Spiritual (religious song)

“ Prayer bringing the desired answer breaks out into praise and thanksgiving. So that whatever interferes with and injures the spirit of prayer necessarily hurts and dissipates the spirit of praise.
The heart must have in it the grace of prayer to sing the praise of God. Spiritual singing is not to be done by musical taste or talent, but by the grace of God in the heart. Nothing helps praise so mightily as a gracious revival of true religion in the Church. The conscious presence of God inspires song. ”

“ There all will appear symmetry and harmony, and even the most intricate and seemingly most contrary dispensations, will be evidenced to be the result of infinite and consummate wisdom, power, and love. Above all, there the believer will see the infinite depths of that mystery of godliness, “God manifested in the flesh,” and join with that blessed choir, who with a restless unweariedness are ever singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. ”

“ They have done this more effectively than any other means employed 2 to produce these exhilarating and virtuous qualities of Christian character.
It is true that Christianity came out of a religion which has its rich heritage in the Psalter. Indeed, this is the world’s greatest hymn book; its sentences of prayer and praise have captured the hearts of generations of pious souls and ministered to their religious and moral needs. It is equally true that Christianity has liberated song far more effectively than any other religion. ”

“ But always the spirit of nature's signs as interpreted in Man, above all in Christ, lays its claim on the soul; always as sung by the chorus of human spirits that live on the "Righteousness, Peace, and Joy" of the Will of God, the New Song of Life through Death has in it a summons and receives from one and another here, passing through much tribulation, its fuller concord of human achievement, or at least the desirous Amen. ”

“ Thou shalt adjust thy soul to the Heavenly Harmonies. Thou shalt know that thyself, that life and the universe is Music. Thou shalt touch the chords of Life. Thou shalt know that Music is everywhere; that it is the Heart of Being; then shalt thou hear with thy spiritual ear the Deathless Symphonies.
Wouldst thou preach the living word? Thou shalt forego thyself, and become that Word. Thou shalt know one thing—that the human heart is good, is divine; thou shalt live on one thing—Love. Thou shalt love all, seeing no evil, thinking no evil, believing no evil ”

“ Cultivate the habit of binding the whole realm of feeling in music together, the hymns and the songs, to make religion mean beauty and devotion and to make the finer sentiments of life truly religious. ”

“ Ought we not when we dig, and when we plow, and when we eat, to sing this hymn to God, because He hath given us these implements whereby we may till the soil? Great is God because He hath given us hands, and the means of nourishment and food; and insensible growth, and breathing sleep; these things we ought to hymn, because He hath given us the power to appreciate these blessings and continuously to use them. And, since the most of you are blinded, ought there not to be one to fulfil this song for you, and on behalf of all to sing a hymn of happiness to God? ”

“ It is only when we stand and gaze upon nature, with the Bible in our hands, and its idea of God in our understandings, that nature is capable of rising to her highest majesty, and kindling in our souls the highest emotions of moral beauty and sublimity. Without the all-pervading spiritual God of the Bible in our thoughts, nature's sweetest music would lose its charm, the universe its highest significance and glory. ”

“ There is the glow of poetic enthusiasm in his eyes, and the fervor of religious feeling in all his moods; as he tends his flock amid the quietness and beauty of his native hills, he joins to the aspirations of his soul the melodies of music. So the night overtakes him, the labors of the day are past, his meditations withdraw him from the society of men, he is alone with Nature and with God;—at such a moment the spirit of composition and utterance is upon him, and he hymns himself in those lofty and touching stanzas,—
"O Jehovah, our Lord,
How excellent is thy name in all the earth! ”

“ All truly holy souls, even those the most opposed in their pews or their studies, meet and melt and mingle in song; holy song is the solvent of the most divergent creeds. Perhaps the greater number of the early Methodists were not pressed by physical want; concern for the soul was the grand business, in many instances possibly it was a wild and even diseased feeling. ”

