Russell A. Cardwell Online

Here’s an interesting statement published in a U.S. newspaper:

There are several reasons for opposing it. One, it’s too new. Two, it’s often worldly, even blasphemous. The new Christian music is not as pleasant as the established style. Because there are so many new songs you can’t learn them all. It puts too much emphasis on instrumental music rather than Godly lyrics. This new music creates disturbances; people act indecently and disorderly. The preceding generation got along without it. It’s a money making scene and some of these new music upstarts are lewd and loose.

In case you’re wondering who wrote this, and what songs the writer was so upset about, the author was William Romaine, an Anglican pastor and author, who wrote this critique in An Essay on Psalmody in 1723. It was a statement against the hymns of Isaac Watts, who wrote such blasphemous songs as Joy to the World, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, Alas and Did My Saviour Bleed, At the Cross, O God Our Help in Ages Past, and hundreds more. Watts was one of the most popular writers of contemporary worship music in his day.

That which has been is that which will be,
And that which has been done is that which will be done.
So there is nothing new under the sun.
—Ecclesiastes 1:9

What else can I say?

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