2 Chronicles 5:12-13 Also the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brothers… I propose to speak about sacred music. I. ITS IMPORTANCE. This is apparent — 1. From the fact that God commanded it. Through Paul He tells us to admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and through David He cries out, "Sing ye to God, all ye kingdoms of the earth." I think there are more commands in the Bible to sing than there are to pray. 2. From the impressiveness of the exercise. You know something of what secular music has achieved. One inspiriting national air is worth thirty thousand men as a standing army. In the earlier part of the late war the Government proposed to economise in bands of music, and many of them were sent home; but the generals in the army sent word to Washington: "You are making a great mistake. We are falling back and falling back. We have not enough music." Then the Government changed its mind: more bands of music were sent to the field, and the day of shameful defeat terminated. Many of you are illustrations of what sacred song can do. Through it you were brought into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. 3. From its power to soothe perturbation. 4. From its power to arouse to action. II. SOME OF THE OBSTACLES IN THE WAY OF ITS ADVANCEMENT. 1. It has been impressed into the service of superstition. 2. An inordinate fear of criticism. 3. There has been so much angry discussion on the subject. 4. The erroneous notion that this part of the service could be conducted by delegation. (T. De Witt Talmage.) Parallel Verses KJV: Also the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets:) |
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