{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_44039/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_44039","id":"gutenberg_44039","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44039","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Poetry","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Hymns, Latin -- Translations into English"],"text":"_Hymns of the Early Church_\n\n\n BEING TRANSLATIONS FROM THE POETRY OF THE LATIN CHURCH, ARRANGED IN\n THE ORDER OF THE CHRISTIAN YEAR\n\n _With Hymns for Sundays and Week-Days_\n\n BY THE\n REV. JOHN BROWNLIE\n AUTHOR OF\n \u201cHYMNS OF OUR PILGRIMAGE,\u201d ETC. ETC.\n\n _WITH HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES_\n\n BY THE\n REV. C. G. M\u2018CRIE, D.D.\n AUTHOR OF\n \u201cPUBLIC WORSHIP OF PRESBYTERIAN SCOTLAND,\u201d ETC.\n\n _London_\n JAMES NISBET & CO.\n 21 BERNERS STREET\n 1896\n\n\n _Printed by_ Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.\n _At the Ballantyne Press_\n\n\n\n\n PREFACE\n\n\nThis volume is intended for hours of devotion, and the vast storehouse\nof sacred poetry of the Latin Church has been put under tribute to\nsupply the material.\n\nIf an apology should be required for the book, it may perhaps be enough\nto say that, while south of the Tweed Latin hymnody has had\nconsiderable attention paid to it, the subject has hitherto been all\nbut neglected in Scotland. There may be reasons for this\u2014we believe\nthere are; but with these we have nothing to do here. The fact remains\nthat, while Anglicans can point to a long list of names worthily\nassociated with this department of Christian literature, including such\nwell-known hymnologists as Trench, Neale, and Newman, we in Scotland\nhave only two: Robert Campbell, author of the \u201cSt. Andrews Hymnal,\u201d and\nDr. Hamilton M\u2018Gill, author of \u201cSongs of the Christian Creed and Life,\u201d\nwith the addition of Dr. Horatius Bonar, who, besides reflecting the\nspirit of the poetry of the Early Church in many of his own hymns, has\nleft us also a few skilful renderings of the original. The present\nvolume is, we believe, the first of its kind produced by Scotsmen and\nPresbyterians.\n\nIn making a selection, the translator has experienced no difficulty in\nregard to the quantity and quality of material at hand; indeed, he has\nlaboured under an embarrassment of riches. But the choice has been made\nfrom the best, and care has been taken to use only those hymns that\nmight be acceptable in point of doctrine to the most fastidious.\n\nIt has been the aim of the translator to give the _idea_ and _spirit_\nof the Latin verses, and except in a very few instances absolute\nfaithfulness to the original has been observed, with as much\nliteralness as it is possible to give to work of this sort.\n\nAs a rule the original measures have been retained, and only in a few\npieces, where change seemed desirable, have different measures been\nadopted.\n\nFor the original text, the following collections have been used:\u2014\n\n Daniel, H. A. _Thesaurus Hymnologicus._ 5 vols. Halle and Leipzig,\n 1841-56.\n Mone, F. J. _Lateinische Hymnen des Mittelalters._ 3 vols. Freiburg,\n 1853-55.\n Wrangham, D. S. \u201cThe Liturgical Poetry of Adam St. Victor.\u201d 3 vols.\n London, 1881.\n Newman, J. H. _Hymni Ecclesi\u00e6._ Oxford and London, 1865.\n Neale, J. M. _Hymni Ecclesi\u00e6._ London, 1851.\n Trench, R. C. \u201cSacred Latin Poetry.\u201d London, 1886.\n\n\nThe translator desires to give expression to his sense of indebtedness\nto Dr. M\u2018Crie, whose share in this work is by no means confined to the\nIntroduction and Notes. It was at his instigation that the task was at\nfirst undertaken, and his help and co-operation as the work of\nrendering progressed, were ungrudgingly given.\n\nIt will be cause for thankfulness to the translator if the work of some\nof the happiest hours of his life should meet with the appreciation and\napprobation of his fellow-countrymen, and awaken their interest in a\ndepartment of devotional literature which has been too long neglected.\n\n Portpatrick,\n _November_ 1895.\n\n\n\n\n INDEX OF LATIN TITLES\n\n\n PAGE\n\n Sundays and Week-Days\u2014\n Die, dierum principe 3\n O nata lux de lumine 5\n Tu Trinitatis Unitas 7\n Deus Creator omnium 9\n O Deus, ego amo Te, nec 11\n Lucis Creator optime 13\n Aurora jam spargit polum 15\n Jesu, dulcis memoria 17\n O Deus, ego amo Te, nam 20\n Te lucis ante terminum 22\n Jam meta noctis transiit 23\n Labente jam solis rot\u00e2 25\n Splendor Patern\u00e6 glori\u00e6 27\n Salvator mundi, Domine 30\n Christe, lumen perpetuum 32\n Nox atra rerum contegit 34\n Jam lucis orto sidere 36\n Jam sol recedit igneus 38\n\n Advent\u2014\n Christe, precamur annue 41\n In noctis umbra desides 43\n Veni, Veni, Emmanuel! 45\n\n Christmas\u2014\n Nato nobis Salvatore 49\n Puer natus in Bethlehem 52\n Heu! quid jaces stabulo 54\n Quicumque christum qu\u00e6ritis 57\n\n Epiphany\u2014\n Jesu, nostra Redemptio 61\n Dei canamus gloriam 63\n Deus-Homo, Rex c\u0153lorum 65\n\n Passion Week\u2014\n Vexilla Regis prodeunt 69\n Pange, lingua, gloriosi, pr\u0153lium 72\n Lustra sex qui jam peregit 75\n Crux ave benedicta 78\n Hor\u00e6 de Passione d. n. Jesu Christi 80\n Tu qui velatus facie 80\n Hora qui ductus tertia 81\n Crucem pro nobis subiit 82\n Beata Christi passio 82\n Qui jacuisti mortuus 83\n\n Easter\u2014\n Finita jam sunt pr\u00e6lia 87\n Plaudite, c\u0153li 89\n Mortis portis fractis 91\n Alleluia, dulce carmen 93\n\n Ascension\u2014\n \u00c6terne Rex altissime 97\n Postquam hostem et inferna 100\n C\u0153los ascendit hodie 102\n O Christe, qui noster poli 104\n\n Whitsuntide\u2014\n Veni, Creator Spiritus 109\n Veni, Sancte Spiritus 111\n O fons amoris, Spiritus 114\n\n Trinity\u2014\n Tu Trinitatis unitas 117\n O Pater Sancte, mitis atque pie 118\n Adesto, Sancta Trinitas 119\n\n All Saints\u2014\n Pugnate, Christe milites 123\n Audi nos, Rex Christe 125\n\n Communion\u2014\n Eja O dulcis anima 129\n O Esca viatorum 131\n Jesu, dulcedo cordium 133\n Verbum supernum prodiens 135\n\n Death and Judgment\u2014\n Gravi me terrore pulsas 139\n Appropinquat enim dies 143\n\n Heaven\u2014\n Jerusalem luminosa 149\n Urbs beata Hierusalem (Part I.) 153\n Urbs beata Hierusalem (Part II.) 154\n\n\n\n\n HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION\n\n\nThe Latin poetry of the Christian Church presents a tempting field for\nthe exercise of scholarship and research. The relation in which it\nstands on the one hand to the classic poetry of Greece and Italy, and\non the other to the Liturgies of the Eastern Church, the placing of\naccent in the room of quantity, and the rise and growth of rhyme\u2014these\nand such-like matters will always prove attractive to experts and\nspecialists. They are, however, quite beyond the scope of this brief\npaper. Those who wish to make an exhaustive study of a subject which\nhas many sides and a copious literature, would do well to betake\nthemselves to such standard works as are noted below.[1] The general\nreader may find something to profit and to interest him in the\nfollowing general survey.\n\nThe title placed on our Saviour\u2019s cross, setting forth His\naccusation\u2014\u201cJesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews,\u201d was written in\nthree languages\u2014in Hebrew and in Greek and in Latin. That collocation\nof languages gives the order in which the hymnody of the Church\ndeveloped.\n\nHebrew hymnody is contained for the most part in the Hebrew Psalter;\nfor the distinction between psalms and hymns is not one that admits of\nbeing applied to all Hebrew poetry. Our Lord and His disciples, as they\nwent out to the Mount of Olives after the institution and first\nobservance of the Supper Sacrament, sang a portion of the Great Hallel,\nwhich consists of Psalms cxiii. to cxviii. inclusive. Their doing so is\ndescribed in the New Testament as singing \u201can hymn,\u201d just as the\nsinging of Paul and Silas in the Philippian prison is said to be\nsinging hymns unto God.[2]\n\nIn the Eastern or Greek Church hymnody was in both private and public\nuse from earliest times. The oft-quoted letter of the younger Pliny,\nwritten soon after his arrival as Proconsul in the provinces of\nBithynia and Pontus, which took place in A.D. 110, informs the Emperor\nthat it was the practice of the Christians to meet together on a\ncertain day and sing antiphonally (_secum invicem_) a hymn to Christ as\ntheir God; while the \u201cApostolical Constitutions,\u201d which take us back to\nthe life of the Church in the second or third centuries, enjoin the use\nof morning and evening hymns of praise for God\u2019s beneficence by Christ.\nFrom the ample stores of Oriental hymnology there have come into modern\ncollections many of their gems, thanks to the scholarship and\nversifying skill of Dr. Neale, Keble, and Canon Bright. To the first\nnamed we are indebted for such well-known renderings of Greek sacred\npieces as \u201cFierce was the wild billow,\u201d and, \u201cThe day is past and\nover,\u201d as also for \u201cArt thou weary, art thou languid?\u201d From the author\nof the \u201cChristian Year\u201d we have a beautiful English rendering of a\nfirst or second century Greek hymn, preserved by Basil, \u201cHail,\ngladdening Light, of His pure glory poured;\u201d and from Canon Bright we\nhave the vesper or \u201clamplighting hymn,\u201d with its opening invocation,\n\u201cLight of gladness, Beam Divine.\u201d\n\nThe Western Church came under Eastern influence in the matter of hymn\ncomposition in the fourth century. The first to compose hymns in Latin\nverse was Hilary of Poitiers. This theologian was banished to Phrygia\nby the Emperor Constantius, because of his defence of the Nicene Creed\nfrom the attacks of the Arian party. During the bishop\u2019s exile, his\ndaughter, Abra, wrote to inform him that she had been sought in\nmarriage, although only in her thirteenth year. This drew forth a reply\nin which the father left the decision to her own choice, indicating at\nthe same time a personal preference for continued virginity. Enclosed\nin the communication were a _hymnus matutinus_ and a _hymnus\nvesperinus_. The morning hymn, beginning _Lucis largitor splendida_, is\nstill extant, and has been styled \u201cthe oldest authentic original Latin\nsong of praise to Christ as God.\u201d It is, however, more than doubtful if\nthe one for evening use survives; for the hymn, _Ad c\u0153li clara non sum\ndignus sidera_, given in the Benedictine edition of Hilary\u2019s works,\nbelongs to the sixth or seventh century, and is probably of Irish\nauthorship.\n\nAnother name associated with the rise of sacred Latin poetry is that of\nAmbrose, Bishop of Milan. It will ever be to the glory of this\nfourth-century Father that Augustine ascribed to him his conversion,\nand sought baptism at his hands. His illustrious convert tells, in the\nninth book of his \u201cConfessions,\u201d how the bishop defended the churches\nof Milan against the intrusion of Arian modes of worship, in spite of\nthe efforts put forth by Justina, mother of the Emperor Valentinian, to\nobtain one of the basilicas for the use of the party she favoured.\nAlarmed by a report that he might be removed by force, the devout\npeople of the city surrounded the bishop day and night, ready to die\nwith him rather than allow him to be apprehended.\n\nHe, on his part, to stimulate their zeal and sustain their courage,\nsupplied them with hymns to sing in honour of the Trinity. \u201cThen,\u201d\nwrites Augustine, \u201cit was first instituted that, after the manner of\nthe Eastern churches, hymns and psalms should be sung, lest the people\nshould wax faint through the tediousness of sorrow; and from that day\nto this the custom is retained, divers (yea, almost all Thy)\ncongregations throughout other parts of the world following herein.\u201d\nWell nigh a hundred hymns have at one time or another passed under the\ntitle Ambrosian, but the number of authenticated pieces is pitiably\nsmall, not exceeding four. In that small group the _Te Deum laudamus_,\nat one time ascribed to the Bishop of Milan, does not find a place.\nFor, as in the case of the _Gloria in Excelsis Deo_, the _Dies Ir\u00e6_,\nand the _Veni, Sancte Spiritus_, the question who wrote the _Te Deum_\nhas not received a final answer, if, indeed, it ever will. Of this,\nhowever, we may be well assured, that in the time of Jerome of the\nfifth century, hymns were in general use throughout the Western as in\nthe Eastern Church. Writing to Marcellus, that most scholarly and\nerudite among the Fathers of the Latin Church assured his correspondent\n\u201cYou could not go into the field but you might hear the ploughman at\nhis _Hallelujah_, the mower at his hymns, and the vine-dresser singing\nDavid\u2019s Psalms.