hymn-Singing (London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1933, p. 58).

General opposition quotes

"There is no institution so pure and excellent which the corruption and folly of man will not in time alter for the worse, and load with additions foreign to its nature and original design. Such in a particular manner, was the fate of Christianity. In this century (speaking of the second century), many unnecessary rites and ceremonies were added to the Christian worship, the introduction of which was extremely offensive to wise and good men. These changes while they destroyed the beautiful simplicity of the gospel, were naturally pleasing to the gross multitude, who are more delighted with the pomp and splendor of external institutions, than with the native charms of rational and solid piety, and who generally give little attention to any objects but those which strike their outward senses." (Mosheim, Johann Lorentz von 1694?-1755, Ecclesiastical History, Vol. I., p. 55).

Opposition From Restoration Churches

"such a people, I take it, cannot adopt such an innovation, condemned even by themselves up to the present day, and such an instrument of corrupting and secularizing the church, without blushing at their inconsistency--without being conscious that they have abandoned their original ground and trampled under foot the great principle on which they are proceeding." (Dr. H. Christopher, Lard's Quarterly, October, 1867, pp. 359f quoted by Kurfees, p. 221).

"I am satisfied that the tendency of instrumental music is to silence congregational singing;--to usurp the place of melody of the heart...to prevent the 'edification of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,' which is one of the social duties and privileges of the congregation, and to deliver over this part of the worship of the disciples into the artistic and often godless hands of mere amateur or hireling performers." (W. K. Pendleton, Gospel Advocate, 1889, p. 67)

"It proved finally a source of great annoyance. Often outsiders, not even always religious in any sense, had to be got to play the instruments, and others also of a similar class to sing with it. This was offensive to the religious feelings of the church. Besides, such a clique around the instrument exhibited not much reverence during preaching, prayer, and singing." (Kurfees)

"I take it, then, that the only way in which we Christians can be united, is to agree that we will mutually obey what ever is positively enjoined in the New Testament, and to insist upon nothing beyond that. Let each man appeal to the Bible only, and he will need to ask for no concession from his brethren." (Ashley Johnson, The Great Controversy, p. 175).

In the early days of the restoration movement the song books which were used had no notes. In fact, most of the songs were sung to only four or five tunes and those composed by men such as Elias Smith or Alexander Campbell were designed to teach some Biblical doctrine and not just to sound pleasant to the ear. The addition of four part harmony with each song having its tune may have paved the way for the organ.

The story of the division created by the introduction of musical instruments with the loss of focus of Restorationism is well documented by many sources. And even if one could amass a library of data critical of instrumental music by non-instrumentalist it would be for naught because one opposed to its use would be expected to oppose it.

The introduction of Instruments can be generally traced to the urge to unite with all denominations in an effort to be more effective against Catholicism. Earl West in The Instrumental Music Issue on page 64 shows that Walter Scott wanted the churches to join with all denominations "in the common belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of the Living God."

West continues to show that D. S. Burnet promoted the Pastor System in which the elders would simply be his advisors. This then gave the pastor authority to over rule any opposition.

It was not before identifying himself with liberal Biblical interpretations that L. L. Pinkerton, minister of the Midway, Kentucky church declared: "I am the only 'preacher' in Kentucky of our brotherhood who has publicly advocated the propriety of employing instrumental music in some churches, and that the church of Christ in Midway is the only church that has yet made a decided effort to introduce it." While this was in the 1860's, West points out that an organ had been introduced in Cincinnati at least by 1855.

Pinkerton, who undoubtedly subscribed to the pastor system introduced the organ in Midway over the objection of its elders, one of whom removed the organ from the church.

In Texas a similar forcing of the organ on the congregation is seen:

"The occasion was a gospel meeting in February 1894. The speaker was B. B. Sanders, and the song director, E. M. Douthitt. These two often worked as a team and were known to use the instrument in worship. Before the meeting began, there was much discussion...about whether the organ would be used....the president arose to begin the service, Joseph Addison arose, walked toward the pulpit, took a paper from his pocket, and presented it to his son. It was a petition...signed by elder Clark and more than a hundred others, who asked that the organ not be used...he (Randolph) turned to the organist and said, 'Play on, Miss Bertha.'" (Wallace, Foy E., Jr., The Instrumental Music Question, p. 69-70).

J. W. McGarvey, in the Christian Evangelist lists his reasons for not using instruments: "...After I became a member of the church and began to preach, I made the subject a careful study, and I ascertained the following facts, which I enumerate without regard to the order in which I learned them:

1. "That the use of instrumental music in the worship under Christ originated in the Roman Catholic church. I know of nothing good that has thus originated."

2. "That none of the Protestant churches, except those which came out of Romanism and brought this practice with them, tolerated it until the present century, having rejected it in the earlier and purer days."

3. "That it was not tolerated among the disciples until after the year 1869. The first organ used among us was introduced in the Olive Street church, St. Louis, at the cost of a division in the church; but its disuse was ordered by the decision of a committee of arbitration composed of Isaac Errett, Robert Graham, Alexander Proctor, and J. K. Rogers."

4. "That in the Greek Catholic church, which is older than the Roman Catholic, and has ever opposed many of the innovations of the latter, it has never been employed to the present day."

5. "That in the churches established by the apostles and their successors it was unknown, and continued to be unknown for more than six hundred years." (We believe that this should be for 1200 years.}

6. "That its absence from the apostolic churches, established as they were by men who had been accustomed to its use in Jewish worship, and composed as they were of members, both Jews and Gentiles, who had been accustomed to its use in their former modes of worship, implies a deliberate rejection (emph kls) of it by the Holy Spirit, as being among the things of the Old Covenant that were to pass away."

