UNSUNG BUT SINGING: THE UNAPPRECIATED CHRISTIAN

“Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the LORD” (EPHESIANS 5:19).

To value the esteem of mankind and for Christ’s sake to renounce it is a form of crucifixion suffered by true Christians since the days of the apostles. It cannot be denied that the way of the cross is unpopular and that it brings a measure of reproach upon those who take it. The learned historians tell of councils and persecutions and religious wars, but in the midst of all the mummery were a few who saw the Eternal City in full view and managed almost to walk on earth as if they had already gone to heaven. These were the joyous ones who got little recognition from the world of institutionalized religion and might have gone altogether unnoticed except for their singing.

 

Unsung but singing this is the short and simple story of many today whose names are not known beyond the small circle of their own company. Their gifts are not many nor great, but their song is sweet and clear!

 

John Milton lost his sight and mourned that loss in the third book of his Paradise Lost. But in spite of his affliction, he refused to be desolate. If he could not see, he could still think and he could still pray. Like the nightingale he could sing in the darkness “…as the wakeful bird Sings darkling, and, in shadiest covert hid, Tunes her nocturnal note.”

 

We are never sure where a true Christian may be found—and the busy world may actually not even know he is there—except that they hear him singing!

 

  1. W. Tozer