\u201d\n\nFrom the days of Hilary and of Ambrose, of Augustine and of Jerome,\nonwards through the patristic period of Church history, and all down\nthe medieval centuries, there never failed to be a goodly succession of\nhymn-writers. To mention these, however briefly, would necessitate a\nviolation of the limits of this essay. We refrain from attempting even\nan enumeration all the more readily, because an opportunity of giving\nbrief biographical notices of the more outstanding contributors to the\ntreasures of sacred Latin poetry will occur in the following pages when\nspecimens of their masterpieces are submitted to the reader.\n\nA few sentences may be added bearing upon the hymns contained in the\nservice-books of the Church of Rome, and upon the relation of Latin\nhymnody to the Churches of the Reformation.\n\nThe use of hymns for purposes of private devotion preceded their\ninsertion in the liturgical books of the pre-Reformation Church. Up to\nthe seventh century the Breviaries which contained the prayers to be\noffered at the canonical hours had as matter to be sung only the words\nof Scripture. But the Spanish Council which met at Toledo in A.D. 633,\nlaid down the general principle, that if in the worship of the\nsanctuary prayers may be offered in the words of uninspired men, so\nalso may praise be sung. From that time the Churches of Western\nChristendom inserted hymns in their service-books, some of these\ncompositions being of earlier date, but the larger number being of more\nrecent times and of purely local interest. As every diocese and\nreligious order claimed and exercised the right to construct its own\nritual, Missal, and Breviary, there was endless variety of contents,\nconsiderable alterations of old compositions, and a general\ndeterioration of quality. By the time Leo X. reached St. Peter\u2019s chair\nthe need for revision had become clamant. Under the direction of that\nMedicean Pope, the collection of hymns in use at Rome was recast; and\nultimately the entire Breviary appeared in revised form, when Urban\nVIII. was Pope, in 1631. In this revised Roman Breviary, which is now\nin general use throughout the Papal communion, the hymns of earliest\ncomposers\u2014say from Hilary to Gregory\u2014are for the most part allowed to\nremain, although in some cases altered without real amendment; but in\nthe case of those pieces which could not be conformed to the laws of\ncorrect Latinity there was an entire recasting. According to one\nauthority, himself a revisionist, upwards of nine hundred alterations\nwere made in the interests of metre, and the first lines of more than\nthirty hymns were altered. The Marquis of Bute executed a translation\nof the Roman Breviary in 1879, and then gave it as his deliberate\njudgment that the revisers, \u201cwith deplorable taste made a series of\nchanges in the texts of the hymns which has been disastrous both to the\nliterary merit and the historical interest of the poems.\u201d\n\nThe Breviary of Paris has been subjected to revisions in the sixteenth,\nseventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. The third and latest revision\nwas intrusted to a commission of three ecclesiastics, one of whom\nbelonged to the Jansenist party, while another was Charles Coffin, then\nRector of the University of Paris, who did the greater part of the work\nof editing, altering, and tinkering. Under Coffin\u2019s manipulation only\ntwenty-one hymns of the earlier period were retained, and the number of\nthose from the pens of comparatively modern French writers was largely\nincreased.\n\nWhile all conversant with the subject will readily admit that both the\nRoman and the Parisian Breviary contain some noble verses, English\nversions of which are to be found in the writings of Williams,\nChandler, Mant, Caswall, and Newman, as also in \u201cHymns Ancient and\nModern,\u201d the conviction is both general and well-founded that the\nprinciples and practice of liturgical revisionists have not been\nfavourable to the interests of purity and simplicity in the case of\nancient Latin hymnody.\n\nComing now to the relation in which Latin hymnology stands to the\nmovement and Churches of the Reformation, it is to be noted that Luther\nshowed his appreciation of what was good in the Church of his childhood\nwhen he rendered into the language of the Fatherland sixteen old hymns,\ntwelve of these being taken from the Latin and the remaining four from\nthe Old German of the Middle Ages. In his _Colloquia Mensalia_, the\nsturdy Protestant is to be heard censuring Ambrose as a wordy poet, but\nextolling the _Rex Christe Factor omnium_ of Pope Gregory as the best\nhymn ever written. As with Luther, so with Melancthon and Zwingli and\ntheir immediate followers. They published collections and translations\nof the old Latin hymns, and they continued the use of such compositions\nin their public worship to a limited extent, even after they had ceased\nto employ the Latin tongue in Church services.\n\nIt is well known, at least to Anglican clergymen, that the Church of\nEngland Book of Common Prayer contains certain \u201cCanticles,\u201d to be used\non Sundays and week days. Thus, after the Old Testament lesson has been\nread, the rubric provides that \u201cthere shall be said or sung in English\nthe hymn called _Te Deum laudamus_ daily throughout the year.\u201d As an\nalternative to this great Creed hymn of Western Christendom there may\nbe said or sung \u201cthis canticle, _Benedicite, omnia opera_,\u201d that is,\nthe Song of the Three Children, a part of the Greek addition to the\nthird chapter of Daniel, and a paraphrase or expansion of the 148th\nPsalm. Then in the Ordinal of the Church of England, which provides for\n\u201cthe ordering of Priests\u201d and \u201cthe consecration of Bishops,\u201d there is a\nstage at which there is to be sung or said, _Veni, Creator Spiritus_.\nOf this hymn two English metrical versions are given in the Prayer Book\nof 1662\u2014that presently in use, an older and more diffuse rendering, and\none more terse and spirited, the product of Bishop Cosin.\n\nBut it may not be generally known that many of the earliest\nservice-books of the Continental and Scottish Churches had hymns\nappended to the Psalms in metre, some of which were versions in the\nvernacular of old Latin compositions. The French Psalter, edited by\nMarot in 1543, had the _Ave Maria_ along with the Decalogue, the\nBelief, and the Lord\u2019s Prayer. The Dutch Psalter of 1640 had the _Te\nDeum_, as well as metrical renderings of the Decalogue, the Song of\nZacharias, of Mary, of Simeon, and of Elizabeth.\n\nIn the case of the Church of Scotland, the first edition of the Book of\nCommon Order, published in 1564, gave only the Psalms; but the\nBassandyne edition of the same book, published eleven years afterwards,\ncontained five \u201cSpiritual Songs;\u201d that of 1587 gave ten, while some\nsubsequent reprints have no fewer than fourteen. Among these, \u201ccommonly\nused in the Kirke and private houses,\u201d will be found \u201cThe Song of\nSimeon, called _Nunc Dimittis_,\u201d \u201cThe Song of Blessed Marie, called\n_Magnificat_,\u201d and _Veni, Creator_. The English of the last named is\ntaken from the First Prayer Book of Edward VI., published in 1549, and\nis the version of this old hymn which occurs in \u201cThe Fourme of Ordering\nPriestes,\u201d the longer and older of the two renderings already referred\nto.\n\nHow it has fared with Latin hymns in Protestant service-books from\nReformation times to the present day is too wide a field of inquiry to\nenter upon at the close of this brief introduction. This it is safe to\naffirm, that no hymnal with any claim to completeness will be found to\nomit such sacred and classic pieces as, \u201cBrief life is here our\nportion,\u201d \u201cCome, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,\u201d \u201cJerusalem the\ngolden,\u201d \u201cJesus! the very thought of Thee,\u201d \u201cJesus, Thou joy of loving\nhearts,\u201d \u201cO come, all ye faithful,\u201d \u201cO Jesus, King most wonderful;\u201d and\nall these are translations or paraphrases of early Latin hymns.\n\nWith the increase of interest in all that concerns the praise of God\u2019s\nchildren, which is so marked a feature of recent times, there has come\nan ever-growing appreciation of the grandeur and beauty, the spiritual\ndepth and longing wistfulness that characterise the great body of Latin\nhymnology; and, as the result of this appreciation, the finest and\nsweetest products are finding a larger place in quarters from which, at\nno very far back point of time, they were altogether excluded. Of this\nwe have a striking illustration in the contents of the most recent\nattempt to construct a hymnal for use in Presbyterian Churches. In the\n\u201cDraft Hymnal,\u201d prepared by a joint-committee of the three leading\ndenominations in Scotland, there are 557 hymns. Of these, five are\nconfessedly translations from the Greek, and twenty-six from the Latin.\nWith the Latin renderings the names of Bishop Cosin, Dryden, Sir Walter\nScott, Caswall, Chandler, Neale, and Ray Palmer stand honourably\nassociated.\n\n Ayr, _October_ 12, 1895.\n\n\n[1]Mone\u2019s _Lateinische Hymnen des Mittelalters_; Daniel\u2019s _Thesaurus\n Hymnologicus_; Tischer\u2019s _Kirchenlieder-Lexicon_; Trench\u2019s \u201cSacred\n Latin Poetry;\u201d Neale\u2019s \u201cLatin Hymns and Sequences,\u201d and \u201cEssays on\n Liturgiology and Church History;\u201d Duffield\u2019s \u201cLatin Hymn-Writers and\n their Hymns;\u201d Roundell Palmer\u2019s \u201cHymns: their History and\n Development in the Greek and Latin Churches, Germany, and Great\n Britain;\u201d Julian\u2019s \u201cDictionary of Hymnology.\u201d\n\n[2]Matt. xxvi. 30, \u1f51\u00b5\u03bd\u03ae\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2; Acts xvi. 25, \u1f55\u00b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5\u03bd, A. V.\u2014\u201cSang\n praises unto God;\u201d R. V.\u2014\u201cWere ... singing hymns unto God.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n Sundays and Week Days\n\n\n\n\n Sunday Morning\n\n\n DIE, DIERUM PRINCIPE\n\nBy Charles Coffin, born at Ardennes in 1676; Rector of the University\nof Paris, 1718; died, 1749. The most of his hymns appeared in the Paris\nBreviary of 1736. In that service-book this is the hymn for Sunday at\nMatins.\n\n\n I\n\n O day, the chief of days, whose light\n Sprang from the dark embrace of night,\n On which our Lord from death\u2019s grim thrall\n Arose, True Light, to lighten all.\n\n\n II\n\n Death trembling heard the mighty Lord,\n And darkness quick obeyed His word;\u2014\n O shame on us! our tardy will\n Is slow His summons to fulfil.\n\n\n III\n\n While Nature yet unconscious lies,\n Come, let us, sons of light, arise,\n And cheerful raise our matin lay\n To chase the dark of night away.\n\n\n IV\n\n While all the world around is still,\n Come, and with songs the temple fill,\n Taught by the saints of bygone days,\n Whose words were song, whose songs were praise.\n\n\n V\n\n Loud trump of Heaven, our languor shake,\n And bid our slumbering spirits wake;\n Teach us the nobler life, and give,\n O Christ, the needed grace to live.\n\n\n VI\n\n O Font of love! Our steps attend;\n Those needed gifts in mercy send;\n And where Thy word is heard this day,\n Give Thou the Spirit\u2019s power, we pray.\n\n\n VII\n\n To Father and to Son be praise,\n To Thee, O Holy Ghost, always,\n Whose presence still the heart inspires\n With sacred light and glowing fires.\n\n\n\n\n O NATA LUX DE LUMINE\n\nThe oldest text known of this hymn is from a tenth-century MS. It is in\nthe Sarum Breviary (1495), also in that of Aberdeen (1509), which is\nsubstantially that of Sarum, and one of the very few surviving\nservice-books of the Pre-Reformation period in Scotland.\n\n\n I\n\n O Light that from the light wast born,\n Redeemer of the world forlorn,\n In mercy now Thy suppliants spare,\n Our praise accept, and hear our prayer.\n\n\n II\n\n Thou who didst wear our flesh below,\n To save our souls from endless woe,\n Of Thy blest Body, Lord, would we\n Efficient members ever be.\n\n\n III\n\n More bright than sun Thine aspect gleamed,\n As snowdrift white Thy garments seemed,\n When on the mount Thy glory shone,\n To faithful witnesses alone.\n\n\n IV\n\n There did the seers of old confer\n With those who Thy disciples were;\n And Thou on both didst shed abroad\n The glory of the eternal God.\n\n\n V\n\n From heaven the Father\u2019s voice was heard\n That Thee the eternal Son declared;\n And faithful hearts now love to own\n Thy glory, King of heaven, alone.