THE BEGINNING OF RECENT INNOVATIONS.
James Dodson
The movement for innovations began in the Established Church by the introduction of instrumental music and set forms of prayer, and by altering the postures of the congregations during the acts of worship. The postures of worship long established, and which still exist in the great mass of Presbyterian congregations over the land, consist in sitting at singing and standing at prayer, the latter being clearly according to primitive practice. These postures are now reversed by certain innovators. The people are taught to stand at praise and sit at prayer—kneeling being physically impossible in our Scottish churches—although sitting at prayer is an indecency previously unheard of in the Christian Church. The late Dr Robert Lee of Greyfriars’ Church was the leader in this movement, and in vindication of the position assumed by him, he published a volume entitled, “The Reform of the Church of Scotland in Worship, Government, and Doctrine. Part I. Worship.” In pursuance of his scheme he had an organ introduced, and he conducted the service according to a liturgy prepared by himself, which he got printed and put into the hands of his people. All this was done without ecclesiastical sanction, and gave rise to much discussion and to some
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legislation by the General Assembly on the subject, to be hereafter adverted to.
By a deliverance of the General Assembly, the Liturgy has been condemned, although it is understood that the movement even in this respect is by no means given up. Dr Lee was followed by several imitators in different parts of the country; and latterly the movement for innovations was pushed further than it had previously been, by the introduction into the Parish Church at Dunse of an altar and some other adjuncts of Popery. It is evident that among the younger ministers, and in certain parts of the Church, there is a general determination to alter the service of praise by the introduction of instrumental music as supplementary to the singing of psalms. It is, moreover, supposed that all this unsettledness about the worship arises partly from the uncertain sound given forth by the Assembly on the subject; and many are desirous of ascertaining the legal position of the Church in regard to innovations in general, and especially to instrumental music in public worship. With the view of considering these it is necessary to see precisely the position of the Church of Scotland as established—to consider her privileges and immunities as secured by Acts of Parliament, with their counterpart duties and obligations, and to advert to the history of the public worship as now and formerly practised in Presbyterian congregations generally; for the question now begins to be more or less applicable to nearly all the Presbyterian Churches.