{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_58619/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_58619","id":"gutenberg_58619","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58619","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Religious","Category: Music","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Hymn writers","Hymns, English -- History and criticism"],"text":"Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n THE\n HYMN-BOOK OF THE\n MODERN CHURCH\n\n\n BRIEF STUDIES OF HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS\n\n THE THIRTY-FOURTH FERNLEY LECTURE\n\n\n BY\n ARTHUR E. GREGORY, D.D.\n PRINCIPAL OF THE CHILDREN\u2019S HOME AND ORPHANAGE EDITOR OF \u2018BOOKS FOR\n BIBLE STUDENTS,\u2019 ETC.\n\n\n _London_\n CHARLES H. KELLY\n 2, CASTLE ST., CITY ROAD; AND 26, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.\n 1904\n\n PRINTED BY\n WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,\n LONDON AND BECCLES.\n\n\n _To\n My Children_\n\n \u2018Better than all the ballads\n That ever were sung or said.\u2019\n\n\n\n\n PREFACE\n\n\nThis lecture consists of a series of essays introductory to the study\nof English hymns, in which I have tried to give some account of the\nsources from which the Church gathers its sacred songs, and to sketch\nbriefly the growth of the modern hymn-book. It has been necessary to\nomit several sections which I had intended to include, and this volume\ncovers a portion only of the ground indicated by the title. I may,\nperhaps, some day be able to carry the work a stage nearer\ncompleteness.\n\nIt may be thought that I have given disproportionate space to certain\nperiods and to certain hymn-writers. If so, I can only say that they\nseemed to me specially interesting or important. In quotations,\nespecially from less-known writers, I have taken as much liberty as\npossible, and I think this is the redeeming feature of the lecture. In\nextended quotations I have usually given the preference to hymns not\nreadily accessible to the general reader, and have only occasionally\nquoted hymns to be found in the _Methodist Hymn-book_.\n\nTo the hymns of the Wesleys I have given considerable space. The\nsubject was chosen for me in view of the publication of the new\nMethodist Hymn-book, and the occasion seemed to require a somewhat\ndetailed survey of the early Methodist hymns. Nor do I think that many\nwill consider the attention given to them more than their intrinsic\nvalue justifies. \u2018After the Scriptures,\u2019 wrote Dr. James Martineau,\n\u2018the Wesley Hymn-book appears to me the grandest instrument of popular\nreligious culture that Christendom has ever produced.\u2019[1]\n\nDelightful as this work has been to me, the book has been written\nunder great pressure and amid countless interruptions. I have had to\nredeem odd minutes and the evening hours when a long day\u2019s work had\nalready been done.\n\nI have to acknowledge constant obligation\u2014much more extensive than is\nindicated by frequent reference\u2014to Dr. Julian\u2019s monumental _Dictionary\nof Hymnology_, which has lightened the labour of research for all\nstudents of hymns.\n\nTo my friend, Dr. J. T. L. Maggs, I am under manifold obligations\nwhich I most gratefully record. Dr. Maggs read a great part of the\nbook in MS, and the whole in proof; and I am also indebted to him for\ncalling my attention to, or procuring for me, some important books of\nreference. Mr. W. Garrett Horder has also given me the benefit of his\nadvice and criticism\u2014all the more valuable because his judgement has\noften differed from my own.\n\nIt is a pleasure to mention the valuable help rendered me by some of\nmy friends connected with The Children\u2019s Home, and especially by Miss\nF. L. Moon (now Mrs. Carey), who most kindly relieved me of the\ngreater part of the burden of the actual preparation of the MS. for\nthe press. My son, Benjamin A. Gregory, has prepared the Index,\nverified quotations, and helped me in many other ways.\n\nNo Fernley Lecturer has had a more attractive theme. I wish its\ntreatment had been more worthy. But with all its imperfections I trust\nthat He who inhabiteth the praises of Israel may deign to bless my\nlittle book to the edification and comfort of some who read it.\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS\n\n\n Introduction 1\n I. A True Hymn 6\n II. Hymns of the Bible and the Early Church 29\n III. Early Modern Hymns 62\n I.\u2014Sixteenth Century 62\n II.\u2014Seventeenth Century 80\n IV. Eighteenth-century Hymns 122\n I.\u2014The School of Watts 122\n II.\u2014Hymns of the Methodist Revival 155\n III.\u2014The Olney Hymns 224\n IV.\u2014Addison, Toplady, and Others 243\n V. Nineteenth-century Hymns 254\n I.\u2014Anglican Hymns 254\n II.\u2014Free Church Hymns 285\n III.\u2014Roman Catholic Hymns 315\n Conclusion 323\n Appendix 333\n General Index 339\n Index of Hymns and Verses 343\n\n\n\n\n THE HYMN-BOOK OF THE MODERN CHURCH\n\n\n\n\n INTRODUCTION\n\n\nThe source and inspiration of Christian song is the word of Christ.\n\u2018Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.\u2019 The common\nphrases of common life cannot satisfy the soul filled with the Spirit\nand rich with the wealth of Christ\u2019s indwelling word. Religious\nemotion finds truer and more fitting expression in poetry than in\nprose. If God had not given to His Church poets, as well as apostles,\nevangelists, pastors, and teachers, the best that is in us could never\nhave been uttered. Words and phrases that are large enough for\nintercourse with our fellows become cramped and inexpressive when we\nspeak to God. Praise and penitence alike would often be silent in the\ncongregation of the saints if they could not at once veil and reveal\ntheir profoundest feelings in psalms and hymns. Poetry gives to\ndevotion those robes of glory and beauty without which it would, at\ntimes, be almost unseemly to join in the public worship of God or to\ndisclose the heart\u2019s secrets in the presence of fellow-worshippers.\n\nOur theme, then, is peculiarly sacred, since it deals with the\nspiritual songs in which earnest and sincere men have uttered, in the\nvery presence of God, their most secret thoughts, confessions, and\naspirations. Every true hymn was first spoken by one man to God alone,\nwas prayed before it was sung, though now it may be heard daily from\nten thousand voices. Harsh or flippant criticism is out of place here,\nan irreverent impertinence, like the interruption of private prayer.\nIn the study of hymns\n\n Put off thy shoes from off thy feet;\n The place where man his God shall meet\n Be sure is holy ground.[2]\n\nYet St. Paul himself reminds us that the word of Christ is to dwell\nwisely as well as richly in our hearts. \u2018Let the word of Christ dwell\nin you richly in all wisdom.\u2019 \u2018Next to a sound rule of faith, there is\nnothing of so much consequence as a sober standard of feeling in\nmatters of religion.\u2019[3] Morbid, insincere, fanatical, or exaggerated\nemotion is as much to be deprecated as doctrinal error, and its evils\nare at least as disastrous. The diffusion of false or superficial\nsentiment in the household of the faith is like the spreading of a\nsubtle disease which saps the strength and mars the beauty of\ndevotion, while error bears a charmed life if it comes in the words of\na familiar and attractive hymn. Moreover, it is in the hymns of the\nChurch rather than in its formal declarations of faith and doctrine\nthat we find the truest and generally the most favourable revelation\nof its character. Hymnology is a more important element in the history\nof religion than most Church historians and theological writers have\nrecognized.[4]\n\nThe present time is in many respects peculiarly appropriate for a\nconsideration of the growth and development of the hymns of the modern\nChurch. We are in a state of rest or pause after tumult. The great\nreligious \u2018movements\u2019 of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are\nmatters of history, and we can regard even the most recent of them\ncalmly and without the prejudice which while conflict rages may, not\naltogether unfairly, be regarded as patriotism. The Methodist Revival,\nthe Evangelical Awakening, the Oxford Movement, the Salvation Army\nCampaign, the Undenominational Evangelism of Messrs. Moody and Sankey,\nmay all be taken into account in considering the material and\ncharacter of the hymn-book of the modern Church.\n\nAgain, it is interesting to remember that of the hymn-writers of the\nnineteenth century few survive. For the moment there is neither\nevangelist nor poet to give us new songs. Our fathers made hymn-books;\nwe re-edit them. Within the last few years the standard Presbyterian,\nBaptist, Anglican,[5] and Methodist hymn-books have appeared in new\nand revised editions, whilst in the _Arundel Hymns_ we have the most\nrecent Roman Catholic hymnal. Dr. Barrett\u2019s _Congregational Church\nHymnal_, issued in 1887, is of the modern type, though it preserves\nmany of the features of the older Nonconformist books. Mr. Garrett\nHorder\u2019s _Worship-Song_ represents the taste of an individual, not of\na committee or community; but it is in many respects the best and most\ncomplete collection of the hymns of the modern Church. These books\nenable us to discover current opinion and taste in regard to hymns\nwhich are worthy to take their place in the service of the Christian\nsanctuary, and both in their unity and diversity are of great value as\nindicating the life and thought of the Churches they represent.\n\nIn this lecture I shall attempt\u2014\n\n1. A brief preliminary inquiry into what constitutes a true hymn,\nsuited for use in Christian worship.\n\n2. A very brief review of the relation of the Hebrew Psalter to the\nChristian Hymnal, and a passing glance at the hymns of the New\nTestament and of the early Church.\n\n3. A more detailed survey of the rise and development of modern\nEnglish hymns and their use in the Church since the Reformation.\n\nSuch a study, however unskilfully guided, cannot, I hope, be\naltogether without interest or edification, since it brings the\nstudent into fellowship with the sweetest and the saintliest souls,\nand bids him join in spirit the choir invisible who praise God day and\nnight in His temple.\n\n\nI regret that the limits assigned to my lecture make it impossible to\nrefer to translations from the Greek, Latin, German, and other\nlanguages. These form a most valuable and an increasing portion of all\nmodern hymnals. They furnish abundant material for a separate volume.\n\n\n\n\n I\n A True Hymn\n\n\nWhen my revered father, more than thirty years ago, delivered the\nfourth Fernley Lecture, he laid this down as the first scriptural\nChurch principle\u2014\u2018The Church is not a thing of rigid definition.\u2019 I\nmay adapt that phrase to my own subject, and say, _A hymn is not a\nthing of rigid definition_.\n\nCommenting on the note which closes the second book of Psalms, \u2018The\nprayers [LXX. _hymns_] of David the son of Jesse are ended,\u2019 St.\nAugustine gives this definition:\n\n Hymns are praises of God with singing, hymns are songs containing\n praises of God. If there be praise, and not praise of God, it is not\n a hymn. If there be praise, and praise of God, and it is not sung,\n it is not a hymn. It is necessary, therefore, if it be a hymn, that\n it have these three things: both praise, and praise of God, and that\n it be sung.\n\nIn commenting on Ps. cxlviii. he repeats this rule in almost the same\nwords. The definition commends itself at once as excellent, and in\nregard to a large number of hymns adequate; but even when the widest\nsense is given to the words it is much too narrow and would exclude\nmany of the truest hymns. Indeed, it is impossible to deny the title\nto innumerable compositions which do not fulfil these conditions. Many\na verse of which it may be said, This is not a hymn, demonstrates its\nright by the fact that it is hymned by the Church from age to age.\n\nSt. Augustine\u2019s third canon may be accepted without hesitation. A poem\nthat cannot be sung may speak in the sublimest accents of devotion,\nyet it is of necessity unsuited to the service of the Christian choir.\nSpenser\u2019s \u2018Hymn of Heavenly Love\u2019 is a glorious example of this form\nof praise. Indeed, there are some stanzas which a skilful hand might\nmake available for use in the congregation.\n\n O bless\u00e8d Well of Love, O Flower of Grace,\n O glorious Morning Star, O Lamp of Light!\n Most lively image of Thy Father\u2019s face,\n Eternal King of Glory, Lord of Might,\n Meek Lamb of God, before all worlds behight,[6]\n How can we Thee requite for all this good?\n Or what can prize that Thy most precious blood?\n\n Yet nought Thou ask\u2019st in lieu of all this love,\n But love of us for guerdon of Thy pain:\n Ay me! What can us less than that behove?\n Had He requir\u00e8d life of us again,\n Had it been wrong to ask His own with gain?\n He gave us life, He it restor\u00e8d lost;\n Then life were least, that us so little cost.\n\n But He our life hath left unto us free,\n Free that was thrall, and bless\u00e8d that was banned;\n Nor ought demands but that we loving be,\n As He Himself hath loved us afore-hand;\n And bound thereto with an eternal band,\n Him first to love that us so dearly bought,\n And next our brethren to His image wrought.\n\nMany of Herbert\u2019s and of Miss Rossetti\u2019s poems are of the same type.\nWe would give much to add them to our hymnals, but they would be out\nof place there. They belong to the manual of devotion.\n\nThat the primary idea of a hymn is praise may also be granted, but\neven so \u2018praise\u2019 must be given an extensive connotation, that it may\ninclude whatever directly or indirectly glorifies God. St. Paul\u2019s\nexhortations show how much more than the offering of adoration is\nincluded in the province of Christian song. Our hymn-book, like the\nHebrew Psalter, must have not only its songs of high thanksgiving, its\nsacrifice of praise, but also its prayer of the penitent as he poureth\nout his soul unto God, its sin-offering as well as its thank-offering,\nits intercessions and meditations, its instructions and exhortations,\nits lighter songs and melodies. \u2018Every feeling which enters into any\nact of true worship may fitly find expression in a hymn.\u2019[7]\n\nDr. Johnson declared that sacred poetry must always be poor because\n\u2018the topics of devotion are few, and being few are universally known;\nbut few as they are can be made no more.\u2019 To this criticism Keble\nreplied in his essay on Sacred Poetry\u2014\n\n How can the topics of devotion be few, when we are taught to make\n every part of life, every scene in nature, an occasion\u2014in other\n words, a topic\u2014of devotion? It might as well be said that connubial\n love is an unfit subject for poetry, as being incapable of novelty,\n because, after all, it is only ringing the changes upon one simple\n affection, which every one understands. The novelty there consists,\n not in the original topic, but in continually bringing ordinary\n things, by happy strokes of natural ingenuity, into new associations\n with the ruling passion.\n\n There\u2019s not a bonnie flower that springs\n By fountain, shaw, or green;\n There\u2019s not a bonnie bird that sings\n But minds me of my Jean.\n\n Why need we fear to extend this most beautiful and natural sentiment\n to \u2018the intercourse between the human soul and its Maker\u2019?[8]\n\nIf, on its subjective side, sacred poetry has a wide range of topics,\nhow manifold and how magnificent are the themes presented by the\nhistoric facts upon which faith rests, and by the great truths of the\ngospel! In Johnson\u2019s day no one understood how large a realm belonged\nto the Christian singer, but we have no cause to complain of sameness\nor dullness in the songs of the Christian choir.\n\nSt. Augustine\u2019s second canon need not be regarded as implying that\nevery hymn must be formally addressed to God. The very hymns (the\npsalms) upon which he was commenting abundantly justify our use of\nhymns which are rather uttered in the divine presence than actually\nspoken to God. The 103rd Psalm is as truly a hymn of praise, and that\nof God, as the 104th. After the same self-exhortation, \u2018Bless the\nLord, O my soul,\u2019 the one continues in the form of a devout\nmeditation, in which the consciousness that God hears is never for a\nmoment absent; while the other at once addresses \u2018the Majesty on\nhigh.\u2019\n\n O Lord my God, Thou art very great;\n Thou art clothed with honour and majesty.\n\nBoth might have ended with\n\n Let my meditation[9] be sweet unto Him;\n civ. 34.\n\nor, in the words of another psalm\u2014\n\n Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation[9] of my heart, be\n acceptable in Thy sight,\n O Lord, my Strength, and my Redeemer.\n xix. 14.\n\nDevout meditations which do not actually speak to God are amongst the\nbest and most truly devotional hymns. Watts\u2019s spiritual song,\n\n There is a land of pure delight,\n\nis an example of the hymn which is only indirectly a prayer; whilst\n\n When I survey the wondrous Cross\n\nillustrates the meditation which is partly the communing of the soul\nwith itself, and partly (perhaps in this case only in the second\nverse) a direct address to God. Yet each is a true hymn. The ideal\nexercise of the Christian hymn-writer is the practice of the presence\nof God.\n\nNot only, then, are the subjects of sacred song infinitely varied, but\nthe forms it may assume are many. In the poet, as well as in the\nprophet, God speaks \u2018in divers manners.\u2019 This is seen in St. Paul\u2019s\ntwice repeated classification, \u2018psalms, hymns, spiritual songs,\u2019 and\nby the directions he gives for the use of song in the Church.\n\nIn the Epistle to the Ephesians he writes:\n\n And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with\n the Spirit; speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and\n spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the\n Lord; giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord\n Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.\n\nIn the Epistle to the Colossians:\n\n Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching\n and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual\n songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God. And whatsoever ye\n do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving\n thanks to God the Father through Him.\n\n_Psalms_ are, no doubt, primarily, if not exclusively, those of the\nOld Testament, which would naturally form the basis of the hymn-book\nof the Christian Church. It would have been the worst ingratitude, the\nmost crass stupidity, if such a treasure actually in their hands and\nin their hearts had not been adopted in the services of the first\nChristian worshippers, even though it must soon have been felt that\nsome psalms were as little in harmony with the spirit of the new\ndispensation as the law which Christ Himself enlarged and enlightened.\n\n_Hymns_ \u2018would more appropriately designate those hymns of praise\nwhich were composed by the Christians themselves.\u2019[10] Of these, as we\nshall note in the next chapter, some fragments remain, and they are\nspecially characteristic of Christian worship. \u2018It was of the essence\nof the Greek \u1f55\u00b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 (hymn) that it should be ... addressed to a god or\nhero, that is, a deified man.\u2019[11] Christianity inherited the Hebrew\npsalm, it adopted and consecrated the Greek hymn.\n\n_Ode_, or song, is a more general term, qualified and limited by the\nepithet \u2018spiritual,\u2019 and may be regarded as justifying our use of many\nmodern hymns which a severe or narrow taste would reject. Bishop\nBeveridge understood it to include \u2018all sorts of songs upon any\nspiritual subject.\u2019\n\nProbably the three terms were not very rigidly distinguished, though\nthey are convenient for describing various classes of devotional\npoetry. In the title of Ps. lxxv. the LXX. gives the three words:\n\u2018among hymns, a psalm for Asaph, an ode concerning the Assyrian.\u2019[12]\n\nThe variety of form which the songs of the Christian temple may assume\nis seen to be of the utmost value when we consider how large a part\nthe ministry of song has in Christian life and worship. Although\nJehovah is \u2018exalted above all blessing and praise,\u2019[13] yet does He\nsit \u2018enthroned upon the praises of Israel.\u2019[14] \u2018Praise waiteth for\nGod in Zion.\u2019 The ancient summons to worship is\u2014\n\n Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,\n And into His courts with praise.\n c. 4.\n\nThe walls of the city of God are called Salvation, and her gates\nPraise.[15] The mystic Jerusalem is the true \u2018city of praise.\u2019[16] The\none offering of the Christian temple is its perpetual eucharist,[17]\n\u2018the sacrifice of praise.\u2019[18] The high praises of God are in the\nmouth of His saints because His love is shed abroad in their hearts,\nand they \u2018cannot from His praise forbear.\u2019\n\n Jerusalem makes melody\n For simple joy of heart,\n An organ of full compass she,\n One tuned through every part;\n While not to day or night belong\n Her matins and her evensong,\n The one thanksgiving of her song.[19]\n\nWhatever the form of the song, its music is for the ear of God, its\nmelody is that of the heart.\n\nIn the Christian Church, as in the Jewish Temple, we may call\ninstrumental music to our aid, and count its offering not unacceptable\nto God.\n\n Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet:\n Praise Him with the psaltery and harp.\n Praise Him with the timbrel and dance:\n Praise Him with stringed instruments and the pipe.\n Praise Him upon the loud cymbals:\n Praise Him upon the high-sounding cymbals.\n\nYet all this pomp and circumstance of worship are but sounding brass\nand clanging cymbal unless there be the accompaniment of \u2018grace in the\nheart.\u2019\n\n Praise Him every tuneful string;\n All the reach of heavenly art,\n All the powers of music bring,\n The music of the heart.[20]\n\nPraise needs \u2018a thousand tongues,\u2019 and even so would find \u2018eternity\ntoo short\u2019 for its service.\n\n\nThough St. Paul associates praise\u2014thanksgiving\u2014with singing in both\nthe passages referred to, it is instructive to note how clearly he\nasserts the teaching function of the songs of the Church: \u2018Speaking\none to another,\u2019 \u2018teaching and admonishing one another.\u2019 Bishop\nChristopher Wordsworth said, as I think, truly:\n\n Christian poetry ought to be a medium for the conveyance of\n Christian doctrine.... A Church which forgoes the use of hymns in\n her office of teaching neglects one of the most efficacious\n instruments for correcting error, and for disseminating truth, as\n well as for ministering comfort and edification.[21]\n\nAn entirely opposite view is often taken, especially by Dissenting\nwriters. Mr. Horder even regards the definite assertion of the\ndoctrine of the Trinity in Heber\u2019s greatest hymn as \u2018its only\nfault.\u2019[22] Dr. Martineau argued that to eliminate from a hymn its\ndistinctive doctrinal teaching, and to \u2018translate\u2019 it into broader\ntheological language, was \u2018simply to remove an obstruction,\u2019 and to\nintroduce the author \u2018to the veneration of thousands, to whom\notherwise he must appear as a repulsive stranger.\u2019[23] The general\nquestion of alterations in the text of hymns may be considered later.\nAt the moment I need only point out that the apostolic ideal of a hymn\nincludes both ethical and doctrinal teaching. John Wesley prided\nhimself upon having given in his hymn-book \u2018a little body of\nexperimental and practical divinity.\u2019\n\nThe same principle may be applied to hymns of invitation, of which\nthere are so many in the Methodist collection, and of which Faber\u2019s\n\u2018Souls of men, why will ye scatter?\u2019 is the best modern example. An\noff-hand criticism may condemn hymns addressed to our own souls, to\n\u2018souls of men,\u2019 to \u2018neighbours and friends,\u2019 to \u2018sinners poor and\nwretched;\u2019 but they have ample warrant both in precept and precedent.\n\n God sent His singers upon earth\n With songs of sadness and of mirth,\n That they might touch the hearts of men,\n And bring them back to heaven again.[24]\n\nThe Christian poet is a teacher and an evangelist.\n\n\nPassing from the form to the character of the hymn, there are certain\ngreat principles concerning which there will, I imagine, be little\ndifference of opinion. The first essential in every hymn is surely\nthat it be not unworthy of use in the service of God, who is of purer\neyes than to behold iniquity, and is to be worshipped in the beauty of\nholiness. There must be\u2014\n\n1. _Sincerity._\u2014Fitness for divine service depends not upon beauty of\nform or expression, but upon sincerity of thought.\n\n The fineness which a hymn or psalm affords,\n Is when the soul unto the lines accords.[25]\n\n\u2018The garment of praise\u2019 is the white robe of the pure in heart, and,\nlacking this, the stately anthem has less of heaven\u2019s music than the\ndiscordant voices of the village choir.\n\nSo Cowper prays\u2014\n\n Forgive the praise that falls so low\n Beneath the gratitude I owe:\n It means Thy praise, however poor;\n An angel\u2019s song could do no more.\n\nSo Keble sings\u2014\n\n Childlike though the voices be,\n And untunable the parts,\n Thou wilt own the minstrelsy\n If it flows from childlike hearts.\n\nSincerity requires that the thoughts expressed should be real to the\nsinger as well as to the poet. They may not be such as would have\noccurred to him, and the expression may be altogether beyond his\npowers of origination, but they must be such as he can think in his\nbest moments or may be helped to enter into at the hour of prayer.\nSincerity does not require that all our hymns should be on the lowest\nlevel common to a general congregation, but that the sentiment\nexpressed, the emotion presupposed or to be excited, be suited to the\nheart of man in the presence of his Father in heaven. In the\ncompilation of a hymn-book something must be left to the good sense\nand judgement of those who are to use it; and there is no part of\npublic worship which calls for more serious and intelligent\nconsideration than the selection of hymns suited to the occasion and\nto the congregation.\n\nIt is perhaps too much to say that sincerity also requires that the\nwriter of a hymn should be not unworthy of a place in the Christian\nchoir. Happily this question rarely arises. The author\u2019s name is often\nan aid to devotion, and in most hymn-books there is hardly a\nname\u2014except Dryden\u2019s\u2014that seems wholly unfitted to this sacred\nservice.\n\n2. _Reverence._\u2014\u2018God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let\nthy words be few,\u2019 restrained, seemly. The profoundest reverence, the\nlowliest adoration, shrinks from utterance when it hears and sees\nunspeakable things. This is sublimely taught in those great lines of\nDante:\n\n Here memory mocks the toil of genius. Christ\n Beamed on that cross; and pattern fails me now.\n But whoso takes his cross, and follows Christ,\n Will pardon me for that I leave untold,\n When in the fleckered dawning he shall spy\n The glitterance of Christ.[26]\n\nEven so profuse a hymn-writer as Watts feels that there are times when\nit is best to \u2018leave untold\u2019 what the heart most desires to tell:\n\n A solemn reverence checks our songs,\n And praise sits silent on our tongues.\n\nIt is a less sublime, but not less acceptable, form of worship which\nattempts that which yet it knows to be impossible. Praise must be\nheard in Zion lest if men hold their peace the very stones should cry\nout. Nor is it right that awe should silence love. We worship the\nKing, eternal, immortal, invisible, yet even so we praise Him who\n\u2018like as a Father pitieth His children\u2019; and when we sing praise to\nChrist as God, we remember that He called His disciples not servants,\nbut friends.\n\nDr. Watts utters the thought of many hearts in one of his finest\nhymns\u2014\n\n Join all the glorious names\n Of wisdom, love, and power,\n That ever mortals knew,\n That angels ever bore;\n All are too mean to speak His worth,\n Too mean to set my Saviour forth.\n\n But O what gentle terms,\n What condescending ways,\n Doth our Redeemer use,\n To teach His heavenly grace;\n Mine eyes with joy and wonder see\n What forms of love He bears for me!\n\nIt would be easy to give illustrations of offences against the spirit\nof reverence, especially in hymns of the eighteenth century and the\nearlier part of the nineteenth. The Moravian hymns in particular were\noften disfigured by the most revolting phrases, so had indeed that one\ndoes not care to give them even the notoriety of emphatic\ncondemnation.[27] But such gross offences are rare in our time, and\nare practically unknown to Protestant hymnals. Some of the Romish\nhymns, and a few in Anglican books, refer to the details of our Lord\u2019s\nIncarnation and Passion with irreverent and even indecent realism, and\nthose addressed to the Virgin Mary are often as bad as any found in\nthe older Moravian books.\n\nWe are, on the other hand, in some danger of carrying our sense of\nwhat is reverent too far, and of altering without reason the glowing\nwords of devout Christian affection. John Wesley shrank from including\n\n Jesu, Lover of my soul\n\nin his _Collection_. The expression is quoted from Wisd. xi. 26: \u2018But\nThou sparest all; for they are Thine, O Lord, Thou Lover of souls\u2019;\nand he saw no objection to its general application as in the lines\u2014\n\n Lover of souls, to rescue mine\n Reveal the charity divine\n That suffered in my stead.\n\nCanon Ellerton hesitated as to the propriety of the inclusion of this\ngreat hymn in a Church hymnal, and spoke of it as standing \u2018absolutely\n_upon_ the line\u2019 which separates hymns for public worship from those\nof private devotion. But the Church in all its borders has decided the\nquestion, and our heart tells us that the decision is right. Nor is\nit, indeed, a hymn solely for the sanctuary and the saint; it is a\nhymn for the street and for the sinner.[28]\n\nThe epithet \u2018dear\u2019 is not one to be scattered thoughtlessly through\nhymns and prayers. Yet there are lines from which it is almost an\nimpiety to remove it. There is a language of reverent affection which\nhas in it nothing of the earth.\n\n Come then, and to my soul reveal\n The heights and depths of grace,\n The wounds which all my sorrows heal,\n That dear disfigured face.\n\nPersonally I should not touch even Faber\u2019s\n\n Sweet Saviour, bless us e\u2019er we go,\n\nthough I wish he had used another epithet; and I certainly could not\ndraw a rough pen through Cowper\u2019s tender line\n\n Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood\n Shall never lose its power.\n\nThere is something due to the men who wrote thus. If they loved much,\nwe should let them speak their love to all the ages in terms of strong\naffection, and our colder hearts may learn to burn within us as we\ndraw near with them to Him who \u2018sought us Himself with such longing\nand love.\u2019\n\nBad taste is an error of judgement, not irreverence, but it has very\nmuch the same effect upon the worshipper, and it is to be regretted\nthat some very great hymns, consecrated by ten thousand sacred\nmemories, are marred by phrases which will not bear comment or\nmeditation. If the hymn were new, not many modern books would include\nCowper\u2019s lines\n\n There is a fountain filled with blood,\n Drawn from Immanuel\u2019s veins;\n\nbut nothing could long preserve in common use Watts\u2019s verse\u2014\n\n His dying crimson like a robe\n Spreads o\u2019er His body on the tree;\n Then am I dead to all the globe,\n And all the globe is dead to me.\n\n3. Closely allied to reverence is _Dignity_, the elevation and\nrefinement of thought and language which beseem the worship of God.\nNor is it any disadvantage to the less enlightened or less educated in\nthe Christian assembly that they should learn to speak the language of\nthe family of God. Dignity is not necessarily obscure or pompous. It\nrepresents what is worthy of man\u2019s thought when it is engaged on the\nhighest of all themes. The intrusion into the most sacred moments of\nwhat is mean or vulgar in sound or association is a grievous offence.\nHymns belong to the _belles lettres_ of the literature of devotion; to\nbe familiar with them should be in itself a liberal education.\n\n4. _Beauty._\u2014\u2018Intercourse between God and the human soul,\u2019 said Dr.\nJohnson, \u2018cannot be poetical\u2019\u2014a characteristically dogmatic assertion\nfor which there might be some excuse in his day, but which succeeding\nyears have overwhelmingly disproved. A hundred years ago it was\nnecessary to include in a hymn-book compositions that compensated for\ntheir lack of poetry by their undoubted piety, but we have such a\nwealth of song at our disposal that there need be nothing poor,\nprosaic, commonplace in our hymnals. Watts\u2019s greatest error was his\nexcessive tenderness for \u2018vulgar capacities.\u2019\n\n5. _Simplicity._\u2014We may say of great hymns what Tennyson said of great\nmen\u2014they are\n\n In their simplicity sublime.\n\nHeavy words are rightly to be regarded as fatal to a good hymn.\nCharles Wesley was peculiarly prone to use words which make hymns\nimpossible in public worship. Who desires in prayer or praise to use\nsuch words as \u2018consentaneous,\u2019 \u2018implunged,\u2019 \u2018choral symphonies\u2019?\n\nThe best hymns are made up of short words, and have a large\npreponderance of monosyllables. The words, too, should be such as men\nuse in the more serious intercourse of daily life. It goes without\nsaying that colloquialisms and words with mean associations are not\nfit for the sanctuary, but the finest hymns are often those which the\nplain man recognizes as written in his own tongue.\n\nBishop Ken\u2019s great hymns are models of simple directness of thought\nand expression, and so are some verses of Pope\u2019s _Universal Prayer_.\n\n What conscience dictates to be done,\n Or warns me not to do;\n This, teach me more than hell to shun,\n That, more than heaven pursue.\n\n If I am right, Thy grace impart,\n Still in the right to stay;\n If I am wrong, oh teach my heart\n To find that better way!\n\n Teach me to feel another\u2019s woe,\n To hide the fault I see;\n That mercy I to others show,\n That mercy show to me.\n\n6. _Fervour._\u2014If there is no fire or glow in a hymn, it might as well\nbe prose as poetry. Indeed, many hymns are so prosaic, so _wooden_,\nthat it is difficult to see how they can ever\n\n Teach our faint desires to rise\n\nabove the dullest levels of devotion. There should be in a hymn a\nrestrained fervour, a reverent rapture of poetic inspiration free from\nall admixture of the sensuous and morbidly emotional. \u2018Be not drunken\nwith wine ... but be filled with the Spirit.\u2019\n\n Quench then the altar-fires of your old gods,\n Quench not the fire within.[29]\n\nNay, rather, if we find no \u2018minstrel rapture\u2019 for the praise of the\nMost High, may we not ask with Charles Wesley\u2014\n\n Why breaks not out the fire within,\n In flames of joy, and praise, and love?\n\nAs might be expected, it is among the Anglican and the rationalistic\ncommunities that there is the greatest dread of the emotional in\nworship. Yet Dr. Martineau is the ablest apologist for fervour in\nreligious poetry.\n\n The editor of a hymn-book will not think it necessary to graduate\n the fervour, the imaginativeness, the grandeur of the compositions\n admitted into his volume, by the cold, level, and prosaic condition\n of mind which may possibly prevail among some who use it. Thus, to\n damp the fire down to the temperature of the fuel, seems to offer\n but a small prospect of kindling anything. We must not thus forgo\n the glorious power which art exercises in worship. Its peculiar\n function in connexion with religion is to substitute for the poor\n and low thoughts of ordinary men, the solemn and vivid images of\n things invisible that have revealed themselves to loftier souls, and\n to present the objects of faith before the general mind in something\n of that aspect under which they rise up before the great artists of\n poetry and of sound. These gifted men are to lift us; we are not to\n depress them. In sacred music we acknowledge this principle at once;\n we confess that it is a noble thing, when we think of the origin of\n things, and call God the Creator, to have within us the mighty\n transitions of Haydn\u2019s genius instead of our own puny dreams; to\n have the incidents of sacred story glow and live before us at the\n touch of a power like that of Handel or of Spohr; to find ourselves,\n at such bidding, with the \u2018Shepherds abiding in the field,\u2019 not far\n from the holy chant falling on the midnight air; or to hear in a\n voice, melting as Christ\u2019s, \u2018Come unto Me, ye weary\u2019; or, as we pass\n from bereavement to bereavement of this world, to be haunted, as\n with a sudden peace, by the echo of that unearthly strain, \u2018Blest\n are the departed.\u2019 Not less elevating is the poetry than the melody\n of faith, when it is equally left alone with its first fresh power,\n and not reduced halfway to prose as a condition of its entrance into\n worship.[30]\n\nWe should, perhaps, hesitate to say that a Christian hymn may have the\n\u2018fine, careless rapture\u2019 which is the glory of Browning\u2019s thrush, but\nwe must not deny to it the \u2018inward glee\u2019 as well as the \u2018serious\nfaith\u2019 of Wordsworth\u2019s stock-dove. The fervour of Christian song is\nthe bright expression of our glorying in the Lord.\n\n Sing we merrily unto God our Strength.[31]\n\n7. _Truth_ of doctrine.\u2014If it be allowed that hymns play an important\npart in the teaching of the Church, it is hardly necessary to press\nthis point. Indeed, there is often more to be feared from theological\npedantry than from doctrinal sensitiveness. The essential unity of the\nfaith of Christendom is nowhere better illustrated than in the number\nof hymns which belong to the common treasure of the Church. There is\nalready a union of hearts in the language of devotion which is the\nsurest promise of the reunion of Christendom. At the same time, there\nare not a few hymns which must either be excluded from denominational\nhymn-books, or be revised into accord with the faith of the\ncongregations that are to use them.\n\nI well remember the distress of a distinguished Independent minister\nwhen I quoted to him Wesley\u2019s verse\u2014\n\n Ah! Lord, with trembling I confess,\n A gracious soul may fall from grace;\n The salt may lose its seasoning power,\n And never, never find it more\u2014\n\nand the pained incredulity with which he deprecated my assurance that\nthe hymn was still in use in our congregations. I remember, too, how\nabruptly an eminent Methodist minister closed his hymn-book and\ndirected the congregation to cease singing when he found them\napproaching the last verse of one of Toplady\u2019s hymns\u2014\n\n Yes, I to the end shall endure,\n As sure as the earnest is given,\n More happy but not more secure\n The glorified spirits in heaven.\n\nThe verses set forth accurately and appropriately the teaching of the\nChurches to which the hymns respectively belong, but they are\nimpossible in other theological regions. A very wide range should be\nallowed to religious thought as expressed in hymns, but those which\ncontradict the things most surely believed in a Church are rightly\nexcluded from its hymnal.\n\n8. We should add, I think, if not to the essentials, yet certainly to\nthe virtues of a good hymn, _Scriptural language_. Our greatest prose\nwriters have found in the English Bible the most effective, forceful,\nimpressive words; and the hymn-writer has the advantage not only of\nits pure, strong diction, but also of the hallowed associations which\nthe words of Holy Scripture preserve for all Englishmen.\n\n\n\n\n II\n Hymns of the Bible and the Early Church\n\n\nThe hymn-book of the modern Church is the direct descendant of the\nHebrew Psalter. Had David and Asaph never sung, the hymns of Watts and\nWesley, of Keble and Montgomery, could hardly have been written. If\nthe praises of Israel had not rung through the courts of the Temple,\nthe choir of the Christian Church would have been silent. Primitive\nChristianity struggled hard to free itself from the swathing-bands of\nJewish ritual; but it recognized from the first the riches of its\ninheritance in the Book of Psalms. There, more than in any other\nScripture, the first Christians heard \u2018the voice of Christ and His\nChurch.\u2019[32] Our Lord Himself joined in singing these ancient hymns,\nand bade His disciples understand that all things must needs be\nfulfilled which \u2018were written in the ... psalms\u2019 concerning Him. St.\nPaul and St. James alike commend the singing of psalms, and thus,\nwithout controversy, the Psalter was claimed by the Church as her own.\nThe determination to hear the voice of Christ everywhere, led to\nextravagances of exposition which a more critical age cannot tolerate,\nbut it gave the psalms a firm hold upon the heart of Christendom. The\nancient Scriptures would have passed away with the \u2018worldly sanctuary\u2019\nhad it not been for the witness of the priest, the prophet, and the\npsalmist to Christ.\n\nReligious poetry and song must long have preceded any collection of\npsalms or hymns. One would like to know who first, in the far-off\ndays, said to his brother, \u2018O come, let us sing unto the Lord\u2019; but\nthat unknown poet or musician had been famous and forgotten before\nhistory was born. The first Hebrew psalm is the Song of Moses at the\nRed Sea, the earliest of the triumph songs of the people of God, the\nhymns which celebrate Jehovah, who ever showeth Himself \u2018a God of\ndeliverances.\u2019[33] Sung first to \u2018the loud timbrel by Egypt\u2019s dark\nsea,\u2019 it becomes in the Apocalypse the Song of Moses and of the Lamb,\nchanted to the harps of God by the glassy sea mingled with fire. At\nthe first the singers are the congregation, not yet a people, whom\nMoses brought out of Egypt in haste; at the last they are the\nwhite-robed army of them that have gotten the victory through the\nblood of the Lamb.\n\n I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously:\n The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.\n The Lord is my strength and song,\n And He is become my salvation:\n This is my God, and I will praise Him;\n My father\u2019s God, and I will exalt Him.\n\n Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods?\n Who is like Thee, glorious in holiness,\n Fearful in praises, doing wonders?\n\n Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine\n inheritance,\n The place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in,\n The sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established.\n The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.[34]\n\nMoses, then, is the first singer in the Christian choir; and if to\nthis song of triumph we can add the 90th Psalm, we may well place\nMoses amongst the sweetest and the sublimest of hymn-writers.\n\n Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear\n The Godhead\u2019s most benignant grace.[35]\n\nBut Moses is not the founder of Hebrew psalmody. The fact that he and\nothers may have written psalms does not detract from the fame of\nDavid, \u2018the sweet psalmist of Israel.\u2019 It was he who won for the psalm\na permanent place in the worship of God. It is not for me to discuss\nhere critical questions in regard to the Davidic authorship of\nparticular psalms; but I venture to deprecate a too ready or complete\nacceptance of Wellhausen\u2019s phrase that the Psalter was \u2018the hymn-book\nof the second temple,\u2019 as though it settled the question of the\nexistence of previous Psalters used in the days before the Exile.\nUnless we are prepared to reject history and tradition alike, David\nmust still hold his place amongst the singers of the Church of God.\n\n There David stands, with harp in hand,\n As master of the choir.\n\nThe builders of the great vanished cities of the olden time, of its\npalaces and pyramids; the founders of its monarchies, empires, and\nrepublics, pass into oblivion or preserve at best the dull memorial of\na name in history; but \u2018he who sang the Holy Spirit\u2019s song\u2019 has an\naudience that never wearies, though the individual listeners pass in\nsolemn and ceaseless order to the silent land. For man is one\neverywhere and in all ages. The accidents of life vary, but its\nessence abides. \u2018The universal Church of Christ hath given its witness\nthat these psalms are not made for one age, but for all ages; not for\none place, but for all places; not for one soul, but for all\nsouls.\u2019[36]\n\nThe contention that David\u2019s history is not consistent with the high\nreligious tone of the poems ascribed to him need not disturb us. The\nman who wrote the _Lament_ for Saul and Jonathan was no mere brigand\nchief, but one who wore \u2018the graces that adorn a king,\u2019 and as a poet\nand a friend deserves to rank with Milton and with Tennyson.\n\n How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle!\n Jonathan is slain upon thy high places.\n I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan:\n Very pleasant hast thou been unto me:\n Thy love to me was wonderful,\n Passing the love of women.\n How are the mighty fallen,\n And the weapons of war perished!\n 2 Sam. i. 25-27.\n\nIs there not the same note in David as in Milton, the same lingering\non the loved name, the same reiteration of the words of sorrow?\n\n For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime,\n Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer:\n Who would not sing for Lycidas?\n\n But, O the heavy change, now thou art gone,\n Now thou art gone, and never must return!\n\nJonathan is shrined as richly and as unfadingly as Edward King or\nArthur Hallam, and we may well believe that the man whom Jonathan\nloved as his own soul loved God from his inmost heart\u2014that the author\nof the _Lament_ was the singer of the 18th Psalm. And if it be allowed\nthat David wrote that song\u2014\u2018the Psalm of Clovis and John\nWesley\u2019[37]\u2014it is difficult, merely on the ground of personal\ncharacter, to deny him any psalm in the whole book.\n\n I love Thee, O Lord, my strength.\n The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;\n My God, my strong rock, in Him will I trust;\n My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.\n I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised:\n So shall I be saved from mine enemies.\n In my distress I called upon the Lord,\n And cried unto my God:\n He heard my voice out of His temple,\n And my cry before Him came into His ears.\n Then the earth shook and trembled,\n The foundations also of the mountains moved\n And were shaken, because He was wroth.\n\n He bowed the heavens also, and came down;\n And thick darkness was under His feet.\n And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly:\n Yea, He flew swiftly upon the wings of the wind.\n\n He sent from on high, He took me;\n He drew me out of many waters.\n He delivered me from my strong enemy,\n And from them that hated me, for they were too mighty for me.\n They came upon me in the day of my calamity:\n But the Lord was my stay.\n He brought me forth also into a large place;\n He delivered me, because He delighted in me.\n\nIt may be true that the value of the psalms to the Church does not\ndepend upon the settlement, one way or another, of the rival claims of\nsingers before and after the Exile, yet the question is of vastly more\nthan mere literary or historic interest. We lose much if we lose David\nand the psalmists of the kingdom from \u2018the glorious choir\u2019 which sings\nfor ever the praises of Israel\u2019s God and David\u2019s Son. And we are all\nthe poorer if the sources of Christian song are to be sought, not by\n\n Siloa\u2019s brook that flowed\n Fast by the oracles of God,\n\nbut by the dull canals of Babylon, where the exiled people wept when\nthey remembered Zion. Even the most extreme of modern English critics\ntells us that, \u2018As mere academical exercises, by not merely unnamed\nbut unknown individuals, the psalms will neither edify the Church nor\ncharm the literary student.\u2019[38] But, after all, we have not yet lost\nour fellowship with the men of David\u2019s time. The psalms are to us a\nmemorial of the golden days of Israel\u2019s history. They are still to us,\nas to Francis Davison,\n\n Hymns which in the Hebrew tongue\n First were sung\n By Israel\u2019s sweet and royal singer.\n\nOr, to put the case in prose:\n\n Both poetry and music existed before David\u2019s time, and poetry had\n been carried to a high development in such compositions as Exod. xv.\n and Judges v. But with David a new era of religious poetry\n commenced. The personal element entered into it. It became the\n instrument of the soul\u2019s communion with God.[39]\n\nIt is this \u2018personal element\u2019 which makes the Psalter a living book in\nevery age.\n\nThe earlier Hebrew psalmists, even when they wrote in view of the\nimposing ritual of the temple service with its crowded choir, its\nthousand white-robed priests sounding their silver trumpets, were\nnever bound by a narrow conventional opinion as to what beseemed the\norder of public worship. Fettered by rule and rubric as the later\nJewish Church was, the psalmist as well as the prophet stands for the\nright of the individual soul to enter alone into the presence of God.\n\n Speak to Him, thou, for He hears,\n And spirit with Spirit can meet.\n\nThe personal element is, in some respects, the most precious gift of\nthe Psalter to Christianity. Had the hymns of the mediaeval Church,\ninstead of the Hebrew Psalter, been the pattern for modern\nhymn-writers, we should have lost the best, the grandest, the most\nabiding of modern hymns. But the revival of hymn-writing, alike in\nGermany and in England, was a result of the Protestant Reformation,\nwhich set aside ecclesiastical in favour of Biblical precedents; so\nour hymn-books are inspired by the Psalter, not the Breviary. And this\nvindication of the rights of the individual soul we owe in the first\ninstance to David, or to the men who wrote the psalms ascribed to him.\nAs Edward Irving has said, with his majestic and unrestrained\neloquence:\n\n The force of his character was vast, and the scope of his life was\n immense. His harp was full-stringed, and every angel of joy and of\n sorrow swept over the chords as he passed. Such oceans of affection\n lay within his breast as could not always slumber in their calmness.\n For the hearts of a hundred men strove and struggled together within\n the narrow continent of his single heart.[40]\n\nBishop Christopher Wordsworth, in the elaborate preface to his _Holy\nYear_, says:\n\n The pronouns _I_ and _my_ are rarely found in any ancient Church\n hymn. But in modern hymns the individual often detaches and isolates\n himself from the body of the faithful, and in a spirit of\n sentimental selfishness obtrudes his own feelings concerning\n himself.[41]\n\nThis is an entirely superficial criticism, though, in greater or less\ndegree, it has been accepted in many modern hymn-books. It is unsound\nin principle, and contrary to the highest precedents, ancient and\nmodern. It is the personal element that makes a hymn dear to the\ncongregation of Christ\u2019s flock. It is the fit expression of profound\nindividual experience that gives a hymn its charm for the multitude,\nwho can think poetry, but cannot write it. Perhaps no hymn of the last\ncentury has touched more hearts than Newman\u2019s \u2018Lead, kindly Light\u2019;\nyet it was written as a personal prayer, giving expression to a\nspecial and temporary experience. Few hymns better illustrate the\nappropriateness to others of the experience of one. In his later\nyears, Newman declined, almost querulously, to be \u2018examined\u2019 as to\nwhat he meant exactly by the closing lines of his famous hymn, written\nin a \u2018transient\u2019 state of mind, \u2018when home-sick or sea-sick\u2019; but to\nMrs. Tait, who inscribed the lines\n\n And with the morn those angel faces smile\n Which I have loved long since and lost awhile\n\nbeneath the portrait of the children taken so suddenly from the\ndesolated Deanery at Carlisle, no lapse of years could ever dull their\nmeaning. The poet often speaks \u2018not of himself,\u2019 and his words may be\ntruer as well as richer to the man who repeats than to the man who\nwrote them. A formal service, performed by professionals or by the\ntechnically \u2018religious,\u2019 may find suitable expression in general\nterms; but the Christian congregation\n\n Learns the use of _I_ and _me_.\n\nThe grandest of all hymns, ancient and modern, throb with individual\nlife, whether they soar to heaven on the wings of ecstasy, or bow to\nearth beneath an overwhelming sense of sinfulness.\n\n Bless the Lord, O my soul,\n And all that is within me bless His holy name.\n\n Have mercy upon me, O God ...\n Blot out my transgression.\n\n Create in me a clean heart, O God;\n And renew a right spirit within me.\n Cast me not away from Thy presence,\n And take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.\n\n The Lord is my Shepherd,\n I shall not want.\n\n O happy day that fixed my choice\n On Thee, my Saviour and my God!\n\n Abide with me! fast falls the eventide;\n The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.\n\n Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear,\n It is not night if Thou be near.\n\n Thou, O Christ, art all I want,\n More than all in Thee I find.\n\nSome of the most sublime passages in ancient chant and modern hymn are\nthose in which the singer turns from the confession of a common sin or\nthe expression of a common gratitude to claim a personal share in it.\nEven that greatest hymn of the Church\u2019s public worship, the \u2018Te Deum\nLaudamus,\u2019 voices at last the cry of the individual believer\u2014\n\n In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped; let me not be ashamed for ever.\n\nSo Charles Wesley, celebrating the first anniversary of his\nconversion, sings\u2014\n\n He breaks the power of cancelled sin,\n He sets the prisoner free;\n His blood can make the foulest clean,\n His blood availed for me.\n\nSo Thomas Olivers at the end of his great anthem to the God of Abraham\nadds his own voice to the voices of the celestial choir\u2014\n\n The whole triumphant host\n Give thanks to God most high:\n \u2018Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,\u2019\n They ever cry:\n Hail, Abraham\u2019s God and _mine_!\n I join the heavenly lays.\n\nThe contrast between the liturgical hymn written for others to sing\nand the hymn of personal experience, the pouring out of the soul\nbefore God, is well illustrated in the Psalter; e.g. compare Ps. cxv.\u2014\n\n Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory,\n For Thy mercy, and for Thy truth\u2019s sake.\n\nwith Ps. cxvi.\u2014\n\n I love the Lord, because He hath heard\n My voice and my supplications.\n\nIt is in the earlier psalms, though not in them exclusively, that we\nfind the personal element conspicuous, and it is those psalms which\nhave inspired the highest forms of Christian song.\n\nEven in psalms written for the congregation and with direct liturgical\nintent there is often the introduction of the personal element, as in\nPs. cvi.\n\nIn the Book of Psalms we have not only the cry of the seeker after\nGod, but the voice of the Church in its common prayer and praise. We\nfind here, too, hymns for the Sabbath day and other festivals, hymns\nin commemoration of the older saints, national prayers and anthems,\nwhich confess the sin of the people or record the mighty works of God,\nsetting the nation\u2019s history to music. Indeed, it is difficult to\ndiscover in modern hymn-books any hymn which has not its prototype in\nthe Psalter, though the Incarnation and its manifold revelation\nbrought into Christian life and thought a light that far outshines the\nbrightest stars of the earlier dispensation.\n\nLike other great hymn-books, the Hebrew Psalter grew by stages and\ngathered into its treasury things new and old. In its final form it is\na collection of hymns ancient and modern\u2014a fusion of various\nhymn-books, in which, as in other collections, there is occasional\nrepetition, free quotation of one writer from another, reminiscences\nof familiar psalms of earlier psalmists, and evidences of the exercise\nof a wide editorial discretion in revision and emendation.\n\nWe should like to know something of the man who edited the final\n_Collection of Hymns for the use of the people called Jews_. If he had\nwritten a preface, or even a title-page, he would have solved for us\nmany interesting literary questions\u2014though he would have added little\nto the spiritual or liturgical value of the Psalter. It is enough for\nus to know that the psalms as we sing them to-day are the Psalms of\nwhich our Lord spoke, when He appealed to them as witnesses with Moses\nand the prophets to His mission. It was a hymn-book ready for use in\nthe Church of Pentecost, and was adopted in its worship from the\nbeginning.\n\n\nThe influence of the Psalter upon Christian hymnody extends far beyond\nthe use of the rhythmic psalms. The metrical versions, which long\nsupplied the place of hymn-books, gave to the Psalms a double share in\nChristian worship. Even to-day, when the metrical Psalter has lost its\nhold upon the Christian congregation, many of our greatest hymns are\nversions of Hebrew psalms. Nor is the rhythmic version outworn. No\ncomplete order of Christian worship is possible which does not include\nat least some portion of the Psalter in one or other of our three\ngrand English renderings.[42]\n\nThe birth of the Lord Jesus was marked, as so many critical periods\nhave been, by a \u2018sudden blaze of song.\u2019 The choir of heaven itself\nsang the \u2018Gloria in Excelsis\u2019; Mary chanted the \u2018Magnificat\u2019;\nZacharias, the \u2018Benedictus\u2019; whilst Simeon\u2019s swan-song, the \u2018Nunc\nDimittis,\u2019 closed the rich though scanty hymnody of that great\ntransition time.\n\nThe apostolic Church had no David. The Epistles preserve for us some\nfew lines of early Christian hymns; but it was left to later times to\ngive its sublimest songs to the Christian choir. Yet, if for a moment\nwe think of what might have been, surely St. Paul could have written\nbattle-songs grand as Luther\u2019s; St. Luke, an earlier _Christian Year_;\nand St. Peter might have sung with the simple pathos of John Newton.\nBut though other gifts were theirs in abundance, the gift of song was\nnot bestowed upon them; and since the apostolic Church had no poet,\nthe New Testament has no Psalter. Nor, indeed, does it need one; for\nGod\u2019s great poem, His sublimest work, is the Man Christ Jesus.\n\n And so the Word had breath, and wrought\n With human hands the creed of creeds\n In loveliness of perfect deeds\n More strong than all poetic thought.\n\nBut though the primitive Church had no great hymn-book, it had its\nephemeral \u2018songs and solos,\u2019 its minor poets who helped many an\nearnest worshipper to draw nigh to God with the voice of a psalm.\nIndeed, there is some reason to think that the Corinthian Church\nsuffered from too great a number of would-be poets, for there \u2018every\none\u2019 had \u2018a psalm,\u2019 and St. Paul would obviously have liked to issue,\nas John Wesley actually did, a rule against the giving out of hymns of\nthe preacher\u2019s own composing.\n\nThe fragments that remain of the hymns of the apostolic age are few\nand uncertain. The most distinctly rhythmic is the short creed, which\nmay have been said or sung, found in 1 Tim. iii. 16\u2014\n\n \u1f18\u03c6\u03b1\u03bd\u03b5\u03c1\u03ce\u03b8\u03b7 \u1f10\u03bd \u03c3\u03b1\u03c1\u03ba\u03af,\n \u1f10\u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03ce\u03b8\u03b7 \u1f10\u03bd \u03c0\u03bd\u03b5\u03cd\u00b5\u03b1\u03c4\u03b9,\n \u1f64\u03c6\u03b8\u03b7 \u1f00\u03b3\u03b3\u03ad\u03bb\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2,\n \u1f10\u03ba\u03b7\u03c1\u03c5\u03c7\u03b8\u03b7 \u1f10\u03bd \u1f14\u03b8\u03bd\u03b5\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd,\n \u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03b5\u03cd\u03b8\u03b7 \u1f10\u03bd \u03ba\u03cc\u03c3\u00b5\u1ff3,\n \u1f00\u03bd\u03b5\u03bb\u03ae\u00b5\u03c6\u03b8\u03b7 \u1f10\u03bd \u03b4\u03cc\u03be\u1fc3.\n\n Manifested in the flesh,\n Justified in the spirit,\n Seen of angels,\n Preached among the nations,\n Believed on in the world,\n Received up in glory.