\n\n\n VI\n\n Grant us, we pray, to walk in light,\n Clad in Thy virtues sparkling bright,\n That, upward borne by deeds of love,\n Our souls may win the bliss above.\n\n\n VII\n\n Loud praise to Thee our homage brings,\n Eternal God, Thou King of kings,\n Who reignest one, Thou one in three,\n From age to age eternally.\n\n\n\n\n TU TRINITATIS UNITAS\n\nAttributed by some, but with a small degree of probability, to Gregory\nthe Great. The hymn occurs in all the editions of the Roman Breviary,\nas also in the Sarum, York, and Aberdeen Breviaries.\n\n\n I\n\n O Thou Eternal One in Three,\n Dread Ruler of the earth and sky,\n Accept the praise we yield to Thee,\n Who, waking, lift our songs on high.\n\n\n II\n\n Now from the couch of rest we rise,\n While solemn night in silence reigns,\n And lift to Thee our earnest cries,\n To give Thy balm to heal our pains.\n\n\n III\n\n If in the night by Satan\u2019s guile\n Our souls were lured by thought of sin;\n O bid Thy light celestial smile,\n And chase away the night within.\n\n\n IV\n\n Purge Thou our flesh from every stain,\n Let not dull sloth our hearts depress;\n Nor let the sense of guilt remain,\n To chill the warmth our souls possess.\n\n\n V\n\n To Thee, Redeemer blest, we pray,\n That in our souls Thy light may shine;\n So we shall walk from day to day,\n Unerring in Thy way Divine.\n\n\n VI\n\n Grant it, O Father, in Thy love,\n Grant it, O One-begotten Son,\n Who with the Spirit reign above,\n Now, and while endless ages run.\n\n\n\n\n Sunday Evening\n\n\n DEUS CREATOR OMNIUM\n\nBy St. Ambrose, born at Lyons, Arles, or Tr\u00eaves in 340; consecrated\nBishop of Milan in 374; died on Easter Eve, 397. He introduced\nantiphonal chanting into the Western Church, and laid the foundation of\nChurch music, which Gregory systematised.\n\n\n I\n\n Thy works, O God, Thy name extol,\n Thou Ruler of the worlds that roll;\n The day is clad in garments bright,\n And grateful sleep pervades the night,\n\n\n II\n\n That weary limbs from labour free,\n By rest for toil prepared may be;\n And jaded minds awhile forget\n The anxious thoughts that pain and fret.\n\n\n III\n\n Fast fades the sunlight in the west;\n Thy hand we own our day hath blessed;\n Now from the accuser\u2019s power we flee,\n And lift our prayers in song to Thee.\n\n\n IV\n\n O Thou hast stirred our hearts to sing,\n Hast tuned the praise our voices bring;\n From earth\u2019s vain loves our love hast won,\n Hast lured our thoughts that heavenward run.\n\n\n V\n\n So, when the rayless gloom of night\n Hath quenched in dark the expiring light,\n Faith waves the ebon clouds away,\n And dark is light, and night is day.\n\n\n VI\n\n That sin may ne\u2019er an entrance make,\n May slumber ne\u2019er our souls o\u2019ertake;\n Faith, wakeful, keeps the soul secure,\n And sleep is sweet, and deep, and pure.\n\n\n VII\n\n The mind from sin\u2019s enticements free,\n O let our dreams be thoughts of Thee;\n And by no envious foe oppressed,\n Vouchsafe to Thy beloved rest.\n\n\n\n\n O DEUS, EGO AMO TE, NEC AMO TE, UT SALVES ME\n\nAttributed to Francis Xavier. Born at the Castle Xavier, near\nPampeluna, Spain, in 1506; graduated at the Paris University, where he\nbecame acquainted with Ignatius Loyola; as a Jesuit missionary visited\nIndia, Travancore, Ceylon, Malacca, and Japan; died, when near Canton,\nin 1552. The original of this hymn is supposed to be a Spanish sonnet.\nAll that can be said of the Latin version is that it is probably by\nXavier, or by some German Jesuit, and is at least as early as 1668.\n\n\n I\n\n O God, I love Thee, not alone\n Because Thou savest me,\n And those who love not in return\n Are lost eternally.\n\n\n II\n\n Thou art mine own, O Christ; Thine arms\n Embraced me on the Cross;\n Thou didst endure the nails, the spear,\n The bitter shame and loss.\n\n\n III\n\n O sorrows numberless were Thine,\n And all were borne for me\u2014\n The bloody sweat, the cruel death\n Of bitter agony.\n\n\n IV\n\n Why, therefore, should I love Thee now,\n O Jesus, ever blest?\n Not lest in hell my soul be cast,\n Not that in heaven it rest.\n\n\n V\n\n No other hope my love inspires,\n And wins my heart for Thee\u2014\n I only love Thee, Christ, my King,\n Because Thou lovest me.\n\n\n\n\n LUCIS CREATOR OPTIME\n\nBy Gregory, surnamed the Great, born at Rome about 540; succeeded\nPelagius in the Papal Chair, 590; sent Augustine on a mission to\nBritain in 596; died in 614. He ranks among the Four Latin Doctors, and\nbecause of the services he rendered to the ritual of the Church, he was\nstyled _Magister C\u00e6remoniarum_. The Gregorian tones or chants are the\nfruit of his study of sacred music.\n\n\n I\n\n Thou, blest Creator of the light,\n From whom the day its splendour brings,\n Thy word the earth to beauty woke,\n When light came forth on glowing wings.\n\n\n II\n\n The circle of the day is Thine,\n The morn, and night in one are bound;\u2014\n O hear our earnest prayer as now\n The gloomy shades are gathering round;\n\n\n III\n\n O free our souls from guilty stains,\n That we Thy favour still may know;\n And let no thought the mind possess,\n To bind the heart to earth below.\n\n\n IV\n\n That we may beat at heaven\u2019s fair gate,\n Where safely stored our treasure lies,\n Purge us from every filthy stain,\n Teach us all evil to despise.\n\n\n V\n\n Hear us, O Holy Father, hear,\n And Thou the Everlasting Son,\n Who with the Holy Spirit reign\u2019st\n While the eternal ages run.\n\n\n\n\n Monday Morning\n\n\n AURORA JAM SPARGIT POLUM\n\nPlaced by Duffield in a class which contains hymns formerly called\nAmbrosian, but now known to be the work of other hands. George\nCassander, the liberal Catholic collector (1556), writes \u201cIncognitus\nauctor\u201d after the hymn, which has a place in several old Hymnaria, such\nas the Durham, the Cottonian, and the Harleian.\n\n\n I\n\n Now daylight floods the morning sky,\n And earthward glides the approaching day,\n The dancing rays of sunlight chase\n The gathered fears of night away.\n\n\n II\n\n Hence dreams that cloud the soul! away,\n Ye terrors grim of midnight born!\n Whate\u2019er the dark of night hath bred,\n Die in the light that greets the morn!\n\n\n III\n\n So when the day eternal breaks,\u2014\n That day for which our spirits long,\u2014\n Its light may fall to bless our souls,\n E\u2019en while we raise our morning song.\n\n\n IV\n\n To God the Father throned in heaven,\n To Christ the one begotten Son,\n And to the Holy Ghost be praise,\n Now, and while endless ages run.\n\n\n\n\n Monday Evening\n\n\n JESU, DULCIS MEMORIA\n\nGenerally, and there seems little reason to doubt correctly, ascribed\nto Bernard of Clairvaux. Born in 1091 at his father\u2019s castle near Dijon\nin Burgundy; died, 1153. The monk of Citeaux, the first Abbot of\nClairvaux, the Papal controversialist and the preacher of the Second\nCrusade, is better known in our day as the author of a hymn regarded by\nmany as the sweetest and most Evangelical in medi\u00e6val hymnody. The poem\nfrom which the hymn is taken consists of nearly fifty quatrains on the\nname of Jesus, known as the Joyful Rhythm of St. Bernard. In the Roman\nBreviary three hymns are taken from the Rhythm, Jesu dulcis memoria,\nJesu Rex Admirabilis, and _Jesu decus angelicum_.\n\n\n I\n\n O Jesus, when I think of Thee,\n True gladness fills my heart;\n But joy unspeakable \u2019twill be\n To see Thee as Thou art.\n\n\n II\n\n O blessed name! No note more sweet,\n No music so divine;\n Its charms the dearest fancies greet\n That with my memory twine.\n\n\n III\n\n To those who come with sin confessed,\n Thy name their hope inspires;\n And every needy soul is blessed,\n And granted all desires.\n\n\n IV\n\n To those who seek, ah! Thou art found\n Far more than all desire\u2014\n A living fount whose streams abound,\n A flame of heavenly fire.\n\n\n V\n\n What tongue can e\u2019er the charm express?\n What words its beauty show?\n For Thy dear name\u2019s sweet loveliness\n No heart can ever know.\n\n\n VI\n\n Who only taste the heavenly bread,\n They hunger for the feast;\n Who drink of Christ, the Fountainhead,\n But find their thirst increase.\n\n\n VII\n\n O Jesus, to my fainting heart\n When wilt Thou come to speak?\n O, when to me Thy bliss impart,\n And more than I can seek?\n\n\n VIII\n\n O I will feed and hunger still,\n O I will drink and pine\n Till Thou my famished spirit fill\n With that blest name of Thine.\n\n\n\n\n Tuesday Morning\n\n\n O DEUS, EGO AMO TE, NAM PRIOR TU AMASTI ME\n\nCredited by many to the composer of the hymn which opens with\nidentically the same line, but proceeds quite differently. It is,\nhowever, doubtful if this is the composition of Xavier; more probably\nit is the breathing of desire on the part of some now unknown German\nJesuit of the seventeenth century.\n\n\n I\n\n My heart goes forth in love to Thee,\n O God, who first hast lov\u00e8d me;\n My freedom, lo, I lay aside,\n Thy willing slave whate\u2019er betide.\n\n\n II\n\n May memory ne\u2019er a thought suggest,\n That comes not forth at Thy behest;\n And may the mind no wisdom know,\n That God all wise doth not bestow.\n\n\n III\n\n May nothing be desired by me,\n Save what I know is willed by Thee;\n And what of Thine I e\u2019er attain,\n I render back to Thee again.\n\n\n IV\n\n Take what Thou gavest\u2014all is Thine;\n Dispose as suits Thy will divine;\n Rule, Lover of my soul; I rest\n In Thy blest will who knowest best.\n\n\n V\n\n That I may love Thee as I will,\n O let Thy love my bosom fill;\n This gift alone endureth aye\u2014\n All else are dreams that flit away.\n\n\n\n\n Tuesday Evening\n\n\n TE LUCIS ANTE TERMINUM\n\nSometimes ascribed to St. Ambrose. It is found in eleventh-century\n_Hymnaria_ of the English Church, and in the Breviaries of Rome, Paris,\nSarum, York, and Aberdeen, generally as a hymn at Compline.\n\n\n I\n\n Maker of the world, we pray,\n Ere the dark of night surround us,\n Let Thy love beside us stay,\n Throw protecting arms around us.\n\n\n II\n\n Phantoms of the night away!\n Let no evil dream affect us;\n Pure as falls the light of day,\n From the taint of sin protect us.\n\n\n III\n\n Hear us, Father, when we cry;\n Hear us, Christ, Thy grace extending;\n Hear us, Spirit, throned on high,\n Three in one, through years unending.\n\n\n\n\n Wednesday Morning\n\n\n JAM META NOCTIS TRANSIIT\n\nThis morning hymn is one of four attributed to St. Hilary. Born at\nPoitiers early in the fourth century; became bishop of his native town\nabout 350; died 13th January 368. His saint\u2019s day (which gives name to\nHilary Term in English law courts) is celebrated on 14th January, in\norder not to trench upon the octave of the Epiphany.\n\n\n I\n\n Gone are the shades of night,\n The hours of rest are o\u2019er;\n New beauties sparkle bright,\n And heaven is light once more.\n\n\n II\n\n To Thee our prayers shall speed,\n O Lord of light divine;\n Come to our utmost need,\n And in our darkness shine.\n\n\n III\n\n Spirit of love and light,\n May we Thine image know,\n And in Thy glory bright,\n To full perfection grow.\n\n\n IV\n\n Hear us, O Father blest,\n Hear us, O Christ the Son,\n And Comforter the best,\n Now, and till life is done.\n\n\n\n\n Wednesday Evening\n\n\n LABENTE JAM SOLIS ROT\u00c2\n\nBy Charles Coffin. _(_See p. 3._)_ Chandler\u2019s translation, beginning,\n\u201cAnd now the sun\u2019s declining rays,\u201d is for \u201cNinth Hour, or three in the\nafternoon,\u201d of Sunday. In \u201cHymns Ancient and Modern\u201d Chandler\u2019s\nrendering is given as an evening hymn, and with considerable\nalterations, the first line being, \u201cAs now the sun\u2019s declining rays\u201d\n(_No. 12_).\n\n\n I\n\n Now sinks the glowing orb of day,\n And silent night comes on apace;\n So gains our life the appointed goal,\n That marks the limit of our race.\n\n\n II\n\n O Christ, uplifted on the Cross!\n Thine arms were stretched towards the sky;\n Grant us with love that Cross to seek,\n And folded in those arms to die.\n\n\n III\n\n Now to the Father throned on high,\n And unto Christ His only Son,\n And to the Spirit, glory be,\n Now, and while endless ages run.\n\n\n\n\n Thursday Morning\n\n\n SPLENDOR PATERN\u00c6 GLORI\u00c6\n\nThis morning hymn is the complement of _\u00c6terne rerum Conditor_, and,\nlike it, almost indisputably by St. Ambrose. Its use was generally for\nMatins or Lauds on Monday; by some monastic orders it was used daily.\n\n\n I\n\n From the Father\u2019s throne descending,\n Light from out the realms of light;\n Font of light, all light transcending,\n Brighter day in day most bright.