Good music blesses us

A delegate told the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, meeting in Philadelphia, "I have [come] all the way from my home in Kentucky to ask this body to refuse the great and pernicious error of adopting the use of [this new music] in public worship."

He wasn't someone objecting to the use of 21st century "praise songs" in contemporary worship. The year was 1789, and the music was the "flights of fancy" songs of "the father of English hymnody," Isaac Watts: radical music like "Joy to the World," "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," "Jesus Shall Reign Where'er the Sun," and "O God, Our Help in Ages Past."

Today marks the 259th anniversary of Watts' death. He wrote more than 600 songs, and fortunately his music has long outlasted his critics. He has become recognized as one of the great pillars of English church music.

"O God, Our Help in Ages Past" was played on BBC radio right after the announcement of the beginning of World War II and was sung at the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill. When the Scottish 1924 Olympic hero Eric Liddell (central character in the Oscar-winning movie "Chariots of Fire") left for missionary work in China, he led his friends and family in singing Watts' "Jesus Shall Reign Where'er the Sun."

Through his successors Watts changed the face of church music more than once. Famed evangelist Dwight L. Moody recruited his song-leader partner Ira Sankey by having Sankey stand on a wooden box on a street corner and sing Watts' "Am I a Soldier of the Cross?" to the people passing by.

This was not the "proper" way to do evangelism, but such a crowd gathered, and they were so moved, that Sankey quit his job with the government and joined Moody. The two traveled together for decades as a legendary American evangelistic team.

One day, at an evangelistic meeting in New York City, a young woman responded to the invitation to deepen her spiritual life. The turning point was the singing of the fifth stanza of Isaac Watts' "Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed," with its words: "I give my heart to you; it's all that I can do."

That woman was Fanny Crosby. She became one of the most popular and prolific Christian song-writers in history, penning the words to more than 8,000 Gospel songs, like "Blessed Assurance," "Rescue the Perishing," and "All the Way My Savior Leads Me."

Crosby's music also was controversial. Many traditionalists didn't like the emphasis on personal experience and on emotion. They preferred the more objective and God-centered songs. But Crosby's work also outlasted her critics, and they include some of the most popular songs of Protestant faith.

Apparently every generation goes through this kind of musical crisis. The music their parents found radical turns out to be boring to the children.

Yet some of it remains. There is bad music in every generation -- just check out some of the not-so-popular songs of Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley -- but the good music remains to bless future generations.

It will be interesting to see which of the present "praise songs" will stand the test of time. You can be certain that some of them will.