{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_61393/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_61393","id":"gutenberg_61393","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61393","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Music","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Hymns -- History and criticism"],"text":"THE\n                            SINGING CHURCH\n\n\n                     THE HYMNS IT WROTE AND SANG\n\n                                  By\n                  Edmund S. Lorenz, LL.D., Mus. Doc.\n\n                              AUTHOR OF\n                      MUSIC IN WORK AND WORSHIP\n                        PRACTICAL HYMN STUDIES\n                        PRACTICAL CHURCH MUSIC\n                             CHURCH MUSIC\n\n                           COKESBURY PRESS\n                              NASHVILLE\n\n\n                          THE SINGING CHURCH\n                        Copyright, MCMXXXVIII\n                         By WHITMORE & SMITH\n\nAll rights in this book are reserved. No part of the text may be\nreproduced in any form without written permission of the publishers,\nexcept brief quotations used in connection with reviews in a magazine\nor newspaper.\n\n _Set up, electrotyped, printed, and bound by the Parthenon Press at\n            Nashville Tennessee, United States of America_\n\n  \u201c_Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and\n  hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart\n  to the Lord._\u201d\n                                                     (Eph. 5: 18, 19.)\n\n\n\n\n                               PREFACE\n\n\nIn preparing this discussion of the Christian hymn, it has been my\nambition, not to be pre-eminently scholarly, but rather to be\npre-eminently helpful. The current treatment of this phase of church\nworship is quite sufficiently thorough in its literary analysis and\nhistorical research; there is nothing but praise for this aspect of\nthe study of the hymn in the many excellent treatises in America as\nwell as in England.\n\nThe fathers of American hymnology, Professors Austin Phelps and\nEdwards A. Parks and Rev. Daniel L. Furber, set a good example to\nlater hymnologists in their _Hymns and Choirs_ in laying stress on the\nthought and sentiment of the hymns and in devoting nearly one-third of\ntheir study to \u201cThe Dignity and the Methods of Worship in Song,\u201d\ndiscussing choirs, congregational singing, organs, and many other\npractical phases in the use of hymns. They gave little consideration\nto the historicity of individual hymns; that viewpoint had not risen\nabove the horizon.\n\nLater works have given more attention to the historical background.\nThe work of Dr. Louis F. Benson, the greatest hymnologist America has\nproduced, cannot be too highly commended for its scholarly\nthoroughness and indefatigable research. His _The English Hymn_ and\n_The Hymnody of the Christian Church_ should be found in the library\nof every minister. Other valuable American treatises on hymns are\nNinde\u2019s _Story of the American Hymn_, Gilman\u2019s _Evolution of the\nEnglish Hymn_, Reeves\u2019 _The Hymn as Literature_, Marks\u2019 _Rise and\nGrowth of English Hymnody_, and Tillett\u2019s _Our Hymns and Their\nAuthors_, all of which are most helpful and illuminating discussions\nbearing on the literary and historical aspects of Christian hymns. On\nthe other side of the sea are other most valuable studies of the hymn.