\n\n\n II\n\n Shine, True Light, in radiant brightness,\n Flashing forth perpetual ray;\n May Thy Spirit\u2019s searching lightness,\n Fill our souls with endless day.\n\n\n III\n\n Father, come we humbly bending,\u2014\n Father of Almighty grace,\n Who hast glory never ending,\n Banish every sinful trace.\n\n\n IV\n\n When to do Thy will inclining,\n Quell for us the tempter\u2019s wrath;\n Ne\u2019er in trial\u2019s hour repining,\n Lead us in the upward path.\n\n\n V\n\n May Thy rule our minds enlighten;\n Let no sin our lives defile;\n Fervent faith our spirits brighten,\n Knowing nought of fraud or guile.\n\n\n VI\n\n Christ, the Bread of Life bestowing,\n Faith our daily cup shall fill;\n Draughts of joy for ever flowing,\n Drink we from the Spirit\u2019s rill.\n\n\n VII\n\n Thus our life in beauty gliding\u2014\n Purity like dawn of day,\n Faith like sun at noon abiding,\n Eve that knows no twilight grey.\n\n\n VIII\n\n Forth in beauty rides the Morning\u2014\n Be Thy glory on us poured;\n Son, the Father\u2019s love adorning,\n Father in th\u2019 Eternal Word.\n\n\n\n\n Thursday Evening\n\n\n SALVATOR MUNDI, DOMINE\n\nAuthor unknown. Found in the _Hymnaria_ of Sarum, and York, also in the\nSarum, York, Hereford, and Aberdeen Breviaries. Used at Eton in Latin\noriginal at evening service until about 1830.\n\n\n I\n\n Thou who hast led our steps this day,\n Blest Saviour of the world, we pray,\n Through all the night Thy care extend,\n And save us to our journey\u2019s end.\n\n\n II\n\n Be present with us, Lord, who wait,\n And lift our cry at mercy\u2019s gate;\n Take all our load of sin away,\n And change our darkness into day.\n\n\n III\n\n Free Thou our minds from careless sleep,\n Our souls from sin\u2019s allurements keep;\n And may our flesh from every stain,\n All pure, we pray Thee, still remain.\n\n\n IV\n\n To Thee of purity the spring,\n Our prayers ascend on soaring wing;\n Hear Thou our cry, and with the morn\n May purity our souls adorn.\n\n\n V\n\n Glory be unto God always,\n To Christ the Son eternal praise;\n Glory to God the Spirit be,\n From age to age eternally.\n\n\n\n\n Friday Morning\n\n\n CHRISTE, LUMEN PERPETUUM\n\nBy Magnus Felix Ennodius, born at Arles about 473; became Bishop of\nPavia about 514; died, 521; buried on 17th July of that year, which day\nis observed as his festival by the Roman Church.\n\n\n I\n\n Christ, the light that shines eternal,\u2014\n Light that gilds the rolling spheres,\n Dawn upon our night, and keep us\n Pure as light when day appears.\n\n\n II\n\n Let no gin of Satan snare us,\n Let no enemy oppress;\n Wakeful aye with garments spotless,\n May we walk life\u2019s wilderness.\n\n\n III\n\n Keep our hearts in Thy safe keeping,\n Be Thy flock Thy special care;\n In Thy fold in mercy tend them,\n Guard their footsteps everywhere.\n\n\n IV\n\n And our souls shall sing triumphant\n When Thy light our eyes shall see,\n And the vows we owe are rendered,\n God, the great Triune, to Thee.\n\n\n\n\n Friday Evening\n\n\n NOX ATRA RERUM CONTEGIT\n\nThis hymn is classed by Duffield under the heading \u201cAmbrosian,\u201d which\nincludes compositions of Gregory and other authors. Mone gives it as\nprobably by St. Gregory.\n\n\n I\n\n Dark night has drawn her curtain round,\n And hid earth\u2019s hues in gloom profound;\n Now contrite at Thy feet we fall,\n And make request, Thou Judge of all,\n\n\n II\n\n That Thou wouldst hide the guilt of sin,\n And throughly purge our hearts within\u2014\n O Christ, dispense Thy grace, we pray,\n To keep us guiltless day by day.\n\n\n III\n\n The awakened conscience, sore oppressed\n By thought of sin all unconfessed,\n Yearns in the gloom, to cast her load\n At Thy blest feet, Redeemer, God.\n\n\n IV\n\n Dispel the darkness, Lord, we pray,\n That in our mind holds dismal sway;\n Send forth Thy light, and bid us rest\n In Thy calm peace, for ever blest.\n\n\n\n\n Saturday Morning\n\n\n JAM LUCIS ORTO SIDERE\n\nFrequently ascribed to Ambrose, but not by his Benedictine editors. A\nrendering of it by Dr. Neale is one of the morning hymns in \u201cHymns\nAncient and Modern,\u201d \u201cNow that the daylight fills the sky\u201d (No. 4); but\nthe rendering has been considerably altered by the editors.\n\n\n I\n\n See in the east the morn arise;\n Seek, wing\u00e8d prayer, the glowing skies;\n Bring help from Heaven, that all our way\n Be pleasing to our God this day.\n\n\n II\n\n May He restrain from words of sin;\n For bitter strife give calm within;\n Veil from our eyes the garish light,\n That lures the soul to darkest night.\n\n\n III\n\n Pure may our inmost heart remain\n From evil thoughts and fancies vain;\n And may the curb our flesh control,\n That drags to earth the aspiring soul.\n\n\n IV\n\n So, when the last stray beams of light\n Shall fade before the return of night,\n Kept in the path our feet have trod,\n We shall give glory to our God.\n\n\n V\n\n To God the Father, throned in heaven,\n To Christ, the one begotten Son,\n And to the Holy Ghost be praise,\n Now, and while endless ages run.\n\n\n\n\n Saturday Evening\n\n\n JAM SOL RECEDIT IGNEUS\n\nA recast of _O Lux beata Trinitas_, one of twelve hymns the Benedictine\neditors regard as undoubtedly the work of St. Ambrose, and which, in\nthe older Breviaries, was used at Vespers on Saturday.\n\n\n I\n\n Now sinks the fiery orb of day\u2014\n O One in Three, Eternal Light,\n O Three in One, for ever bright,\n Shine in our darkened minds, we pray.\n\n\n II\n\n When morning breaks, our songs we raise;\n When evening falls, we still adore;\n When morn and eve shall come no more,\n In mercy grant us still to praise.\n\n\n III\n\n All praises to the Father be,\n All praise to the Eternal Son,\n And to the Spirit, Three in One,\n From age to age eternally.\n\n\n\n\n _Advent_\n\n\n\n\n CHRISTE, PRECAMUR ANNUE\n\nBy Ennodius, Bishop of Pavia. _(_See p. 32._)_\n\n\n I\n\n To Thee, O Christ, our prayers shall rise,\n With tears of sorrow blending;\n Come for our help Thou Holy One,\n On our dark night descending.\n\n\n II\n\n Our hearts shall find their rest in Thee,\n And e\u2019en in dreams shall praise Thee;\n And with each rising of the sun,\n Anew their songs shall raise Thee.\n\n\n III\n\n Impart a noble life, and may\n Our spirit\u2019s warmth be heightened.\n Bid night depart, and with Thy love,\n O may our lives be brightened.\n\n\n IV\n\n In hymns we pay our vows to Thee:\n At vesper-hour we pray,\n Erase the writing we have made,\n Thine own let stand for aye.\n\n\n\n\n IN NOCTIS UMBRA DESIDES\n\nBy Charles Coffin. _(_See p. 3._)_\n\n\n I\n\n When evening shades around us close,\n And bound in sleep our limbs repose,\n The watchful soul, from slumber free,\n Shall breathe its earnest prayer to Thee.\n\n\n II\n\n Desire of Nations, Word of God,\n Thou Saviour of the World abroad,\n Hear Thou our mournful prayer at length,\n And raise the fallen by Thy strength.\n\n\n III\n\n Be near, Redeemer; by Thy grace\n Forgive our erring sinful race,\n Bound in the prison-house of sin\u2014\n O, open heaven and lead us in.\n\n\n IV\n\n O Thou who cam\u2019st to set us free,\n To Thee, the Son, all praises be;\n To Father, Spirit, Three in One,\n While the eternal ages run.\n\n\n\n\n VENI, VENI, EMMANUEL!\n\nAn antiphon. The term denotes a short versicle said at the beginning\nand close of a psalm or psalms in the Breviary Offices. This antiphon\nis by an unknown author. Dr. Neale, who supposes it to be of\ntwelfth-century date, published a translation of it in 1851, beginning,\n\u201cDraw nigh, draw nigh, Emmanuel,\u201d an altered version of which occurs in\n\u201cHymns Ancient and Modern\u201d as an Advent hymn, with first line altered\nto, \u201cO come, O come, Emmanuel\u201d (No. 36).\n\n\n I\n\n Emmanuel, come! we call for Thee;\n Come, set Thy captive Israel free,\n Who, sore at heart, in exile wait\n Their absent Lord, who tarries late.\n Joy, joy, Emmanuel shall be born\n For thee, O Israel, forlorn.\n\n\n II\n\n Come, Root of Jesse! for our foes\n In cruel snare our souls enclose;\n Bring us, we pray, from hell\u2019s dark cave,\n From gulf profound Thy people save.\n Joy, joy, &c.\n\n\n III\n\n Come, come, O Harbinger of day!\n Cheer Thou our hearts with heavenly ray,\n Dispel the clouds of night that roll,\n The dark of death that fills the soul.\n Joy, joy, &c.\n\n\n IV\n\n Come, Key of David! in Thy might\n Unlock for us the realms of light;\n Make safe the path that upward tends,\n Close Thou the way that downward wends.\n Joy, joy, &c.\n\n\n V\n\n Come, come, O Thou Almighty Lord!\n From Sinai once went forth Thy word,\n When in the midst of eddying flame,\n Thou didst Thy law in might proclaim.\n Joy, joy, &c.\n\n\n\n\n _Christmas_\n\n\n\n\n NATO NOBIS SALVATORE\n\nBy Adam of St. Victor. A native of either Britain or Brittany, probably\nthe latter; educated at Paris; became, about 1130, a monk in the Abbey\nof St. Victor, then in the suburbs, afterwards absorbed in the city of\nParis; there he passed the remainder of his life, and died somewhere\nbetween the years 1172 and 1192. In liturgical services the Gradual or\nAntiphon, sung between the Epistle and Gospel, ended on festival days\nwith the word _Alleluia_. The final syllable of this vocable was\nprolonged in a number of musical notes called sequentia, and by the\nninth century it became common to adapt words to these notes, which\nwords are now called \u201csequences.\u201d Adam of St. Victor was one of the\nmost voluminous composers of this kind of sacred Latin verse.\n\n\n I\n\n Let us tune our hearts and voices\u2014\n All creation wide rejoices,\n For a Saviour has been born;\n Given to man, his weakness wearing,\n Dwelling with the sad despairing,\n Light and health our life adorn.\n\n\n II\n\n From the midst of Eden\u2019s gladness\n Came the dower of death and sadness,\n But the Saviour\u2019s life is ours.\n Banished now are death and sorrow;\n Life and joy from Christ we borrow,\n More dwelt in Eden\u2019s bowers.\n\n\n III\n\n From the height of heaven above us,\n God looked down on earth to love us,\n And He sent His only Son.\n Now no more His face concealing,\n Bridegroom like, His grace revealing,\n Came He forth His work begun.\n\n\n IV\n\n Swift and strong, a giant glorious,\n O\u2019er our death He came victorious,\n Girt with power His course to run.\n Came he forth salvation willing,\n Law and prophecy fulfilling,\n Till the task assayed is done.\n\n\n V\n\n Jesus, who hast brought salvation,\n Healing balm for every nation,\n Thou our glory art and peace.\n Praise Thy glorious deeds shall mention,\n Who in humble condescension,\n Cam\u2019st Thy servants to release.\n\n\n\n\n PUER NATUS IN BETHLEHEM\n\nThe oldest form of this Christmas carol is found in a Benedictine\nProcessional belonging to the beginning of the fourteenth century.\n\n\n I\n\n Zion is glad this glorious morn:\n A babe in Bethlehem is born.\n\n\n II\n\n See where He lies in manger low,\n Whose kingly reign no end shall know.\n\n\n III\n\n The ox and ass that filled the stall,\n Knew that the babe was Lord of all.\n\n\n IV\n\n Out from the east the sages bring\n Their treasures for an offering.\n\n\n V\n\n They humbly seek the lowly place,\n And worship there the King of grace:\n\n\n VI\n\n The Son of God, who made the earth,\n A virgin mother gave Him birth.\n\n\n VII\n\n No poison from the serpent stains\n The human blood that fills His veins;\n\n\n VIII\n\n And though our flesh He meekly wears,\n No mark of sin His nature bears;\n\n\n IX\n\n That He might man to God restore,\n And give the grace that once He wore.\n\n\n X\n\n Come while our hearts are full of mirth\n And bless the Lord of lowly birth.\n\n\n XI\n\n The Holy Trinity we\u2019ll praise,\n And give our thanks to God always.\n\n\n\n\n HEU! QUID JACES STABULO, OMNIUM CREATOR?\n\nBy Jean Momboir, with Johannes Mauburnus for the Latin, and John\nMauburn for the English form of his name. Born in 1460 at Brussels; a\nCanon Regular of the Brethren of the Common Life in the Low Countries;\ndied Abbot of the Cloister of Livry, not far from Paris, in 1502 or\n1503. In his large work, the \u201cSpiritual Rose-garden,\u201d there is a rosary\non the birth of Christ, consisting of thirteen stanzas, which commence,\n_Eja, mea anima, Bethlehem eamus_. The hymn beginning as above consists\nof three stanzas taken from that poem. The detached stanzas passed into\nmany of the older German hymn-books, met with great favour in the early\nReformed Churches, so long as the practice of singing Latin\ncompositions survived among them, and still retain a place in some\nGerman hymnals in an old translation, with for opening line, _Warum\nliegt im Krippelein_.\n\n\n I\n\n (_Loquitur peccator_)\n\n Wherefore in the lowly stall,\n O Thou great Creator,\n Dost Thou raise Thine infant call,\n Glorious Renovator?