The Sanctuary

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.-St. James v, 16.

For where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them.St. Matthew xviii, 20.

Music in the Chinese Church

BY THE REV. F. L. NORRIS, CHURCH OF ENGLAND MISSION,

TH

PEKING.

HERE is congregational music and there is choir music, and both are divisible into that which is primarily devotional and that which is primarily edifying. (I would ask attention to the word primarily, for these two classes of music are by no means always wholly distinct. I would also beg to be allowed to define edifying, and, to make my meaning clearer, I will attempt to define devotional also. By the latter I mean such music as we think of rather as it concerns God, i.e., such as we think He will most care to hear, whereas by edifying I mean such music as we think of rather as it concerns man, or ourselves, i.e., such as pleases us or as we think does us good either to sing or to listen to.)

The above classification is not confined to the musical setting, but extends also to the words which we sing, though of course in a less degree. It is obviously impossible in a single short paper to deal with the whole subject, so I will begin by clearing the ground. I shall leave out of account as far as possible-it is not possible to do so altogether-the many questions concerning the words which we are to sing, and I shall say very little about choir music as it is generally understood, though here again I must refer to it incidentally. But I want to confine myself as far as possible to the music which we ought to encourage our congregations to sing when they are gathered together for public worship.

The first thesis which I would discuss is this: What is the place in public worship of devotional and of edifying music ? I am convinced that both have their place, that the place of each is, to a great extent, distinct, and that one of the faults into which we fall oftenest is that we fail to observe this distinction.

I had a long and interesting conversation some time ago with the late Dr. Ament, of the American Board Mission, on

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the question of how far all our services and the whole of every service should be edifying to the congregation. I expressed my own conviction that the ideal of our English Prayer-book was a really true and high ideal, that when we met together for common worship, worship and not edification was the primary thing, and that this was too often overlooked in some non-liturgical services. It is hardly necessary to say that Dr. Ament was strong on the need for edification, but he did not go as far as a gentleman who wrote to the paper the other day casting scorn on the idea that God could value anything that we men could offer, and that the only test of the value of a service was whether it did us good!

Now before we can rightly consider this question of the music to be encouraged in our Chinese services, it is essentially necessary that we should think out this question and determine what our own standpoint is in the matter. My own standpoint is that of the Prayer-book, by which I mean that a Christian service is emphatically a meeting for common worship, that worship is the primary thing, that such worship should be common, i.e., such as all can take part in, and that edification, if it finds, as it often does, a real place in such a service, does so either incidentally, or at least secondarily. This is not the same thing as saying that Christians cannot or ought not to meet together for the primary purpose of edification when worship will naturally take an incidenal or secondary place. Such meetings are obviously good; in fact they are of much greater value, I think, than some who call themselves churchmen are wont to allow. It is said that the Prayer-book does not contemplate them-which is true-but that is no more an argument against them than the fact that a time-table of lessons does not include a time-table of recreation, is an argument against recreation. It follows then that we have to provide music suitable for both occasions and to some extent that we may have both kinds of music not inappropriately on either occasion. But the point I am trying to bring out is that the two kinds of music not only are distinct, but must be kept distinct and only used appropriately.

The second thesis which I would discuss is this: the two essential qualities of devotional music are intrinsic goodness in itself and self-control in its performance. It cannot be consistent with reverence to offer to God that which is bad-however much we like it—or to abandon ourselves so far to the joy of

singing or listening that we forget to Whom we are offering our worship. Possibly I shall be told that these are obvious truisms, so I will venture to put one or two questions. How often do you choose a hymn for its tune rather than for its words? and when you do so, what is the sort of tune you choose, and what is the thought uppermost in your mind while you are singing it? Or again, which are the most popular hymns in your hymnbook, and why? Is not the answer almost necessarily because they are the most edifying? And if so, what proportion of the hymns used in your public services are drawn from these popular hymns and how does it compare with the relative importance of worship and edification in such services as are primarily services of public worship? I cannot help thinking that honest answers to such questions as these will set many of us thinking seriously. I am sure there is room for such thought.

One more, what about the intrinsic quality of some of our commonest hymns? I am not a learned musician and I am fond of melody, but I have no hesitation in saying that the music which we often venture to offer to Almighty God has no excellence at all unless it is considered that mere popularity is excellence. It may be so in a sense where the main object is edification, but it can never be so where the main object is devotion. The type of music which we find in Moody and Sankey's Hymnbook was never intended primarily for devotion, but for edification; but its lamentable popularity (if I may be forgiven the epithet) has caused it to be constantly intruded into devotional worship in utter forgetfulness of the need for intrinsically good music.

And now a word or two on the need of self-control. A great friend of mine, a layman, used to be always crying out for what he called a hearty service. I got heartily sick of the complaint. (Please mark the two senses of the word here exemplified; he really meant "lusty" singing; my weariness of his complaint was heartfelt.) I think it only needs a moment's thought to make us feel how necessary self-control must be in the music as in the words which we address to Almighty God. Great masters of oratory tell us that the speaker who would really move men, must never let himself quite go; his audience must always feel that there is a reserve of power. Therein in great measure lies the difference between ranting and eloquence. Now if that is true about our

words to men, much more surely must it be true about our words and the music with which we clothe them when addressed to God. And in this latter case there is a further danger, namely, that when we let ourselves go in music, we are apt-I would almost say sure-to forget to Whom we are singing. Space forbids me to illustrate this point at length, nor is it necessary. My readers can easily think of illustrations for themselves. Let me repeat, to avoid any possible misunderstanding, that I am pleading for this self-controlled music for purposes of worship, and not, or at least in nothing like the same degree, when edification is the object aimed at. Sullivan's Onward Christian Soldiers, or Safe in the Arms of Jesus, are excellent for the latter purpose, but they are not primarily concerned with worship, and when they are sung, it is usually with an abandon of energy or emotion which puts real worship out of the question.

I have now, to the best of my ability, made clear the point which I wish to insist upon in connection with the type of music which I think we ought to encourage in our Chinese services. Devotional music needs encouragement, for it is essentially unpopular, and that is why I have dwelt on it at such length. Edifying music on the other hand needs little or no encouragement, for it is as essentially popular as the other is the reverse. But both have their proper place, and it is surely our part to see that the popular does not usurp the place of the unpopular. The real difficulty of so doing lies in the fact that we are such sinners ourselves in this respect. What I have said needs to be insisted upon at home quite as much as out here in the Chinese church. But it only the more behooves us to be on our guard and to remember what a really important question the true proportion of devotion and edification in our public services must always be.

Lovers of music, however, no less than those who can claim the higher title of musicians, are faddists, nor can the writer of this paper pretend to be exempt from this common failing. So I will, in conclusion, allow myself the pleasure of trotting out my own peculiar hobby-horse. It is one of the characteristics of the animal that the more he is beaten the faster he goes. So I will disarm criticism by saying that the more of it the better (or the worse, according to the point of view).

In most of our congregations there is and can be no such thing as part singing unless it be when the missionary (or