\n\nIn Eph. v. 14 there are three lines which may have been taken from an\nancient baptismal hymn.\n\n \u1f1c\u03b3\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03b5, \u1f41 \u03ba\u03b1\u03b8\u03b5\u03cd\u03b4\u03c9\u03bd,\n \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f00\u03bd\u03ac\u03c3\u03c4\u03b1 \u1f10\u03ba \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03bd\u03b5\u03ba\u03c1\u1ff6\u03bd\n \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03c6\u03b1\u03cd\u03c3\u03b5\u03b9 \u03c3\u03bf\u03b9 \u1f41 \u03a7\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03cc\u03c2.\n\n Up! O sleeper,\n And arise from the dead,\n And Christ shall shine on thee!\n\nWestcott and Hort print in metrical form not only these passages, but\nSt. Matthew\u2019s version of the Lord\u2019s Prayer, which thus takes its place\namong the earliest Christian hymns.\n\n \u03a0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1 \u1f21\u00b5\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f41 \u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03bf\u1f50\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2\u00b7\n \u1f09\u03b3\u03b9\u03b1\u03c3\u03b8\u03ae\u03c4\u03c9 \u03c4\u1f78 \u1f44\u03bd\u03bf\u00b5\u03ac \u03c3\u03bf\u03c5,\n \u1f10\u03bb\u03b8\u03ac\u03c4\u03c9 \u1f21 \u03b2\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03bb\u03b5\u03af\u03b1 \u03c3\u03bf\u03c5,\n \u03b3\u03b5\u03bd\u03b7\u03b8\u03ae\u03c4\u03c9 \u03c4\u1f78 \u03b8\u03ad\u03bb\u03b7\u00b5\u03ac \u03c3\u03bf\u03c5,\n \u1f61\u03c2 \u1f10\u03bd \u03bf\u1f50\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u1ff7 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03b3\u1fc6\u03c2\u00b7\n \u03a4\u1f78\u03bd \u1f04\u03c1\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u1f21\u00b5\u1ff6\u03bd \u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03bf\u03cd\u03c3\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd\n \u03b4\u1f78\u03c2 \u1f21\u00b5\u1fd6\u03bd \u03c3\u03ae\u00b5\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u00b7\n \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f04\u03c6\u03b5\u03c2 \u1f21\u00b5\u1fd6\u03bd \u03c4\u1f70 \u1f40\u03c6\u03b5\u03b9\u03bb\u03ae\u00b5\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1 \u1f21\u00b5\u1ff6\u03bd,\n \u1f61\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f21\u00b5\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c2 \u1f00\u03c6\u03ae\u03ba\u03b1\u00b5\u03b5\u03bd \u03c4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u1f40\u03c6\u03b5\u03b9\u03bb\u03ad\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9\u03c2 \u1f21\u00b5\u1ff6\u03bd\u00b7\n \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u00b5\u1f74 \u03b5\u1f30\u03c3\u03b5\u03bd\u03ad\u03b3\u03ba\u1fc3\u03c2 \u1f21\u00b5\u1fb6\u03c2 \u03b5\u1f30\u03c2 \u03c0\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03b1\u03c3\u00b5\u03cc\u03bd,\n \u1f00\u03bb\u03bb\u1f70 \u1fe5\u1fe6\u03c3\u03b1\u03b9 \u1f21\u00b5\u1fb6\u03c2 \u1f00\u03c0\u1f78 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03c0\u03bf\u03bd\u03b7\u03c1\u03bf\u1fe6.[43]\n\n Our Father which art in heaven;\n Hallowed Thy name,\n Come Thy kingdom,\n Be done Thy will\n Alike in heaven and on earth;\n The bread we need\n Give us to-day;\n And forgive us our debts,\n As we forgive our debtors;\n And lead us not into temptation,\n But deliver us from evil.\n\nIt is very possible that the metrical structure of St. Matthew\u2019s\nversion may to some extent explain its variations from St. Luke.\n\n\u2018The hymns of the Apocalypse show, strange to say, no metrical\narrangement of diction,\u2019[44] but their influence upon Christian song\nhas been great. Thus the New Testament makes a most important, though\nchiefly indirect, contribution to the hymnal of the Church.\n\n\nSt. Paul\u2019s division of religious poetry into \u2018psalms, hymns, and\nspiritual songs\u2019 indicates the character and variety of the songs of\nthe apostolic Church, but gives little information concerning its\nhymnals. We may assume, however, that whilst the Hebrew Psalter formed\nthe first and greatest section of the songs of the Church, there were\nalso a number of recognized \u2018hymns\u2019 and \u2018odes,\u2019 to which additions\nmight at any time be made. By the law of spiritual selection these\nancient hymns have passed out of the literature of the Church; they\nperished in the using, and having served their own generation\naccording to the will of God fell on sleep.\n\nThe Church universal is indebted to the liturgical Churches for the\ninclusion in their Books of Common Prayer of the psalms which heralded\nthe dawn of the day of the Son of Man. It is surely a narrow and\nsuperficial notion of divine worship which would exclude such\ncanticles from our services as archaic or artificial.\n\nHow beautiful, for example, is the \u2018Nunc Dimittis\u2019 whether sung daily\nat eventide, or when the day of life is ended and the Lord now letteth\nHis servant depart in peace! It is in Christian usage what the\nsounding of \u2018The Last Post\u2019 is to the British soldier, marking the\nclose of the common day or sounding the last farewell to a comrade\nwhose warfare is accomplished. A petty and prosaic criticism may\nregard as unreal such adaptations of ancient hymns, though consecrated\nby many centuries\u2019 use, but there is as legitimate a poet\u2019s licence in\ndevotion as in literature.\n\nThe Old and New Testament alike, though the former more directly than\nthe latter, gave to hymns a place in the worship of God. But the new\nwine of the gospel, which burst the wine-skins of out-worn ritual,\ncould not be contained even in the golden chalice of the Psalter or\nthe canticles written on its models.\n\nDistinctively Christian hymns which, as we have seen, are occasionally\nquoted in the Epistles, and are referred to as a recognized part of\npublic and social worship, date from the earliest times. The famous\nletter of the younger Pliny to Trajan tells how those who were\nterrified into the denial of their Lord, confessed no worse crime than\nthat of meeting on an appointed day before the dawn to sing antiphonal\nhymns to Christ as to a god.[45] Judaism had its Messianic psalms, but\nthe hymns which give praise to Christ as\n\n God made Man for man to die\n\nare the glory of the new dispensation. The early defenders of catholic\ndoctrine appealed without hesitation to the fact that \u2018whatever psalms\nand hymns were written by the brethren from the beginning, celebrate\nChrist the Word of God by asserting His divinity.\u2019[46]\n\nOrthodox and heretic alike\u2014perhaps the heretic especially\u2014sought to\nwin acceptance for his teaching, to fix it in the memory of the\ncongregation by setting it to music. The famous heretic Arius (d. 336)\ndisseminated his doctrine in hymns which are said to have been written\nin metres associated with the most licentious songs. They were\nanswered by the orthodox hymns of Ambrose. Later heretics, like\nApollinaris, Bishop of Laodicea (d. 390), followed his example; whilst\nSt. Augustine himself wrote an acrostic hymn or psalm against Donatist\nerror. But it was in the beginning as it is in our own day, a man\u2019s\ndoctrinal aberrations were forgotten, at least for the moment, if he\ncould write good hymns. So Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, writing\nagainst Nepos, \u2018a bishop in Egypt,\u2019 protests that he \u2018greatly loves\u2019\nNepos for his skill in psalmody, \u2018by which many are still\ndelighted.\u2019[47]\n\nIn an often quoted passage in the _Confessions_, St. Augustine tells\nhow he was affected to tears by the singing of \u2018hymns and canticles,\u2019\nand records the introduction at Milan of antiphonal singing \u2018according\nto the custom of the Eastern regions,\u2019[48] whilst the people watched\nin the church ready, if need were, to die with their beloved bishop,\nSt. Ambrose.\n\nAmbrose of Milan and Hilary of Poictiers divide the glory of\nintroducing the singing of hymns into the Church of the West. Hilary\ncompiled a hymn-book\u2014_Liber Hymnorum_\u2014which is only known to us by a\nfew hymns more or less doubtfully ascribed to him. Ambrose is the\nfirst great Latin hymn-writer who still lives in the songs of the\nsanctuary. His hymns are unrhymed, and, as Trench says, of \u2018almost\naustere simplicity.\u2019\n\n It is as though, building an altar to the living God, he would\n observe the Levitical precept, and rear it of unhewn stones, upon\n which no tool had been lifted. The great objects of faith in their\n simplest expression are felt by him so sufficient to stir all the\n deepest affections of the heart, that any attempt to dress them up,\n to array them in moving language, were merely superfluous. The\n passion is there, but it is latent and represt, a fire burning\n inwardly, the glow of an austere enthusiasm, which reveals itself\n indeed, but not to every careless beholder. Nor do we presently fail\n to observe how truly these poems belonged to their time and to the\n circumstances under which they were produced\u2014how suitably the faith\n which was in actual conflict with and was just triumphing over, the\n powers of this world, found its utterance in hymns such as these,\n wherein is no softness, perhaps little tenderness; but a rock-like\n firmness, the old Roman stoicism transmuted and glorified into that\n nobler Christian courage, which encountered and at length overcame\n the world.[49]\n\nTo St. Ambrose many of the earlier Latin hymns are attributed, and the\n\u2018Te Deum\u2019 is known in the Breviaries as \u2018The Song of St. Ambrose and\nSt. Austin,\u2019 according to the tradition that it was composed and sung\nby them in alternate verses when the latter was baptized at Milan.\n\nThe familiar English translation is by an unknown hand. Grand as it\nis, there are some verses in which a more literal rendering would have\nbeen still grander. As the Latin text may not be known by some\nreaders, I give what may be called the received text\u2014\n\n Te Deum laudamus Te Dominum confitemur\n Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur\n Tibi omnes Angeli Tibi coeli et universae potestates\n Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim incessabili voce proclamant\n Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth\n Pleni sunt coeli et terra majestatis gloriae Tuae\n Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus\n Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus\n Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus\n Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur Ecclesia\n Patrem immensae majestatis\n Venerandum Tuum verum et unicum Filium\n Sanctum quoque Paracletum Spiritum\n Tu Rex gloriae Christe\n Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius\n Tu ad liberandum suscepisti hominem non horruisti Virginis uterum\n Tu devicto mortis aculeo aperuisti credentibus regna coelorum\n Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes in gloria Patris\n Judex crederis esse venturus\n Te ergo quaesumus Tuis famulis subveni quos pretioso sanguine\n redemisti\n Aeterna fac cum Sanctis Tuis gloria numerari[50]\n Salvum fac populum Tuum Domine et benedic haereditati Tuae\n Et rege eos et extolle illos usque in aeternum\n Per singulos dies benedicimus Te\n Et laudamus nomen Tuum in saeculum et in saeculum saeculi\n Dignare Domine die isto sine peccato nos custodire\n Miserere nostri Domine miserere nostri\n Fiat misericordia Tua Domine super nos quemadmodum speravimus in Te\n In Te Domine speravi non confundar in aeternum.\n\nIn the Prayer-book version we miss the apostles\u2019 \u2018glorious choir,\u2019 the\nmartyrs\u2019 \u2018white-robed\u2019 army; and the close would, I think, have been\neven more impressive as well as more literal had the last lines read\u2014\n\n O Lord, let Thy mercy be showed upon us, even as we have hoped in\n Thee.\n O Lord, in Thee have I hoped; let me not be ashamed for ever.[51]\n\nIn the primitive days, before the rise of the medi\u00e6val Papacy, before\nthe time of Breviary and Mass-book, the singing of hymns was well\nestablished alike in the East and West. In almost every language in\nwhich the gospel was preached, hymns were written, and were used not\nonly to aid the devotion of the devout worshipper in the services of\nthe Church, but to arrest and teach the careless wayfarer. Thus Bishop\nAldhelm of Sherborne \u2018would sit on the bridge, as the people came out\nfrom Mass to loiter gossiping on their way home, and sing them sacred\nlays, teaching them their faith, as it were, in chance verses, and\nenlisting in God\u2019s service the national love of music and song. It was\nAlfred, himself a singer, who preserved this tale.\u2019[52]\n\nIn later days, when the Romish worship had become more elaborate and\nformal, it is chiefly in the Breviaries that we find the hymns of the\nChurch, in Latin, of course, and as little understanded of the people\nas the rest of the service. A large number of these hymns are in\nexistence, and whilst many are disfigured by the idolatrous and often\ncoarse adoration offered to the Virgin Mary and the saints, and others\ndwell with dreadful particularity upon the details of the Passion,\nmany give worthy and sincere expression to the profoundest experiences\nof the devout soul. Some of the best and sweetest of these songs,\nwhich are often reckoned amongst \u2018ancient\u2019 hymns, belong to the\ndegenerate days of the Papacy. They are not only intrinsically\nprecious, but are gracious evidence that the genuine spirit of\ndevotion was found, and the voice of praise and prayer and penitence\nheard, in quiet places and pure hearts, even in a time of general\napostasy. Any detailed reference to pre-Reformation hymns would be\noutside the limits of this lecture, but the translations of Greek and\nLatin hymns which are to be found in our modern hymnals will naturally\nclaim attention at a later stage.\n\nIn concluding this brief and necessarily superficial preliminary\nsketch, I may refer to a few of the ancient hymns which are probably\nlittle known to the ordinary worshipper.\n\n1. _Syriac._\u2014These are chiefly known to us through the great teacher\nand writer, Ephraem Syrus, who died at Edessa in 373. His hymns were\nwritten to counteract the influence of the popular songs of the\nheretic Bardesanes, and his son Harmonius. Dr. Bonar, Mrs. Charles,\nMr. Moorsom, and others have translated several of these Syriac hymns;\nbut they are not likely ever to win such wide acceptance as the Latin\nor the Greek hymns, though a few are to be found in modern\ncollections. Several of the most touching of St. Ephraem\u2019s hymns are\non the death of children, whilst others celebrate the hosannas of the\nchildren at the Triumphal Entry. I give a translation, or \u2018imitation,\u2019\nby Dr. Bonar of a hymn for the Lord\u2019s Day.\n\n\n SABBATH HYMN\n\n Glory to the glorious One!\n Good and great our God alone,\n Who this day hath glorified\n First and best of all beside,\n Making it for every clime\n Of all times the sweetest time.\n\n From the beginning, day of days,\n Set apart for holy praise,\n When He bade the willing earth\n All its hidden stores bring forth,\n When He made the shining heaven,\n Then to man this day was given.\n\n On this day the Son of God\n Left His three days\u2019 dark abode,\n In the greatness of His might\n Rising to the upper light.\n On this day the Church puts on\n Glory, beauty, robe, and crown.\n\n On this day of days, the Lord,\n Faithful to His ancient word,\n On His burning chariot borne,\n Shall in majesty return.\n King of kings, He comes in might,\n From His heavenly home of light,\n\n To His own Jerusalem,\n Old Judea\u2019s brightest gem;\n To the hill of Jebus, see,\n King Messiah, cometh He;\n With His cross to bless and save,\n With His cross to spoil the grave.\n\n Earth is fleeing, fleeing fast,\n And its beauty fades at last;\n O belov\u00e8d, then, awake,\n Bonds of carnal slumber break;\n Wake, belov\u00e8d, watch and pray\n While remains one hour of day!\n\n Death, it cometh; oh beware!\n Judgement cometh; oh prepare!\n Steadfast, steadfast let us stand,\n For the Judge is nigh at hand:\n Steadfast let us rest each night,\n Steadfast wake at morning light.\n\n Glory, glory, glory be,\n Gracious God and Lord, to Thee!\n To the Father and the Son,\n To the Spirit, Three in One:\n Thus we now Thy mercy praise,\n Thus through everlasting days.\n\nIn the new and revised edition of _Church Hymns_, there is a\ntranslation by the Rev. R. M. Moorsom of an anonymous Syriac hymn,\nwhich is one of two placed under the heading, \u2018The National Church.\u2019\n\n His the glory, His the honour,\n High and low, recount His praise;\n Tell it out among the nations,\n How the Christ in ancient days\n Left His home, His Father\u2019s side,\n Sought, and found, and won His Bride.\n\n In the far-off land He found her,\n And she gave to Him her heart,\n For His love is everlasting,\n That nor life nor death can part;\n There, to win her troth, He died,\n There, for her, was crucified.\n\n Oh, our King! fulfil Thy promise,\n Bring her where no taint of sin,\n Where no sadness and no blemish,\n Where no stain can enter in;\n Keep her ever at Thy side,\n Bring her home, Thy faithful Bride.\n\n Perfect then, Thy new creation,\n With the grace that shall endure,\n E\u2019en amid temptation growing\n Still more stately and more pure;\n Till by sorrow sanctified,\n She becomes Thy holy Bride.\n\n Peace be hers within her temples;\n Strength be hers, her walls to guard;\n May her holiness and beauty\n By no evil thing be marred;\n Through all peril, Saviour, guide\n To Thy heaven Thy crown\u00e8d Bride.\n\n2. _Greek._\u2014What is often called the first Christian hymn is found in\nthe _Paedagogus_, or _Tutor_, of St. Clement of Alexandria (d. _cir._\n212). It has been translated into English by many writers. Dean\nPlumptre\u2019s version is the best known. At the end of his treatise\nClement \u2018burst out into a kind of choral, dithyrambic ode, in\nanap\u00e6stic metre, the lines very short and abrupt, and the whole being\nmore exclamatory and fervid than most later hymns.\u2019\n\n Curb for the stubborn steed,\n Making its will give heed;\n Wing that directest right\n The wild bird\u2019s wandering flight;\n Helm for the ships that keep\n Their pathway o\u2019er the deep;\n Shepherd of sheep that own\n Their Master on the throne,\n Stir up Thy children meek,\n With guileless lips to speak,\n In hymn and song, Thy praise,\n Guide of their infant ways.\n O King of saints, O Lord,\n Mighty all-conquering Word;\n Son of the Highest God,\n Wielding His wisdom\u2019s rod;\n Our stay when cares annoy,\n Giver of endless joy;\n Of all our mortal race,\n Saviour, of boundless grace,\n O Jesus, hear!\n\n Shepherd and Sower Thou,\n Now helm, and bridle now,\n Wing for the heavenward flight\n Of flock all pure and bright,\n Fisher of men, the blest\n Out of the world\u2019s unrest,\n Out of sin\u2019s troubled sea,\n Taking us, Lord, to Thee;\n Out of the waves of strife,\n With bait of blissful life,\n With choicest fish, good store,\n Drawing Thy nets to shore.\n Lead us, O Shepherd true,\n Thy mystic sheep, we sue,\n Lead us, O holy Lord,\n Who from Thy sons dost ward,\n With all prevailing charm,\n Peril, and curse, and harm;\n O path where Christ hath trod,\n O way that leads to God!\n O Word, abiding aye,\n O endless Light on high,\n Mercy\u2019s fresh-springing flood,\n Worker of all things good,\n O glorious Life of all\n That on their Maker call,\n Christ Jesus, hear!\n\n . . . . .\n\n Our holy tribute this,\n For wisdom, life, and bliss,\n Singing in chorus meet,\n Singing in concert sweet,\n The Almighty\u2019s Son.\n We, heirs of peace unpriced,\n We, who are born in Christ,\n A people pure from stain,\n Praise we our God again,\n Lord of our Peace!\n\nI must add one other hymn, though it has been often translated, and is\nfound in several modern hymn-books. There is a pretty little version\nin Longfellow\u2019s _Golden Legend_, but the best is Keble\u2019s fine\nrendering published in the _Lyra Apostolica_. It is a hymn for\neventide, and was sung at \u2018The Lighting of the Lamps.\u2019 It has been\nsung at vespers in the Greek Church for many centuries, and is still\nin daily use.\n\n \u03a6\u1ff6\u03c2 \u1f31\u03bb\u03b1\u03c1\u1f78\u03bd \u1f01\u03b3\u03af\u03b1\u03c2 \u03b4\u03cc\u03be\u03b7\u03c2 \u1f00\u03b8\u03b1\u03bd\u03ac\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5 \u03a0\u03b1\u03c4\u03c1\u03cc\u03c2\n \u03bf\u1f50\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u03af\u03bf\u03c5, \u1f01\u03b3\u03af\u03bf\u03c5, \u00b5\u03ac\u03ba\u03b1\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2,\n \u1f38\u03b7\u03c3\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03a7\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03ad,\n \u1f10\u03bb\u03b8\u03cc\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u1f21\u03bb\u03af\u03bf\u03c5 \u03b4\u03cd\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd,\n \u1f30\u03b4\u03cc\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2 \u03c6\u1ff6\u03c2 \u1f11\u03c3\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u03b9\u03bd\u03cc\u03bd,\n \u1f51\u00b5\u03bd\u03bf\u1fe6\u00b5\u03b5\u03bd \u03a0\u03b1\u03c4\u03ad\u03c1\u03b1, \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03a5\u1f31\u03cc\u03bd, \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f0d\u03b3\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd \u03a0\u03bd\u03b5\u1fe6\u00b5\u03b1 \u0398\u03b5\u03bf\u1fe6,\n \u1f04\u03be\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 \u03b5\u1f36 \u2019\u03bd \u03c0\u1fb6\u03c3\u03b9 \u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u1f51\u00b5\u03bd\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9 \u03c6\u03c9\u03bd\u03b1\u1fd6\u03c2 \u1f41\u03c3\u03af\u03b1\u03b9\u03c2\n \u03a5\u1f31\u1f72 \u0398\u03b5\u03bf\u1fe6, \u03b6\u03c9\u1f74\u03bd \u1f41 \u03b4\u03b9\u03b4\u03bf\u03cd\u03c2\u00b7\n \u03b4\u03b9\u1f78 \u1f41 \u03ba\u03bf\u03c3\u00b5\u03cc\u03c2 \u03c3\u03b5 \u03b4\u03bf\u03be\u03ac\u03b6\u03b5\u03b9.\n\n Hail! gladdening Light of His pure glory poured,\n Who is the immortal Father, heavenly, blest,\n Holiest of Holies\u2014Jesus Christ our Lord!\n Now we are come to the sun\u2019s hour of rest,\n The lights of evening round us shine,\n We hymn the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit divine!\n Worthiest art Thou at all times to be sung\n With undefiled tongue,\n Son of our God, Giver of Life, alone!\n Therefore in all the world, Thy glories, Lord, they own.\n\n3. _Latin._\u2014The following hymn has not only intrinsic value, but\npeculiar interest on account of St. Augustine\u2019s reference to it as\nhaving brought to his eyes the kindly relief of tears, as he thought\nof his mother laid that day in her grave.\n\n Then I slept and rose up again, and found my sorrow diminished not a\n little and as I lay lonely on my bed I recalled the truthful verses\n of Thy Ambrose ... and I gave my tears, which I had restrained till\n now, leave to flow as they would.\n\nIt is found in the Breviaries as a Saturday vesper hymn, and is a good\nexample of the hymns of St. Ambrose. It has much of the strength and\nsimplicity of Ken\u2019s hymns.\n\n Deus, creator omnium!\n Polique Rector! vestiens\n Diem decoro lumine,\n Noctem soporis grati\u00e2,\n\n Artus solutos ut quies\n Reddat laboris usui:\n Mentesque fessas allevet\n Luctusque solvat anxios.\n\n Grates peracto jam die\n Et noctis exortu preces,\n Voti reos ut adjuves,\n Hymnum canentes solvimus.\n\n Te cordis ima concinant,\n Te vox canora concrepet,\n Te diligat castus amor,\n Te mens adoret sobria;\n\n Ut, cum profunda clauserit\n Diem caligo noctium,\n Fides tenebras nesciat,\n Et nox fide reluceat.[53]\n\n Dormire mentem ne sinas,\n Dormire culpa noverit;\n Castis fides refrigerans\n Somni vaporem temperet.\n\n Exuta sensu lubrico\n Te cordis alta somnient,\n Nec hostis invidi dolo\n Pavor quietos suscitet.\n\n Christum rogemus et Patrem,\n Christi Patrisque Spiritum,\n Unum potens per omnia\n Fove precantes Trinitas.[54]\n\nThe best English translation is by Mr. J. D. Chambers, late Recorder\nof New Sarum. I take it from his beautiful _Psalter; or, Seven Hours\nof Prayer of the Church of Sarum_.[55]\n\n Maker of all things! God Most High!\n Great Ruler of the starry sky!\n Robing the day in beauteous light,\n In sweet repose the quiet night;\n\n That sleep may our tired limbs restore,\n And fit for toil and use once more;\n May gently soothe the careworn breast,\n And lull our anxious griefs to rest.\n\n We thank Thee for the day that\u2019s gone,\n We pray Thee now the night comes on:\n O help us sinners as we raise\n To Thee our votive hymn of praise.\n\n To Thee our hearts their music bring,\n Thee our united voices sing:\n To Thee our pure affections soar,\n Thee may our chastened souls adore.\n\n So when the deepening shades prevail,\n And night o\u2019er day hath dropped her veil:\n Faith may no wildering darkness know,\n But night with Faith\u2019s own splendour glow.\n\n O sleepless ever keep the mind!\n Our guilt in lasting slumbers bind;\n Let Faith pure Chastity renew,\n And freshen sleep\u2019s lethargic dew.\n\n From every wrongful passion free,\n O may our hearts repose in Thee;\n Nor envious fiend with harmful snare,\n Our rest with sinful terrors scare.\n\n Christ, with the Father ever One!\n Spirit of Father and of Son!\n God over all of mighty sway,\n Shield us, great Trinity, we pray!\n\nI would gladly linger awhile longer among these ancient hymns; but\nexcept as they have passed into our hymnals in the last two centuries,\nthey hardly belong to my subject.\n\n\n LITERATURE\n\n The following notes may be useful to some readers:\u2014Daniel\u2019s\n _Thesaurus Hymnologicus_ (Leipsic, 1841-55); Mone\u2019s _Hymni Latini\n Medii Aevi_ (Freiburg, 1853-4-5), Christ\u2019s _Anthologia Graeca\n Carminum Christianorum_; Trench\u2019s _Sacred Latin Poetry_ (1849):\n Duffield\u2019s _Latin Hymns_ (1889); Macdonald\u2019s _Latin Hymns of the\n Wesleyan Methodist Hymn-book_ (1899).\n\n Neale\u2019s _Mediaeval Hymns_, _Hymns of the Eastern Church_, _&c._;\n Chandler\u2019s _Hymns of the Primitive Church_; William\u2019s _Hymns from\n the Parisian Breviary_ (1839); Chambers\u2019s _Lauda Syon_; Mant\u2019s\n _Ancient Hymns from the Roman Breviary_; Chatfield\u2019s _Songs and\n Hymns of the Greek Christian Poets_; Mrs. Charles\u2019s _Christian Life\n in Song_; Moorsom\u2019s _Renderings of Church Hymns_. See also articles\n in _Dictionary of Hymnology_, on \u2018Greek,\u2019 \u2018Latin,\u2019 and \u2018Syriac,\u2019\n \u2018Hymnody,\u2019 \u2018Te Deum,\u2019 &c.\n\n It should be remembered that many of the Breviary hymns are not\n ancient, but belong to the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth\n centuries.\n\n\n\n\n III\n Early Modern Hymns\n\n\n I.\u2014Sixteenth Century\n\nBefore the Reformation England was rich in ballads, but had\npractically no hymns. Yet there are in that earlier period a few great\nnames\u2014C\u00e6dmon, Aldhelm, Bede, Alfred\u2014which are beginning to appear in\nsome modern hymnals.[56]\n\nIt is usual to date English hymnody from the days of Dr. Watts. Before\nhis time, however, a considerable number of hymns had been written in\nEnglish, a fair proportion of which were of high poetic character, and\nnot unsuitable for public worship. But the idea of a hymn-book had\nhardly entered the mind of the Church. Many longed for \u2018godly ballads\u2019\nto supplant the vain songs of the Court, the camp, and the street, but\nfor the most part they longed in vain. We must not, however, overlook\nthe preparation made during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.\n\nThe English Reformation had no poet, no one who could give the common\npeople songs such as Luther had provided for the Germans. Myles\nCoverdale (1487-1569), Bishop of Exeter, saw how great the need was;\nbut he could not supply it, though he did his best. His \u2018Ghostly\nPsalms and Spiritual Songs, drawn out of the Holy Scripture for the\ncomfort and consolation of such as love to rejoice in God and His\nWord,\u2019 is an unsuccessful attempt to render into English some of the\nGerman hymns. He confesses that the verses are \u2018rude in song and\nrhyme.\u2019 Yet there is not wanting that yearning after God, that quiet\ntrust in Christ, that turning to Him with hope and penitence and love\nwhich is the note of all Christian psalmody. I quote a few\nverses\u2014modernizing the spelling\u2014from what is, I think, his best\neffort.\n\n I call on Thee, Lord Jesu Christ,\n I have none other help but Thee:\n My heart is never set at rest,\n Till Thy sweet word have comforted me.\n And steadfast faith grant me therefore,\n To hold by Thy word evermore.\n Above all thing\n Never resisting\n But to increase in faith more and more.\n\n Lord, print into my heart and mind\n Thy Holy Spirit with ferventness;\n That I to Thee be not unkind,\n But love Thee without feignedness.\n Let nothing draw my mind from Thee,\n But ever to love Thee earnestly:\n Let not my heart\n Unthankfully depart\n From the right love of Thy mercy.\n\n Give me Thy grace, Lord, I Thee pray,\n To love mine enemies heartily:\n Howbeit they trouble me alway,\n And for Thy cause do slander me,\n Yet, Jesu Christ, for Thy goodness,\n Fill my heart with forgiveness,\n That while I live\n I may them forgive\n That do offend me more or less.[57]\n\nCoverdale\u2019s hymns prepared the way for more successful efforts in the\nsame direction. And it is pleasant to remember that the brave old\nreformer, who stood by his friend and tutor, Robert Barnes, the\nmartyr, when he was summoned to appear before Wolsey as a heretic, and\nwho devoted so many years to the translation of the Holy Scriptures,\nwas one of the first who desired to make the English folk love godly\nhymns.\n\nIt is an ancient fashion to disparage Sternhold and Hopkins\u2019s version\nof the Psalms, but it was a great advance upon Coverdale, and \u2018marks\nan era in the history of sacred song.\u2019[58] Sternhold died in 1549, and\nCoverdale survived him for twenty years. He was Groom of the Robes to\nboth Henry VIII and Edward VI. Probably the popularity of Clement\nMarot\u2019s[59] French version may have suggested to Sternhold the attempt\nto provide the English Court with similar sacred songs instead of the\nprofane ballads which pleased both French and English courtiers. Henry\nhad a sincere regard for him, and remembered him in his will. Edward\nloved to hear these metrical psalms sung by their author, and caused\nthem to be \u2018sung openly,\u2019 so that others might learn to love them as\nhe did. Sternhold was a modest man, and did not claim any great merit\nfor his songs.\n\n \u2018Albeit,\u2019 he says, in his dedication to Edward VI, \u2018I cannot give to\n your Majesty great loaves, or bring into the Lord\u2019s barn full\n handfuls ... I am bold to present unto your Majesty a few crumbs\n which I have picked up from under the Lord\u2019s board.\u2019\n\nPart of his version of Ps. xviii. is usually given as the best example\nof his work.\n\n O God, my strength and fortitude,\n Of force I must love Thee.\n\nThere are some good verses in Ps. ix., which are of the same type.\n\n O Lord, with all my heart and mind\n I will give thanks to Thee;\n And speak of all Thy wondrous works\n Unsearchable of me.\n\n I will be glad and much rejoice\n In Thee, O God, most high;\n And make my songs extol Thy name\n Above the starry sky.\n\n For evermore in dignity\n The Lord doth rule and reign;\n And in the seat of equity\n True judgement doth maintain.\n\n With justice He doth keep and guide\n The world and every wight,\n With conscience and with equity\n He yieldeth folk their right.\n\n He is Protector of the poor,\n What time they be opprest;\n He is in all adversity\n Their refuge and their rest.\n\n All they that know Thy holy name,\n Therefore do trust in Thee;\n For Thou forsakest not their suit,\n In their necessity.\n\n But sure the Lord will not forget\n The poor man\u2019s grief and pain;\n The patient people never look\n For help of God in vain.\n\nThe Old Version, which bears the name of Sternhold and Hopkins, was\nthe work of several hands. John Hopkins was the largest contributor.\nOf his life little is known. Warton called him not the least of the\nBritish poets of his day, and his versions are generally considered\nsuperior to Sternhold\u2019s. They are no doubt smoother, but I cannot see\nthat they have more poetry in them. Sometimes his lines are\nridiculously divided, and it is difficult to imagine that at any\nperiod they could have been regarded as tolerable.\n\nIt was, however, a psalm of Hopkins\u2019s which comforted John Wesley\nafter hearing a sermon, of which he disapproved, at Bow, in 1738. \u2018God\nanswered the thoughts of my heart, and took away my fear, in a manner\nI did not expect, even by the words of Thomas Sternhold. They were\nthese (sung immediately after the sermon)\u2019\u2014\n\n Thy mercy is above all things,\n O God; it doth excel;\n In trust whereof, as in Thy wings,\n The sons of men shall dwell.\n\n Within Thy house they shall be fed\n With plenty at their will;\n Of all delights they shall be sped,\n And take thereof their fill.\n\n Because the well of life most pure,\n Doth ever flow from Thee;\n And in Thy light we are most sure,\n Eternal light to see.\n\n From such as Thee desire to know,\n Let not Thy grace depart;\n Thy righteousness declare and show\n To men of upright heart.\n\nWilliam Whittingham, Calvin\u2019s brother-in-law, and Knox\u2019s successor as\npastor of the English congregation at Geneva, contributed about twelve\npsalms, including the cxix., which runs to over 700 lines. In 1563 he\nbecame Dean of Durham, and was excommunicated by the Archbishop of\nYork (father of George Sandys). He died in 1579, and was buried in the\ncathedral in which he is said to have destroyed the image of St.\nCuthbert and other ancient monuments which were obnoxious to his\nPuritan taste. Other writers were John Pullain, another Genevan exile;\nRobert Wisdome, who was frightened into a recantation of his \u2018errors\u2019\nby Bishop Bonner, but shortly after recanted again; Thomas Norton, who\nwrote the version of Ps. cxlvii., beginning\u2014\n\n Praise ye the Lord, for it is good\n Unto our God to sing;\n For it is pleasant, and to praise\n It is a comely thing.\n\nWilliam Kethe, author of \u2018All people that on earth do dwell;\u2019 John\nMarckant, and John Craig.[60] John Marckant, vicar in 1559 of Great\nClacton, and of Shopland 1563-8, was the author of four psalms in the\nOld Version. But he is remembered by \u2018The Lamentation of a Sinner,\u2019\nwhich is one of the redeeming features of the book. It is known in\nmodern times almost exclusively in Heber\u2019s revision. The original is\nadmirable in its pathos and simplicity.\n\n\n THE LAMENTATION OF A SINNER\n\n O Lord, turn not Thy face away\n From him that lies prostrate,\n Lamenting sore his sinful life,\n Before Thy mercy-gate.\n Which gate Thou openest wide to those\n That do lament their sin,\n Shut not that gate against me, Lord,\n But let me enter in.\n\n And call me not to mine account,\n How I have liv\u00e8d here;\n For then I know right well, O Lord,\n How vile I shall appear.\n I need not to confess my life,\n I am sure Thou canst tell,\n What I have been, and what I am,\n I know Thou knowest it well.\n\n O Lord, Thou knowest what things be past,\n And eke the things that be;\n Thou knowest also what is to come,\n Nothing is hid from Thee.\n Before the heavens and earth were made,\n Thou knowest what things were then,\n As all things else that have been since\n Among the sons of men.\n\n And can the things that I have done,\n Be hidden from Thee then?\n Nay, nay, Thou knowest them all, O Lord,\n Where they were done and when.\n Wherefore with tears I come to Thee,\n To beg and to entreat,\n Even as the child that hath done ill,\n And feareth to be beat.\n\n So come I to Thy mercy-gate,\n Where mercy doth abound,\n Requiring mercy for my sin,\n To heal my deadly wound.\n O Lord, I need not to repeat,\n What I do beg or crave:\n Thou knowest, O Lord, before I ask,\n The thing that I would have.\n\n Mercy, good Lord, mercy I ask,\n This is the total sum,\n For mercy, Lord, is all my suit,\n Lord, let Thy mercy come.\n\nWith Sternhold and Hopkins began the reign of the metrical Psalter.\nThe attempt to turn the whole book of Psalms into verse for\ncongregational use has had a curious fascination. No one has attained\nmore than very partial success, not even Watts or Keble. In Julian\u2019s\nlong list of those who have essayed to render the Psalms into English\nverse, are many names upon which one lingers with interest. Queen\nElizabeth, Sir Thomas Wyatt, Archbishop Parker, Sir Philip Sidney and\nhis sister, the Countess of Pembroke, Bishop Hall, George Wither,\nGeorge Herbert, George Sandys, John Milton, General Fairfax, Richard\nBaxter, Joseph Addison, Cotton Mather, Christopher Smart, and great\nnumbers in more recent times.\n\nOf the multitude of these forgotten psalms the majority, even of the\nbest, are but literary curiosities, myriads are not even curious, they\nare simply dull. A few little-known psalms of these early days I quote\neither for their own or their authors\u2019 sake. The following by Queen\nElizabeth is characteristically vigorous in expression. I have\nmodernized the spelling\u2014\n\n\n PSALM XIV\n\n Fools, that true faith yet never had,\n Say in their hearts there is no God!\n Filthy they are in their practice,\n Of them not one is godly wise.\n\n From heaven the Lord on man did look\n To know what ways he undertook;\n All they were vague and went astray,\n Not one He found in the right way.\n\n In heart and tongue have they deceit,\n Their lips throw forth a poisoned bait;\n Their minds are mad, their mouths are wode,[61]\n And swift they be in shedding blood.\n\n So blind they are no truth they know,\n No fear of God in them will grow.\n How can that cruel sort be good\n Of God\u2019s dear folk which suck the blood?\n\n On Him rightly shall they not call,\n Despair will so their hearts appall.\n At all times God is with the just,\n Because they put in Him their trust.\n\n Who shall therefore from Sion give\n That health which hangeth on our belief.\n When God shall take from His the smart,\n Then will Jacob rejoice in heart.\n Praise to God![62]\n\nIn the sandy desert of the metrical Psalters there are, however, some\nwells of living water. Such are the psalms of Sir Philip Sidney and\nhis sister, and those of George Sandys. The metre, for the most part,\nas well as the language, makes them unsuitable for use in the\ncongregation; but I think many readers will be glad to see the\nfollowing verses. The verses from Ps. xix. are by Sir Philip, and the\nversion of Ps. xciii. is by the Countess of Pembroke.\n\n\n PSALM XIX\n\n The heavenly frame sets forth the fame\n Of Him that only thunders;\n The firmament, so strangely bent,\n Shows His hand working wonders.\n\n Day unto day doth it display,\n Their course doth it acknowledge:\n And night to night succeeding right\n In darkness teach clear knowledge.\n\n There is no speech, nor language, which\n Is so of skill bereav\u00e8d,\n But of the skies the teaching cries\n They have heard and conceiv\u00e8d.\n\n There he no eyne, but read the line\n From so fair book proceeding;\n Their words be set in letters great\n For everybody\u2019s reading.\n\n\n PSALM XCIII\n\n Clothed with state and girt with might,\n Monarch-like Jehovah reigns:\n He who earth\u2019s foundation pight,[63]\n Pight at first, and yet sustains:\n He whose stable throne disdains\n Motion\u2019s shock, and ages\u2019 flight:\n He who endless One remains,\n One the same in changeless plight.\n\n Rivers, yea, though rivers roar,\n Roaring though sea-billows rise;\n Vex the deep, and break the shore,\n Stronger art Thou, Lord of skies.\n Firm and true Thy promise lies\n Now and still as heretofore:\n Holy worship never dies\n In Thy house where we adore.\n\nGeorge Sandys (1577-1643) was a true poet. Dryden called him \u2018the best\nversifier of the former age,\u2019 and Richard Baxter said, \u2018I must confess\nafter all that, next the Scripture poems, there are none so savoury to\nme as Mr. George Herbert\u2019s and Mr. George Sandys\u2019s.\u2019 Charles the First\ncomforted himself with Sandys\u2019s psalms during his imprisonment at\nCarisbrooke.\n\nHe is even yet little known to our hymn-books, though a few of his\npsalms make, with a little adaptation, good hymns. The _Methodist\nHymn-book_ contains two\u2014\n\n Thou who art enthroned above[64] (Ps. xcii.).\n\n Ye who dwell above the skies (Ps. cxlviii.).\n\nHis version of Ps. lxvi. also has some good lines. It begins\u2014\n\n Happy sons of Israel,\n Who in pleasant Canaan dwell:\n Fill the air with shouts of joy,\n Shouts redoubled from the sky.\n Sing the great Jehovah\u2019s praise,\n Trophies to His glory raise.\n\nThese quotations must suffice for the psalms of the period between the\nOld and New Versions. Those who are interested in this not very\nattractive literature will find specimens of the principal British and\nAmerican writers in Holland\u2019s _Psalmists of Britain_ (1843), and\nGlass\u2019s _Story of the Psalters_ (1888). When one looks at the two\nauthorized metrical versions, and the many attempts made to supplant\nthem, it is difficult to understand how the Church could so long have\nclung to the metrical Psalter, and could be so slow to use a\nhymn-book. Keble says of his own version\u2014\u2018It was undertaken, in the\nfirst instance, with a serious apprehension, which has since grown\ninto a full conviction, that the thing attempted is, strictly\nspeaking, _impossible_.\u2019 Yet scores have made the same fruitless\neffort since Keble failed.\n\nApart from the psalm-versions there are few hymns of the sixteenth\ncentury. George Gascoigne (d. 1577), a lawyer, poet, and courtier of\nElizabeth\u2019s day, and a descendant of Sir William Gascoigne, the judge\nwho committed Henry V, when Prince of Wales, to prison, wrote a poem\nentitled \u2018Good Morrow,\u2019 from which a good hymn has been made, which is\nin many of the better school hymnals.\n\n You that have spent the silent night\n In sleep and quiet rest,\n And joy to see the cheerful light\n That riseth in the East;\n Now clear your voice, now cheer your heart,\n Come help me now to sing;\n Each willing wight come bear a part,\n To praise the heavenly King.\n\n Yet as this deadly night did last\n But for a little space,\n And heavenly day, now night is past,\n Doth show his pleasant face:\n So must we hope to see God\u2019s face\n At last in heaven on high,\n When we have changed this mortal place\n For Immortality.\n\n Unto which joys for to attain,\n God grant us all His grace,\n And send us, after worldly pain,\n In heaven to have a place:\n Where we may still enjoy that light,\n Which never shall decay:\n Lord, for Thy mercy lend us might\n To see that joyful day.[65]\n\nThomas Campion (1567-1619), a doctor of medicine, wrote some lovely\nhymns, \u2018admirable for their union of melodious simplicity, beauty, and\nstrong common sense.\u2019[66] Josiah Conder included one in the section\nfor Private Worship of the Congregational hymn-book, 1836.[67]\n\n Never weather-beaten sail more willing bent to shore,\n Never tired pilgrim\u2019s limbs affected slumber more,\n Than my wearied sprite now longs to fly out of my troubled breast.\n O come quickly, sweetest Lord, and take my soul to rest!\n\n Ever blooming are the joys of heaven\u2019s high Paradise,\n Cold age deafs not there our ears nor vapour dims our eyes:\n Glory there the sun outshines, whose beams the Blessed only see.\n O come quickly, glorious Lord, and raise my sprite to Thee!\n\nHere is another of Campion\u2019s hymns.\n\n View me, Lord, a work of Thine!\n Shall I then lie drowned in night?\n Might Thy grace in me but shine,\n I should seem made all of light.\n\n Cleanse me, Lord, that I may kneel\n At Thine altar, pure and white:\n They that once Thy mercies feel,\n Gaze no more on earth\u2019s delight.\n\n Worldly joys, like shadows, fade,\n When the heavenly light appears:\n But the covenants Thou hast made,\n Endless, know nor days nor years.\n\n In Thy Word, Lord, is my trust,\n To Thy mercies fast I fly;\n Though I am but clay and dust,\n Yet Thy grace can lift me high.\n\nCampion is not mentioned in the _Dictionary of Hymnology_, but he\ndeserves a place there.\n\nOne other hymn must be mentioned, \u2018Jerusalem, my happy home.\u2019 It is\nfound in a MS. preserved in the British Museum, with the title \u2018A Song\nMad, by F. B. P. To the tune of Diana.\u2019 Who the author was no one\nknows, but internal evidence indicates that he was a devout Roman\nCatholic. In the _Arundel Hymns_ it is attributed to Father Laurence\nAnderton, _alias_ John Beverley, S.J. The MS. has twenty-six verses,\nof which nineteen were printed in London in 1601. The hymn is probably\nbased upon a passage in the _Meditations of St. Augustine_. The\npopular modern hymn, \u2018Jerusalem, my happy home,\u2019 which is now believed\nto have been written by Joseph Bromehead, Vicar of Eckington, near\nSheffield, was no doubt suggested by this hymn, or one of the various\nversions of it, but has little verbal agreement except in the first\nand last verses. I give a portion of the original poem.\n\n Hierusalem, my happie home,\n When shall I come to thee,\n When shall my sorrowes haue an end,\n Thy ioyes when shall I see.\n\n O happie harbour of the saints,\n O sweete and pleasant soyle,\n In thee noe sorrow may be founde,\n Noe greefe, noe care, noe toyle.\n\n Hierusalem, Hierusalem,\n God grant I once may see\n Thy endless ioyes, and of the same\n Partaker aye to bee.\n\n Thy wales are made of precious stones,\n Thy bulwarkes diamondes square,\n Thy gates are of right orient pearle,\n Exceeding riche and rare.\n\n Thy terrettes and thy pinnacles\n With carbuncles doe shine,\n Thy verie streetes are paued with gould,\n Surpassinge cleare and fine.\n\n Thy houses are of ivorie,\n Thy windoes cristale cleare,\n Thy tyles are mad of beaten gould,\n O God that I were there.\n\n There David standes with harpe in hand,\n As maister of the queere,\n Tenne thousand times that man were blest\n That might this musicke hear.\n\n Our Ladie singes magnificat\n With tune surpassinge sweete,\n And all the virgins beare their parts\n Sitinge aboue her feete.\n\n Te Deum doth Sant Ambrose singe,\n Sant Augustine dothe the like;\n Ould Simeon and Zacharie\n Haue not their songes to seeke.\n\n There Magdalene hath left her mone,\n And cheerefullie doth singe,\n With blessed Saints whose harmonie\n In everie streete doth ringe.\n\n Hierusalem, my happie home,\n Would God I were in thee,\n Would God my woes were at an end,\n Thy ioyes that I might see.\n\n Finis. Finis.[68]\n\n\n\n\n III\n Early Modern Hymns\n\n\n II.\u2014Seventeenth Century\n\nWhen the seventeenth century opened there were, as we have seen,\nhardly any English hymns except such as may be taken from metrical\nversions of the Psalms. With the new century a new era begins; and\nthough we are not yet in what George Macdonald calls \u2018the zone of\nhymn-writing,\u2019 we are soon able to gather the materials of a hymn-book\nof the modern type. It would be quite possible to compile a very good\nhymnal from writers who preceded Dr. Watts, if a wise editorial\ndiscretion were exercised in the omission of unsuitable verses and the\nrevision of phrases offensive to modern taste.\n\nAmongst the hymn-writers of the seventeenth century one name is\npre-eminent\u2014Thomas Ken (1637-1711), Bishop of Bath and Wells. His fame\nrests upon his three great hymns\u2014Morning, Evening, and Midnight\u2014for\nlittle else in his voluminous poetical works is suited to the worship\nof the sanctuary. In all the Christian choir there is no worthier name\nthan that of Thomas Ken, whom neither fear nor flattery could move\nfrom the strait path of duty. He lived in the spirit of his own lines\u2014\n\n Let all thy converse be sincere,\n Thy conscience as the noonday clear;\n Think how all-seeing God thy ways,\n And all thy secret thoughts surveys.\n\nHe spent his earlier years of ministry in quiet places, amongst those\nwho honoured and loved him, but later had some curious experiences as\nLord Dartmouth\u2019s chaplain at Tangier, where he testified with his\naccustomed resolution against evil-doers and evil-speakers, coming, as\nSamuel Pepys records, into collision with the afterwards infamous\nColonel Kirke, because he preached against \u2018the excessive liberty of\nswearing which we observe here.\u2019\n\nAmongst all the heroes of his day there was none with a more serene\ncourage than \u2018little Ken,\u2019 who would not receive Charles\u2019s mistress at\nhis house\u2014\u2018No, not for his kingdom\u2019\u2014and thus won his bishopric in as\nunlikely and as creditable a fashion as ever bishopric was earned.\nAfter that one is not surprised to find him, as one of the seven\nbishops, saying to James II, \u2018We have two duties to perform, our duty\nto God and our duty to your Majesty. We honour you, but we fear God.\u2019\nNor need we wonder that, notwithstanding his resistance of James\u2019s\nillegal demands, he could not bring himself to take the oath of\nallegiance to William of Orange. Ken always had that infirmity of\nnoble souls, \u2018a weakness for the weaker side.\u2019 As Dean Plumptre well\nsays, \u2018If he was in doubt it was safer, in quite another sense than\nthat in which others counted safety, to take the losing and not the\nwinning side.\u2019\n\nKen was deprived in 1791, and the bishopric was offered to Beveridge,\nthen Archdeacon of Colchestor. Had Ken been translated to heaven, or\nto Canterbury, Beveridge would have accepted the preferment with\ndelight, for he had no nonjuring scruples and wished to be a bishop.\nBut he too was a saint, and not unworthy to be Ken\u2019s successor; so he\nwould not take the place from which Ken had been thrust out, and\nwaited thirteen years for \u2018preferment,\u2019 becoming Bishop of St. Asaph\nin 1704.\n\nWhen Ken left the episcopal palace, Lord Weymouth honoured his own\nmagnificent mansion of Longleat by welcoming Ken to its hospitable\nshelter, as Sir Thomas Abney, in widely different circumstances, made\nthe great Nonconformist hymn-writer his guest twenty-five years later.\nLongleat was Ken\u2019s home for twenty years. There he died, after long\nand acute suffering, soothed by the writing of hymns, and by the\nthought that they would be sung on earth while he praised God in\nheaven.\n\n \u2019Twill heighten even the joys of heaven to know\n That in my verse the saints hymn God below.[69]\n\nKen\u2019s hymns, as we now sing them, are selected from the thirty-seven\nverses of the originals, which were intended in the first place for\nthe scholars of his old school\u2014Winchester. As in most other cases, the\npopular selection is amply justified. The hymns abbreviated are much\nmore serviceable alike for public and private devotion than if they\nwere transferred _in extenso_ to our hymn-books. Like Sternhold,\nHerbert, and Watts, Ken was a musician, and loved to accompany himself\non the lute or organ.\n\nThe morning hymn, which consists of fourteen verses, falls into three\nsections, addressed (1) to the soul, (2) to the angels, (3) to God. In\nthe evening hymn two verses are addressed to the guardian angel. The\nfollowing verses from the morning hymn are not usually found in modern\nhymnals\u2014\n\n Influenced by the Light Divine,\n Let thy own light in good works shine:\n Reflect all Heaven\u2019s propitious ways,\n In ardent love, and cheerful praise.\n\n Awake, awake,[70] ye heavenly choir,\n May your devotion me inspire,\n That I, like you, my age may spend,\n Like you, may on my God attend.\n\n May I, like you, in God delight,\n Have all day long my God in sight,\n Perform, like you, my Maker\u2019s will;\n O may I never more do ill!\n\n Had I your wings, to heaven I\u2019d fly,\n But God shall that defect supply,\n And my soul winged with warm desire,\n Shall all day long to heaven aspire.\n\n I would not wake, nor rise again,\n Even heaven itself I would disdain;\n Wert not Thou there to be enjoyed,\n And I in hymns to be employed.\n\n Heaven is, dear Lord, where\u2019er Thou art,\n O never then from me depart;\n For to my soul \u2019tis hell to be\n But for one moment without[71] Thee.\n\nThe special charm of Ken\u2019s hymns lies in their simplicity and\nsuitability. In the plainest words he asks for just what every\nChristian feels that he needs, morning and evening, his whole life\nthrough. They are the first great English hymns, and are worthy to\nlead the devotions of the Church.\n\nKen\u2019s influence upon later poets has been great. Charles Wesley,\nKeble, and Christopher Wordsworth were, to some extent, inspired by\nhis hymns on the Festivals, whilst Newman desired to add Ken to the\nCalendar of English saints, and actually prepared a service for use on\n\u2018Ken\u2019s day.\u2019[72]\n\nArchbishop Alexander, himself a poet, preaching in Wells Cathedral at\nthe festival commemorative of the bicentenary of Ken\u2019s consecration,\nsaid\u2014\n\n Outside the Psalter, no lines have ever been so familiar to English\n Christians as Ken\u2019s Morning and Evening Hymn. Other hymns have been\n more mystical, more impassioned, more imaginative\u2014have perhaps\n contained profounder thoughts in their depth, have certainly\n exhibited richer colouring upon their surface. But none are so\n suitable to the homely pathos and majesty of the English Liturgy;\n none are so adapted to the character which the English Church has\n aimed at forming, the sweet reserve, the quiet thoroughness, the\n penitence which is continuous without being unhopeful. They are\n lines which the child may repeat without the painful sense that they\n are beyond him, and the man without the contemptuous sense that they\n are below him. They appeal to the man in the child, and the child in\n the man. They are at once a form of devotion, a rule of life, a\n breath of prayer, a sigh of aspiration. They are the utterances of a\n heart which had no contempt for earth, but which is at home among\n the angels. When we listen to them, or repeat them with congenial\n spirit, in whatever climate we may be, the roses of the English dawn\n and the gold of the English sunset are in our sky.[73]\n\nMontgomery wrote of Ken\u2019s three hymns that, \u2018had he endowed three\nhospitals, he might have been less a benefactor to posterity.\u2019[74] The\nimportance of his hymns as setting a standard of simplicity and\ndirectness can hardly be overstated. Yet it is curious how slowly they\nwon general acceptance. They were not printed in the supplement to the\nBook of Common Prayer till 1801, and though John Wesley included them\nin his _Psalms and Hymns_, 1738, he omitted them from his later\npublications and from his hymn-book. Dean Plumptre, however, says that\nboth the hymns had appeared in some of the earlier collections of\nhymns for congregational use by English clergymen between 1750 and\n1760. The three hymns are given in the _Moravian Hymn-book_ of 1754.\n\nAfter Ken the seventeenth century had no sweeter hymn-writer than John\nAustin (1613-69), who left St. John\u2019s College, Cambridge, in 1640, on\nbecoming a Romanist. He wrote two volumes of _Devotions in the Ancient\nWay of Offices_. These were \u2018a family piece among Catholics,\u2019 and were\nmuch used by devout Protestants. The nonjuring Bishop Hickes edited\nthem for Protestant use, and John Wesley included seven of the hymns\nin his Charlestown hymn-book\u2014a larger number than by any other author\nexcept Watts. Austin did not complete his work. \u2018Death, for which he\nhad fitted his soul by a well-spent life, interrupted his labours....\nWhen he perceived death immediately seizing its prey, he gave up the\nghost with these remarkable words: ... \u201cNow, heartily for heaven,\nthrough Jesus Christ!\u201d\u2019[75]\n\nAustin\u2019s hymns are used chiefly outside his own communion,[76] though\nRomanism has no English hymn-writer to compare with him till the time\nof Faber. In the _Arundel Hymns_ his verses are attributed to W.\nAustin (a Protestant contemporary). The following hymn illustrates the\nsimilarity of Austin and Faber\u2019s writing. Few readers would guess that\none of these four verses was written two centuries after the others.\n\n\n FROM DEATH TO LIFE\n\n Jesu! all hail. Who for my sin\n Didst die, and by that death didst win\n Eternal life for me;\n Send me Thy grace, good Lord! that I\n Unto the world and flesh may die,\n And hide my life with Thee.\n\n Jesu! who on that fatal wood\n Poured forth Thy life\u2019s last drop of blood,\n Nailed to a shameful cross;\n O may we bless Thy love, and be\n Ready, dear Lord, to bear for Thee\n All grief, all pain, all loss.\n\n Jesu! who by Thine own love slain,\n By Thine own power took\u2019st life again,\n And from the grave didst rise;\n O may Thy death our souls revive,\n And at our death a new life give,\n The life that never dies.\n\n Jesu! who to Thy heaven again\n Returned in triumph, there to reign\n Of men and angels King;\n O may our parting souls take flight\n Up to that land of joy and light,\n And there for ever sing.[77]\n\nIn this hymn the first verse is from Faber\u2019s series on \u2018The Life of\nour Lord,\u2019[78] and the rest from Austin\u2019s \u2018Vespers for our Blessed\nSaviour.\u2019 Wesley\u2019s selection from the same hymn began with the verse\u2014\n\n Jesu! behold three kings from far,\n Led to Thy cradle by a star,\n Bring gifts to Thee their King:\n O guide us by Thy light, that we\n May find Thy favour and to Thee\n Ourselves for tribute bring.[79]\n\nOf another hymn which Faber might have written, I give the first two\nverses\u2014\n\n Sweet Jesu! why, why dost Thou love\n Such worthless things as we?\n Why is Thy heart still towards us\n Who seldom think on Thee?\n\n Thy bounty gives us all we have,\n And we Thy gifts abuse:\n Thy bounty gives us even Thyself,\n And we Thyself refuse.\n\nAustin\u2019s best hymns, however, are, I think, one for Monday morning,\nwhich Wesley entitled \u2018Universal Praise,\u2019 and the evening hymn, of\nwhich some verses will be familiar to most readers.\n\n\n MORNING\n\n Hark, my soul! how every thing\n Strives to serve our bounteous King:\n Each a double tribute pays;\n Sings its part, and then obeys.\n\n Nature\u2019s chief and sweetest choir\n Him with cheerful notes admire;\n Chanting every day their lauds,[80]\n While the grove their song applauds.\n\n Though their voices lower be,\n Streams have too their melody;\n Night and day their warbling run:\n Never pause, but still sing on.\n\n All the flowers that gild the spring,\n Hither their still music bring:\n If Heaven bless them, thankful they,\n Smell more sweet, and look more gay.\n\n Only we can scarce afford,\n This short office to our Lord:\n We, on whom His bounty flows,\n All things gives, and nothing owes.\n\n Wake! for shame my sluggish heart;\n Wake! and gladly sing thy part:\n Learn of birds, and springs, and flowers,\n How to use thy nobler powers.\n\n Call whole nature to thy aid,\n Since \u2019twas He whole nature made:\n Join in one eternal song,\n Who to one God all belong.\n\n Live for ever, glorious Lord!\n Live by all Thy works adored:\n One in Three, and Three in One,\n Thrice we bow to Thee alone.\n\n\n EVENING\n\n Lord! now the time returns,\n For weary man to rest,\n And lay aside those pains and cares\n With which our day\u2019s opprest.\n\n Or, rather, change our thoughts\n To more concerning cares;\n How to redeem our misspent time,\n With sighs, and tears, and prayers.\n\n How to provide for heaven,\n That place of rest and peace,\n Where our full joys shall never fade,\n Our pleasures never cease.\n\n Blest be Thy love, dear Lord!\n That taught us this sweet way,\n Only to love Thee for Thyself,\n And for that love obey.\n\n O Thou, our soul\u2019s chief hope!\n We to Thy mercy fly,\n Where\u2019er we are, Thou canst protect;\n Whate\u2019er we need, supply.\n\n Whether we sleep or wake,\n To Thee we both resign;\n By night we see as well as day,\n If Thy light on us shine.\n\n Whether we live or die,\n Both we submit to Thee:\n In death we live as well as life,\n If Thine in death we be.\n\nWilliam Austin (d. 1633) had not the devotional fervour of his younger\nnamesake (he does not seem to have been a relative, though both were\nof Lincoln\u2019s Inn), but he is among the noteworthy hymn-writers of a\ntime when hymns were few. As his poems are little known, I give a\ncharming little hymn and two verses of a bright Christmas carol\u2014\n\n What a gracious God have we,\n In His gifts of grace how free!\n How intent our prayers to hear,\n And to them that pray how near.\n\n How to balmy mercy prone,\n And to kind compassion.\n How regardfully He wakes,\n For His chosen servants\u2019 sakes.