is to heighten
emotion, then, this emotional quality being the _sine qua non_ (the music
being of no use without it), it follows that it is the primary
consideration. If we are to have music at all, it must be such as will
raise or heighten emotion; and to define this we must ask, _Whose
emotion?_ and _What kind of emotion?_

Let us take this latter question first, and inquire what emotions it is
usual, proper, or possible to express by congregational singing of hymns.
William Law, in his _Serious Call_, has an interesting, I may say
amusing, chapter on the duty of all to sing, whether they have any turn
or inclination for it or no. All should sing, he says, even though they
dislike doing so; and I think that what he affirms of private devotion
applies with greater force to public worship. It should satisfy the most
ardent advocate of congregational singing, and it goes certainly to the
root of the matter.

'It is so right and beneficial to devotion, has so much effect upon our
hearts, that it may be insisted on as a common rule for all persons;
... for singing is as much the proper use of a psalm as devout
supplication is the proper use of a form of prayer: and a psalm only
read is very much like a prayer that is only looked over.... If you
were to tell a person that has such a song, that he need not sing it,
that it was sufficient to peruse it, he would wonder what you meant,
... as if you were to tell him that he should only look at his food, to
see whether it was good, but need not eat it.... You will perhaps say
that singing is a particular talent, that belongs only to particular
people, and that you have neither voice nor ear for music.

'If you had said that singing is a general talent, and that people
differ in that as they do in all other things, you had said something
much truer.

'For how vastly people differ in the talent of thinking, which is not
only common to all men, but seems to be the very essence of human
nature: ... yet no one desires to be excused from thought because he
has not this talent in any fine degree....

'If a person were to forbear praying because he had an odd tone in his
voice, he would have as good an excuse as he that forbears from singing
psalms because he has but little management of his voice....

'These songs make a sense (of) delight in God they awaken holy
devotion: they teach how to ask: they kindle a holy flame....

'Sing