Keepa has some fine musicians as readers, and even more non-musicians like me who enjoy and listen closely to the music in our services. Here’s your invitation to tell your experiences with musical numbers that have added — or detracted — from services. Are there numbers you would dearly love to sing at church, if only it weren’t for that pesky second verse that preaches false doctrine?

Sing Only What We Believe

By Heber J. Grant, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

I recently attended the funeral of a faithful sister, the wife of an apostle, and the stake president of the Relief Societies. A solo was beautifully rendered entitled, “Just as I am,” sung, I understood, by special request. The melody is beautiful, one of the finest, to my untrained ear, I have ever heard.

On March 29th and 30th the second annual musical contest of Davis Stake was held at Kaysville and Bountiful. One of the solo contest pieces was, “Just as I am.” I did not have the pleasure of attending the contest …

The object of writing this article for the ERA is to show the absurdity of Latter-day Saints singing such a piece as “Just as I am.” I quote it in full:

Just as I am

Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God! I come, I come!

Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot.
To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God! I come, I come!

Just as I am, though tossed about,
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God! I come, I come!

Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind,
Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea, all I need, in Thee to find,
O Lamb of God1 I come, I come!

Just as I am; Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God! I come, I come!

– Charlotte Elliott.

It would be next to impossible to find more false teachings in so short a space than are contained in the above hymn. We who know the gospel to be true know that it is a falsehood that sinners will be received and pardoned and forgiven who have not taken the time to rid themselves of “one vile blot.” Salvation will come only to those who repent and have their sins washed away by baptism, and who thereafter show by a godly life that their repentance is genuine. … For falsehoods, pure and simple, I believe that the poem, “Just as I am,” deserves a premium. While in the European Mission, I gave three years of as faithful labor as it was possible for me to give, endeavoring to eradicate from the minds of the people just such false teachings as are contained in this song.

The Lord said in a revelation contained in Section 25 of the Doctrine and Covenants: “My soul delighteth in the song of the heart, yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.” Can a song, the teachings of which are false, be a prayer of the heart uttered to the Lord? Would a prayer which was false be one of those to which the Lord had reference when he said, “My soul delighteth in the song of the heart”? Most decidedly the Lord could not have had reference to such a prayer when he said: “The song of the righteous shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.” Every reader of the ERA knows how absurd it would be to answer “yes” to the above question. The fact that we cannot answer yes tells plainly that we should not sing songs where false doctrine is taught.

A number of years ago I wrote an article for the ERA – one of the first that I ever wrote – where I gave a practical illustration of a very remarkable fulfilment of the promise which the Lord makes in the revelation from which I have quoted. I have pleasure in quoting it:

Elders J. Golden Kimball and Charles A. Welch, neither of whom claim to sing well, while on a mission in the Southern States, were about to baptize some converts; a mob had assembled, and the brethren were given to understand that if they carried out their intentions of baptizing that the mob would throw them into the river. The brethren determined to go ahead no matter what the result might be. Before doing so, however, they sang a song. The song seemed to have such an effect upon the mob that they were almost transfixed. The brethren proceeded with their baptisms, and then went some distance to attend to confirming the baptized. A message came from the mob asking them to come and sing that song again, and the request was complied with. The leader of the mob, Joseph Harvis, afterwards joined the Church, and he stated to Elder Kimball that the sentiments of the hymn, and the inspiration attending the singing, converted him to the gospel. Brother Kimball’s recollection is that the hymn was “Truth Reflects Upon Our Senses.”

The more beautiful the music by which false doctrine is sung, the more dangerous it becomes. I appeal to all Latter-day Saints, and especially to our choirs, never to sing the words of a song, no matter how beautiful and inspiring the music may be, where the teachings are not in perfect accord with the truths of the gospel.

Singing is a very splendid part of the worship of the Latter-day Saints, and all are proud of the record which Utah’s two great musical organizations, the Salt Lake and the Ogden Tabernacle choirs, have made at home and abroad. There are also hundreds of other excellent choirs, from Canada on the north to Mexico on the south, whose singing to the ordinary lay member, like myself, is an inspiration. I have listened in Stockholm, Copenhagen, Christiania, Zurich, and Rotterdam to our “Mormon” choirs whose singing has been the equal in its inspiring and uplifting character to any that I have heard in the stakes of Zion.

The lesson which I desire to teach in this article is that no individual singer, or organization of signers, in the Church, should ever render a selection unless the words are in full harmony with the truths of the gospel, and can be given from the heart of the singer. In other words, our songs should be in very deed “prayers unto the Lord.” If we are careful to sing only such songs, then we are sure of the blessings which are promised by the Lord, because his promises are “true and faithful and will all be fulfilled.”

In conclusion, I say God bless our individual singers, and the members of our musical organizations. I know of no more self-sacrificing and loyal people than those who constitute our choirs, and who are constantly singing at funerals in our meetings for the benefit of the Saints. Their talents are given freely, and almost without exception without financial reward. I for one appreciate, beyond my ability to tell, the self-sacrificing and loyal devotion of our singers. I wish them God-speed, and there is no blessing too good for these faithful workers. From the bottom of my heart, I pray that the choicest blessings of the Lord may ever attend them, and that they may constantly grow and improve in their art, and that they may also advance in a knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

(Improvement Era, 1912, p. 784-787)