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eth with the apostle's own exhortation, speak to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody, and singing to the Lord in your hearts,' that surely there is more cause to fear lest the want thereof be a maim, than the use a blemish in the service of God?"*

To these testimonies of illustrious Ecclesiasties it is proper to add the declaration of a no less eminent Laic, the erudite antiquarian and musician, Doctor Burney, of Cambridge College, Old England, a writer of our own times. His evidence in favour of chanting is expressed thus: “This mode of singing is venerable for its antiquity, and honourable for its universality. It has never been applied to any other than the use of the sanctuary. Its simplicity and dissimilarity to secular music precludes levity in the composition, and licentiousness in the performance; and it possesses a beauty of character, and a variety of expression, which intelligent hearers, free from prejudice, will always discover and admire."

But if these testimonies in favour of the excellent way of "setting forth God's most worthy praise" are not altogether satisfactory to the objector, let him have the goodness to attend to additional arguments, whilst we reason together.

Eccles. Polity, B. v. p. 262.

History of Music, vol. ii. p. 21. To this author I confess my obligations for many sentiments and historical facts for which I have not been able to make the references, not having all the volumes in my possession.

Every creature possesses musical powers, and the faculty of enjoying musical sounds to a certain degree; but man is endued with these capabilities in a degree infinitely superior to that of any other creature, of which we have any knowledge. His ear, his voice, and his organs of speech are the best calculated for musical intonation, and he feels an irresistible propensity to apply these talents to his own gratification. The light and airy part of our species cannot do without music and songs of a character similar to their own. The voluptuous person cannot do without his licentious and amorous ditties; nor can the bacchanalian do without his appropriate songs in honour of his jolly god. The huntsman cannot enjoy the chase, without winding his horn; the sailor cannot heave his lead, without his Neptunean chant ; nor can the warrior rush into the field of battle, without the clangor tubarum of fifes, clarinets, trumpets, horns, and drums. And is the churchman the only character that can do well enough without his appropriate songs and music?

Will the objector say, that the emancipated Hebrews would have expressed their gratitude sufficiently, without chanting the celebrated hymn recorded in the 15th chapter of Exodus? Would a joy and rejoicing for their miraculous passage through the Red Sea have accorded with the mere saying that hymn, or the hearing of it said by others?

Could the Jewish Church have done well enough without the musical establishment, which" was ordained by a statute for ever throughout their generations," for setting forth Jehovah's greatness, goodness, mercy, and truth?

Could our Lord have celebrated the Jewish Passover, or instituted that of the Christian Church, without chanting the appropriate hymns of his own institution, without dishonouring the law?

Could Peter and John, with their associates, have sufficiently expressed their joy and gratitude, without lifting up their voice with one accord, to sing their triumphant hymn of praise and prayer? Or, what reason have we to imagine that an earthquake would have been commissioned to give free egress from prison to Paul and Silas, if they had not, at the midnight hour, been engaged in intercourse with God, by praise and prayer?

Let the professor of Christianity, who says he can do well enough without chanting, consider that, if we are to be governed by scripture maxims, and the example of inspired persons, we cannot do justice to ourselves, without the use of supplication in a "meek and humble voice ;" neither can we do justice to God, without ascribing the honour due unto his name with the elevated voice of praise and thanksgiving." Without the use of prayer and praise, the spiritual

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life can no more be kept alive, than the natural, without inhaling and exhaling the common air.

St. John describes the redeemed of the Lord, in their abodes of bliss, as having no other employment than that of singing hallelujahs "to Him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb." Now, we cannot but think, that he who prescribed them that employment, appointed what was most for his own glory, and the felicity of his servants.

The Church, both under the Levitical and the Christian dispensations, is said to have been formed according to the pattern of things in the heavens; but how dissimilar to the heavenly original would the earthly copy be, were there no hallelujahs chanted in the assemblies of the saints; and were the opinion to prevail, that Christians can do well enough without chanting?

On the same principle that one says, “we can do well enough without chanting," another thinks he can do well enough without communicating in the holy Eucharist. On the same principle also, some persons select such of the evangelical precepts as are the most easily obeyed, and think they can do well enough with a partial obedience. And not a few seem to act, as if they thought, that they could do well enough with a religion of their own making, or with none at all.

What an astonishing difference between the Christians of ancient and those of modern times!

In accordance with the apostolic injunction; "Is any merry? let him sing psalms ;"* the hearts of those heavenly minded persons were always attuned to the songs of Zion; insomuch so, that whenever they assembled for public worship,

every one had a psalm." All the intervals of labour, business, or domestic cares, were occupied with chanting forth the praises of God their Saviour, or in supplicating his direction and blessing on all the works of their hands.‡

Can we reasonably think, that the bent of our desires is towards God and heavenly joys, if our hearts are so dull and languid, as to be unable to sing and give praise; or so indifferent to the hallelujahs of the choirs of heaven, as to discountenance the hallelujahs of the church upon earth? Preparatory to our joining the heavenly host, we must become like them; for to beings possessed of affections different from theirs, heaven itself would be no heaven, and their rapturous hymns would yield no delight.

Is it credible that our affections, the strings of

* St. James v. 13..

+1 Cor. xiv. 26.

Dr. Cave's Prim. Christianity. If the primitive Christians were enthusiastically fond of psalmody, they were so in the good sense of the word voouglasμoss compounded of ev in, Osos Deus, and awo spiro seu flo, to breathe. And it appears that their psalmodic practice was zealously imitated by their successors for many generations, even down to the era of the reformation; for the chants and anthems of religion were then as much relished all over Europe, not only in church, but out of it, as oratorios and the opera have been at any period of the last century.