The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1897-01-14
SELECT RELIGIOUS READING
PSALM SINGING.

Those progressive people who are apt
10 wonder, and perhaps fret a little, mt
their ~neighhors that 50 persistently block
tie wheels and cling 20 the past. ayerse to
all change, welded to the customary, may
find some comfort in the fact that evidently
times are better in his respect than they
once were, and hence may fairly be ex-
pected to get better still. The deep-rooted,
ingrained conservatism which seems to be,
especially in religious things, the nature OF
such numbers is illustrated by the immense
difficulty with which Sternhold and Hopkins
version OF the Psalms was ousted from the
church services. This version. completed
in 1862, served well It's purpose for II season,
but had few real merits, and after a century
or SO fell into general contempt on the part
of most people with any taste or culture.
Wesley called IL "scandalous doggcrcl." II
gave such great offence in towns that con-
gregational singing fell into almost entire
neglect. 1t was time for "a change, the re-
formers thought. SO a new version was
prepared by Nahum Tate and Nicholas
Brady, and in the opening days of the eigh-
teenth century 1t began u little TO supplant
the old. But II took n full hundred years
struggle before the improved form sup
erceded the familiar. The bulk Of the rus
rustic congregations continued 10 cling,
well satisfied, from decade to decade to
the psalmody they had learned from their
ANNANAs. ~ II DAblultAibl 70
disturb the familiar lines or replace them by
ncw-fangled phrases; and though what was
then new seems TO more modern ears an
tiquc and Objectionable enough, two hun
GrCd years ago it was Objectionable on quite
other grounds, and was counted as little
better than the abOm.nation of dcsolation
because 1t disturbed the hallowed a~ssocia-
tons OF the past. Verify, it is well to be ten
der of such associations; but whenthev stand
EUVn RELY uprnGl tho Inth Of vraotly p.nl,J
Improvements, there is such a thing rs re-
speeding them too much and permitting sen
tlmcnt to smother sense.
1t wasonly after another bitter and obsti-
nate resistance. which has not even vet, in
all sections Of the church, entirely given way,
that psalm singing was replaced by Chris
tian hymns. Long and loud were the com
plants that "mcn poems mere "humun
compositions were suffered TO cast out
'tLc word of God, las il the words of u
poet were better than those of a rhet."
Tho talyinistiG churches were especially
welded TO the psalms, AMI made II a matter
OF strong consci' nee not to yield them In
favor Of later hymns. The controversy was
vehement, but the hymns conquered,
md the average mind OF today
fin l. it difficult to understand why n purrl;
Jc ,i-h hymnody wGs suffered so long to
usurp n place in the Christian church for
which it never was designed or adapted.
Certainly the ever increasing wealth Of
sacred song Is one OF the chief comforts and
Slori : If our worship both in private and
IN pubic, and We would not, most of Us, now
dream Of at cmpting TO crowd back our
devotional thoughts into the mods that were
rG.t by Hebrew minds three thousand years
ago.
There Is ENCOURAGEMENT. We think. in this
bi: OF history for those who ARE tempted to
be imi gticnt because matters NOV" so
slowly On some similar lines OF reform per-
tainiGiucto our version Of the scriptures, or
our way OF looking ut III" process 10y which
the Hi'!e came TO be. II is doubtless well
that conservative minds should check the
possibly too rapid rush OF those more radi-
cal. and compel them to examine and re-
examine, to prove and doubly prove, be-
fore changes are admitted in things where
Il little error might do much harm. The
brakeman has hi, place ~ well rs the fire
man. God has made men different, aud He
has wisely SO arranged the distribution Of
mental gifts as TO secure in the long run, 10y
the interplay u intellectual forces. the golden
mean between stasnution 81 the one hand
and destruction on the other. Hence II only
remains for each to do the work which he
feels 70 be assigned him, and possess his
soul IN peace. assured that, 80 long ~ tine
Lord reigneth, earth will have reason to re-
ioice.