Part 3 — Chapter XXI THE SELECTION OF HYMNS

I. SELECTION SHOULD SECURE UNITY OF SERVICE

Next in importance to the minister’s selection of his text comes the selection of his hymns. If he has a clear conception of the real unity of his service, it will appear in this more than in anything else.

Narrow Conception of Unity.

If the minister is a narrow, mechanically-minded man, with a sense of the need of mere logical unity, he will make the subject of his sermon the governing consideration in all parts of his service. The hymns will needs be all or nearly all didactic, the type with the least emotional or inspiring value.

The early hymns of the service will in an ineffective way anticipate the points of his discourse and, in so far as they have effectiveness, weaken by their more lucid and concise statement the discussion in the sermon. As the congregation usually does not know what the topic of the discourse is to be, the pertinency of the selection is not evident. The same is true of the Scripture lesson, if it is read before the long prayer. Logically the whole basis of selection is absurd.

Broader Conception of Unity.

The sermon is simply a co-ordinate part of divine service, not its governing feature to which all things else must be subordinated. The early hymns should not be selected with reference to the theme of the sermon; the last hymn should sum up not so much the ideas of the sermon as its emotional values.

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Unity Based on Purpose.

Among heathen people instruction must be the leading purpose of any meeting held for their benefit; but among well-taught Christian people, the chief purpose should be worship, to which the sermon should be simply one of several aids. The hymns should be emotional, worshipful, and not exclusively didactic, and should harmonize with the sermon by being subordinated, with the sermon, to the clearly-conceived worshipful purpose of the entire service. Dr. Austin Phelps, more than three-fourths of a century ago, enunciated the right policy: “It aims at unity of worship, not by sameness of theme, but by resemblance of spirit. It would have a sermon preceded and followed, not necessarily by a hymn on the identical subject, but by a hymn on a kindred subject, pertaining to the same group of thought, lying in the same perspective, and enkindling the same class of emotions.” To announce the theme of the coming sermon in the first hymn, to read a Scriptural passage as a basis for it, to grope around that theme in the prayer, to emphasize another phase in the second hymn, is a case of professional egotism so flagrant that its only shocking mitigation is that it is the accepted clerical estimate of the situation.

Now every service, of whatever form or character, is properly intended to bring the soul into conscious relation with God. Every phase of the soul’s activities is to be brought under the influence of this dominating purpose. As it cannot comprehend God in His completeness at any one moment, different attributes of His nature and the varied relation of these several attributes to manifold human needs furnish an endless abundance of worshipful themes. They will appeal to the understanding through the truth, to the heart through an emotional realization of that truth, and to the will by the choices offered to the soul’s supreme tribunal. Here, then, in this clearly-conceived phase of worshipful attitude, you find the basis for the logical unity of the service—a living unity that moves heart and will as well as reason.

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There is in this no fetter to the intellectual activity of the preacher, but rather a fresh stimulus and source of suggestion. It brings to bear vital forces within the speaker’s own soul that too often find little exercise, and changes the emotional elements of the service, the prayer, and the music—now too often mere haphazard, characterless excrescences—into definite sources of power for the realization of the desired spiritual results.

A preacher whose heart is a barometer of the spiritual condition of his people has no difficulty in finding subjects and texts for his sermons. If the needs of his people press upon him, those needs furnish an arc light that illuminates the Bible, and a suggestiveness that brings him an embarrassment of homiletical riches. Given a clear recognition of a definite immediate need and the consequent definite purpose, it will not only make sermonizing easy but will control the rest of the service. Not the theme of the sermon, but the purpose of the service as a whole, will be the organizing vitality.

II. SUGGESTIVE SELECTIONS OF HYMNS

Here is an earnest pastor who is impressed with the growing materialism, or worldliness, of his people. How shall be best dredge the stagnant shallows of their souls? He decides, not upon a single sermon, but upon a series of services with cumulative power, whose whole outlook shall be upon the Person and Character of God as the basis of his claims upon his creatures. There will be sermons upon these high themes of course, but they will call for noble and elevated co-ordinate co-operation in the rest of the service. Now these sermons should all be peculiarly worshipful, but that worship will be set to different keys.