“ These are they which shall listen to the music of heaven—these are the spiritual senses which shall hear and see and taste and feel those ineffable glories, of which our earthly pilgrimage has no appreciation, and which, if presented to us in the body, we could not perceive, nor, perceiving, comprehend. These are they which shall worship and adore, comprehending the glory of Omnipotence, and drinking in and pouring out the full stream of divine and never-failing love and gratitude. ”

“ The devout soul, though endowed with a voice of only medium capacity, will render these prayerful melodies with far greater effect than a first-class artist who sings only from the lips, while his heart remains unmoved by the words and the song. ”

“ And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God. St. Luke ii. 13.
What sudden blaze of song
Spreads o’er th’ expanse of Heaven?
In waves of light it thrills along,
Th’ angelic signal given—
“Glory to God!” from yonder central fire
Flows out the echoing lay beyond the starry choir;
Like circles widening round
Upon a clear blue river,
Orb after orb, the wondrous sound
Is echoed on for ever:
“Glory to God on high, on earth be peace,
And love towards men of love—salvation and release.” ”

“ Religion, love, and music: are they not the triple expression of one fact, the need of expansion, the need of touching with their own infinite the infinite beyond them, which is in the fibre of all noble souls? These three forms of poesy end in God, who alone can unwind the knot of earthly emotion. Thus this holy human trinity joins itself to the holiness of God, of whom we make to ourselves no conception unless we surround him by the fires of love and the golden cymbals of music and light and harmony. ”

“ The mortal aspires in purity of heart, and the immortal comes down and assists and responds to his aspirations.
Our souls vibrated in unison to the expression of heavenly thoughts. We threw ourselves into the rapture of the hour. We trembled, we thrilled, till at last frail mortal nature could scarcely endure the intensity of that perfect joy.
So we came to the end. The end is a chorus of angels. They sing the divinest of songs that is written in Holy Revelation. All the glory of that song reaches its climax in the last strain:
“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes!” ”

“ And form a paradise below.
4 Jesus, forgive us, that we keep
Thy sacred law of love asleep,
No more let envy, wrath, and pride,
But thy blest maxims be our guide.
Hymn 1:39.
God's tender care of his church, Isa. 13 &c.
1 How shall my inward joys arise
And burst into a song,
Almighty love inspires my heart,
And pleasure tunes my tongue.
2 God on his thirsty Sion-hill
Some mercy-drops has thrown,
And solemn oaths have bound his love
To shower salvation down.
3 Why do we then indulge our fears,
Suspicions and complaints?
Is he a God, and shall his grace
Grow weary of his saints? ”

“ To the mystical soul, quiet to listen to "the music of the spheres," all sweet accordant sounds are singing Holy, Holy, Holy to the mystical soul, "full of eyes within"—like those Creatures of Life seen on the plain by the prophet of the Law of Life as renewed for Hope, and seen in the heights by the herald of the Evangel of life as fulfilled in Love—all symmetrical sights are as doors that are opened in Heaven. ”

“ But the soul that is in the third degree is all burning fire, and like the [50] nightingale that loves song and melody, and fails for great love: so that the soul is only comforted in praising and loving God; and till Death come, is singing ghostly to Jesus, and in Jesus, and Jesus ”

“ To others again, as we have already said, the working of the Holy Spirit meant a gentle warming of the heart, or a gush of pious emotion. 'All warmed by prayer', in a well-known hymn, is an example of the depths to which religious verse can descend.
We shall do well, indeed, not to despise the work of grace in its slenderest manifestations or among the least of God's little ones. There must be many to whom little more than a faint sensation is possible ”

“ Our prophets were not afraid of calling for music, when they wished to prophesy, and letting it soften and raise their souls, and open and quicken them till they saw into the inner harmony of things, and beheld the future in the present; for they knew who made the melody and harmony, and made them the outward symbols of the inward song which runs through sun and stars, storm and tempest, fulfilling his word—in that these sham philosophers the heathen are wiser than those Christian monks. ”

