This piece is understood to be the work of Rev Malcolm MacSween, Oban. It has been edited. The original title was, Should Musical Instruments Be Used in the Public Worship of God Under the New Testament Dispensation? The first section had an introduction followed by “a view of the instrumental music employed in the worship of God under the Old Testament dispensation”.
2. An inquiry whether instrumental music is authorised by God in the worship of the New Testament Church.
We must always remember that, from the days of David, instrumental music was employed in the service of the tabernacle and temple only at the time of offering sacrifice (2 Chr 29: 27). After the appointment and arrangement of David (1 Chr 25), instrumental as well as vocal music continued to be a part of the daily service of the temple connected with the offering of sacrifice. Instruments of music, however, were never admitted into the service of the Jewish synagogue. In Judea there were many synagogues. We read of synagogues in Scripture passages such as Matthew 4:23, Acts 9:2, Acts 13:5, Acts 13:14. At the time of Christ there were 12 at Tiberias, a city in Galilee. The Jews claim there were 480 at Jerusalem, besides the temple. These synagogues were partly for Jews and partly for strangers (Acts 6:9). In them prayers were offered up, the law and the prophets were read and expounded, and sermons addressed to the people, but no instrumental music was performed. The latter was only used in the temple service. The temple was indeed a house of prayer and praise, but the greater part of its worship was of a typical nature. The temple itself was a type of Christ, who “spake of the temple of His body”. The priests who officiated in the temple were types of the great Apostle and High Priest of our profession; and the sacrifices, which were there offered daily, were types of Him who, “through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself [a sacrifice] without spot to God”, and thus “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself”.
But, as the temple and its priests and sacrifices are now all abolished, their purpose being accomplished by the death of Christ, is it not reasonable to conclude that instrumental music, which was specially connected with that figurative service, is also abolished with it? (Heb 9:13,14). In determining this question, it is of the greatest importance that we carefully attend to the example and precepts of Christ and His Apostles. There is no instance of Christ or His Apostles either employing or recommending musical instruments in the praises of God. There are, however, several instances of them singing the praises of God themselves, and exhorting others to the performance of this duty (Lk 19:37, Mt 26:30, Jas 5:13, Eph 5:19, Col 3:16, 1 Cor 14:15). We ought strictly to follow these examples and precepts without adding or diminishing. There is frequent mention of Christians, in the early days of the Church, singing the praises of God; but no accounts that they employed organs or other instruments of music, in this part of divine worship. These and many other corruptions, were brought into the Church in the after ages of Roman Catholic darkness and superstition. There is therefore good reason to conclude that, though instrumental music was connected with the law given by Moses, it is no part of that system of grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ.
3. Inquiry into the period of the Christian Church when organs began to be used in the worship of God.
It is very probable that the introduction of organs was gradual, and happened in different countries at different times. According to Bellarmine, the organ began to be used in the service of the Church about the year 660, and when Pope Vitalian performed the singing of the Roman Church, he added to it organs in order to support and embellish it. The first organ seen in France was sent to King Pepin from Emperor Constantine VI in 757 as a present. It was not used in France, it is said, until about 820. Music was first employed in the service of the Church of England by Augustine, and it was afterwards much improved by Dunstan, who first furnished the English churches and convents with organs. In Italy, Germany and England, organs became more frequent during the tenth century. Opinions of the learned, however, are much at variance on this subject, as organs are said by some to have been introduced into churches about the middle of the seventh, and by others not till the eleventh, twelfth or thirteenth century. Marinus Sanutus first introduced pipe organs into churches about 1290. From this last period, however, to the Reformation, the use of the organ became more common in the service of the Church.
Whenever the exact beginning may have been, it is evident that organs began to be used in times of Roman darkness and superstition. The use of organs was by no means general so late as 1250. Thomas Aquinas, who flourished about that time, expressly says, “Our Church does not use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise God with, that she may not seem to Judaize”. From this we conclude that, if organs were used at all in churches in his time, they must have been very rare, and that they were considered a Jewish corruption. Aquinas also states that musical instruments “were connected with the carnal and figurative state of the Jewish Church, and that they are more calculated to afford pleasure than to form good dispositions”. On the first passage quoted above, Cardinal Cajetan (early sixteenth century) observes that “the Church did not use organs in Thomas Aquinas’ time, and even to this day the Church of Rome does not use them in the presence of the Pope”. From this it appears that, in the days of Cajetan, organs were esteemed an innovation.
In Scotland, organs were not introduced into the churches until the reign of James I, who ascended the Scottish throne in 1423. He introduced organs into the cathedrals and abbeys of Scotland and had choir service brought to a high degree of perfection. In proportion as the corrupt principles and usages of Rome prevailed, the use of musical instruments became more frequent in the service of the Church. Darkness then covered the earth and gross darkness the people. Corruption and will-worship everywhere prevailed. Some of the Reformed churches of Europe and America, it is true, still retain organs in the worship of God. This, however, is no proof of their propriety, or divine authority under the gospel. It is only a proof that these churches, in reforming from Roman idolatry and will-worship, have not entirely relinquished all the unauthorised practices of the Church of Rome.