\n Where Thy purple if a King?\n Where the shouts Thy subjects bring?\n Where Thy royal castle?\n Here is want with all her train,\n Poverty proclaims her reign\u2014\n These Thy court and vassal.\n\n\n II\n\n (_Jesus respondit_)\n\n Hither, by My love impelled,\n Have I come to save thee;\n Sin has long thy nature held,\n Powerful to enslave thee.\n By My emptiness and woe,\n By the grace that I bestow,\n Do I seek to fill thee.\n By My humble, lowly birth,\n By this sacrifice on earth,\n Blessing great I will thee.\n\n\n III\n\n (_Laudant fideles_)\n\n Songs of praise, ten thousand songs,\n Sing I will and laud Thee;\n For such grace my spirit longs,\n Ever to applaud Thee.\n Glory, glory let there be,\n Lover of mankind to Thee,\n In the heaven supernal.\n Let this testimony fly\n Over earth, and sea, and sky,\n Borne by songs eternal.\n\n\n\n\n QUICUMQUE CHRISTUM QU\u00c6RITIS\n\nThis hymn for the Epiphany forms part of a larger one of very complex\nauthorship, known as _A solis ort\u00fbs cardine, Et usque terr\u00e6 limitem_.\nThis portion of that Christmas hymn has by some been assigned to St.\nAmbrose, but by a majority of judges to Prudentius, \u201cthe Horace and\nVirgil of the Christians,\u201d in the estimate of the scholarly Bentley.\nAurelius Prudentius, Clemens, or the Merciful, was born in 348,\nsomewhere in the north of Spain. After filling various secular offices\nhe retired, in his fifty-seventh year, into private life, and devoted\nhimself to the composition of sacred verse. He died circa 413, but\nwhere we are not told.\n\n\n I\n\n O ye who seek the Lord, come nigh,\n To heaven uplift your reverent eyes,\n The Royal Banner of our God\n Is blazoned on the midnight skies.\n\n\n II\n\n Brighter than when the sun at noon\n Pours forth its radiance on the earth,\n See yonder star its glory sheds,\n And tells to man the Saviour\u2019s birth.\n\n\n III\n\n O wisdom seeks the lowly stall,\n And takes the guidance of the star,\n To worship where the Incarnate lies,\n And offer gifts from lands afar:\n\n\n IV\n\n With incense, worships the Divine,\n With gold, a kingly tribute pays,\n And at the feet of God made Man,\n The myrrh in sweet profusion lays.\n\n\n V\n\n O Bethlehem, city ever blest!\n What honour more could come to thee?\n The cradle of the Incarnate God,\n Who came to set His Israel free!\n\n\n VI\n\n O Jesus, to the world revealed!\n To Thee let glory ever be,\n To Father and to Holy Ghost,\n From age to age eternally.\n\n\n\n\n _Epiphany_\n\n\n\n\n JESU, NOSTRA REDEMPTIO\n\nProbably of the seventh or eighth century. Found in three MSS. of the\neleventh century in the British Museum Library; also in the old Roman,\nSarum, York, and Aberdeen Breviaries. Chandler\u2019s rendering of this fine\nhymn\u2014\u201cO Christ, our hope, our heart\u2019s desire,\u201d and which is to be found\nin most collections, is the hymn for Evensong on Ascension Day in that\nauthor\u2019s \u201cHymns of the Primitive Church.\u201d\n\n\n I\n\n Thou our Redeemer art, O Christ,\n Our heart\u2019s desire, our fervent love;\n Creator of the worlds, Thou cam\u2019st\n To wear our flesh, from heaven above.\n\n\n II\n\n \u2019Twas love that brought Thee to our aid,\n To bear the burden of our woe,\n To bow the head in shameful death,\n And life, immortal life, bestow.\n\n\n III\n\n Asunder burst the bands of hell,\n The captives hailed the glorious day;\n And by Thy mighty triumph crowned,\n Thou art at God\u2019s right hand for aye.\n\n\n IV\n\n O may Thy mercy still abound,\n That, by the goodness of Thy grace,\n We daily o\u2019er our sin may rise,\n And see the beauty of Thy face.\n\n\n V\n\n Spring of our joy, be Thou, O Christ;\n Our great reward, hereafter be;\n And while the endless ages run,\n Our praises shall be all of Thee.\n\n\n\n\n EI CANAMUS GLORIAM\n\nBy C. Coffin. _(_See p. 3._)_\n\n\n I\n\n Now let us tune our hearts to sing\n The glory of the Almighty King;\n His hand unrolled the spacious skies,\n Whose beauty lures our wondering eyes.\n\n\n II\n\n There are the clouds with treasure rare,\n Slow floating in the higher air,\n Whence come the soft refreshing showers,\n To bless the springing of the flowers.\n\n\n III\n\n Rich is the treasure of Thy grace,\n Prepared for us who seek Thy face;\n It falls from clouds that earthward roll,\n And penetrates the inmost soul.\n\n\n IV\n\n And faithful hearts that thirsting pine,\n Drink deeply of the draught divine,\n And with an heavenly impulse rise,\n To greet the sunlight in the skies.\n\n\n V\n\n O happy souls that evermore\n Drink of the bliss Thou hast in store;\n May grateful love responsive flow\n To all the love Thou dost bestow.\n\n\n VI\n\n Now, glory to the Three in One,\n To God the Father, God the Son,\n And to the Spirit, one in Three,\n From age to age eternally.\n\n\n\n\n DEUS-HOMO, REX C\u0152LORUM\n\nBy Bishop Marbodus. Born in Anjou, 1035; successively Archdeacon of\nAngers and Bishop of Rennes; died in 1125. Was author of a poem _De\nGemmis_, which gives a mystical explanation of precious stones much in\nfavour in the Middle Ages.\n\n\n I\n\n King of heaven, our nature wearing,\n Pity lend the sad despairing;\n \u2019Neath the sway of sin repining,\n Formed from dust, to dust declining\u2014\n Tottering in our ruined state,\n Strengthen by Thy goodness great.\n\n\n II\n\n What is man from sin descending?\n Child of death, all woes attending.\n What is man? a worm that clingeth\n To the earth from which he springeth.\n Wilt Thou forth Thine anger bring,\n On a weak, defenceless thing?\n\n\n III\n\n Shall not man, who earthward tendeth,\n Look to God, who mercy sendeth?\n \u2019Twere a task most unbefitting,\n God o\u2019er man in judgment sitting\u2014\n Yet should God in judgment speak,\n Where shall man an answer seek?\n\n\n IV\n\n As the shadow quickly flying,\n Faint our life and sure our dying;\n As the cloud by tempest driven,\n As the grass cut down at even;\u2014\n King of heaven, in mercy great,\n Pity the disconsolate.\n\n\n\n\n _Passion Week_\n\n\n\n\n VEXILLA REGIS PRODEUNT\n\nBy Venantius Fortunatus. Born in the district of Treviso, Italy, about\n530. In 565 he made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Martin at Tours,\nand spent the remainder of his years in Gaul. Through the influence of\nhis friend Queen Rhadegunda, Fortunatus became Bishop of Poitiers in\n597. Some place his death in the year 609. Fortunatus must have been an\nauthor of great industry and versatility. He wrote the life of St.\nMartin in four books, containing 2245 hexameter lines; he threw off in\nprofusion vers de societ\u00e9 when wandering from castle to cloister in\nGaul; and he composed a volume of hymns for all the festivals of the\nChristian year, which is now unhappily lost. This is his best known\nhymn, Dr. Neale\u2019s translation of which is inserted for the Fifth Sunday\nin Lent, otherwise called Palm Sunday, in \u201cHymns Ancient and Modern\u201d\n_(No. 84)_.\n\n\n I\n\n See the Royal banners\n Wave across the sky,\n Bright the mystic radiance,\n For the Cross is nigh;\n And He who came our flesh to wear,\n The Christ of God, was wounded there.\n\n\n II\n\n Deep the cruel spear thrust,\n By the soldier given;\n Blood and water mingle,\n Where the flesh is riven;\n To cleanse our souls the crimson tide\n Leapt from the Saviour\u2019s riven side.\n\n\n III\n\n In the distant ages\n Zion\u2019s harp was strung,\n And the faithful saw Him,\n While the prophet sung;\n Now Israel\u2019s Hope the nations see,\n For Christ is reigning from the tree.\n\n\n IV\n\n Tree of wondrous beauty,\n Tree of grace and light,\n Royal throne to rest on,\n Decked with purple bright;\n The choice of God, this royal throne\n Whence Christ, the King, should rule His own.\n\n\n V\n\n See the branches drooping!\n Laden, see they sway!\n For the price of heaven\n On those branches lay;\n Ah! great the price, that price was paid,\n By Him on whom the debt was laid.\n\n\n\n\n PANGE, LINGUA, GLORIOSI, PR\u0152LIUM CERTAMINIS\n\nThis, \u201cone of the first of the Latin medi\u00e6val hymns,\u201d has been credited\nto St. Hilary. It has also been ascribed to Claudianus Mamertus, who\ndied in 474. But by the majority of authorities it is regarded as the\ncomposition of Fortunatus, and ranks next to the _Vexilla Regis\nprodeunt_ in their estimate. A rendering of it by Keble will be found\nin his \u201cMiscellaneous Poems,\u201d beginning, \u201cSing, my tongue, of glorious\nwarfare,\u201d which is Dr. Neale\u2019s \u201cSing, my tongue, the glorious battle,\u201d\nin a somewhat altered form.\n\n\n I\n\n Tell, my tongue, the glorious conflict,\n Crowned with victory nobly won;\u2014\n More than all the spoil of battle,\n Praise the triumph of God\u2019s Son;\n How by death the crown of conquest\n Graced Him when the strife was done.\n\n\n II\n\n Grieving sore o\u2019er Eden\u2019s sorrow\n When our race in Adam fell;\n And the fatal fruit he tasted,\n Welcomed sin, and death, and hell;\n God ordained a tree in Zion,\n Eden\u2019s poison to dispel.\n\n\n III\n\n In the work of our Redemption\n Wisdom met the tempter\u2019s foils;\u2014\n On the ground he claimed, the Victor\n Fought, and bore away the spoils;\n And the bane became the blessing,\n Freedom sprang amid his toils.\n\n\n IV\n\n From the bosom of the Father,\n Where He shared the regal crown,\n At the time by God appointed,\n Came the world\u2019s Creator down\u2014\n God incarnate, born of Virgin,\n Shorn of glory and renown.\n\n\n V\n\n List! the voice of infant weeping,\n Cradled where the oxen stand,\n And the Virgin mother watches,\n Tending Him with loving hand,\u2014\n Hands and feet of God she bindeth,\n Folding them in swaddling band.\n\n\n VI\n\n Blessing, blessing everlasting,\n To the glorious Trinity;\n To the Father, Son, and Spirit,\n Equal glory let there be;\n Universal praise be given,\n To the Blessed One in Three.\n\n\n\n\n LUSTRA SEX QUI JAM PEREGIT\n\nBy some attributed to St. Ambrose, but generally and with greater\nprobability to Fortunatus. There is an imitation of this hymn in\nEnglish by Bishop Mant, beginning, \u201cSee the destined day arise!\u201d one of\nthe Passion hymns in \u201cHymns Ancient and Modern\u201d _(No. 99)_.\n\n\n I\n\n Thirty years by God appointed,\n And there dawns the woeful day,\n When the great Redeemer girds Him\n For the tumult of the fray;\n And upon the cross uplifted,\n Bears our load of guilt away.\n\n\n II\n\n Ah! \u2019tis bitter gall He drinketh,\n When His heart in anguish fails;\u2014\n From the thorns His life-blood trickles,\n From the spear wound and the nails;\n But that crimson stream for cleansing,\n O\u2019er creation wide prevails.\n\n\n III\n\n Faithful Cross! in all the woodland,\n Standeth not a nobler tree;\n In thy leaf, and flower, and fruitage,\n None can e\u2019er thy equal be;\n Sweet the wood, and sweet the iron,\n Sweet the load that hung on thee.\n\n\n IV\n\n Noble tree! unbend thy branches,\n Let thy stubborn fibres bend,\n Cast thy native rigour from thee,\n Be a gentle, loving friend;\n Bear Him in thine arms, and softly,\n Christ, the King eternal, tend.\n\n\n V\n\n Only thou could\u2019st bear the burden\n Of the ransom of our race;\n Only thou could\u2019st be a refuge,\n Like the ark, a hiding-place,\n By the sacred blood anointed,\n Of the Covenant of Grace.\n\n\n VI\n\n Blessing, blessing everlasting,\n To the glorious Trinity;\n To the Father, Son, and Spirit,\n Equal glory let there be;\n Universal praise be given,\n To the Blessed One in Three.\n\n\n\n\n CRUX AVE BENEDICTA\n\nThis little poem, which he pronounces \u201cperfect in its kind,\u201d is taken\nby Trench from Daniel\u2019s _Thesaurus_, without any note of author or of\ndate.\n\n\n I\n\n Hail, thou Blessed Cross, all hail!\n Death no longer can prevail.\n On those arms extended high,\n Did my King and Saviour die.\n\n\n II\n\n Queen of all the trees that grow,\n Medicine when health is low,\n Solace to the cumbered heart,\n Comfort thou when sorrows smart.\n\n\n III\n\n O! most sacred wood, the sign\n That eternal life is mine;\n On the fruit thy branches give,\n Feeds the human heart to live.\n\n\n IV\n\n When, around the Judgment-seat,\n Friends of thine and foes shall meet,\n Be my prayer, O Christ, to Thee,\n And in love remember me.\n\n\n\n\n HOR\u00c6 DE PASSIONE D. N. JESU CHRISTI\n\nFrom a fourteenth-century MS., where it bears the title, \u201cHours of the\nPassion of our Lord Jesus Christ, compiled from the Prophets and the\nNew Testament by the Blessed Pope Urban\u201d _(_b._ 1302, _d._ 1370)._\n\n\n\n\n (AD PRIMAM)\n (_Tu qui velatus facie_)\n\n\n I\n\n Veiled was the glory of Thy face,\n O Jesus, Lord of heavenly grace,\n When mocking knees were bent in scorn,\n And bitter stripes were meekly borne.