\nHorder\u2019s _The Hymn Lover_ is particularly fresh and inspiring. Others\nare instructive regarding the individual hymns, such as Josiah\nMiller\u2019s _Singers and Songs of the Church_, John Telford\u2019s _The\nMethodist Hymn-Book Illustrated_ and _Evenings with the Sacred Poets_,\nand W. T. Stead\u2019s _Hymns That Have Helped_. Supreme above them all is\nJulian\u2019s _Dictionary of Hymnology_, which is a stupendous work of vast\ncomprehensiveness and indefatigable industry, the last word in the\nhistory and critical study of Christian hymns of all lands and all\nChristian ages.\n\nThe justification of another survey of the field lies in the fact that\nall these admirable books confine themselves to the purely literary\nand historical data regarding each hymn, with side glances in only a\nfew cases at the practical values involved. While the fundamental urge\nof expressing religious emotions back of Christian hymns is not denied\nor even deprecated, the emotional values are not developed or\nstressed.\n\nIn order to assure this lacking element of practical helpfulness, this\ndiscussion includes four chapters on the purposeful use of hymns in\nthe work of the Church.\n\nIt is proper that I should recognize the sympathetic and cordial\nhelpfulness in an advisory way of Professor Herman von Berge, my\neditorial associate in the musical work to which I have devoted the\nlarger part of my life. His scholarship and wide practical experience,\nboth as pastor and theological seminary professor, have helped me\nsolve some problems that rather daunted me. Acknowledgment is also due\nto my son, Rev. Edward H. Lorenz, and to Mrs. F. C. Goodlin, my\nprivate secretary, in typing and proofreading my longhand manuscript.\nLast but not least, the co-operation of my brother, Dr. D. E. Lorenz,\norganizer of the church of the Good Shepherd in New York City and its\npastor for thirty-four years, in the indexing and proofreading, calls\nfor grateful recognition. Only an experienced author can fully measure\nthe value of such efficient helpers.\n\n                                                              E. S. L.\n\nDayton Ohio.\n\n\n\n\n                               CONTENTS\n\n\n  INTRODUCTION                                                  17\n      THE PLACE AND IMPORTANCE OF THE HYMN.\n      The Impulse to Sing Is Constitutional in Man.\n      Biblical Authority for the Singing of Hymns.\n      The Use of Hymns in the Development of the Christian Church.\n      Cultural Value of Hymns.\n      Spiritual Value of Hymns.\n      The Value of Singing Hymns Too Often Overlooked.\n      The Need of Emphasis on Efficient Use of Hymns.\n\n\n                                  PART I\n                      THE CHARACTER OF THE HYMN\n\n\n                                CHAPTER I\n  WHAT IS A HYMN?                                               25\n      I DEFINITION OF THE HYMN.\n      Importance of Accurate Definition.\n      Inadequate Definition.\n      Definition Must Be Based on Practical Considerations.\n      Types of Hymns.\n      Definition of the Congregational Hymn.\n      II THE HYMN MUST BE POETRY.\n      To Be Poetry, It Must Be Emotional.\n      It Must Have Poetical Form.\n      It Must Be Poetic in Spirit.\n      The Hymn Must Have Unity.\n      The Poetical Element Is Contributory Only.\n      III THE CHRISTIAN HYMN MUST BE DISTINCTLY RELIGIOUS.\n      Poems of Semi-religious Fancy Are No Hymns.\n      Mere Moralizing Will Not Serve.\n      Special Propaganda Is Not Admissible.\n      Christian Hymns Should Be Genuinely Christocentric.\n      IV SCRIPTURAL ELEMENTS OF THE HYMN.\n      Hymns Based on the Scriptures.\n      Use of Scriptural Forms Desirable.\n      V THE HYMN MUST BE FITTED FOR MASS SINGING.\n      Congregational Singing Is a Pronouncedly Christian Exercise.\n      Meter Essential to Mass Singing.\n      VI PRACTICABILITY FOR ACTUAL USE.\n      Ideas Must Be Plainly Evident.\n      Hymns May Not Be Extremely Individualistic.\n      Distracting Figures and Forms of Expression.