Musical theology?

I was intrigued by these two quotations. The first comes from the first volume of Dr Lloyd-Jones on the Sermon on the Mount; the second from an address by Ernest Kevan at Keswick from the book of Galatians.

‘The relation of any particular injunction to the whole life of the soul is the relationship, I think, of the artist to the particular rules and laws that govern what he is doing. Take, for example, the realm of music. A man may play a piece of great music quite accurately; he may make no mistakes at all. And yet it may be true to say of him that he did not really play Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. He played the notes correctly, but it was not the Sonata. What was he doing? He was mechanically striking the right notes, but missing the soul and the real interpretation. He wasn’t doing what Beethoven intended and meant. That, I think, is the relationship between the whole and the parts. The artist, the true artist, is always correct. Even the greatest artist cannot afford to neglect rules and regulations. But that is not what makes him the great artist. It is this something extra, the expression; it is the spirit, it is the life, it is “the whole” that he is able to convey. There it seems to me is the relationship of the particular to the general in the Sermon on the Mount. You cannot divorce, you cannot separate them. The Christian, while he puts his emphasis upon the spirit, is also concerned about the letter. But he is not concerned only about the letter, and he must never consider the letter apart from the spirit.’

‘It cannot be said too often that law-keeping can never be the means of sanctification, but it will certainly be the result… The new life of the believer, expressed in a new and active obedience, is itself freedom. “For freedom did Christ set us free.” “Oh how I love Thy law,” cries the Christian. Love now binds him in a manner that legalism never could; but this “bondage” is liberty itself. Love obligates him to an obedience to the will of God from which he has no desire to be released, and this is perfect freedom. As the liberty of a railway train is that it should keep to the track, and to jump the rails would bring nothing but disaster, so the believer, constrained by the love of God will run in the way of his commandments (Psalm 119:32). The Christian now does as he likes, but he has such a new and powerful set of likes that he is held to his Lord and Master in mightier ways than ever he had been held in his slavery to sin. His spiritual freedom is such as the musician experiences when the scales and exercises have become easy, and work has turned to play. The rules are lost in the delight of musical satisfaction.’

After the laying of the foundation stone for the Metropolitan Tabernacle Spurgeon preached a sermon in which he took up the illustration of building and applied it in various ways. I was struck by the following paragraph:

‘Now, there are some of us, brethren and sisters, who are engaged in a very quiet way amongst us. You never hear much about them – it is not often that they can go about to bring in stones, and they cannot polish them – as for judging whether the stone is good or not, that they could not do. They have but very little judgment, indeed, but they are such kind creatures. They exhibit a spirit of meekness, so that if there is a little disagreement they always step in and make it all right. If some brother is a little harsh, there is some kind word just ready. What shall I say these are doing? Why, they are not hewing the stones, or blasting in a quarry, or building or polishing, but they are mixing the mortar, and what a useful part of the work that is! There are many mortar-mixers in this Church. It would have been well, years ago, if there had been still more; and I do attribute much of the quietness and calmness and love of the Church to the fact that we have some excellent mortar-mixers, who, when any little unpleasantness occurs, begin mixing the mortar again. If we cannot do one thing, it is well if we can do another.’

The Preaching of Jonathan Edwards

This is a superb book and I only wish it had been published fifty years earlier than it was; I’m sure it would have helped me enormously. There are twenty-eight chapters, and these can be divided roughly into three sections, though the author himself does not do so. After an introductory chapter, the next six are about subject-matter, starting with God-Centredness. This is followed by The Preaching of Judgment, Sovereignty and responsibility, The concept of Seeking, Christ-Centredness and The Preaching of Heaven. After this come what might be called aspects of the sermon, beginning with Introductions and on through a subject like Imagery to The Use of Scripture. There are eight of these. The third section of eleven chapters is more about application, beginning with Different Categories of Hearers, concluding with Delivery. There are then two final chapters, both very important and enlightening, The Spirit of God, and Jonathan Edwards Today. A great deal of this is extremely practical and taking careful note of what the author brings to our attention, and applying it thoughtfully should make a great deal of difference to the way we preach. Few, very few, will not feel that Edwards has a great deal to teach us and that following what we have here will not improve our preaching considerably. There are other important aspects of Edwards’ ministry that are brought before us, for example, his recognition that Arminianism is essentially deistic, and his recognition of the periodicity of seasons of awakening. The last chapter has some criticisms of Edwards, particularly his failure as a pastor – too much time in the study, not enough in the homes of his people. There is much food for thought, for debate – and for reform. I would urge all ministers of the gospel, especially those in their early days, to read this volume.