\n\n How He gives them grace to pray,\n And then to their suits gives way.\n How He prompts each good desire,\n And blows up that spark to fire.\n\n He hath set no greater task,\n To obtain of Him but \u2018Ask!\u2019\n No exacter search to find,\n But to seek with humble mind.\n\n No more pains heaven to unlock,\n But with spotless hands to knock.\n Yet He joys to see man press Him,\n And to wrestle till He bless him![81]\n\n . . . . .\n\n All this night bright angels sing;\n Never was such carolling.\n Hark! a voice which loudly cries,\n \u2018Mortals, mortals, wake and rise;\n Lo! to gladness,\n Turns your sadness;\n From the earth is risen a Sun,\n Shines all night, though day be done.\u2019\n\n Hail, O Sun! O bless\u00e8d Light,\n Sent into this world by night;\n Let Thy rays and heavenly powers\n Shine in these dark souls of ours;\n For, most duly,\n Thou art truly\n God and Man, we do confess;\n Hail, O Sun of Righteousness![82]\n\nGeorge Wither (1588-1667), lawyer, soldier, poet, Cavalier, Roundhead,\nPuritan, Anglican, was a writer of many hymns. He finds a secluded\ncorner in a few modern hymnals; but had there been what we call\nhymn-books in his day, he would have been a considerable contributor.\nHis hymns are more of the Evangelical than the Puritan type. His songs\nof the Church form a \u2018Christian Year,\u2019 and some of the hymns for\nSaints\u2019 days are much more original and poetic than those commonly in\nuse. Here are three verses for\u2014\n\n\n ST. MATTHEW\u2019S DAY\n\n For God doth not a whit respect\n Profession, person, or degree;\n But maketh choice of His elect\n From every sort of men that be,\n That none might of His love despair,\n But all men unto Him repair.\n\n For those, oh let us therefore pray,\n Who seem uncall\u00e8d to remain;\n Not shunning them, as cast away,\n God\u2019s favour never to obtain:\n For some awhile neglected are,\n To stir in us more loving care.\n\n And for ourselves, let us desire,\n That we our avarice may shun;\n When God our service shall require,\n As this Evangelist hath done,\n And spend the remnant of our days\n In setting forth our Maker\u2019s praise.\n\nThere is nothing in these simple lines of the exquisite beauty of\nKeble\u2019s poem on St. Matthew\u2019s Day, one verse of which would reconcile\nthe least ecclesiastical of us to the observance of saints\u2019 days\u2014\n\n There are in this loud stunning tide\n Of human care and crime,\n With whom the melodies abide\n Of the everlasting chime;\n Who carry music in their heart,\n Through dusky lane and wrangling mart;\n Plying their daily task with busier feet,\n Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat.\n\nBut as a hymn to be sung in church or to be read in the hour of\nprivate devotion, Wither\u2019s lines compare very favourably with those of\nBishop Ken,[83] Bishop Wordsworth, and even Dr. Monsell.\n\nWither\u2019s hymn for Whit Sunday is a very appropriate \u2018devotion\u2019 for\nthat festival. Here are four of its six verses\u2014\n\n Exceeding faithful in Thy word,\n And just in all Thy ways,\n We do acknowledge Thee, O Lord,\n And therefore give Thee praise:\n For as Thy promise Thou didst pass,\n Before Thou went\u2019st away,\n Sent down Thy Holy Spirit was,\n At His appointed day.\n\n Now, also, Blessed Spirit, come,\n Unto our souls appear;\n And of Thy graces shower Thou some\n On this assembly here:\n To us Thy dove-like meekness lend,\n That humble we may be,\n And on Thy silver wings ascend,\n Our Saviour Christ to see.\n\n O let Thy cloven tongues, we pray,\n So rest on us again,\n That both the truth confess we may\n And teach it other men.\n Moreover, let Thy heavenly fire,\n Inflam\u00e8d from above,\n Burn up in us each vain desire,\n And warm our hearts with love.\n\n Vouchsafe Thou likewise to bestow\n On us Thy sacred peace;\n We stronger may in union grow,\n And in debates decrease;\n Which peace, though many yet contemn,\n Reform\u00e8d let them be;\n That we may, Lord, have part in them,\n And they have part in Thee.\n\nOther poems in this series are well worth preserving, though perhaps\nfew would find favour with the average congregation. For the most part\nthey run smoothly; the language is that of plain men, and the spirit\nof the festival finds happy expression in praise or prayer. His\nCommunion hymn is intended to be sung during the administration. It is\ninteresting to find that those who are now adopting this custom are\nbut reviving an ancient order. \u2018We have a custom among us,\u2019 he says,\n\u2018that during the time of administering the blessed Sacrament of the\nLord\u2019s Supper there is some psalm or hymn sung, the better to keep the\nthoughts of the communicants from wandering after vain objects.\u2019\n\nBut the piece which is most easily adapted to modern use is the poem,\na paraphrase of Ps. cxlvii., which he prefixed to his _Preparation for\nthe Psalter_. I give the poem as Wither published it. Mr. Horder and\nMiss Wood[84] have shown how well it may be adapted to public worship.\n\n Come, O come! in pious lays\n Sound we God Almighty\u2019s praise;\n Hither bring in one consent,\n Heart, and voice, and instrument.\n Music add of every kind;\n Sound the trump, the cornet wind;\n Strike the viol, touch the lute;\n Let no tongue nor string be mute;\n Nor a creature dumb be found,\n That hath either voice or sound.\n\n Come, ye sons of human race,\n In this chorus take a place;\n And amid the mortal throng,\n Be you masters of the song.\n Angels, and supernal powers,\n Be the noblest tenor yours;\n Let in praise of God the sound\n Run a never-ending round;\n That our song of praise may be\n Everlasting as is He.\n\n From earth\u2019s vast and hollow womb,\n Music\u2019s deepest bass may come;\n Seas and floods, from shore to shore,\n Shall their countertenors roar,\n To this concert, when we sing,\n Whistling winds your descants bring;\n That our song may over-climb\n All the bounds of place and time,\n And ascend from sphere to sphere,\n To the great Almighty\u2019s ear.\n\n So, from heaven, on earth He shall\n Let His gracious blessings fall:\n And this huge wide orb we see,\n Shall one choir, one temple be;\n Where, in such a praise-full tone\n We will sing what He hath done,\n That the curs\u00e8d fiends below\n Shall thereat impatient grow.\n Then, O come! in pious lays\n Sound we God Almighty\u2019s praise.\n\nWither has been slow in winning his place among our sacred poets. He\nwas a man of war from his youth, had a perilous gift of sarcasm, and\nlacked the caution and good sense which were so much needed in his\ntroublous times. He was boycotted by the booksellers, satirized by\nButler in _Hudibras_, by Pope, Dryden, and Swift, and seemed likely to\nbe forgotten, save as the butt of a former age. But Southey, Charles\nLamb, Montgomery, Edward Farr, George Macdonald, F. T. Palgrave, Dr.\nGrosart, among others have recognized his merits. He was a devout man\nand courageous, for he not only fought on both sides in the Civil War,\nbut with rarer bravery chose to remain in London during the Great\nPlague, and to render what little help he could to the sufferers in\nthat awful visitation. The king is said to have spared his life at Sir\nJohn Denham\u2019s good-naturedly contemptuous entreaty that he (Denham)\nmight not be \u2018the worst poet in England\u2019; his contemporaries thought\nthe prison cell a fit cage for the poet, but somehow he joined the\nlark, and sang at heaven\u2019s gate.[85]\n\nSamuel Crossman, who died in 1683, within a few weeks of his\nappointment to the Deanery of Bristol, makes up in quality what he\nlacks in quantity. Of his nine hymns\u2014published in 1660\u2014two or three\nhave won an assured place in the hymn-book of the Church.\n\n My life\u2019s a shade, my days\n Apace to death decline.\n\nand\n\n Sweet place, sweet place alone\n The home of God most high.\n\nThey are in a minor key, but they speak to the heart of the Christian\npilgrim who seeks another country\u2014his true fatherland. His other hymns\nare seldom met with. I quote one, omitting a verse.\n\n\n THE GIFT\n\n \u2018If thou knewest the gift of God\u2019 (John iv. 10).\n\n This is the Gift, Thy Gift, O Lord!\n The token of Thy dearest love:\n The orient jewel of Thy Word;\n Sent down my thankfulness to prove.\n\n Great is his gift in all men\u2019s eyes,\n Who gives himself, his friend to save:\n My Lord does more, for foes He dies,\n This Gift no parallel may have.\n\n But Lord! whil\u2019st Thou thus gav\u2019st to Thine\n Others arose to vie with Thee:\n The world and Satan did combine,\n And they would needs a giving be.\n\n Satan, sin\u2019s pleasures offer\u00e8d,\n And almost forced them upon me:\n But while they bloomed, they wither\u00e8d,\n And Lord! Thy Gift my choice shall be.\n\n Then did the World its gayes present,\n And still alluring cried, See, See!\n Here\u2019s that may rather give content;\n But Lord! Thy Gift my choice shall be.\n\n These cannot give, they\u2019d steal away\n From me my heaven, my heart from Thee:\n Whate\u2019er they offer, I\u2019ll say nay,\n Still Lord! Thy Gift my choice shall be.\n\nRichard Baxter (1615-91) is to Nonconformity what Ken is to\nAnglicanism. He might have been a bishop if he would, but preferred\nthe rough ways of persecution for conscience\u2019 sake to the pleasant\npaths of ecclesiastical preferment. He wrote many hymns, and\nattempted, with as little success as others, a metrical version of the\npsalms. He is, and will be, known to our hymn-books by the exquisite\nverses taken from his long poem on the \u2018Covenant and Confidence of\nFaith.\u2019 These verses, beginning\n\n Now it belongs not to my care\n Whether I die or live.\n\nare in almost every hymn-book. Another of his hymns, in a brighter\ntone, is in many collections\u2014\n\n Ye holy angels bright.\n\nThe two following are not so well known. They are good in themselves,\nand very characteristic of their author.\n\n As for my friends, they are not lost:\n The several vessels of Thy fleet,\n Though parted now, by tempests tost,\n Shall safely in the haven meet.\n\n Still we are centred all in Thee;\n Members, though distant, of one Head,\n In the same family we be,\n By the same faith and Spirit led.\n\n Before the throne we daily meet,\n As joint petitioners to Thee;\n In spirit we each other greet,\n And shall again each other see.\n\n The heavenly hosts, world without end,\n Shall be my company above;\n And Thou, my best, my surest Friend,\n Who shall divide me from Thy love?\n\nThe three following verses are in Miss Wood\u2019s _Hymns for School\nWorship_\u2014a very striking selection of hymns suitable for intelligent\nyoung people.\n\n Lord, though Thy Church in this dark world\n Do but begin and learn Thy praise,\n Accept both it and us through Christ,\n Till it and us Thy glory raise.\n\n Here trembling sin resists Thy grace;\n Of joy and sorrow we partake:\n Our broken hearts and broken peace\n Can none but broken music make.\n\n Thy ways to us seem often dark,\n Thou crossest human wit and will:\n We murmur; but Thou dost Thy work;\n That\u2019s wise and good, which we thought ill.\n\nIf Austin is the Faber of the seventeenth century, John Mason (d.\n1694), whom Baxter called \u2018the glory of the Church of England,\u2019 is its\nNewton. There is in Mason the same childlike simplicity which is the\ncharm of the Olney hymns, with an added quaintness which belongs to\nthe earlier century. He is one of the minor poets of the sanctuary,\nbut in his own time he was amongst the best of the evangelical\nhymn-writers. Mason was born a Dissenter, but entered the Anglican\nChurch. His friend, Thomas Shepherd (1665-1739), who also wrote some\nnoteworthy hymns, seceded from the Establishment, and was for a few\nyears pastor of the church at Nottingham, where Doddridge subsequently\nministered. Of the hymns of these good men, George Macdonald and Mr.\nHorder express a high opinion, comparing them favourably with those of\nDr. Watts. Mr. Horder justly says that Mason would have reached a\nhigher standard had his lot been cast in a \u2018hymn-singing age.\u2019\n\nSome of Mason\u2019s verses are too racy for congregational use, e.g. this\nfrom \u2018A Song of Praise for Health\u2019\u2014\n\n Their earnest cries do pierce the skies,\n And shall I silent be?\n Lord, were I sick as I am well,\n Thou shouldst have heard from me.\n The sick have not more cause to pray\n Than I to praise my King;\n Since nature teaches them to groan\n Let grace teach me to sing.\n\nHere is a verse from his \u2018Song of Praise for the Birth of Christ\u2019\u2014\n\n The wakeful shepherds near their flocks\n Were watching for the morn;\n But better news from heaven was brought\u2014\n Your Saviour Christ is born.\n In Bethlehem the Infant lies,\n Within a place obscure;\n O little Bethlehem, poor in walls\n But rich in furniture!\n\nOne of his best hymns, perhaps the very best, is\n\n\n A GENERAL SONG OF PRAISE TO ALMIGHTY GOD\n\n How shall I sing that Majesty\n Which angels do admire?\n Let dust in dust and silence lie:\n Sing, sing, ye heavenly choir.\n Thousands of thousands stand around\n Thy throne, O God, most high:\n Ten thousand times ten thousand sound\n Thy praise; but who am I?\n\n Thy brightness unto them appears,\n Whilst I Thy footsteps trace:\n A sound of God comes to my ears,\n But they behold Thy face:\n They sing because Thou art their Sun,\n Lord, send a beam on me:\n For where heaven is but once begun,\n There Hallelujahs be.\n\n Enlighten with faith\u2019s light my heart,\n Inflame it with love\u2019s fire,\n Then shall I sing and bear a part\n With that celestial choir.\n I shall, I fear, be dark and cold\n With all my fire and light,\n Yet when Thou dost accept their gold,\n Lord, treasure up my mite.\n\n How good art Thou whose goodness is\n Our parent, nurse, and guide:\n Whose streams do water Paradise\n And all the earth beside!\n Thine upper and Thy nether springs\n Make both Thy worlds to thrive:\n Under Thy warm and sheltering wings\n Thou keep\u2019st two broods alive.\n\n Thy arm of might, most Mighty King,\n Both rocks and hearts doth break;\n My God, Thou canst do everything\n But what would shew Thee weak.\n Thou canst not cross Thyself, or be\n Less than Thyself, or poor;\n But whatsoever pleaseth Thee,\n That canst Thou do, and more.\n\n Who would not fear Thy searching eye,\n Witness to all that\u2019s true?\n Dark hell and deep hypocrisy\n Lie plain before its view.\n Motions and thoughts, before they grow,\n Thy knowledge doth espy;\n What unborn ages are to do\n Is done before Thine eye.\n\n Thy wisdom which both makes and mends\n We ever much admire;\n Creation all our wit transcends,\n Redemption rises higher.\n Thy wisdom guides strayed sinners home,\n \u2019Twill make the dead world rise,\n And bring those prisoners to their doom,\n Its paths are mysteries.\n\nShepherd\u2019s poems were called \u2018Penitential Cries,\u2019 and were published\nwith Mason\u2019s Songs of Praise in 1693. His best-known hymn begins\n\n Alas, my God, that we should be\n Such strangers to each other!\n O that as friends we might agree,\n And walk, and talk together!\n\nMost of his hymns have vigour and freshness, but there is generally\nsomething which hinders them from becoming hymns of the first class.\nThe following verses are taken from a hymn entitled, \u2018Lamenting the\nLoss of First Love,\u2019 and were probably known to Cowper\u2014\n\n O that my soul was now as fair\n As it has sometimes been,\n Devoid of that distracting care\n Without, and guilt within.\n\n There was a time when I could tread\n No circle but of love;\n That joyous morning now is fled,\n How heavily I move!\n\n Unhappy soul, that thou should\u2019st force\n Thy Saviour to depart,\n When He was pleas\u00e8d with so coarse\n A lodging in thy heart!\n\n How sweetly I enjoyed my God!\n With how divine a frame!\n I thought, on every plant I trod\n I read my Saviour\u2019s name.\n\n O might those days return again,\n How welcome they should be!\n Shall my petition be in vain,\n Since grace is ever free?\n\n Lord of my soul, return, return,\n To chase away this night;\n Let not Thine anger ever burn;\n God once was my delight.\n\nOther hymn-writers of this period are almost or entirely unknown to\nmodern hymnals. One or two names may, however, be mentioned. Matthew\nHenry wrote a number of \u2018family hymns\u2019; Benjamin Keach (1640-1704) not\nonly wrote hymns by the hundred, but published a defence of\ncongregational singing under the title\u2014_The Breach repaired in God\u2019s\nWorship_.\n\nWilliam Barton may be taken as a fair example of the poorer\nhymn-writers of the time. There is little to choose between the best\nand the worst of his _Six Centuries of Hymns_. The work was dedicated\nto Sir Matthew Hale, who had spoken a good word for the hymns to the\nMayor and Aldermen of Leicester, in which town Barton had been\nminister of St. Martin\u2019s Church. Led by Dr. Julian\u2019s statement that\nthese hymns \u2018deserve more attention from compilers than they have\nhitherto received,\u2019 I have searched them diligently, but in vain. I am\nmost impressed that such dull productions could ever have been\npopular.\n\nThere is, indeed, something very pathetic in the author\u2019s evident\nsatisfaction with his work and in his son\u2019s pride in his father\u2019s\n\u2018pious and laborious undertaking,\u2019 which he was led to attempt,\n\u2018finding that the ancient usage of our speech in Sternhold and\nHopkins\u2019s translation was become obsoletely contemptuous to many\npeople of this age.\u2019 This filial editor believed that the hymn-book\n\u2018would sufficiently manifest its excellency in the perusal,\u2019 a belief\nwhich the extensive circulation of its many editions may be taken to\njustify. Barton\u2019s first book, his version of the Psalms, was published\nin 1644, and the last edition was printed in 1768. During a great part\nof that period it was probably the standard psalter of the\nNonconformist congregations. His hymns are usually brief, and he was\ncareful to use familiar metres, having a special weakness for\n\u2018delicate and expeditious tunes.\u2019 His psalms and hymns owed their long\nlife to the poverty of rivals, but one cannot be surprised that Enoch\nWatts, in urging his brother \u2018to oblige the world by showing it your\nhymns in print,\u2019 should say that \u2018honest Barton chimes us asleep.\u2019\n\nThe following verses are a fair specimen\u2014\n\n My Saviour, my Beloved One,\n Is mine and I am His;\n Chief of ten thousand He alone,\n Pure red and white He is.\n Made sin for us that knew no sin,\n That so we might be made\n The righteousness of God in Him,\n By whom the price was paid.\n\n Stronger than death His love is found.\n Not to be bought with goods:\n Nor quenched with waters, nor be drowned\n With whatsoever floods.\n O draw me, my dear Saviour,\n With these strong cords of love,\n And then will we go after Thee\n As fast as we can move.[86]\n\nAlthough the seventeenth century is poor in hymn-writers, we find some\ngrand and beautiful hymns written by poets and men of letters. There\nis, for instance, Sir Thomas Browne\u2019s evening hymn, of which he says,\n\u2018This is the dormitive I take to bedward: I need no other _laudanum_\nthan this to make me sleep; after which I close mine eyes in security,\ncontent to take my leave of the sun, and sleep unto the\nresurrection.\u2019[87]\n\n The night is come, like to the day;\n Depart not Thou, great God away.\n Let not my sins, black as the night,\n Eclipse the lustre of Thy light.\n Keep still in my horizon; for to me\n The sun makes not the day, but Thee.\n\n Thou whose nature cannot sleep,\n On my temples sentry keep;\n Guard me \u2019gainst those watchful foes,\n Whose eyes are open while mine close.\n Let no dreams my head infest,\n But such as Jacob\u2019s temples blest.\n\n While I do rest, my soul advance:\n Make my sleep a holy trance;\n That I may, my rest being wrought,\n Awake into some holy thought,\n And with as active vigour run\n My course as doth the nimble sun.\n\n Sleep is a death\u2014O make me try\n By sleeping, what it is to die!\n And as gently lay my head\n On my grave, as now my bed.\n Howe\u2019er I rest, great God, let me\n Awake again at last with Thee.\n\n And thus assured, behold I lie\n Securely, or to wake or die.\n These are my drowsy days; in vain\n I do not wake to sleep again:\n O come that hour, when I shall never\n Sleep again, but wake for ever!\n\nAnother great name is that of John Donne, Dean of St. Paul\u2019s, and\nfriend of James I, who wrote one of the truest and most affecting\nhymns of that or any other century. If its form prevents its being\nsung in modern congregations, it is at least one of those spiritual\nsongs which we should preserve for the hour of private devotion.\n\n\n A HYMN TO GOD THE FATHER\n\n Wilt Thou forgive that sin where I begun,\n Which was my sin, though it were done before?\n Wilt Thou forgive that sin, through which I run,\n And do run still, though still I do deplore?\n When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,\n For I have more.\n\n Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I have won\n Others to sin, and made my sin their door?\n Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun\n A year or two, but wallowed in a score?\n When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,\n For I have more.\n\n I have a sin of fear, that when I\u2019ve spun\n My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;\n But swear by Thyself, that at my death Thy Son\n Shall shine as He shines now, and heretofore;\n And, having done that, Thou hast done;\n I fear no more.\n\n \u2018I have the rather mentioned this hymn,\u2019 says Izaak Walton, \u2018for\n that he caused it to be set to a most grave and solemn tune, and to\n be often sung to the organ by the choristers of St. Paul\u2019s Church in\n his own hearing; especially at the evening service, and at his\n return from his customary devotions in that place, did occasionally\n say to a friend: \u201cThe words of this hymn have restored to me the\n same thoughts of joy that possessed my soul in my sickness when I\n composed it. And, O, the power of Church music! that harmony added\n to this hymn has raised the affections of my heart and quickened my\n graces of zeal and gratitude; and I observe that I always return\n from paying this public duty of prayer and praise to God, with an\n unexpressible tranquillity of mind, and a willingness to leave the\n world.\u201d\u2019\n\nBen Jonson\u2019s lovely Christmas hymn is to be found in a few hymn-books\nto-day. Is it too much to hope that it may yet become a familiar carol\nof the Nativity?\n\n I sing the Birth was born to-night,\n The Author both of life and light;\n The angels so did sound it:\u2014\n And like the ravished shepherds said,\n Who saw the light, and were afraid,\n Yet searched, and true they found it.\n\n The Son of God, the eternal King,\n That did us all salvation bring,\n And freed the soul from danger;\n He whom the whole world could not take,\n The Word, which heaven and earth did make,\n Was now laid in a manger.\n\n What comfort by Him do we win,\n Who made Himself the price of sin,\n To make us heirs of glory!\n To see this Babe, all innocence,\n A martyr born in our defence!\u2014\n Can man forget this story?\n\nRobert Herrick\u2019s (1591-1674) quaint \u2018Litany to the Holy Spirit\u2019 yields\na few verses to some of our best modern collections, but his\nirrepressible humour makes several verses impossible, and his\nreferences to \u2018furies in a shole,\u2019 to \u2018flames and hellish cares,\u2019 shut\nout others. In his _Noble Numbers_ are many fine verses and epigrams,\nbut he is not a hymn-writer.\n\nGeorge Herbert (1593-1632) did not write hymns to be sung in church,\nthough his \u2018Antiphon\u2019 and \u2018The Elixir\u2019 are, for love of their author,\nfound in many modern hymn-books, and \u2018Praise\u2019 is also beautifully\npossible as a hymn. Yet his loveliest poems cannot be adapted to\ncongregational use. He is the greatest of the poets of the sanctuary,\nbut he is not a chorister. John Wesley and George Rawson tried to make\nHerbert\u2019s poems into hymns, but with no great success\u2014though in one or\ntwo instances Wesley came near it.[88] In any collection of religious\npoetry for use in the hour of private devotion, Herbert would rank\namong the chief contributors, and it is well that he should be\nrepresented in our hymn-books, if only that he may be remembered and\nhonoured by our children.[89] He is the chief singer of a school of\npoets in which Henry Vaughan and Christina Rossetti are distinguished\nand worthy disciples.\n\nI give three of Herbert\u2019s poems. The first because it is an ideal\nexample of his quaint but exquisite pathos, and of his gracious,\nhumble, affectionate devotion to his Lord; the others because they are\nthe most hymn-like of his poems.\n\n\n LOVE\n\n Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,\n Guilty of dust and sin.\n But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack\n From my first entrance in,\n Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,\n If I lacked any thing.\n\n A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:\n Love said, You shall be he.\n I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my Dear,\n I cannot look on Thee.\n Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,\n Who made the eyes, but I?\n\n Truth, Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame\n Go where it doth deserve.\n And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?\n My Dear, then I will serve.\n You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:\n So I did sit and eat.\n\n\n PRAISE\n\n King of Glory, King of Peace,\n I will love Thee:\n And that love may never cease,\n I will move Thee.\n\n Thou hast granted my request,\n Thou hast heard me:\n Thou didst note my working breast,\n Thou hast spared me.\n\n Wherefore with my utmost art\n I will sing Thee,\n And the cream of all my heart\n I will bring Thee.\n\n Though my sins against me cried,\n Thou didst clear me;\n And alone, when they replied,\n Thou didst hear me.\n\n Seven whole days, not one in seven,\n I will praise Thee.\n In my heart, though not in heaven,\n I can raise Thee.\n\n Thou grew\u2019st soft and moist with tears,\n Thou relentedst:\n And when Justice called for fears,\n Thou dissentedst.\n\n Small it is, in this poor sort\n To enrol Thee:\n Even eternity\u2019s too short\n To extol Thee.\n\n\n THE CALL\n\n Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:\n Such a Way, as gives us breath:\n Such a Truth, as ends all strife:\n Such a Life, as killeth death.\n\n Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:\n Such a Light, as shows a feast:\n Such a Feast, as mends in length:\n Such a Strength, as makes His guest.\n\n Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:\n Such a Joy, as none can move:\n Such a Love, as none can part:\n Such a Heart, as joys in love.\n\nAfter Herbert comes Henry Vaughan (1621-95), \u2018the Silurist,\u2019 or South\nWales man, who says that his master was \u2018the blessed man, Mr. George\nHerbert, whose holy life and verse gained many pious converts, of whom\nI am the least.\u2019 Vaughan had his devoted admirers, but his verse never\nattained anything approaching to the popularity of Herbert\u2019s. It was\nlong the fashion to ignore or disparage him, and it was not till Henry\nFrancis Lyte republished his _Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations_,\nwith a brief memoir, that he came to his rightful place amongst the\nminor, but not to be forgotten, poets of the seventeenth century. He\nwas a mystic, and had visions Blake might have envied.\n\n I saw Eternity the other night,\n Like a great ring of pure and endless light,\n All calm as it was bright:\n And round beneath it, Time, in hours, days, years,\n Driven by the spheres,\n Like a vast shadow moved, in which the world\n And all her train were hurled.\n\nVaughan\u2019s songs have the marks of the true Christian poet\u2014intense\ndevotion to Christ, humility, ecstasy. His best-known hymns are\u2014\u2018My\nsoul, there is a country,\u2019 and \u2018Up to those bright and gladsome hills\u2019\n(Ps. cxxi.). I give one less often quoted. Vaughan\u2019s title is\n\n\n BEGGING\n\n King of Mercy, King of Love,\n In whom I live, in whom I move,\n Perfect what Thou has begun,\n Let no night put out this Sun.\n\n Grant I may, my chief desire,\n Long for Thee, to Thee aspire.\n Let my youth, my bloom of days,\n Be my comfort, and Thy praise;\n\n That hereafter, when I look\n O\u2019er the sullied, sinful book,\n I may find Thy hand therein\n Wiping out my shame and sin.\n\n O! it is Thy only art\n To reduce a stubborn heart:\n And since Thine is victory,\n Strongholds should belong to Thee.\n\n Lord, then take it, leave it not\n Unto my dispose or lot;\n But since I would not have it mine,\n O my God, let it be Thine.\n\nThe following for Trinity Sunday is very bold\u2014\n\n O holy, blessed, glorious Three,\n Eternal witnesses that be\n In heaven, One God in Trinity!\n\n As here on earth, when men withstood,\n The Spirit, Water, and the Blood,\n Made my Lord\u2019s Incarnation good:\n\n So let the antitypes in me\n Elected, bought, and sealed for free,\n Be owned, saved, sainted by You Three!\n\nHerbert and Vaughan were in the seventeenth century what Heber and\nKeble were in the nineteenth.\n\n They set the tone of the Church of England, and they revealed with\n no inefficient or temporary effect to the uncultured and the\n unlearned the true refinement of worship. They united delicacy of\n taste in the choice of ornament and of music with culture of\n expression and of reserve, and they showed that this was not\n incompatible with devoted work and life.[90]\n\nHenry More (1614-87) \u2018the Platonist,\u2019 whom Professor Palgrave calls\n\u2018the most interesting figure among our poetical mystics,\u2019 owes his\nplace in our hymn-books to John Wesley, who made from one of More\u2019s\n\u2018Divine Hymns\u2019 two numbers in his _Collection_\n\n Father, if justly still we claim,\n\nand a fine missionary hymn\n\n On all the earth Thy Spirit shower,\n The earth in righteousness renew,\n Thy kingdom come and hell\u2019s o\u2019erpower,\n And to Thy sceptre all subdue.\n\nJohn Norris (1657-1711), who succeeded\u2014sixty years intervening\u2014George\nHerbert as Parson of Bemerton, was a Platonist of the school of More,\nfor whom he had unbounded admiration, saying\n\n Others in learning\u2019s chorus bear their part,\n And the great work distinctly share:\n Thou our great catholic professor art,\n All science is annexed to thy unerring chair.\n\nJohn Wesley and Dr. Martineau tried to make Norris\u2019s poems available\nfor congregational use, and his name is linked with those of Ken and\nMason in the preface to the Moravian book of 1754, but he can never\ntake a place among hymn-writers.\n\nBishop Jeremy Taylor (1613-67) wrote a number of hymns, most of them\nbeing published in his _Golden Grove_, but they are unsuited for\ncongregational use. His \u2018Advent Hymn\u2019 has, however, been adapted with\nadmirable skill, and has a place in many hymnals. It is perhaps as\ngood a specimen of this kind of \u2018translation\u2019 as can be found. I give\nTaylor\u2019s original first, and afterwards the version of the _Sarum\nHymnal_, which is said to have been made by Earl Nelson. There is\nanother good version in the _Leeds Hymn-book_, which has been adopted\nby Mr. Horder and others.\n\n\n HYMN FOR ADVENT; OR CHRIST\u2019S COMING TO JERUSALEM IN TRIUMPH\n\n Lord, come away,\n Why dost Thou stay?\n Thy road is ready: and Thy paths, made strait,\n With longing expectation wait\n The consecration of Thy beauteous feet.\n Ride on triumphantly; behold we lay\n Our lusts and proud wills in Thy way.\n Hosanna! welcome to our hearts. Lord, here\n Thou hast a temple too, and full as dear\n As that of Sion; and as full of sin;\n Nothing but thieves and robbers dwell therein,\n Enter, and chase them forth, and cleanse the floor;\n Crucify them, that they may never more\n Profane that holy place,\n Where Thou hast chose to set Thy face.\n And then if our stiff tongues shall be\n Mute in the praises of Thy Deity,\n The stones out of the temple wall\n Shall cry aloud, and call\n Hosanna! and Thy glorious footsteps greet.\n\n . . . . .\n\n Draw nigh to Thy Jerusalem, O Lord,\n Thy faithful people cry with one accord:\n Ride on triumphantly! Behold we lay\n Our passions, lusts, and proud wills in Thy way!\n\n Thy road is ready; and Thy paths, made straight,\n With longing expectation seem to wait\n The consecration of Thy beauteous feet,\n And silently Thy promised advent greet!\n\n Hosanna! Welcome to our hearts! for here\n Thou hast a temple too, as Sion dear;\n Yes, dear as Sion, and as full of sin:\n Nothing but thieves and robbers dwell therein.\n\n Enter and chase them forth, and cleanse the floor!\n O\u2019erthrow them all, that they may never more\n Profane, with traffic vile, that holy place,\n Where Thou hast chosen, Lord, to set Thy face.\n\n And then, if our stiff tongues shall faithlessly\n Be mute in praises of Thy Deity,\n The very temple stones shall loud repeat\n Hosanna! and Thy glorious footsteps greet!\n\nNear the end of the seventeenth century the New Version of the Psalms\nappeared, under royal and episcopal sanction, and began at once to\nsupplant the Old Version. The authors were both Irishmen. Nahum Tate\n(1652-1715) was a very minor poet, who became Laureate in 1690.\nNicholas Brady (1659-1726) was, like Charles Wesley, a scholar of\nWestminster and student of Christ Church. He entered the Church in\nIreland, but in later life held various livings in England, being at\none time Vicar of Stratford-on-Avon. The New Version was published in\n1696.\n\nMany attempts had been made to depose the Old Version from its supreme\nposition as the hymn-book of the English Church, and some by men of\nmuch greater gifts than Sternhold, Hopkins, or any of their fellows.\nBut the innate conservatism of Englishmen, and especially of English\nChurchmen, gave the Old Version a long life. Moreover, no version was\nsufficiently superior to it to win wide approval until Tate and Brady\nproduced the New Version and secured royal \u2018permission\u2019 for its use in\nchurches. Without this \u2018permission\u2019 it would probably never have\ndislodged the Old Version, though it owes something to intrinsic\nmerit. Compared with the great hymn-writers of the eighteenth and\nnineteenth centuries, Tate and Brady are, as a rule, dull,\npretentious, diffuse; but as compared with their predecessors and the\nvast majority of their successors, their version deserves more\nconsideration than it usually receives. Even in our own day there are\nmore of their psalms in our best hymn-books than there are of Keble\u2019s.\nIt is unfortunate that neither of the authors was a man for whom it is\npossible to feel any great regard, or in whom one can take an\ninterest.\n\nTo say nothing of\n\n While shepherds watched their flocks by night,\n\nwhat Church would willingly give up\n\n As pants the hart for cooling streams,\n\nor\u2014\n\n Through all the changing scenes of life?\n\nThere is about such songs a gracious simplicity worthy of John Newton,\nwho might well have written\u2014\n\n O make but trial of His love,\n Experience will decide.\n How blessed they are, and only they,\n Who in His truth confide.\n\nor\u2014\n\n Extend to me that favour, Lord,\n Thou to Thy chosen dost afford:\n When Thou return\u2019st to set them free,\n Let Thy salvation visit me.\n\n O may I worthy prove to see\n Thy saints in full prosperity;\n That I the joyful choir may join,\n And count Thy people\u2019s triumph mine.\n\nDr. Watts and the Wesleys did not scruple to borrow from the New\nVersion, and Watts, with characteristic modesty, is content to yield\nthem \u2018the preference of\u2019 their \u2018poesy\u2019 in some of their compositions.\n\nWhatever its intrinsic merit or demerit, the New Version rendered an\nimportant service in breaking the monopoly enjoyed by the Old Version,\nand thus preparing the way for a larger view of Christian psalmody.\n\n One condemned to tread the waste of metrical Psalters will consider\n it an advance on its predecessors, suffering more from its own\n success than comparison with them.... They asserted successfully,\n and with an emphasis scarcely known before, literary and poetical\n excellence (according to their light) as a principle of translation,\n and the precedent thus set was seldom ignored afterwards.[91]\n\nTate, being Laureate, naturally considered the state occasions on\nwhich psalms were to be used. The sentiments, at least, of his version\nof Ps. cl., which is appointed for the day of the Sovereign\u2019s\naccession, are excellent.\n\n The private slanderer shall be\n In public justice doomed by me.\n From haughty looks I\u2019ll turn aside,\n And mortify the heart of pride.\n\n But honesty, called from her cell\n In splendour at my court shall dwell.\n Who virtue\u2019s practice make their care,\n Shall have the first preferments there.\n\n No politics shall recommend\n His country\u2019s foe to be my friend:\n None e\u2019er shall to my favour rise\n By flattering or malicious lies.\n\n All those who wicked courses take,\n An early sacrifice I\u2019ll make;\n Cut off, destroy, till none remain\n God\u2019s holy city to profane.\n\nWith the publication of the New Version a new era began. It was to be\nthe last \u2018authorized\u2019 metrical version. Hymns of the modern type were\nbeginning to be known, and soon there would be hymns in abundance.[92]\n\n\n\n\n IV\n Eighteenth-century Hymns\n\n\n I.\u2014The School of Watts\n\nThe greater sacred poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries\nspoke, for the most part, to themselves and to God; their hymns are of\nthe study and the oratory. But with the eighteenth century a new era\nbegan. Its chief hymn-writers were ministers of religion, accustomed\nto offer prayer and praise, not only for themselves, but for the\npeople. Their hymns were for the congregation and the religious\nsociety. They were written with the distinct intention of providing\nfor common need; and in the Nonconformist Churches hymns supplied the\nplace of the rejected liturgy, enabling the congregation to unite in\npraise and prayer.\n\nThe earlier centuries give us many rich devotional poems, few of which\nare entirely suited to the public worship of our time. But we now\nreach, what George Macdonald calls, \u2018the zone of hymn-writing,\u2019 and\nare embarrassed by the plenteousness of the stores available for use\nin the service of the sanctuary. Moreover, by this time modern English\nhas become fairly established, and there are few archaic expressions\nto distract the unlearned.\n\nWhatever may be said of the metrical Psalters, no one can doubt that\nwe are in an ampler, purer air when we listen to Isaac Watts\n(1674-1748). Brighter days were dawning for the religious life of\nEngland, and especially for the Nonconformists. Yet as a babe Isaac\nWatts was nursed by his mother as she sat on a stone near the door of\nthe prison where his father was confined for conscience\u2019 sake. But by\nthe time he was a man the sky had cleared, and there is little in his\nhymns to recall the times of trouble except the version of Ps. lxxv.,\n\u2018applied to the glorious revolution by King William or the happy\naccession of King George to the throne,\u2019 in which these verses occur\u2014\n\n Britain was doomed to be a slave;\n Her frame dissolved, her fears were great,\n When God a new supporter gave,\n To hear the pillars of the State.\n\n No vain pretence to royal birth,\n Shall fix a tyrant on the throne;\n God, the great Sovereign of the earth,\n Will rise and make His justice known.\n\nHis own life was happy, and its story is singularly attractive. His\nfeeble health saved him from many a rough conflict, and called forth\nthe affectionate hospitality of Sir Thomas and Lady Abney. It was\nseemly that the non-juring Bishop Ken should find a home with a peer\nof the realm at Longleat, but Dr. Watts found an even more congenial\nrefuge at Theobalds and at Abney Park. There are few pleasanter\nstories than that of Lady Huntingdon\u2019s calling upon Dr. Watts, when he\nsaid to her, \u2018Madam, you have come to see me on a very remarkable day.\nThis day thirty years I came hither to the house of my good friend,\nSir Thomas, intending to spend but a week under his hospitable roof,\nand I have extended my visit to thirty long years.\u2019 \u2018Sir,\u2019 said his\ngracious hostess, Lady Abney, \u2018what you term a long thirty years\u2019\nvisit, I consider as the shortest visit my family ever received.\u2019\n\nIf the world had dealt a little less kindly with the poet, it might\nhave been all the better for his poetry, which lacks the vigour, the\nmartial music, the glorious enthusiasm of Luther and of Charles\nWesley. He was, it is true, not without at least one coarse and bitter\nadversary\u2014Thomas Bradbury, a Nonconformist minister of some fame and\nmore notoriety; who seems, without any special reason, to have\nregarded Dr. Watts as a suitable mark for his vehement and vulgar\nabuse. He sneeringly forbade \u2018Watts\u2019s _whims_\u2019[93] to be sung in his\ncongregation, and charged the saintly poet with \u2018burlesquing\u2019 the\npoetry of the most High God. He led, if he did not initiate, the\ncharge of Arianism. Had Watts been as ready for a theological fray as\nJohn Wesley, or even John Fletcher, Bradbury would have had judgement\nwithout mercy. But Watts\u2019s letters in reply to these reiterated\naccusations are models of Christian controversy, or rather of\nChristian remonstrance. Their last encounter was at a meeting where\nWatts\u2019s feebleness made it difficult for him to make himself heard.\n\u2018Shall I speak for you, Brother Watts?\u2019 asked Bradbury. \u2018Well, you\nhave often spoken _against_ me,\u2019 was the gently sarcastic reply.\n\nBradbury\u2019s malice can have done Watts little real harm, except that of\nestablishing the suspicion in a good many minds that he leaned to\nUnitarianism\u2014a charge which has been repeated to our own day. The mild\nand colourless character of many of Watts\u2019s hymns made them favourites\nwith Unitarian editors of a former time; but the author of\n\n Not all the blood of beasts\n On Jewish altars slain,\n\nand of\n\n When I survey the wondrous Cross,\n\nis not to be claimed as Arian, Unitarian, or anything other than an\nevangelical believer.\n\nOur concern is with Watts as a hymn-writer rather than as a\ntheologian. He was the first man, able to write good hymns, who set\nhimself seriously to secure freedom in worship. In the meeting-house\nat Southampton he wearied of the dull and halting verse of Barton, and\nwas not slow to accept his father\u2019s challenge to write something\nbetter. If tradition may be relied on, his first hymn, written during\nthe week and sung on the following Sunday, was that which he placed\nfirst in his _Hymns and Spiritual Songs_, with the title:\n\n\n A NEW SONG TO THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN\n\n (Rev. v. 6, 8, 9-12.)\n\n Behold the glories of the Lamb,\n Amidst His Father\u2019s throne:\n Prepare new honours for His Name,\n And songs before unknown.\n\n Let elders worship at His feet,\n The Church adore around,\n With vials full of odours sweet,\n And harps of sweeter sound.\n\n Those are the prayers of the saints,\n And these the hymns they raise:\n Jesus is kind to our complaints,\n He loves to hear our praise.\n\n Eternal Father, who shall look\n Into Thy secret will?\n Who but the Son shall take that book\n And open every seal?\n\n He shall fulfil Thy great decrees,\n The Son deserves it well;\n Lo, in His hand the sovereign keys\n Of heaven, and death, and hell.\n\n Now to the Lamb that once was slain,\n Be endless blessings paid;\n Salvation, glory, joy remain\n For ever on Thy head.\n\nThis is far from being one of Watts\u2019s best hymns, but it is vastly\nbetter than Barton\u2019s best.\n\nIt is characteristic of Dr. Watts that in the preface to his _Psalms_\nhe speaks courteously of his predecessors in the attempt to adapt the\nPsalms to modern use. He praises Sir John Denham, Luke Milbourne, Tate\nand Brady, and, most of all, Dr. Patrick, whose \u2018chief excellency,\u2019 he\nthought, was that \u2018he departed further from the inspired words of\nScripture\u2019 than others had done. Watts\u2019s hymns were published ten or\ntwelve years before the _Psalms_, and in his preface he delivers a\nvigorous apology for what he felt to be a bold venture, but pays no\ncompliment to predecessors. He could not say, like John Wesley, that\nbut a small part were of his own composing, yet even his extreme\nmodesty does not prevent his showing a quiet and most just confidence\nin his work as compared with what had been hitherto available. His\npicture of the public worship of his day may comfort us in regard to\nthe attractiveness of modern services. He says\u2014\n\n While we sing the praises of our God in His Church, we are employed\n in that part of worship which of all others is the nearest akin to\n heaven, and it is pity that this, of all others, should be performed\n the worst upon earth. The gospel brings us nearer to the heavenly\n state than all the former dispensations of God amongst men. And in\n these last days of the gospel we are brought almost within sight of\n the kingdom of our Lord; yet we are very much unacquainted with the\n songs of the New Jerusalem, and unpractised in the work of praise.\n To see the dull indifference, the negligent and the thoughtless air,\n that sits upon the faces of a whole assembly, while the psalm is on\n their lips, might tempt even a charitable observer to suspect the\n fervency of inward religion; and it is much to be feared that the\n minds of most of the worshippers are absent or unconcerned. Perhaps\n the modes of preaching, in the best churches, still want some\n degrees of reformation; nor are the methods of prayer so perfect as\n to stand in need of no correction or improvement. But of all our\n religious solemnities, psalmody is the most unhappily managed. That\n very action which should elevate us to the most delightful and\n divine sensations, doth not only flatten our devotion, but too often\n awakes our regret, and touches all the springs of uneasiness within\n us.\n\nHe goes on to protest that it was \u2018far from\u2019 his \u2018thoughts to lay\naside the book of Psalms in public worship,\u2019 which \u2018is the most noble,\nmost devotional and divine collection of poesy.\u2019 At the same time he\nsays\u2014\n\n It must be acknowledged still that there are a thousand lines in it\n which were not made for a Church in our days to assume as its own.\n There are also many deficiencies of light and glory which our Lord\n Jesus and His apostles have supplied in the writings of the New\n Testament. And with this advantage I have composed these spiritual\n songs, which are now presented to the world. Nor is the attempt\n vain-glorious or presuming, for, in respect of clear evangelical\n knowledge, _The least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than all\n the Jewish prophets_.\n\nSuch a defence of Christian hymns is superfluous to-day, but it took\nmany long years to convince the Churches that \u2018When I survey the\nwondrous Cross\u2019 was more suitable for use in Christian worship than\nPs. cix.\n\nWhen Watts\u2019s victory was achieved it was only too complete. In the\ncongregations of his own denomination it was counted almost an impiety\nto sing anything but his psalms and hymns. This extravagant and narrow\nloyalty to Watts naturally placed the Dissenting congregations at a\ngreat disadvantage\u2014far greater than that which the Methodist societies\nsuffered through the too exclusive use of Wesley\u2019s hymns. The idea\nthat one man can write the hymns of any Church or congregation is long\nsince exploded; indeed, we go further, claiming that a good hymn\nbelongs to Christendom. We do not ask what a man\u2019s \u2018denomination\u2019 is\nbefore giving him a place in our hymn-books. Only the Romanists, and\nsome of them faint-heartedly, now demand that the writer and the\nsinger must belong to the same communion.\n\nWatts has been at once unduly lauded and unduly depreciated. Keble\nspoke of him as \u2018no poet,\u2019 and this may be true of his \u2018poems,\u2019 but\nhis greater hymns could only have been written by a poet of no mean\norder. Montgomery puts the case more justly when he calls Watts \u2018one\nof the least of the poets of his country,\u2019 but \u2018the greatest name\namong hymn-writers.\u2019[94] Professor Palgrave does Watts full justice\u2014\n\n His views as an Independent were modified and enlarged by his sweet,\n devout temper\u2014may we not add, by his gift in poetry? And \u2018every\n Christian Church,\u2019 as Dr. Johnson finely remarked, \u2018would rejoice to\n have adopted\u2019 one so fervently devout, so faithful to his duty\u2014we\n may add, so much more truly gifted by nature as a poet than common\n Fame has recognized. As with C. Wesley and other good men, fluency,\n want of taste and finish, the sacrifice, in a word, of art to direct\n usefulness, have probably lost them those honours in literature to\n which they were born. But they have their reward.[95]\n\nThe sacrifice of art to usefulness was much more deliberate in the\ncase of Watts than of Wesley. Charles Wesley often wrote in haste,\nwith the rush and glow of a present inspiration, with thoughts that\nmust find expression, and which it was easier to utter in poetry than\nin prose. Watts designed his hymns for the service of the house of\nGod, and had ever before him the dull man in the pew and the tiresome\nman in the singing gallery. \u2018I have seldom,\u2019 he explained, \u2018permitted\na stop in the middle of a line, and seldom left the end of a line\nwithout one; to comport with the unhappy mixture of reading and\nsinging, which cannot presently be reformed.\u2019 \u2018The metaphors,\u2019 he\ncontinues, \u2018are generally sunk to the level of vulgar capacities. If\nthe verse appears so gentle and flowing as to incur the censure of\nfeebleness, I may honestly affirm that sometimes it cost me labour to\nmake it so. Some of the beauties of poesy are neglected, and some\nwilfully defaced.\u2019 Finally, he describes his work as \u2018an attempt for\nthe reformation of psalmody amongst the Churches.\u2019 In estimating\nWatts\u2019s contribution to the hymn-book of the modern Church, this\nservice must be gratefully recognized. It may seem to us that he\nstooped too much \u2018to the level of vulgar capacities,\u2019 but in this he\nhad to consider what men were able to bear; and we must remember that\neven those of his hymns which were to perish in the using had their\nshare in preparing the way for the \u2018nobler, sweeter song\u2019 in which the\nChurch praises her Lord to-day.\n\nWhen the Independent Churches began to seek a wider range of choice\nthan Watts could afford, they proceeded by way of supplement, as the\nMethodists did until 1903. Dr. Thomas Gibbons, Watts\u2019s affectionate\nbut ponderous biographer,[96] issued one in 1769, and others followed\nin fairly rapid succession, amongst their editors being George Burder,\nDr. Bengo Collyer, and finally Josiah Conder, whose book was prepared\nin 1833 under the direction of the Congregational Union.[97] When at\nlength the Congregationalists began to compile completely new books,\nWatts naturally still exercised a preponderating influence\u2014as in the\nexcellent _Leeds Hymn-book_ of 1853. But each successive official or\nunofficial publication emanating from the Congregational Churches has\nbeen marked by a great reduction in the number of Watts\u2019s hymns, so\nthat the present _Congregational Church Hymnal_ contains fewer hymns\nby Watts than were included by Dr. Martineau in his _Hymns for the\nChurch and Home_. If we turn to the hymn-books of other Churches, the\nreduction in the number of hymns by Dr. Watts is even more striking;\ne.g. the _Church Hymnary_ (Presbyterian) gives only nine, and _Church\nHymns_ only fourteen.\n\nAt present it would seem as though Dr. Watts were more honoured in the\nMethodist Churches than among his own people, the Methodist and the\nPrimitive Methodist each giving a larger number of his pieces than\neither the Congregational or Baptist hymn-books. Probably the number\nof Watts\u2019s hymns in common use will be further reduced. Some inferior\ncompositions still hold their place. They are survivals of a time when\nthe Church\u2019s hymn-book was vastly poorer than it is to-day. But when\nthe lowest point is touched, there must ever remain a number of\nimperishable hymns which will be sung in the Church of Christ as long\nas it is militant here on earth.\n\nWatts\u2019s hymns were greatly helped in public favour by the publication\nof his _Psalms_ in 1719. The Dissenting Churches, for the most part,\nsoon agreed with his own judgement that the two books were \u2018such a\nsufficient provision for psalmody as to answer most occasions of the\nChristian\u2019s life.\u2019 Long use had made psalm-singing as a distinct part\nof the service essential, and it was many years before the Dissenting\nChurches cared for a hymn-book which did not make the distinction\nbetween psalms and hymns. The place of honour, or at least of\nprecedence, was given to the Psalms, and as far as possible every\npsalm was paraphrased.\n\nWatts\u2019s preface to _The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of\nthe New Testament and Applied to the Christian State and Worship_ is a\nvigorous manifesto, and it may well have seemed to some men as\naudacious as many readers find Wesley\u2019s famous preface. His chief\ncontention was that Jewish psalms must be translated, paraphrased, or,\nto use his own word, \u2018imitated\u2019 in Christian language before they are\nfit for use in Christian worship. He specially emphasizes the small\nnumber of psalms sung at the celebration of the Lord\u2019s Supper, and,\ngaining courage as he writes, adds, \u2018Though, to speak my own sense\nfreely, I do not think David ever wrote a psalm of sufficient glory\nand sweetness to represent the blessings of this holy institution.\u2019\n\nActing upon this conviction Watts boldly departed from the ideal of\nmost of those who have paraphrased the Psalter.\n\n In all places I have kept my grand design in view, and that is, to\n teach my author to speak like a Christian.... I have chosen rather\n to imitate than translate, and thus to compose a psalm-book for\n Christians, after the manner of the Jewish Psalter.... I have not\n been so curious and exact in striving everywhere to express the\n ancient sense and meaning of David, but have rather expressed myself\n as I may suppose David would have done, had he lived in the days of\n Christianity.[98]\n\nNot only does common sense confirm Watts\u2019s general principle; his own\nsuccess, partial though it was, justified the new departure, and from\nhis day to ours the most useful and the most poetic versions of Psalms\nare those which \u2018teach the author to speak like a Christian.\u2019 Yet, if\na psalm could be dealt with from the Old Testament standpoint without\ninappropriateness to Christian worship, Watts preferred to retain the\noriginal idea. Thus in all his versions of the 23rd Psalm he makes no\nreference to the Good Shepherd of the New Testament. His best\nversion\u2014and it is very good\u2014is as suitable for the synagogue as the\nmeeting-house.\n\n My Shepherd will supply my need;\n Jehovah is His Name;\n In pastures fresh He makes me feed,\n Beside the living stream.\n\nThe _Methodist Hymn-book_ omits the last verse, which is given in most\nother collections\u2014\n\n There would I find a settled rest,\n While others go and come;\n No more a stranger or a guest,\n But like a child at home.\n\nIt is a beautiful paraphrase of \u2018Thy house for ever.\u2019 He felt,\nhowever, that his experiment was so novel and so likely to provoke\nadverse criticism, that he continually explained or defended his\nversions in notes appended to the psalms, which form a sort of running\ncommentary.\n\nWatts\u2019s _Psalms_ mark the passage from psalm-singing to hymn-singing.\nSlowly but surely the distinction disappears from modern hymn-books,\nand psalm-versions take their place amongst \u2018hymns.\u2019 This was not\nWatts\u2019s design, but it is a part of the success of his enterprise. If\nto-day we had to make choice of any one metrical version of the\nPsalter for use in Christian worship, it would be impossible to find\nanything better than Watts\u2019s. Indeed, if feeble \u2018aliters\u2019 (to use\nBarton\u2019s phrase) and poor verses were omitted, the result would show\nhow near he came to achieving success.\n\nIt is difficult to overstate the service rendered to the worship of\nthe Christian Church by Dr. Watts. As Lord Selborne says, \u2018He was the\nfirst to understand the nature of the want,\u2019 and he \u2018led the way in\nproviding for it.\u2019 Yet it is easy to quote poor verses, to find lines\nthat are intolerably flat. His rhymes are often either discordant in\nthe extreme or lacking altogether. Sometimes he is too colloquial, as\nin\n\n Well, the Redeemer\u2019s gone\n To appear before our God.\n\nPerhaps no hymn-writer needs editing so much as Watts, and certainly\nnone has been edited more skilfully. Not a few of his hymns owe their\nplace in our hymnals to the judicious way in which they have been\n\u2018improved.\u2019 We cannot dispute Dr. Johnson\u2019s criticism\n\n The rhymes are not always sufficiently correspondent.... His lines\n are commonly smooth and easy, and his thoughts always religiously\n pure; but who is there that, to so much piety and innocence, does\n not wish for a greater measure of sprightliness and vigour?[99]\n\nHymn-writers are in a special degree affected by their surroundings.\nThere is an open-air life in many of the psalms attributed to David\nwhich is lacking in those\u2014e.g. the cxix.\u2014which belong to a more formal\nage. Watts was a student, a scholar, a recluse, an invalid, who yet\ncame into frequent contact with the Church life of the Independents.\nHe could not be coarse or fantastic, and he both consciously and\nconscientiously condescended to men of low estate. The sacrifice of\nhis own taste to that of the unlearned reader was part of his offering\nto the Lord, and it did not cost him nothing. The pity of it is that\nhe misjudged and under-estimated the intelligence of those who would\nuse his hymns. It is but just to bear his self-imposed limitation in\nmind, yet it must also be allowed that, like many a far greater\npoet\u2014Wordsworth, for example\u2014he did not know which were the superior\nand which the inferior pieces. He believed his _Lyrics_ to be his best\npoetical work, and possibly this may have been the judgement of his\nfriendly contemporaries; but the severer taste of later times has\nforgotten the _Lyrics_ while treasuring the hymns.\n\nWatts seldom writes without a consciousness of the congregation for\nwhose use he intended his hymns. The story\u2014probably true\u2014that he\nundertook to write one every week for the Independent Chapel at\nSouthampton explains the character of very many of them, and accounts\nat once for their strength and weakness. On the one hand, he avoided\nthe tiresome verbosity of Tate and Brady and the halting rhythm of\nBarton and, on the other, he abstained from the \u2018conceits\u2019 which are\nthe charm of Herbert and Vaughan, but which make many a lovely poem\nimpossible as a hymn. The ease and simplicity of his best hymns, which\nno hymn-writer surpasses and few have attained, endeared them to \u2018men\nof heart sincere,\u2019 alike among the unlearned and ignorant and among\nmen of culture. He has that sweet, plaintive undertone of perplexity\nconcerning the mysteries of life and death which touches all\nthoughtful souls, and is so true to the inner life of one whose many\ninfirmities made him die daily. He had in large measure the rich\nindwelling of the word of God without which a man may write hymns, but\ncan never be one of God\u2019s great singers. His hymns are full of\nscriptural phrases, though less so than those of Charles Wesley, and\nhe has many happy and instructive applications of passages both from\nthe Old and New Testament. Take, for instance, one of his sacramental\nhymns, in which he uses the parable of the Great Supper as a type of\nthe Supper of the Lord\u2014an application singularly appropriate, though\nnot often made.[100]\n\n How rich are Thy provisions, Lord,\n Thy table furnished from above;\n The fruits of life o\u2019erspread the board,\n The cup o\u2019erflows with heavenly love.\n\n We are the poor, the blind, the lame,\n And help was far and death was nigh;\n But at the gospel-call we came,\n And every want received supply.