\n      Verses Must Be Complete in Themselves.\n      Musical Limitations.\n      Outworn Hymns.\n      Mistaken Objections to Some Hymns.\n\n\n                                CHAPTER II\n  THE PURPOSE AND VALUE OF HYMNS                                40\n      I THE IMPULSE TO WRITE HYMNS.\n      II PURPOSE IN WRITING HYMNS.\n      The Influence of Purpose.\n      The Purpose Must Affect Only the Practical Aspects.\n      III PURPOSE OF THE USER OF HYMNS.\n      IV PURPOSES SERVED BY SINGING HYMNS.\n      Hymns Unite Christians in Worship and Christian Activities.\n      Hymns Concentrate Interest and Attention.\n      Hymns Afford a Means of Expression for the Congregation.\n      Hymns Provide Help and Comfort in Dark Hours.\n      Hymns Afford Clear Expression of Christian Truth.\n      Hymns Give Opportunity for Active Participation by All.\n      Hymns Provide Variety.\n      Hymns Create a Religious Atmosphere.\n      Hymns in the Home.\n      Hymns in Personal Work.\n      V REASONS FOR THE MINISTER\u2019S APPRECIATION OF HYMNS.\n      Hymns Are Evidence of the Effect of the Bible.\n      Hymns and Psalms Affected the Life of Church.\n      Hymns in Personal Christian Experience.\n      Hymns as Stimulating the Spiritual Life of the Minister.\n      Hymns Approved by Paul.\n      Hymns in the Early Church.\n      Hymns Prepared the Church for Periods of Marked Progress.\n      VI STRANGE INDIFFERENCE TO HYMNS.\n      The Minister\u2019s Indifference.\n      Indifference of the Congregation.\n\n\n                               CHAPTER III\n  THE LITERARY ASPECT OF HYMNS                                  53\n      I WHAT MAKES THE HYMN LITERATURE?\n      Its Character as a Transcript of Life.\n      Its Wide Distribution.\n      Its Acceptance Through Many Generations.\n      Its Profound Influence.\n      II OBJECTIONS TO RECOGNIZING ITS LITERARY CHARACTER.\n      Due to Narrow Definition of Literature.\n      Due to Failure to Realize Limitations of Hymns.\n      Some Critics and Their Criticisms.\n      III THE WRITING OF HYMNS.\n      The Handicap of Thought and Diction.\n      The Handicap of Meter.\n      IV LITERARY QUALITY NOT TO BE OVERESTIMATED.\n      Literary Quality Not the Supreme Consideration.\n      Literary Quality Should Be Subconscious.\n\n\n                                CHAPTER IV\n  THE EMENDATION OF HYMNS                                       63\n      I THE CHANGES IN OUR HYMNS.\n      Early Changes.\n      The Abuse of the Editorial Revision.\n      The Return to the Originals.\n      II PRINCIPLES OF EQUITY INVOLVED IN THESE CHANGES.\n      The Rights of the Original Writer.\n      The Limits of the Author\u2019s Rights.\n      III EFFECT OF CHANGES ON QUALITY.\n      Loss of Original Writer\u2019s Vision.\n      Biblical Precedent.\n      IV ANALYSIS OF CHANGES MADE.\n      The Omission of Verses.\n      Reconstructing and Rewriting Faulty Hymns.\n      Minor Felicitous Changes.\n\n\n                                CHAPTER V\n  THE CONTENT OF THE HYMN                                       76\n      I ITS RELATION TO GOD.\n      Thanksgiving.\n      Prayer for Future Blessing.\n      Adoration.\n      The Hymn of Communion.\n      II RELATION TO THE SINGER.\n      The Hymn of Emotion.\n      The Hymn of Inspiration.\n      The Hymn of Personal Experience.\n      The Hymn of Meditation.\n      The Hymn of Exhortation.\n      The Didactic Hymn.\n      The Doctrinal Hymn.\n      The Homiletical Hymn.\n      The Hymn of Propaganda.\n      Hymns of the Social Gospel.\n      Special Hymns.\n      The Great Hymnic Themes.\n\n\n                                CHAPTER VI\n  THE GOSPEL HYMN                                               89\n      Lack of Discrimination.\n      Wrong Assumptions of the Opposition.