Hymns for Service on God’s Omnipotence.

The sermon on the Divine Omnipotence calls for a noble enthusiasm. The hymns should be majestic and joyful. After profoundly 259 worshipful preliminary exercises it will not be wise to sing Watts’ hymn,

to the tune “Ariel” for the first hymn in spite of its appropriateness of thought: first, because it is not sufficiently elevated, and secondly, because the tune is too light. Watts’ more majestic hymn,

sung to “Old Hundredth,” would be more harmonious with the general purpose of the service. By the time the second hymn is reached there must be some exhilaration of spirit. It will not be desirable therefore to select

first, because it is in exactly the same key of feeling as the previous hymn; second, because for that reason no tune is quite so fitting to it as “Old Hundredth,” which is already provided for; and third, because the presumable intensifying of feeling by this time calls for a brighter text and more spirited music. But it must be a hymn of worship, none the less; we choose, therefore,

the interrupted dactylic measure and triple time tune giving both dignity and movement.

If the prelude was a joyfully majestic composition, the anthem one of elevated praise—e.g., a “Venite” or a “Jubilate”—the responsive reading and the choir responses reverent and worshipful, the long prayer of the preacher exalted with 260 genuine adoration (forgetful of the routine catalogue of petty petitions), and the Scripture passage noble with inspiring truth, the service might close at this point as having already realized its prime object of worship. There must have been something radically wrong in the spirit and management of it, if the preacher does not find his people responsive and himself inspiringly attuned to his noble theme. At the close of his discourse on the Divine Omnipotence, his people will presumably be ready to sing

to the exhilarating movement of the tune “Ariel.” The organist’s postlude will be characterized by a joyful solemnity, some strong maestoso movement.

Hymns for Service on God’s Love.

A service devoted to the worship of God, as manifested in His love, offers a wider range of possibilities. Is it the love manifested in the atonement? there may be the somber element of the crucifixion combined with its nobly elevated aspects; is it the love manifested to His children? there will be a chastened ecstasy in the hymns and prayers; is it the love that consoles and comforts? there will be the tender and sympathetic development of the theme—each will call for its own selection of hymns. As the last is perhaps the most difficult, let us see what program we should prepare for it.

a. Tender Service.

The organ prelude will be soft, sweet music, full of chromatic chords that melt one into the other, or a tender, emotional melody with soft accompaniment. The usual opening doxology will give way to an introit, sung very gently by the choir, set to a text expressing divine sympathy or a prayer for help. The invocation will be a plea for God’s manifest presence among His needy people. The first hymn sung by the congregation will sustain the feeling already established,

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sung to the tune “Aletta” or “Pleyel’s Hymn.” The responsive reading may be the forty-second and forty-third Psalms. The choir, having been advised in good time what was desired, sings some sympathetic setting of the twenty-third Psalm, or of the forty-second Psalm, or of the hymn “Just as I am.” If the preacher has kept step in his heart with the emotional progress of his service, the long prayer will be an expression of the need of the people and of a tender appreciation of God’s loving sympathy, closing with an ascription of praise to His limitless love. The people ought now to be ready to sing

After the discourse, a hymn in direct didactic relation to it may be sung in a bright and joyous spirit:

The postlude will be tenderly joyous and sympathetic in style.

There are many preachers whose nervous organizations would not enable them to adjust themselves to so tender an emotional key in developing the service. On the other hand, many congregations would not follow it, but would be lulled to sleep by it.

b. Joyful Service.

They would be entirely right in selecting as the opening hymn one of general praise and worship:

or even the quietly majestic hymn,

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The second hymn may be more prayerful and tender:

or

The final hymn may be more didactic:

or the more stirring and forceful

or that wonderful paean of faith in the divine love and providence,

In this case the postlude will be bright and joyous, preferably with some soft and tender episodical passages.

Hymns for a Missionary Service.

