Musical Instruments in the Worship of God - Glenn Conjurske

Musical Instruments in the Worship of God

by Glenn Conjurske

There are numbers of Christians of various denominations who contend strongly against the use of musical instruments in the worship of God, or at any rate in the public worship of God. Numerous arguments are advanced in favor of this restriction, and long debates have been held upon it, especially among the various factions of the Church of Christ. The fact that such instruments were used in the Old Testament we are told is irrelevant. The Old Testament is not the New Testament. Those who insist upon this have apparently failed to notice that musical instruments are also used in heaven, in Revelation 5:8. I suppose they shall tell us that heaven is not earth, and things may be allowed there which are not allowed here. This may be true, and such an argument may sometimes be legitimate, but the presence of harps in heaven proves at any rate that they are not intrinsically wrong, and it may after all be a small error, if error it be, to use on earth that which is used in heaven.

Some contend that no musical instrument can ever equal the beauty of the human voice, but this, if true, is certainly irrelevant. There may be other reasons for using a musical instrument than the mere beauty of it. A piano will help to keep the people together, and to keep them on tune. More important, it will set the proper pitch. I have tried upon occasion to sing along with certain congregations, who apparently go on year after year straining to come up to the high notes, or down to the low notes, in hymns which are improperly pitched. The use of a piano would render their singing a little easier. Some congregations wisely avoid this difficulty by using a pitch pipe, which apparently is neither musical nor an instrument. A good song leader, however, may learn to pitch the tunes properly, so that my argument here will be rendered void—-unless some folks would like to enjoy good singing where no good song leader is to be had.

But on. It seems there is another and deeper inconsistency in those who refuse to use musical instruments. Though they will not use a musical instrument in their singing, yet they continually sing that music which was composed and written with the use of a musical instrument. This is a practical necessity, if they are to sing the old hymns of the church, for it is a certain fact that most of the hymns which have ever been written have been either composed or committed to writing with the aid of a musical instrument. Though many may be capable of composing a tune without the use of an instrument, yet not one in ten thousand of them could either arrange that tune with its parts and chords, or commit the whole to paper, without using an instrument. And it should be understood here that it is not the mere melody—-not the mere tune, that is—-which makes music beautiful, but the combination of melody and harmony, and in some cases even the change of chords. All of this has in most cases been composed and committed to writing with the aid of a musical instrument. There may be here and there an accomplished musican who could do it without one, but certainly not most, and those who can do so doubtless owe that ability to their familiarity with musical instruments. I am certain that whatever ability I may have in that direction—-which is not much—-I owe entirely to my familiarity with the piano. It is altogether certain that most of the hymn music which is in use in the church today has been produced and written with the use of a piano or organ. With what consistency, then, can we sing such music, while we declaim against the use of those instruments, without the use of which that music would not exist?

Such a course might be likened to a man who goes to a saw mill and buys his lumber, and then sets to work to build his house, all the while declaiming against the use of power saws in building. His hand saw is quite sufficient, and he has no need of a power saw. Thus he raises his house, with lumber produced with a power saw. And so men will declaim against musical instruments, and sing acapella those songs which were produced by the use of a musical instrument. Consistency, thou art a gem!

But there is a further inconsistency in those who refuse to use musical instruments in the church. Except for certain musical geniuses, all of us must learn the music we sing with the help of a musical instrument. Not one in ten thousand of us can look at the printed music of a song we have never heard, and sing it from the printed page, without hearing it played on an instrument. The hymn book which I use myself, and which I compiled a number of years ago, contains more than threescore hymns, including some of the best hymns I know, which I had never heard until I found them in old books—-hymns which are entirely unknown in the church today, and can be learned only from the printed copies which survive in old hymn books. Every one of these I learned by hearing it played on the piano. This is the only way most of us can learn such hymns. Not only so, but for every good hymn which I have thus learned, I have listened to perhaps forty or fifty, which I found I must reject because they were mediocre and inferior. I must hear the music of every one of these played on the piano, in order even to be able to discern whether the music were good or poor. This is a simple necessity. I could not do this work at all without a musical instrument.

Now if the hymns must be both written and learned by means of a musical instrument, what harm can there be in singing them with the help of such an instrument?

This appears to me to put the matter upon the solid ground of common sense. Allow me, however, to anticipate an answer to my argument. It may be said that when Solomon built the temple, the tools of man were allowed in the hewing of the stones and timbers, but not in the erection of the house. “And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.” (I Kings 6:7). From this we might conclude that it is acceptable to use such human inventions as pianos and organs to produce the music, before it is brought to the sanctuary, but not in its use in the temple itself. To this I answer simply, Those tunes and arrangements themselves, not to mention the very words of the hymns, are as much the invention of man as the musical instruments are. God has given us no inspired music, and the inspired words which he has given are in general unsuitable for singing, and were never intended to be sung. If we are to sing hymns at all, we must sing something which is the invention of man, and what sin can there be therefore in singing it to the accompaniment of a man-made instrument? I plead only for consistency and common sense.

But understand, I do not plead for guitars, much less cymbals and drums. Guitars, the way they are commonly played, are of no use for learning hymns, and drums are of none. I am a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, and all such modern innovations, brought into the church from the world—-and generally by the Neo-evangelicals and Charismatics—-I stand solidly against. The piano has long been the instrument of Fundamentalism, and it is well suited to congregational singing, in a way that a guitar never was or will be.

And understand one other thing. I believe we ought always to deal gently with other people’s prejudices. I will no more force a piano upon a congregation which is prejudiced against it, than I will allow any Neo-evangelicals to force a guitar upon me. Our congregational singing ought by all means to be a pleasant experience, in which we may comfortably take part. It ceases to be that when we walk upon people’s feelings in order to have our own way in it. I will endeavor to convince the straitest traditionalists that there is no sin in a musical instrument, but I will not walk upon their feelings. If they choose to come where I bear rule, they shall sing with a piano, but if I go where they bear rule, I will sing without one. I once visited a Church of Christ in Oberlin, Kansas. It was a Wednesday evening, and there were perhaps seventy-five people present. They had no prayer meeting, but a singing meeting. They sang acapella, and it was most beautiful and enjoyable. That music yet rings in my soul every time I think of that place. That congregation needed no piano—-that is, they needed none with which to sing the hymns, though they doubtless needed one in order to learn them. Other congregations, especially smaller ones, do need one, and it is surely no sin to use one.

Glenn Conjurske