\n      Unfairness in Comparisons Made.\n      Criteria for Evaluation.\n      Gospel Hymns and the Unsaved.\n      Gospel Hymns and the Demands of Worship.\n      Gospel Hymns in the Preparatory Service.\n      Gospel Hymns in the Laboratory.\n      The Advantages of Gospel Hymns.\n      Discrimination in the Use of Gospel Songs Needed.\n\n\n                                 PART II\n           HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN HYMN\n\n\n                               CHAPTER VII\n  APOSTOLIC ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT                             103\n      SACRED SONG IN THE NEW CHRISTIAN CHURCH.\n      The Rise of Sacred Song in Apostolic Times.\n      Apostolic Emphasis of Sacred Song.\n      Traces of Hymns in the Epistles.\n      The Hymns of the Apocalypse.\n      \u201cThe Odes of Solomon.\u201d\n      The Failure of Apostolic Spiritual Songs to Survive.\n\n\n                               CHAPTER VIII\n  THE POST-APOSTOLIC HYMN                                      109\n      The Post-Apostolic Church a Singing Church.\n      The Earliest Surviving Hymns.\n      The Relation of Hymns to Psalms and Canticles.\n      The Hymn as Propaganda.\n\n\n                                CHAPTER IX\n  THE GREEK HYMNODY                                            114\n      Introduction. THE SYRIAC HYMN-WRITERS.\n      I EARLY GREEK HYMNS.\n      II THE LATER GREEK HYMNS.\n\n\n                                CHAPTER X\n  THE LATIN HYMNODY                                            119\n      I THE BEGINNING OF LATIN HYMNODY.\n      II EARLY LATIN HYMN-WRITERS.\n      III GREAT LATIN HYMNS.\n      IV MEDIEVAL DEVOTIONAL POEMS.\n      V MEDIEVAL POPULAR HYMNODY.\n\n\n                                CHAPTER XI\n  LUTHER AND THE GERMAN HYMN                                   130\n      I PRE-REFORMATION VERNACULAR HYMNS.\n      II LUTHER\u2019S RELATION TO GERMAN HYMNODY.\n\n\n                               CHAPTER XII\n  THE LATER GERMAN HYMNODY                                     137\n      I THE RISING STANDARD OF LITERARY VALUES.\n      II THE GOLDEN AGE OF GERMAN HYMNODY.\n      III THE PIETISTIC HYMN-WRITERS.\n      IV GERMAN REFORMED HYMNODY.\n      V TRANSITION TO RATIONALISTIC HYMNS.\n      VI RATIONALISM IN HYMNODY.\n      VII HYMNS OF RENEWED RELIGIOUS LIFE.\n      VIII HYMNS OF PIETISTIC TYPE.\n\n\n                               CHAPTER XIII\n  METRICAL PSALMODY                                            148\n      I CALVIN\u2019S CONCEPTION OF CONGREGATIONAL SINGING.\n      II CALVIN\u2019S FOLLOWERS MORE EXTREME.\n      III MAROT\u2019S SUCCESSFUL VERSIONS.\n      IV DEVELOPMENT OF THE GENEVAN PSALTER.\n      V ENGLISH PSALM VERSIONS BEFORE STERNHOLD.\n      VI VERSION OF STERNHOLD AND HOPKINS.\n      VII THE SCOTCH VERSION.\n      VIII ROUS\u2019 VERSION.\n      IX TATE AND BRADY\u2019S \u201cNEW VERSION.\u201d\n      X AMERICAN PSALMODY.\n      XI THE VALUE OF THE PSALM VERSIONS.\n\n\n                               CHAPTER XIV\n  THE ENGLISH HYMN BEFORE WATTS                                158\n      I THE EARLIEST ENGLISH HYMN.\n      II ENGLISH HYMNODY SUBMERGED BY REFORMED PSALMODY.\n      III ENGLISH LITERARY IDEALS UNFAVORABLE TO HYMN-WRITING.\n      IV THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TECHNIC OF WRITING SINGING HYMNS.\n      V THE IDEAL OF THE SINGING HYMN REALIZED.\n\n\n                                CHAPTER XV\n  ISAAC WATTS AND HIS PERIOD                                   168\n      I THE HYMNIC NEED OF THE TIME.\n      II THE LIFE OF WATTS.\n      III WATTS AS A HYMN-WRITER.\n      IV WATTS\u2019 ARGUMENT FOR THE HYMN.\n      V WATTS\u2019 INSISTENCE ON PRACTICABILITY.\n      VI THE INESTIMABLE VALUE OF WATTS\u2019 HYMNS.\n      VII CONTEMPORARIES OF WATTS.