2. From 1 Corinthians 14:23-33, it seems plain that the composition, as well as the singing of these hymns and songs, might be the result of sudden emotion or inspiration. In any case, there is no doubt (for Tertullian decisively states it) that the “extempore,” or, more strictly, “private” authorship of such psalmody was not uncommon. The council of Laodicea (_circa_ A.D. 360) interdicted private persons from this privilege. Even in Paul’s time it would appear to have produced an effect akin to the “spirituals” of our own freedmen—much of it being exquisite in its simple devotion, while a certain share offended good taste, and hindered the propriety and solemnity of worship. 3. The alternation of prayer with praise was never better illustrated than when Paul and Silas (Acts 16:25) sent up their midnight anthems from that “inner prison,” while their feet were “made fast in the stocks.” This alternation was—as the Fathers assure us—the order in public worship also. 4. We have received in the very pages of the New Testament some of these earliest hymns. To say nothing, at present, of those great leading chants which bear the names of the angels, and of Mary, and of Zacharias, and of Simeon—and to pass over all those of Jewish origin—we have still left us such a strain as that in Acts 4:24-30. Here we have an impulse which expresses itself in reply to Peter and John by sacred song. Ephesians 5:14 has also been considered to be such a fragment: “Awake, O thou that sleepest! Arouse thee from the dead! And Christ shall give to thee Enlightenment!” So too 1 Timothy 3:16 has been arranged by some scholars as though it were a well-known strophe the Apostle quoted: “Who—for the mystery is great— Was manifest in body, Was justified in spirit, Was visible to angels, Was heralded to heathen, Was trusted on the earth, Was taken up to glory.” Nor is this the only instance in this very Epistle, for 1 Timothy 6:15, 16, reads: “The king of all the kingly ones, The lord of all the lordly ones, Who only hath the power of life immortal; Inhabiting the unapproachable light; Whom never any one of men hath seen, Nor ever can behold; Let glory and eternal strength be his! Amen!”