inconsistent with the vitality and liberty of the apostolic churches. At the same time the frequent
use of psalms and short forms of devotion, as the Lord’s Prayer, may be inferred with certainty
from the Jewish custom, from the Lord’s direction respecting his model prayer,^667 from the strong
sense of fellowship among the first Christians, and finally from the liturgical spirit of the ancient
church, which could not have so generally prevailed both in the East and the West without some
apostolic and post-apostolic precedent. The oldest forms are the eucharistic prayers of the Didache,
and the petition for rulers in the first Epistle of Clement, which contrasts most beautifully with the
cruel hostility of Nero and Domitian.^668- The Song, a form of prayer, in the festive dress of poetry and the elevated language of
inspiration, raising the congregation to the highest pitch of devotion, and giving it a part in the
heavenly harmonies of the saints. This passed immediately, with the psalms of the Old Testament,
those inexhaustible treasures of spiritual experience, edification, and comfort, from the temple and
the synagogue into the Christian church. The Lord himself inaugurated psalmody into the new
covenant at the institution of the holy Supper,^669 and Paul expressly enjoined the singing of "psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs," as a means of social edification.^670 But to this precious inheritance
from the past, whose full value was now for the first time understood in the light of the New
Testament revelation, the church, in the enthusiasm of her first love, added original, specifically
Christian psalms, hymns, doxologies, and benedictions, which afforded the richest material for
Sacred poetry and music in succeeding centuries; the song of the heavenly hosts, for example, at
the birth of the Saviour;^671 the "Nunc dimittis" of Simeon;^672 the "Magnificat" of the Virgin Mary;^673
the "Benedictus" of Zacharias;^674 the thanksgiving of Peter after his miraculous deliverance;^675 the
speaking with tongues in the apostolic churches, which, whether song or prayer, was always in the
(^667) Matt. 6:9;Luke 11:1, 2. The Didache, ch. 8, gives the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew, with a brief doxology (comp. 1 Cor.
29:11), and the direction to pray it three times a day. See Schaff on the Did., p. 188 sq.
(^668) Didache chs. 8 –10; Clement, Ad Cor., chs. 59 –61. See vol. II. 226.
(^669) Comp. Matt. 26:30; Mark 14: 26.
(^670) Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16.
(^671) The "Gloria,"Luke 2:14.
(^672) Luke 2:29.
(^673) Luke 1:46 sqq.
(^674) Luke 1:68 sqq.
(^675) Acts 4:24-30. Comp. Ps. 2.
A.D. 1-100.