- 1. "What's wrong with the inspiring hymns with which we grew up? When I go to church, it is to worship God, not to be distracted with learning a new hymn. Last Sunday's was particularly unnerving. While the text was good, the tune was unsingable and the new harmonies were quite discordant."
- 2. "Was it the organist's idea or yours that our peaceful worship service was shattered by that new hymn last Sunday? The music was sacrilegious, something one would expect to hear in a den of iniquity, not a church! Don't expect me even to attempt to sing it next time!"
- 3. Pastor, I am no music scholar, but I feel I know appropriate church music when I hear it. Last Sunday's new hymn, if you call it that, sounded like a sentimental love ballad one might expect to hear crooned in a saloon. If you persist in exposing us to rubbish like this in God's house, don't be surprised if many of the faithful look for a new place to worship. The hymns we grew up with are all we need."
Answers:
- 1. "what a Friend we have in Jesus." From a 1890 letter to a minister.
- 2. "I love to tell the Story." written in 1874
- 3. "Just as I am" letter dated 1865
