“We profess to be Presbyterians. The example of Christ and his Apostles — the teachings of the Holy Spirit in those portions of the New Testament expressly devoted to this particular matter — the faith of the whole Christian church for centuries after Christ, and until that faith was corrupted by the incoming of Antichrist — the doctrine of those who loved Christ most during the long ages of Papal apostacy — the united testimony of all the Reformed, strictly so called, the covenanted faith of our ancestors, and of our immediate religious standards; these are the grounds on which we defend our steadfast refusal to corrupt the public praise of God, by human additions….

For twenty-two years, during which I have been an office-bearer in the Presbyterian church, I have seen a gradual declension of sound doctrine in that church, on this subject. The declension increases in its rapidity, and its power. It has been a sore vexation to me, that someof my nearest personal friends have countenanced and advanced this incoming desolation. For myself, I have never ceased to testify against it, and to increase the directness and force of my protest, in proportion as I have seen the evil increase; so that for many years I have refused even to bepresent, much less to preach in any Presbyterian church, where musical instruments were used — except they were silenced when I officiated. In most cases, my brethren in the ministry have respected my conscientious scruples: in many others, and some of them very painful cases, they have refused, and thus excluded me from their pulpits — and some of them, in addition, have reviled me bitterly. In all this, and for years together, no man has stood fully with me. Now in protracted confinement, and sore sickness, I am applied to by members of three or four of our most important Kentucky churches, in all three of which are many worshippers very dear to me, — to draw up the heads of my objections for their use, in examining what their duty may require; seeing that organs have been lately introduced into all three of the churches alluded to — ; and I have in this paper, — with much suffering, and as my circumstances allowed, briefly complied with the request — and therein, substantially, with many similar requests heretofore made of me. It may be my last public testimony for the Lord Christ — my last service for a church in whose behalf I have been sent. May He in whom is all my hope, not allow it to fall like water upon a rock.”

Lexington, Kentucky, Dec, 30th, 1851

— Robert J. Breckinridge, Protest Against the Use of Instrumental Music in the Stated Worship of God on the Lord’s Day (1852, 1853)