\n\n\n II\n\n To Thee the prayer of faith we send,\n In Thee we hope: O Lord, attend,\n And in Thy mercy lead the way\n To where Thy glory shines as day.\n\n\n III\n\n To Thee be highest honours paid,\n O Christ, who wast by man betrayed,\n Who on the cross of anguish sore\n Didst die, that we might die no more.\n\n\n\n\n (AD TERTIAM)\n (_Hora qui ductus tertia_)\n\n\n IV\n\n O Christ, who in that hour of dread\n Forth as a sacrifice wast led;\n Who, to retrieve our grievous loss,\n Didst bear the burden of the cross.\n\n\n V\n\n O may Thy Love our hearts inflame;\n Be Thy pure life our constant aim;\n That we may win the heavenly rest,\n And share the glories of the blest.\n\n\n VI\n\n To Thee be highest honours paid,\n O Christ, who wast by man betrayed;\n Who on the cross of anguish sore\n Didst die, that we might die no more.\n\n\n\n\n (AD SEXTAM)\n (_Crucem pro nobis subiit_)\n\n\n VII\n\n For us the cruel cross He bare,\n Endured the thirst while hanging there\u2014\n O Jesus! Thou hast anguish borne,\n Thy hands and feet with nails were torn.\n\n\n VIII\n\n Honour and blessing be to Thee,\n O Christ, who hung upon the tree,\n Who, by the offering of Thy grace,\n Didst save from death our fallen race.\n\n\n\n\n (AD NONAM)\n (_Beata Christi passio_)\n\n\n IX\n\n Thy blessed Passion, Christ, be ours,\n To set us free from Satan\u2019s powers;\n To aid our fainting souls to rise\n To joys prepared in Paradise.\n\n\n X\n\n To Christ the Lord all glory be,\n Who, hanging on the shameful tree,\n Gave up His life with bitter cry,\n And saved a world prepared to die.\n\n\n XI\n\n To Thee be highest honours paid,\n O Christ, who wast by man betrayed,\n Who, on the cross of anguish sore,\n Didst die, that we might die no more.\n\n\n\n\n (AD COMPLETORIUM)\n (_Qui jacuisti mortuus_)\n\n\n XII\n\n O spotless King, who shared its gloom,\n And lay at peace within the tomb,\n Teach us to find our rest in Thee,\n And sing Thy praise eternally.\n\n\n XIII\n\n Come to our help, O Lord, who gave\n Thy precious blood our souls to save;\n Lead us to Thine eternal peace,\n Whose sweetest joys shall never cease.\n\n\n\n\n _Easter_\n\n\n\n\n FINITA JAM SUNT PR\u00c6LIA\n\nOf unknown date and authorship. It has not been traced further back\nthan the _Hymnodia Sacra_, Munster, 1753.\n\n\n I\n\n Alleluia! Alleluia!\n The din of battle now is dead,\n And glory crowns the Victor\u2019s head;\n Let mirth abound,\n And songs resound\u2014Alleluia!\n\n\n II\n\n Alleluia! alleluia!\n The bitter pangs of death are past,\n And Christ hath vanquished hell at last;\n Cheers are ringing,\n Psalms are singing\u2014Alleluia!\n\n\n III\n\n Alleluia! alleluia!\n And when the morn appointed broke,\n All decked with beauty Christ awoke;\n O shout with glee,\n Sing merrily\u2014Alleluia!\n\n\n IV\n\n Alleluia! Alleluia!\n Hell hath He closed with His own hand,\n The gates of heaven wide open stand;\n Let mirth abound,\n And songs resound\u2014Alleluia!\n\n\n V\n\n Alleluia! Alleluia!\n \u2019Tis Thy wounds, O Blessed Jesus\u2014\n \u2019Tis Thy death from dying frees us,\n That living, we\n May sing with glee\u2014Alleluia!\n\n\n\n\n PLAUDITE, C\u0152LI!\n\nA Jesuit hymn, taken by Walraff, in 1806, out of the _Psalteriolum\nCantiorum Catholicarum a Patribus Societati Jesu_.\n\n\n I\n\n Shout praises, ye heavens,\n And sigh them, soft air;\n From highest to lowest,\n Sing, sing everywhere;\n For black clouds of tempest\n Are banished from sight;\n And spring, crowned with glory,\n Is pouring her light.\n\n\n II\n\n Come forth with the spring-time,\n Sweet flow\u2019rets, and spread\n Your rich hues around us\n Where nature lay dead;\n Come, violets modest,\n And roses so gay,\n With lilies and marigolds,\n Spangle the way.\n\n\n III\n\n Flow joy song in fulness,\n Flow higher and higher;\n Pour forth thy sweet measures,\n Thou murmuring lyre;\n O sing, for He liveth,\n As truly He said,\n Yea, Jesus hath risen\n Unharmed from the dead.\n\n\n IV\n\n Shout praises, ye mountains,\n Vales catch the refrain;\n Frisk gaily, ye fountains;\n Hills, tell it again\u2014\n He liveth, He liveth,\n As truly He said;\n Yea, Jesus hath risen\n Unharmed from the dead.\n\n\n\n\n MORTIS PORTIS FRACTIS\n\nBy Peter of St. Maurice, sometimes styled Peter of Cluny, but best\nknown as Peter the Venerable. Born in Auvergne, 1092 or 1094; began\nlife as a soldier; afterwards became a Benedictine monk; elected abbot\nof the monastery of his order at Cluny in Burgundy; died there in 1156\nor 1157. The greater part of his literary activity was given to the\ncontroversy between the Clugnian and Cistercian, or \u201cblack\u201d and \u201cwhite\u201d\nmonks. This Resurrection hymn is taken from \u201cSome Rhythms, Proses,\nSequences, Verses, and Hymns,\u201d contained in the _Bibliotheca\nCluniacencis_, 1623.\n\n\n I\n\n Burst are the iron gates of death\u2014\n A stronger power prevails;\n For, by the cross, the cruel king\n Before the Victor quails,\n O clear the light that shines afar,\n Where darkness held its sway,\n For God, who made the light at first,\n Restores its gladdening ray.\n\n\n II\n\n That sinners might for ever live,\n The great Creator dies,\n And by His death to new estate\n Our souls enraptured rise.\n There, Satan groaned in baffled hate,\n Where Christ our triumph won\u2014\n For what to Him was deathly loss,\n To man was life begun.\n\n\n III\n\n He grasps the envied prize, but fails,\n And while he wounds, he dies;\n But calmly, and with mighty power,\n The King secures the prize;\n And, leaving earth, His triumph won,\n He seeks His native skies.\n\n\n IV\n\n And now triumphant o\u2019er the grave,\n The Lord to earth returns;\n To new create our fallen race,\n His soul with ardour burns;\n Down to the dwellings of the lost,\n To dwell with man He came;\n And hearts in grievous bondage held,\n Receive Him with acclaim.\n\n\n\n\n ALLELUIA, DULCE CARMEN\n\nFound in three MSS. of the eleventh century in the British Museum\nLibrary, and published by the Surtees Society in the \u201cLatin Hymns of\nthe Anglo-Saxon Church,\u201d from a MS. of the eleventh century, in Durham\nLibrary.\n\n\n I\n\n Alleluia, hymn of sweetness,\n Joyful voice of ceaseless praise;\n Alleluia, pleasant anthem,\n Choirs celestial sweetly raise:\n This the song of those abiding\n In the house of God always.\n\n\n II\n\n Alleluia, Mother Salem,\n All Thy people joy in song;\n Alleluia, walls and bulwarks\n Evermore the notes prolong:\n Ah! beside the streams of Babel,\n Exiled, weep we o\u2019er our wrong.\n\n\n III\n\n Alleluia, \u2019tis befitting\n That our song should falter here;\n Alleluia, can we sing it\n When the clouds of wrath appear?\n To bemoan our sin with weeping,\n Now the time is drawing near.\n\n\n IV\n\n Trinity, for ever blessed!\n May we sing the gladsome lay,\n When from sin our souls are severed,\n And the clouds have passed away,\n And we share the Easter glory,\n In the realms of endless day?\n\n\n\n\n _Ascension_\n\n\n\n\n \u00c6TERNE REX ALTISSIME\n\nA hymn of complex authorship and of frequently altered text.\n\n\n I\n\n Eternal King, enthroned on high,\n Redeemer, strong Thy folk to save;\n Thee, powerful death, by death o\u2019ercome,\n A royal crown of triumph gave.\n\n\n II\n\n Ascending to the throne of God,\n Beyond the glittering host of heaven,\n More power than human hand could give\n To Thee, victorious King, is given.\n\n\n III\n\n Three kingdoms bow before Thee now\u2014\n The heavens above, the earth below,\n Hell\u2019s dark abode\u2014and to their Lord,\n On bended knee, submission show.\n\n\n IV\n\n All awe inspired, the angel host\n Behold man\u2019s changed estate, amazed;\n Our sinful flesh, by flesh renewed,\n And man, true God, to Godhead raised.\n\n\n V\n\n O Christ, with God who dwell\u2019st on high,\n Be Thou to us, we humbly pray,\n A lasting joy while here we wait,\n Our great reward in heaven for aye.\n\n\n VI\n\n In earnest prayer we come to Thee;\n O may our sins be all forgiven,\n And lift our hearts by Thy rich grace,\n To where Thou art Thyself, in heaven.\n\n\n VII\n\n That when in clouds of Judgment dire,\n Thou com\u2019st with Thine angelic host,\n We may escape the avenger\u2019s power,\n And wear anew the crowns we lost.\n\n\n VIII\n\n To Thee, O Christ, all glory be,\n Victor returning now to heaven;\n To Father, and to Holy Ghost,\n Let praise through endless years be given.\n\n\n\n\n POSTQUAM HOSTEM ET INFERNA\n\nBy Adam of St. Victor. _(_See p. 49._)_\n\n\n I\n\n Broken are the bands that bound us,\n Spoiled are Satan\u2019s realms around us,\n And to joys supernal now,\n Christ returns with hosts attending,\n And, as when at first descending,\n Angel guards their homage bow.\n\n\n II\n\n Far above the stars ascending,\n Faith alone His course attending,\n Passing now from mortal sight;\n To His hand all power is given,\n One with God He rules in heaven,\n One in honour and in might.\n\n\n III\n\n Victor on His throne uplifted,\n See all rule to Him is gifted,\n O\u2019er Creation\u2019s wide domain.\n Now for evermore He liveth,\n Nevermore His life He giveth\u2014\n Once the sacrifice was slain.\n\n\n IV\n\n Once He wore our flesh in weakness,\n Once He suffered, once in meekness\n Gave Himself for sin to die.\n Now no longer pain He knoweth:\n Perfect peace for ever floweth,\n Perfect joy is ever nigh.\n\n\n\n\n C\u0152LOS ASCENDIT HODIE\n\nOf unknown date and authorship. The text is in Daniel\u2019s _Thesaurus_,\nwith \u201cAlleluia\u201d as a refrain. Dr. Neale gives it in his \u201cMedi\u00e6val Hymns\nand Sequences\u201d as \u201capparently of the twelfth century.\u201d\n\n\n I\n\n To-day the lingering clouds are riven,\n Alleluia!\n Our glorious King ascends to heaven,\n Alleluia!\n\n\n II\n\n The heaven and earth His rule obey,\n Alleluia!\n Who sits at God\u2019s right hand for aye,\n Alleluia!\n\n\n III\n\n See, all things are fulfilled at last,\n Alleluia!\n By David sung in ages past,\n Alleluia!\n\n\n IV\n\n And on the throne of high renown,\n Alleluia!\n The Lord is with His Lord set down,\n Alleluia!\n\n\n V\n\n Now blessings on our Lord we shower,\n Alleluia!\n In this chief triumph of His power,\n Alleluia!\n\n\n VI\n\n Let praise the Trinity adore,\n Alleluia!\n To God be glory evermore,\n Alleluia!\n\n\n\n\n O CHRISTE, QUI NOSTER POLI\n\nAppeared in the Cluniac Breviary of 1686, and in that of Paris, 1736,\nas also in later French Breviaries. From his connection with the\nrevised Paris Breviary, this hymn has been ascribed to Archbishop\nCharles de Vintimille, born 1655, died 1746; but in neither the Cluniac\nnor Paris Breviary is it marked as his. Chandler\u2019s version of the hymn,\nbeginning, \u201cO Jesu, who art gone before, To Thy blest realms of light,\u201d\nappears in Dr. Martineau\u2019s \u201cHymns of Praise and Prayer,\u201d with opening\nlines altered to, \u201cThe Crucified is gone before, To the blest realms of\nlight,\u201d and with other variations.\n\n\n I\n\n O Christ, who art ascended now\n To realms of bliss above,\n Inspire our souls to rise to Thee,\n Upborne by faith and love.\n\n\n II\n\n Make us to seek those holy joys,\n That they who love receive;\n That earthly mind can never know,\n Nor faithless soul perceive.\n\n\n III\n\n There, where Thou art, they reap reward\n Who toiled at duty\u2019s call;\n For Thou dost give Thyself to them,\n And Thou art all in all.\n\n\n IV\n\n By power divine, O let us come\n Where glory cannot fade;\n And from Thy heavenly throne send down\n The Spirit to our aid.\n\n\n V\n\n To Thee who art at God\u2019s right hand,\n O Christ, to Thee be praise,\n To Father, and to Holy Ghost,\n Be glory given always.\n\n\n\n\n _Whitsuntide_\n\n\n\n\n VENI, CREATOR SPIRITUS,\n MENTES TUORUM VISITA\n\nOf the authorship of this grand hymn nothing unquestioned is known. It\nhas been ascribed to Ambrose, Gregory, Rhabanus Maurus (died 856), and\nCharlemagne. The most widely prevalent opinion ascribes it to the\nlast-named person, but in the judgment of Dr. Julian\u2019s assistant-editor\n\u201cthe hymn is clearly not the work of St. Ambrose nor of Charles the\nGreat. Nor is there sufficient evidence to allow us to ascribe it\neither to Gregory the Great, to Rhabanus Maurus, or to any of the\necclesiastics connected with the court of Charles the Fat.\u201d The hymn\nhas not yet been found in any MS. earlier than the latter part of the\ntenth century.\n\n\n I\n\n Come, Thou Creator Spirit blest,\n And with Thy grace our minds pervade;\n May Thy sweet presence ever dwell\n Within the souls which Thou hast made.\n\n\n II\n\n Thou Holy Paraclete! the Gift\n Sent down to earth from God Most High,\n Thou Font of Life and fire and love,\n Thy holy unction now apply.