Free
Church Presbyterianism, by Rev. James Begg, D.D.
Closing
Address: SPECIAL
DUTIES AND DANGERS OF THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.
Part
12: (Dangers)
OUR PSALMODY.
I shall not resume the questions discussed in the Assembly in regard to
our psalmody. Some respected brethren apparently wish our psalmody
changed in various ways, and the matter is a fair one for
consideration. I shall not enter upon any of these questions, because,
if spared, there will be other opportunities of discussing them; but I
am very anxious to say a few words in regard to the value of our own
Psalms as they stand, especially as some very unworthy attacks have
been made upon them elsewhere.
It implies an ignorance almost
astounding to hear the Psalms objected to as not containing the name of
Jesus. If the meaning be, that these five letters are not found in
conjunction in the Book of Psalms, this is admitted, although the
Psalms are full of Christ. If there were any force in this objection,
it would be an equally good argument for setting aside the whole Old
Testament together. [Applause.] The Psalms, we say, are full of Christ,
under a variety of names, as He himself explained to His disciples, and
as the Apostle Paul proves in his Epistle to the Hebrews.
The author,
moreover, of the version which forms the basis of ours is said to have
been intimate with the great Milton; and it is alleged, on what precise
authority I know not, that the hand of the great author of the
"Paradise Lost" may be seen in that noble version. Be this as it may,
whatever alterations may be suggested, we have at present, I have no
hesitation in saying, the grandest psalmody in the world, if our people
were only all taught to sing well — [applause] — and it is hoped that
the experience of other Churches will teach us at least to observe the
greatest caution in any change. [Applause.]
Admitting that it is lawful
to sing other portions of Scripture than the Book of Psalms, we do not
know a single instance in which this has been extensively done by other
Churches without virtually superseding the Book of Psalms altogether,
to the great injury of spiritual religion. You almost never hear a
Psalm sung now in the public worship of God in England or America. And
yet, it is a very remarkable fact, as mentioned by Dr MCrie, that
whilst God has not given the Church a Prayer-book, he has given her a
Psalm-book. [Applause.] This book, moreover, is not a short one, but
consists of one hundred and fifty psalms; so that, taking three for
each Sabbath, one with another, a sufficient number of psalms are
provided for the whole year, or, at the rate of six for each Sabbath, —
enough for half a year. If, therefore, as in some Churches, a multitude
of other compositions are added, it is easy to see how, as it has
turned out in practice, the Psalms must be virtually set aside. And yet
these Psalms, divinely inspired, contain the most exalted matter of
praise, the most sublime ascriptions of glory to God, the most
wonderful and ample references to the whole scheme of grace: they
supply the awakened soul with the deepest expressions of humility, and
the most rapturous language of faith, confidence, and love. [Applause.]
They are also inseparably connected with all the grander passages of
our Church's history, of which an historical statement or index would
be of great value. Every successive period of revival has brought out
their beauty with renewed lustre. It was in the language of these noble
Psalms that the Covenanters breathed forth their manly devotion:—
"Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt
From trouble keep me free;
Thou
with songs of deliverance
About shall compass me."
"God is our refuge
and our strength,
In straits a present aid;
Therefore, although the
earth remove,
We will not be afraid."
How many a glen and scaffold
re-echoed with the sound of these heaven-inspired odes, during the
fearful twenty-eight years of struggle and bloodshed by which our
spiritual liberties were won, bringing out sometimes with rugged
grandeur, no doubt, but in sublime language, the deepest feelings of
spiritual heroes in circumstances fitted to stir to their utmost depths
the strongest emotions of the human soul Who can help thinking of
Drumclog when he hears —
"In Judah's land God is well known,
His name's
in Israel great," &c.;
or of Hugh M'Kail when he sings —
"Into
thine hands I do commit
My spirit, for thou art he,
O thou Jehovah, God
of truth,
Who hast redeemed me.
Those that do lying vanities
Regard I
have abhorred
But as for me, my confidence
Is fixed on the Lord.
"I'll
in thy mercy gladly joy:
For thou my miseries
Considered hast. Thou
hast my soul
Known in adversities;
And thou hast not enclosed me
Within
the enemy's hand;
And by thee have my feet been made
In a large room to
stand."
At the Disruption the Psalms alone were almost universally
sung. We all know the Psalm of Dr Chalmers, which formed the guiding
note of the Disruption;—
"Unto the upright light doth rise,
Though he
in darkness be."
and that rapturous verse with which he commenced our
noble Free Assembly in Tanfield Hall,—
"Since better is thy love than
life,
My lips thee praise shall give;
I in thy name will lift my hands,
And bless thee while I live."
