Instruments of Music in the Worship.
of Christ that has sealed the New Testament. “Moreover the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry he sprinkled in like manner with the blood. And according to the law, I may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission. It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. . . . But now once at the end of the ages hath he been manifested to put away sin.” (Heb. 9: 21-26, R. V.)
Here are examples of service in song: Jesus and the disciples, after eating the Supper, “when they had sung a hymn, . . . went out into the mount of Olives.” (Matt. 26: 30.) In the Philippian jail, Paul and Silas, with hands and feet fast in the stocks, “at midnight sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.” (Acts 16: 25.) “I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.” The context shows that he meant: I will so sing that those who hear may understand the words sung—1 Cor. 14: 16: “Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?” “Be not drunken with wine; . . . but be filled with the Spirit; speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.” (Eph. 5: 18, 19, R. V.) “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” (Col. 3: 16.) These passages from Ephesians and Colossians mean exactly the same. To be filled with the Spirit and to have the word of God dwelling in the heart richly are one and the same thing; to sing and make melody in the heart to the Lord and to sing with grace in the heart to the Lord are one and the same thing, and mean to bring the thoughts and feelings of the heart into harmony with the sentiment sung. It is the sentiment that is sung that
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