Reading the Line

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Has anyone read this book?

Reading the Line: An English Language Lined-out Psalmody Tradition in Presbyterian Scotland by Norman Campbell (2005).

Sheds new light on the English language equivalent of Scottish Gaelic psalm singing. This booklet traces the rise and decline of "reading the line" in English, and its re-emergence in one denomination, the Free Presbyterian Church. It also includes a brief survey of the North American versions of this tradition.

 

[turmeric]

I think that this is how hymn-singing was done for many years in black churches.

 

[NaphtaliPress]

The Campbell piece is a short work. As far as I recall it does not address any strong justification for the practice, certainly not for its necessity. This was one of the stranger positions of the Steelites in my opinion, insisting on the necessity of lining out the psalms, and I was glad to see the author not take that route. See The Westminster Directory for Public Worship and the Lining of the Psalm here.

 

[jaybird0827]

When we were still in PA last year I spoke on the phone with a Steelite from my area. He asked me if I practiced lining out the Psalms and I merely answered that I did not. At that point he wrote me off. I did not even attempt to debate the issue with him. For what it's worth.

 

[NaphtaliPress]

It is rather ironic that the Scottish commissioners to the Westminster Assembly opposed the English practice of lining the psalm.

 

[NaphtaliPress]

It is also rather ironic that "lining" is the suggested procedure in the Directory for Public Worship where the congregation is generally illiterate.