\n\n From the highway that leads to hell,\n From paths of darkness and despair,\n Lord, we are come with Thee to dwell,\n Glad to enjoy Thy presence here.\n\n It cost Him death to save our lives,\n To buy our souls it cost His own,\n And all the unknown joys He gives,\n Were bought with agonies unknown.[101]\n\nThe \u2018sacramentarian\u2019 element is naturally absent from Watts\u2019s\ntwenty-five hymns \u2018prepared for the holy ordinance of the Lord\u2019s\nSupper,\u2019 which are, with a few exceptions, much less solemn and\nimpressive than those of Wesley. Two have, however, a permanent place\namong our Communion hymns. The seventh of the series, \u2018Crucifixion to\nthe World by the Cross of Christ\u2019\u2014\n\n When I survey the wondrous Cross\n\nis so great a hymn, and consecrated by so many hallowed associations,\nthat comment is superfluous and criticism impertinent. The third, \u2018The\nNew Testament in the Blood of Christ, or The New Covenant Sealed,\u2019 is\nabsent from the chief hymnals to-day with the exception of the\nMethodist, to which it was added in 1830. It begins\u2014\n\n \u2018The promise of my Father\u2019s love\n Shall stand for ever good,\u2019\n He said; and gave His soul to death,\n And sealed the grace with blood.\n\nWatts wrote no great festival hymns to be compared with \u2018Hark! how all\nthe welkin rings,\u2019 or \u2018Hail the day that sees Him rise.\u2019 His best work\nis found in his hymns and spiritual songs, some of which are among the\nmost spiritual and most scriptural ever written. The tone of triumph\nis comparatively rare, though now and again, as in \u2018Join all the\nglorious names,\u2019 he rises as high as ever Charles Wesley rose in his\nhymns for \u2018Believers rejoicing.\u2019 Such are, \u2018My God, the spring of all\nmy joys\u2019; \u2018Come, we that love the Lord\u2019; \u2018Jesus shall reign where\u2019er\nthe sun\u2019; \u2018Come, let us join our cheerful songs.\u2019\n\nTo Dr. Watts, with his delicate health and protracted sicknesses,\nsongs in a minor key were peculiarly suitable, and some of his most\nprecious hymns are those which speak of the life to come. He seldom\nwrites of death as Wesley does, and such a line as\n\n Ah, lovely appearance of death\n\nwould have been impossible to him; but no Christian poet has touched\nthe sorrows of our hearts more tenderly or comforted the bereaved more\nwisely than he has done in such a hymn as\n\n Give me the wings of faith to rise;\n\nwhile\n\n There is a land of pure delight\n\nhas voiced the thoughts of myriads of anxious souls, to whom only \u2018a\nprospect of heaven\u2019 could make \u2018death easy.\u2019 Watts seldom, if ever,\nshowed the ecstasy of Charles Wesley. He never sang\n\n The promised land, from Pisgah\u2019s top,\n I now exult to see;\n\nbut he knew that\n\n Could we but climb where Moses stood,\n And view the landscape o\u2019er,\n Not Jordan\u2019s stream nor death\u2019s cold flood\n Should fright us from the shore.\n\nThere are few more tender lines than the verse in his hymn for \u2018The\nDeath and Burial of a Saint\u2019\u2014\n\n The graves of all His saints He blessed,\n And softened every bed:\n Where should the dying members rest,\n But with their dying Head?\n\nBut Dr. Watts was not a man whose whole thought was centred on the\nworld to come. After the fashion not only of his own time, but of the\nreligious men of most times, he speaks slightingly of earth and its\ncharms; but when he allows himself to dwell on its beauty and glory he\nwrites, I think, with a clearer and more poetic vision than Wesley, as\nin his \u2018Song to Creating Wisdom\u2019\u2014\n\n Eternal Wisdom, Thee we praise.\n\nThe hymns of Dr. Watts are so well known that it is difficult to\nselect any that would worthily represent him without repeating what is\nalready familiar to every reader. \u2018The Cradle Song\u2019 is one of the most\ndelightful lullabies ever written, and shows Watts in a charming and\nunexpected light.\n\n Hush! my dear, lie still and slumber;\n Holy angels guard thy bed!\n Heavenly blessings without number\n Gently falling on thy head.\n\n Sleep, my babe; thy food and raiment,\n House and home, thy friends provide;\n All without thy care or payment,\n All thy wants are well supplied.\n\n How much better thou\u2019rt attended\n Than the Son of God could be,\n When from heaven He descended,\n And became a child like thee!\n\n Soft and easy is thy cradle:\n Coarse and hard thy Saviour lay:\n When His birthplace was a stable,\n And His softest bed was hay.\n\n Bless\u00e8d Babe, what glorious features,\n Spotless, fair, divinely bright!\n Must He dwell with brutal creatures?\u2014\n How could angels bear the sight!\n\n Was there nothing but a manger\n Curs\u00e8d sinners could afford\n To receive the heavenly Stranger?\n Did they thus affront their Lord?\n\n Soft, my child\u2014I did not chide thee,\n Though my song might sound too hard;\n \u2019Tis thy mother sits beside thee,\n And her arm shall be thy guard.\n\n Yet to read the shameful story,\n How the Jews abused their King;\n How they served the Lord of Glory,\n Makes me angry while I sing.\n\n See the kinder shepherds round Him,\n Telling wonders from the sky!\n There they sought Him, there they found Him,\n With His Virgin Mother by.\n\n See the lovely Babe a-dressing;\n Lovely Infant, how He smiled!\n When He wept, the Mother\u2019s blessing\n Soothed and hushed the holy Child.\n\n Lo, He slumbers in His manger,\n Where the horn\u00e8d oxen fed;\n Peace, my darling, here\u2019s no danger;\n Here\u2019s no ox a-near thy bed!\n\n \u2019Twas to save thee, child, from dying,\n Save my dear from burning flame,\n Bitter groans, and endless crying,\n That thy blest Redeemer came.\n\n May\u2019st thou live to know and fear Him,\n Trust and love Him all thy days;\n Then go dwell for ever near Him,\n See His face, and sing His praise!\n\n I could give thee thousand kisses,\n Hoping what I most desire;\n Not a mother\u2019s fondest wishes\n Can to greater joys aspire.[102]\n\nFrom Isaac Watts we turn naturally to Philip Doddridge (1702-51),\nanother name which is amongst the glories of the Nonconforming\nChurches, and of him also it may be said that every Christian Church\nwould rejoice to have adopted him. He was the twentieth child of his\nparents, was all his life in delicate health, and died of consumption\nat Lisbon, where he was buried in the English cemetery. His life was\nhappy and devout from the earliest days, when he learnt from his\nmother\u2019s lips the Bible stories which were illustrated by the Dutch\ntiles in the fireplace in his childhood\u2019s home in London\u2014\u2018London! dear\ncity of my youth!\u2019 On his father\u2019s side he was descended from a good\nstock of English gentlemen, some of whom were men of renown in their\nown generation. His father was a tradesmen, but his grandfather was\nRector of Shepperton until the Act of Uniformity made him a\nNonconformist. His mother was the daughter of a Protestant refugee\nfrom Bohemia, whose Bible (Luther\u2019s version) he kept as his most\ncherished possession. As a child he attracted the notice of the\nDuchess of Bedford, who offered to send him to Oxford or Cambridge,\nand to provide a living for him if he took orders in the Church of\nEngland. He declined the offer, though discouraged by the great\nDissenter, Calamy, in his purpose of entering the Independent\nministry. But his old friend and pastor, Samuel Clark, of St. Albans\n(author of _Scripture Promises_), encouraged him, bidding him come to\nhis house and make it his home during his preliminary studies.\n\nLike Watts, he was a scholar and a gentleman, and was revered and\nloved in all Churches. Doddridge was a man of broad views and wide\nsympathies, and was honoured by the enmity of Watts\u2019s old adversary,\nThomas Bradbury, whose \u2018zeal and fury\u2019 in opposing \u2018Moravians and\nMethodists and all who will not go his length in putting them down\u2019 he\ndeprecated. Indeed, his sympathy with Methodism led less vehement\nDissenters than Bradbury to remonstrate with him, and when he not only\npreached at Whitefield\u2019s Tabernacle, but invited that great evangelist\nto preach in his chapel at Northampton, even moderate men in his own\ncommunion thought he had given just offence to the Nonconformist\nconscience of the day. He found it necessary to explain and apologize\nfor his patronage of the enthusiasm which sober Churchmen and\nDissenters alike abhorred.\n\nHis hymns were often written to be sung in his own chapel at the\nCastle Hill, Northampton, and were upon the subjects of his sermons.\nWritten on the same principle as Watts\u2019s hymns, they belong to the\nsame class; and while they are on the whole inferior to those of\nWatts, they make a distinct and very precious addition to our hymnals.\nThere is less variety of theme, metre, and expression in Doddridge\nthan in Watts, but he is rarely so completely on the level of the\n\u2018vulgar capacities\u2019 for whom his great predecessor had such a tender\nregard. His hymns are the prayers and praises of a saint, \u2018they\nshine,\u2019 as Montgomery said, \u2018in the beauty of holiness,\u2019 and some must\nlive while Christianity endures.\n\nHe is like Watts also in his indebtedness to editors. The best known\nof the hymns that bear his name, \u2018O God of Bethel,\u2019 would make a fine\nspecimen for a polychrome hymn-book, though I venture to suggest that\nno \u2018higher critic\u2019 could pick out the portions supplied by the various\nrevisers if he were left solely to subjective considerations. Dr.\nJulian says that its authorship should be thus described\u2014\u2018P.\nDoddridge, Jan. 173\u2076/\u2087 Scottish Trs. and Paraphs., 1745; J. Logan,\n1781; and Scottish Paraphs., 1781.\u2019\n\nThe earliest form is still extant in Doddridge\u2019s own handwriting.\n\n\n No. XXXII JACOB\u2019S VOW.\n\n From Gen. xxxiii. 20, 22.\n\n 1\n\n O God of Bethel, by whose Hand\n Thine Israel still is fed\n Who thro\u2019 this weary Pilgrimage\n Hast all our Fathers led\n\n 2\n\n To thee our humble Vows we raise\n To thee address our Prayer,\n And in thy kind and faithful Breast\n Deposite all our Care\n\n 3\n\n If thou thro\u2019 each perplexing Path\n Wilt be our constant Guide\n If thou wilt daily Bread supply\n And Raiment wilt provide\n\n 4\n\n If thou wilt spread thy Shield around\n Till these our wand\u2019rings cease\n And at our Father\u2019s loved Abode\n Our Souls arrive in Peace\n\n 5\n\n To thee as to our Covenant God\n We\u2019ll our whole selves resign\n And count that not our tenth alone\n But all we have is Thine.\n January 16, 173\u2076/\u2087.[103]\n\nAnother hymn, even better known and loved than this, at least amongst\nMethodist congregations, is\u2014\n\n O happy day that fixed my choice.\n\nThis also has been edited to its advantage. It has been the birthday\nsong of countless redeemed souls. Dr. A. B. Bruce says that St.\nMatthew\u2019s feast, at which \u2018a great company of publicans and of others\nsat down,\u2019 \u2018was a kind of poem, saying for Matthew what Doddridge\u2019s\nfamiliar lines say for many another.\u2019[104]\n\nContemporary with Watts and Doddridge, but having closer spiritual\naffinity with John Bunyan, was Joseph Hart (1712-68), whose hymns,\nwith two or three exceptions, have almost disappeared from our\nhymnals, though in older books, and in Spurgeon\u2019s _Our Own Hymn-book_,\nthey are fairly numerous. To the first edition of his hymns he\nprefixed \u2018a brief summary account of the great things\u2019 God had \u2018done\nfor\u2019 his \u2018soul,\u2019 which, but for its Calvinism, might have been written\nby one of the early Methodist preachers. Again and again this\nnarrative recalls _Grace Abounding_, though Hart has little of the\nvigour, and none of the humour, of Bunyan. He was \u2018born of believing\nparents,\u2019 but after his conversion he \u2018hasted to make myself a\nChristian by mere doctrine, adopting other men\u2019s opinions before I had\ntried them.\u2019 The result was, according to his own account, a\ndeplorable fall into the prevalent Antinomianism, against which\nFletcher and Wesley wrote so energetically. After seven or eight years\n\u2018in this abominable state\u2019 he \u2018began by degrees to reform a little,\u2019\nand in the week before Easter, 1757, he had \u2018an amazing view of the\nagony of Christ in the garden,\u2019 which affected all his after life.\n\u2018While these horrors remained\u2019 he found occasional comfort at\nWhitefield\u2019s Tabernacle in Moorfields, or his chapel in Tottenham\nCourt Road, but on Whit Sunday (which was also Charles Wesley\u2019s Day of\nPentecost), at the Moravian chapel in Fetter Lane, under a sermon on\nRev. iii. 10, he felt \u2018deeply impressed,\u2019 and hastening home found\nhimself \u2018melting away with a strange softness of affection.\u2019 His\nexperience was that of Christian at the Cross, his \u2018burden\u2019 under\nwhich he was \u2018almost sinking\u2019 was immediately taken from his\nshoulders. \u2018Tears ran in streams from my eyes, and I was so swallowed\nup in joy and thankfulness that I hardly knew where I was.\u2019 After this\n\u2018reconversion\u2019 he had many Bunyan-like temptations, but walked humbly\nwith God, and ministered till his death to the Independent church in\nJewin Street.\n\nHis hymns are said, in the \u2018advertisement\u2019 to the edition published\nafter his death, to describe his preaching exactly, and they are\nevidently the fruit of his own experience.\n\n The vicissitudes of a trembling faith, the alternations of comfort\n and depression, the ever-recurring conflict between grace and sin,\n and all the emotions of a soul \u2018ready to halt,\u2019 but knowing where to\n look for strength, are plentifully and feelingly represented. But he\n has little acquaintance either with the joyful hope and buoyant\n cheerfulness of Wesley or with the \u2018quietness and confidence\u2019 of\n Keble.[105]\n\nHe had a small poetic gift, and some of his hymns, with their happy\nalliterations, quaint phrases, easy rhythm, and, above all, their\nsimple piety, have charm and power. Dr. Johnson\u2019s estimate of Hart may\nbe inferred from a curious incident. \u2018I went to church. I gave a\nshilling; and, seeing a poor girl at the sacrament in a bed-gown, I\ngave her privately half a crown, though I saw Hart\u2019s hymns in her\nhand.\u2019\n\nThe hymns by which he is, and will be, known, are\u2014\n\n Come, Holy Spirit, come,\n Let Thy bright beams arise.\n\n Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched,\n\nAnd\n\n This God is the God we adore.\n\nSome of his forgotten verses have real epigrammatic force, e.g.\u2014\n\n If profit be thy scope,\n Diffuse thy alms about.\n The worldling prospers laying up,\n The Christian laying out.\n\nA few other hymn-writers belong to the Dissenting Church of the\neighteenth century, but they have passed or are passing from our\nmodern hymn-books. Simon Browne (1680-1732), pastor of an Independent\nchurch in Old Jewry, published in 1720 a supplement to Watts, which\nshows how early Watts began to be regarded as the standard hymn-book\nin Congregational Churches. There is a pathetic interest in the\nstrange affliction from which he suffered. In 1723 he was attacked by\nhighwaymen, and defended himself with such vigour that his adversary,\nwhen he released him, was found to be dead. Browne was overwhelmed\nwith grief, and sank into a state of melancholy which was deepened by\nfamily bereavement. \u2018He imagined that God had in a gradual manner\nannihilated in him the thinking substance,\u2019 yet he continued his\nministry, and wrote many books, including an exposition of the First\nEpistle to the Corinthians in Matthew Henry\u2019s _Commentary_. His\nbest-known hymn is still to be found in many hymn-books.\n\n Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,\n My sinful maladies remove.\n\nIts form is altered and improved, having passed through the hands of\nmany editors.\n\nHe was also the author of a penitential hymn, which is much more\nimpressive when given as Browne wrote it in the first person singular.\nIn other respects editors have improved it by slight alterations.\n\n Lord, at Thy feet a sinner lies,\n And knocks at mercy\u2019s door;\n With heavy heart and downcast eyes\n Thy favour I implore.\n\n On me the vast extent display\n Of Thy forgiving love;\n Take all my heinous guilt away,\n This heavy load remove.\n\n Without Thy grace I sink opprest,\n Down to the gates of hell:\n O give my troubled spirit rest,\n And all my fears dispel.\n\n \u2019Tis mercy, mercy, I implore,\n I would Thy pity move,\n Thy grace is an exhaustless store\n And Thou Thyself art love.\n\nBenjamin Beddome (1717-95) was for more than half a century a Baptist\nminister at Bourton-on-the-Water, refusing for the sake of his rustic\nflock the attractions of a call to more conspicuous pastorates. \u2018I\nwould rather honour God,\u2019 he said, \u2018in a station even much inferior to\nthat in which He has placed me, than intrude myself into a higher\nwithout His direction.\u2019 His hymns were written for his own\ncongregation, and usually to suit his sermon for the day.\n\nThere is not much to choose amongst Beddome\u2019s pious verses. The\nfollowing lines are interesting since they may, perhaps, have\nsuggested Montgomery\u2019s well-known hymn:\n\n Prayer is the breath of God in man,\n Returning whence it came;\n Love is the sacred fire within,\n And prayer the rising flame.\n\n It gives the burdened spirit ease,\n And soothes the troubled breast;\n Yields comfort to the mourning soul,\n And to the weary rest.\n\n When God inclines the heart to pray,\n He hath an ear to hear;\n To Him there\u2019s music in a sigh,\n And beauty in a tear.\n\nTo these clerical hymn-writers of the school of Watts must be added\nthe name of Anne Steele (1716-78), daughter of William Steele,\ntimber-merchant and Baptist minister at Broughton, Hants. Miss Steele\nis the first Englishwoman who takes a permanent place amongst\nhymn-writers. She has been called the Miss Havergal of the eighteenth\ncentury, and so far as popularity and piety are concerned the\ncomparison is fair. She wrote under the name of \u2018Theodosia,\u2019 and her\nhymns were for a hundred years extensively used in Nonconformist\nworship, and several are to be found in Anglican hymnals.\n\nDr. Watts was her acknowledged model. She cries\u2014\n\n O for the animating fire\n That tuned harmonious Watts\u2019s lyre,\n To sweet seraphic strains![106]\n\nShe was so modest and devout, suffered and sorrowed so much, that one\nis glad to know that some at least of her songs will take their place\namong the permanent treasures of Christian song. Her hymns are\ngenerally improved by the omission of some verses, and by slight\nchanges; but Miss Steele is never guilty of the clumsy and offensive\nphrases which mar so many contemporary hymns. Her best-known hymns are\n\u2018When I survey life\u2019s varied scene,[107] and \u2018Father of mercies, in\nThy word.\u2019\n\nHere are a few verses from a hymn on the text, \u2018Because I live, ye\nshall live also\u2019 (John xiv. 19)\u2014\n\n If my immortal Saviour lives,\n Then my immortal life is sure;\n His word a firm foundation gives:\n Here let me build and rest secure.\n\n Here let my faith unshaken dwell:\n Immovable the promise stands;\n Not all the powers of earth or hell\n Can e\u2019er dissolve the sacred bands.\n\n Here, O my soul, thy trust repose!\n If Jesus is for ever mine.\n Not death itself, that last of foes,\n Shall break a union so divine.\n\nDr. John Ryland (1753-1825), one of the pioneers of the modern\nmissionary revival, and a few others are still remembered as\nhymn-writers, but there is little distinctive about their poetry.\nIndeed one is compelled to admit that a very large portion of the\nhymns of the school of Watts are dull, formal, and prosaic. For the\nmost part they were written to suit particular sermons, and the shades\nof the meeting-house are about them still. To many of them\nMontgomery\u2019s criticism of Beddome applies: \u2018His compositions are\ncalculated to be far more useful than attractive.\u2019\n\nThe \u2018atmosphere\u2019 was hardly likely to inspire enthusiasm. The long\nstruggle between King and Parliament, Catholic and Protestant was\nstilled, the Toleration Act (1689) had given to orthodox\nNonconformists a religious liberty unknown before, and, though there\nwere occasional fears lest the old, bad conditions should be revived,\ntheir freedom became gradually larger and more thoroughly established.\nWatts and Doddridge represent the best side of the Nonconformity which\nsettled down after \u2018the glorious Revolution\u2019 into sedate, intelligent,\nunaggressive, and highly respectable Churches, rejoicing devoutly, but\nwithout enthusiasm, in the right to worship God in their own\nsanctuaries, and to \u2018sit under\u2019 the ministry of their own pastors.\n\u2018Then had the Churches rest, and walking in the comfort of the Holy\nGhost were multiplied.\u2019 The high character and sound scholarship of\nthe leading Nonconformist ministers compelled the respect and won the\nesteem of their episcopalian neighbours, with whom they lived in\npleasant relationships. It was just the time for a quiet reform in\nmodes of worship, and it was in the years between the Toleration Act\nand the Methodist Revival that the hymn, already known but not yet\nloved, won its way to a sure and increasingly honourable place in the\nservice of the sanctuary. Had the hymns been more original and\naggressive in tone, they would not so readily have won the ear and\nheart of Independent congregations at the beginning of the eighteenth\ncentury.\n\n\n\n\n IV\n Eighteenth-century Hymns\n\n\n II.\u2014Hymns of the Methodist Revival\n\nThe first Wesleyan hymn-book is earlier than the Evangelical Revival.\nWhen John Wesley sailed for Georgia, he took with him Herbert\u2019s\n_Poems_, Watts\u2019s _Psalms and Hymns_, and John Austin\u2019s _Offices_. From\nthese and some other books he prepared \u2018the first hymn-book compiled\nfor use in the Church of England.\u2019[108] It was published at\nCharlestown in 1737, and is entitled, _A Collection of Psalms and\nHymns_. The book is a \u2018Christian week\u2019 rather than a Christian year,\nbeing divided into three sections\u2014for Sunday; for Wednesday and\nFriday; for Saturday. It is in many respects a most interesting\nvolume. There is little trace of \u2018catholic\u2019 doctrine, unless it be in\nthe verses taken from Austin\u2019s _Office of the Saints_, and there is\nless of sacramental teaching than in the present _Methodist\nHymn-book_.\n\nOf the seventy hymns half are by Dr. Watts, and amongst these are his\nversion of Ps. c, with Wesley\u2019s famous first lines\u2014\n\n Before Jehovah\u2019s awful throne,\n Ye nations, bow with sacred joy;\n\nand the cxlvi., which Wesley repeated with his dying breath. Seven\nhymns are by John Austin; six are moderately successful attempts to\nmake some of Herbert\u2019s matchless poems available for use in public\nworship. The Wesleyan portion of the book consists of five hymns by\nSamuel Wesley, senior; five by Samuel Wesley, junior; and five\ntranslations from the German by John Wesley himself. Charles Wesley\u2019s\nhymns are conspicuous by their absence. Probably the explanation is\nthat, as he had already sailed for England, his MSS. were not at his\nbrother\u2019s disposal.\n\nIn 1738, on his return to England, John Wesley published another small\nhymn-book, with the same title and a similar arrangement, though the\ncontents are different. This is, I think, the only one of his many\nhymn-books in which Ken\u2019s hymns are included. In 1739 the brothers\nissued their first joint publication, \u2018_Hymns and Sacred Poems_,\npublished by John Wesley, M.A., Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, and\nCharles Wesley, M.A., Student of Christ Church, Oxford. London.\nPrinted by William Strahan, and sold by James Hutton, bookseller, at\nthe Bible and Sun without Temple Bar; Mr. Bray\u2019s, a brazier, in Little\nBritain, M DCC XXXIX.\u2019 In this volume Charles Wesley\u2019s first published\npoems appeared, and from this time he is the recognized poet of the\nRevival.\n\nCharles Wesley was born at Epworth Rectory on December 18, 1707.\nNotwithstanding poverty, debt, difficulty, and persecution, there was\nprobably no more truly Christian home in England. The cultivation of\npersonal religion and simple faith in God found congenial soil here,\nand doubtless in other obscure country parsonages. The Rector of\nEpworth was a poet of some gifts, which the whole family inherited in\ngreater or less degree. His eldest son\u2014sixteen years older than\nCharles\u2014was a minor poet and hymn-writer, and the younger members of\nthe family grew up in an atmosphere which must have made it natural\nfor them to write verses.\n\nWe have, however, no indication of precocious hymn-writing on the part\nof Charles Wesley, nor, indeed, of any poetic composition till he was\nseven-and-twenty, when he writes to convey a protest against his\nsister\u2019s marriage. Probably he did not discover his special talent\ntill he was in Georgia, where the Governor\u2019s wife wrote, \u2018Mr. Wesley\nhas the gift of verse, and has written many sweet hymns, which we\nsing.\u2019[109]\n\nBut if Charles Wesley wrote little poetry before his American mission,\nhe had received much of the training which was in due season to yield\nsuch abundant fruit. The gracious influences of the Lincolnshire\nrectory, of the Oxford Methodists, of his Moravian fellow passengers,\nall helped to mould his fervent spirit. The poet within him could not\nlong be silent, and had already awoke when he received the baptism of\nthe Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, 1738. This was the time of\nhis evangelical conversion, when he passed out of the state of the\nanxious and conscientious servant into the glorious liberty of the\nchild of God. From that time the word of Christ dwelt in him richly.\n\u2018The wealth of God\u2019[110] was bestowed upon him, and out of the\nabundance of a heart enriched by the indwelling word he poured forth\npsalms, hymns, and spiritual songs in an almost ceaseless stream. Had\nCharles Wesley never passed through this experience he would have been\none of our greatest ecclesiastical hymn-writers, and would have ranked\nwith Heber and Keble, but there would have been no distinctively\nMethodist hymnody, and the Evangelical Revival would have been\nimmeasurably poorer. Moreover, he did very much to preserve the\nstandard of good taste, as well as the fervour of religious feeling,\nin primitive Methodism.\n\n Charles Wesley, a Christ Church student, came to add sweetness to\n this sudden and startling light. He was the \u2018sweet singer\u2019 of the\n movement. His hymns expressed the fiery conviction of its converts\n in lines so chaste and beautiful, that its more extravagant features\n disappeared. The wild throes of hysteric enthusiasm passed into a\n passion for hymn-singing, and a new musical impulse was aroused in\n the people which gradually changed the face of public devotion\n throughout England.[111]\n\nCharles Wesley would probably have accepted Keble\u2019s judgement as to\nthe value of \u2018a sober standard of feeling in matters of practical\nreligion,\u2019 but his standard allowed a much wider range and warmer glow\nto feeling than was possible to the poet of the later Oxford Movement.\nBoth the Wesleys shrank with the instinct of the scholar and the\ngentleman from extravagance and vulgarity. Their energies were often\ndevoted to restraining the exuberant manifestations of the fervour of\ntheir converts; and though they dared not deal too strictly with what\nthey believed to be indications of genuine spiritual emotion, they\ndeprecated undue excitement, and regarded hysterical testimonies in a\nvery different light from that in which Edward Irving viewed the\nspeaking with tongues.\n\n Saved from the fear of hell and death,\n With joy we seek the things above;\n And all Thy saints the spirit breathe\n Of power, sobriety, and love.\n\n Pure love to God Thy members find,\n Pure love to every soul of man;\n And in Thy sober, spotless mind,\n Saviour, our heaven on earth we gain.[112]\n\nIf Charles Wesley impressed himself upon the Methodist Revival to its\ngreat benefit, the Revival in its turn most advantageously affected\nhis hymn-writing. In many of his poems it is easy to trace the\ninfluence of the Anglican Prayer-book or the Moravian prayer-meeting,\nbut the typically Methodist hymns show little trace of either; they\nare songs of the open-air service or of the class-room. Beecher\u2019s\nstatement that Charles Wesley\u2019s \u2018hymns are only Moravian hymns\nre-sung\u2019 is more than a gross exaggeration.\n\nIn the early days of Methodism, Charles Wesley was as energetic and as\nsuccessful an evangelist as John. He loved the stir, the tumult, the\ntriumph of those great outdoor gatherings, where testimony must be\nborne before mobs who might at any time endanger the property and even\nthe lives of preacher and hearers. In this regard the poet of the\nEvangelical Revival had a great advantage over the poet of the\nTractarian Movement. Keble is one of the singers of the country\nparsonage. At Fairford and Hursley he found, as Cowper at Olney,\n\n The calm retreat, the silent shade,\n With prayer and praise agree;\n\nbut Charles Wesley was moved to his highest flights of praise by\nhard-won victories amongst his wild hearers in Cornwall, or\nMoorfields, at Kingswood, or Walsall. The depths of his soul were\nmoved when he saw the first signs of penitence in the unwonted tears\nwhich cut white channels in the begrimed faces of the colliers, whom\nhe taught to sing\n\n But O the power of grace Divine!\n In hymns we now our voices raise,\n Loudly in strange hosannas join,\n And blasphemies are turned to praise!\n\nNor must we overlook the influence of the Methodist class-meeting upon\nCharles Wesley\u2019s hymns. That institution was of the essence of\nMethodism. It provided a \u2018Holy Club,\u2019 or a number of holy clubs, in\nevery place where converts had been gathered. True to his mission as\nthe poet of Methodism, he provided hymns for the Societies in their\nprivate meetings as well as in their vast evangelistic gatherings. The\nhymn-book naturally begins with the section headed \u2018Exhorting and\nBeseeching to Return to God,\u2019 but the majority of the hymns are for\nthe penitent, the mourner, the believer, and for the backslider\u2014the\nman in whom old habits have proved too strong, who has wandered back\nto sin, but longs to turn to God again. Charles Wesley shared with\nJohn the pastoral oversight of the converts, often spending many weeks\nin Dublin, Newcastle, or Bristol, or passing rapidly through Cornwall\nor the Black Country, not only preaching the gospel, but carefully\nexamining, encouraging, and sifting the societies. The class-meeting\ngave the distinctive tone to Methodist devotion, and Charles Wesley\nwas quick to sympathize with the varying moods of religious experience\nrelated by the members. His hymns were often written for use by the\nSociety in its stated gatherings or by Christian friends meeting\nsocially in each other\u2019s houses. In every revision of the _Methodist\nHymn-book_ it has been recognized that ample provision must be made\nfor such occasions, and that hymns might be very useful and, in fact,\nextensively used though never heard in public worship.\n\nThe Wesleys were singularly open to impressions from those whom they\nmet, or whose books they read. Anglican, Moravian, Mystic by turns,\nthey only gradually developed into Methodists. In their first joint\npublication they note that \u2018some verses ... were wrote upon the scheme\nof the Mystic divines\u2019 whom they \u2018had once in great veneration, as the\nbest explainers of the gospel of Christ.\u2019[113] George Herbert, John\nNorris (that other less famous parson of Bemerton), Henry More, and\nsuch German hymn-writers as Freylinghausen, Christian Friedrich\nRichter, and W. C. Dessler, were their first masters of Christian\nsong; but Charles Wesley soon found his own wings, and ceased to\nbelong to any school of poets, though to the end traces of other men\u2019s\nwritings are to be found\u2014amounting occasionally to actual verbal\nquotation, e.g. from Milton, Young, Tate and Brady.\n\nIt is not possible to assign dates for the composition of many of\nCharles Wesley\u2019s hymns after the early years of the Revival, except\nthose called forth by some special occasion, such as the \u2018Earthquake\nHymns,\u2019 and those for the troubled days of the Insurrection of 1745.\nAt such times the hymns must have been written as a kind of task-work,\nand the result is rarely more than commonplace. The poet seemed to\nthink it his duty, as the laureate of Methodism, to provide suitable\nhymns for the special services rendered necessary by stirring events,\nand usually wrote one or two in each of the favourite metres. These\nwere issued in small pamphlets at a few pence, and no doubt sold very\nextensively, as did John Wesley\u2019s prose tracts, through which he\n\u2018unawares became rich.\u2019\n\nIt is difficult for a Methodist preacher of the fourth generation,\nwhose earliest and most sacred associations are hallowed by memories\nof Wesley\u2019s hymns, to attempt an impartial, not to say a critical,\nsurvey of them. If, then, I seem to place too high an estimate on the\nWesley poetry as compared with the hymns of others, I trust it may be\ncredited rather to early training and inherited affection than to\ndenominational partiality.\n\nIt may at once be granted that Charles Wesley wrote far too easily and\ntoo diffusely to secure permanent remembrance for the majority of his\nhymns. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, might disappear without serious\nloss to the spiritual and devotional life of the Church. It may be\nadmitted, further, that he did not know which were his best and which\nhis worst productions, and that John Wesley\u2019s editing might with\nadvantage have been more severe. The printing-press was dangerously\nconvenient to Charles Wesley, and the certainty of extensive sale for\neverything he published, combined with the enthusiasm with which their\npeople received what the brothers wrote, either in prose or verse,\npresented a temptation to rapid and frequent publication which few\npoets could resist. Moreover, much that he wrote was designed for\nimmediate use, and had to be written, printed, published ere the\noccasion passed. Yet it is probable that not much would have been\ngained by elaborate revision. Charles Wesley was too tender-hearted to\ntreat his literary offspring as David treated the Moabites, measuring\ntwo lines to put to death and one full line to keep alive, though both\nhe and Dr. Watts might not unwisely have adopted some such heroic\nmeasure.\n\nHis hymns were often written at white heat, but they underwent\nconstant revision by their author, and generally they had a further\nrevision by his brother. The poet himself records eight revisions of\nhis Short Hymns on the Gospels and Acts, which he noted were \u2018finished\nApril 24, 1765,\u2019 and revised for the last time May 11, 1787.\n\nIn his _Journal_, John Wesley records, under date December 15, 1788\u2014\n\n This week I dedicated to the reading over my brother\u2019s works. They\n are short poems on the Psalms, the four Gospels, and the Acts of the\n Apostles. Some are bad; some mean; some most excellently good; they\n give the true sense of Scripture, always in good English, generally\n in good verse; many of them are equal to most, if not to any, he\n ever wrote; but some still savour of that poisonous mysticism with\n which we were both not a little tainted before we went to America.\n\n\u2018Some bad, some mean, some most excellently good.\u2019 The judgement is\njust, though we who are accustomed to our richer and more varied\nhymn-books should probably place not a few in a fourth class\u2014certainly\nnot \u2018bad\u2019 or \u2018mean,\u2019 yet hardly \u2018excellently good.\u2019\n\nIn the _Methodist Hymn-book_ 429 hymns are attributed to Charles\nWesley; in the hymnals of other Churches there are to be found a\nnumber which are unknown in Methodism. It is safe to say that of\nCharles Wesley\u2019s hymns about 500 are living still.\n\nThe first great service Wesley\u2019s hymns rendered to Christian song was\nto raise the standard of feeling in matters of practical religion.\nJohn Wesley\u2019s emendation of a line of Doddridge\u2019s may illustrate the\ninfluence of Methodist hymns upon religious emotion. Doddridge wrote\u2014\n\n Ye humble souls, that seek the Lord,\n Chase all your fears away;\n And bow with pleasure down to see\n The place where Jesus lay.\n\nWesley changed \u2018pleasure\u2019 into \u2018rapture\u2019 in the hymn, and Methodism\nraised Christian emotion from the quiet satisfaction of Watts,\nDoddridge, and the elect souls who kept alive the faith during the\ndrab years which preceded the Revival, to the ecstatic gladness of\nthose to whom that great movement brought the brightness of a morning\nwithout clouds. The largest section of the hymn-book was headed \u2018For\nBelievers Rejoicing.\u2019 No other Christian poet ever sang such songs,\nfor no other has ever known the joy of the evangelist as Charles\nWesley knew it.\n\n In a rapture of joy\n My life I employ,\n The God of my life to proclaim;\n \u2019Tis worth living for this,\n To administer bliss\n And salvation in Jesus\u2019s name.\n\nJoyousness was the natural result of the gospel he preached. It was\nthe good news of the assurance of personal salvation. Here John\nWesley\u2019s emendation of one of Watts\u2019s famous hymns may serve as an\nillustration. Watts wrote\u2014\n\n My soul looks back to see\n The burdens Thou didst bear\n When hanging on the curs\u00e8d tree,\n And _hopes_ her guilt was there.\n\nWesley shows the difference between Methodism and Calvinism by the\nchange of a word\u2014\n\n And _knows_ her guilt was there.\n\nThe Methodist doctrine of Assurance, the revival or rediscovery of the\ndoctrine of the Witness of the Spirit, gave to Christian experience a\nconfidence which was more joyous than that of the \u2018elect.\u2019 The Wesleys\nnever slurred the need of repentance\u2014deep, poignant, practical; but\nthere is a great gulf between the comparatively brief pangs of the\nMethodist penitent and the habitual depression of the devout Romanist\never searching through the dark places of the heart to find matter for\nconfession. The shades of the prison-house did not linger long around\nthe emancipated soul. Coming out of the gloom into the sunshine the\nroad wound\n\n Uphill all the way,\n Yes, to the very end.\n\nThe redeemed of the Lord returned to Zion with singing, with\neverlasting joy upon their heads. Notwithstanding all that may be\nsaid, and, to some extent, with justice, of the terrors, even the\nhorrors, of early evangelical preaching concerning death, hell, and\njudgement, the Methodist hymns brought into Christian worship a\nbrighter and more trustful tone than it had known for many\ngenerations. The Revival brought back the golden days, the joy of\nheart, which characterized the Apostolic Church, and the German\nProtestants at the Reformation. At the time of the Revival the Church\nof England, though largely Arminian in doctrine, was so incapable of\nfervour, so afraid of zeal, that it had practically no power over the\nmasses, whilst by the classes Christianity was, as Bishop Butler said,\nregarded \u2018not so much as a subject of inquiry,\u2019 but \u2018now at length\ndiscovered to be fictitious.\u2019\n\nIn the Establishment there was hardly spiritual life enough to put\nreal vigour even into religious controversy. Butler\u2019s _Analogy_ is\ntypical of the position of the ecclesiastical leaders of that day.\nThey were content if they could demonstrate that the balance of\nprobabilities was in favour of Christianity, and did not even desire\nto be anointed with the oil of gladness above their fellows.\n\nThe most earnest and aggressive of the Nonconformists were stanchly\nCalvinistic, and, by their most cherished beliefs, were precluded from\nthe magnificent visions of a redeemed world, which were at once the\ninspiration and the attraction of Methodist preaching.\n\nAltogether outside theological controversy, and, for the most part,\nuncared for by the religious people of the day, lay the masses,\nignorant, degraded, despised, who neither gave, nor were expected to\ngive, heed to things higher than the needs of the \u2018mere animal.\u2019 Of\nthem Charles Wesley only too truly said\u2014\n\n Wild as the untaught Indian\u2019s brood\n The Christian savages remain.\n\nThe hymns \u2018Exhorting and Beseeching to Return to God\u2019 at once\nattracted the\n\n Poor outcasts of men, whose souls were despised\n And left with disdain.\n\nVery surely, though very slowly, the glad evangel of the hymns which\noffer pardon and holiness and heaven to all won its way in the\nChurches. It is one of the most precious fruits of the Revival that\nnow hardly any Church can forbear to sing them. Nor is it too much to\nsay that Methodist hymns, even more than Methodist teaching, broke\ndown the Calvinistic idea of the Church\u2014\n\n We are a garden walled around,\n Chosen and made peculiar ground;\n A little spot enclosed by grace\n Out of the world\u2019s wide wilderness.\n\nAgain, John Wesley\u2019s hymns gave a great impulse, and added a great\nsanction, to the expression of personal experience in hymns. They were\nunfettered by what has been well described as the \u2018old traditions of\nreserved and reticent worship.\u2019[114] For good or ill, there is little\nof reserve or reticence in Charles Wesley\u2019s hymns.\n\n What we have felt and seen\n With confidence we tell.\n\nMany poets of the sanctuary have felt that the most sacred experiences\nof the penitent sinner and of the sanctified believer were not to be\nput into words, that to utter them was to expose to the coarse breath\nof the world what must perish in the very act of expression. It was\nnot without an effort that Charles Wesley broke through this\n\u2018reserve;\u2019 yet he did, and that not only from a sense of duty, but\nfrom a conviction that to be silent would be a cowardly yielding to\nthe temptation to shun the reproach of Christ.\n\n And shall I slight my Father\u2019s love?\n Or basely fear His gifts to own?\n Unmindful of His favours prove?\n Shall I, the hallowed cross to shun,\n Refuse His righteousness to impart,\n By hiding it within my heart?[115]\n\nMoreover, many of Charles Wesley\u2019s hymns\u2014especially the more\npersonal\u2014were intended to be sung \u2018secretly among the faithful,\u2019\nrather than in the congregation. They were written for the family\ngatherings of \u2018the household of the faith,\u2019 and thus were free from\nthe restraints which might be necessary in compositions intended for\nlarger and less sympathetic assemblies.\n\nWesley\u2019s hymns represented and, to a considerable extent, created the\nspecific Methodist type of religious thought, emotion, and expression.\nThey were, also, the vehicle by which doctrine was conveyed to the\nminds of the uneducated masses. The great truths which it was the\nmission of Methodism to teach are conspicuous in the Methodist hymns.\nJustification by Faith, the Witness of the Spirit, Universal\nRedemption, Entire Sanctification, are all taught in Charles Wesley\u2019s\nremembered hymns as they are in John Wesley\u2019s forgotten tracts. If the\nhymns have ceased to be peculiarly Methodist, it is because Christian\nexperience and teaching have been so largely influenced by them.\n\nIt is impossible not to compare Charles Wesley with his great\npredecessor, Isaac Watts. The day has gone by in which rival camps or\nchoirs seek to exalt the one by disparaging the other. As we have\nseen, Watts\u2019s _Psalms and Hymns_ were taken by the Wesleys on their\nmission to Georgia, and it can never be forgotten that, with his dying\nbreath, John Wesley quoted the hymn which, from those early days, had\nbeen included in the hymn-books prepared by him for congregational\nuse.\n\nWatts was less careful of the technique of his poetry than Charles\nWesley. His rhymes are often very bad, and occasionally are altogether\nforgotten, and this is true of hymns whose intrinsic value is such\nthat they retain, and are likely to retain, their place in our\nhymn-books. Charles Wesley is not without sin in this regard, but a\nreally bad rhyme is comparatively rare in his best compositions. He\nhas less of poetic imagery than Watts, and has not so keen an eye for\nthe beauties of the natural world. Charles Wesley never wrote a hymn\nthat, in its own way, compares with\n\n Eternal Wisdom! Thee we praise;\n\nnor do I know any verse of his which equals in its rich, strong\nmonosyllables, Watts\u2019s\n\n His every[116] word of grace is strong\n As that which built the skies;\n The voice that rolls the stars along\n Speaks all the promises.\n\nWesley was apt to use long and awkward words, sometimes of his own\ncoining, rarely adding to the force, and always detracting from the\npractical value of the hymn.\n\nIt must also be admitted that Charles Wesley wrote some verses the\ntaste of which is dreadful, though he never approaches the execrable\ncoarseness of some Moravian hymns, or of the lines which Walter\nShirley transfigured into \u2018Sweet the moments rich in blessing.\u2019 Both\nWatts and Wesley had a quiet rather than a keen sense of humour, but\nthey had little of that appreciation of the comic which is so acute in\nour own time.[117]\n\nCharles Wesley rarely, if ever, reaches the depth of prosaic\ncommonplace which marks many of Watts\u2019s hymns. He had a more sensitive\near and a more cultivated taste, and, what is perhaps more to the\npoint, he had a faithful, though affectionate and admiring, critic in\nhis brother. When John Wesley said of Charles that his least praise\nwas his talent for poetry, he meant, not to disparage his hymns, but\nto bear the highest testimony possible to the gifts and graces of his\nmind and character.\n\nIn considering somewhat in detail the hymns of Charles Wesley, it is\nconvenient to treat of them in the classes into which they may be\nbroadly divided. But even so it is obviously impossible to glance at\nmore than a small number of his poems.\n\n\n 1.\u2014Hymns of the Christian Year\n\nThe idea of an elaborate classification according to the Church\nseasons, so usual in modern Anglican hymnals, had not yet become\npopular. Bishop Ken\u2019s _Hymns for all the Festivals of the Year_[118]\n(published in 1721, ten years after his death), the precursor and, to\nsome extent, the inspiration of the _Christian Year_, was not intended\nfor use as a hymn-book. Wither\u2019s _Hymns and Songs of the Church_\n(1623) provided for all the chief festivals, saints\u2019 days, and other\noccasional services. About forty years later (1661) Dr. Eaton, Vicar\nof Bishop\u2019s Castle, Salop, published _The Holy Calendar_, but his\npoems were not intended to be sung. The Wesleys issued a number of\npamphlets containing hymns for the great festivals, and it would not\nbe difficult to select from their various publications a \u2018Christian\nyear,\u2019 in which every hymn was suitable for public worship. But the\npieces would need to be gathered, for the brothers did not contemplate\nthe use of their hymn-books in Church services; they were designed for\nthe preaching-house, the open-air service, and the class-meeting. The\nNonconformist Churches had adopted the custom early in the century,\nbut in the Church of England hymn-singing was still, and for many\nyears after, an irregularity, if not an offence.\n\nFirst and greatest of Charles Wesley\u2019s festival hymns is the Christmas\ncarol\n\n Hark! how all the welkin rings,\n \u2018Glory to the King of kings.\u2019\n\nIt was published in 1739, and is not impossibly one of the \u2018many sweet\nhymns\u2019 which were sung in the household of General Oglethorpe.\nWhitefield made some popular alterations, and included it in his\n_Collection_, in 1753. In 1782 it found a place in the Prayer-book,\nafter the new version of the Psalms. It was omitted from Wesley\u2019s\n_Collection_, but was inserted in the supplement of 1830\u2014nearly a\ncentury after its composition.\n\nIn the same metre, and not inferior, are the hymns for Easter\u2014\n\n \u2018Christ, the Lord, is risen to-day,\u2019\n Sons of men and angels say!\n\nand for Ascension Day\u2014\n\n Hail the day that sees Him rise,\n Ravished from our wishful eyes.\n\nThere are some good verses in the Whit Sunday hymn\u2014\n\n Granted is the Saviour\u2019s prayer,\n Sent the gracious Comforter;\n\nand in the little-known hymn for the Epiphany\u2014\n\n Sons of men, behold from far,\n Hail the long-expected Star![119]\n\nbut they are not equal to the others.\n\nOf Charles Wesley\u2019s hymns on our Lord\u2019s Passion, the finest are those\nbeginning\n\n With glorious clouds encompassed round,\n Whom angels dimly see,\n Will the Unsearchable be found,\n Or God appear to me?\n\n . . . . .\n\n O Love divine! what hast thou done!\n The immortal God hath died for me\n The Father\u2019s co-eternal Son\n Bore all my sins upon the tree;\n The immortal God for me hath died!\n My Lord, my Love is crucified.\n\n . . . . .\n\n O Thou who hast our sorrows borne,\n Help us to look on Thee and mourn,\n On Thee Whom we have slain,\n Have pierced a thousand thousand times,\n And by reiterated crimes\n Renewed Thy mortal pain.[120]\n\nThe popular hymn beginning\n\n All ye that pass by,\n To Jesus draw nigh:\n To you is it nothing that Jesus should die?\n\nis, owing to its cheerful metre, hardly suited to the solemn services\nof Good Friday, and was intended for the open air. It was headed\n\u2018Invitation to Sinners,\u2019 and was used by Whitefield with great effect\nwhen preaching at the Market Cross, Nottingham, and elsewhere.\n\nJohn Wesley appointed many fast days, and was careful to fix them on\nFriday, but the observance of Lent does not seem to have been\nenforced, or even strongly recommended, in the Methodist Society.\nHymns for saints\u2019 days and for the minor festivals are unknown to the\nWesley poetry.\n\n\n 2. Hymns on the Lord\u2019s Supper.[121]\n\nThis pamphlet contains 166 hymns, many of which are admirable and very\nclose paraphrases of passages in Brevint\u2019s _Christian Sacrifice_, but\nothers are independent of that devout treatise. Many lend themselves\nreadily to use in \u2018catholic\u2019 services, and have often been quoted as\nindicating high sacramentarian views.[122]\n\nOn the other hand, such verses as the following must be taken in an\nentirely evangelical sense\u2014\n\n The cup of blessing, blessed by Thee,\n Let it Thy blood impart:\n The bread Thy mystic body be,\n And cheer each languid heart.\n\n . . . . .\n\n With solemn faith we offer up,\n And spread before Thy glorious eyes,\n That only ground of all our hope,\n That precious, bleeding Sacrifice,\n Which brings Thy grace on sinners down,\n And perfects all our souls in one.\n\n . . . . .\n\n By faith we see Thy sufferings past\n In this mysterious rite brought back:\n And on Thy grand oblation cast,\n Its saving benefits partake.\n\nIn these paraphrases there are naturally expressions which represent\nBrevint and not the Wesleys, except in so far as they indicate a\ngeneral approval of his teaching. The hymns which most closely follow\nthe treatise are often the least happy. Yet, when every deduction is\nmade, this little book is one of the most edifying of devotional\npreparations for the Communion.\n\nThese hymns have had a permanent influence upon Methodist worship.\nMany of them were probably suggested by the Order of Administration in\nthe Book of Common Prayer, the most beautiful of all the Anglican\nservices. Both the brothers had a profound reverence for the Holy\nCommunion, as the supreme act of Christian worship, and constantly\nimpressed upon Methodists the duty of its regular observance. Never at\nany time was there a danger of the Methodist Societies cutting\nthemselves off from the Catholic Church by neglect of the Sacraments,\nor of their becoming an exclusively evangelistic organization on the\nplan of the Salvation Army. This pamphlet, of which many editions were\nissued during the lifetime of John Wesley, shows how serious a view\nthey desired their people to take of the value of this sacrament,\nwhilst its great popularity suggests that the intelligence of the\nMethodists of a hundred and fifty years ago was very much above that\nwith which we are accustomed to credit them. The republication of\nBrevint\u2019s _Treatise_, in a small series of devotional manuals, edited\nby Dr. George Osborn, did not revive interest in it, as it might have\ndone had a judicious selection from the hymns been included.[123]\n\nSeveral hymns familiar to us in other sections of our hymn-books were\nwritten for, or included in, this series. The prayer for the Church\nmilitant, with its remembrance of and thanksgiving for those in\ntrouble and for those who have \u2018departed this life in Thy faith and\nfear,\u2019 probably suggested the hymn\u2014\n\n What are these arrayed in white?\n\nwhilst the _Ter-Sanctus_ is the inspiration of\u2014\n\n Lift your eyes of faith and see\n Saints and angels joined in one.\n\nThe thought of communion with the Church triumphant was very precious\nto Charles Wesley, and there is a most beautiful and solemn\nappropriateness in the lifting of the eyes as well as of the heart,\nwhen, having claimed in faith the forgiveness of sins, we take our\nunchallenged place at the table of the Lord. The Holy Communion\nincludes fellowship with those who have \u2018crossed the flood\u2019 and are\nfor ever with the Lord.\n\nNor is the other aspect of the communion of saints forgotten. It is\noften easier for earnest souls to claim fellowship with the\nwhite-robed company of heaven than with those on earth who are divided\nfrom them by divergencies of doctrine and practice. But if, on the one\nhand, the Eucharist has been a stone of stumbling and a rock of\noffence to theologians and ecclesiastics, on the other it is the bond\nof union between all \u2018holding fast the Head.\u2019[124] The true evangelic\nand the typically Wesleyan position is well stated in the verse\u2014\n\n Part of His Church below,\n We thus our right maintain;\n Our living membership we show,\n And in the fold remain,\u2014\n The sheep of Israel\u2019s fold,\n In England\u2019s pastures fed;\n And fellowship with all we hold,\n Who hold it with our Head.[125]\n\nThis is the attitude our Church has consistently adopted. We do not\nclaim exclusive privileges or profess that our boundaries are the\nwalls of that city of God which lieth four square. We are but \u2018part of\nHis Church below,\u2019 but we _are_ a part, and in obedience to our dying\nLord\u2019s command \u2018we thus our right maintain.\u2019 What matter though some\ndeny the validity of our \u2018orders,\u2019 the efficacy of our sacraments, our\ntitle to a place in the Holy Catholic Church? They may drive us from\ntheir local altars, but they cannot exclude us from the Lord\u2019s table.\nThey may deny us a place in that family for which our blessed Lord was\ncontent to be betrayed into the hands of sinful men. What then? We do\nnot deny theirs.\n\n Fellowship with all we hold,\n Who hold it with our Head.\n\nThis is a note too seldom heard in Communion hymns. I do not remember\nto have found it so clearly put anywhere else, though Major Turton\u2019s\nprayer for unity comes graciously near to it.\n\n For all Thy Church, O Lord, we intercede;\n Make Thou our sad divisions soon to cease;\n Draw us the nearer each to each, we plead,\n By drawing all to Thee, O Prince of Peace;\n Thus may we all one Bread, one Body be,\n Through this blest Sacrament of Unity.[126]\n\nThe _sacramental_ character of the Lord\u2019s Supper as the sign and\npledge of the believer\u2019s consecration to the service of Christ is\nrepresented in the hymn beginning\u2014\n\n Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,\n One in Three, and Three in One,\n As by the celestial host,\n Let Thy will on earth be done;\n Praise by all to Thee be given,\n Glorious Lord of earth and heaven.\n\nwhich in some of its verses suggests the prayer known as the First\nThanksgiving,[127] though it is based upon a beautiful paragraph of\nBrevint\u2019s.\n\nA few hymns under the heading \u2018After the Sacrament\u2019 form an\nunimportant supplement, but the long series really ends with a joyous\nsong well-suited to be the happy close of the solemn commemoration of\nthe sacrifice of Calvary and the renewal of the Christian\u2019s oath of\nallegiance\n\n Let Him to whom we now belong\n His sovereign right assert,\n And take up every thankful song\n And every loving heart.\n\nThis final note of glad thanksgiving reminds us that in our Communion\nService the \u2018Gloria in Excelsis\u2019 immediately precedes the\nBenediction.[128]\n\n\n 3. Hymns of the Calvinistic Controversy.\n\nFrom these Communion hymns we pass to a series of a very different\ntype. The story of the Calvinistic controversy\u2014which seemed to show\nthat a theological fountain could at the same time send forth sweet\nwater and bitter\u2014belongs to Church history, not to hymnology. Yet we\ncannot pass it over, for none of the hymns of the Wesleys _meant_ so\nmuch as those which proclaimed the glad tidings of a free and full\nsalvation. The controversy was civil war, a strife among brethren, and\nit is good to know that the love of Whitefield and the Wesleys was\nable to bear, though not without terrible strain, even this sore\ntrial. From that great controversy we inherit the true eirenicon, the\nagreeing to differ, which is the best possible solution of many\nreligious disputes. Whitefield and the Wesleys finally agreed to\ndiffer and continued to love. But for a time there was \u2018a sharp\ncontention so that they parted asunder one from the other.\u2019\n\nIn 1740 John Wesley published, after some hesitation, his sermon on\n\u2018Free Grace,\u2019 and added a long, dull hymn by his brother on \u2018Universal\nRedemption.\u2019 In the same year the brothers issued a second series of\n_Hymns and Sacred Poems_, which contained this and other pieces,\nsetting forth in the most emphatic terms the Arminian doctrine, and\ncondemning in even more emphatic terms all who believed in what Calvin\nhad called \u2018_decretum horribile_.\u2019 Whitefield was shocked by the\nWesleyan doctrine itself, and was beyond measure distressed by what he\nsaw must lead to a breach between himself and his dearest friends. His\nlove and sorrow come out most attractively in his letters.\n\n \u2018My dear, dear Brethren,\u2019 he wrote, \u2018why did you throw out the bone\n of contention? Why did you print that sermon against predestination?\n Why did you, in particular, my dear brother Charles, affix your hymn\n and join in putting out your late hymn-book?\u2019[129]\n\nJohn Wesley\u2019s sermon carefully avoided reference to his friend.\nWhitefield, however, felt in honour bound to state his own views and\nto \u2018answer\u2019 Wesley\u2019s sermon. To this reply he added a poor poem by Dr.\nWatts, which was intended to balance Charles Wesley\u2019s hymn. Here are\ntwo of Watts\u2019s verses\u2014\n\n Behold the potter and the clay,\n He forms His vessels as he please;\n Such is our God, and such are we,\n The subjects of His high decrees.\n\n May not the sovereign Lord on high,\n Dispense His favours as He will;\n Choose some to life while others die,\n And yet be just and gracious still?\n\nAfter this the battle became fast and furious. The two pamphlets of\n_Hymns on God\u2019s Everlasting Love_[130] were issued in 1741, and\nWhitefield was in despair. He writes: \u2018Dear brother Charles is more\nand more rash. He has lately printed some very bad hymns.\u2019[131] From\nWhitefield\u2019s point of view they were undoubtedly very bad, and even\njustify his charge that the Wesleys \u2018dressed up\u2019 the doctrine of\nelection in \u2018horrible colours.\u2019 On the other hand, these hymns contain\nsome of the finest specimens of evangelic hymn-writing to be found in\nthe Wesley poetry.\n\nThey may be readily divided into two classes, the one vigorous and\noften bitterly satirical onslaughts upon the Calvinistic position,\nwhich are more in the style of \u2018Holy Willie\u2019s Prayer\u2019 than in that of\n\u2018Jesu, Lover of my soul,\u2019 the other containing the proclamation of the\nglad tidings of universal redemption. Both elements are often found in\nthe same composition. This is true of the first of the hymns, a\nportion of which has been used in Methodist congregations for more\nthan a century and a half, and retains its place in the new hymn-book.\nI print some verses with the original italics, indicating its polemic\npurpose.\n\n Father, _whose everlasting love_\n Thy only Son for sinners gave;\n Whose grace to _all_ did _freely_ move,\n And sent Him down a _world to save_.