The preacher plans a missionary discourse: what is his order of service to be?

That means an aggressive, spiritual program whose purpose is stimulation of enthusiasm, of courage, of conquering faith, of bold decision.

The organist will be asked to play a bright prelude with pronounced but dignified rhythm, and striking harmonic progressions. The anthem by the choir may be based on some text of praise from the Psalms with stirring, somewhat rhythmical music that will stimulate the nerves of the people rather than soothe them. The responsive reading should be a Psalm of triumph, say the ninety-sixth. The long prayer for once may drop out of the omnibus conventionality and lead 263 the people in magnifying the irresistible power and the conquering love of God, with enough reference to current sorrows in the congregation to serve as a contrast, to make the realization of the strong right arm of God more vivid.

The hymns should be in keeping with this joyous recognition of God’s invincibility and assured triumph.

The first hymn may be Charles Wesley’s “Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing.” This is worship—mingled with faith and with aggressive purpose, it is true, but nevertheless distinctly worship.

An equally appropriate selection from Charles Wesley would be “Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim.” Care should be taken that the tune used for either is vigorous and well known. A dull tune for either would be a stumble on the threshold of the service.

The point in the service has not yet been reached where a distinctly missionary hymn is called for; aggressiveness in the Lord’s service is still the mood to be created. There would be a choice between Shurtleff’s vigorous “Lead on, O King Eternal,” with its specific dedication of self to any forward movement of the Christian Church, or Baring-Gould’s marching hymn with its American tune written by an English composer, “Onward, Christian soldiers,” which can hardly fail to stimulate the pulses of a presumably already stirred congregation, unless it is sung in a drawling, unaccented way.

If by this time the congregation is not prepared to be thrilled by an unexpected missionary sermon, eloquent with an appeal hardly to be equaled by any other topic connected with the Church’s activities, there has been something wrong with the preacher or his people.

At the close of the sermon the hearts of the people will be glad to express themselves either in Smith’s “The morning light is breaking,” or in Watts’ noble Christianized version of the seventy-second Psalm, “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun.” For once the organist can pull out all his stops and 264 play a brilliant but not flippant postlude without disturbing the mind and nerves of thoughtful and devout people.

In these suggested programs it has been evident that the unity is one of feeling and not of logic. This gave room for the interest which the unexpected supplies. There must be progress of feeling as well as of thought. The long prayer or the music after it, be it organ or choir or hymn, should be the climax of emotion. It should be allowed to subside a little during the announcements and offering, in order to rise to a still higher climax in the sermon and closing hymn.

In a tender, sympathetic service there is more danger of not taking the audience with you. If the music and the feelings suggested by the hymns are too quiet and depressing, there is danger of its acting as a lullaby, putting the people to sleep. Many a preacher wonders why some of his hearers are asleep before his text is fairly announced. In nine cases out of ten, it is due to the depressing character of the music used in the devotional part of the service.

III. IMPORTANCE OF THE TUNES

As has been incidentally suggested in the course of the illustrative progress, no small importance is to be attached to the selection of the tunes to be used with the hymns. The preacher cannot always afford to trust the compiler of the hymnal which he uses. That learned gentleman does not know what tune the preacher’s people can sing with a given hymn to the best advantage. He has to meet the difficulty of providing every hymn with an appropriate tune without having well-known and effective tunes enough to go round; he cannot repeat them over and over, but must use less popular tunes. Who shall judge him harshly, therefore, if in this dilemma he occasionally follows his own personal taste rather than the vaguely conceived needs of miscellaneous congregations.

But the minister must study the tunes in his hymnal lest 265 he limit his song service to the small number he happens to know well. To use a dozen or so tunes again and again will cut the nerve of musical interest in his musical helpers and in his congregation as well.

Hence, it is the minister’s task to re-edit the hymnal in part, remating hymns and tunes in order to secure the greatest results with his own people. Nor need he suffer with a sense of presumption. The important consideration is the results of the singing of hymns in an effective way, not loyalty to his church hymnal at the expense of those results.

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