7. "That, as the acts of public worship are matters of diving prescription, the introduction of an unauthorized element among them is will-worship, which is condemned by the Holy Spirit."

Restricted Use

"In some of the Reformed churches these musical instruments are retained, but they are not played until the congregation is dismissed, all the parts of divine worship being finished. And they are then used for a political [civil] purpose, to gratify those who seek pleasure from sound and harmony." (Giradeau, quoting Zepperus, p. 171).

Warning Against

"The real value of the organ, when properly used, is that it floods the building with sound, so that timid worshipers are encouraged to sing. They are encouraged because they do not hear their own voices, and because it is easier to sing when the way is smoothed by instrumental accompaniment. The musical effect, also, is improved by the organ; harsh and loud voices are leveled." (J. S. Curwsen, Studies in Worship Music, p. 186).

"All the while that you are singing and praising God, keep your minds as intent as you can upon it,

without taking any notice at all of the organs,

for they will have their effect upon you better

if you do not mind them than if you do;

for your minding of them will

divert your thoughts from the work you are about"

(Bishop William Beveridge, Thesaurus Thelogicus, Vol. IIl. p. 523).

Killen: "It is not, therefore, strange that instrumental music was not heard in their congregational services . . . In the early church the whole congregation joined in the singing, but instrumental music did not accompany the praise" (W. D. Killen, The Ancient Church, pp. 193, 423).

Lorenz: "Yet there was little temptation to undue elaboration of hymnody or music. The very spirituality of the new faith made ritual or liturgy superfluous and music almost unnecessary. Singing (there was no instrumental accompaniment) was little more than a means of expressing in a practicable, social way, the common faith and experience.... The music was purely vocal. There was no instrumental accompaniment of any kind.... It fell under the ban of the Christian church, as did all other instruments, because of its pagan association" (E. S. Lorenz, Church Music, pp. 217, 250, 404).

"While the Greek and Roman songs were metrical, the Christian psalms were anitphons, prayers, responses, etc., were unmetrical; and while the pagan melodies were always sung to an instrumental accompaniment, the church chant was exclusively vocal" (Edward Dickinson, History of Music, p. 54).

"All the music employed in their early services was vocal, and the rhythmic element and all gesticulation were forbidden" (Frank L. Humphreys, The Evolution of Church Music, p. 42).

The Eastern Church "Fathers" definitely occupy this same position. They could be quoted at length to support this contention that the early church did not use instrumental music in its worship. G. I. Papadopoulos wrote, "The execution of Byzantine church music by instruments, or even the accompaniment of sacred chanting by instruments, was ruled out by the Eastern Fathers as being incompatible with the pure, solemn, spiritual character of the religion of Christ. The Fathers of the church, in accordance with the example of psalmodizing of our Savior and the holy Apostles, established that only vocal music be used in the churches and severely forbade instrumental music as being secular and hedonic, and in general as evoking pleasure without spiritual value" (A Historical Survey of Byzantine Ecclesiastical Music (in Greek), Athens, 1904, pp. 10, 11).

"It was, however, purely vocal" (Dr. F. L. Ritter, History of Music from the Christian Era to the Present Time, p. 28).

In the absence of Christ's disciples making use of instrumental music in their worship, there is an emphasis on the spiritual: they praised God in singing-music in their hearts (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16), and with understanding (1 Cor. 14:15). Their concern was vocal rather than instrumental music. But inasmuch as instrumental music is today offered unto the Lord as worship, though such was not the case in the early church, when was instrumental music introduced into the churches? The American Encyclopedia says, "Pope Vitalian is related to have first introduced organs into some of the churches of Western Europe about 670 AD but the earliest trustworthy account is that of one sent as a present by the Greek emperor Constantine Copronymus to Pepin, king of Franks in 755" (Volume 12, p. 688). The Chambers Encyclopedia (Vol. 7, p. 112) says, "The organ is said to have been introduced into church music by Pope Vitalian in 666 A.D."

There is not a solitary reference to the use of instrumental music in the worship of any New Testament church during the entirety of the apostolic age. Not only is the New Testament absolutely silent about authorizing this practice, but for several hundred years after the death of the last apostle and the conclusion of the New Testament canon, the only references made to instrumental music are the denunciations written against its use by prominent religious leaders.

Ageless and growing list begun about twenty years ago and improved by a web page or two which keeps the list growing and flowing to prove that no scholar can honestly find any proof for the use of instrumental or most vocal music in the Old and New Testament. Rather, it is universally identified as a pagan practice. The pagan sources are not troubled to tell you that it was used to help out the collection plate by literally and spiritually selling their wives and daughters for the ultimate "act of worship."

The Church Historian J. A. Neander wrote, "We have to regret that both in the Eastern and the Western Church their sacred music had already assumed an artificial and theatrical character, and was so far removed from its original simplicity that even in the 4th century the abbot Pambo of Egypt complained that heathen melodies (Accompanied as it seems with the action of the hands and the feet) had been introduced into their Church psalmody"

Jerome (342-420 A.D.), in remarking upon Eph. 5:19, says: "May all hear it whose business it is to sing in the church. Not with the voice, but with the heart, we sing praises to God. Not like the comedians should they raise their sweet and liquid notes to entertain the assembly with theatrical songs and melodies in the church, but the fire of godly piety and the knowledge of the Scriptures should inspire our songs...

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Kenneth Sublett.

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