May I be permitted to ask, "Is it probable that our modern syllabic psalmody would produce similar effects upon Indians with good ears and honest intentions? Dr. Burney, that able judge of music, and discerner of its natural operation on the human mind, affirms, that "isochronous metre psalmody is more likely to drive Christians with good ears out of the church, than to draw pagans with good ears into it.”*

It is natural for every person to prefer metre music to prosaic, because custom will always advocate whatever is habitual; and because the one is congenial with song tunes, and the other has nothing in its composition or character of a secular nature. There exists such a reciprocity of alliance between metre psalmody and song music, that every metre psalm or hymn may be sung to a song tune of the same measure with itself; and every song may be sung to a metre psalm tune of a measure equivalent to its own. The quickness or the slowness, called the time of the music, has no interference with the measure of the bars in either case.

The natural ear is no more a competent judge

* History of Music, vol. ii. note to p. 7.

Dr. Beattie says, 66 It seems as decent, at least, to imitate the Roman Catholics as the Mahometans; and yet, we (Presbyterians) seem to have imitated the latter, in banishing from our churches all music, at least all good music; that which we have retained being in general so very bad, that it is necessary for a person to have a bad ear, before he can relish the worship of the Church of Scotland."

Sir William Forbes's Life of Dr. Beatie, p. 98..

of what species of music is exclusively commensurate to "the most worthy praise" of Jehovah, than the natural man is capable of discerning the spiritualities of his divine essence. Judging from the mere animal pleasure, which the ear receives from sounds, a person would as naturally dislike the music of " the song of Moses and the Lamb," as he disapprobates the prosaie psalmody of the Church. Such false guides are our human likings and dislikings, that, whilst they profess to be "lights to our feet, and lanterns to our paths," they frequently, to our shame and mortification, prove themselves to be as delusive as the wandering fires of the dreary desert.

That the public ear is extremely vitiated, many and cogent proofs might be adduced. Is not the infinite number of metre tunes in circulation one proof of the alleged fact? Is not the frequent changing of one tune for another in endless succession another proof? And as it is a proof that the stomach of a man is deranged, when it loathes its accustomed food, and with impatience eraves an unusual variety; so it is an equally certain proof, that the ear of a churchman is greatly vitiated, when he nauseates the musical dainties of his Father's house, and with insatiable appetite craves the exotic fruits which were originally produced in the garden of his adversary? Is it a symptom of a healthy ear, to reject the genuine music of the Mother Church, and

to attach itself to that of the Meeting-house and the Conventicle?

But when we affect, that, as Christians, "we are not of the world," and that it is meet and right, and our bounden duty, "to have our conversation in heaven;" it becomes evidently proper, that all our acts of religious worship should be stamped with such prominent marks of character, as may best serve to discriminate them from every thing of a secular nature. The sacred declarations, "my kingdom is not of this world -ye are not of this world;" the apostolic injunetion," be not conformed te this world," and many other texts of a similar import, unitedly lead us to think, that, as the structure of the several offices of our religion is radically different from that of all associate or political formularities, the psalmodic parts of those offices should be as much discriminated from secular music, as the music of the temple differed from that of idolatrous nations. And this is really the case; for all the appointed psalms and hymns of our public worship are wholly incommensurate to secular music. Between the condition of prose and that of verse, there is no more alliance than there is between the condition of a freeman and that of a slave.* The psalms and hymns of our holy

According to Cicero (pro Poeta Archia) libera pedis, free feet, denote prose; and vincti pedes, chained feet, characterize poetry

or verse.

E

offices are as dissimilar to the secularized psalms of the poets and the songs of the world, as the kingdom of our Lord, even Christ, is unlike to any of the transient governments of this perishable earth.

OBJECTION VII.

As I have neither voice nor ear for music, if chanting be admitted into our Church, I shall be deprived of the benefit, which I derive from responsive reading.”

REPLY.

This objection is altogether selfish; for the whole extent of it is bounded by personal imperfection. It is also unfounded on fact; for every person who can articulate words, hath his equal share in the psalmodic offices, whether they are sung or said, as chanting is nothing else than musical reading. When the appointed psalms and hymns are sung, a person who is unable to join in the more excellent way" of chanting them, may still pronounce every word with the same accent, emphasis, and sound of voice, which he uses in reading them responsively-only a little slower. "The change of the voice in

chanting a psalm or hymn is so small and natural, that every person is able to join in it; and yet it is sufficient to raise and keep up the gladness of our hearts."*

The psalmody of the Church is calculated to benefit every member thereof: it belongs to every individual alike, whether he sings or says it. And it is the duty of every one to prepare himself, by all the means in his power, to offer his oblation of praise" with great gladness." If the devout unmusical worshipper only reads those acts of praise, whilst others, endued with ear and voice, sing them, the rubric is obeyed, and the words of the psalmist accord with the united exertion of the reader and the singer, "I will sing, and speak praises unto the Lord:" for "God accepteth according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not."

There are some who say that God hath not given them a voice; and others, that they have not ear sufficient to distinguish one tune from another. This deficiency in grown up persons is to be ascribed rather to a neglect of cultivating their portion of voice and ear during their younger years, than to any original defect in their musical organs: For, where is the person to be found, who doth not use a varied intonation in speaking? And who is he, that hath got ears

* Law's Serious Call, ch. 15.