from Confessions by St. Augustine (354-430)

         We were baptized, and all anxiety over the past melted away from us.  The days were all too short, for I was lost in wonder and joy, meditating upon your far-reaching providence for the salvation of the human race.  The tears flowed from me when I heard your hymns and canticles, for the sweet singing of your Church moved me deeply.  The music surged in my ears, truth seeped into my heart, and my feelings of devotion overflowed, so that tears streamed down.  But they were tears of gladness.
         It was not long before this that the Church at Milan had begun to seek comfort and spiritual strength in the practice of singing hymns, in which not much more, since Justina, the mother of the boy emperor Valentinian, had been persecuting your devoted servant Ambrose in the interest of the heresy into which the Arians had seduced her.  In those days your faithful people used to keep watch in the church, ready to die with their bishop, your servant.  It was then that the practice of singing hymns and psalms was introduced, in keeping with the usage of the Eastern churches, to revive the flagging spirits of the people during their long and cheerless watch.  Ever since then the custom has been retained, and the example of Milan has been followed in many other places, in fact in almost every church throughout the world.