Series: The Tozer Collection: Worship Music

Why Listen to Tozer?

Why Listen to Tozer?

This entry is part 1 of 14 in the series The Tozer Collection: Worship Music You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

A.W. Tozer is found in places where he probably wouldn’t have been invited to preach. His books will be found on the shelves of the charismatic church and the conservative, the Reformed and the Wesleyan, the fundamentalist and the seeker-sensitive. Tozer’s writings were of such penetrating clarity that they resonate with people of very different… Continue Reading

Music’s Power

Music’s Power

This entry is part 2 of 14 in the series The Tozer Collection: Worship Music You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

MUSIC. There is about music a subtle charm that no normal person can resist. It works to condition the mind and prepare it for the reception of ideas, moral and immoral, which in turn prepare the will to act either in righteousness or in sin. The notion that music and song are merely for amusement… Continue Reading

Noisy and Uncouth

Noisy and Uncouth

This entry is part 3 of 14 in the series The Tozer Collection: Worship Music You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Religious music has long ago fallen victim to this weak and twisted philosophy of godliness. Good hymnody has been betrayed and subverted by noisy, uncouth persons who have too long operated under the immunity afforded them by the timidity of the saints. The tragic result is that for one entire generation we have been rearing… Continue Reading

Bordering on Sacrilege

Bordering on Sacrilege

This entry is part 4 of 14 in the series The Tozer Collection: Worship Music You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Over the last few years the world has gone on to woo the Church (about like water woos a duck!) and has won her heart and hand in what seems to be a case of true love. The honeymoon is still on and the church is now the pampered bride of the world. And what… Continue Reading

The Double-Edge of Beautiful Music

The Double-Edge of Beautiful Music

This entry is part 5 of 14 in the series The Tozer Collection: Worship Music You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

The created world is to be prized for its usefulness, loved for its beauty and esteemed as the gift of God to His children. Love of natural beauty which has been the source of so much pure music, poetry and art is a good and desirable thing. Though the unregenerate soul is likely to enjoy… Continue Reading

The Problem of Numbers

The Problem of Numbers

This entry is part 6 of 14 in the series The Tozer Collection: Worship Music You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

The question of numbers and their relation to success or failure in the work of the Lord is one that disturbs most Christians more than a little. On the question there are two opposing schools of thought. There are Christians, for instance, who dismiss the whole matter as being beneath them. These correspond to the… Continue Reading

Hymns Are Musical Echoes of His Voice

Hymns Are Musical Echoes of His Voice

This entry is part 7 of 14 in the series The Tozer Collection: Worship Music You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

We can come and sing hymns in this church and only enjoy the dignity of the music as a relief from rock’n’roll. (Sermon, “Doctrine of the Remnant,” Chicago, 1957) —Tozer on Worship and Entertainment Just as the book of Psalms is a lyric commentary on the Old Testament, set to the music of warm personal… Continue Reading

The Hymnbook and the Devotional Life

The Hymnbook and the Devotional Life

This entry is part 8 of 14 in the series The Tozer Collection: Worship Music You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

In order to express myself more freely on a matter that lies very near to my heart, I shall waive the rather stilted editorial we and speak in the first person. The matter I have in mind is the place of the hymnbook in the devotional life of the Christian. For purposes of inward devotion,… Continue Reading

We Sing Junk

We Sing Junk

This entry is part 9 of 14 in the series The Tozer Collection: Worship Music You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Compare the Christian reading matter and you’ll know that we’re in pretty much the same situation. The Germans, the Scots, the Irish, the Welsh, the English, the Americans and the Canadians all have a common Protestant heritage. And what did they read, these Protestant forebears of yours and mine? Well, they read Doddridge’s The Rise… Continue Reading

Good Hymnals

Good Hymnals

This entry is part 10 of 14 in the series The Tozer Collection: Worship Music You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us” (Revelation 5:9)—that’s the theme of the new song. The theme of the new song isn’t “I am”; it’s “Thou art.” Notice the difference! When you look at the old hymnody of Wesley, Montgomery and… Continue Reading

Two Beautiful Works

Two Beautiful Works

This entry is part 11 of 14 in the series The Tozer Collection: Worship Music You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

In the poetical works of Frederick Faber I have found a hymn to the Holy Spirit which I would rank among the finest ever written, but so far as I know it has not been set to music, or if it has, it is not sung today in any church with which I am acquainted.… Continue Reading

The Christian Book of Mystical Verse

The Christian Book of Mystical Verse

This entry is part 12 of 14 in the series The Tozer Collection: Worship Music You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

(From the Introduction.) This is a book for the worshiper rather than for the student. It has been carefully and lovingly prepared for those God-enamored persons who, while they feel as deeply as the enraptured poet, yet lack the gift that would enable them to express their feelings adequately. Such will sense a kinship with the… Continue Reading

Simpson’s Hymns

Simpson’s Hymns

This entry is part 13 of 14 in the series The Tozer Collection: Worship Music You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Simple truth requires us to state that A. B. Simpson does not rate high as a writer of hymns. The effort on the part of some of his admirers to place him along with Watts and Wesley is simply absurd. A hymn, to be great—to be a hymn at all—must meet certain simple requirements. 1.… Continue Reading

Evaluating Tozer’s Views

Evaluating Tozer’s Views

This entry is part 14 of 14 in the series The Tozer Collection: Worship Music You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

We’ve gathered much of what Tozer wrote on music and hymnody. Having done so, some reflections on his writings might be helpful. I notice three outstanding features of Tozer’s approach to worship. First, it’s clear that Tozer made an attempt to understand poetry and music. Tozer did not have to become a literary or musical… Continue Reading