We Can Sing!
"We can demonstrate harmony and expressiveness and thus gain an ability to sing"
Many persons who would vigorously protest as untrue the claim of having poor eyesight, poor hearing, or poor health accept the equally false belief of having a poor singing voice. Many of these people would like very much to sing in church when the congregation is singing, yet they remain silent.
Singing belongs with laughter in the expression of joy and gratitude. Children, when happy, dance, skip, and sing. People realizing the goodness of God and what He has done for them often express their gratitude in spontaneous song.
An example of this is found in Exodus; here it is recorded that Moses and the Israelites sang in gratitude for their deliverance from slavery. We are told that after the men had sung, "Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously" (15:20, 21 ).
In the Order of Sunday Services for The Mother Church and its branches, Mrs. Eddy has provided in the Manual of The Mother Church (pp. 120, 121) for the singing of a solo and of three hymns.
Since singing is an integral part of worship in Christian Science, it is natural that each one should want to take part in this uplifting activity. And each of us can sing in the proportion that he eliminates the defeatist, negative claims of error that are causing him to remain silent and accepts the positive, real truths that characterize man in God's image.
When we realize that talking and singing are modes of vocal expression, we see that anyone who can talk can learn to sing. We can talk loud or low, or we can sing loud or low. We can modulate the voice in both speech and song.
Some of the more commonly heard reasons for not singing are that one is too old or that his voice is thin and cracks or that his breathing is difficult. We know, however, that God's man is spiritual, immortal, not subject to aging, deterioration, or weakness. As we realize this truth, we can joyously demonstrate it in our lives and express more of the fullness of Life in daily affairs.
Now and then we meet people who say, "I have no ear for music," or, "I can't carry a tune," or, "I'm a monotone." If through Christian Science one wishes to overcome these beliefs of limitation, he turns to the truth that hearing is a spiritual faculty comprised in God, Soul, and that as a faculty of Soul, it is not limited, dulled, or handicapped in any manner or degree. The realization and utilization of this truth will enable one not only to hear a tune but to sing it. Furthermore, God's varied expression is never limited; it is always clear, beautiful, spiritual, healing, and often expressed in modes of beauty as awesomely dramatic as when God talked to Moses from the burning bush.
Whatever the claim that would keep us from singing, we can rest assured it is spurious, and we can begin at once to overcome it through the liberating and expressive Christ, Truth.
In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 183 ), "Truth casts out all evils and materialistic methods with the actual spiritual law,—the law which gives sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, voice to the dumb, feet to the lame." The Gospel of Matthew records this healing of Christ Jesus' (12:22 ): "Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw." The healing power of the Christ is thus described in a hymn from the Christian Science Hymnal (No. 202):
The Christ is here, all dreams of error breaking,
Unloosing bonds of all captivity.
He comes to call the dumb to joyful singing;
The deaf to hear; the blinded eyes to see.
With such assurance, we can go forward with confidence that we can demonstrate harmony and expressiveness and thus gain an ability to sing.
We are blessed with a collection of hymns in the Christian Science Hymnal full of healing messages set to beautiful music. The Christian Science Board of Directors says of this book (ibid., Pref., p. v): "The love and truth expressed through the hymns in the Christian Science Hymnal have helped and comforted many, and will continue to do so in increased measure. Woven throughout the structure of this Hymnal, with its songs of praise and gratitude to God, is the thought contained in the 'Daily Prayer' of Christian Scientists, 'May Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind,' (Church Manual, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 41)."
Having such a heritage and the opportunity for developing our full stature as the sons of God, let us follow the exhortation found in I Chronicles (16:23 ), "Sing unto the Lord, all the earth; shew forth from day to day his salvation."