\n\n Help us Thy mercy to extol\n Immense, unfathomed, unconfined;\n To praise the Lamb who _died for all_,\n The _general Saviour of mankind_.\n\n Thy _undistinguishing regard_\n Was cast on _Adam\u2019s_ fallen race:\n For all Thou hast in Christ prepared,\n _Sufficient, sovereign, saving_ grace.\n\n Jesus hath said, we _all_ shall hope,\n Preventing grace for all is free:\n And I, if I be lifted up,\n I will _draw all men_ unto Me.\n\n Arise, O God, maintain Thy cause!\n The fulness of the _Gentiles_ call:\n Lift up the standard of Thy cross\n And _all_ shall own Thou diedst for all.[132]\n\nIn other hymns he employs the most biting, taunting sarcasm. It is\ndifficult to suppose that these were ever sung even in the thickest of\nthe fight; but they were sown broadcast (price fourpence), and were,\nno doubt, read with ecstatic delight by those who were on the Wesleys\u2019\nside in the great controversy. It is easy at this distance of time and\ncircumstance to condemn the vehemence of the language used on both\nsides, especially in the later and more acrimonious stages of the\ncontroversy. But this was one of \u2018freedom\u2019s battles.\u2019 It was\nmagnificent, and it was war. To the Wesleys the doctrine that by the\narbitrary decree of God\u2014the God of love!\u2014children were born to a doom\nwhich they could neither escape nor deserve was hateful, blasphemous,\nimpossible. If _this_ were indeed the truth of God, what gospel was\nthere to preach? Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die and meet\nthe inevitable doom. Nor could they tolerate what seemed to them the\nsmug satisfaction of \u2018the elect,\u2019 to whose certainty of salvation the\nequal certainty of the damnation of the reprobate added a pleasing\nflavour. They would not accept salvation on such terms. \u2018Take back,\u2019\nCharles Wesley cries indignantly,\n\n Take back my interest in Thy blood,\n Unless it streamed for all the race.\n\nWith a true controversial instinct, the Wesleys fastened upon Calvin\u2019s\nphrase \u2018_decretum horribile_,\u2019 and, preferring to transliterate rather\nthan to translate, turned again and again to rend it.\n\nA poem describing the possibilities of evil in the human heart and\nmind comes to a climax thus\u2014\n\n I could the devil\u2019s law receive,\n Unless restrained by Thee;\n I could (good God!) I could believe\n The Horrible Decree.\n\n I could believe that God is hate\u2014\n The God of love and grace\n Did damn, pass by, and reprobate\n The most of human race.\n\n Farther than this I cannot go,\n Till Tophet take me in.\n But, O, forbid that I should know\n This mystery of sin.[133]\n\nSuch were the amenities of religious controversy in the eighteenth\ncentury!\n\nAgain, in a lighter but still intensely earnest vein, he caricatures\nhis adversaries\u2019 teaching\u2014\n\n The righteous God consigned\n Them over to their doom,\n And sent the Saviour of mankind\n To damn them from the womb:\n To damn for falling short\n Of what they could not do,\n For not believing the report\n Of that which was not true.\n\n He did not do the deed\u2014\n (Some have more mildly raved),\n He did not damn them, but decreed\n They never should be saved.\n\nThis effusion ends in a higher strain, with a dedication of his own\nlife to the proclamation of universal redemption\u2014\n\n My life I here present,\n My heart\u2019s last drop of blood;\n O let it all be freely spent\n In proof that Thou art good:\n Art good to all that breathe,\n Who all may pardon have:\n Thou willest not the sinner\u2019s death,\n But all the world _wouldst_ save.\n\nJohn Wesley tried in his brief tract on the _Calvinistic\nControversy_[134] (1743) to make peace with Whitefield, and some of\nhis concessions are surprising\u2014indeed, he afterwards retracted them.\nBut Charles, who at this time was in the full glow of his early\nevangelistic triumphs, and who was much less of a theologian than his\nbrother, felt that he was engaged in a holy crusade. He tried to write\ncalmly, he prayed for grace to speak tenderly of those who were erring\nfrom the truth he held so dear, but\u2014well, he could not keep silence.\n\nIn one of these hymns\u2014a portion of which remains in the _Methodist\nHymn-book_\u2014he prays\u2014\n\n O arm me with the mind,\n Meek Lamb! that was in Thee,\n And let my knowing zeal be joined\n To fervent charity.\n\n With calm and tempered zeal\n Let me enforce Thy call,\n And vindicate Thy gracious will,\n Which offers life to all.\n\n Thou dost not stand in need\n Of me to prop Thy cause,\n To assert Thy general grace, or spread\n The victory of Thy cross.\n\n O may I love like Thee!\n And in Thy footsteps tread!\n Thou hatest all iniquity,\n But nothing Thou hast made.\n\n O may I learn Thy art,\n With meekness to reprove;\n To hate the sin with all my heart,\n But still the sinner love.[135]\n\nThese verses might be headed \u2018A Prayer before Controversy,\u2019 but it is\na shock to the reader on turning the page to find that the next verse\nshows how soon he descended from this high level.\n\nThe controversy was renewed thirty years later with vastly greater\nbitterness, and with much more personal feeling.\n\nJohn Fletcher parted in 1771 from his Trevecca students like the saint\nhe was, for he could no longer hold his place when other Arminians\nwere discharged. \u2018I cannot give up the possibility of the salvation of\nall any more than I can give up the truth and love of God.... I left\nthem all in peace, the servant, but no more the president of the\ncollege.\u2019[136]\n\nThe love of Whitefield and the Wesleys was of the kind which many\nwaters cannot quench; but when Madan, Romaine, Hervey, and Rowland\nHill heaped upon John Wesley\u2019s venerable head torrents of vulgar\nabuse\u2014abuse absolutely impossible, inconceivable in our milder\nmannered age[137]\u2014Charles felt that there was a point beyond which\neven Christian charity could not decently go. His refusal to write\nHervey\u2019s epitaph is worthy of a Christian gentleman:\n\n Let Madan or Romaine record his praise,\n Enough that Wesley\u2019s brother can forgive.\n\nThe flowing tide, however, was with the Methodists, and though the\nfight was long, and the victory was not wholly won in their day, these\nhymns rendered an inestimable service to the cause of religious\nfreedom. It may be true that they represented Calvin\u2019s teaching\none-sidedly, and at times misrepresented it, but it cannot be denied\nthat they pictured current Calvinistic teaching accurately enough. The\nWesleys saw clearly that, should belief in a limited redemption spread\nin their Society, they would but labour in vain and spend their\nstrength for nought. They might have gathered little coteries of\ndevout folk, strongly tinctured with what we now call Plymouth\nBrethrenism, but they could never have founded a great Church, whose\nchiefest glory should be its missionary enterprise both at home and in\nthe ends of the earth. The mission of Thomas Coke more than a hundred\nyears ago, the great city missions of our own time, the work of\nWilliam Booth, of Hugh Price Hughes, and Samuel F. Collier, would have\nbeen impossible had they not been able to say anywhere and to all\u2014\n\n Sent by my Lord, on you I call;\n The invitation is to all:\n Come, all the world; come, sinner, thou;\n All things in Christ are ready now!\n\nThe Wesleys reached their doctrine of general redemption by two paths.\nIn the first place, they had been trained in the school of Arminius\nand of Laud, and had been confirmed in the faith by their own careful\nstudy of God\u2019s word. But it is abundantly evident that their own\nexperience had led them to believe in the infinite mercy of God.\nCharles Wesley, especially, argued with the profound humility of the\nsincere penitent, that his own salvation, of which he had received the\nundeniable assurance, \u2018the indubitable seal,\u2019 on Whit-Sunday, 1738,\nwas itself convincing evidence of the good tidings he proclaimed.\n\n Thy sovereign grace to all extends,\n Immense and unconfined:\n From age to age it never ends;\n It reaches all mankind.\n\n Throughout the world its breadth is known,\n Wide as infinity;\n So wide, it never passed by one,\n Or it had passed by me.[138]\n\nThis is a note which constantly recurs in the _Hymns on God\u2019s\nEverlasting Love_\u2014sometimes expressed quaintly and unpoetically,\nsometimes with a pathos truly sublime, as in these verses\u2014\n\n O let me kiss Thy bleeding feet,\n And bathe and wash them with my tears;\n The story of Thy love repeat\n In every drooping sinner\u2019s ears,\n That all may hear the quickening sound,\n Since I, even I, have mercy found.\n\n O let Thy love my heart constrain,\n Thy love for every sinner free;\n That every fallen soul of man\n May taste the grace that found out me;\n That all mankind, with me, may prove\n Thy sovereign, everlasting love.[139]\n\nIn this, as in other respects, the Wesleyan theology was\ncharacteristically Pauline. \u2018This is a faithful saying, and worthy of\nall men to be received that Jesus Christ came into the world to save\nsinners, of whom I am the chief.\u2019\n\nHymns of this class have an important place in the story of the\nMethodist Revival, as well as in the Calvinistic controversy. The\nvehemence, the violence, with which the Wesleys asserted their\ndoctrine was largely, if not entirely, due to their sense of what it\nmeant to the vast crowds of neglected, ignorant, savage folk who\nlistened with amazement to the messengers who proclaimed God\u2019s love to\nthem.\n\n Sinners, believe the gospel word,\n Jesus is come your souls to save!\n Jesus is come, your common Lord;\n Pardon ye all in Him may have,\n May now be saved, whoever will;\n This Man receiveth sinners still.\n\n See where the lame, the halt, the blind.\n The deaf, the dumb, the sick, the poor,\n Flock to the Friend of human kind,\n And freely all accept their cure;\n To whom doth He His help deny?\n Whom in His days of flesh pass by?[140]\n\nAnd again\u2014\n\n O unexampled Love,\n O all-redeeming Grace!\n How freely didst Thou move\n To save a fallen race!\n What shall I do to make it known\n What Thou for all mankind hast done?\n\n O for a trumpet voice,\n On all the world to call!\n To bid their hearts rejoice\n In Him who died for all;\n For all my Lord was crucified,\n For all, for all my Saviour died![141]\n\nThis was a new voice crying in the wilderness of dull religious\nmediocrity or of self-satisfied religious devotion, it was the\nclarion-cry of one that brought good tidings to the outcasts of\nIsrael.\n\n\n 4. Hymns of the Methodist Evangel\n\nFrom the first the Methodists made their own experience the\nstarting-point of their preaching. John Wesley desired no help from\nany who had not \u2018the witness in himself.\u2019 His itinerants must set to\ntheir seal that God is true. \u2018We are witnesses of these things, and so\nis also the Holy Ghost.\u2019 This personal element, the testimony of the\nman who believed and therefore spoke, differentiated at once Methodist\npreaching from the cold impersonal moral essays of the parish church.\nBut Methodist preaching would not have been what it was had John\nWesley\u2019s sermons rather than Charles Wesley\u2019s hymns represented\nMethodism to the masses. John Wesley\u2019s keen intellect held his deep\nreligious fervour in check, but Charles took full advantage of the\npoet\u2019s licence to say what was in his heart without reserve and\nwithout modifying explanations.\n\nHis hymns of invitation strike a new note. There is nothing to compare\nwith them in earlier hymn-writers, and comparatively little in later.\nThey are the battle-songs of an open-air preacher, and are borne on\nthe wings of the tempest that raged around the heroic little poet as\nhe faced cheerily the rage or ridicule of the mob. His metres are\nbright and lilting, winning the ear of the simple and arresting the\ncasual passer-by.\n\n The mercy I feel To others I show,\n I set to my seal That Jesus is true:\n Ye all may find favour Who come at His call,\n O come to my Saviour, His grace is for all!\n\n O let me commend My Saviour to you,\n The publican\u2019s Friend And Advocate too,\n For you He is pleading His merits and death,\n With God interceding For sinners beneath.\n\nAnd again\u2014\n\n O all that pass by, To Jesus draw near;\n He utters a cry, Ye sinners, give ear!\n From hell to retrieve you, He spreads out His hands;\n Now, now to receive you, He graciously stands.\n\nOnly a preacher, perhaps only an open-air preacher, could have written\nsuch hymns. They are not hymns of the oratory, of the class-room, or\nthe village church; but of that vast cathedral whose roof is the blue\nvault of heaven; they are songs of Moorfields, of Kingswood, of\nNewcastle, and of Gwennap. Perhaps of all Wesley\u2019s hymns these are the\nmost characteristically Methodist. Comparatively few are to be found\neven yet in any but Methodist books, but in them they hold an\nunchallenged place, and belong to the whole Methodist family, which\nhas had many a quarrel in Conference, has been many a time by schisms\nrent asunder, but has never faltered in its loyal and steadfast\nproclamation of the message of God\u2019s everlasting love.\n\nAs a general rule each revision of a Nonconformist hymn-book renders\nit less distinctive of the denomination it represents, and this is, to\nsome extent, true of the new Methodist hymn-book. It has lost the\nsection with which Wesley\u2019s book opened, \u2018Exhorting and Entreating to\nReturn to God,\u2019 but it retains almost all the hymns. Modern writers\nhave seldom succeeded in hymns of this type. A few, however, rank with\nthe best of Charles Wesley\u2019s, who himself never struck a note of\nyearning sympathy for the erring more true and tender than Faber in\nhis \u2018Come to Jesus.\u2019\n\n Souls of men! why will ye scatter\n Like a crowd of frightened sheep?\n Foolish hearts! why will ye wander\n From a love so true and deep?\n\nIt is not one of the best signs of the times that hymns of invitation\nare now for the most part provided by American singers and are of the\nephemeral class.\n\nFaber\u2019s exquisite lines, set side by side with such a hymn as Wesley\u2019s\n\n Ye neighbours and friends Of Jesus, draw near,\n\nwell illustrate the difference between the cheery, hopeful, out-door\nevangel of the Wesleys and the subdued earnestness of the pleading of\nthe modern Catholic or Anglo-Catholic missioner. I do not suggest that\nthe comparison is to the advantage or disadvantage of either, but only\nindicate the difference of the tone of the mid-eighteenth and\nmid-nineteenth century mission hymns. In our day evangelism has lost\nmuch of its novelty, and men are less hopeful than they were of the\nworld\u2019s conversion. To the first Methodists it seemed as though any\ntriumph was possible to such a gospel as theirs, and their\nbattle-songs were all songs of victory.\n\nWesley\u2019s hymns enshrine the history as well as the doctrines of\nMethodism, and few studies in Methodist hymnology are more interesting\nthan that of the geography of the hymn-book. As to the local setting\nof \u2018Lo! on a narrow neck of land\u2019 there has been much controversy, but\nit undoubtedly belongs to Jekyl Island, and not to the Land\u2019s End.\nCharles Wesley wrote to Lady Oglethorpe from Jekyl Island in 1736\u2014\n\n \u2018Last evening I wandered to the north end of the island, and stood\n upon the narrow point which your ladyship will recall as there\n projecting into the ocean. The vastness of the watery waste, as\n compared with my standing place, called to mind the briefness of\n human life and the immensity of its consequences, and my\n surroundings inspired me to write the enclosed hymn, beginning\n\n Lo! on a narrow neck of land,\n \u2019Twixt two unbounded seas I stand\u2014\n\n which, I trust, may pleasure your ladyship, weak and feeble as it is\n when compared with the songs of the sweet psalmist of Israel.\u2019[142]\n\nHe did write a hymn at the Land\u2019s End, but it is of quite a different\ntype. It might have been written for St. Augustine of Canterbury on\nhis landing at Ebbsfleet.\n\n Come, Divine Immanuel, come,\n Take possession of Thy home,\n Now Thy mercy\u2019s wings expand,\n Stretch throughout the happy land.[143]\n\nThe popular hymn\n\n See how great a flame aspires,\n Kindled by a spark of grace!\n Jesu\u2019s love the nations fires,\n Sets the kingdoms on a blaze\u2014\n\ntells of victory at Newcastle-on-Tyne.\n\n Glory to God, whose sovereign grace\n Hath animated senseless stones;[144]\n\ntells of triumph at Kingswood, whilst\u2014\n\n Worship, and thanks, and blessing,\n And strength ascribe to Jesus!\n\nis reminiscent of mobs at Walsall and Devizes.\n\n\n 5. Hymns of the Methodist Society\n\nThe duty of a Methodist preacher was not simply to sow good seed\nbroadcast, but to gather those who received the word into Societies,\nwhere they could be taught, trained, watched over. A large part of\nJohn Wesley\u2019s itinerations were for the purpose of confirming and\nsifting the Societies. In many cases they might be described as\nCharles Wesley, who had an eye for the humorous side of people and\nthings, describes the Newcastle converts, \u2018a wild, loving, staring\nSociety.\u2019 But the converts who remained steadfast were soon led to an\nintelligent faith and a life of devotion such as is possible only to\nthose who are taught by educated men or their pupils. The debt\nMethodism owes to Oxford culture is inestimable. The Wesleys were\nnever discouraged by the ignorance of their hearers, but they were\nnever content with it. They had profound faith in the Lord Jesus\nChrist as a teacher, and prayed, like St. Paul for his simple-minded\nconverts at Philippi, that love might abound in good sense and good\ntaste.[145]\n\n Him Prophet, and King, And Priest we proclaim,\n We triumph and sing Of Jesus\u2019s name;\n Poor idiots[146] He teaches To show forth His praise,\n And tell of the riches Of Jesus\u2019s grace.\n\n No matter how dull The scholar whom He\n Takes into His school, And gives him to see;\n A wonderful fashion Of teaching He hath,\n And wise to salvation He makes us through faith.\n\nTo a generation brought up to regard Sankey\u2019s _Songs and Solos_ as the\nbest possible hymns for mission-halls and open-air services, a study\nof Wesley\u2019s hymns is a liberal education. For the most ignorant of the\nconverts the hymns were the one and only means of culture. They could\nnot read, much of the preaching must have been beyond their\ncomprehension, but the hymns, read slowly, a line at a time, soon\nbecame familiar, and the favourite hymns sung over and over again in\nthe house, the class-room, and the family circle, became a part of\ntheir very life. Methodist biography shows how the life and death of\nthe saints has been cheered and sanctified by these spiritual songs.\n\nThe most important, and by far the largest, part of Wesley\u2019s\n_Collection_ was devoted to hymns of the Christian life.\n\nIt is divided into sections: For Believers Rejoicing, Fighting,\nPraying, Watching, Working, Suffering, Seeking for Full Redemption,\nSaved, Interceding for the World. It begins with his own translation\nof Johann Andreas Rothe\u2019s great hymn\n\n Now I have found the ground wherein\n Sure my soul\u2019s anchor may remain,\n The wounds of Jesus, for my sin,\n Before the world\u2019s foundation slain;\n Whose mercy shall unshaken stay,\n When heaven and earth are fled away\n\nThis is followed by his version of Zinzendorf\u2019s hymn\n\n Jesu, Thy blood and righteousness\n My beauty are, my glorious dress.\n\nAfter these Moravian hymns are a number of Charles Wesley\u2019s, which\ncelebrate the joys of believers, for \u2018How should not he be glad, whom\nthe glad tidings have reached?\u2019[147] It is often difficult to\nunderstand John Wesley\u2019s principle of classification, but in this\nsection almost every hymn of the seventy-five is obviously well placed\nunder the title \u2018For Believers Rejoicing.\u2019 The notes of thanksgiving\nare very varied, from the calm confidence of \u2018Now I have found the\nground\u2019 to the simple songs written for him \u2018that in God is merry,\u2019\nsuch as\n\n O what shall I do My Saviour to praise,\n So faithful and true, So plenteous in grace,\n So strong to deliver, So good to redeem\n The weakest believer That hangs upon Him!\n\nand\n\n My God, I am Thine, What a comfort divine,\n What a blessing to know That my Jesus is mine!\n\nWe cannot claim for these hymns that they introduce new songs to the\nChristian choir. Joy and gladness are common to all who have found\nsalvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Isaac Watts, Philip\nDoddridge, F. W. Faber, Frances Ridley Havergal, and many more have\nhad \u2018the high praises of God in their mouth.\u2019 From the days of the\nHebrew psalmists until now the sense of infinite content which comes\nwith the peace which passeth all understanding has been the theme of\nGod\u2019s singers. \u2018He satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry\nsoul with goodness.\u2019 Yet joyousness is a special characteristic of\nMethodist hymns, and especially of those which were written in the\nearly days of the triumphs of the itinerant preachers. No hymns rise\nhigher in their exultant rapture, none are more tenderly triumphant\nthan the songs of Charles Wesley.\n\nHis Birthday hymn exhibits the happy enthusiasm of his evangelism.\n\n My remnant of days\n I spend in His praise,\n Who died the whole world to redeem;\n Be they many or few,\n My days are His due,\n And they all are devoted to Him.\n\nIn other hymns he expresses the same joy in living in calmer tones.\n\n The winter\u2019s night and summer\u2019s day\n Glide imperceptibly away,\n Too short to sing Thy praise;\n Too few we find the happy hours,\n And haste to join those heavenly powers,\n In everlasting lays.\n\nBright and inspiring as these pieces are, they are in striking\ncontrast with the hymns characteristic of minor religious movements,\nand justify John Wesley\u2019s claim that \u2018in these hymns is no doggerel.\u2019\nThat they are of unequal merit goes without saying, but it is\nremarkable how many of them are living hymns to-day. Religious feeling\nis no more healthy because it loves to pray for guidance \u2018amid the\nencircling gloom,\u2019 or to describe the hosts of the Church militant as\n\u2018pilgrims of the night.\u2019 A \u2018sober standard of feeling\u2019 must take into\naccount that the darkness has passed and the true light now shineth.\n\nYet one who knows little of early Methodism would be surprised to find\nhow \u2018sober\u2019 is the tone of most of the hymns provided for the people\ncalled Methodists. They are songs in which \u2018calmly reverential joy\u2019 is\nmore often heard than ecstasy. It is instructive to turn from Mr.\nLecky\u2019s chapter on \u2018The Religious Revival,\u2019 in his _History of England\nin the Eighteenth Century_ to Wesley\u2019s hymns. The uninstructed reader\nof Mr. Lecky would expect to find here the turbid, involved,\nhysterical expression of a morbid fanaticism, but he would search\nalmost in vain for illustrations of that side of the Methodist\nMovement. It is true that both the Wesleys were perplexed by the\nphysical effects of their preaching, and were afraid to treat them as\nmere manifestations of hysterical excitement. But they dealt with them\nas St. Paul dealt with somewhat similar phenomena at Corinth, and\ncarefully avoided encouraging such painful and inconvenient\ninterruptions of their services. The hymn-book makes no provision for\nthe nervously excited, and has no compositions of the class\ncharacteristic of many \u2018revivals\u2019\u2014such, for instance, as are found in\nHugh Bourne\u2019s _Hymns for Camp Meetings, Revivals, etc._ The novelty,\nthe directness of the preaching, and, no doubt, the lack of education\nof many of the preachers naturally led to indiscretion in many places,\nespecially in the early days of the Revival; but it is fair to judge\nthe Wesleys\u2019 own standard of religious emotion by their hymns rather\nthan by the extravagances of their least intelligent helpers.\n\nCharles Wesley\u2019s hymn, \u2018For the Fear of God,\u2019 is a good example of the\nattitude of soul he desired for himself and for Methodists generally.\n\n God of all grace and majesty,\n Supremely great and good!\n If I have mercy[148] found with Thee,\n Through the atoning blood,\n The guard of all Thy mercies give,\n And to my pardon join\n A fear lest I should ever grieve\n The gracious Spirit divine.\n\n Rather I would in darkness mourn\n The absence of Thy peace,\n Than e\u2019er by light irreverence turn\n Thy grace to wantonness:\n Rather I would in painful awe\n Beneath Thine anger move,\n Than sin against the gospel law\n Of liberty and love.\n\n But O! Thou wouldst not have me live\n In bondage, grief, or pain,\n Thou dost not take delight to grieve\n The helpless sons of men;\n Thy will is my salvation, Lord;\n And let it now take place,\n And let me tremble at the word\n Of reconciling grace.\n\n Still may I walk as in Thy sight,\n My strict observer see;\n And Thou by reverent love unite\n My child-like heart to Thee;\n Still let me, till my days are past,\n At Jesu\u2019s feet abide,\n So shall He lift me up at last,\n And seat me by His side.\n\nPerhaps there are few hymns quite of this type, but the subdued and\nsubduing sense of the fear of God pervades many of Charles Wesley\u2019s\npoems. He dwells much on \u2018the mystic joys of penitence,\u2019 as in his\nbrief meditation on Ezek. xxxvi. 26, \u2018I will give you an heart of\nflesh.\u2019\n\n Let me, according to Thy word,\n A tender, contrite heart receive,\n Which grieves[149] for having grieved its Lord\n And never can itself forgive;\n\na verse which reminds one of Cardinal Newman\u2019s saying that true\npenitence never forgives itself. This, however, is not what Charles\nWesley meant, for he of all Christian poets best understood how truly\nthe pardoned prodigal might make merry and be glad when he was safe in\nhis Father\u2019s house once more.\n\n Lift up Thy countenance serene,\n And let Thy happy child\n Behold, without a cloud between,\n The Godhead reconciled.\n\nAn important series of hymns\u2014so important that it demands separate\nconsideration\u2014is that which is found in Sections vii.-ix. of the\noriginal hymn-book. They include nearly one hundred pieces, and from\nthe days of John Wesley until the latest revision the section began\nwith a hymn which is the most fitting introduction to the series,\nsince it sets forth with great simplicity the Wesleyan doctrine of\nChristian perfection. Familiar as this hymn is to Methodists, it is\nworth while to quote it in full here\u2014\n\n The thing my God doth hate,\n That I no more may do,\n Thy creature, Lord, again create,\n And all my soul renew;\n My soul shall then, like Thine,\n Abhor the thing unclean,\n And, sanctified by love divine,\n For ever cease from sin.\n\n That blessed law of Thine,\n Jesus, to me impart;\n The Spirit\u2019s law of life divine,\n O write it in my heart!\n Implant it deep within,\n Whence it may ne\u2019er remove,\n The law of liberty from sin,\n The perfect law of love.\n\n Thy nature be my law,\n Thy spotless sanctity,\n And sweetly every moment draw\n My happy soul to Thee.\n Soul of my soul remain!\n Who didst for all fulfil,\n In me, O Lord, fulfil again\n Thy heavenly Father\u2019s will!\n\nThis hymn is made up, as are many others, by joining together verses\nfrom the _Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures_. The\nfirst verse is suggested by Jer. xliv. 4: \u2018Oh, do not this abominable\nthing that I hate.\u2019 The second and third by Jer. xxxi. 33: \u2018I will put\nMy law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will\nbe their God, and they shall be My people.\u2019\n\nAnother peaceful and attractive hymn on the same subject is based on\nHeb. iv. 9: \u2018There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.\u2019\nCharles Wesley wrote twenty-seven verses; John Wesley selected eight,\nthese are reduced to six in the _Methodist Hymn-book_. I am inclined\nto think that a further abridgement would have been still wiser. The\nfour verses which follow are a beautiful meditation on the text\u2014\n\n Lord, I believe a rest remains\n To all Thy people known,\n A rest where pure enjoyment reigns,\n And Thou art loved alone:\n\n A rest, where all our soul\u2019s desire\n Is fixed on things above;\n Where fear, and sin, and grief expire,\n Cast out by perfect love.\n\n O that I now the rest might know,\n Believe, and enter in!\n Now, Saviour, now the power bestow,\n And let me cease from sin.\n\n Remove this hardness from my heart,\n This unbelief remove:\n To me the rest of faith impart,\n The Sabbath of Thy love.\n\nThe doctrine of Entire Sanctification, as it was believed and taught\nby the Wesleys, is set forth in the hymn-book with emphasis, but the\nexpressions are rarely open to serious objection, nearly every phrase\nhaving Scriptural precedent. In early days Charles Wesley had often\nprayed for death, believing that through its gate alone could he find\nentrance into \u2018the land of rest from inbred sin.\u2019 In one of his first\nhymns, published in 1739, he had written\u2014\n\n Fain would I leave this world below,\n Of pain and sin the dark abode,\n Where shadowy joy or solid woe\n Allures or tears me from my God;\n Doubtful and insecure of bliss,\n Since death alone confirms me His.[150]\n\nBut in later years he had outgrown this mood. John Wesley wrote _No_\nagainst the last line of the stanza, and in his hymn-book gave\u2014\n\n Since _faith_ alone confirms me His.\n\nThe brothers taught that sanctification was progressive, yet might be\n\u2018cut short in righteousness,\u2019 a phrase which they often quoted. In one\nof the hymns for those that wait for \u2018full redemption,\u2019[151] Charles\nWesley writes\u2014\n\n Surely I have pardon found,\n Grace doth more than sin abound,\n God, I know, is pacified;\n Thou for me, for me hast died;\n But I cannot rest herein,\n All my nature still is sin,\n Comforted I will not be\n Till my soul is all like Thee.\n\n See my burdened, sin-sick soul,\n Give me faith, and make me whole!\n Finish Thy great work of grace,\n Cut it short in righteousness.\n Speak the second time, \u2018Be clean!\u2019\n Take away my inbred sin;\n Now the stumbling-block remove,\n Cast it out by perfect love.\n\nThis doctrine of what has been called \u2018the second blessing\u2019 is often\nmet with in Charles Wesley, but he used expressions which John\ndisapproved, and would not repeat in his _Collection_, as in the\nsecond verse of the great hymn, \u2018Love divine, all loves excelling,\u2019\nwhich reads\u2014\n\n Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit,\n Into every troubled breast;\n Let us all in Thee inherit,\n Let us find that second rest;\n Take away the power of sinning,\n Alpha and Omega be;\n End of faith as its beginning,\n Set our hearts at liberty.\n\nJohn Fletcher suggested that \u2018power\u2019 should be altered to \u2018love.\u2019\n\nThe Wesleys\u2019 teaching concerning sanctification had an immense\ninfluence upon Methodist life and thought. \u2018The pursuit of holiness,\u2019\nto use Dean Goulburn\u2019s phrase, was the daily interest and delight of\nmultitudes of devout souls. No doubt in many cases there was more or\nless of morbid introspection, but the rich treasury of Methodist\nbiography witnesses to the saintliness of those who made the search\nfor \u2018full redemption,\u2019 or, as they delighted to say, \u2018perfect love,\u2019\nthe one serious business of life.\n\nImportant and influential as this section of Wesley\u2019s _Hymns_ is, not\nmany of the best are found here.[152] The finest are John Wesley\u2019s\ntranslations from the German but only a few original compositions are\nof marked value. Some exceptions, indeed, must be made, notably\u2014\n\n Love divine, all loves excelling;\n\nand there are many verses inspired by that thirst of the soul \u2018for\nGod, yea, even for the living God,\u2019 which is characteristic of no one\nChurch or age, but of all elect souls restless till they find rest in\nHim. The varying moods of the seeker after God are impressively\nillustrated. Some of the hymns are of a solemn and even sombre type,\nwhile others are bright with assurance of the favour of God and the\ngladness of the redeemed. Here are a few verses from a\n\n\n HYMN TO GOD THE SANCTIFIER\n\n Come, Holy Ghost, all quickening fire!\n Come, and my hallowed heart inspire,\n Sprinkled with the atoning blood;\n Now to my soul Thyself reveal,\n Thy mighty working let me feel,\n And know that I am born of God.\n\n Thy witness with my spirit bear,\n That God, my God, inhabits there;\n Thou, with the Father, and the Son,\n Eternal Light\u2019s co-eval Beam;\n Be Christ in me, and I in Him,\n Till perfect we are made in one.\n\n Let earth no more my heart divide,\n With Christ may I be crucified,\n To Thee with my whole soul aspire;\n Dead to the world and all its toys,\n Its idle pomp, and fading joys,\n Be thou alone my one desire!\n\n Be Thou my joy, be Thou my dread;\n In battle cover Thou my head,\n Nor earth nor hell I then shall fear;\n I then shall turn my steady face,\n Want, pain, defy, enjoy disgrace,\n Glory in dissolution near.\n\n My will be swallowed up in Thee;\n Light in Thy light still may I see,\n Beholding Thee with open face;\n Called the full power of faith to prove,\n Let all my hallowed heart be love,\n And all my spotless life be praise.\n\n Come, Holy Ghost, all-quickening fire,\n My consecrated heart inspire,\n Sprinkled with the atoning blood;\n Still to my soul Thyself reveal,\n Thy mighty working may I feel,\n And know that I am one with God!\n\nOf the other type two bright verses on 1 Chron. xxix. 5 are a good\nexample\u2014\n\n Lord, in the strength of grace,\n With a glad heart and free,\n Myself, my residue of days\n I consecrate to Thee.\n\n Thy ransomed servant, I\n Restore to Thee Thine own,\n And, from this moment, live or die\n To serve my God alone.\n\nThese two verses belong to the very extensive series of\n\n\n 6. Hymns on Passages of Holy Scripture\n\nCharles Wesley\u2019s poetry is always sanctified by the word of God. In\nthis regard he is unsurpassed, and I think unequalled, by any other\nwriter. He thought and wrote in the language of the Bible, and\nconstantly weaves into his hymns the words, phrases, incidents of Holy\nScripture. No one \u2018spiritualized\u2019 more boldly than he. Of this his\nmost famous poem, \u2018Wrestling Jacob,\u2019 is the great example. Many other\nhymns illustrate the same power, e.g. this verse, which\n\u2018spiritualizes\u2019 Peter\u2019s deliverance from prison\u2014\n\n Long my imprisoned spirit lay\n Fast bound in sin and nature\u2019s night;\n Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,\n I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;\n My chains fell off, my heart was free,\n I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.\n\nand this, which refers in the same fashion to the resurrection of\nLazarus\u2014\n\n Buried in sin, Thy voice I hear,\n And burst the barriers of my tomb,\n In all the marks of death appear,\n Forth at Thy call, though bound, I come.\n\nHis more formal paraphrases are often very fine, and are hymns of\npermanent worth. Such are\u2014\n\n None is like Jeshurun\u2019s God (Deut. xxxiii. 26-29).\n\n Wherewith, O God, shall I draw near (Mic. vi. 6-8).\n\n Away my unbelieving fear (Hab. iii. 17, 18).\n\nOf course Charles Wesley wrote many Psalm-versions. Comparatively few\nare above the average, but there are some exceptions. Among these are\nthe 48th\u2014\n\n Great is our redeeming Lord,\n In power, and truth, and grace.\n\nthe 84th\u2014\n\n How lovely are Thy tents, O Lord!\n Where\u2019er Thou choosest to record\n Thy name, or place Thy house of prayer,\n My soul outflies the angel-choir,\n And faints, o\u2019erpowered with strong desire,\n To meet Thy special presence there.\n\nthe 121st\u2014\n\n To the hills I lift mine eyes,\n The everlasting hills.\n\nthe 125th\u2014\n\n Who in the Lord confide\n And feel His sprinkled blood,\n In storms and hurricanes abide,\n Firm as the mount of God.\n\nOften only two or three verses can be taken from a long poem, as in\nPs. iii.\u2014\n\n Thou, Lord, art a shield for me.[153]\n\nand Ps. ix.\u2014\n\n Thee will I praise with all my heart.\n\nHere the whole psalm, as it appears in the _Poetical Works_, consists\nof fourteen verses, most of them impossible for singing in a Christian\nChurch, but there are four good verses, especially this, with its\ntender trustfulness that the humble seeker must at length find his\nSaviour\u2014\n\n A helpless soul that looks to Thee\n Is sure at last Thy face to see,\n And all Thy goodness to partake;\n The sinner who for Thee doth grieve,\n And longs, and labours to believe,\n Thou never, never wilt forsake.[154]\n\nThe 23rd Psalm is also very beautiful, and is worthy to take its place\namongst the many lovely renderings of this sweetest of the praises of\nIsrael. I venture to quote the whole, as it is little known outside\nWesleyan Methodism, and not too well known in our own Church. It is\nthe 23rd Psalm read in the light of the tenth chapter of St. John\u2019s\nGospel.\n\n Jesus the good Shepherd is;\n Jesus died the sheep to save;\n He is mine, and I am His;\n All I want in Him I have,\n Life, and health, and rest, and food,\n All the plenitude of God.\n\n Jesus loves and guards His own;\n Me in verdant pastures feeds;\n Makes me quietly lie down,\n By the streams of comfort leads:\n Following Him where\u2019er He goes,\n Silent joy my heart o\u2019erflows.\n\n He in sickness makes me whole,\n Guides into the paths of peace;\n He revives my fainting soul,\n Stablishes in righteousness;\n Who for me vouchsafed to die,\n Loves me still,\u2014I know not why!\n\n Unappalled by guilty fear,\n Through the mortal vale I go;\n My eternal Life is near;\n Thee my Life, in death I know;\n Bless Thy chastening, cheering rod\n Die into the arms of God!\n\n Till that welcome hour I see,\n Thou before my foes dost feed;\n Bidd\u2019st me sit and feast with Thee,\n Pour\u2019st Thy oil upon my head;\n Giv\u2019st me all I ask, and more,\n Mak\u2019st my cup of joy run o\u2019er.\n\n Love divine shall still embrace,\n Love shall keep me to the end;\n Surely all my happy days\n I shall in Thy temple spend,\n Till I to Thy house remove,\n Thy eternal house above!\n\nDr. Watts\u2019s \u2018grand design\u2019 in his version of the Psalter was \u2018to\nteach\u2019 the \u2018author to speak like a Christian.\u2019 Charles Wesley took St.\nAugustine\u2019s view, that we ought to hear the voice of Christ in all the\npsalms. His version of Ps. xlv. is typical of his attitude toward the\nPsalter as a whole.\n\n My heart is full of Christ, and longs\n Its glorious matter to declare!\n Of Him I make my loftier songs,\n I cannot from His praise forbear;\n My ready tongue makes haste to sing\n The beauties of my heavenly King.\n\nIn 1762 Charles Wesley took advantage of a time of physical weakness\nto write a large number of verses, forming a kind of running\ncommentary on the Holy Scriptures. They are, for the most part, purely\ndevotional; but the events of the time and, perhaps, of the day on\nwhich a poem was written are mirrored in some of the verses. In the\npreface he says\u2014\n\n Many of the thoughts are borrowed from Mr. Henry\u2019s _Commentary_, Dr.\n Gell on the _Pentateuch_, and Bengelius on the _New Testament_.\n Several of the hymns are intended to prove, and several to guard,\n the doctrine of Christian Perfection. I durst not publish one\n without the other. In the latter sort I use some severity.\n\nOn this point the brothers differed, and especially as to the method\nof treating those who discredited the doctrine by extravagance in\nteaching or by inconsistency of life.\n\nThe _Short Poems_ account for the enormous number of Charles Wesley\u2019s\nhymns. On the Old Testament he wrote 1,609, on the New Testament\n3,491, a total of 5,100 poetical notes on the Holy Scripture. But very\nmany consist of only one verse.[155] By skilful combination some very\ngood hymns have been made, and in a few instances we come upon a\ncomplete hymn of great strength or beauty. Many of these are familiar\nin Methodist congregations, though probably few worshippers recognize\nthe passages of Scripture which suggested the verses. The well-known\nhymn\n\n A charge to keep I have,\n\nis the poet\u2019s meditation and prayer after reading Lev. viii. 35:\n\u2018Therefore shall ye abide at the door of the tabernacle of the\ncongregation day and night seven days, and keep the charge of the\nLord, that ye die not.\u2019 After reading Lev. vi. 13: \u2018The fire shall\never be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out,\u2019 he prays\n\n O Thou who camest from above\n The pure celestial fire to impart,\n Kindle a flame of sacred love\n On the mean altar of my heart!\n\n There let it for Thy glory burn\n With inextinguishable blaze;\n And trembling to its source return,\n In humble prayer and fervent praise.\n\nOn the words \u2018merciful and gracious\u2019 in Exod. xxxiv. 6 he comments\n\n Mercy is Thy distinguished Name,\n And suits the sinner best.\n\nOn the twenty-ninth verse of the same chapter, \u2018Moses wist not that\nhis face shone,\u2019 he writes\n\n Thine image if Thou stamp on me,\n Let others, Lord, the brightness see,\n By me unseen, unknown.\n\nAs these verses are buried in the last four volumes of the _Poetical\nWorks_, I venture to quote a few others which have, I think, some\nspecial value, reminding one at times of Herbert or Crashaw.\n\n \u2018The Lord went His way\u2019 (Gen. xviii. 33).\n\n Unwearied let us still request\n By instant prayer whate\u2019er we want:\n The patriarch from asking ceased,\n Before the Almighty ceased to grant.\n\n \u2018O my Lord, I am not eloquent\u2019 (Exod. iv. 10).\n\n How ready is the man to go\n Whom God hath never sent!\n How timorous, diffident, and slow\n God\u2019s chosen instrument!\n Lord, if from Thee this mark I have\n Of a true Messenger,\n By whom Thou wilt Thy people save,\n And let me always fear.\n\n Slow of speech and slower still\n Of heart, alas! am I,\n Cannot utter what I feel,\n Or speak to the Most High:\n But I to my Brother look,\n Mighty both in word and deed:\n He my cause hath undertook\n And lives for me to plead.\n\n \u2018Where hast thou gleaned to-day?\u2019 (Ruth ii. 19).\n\n At evening to myself I say,\n My soul, where hast thou gleaned to-day,\n Thy labours how bestowed?\n What hast thou rightly said or done?\n What grace attained or knowledge won,\n In following after God?\n\n \u2018Oh that I knew where I might find Him\u2019 (Job xxxiii. 3).\n\n Where but on yonder tree?\n Or if too rich thou art,\n Sink into poverty,\n And find Him in thine heart.\n\n \u2018Israel served for a wife\u2019 (Hos. xii. 12).\n\n While Jacob for a wife doth wait,\n A length of servile years\n (His love to Rachel is so great)\n As a few days appears:\n And shall I think it long to stay\n Or wish my labours passed?\n A thousand years are but a day\n If Christ be mine at last.\n\nThese verses on Num. xi. 27, 28 are in a different strain.\n\n Eldad, they said, and Medad there,\n Irregularly bold,\n By Moses uncommissioned dare\n A separate meeting hold!\n And still whom none, but Heaven, will own,\n Men whom the world decry,\n Men authorized by God alone\n Presume to prophesy!\n\n How often have I blindly done\n What zealous Joshua did,\n Impatient to the rulers run\n And cried, \u2018My lords, forbid!\u2019\n Silence the schismatics; constrain\n Their _thoughts_ with ours to agree;\n And sacrifice the souls of men\n To idol unity!\n\nJohn Wesley lets this pass without note or comment, but when, on Num.\nxvi. 10, Charles wrote\n\n Raised from the people\u2019s lowest lees,\n Guard, Lord, Thy preaching witnesses,\n Nor let their pride the honour claim\n Of sealing covenants in Thy name.\n\nhe notes on the first line, \u2018Query? J. W.\u2019\n\nHere our detailed consideration of Charles Wesley\u2019s hymns must end,\nthough there are many others over which one would be glad to linger.\nSome of the hymns on Death and the Future Life are of great power,\nthough some have lost and others are losing their hold upon Methodist\nworshippers. Charles Wesley\u2019s view of death is well illustrated in\nthese verses, which I quote the more readily because, to my regret,\nthey are not found in the _Methodist Hymn-book_. If they could not\noften be sung in the congregation, there are times when they would\nspeak the inmost feeling of the devout disciple.\n\n O when shall we sweetly remove,\n O when shall we enter our rest,\n Return to the Sion above,\n The mother of spirits distressed!\n\n Not all the archangels can tell\n The joys of that holiest place,\n When Jesus is pleased to reveal\n The light of His heavenly face.\n\n \u2019Tis good at Thy word to be here,\n \u2019Tis better in Thee to be gone,\n And see Thee in glory appear,\n And rise to a share of Thy throne.\n\n To mourn for Thy coming is sweet,\n To weep at Thy longer delay;\n But Thou, whom we hasten to meet,\n Shalt chase all our sorrows away.\n\nThis is not the tone of modern worship. It is open to the charge of\nthat \u2018other-worldliness\u2019 of which our time is so impatient and knows\nso little, but it is the language of the disciples whom Jesus loves.\n\u2018Having the desire to depart and be with Christ: for it is very far\nbetter.\u2019 \u2018He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come\nquickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!\u2019\n\n\nAfter Charles Wesley, Methodism had no great hymn-writer, though\nThomas Olivers (1725-99), one of the early preachers, wrote one of the\nfinest of our hymns of adoration.\n\nHe was a man of considerable ability, but Wesley had more confidence\nin him as a corrector of errors of doctrine than of errors of the\npress. He left Toplady to be \u2018corrected by one that is full his match,\nMr. Thomas Olivers,\u2019 but he rejected Olivers as assistant-editor of\nthe _Arminian Magazine_, because \u2018the errata are insufferable.\u2019\n\n\u2018The God of Abraham praise\u2019 was published at Nottingham in a pamphlet\nof eight pages, with the title, \u2018A Hymn to the God of Abraham. In\nthree parts, adapted to a celebrated air, sung by the priest, Signior\nLeoni, &c., at the Jews\u2019 Synagogue in London.\u2019 There is only slight\nverbal resemblance between Olivers\u2019 version and the Hebrew\noriginal.[156] He wrote a few other hymns, not to be compared with\nthis, yet indicating considerable poetic power. One of them, \u2018On the\nLast Judgement,\u2019 was published at \u2018Leedes.\u2019 It contained twenty\nverses, and was afterwards altered, and enlarged to thirty-six verses,\nScripture references being given in the margin of almost every line.\nSome verses of this poem have been occasionally used in hymn-books,\nand Lord Selborne gave twelve verses in his _Book of Praise_. It is,\nhowever, little known. The following are among the best verses.\n\n Come, immortal King of Glory!\n Now with all Thy saints appear;\n While astonished worlds adore Thee,\n And the dead Thy clarions hear,\n Shine refulgent,\n And Thy Deity maintain.\n\n Lo! He comes with clouds descending:\n Hark! the trump of God is blown:\n And the archangel\u2019s voice attending,\n Makes the high procession known.\n Sons of Adam,\n Rise and stand before your God!\n\n \u2018Come, Lord Jesus, O come quickly,\u2019\n Oft has prayed the mourning Bride.\n Lo! He answers, \u2018I come quickly\u2019;\n Who Thy coming may abide?\n All who loved Him,\n All who longed to see His day.\n\n Come, He saith, ye heirs of glory,\n Come, ye purchase of My blood,\n Claim the kingdom now before you,\n Rise and fill the mount of God:\n Fixed for ever,\n Where the Lamb on Sion stands.\n\n Now their trials all are ended,\n Now the dubious warfare\u2019s o\u2019er,\n Joy no more with sorrow blended,\n They shall sigh and weep no more:\n God for ever\n Wipes the tear from every eye.\n\n Hail! Thou Alpha and Omega!\n First and last of all alone.\n He that is, and was, and shall be,\n And beside whom there is none.\n Take the glory,\n Great Eternal Three in One!\n\n Praise be to the Father given:\n Praise to the co-eval Son:\n Praise the Spirit, One and Seven;\n Praise the mystic Three in One.\n Hallelujah!\n Everlasting praise be Thine.\n\nJohn Bakewell (1721-1819), a Methodist schoolmaster, wrote several\nhymns, and is widely known as the author of \u2018Hail, Thou once despis\u00e8d\nJesus.\u2019[157] Benjamin Rhodes (1743-1815), converted under the\npreaching of Whitefield, and for many years a Methodist preacher,\nwrote one really fine hymn, \u2018My heart and voice I raise.\u2019 Another of\nthe early Methodist preachers, John Murlin, \u2018the weeping prophet,\u2019\npublished a small volume of hymns, some of which are quite as good as\nmost of the eighteenth-century songs.\n\n\n\n\n IV\n Eighteenth-century Hymns\n\n\n III.\u2014The Olney Hymns\n\nThe contribution of evangelical Churchmen, apart from the Wesleys, to\nthe hymnody of the eighteenth century, is slight, with the important\nexception of the remarkable collection of hymns issued by William\nCowper and John Newton, which takes its title from the little\nBuckinghamshire town in which Newton was for years curate for an\nabsentee vicar.\n\nOur little England has been the mother of so many famous sons that it\noften happens that some out-of-the-way village or obscure country town\nis rich in memories of the great and good, for\n\n Half of her dust has walked the rest\n In poets, heroes, martyrs, sages.\n\nSuch a spot is Olney, the town of Cowper and of Cowper\u2019s Mary, of John\nNewton, and for a time of Thomas Scott, of whom Newman speaks as \u2018the\nwriter who made a deeper impression on my mind than any other, and to\nwhom (humanly speaking) I almost owe my soul.\u2019[158] Where William\nCarey, after some hesitation on the ground of his slight abilities,\nwas \u2018allowed to go on preaching,\u2019 and finally sent forth to the\nministry by the unanimous vote of the Baptist Church, over which John\nSutcliff presided. Where also Dr. H. J. Gauntlett, when a boy of ten,\nwas organist at the parish church.[159]\n\nThe Olney hymns are at once the \u2018monument\u2019 of \u2018an intimate and\nendeared friendship\u2019 and of a memorable literary partnership. \u2018The old\nAfrican blasphemer\u2019 must have felt it even more a matter of\nthankfulness that he found himself collaborating with William Cowper\nthan that he should become minister of the nearest church to the\nMansion House. John Newton\u2019s romantic story is too well known to be\nrepeated here. He is a unique figure in the Christian choir, and the\nstory of our hymn-writers would be vastly poorer if his life were\nomitted.\n\nInfluenced, as he gladly recognized, by the mother who died when he\nwas a boy of seven, his soul lay open to intellectual and spiritual\nimpressions, even in the midst of his wanderings and sins. Euclid, as\nwell as Thomas \u00e0 Kempis, shared in the saving of his soul and kept him\nfrom sinking to the level of his companions and oppressors. His\nhair-breadth escapes were so many and so remarkable that he might well\nregard them as interpositions of Providence, indicating that he was \u2018a\nchosen vessel\u2019 whom God had designated to special work when his hour\nshould come.\n\nAmong the many interesting men who occupy secondary places in the\nreligious life of the eighteenth century, he is one of the most\ninteresting and attractive. The promise of his childhood blighted by\nthe death of his mother, his restless, roving, adventurous manhood,\nhis pursuit of knowledge under difficulties, his seven years\u2019 faithful\nlove for Mary Catlett, thoughts of whom were never absent from his\nmind for an hour amidst all his \u2018misery and wretchedness,\u2019 the\nunegotistic frankness of his _Authentic Narrative_, his profound and\nthankful modesty,\n\n The genuine meek humility,\n The wonder why such love to me,\n\nhis genius for friendship, his good-humoured perplexity as to his\nproper theological and ecclesiastical affinities, his ready wit and\nmanly tenderness, unite to make John Newton\u2019s a name over which one\nmay well linger.\n\nHe was a Calvinist for the same reason that the Wesleys were\nArminians. They were convinced that only a love divine which included\nevery soul of man could have stooped to them. Newton believed that\nonly God\u2019s determinate counsel could have set such wandering feet as\nhis upon the rock and established his goings. To such elect souls the\ndivers ways of contradictory theologies blend in the one path which\nleads the sinner to the Saviour. \u2018The views,\u2019 he says, \u2018I have\nreceived of the doctrines of grace, are essential to my peace, and I\ncould not live a day or an hour without them.\u2019 He found them \u2018friendly\nto holiness,\u2019 and it was not in him to be \u2018ashamed of them.\u2019 One of\nhis favourite stories was of an old woman near Olney, whose views on\npredestination suited him exactly. \u2018Ah! I have long settled that\npoint; for if God had not chosen me before I was born, I am sure He\nwould have seen nothing in me to have chosen me for afterwards.\u2019 But\nwe can well believe that he was not a satisfactory Calvinist from the\n\u2018highest\u2019 point of view. \u2018There were two sorts of Calvinists at\nOlney,\u2019 he said, \u2018and they always reminded me of the two baskets of\nJeremiah\u2019s figs.\u2019\n\nHis Churchmanship was like his Calvinism, convinced but liberal,\nalmost easy-going. He writes to his friend, William Bull\u2014\n\n I know not how it is. I think my sentiments and experience are as\n orthodox and Calvinistical as need be; and yet I am a sort of\n speckled bird among my Calvinist brethren. I am a mighty good\n Churchman, but pass amongst such as a Dissenter in prunello. On the\n other hand, the Dissenters (many of them, I mean) think me\n defective, either in understanding or in conscience, for staying\n where I am. Well, there is a middle party called Methodists, but\n neither do my dimensions exactly fit with them.... But there are a\n few among all parties who bear with me and love me, and with this I\n must be content at present.... Party walls, though stronger than the\n walls of Babylon, must come down in the general ruin when the earth\n and all its works shall be burned up, if not sooner.\n\nIn truth, he also was one of those whom any Church might gladly have\nadopted. He would have been thoroughly happy and at home amongst the\nbest of the Dissenters, he would have been an ideal Methodist, and his\n_Narrative_ would have given an added glory to the _Lives of Early\nMethodist Preachers_; but, notwithstanding the difficulties which\ndelayed his taking orders, he was in his right place as a parish\nclergyman, and had no reason to complain that he was not appreciated\nin the Establishment. His _Apologia_ shows that when he desired to\nenter the ministry, Dissenters were quite as much afraid of him as\nChurchmen, and were as unwilling to ordain him as the archbishop\nhimself.[160]\n\nHe entered the Church without any special prejudice in its favour, but\nhis conviction that he had taken the right step grew stronger year by\nyear. His defence of the Prayer-book against the criticism of the\nDissenter who availed himself of Watts\u2019s _Psalms and Hymns_ is as\neffective as it is witty, and is enforced by a characteristic anecdote\nof a preacher who used to compose hymns line by line as he announced\nthem from the pulpit.\n\n Crito freely will rehearse\n Forms of praise and prayer in verse;\n Why should Crito then suppose\n Forms are sinful when in prose?\n Must my form be deemed a crime\n Merely for the want of rhyme?\n\nNewton\u2019s charity went a good deal beyond that of the ordinary\nevangelical of his own and of many a later day. In the _Apologia_ he\nexpresses with vigour his conviction that \u2018the Lord has a people\u2019\namong the members of the Roman and Greek Churches.\n\n I should hope that they who, having themselves tasted that the Lord\n is gracious, know the language of a heart under the influence of His\n Spirit, would, in defiance of Protestant prejudices, be of my mind\n if they had opportunity of perusing the writings of some Papists.\n\nNewton was not one of the great men of his age, but he is remarkable,\nif not pre-eminent, for the naturalness with which he speaks the\ncommon tongue of the children of God. Father Faber, in the preface to\nhis _Hymns_, bears a somewhat reluctant witness to this.\n\n Catholics even are said to be sometimes found poring with a devout\n and unsuspecting delight over the verses of the Olney hymns, which\n the author (Faber) himself can remember acting like a spell upon him\n for years, strong enough to be for long a counter influence to very\n grave convictions, and even now to come back from time to time\n unbidden into the mind.\n\nIf Faber deprecated the \u2018spell\u2019 of the Olney hymns, it is fair to\nremember that Newton concludes his defence of devout Catholics by\nsaying, \u2018However, I desire to be thankful that I am not a Papist.\u2019\n\nIn 1764 the difficulties which beset his entrance to the ministry\nended, and he was ordained by the Bishop of Lincoln to the curacy of\nOlney, which had been secured for him by the Earl of Dartmouth,[161] a\ndevout and liberal Churchman, commemorated in Cowper\u2019s lines\u2014\n\n We boast some rich ones whom the gospel sways,\n And one who wears a coronet and prays.\n\nNewton was nearly forty when he entered upon his first clerical\nemployment. A few months after his coming to Olney, Cowper and Mrs.\nUnwin stayed with him at the vicarage for about six weeks, and from\nthat time they were bound together by the ties of a deep affection.\nNewton recognized with his usual shrewdness how much he was inferior\nto his friend in intellectual capacity, but he was able to give to the\nsorely tried poet, in his fits of depression, much comfort and a very\npatient friendship. When in 1773 one of Cowper\u2019s worst attacks came\non, he went to the vicarage and remained there for more than twelve\nmonths. It was no light trial to Newton, but he said, \u2018I think I can\nhardly do or suffer too much for such a friend,\u2019 and \u2018upon the whole\u2019\nhe was not weary of his \u2018cross.\u2019 It has sometimes, most ungenerously,\nbeen charged against Newton that his influence tended to produce, or\nto aggravate, the religious melancholy of the poet, but Cowper\u2019s\nmalady had been very pronounced long before Newton met him. Richard\nCecil, and more recently Canon Overton, have defended Newton against\nthis accusation. Cowper\u2019s morbid depression must have been much more\ntrying to Newton than Newton\u2019s humble, cheerful faith could have been\nto Cowper. Indeed, his playful poems addressed to John Newton and his\nwife and to their common friend, \u2018the smoke-inhaling Bull\u2019\u2014the\nIndependent minister of Newport Pagnell, whom Cowper calls \u2018a man of\nletters and of genius.... but he smokes tobacco\u2014nothing is\nperfect\u2019\u2014sufficiently show how genial and even jovial was their\nfriendship. The fable that Nonconformist ministers and Evangelical\nclergymen are either rank hypocrites or intolerable dullards, though\nit had, and perhaps still has, the support of many great authorities,\nis only believed in circles profoundly ignorant of them.\n\nYet Newton must have been greatly indebted, especially as a\nhymn-writer, to Cowper. His hymns were all written during his\nresidence at Olney, and he had intended that his share in the volume\nshould have been much less than Cowper\u2019s. Indeed, when his friend\u2019s\n\u2018long and affecting indisposition\u2019 occurred, he laid the project aside\nfor some time. In the end the collection appeared with sixty-eight of\nCowper\u2019s and two hundred and eighty of Newton\u2019s. Of Cowper\u2019s hymns,\nsome few had been written before he went to Olney, e.g. \u2018The Happy\nChange\u2019 and \u2018Retirement.\u2019\n\nCowper is the one great hymn-writer who ranks with the greater poets.\nMontgomery, Heber, Milman, all wrote \u2018poems,\u2019 but their enduring\npoetic monument is in their hymns. Had Cowper never written a hymn, he\nwould have had fame sufficient as a poet; had he never written a\n\u2018poem,\u2019 he would still have lived through the ages as the writer of\nimmortal hymns. Lord Selborne says that Cowper\u2019s contributions to the\nOlney collection \u2018are, almost without exception, worthy of his name\u2019;\nbut, as a fact, many of them are prosaic and feeble, apparently\nwritten as task work, perhaps to meet a challenge of Newton\u2019s, or to\nfollow a particular sermon. Cowper\u2019s choicest hymns are too well known\nfor quotation\u2014\n\n O for a closer walk with God.\n Hark, my soul, it is the Lord.