The Organ and Spiritual Worship

In the early days, Episcopalians and Congregationalists greatly enjoyed the organ in their services. However, some cast a dark eye on using the organ in worship because, more often than not, the best organists were worldlings who played for hire and who often played on weekdays for public theaters.

The fear was that organ playing would become an end in itself, a mere performance, an opportunity for the less spiritual to strut their stuff and build their names as an accomplished musician. And, since organ music was often hard, if not impossible, to sing to, church folks were reduced to mere spectators, to mere concert or opera onlookers.

The struggle to justify organ performances as spiritual worship troubled certain preachers who believed true worship centered on worshipping God in spirit and in truth. How far an organ performance, no matter how perfectly done, furthered that quest was an anguish. Is a beautiful musical performance a diversion from solemn worship? Can beauty be an enemy of worship if not brought forth from a devout heart?

Certainly God requires a spiritual worship, a worship that corresponds to the principles of godly devotion. But how far such principles can be realized by hired servants who may be strangers to God's grace is hard to say. Such questions may not plague believers as they once did, but they certainly troubled many in the early liturgical churches.