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Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Music quotes, the devil's tunes

Did John Wesley ask, "Why should the devil have all the best tunes?" That, or "the devil has no right to all the good tunes" has been variously credited to John Wesley, George Whitfield, Charles Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Martin Luther, William Booth, and who knows who else. In a sermon at Surrey Chapel in London in 1844, Rowland Hill is said, "The devil should not have all the best tunes."

Regardless, a Baptist writing in 1867 thought one of the Wesleys said it, and agreed to a certain extent. Yet he thought there were plenty of tunes that ought to be left with him! (The devil, not Wesley.)

"With Wesley, we do not see why the devil should have all the best, but we must say many tunes have crept in to worshipping assemblies and Christian families, which ought to have been restricted to him and his." -- The Voice of Truth; or, Baptist Record, January 1867, p. 17

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