\n Sometimes a light surprises.\n God moves in a mysterious way.\n Jesus, where\u2019er Thy people meet.\n\nNewton\u2019s best are\u2014\n\n Glorious things of thee are spoken.\n How sweet the name of Jesus sounds.\n Quiet, Lord, my froward heart.\n Come, my soul, thy suit prepare.\n\nAnd the simple Spiritual songs\u2014\n\n Begone, unbelief, my Saviour is near.\n Though troubles assail and dangers affright.\n\nLike Watts, Doddridge, Beddome, and many others, Newton wrote his\nhymns for use after preaching or for some special occasion, such as\nthe opening of a room at the Great House for prayer-meetings and\nchildren\u2019s services. It was for this event that Cowper wrote\n\n Jesus, where\u2019er Thy people meet,\n\nand Newton a less effective hymn\u2014\n\n Dear Shepherd of Thy people, hear,\n Thy presence now display;\n As Thou hast given a place for prayer,\n So give us hearts to pray.\n\nI do not suppose that the Olney hymns were often selected as a\nhymn-book for congregational use. The range of subjects is too narrow,\nand is so largely affected by the circumstances of composition, the\nsadness of Cowper\u2019s prolonged illness, and the needs of the rustic\nworshippers, that it is, as a whole, more suited to private devotion\nthan public worship, though from it may be gathered some of the most\nbeautiful of the songs of Zion.\n\nFrom twelve to twenty of the Olney hymns have won a permanent place in\nour hymn-books, but what is left is very far from being \u2018empty chaff\nwell meant for grain.\u2019 Indeed, there are very few hymn-books of the\neighteenth century so _interesting_ as this. When you have picked out\nof Watts or Doddridge their best hymns, you find it a wearisome and\nprofitless task to plod through the remainder. An outrageous rhyme is\na pleasing break in the dull monotony of the sentiment, but the Olney\nhymns, even at their feeblest, have life and vigour, and are often\nprovokingly easy to remember. Their influence on modern hymnody has\nbeen all in favour of the expression of personal, individual\nexperience, in which regard they may not unfairly be compared with\nmany of the sublimest Psalms.\n\nIn Cowper\u2019s verses there are often references to his own depressed and\nanxious state of mind, and pathetic prayers for deliverance or\nsuggestions of comfortable thoughts.\n\n She, too, who touched Thee in the press,\n And healing virtue stole,\n Was answered, \u2018Daughter, go in peace,\n Thy faith hath made thee whole.\u2019\n\n Concealed amid the gathering throng,\n She would have shunned Thy view;\n And if her faith was firm and strong,\n Had strong misgivings too.\n\n Like her with hopes and fears we come,\n To touch Thee, if we may:\n Oh! send us not despairing home,\n Send none unhealed away.\n\n\n THE CONTRITE HEART\n\n The Lord will happiness divine\n On contrite hearts bestow;\n Then tell me, gracious God, is mine\n A contrite heart, or no?\n\n I hear, but seem to hear in vain,\n Insensible as steel;\n If ought is felt, \u2019tis only pain,\n To find I cannot feel.\n\n I sometimes think myself inclined\n To love Thee, if I could;\n But often feel another mind,\n Averse to all that\u2019s good.\n\n Thy saints are comforted, I know,\n And love Thy house of prayer;\n I therefore go where others go,\n But find no comfort there.\n\n Oh, make this heart rejoice or ache,\n Decide this doubt for me;\n And if it be not broken, break\u2014\n And heal it, if it be!\n\n\n THE WAITING SOUL\n\n Breathe from the gentle south, O Lord,\n And cheer me from the north;\n Blow on the treasures of Thy word,\n And call the spices forth!\n\n Help me to reach the distant goal;\n Confirm my feeble knee;\n Pity the sickness of a soul\n That faints for love of Thee!\n\n I seem forsaken and alone,\n I hear the lion roar;\n And every door is shut but one,\n And that is Mercy\u2019s door.\n\n There, till the dear Deliverer come,\n I\u2019ll wait with humble prayer;\n And when He calls His exile home,\n The Lord shall find him there.\n\n\n PRAYER FOR PATIENCE\n\n Lord, who hast suffered all for me,\n My peace and pardon to procure,\n The lighter cross I bear for Thee,\n Help me with patience to endure.\n\n The storm of loud repining hush,\n I would in humble silence mourn;\n Why should the unburnt, though burning bush,\n Be angry as the crackling thorn?\n\n Ah! were I buffeted all day,\n Mocked, crowned with thorns, and spit upon,\n I yet should have no right to say,\n My great distress is mine alone.\n\n Let me not angrily declare\n No pain was ever sharp like mine,\n Nor murmur at the cross I bear,\n But rather weep, remembering Thine.\n\nCowper\u2019s hymns are not all the voice of the penitent or of the anxious\nbeliever. He shared Newton\u2019s opinion as to the classification of\nCalvinists, and two of his compositions evidently refer to the second\nbasket of figs. They illustrate Hazlitt\u2019s criticism, \u2018His satire is\nexcellent. It is pointed and forcible, with the polished manners of\nthe gentleman and the honest indignation of the virtuous man.\u2019[162]\nThe following verses are a good example of his satire.\n\n\n A LIVING AND A DEAD FAITH\n\n With golden bells, the priestly vest,\n And rich pomegranates bordered round,\n The need of holiness expressed,\n And called for fruit as well as sound.\n\n Easy indeed it were to reach\n A mansion in the courts above,\n If swelling words and fluent speech\n Might serve instead of faith and love.\n\n But none shall gain the blissful place,\n Or God\u2019s unclouded glory see,\n Who talks of free and sovereign grace,\n Unless that grace has made him free!\n\nThis is not a favourite strain of Cowper\u2019s. His hymns are nearly\nalways the expression of personal emotion or experience. We may close\nour quotations from his Olney hymns with one which expresses, in his\nown way, the common yearning of all who love our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\n\n LONGING TO BE WITH CHRIST\n\n My Saviour, whom absent I love,\n Whom, not having seen, I adore;\n Whose name is exalted above\n All glory, dominion, and power;\n\n Dissolve Thou these bonds that detain\n My soul from her portion in Thee,\n Ah! strike off this adamant chain,\n And make me eternally free.\n\n Oh then shall the veil be removed,\n And round me Thy brightness be poured,\n I shall meet Him whom absent I loved,\n I shall see Him whom unseen I adored.\n\nNewton\u2019s contribution to the Olney hymns is considerable both in\nquality and quantity. His preface disarms criticism.\n\n Dr. Watts might, as a poet, have a right to say, \u2018That it cost him\n some labour to restrain his fire, and to accommodate himself to the\n capacities of common readers.\u2019 But it would not become me to make\n such a declaration. It behoved me to do my best.... If the Lord,\n whom I serve, has been pleased to favour me with that mediocrity of\n talent, which may qualify me for usefulness to the weak and the poor\n of His flock, without quite disgusting persons of superior\n discernment, I have reason to be satisfied.\n\nIt is quite refreshing to find a hymn-writer who describes himself\nthus. They have often been modest men and women, but have had a fairly\ngood idea of the value of their own compositions.\n\nNewton\u2019s hymns are, even more than those of Watts or Doddridge,\npastoral hymns. Other men wrote for the congregation, he wrote for his\nown particular congregation, and very often with a special reference\nto one member of it. We know that his sermons were suggested in this\nway. If \u2018Sir Cowper\u2019 had a bad fit, or the Vicarage maid, Molly, was\n\u2018perplexed and tempted on the point of election,\u2019 the kind-hearted\npastor had a sermon and a hymn, suited to their \u2018state,\u2019 ready on\nSunday.\n\nMany of Newton\u2019s pieces express much more of Cowper\u2019s experience than\nof his own. In such lines as the following is not his eye upon the sad\nfigure in \u2018the poet\u2019s corner\u2019 in the Great House?\n\n Sure the Lord thus far has brought me\n By His watchful tender care,\n Sure \u2019tis He Himself has taught me\n How to seek His face by prayer:\n After so much mercy past,\n Will He give me up at last?\n\n In my Saviour\u2019s intercession\n Therefore I will still confide!\n Lord, accept my free confession,\n I have sinned, but Thou hast died:\n This is all I have to plead,\n This is all the plea I need.\n\nThat is what he has to say of \u2018Confidence\u2019 from Cowper\u2019s point of\nview. When he speaks for himself he adopts a different tone.\n\n Oh! I tremble still to think\n How secure I lived in sin;\n Sporting on destruction\u2019s brink,\n Yet preserved from falling in.\n\n Come, my fellow-sinners, try,\n Jesu\u2019s heart is full of love!\n Oh that you, as well as I,\n May His wondrous mercy prove.\n\n He has sent me to declare,\n All is ready, all is free:\n Why should any soul despair\n When He saved a wretch like me?\n\nPerhaps it was with Cowper in his mind he wrote that beautiful and\ntouching hymn for private devotion, which has been often most unjustly\ncensured\u2014\u2018\u2019Tis a point I long to know.\u2019 Newton, like Bunyan, knew how\nsincere a pilgrim Mr. Little Faith was, and each in his own way sought\nto comfort him. There is good robust common sense in the prayer of the\nlast two verses. In strength and beauty it does not compare with\nCowper\u2019s hymn on the same text, \u2018Lovest thou Me?\u2019 which Mr. Gladstone\nreckoned one of the three greatest English hymns; but it belongs to\nthe Christian treasury, and has brought help to many.\n\n Lord, decide the doubtful case,\n Thou who art Thy people\u2019s sun,\n Shine upon the work of grace,\n If it be indeed begun.\n\n Let me love Thee more and more,\n If I love at all, I pray;\n If I have not loved before,\n Help me to begin to-day.\n\nThe tenderness of \u2018the old African blasphemer\u2019s\u2019 heart is nowhere more\ntouchingly illustrated than in his version of Isa. liv. 5-11, which\nmust surely have been written for Cowper, since it quotes and\nemphasizes the words of his own great hymn. It has five eight-line\nverses, and is headed \u2018To the Afflicted, Tossed with Tempest, and not\nComforted.\u2019\n\n Pensive, doubting, fearful heart,\n Hear what Christ the Saviour says;\n Every word should joy impart,\n Change thy mourning into praise.\n Yes, He speaks, and speaks to thee.\n May He help thee to believe!\n Then thou presently wilt see\n Thou hast little cause to grieve.\n\n Though afflicted, tempest-tossed,\n Comfortless awhile thou art,\n Do not think thou canst be lost,\n Thou art graven on My heart.\n All thy wastes I will repair,\n Thou shalt be rebuilt anew;\n And in thee it shall appear\n What a God of love can do.\n\nIt is the pastor\u2019s heart which takes up the very words of his friend\u2014\n\n Yes, He _speaks and speaks to thee_,\n May He help thee to believe!\n\nRichard Cecil says that Herbert was a \u2018favourite\u2019 of Newton\u2019s, and\nthere are not wanting reminiscences of Herbert in the Olney hymns,\nthough Newton had little of Herbert\u2019s ingenuity or power, and he says\nin a few plain words what Herbert weaves into a quaint poem, bright\nand ever-memorable with some \u2018conceit\u2019 such as he only conceived. If\nwe set Newton and Herbert side by side, the comparison is, of course,\nall in favour of Herbert. Herbert speaks to himself and to God in what\nis an unknown tongue to many a good plain Christian. Newton wrote for\nhis simple labouring folk at Olney; he is the poet of the rustic\nprayer-meeting. Bemerton and Olney were both villages in the land of\nBeulah, but there is a difference in the dialect, which is easily\naccounted for when we remember the contrast between the life of\nHerbert and of Newton. When they passed through a similar spiritual\nexperience they described it in very different fashion, but, though\nthere are diversities of gifts, there is the same Spirit; there is the\nsame self-distrust, self-abhorrence; and there is the same calm\nacceptance of the great salvation and its joys. George Herbert tells\nhis deepest, sweetest experience in the final poem of _The\nTemple_.[163] Newton tells his story in simple, homely verse that is\nnot poetry, but is prayer and praise expressed in natural rhythm.\n\n Dost Thou ask me who I am?\n Ah, my Lord, Thou know\u2019st my name:\n Yet the question gives a plea\n To support my suit with Thee.\n\n Thou didst once a wretch behold,\n In rebellion blindly bold,\n Scorn Thy grace, Thy power defy:\n That poor rebel, Lord, was I.\n\n Once a sinner near despair,\n Sought Thy mercy-seat by prayer;\n Mercy heard and set him free:\n Lord, that mercy came to me.\n\n Many years have passed since then,\n Many changes I have seen,\n Yet have been upheld till now;\n Who could hold me up but Thou?\n\n\n\n\n IV\n Eighteenth-century Hymns\n\n\n IV.\u2014Addison, Toplady, and Others\n\nA few other hymn-writers of the eighteenth century remain to be\nmentioned. The first writer is of a very different class from those of\nthe later years. In 1712 Joseph Addison published six hymns in\nsuccessive numbers of the _Spectator_. One was by Dr. Watts; the\nothers were undoubtedly his own, though the authorship has been\nclaimed for others. The hymns themselves are the work of a devout man\nof letters, and, without being exactly \u2018popular,\u2019 have been and still\nare extensively used. They have the easy grace of Addison\u2019s\nprose-writings, and his name made them at once acceptable to all\nclasses. They belong to no school, and are used by all the Churches.\n\nThe six hymns are\u2014\u2018The Lord my pasture shall prepare\u2019; \u2018When all Thy\nmercies, O my God\u2019; \u2018When Israel, freed from Pharaoh\u2019s hand\u2019 (Watts);\n\u2018The spacious firmament on high\u2019; \u2018How are Thy servants blest, O\nLord\u2019; \u2018When rising from the bed of death.\u2019\n\nJohn Cennick (1718-55) had much of Newton\u2019s simplicity and sincerity,\nthough he had not his touches of genius or any trace of the old\nsea-farer\u2019s raciness. Cennick was \u2018found\u2019 by John Wesley at Reading,\nin 1739, and was one of his earliest lay-preachers. But he adopted\nCalvinistic views, and soon left the Methodists and attached himself\nto Whitefield, whom he served as a brother beloved for several years.\nHe bore reproach, violence, hardship, with the courage which\ncharacterized the itinerants of that day of either school of theology.\nHe separated from Wesley in 1741, from Whitefield in 1745, and found a\nmore congenial home among the Moravians. He was ordained a deacon, and\nministered in London and Dublin. He it was who earned for Protestants\nof the Methodist type the nickname of \u2018swaddlers,\u2019 so long common in\nIreland. \u2018A name given to Mr. Cennick, first by a Popish priest, who\nheard him speak of a Child wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and probably\ndid not know the expression was in the Bible, a book he was not much\nacquainted with.\u2019[164]\n\nCennick was vacillating, and apparently easily influenced by stronger\nminds than his own, but he was not able to keep up a quarrel, and, ten\nyears after his defection from Wesley, wrote him an affectionate\nletter, in which he wishes \u2018heartily that Christians conferring\ntogether had hindered the making that wide space between us and you.\u2019\nWhitefield, though he had suffered a larger defection from his Society\nthan Wesley, bore Cennick no ill will, but kept up an affectionate\ncorrespondence with him to the end. \u2018My dear John,\u2019 he wrote in 1747,\n\u2018I wish thee much success, and shall always pray that the work of the\nLord may prosper in thy hands.\u2019[165] Cennick continued his abundant\nlabours till 1755, when he died in London in his thirty-seventh year.\n\nHis best-known hymn is in every collection\u2014\n\n Children of the heavenly King,\n As ye journey, sweetly sing;\n\nand notwithstanding the dreadful rhyme of its second verse\u2014\n\n Thou dear Redeemer, dying Lamb\n\nstill finds a place in many hymn-books.\n\nCennick is often spoken of as the author of\n\n Lo! He comes with clouds descending;\n\nbut there is very little trace of Cennick\u2019s hymn in Charles Wesley\u2019s.\nCanon Ellerton calls the hymn \u2018a recast by Charles Wesley,\u2019 and adds,\n\u2018Cennick\u2019s hymn is poor stuff compared to that into which Wesley\nrecast it, putting into it at once fire and tunefulness.\u2019 This,\nhowever, is an inaccurate statement of the facts. Probably Cennick\u2019s\nhymn suggested Wesley\u2019s, but this is the only share Cennick had in it.\n\nCennick\u2019s hymn was published in 1752, Wesley\u2019s in 1758. In 1760 Martin\nMadan pieced together six verses, five (with some alterations) from\nthese two hymns, and one from another of Wesley\u2019s. Neither Cennick\u2019s\noriginal nor Madan\u2019s can be compared with Wesley\u2019s fine verses, which\nare best left as he wrote them.[166] The following is Cennick\u2019s\noriginal\u2014\n\n Lo! He cometh, countless trumpets\n Blow before His bloody sign!\n \u2019Midst ten thousand saints and angels,\n See the Crucifi\u00e8d shine.\n Allelujah!\n Welcome, welcome, bleeding Lamb!\n\n Now His merits by the harpers,\n Through the eternal deeps resounds!\n Now resplendent shine His nail-prints,\n Every eye shall see His wounds!\n They who pierced Him\n Shall at His appearing wail.\n\n Every island, sea, and mountain,\n Heaven and earth shall flee away!\n All who hate Him must, asham\u00e8d,\n Hear the trump proclaim His day:\n Come to judgement!\n Stand before the Son of Man!\n\n All who love Him view His glory,\n Shining in His bruis\u00e8d Face:\n His dear Person on the rainbow,\n Now His people\u2019s heads shall raise:\n Happy mourners!\n Now on clouds He comes! He comes!\n\n Now redemption, long expected,\n See, in solemn pomp appear:\n All His people, once despis\u00e8d,\n Now shall meet Him in the air:\n Allelujah!\n Now the promised kingdom\u2019s come!\n\n View Him smiling, now determined\n Every evil to destroy!\n All the nations now shall sing Him\n Songs of everlasting joy!\n O come quickly!\n Allelujah! come, Lord, come!\n\nAugustus Montague Toplady (1740-78) was a devout clergyman, converted\nthrough the preaching of a Methodist in Ireland. His \u2018Arminian\nprejudices\u2019 received an \u2018effectual shock\u2019 in 1758. His ministry at\nBroad Hembury, and in the French Reformed Church, Leicester Fields,\nwas greatly valued, and his sincere piety impressed all who knew him.\n\nHe was one of the most violent opponents of Wesley and Fletcher in the\nCalvinistic controversy, and expressed himself in unmeasured terms. He\nwas a good man, with deep convictions and narrow views. Yet he touched\nhuman hearts as few other hymn-writers have ever done. To have written\n\u2018Rock of Ages\u2019 would have been fame enough for a much greater man than\nToplady. It appeared in a curious and unpromising setting. Toplady was\nediting the _Gospel Magazine_, and in 1776 published a _Spiritual\nImprovement_ of a Catechism on the National Debt, in which he strives\nto estimate the number of individual sins a man may be expected to\ncommit in the course of his earthly life.\n\n As we never, in the present life, rise to the mark of legal\n sanctity, is it not fairly inferrible that our sins multiply with\n every second of our sublunary durations?\n\n \u2019Tis too true. And in this view of the matter, our dreadful account\n stands as follows:\u2014At ten years old, each of us is chargeable with\n 315 millions and 36 thousand sins. At twenty, with 630 millions and\n 720 thousand. At thirty, with 946 millions and 80 thousand. At\n forty, with 1,261 millions and 440 thousand. At fifty, with 1,576\n millions and 800 thousand. At sixty, with 1,892 millions and 160\n thousand. At seventy, with 2,207 millions and 520 thousand. At\n eighty, with 2,522 millions and 880 thousand.\n\n We can only admire and bless the Father for electing us in Christ,\n and for laying on Him the iniquities of us all; the Son for taking\n our nature and our debts upon Himself, and for that complete\n righteousness and sacrifice whereby He redeemed His mystical Israel\n from all their sins; and the co-\u00e6qual Spirit for causing us (in\n conversion) to feel our need of Christ, for inspiring us with faith\n to embrace Him, for visiting us with His sweet consolations by\n shedding abroad His love in our hearts, for sealing us to the day of\n Christ, and for making us to walk in the path of His commandments.\n\n _A living and dying_ Prayer _for the_ Holiest Believer _in the\n world_.\n\n Rock of Ages, cleft for me,\n Let me hide myself in Thee!\n Let the Water and the Blood\n From Thy riven Side which flowed,\n Be of Sin the double Cure,\n Cleanse me from its Guilt and Power.[167]\n\nToplady wrote a good many hymns, but no other compares with this great\nuniversal prayer, probably the best-known and best-loved hymn in the\nlanguage. He was essentially a Methodist, his Calvinism being, one\nmight almost say, accidental. His hymns have the tone and even the\nmannerisms of Charles Wesley.[168] Many of them are good devotional\nreading. The following verses will remind many readers of some\nwell-known lines of Charles Wesley\u2014\n\n O when wilt Thou my Saviour be?\n O when shall I be clean,\n The true, eternal Sabbath see,\n A perfect rest from sin?\n\n The consolations of Thy word\n My soul have long upheld;\n The faithful promise of the Lord\n Shall surely be fulfilled.\n\n I look to my Incarnate God,\n \u2019Till He His work begin,\n And wait \u2019till His redeeming blood\n Shall cleanse me from all sin.\n\n His great salvation I shall know,\n And perfect liberty;\n Onward to sin he cannot go,\n Whoe\u2019er abides in Thee:\n\n Added to the Redeemer\u2019s fold,\n I shall in Him rejoice,\n I all His glory shall behold,\n And hear my Shepherd\u2019s voice.\n\n O that I now the voice might hear\n That speaks my sins forgiven!\n His word is past to give me _here_\n The inward pledge of heaven.\n\n His blood shall over all prevail\n And sanctify the unclean;\n The grace that saves from future hell\n Shall save from present sin.\n\nIn no part of the kingdom was the Evangelical Revival more influential\nthan in Wales. Whitefield, Howell Harris, and, perhaps more than all,\nLady Huntingdon, were the controlling minds, and they led the people\nof the Principality to the Calvinistic rather than to the Wesleyan\nMethodists. The quaint poetry of Vicar Rees Prichard\u2019s _Welshman\u2019s\nCandle_ and the Psalms of Archdeacon Prys seem to have been the songs\nof the Welsh Church until William Williams of Pantycelyn arose\u2014a great\nlight, well worthy to be called the Watts of Wales. His father was\ndeacon of an Independent Church, which at one time met \u2018in a cave\nduring the hours of twilight,\u2019 for fear of their enemies. Williams\nhimself was studying medicine, and had no thought of the ministry. One\nSunday morning, as he passed through Talgarth in Breconshire, he went\ninto the parish church. After the service the congregation gathered in\nthe churchyard, and Howell Harris, standing on a tomb-stone, preached\nwith the Holy Ghost and with power. That was the hour of Williams\u2019s\nconversion. He prepared for the ministry of the Established Church,\nand was ordained deacon in 1740. He acted as curate of two small\nparishes for three years, and then, drawn into the current of the\nRevival under the influence of Whitefield, David Rowlands, and Howell\nHarris, he became an earnest evangelist, travelling throughout the\nPrincipality. His hymn-writing is said to have been occasioned by a\nchallenge of Howell Harris to the Welsh Calvinistic preachers to write\nbetter hymns than their congregations then possessed. He wrote hymns\nby the hundred, and they won an immediate and enduring popularity in\nWales. \u2018What Paul Gerhardt has been to Germany, what Isaac Watts has\nbeen to England, that and more has William Williams of Pantycelyn been\nto Wales.\u2019[169] He was a great favourite with Lady Huntingdon, at\nwhose suggestion he prepared a volume of hymns for Whitefield\u2019s Orphan\nHouse. In this work, entitled _Gloria in Excelsis_, some of his best\nhymns appeared. In modern hymn-books he is known by two hymns\u2014\n\n Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah!\n\nand\n\n O\u2019er those gloomy hills of darkness.\n\nIt is probable that the English version of his greatest hymn was\nwritten by himself, and this seems to indicate that he suffers in\ntranslation, for none of the English versions of his other poems is to\nbe compared with this. Mr. Garrett Horder thinks that \u2018Guide me, O\nThou great Jehovah\u2019 has been largely supplanted by \u2018Lead, kindly\nLight,\u2019 though the most recent hymn-books do not sustain this\ncriticism. Keble re-wrote, but failed to improve it; and the same may\nbe said of those who have made minor alterations. It is, and is likely\nto remain, one of the great songs of the Christian pilgrim in his\nprogress from this world unto that which is to come.\n\nMr. Elvet Lewis has given several translations of hymns hitherto\nunknown to English people, which are good reading, though perhaps none\nare likely to attain extensive use. Here are two verses in Williams\u2019s\nfavourite metre\u2014\n\n Much I love the faithful pilgrims,\n Who the rugged steeps ascend;\n On their hands and knees they labour\n To attain the heavenly end;\n To the summit\n On my knees shall I come too.\n\n Bruis\u00e8d hands, oh! stretch ye upward,\n Tired feet, walk ye with care;\n The reward, the crown is yonder,\n My Belov\u00e8d\u2014He is there!\n Earth forsaking\n Now the journey\u2019s end is all.\n\nHere are two more in another metre, and with the cheery rhythm of John\nNewton\u2014\n\n Here I know myself a stranger,\n And my native country lies\n Far beyond the ocean\u2019s danger\n In the lands of Paradise:\n Storms of trial blowing keenly\n Drive me on this foreign strand;\n Come, O South wind, blow serenely,\n Speed me to my Fatherland.\n\n Now the air is full of balm\n With the fragrance of the land;\n And the breezes clear and calm\n Tell of Paradise at hand:\n Come, ye much-desired regions,\n With the best of joy in store;\n Country of the singing legions,\n Let me reach thy restful shore!\n\nWilliams had the spirit of devout enthusiasm which characterized the\nRevival; his missionary hymns, though not among the best, are among\nthe earliest of that class, and he had the rapt devotion to his Lord\nwhich is ever the inspiration of the true hymn-writer.\n\n To Thee, my God, my Saviour,\n Praise be for ever new;\n Let people come to praise Thee\n In numbers like the dew;\n O! that in every meadow\n The grass were harps of gold,\n To sing to Him for coming\n To ransom hosts untold![170]\n\n\n\n\n V\n Nineteenth-century Hymns\n\n\n I.\u2014Anglican Hymns\n\nThe hymns of the eighteenth century are almost without exception by\nwriters of the Dissenting, Methodist, or Evangelical schools. In the\nnineteenth century the tide turns, and though the Nonconformists are\nnot without hymn-writers of distinction, the great hymns are by\nAnglicans. Henry Francis Lyte in the first half of the century, Bishop\nBickersteth, Charlotte Elliott, and Miss Havergal in the second,\nrepresent the Evangelical school. Heber was a typical Anglican, but he\nwas not of the Tractarian type, and died before the publication of the\n_Christian Year_. Keble and Newman were the poets of the Oxford\nMovement, and gave a distinctive tone to much of the later Church\nhymn-writing; but Heber, more than any other man, did for the Church\nof England what Watts had done for the Nonconformists.\n\nReginald Heber (1783-1826) was a scholar and a gentleman, his\nchurchmanship was unimpeachable, and his life and death alike served\nto win acceptance for hymns whose intrinsic worth must have secured\nthe widest recognition. His hymns, like those of Herbert, Keble, and\nmany of our sweetest singers, are hymns of the country parsonage, and\nseem all to have been written whilst he held the family living of\nHodnet, to which he was welcomed by the people as \u2018Master Reginald.\u2019\nHe was little better satisfied with Tate and Brady than Watts had been\nwith Barton, and at one time contemplated using the Olney hymns in his\nchurch. Then he projected a more ambitious scheme, and hoped, with the\nhelp of Milman, Southey, and Walter Scott, to provide a book which\nmight, perhaps under episcopal sanction, become the authorized hymnal\nof the Church. But he felt the proposal a bold one, and tried to\nprepare the way by the publication in the _Christian Observer_ of a\nfew hymns which he described as \u2018part of an intended series\nappropriate to the Sundays and principal holy days of the year,\nconnected in some degree with their particular collects and gospels,\nand designed to be sung between the Nicene Creed and the sermon.\u2019 Like\nother reformers, he indulges in criticisms of the hymns then in use,\nand is especially severe in censuring those which address our Lord\n\u2018with ditties of embraces of passion.\u2019 The hymn-book was duly\ncompiled, and specimens were submitted to Bishop Howley in the hope\nthat he might give it an episcopal benediction. It is curious to note\nthe apologetic tone in which Heber writes.\n\n The evil, indeed, if it be one, of the admission of hymns into our\n Churches has, by this time, spread so widely, and any attempt to\n suppress it entirely would be so unpopular, and attended with so\n much difficulty, that I cannot help thinking it would be wiser, as\n well as more practicable, to _regulate_ the liberty thus assumed,\n instead of authoritatively taking it away. Nor can I conceive any\n method by which this object might be better obtained than by the\n publication of a selection which should, at least, have the praise\n of excluding whatever was improper in diction or sentiment; and\n might be on this, if on no other ground, thought not unworthy a\n licence of the same kind as that which was given to the psalms of\n Tate and Brady. I have the vanity to think that even my own\n compositions are not inferior in poetical merit to those of Tate;\n and my collection will contain some from our older poets, which it\n would be mockery to speak of in the same breath with his. There are\n a few also which I have extracted from the popular collections\n usually circulated, which, though I have not been able to learn\n their authors, possess considerable merit and much popularity, and\n are entirely free from objectionable expressions.[171]\n\nThe Bishop criticized freely, generally approved and advised the\ncompletion of the project; but Heber was called to Calcutta, and the\ncollection was not published until after his death. It contained\nfifty-seven hymns of his own, twelve of Milman\u2019s, and twenty-nine\nothers. His object had been to obtain \u2018a well-selected and sanctioned\nbook of hymns for the Church of England, to supersede the unauthorized\nand often very improper compositions now in use.\u2019 He did not secure\nthis, but he prepared the way for something better, and may justly be\nregarded as the first of the modern Anglican hymn-writers. His best\nhymns are too well known to need comment, and of the rest\ncomparatively few are of special value in public worship. His hymns\nowe more to the inspiration of the Gospels than the Psalms. The\ncollect or gospel for the day often explains and throws new light upon\na hymn, as in this for the Second Sunday after Trinity, the gospel\nbeing the Parable of the Great Supper. It is usually regarded as a\nCommunion hymn.\n\n Forth from the dark and stormy sky,\n Lord, to Thine altar\u2019s shade we fly;\n Forth from the world, its hope and fear,\n Saviour, we seek Thy shelter here:\n Weary and weak, Thy grace we pray;\n Turn not, O Lord, Thy guests away!\n\n Long have we roamed in want and pain,\n Long have we sought Thy rest in vain;\n \u2019Wildered in doubt, in darkness lost,\n Long have our souls been tempest-tost;\n Low at Thy feet our sins we lay,\n Turn not, O Lord, Thy guests away!\n\nHenry Hart Milman (1791-1868), who died Dean of St. Paul\u2019s, is famous\nas an historian rather than a hymn-writer, but his few hymns have a\nwide popularity. In\n\n Ride on, ride on in majesty!\n\nhe has shown how fine and true a hymn may be, though it departs from\nrecognized devotional form. It is a meditation of a highly rhetorical\nkind, and apostrophizes but does not address our Lord. By some editors\nthis is regarded as fatal to its inclusion in a collection of hymns,\nbut the common judgement of Christian congregations is right. It has\nproved itself a hymn in spite of all rules, and is an excellent\nspiritual song for Palm Sunday.\n\nIn the year (1827) of the publication of Heber\u2019s _Hymns, written and\nadapted to the Weekly Church Services of the Year_, Keble issued\nanonymously the most influential devotional work of the nineteenth\ncentury, _The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and\nHoly Days throughout the Year_. Like Ken\u2019s festival hymns, it was not\na hymn-book, and was not meant for use in Church services, though from\na few of the poems verses may be taken which make hymns of the very\nbest type. Pusey regarded it as \u2018the real source of the Oxford\nMovement,\u2019 of which Newman also thought Keble \u2018the true and primary\nauthor,\u2019 though he \u2018ever considered and kept\u2019 July 14, 1832, the day\nwhen Keble preached his sermon on \u2018National Apostasy,\u2019 \u2018as the start\nof the religious movement.\u2019 Of the _Christian Year_ Newman says,\n\u2018Keble struck an original note, and woke up in the hearts of thousands\na new music, the music of a school long unknown in England.\u2019 But the\nteaching of the Oxford Movement was rather latent than patent in the\n_Christian Year_, and it would be a great mistake to regard it as\ninfluencing that religious revival or even the English Church alone.\nOn the other hand, Hurrell Froude feared that the authorship of the\n_Christian Year_ would be attributed to a Methodist.[172] It was as\nimportant an element in the Movement as Charles Wesley\u2019s hymns were in\nthe Evangelical Revival. In each case the influence extended far\nbeyond those who claim the poems as their special heritage.\n\nKeble regarded the Church as in a state of desolation, decay, and\napostasy. He knew nothing of the glorious optimism of the Wesleys, who\nsaw everywhere signs of the speedy triumph of the gospel and the\ncoming of Christ\u2019s kingdom. They sang\n\n Plague, earthquake, and famine, and tumult and war,\n The wonderful coming of Jesus declare.\n\nKeble\u2019s vision was\n\n So Famine waits, and War with greedy eyes,\n Till some repenting heart be ready for the skies.\n\nThey saw in the ingatherings to their scattered Societies the\nassurance of abounding blessing\n\n Lo, the promise of a shower\n Drops already from above;\n But the Lord will shortly pour\n All the spirit of His love.\n\nKeble saw no such visions, dreamed no such dreams. All he dares to ask\nis\n\n Lord, ere our trembling lamps sink down and die,\n Touch us with chastening hand, and make us feel Thee nigh.[173]\n\nYet, when he forgets the depression of the time, and turns to the\nconsolations of eternity, he shows how firmly he believed his own\nmotto, \u2018In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.\u2019 He has\nthe sure trust and confidence of all God\u2019s chosen, and at times\nkindles into holy rapture. The prevailing tone, however, is of\nsadness\u2014the depression of the saint, not the perplexity of the\ndoubter.\n\nIn 1839 Keble published, also anonymously, his metrical version of the\nPsalms. He had intended it to be a substitute for Tate and Brady, and\nhad hoped to secure episcopal sanction for its use in the dioceses of\nOxford and Winchester. It is, however, more interesting from the\nstandpoint of the expositor than the hymnologist, very few of its\nversions being adapted to congregational use. The _Lyra Innocentium_,\npublished anonymously in 1846, is vastly inferior to his great work,\nand has little to recommend it to those who are not in sympathy with\nthe High Church Movement.\n\nAfter Heber and Keble all that there was of justice in Montgomery\u2019s\nsarcastic complaint, that hymns had been written by \u2018all sorts of\npersons except poets\u2019[174] is gone. They were poets first,\nhymn-writers afterwards. Keble\u2019s greatest hymn is taken from his\n\u2018Verses for Evening,\u2019 which begins as a poem, and rises from\nmeditation to praise and prayer. The earlier verses are not suitable\nfor a hymn-book, but the beauty of the later lines is only fully\nrealized when they are remembered.\n\n \u2019Tis gone, that bright and orb\u00e8d blaze,\n Fast fading from our wistful gaze;\n Yon mantling cloud has hid from sight\n The last faint pulse of quivering light.\n\n In darkness and in weariness\n The traveller on his way must press,\n No gleam to watch on tree or tower,\n Whiling away the lonesome hour.\n\n Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear,\n It is not night if Thou be near:\n O may no earth-born cloud arise\n To hide Thee from Thy servant\u2019s eyes.\n\nThere is surely no more beautiful illustration of the way in which the\nChristian rises from Nature up to Nature\u2019s God.\n\nAs in the case of so many hymns, the part is greater than the whole.\nThe six verses universally selected are not improved by the addition\nof others\u2014though they have much to commend them.\n\nJohn Henry Newman (1801-90) belongs to Anglican hymn-writers in virtue\nof his \u2018Lead, kindly Light,\u2019 though it may almost be described as his\nfarewell to the Church of England. It marks at least the beginning of\nhis long-drawn-out parting from the Establishment. Few hymns have won\na wider popularity, and no doubt it has done much to accustom\nNonconformist Churches to sympathize with the poetic and emotional\nside of the Oxford Movement. This hymn and the _Christian Year_ made\nabsolute want of sympathy with the new devotion impossible. Moreover,\nthe tone of perplexity, the confession of bewilderment, the sense of\n\u2018encircling gloom,\u2019 fell in with the prevailing spirit of religious\nemotion. To many men of his own school the hymn meant something very\ndifferent from what it means to the average worshipper, who finds in\nit a comfortable sedative for vague religious depression. I confess\nthat personally the hymn does not seem to me as great as its\nreputation, but it has brought help and comfort to myriads. Dr. Wm.\nBarry says\u2014\n\n This most tender of pilgrim songs may be termed the March of the\n Tractarian Movement. It is pure melody, austere yet hopeful,\n strangely not unlike the stanzas which Carlyle has made familiar to\n the whole English race, the Mason-Song of Goethe, in its sublime\n sadness and invincible trust. Both are psalms of life, Hebrew or\n Northern, chanted in a clear-obscure where faith moves onward\n heroically to the day beyond.[175]\n\nNewman\u2019s other great hymn, \u2018Praise to the Holiest in the height,\u2019\nwhich owes its popularity largely to Mr. Gladstone\u2019s affection for\nit\u2014though it is in itself a fine hymn\u2014belongs to his Romanist days.\n\nThere was room for the new teaching. Perhaps Methodism was a little\ntoo buoyant, Evangelicalism too contented, and the Church was ready\nfor a fresh upheaval.\n\nCoincidently with the rise of the Oxford Movement came, as we have\nseen, the rolling away of the reproach of hymn-singing. Even the\nstrongholds of the Establishment capitulated, and hymns formed an\nimportant part in the new propaganda. Stanch Churchmen had disliked\nhymn-singing. To quote Canon Ellerton\u2014\n\n It came to us from an unwelcome source\u2014from the Dissenters,\n eminently from the Methodists. It was first adopted by those of the\n clergy who sympathized most with them; for many long years it was\n that dreaded thing, a party badge.[176]\n\nThe Evangelicals adopted the custom easily, and with delight. Cowper,\nNewton, Toplady, Hervey, Watts, Doddridge, and even Wesley, were no\nstrangers to them. But for the Calvinistic trouble, they all minded\nthe same things. They had no difficulty in regard to fellowship with\nNonconformists in worship or in work. It has been the fashion to\ndisparage the Evangelicals, and to regard the \u2018Clapham Sect\u2019 as a\ncoterie of ill-informed, self-satisfied Pharisees; but for solid,\npractical Christianity it would be difficult to find any \u2018school\u2019 that\noutrivals them. The \u2018Clapham Sect\u2019 knew little and cared less for\npriestly rights or the niceties of ritual. They may have been slack in\nthe observance of fast and vigil, but they kept the fast of God,\nbreaking the bonds of wickedness and letting the oppressed go free.\nThe men who were the backbone of the anti-slavery movement, who were\nnursing fathers to the Bible Society, and established the Church\nMissionary Society, were not narrow-minded bigots, but held the true\nCatholic Faith concerning the kingdom of God.\n\nHenry Francis Lyte (1793-1847), whose highest preferment was the\nPerpetual Curacy of Lower Brixham, ranks, as a hymn-writer, with Ken\nand Keble. While ministering to his \u2018dear fishermen,\u2019 he wrote many a\nlovely hymn, and one of unsurpassed beauty. \u2018Abide with me\u2019 was his\nswan-song. He died, like Toplady, of consumption, and felt the pain\nand pathos of death in the prime of life. In a most tender poem he has\nrecorded that common but infinitely pathetic grief. It is interesting\nto contrast the subdued sadness, the patient submission of Lyte with\nthe triumphant ecstasy of Toplady\u2019s \u2018Deathless principle, arise.\u2019\n\n Shudder not to pass the stream,\n Venture all thy care on Him.\n Not one object of His care\n Ever suffered shipwreck there.\n\n Saints in glory perfect made\n Wait thy passage through the shade;\n Ardent for thy coming o\u2019er,\n See they throng the blissful shore.\n\n Such the prospects that arise\n To the dying Christian\u2019s eyes.\n Such the glorious vista, Faith\n Opens through the shades of death.[177]\n\nThis was the view of death taken by the Evangelicals in the eighteenth\ncentury. The gospel of the great Revival brought life and immortality\nto light, robbed death of all its terrors, and made heaven seem, even\nto young men, far better than earth. The nineteenth century had not\nthe glowing rapture of the earlier time. Moreover, its interest in\nworks of Christian philanthropy, its awakening to the great missionary\ncall, made the life and work of the day infinitely important and\ninteresting. Christian men began to realize that heaven lay beyond the\ngolden glory of the sunset sky, and felt, with those of the older\ndispensation, that it was a calamity for the sun to go down while it\nwas yet day. Lyte felt with Anne Bront\u00eb\u2014\n\n I hoped that with the brave and strong\n My portioned task might lie.\n\nLyte\u2019s sorrow was not that he feared to change the earthly for the\nheavenly, but that he longed to have done enduring work e\u2019er the night\nfell.\n\n Why do I sigh to find\n Life\u2019s evening shadows gathering round my way,\n The keen eye dimming, and the buoyant mind\n Unhinging day by day?\n\n Is it the natural dread\n Of that stern lot, which all who live must see?\n The worm, the clay, the dark and narrow bed,\u2014\n Have these such awe for me?\n\n Can I not summon pride\n To fold my decent mantle round my breast,\n And lay me down at Nature\u2019s Eventide,\n Calm to my dreamless rest?\n\n As nears my soul the verge\n Of this dim continent of woe and crime,\n Shrinks she to hear Eternity\u2019s long surge\n Break on the shores of Time?\n\n I want not vulgar fame\u2014\n I seek not to survive in brass or stone;\n Hearts may not kindle when they hear my name,\n Nor tears my value own;\n\n But might I leave behind\n Some blessing for my fellows, some fair trust\n To guide, to cheer, to elevate my kind,\n When I was in the dust;\n\n Within my narrow bed\n Might I not wholly mute or useless be;\n But hope that they, who trampled o\u2019er my head,\n Drew still some good from me;\n\n Might verse of mine inspire\n One virtuous aim, one high resolve impart;\n Light in one drooping soul a hallowed fire,\n Or bind one broken heart;\u2014\n\n Death would be sweeter then,\n More calm my slumber \u2019neath the silent sod,\u2014\n Might I thus live to bless my fellow-men,\n Or glorify my God!\n\n O Thou! whose touch can lend\n Life to the dead, Thy quickening grace supply,\n And grant me, swanlike, my last breath to spend\n In song that may not die!\n\nWas ever faithful prayer more abundantly answered? \u2018He asked life of\nThee, and Thou gavest it, even length of days for ever and ever.\u2019\n\nChristopher Wordsworth (1807-85), Bishop of Lincoln, nephew of the\npoet, was of set purpose a writer of hymns for congregational use. He\ntaught that hymns should express the feeling of the Church, and not of\nthe individual worshipper. He thought it \u2018inexpressibly shocking\u2019 that\n\u2018Jesu, Lover of my soul\u2019 should be sung in Westminster Abbey, at\nleast, so I understand his reference to \u2018a large, mixed congregation\nin a dissolute part of a populous and irreligious city.\u2019[178] His\nhymns are objective, and the best\u2014e.g. \u2018O day of rest and gladness,\u2019\n\u2018See the Conqueror mounts in triumph\u2019\u2014are very fine. Bishop Wordsworth\ndid not \u2018translate any ancient hymns, but attempted to infuse\nsomething of their spirit into\u2019 his own.\n\nThe _Holy Year_ was a distinct contribution to the literature of the\nAnglican Revival. Very inferior in strength and beauty to the\n_Christian Year_, it was more useful to editors of hymn-books, and it\nhelped to concentrate interest upon the selection of hymns suited to\nthe Church year. Bishop Wordsworth kept closely to the Prayer-book\nideal of devotion, and some of his less-known poems are illustrative\nof its special teaching. A good example is the hymn for the Second\nSunday in Advent, which he inscribed, \u2018Christ ever coming in Holy\nScripture.\u2019\n\n Lord, who didst the Prophets teach\n To prepare Thy way of old;\n And by Thine Apostles preach\n Truths of wisdom manifold;\n\n Teach us to behold Thee, Lord,\n Present in the sacred page,\n Living Word in written word\n Coming thus to every age.\n\n Coming in King David\u2019s Psalms,\n In Isaiah\u2019s trumpet-call,\n Coming in St. John\u2019s deep calms,\n Coming in the fires of Paul.\n\n Coming brightly from afar\n To the lands with darkness dim,\n On the Evangelic car\n Of Thy fourfold cherubim.\n\n Thus, O bless\u00e8d Lord, when we\n On Thy Holy Scriptures look,\n May we ever worship Thee,\n Coming in Thy sacred Book.\n\n So, when as a scroll is past\n Heaven, and earth with all its strife,\n We may see our names at last\n Written in the Book of Life.\n\nBut the Anglican hymn-writers of the nineteenth century are too many\nfor detailed comment in my fast-failing space. It is a glorious choir,\nincluding Joseph Anstice, who had so powerful an influence over Mr.\nGladstone in his Oxford days;[179] Dean Alford, Dr. Monsell, Sir H. W.\nBaker, Dean Stanley, Bishops Mant, How, and Bickersteth, Canon Bright,\nGodfrey Thring, Canon Ellerton, S. J. Stone, Canon Twells, Laurence\nTuttiett, S. Baring-Gould, among the clergy; Mrs. Alexander, Charlotte\nElliott, Frances Ridley Havergal, Sir R. Grant, W. Chatterton Dix,\namong the laity.\n\nSir Henry Williams Baker (1821-77) wrote the lovely sacramental\nversion of Ps. xxiii.: \u2018The King of love my Shepherd is.\u2019 One verse he\nrepeated with his dying breath\u2014\n\n Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,\n But yet in love He sought me,\n And on His shoulder gently laid,\n And home, rejoicing, brought me.\n\nHe is one of the simplest and most attractive of hymn-writers, and the\ninclusion of his hymns in Nonconformist hymnals is a great gain. His\ngreatest service to Anglican hymnody was the editing of _Hymns Ancient\nand Modern_\u2014a truly epoch-making (or perhaps epoch-marking) book.\n\nWhile Baker was at work in his Herefordshire vicarage, John Ellerton\n(1826-93) was writing hymns and essays on hymns in his rural or\nsemi-rural parsonages. Ellerton had a rare gift in writing for special\noccasions. His great funeral hymn, \u2018Now the labourer\u2019s task is o\u2019er,\u2019\nhas a sombre strength which is full of comfort and trust. \u2018Behold us,\nLord, a little space\u2019 is an ideal hymn for a week-day service, and \u2018In\nthe Name which earth and heaven\u2019 is the grandest of all hymns for the\nlaying of the foundation-stone of a church.[180] Without being a\nHigh-Churchman, Ellerton was a thorough-going Anglican, and his poetry\nhas the restraint, the good taste, and the dignity which beseem a\ngreat Church.\n\nS. J. Stone (1839-1900), unlike most clerical hymn-writers, was not a\ncountry parson, though his best hymns were written before he began his\nwork in East London. But even in its dreary wastes he found the true\npoetry of life, and some of his obscure parishioners at Haggerston are\nrichly shrined in his memorial verses. I feel all the more moved by\nthe triumphant tones of \u2018The Church\u2019s one foundation,\u2019 all the more\ntenderly impressed by \u2018Weary of earth, and laden with my sin,\u2019 when I\nremember how dear to his heart were the struggling, toiling masses of\nhis dull East London parish. His best hymns are well known, so I quote\na sonnet which expresses his love for those who live in the crowded\ncity.\n\n\n _From Windermere, To the Congregation and Children of St. Paul\u2019s,\n Haggerston._\n\n Moored by a green isle of Winandermere\u2014\n Listening the gentlest lapping of the wave\n On the rock margin, and the blackbirds\u2019 brave\n Soldierly antiphons, afar and near,\n And the wind\u2019s whispered evensong\u2014I hear\n A sound beyond, and sweeter as more grave\n Than ever paradise of nature gave,\n Dear to my heart of old, and now more dear:\n _The roar of London_\u2014the deep undersong,\n The myriad music of immortal souls\n High-couraged, much-enduring, midst the long\n Drear toil and gloom and weariness. It rolls\n Over me with all power, for in its tone\n The hearts I love in Christ beat with my own.\n\nBishop Bickersteth demands mention, not only for his own beautiful\nhymns, but for his successful editing of the _Hymnal Companion to the\nBook of Common Prayer_. Edward Bickersteth\u2019s _Christian Psalmody_ was,\nin its day, one of the best and most catholic hymnals. In the _Hymnal\nCompanion_, his son provided for a later generation the more complete\nand worthy hymn-book which the growth of hymnody made possible. Of\nBishop Bickersteth\u2019s own hymns, a few are amongst those universally\naccepted. His Communion Hymn, to the regret of many, is absent from\nthe _Methodist Hymn-book_.\n\n \u2019Till He come!\u2019 O let the words\n Linger on the trembling chords;\n Let the \u2018little while\u2019 between\n In their golden light be seen;\n Let us think how heaven and home\n Lie beyond that \u2019Till He come.\u2019\n\n When the weary ones we love\n Enter on their rest above,\n Seems the earth so poor and vast,\n All our life joy overcast?\n Hush, be every murmur dumb;\n It is only till He come.\n\n Clouds and conflicts round us press;\n Would we have one sorrow less?\n All the sharpness of the cross,\n All that tells the world is loss,\n Death, and darkness, and the tomb\n Only whisper, \u2019Till He come.\u2019\n\n See! the feast of love is spread;\n Drink the wine, and break the bread:\n Sweet memorials, till the Lord\n Call us round His heavenly board,\n Some from earth, from glory some,\n Severed only till He come.[181]\n\nThis aspect of the Lord\u2019s Supper, the proclamation of the Lord\u2019s death\n\u2019till He come,\u2019 must ever be present to the mind of the devout\ncommunicant. The hymn\u2014especially in its last verse\u2014is full of the\ngracious, subdued trustfulness which befits the Christian as he\ncommemorates the Atoning Sacrifice and looks forward to glad, eternal\ncommunion with those who have gone before, when once again our Lord\nHimself shall break the bread and drink the wine with His disciples in\nthe Father\u2019s kingdom.\n\nDean Stanley (1815-81) was not a poet, though he wrote the best\nEnglish hymn on the Transfiguration. I mention him here, however, to\nquote some verses of his stirring national hymn, worthy of a Dean of\nWestminster. It is of a type that, I think, ought to be represented in\nour hymnals, and especially those intended for school use. Why should\nnot such hymns as this and Mr. Gill\u2019s \u2018Lift thy song among the\nnations\u2019 stir and consecrate the patriotism of our up-growing girls\nand boys? Dean Stanley\u2019s hymn is very long. I quote less than half. In\nthe _Westminster Abbey Hymn-book_ it is assigned to the Accession.\n\n Let us with a gladsome mind\n Praise the Lord, for He is kind!\n Long our island throne has stood,\n Planted on the ocean flood;\n Crowned with rock, and girt with sea,\n Home and refuge of the free:\n For His mercies aye endure,\n Ever faithful, ever sure.\n\n On that island throne have sate\n Alfred\u2019s goodness, Edward\u2019s state;\n Princely strength and queenly grace,\n Lengthened line of royal race:\n Round that throne have stood of old\n Seers and statesmen, firm and bold;\n Burleigh\u2019s wisdom, Hampden\u2019s fire,\n Chatham\u2019s force in son and sire.\n\n Let us with a gladsome mind\n Praise the Lord, for He is kind:\n Him, in homely English tongue,\n Epic lay and lyric song,\n Shakespeare\u2019s myriad-minded verse,\n Milton\u2019s heavenward strains, rehearse:\n For His mercies aye endure,\n Ever faithful, ever sure.\n\n Hither in our heathen night\n Came of yore the gospel light;\n By the Saviour\u2019s sacred story,\n \u2018Angles\u2019 turned to angels\u2019 glory.\n Breaking with a gracious hand\n Ancient error\u2019s subtle band;\n Opening wide the sacred page,\n Kindling hope in saint and sage.\n\n Give us homes serene and pure,\n Settled freedom, laws secure;\n Truthful lips and minds sincere;\n Faith and love that cast out fear.\n Grant that light and life divine\n Long on England\u2019s shores may shine;\n Grant that people, Church, and throne\n May in all good deeds be one.[182]\n\nOf the eighteenth century, Miss Steele and Mrs. Barbauld are almost\nthe only women whose hymns survive to-day. In the nineteenth century,\nhowever, there are not a few women whose songs are likely to endure.\nCharlotte Elliott, Cecil Frances Alexander, Anna L\u00e6titia Waring, have\nwritten immortal hymns, and it will be long ere Frances Ridley\nHavergal is absent from the songs of the Church. It is safe to\nprophesy that \u2018Just as I am,\u2019 \u2018There is a green hill far away,\u2019 and\n\u2018Father, I know that all my life,\u2019 will be sung through many\ngenerations\u2014as long, indeed, as English Christianity endures.\n\nCharlotte Elliott (1791-1871), who belonged to a famous evangelical\nChurch family, is one of many who learnt in suffering what she taught\nin song. Her greatest hymn, \u2018Just as I am,\u2019 was first published in the\n_Invalid\u2019s Hymn-book_ (1836), and, without her knowledge, was\nreprinted and widely circulated. In no other hymn has the sinner\u2019s way\nto the Saviour been made more plain. Through the penitential\nself-despair of its earlier verses countless numbers of the weary and\nheavy-laden have found rest unto their souls, and entered into the\njoyous confidence of its closing lines. Wordsworth\u2019s daughter, Dora,\nreceived the hymn in her last illness, and her husband wrote to the\nauthoress, \u2018At least ten times that day she asked me to repeat it to\nher,\u2019 and every morning she asked for it again till the end came.\nAfter her death it formed part of her mother\u2019s \u2018daily solitary\nprayer.\u2019\n\nMiss Elliott is the truest and the best representative of the early\nevangelical Church hymn-writers. Many of her little-known hymns are\nvery beautiful. I quote two pieces, notwithstanding a breath of\nCalvinism in them both, for it is a Calvinism that has good Scripture\nwarrant.\n\n \u2018My soul followeth hard after Thee\u2019 (Ps. lxiii. 8).\n\n I look to Thee, I hope in Thee,\n I glory in Thy name!\n I make Thy righteousness my plea,\n Thou all-atoning Lamb!\n Methinks even death will welcome be,\n That I, through death, may pass to Thee.\n\n Thou art my portion, saith my soul,\n My all in earth or heaven;\n None but Thyself can make me whole,\n No name but Thine is given\n At which the gates of pearl fly wide\u2014\n The passport of the justified.\n\n I know Thy voice\u2014I strive to keep\n Thy word within my heart;\n Though the most worthless of Thy sheep,\n Still Thou my Shepherd art;\n Firm as a rock that word shall stand,\n None, none shall pluck me from Thy hand.\n\n Without repentance are Thy gifts;\n This thought my hope sustains,\n In deep distress my soul uplifts,\n When sin the victory gains;\n My faith, though weak, shall never fail,\n Thy prayer shall even for me prevail.\n\n When I Thy glory shall behold,\n And see Thee face to face,\n Sheltered in Thy celestial fold,\n A sinner saved by grace.\n What will it be Thy love to adore,\n Assured I shall go out no more?\n\nThe following lines are evidently in part suggested by her own great\nhymn. The text is \u2018Into Thine hand I commit my spirit: Thou hast\nredeemed me, O Lord God of truth\u2019 (Ps. xxxi. 5)\u2014\n\n God of my life! Thy boundless grace\n Chose, pardoned, and adopted me;\n My rest, my home, my dwelling-place!\n Father! I come to Thee.\n\n Jesus, my hope, my rock, my shield!\n Whose precious blood was shed for me,\n Into Thy hands my soul I yield;\n Saviour! I come to Thee.\n\n Spirit of glory and of God!\n Long hast Thou deigned my Guide to be;\n Now be Thy comfort sweet bestowed!\n My God! I come to Thee.\n\n I come to join that countless host\n Who praise Thy name unceasingly.\n Blest Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!\n My God! I come to Thee.\n\nFrances Ridley Havergal (1836-79) was full of the gladness of God\u2019s\nchosen, and her songs illustrate Faber\u2019s verse\u2014\n\n If our love were but more simple,\n We should take Him at His word,\n And our lives would be all sunshine\n In the sweetness of our Lord.\n\nAfter her conversion she knew nothing of Wesley\u2019s experience of the\n\u2018howling wilderness\u2019; to her the night was never dark, as it was to\nNewman, and she was never far from home. Her hymns overflow with\nexultant faith.\n\n Sweet bird! thy bower is ever green,\n Thy sky is ever clear,\n Thou hast no sorrow in thy song,\n No winter in thy year.[183]\n\nIt would, perhaps, be unsafe to predict that any of Miss Havergal\u2019s\nhymns will rank among the songs that cannot die, but they will\ncertainly be long loved and sung. Her consecration hymns, especially\n\u2018Lord, speak to me that I may speak,\u2019 are solemn and impressive, and\nare, perhaps, her best. But her triumphant songs are often very fine,\nthough they are not always well sustained. Her Advent hymn has the\ntriumphant rapture of the soul that goes out to meet her Lord.\n\n Thou art coming, O my Saviour,\n Thou art coming, O my King,\n In Thy beauty all-resplendent,\n In Thy glory all-transcendent;\n Well may we rejoice and sing;\n Coming! in the opening east\n Herald brightness slowly swells;\n Coming! O my glorious Priest,\n Hear we not Thy golden bells?\n\n Thou art coming; at Thy table\n We are witnesses for this;\n While remembering hearts Thou meetest\n In communion clearest, sweetest,\n Earnest of our coming bliss,\n Showing not Thy death alone,\n And Thy love exceeding great,\n But Thy coming and Thy throne,\n All for which we long and wait.\n\nCecil Frances Alexander (1823-95) may almost be called the first\nwriter of real children\u2019s hymns. Dr. Watts was not happy in his\n_Divine and Moral Songs_, and some of Charles Wesley\u2019s most horrible\nverses are to be found in his _Hymns for Children_. It is true that\nWatts wrote some simple lyrics which seem to have suited our prim\nlittle ancestors, and that Charles Wesley wrote \u2018Gentle Jesus, meek\nand mild,\u2019 but even the manners and beliefs of the devout souls of\nthat time cannot altogether excuse some of his hymns, which must have\nfrightened many a poor little Methodist out of his wits.\n\nAnne and Jane Taylor\u2019s _Hymns for Infant Minds_ are _too_ infantile,\nthough they served their generation well, and led on from Watts to\nMrs. Alexander. The Taylors had a happy knack of conveying Scripture\nhistory and teaching in simple verse. I do not know a better\ndefinition of repentance than\u2014\n\n Repentance is to leave\n The sins I loved before,\n And show that I in earnest grieve\n By doing so no more.\n\nBut Mrs. Alexander combines with the winsome simplicity which charms\nand instructs a little child, the power to speak to the child in the\nheart of the man. Never has the gospel story been told to children and\nto child-like souls more attractively than in \u2018Once in royal David\u2019s\ncity\u2019 and \u2018There is a green hill far away.