When Paul and Silas were cast into prison, they "prayed, and sang praises unto God" (Acts 16:25). Then the prison doors were opened, the bands of all who were in the prison were loosed, and the two men gained their freedom. On another occasion Paul insisted that singing be done in the same manner as prayer—with the spirit and the understanding—as an intelligent expression of Spirit, God. He brought this out in a letter to the church at Corinth (I Cor. 14:15), "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also."
The soloist in a Christian Science church has the wonderful opportunity of blessing the congregation with this type of singing. In fully praising God with his singing, the soloist as well as the listening congregation may witness the loosening of the prison bands of pressure, depression, anxiety, fear, hate, and disease. The purpose of the solo in the church service is not to entertain or provide diversion for human thought, but to contribute to the objective of healing in that service. The solo should excite sober and fervent consideration of God's absolute allness and the utter nothingness of the claims of mortality.
Mrs. Eddy writes concerning music (Message for 1900, p. 11): "I want not only quality, quantity, and variation in tone, but the unction of Love. Music is divine. Mind, not matter, makes music; and if the divine tone be lacking, the human tone has no melody for me."