“ They never tire, they never cease to sing their Maker's praise; and because they are full of the Holy Ghost they are on fire with love, they glitter like snow in its whiteness, they give forth sweet scent like spices, their chant is joyful, smooth and sweet. They intone evenly; they join in heartily; they keep time; they sing with voices full of love; the joy on their countenances is pleasant to behold; they are, as it were, beside themselves in God.
Who could grow weary or fall asleep in choir, if he kept constantly in mind the blessed and exceeding joy of the Angels in Heaven? ”

“ Or, again, they are the symbol of the hidden soul, beauties scattered in seemingly desert places in the spiritual world, of the hearts that watch with God in the midst of the turmoil of earth, of hearts whose unbroken hymn of love is never silent, because of the babel of tongues that, to all but the ear of God, seems so resolutely to drown it. ”

“ Thus speaks the apostolic scripture: "But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour to man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us." [7] Behold the might of the new song! It has made men out of stones, men out of beasts. Those, moreover, that were as dead, not being partakers of the true life, have come to life again, simply by becoming listeners to this song. It also composed the universe into melodious order, and tuned the discord of the elements to harmonious arrangement, so that the whole world might become harmony. ”

“ Our theme, then, is peculiarly sacred, since it deals with the spiritual songs in which earnest and sincere men have uttered, in the very presence of God, their most secret thoughts, confessions, and aspirations. ”

“ It is to bow to their immutable terms, to lay all passion and vexation of spirit prostrate at [81] their feet, and to approach their divine presence with a mind so calm and so void of littleness as to be ready to receive the dictates of fantasy and the revelations of truth. Thus the art becomes a divinity, man approaches her with religious feelings, his inspirations are God's divine gifts, and his aim fixed by the same hand from above which helps him to attain it. ”

“ He maintains that death’s stream “chills the body but not the soul,” and he believes that
’Way up in the Rock of Ages
In God’s bosom gonna be my pillah.
As of old, heaven is the greatest theme of his religious song. He used to sing:
When I git to heaven gonna ease, ease,
Me an’ my God gonna do as we please.
Now wait till I gits my gospel shoes,
Gonna walk about heaven an’ spread the news.
Dere’s a long white robe in de heaven for me.
No more hard trials in de kingdom.
Gonna feast off milk an’ honey.
Now he sings:
I wants to go to heaven, set in de angel’s seat ”

“ Songs of praise the angels sang, heaven with hallelujahs rang,
When Jehovah’s work begun, when He spake and it was done.
Songs of praise awoke the morn, when the Prince of Peace was born;
Songs of praise arose when He captive led captivity.
Heaven and earth must pass away, songs of praise shall crown that day;
God will make new heaven and earth, songs of praise shall hail their birth.
Saints below, with heart and voice, still in songs of praise rejoice;
Learning here by faith and love, songs of praise to sing above.
Borne upon the latest breath, songs of praise shall conquer death ”

“ Grace and tenderness, when the cheering assurances of the Gospel are the theme, crushing burdens of gloom when the author’s thought turns to the mysteries of death and judgment, mournfulness in view of sin, the pleading accents of contrition,—every manifestation of emotion which a rigid creed, allied to a racial mysticism which evades positive conceptions, can call forth is projected in tones whose strength and fervor were never attained before in religious music. ”

“ When you sing, O soul, remember that you are as truly communing with the holy and omnipresent God as when you are praying. Consider that you are standing in spirit before the throne of God with countless thousands of angels and spirits of the just and that you are blending your weak praises with the music of heaven. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. ”

“ Could those whose lives have been spent in rebellion against God be suddenly transported to heaven, and witness the high, the holy state of perfection that ever exists there,—every soul filled with love, every countenance beaming with joy, enrapturing music in melodious strains rising in honor of God and the Lamb, and ceaseless streams of light flowing upon the redeemed from the face of Him who sitteth upon the throne,—could those whose hearts are filled with hatred of God, of truth and holiness, mingle with the heavenly throng and join their songs of praise? ”