How well I remember, amongst many others,
Dr M'Kellar giving out, at a trying time —
"Jehovah hear thee in the
day,
When trouble he doth send;
And let the name of Jacob's God
Thee
from all ill defend."
and Dr M'Donald of Ferintosh embodying with
remarkable precision the very endurance and hopefulness of Celtic
piety, in the words —
"Oft did they vex: me from my youth,
May Israel
now declare;
Oft did they vex me from my youth,
But not victorious
were."
This peculiarity was equally remarkable also at the wonderful
Irish revival, — perhaps the most distinct phase of such a work that we
have witnessed. The deep emotions of awakened souls found their
appropriate expressions in the same language. How earnestly they
uttered —
"He took me from a fearful pit,
And from the miry clay,
And
on a rock he set my feet,
Establishing my way."
"My soul is vexed sore,
but, Lord,
How long stay wilt thou make?
Return, Lord, free my soul,
and save
Me for thy mercies' sake."
I well recollect with what a thrill
of feeling the words were sung, —
"From out of Sion, his own hill,
Where the perfection high
Of beauty is, from thence the Lord
Hath
shined gloriously."
No doubt some are ready to say, "We cannot always
find appropriate Psalms for our sermons." It may be so; but, after all,
this statement may often raise two questions: First, may not the fault
lie in your sermons, and not in the Psalms? [Laughter.] To us it seems
ordinarily rather a bad sign of a sermon if there is no Psalm to suit
it. [Laughter.] But, secondly, it may be asked, have you thoroughly
sought out an appropriate Psalm? Have you carefully studied the Book of
Psalms, to see what riches of devotional matter it contains? I put this
latter alternative because I used to find the same difficulty myself
with the American Hymn-book, with which I was unacquainted; and I can
never forget, on the other hand, what treasures my old friend Dr Jones
brought from the Psalm-book, before and after his preaching, to suit
all his subjects, which were very various, although he had cut the
hymns and paraphrases out of the book.
The late Dr. French, a man of
great talent and piety, who had been accustomed as a Relief minister,
chiefly to sing hymns, told me, not long before his death, that he took
far more interest in the Psalms after he had attended the death-bed of
an old pious woman in his congregation and heard her, with her withered
uplifted hands and solemn countenance, express her dying faith in these
striking words, the wonderful force and beauty of which he had never
seen before:—
"Thou my sure portion art alone,
Which I did choose, O
Lord
I have resolved and said that I
Would keep thy holy word.
With my
whole heart I did entreat
Thy face and favour free;
According to thy
gracious word,
Be merciful to me." [Applause.]
These Psalms have not
only formed the spiritual food of heroes, and of the most earnest
Christians of modern times, — they are not only inseparably interwoven
with all that is grandest and most distinctive in the past history of
our Church, — but many other great men have admired them. John Wilson
introduces in one of his most impressive scenes that beautiful verse —
"With thy tabernacle, Lord,
Who shall abide with thee,
And in thy high
and holy hill
Who shall a dweller be?"
Sir Walter Scott strongly
opposed the idea of altering our present version; whilst Mr. Hogg, the
Ettrick Shepherd, in defending it against Professor Tennant, made many
statements illustrative of its beauty and power. Hear, said he, the
thunder of the old Calvinist:—
"Praise waits for thee in Zion, Lord;
To thee vows paid shall be:
O, thou that hearer art of prayer,
All
flesh shall come to thee."
We are convinced, that if not the life, at
least the spiritual stamina and vigour of our Church, depends greatly
upon its people being fed, as heretofore, with the strong meat of the
Psalms, and this apart from all questions of principle, upon which I do
not at present enter. If the Church is again thrown into the furnace,
and if spiritual life remains, she will, I have no doubt, grasp at the
Psalms, as Luther did of old, and as David himself grasped, in his
straits, at the strong blade of Goliath, saying, "Give it to me: there
is none like it." It was the token of past success, and the pledge of
future victory. [Applause.]
The teaching of our theological students
thoroughly to understand, relish, and use the Psalm-book, would do
more, by the Divine blessing, to strengthen and build up the spiritual
element in our Church, than anything else of this nature that I can
imagine. We may apply, to a large extent, to this the language of a
late eminent minister of another Church to a rather unstable brother
whom he was inducting: — "Preach the old doctrines," said he, "and
stick to old language. No man having drunk old wine straightway
desireth new for he saith the old is better." [Laughter and
applause.]