\n\n\n                               CHAPTER XVI\n  THE WESLEYS AND THEIR ERA                                    180\n      I THE INFLUENCE OF WATTS ON THE WESLEYS.\n      II THE HOME OF THE WESLEYS.\n      III THE MORAVIAN INFLUENCE.\n      IV JOHN WESLEY.\n      V CHARLES WESLEY.\n      VI CHARLES WESLEY\u2019S HYMNS QUITE SUBJECTIVE.\n      VII WATTS AND CHARLES WESLEY.\n      VIII ISSUES OF THE WESLEYAN HYMNS.\n      IX THE METHODIST TUNES.\n      X INFLUENCES OPPOSING THE WESLEYAN HYMNS.\n      XI OTHER METHODIST HYMN-WRITERS.\n      XII CALVINISTIC-METHODIST HYMN-WRITERS.\n      XIII BAPTIST HYMN-WRITERS.\n\n\n                               CHAPTER XVII\n  HYMNS IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND                               193\n      I RISE OF SPIRITUAL LIFE IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH.\n      II EARLY COLLECTIONS OF EVANGELICAL HYMNS.\n      III EVANGELICAL HYMN-WRITERS.\n      IV HYMN-WRITERS OF THE ROMANTIC SCHOOL.\n      V CONTEMPORARY HYMN-WRITERS.\n      VI MINOR HYMN-WRITERS.\n      VII THE HYMNS OF THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.\n\n\n                              CHAPTER XVIII\n  AMERICAN HYMNODY                                             209\n      I THE TRANSITION FROM PSALMODY TO HYMNODY.\n      II THE INTRODUCTION OF WATTS\u2019 HYMNS.\n      III THE BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN HYMNODY.\n      IV COLLECTIONS OF AMERICAN HYMNS.\n      V EPISCOPAL HYMN-WRITERS.\n      VI UNITARIAN HYMNODY.\n      VII LATER ORTHODOX HYMN-WRITERS.\n\n\n                                 PART III\n                         PRACTICAL HYMNOLOGY\n\n\n                               CHAPTER XIX\n  THE STUDY OF HYMNS                                           229\n      I IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY OF HYMNS.\n      II PERSONAL ADVANTAGES OF SUCH STUDY OF HYMNS.\n      Literary Pleasure.\n      Literary Culture.\n      Development of Emotional Nature.\n      III THE PRACTICAL VALUES OF INDIVIDUAL HYMNS.\n      Classifying Hymns by Their Nature.\n      Classifying Hymns by Their Fitness for Definite Purposes.\n      IV THE MINUTE STUDY OF HYMNS.\n      Analysis of the Hymn.\n      The Background of the Hymn.\n      Making a Hymnal of His Own.\n      Memorizing Hymns.\n      V A STUDY OF METHODS OF USE.\n      Using Hymns in Sermons.\n      Studying Responsiveness of the Congregation.\n      Studying Methods of Announcement and Securing Participation.\n      Studying Use of Hymnal for Specific Purposes.\n      VI A STUDY OF THE TUNES.\n\n\n                                CHAPTER XX\n  THE PRACTICAL USE OF HYMNS                                   248\n      I THE HYMN AS A MEANS TO AN END.\n      II ANALYSIS OF PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF HYMNS.\n      III THE USE OF HYMNS FOR CREATING RELIGIOUS INTEREST.\n      IV THE HYMN AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR TEACHING TRUTH.\n      V HYMN SERMONS AND HYMN SERVICES.\n      VI THE USE OF HYMNS IN EMERGENCIES.\n\n\n                               CHAPTER XXI\n  THE SELECTION OF HYMNS                                       256\n      I SELECTION SHOULD SECURE UNITY OF SERVICE.\n      Narrow Conception of Unity.\n      Broader Conception of Unity.\n      Unity Based on Purpose.\n      II SUGGESTIVE SELECTIONS OF HYMNS.\n      Hymns for Service on God\u2019s Omnipotence.\n      Hymns for Service on God\u2019s Love.\n      Hymns for a Missionary Service.\n      III IMPORTANCE OF THE TUNES.\n\n\n                               CHAPTER XXII\n  THE ANNOUNCEMENT AND TREATMENT OF HYMNS                      266\n      I THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF HYMNS.\n      II THE TREATMENT OF HYMNS.