\u2019 Since our Church hymnals\nbegan to include a section for children, Mrs. Alexander has been a\nlarge contributor. Even yet, when we have a considerable number of\ngood children\u2019s hymns, there are none better than hers. Of course she\nwrote other hymns, but these are her glory, her most precious\ncontribution to the hymn-book of the modern Church. \u2018Her character,\u2019\nsays Archbishop Alexander, \u2018was based and moulded upon the best\nteaching of the original Oxford movement,\u2019[184] but she had little\nsympathy with mere ritualism. Well known and loved as many of her\nhymns are, her collected _Poems_ include, among the less familiar\npieces, much of value and interest. She made for the _Irish Church\nHymnal_ a fine translation of the _Breastplate_ of St. Patrick, a hymn\nwhich belongs to the Celtic, not to the Roman Church.\n\n I bind unto myself to-day\n The strong Name of the Trinity,\n By invocation of the same,\n The Three in One and One in Three.\n\n I bind unto myself to-day\n The power of God to hold and lead,\n His eye to watch, His might to stay,\n His ear to hearken to my need.\n The wisdom of my God to teach,\n His hand to guide, His shield to ward,\n The word of God to give me speech,\n His heavenly host to be my guard.\n\n Christ be with me, Christ within me,\n Christ behind me, Christ before me,\n Christ beside me, Christ to win me,\n Christ to comfort and restore me,\n Christ beneath me, Christ above me,\n Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,\n Christ in hearts of all that love me,\n Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.[185]\n\nThis hymn is extensively used in Ireland on St. Patrick\u2019s day.\n\nTo these hymn-writers we may add the poetesses Christina G. Rossetti\nand Jean Ingelow. Miss Rossetti wrote very little that is really\nadapted for use in public worship. There is much, however, to justify\nthe inclusion in a hymn-book of such verses as, \u2018None other Lamb, none\nother Name,\u2019[186] though they are more fitting for private prayer than\nfor social worship. The same is not equally true of Miss Ingelow\u2019s\npoem, \u2018And didst Thou love the race that loved not Thee?\u2019 for the\nverses usually selected form a true hymn. The last verse is\u2014\n\n Come, lest this heart should, cold and cast away,\n Die ere the Guest adored she entertain;\n Lest eyes which never saw Thine earthly day\n Should miss Thy heavenly reign.[187]\n\nOf laymen I can mention only a few names here. Mr. W. Chatterton Dix\nhas written more good hymns than those known to our hymn-books.\nFrancis Turner Palgrave (1824-97), whose _Treasury of Sacred Song_ is\nour best anthology, also wrote hymns which, it seems to me, deserve a\nwider use than they have attained. His best-known hymn, without being\nof the popular type, is of the class which is appreciated by many in\nthese days of perplexity and unrest.\n\n Thou say\u2019st, \u2018Take up thy cross,\n O man, and follow Me\u2019:\n The night is black,\n The feet are slack,\n Yet we would follow Thee.\n\n But oh, dear Lord, we cry,\n That we Thy face could see!\n Thy bless\u00e8d face\n One moment\u2019s space:\n Then might we follow Thee!\n\n Dim tracts of time divide\n Those golden days from me;\n Thy voice comes strange\n O\u2019er years of change:\n How can we follow Thee?\n\n Comes faint and far Thy voice\n From vales of Galilee;\n The vision fades\n In ancient shades:\n How should we follow Thee?\n\n Ah, sense-bound heart and blind!\n Is naught but what we see?\n Can time undo\n What once was true?\n Can we not follow Thee?\n\n Within our heart of hearts\n In nearest nearness be:\n Give Thou the sign:\n Say, \u2018Ye are Mine\u2019;\n Lead, and we follow Thee.[188]\n\nOther hymns by Professor Palgrave are, \u2018O thou not made with hands,\u2019\n\u2018Star of morn and even,\u2019 \u2018Thou that once on mother\u2019s knee.\u2019\n\nI close this section of my lecture with a few verses which have, as\nfar as I know, not yet found a place in any hymnal. They are from a\nCommunion hymn by Mr. Gladstone. They may rightly be included in the\nhymns of the Anglican Revival.\n\n\u2018Mr. Gladstone\u2019s mind and heart,\u2019 says Mr. G. W. E. Russell, \u2018were\nalready attuned to the new teaching, and prepared to receive it, even\nthough he had not paid much attention to the controversy. It was in\n1836 that he wrote his hymn on the Holy Communion.\u2019 Mr. Russell gives\nthe following verses\u2014\n\n Here, where Thine angels overhead\n Do warn the Tempter\u2019s powers away,\n And where the bodies of the dead\n For life and resurrection stay;\n And many a generation\u2019s prayer\n Hath perfumed and hath blest the air;\n\n Oh, lead my blindness by the hand,\n Lead me to Thy familiar Feast,\n Not here or now to understand,\n Yet even here and now to taste,\n How the eternal Word of Heaven\n On earth in broken bread is given.\n\n We, who this holy precinct round\n In one adoring circle kneel,\n May we in one intent be bound,\n And one serene devotion feel;\n And grow around Thy sacred shrine\n Like tendrils of the deathless Vine.\n\n We, who with one blest Food are fed,\n Into one body may we grow,\n And one pure life from Thee, the Head,\n Informing all the members flow;\n One pulse be felt in every vein,\n One law of pleasure and of pain.\n\n Oh, let the virtue all divine,\n The Gift of this true Sabbath morn,\n Stored in my spirit\u2019s inner shrine,\n Be purely and be meekly borne;\n Be husbanded with thrifty care,\n And sweetened and refreshed with prayer.[189]\n\nIt is at once necessary and almost superfluous to say that I know how\nmuch has been left unsaid, how many names there are deserving mention,\nhow many hymns that might be referred to, but in such a fruitful land\nthe gleanings are richer than the vintage of former years.\n\n\n\n\n V\n Nineteenth-century Hymns\n\n\n II.\u2014Free Church Hymns\n\n The composing of hymns is one of the surest signs of spiritual life,\n and the use of hymns is a wonderful witness of Christian unity; and\n the Church of England has been fertile during the last half-century\n in the production of hymns which are used by all English Christians,\n whilst the confederate Churches of the same period can hardly point\n to any additions made by them to the hymns of the Christian\n world.[190]\n\nAs we have seen, the honours of hymn-writing during the period\nreferred to are undoubtedly with the Anglicans, though Heber and Keble\nbelong to an earlier time. But this sweeping assertion of Mr.\nLlewellyn Davis ought to have been impossible if he had remembered\nHoratius Bonar, certainly one of the greatest English hymn-writers.\nThere are also George Rawson, T. T. Lynch, T. H. Gill, George\nMatheson, and, every Methodist would add, William M. Bunting.\n\nIt must be remembered also that the Free Churches were already rich in\nhymns when the nineteenth century dawned, whilst the Tractarians had\nto make, translate, or borrow from the Nonconformists, hymns for their\nspecial needs. Methodism had an ample supply of hymns for such Church\nfestivals as it desired, and the observance of festivals and other\necclesiastical occasions was only gradually adopted in the older\nNonconforming Churches. When at length they felt the need for such\nhymns as form the characteristic portions of Anglican hymnody they\nwere already to hand; and after the first natural prejudice against\neverything that savoured of the ritualistic movement had passed away,\nthey found hymns intended to be the exclusive property of the\nAnglicans admirably suited to their own newly awakened Church\nconsciousness. There is something delightful and even amusing in the\nreadiness with which such hymns as \u2018The Church\u2019s one Foundation\u2019 and\n\u2018Onward, Christian soldiers\u2019 have been adopted by all the\ndenominations. The Baptist and the Bible Christian sing with as simple\nconfidence as the highest of Anglicans:\n\n Like a mighty army\n Moves the Church of God;\n Brothers, we are treading\n Where the saints have trod;\n We are not divided,\n All one body we,\n One in hope, in doctrine,\n One in charity.\n\nThey may have different thoughts as to Apostolic Succession, but as\nlong as we believe that where Christ is there is the Church such hymns\nbelong to all.\n\nBut though Nonconformity was rich in hymns and could take without\nscruple many of the Anglican songs, the nineteenth century was very\nfar from being altogether barren in regard to the Free Churches.\n\nTwo hymn-writers mark the transition from the eighteenth to the\nnineteenth century\u2014James Montgomery and Thomas Kelly. They lived, it\nis true, into the second half of the last century, but their hymns are\nan aftermath of the Evangelical Revival. The later Oxford Movement did\nnot affect them, and their songs might all have belonged to the\nearlier period, save for the missionary enthusiasm which inspires some\nof their best efforts.\n\nJames Montgomery (1771-1854) was the son of a Moravian minister, who\ndied in the West Indies whilst the poet was at school. He was born at\nIrvine, Ayrshire, lived for a time in Ireland, and having been\neducated at the Brethren\u2019s school at Fulneck, after a few unsuccessful\nexperiments, settled to work at Sheffield as assistant to the editor\nof a local newspaper. He was a man of strong convictions, and did not\nhide his light under a bushel. He was rewarded by two terms of\nimprisonment, which he turned to profitable account by writing poems.\nHis was the usual fate of honest men persecuted for righteousness\u2019\nsake. Montgomery\u2019s name is one of the chief glories of this city,[191]\nwhere he wrought with head and heart and hand for freedom and for\nrighteousness. \u2018The Climbing Boy\u2019 is a memorial of his part in the\ngreat philanthropic movements of which Lord Shaftesbury was the\nleader. \u2018The West Indies\u2019\u2014a poem which has lines here and there which\nCowper or even William Watson might have written\u2014celebrates the time\n\n When Wilberforce, the minister of grace,\n The new Las Casas of a ruined race,\n With angel-might opposed the rage of hell,\n And fought like Michael, till the dragon fell.\n\n\u2018Greenland\u2019 commemorates his inherited love of missions, and the\ncurious \u2018Thoughts on Wheels\u2019\u2014a satire upon State lotteries\u2014reminds us\nthat Montgomery anticipated the _Daily News_ in refusing to insert\nadvertisements of a \u2018national nuisance.\u2019 We are accustomed to think of\nMontgomery as a gracious Moravian poet, whose most appropriate place\nwas the platform of a Methodist missionary meeting, but he passed\nthrough storm and tempest, through privation and struggle, to the\npeaceful haven of his later years. Montgomery was a Moravian all his\nlife, a Methodist the greater part of it, and a Churchman toward the\nend. Once again, we may say, \u2018Such he was as every Christian Church\nwould rejoice to have adopted.\u2019 Indeed, through its hymn-book, every\nChurch has adopted him, and in some of the best modern collections\nMontgomery is more often heard than Watts.[192]\n\nMontgomery cherished no illusion as to his poetic powers. He hoped\nthat his _Poems_ might be read for a generation, but that his _Hymns_\nwould be his lasting memorial. \u2018The World before the Flood\u2019 and \u2018The\nWanderer in Switzerland\u2019 are forgotten, and little likely to be\nrevived; but such hymns as \u2018Hail to the Lord\u2019s Anointed\u2019 and \u2018For ever\nwith the Lord\u2019 will be sung through the centuries.\n\nThe first of these is not only Montgomery\u2019s finest psalm-version, but\nan unsurpassed rendering of a triumphant Messianic psalm. It owes\nsomething to the instinctive wisdom with which the best verses have\nbeen selected, and to a few editorial touches.[193] One can well\nimagine the thrill with which it was heard in Pitt Street Chapel,\nLiverpool, when the author recited the hymn at the close of a\nmissionary speech, and how Adam Clarke rejoiced to add this\nmagnificent rendering of the 72nd Psalm to his _Commentary_. It is, I\nthink, a finer and a much closer rendering of the \u2018Psalm for Solomon\u2019\nthan Watts\u2019s great version. When urged by Dr. Clarke to attempt a\ncomplete version of the Psalms, Montgomery said that he feared to\ntouch the harp of Zion. He did, however, paraphrase about fifty or\nsixty psalms with more than average success.\n\nIt is sometimes said that \u2018Prayer is the soul\u2019s sincere desire\u2019 is not\n\u2018in the true sense\u2019 a hymn, but this is to take too narrow a view of\nthe term. It excellently illustrates the way in which devout\nmeditation ends in prayer. Had the last verse been omitted, it would\nhave been a religious poem, not a hymn, but this throws upon all that\nprecedes it the light of devotion. Each verse looks forward to the\nlast\u2014\n\n O Thou by whom we come to God,\n The Life, the Truth, the Way!\n The path of prayer Thyself hast trod:\n Lord! teach us how to pray.\n\nIt is superfluous to refer to all Montgomery\u2019s contributions to our\nhymn-books, but we must ever gratefully remember such pieces as his\nCommunion hymn\n\n According to Thy gracious word,\n\nand the solemn prayer\n\n In the hour of trial,\n Jesus, pray for me,\n Lest by base denial\n I depart from Thee.\n\nIt is remarkable that editors should have thought it necessary to\nmeddle (as indeed Montgomery himself did) with the second line of this\nverse, thinking it \u2018unscriptural,\u2019 although the very word \u2018pray\u2019 is\ntaken from the lips of our Lord.\n\nMontgomery has also given us a fine Christmas carol\u2014\n\n Angels, from the realms of glory;\n\nand a solemn meditation on the Passion, Death, and Resurrection,\nrising at the last into actual prayer\u2014\n\n Early hasten to the tomb\n Where they laid His breathless clay:\n All is solitude and gloom;\n Who hath taken Him away?\n Christ is risen! He seeks the skies:\n Saviour, teach us so to rise.\n\nIn Montgomery, as in all great hymn-writers, the word of Christ dwelt\nrichly, and his songs are full of the thoughts and phrases of the\nPsalter and the New Testament. Some of his sacred poems, though\nunsuitable for congregational singing, are good devotional reading. I\nquote one such, which seems to me to deserve something better than the\nplace he gave it in the Appendix to his _Poetical Works_.\n\n\n CHRIST THE PURIFIER\n\n (Mal. iii. 2, 3.)\n\n He that from dross would win the precious ore\n Bends o\u2019er the crucible an earnest eye,\n The subtle, searching process to explore,\n Lest the _one_ brilliant moment should pass by\n When in the molten silver\u2019s virgin mass\n He meets his pictured face as in a glass.\n\n Thus in God\u2019s furnace are His children tried;\n Thrice happy they who to the end endure!\n But who the fiery trial may abide?\n Who from the crucible come forth so pure,\n That He, whose eyes of flame look through the whole,\n May see His image perfect in the soul?\n\n Not with an evanescent glimpse alone,\n As in that mirror the refiner\u2019s face,\n But, stampt with heaven\u2019s broad signet, there be shown\n Immanuel\u2019s features, full of truth and grace\u2014\n And round that seal of love this motto be,\n \u2018Not for a moment, but eternity!\u2019\n\nThomas Kelly (1769-1854), who was in Ireland what Williams of\nPantycelyn was in Wales, wrote nearly 800 hymns, the vast majority of\nwhich belong to the same class as the masses of the forgotten hymns of\npious Dissenting pastors in the eighteenth century. They are often\nredeemed from absolute dullness only by his love for curious rhymes,\ne.g. \u2018hers is\u2019 and \u2018mercies.\u2019 He illustrates abundantly how easy it is\nto have rhyme and rhythm without a suggestion of poetry, as in this\nverse\u2014\n\n Spread abroad the joyful sound,\n Fly in all directions;\n Speak to all the world around,\n Men of all complexions.\n\nIt is amazing that a man who could at times write so well should, as a\nrule, write so feebly. Yet Kelly\u2019s hymns have had a great popularity,\nand a few are firmly fixed in all our hymn-books. His best are\u2014\u2018Look,\nye saints, the sight is glorious,\u2019 \u2018Through the day Thy love hath\nspared us,\u2019 \u2018We sing the praise of Him who died,\u2019 \u2018The Head that once\nwas crowned with thorns,\u2019 and that most inspiring and comforting\nmissionary valediction, \u2018Speed Thy servants, Saviour, speed them.\u2019\n\nJosiah Conder (1789-1855) was a poet and an expert editor. His\n_Congregational Hymn-book_ (1836) marks a new era in the devotional\nservice of Nonconformity. He was in some cases a grievous sinner in\nregard to alterations, and was often very unhappy in his\nemendations.[194] Some of his original poems are very beautiful,\nespecially his short hymns and his versions of Prayer-book collects,\ne.g. \u2018Bread of heaven on Thee I feed,\u2019 and the beautiful paraphrase of\nthe Collect for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity, with which the\n_Methodist Hymn-book_ closes. Conder belongs to both centuries. His\nhymns are often of the dull didactic type of the earlier time, but he\ncaught something of the spirit of the later day. Of his longer hymns\nthe following is a good specimen. It is found in many hymnals.\n\n How shall I follow Him I serve?\n How shall I copy Him I love?\n Nor from those bless\u00e8d footsteps swerve,\n Which lead me to His seat above?\n\n Privations, sorrows, bitter scorn,\n The life of toil, the mean abode,\n The faithless kiss, the crown of thorn,\u2014\n Are these the consecrated road?\n\n \u2019Twas thus He suffered, though a Son,\n Foreknowing, choosing, feeling all;\n Until the perfect work was done,\n And drunk the bitter cup of gall.\n\n Lord! should my path through suffering lie,\n Forbid it I should e\u2019er repine;\n Still let me turn to Calvary,\n Nor heed my griefs, remembering Thine.\n\n Oh, let me think how Thou didst leave\n Untasted every pure delight,\n To fast, to faint, to watch, to grieve,\n The toilsome day, the homeless night:\u2014\n\n To faint, to grieve, to die for me!\n Thou camest not Thyself to please:\n And, dear as earthly comforts be,\n Shall I not love Thee more than these?\n\n Yes! I would count them all but loss,\n To gain the notice of Thine eye:\n Flesh shrinks and trembles at the cross,\n But Thou canst give the victory.\n\nThomas Toke Lynch (1818-71), an Independent minister, whose delicate\nhealth often interrupted his labours, published in 1855 a little book\nof poems which roused an extraordinary storm. It is difficult to\nunderstand how such an inoffensive book as _The Rivulet_ could make\nany great sensation, but the theological mind was more sensitive, if\nnot more restless, than it is to-day. The \u2018Rivulet Controversy,\u2019 in\nwhich the redoubtable Dr. John Campbell was the prime mover, is long\nforgotten, but a few of the hymns survive. The best known is,\n\u2018Gracious Spirit, dwell with me.\u2019[195] Lynch is an important\ncontributor to Congregational and Baptist hymnals, but he is\npractically unknown to Anglican books, and is not represented in the\n_Presbyterian Church Hymnary_.\n\nLynch was of the new and broader school of thought, and his hymns,\nwhich he is said to have designed as a supplement to Watts, are of an\nentirely different cast from those of the earlier day, though their\nteaching is familiar enough in our time. I make a brief quotation,\nwhich is more likely to be welcome to-day than it was half a century\nago.\n\n If love in any heart arise,\n And stir the tongue, and light the eyes,\n And speed the foot, and fill the hand;\n Then, Christian, thou must understand\n That, though unthought of, God is there;\n So of denying Him beware.\n\n If Little-more makes haste to bless\n His troubled neighbour Little-less,\n And poor men to the poorer give,\n Weak ones the weaker help to live,\n The sad those sadder still console;\n Then God is working in the soul.\n\n If the grown man forgoes his bread\n That little mouths may first be fed;\n And patient women serve the men\n Who care for them but now and then,\n And love keeps warm without a fire;\n O, then, the grace of God admire.\n\n Two strangers ocean may divide\n Who yet shall bridegroom be and bride,\n And God unknown to souls may be\n Who love Him will eternally;\n But all true hearts our Father knows,\n And will to them His truth disclose.\n\nGeorge Rawson (1807-89) has won a wider recognition than any other\nEnglish Nonconformist hymn-writer of the century, except Montgomery.\nHe was a solicitor in Leeds, and took part in the preparation of the\n_Leeds Hymn-book_. His Communion hymn, \u2018By Christ redeemed, in Christ\nrestored,\u2019 his Evening hymn, \u2018God the Father, be Thou near,\u2019 and his\nLitany of the Holy Spirit, \u2018Come to our poor nature\u2019s night,\u2019 are his\nmost beautiful contributions to our hymnals, but several of his\nless-known poems are bright, simple, and melodious. His version of Ps.\nlxxxiv. would have been better known if Lyte\u2019s had not been written.\n\nThomas Hornblower Gill\u2019s (b. 1819) is a very distinct voice in the\nchoir. He will, I fear, have but a small place in the hymn-books of\nthe future, though there is an individuality and force in many of his\nhymns which make them singularly attractive. Unfortunately, he often\nuses an unusual word or phrase which diverts the worshipper\u2019s mind\nfrom what is said to the form in which it is expressed. Again, he is\ntoo fond of the epithets \u2018dear\u2019 and \u2018sweet,\u2019 which is the more to be\nregretted, as his hymns are never what Wesley called \u2018namby-pambycal,\u2019\nbut have a fine, robust tone, and often a stirring rhythm. He has much\nof the Puritan spirit. One of his best hymns, \u2018Lord, in the fulness of\nmy might,\u2019[196] has for its text Cromwell\u2019s saying, \u2018How good it is to\nclose with Christ betimes.\u2019 In the Congregational and Baptist books\nMr. Gill is largely represented. I hope the inclusion of a few of his\nhymns in the _Methodist Hymn-book_ will make him known to a still\nwider circle. I have marked many of his hymns for quotation, for they\nhave been dear to me from my boyhood, when I made acquaintance with\nthem through George Dawson\u2019s hymn-book. Those I quote are chosen, not\nbecause they are specially suitable for use in public worship, but\nbecause there is so much of force and freshness in both thought and\nexpression. The hymn on \u2018Free Grace\u2019 has also a motto from Cromwell\u2014\u2018I\nhave had plentiful wages beforehand, and I am sure I shall never earn\nthe least mite.\u2019\n\n Lord! dost Thou ne\u2019er Thy servants bless\n Until their work is done?\n Dost Thou withhold Thy tenderness\n Till they the meed have won?\n\n Lord! dost Thou reckon with Thine own\n Like taskmasters below?\n First must the handiwork be shown?\n Wilt Thou the wages owe?\n\n Nay, Lord! to Thy dear servants fall\n The wages long before;\n The Taskmaster Celestial\n Hath paid them o\u2019er and o\u2019er.\n\n How can they reckon up the grace\n Each hour, each minute brings?\n How store Thy gifts? how find a place\n For all their precious things?\n\n Hath not the Son their ransom paid,\n And brought them near to God?\n Yes! hath not the sweet Spirit made\n Their souls His dear abode?\n\n O boundless treasure all unearned!\n O wages given for nought!\n Bestowed ere once their hearts have yearned,\n Ere once their hands have wrought.\n\n With eager love these souls may burn,\n These hands their utmost strain;\n Still, Lord, one mite they cannot earn;\n Thy love doth grace remain.\n\n O! mourn Thy servants that there fall\n No earnings to their lot?\n Because Thy grace hath given them all,\n Lord, can they give Thee nought?\n\n Thine own no heavenly burden spare!\n Withhold no task divine,\n And let our eager love declare\n The unbought grace of Thine.\n\nMy last quotation is made for the sake of its quaint, sturdy,\nhalf-humorous Independency. The text is, \u2018Render unto Caesar the\nthings that are Caesar\u2019s.\u2019\n\n Lord! Thy gracious voice hath spoken,\n Lord! Thy faithful ones obey;\n Not by us be rudely broken\n Christ\u2019s command or Caesar\u2019s sway!\n God too greatly cannot task us,\n Tribute glad we bring the Lord;\n Service slight must Caesar ask us,\n Tribute small can we afford.\n\n Yet each holier soul desireth\n Nobler Caesars to appear;\n Each diviner hour requireth\n Powers and thrones more glorious here.\n All our tribute, all our treasure,\n We would spend where we can love;\n Jesus! come and be our Caesar!\n Sovereign here as Lord above.\n\n Low before Thy kingdom\u2019s splendour\n Make the world\u2019s poor kingdoms bow!\n Lord, to Thee our all we render\u2014\n Thou our gracious Caesar, Thou!\n Thy mild monarchy victorious\n Half Thy word shall needless make,\n Our least service shall be glorious\u2014\n All our tribute God shall take.\n\nI have already referred to Mr. Gill\u2019s national hymn\n\n Lift thy song among the nations,\n England of the Lord beloved,\n\nwhich is based on the text, \u2018He hath not dealt so with any nation.\nPraise ye the Lord.\u2019[197]\n\nA few other hymns by English Nonconformist writers may be found, some,\ne.g. Thomas Binney\u2019s \u2018Eternal Light,\u2019 being of a very high order. Mr.\nSpurgeon wrote a good many hymns and psalm-versions, but they are not\nlikely to be widely used. One, intended as a paraphrase of Ps. xli.,\nmight, perhaps, find a place among hymns of Philanthropy, where our\nhymnals are still weak.\n\n Jesus, poorest of the poor,\n Man of sorrows, Child of grief!\n Happy they whose bounteous store\n Ministered to Thy relief.\n\n Jesus, though Thy head is crowned,\n Crowned with loftiest majesty,\n In Thy members Thou art found\n Plunged in deepest poverty.\n\n Happy they who wash Thy feet,\n Visit Thee in Thy distress;\n Honour great and labour sweet,\n For Thy sake the saints to bless.\n\n Thou wilt deeds of love repay;\n Grace shall generous hearts reward\n Here on earth, and in the day\n When they meet their reigning Lord.[198]\n\nBernard Barton (1784-1849), the Quaker poet, is best known by his hymn\non the Holy Scriptures\u2014\u2018Lamp of our feet, whereby we trace.\u2019 To my\nmind his best hymn is the bright song of the Christian soldier.\n\n He who would win a warrior\u2019s fame\n Must shun, with ever-watchful aim,\n Entangling things of life;\n His couch the earth, heaven\u2019s arching dome\n His airy tent, his only home\n The field of martial strife.\n\n Unwearied by the battle\u2019s toil,\n Uncumbered by the battle\u2019s spoil,\n No dangers must affright;\n Nor rest seduce to slothful ease,\n Intent alone his chief to please,\n Who called him forth to fight.\n\n Soldier of Christ, if thou wouldst be\n Worthy that epithet, stand free\n From time\u2019s encumbering things;\n Be earth\u2019s enthralments feared, abhorred,\n Knowing thy leader is the Lord,\n Thy chief the King of kings.\n\nMethodism has not in later days been rich in hymn-writers. After\nThomas Olivers there is but one great name, that of William M. Bunting\n(1805-66). Little as he is known outside his own Church, his hymns are\namongst the best loved and best used in Wesleyan Methodism. I cannot\nbut think that some day he will be recognized as one of the glorious\nchoir of the universal Church. He was an extremely delicate man, and\nhis natural bent was pensive and self-depreciatory. He once said to a\nfriend, \u2018There is one thing I shall miss in heaven, the mystic joys of\npenitence.\u2019 His great penitential hymn,\n\n Holy Spirit! pity me,\n Pierced with grief for grieving Thee,\n\neven if it be thought too personal for use in public worship\u2014I do not\nthink it is\u2014might well be placed among hymns for private devotion. In\nthe services of a minister\u2019s \u2018quiet day\u2019 it would be most impressive.\n\n Bless\u00e8d are the pure in heart,\n They have learned the angel art,\n While on earth in heaven to be,\n God, by sense unseen, to see,\n\nthough not a direct prayer, is a long meditation, the kind of\nspiritual song which ought to be in all our hymn-books. His Baptismal\nhymn is very fine.\n\n O crucified, triumphant Lord!\n Thy sceptre and Thy cross we own;\n And, taught by Thine apostle\u2019s word,\n Repose our faith on Thee alone.\n\n The sign of faith ordained by Thee\n We Thy confessors scorn to shun;\n All men our fellowship shall see,\n Our Lord, our faith, our symbol, one.\n\nIt is one of the strongest if not the tenderest of hymns for infant\nbaptism, and will bear comparison with Dean Alford\u2019s, \u2018In token that\nthou shalt not fear,\u2019 with this advantage, that it is not addressed to\nthe infant, but to Him whose Name is named upon it.\n\nWilliam Morley Punshon\u2019s (1824-81) _Sabbath Chimes_ suffered from\ncomparison with the _Christian Year_, but his hymns for Sunday morning\nand evening\u2014especially the latter\u2014are not unworthy of a place amongst\nthe many good hymns we include under this heading. Both are wisely\nshortened in hymn-books. Some readers will be glad to see the\nfollowing verses from the Sabbath Evening hymn as they were originally\npublished, though I do not suggest that the familiar cento is not\nbetter for use in the congregation.\n\n We woke to-day with anthems sweet\n To sing before the mercy-seat,\n And, ere the darkness round us fell,\n We bade the grateful vespers swell.\n\n Whate\u2019er has risen from heart sincere,\n Each upward glance of filial fear,\n Each litany, devoutly prayed,\n Each gift upon Thine altar laid;\n\n Each tear, regretful of the past,\n Each longing o\u2019er the future cast,\n Each brave resolve,\u2014each spoken vow,\u2014\n Jesus, our Lord! accept them now.\n\n Whate\u2019er beneath Thy searching eyes\n Has wrought to spoil our sacrifice;\n Aught of presumption, over bold,\n The dross we vainly brought for gold;\n\n If we have knelt at alien shrine,\n Or insincerely bowed at Thine,\n Or basely offered blind and lame,\n Or blushed beneath unholy shame;\n\n Or,\u2014craven prophets,\u2014turned to flee\n When duty bade us speak for Thee;\u2014\n \u2019Mid this sweet stillness, while we bow,\n Jesus, our Lord! forgive us now.\n\n Oh, let each following Sabbath yield\n For our loved work an ampler field,\n A sturdier hatred of the wrong,\n A stronger purpose to grow strong.[199]\n\nThe _Methodist Hymn-book_ contains contributions from several\nMethodist writers new to our authorized hymnal. Of those still living\nI will say nothing, but I cannot pass over the name of James Smetham\n(1821-89), whose tender, solemn lines, \u2018While ebbing nature grieves,\u2019\nthough they may rarely be sung in public, will be prized by many.\nAnother of his hymns is in a different key. It is, perhaps, more\nsuitable for congregational use\u2014\n\n Show me, Lord, that Thou art love\n In confirmed tranquillity,\n Like the silent sky above,\n Let my craving spirit be;\n Dwell in life as vast and still,\n In the sunlight of Thy will.\n\n Thou who fillest all in all,\n Knowing that I wander here,\n Thou wilt hearken when I call,\n I will wait till Thou appear.\n Angels in Thy smile are blest;\n Smile, and Thou wilt give me rest.\n\n See the lilies of the field!\n They are all endued by Thee:\n Thou their innocence wilt shield;\n But Thou carest more for me:\n For like summer verdure, I\n Live and grow, but cannot die.\n\n Since on me Thou hast conferred\n This dread gift of endless life,\n Let my spirit walk prepared\n For its brief and mortal strife;\n Rushing then into Thy breast,\n Thou wilt smile, and I shall rest.\n\nThe weakness of this hymn lies in the word \u2018rushing\u2019 in the fourth\nverse, which breaks in upon the quietness and confidence of the poem.\n\nMark Guy Pearse has written several good hymns for children. They are,\nas Dr. Julian says, \u2018of exceptional merit.\u2019 Four are in the _Methodist\nSunday School Book_. His Christmas carol, \u2018The fierce wind howls about\nthe hills,\u2019 has a quaint, old-world simplicity and ruggedness that is\nboth picturesque and affecting. His most carefully wrought hymn is a\nbeautiful song of praise. The first two lines in each verse are its\nspecial charm. Many readers will be glad to see it here, though it is\nwell known in Methodist Sunday schools.\n\n Saviour, for Thy love we praise Thee,\n Love that brought Thee down to earth;\n Like the angels we would praise Thee,\n Singing welcome at Thy birth;\n Let Thy star, through all our gloom,\n Guide us to Thy manger home.\n\n Saviour, for Thy life we praise Thee,\n Life that brings us from the dead;\n Like the children we would praise Thee:\n Lay Thine hands upon our head.\n Call us, as Thou didst of old,\n Little lambs into Thy fold.\n\n Saviour, for Thy death we praise Thee,\n Death that is our hope of life;\n Like the ransomed we would praise Thee,\n Who have passed beyond the strife.\n Wash us in Thy cleansing blood,\n Make us kings and priests to God.\n\n Saviour, for Thy love we praise Thee,\n Love that lifts us up to Thee;\n With the angels let us praise Thee,\n Joining in their minstrelsy;\n All our love for ever telling,\n And the mighty chorus swelling,\n Praise the Lord!\n\nBenjamin Gough (1805-77) was a local preacher and a very minor poet,\nyet he is not the least of Methodist hymn-writers. He was an echo, not\na voice, but won much wider acceptance than most of the later\nMethodist poets. Dr. Littledale included a number of his hymns in the\n_People\u2019s Hymnal_, and he is represented in several good hymn-books\nboth in this country and America. His best hymns are \u2018Awake, awake, O\nZion\u2019 and \u2018Uplift the blood-stained banner.\u2019\n\nThough the English Free Churches are poor in hymn-writers, the balance\nis amply redressed in Scotland. Horatius Bonar (1801-89) is one of the\ngreat singers of the century, and some of his hymns, e.g. \u2018I heard the\nvoice of Jesus say,\u2019 are surely immortal. He rightly named his poems\n\u2018hymns of faith and hope\u2019; they look for and haste unto the coming of\nthe Day of Christ. His Communion hymn, \u2018Here, O my Lord, I see Thee\nface to face,\u2019 and \u2018A few more years shall roll,\u2019 with some others,\nare in all great collections. Few modern books have less than ten of\nhis hymns, and many have from twelve to twenty. He was also a\nsuccessful translator, though his fame rests on his original hymns. If\nI quote few of his verses, it is only because they are so well known.\nThe Second Advent filled a large place in his thought and teaching.\nThe following lines, to which he prefixed a quotation from St.\nAugustine, \u2018The world has grown old,\u2019 are very characteristic\u2014\n\n Come, Lord, and tarry not,\n Bring the long-looked-for day;\n Oh, why these years of waiting here,\n These ages of delay?\n\n Come, for Thy saints still wait,\n Daily ascends their sigh;\n The Spirit and the Bride say, Come:\n Dost Thou not hear the cry?\n\n Come, for creation groans,\n Impatient of Thy stay,\n Worn out with these long years of ill,\n These ages of delay.\n\n Come, for Thy foes are strong;\n With taunting lip they say,\n \u2018Where is the promised advent now,\n And where the dreaded day?\u2019\n\n Come, for love waxes cold,\n Its steps are faint and slow;\n Faith now is lost in unbelief,\n Hope\u2019s lamp burns dim and low.\n\n Come, for the corn is ripe;\n Put in Thy sickle now,\n Reap the great harvest of the earth,\n Sower and reaper Thou!\n\n Come, and make all things new,\n Build up this ruined earth;\n Restore our faded Paradise,\n Creation\u2019s second birth.\n\n Come, and begin Thy reign\n Of everlasting peace;\n Come, take the kingdom to Thyself,\n Great King of righteousness.[200]\n\nFewer and less easily adapted to congregational use are the sacred\nsongs of Dr. George Matheson, whose best-known hymn is probably the\nmost widely appreciated of any written in the last quarter of a\ncentury. It must be familiar to most readers, but as it is not found\nin the _Methodist Hymn-book_, I give it here\u2014\n\n O Love that wilt not let me go,\n I rest my weary soul on Thee;\n I give Thee back the life I owe,\n That in Thine ocean depths its flow\n May richer, fuller be.\n\n O Light that followest all my way,\n I yield my flickering torch to Thee;\n My heart restores its borrowed ray,\n That in Thy sunshine\u2019s blaze its day\n May brighter, fairer be.\n\n O Joy that seekest me through pain,\n I cannot close my heart to Thee;\n I trace the rainbow through the rain,\n And feel the promise is not vain\n That morn shall tearless be.\n\n O Cross that liftest up my head,\n I dare not ask to fly from Thee;\n I lay in dust life\u2019s glory dead,\n And from the ground there blossoms red\n Life that shall endless be.\n\nVery different are his verses on Brotherhood, which are not on the\nordinary lines of a hymn, but make an excellent song for a gathering\nof working-men, for a temperance meeting, or for \u2018united\u2019 gatherings\nof many kinds. It is at least thoroughly modern.\n\n Come, let us raise the common song\u2014\n Day\u2019s beams are breaking;\n Shadows have parted hearts too long,\n Light in the east is waking.\n\n Come, let us clasp united hands\u2014\n Love\u2019s rays are falling;\n Sea too long divides the lands,\n Kindred claims are calling.\n\n Come, let us lift a common prayer\u2014\n One hope combines us;\n We are made hard by selfish care,\n Mutual grief refines us.\n\n Come, let us lift our brother\u2019s load\u2014\n Christ\u2019s cross is o\u2019er us;\n Ours shall fall upon the road\n When Heaven\u2019s is seen before us.\n\n Come, let us win our brother\u2019s love;\n Love\u2019s warm revealing\n Melts the ice that will not move\n By the frost\u2019s congealing.\n\n Come, let us lift our brother\u2019s stain;\n Hope\u2019s power shall cherish\n Dreams of daysprings not in vain\n Wherein the spot shall perish.\n\nDr. Walter C. Smith\u2019s is not a familiar name in our hymn-books. Only\neditors who are willing to leave the beaten track will find his poems\n\u2018true hymns.\u2019 The _Baptist Church Hymnal_, which is perhaps the most\ncatholic and the most literary of our modern books, gives six of his\nhymns, while the Presbyterian and the Methodist have none. But many of\nhis poems are good hymns, though perhaps they appeal to a limited\ncircle. His _Thoughts and Fancies for Sunday Evenings_ has long stood\nclose to my study chair, and I do not think there is any book (except\nGeorge Herbert) I have so often read after the day\u2019s work is done. His\nhymns have the true patience and the happy trustfulness which are the\nstrength and inspiration of Christian service. Here are three verses\nfrom the poem on Ps. cxviii. 1\u2014\n\n Why should I always pray,\n Although I always lack?\n Were \u2019t not a better way\n Some praise to render back?\n The earth that drinks the plenteous rain\n Returns the grateful cloud again.\n\n We should not get the less\n That we remembered more\n The truth and righteousness\n Thou keep\u2019st for us in store:\n In heaven they do not pray\u2014they sing,\n And they have wealth of everything.\n\n And it would be more meet\n To compass Thee with song,\n Than to have at Thy feet\n Only a begging throng,\n Who take Thy gifts and then forget\n Alike Thy goodness and their debt.\n\nMy next quotation is well worthy of a place beside Bishop\nBickersteth\u2019s \u2018Come ye yourselves apart,\u2019 and with the most impressive\nand consoling of hymns for Christian workers.\n\n Oft, Lord, I weary in Thy work,\n But of Thy work I do not tire,\n Although I toil from dawn till dark,\n From matins of the early lark\n Until his even-song expire.\n\n Ah! who that tends the altar fire,\n Or ministers the incense due,\n Or sings Thy praises in the choir,\n Or publishes good news, could tire\n Of that he loves so well to do?\n\n Sweet is the recompense it brings\u2014\n The work that with good-will is done;\n For all the heart with gladness sings,\n And all the fleeting hours have wings,\n And all the day is full of sun.\n\n And if he labour not in vain,\n If souls are by his message stirred,\n If he can comfort grief and pain,\n Or bring repentant tears like rain\n By force of his entreating word,\n\n The hand may weary at its task,\n And weary he may drag his feet;\n The weary frame may long to bask\n In needful rest; but do not ask\n The heart to weary of its beat.\n\nTo these quotations\u2014and they are few compared with those I would like\nto make\u2014I must add Dr. Smith\u2019s singularly solemn and beautiful prayer,\nwhich in the _Baptist Church Hymnal_ is appointed for the close of the\nCommunion Service. It is unique among sacramental hymns.\n\n If any to the feast have come\n Who were not bidden, Lord, forgive;\n They were not of our Father\u2019s home,\n Yet in Thy mercy let them live.\n\n If any came in doubt or fear,\n O may they carry peace away;\n Let heaven to them be calm and clear,\n Still brightening to the perfect day.\n\n And who in Zion mourning were,\n O give them songs of praise to Thee;\n And who were full of anxious care,\n O set them from their burden free.\n\n All those who never sat before\n At this dear table of Thy grace,\n O may they love Thee more and more,\n And serve Thee in Thy Holy Place.\n\n And they who ne\u2019er again shall see\n The day of our communion dawn,\n Prepare them, Lord, to feast with Thee\n At tables which are never drawn.\n\n Forgive us all our wandering thought,\n Our little love, our feeble faith;\n And may we meet, our battle fought,\n Beyond the realms of sin and death.\n\nFrom these great Scotch hymn-writers I turn for a moment to the\nUnitarian contribution to the Church\u2019s hymn-book. Here it must be said\nthat the best comes to us from America, where the Unitarians claim\nOliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, Samuel Longfellow, and\nSamuel Johnson. In England we have Sir John Bowring (1792-1872); and\nSarah Flower Adams (1805-48), whose \u2018Nearer, my God, to Thee\u2019 has a\nsure place among the best-loved hymns. Mrs. Adams also wrote two\nbeautiful little hymns suited for the close of service, each\nbeginning, \u2018Part in peace,\u2019 and was an important contributor to W. J.\nFox\u2019s _Hymns and Anthems_ for the use of the South Place Religious\nSociety, one of the most curious of modern hymnals. Mr. Page Hopps has\nwritten some good hymns, which are widely used. His child\u2019s prayer,\n\u2018Father, lead me day by day,\u2019 is beautiful in its strong simplicity.\nDr. James Martineau wrote a few hymns which I cannot but think are\nincluded in evangelical hymn-books more out of respect for their\nauthor than for their actual devotional or poetic value. The best\nknown is \u2018Thy way is in the deep, O Lord.\u2019 I quote one less often\nfound\u2014\n\n \u2018Where is your God?\u2019 they say:\n Answer them, Lord most holy!\n Reveal Thy secret way\n Of visiting the lowly:\n Not wrapped in moving cloud,\n Or nightly-resting fire;\n But veiled within the shroud\n Of silent high desire.\n\n Come not in flashing storm,\n Or bursting frown of thunder:\n Come in the viewless form\n Of wakening love and wonder;\u2014\n Of duty grown divine,\n The restless spirit, still;\n Of sorrows taught to shine\n As shadows of Thy will.\n\n O God! the pure alone,\u2014\n E\u2019en in their deep confessing,\u2014\n Can see Thee as their own,\n And find the perfect blessing:\n Yet to each waiting soul\n Speak in Thy still small voice,\n Till broken love\u2019s made whole,\n And saddened hearts rejoice.\n\n\n\n\n V\n Nineteenth-century Hymns\n\n\n III.\u2014Roman Catholic Hymns\n\nEnglish Romanism has shared in the revival of hymnody, and has been\ngreatly enriched by the men who, to quote Mr. Moorsom\u2019s delightful\nrecord of Faber, \u2018left the Church of England for the Roman schism in\nEngland.\u2019 From Austin to Faber, Romanism has hardly any English\nhymn-writers. Some of the Latin hymns by English writers have an\nalluring rhythm, the ideal tone of a Christmas carol. It is easy to\nunderstand how popular they might be in the vernacular. Here is a\nbright lilting verse from a thirteenth-century hymn:\n\n Gabriel to Mary went,\n A mighty message bare he;\n Deep in awe the maiden bent\n To hear the first Hail Mary![201]\n\nRichard Crashaw (d. 1650) was a poet, but scarcely a hymn-writer,\nthough from his \u2018Hymn of St. Thomas\u2019 a good cento may be made.\n\n With all the powers my poor heart hath\n Of humble love and loyal faith,\n Thus low, my hidden Life, I bow to Thee,\n Whom too much love hath bowed more low for me.\n\n Faith is my force: Faith strength affords\n To keep pace with Thy powerful words,\n And words more sure, more sweet than they,\n Love could not think, Truth could not say.\n\n Help, Lord, my faith, my hope increase,\n And fill my portion in Thy peace:\n Give love for life; nor let my days\n Grow but in new powers to Thy praise.\n\n O dear memorial of that Death,\n Which lives still and allows us breath!\n Rich, royal food! Bountiful bread!\n Whose use denies us to the dead.\n\n Come, Love! come, Lord! and that long day\n For which I languish, come away!\n When glory\u2019s sun faith\u2019s shades shall chase,\n And for Thy veil give me Thy face.[202]\n\nRobert Southwell (d. 1595) did not write so good a hymn as this, but\nseveral of his very striking poems are included in the Arundel\nbook\u2014\u2018The Burning Babe,\u2019 \u2018New Prince, new Pomp,\u2019 \u2018A Child my choice.\u2019\n\nEarly in the nineteenth century efforts were made to provide English\nhymn-books for Romanists. Father Haydock (1823) even adapted some of\nthe hymns of Wesley, Watts, Montgomery, and other Protestants, but the\neffort does not seem to have been appreciated.[203]\n\nFrederick William Faber (1814-63) did for English Romanists what Watts\nhad done for Nonconformists more than a hundred years earlier. He is\nthe Watts and Wesley of Romanism. Faber \u2018went over\u2019 in 1846, after a\nbrief ministry in the Anglican Church. He lamented that Catholics had\nnot \u2018the means of influence which one school of Protestantism has in\nWesley\u2019s, Newton\u2019s, and Cowper\u2019s hymns, and another in the more\nrefined and engaging works of Oxford writers.\u2019 As \u2018an English son of\nSt. Philip\u2019 Neri, he claimed to be following in the steps of that\n\u2018right merry saint\u2019 in his attempt to provide \u2018English Catholic hymns\nfitted for singing.\u2019 \u2018St. Philip devised a changeful variety of\nspiritual exercises and recreations, which gathered round him the art\nand literature, as well as the piety of Rome, and was eminently\nqualified to meet the increased appetite for the word of God, for\nservices in the vernacular, for hymn-singing and prayer-meetings.\u2019\nThese last words have a fine Methodist flavour, and increase one\u2019s\nsympathy with their writer. But it must be admitted that Faber was a\nthorough-going Romanist. He believed that \u2018God raised up our dear and\nblessed Father, St. Philip ... just as the heresy of Protestantism was\nbeginning to devastate the world.\u2019[204] Faber\u2019s hymns must not be\njudged simply by our Protestant versions, but we may be thankful that\nhe gave a new and better tone to the hymn-singing of the Roman Church.\nHis best hymns, with their exquisite yearning tenderness, are so dear\nto us that there is no need to speak of them; they speak the language\nof the Christian heart, and he who sings thus sings the Holy Spirit\u2019s\nsong.\n\nIt must be admitted, however, that we have taken the best of Faber\ninto our hymnals, and the residue is not\u2014from the Protestant\nstandpoint\u2014of great value. What one may call the lighter songs of\nRoman Catholic psalmody are so little known to us that I quote, as a\nfavourable illustration of a class of hymn that bulks largely in\nRomanist books, two verses of Faber\u2019s song for St. Patrick\u2019s Day. One\ncan readily imagine that such a hymn would be popular in Ireland, and\nserve to keep alive the legend of St. Patrick.\n\n All praise to Saint Patrick who brought to our mountains\n The gift of God\u2019s faith, the sweet light of His love!\n All praise to the shepherd who showed us the fountains\n That rise in the heart of the Saviour above!\n For hundreds of years,\n In smiles and in tears,\n Our saint hath been with us, our shield and our stay;\n All else may have gone,\n Saint Patrick alone,\n He hath been to us light when earth\u2019s lights were all set,\n For the glories of faith they can never decay;\n And the best of our glories is bright with us yet,\n In the faith and the feast of Saint Patrick\u2019s Day.\n\n There is not a saint in the bright courts of Heaven\n More faithful than he to the land of his choice;\n Oh, well may the nation to whom he was given,\n In the feast of their sire and apostle rejoice!\n In glory above,\n True to his love,\n He keeps the false faith from his children away:\n The dark false faith,\n That is worse than death,\n Oh, he drives it far off from the green sunny shore,\n Like the reptiles which fled from his curse in dismay;\n And Erin, when error\u2019s proud triumph is o\u2019er,\n Will still be found keeping Saint Patrick\u2019s Day.\n\nEdward Caswall (1814-78), who resigned his Anglican living in 1847,\nwas received into the Roman Church in 1850. He is a more successful\ntranslator than composer, his best original hymn being \u2018Days and\nmoments quickly flying.\u2019 His translations from the Latin and German\nare in all our hymnals.\n\nRomish hymnals contain many prayers for the reconversion of England.\nThere is something pathetic in such lines as these in a hymn of Father\nPotter\u2019s\u2014\n\n Oh! yet once more, o\u2019er English fields,\n The glorious Cross shall wave;\n The solace of the broken heart,\n The standard of the brave.\n\n Oh, isle of Saints! oh, Mary\u2019s dower!\n How long ere this shall be?\n When wilt thou rise, throw off thy chains,\n And once again be free?\n\nBut if our Romish brethren sing thus, why should not we teach our\nchildren Mr. Gill\u2019s stirring hymn, which includes the lines\n\n Sing how He His England crown\u00e8d,\n When He loosed the yoke of Rome?\n\nHave we not as good cause for praise as they for prayer?\n\nOne turns from the study of Romish hymn-books with a sense of having\ntravelled in a far country, where yet there is much to remind one of\nthe home-land. There is a great gulf, as we thankfully acknowledge,\nbetween even the High Anglican and the Romanist\u2014a considerable portion\nof the Romish hymn-book is, and we trust ever will be, impossible to\nthe bulk of English Christians. On the other hand, one can neglect the\nchaff and gather golden grain, for saintly Romanists have a genius for\ndevotion. It is much to be wished that the readiness with which we\nhave adopted hymns from Roman Catholic sources had been reciprocated.\nBut almost all the great English hymns are missing from Catholic\nhymnals. The Arundel editors admit translations by Dr. Neale, and even\nMiss Winkworth, but no original hymns save those by writers of their\nown faith. Mr. Tozer, in his _Catholic Hymns_, includes Charlotte\nElliott\u2019s \u2018Thy Will be done,\u2019 and gives the author\u2019s name, but I am\nafraid he did not know she was a Protestant\u2014though I hope he did.\n\nNaturally, Faber and Caswall are the chief contributors; and books\nthat contain their hymns and those of Matthew Bridges, Adelaide Anne\nProcter, and J. H. Newman, cannot be without much spiritual wealth.\nThe two collections I have named give a very hopeful impression\nconcerning the future of Roman Catholic hymnody; though they are\npractically innocent of Protestant hymns, they contain many which are\nCatholic, and not Roman. Indirectly, the use of such books must\nprepare the way for a greater freedom in worship and a nearer\napproximation to the general company of believers.\n\nI will close this slight sketch with two verses by Cardinal Manning:\n\n Death has for me no fears; its bitter pains\n Shall never from my King my heart divide:\n Faithful to Him till death my will remains;\n I nothing fear, with Jesus at my side.\n\n Jesus, my Lord! my only hope and shield;\n No powers of ill before Thee can abide;\n I trust in Thee upon the battlefield;\n I nothing fear, with Jesus at my side![205]\n\nHere our study must perforce break off, for the limits assigned to my\nlecture have been already exceeded. Several important subjects must be\nomitted. American hymns take a comparatively inconspicuous place in\nour Church hymnals, but have a large space in collections of songs for\nmission services and undenominational gatherings.\n\nTranslations from the Greek, Latin, and German furnish many of our\nfinest and most popular hymns. In regard to modern hymn-books, the\nGerman are the older, and indeed many of the Latin hymns are actually\nof a later date than those of Luther and even Paul Gerhardt. John\nWesley\u2019s intercourse with the Moravians introduced him to the German\nhymns, and his translations are almost as important a feature in our\nhymn-books as Charles Wesley\u2019s original compositions. Miss Winkworth\u2019s\n_Lyra Germanica_ is one of the great devotional works of the\nnineteenth century.\n\nThe Oxford Movement drew attention to the hymns of the Greek and Roman\nChurches, and _Hymns Ancient and Modern_ popularized many hymns\nsuitable to the worship of all the Churches. Bishop Mant, Isaac\nWilliams, Edward Caswall, and Dr. Neale led the way in translating\nthese hymns into English verse, and they quickly secured a large place\nin hymn-books. Not only have they great historic interest, but they\ngive us some of the sublimest and the sweetest of our hymns of\npenitence and praise, ranging from the solemn tones of the \u2018Dies irae\u2019\nto the lovely lyrics of Bernard of Clairvaux, \u2018Jesu, the very thought\nof Thee.\u2019 No survey of the hymn-book of the modern Church can be\ncomplete without reference to them, but I am compelled to pass them by\nwith only this brief mention.\n\n\n\n\n CONCLUSION\n\n\nOur study of English hymns has carried us through three centuries and\na half\u2014from the rough, halting lines of Coverdale to the smooth and\neasy rhythm of the hymn-writers of to-day.\n\nFrom Sternhold and Hopkins to the modern hymn-book is a long and\ndelightful journey. \u2018I envy not in any mood\u2019 the man who finds in\ndevotional poetry only matter for criticism. If it be true that the\nheart makes the theologian, it is more true that the heart makes the\nhymnologist.\n\nThe earlier stages of our study may yield little actual fruit in the\nshape of hymns which a modern editor would delight to add to his\nhymn-book. But it yields much in the way of inspiration, bringing us\ninto communion with men like Herbert, Donne, Sandys, Vaughan, and, in\nhis measure, Wither\u2014men who might have lived the courtier\u2019s life had\nthey not chosen to serve the King of kings. So far as their poems are\nconcerned, it is a mere accident that Herbert and Donne were in\norders. They are not clerical hymn-writers, but, like others of their\nschool, are poets of the inner and individual life. They touch our\nhearts, not because they have written what expresses the common need\nof a congregation, but because they speak in graceful form what most\nof us can feel but could never put into words. Campion and the two\nAustins represent the devout laymen of the professional class\u2014men who\nmight, if they pleased, have been mere men of the world. It would be\nquite possible to discuss English hymns with scarce a mention of such\nnames, but, it seems to me, that in losing them our study would lose\nits richest charm.\n\nKen may be considered the first of the Anglican, Mason of the\nEvangelical, and Watts of the Dissenting hymn-writers. They wrote, not\nsimply for their own delight or relief, but for the sake of others.\nKen had no immediate successors, though he is the founder of the\nschool of Heber, Lyte, Keble, and Ellerton. Mason\u2019s immediate\nsuccessors were Shepherd, Newton, and Cowper; Watts was the first of a\nlong succession of the later Puritans.\n\nIt is usual to call the eighteenth century the golden age of\nhymn-writing; but I am not sure that this will be the final verdict. I\nconfess that in many respects I find both the earlier and the later\nperiod more attractive. If we leave out of the account Wesley\u2019s hymns,\nmany of which owe their long use in the Methodist Churches to other\nthan poetic considerations, the vast majority of the\neighteenth-century hymns have disappeared from modern use. It is\ninteresting to compare the hymn-books of 1750-1850 with those issued\nwithin the last twenty years. Rippon\u2019s _Selection_, in its various\neditions; Collyer\u2019s _Hymns_; Dobell\u2019s _New Selection of Nearly Eight\nHundred Evangelical Hymns_; Bickersteth\u2019s _Christian Psalmody_; and\nSnepp\u2019s _Songs of Grace and Glory_, compared with the most recent\nhymn-books, show not only what great additions have been made to the\ntreasury of Christian song, but how many hymns once regarded as almost\nindispensable are now forgotten, and are never likely to be revived.\nThe formal, didactic, preaching hymns, so popular a hundred years ago,\nhave been steadily losing ground. They not only fail to touch the\nheart of present-day worshippers, they have no element of distinction,\nnothing that could or should give them a permanent place in the songs\nof the Church of Christ. Hymns of the period before Watts are much\nmore common in twentieth-century hymn-books than in those of the\neighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but the hymns characteristic of\nthe eighteenth century are rapidly disappearing. They were written to\nmeet the needs of the Dissenting meeting-house and the Evangelical\nRevival. But among them are many which voice the experience, \u2018not of\nan age, but of all time\u2019; they speak the language of the soul that\nseeks and finds and follows the Saviour.\n\nNineteenth-century hymns were largely affected by the great Anglican\nRevival\u2014a much wider term than \u2018the Oxford Movement.\u2019 The best known\nand loved of the hymns of the last eighty years are those which, in\none way or other, emphasize the idea of the Church, which help the\nworshipper to realize that he belongs to that Holy Church which,\nthroughout all the ages and in all lands, acknowledges God to be the\nLord. It is one of the unexpected and undesired fruits of the Anglican\nRevival that every denomination now claims its place in an undivided\nChurch. The longing for unity which led the Tractarians first to look\nand then to move toward Rome, led the Free Churches to reconsider\ntheir own position, and to seek for a larger and more scriptural\nconception of the Church. A narrow Calvinism had, on the one hand,\nkept many coldly isolated from their brethren; and, on the other, a\nnarrow fervour, a too literal belief that Methodism, and Methodism\nalone, was Christianity in earnest, made others keep themselves warm\nby their own firesides, under the impression that their neighbours sat\nby cold hearths or crouched over smouldering embers. For this\nestrangement of brethren, the earlier hymn-books are to some extent\nresponsible. The spirit of Christian charity, of genial mutual\nappreciation, has wonderfully developed since denominational\nhymn-books became shining evidences of unity in diversity. Some of\nWesley\u2019s earlier hymn-books illustrate this, and it is to be regretted\nthat he did not make a more liberal use of the work of other men when\nhe issued his final hymn-book for the people called Methodists. The\nearliest great catholic Collection with which I am acquainted is the\nMoravian book of 1754.[206] Disfigured as it is by a number of the bad\nMoravian hymns, it yet deserves a place\u2014considering the time at which\nit was issued\u2014beside Palgrave\u2019s _Treasury of Sacred Song_. It was a by\nno means unsuccessful effort to do for the Moravians of the\nmid-eighteenth century what the _Methodist Hymn-book_ has done for our\nown Church at the beginning of the twentieth century. It gathers into\none volume most of the best hymns of other Churches, while preserving\nthose peculiarly suited to the needs and tastes of its own members.\n\nIn this regard the hymn-books of the Methodist and of the Anglican\nChurch represent a different type from those of the principal\nNonconformist Churches. The latter include very little that is\ndistinctive of the Churches for whose use they are prepared. Where\nthey differ it is usually a matter of taste, not of doctrine. The\nPresbyterian, Baptist, and Congregational books might be used by any\nor all of these Churches. And there is much to be said in defence of\nthe elimination of denominational characteristics.