\n\n\n III\n\n Sevenfold Thy gifts to us are given,\n Of God\u2019s right hand the Finger Thou;\n The promise of the Father\u2019s grace,\n With gifts of tongues, Thou dost endow.\n\n\n IV\n\n Make our dull sense enraptured glow,\n And let our hearts o\u2019erflow with love;\n The weakness of our flesh inspire\n With heavenly valour from above.\n\n\n V\n\n Far from our souls the foe repel,\n And let us know the bliss of peace;\n Guide Thou our steps, that evermore\n Our hearts may learn from sin to cease.\n\n\n VI\n\n Lead us the Father\u2019s love to know;\n Reveal to us the Eternal Son;\n And Thee, the Sent of both, we\u2019ll praise,\n While everlasting ages run.\n\n\n\n\n VENI, SANCTE SPIRITUS ET EMITTE C\u0152LITUS\n\nA sequence universally regarded as one of the masterpieces of sacred\nLatin poetry. As in the case of the _Veni, Creator Spiritus_, the\nauthorship is matter of dispute. Robert II. of France, Hermannus\nContractus (born 1013, died 1054), Stephen Langton the Archbishop of\nCanterbury, Pope Innocent III.\u2014these have all in turn been credited\nwith its production. Dr. Julian, the greatest living authority, sums up\nthe matter of authorship thus: \u201cThe sequence is clearly not earlier\nthan about the beginning of the thirteenth century. It is certainly\nneither by Robert II. nor by Hermannus Contractus. The most probable\nauthor is Innocent III.\u201d\n\n\n I\n\n Holy Spirit, come with power;\n Let Thy light, in darkest hour,\n Shine upon our onward way.\n Father of the humble heart,\n Come, Thy choicest gifts impart\u2014\n Light our hearts with heavenly ray.\n\n\n II\n\n Thou canst best the heart console;\n Sweet Thy sojourn with the soul\u2014\n Cooling breath at noon of day,\n Calm Thy rest in toil and care,\n Soft Thy shade in noontide glare\u2014\n Thou dost chase our tears away.\n\n\n III\n\n O! Thou blessed Light of light!\n Let Thy beams in radiance bright\n Fill our inmost heart for aye.\n If Thou come not with Thy grace,\n Nought of worth can take Thy place,\n Nought but leads the soul astray.\n\n\n IV\n\n What is filthy, come, renew;\n What is parched, with grace bedew;\n Heal the wounded in the way.\n What is stubborn, gently bend;\n To the chilled the life-glow send;\n Bring the erring \u2019neath Thy sway.\n\n\n V\n\n To the faithful who repose\n In the love Thy grace bestows,\n Be Thy sevenfold gift alway\u2014\n Rich reward for service given,\n Hope in death and joy in heaven,\n Joy untold that lasteth aye.\n\n\n\n\n O FONS AMORIS, SPIRITUS\n\nBy Charles Coffin. _(_See p. 3._)_ It is a recast of the _Nunc nobis,\nSancte Spiritus_ of St. Ambrose.\n\n\n I\n\n O Holy Spirit, font of love,\n Thou source of life, and joy, and peace,\n With holy fire come from above,\n And bid our hearts their warmth increase.\n\n\n II\n\n O Thou who didst with love\u2019s strong cord\n Unite the Father and the Son,\n May we who love a common Lord,\n In mutual love be bound in one.\n\n\n III\n\n Now to the Father throned on high,\n And unto Christ His only Son,\n And to the Spirit, glory be,\n Now, and while endless ages run.\n\n\n\n\n _Trinity_\n\n\n\n\n TU TRINITATIS UNITAS\n\nA cento. Added to the Roman Breviary in 1568. In a subsequent edition\nit is the hymn for Lauds on Trinity Sunday. It is made up of the first\nstanza of a hymn with the same opening, and of the third stanza of the\ncomposition, _\u00c6terna c\u0153li gloria_, with a doxology added.\n\n\n I\n\n O Thou Eternal One in Three,\n Dread Ruler of the earth and sky,\n Accept the praise we yield to Thee,\n Who, waking, lift our songs on high.\n\n\n II\n\n The star that tells the approach of day\n Is lingering in the glow of morn,\n And night and darkness fade away\u2014\n O Holy Light, our souls adorn!\n\n\n III\n\n To God the Father throned in heaven,\n To Christ the One Begotten Son,\n And to the Spirit praise be given,\n Now, and while endless ages run.\n\n\n\n\n O PATER SANCTE, MITIS ATQUE PIE\n\nFound in two MSS. of the eleventh century, and included in the York,\nSarum, and Aberdeen Breviaries.\n\n\n I\n\n O Holy Father, gracious Thou and tender;\n O Jesus Christ, Thou much ador\u00e8d Son;\n Spirit most sweet, Thou Paraclete, Defender,\n Eternally one!\n\n\n II\n\n Trinity Holy, Unity abiding,\n True God Thou art, unbounded goodness Thou,\n Light of the angels, trust of the confiding,\n We hope in Thee now.\n\n\n III\n\n Thee all creation pays eternal homage;\n Thee all Thy creatures songs of glory raise;\n Now come we humbly, joining in the chorus,\n O hear Thou our praise.\n\n\n IV\n\n Glory to Thee, O God of power almighty,\n Triune yet One, and great Thou art and high;\n Hymns fitly tell Thy honour, praise, and glory,\n and eternally.\n\n\n\n\n ADESTO, SANCTA TRINITAS\n\nAuthorship unknown. It first occurs in a MS. of the eleventh century in\nthe British Museum Library, has a place in the English Breviaries of\nYork, Hereford, and St. Albans, and is printed in the \u201cLatin Hymns of\nthe Anglo-Saxon Church.\u201d\n\n\n I\n\n Be present, Holy Trinity,\n One glory Thou, one Deity;\n Where\u2019er creation\u2019s bounds extend,\n Thou art beginning without end.\n\n\n II\n\n The hosts of heaven Thy praise proclaim,\n Adoring, tell Thy matchless fame;\n Earth\u2019s threefold fabric joins the song,\n To bless Thee through the ages long.\n\n\n III\n\n And we, Thy humble servants, now\n To Thee in adoration bow;\n Our suppliant vows and prayers unite\n With hymns that fill the realms of light.\n\n\n IV\n\n One Light, we Thee our homage pay,\n We worship Thee, O triple ray;\n Thou First and Last, we speak Thy fame,\n And every spirit lauds Thy name.\n\n\n V\n\n Praise to the Eternal Father be;\n Thou only Son, all praise to Thee;\n And Holy Ghost to Thee be praise,\n Great Triune God, yet One always.\n\n\n\n\n _All Saints_\n\n\n\n\n PUGNATE, CHRISTE MILITES\n\nGiven in editions of the Paris Breviary subsequent to 1736, along with\nthe hymn _C\u0153lestis O Jerusalem_, for the vigil of All Saints Day at\nLauds. Author not traced.\n\n\n I\n\n Christian soldiers in the conflict!\n Bear the banner of the cross;\n Rich reward shall crown the victor,\n More than recompense for loss.\n\n\n II\n\n Not with paltry palms that wither\n Shall the brow be gaily crowned,\n But with light that shines eternal,\n And with heavenly joy renowned.\n\n\n III\n\n Yours are mansions fair and comely\u2014\n There your souls in bliss shall rest;\n Stars shall sparkle in their radiance,\n On the pathway of the blest.\n\n\n IV\n\n Earthly joys are faint and fleeting,\n Earthly favours quickly fade;\n Heavenwards lift your eyes, expecting\n There your true reward is laid.\n\n\n V\n\n God be praised who crowns the victor,\n Christ be praised who saves from sin;\n Equal praise to God the Spirit,\n By whose aid we fight and win.\n\n\n\n\n AUDI NOS, REX CHRISTE\n\nThis pilgrim or processional hymn was first published from a MS. of the\neleventh century by Du M\u00e9vil at Paris, 1847; reprinted by Neale in his\n_Hymni Ecclesi\u00e6_, in 1851, as _Cantus Peregrinatorum_.\n\n\n I\n\n Hear us, O Christ, our King;\n Lord, hear the prayer we bring,\n And take the ordering of our way.\n\n\n _Refrain_\n\n _Thy mercy, Lord, extend;_\n _Thy mercy, Lord, extend,_\n _And take the ordering of our way._\n\n\n II\n\n O Three in Unity!\n Protect us all each day:\n In this Thy path divine we pray.\n\n\n III\n\n Send us a faithful guide:\n An angel to abide,\n Whose hand shall lead us to Thy throne.\n\n\n IV\n\n Our upward path direct,\n From every foe protect,\n And bring us back to claim our own.\n\n\n V\n\n Thy strong right arm extend,\n And with Thy left defend,\n And save us from the enemy.\n\n\n VI\n\n O Thou Creator wise,\n Soon may our longing eyes\n The glory of Thy kingdom see.\n\n\n VII\n\n Now glory let there be,\n O Father, unto Thee,\n From age to age eternally.\n\n\n\n\n _Communion_\n\n\n\n\n EJA O DULCIS ANIMA\n\nAuthor unknown. Belonging, according to Mone, to the thirteenth or\nfifteenth century.\n\n\n I\n\n See, sweet soul, my sister dear,\n Now the bridegroom neareth;\n Haste, prepare a place for Him\n Who in love appeareth.\n\n\n II\n\n Soon He comes, a gentle guest,\n Comes with heart o\u2019erflowing;\n All the best that heaven affords\n In His love bestowing.\n\n\n III\n\n Where His gracious presence is\n There is joy unending;\n Blessing with His friendship comes,\n Every bliss transcending.\n\n\n IV\n\n Yea, He comes to rest awhile,\n Thee with love entwining;\n At thy board He\u2019ll take His place,\n By thy side reclining.\n\n\n V\n\n Up, my soul, to meet thy Spouse;\n Hark! His footfall sounding;\n In thy bosom He will dwell\n With His love abounding.\n\n\n VI\n\n Hold Him fast in fond embrace;\n Say thou\u2019lt leave Him never,\n Till the blessing of His love\n Rest on thee for ever.\n\n\n\n\n O ESCA VIATORUM\n\nAscribed by some to Thomas Aquinas, but believed by latest and best\nauthorities to have been composed by some unknown German Jesuit of the\nseventeenth century. It has not been traced further back than the Mainz\n_Gesang-Buch_ of 1661, where it is styled \u201cHymn on the true Bread of\nHeaven.\u201d\n\n\n I\n\n O Food for pilgrims pining!\n O Bread for angels shining!\n O Manna fresh from heaven!\n In bountiful completeness,\n O may Thy heavenly sweetness\n To hungering hearts be given.\n\n\n II\n\n O Font of love surprising,\n From Jesu\u2019s heart uprising!\n A pure refreshing flow;\n Nought else our thirst allayeth\u2014\n For this the pilgrim prayeth\u2014\n This draught of love bestow.\n\n\n III\n\n Thy face we come revering,\n O Jesus, now appearing\n In sacramental rite.\n O when in heaven, before it\n Unveiled, may we adore it,\n Our faith absorbed in sight.\n\n\n\n\n JESU, DULCEDO CORDIUM\n\nIn the Paris Breviary of 1736, this is the hymn for Lauds for the\nfestival of the Transfiguration. It is composed of six stanzas of the\nGospel Rhythm of St. Bernard, beginning, _Jesu, dulcis memoria_, the\nfourth stanza of which begins, _Jesu, dulcedo Cordium_.\n\n\n I\n\n Jesu, delight of every heart,\n Thou font of life, Thou source of light,\n Earth can no joy so real impart,\n No soul can form a hope so bright.\n\n\n II\n\n Abide with us, O Lord, we pray,\n And cause Thy heavenly light to glow;\n Drive from our minds the clouds away,\n And let the world Thy sweetness know.\n\n\n III\n\n When Thou dost seek the humble heart,\n Thy heavenly truth is freely given;\n Then vanities of earth depart,\n Then glows the fervent love of heaven.\n\n\n IV\n\n O Jesus, of Thy wondrous grace,\n Make us Thy boundless love to know;\n And when we see Thee face to face,\n To us Thy matchless glory show.\n\n\n V\n\n They know how sweet the Lord can be,\n Who deeply drink His love divine;\n How blest, who find their all in Thee,\n Nor thirst for other joys than Thine.\n\n\n VI\n\n O Thou the spring whence pity flows!\n Light from the Fatherland to cheer!\n To us Thy glorious light disclose,\n Nor let dark clouds afflict us here.\n\n\n\n\n VERBUM SUPERNUM PRODIENS\n\nBy St. Thomas of Aquino, the Angelical Doctor. Born about 1225-1227;\neducated in the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino, and at the\nUniversity of Naples. Having resolved to become a Dominican friar, St.\nThomas, after much opposition from his family, took the vows of\nobedience, celibacy, and poverty at Naples, in 1243. The remainder of\nhis life was spent in the service of the Church at Paris, Cologne,\nRome, Naples, Bologna. When on his way to attend the Second Council of\nLyons, he died in the Benedictine abbey of Fossa Nuova, in the diocese\nof Terracina, in 1274. This hymn was written about 1263 for the office\nfor use on Corpus Christi. It is found in the Roman, Mozarabic, York,\nSarum, Aberdeen, Paris, and other Breviaries, its primary use being at\nLauds in Corpus Christi.\n\n\n I\n\n The Word, proceeding from above,\n Yet still at God\u2019s right hand in heaven,\n Came to His work impelled by love,\n And soon life\u2019s day declined to even.\n\n\n II\n\n A traitor in His chosen band\n Betrays his Lord to death and grave;\n But ere He died, with His own hand\n Himself as food to man He gave.\n\n\n III\n\n In double form the gift was made;\n He gave them of His flesh and blood,\n That so the feast His love purveyed,\n Might prove for man sufficient food.\n\n\n IV\n\n By birth a friend in Him we find;\n As food He fills the festal board;\n In death the ransom of our kind;\n In heaven He is our great reward.\n\n\n V\n\n O Saving Sacrifice! that made\n The gates of heaven stand open wide,\n Be Thou our strength, come to our aid,\n When foes would crush on every side.\n\n\n VI\n\n To Thee, Good Shepherd, who for meat\n Dost give Thy flesh to feed Thine own,\n To Father, and to Paraclete,\n Be praise through ages yet unknown.