Covenanter Witness Vol. 55 - Rparchives.org

sunshine."'concepts."to win men and women to Christ on the basis of apromise that their lives will be nothing but 'sweetness and light' would be false advertising.Jesus gave His disciples more of a challengethan this. He said to them, "In this world ye shallhave tribulations." Notwithstanding this fact, wecontinue in our churches to stand and sing the hymncalled "We Gather Together," which offers thisprayer :Let Thy congregation escape tribulation .. .So! Jesus promises us one thing if we take upour crosses and follow Him, and we pray for deliverance from that very thing. Heresy set to music !This is one of the most widespread misconceptions in modern-day Christianity and it is just thiswhich gives rise to the abandonment of faith whensorrow comes. Suppose a man and his wife havetaken Christ as Lord believing that their lives will be"all They are happy Christians. No harmcan come to them for they are Christ's. No sorrowcan come nigh their dwelling hasn't Cod so promised?Suddenly tragedy strikes. Possibly illness takesone of their children, and they face stark reality totally unprepared because theologically ungrounded.They discover that allegiance to Christ does NOT assure them of a life free from sorrow. But in the midstof the tragic hour it is too late to instruct. The resultis a shaken faith, possibly a complete rebellionagainst God, and a forsaking of the Christian faith.Too many of our hymns portray Christianityas a rabbit's foot religion. A charmed life is not oneof the fruits of Christian conviction. The Bible doesnot teach this fallacy, but we sing hymns which do.We have noted one or two already. Another, equallywell-known and frequently sung is "Now Thank WeAll Our God." The same extra-biblical doctrine isfound in the second stanza:And free us from all illsIn this world and the next.One misguided soul with whom I counseledsaw this verse of the hymn as sanctioning ChristianScience: "Isn't this what Mary Baker Eddy taught?"she reasoned. "He frees us from all ills."Let the case rest there. It should be clear thatwhen our hymns imply to untrained minds thatChristianity is a promise of freedom from sorrow,suffering, and sickness, it is hardly strengtheningthem in a faith which is adequate for these tempestuous times.Moreover, the high privilege of prayer is reduced in the hymnal to a heavenly push-button service. Take for example the well-known hymn, "Godwill take Care of You." The third stanza has thisglowing promise :Nothing you ask will be denied.How can we reconcile this with the clear statement of Jesus, "Ye ask,and ye receive not . .Now to be sure, there are other verses of Scripturewhich may be cited as a basis for the words of thehymn, notably Matthew 21:22, and it is surely notour purpose to suggest that prayer is unavailing. Butthe Scriptures must be read in context, and Jesusever taught that true prayer must be in His Name.That means more than simply tacking onto the end328of the prayer the words, "In Jesus' Name." It meanspraying in His Spirit, His very Personality.True prayer, then, will never even request thingswhich are not in withharmony God's will. Trueprayer seeks not so much to change things as tochange the person who prays. When these conditionsare met then God surely will grant the requests ofHis people.If all of this is presupposed in the hymn at hand,then we have no quarrel. But to make a categoricalstatement that "nothing you ask will be denied" is toopen the door for a variety of mistaken conceptsabout the nature and purpose of prayer.Note other instances of wobbly theology, thesewithout detailed elaboration. Dr. Leitch, in the quotation cited, mentioned the hymn, "In The Garden."This is one of those hymns or more accurately,songs, for it is not correctly designated a hymnwhich enjoys a fabulous popularity. I fear its greatpopularity is a rather revealing barometer both ofAmerica's spirituality and its musical appreciation!This song suggests an anthropomorphic God who"walks in the garden in the cool of the day." Notfar advanced beyond Adam and Eve. The secondstanza begins,He speaks and the sound of His voiceIs so sweet the birds hush their singing . . .Theological tommyrot! Unless God is speakingin audible tones the birds would hardly hear andthereupon cease their chirping. God speaks to us inthe still small voice. He does not walk and talk inthe physical fashion described in this song.Consider the chorus of the same song. Read thewords with an imaginative eye, trying to form avisual picture of the scene. It sounds for all the worldlike a lover's tryst ! Hardly a picture of a deep spiritual communion with the Almighty.In the same vein there is the anthem which isranked among the most popular, and which portraysthe God of Creation as an anthropomorphic Beingwith whom one roams the fields. The reference hereis to "My God And I," in which are to be found thosestartling words:We'll walk and talk and JESTas good friends do.Imagine one jesting with the Almighty !But the prize of them all is the fabulously popular gospel-song, "Sweet Hour of Prayer." I search invain for Scripture to substantiate, or imagination tovisualize its last sentence :And shout, while passing through the air,Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer.EDITOR'S NOTE :The above article is used by permissionof the EXPOSITOR and the author, and though they didnot authorize us to condense it for our purpose, we havetaken the liberty to do so by leavingout several paragraphswhich we considered "Heresy." One of the omitted paragraphs begins: "The hymnal is full of these fallacious concepts."We heartily agree to this and even go so far as tosay that we doubt if there is any book of praise except thePsalter (150 Spirit-indited psalms) that does not containnumerous "fallaciousbyThe Psalter is the standardwhich concepts are to be judged whether or not theyare fallacious, for it the very Word of God, and the prescription Himself has ordered.THE COVENANTER WITNESS