FOR MANY believers there has been a lack of good resources to help them worship the Lord in private devotion or in public gatherings of the Lord’s people. Many hymns and choruses that could be sung by memory and without instruments have been laid aside for more contemporary songs that have much musical accompaniment. The argument is not over styles of music or what is permissible in a worship setting but rather that a very powerful weapon of the Church has been lost. This occurs when we do not have many hymns and choruses that we can sing without instruments with a whole heart towards the Lord. Thus the burden here is to simply supply a resource of many old hymns, choruses and spiritual songs for reading, meditation and singing privately and corporately.1143 We encourage the believers as they gather, to sing the choruses slowly and boldly to the Lord Himself.
Throughout the 2000 years of the Christian Church there have been many different modes of music used. We are not arguing for one specific style of music. This hymnal does not exclude the singing of more contemporary songs in meetings, this choice will be up to the discretion of brothers and sisters in each individual meeting. One interesting thought from the past, around 300 AD: “The singing of the early Christians was simple and artless. Augustine describes the singing at Alexandria under Athanasius as more like speaking than singing. Musical instruments were not used. The pipe, tabret, and harp were associated so intimately with the sensuous heathen cults, as well as with the wild revelries and shameless performances of the degenerate theatre and circus, that it is easy to understand the prejudice against their use in the Christian worship.”1144 In the time of Jesus singing acapella was normal and used much more than in our contemporary societies. The great benefit of an Assembly singing without instruments is that under persecution there is still an ability to easily worship the Lord in this fashion.
May God lead each group by His Spirit. This is simply a small resource that will benefit some. Even to be read aloud and meditated on they are a great help to encourage us along the pilgrim way.1145
From practical experience we have found that singing hymns very slowly and clearly allows the greatest time for meditation on the words so therefore each person can worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth.1146 May we heed the Words in Ephesians: “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.”1147 Sing to the Lord. Sing in a way where you direct the Words to God and give Him the glory.
Most of the hymns have been modernized in their wording to have younger generations participate, to help their understanding and to aid the understanding of those speaking other languages. Changes were made also to bring more attention to the work of Christ’s blood shed for mankind. We even encourage brethren who are musically gifted to compose new tunes for these hymns so that a new generation can benefit greatly from the words of these precious hymns of the past.
We dedicate this hymnal to the Son of God, Jesus Christ. One day soon we will all worship the Lamb of God in heaven. Amen.