\n\n\n\n\n _Death and Judgment_\n\n\n\n\n GRAVI ME TERRORE PULSAS\n\nBy Peter Damiani. Born at Ravenna about 988; became a \u201creligious\u201d of\nthe order of the Monks of the Holy Cross of Fontavellano, of which\ncommunity he subsequently became the Superior, founding in his day five\nmonasteries under the same rule; was induced by Pope Stephen IX. to\naccept the position of Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia, an office he was\nallowed to resign by Pope Alexander II. in 1062. In retirement he lived\na life of great asceticism and self-mortification. On his return\njourney from Ravenna, whither he had gone as Papal legate on a mission\nof inquiry and reform, he died of fever at Faenza, in the monastery of\nOur Lady, 1072.\n\n\n I\n\n Terror grim the soul oppresses\n When the day of death is near;\n Sighs the heart, the reins are sundered,\n Quakes each part with anxious fear;\n While the mind the woe detaileth\n Of the conflict to appear.\n\n\n II\n\n Spectacle all woe inspiring\n Who its terror can pourtray?\n See, the course of life is ended,\n And the sickening flesh gives way,\n For the wrestling soul in triumph\n Breaks the bands that bid her stay.\n\n\n III\n\n Sense decays, and fails expression;\n Dark the world to melting eye;\n And the troubled breast in anguish,\n Gasping, breathes her burdened sigh;\n Grace of form and glow of beauty,\n From the withering body die.\n\n\n IV\n\n Thoughts, and words, and deeds forgotten,\n Crowd around in grim array;\n And unwilling eyes behold them,\n Be they closed or turned away;\n In the heart they seem to rankle,\n Turn he wheresoe\u2019er he may.\n\n\n V\n\n Vain the vow of new obedience\u2014\n Time for vowing is no more;\n Vain the sorrow of repentance,\n For the day of grace is o\u2019er;\n Conscience now the tortured sinner\n Gnaws with pangs unfelt before.\n\n\n VI\n\n Draughts of sweet deluding pleasure\n Give the bitter dregs at last;\n Come, unending pain and anguish,\n With the short-lived rapture past;\n Then, what once appeared so worthy,\n Is aside as worthless cast.\n\n\n VII\n\n Then, O Christ, Thou King victorious,\n Come with succour in my plight;\n When the soul is freed from bondage,\n In its hour of darkest night;\n Come, O Christ, Thy help extending,\n Free me from the accuser\u2019s might.\n\n\n VIII\n\n Headlong may the Prince of Darkness\n With the hosts infernal fall!\n Thou, the Shepherd of Salvation,\n Bid me follow at Thy call,\n To the land where fulness dwelleth,\n And those eyes shall see it all.\n\n\n\n\n APPROPINQUAT ENIM DIES IN QUA JUSTES ERIT QUIES\n\nA cento taken from the hymn, _Heu! Heu! mala mundi vita_, published by\nDu M\u00e9vil in 1847, from a MS. of the twelfth century, in the National\nLibrary at Paris. The poem from which the cento is taken consists of\nnearly four hundred lines, and the cento begins at line 325.\n\n\n I\n\n Lo, the day, the day approacheth\n When the just shall rest in peace,\n When the patient souls shall triumph,\n And the vile from troubling cease.\n\n\n II\n\n Day of life, who can abide it?\n Day of light, unseen before;\n Death, the fell destroyer, dieth,\n Night and darkness are no more.\n\n\n III\n\n See He comes whom ages longed for\u2014\n Long expected King of kings\u2014\n Now He tarries not, and with Him\n All His great salvation brings.\n\n\n IV\n\n O how blessed! O how joyful!\n O what sweetness it shall be!\n When the eyes of those who loved Him\n Shall their Lord and Master see.\n\n\n V\n\n Jesus then with sweet affection,\n And in tones of tenderest love,\n Shall invite His faithful people\n To the joys prepared above.\n\n\n VI\n\n \u201cYe who held My truth unsullied,\n Faithful stood in world of sin,\n Suffered for the name ye honoured,\n See the joys ye sought to win.\n\n\n VII\n\n \u201cSee the heavenly kingdom promised,\n Long reserved, but now revealed;\n Now behold it, now possess it,\n Now the princely sceptre wield.\u201d\n\n\n VIII\n\n O how sweet our earthly losses,\n In the midst of gain like this!\n O how vain the world\u2019s possessions,\n At the cost of so much bliss!\n\n\n IX\n\n O how bless\u00e8d then the mourners,\n Who for Christ earth\u2019s sorrow bore,\n By a scornful world neglected!\n They shall reign for evermore.\n\n\n X\n\n Now no terror grim shall haunt them\u2014\n Tears and sorrows are no more;\n Grinding want shall ne\u2019er afflict them,\n Crippled age nor weakness sore.\n\n\n XI\n\n Peace eternal there abideth,\n Hearts with festive gladness bound;\n There is youth with perfect vigour,\n And with bloom unfading crowned.\n\n\n XII\n\n O just Judge! in boundless mercy\n Call me heavenward by-and-by,\n For my soul is faint with longing,\n And I wait with tearful eye.\n\n\n\n\n _Heaven_\n\n\n\n\n JERUSALEM LUMINOSA VER\u00c6 PACIS VISIO\n\nThe second in a group of three hymns, of all which the author is quite\nunknown. First published by Mone from a fifteenth century MS., at\nKarlsruhe. This hymn has for title in the original, _De Glori\u00e2 C\u0153lestis\nJerusalem quoad dotes Glorificati Corporis_\u2014\u201cOf the Glory of the\nHeavenly Jerusalem, so far as concerns the endowments of the Glorified\nBody,\u201d and was a favourite at dedications and other festivals. All the\nthree of the series will be found, with English renderings, in Dr.\nNeale\u2019s \u201cHymns, chiefly Medi\u00e6val, on the Joys and Glories of Paradise.\u201d\n\n\n I\n\n O city girt with glory!\n Thou scene of quiet rest,\n Where dwells the King Eternal\u2014\n O beautiful and blest!\n Thy streets are filled with glorious song,\n The praises of a myriad throng.\n\n\n II\n\n With stones of polished beauty\n Is reared thy structure fair;\n And gems, and gold, and crystal\n Are sparkling everywhere;\n With pearls thy gates are glittering gay,\n And golden is thy bright highway.\n\n\n III\n\n For ever and in sweetness\n Are Alleluias given;\n Unending is the feast day,\n The royal feast of heaven;\n Whate\u2019er within thy walls is stored,\n Is pure and holy to the Lord.\n\n\n IV\n\n No clouds with sombre curtain\n Thy glorious brightness screen;\n There shines the Sun Eternal,\n And aye at noonday seen;\n There is no night to give repose,\n For no one toil or trouble knows.\n\n\n V\n\n The vernal glow of springtime\n Is bright and lasting there,\n The wealth of summer\u2019s richness\n Is scattered everywhere;\n And that fair realm can never know\n The autumn\u2019s blast or winter\u2019s snow.\n\n\n VI\n\n The notes that fall in sweetness,\n Where birds in woodland sing;\n The sounds of softest music,\n That winds in summer bring,\n Are wafted o\u2019er that city bright,\n In strains of unalloyed delight.\n\n\n VII\n\n There youth adorned with vigour\n Ne\u2019er into age declines;\n No aged fears the mortal,\n Nor for the past repines;\n For past and future are unknown:\n The present reigns in heaven alone.\n\n\n VIII\n\n No fleshly law can triumph,\n And over reason ride;\n With bodies pure and stainless\n The spirit shall abide;\n And power of flesh, and power of will,\n Shall both one common law fulfil.\n\n\n IX\n\n O bright the heavenly glory,\n This fragile frame shall wear,\n When health, and strength, and freedom\n Shall crown with beauty rare;\n And pleasure\u2019s draughts no sorrow know,\n But everlasting joys bestow.\n\n\n X\n\n Now gladly bear the burden;\n With zeal thy task maintain,\n And gifts shall crown thy labour,\n And all thy loss be gain,\n When decked with splendour thou shalt be,\n Where glory dwells eternally.\n\n\n\n\n URBS BEATA HIERUSALEM, Part I\n\nThe author of this fine old rugged hymn is unknown. It is conjectured\nto be of sixth- or seventh-century date. It passed into many medi\u00e6val\nBreviaries, sometimes entire, but often divided into two parts. It was\nlargely used for the dedication of churches.\n\n\n Part I.\n\n\n I\n\n O vision bright of heavenly peace,\n Jerusalem on high,\n With living stones Thy walls are built,\n All beauteous to the eye;\n A high-born bride, the angels stand\n Around Thee, an attendant band.\n\n\n II\n\n From heaven she cometh down prepared\n Her nuptial hour to grace;\n With jewels decked she shall be led\n To see her Bridegroom\u2019s face.\n O fair her streets, her bulwarks fair,\n For purest gold is everywhere.\n\n\n III\n\n Her gates, adorned with glowing pearl,\n Stand open day and night,\n And hither come the faithful souls,\n And enter in His right,\n For whom they bore the cruel shame,\n That earth has linked to His dear name.\n\n\n IV\n\n All precious stones and shapely all,\n By sore affliction made;\n Each in its place the Heavenly King\n With His own hand has laid\u2014\n Such was the plan, that with the Elect\n The walls of Zion should be decked.\n\n\n\n\n Part II.\n\n\n I\n\n Most firm the sure foundation stands,\n And strong the corner-stone,\n To bear the walls that proudly rise,\n And bind them into one;\n And Zion all her trust will lay\n Upon the strength of Christ alway.\n\n\n II\n\n Within that city, God beloved,\n Flow streams of praise along;\n And towers and bulwarks echo forth\n The gladness of the song;\n \u2019Tis praise to God continually,\n The Three in One, the One in Three.\n\n\n III\n\n Within Thine earthly temple, Lord,\n We meet to seek Thy face;\n O in Thy loving kindness, hear,\n Diffuse Thy heavenly grace;\n Grant, as Thy people humbly bow,\n Thine ample benediction now.\n\n\n IV\n\n Be found of all who seek Thee here,\n And every need supply\u2014\n The joys of heaven that cheer the soul,\n When streams of earth are dry;\n And in the greatness of Thy love,\n Hereafter, open heaven above.\n\n\n\n\n INDEX OF FIRST LINES\n\n\n PAGE\n\n A\n Alleluia! Alleluia! 87\n Alleluia, hymn of sweetness 93\n\n B\n Be present, Holy Trinity 119\n Broken are the bands that bound us 100\n Burst are the iron gates of death 91\n\n C\n Christ, the light that shines eternal 32\n Christian soldiers in the conflict 123\n Come, Thou Creator Spirit blest 109\n\n D\n Dark night has drawn her curtain round 34\n\n E\n Emmanuel, come! we call for Thee 45\n Eternal King, enthroned on high 97\n\n F\n For us the cruel cross He bare 82\n From the Father\u2019s throne descending 27\n\n G\n Gone are the shades of night 23\n\n H\n Hail, thou blessed cross, all hail! 78\n Hear us, O Christ, our King 125\n Holy Spirit, come with power 111\n\n J\n Jesu, delight of every heart 133\n\n K\n King of heaven, our nature wearing 65\n\n L\n Let us tune our hearts and voices 49\n Lo, the day, the day approacheth 143\n\n M\n Maker of the world, we pray 22\n My heart goes forth in love to Thee 20\n\n N\n Now daylight floods the morning sky 15\n Now let us tune our hearts to sing 63\n Now sinks the fiery orb of day 38\n Now sinks the glowing orb of day 25\n\n O\n O Christ, who art ascended now 104\n O Christ, who in that hour of dread 81\n O city girt with glory 149\n O day, the chief of days, whose light 3\n O Food for pilgrims pining 131\n O God, I love Thee, not alone 11\n O Holy Father, gracious Thou and tender 118\n O Holy Spirit, font of love 114\n O Jesus, when I think of Thee 17\n O Light that from the light wast born 5\n O spotless King, who shared its gloom 83\n O Thou Eternal One in Three 7\n O Thou Eternal One in Three 117\n O vision bright of heavenly peace 153\n O ye who seek the Lord, come nigh 57\n\n S\n See in the east the morn arise 36\n See, sweet soul, my sister dear 129\n See the royal banners 69\n Shout praises, ye heavens 89\n\n T\n Tell, my tongue, the glorious conflict 72\n Terror grim the soul oppresses 139\n The din of battle now is dead 87\n The Word, proceeding from above 135\n Thirty years by God appointed 75\n Thou, blest Creator of the light 13\n Thou our Redeemer art, O Christ 61\n Thou who hast led our steps this day 30\n Thy blessed passion, Christ, be ours 82\n Thy works, O God, Thy name extol 9\n To-day the lingering clouds are riven 102\n To Thee, O Christ, our prayers shall rise 41\n\n V\n Veiled was the glory of Thy face 80\n\n W\n When evening shades around us close 43\n Wherefore in the lowly stall 54\n\n Z\n Zion is glad this glorious morn 52\n\n\n _Printed by_ Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.\n _Edinburgh and London_\n\n\n\n\n Transcriber\u2019s Notes\n\n\n--Silently corrected several minor typographical errors.\n\n--Moved Footnotes to the end of the file (and added Footnotes to Table\n of Contents).\n\n--Retained original copyright information (this text is public domain\n in the country of publication.)\n\n--Generated an original cover image, released for unrestricted use with\n this eBook.","title":"Hymns of the Early Church: being translations from the poetry of the Latin church, arranged in the order of the Christian year","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":16294}