\n\nOn the other hand, there is, I believe, more to be said in favour of\nthe hymn-book which is designed to aid the Church in its specific work\nand teaching. It would be impossible to exaggerate the influence of\nWesley\u2019s _Hymns_ upon the Methodist Churches. And there can be no\nquestion that _Hymns Ancient and Modern_ has had an immense influence,\nboth for good and ill, upon the Anglican Revival. It was originally\nissued in 1861, when the Movement was taking firm hold of the clergy,\nand beginning to change the whole tone of the teaching and the whole\nspirit of public worship in hundreds of parishes. Its success was\nenormous, only paralleled by that of Watts and Wesley. The title was\nin itself a confession of faith in the new Movement. The first edition\nwas, in comparison with the popular hymnals of the Evangelicals, a\nmarked advance toward High Church worship; but it is very modest and\ntentative when compared with its latest edition. I say nothing of its\ndoctrine, for I have no space for criticism. I commend the principle\nupon which the work was done\u2014the education of the worshipper in the\nfaith and practice which the compilers believed to be most truly in\naccordance with the Divine ideal of the Church.\n\nOn the same general principle the _Methodist Hymn-book_ has been\ncompiled. It is made, not for other people, but for ourselves. Some\nfriendly critics see, \u2018with a scornful wonder,\u2019 the number of Charles\nWesley\u2019s hymns which still survive, and talk of superstitious\nreverence for a name. But they do not understand that these hymns,\nperhaps especially those which are unknown to other Churches, enshrine\nwhat we regard as most precious in Methodist life and teaching. From a\nliterary or poetic point of view, it may be that our hymn-book is\ninferior to the Baptist, the Presbyterian, and the Congregational, and\nperhaps especially to such a book as Mr. Horder\u2019s _Worship-Song_. But\nthe hymn-book of a living, working Church should not be constructed on\npurely literary lines. It is not a treasury of religious poetry, not a\nsacred anthology, but a book of common prayer and praise, for use in\nparticular congregations.\n\nNext to _Hymns Ancient and Modern_ the most influential of\nnineteenth-century hymn-books is _Sacred Songs and Solos_, the chief\nmemorial of the mission of Moody and Sankey. They introduced the\nlighter ephemeral songs which suited large undenominational\ngatherings, and caught the ear and reached the heart of the man and\nthe child in the street. I cannot regret that few of these ditties\nfind their way into Church hymnals; yet I am not ashamed to admit that\nin many an East End meeting I have been thankful for \u2018Sankey\u2019s Hymns.\u2019\nIn any review of English hymns this popular collection cannot be\noverlooked.\n\n\nI have spoken of the advantage of diversity in Church hymnals, but\nthere remains a further and very interesting question. How far does\nthe study of hymns and hymn-books encourage the hope of a reunion of\nhearts in the Church of God, rent, as it now is, by many unhappy\ndivisions?\n\nIn an Appendix I give a list of nearly a hundred and sixty hymns,\nwhich are found in the four representative Non-episcopal hymnals and\nin one or both of two representative Anglican books. These hymns are\nthe foundation material of what may be called the hymn-book of the\nmodern Church. Canon Ellerton said, \u2018The study of Nonconformist\nhymn-books does not encourage me in any hopes of what is sometimes\ncalled Home Reunion.\u2019 My own study of modern hymn-books leads to an\nopposite conclusion. It is a commonplace of hymnology that in all good\nhymn-books you find contributions from men of widely different\ntheological schools. But it is not in the fact that the choir of the\nChurch includes Watts, Wesley, Heber, Montgomery, Newman, Keble, Lyte,\nCharlotte Elliott, Mrs. Alexander, Faber, S. J. Stone, Caswall, Bonar,\nRawson, Neale, and others, that I see the most hopeful sign. A still\nmore notable and instructive sign of the times is that alike in the\nmost familiar and in the most solemn moments of life we draw nigh to\nGod with the same words. Our morning and our evening hymns, our\nChristmas carols and our Easter anthems, are one. In the time of\nutmost need we turn to the Saviour with the same cry\u2014\n\n Just as I am, without one plea\n But that Thy blood was shed for me,\n And that Thou bidd\u2019st me come to Thee,\n O Lamb of God, I come.\n\nOur battle-songs, our penitential prayers, our hymns of adoration, are\nthe same. We even tell the story of our conversion in the same words\u2014\n\n I heard the voice of Jesus say,\n Come unto Me and rest.\n\nWe teach our children to sing the same songs in school and in the\nfamily.\n\nEven more impressive is the fact that in the Holy Communion the same\nhymns are sung in the great cathedral, where men kneel before the high\naltar, and in the homely village chapel, where simple folk sit down at\nthe Lord\u2019s Table. Charles Wesley the poet of Methodism, Doddridge the\nNonconformist pastor, Montgomery the Moravian bookseller, Rawson the\nCongregational lawyer, Bonar the Scotch Presbyterian, Bickersteth the\nAnglican bishop, are the writers whose hymns are common to all\nEnglishmen as they break the bread and drink the wine in memory of\ntheir Redeemer\u2019s death.\n\nWe know no distinction of creed or Church when we sing\u2014\n\n Come, let us join our friends above,\n That have obtained the prize;\n\nand we are all one as we entrust our dead to the Lord of Life\u2014\n\n Father, in Thy gracious keeping,\n Leave we now Thy servant sleeping.\n\nAnd when, wearied of earth and longing to depart and be with Christ,\nwe lift our eyes to the eternal city, our Father\u2019s house on high, the\nhymns of St. Bernard of Cluny or of Samuel Crossman are on the lips of\nall\u2014\n\n O happy place, when shall I be,\n My God, with Thee to see Thy face?\n\nThere are many times when, amid the strife of tongues, we feel that\nreunion is a dream never to be fulfilled; but already we have found\ncommon ground in lowly ministries to the poor and the distressed. And\nthey who are labourers together in the humblest and divinest tasks,\nalso join in the songs which, even on earth, none but the redeemed can\nsing. In the service of love, in the prayer of penitence, and in the\nsacrifice of praise, we are already one in Christ Jesus.\n\nOur goal, too, is the same, our diverse ways converge as we draw\nnearer to God and Heaven. \u2018Many ways have one end.\u2019\n\n Jerusalem, where song nor gem\n Nor fruit nor waters cease,\n God bring us to Jerusalem,\n God bring us home in peace;\n The strong who stand, the weak who fall,\n The first and last, the great and small,\n Home one by one, home one and all!\n\n\n\n\n APPENDIX\n\n\nThe following hymns are in the _Baptist_, _Congregational_,\n_Methodist_, and _Presbyterian_ Hymn-books. They are also in _Hymns\nAncient and Modern_, or _Church Hymns_. Hymns which are in _Hymns\nAncient and Modern_, but not in _Church Hymns_, are marked *; those in\n_Church Hymns_, but not in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_, are marked \u2020.\n\n A\n A few more years shall roll _Bonar_\n Abide with me: fast falls the eventide _Lyte_\n \u2020According to Thy gracious word _Montgomery_\n All glory, laud, and honour _Theodulph of Orleans_\n All hail, the power of Jesus\u2019 name _Perronet_\n All praise [Glory] to Thee, my God, this night _Ken_\n \u2020Around the throne of God in heaven _Anne Shepherd_\n Art thou weary, art thou languid _Neale_\n As with gladness men of old _Dix_\n At even, ere the sun was set _Twells_\n Awake, my soul, and with the sun _Ken_\n\n B\n Before Jehovah\u2019s awful throne _Watts_\n *Behold us, Lord, a little space _Ellerton_\n \u2020Bread of the world, in mercy broken _Heber_\n Brief life is here our portion _Bernard of Cluny_\n \u2020Brightest and best of the sons of the morning _Heber_\n Brightly gleams our banner _Potter and others_\n \u2020By Christ redeemed, in Christ restored _Rawson_\n\n C\n Children of the heavenly King _Cennick_\n Christ the Lord is risen to-day _Wesley_\n Christ, whose glory fills the sky _Wesley_\n Christian, seek not yet repose _C. Elliott_\n Come, Holy Ghost, our hearts inspire _Wesley_\n \u2020Come, let us join our friends above _Wesley_\n Come, my soul, thy suit prepare _Newton_\n Come to our poor nature\u2019s night _Rawson_\n Come unto Me, ye weary _Dix_\n Come, ye thankful people, come _Alford_\n \u2020Commit thou all thy griefs _Paul Gerhardt_\n \u2020Creator Spirit! by whose aid _Tr. John Dryden_\n\n D\n Days and moments quickly flying _Caswall and others_\n\n E\n Eternal Father, strong to save _Whiting_\n\n F\n For ever with the Lord _Montgomery_\n \u2020For the beauty of the earth _Pierpoint_\n Forth in Thy name, O Lord, I go _Wesley_\n Forward! be our watchword _Alford_\n \u2020From all that dwell below the skies _Watts_\n From Greenland\u2019s icy mountains _Heber_\n\n G\n \u2020Gentle Jesus, meek and mild _Wesley_\n Go to dark Gethsemane _Montgomery_\n God moves in a mysterious way _Cowper_\n \u2020God save our Gracious King _Anon._\n \u2020God, that madest earth and heaven _Heber and Whately_\n Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost _C. Wordsworth_\n Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah _W. Williams_\n\n H\n \u2020Hail, Thou once despised Jesus _Bakewell_\n Hail to the Lord\u2019s Anointed _Montgomery_\n *Hark! hark, my soul! angelic songs are swelling _Faber_\n Hark, my soul! it is the Lord _Cowper_\n Hark! the herald angels sing _Wesley_\n \u2020Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face _Bonar_\n Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty _Heber_\n How sweet the name of Jesus sounds _Newton_\n\n I\n I heard the voice of Jesus say _Bonar_\n \u2020I think, when I read that sweet story of old _J. Luke_\n \u2020It came upon the midnight clear _Sears_\n\n J\n Jerusalem, my happy home _J. Bromehead_\n Jerusalem the golden _Bernard of Cluny_\n Jesus calls us: o\u2019er the tumult _C. F. Alexander_\n \u2020Jesus, I my cross have taken _Lyte_\n Jesus lives! no longer now _Gellert_\n Jesu, Lover of my soul _Wesley_\n Jesus shall reign where\u2019er the sun _Watts_\n Jesus, the very thought of Thee _Bernard of Clairvaux_\n Jesus, where\u2019er Thy people meet _Cowper_\n Just as I am, without one plea _C. Elliott_\n\n L\n Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom _Newman_\n Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us _J. Edmeston_\n \u2020Let us with a gladsome mind _Milton_\n Lo! He comes with clouds descending _Wesley_\n Lord, dismiss us with Thy blessing _J. Fawcett_\n Lord, I hear of showers of blessing _Codner_\n Lord, it belongs not to my care _Baxter_\n Lord of our life, and God of our salvation _L\u00f6wenstern_\n \u2020Lord of the worlds above _Watts_\n Lord, speak to me, that I may speak _Havergal_\n Lord, Thy word abideth _Baker_\n Love Divine, all loves excelling _Wesley_\n\n M\n My God and Father, while I stray _C. Elliott_\n My God, how wonderful Thou art _Faber_\n\n N\n Nearer, my God, to Thee _S. F. Adams_\n Now thank we all our God _Martin Rinckart_\n Now the day is over _S. Baring-Gould_\n Now the labourer\u2019s task is o\u2019er _Ellerton_\n\n O\n O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant _Tr. F. Oakeley_\n *O come and mourn with me awhile _Faber_\n O come, O come, Immanuel _Tr. Neale_\n O day of rest and gladness _C. Wordsworth_\n O for a closer walk with God _Cowper_\n *O for a heart to praise my God _Wesley_\n *O for a thousand tongues to sing _Wesley_\n O God of Bethel, by whose hand _Doddridge_\n *O help us, Lord! each hour of need _Milman_\n O Jesus, I have promised _Bode_\n *O Lord, be with us when we sail _Dayman_\n O Lord of heaven and earth and sea _C. Wordsworth_\n O love Divine, how sweet thou art _Wesley_\n \u2020O sacred Head once wounded _Paul Gerhardt_\n O timely happy, timely wise _Keble_\n \u2020 O Word of God incarnate _Walsham How_\n *O worship the King all-glorious above _R. Grant_\n Oft in danger, oft in woe _White and Maitland_\n Once in royal David\u2019s city _C. F. Alexander_\n Onward! Christian soldiers _S. Baring-Gould_\n Our blest Redeemer, ere He breathed _H. Auber_\n Our day of praise is done _Ellerton_\n Our God, our help in ages past _Watts_\n\n P\n Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin? _Bickersteth_\n Pleasant are Thy courts above _Lyte_\n Praise, my soul, the King of heaven _Lyte_\n \u2020Praise to our God, whose bounteous hand _Ellerton_\n Praise to the Holiest in the height _Newman_\n\n R\n Rejoice, the Lord is King _Wesley_\n Rock of Ages, cleft for me _Toplady_\n\n S\n *Safely, safely gathered in _Dobree_\n Saviour, again to Thy dear name we raise _Ellerton_\n Saviour, blessed Saviour _Thring_\n \u2020Saviour, breathe an evening blessing _Edmeston_\n Saviour, sprinkle many nations _A. C. Coxe_\n Saviour, when in dust to Thee _R. Grant_\n Soldiers of Christ, arise _Wesley_\n *Souls of men, why will ye scatter _Faber_\n *Stand up! stand up for Jesus _Duffield_\n Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear _Keble_\n Sweet Saviour, bless us ere we go _Faber_\n\n T\n The Church\u2019s one foundation _Stone_\n The day is past and over _Anatolius_\n The God of Abraham praise _Olivers_\n The Head that once was crowned with thorns _Kelly_\n The King of Love my Shepherd is _Baker_\n The radiant morn hath passed away _Thring_\n The roseate hues of early dawn _C. F. Alexander_\n The Son of God goes forth to war _Heber_\n There is a book who runs may read _Keble_\n *There is a fountain filled with blood _Cowper_\n There is a green hill far away _C. F. Alexander_\n There is a land of pure delight _Watts_\n \u2020There is no sorrow, Lord, too light _Crewdson_\n There\u2019s a Friend for little children _Midlane_\n Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old _Plumptre_\n This is the day of light _Ellerton_\n Thou art gone up on high _Toke_\n \u2020Thou didst leave Thy throne _E. E. S. Elliott_\n Thou hidden Love of God, whose height _Tersteegen_\n Thou to whom the sick and dying _Thring_\n Thou whose almighty word _Marriott_\n Through the day Thy love has spared us _Kelly_\n Through the night of doubt and sorrow _Ingemann_\n Thy way, not mine, O Lord _Bonar_\n \u2020To Thee, O Lord, our hearts we raise _Dix_\n\n W\n We give Thee but Thine own _Walsham How_\n We plough the fields and scatter _Matthias Claudius_\n We saw Thee not when Thou didst come _Gurney_\n Weary of earth and laden with my sin _Stone_\n When God of old came down from heaven _Keble_\n When I survey the wondrous cross _Watts_\n *When morning gilds the skies _Tr. E. Caswall_\n \u2020When the weary, seeking rest _Bonar_\n\n\n\n\n FOOTNOTES\n\n\n[1]James Martineau, vol. ii. p. 99.\n\n[2]_Christian Year_ (Fifth Sunday in Lent).\n\n[3]Ibid. (Preface).\n\n[4]\u2018The general Church histories mostly neglect or ignore hymnology,\n which is the best reflection of Christian life and\n worship.\u2019\u2014Schaff: _Mediaeval Christianity_, ii. 403. See also\n Lilly\u2019s _Christianity and Modern Civilization_, ch. v., \u2018The Age\n of Faith.\u2019\n\n[5]_Church Hymns_ (revised edition, 1903). A new edition of _Hymns\n Ancient and Modern_ is being prepared.\n\n[6]Ordained.\n\n[7]John Ellerton: _Principles of Hymn-book Construction_, p. 228.\n\n[8]Keble\u2019s _Occasional Papers and Reviews_, 1877, p. 92. This essay, a\n review of Josiah Conder\u2019s _Star in the East_, was published in the\n _Quarterly Review_, 1825. The quotation from Burns will remind\n many readers of Keble\u2019s own lines (Third Sunday in Lent)\u2014\n\n There\u2019s not a strain to Memory dear,\n Nor flower in classic grove,\n There\u2019s not a sweet note warbled here,\n But minds us of Thy love.\n\n[9]The words rendered \u2018meditation\u2019 in these verses are not the same.\n The one perhaps suggests the devout meditation which is murmured\n half aloud, the other silent converse or communing with oneself.\n\n[10]Lightfoot\u2019s _Colossians_.\n\n[11]Trench\u2019s _Synonyms of New Testament_.\n\n[12]\u0395\u1f30\u03c2 \u03c4\u1f78 \u03c4\u03ad\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f10\u03bd \u1f55\u00b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2, \u03c8\u03b1\u03bb\u00b5\u1f78\u03c2 \u03c4\u1ff7 \u2019\u0391\u03c3\u03ac\u03c6, \u1fa0\u03b4\u1f74 \u03c0\u03c1\u1f78\u03c2 \u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u2019\u0391\u03c3\u03c3\u03cd\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd.\n\n[13]Neh. ix. 5.\n\n[14]Ps. xxii. 3 (R.V.), margin.\n\n[15]Isa. lx. 18.\n\n[16]Cf. Jer. xlix. 25.\n\n[17]Cf. Eph. v. 20: \u03b5\u1f50\u03c7\u03b1\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2 \u03c0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03c4\u03b5.\n\n[18]Heb. xiii. 15.\n\n[19]C. G. Rossetti.\n\n[20]C. Wesley.\n\n[21]_The Holy Year_, pp. xxxii., xxxiii.\n\n[22]_The Hymn Lover_, p. 146.\n\n[23]_Hymns of the Christian Church and Home_ (Preface).\n\n[24]Longfellow\u2019s _The Singers_.\n\n[25]Herbert\u2019s _A True Hymn_.\n\n[26]Cary\u2019s _Dante_, Par. xiv.\n\n[27]There is an article in the _Journal of Sacred Literature_ for July\n 1864, on \u2018Eccentricities of Hymnology: Early Moravian Hymn-books,\u2019\n which gives abundant illustrations to justify Southey\u2019s statement\n that \u2018the most characteristic parts of the Moravian hymns are too\n shocking to be inserted here\u2019 (_Life of Wesley_).\n\n[28]\u2018Viatrix,\u2019 in an article on \u2018The Tramp Ward,\u2019 in the\n _Contemporary_ for May 1904, says, \u2018I have discovered that this\n (\u201cLead, kindly Light\u201d) and \u201cAbide with me,\u201d with \u201cJesu, Lover of\n my soul:\u201d are tramps\u2019 favourites.\u2019\n\n[29]Matthew Arnold\u2019s _Progress_. These lines were altered, much for\n the worse, in later editions.\n\n[30]Martineau\u2019s _Hymns for Church and Home_ (Preface).\n\n[31]Ps. lxxxi. 1 (P.B.V.).\n\n[32]St. Augustine on Ps. lviii.\n\n[33]Ps. lxviii. 20 (R.V.), \u2018God is unto us a God of deliverances.\u2019\n\n[34]Exod. xv. \u2018The song is, of course, incorporated by E from an\n earlier source, perhaps from a collection of national poems....\n Probably, however, the greater part of the song is Mosaic, and the\n modification or expansion is limited to the closing verses; for\n the triumphant tone which pervades it is just such as might\n naturally have been inspired by the event which it\n celebrates.\u2019\u2014Driver\u2019s _Literature of the Old Testament_.\n\n[35]Wordsworth\u2019s _Ode to Duty_.\n\n[36]Edward Irving\u2019s _The Book of Psalms_, Works, i. p. 410.\n\n[37]Cheyne.\n\n[38]Cheyne.\n\n[39]Kirkpatrick\u2019s _Psalms_ (Cambridge Bible).\n\n[40]Irving\u2019s Introduction to Horne\u2019s _Psalms_, Works, vol. i. p. 416\n (slightly abridged).\n\n[41]The _Holy Year_, p. xxxviii. The Bishop refers in a note to \u2018one\n modern hymn, beginning, \u201cMy God, the spring of all my joys,\u201d and\n consisting only of twelve (_sic_) lines, in which the pronouns _I_\n and _my_ occur no less than eleven times.\u2019 He might have added\n that in the twelve lines of Ps. xxiii. personal pronouns occur\n seventeen times, and that \u2018My God\u2019 occurs fifty-eight times in the\n Psalter.\n\n[42]There are, of course, Psalms of the Old Testament not included in\n the Psalter admirably adapted for Christian worship. See Part II.\n of Dr. Barrett\u2019s _Congregational Church Hymnal_.\n\n[43]\u2018We have been especially glad to mark the essentially metrical\n structure of the Lord\u2019s Prayer in St. Matthew\u2019s Gospel, with its\n invocation, its first triplet of single clauses, with one common\n burden, expressed after the third but implied after all, and its\n second triplet of double clauses, variously antithetical in form\n and sense.\u2019\u2014Westcott and Hort, Introduction, p. 320.\n\n[44]W.H., Introduction, p. 320.\n\n[45]\u2018_Adfirmabant autem, hanc fuisse summam vel culpae suae vel\n erroris, quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire,\n carmenque Christo, quasi deo, dicere secum invicem._\u2019\u2014Pliny, _Ep._\n x. 97.\n\n[46]Eusebius: _Ecclesiastical History_, x. 28 (Bohn\u2019s translation).\n\n[47]Eusebius, vii. 24.\n\n[48]_Confessions_, ii. pp. vi., vii.\n\n[49]Trench\u2019s _Sacred Latin Poetry_, pp. 81, 82.\n\n[50]\u2018Most old MSS. read _munerari_. The common reading, \u201c_in gloria\n numerari_,\u201d does not appear to be found in any MSS., but is in\n many (not all) printed editions of the Breviary from about 1491\n onwards. Mr. Gibson suggests that it is not so much due to the\n natural confusion of letters as to the well-known words added by\n Gregory the Great to the canon of the Mass _in electorum tuorum\n jubeas grege numerari_.\u2019\u2014_Dictionary of Hymnology_, p. 1121.\n\n[51]Cf. Pss. xxxiii. 22; xxxi. 1; lxxi. 1 (P.B.V. & R.V.).\n\n[52]Hutton\u2019s _English Saints_, p. 208.\n\n[53]The Sarum Breviary reads, _Et nox fidei luceat_.\n\n[54]Mone\u2019s _Hymni Latini_, i. 381.\n\n[55]Masters, 1852.\n\n[56]_Church Hymns_, 586, C\u00e6dmon, Tr. R. M. Moorsom; 212, Bede, Tr. C.\n S. Calverly.\n\n[57]Coverdale\u2019s _Remains_ (Parker Society, 1846). The original is a\n German hymn beginning _Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ_. Miss\n Winkworth, in her _Chorale Book_, described it as anonymous, but\n Julian ascribes it to Johannes Agricola (1492-1566). Miss\n Winkworth\u2019s translation begins, \u2018Lord, hear the voice of my\n complaint,\u2019 Rev. A. Tozer-Russell\u2019s, \u2018Lord, Jesus Christ, I cry to\n Thee.\u2019\n\n[58]Miller\u2019s _Singers and Songs of the Church_.\n\n[59]\u2018We mention the name of Clement Marot, important here chiefly for\n the influence he might have had. For he translated the Psalms into\n French verse, put them to tunes, and set the Court singing them.\n Let us think for a moment what England owes to those sweet and\n simple hymns which it is our godly fashion to sing in the churches\n and in the homes from earliest childhood, and which form a link to\n connect our religion with our daily life. Let us only try to think\n what we should be without these. And then give praise to Marot,\n for it was he who gave to France what should have been the\n foundation and beginning of a national book of praise and service\n of song, had not the bigots, the stupid mischievous bigots,\n stopped the singing because they pretended to see heresy in the\n words\u2014David\u2019s words. And France is without hymns to this\n day.\u2019\u2014Besant\u2019s _Essays and Historiettes_, \u2018The Failure of the\n French Reformation,\u2019 p. 78.\n\n[60]A full and interesting account of the Old Version is given in\n Julian. Holland\u2019s notices of these writers are also good.\n\n[61]_Wode_ or _wood_, Anglo-Saxon = mad, violent.\n\n[62]\u2018This literary curiosity occurs at the end of a book entitled, _A\n godly Medytacion of the Christian Soule_, &c., compyled in\n Frenche, by Lady Margarite, Quene of Naverre. This psalm is\n reprinted in Park\u2019s edition of _The Royal and Noble Authors of\n Great Britain_.\u2019\u2014Farr\u2019s _Select Poetry of the Reign of Queen\n Elizabeth_ (Parker Society), 1835.\n\n[63]Pight = pitched, laid.\n\n[64]This hymn appeared in Bickersteth\u2019s _Christian Psalmody_ in three\n verses, of which Miller says, \u2018two stanzas bear no resemblance\u2019 to\n Sandys\u2019s original. The _Methodist Hymn-book_ cento is much nearer\n to Sandys, though it has many variations.\n\n[65]Farr\u2019s _Select Poetry of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth_. The poem\n has ten verses. Most are unsuited for congregational use, as may\n be judged from the following lines:\u2014\n\n The carrion crow, that loathsome beast,\n Which cries against the rain,\n Both for her hue and for the rest\n The devil resembleth plain:\n And as with guns we kill the crow,\n For spoiling our relief,\n The devil so must we o\u2019erthrow\n With gunshot of belief.\n\n[66]Palgrave\u2019s _Treasury of Sacred Song_, p. 333. Palgrave gives five\n of his poems.\n\n[67]Condor gives three verses, but the third is very inferior to\n these. The two I quote are included by Professor Palgrave and Mr.\n Quiller-Couch in their anthologies. Conder apparently did not know\n the author\u2019s name. He took the verses from an \u2018old collection.\u2019\n\n[68]From a MS. in the British Museum. Cf. the very full and\n interesting article in Julian, p. 580.\n\n[69]_Life of Ken_, ii. p. 201.\n\n[70]Altered later to \u2018I wake, I wake.\u2019\n\n[71]Altered to \u2018void of.\u2019\n\n[72]Plumptre\u2019s _Life of Ken_, vol. ii. p. 268.\n\n[73]Plumptre\u2019s _Life of Ken_, vol. ii. p. 288.\n\n[74]_Christian Psalmist_, Preface, xviii.\n\n[75]Preface to Austin\u2019s _Devotions_, Edinburgh, 1789.\n\n[76]_Dictionary of Hymnology_, Article: \u2018Roman Catholic Hymnody.\u2019\n\n[77]_Arundel Hymns_, 77.\n\n[78]_Poems_ (1872), p. 62.\n\n[79]I quote Austin\u2019s text. Wesley\u2019s changes do not improve it.\n\n[80]This hymn is from the _Office for Monday Lauds_.\n\n[81]From Farr\u2019s _Select Poetry of the Reign of James I._\n\n[82]_Presbyterian Hymnal_, 531.\n\n[83]Ken\u2019s hymn for St. Matthew\u2019s Day was edited by Bishop Walsham How,\n and in that form appears in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_, and in\n _Church Hymns_.\n\n[84]_Worship Song_, 15; _School Hymns_, 6.\n\n[85]There is a good sketch of Wither in Willmott\u2019s _Lives of the\n Sacred Poets_, and an excellent biographical introduction by Mr.\n Edward Farr in _The Hymns and Songs of the Church_ (Library of Old\n Authors). Both these volumes give striking portraits, the latter\n one of the poet in his twenty-first year, surrounded by the\n punning motto, \u2018I grow and wither both together.\u2019\n\n[86]Barton did not always reach so high a level. One of his versions\n of the \u2018Te Deum\u2019 is in this fashion\u2014\n\n The blest Apo-\n stles glorious company,\n Do praise Thy ho-\n ly Name continually.\n\n[87]_Religio Medici._\n\n[88]The best illustration is the hymn beginning\n\n Saviour, if Thy precious love,\n Could be merited by mine.\n\n No. 37 in the first edition of Wesley\u2019s _Hymns_, No. 24 in the\n last. I am sorry it was omitted from the _Methodist Hymn-book_.\n\n[89]There is a delightful chapter on George Herbert in Lady\n McDougall\u2019s _Songs of the Church_.\n\n[90]_Introductory Essay_, by J. H. Shorthouse, to Unwin\u2019s facsimile\n reprint of _The Temple_.\n\n[91]Julian, \u2018Psalters, English,\u2019 p. 919.\n\n[92]The story of the Scotch psalms and paraphrases I must leave. It is\n well told in outline in Julian. The Scotch version has few\n literary or poetic graces, but it has held the heart and guided\n the mind of many generations, to whom it has been infinitely more\n precious than the smoother and more poetic verses of Addison,\n Heber, and Keble could ever be.\n\n[93]This small witticism was repeated by Romaine in the preface to his\n _Treatise on Psalmody_, though he had the good sense to strike it\n out of his second edition, at the request, it is said, of Lady\n Huntingdon.\n\n[94]Preface to _Christian Psalmist_.\n\n[95]_Treasury of Sacred Song_, p. 349.\n\n[96]Watts has been unfortunate in his biographers. Mr. Paxton Hood\u2019s\n book is lively and interesting, but its style is amazingly\n slovenly. Here is a curious sentence: \u2018His daughter and sole\n heiress, Margaret, married Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, so the estate\n descended to the Howard family, and became the Duke\u2019s place; he\n lost his head; passing to his eldest son, he sold it in 1592 to\n the mayor, corporation, and citizens of London.\u2019 The writer adds,\n na\u00efvely, \u2018This is a singular piece of history\u2019 (p. 55).\n\n[97]Julian, Article: \u2018Congregational Hymnody.\u2019\n\n[98]Preface to _Psalms_. Dr. Martineau justified his own editing of\n Watts\u2019s hymns by this sentence. \u2018Every adaptation of a Jewish\n psalm to Christian worship affords an instance of theological\n adaptation; and the same rule which is applied to Dr. Watts\u2019s\n hymns when their Trinitarianism is expelled, Watts himself has\n systematically applied to David\u2019s writings, in reforming and\n spiritualizing their Judaism.\u2019\u2014Preface to _Hymns for the Christian\n Church and Home_.\n\n[99]_Lives of the Poets._\n\n[100]One of Wesley\u2019s Communion hymns begins\u2014\n\n Come to the supper, come,\n Sinners, there still is room.\n\n[101]The hymn has seven verses. It is given with slight alterations,\n and the omission of one verse in Barrett\u2019s _Congregational Church\n Hymnal_, 497.\n\n[102]Henry Ward Beecher included this song in his _Plymouth\n Collection_.\n\n[103]Julian, p. 831.\n\n[104]_The Training of the Twelve_, p. 24.\n\n[105]\u2018Joseph Hart,\u2019 by the late Rev. B. A. Gregory, M.A., _City Road\n Magazine_, December 1876.\n\n[106]_Poems_ by Theodosia, vol. ii. (1780).\n\n[107]Often begins in hymn-books with the third verse, \u2018And O [Father]\n whate\u2019er of earthly bliss.\u2019\n\n[108]Julian, p. 332.\n\n[109]Telford\u2019s _Charles Wesley_, p. 245.\n\n[110]Cf. Lightfoot\u2019s _Colossians_, i. 27, iii. 16.\n\n[111]Green\u2019s _History of the English People_.\n\n[112]_Short Hymns_, 2 Tim. i. 7.\n\n[113]_Hymns and Sacred Poems_ (1739).\n\n[114]_Church Hymns_ (1903), Preface.\n\n[115]This verse is from the \u2018hymn on my conversion,\u2019 mentioned by C.\n Wesley in his _Journal_, May 23, 1738. It was written at Mr.\n Bray\u2019s, Little Britain. Five verses are in the _Methodist\n Hymn-book_, 358.\n\n[116]Watts wrote \u2018very.\u2019 \u2018Every\u2019 is Wesley\u2019s emendation.\n\n[117]I quote the following verse as an illustration: in doing so there\n is no risk of spoiling a hymn dear to anybody:\u2014\n\n Exempted from the general doom,\n The death which all are born to know;\n Enoch obtained his heavenly home\n By faith, and disappeared below.\n\n[118]Reprinted by Pickering in 1868 as \u2018Bishop Ken\u2019s _Christian\n Year_.\u2019\n\n[119]These hymns are in _Hymns and Sacred Poems_ (1739). The Epiphany\n hymn is in _Church Hymns_, 115, with alterations.\n\n[120]Cf. _Paradise Lost_, bk. 1.\n\n That with reiterated crimes, he might\n Heap on himself damnation.\n\n I cannot refrain from saying how much I regret the omission of\n this hymn from the _Methodist Hymn-book_. It is retained by the\n American Methodist Episcopal, Primitive Methodist, and others,\n though the Primitive Methodist most unfortunately changes\n \u2018flaming\u2019 into \u2018loving\u2019 eyes in verse 3, apparently overlooking\n the reference to \u2018His eyes were as a flame of fire.\u2019\n\n[121]_Hymns on the Lord\u2019s Supper_, by John and Charles Wesley,\n presbyters of the Church of England. With a preface concerning the\n Christian Sacrament and Sacrifice, extracted from Dr. Brevint,\n Bristol. Printed by Felix Farley, M DCC XLV.\n\n[122]Canon Carter\u2019s _Altar Hymnal_ has eight of Wesley\u2019s hymns. He\n also ascribes to C. Wesley Miss Leeson\u2019s translation of _Victimae\n Paschali_.\n\n \u2018Christ, the Lord, is risen to-day,\u2019\n Christians, haste your vows to pay.\n\n[123]The whole book was reprinted, in 1871, with Wesley\u2019s _Companion\n for the Altar_ (extracted from _Thomas \u00e0 Kempis_), and an\n Introduction by Mr. W. E. Dutton, under the title, _The\n Eucharistic Manuals of John and Charles Wesley_. Mr. Dutton\u2019s\n design was to show that \u2018the Wesleys held opinions and taught\n doctrines now known as Catholic, yet far in advance of the times\n in which they lived, and very different from the doctrines taught\n by that body of men now called by their name.\u2019 I may also mention\n another interesting book, now out of print, Mr. Warrington\u2019s\n _Echoes of the Prayer-book in Wesley\u2019s Hymns_.\n\n[124]Col. ii. 19.\n\n[125]_Methodist Hymn-book_, 729.\n\n[126]_Hymns Ancient and Modern_, 553. _Altar Hymnal_, 151.\n\n[127]Cf. \u2018And here we offer and present unto Thee, O Lord, ourselves,\n our souls and bodies;\u2019 with verse iv., \u2018Take my soul and body\u2019s\n powers,\u2019 _Methodist Hymn-book_, 562.\n\n[128]\u2018The ordinary position of the \u2018Gloria in Excelsis\u2019 in ancient\n liturgies was at the beginning, not at the end of the office. It\n so stood in our own Liturgy down to 1552, when it was placed at\n the end of the service.... It may be truly said that there is no\n Liturgy in the world which has so solemn and yet so magnificent a\n conclusion as our own.\u2019\u2014Proctor and Maclear\u2019s _Introduction to the\n Book of Common Prayer_.\n\n[129]Tyerman\u2019s _Whitefield_, vol. i. p. 465.\n\n[130]_Poetical Works_, vol. iii.\n\n[131]Tyerman\u2019s _Whitefield_, vol. i. p. 478.\n\n[132]The hymn has seventeen verses, some of which are, as Whitefield\n says, \u2018very bad.\u2019 _Methodist Hymn-book_, 65.\n\n[133]_Wesley Poetry_, vol. iii. p. 60.\n\n[134]_Works_, vol. xiii.\n\n[135]_Poetical Works_, vol. iii. p. 78; _Methodist Hymn-book_, 435.\n\n[136]Tyerman\u2019s _Wesley\u2019s Designated Succession_, vol. i. p. 88, 89.\n\n[137]Cf. Tyerman\u2019s _Wesley_ and Horne\u2019s _History of the Free\n Churches_.\n\n[138]_Poetical Works_, vol. iv. p. 446.\n\n[139]Ibid., vol. iii. p. 23.\n\n[140]_Poetical Works_, vol. iii. p. 21.\n\n[141]Ibid., vol. iii. p. 73.\n\n[142]Telford\u2019s _Charles Wesley_, p. 245.\n\n[143]_Poetical Works_, vol. v. p. 133.\n\n[144]_Methodist Hymn-book_, 366. Wesley himself closed this hymn with\n Ken\u2019s doxology.\n\n[145]Cf. Phil. i. 9.\n\n[146]I am inclined to think there is a reference here to the\n \u1f00\u03b3\u03c1\u1f01\u00b5\u00b5\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03af \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f30\u03b4\u03b9\u1ff6\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9 of Acts iv. 13.\n\n[147]Trench\u2019s _Notes on the Parables_.\n\n[148]Charles Wesley wrote _favour_. John Wesley improved both the\n sense and sound by changing the word to _mercy_.\n\n[149]_Poetical Works_, vol. x. p. 57. Charles Wesley wrote _bleeds_;\n the change to _grieves_ was made in John Wesley\u2019s hymn-book.\n\n[150]_Poetical Works_, vol. i. p. 50.\n\n[151]_Hymns and Sacred Poems_ (1749); _Poetical Works_, vol. v. p.\n 306.\n\n[152]Wesley included forty-nine hymns under the heading, \u2018For\n Believers Groaning for Full Redemption,\u2019 and twenty-six under the\n heading, \u2018Believers Brought to the Birth.\u2019 These sections were,\n later, united under the title, \u2018Seeking for Full Redemption.\u2019 The\n _Methodist Hymn-book_ has forty-four, of which thirty-seven are\n Charles Wesley\u2019s, three translations by John Wesley, two by Miss\n Havergal, one by Dr. Bonar, and one by T. Monod.\n\n[153]_Methodist Hymn-book_, 905.\n\n[154]Ibid., 88.\n\n[155]The hymn, \u2018When quiet in my house I sit,\u2019 _Methodist Hymn-book_,\n 264, is made up of Nos. 300-303 in the _Short Poems_.\n\n[156]Julian, p. 1149.\n\n[157]Julian, p. 478, thinks that Bakewell wrote a very small portion\n of this hymn. Some readers will be interested to know that more\n than thirty years ago a great-grandson of John Bakewell\u2019s was\n selling newspapers in the streets of a town in the North of\n England\u2014friendless, homeless, ragged, and in delicate health. He\n came to The Children\u2019s Home, and grew up worthy of his remote\n ancestors. He became an architect, and did some excellent work,\n but died in early manhood of consumption.\n\n[158]_Apologia._\n\n[159]See Wright\u2019s _Town of Cowper_.\n\n[160]John Wesley was very indignant at the refusal of ordination to\n John Newton, but was probably too loyal to the Church to suggest\n his becoming a Methodist preacher.\u2014_Journal_, March 20, 1760.\n\n[161]It was to the first Lord Dartmouth that Ken, on the\n recommendation of Pepys, became chaplain in the Tangier Expedition\n of 1683. His character may be judged from a letter, in which he\n writes that he has \u2018to answer to God for the preservation of so\n many souls He hath been pleased to place under my\n care.\u2019\u2014Plumptre\u2019s _Life of Ken_.\n\n[162]Hazlitt\u2019s _English Poets_, p. 123.\n\n[163]_Supra_, p. 111.\n\n[164]Wesley\u2019s _Journal_, May 25, 1750.\n\n[165]Tyerman\u2019s _Whitefield_, ii. 174.\n\n[166]Julian, p. 681, gives the three versions.\n\n[167]Julian, p. 971. The three-verse cento, dear to Methodists, is\n slightly varied from that of Thomas Cotterill, of Sheffield.\n\n[168]In early hymn-books there is often confusion between Wesley and\n Toplady. At the end of his reprint of Toplady\u2019s _Poetical\n Remains_, Sedgwick gives a list of seventeen hymns of Charles\n Wesley\u2019s, attributed to Toplady.\n\n[169]Elvet Lewis\u2019s _Sweet Singers of Wales_, p. 29.\n\n[170]Lewis\u2019s _Sweet Singers_, ch. iii. There are other Welsh singers\n included in this little book who deserve to be more widely known,\n but my limited space does not allow further quotation.\n\n[171]Smith\u2019s _Heber_, p. 84.\n\n[172]It is curious how widespread the fear of Methodism was. Crabbe\n added to his beautiful and touching lines, beginning\n\n Pilgrim, burthened with thy sin,\n Come the way to Zion\u2019s gate,\n\n a note explaining that it had been suggested to him that \u2018this\n change from restlessness to repose in the mind of Sir Eustace is\n wrought by a Methodistic call.\u2019 He protests, however, that \u2018though\n evidently enthusiastic in respect to language,\u2019 they \u2018are not\n meant to convey any impropriety of sentiment.\u2019\n\n[173]Advent Sunday.\n\n[174]This was written in 1825, two years before the publication of\n Heber\u2019s _Hymns_ and of the _Christian Year_.\n\n[175]Barry\u2019s _Newman_, pp. 51, 52.\n\n[176]John Ellerton, p. 185.\n\n[177]Lyte wrote some verses, \u2018The Dying Christian to his Soul,\u2019 which\n are in a much more triumphant strain, but they are not equal to\n Toplady\u2019s poem.\n\n[178]_Holy Year_, xi. Dr. Wordsworth was then (1862) Canon of\n Westminster.\n\n[179]\u2018Conversation of an hour and a half with Anstice on practical\n religion, particularly as regards our own situation. I bless and\n praise God for his presence here.\u2019\u2014Morley\u2019s _Gladstone_, vol. i.\n pp. 55, 56.\n\n[180]It is omitted from the _Methodist Hymn-book_. It was No. 990 in\n the former book, and is in the Presbyterian (469) and Baptist\n (641).\n\n[181]This hymn is not in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_, but it is in\n _Church Hymns_, Presbyterian, Baptist, Congregational, Horder\u2019s,\n Primitive Methodist, and many other hymn-books.\n\n[182]_Westminster Abbey Hymn-book_, 288; _Young People\u2019s Hymnal_, 161.\n\n[183]Michael Bruce\u2019s \u2018Ode to the Cuckoo.\u2019\n\n[184]Preface to _Poems_, p. xviii.\n\n[185]The hymn has seven verses, _Poems_, p. 59.\n\n[186]_Methodist Hymn-book_, 520.\n\n[187]_Congregational Hymnal_, 127; _Baptist Hymnal_, 128.\n\n[188]The last lines differ from the usual version. The change was made\n by Professor Palgrave himself, and, at his wish, the verse was\n given in this form in the _Young People\u2019s Hymnal_.\n\n[189]_The Household of Faith_, p. 8.\n\n[190]\u2018The Church, Dissent, and Nation,\u2019 _National Review_, July 1903.\n\n[191]This lecture was delivered in Sheffield.\n\n[192]Cf. _Church Hymnary_ (Presbyterian), _Church Hymns_ (S.P.C.K.),\n _Westminster Abbey Hymn-book_.\n\n[193]The most important of these is in the last line. Montgomery wrote\n first, \u2018His name\u2014what is it? Love.\u2019 He was, of course,\n dissatisfied with this anti-climax, and altered the line to \u2018That\n name to us is Love.\u2019 But the change in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_\n (said to be Keble\u2019s) is a great improvement, \u2018His changeless name\n of Love.\u2019 It is remarkable that Montgomery did not include this\n hymn in his _Christian Psalmist_.\n\n[194]He made a most unpoetic recast of Wesley\u2019s \u2018All ye that pass by\u2019;\n but in the Index he is too honest to give Wesley\u2019s name, and (I\n presume) had too much self-respect to give his own. Many\n alterations in hymns make one sympathize with Miss Ailie\u2019s notice,\n \u2018Persons who come to steal the fruit are requested not to walk on\n the flower-beds\u2019 (Barrie\u2019s _Sentimental Tommy_).\n\n[195]A verse of this hymn is omitted in the _Methodist Hymn-book_. The\n hymn is, I think, improved by the omission.\n\n Silent Spirit, dwell with me,\n I myself would quiet be;\n Quiet as the growing blade\n Which through earth its way has made;\n Silently, like morning light,\n Putting mists and chills to flight.\n\n[196]This hymn is usually rearranged in our hymn-books. Our first\n verse is sixth in the original.\n\n[197]The only collection in which, so far as I know, this hymn has\n been included, is the _Young People\u2019s Hymnal_. It is an excellent\n school-hymn.\n\n[198]_Our Own Hymn-book_, 41. The hymn has six verses. The _Baptist\n Hymnal_ gives a hymn of Spurgeon\u2019s for an early morning\n prayer-meeting (633).\n\n[199]This verse is given in Horder\u2019s _Worship-Song_ ad in the\n _Primitive Methodist Hymn-book_.\n\n[200]_Hymns of Faith and Hope._ First Series.\n\n[201]_Arundel Hymns._ Tr. Father O\u2019Connor from the Latin\u2014\n\n Angelus ad Virginem\n Subintrans in conclave\n Virginis formidinem\n Demulcens inquit, Ave!\n\n[202]Crashaw\u2019s _English Poems_ (Tutin\u2019s edition), vol. ii. 60. I have\n made two slight changes to suit the metre or indicate the\n connexion of thought. The poem has fifty-six lines.\n\n[203]Julian, p. 975 (\u2018R. C. Hymnody\u2019).\n\n[204]Faber\u2019s _Hymns_, Preface.\n\n[205]_Arundel Hymns_, 145.\n\n[206]_A Collection of Hymns of the Children of God in all Ages, From\n the Beginning till Now. In Two Parts. Designed chiefly for the Use\n of the Congregations in union with the Brethren\u2019s Church._ London.\n Printed, and to be had at all the Brethren\u2019s Chapels. M DCC LIV.\n\n\n\n\n GENERAL INDEX\n\n\n A\n Abney, Sir Thomas and Lady, 82, 123\n Adams, S. F., 313\n Addison, Joseph, 243\n Aldhelm, 51, 62\n Alexander, Archbishop, quoted, 85\n Alexander, C. F., 279\n Alfred, 62\n Ambrose, St., 49\n American hymns, 321\n Anderton, Laurence, 77\n Anstice, Joseph, 269\n Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 24\n _Arundel Hymns_, 4, 77, 86, 316\n Augustine, St., 6 ff., 10, 29, 47, 48\n Austin, John, 86 ff., 155, 156, 315\n \u2014\u2014, William, 86, 90\n\n B\n Baker, Sir H. W., 269\n Bakewell, John, 223\n _Baptist Church Hymnal_, 310, 312, 329\n Barbauld, Mrs., 274\n Barry, Dr. Wm., quoted, 262\n Barton, B., 300\n \u2014\u2014, Wm., 104 ff.\n Baxter, Richard, 98 ff.\n Beddome, Benjamin, 151\n Bede, 62\n Beecher, H. W., 160\n Beveridge, Bishop, 13, 82\n Bickersteth, Bishop, 271\n Binney, Thomas, 300\n Bowring, Sir J., 313\n Bradbury, Thomas, 124, 144\n Brady, Nicholas, 118\n Brevint\u2019s _Christian Sacrifice_, 176\n Bromehead, John, 77\n Brown, Simon, 149\n Browne, Sir Thomas, 106\n Bruce, Dr. A. B., 147\n Bruce\u2019s _Ode to the Cuckoo_, 278\n Bull, Wm., 227, 231\n Bunting, W. M., 301\n Butler, Bishop, 167\n\n C\n C\u00e6dmon, 62\n Calvinistic Controversy, 182 ff.\n Campion, Thomas, 76\n Carey, Wm., 225\n Carter\u2019s _Altar Hymnal_, 176\n Caswall, E., 319\n Cennick, John, 244\n Chambers\u2019s _Psalter of Sarum_, 59\n Cheyne, Canon, 33, 35\n Children\u2019s hymns, 279\n _Christian Year_, 254, 258\n _Church Hymns_, 4 n., 54, 132\n Clapham Sect, 263\n Clarke, Adam, 289\n Class-meeting, Methodist, 161\n Clement\u2019s _Paedagogus_, 55\n Condor, Josiah, 9, 76 n., 131, 293\n _Congregational Church Hymnal_, 4, 76, 132, 329\n _Contemporary Review_, 21 n.\n Coverdale, Myles, 63 ff.\n Cowper, Wm., 17, 21, 224 ff., 227\n Crabbe, George, 259 n.\n Craig, John, 68\n Crashaw, Richard, 315\n Crossman, Samuel, 97\n\n D\n Dante, quoted, 18\n Dartmouth, Earl of, 230\n \u2014\u2014, Lord, 81, 230\n David, 32 ff.\n David\u2019s _Lament_, 33\n Davison, Francis, 35\n Davis, Rev. L., quoted, 285\n Denham, Sir John, 97\n Dix, W. C., 281\n Doddridge, Philip, 143 ff.\n Donne, John, 107, 323\n Driver\u2019s _Literature of the Old Testament_, 31 n.\n Dutton\u2019s _Eucharistic Manuals_, 178 n.\n Dionysius, Bishop, 47\n\n E\n Eaton\u2019s _Holy Calendar_, 173\n Elizabeth, Queen, 71\n Ellerton, John, 8, 20, 245, 263, 269, 324\n Elliott, C., 275\n Ephesians v. 14., 44\n Ephraem Syrus, 52\n\n F\n Faber, F. W., 16, 21, 195, 229, 317 ff.\n Farr\u2019s _Select Poetry_, 72, 75\n Fletcher, John, 189, 209\n Fox\u2019s _Hymns and Anthems_, 313\n F. B. P., 77\n\n G\n Gascoigne, George, 74\n Gauntlett, Dr. H. J., 225\n Gibbons, Dr. T., 131\n Gill, T. H., 273, 296 ff.\n Gladstone, W. E., 283\n Glass\u2019s _Story of the Psalters_, 74\n \u2018Gloria in Excelsis,\u2019 181\n Gough, Benjamin, 306\n _Grace Abounding_, 147\n Greek hymns, 55\n Green, J. R., quoted, 158\n Gregory, B. A., quoted, 149\n\n H\n Harris, Howell, 251\n Hart, John, 147 ff.\n Havergal, F. R., 277\n Haydock, Father, 316\n Hazlitt\u2019s _English Poets_, 236\n Heber, Bishop, 15, 254 ff., 256\n Henry, Matthew, 104\n Herbert, George, 110, 242, 323\n Herrick, Robert, 109\n Hervey, James, 189\n Hilary of Poictiers, 48\n Holland\u2019s _Psalmists of Britain_, 74\n Hood\u2019s _Life of Watts_, 131 n.\n Hopkins, John, 64\n Hopps, Page, 313\n Horder, W. Garrett, 4, 15, 95, 329\n Hutton\u2019s _English Saints_, 50\n Hymns, 12\n _Hymns A. & M._, 4 n., 329\n\n I\n Ingelow, Jean, 281\n Irving, Edward, 31, 36, 159\n\n J\n Johnson, Dr., 8, 9, 23, 136, 149\n Jonson, Ben, 109\n Julian, Dr., 50, 120, 145, 223 n.\n\n K\n Keach, Benjamin, 104\n Keble, John, 2, 9, 17, 129, 160, 173, 258 ff.\n Kelly, Thomas, 292\n Ken, Thomas, 24, 80 ff., 93, 173\n Kethe, William, 68\n Kirkpatrick\u2019s _Psalms_, 35\n\n L\n Latin Hymns, 58\n Lecky\u2019s _History of England_, 202\n _Leeds Hymn-book_, 131, 296\n Lewis\u2019s _Sweet Singers of Wales_, 251 ff.\n Longfellow\u2019s _Golden Legend_, 57\n Lord\u2019s Prayer, The, 44\n Lynch, T. T., 294 ff.\n _Lyra Apostolica_, 57\n Lyte, H. F., 113, 264 ff., 324\n\n M\n Madan, Martin, 246\n Manning, Cardinal, 321\n Marckant, John, 68\n Marot, Clement, 65\n Martineau, Dr. James, 15, 25, 132, 134, 313\n Mason, John, 100 ff.\n Matheson, Dr. George, 308 ff.\n _Methodist Hymn-book_, 4, 73, 134, 161, 165, 188, 327, 328\n Milman, H. H., 257\n Milton\u2019s _Lycidas_, 33\n Montgomery, James, 85, 129, 287 ff.\n Moorsom, R. M., 54, 62 n., 315\n _Moravian Hymn-book_, 19 n., 86, 327\n More, Henry, 115\n Morley\u2019s _Gladstone_, 269\n Moses, Song of, 30, 35\n Murlin, John, 223\n\n N\n Nelson, Earl, 116\n Nepos, 47\n Newman, J. H., 37, 84, 258, 261\n Newton, John, 224 ff., 229, 238\n New Version, 117 ff.\n Norris, John, 115, 162\n Norton, Thomas, 68\n \u2018Nunc Dimittis,\u2019 46\n\n O\n Ode, 12\n Old Version, 64 ff.\n Olivers, Thomas, 39, 221\n Olney Hymns, 224 ff., 255\n\n P\n Palgrave, F. T., 76 n., 115, 129, 281, 327\n _Paradise Lost_, 175 n.\n Patrick\u2019s St., _Breastplate_, 280\n Pearse, M. G., 305\n Pembroke, Countess of, 72\n \u03c6\u1ff6\u03c2 \u1f31\u03bb\u03b1\u03c1\u1f78\u03bd, 57\n Pliny, 46, 47\n Plumptre, Dean 82\n Pope\u2019s _Universal Prayer_, 24\n Potter, Father, 319\n _Presbyterian Church Hymnary_, 132, 310, 329\n Prichard, Rees, 250\n Prys, Archdeacon, 250\n Psalms, 12\n \u2014\u2014, Book of, 31 ff.\n Psalm xviii., 33\n \u2014\u2014 cl., 14\n Pullain, John, 68\n Punshon, W. M., 302\n\n R\n Rawson, Geo., 296\n \u2018Rivulet Controversy,\u2019 294\n Romaine, 124 n., 189\n Rossetti, C. G., 14, 281, 332\n Russell\u2019s _Household of Faith_, 283\n Ryland, Dr. John, 153\n\n S\n Sandys, George, 73, 323\n Sankey, I. D., 3, 329\n Schaff\u2019s _Mediaeval Christianity_, 3 n.\n Selborne, Lord, 135, 232\n Shepherd, Thomas, 103, 324\n Shirley, Walter, 171\n Shorthouse, J. H., 114\n Sidney, Sir Philip, 72\n Smetham, James, 304\n Smith, Dr. W. C., 310 ff.\n Southwell, Robert, 316\n Spenser, Edmund, 7\n Spurgeon, C. H., 147, 300\n Stanley, Dean, 273\n Steele, Anne, 152, 274\n Sternhold, Thomas, 64 ff.\n Stone, S. J., 270\n Syriac hymns, 52\n\n T\n Tait, Mrs., 38\n Tate, Nahum, 117\n Taylor, A. and J., 279\n \u2014\u2014, Jeremy, 116\n \u2018Te Deum,\u2019 39, 49\n Telford\u2019s _Charles Wesley_, 157, 196\n Tennyson, quoted, 23, 43\n 1 Timothy iii. 16., 43\n Toplady, A. M., 27, 221, 247 ff., 264\n Tozer\u2019s _Catholic Hymns_, 320\n Trench\u2019s _Sacred Latin Poetry_, 48\n Turton, Major, 180\n\n V\n Vaughan, Henry, 112, 323\n\n W\n Watts, Isaac, 11, 18, 19, 22, 27, 123 ff., 127, 128, 133, 135, 170\n Walton, Izaak, quoted, 108\n Wellhausen, 31\n Wesley, Charles, 20, 23, 25, 27, 39, 157 ff., 196\n Wesley\u2019s _Charlestown Hymn-book_, 155\n Wesley\u2019s _Hymns on God\u2019s Everlasting Love_, 183, 191\n Wesley\u2019s _Hymns of the Calvinistic Controversy_, 182\n Wesley\u2019s _Hymns of the Christian Year_, 172\n Wesley\u2019s _Hymns on the Lord\u2019s Supper_, 176\n Wesley\u2019s _Hymns of the Methodist Evangel_, 193\n Wesley\u2019s _Hymns of the Methodist Society_, 198\n Wesley\u2019s _Hymns on our Lord\u2019s Passion_, 174\n Wesley\u2019s _Hymns on Passages of Holy Scripture_, 211\n Wesley, John, 15, 155 ff.\n Wesley\u2019s _Journal_, 67, 164, 228, 244\n Westcott and Hort, 44, 45\n Weymouth, Lord, 82\n Whitfield, George, 174, 175, 182 ff., 245\n Whittingham, Wm., 68\n Williams, Wm., 250\n Wisdome, Robert, 68\n Wither, George, 92 ff., 173, 323\n Wood\u2019s _School Hymns_, 82\n Wordsworth, Bishop C., 15, 37, 267\n Wordsworth\u2019s _Ode to Duty_, 31\n\n\n\n\n INDEX OF HYMNS AND VERSES\n\n\n A\n PAGE\n Abide with me 21\n According to Thy gracious word 290\n A charge to keep I have 216\n A helpless soul that looks to Thee 213\n Ah! Lord, with trembling I confess 27\n Alas, my God, that we should be 103\n All praise to St. Patrick 318\n All ye that pass by 175\n And didst Thou love 281\n And shall I slight my Father\u2019s love? 169\n Angels from the realms of glory 291\n _Angelus ad Virginem_ 315\n As for my friends, they are not lost 99\n As pants the hart for cooling streams 119\n At evening to myself I say 218\n Away, my unbelieving fear 212\n\n B\n Before Jehovah\u2019s awful throne 156\n Begone, unbelief, my Saviour is near 232\n Behold the glories of the Lamb 126\n Behold the potter and the clay 183\n Behold us, Lord, a little space 270\n Bless\u00e8d are the pure in heart 302\n Breathe from the gentle south, O Lord 235\n Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit 208\n Britain was doomed to be a slave 123\n Buried in sin, Thy voice I hear 212\n But O the power of grace Divine 160\n By faith we see Thy sufferings past 177\n\n C\n Children of the heavenly King 245\n Christ, the Lord, is risen to-day 174\n Christ the Lord is risen to-day, Christians haste 176\n Clothed with state and girt with might 73\n Come, Divine Immanuel, come 197\n Come, Holy Ghost, all quickening fire 210\n Come, Holy Spirit, come 149\n Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove 150\n Come, immortal King of glory 222\n Come, let us join our cheerful songs 140\n Come, let us raise the common song 309\n Come, Lord, and tarry not 307\n Come, my soul, thy suit prepare 232\n Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life 112\n Come, O come, in pious lays 95\n Come then, and to my soul reveal 21\n Come to the supper, come 138\n Come, we that love the Lord 140\n Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched 149\n Curb for the stubborn steed 55\n\n D\n Days and moments quickly flying 318\n Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood 21\n Dear Shepherd of Thy people, hear 233\n Death has for me no fears 321\n _Deus, Creator omnium_ 58\n Dost Thou ask me who I am? 242\n Draw near to Thy Jerusalem, O Lord 117\n\n E\n Early hasten to the tomb 291\n Eldad, they said, and Medad there 219\n Eternal Wisdom! Thee we praise 141, 171\n Exceeding faithful in Thy word 93\n Exempted from the general doom 172\n Extend to me that favour, Lord 119\n\n F\n Fain would I leave this world below 207\n Father, if justly still we claim 115\n Father of mercies, in Thy word 153\n Father, whose everlasting love 184\n Fools that true faith yet never had 171\n For all Thy Church, O Lord, we intercede 180\n For ever with the Lord 289\n For God doth not a whit respect 92\n Forth from the dark and stormy sea 257\n\n G\n Gabriel to Mary went 315\n Give me the wings of faith to rise 140\n Glorious things of Thee are spoken 232\n Glory to God, whose sovereign grace 197\n Glory to the glorious One 53\n God moves in a mysterious way 232\n God of all grace and majesty 203\n God of my life, Thy boundless grace 277\n Gracious Spirit, dwell with me 295\n Granted is the Saviour\u2019s prayer 174\n Great is our redeeming Lord 212\n Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah 251\n\n H\n Hail! gladdening Light 58\n Hail the day that sees Him rise 174\n Hail to the Lord\u2019s Anointed 289\n Happy sons of Israel 74\n Hark! how all the welkin rings 173\n Hark, my soul! how every thing 88\n Hark, my soul, it is the Lord 232\n He that from dross would win the precious ore 291\n He who would win a warrior\u2019s fame 301\n Here I know myself a stranger 252\n Here, where Thine angels overhead 283\n Hierusalem, my happie home 77\n Him Prophet, and King 198\n His every word of grace is strong 171\n His the glory, His the honour 54\n Holy Spirit, pity me 302\n How are Thy servants blest, O Lord 242\n How lovely are Thy tents, O Lord 213\n How ready is the man to go 218\n How rich are Thy provisions, Lord 138\n How shall I copy Him I serve 293\n How shall I sing that Majesty 101\n How sweet the name of Jesus sounds 232\n Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber 141\n\n I\n I bind unto myself to-day 280\n I call on Thee, Lord Jesu Christ 63\n I could the devil\u2019s law receive 186\n I hoped that with the brave and strong 265\n I look to thee, I hope in Thee 276\n If any to the feast have come 312\n If love in any heart arise 295\n If my immortal Saviour lives 153\n If profit be thy scope 149\n In a rapture of joy 166\n In the hour of trial 291\n In the Name which earth and heaven 270\n Influenced by the Light Divine 83\n\n J\n Jerusalem makes melody 14\n Jerusalem, where song nor gem 332\n Jerusalem, my happy home 177\n Jesu, all hail, Who for my sin 87\n Jesu, Lover of my soul 20, 39, 184, 267\n Jesu, Thy blood and righteousness 200\n Jesus, poorest of the poor 300\n Jesus shall reign where\u2019er the sun 140\n Jesus the good Shepherd is 214\n Jesus, where\u2019er Thy people meet 232, 233\n Join all the glorious names 19, 139\n\n K\n King of Glory, King of Peace 111\n King of Mercy, King of Love 113\n\n L\n Lead, kindly light 21 n., 37, 261\n Let Him to whom we now belong 181\n Let me, according to Thy word 204\n Let us with a gladsome mind 273\n Lift thy song among the nations 299\n Lift up Thy countenance serene 205\n Lift your eyes of faith, and see 178\n Lo! He comes with clouds descending 245\n Lo! He cometh, countless trumpets 246\n Lo! on a narrow neck of land 196\n Long my imprisoned spirit lay 212\n Lord, at Thy feet a sinner lies 180\n Lord, come away 116\n Lord, dost Thou ne\u2019er Thy servants bless 297\n Lord, I believe a rest remains 206\n Lord, in the strength of grace 211\n Lord, now the time returns 90\n Lord, Thou hast suffered all for me 236\n Lord, though Thy Church in this dark world 100\n Lord, Thy gracious voice hath spoken 299\n Lord, who didst the Prophets teach 268\n Love bade me welcome 111\n Love divine, all loves excelling 208, 209\n\n M\n Maker of all things! God most high 60\n Moored by a green isle of Winandermere 271\n Much I love the faithful pilgrims 252\n My God, I am Thine 200\n My God, the spring of all my joys 140\n My heart is full of Christ, and longs 215\n My life\u2019s a shade, my days 97\n My Saviour, my Beloved One 106\n My Saviour, whom absent I love 237\n My Shepherd will supply my need 134\n My soul looks back to see 166\n\n N\n Nearer, my God, to Thee 313\n Never weather-beaten sail 76\n None is like Jeshurun\u2019s God 212\n Not all the blood of beasts 125, 166\n Now I have found the ground wherein 199\n Now it belongs not to my care 99\n Now the labourer\u2019s task is o\u2019er 270, 331\n\n O\n O all that pass by 194\n O arm me with the mind 188\n O blessed well of love 7\n O crucified, triumphant Lord 302\n O\u2019er those gloomy hills of darkness 251\n O for a closer walk with God 232\n Oft, Lord, I weary in Thy work 311\n O God, my strength and fortitude 65\n O God of Bethel, by whose hand 146\n O happy day that fixed my choice 39, 147\n O, I tremble still to think 239\n O holy, blessed, glorious Three 114\n O let me kiss Thy bleeding feet 191\n O Lord, turn not Thy face away 69\n O Lord, with all my heart and mind 66\n O Love divine! what hast Thou done! 175\n O make but trial of His love 119\n O that my soul were now as fair 103\n O Thou not made with hands 282\n O Thou who camest from above 217\n O Thou who hast our sorrows borne 175\n O unexampled Love 192\n O what shall I do My Savour to praise 200\n O when shall we sweetly remove 220\n O when wilt Thou my Saviour be 249\n O yet once more o\u2019er English fields 319\n On all the earth Thy Spirit shower 115\n Onward Christian soldiers 286\n\n P\n Part of His Church below 179\n Pensive, doubting, fearful heart 240\n Perverse and foolish oft I strayed 269\n Pilgrim, burthened with thy sin 259\n Praise ye the Lord, for it is good 68\n Prayer is the breath of God in man 151\n Prayer is the soul\u2019s sincere desire 290\n\n Q\n Quiet, Lord, my froward heart 232\n\n R\n Raised from the people\u2019s lowest lees 219\n Repentance is to leave 279\n Ride on, ride on in majesty 257\n Rock of Ages, cleft for me 248\n\n S\n Saved from the fear of hell and death 159\n Saviour, for Thy love we praise Thee 305\n See how great a flame aspires 197, 259\n Sent by my Lord, on you I call 190\n She, too, who touched Thee in the press 234\n Show me, Lord, that Thou art love 304\n Shudder not to pass the stream 264\n Sinners, believe the gospel word 192\n Sometimes a light surprises 232\n Sons of men, behold from far 174\n Souls of men, why will ye scatter? 16, 195\n Star of morn and even 282\n Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear 39\n Sure the Lord thus far has brought me 239\n Surely I have pardon found 208\n Sweet Jesu! why, why dost Thou love 88\n Sweet place, sweet place alone 97\n Sweet Saviour, bless us ere we go 21\n\n T\n The Church\u2019s one foundation 270, 286\n The cup of blessing blessed by Thee 176\n The graves of all His saints He blessed 141\n The heavenly frame sets forth the fame 72\n The Lord my pasture shall prepare 143\n The Lord will happiness divine 234\n The mercy I feel to others I show 194\n The night is come like to the day 107\n The private slanderer shall be 120\n The promise of my Father\u2019s love 139\n The promised land from Pisgah\u2019s top 140\n The righteous God consigned 187\n The spacious firmament on high 234\n The thing my God doth hate 205\n The wakeful shepherds near their flocks 101\n The whole triumphant host 39\n The winter\u2019s night and summer\u2019s day 201\n Thee will I praise with all my heart 213\n Their earnest cries do pierce the skies 101\n There are in this loud stunning tide 93\n There is a fountain filled with blood 22\n There is a land of pure delight 11, 140\n Thine image, if Thou stamp on me 217\n This God is the God we adore 149\n This is the gift, Thy gift, O Lord 98\n Thou art coming, O my Saviour 278\n Thou dear Redeemer, dying Lamb 245\n Thou, Lord, art a shield for me 213\n Thou say\u2019st, \u2018Take up thy cross\u2019 282\n Thou that once on mother\u2019s knee 282\n Though troubles assail, and dangers affright 232\n Through all the changing scenes of life 119\n Thy mercy is above all things 67\n Thy sovereign grace to all extends 191\n Thy way is in the deep, O Lord 314\n Till He come, O let the words 272\n \u2019Tis gone, that bright and orbed blaze 61\n To the hills I lift mine eyes 213\n To Thee, my God, my Saviour 253\n\n U\n Unwearied, let us still request 217\n\n V\n View me, Lord, a work of Thine 76\n\n W\n We are a garden walled around 168\n We woke to-day with anthems sweet 303\n Weary of earth, and laden with my sin 270\n What a gracious God have we 91\n What are these arrayed in white 178\n What conscience dictates to be done 24\n When all Thy mercies, O my God 243\n When I survey life\u2019s varied scene 153\n When I survey the wondrous Cross 11, 125, 139\n When Israel, freed from Pharaoh\u2019s hand 243\n When rising from the bed of death 243\n Where but on yonder tree 218\n \u2018Where is your God?\u2019 they say 314\n Wherewith, O God, shall I draw near 212\n While Jacob for a wife doth wait 218\n While shepherds watched their flocks 219\n Who in the Lord confide 213\n Why do I sigh to find 265\n Why should I always pray 310\n Wilt thou forgive that sin 108\n With all the powers my poor heart hath 315\n With glorious clouds encompassed round 174\n With golden bells the priestly vest 237\n With solemn faith we offer up 177\n Worship and thanks and blessing 196\n\n Y\n Ye holy angels bright 99\n Ye humble souls that seek the Lord 165\n Ye neighbours and friends of Jesus 195\n Yes, I to the end shall endure 27\n You that have spent the silent night 75\n\n\n THE END\n\n PRINTED BY\n WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,\n LONDON AND BECCLES.\n\n\n\n\n Transcriber\u2019s Notes\n\n\n--Retained publication information from the printed edition: this\n eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.\n\n--Silently corrected a few palpable typos.\n\n--In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by\n _underscores_.","title":"The Hymn-Book of the Modern Church: Brief studies of hymns and hymn-writers","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":79155}