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San Francisco, Calif.
August, 1875
To Elder J. W. Tener, and the
Church of Christ in San Francisco:
The
undersigned, Members of said Church, in view of the action of a portion
thereof, in introducing Instrumental Music into the congregational worship,
offer this, their protest, and earnestly ask, for the sake of peace in the
body of Christ, that it be regarded.
It
is a notorious fact, that where-ever the subject of Instrumental Music in the
Churches of Christ has been agitated it has led to discord and strife, and
that its introduction has been the means of dividing bodies otherwise
harmoniously working for the good cause. Without discussing the question upon
its merits, it is enough that we look at the facts in this case.
A
few of your brethren have asked you to abstain from gratifying your tastes, in
what is to you, confessedly, a mere matter of expediency, at the expense of
their convictions, upon what is to them a matter of vital import. You cannot
lightly decide for them, and for the great body of Christian people with whom
they stand in perfect accord, that they must not entertain conscientious
convictions upon a matter for which the most favorable argument is, that the
Scriptures do not in express words forbid.
They
have not asked any great sacrifice on your part. They have not asked you to
abstain from anything enjoined upon you in
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the scriptures. They have asked you to
do what the Christian Church, during all the earlier and purer
ages of its history, did, and continued to do for 1,200 years
after Christ — what the authors and movers in our great
Reformation, for many happy, peaceful and prosperous years were
content to do, to the glory of God and the upbuilding of His
kingdom. They have asked you the simple boon of worshipping God
with you according to the dictate of their conscience, in a way
which all agree is sanctioned by the Word of God.
The
Scriptures demand of us that we avoid foolish and untaught
questions and such as do gender strife. In all sincerity and
candor we believe that you have violated that Scripture — with
other precepts and principles contained in the law of the Lord
— the observance of which, while it might not commend us to
the lovers of show and worldly pomp, would certainly promote our
growth in that religion whose chief beauty is its simplicity. We
believe your action in this matter to be totally unjustifiable,
and until the error is amended, unpardonable. We beg of you that
you seriously consider the responsibility you assume in
depriving some, however few and however humble, of the privilege
of worshipping God, in His congregation, according to their
conscience, in conformity with divine commands and apostolic
precedent. Believing, as we do, that the action taken in this
matter is a grievous wrong, we can do no less than utter in this
way our lasting protest against it. (Sgn., 11 saints.)
(From
Oct. 29,’70 Gospel Guardian.) RFT
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