\n  EPILOGUE                                                     274\n  REFERENCES AND NOTES                                         277\n  GENERAL INDEX                                                285\n  INDEX OF HYMNS                                               291\n\n\n\n\n                                 INTRODUCTION\n\n\n                 THE PLACE AND IMPORTANCE OF THE HYMN\n\nThe Church of God has been and is a singing church. This was true in\nthe antediluvian centuries, which was its seminal period, for some of\nits canticles have survived. In its pupal stage, the Old Testament\nchurch life developed both the form and the content of the future\nhymnody.\n\nTo the solo forms of the preceding period, the Mosaic social and\nreligious organization now adds both the choral and the congregational\nforms of vocal worship. To the fear and awe of previous generations,\nthe Christian development of the Church of God has added the intimate\nphases of adoration, of gratitude, of love, based on consciousness of\ncommunion with the Triune Deity.\n\nOutside of the Israelitish Church and its Christian consummation,\nthere has been little or no song in religious worship. The heathen\ndeities were honored only with rude vocal and instrumental noises made\nby temple singers and players. It is the Church of God under all\ndispensations which was a singing church. To this day the voice of\nsacred song is practically absent from heathen temple.\n\n\n           _The Impulse to Sing Is Constitutional in Man._\n\nIn the beginning, song was a spontaneous expression of feeling, being\nbased on man\u2019s original constitution as fully as breathing or\nspeaking. Its exercise did not rise high enough in the consciousness\nof men, nor so conspicuously affect the current of events, that\naccount should be made of it in the sketchy outlines of the early\nhistory of the race. None the less do we hear unrelated echoes from\nLamech and Jubal,[1] and from Laban\u2019s complaint that Jacob gave him no\nopportunity to bid farewell \u201cwith songs, with tabret, and with harp.\u201d\n[2] During the great Exodus, these echoes multiply and become more\narticulate at the Red Sea,[3] at the digging of the well at Beer,[4]\nabout the walls of Jericho,[5] Deborah,[6] Barak,[7] and Hannah,[8]\nand the school of the prophets,[9] developing a grand _crescendo_\nwhich culminates in the full-voiced chorus and orchestra of the times\nof David and Solomon.[10] Undoubtedly all these were surviving\nmanifestations of the unbroken tide of social and religious song that\nflowed on through the ages. The Hebrew church carried on the model\nconstructed by the organizing instinct of Samuel and the musical and\nliterary genius of David, through the succeeding ages, and passed on\nthe devotional impulse to the Christian Church.\n\n\n            _Biblical Authority for the Singing of Hymns._\n\nIf any authority for the use of hymns were needed beyond the unfailing\nurge of a sanctified soul to find expression for its spiritual\nexperiences and to persuade other souls to seek a like blessed\nprivilege, there would be ample provision in the development of\nreligious song in the Jewish church, in the participation of Jesus in\nsuch a song at so high a peak of religious solemnity as the\ninstitution of \u201cThe Lord\u2019s Supper,\u201d[11] in the use of song by the\nApostles in their private meetings and in unusual personal experiences\nfrom the very beginning,[12] in the exhortations of Paul[13] and\nJames,[14] and in the choral scenes of the great Apocalypse.[15]\n\n\n    _The Use of Hymns in the Development of the Christian Church._\n\nBut the use God has made of song through the succeeding centuries of\nthe development of the Christian Church, is an even more striking\nindication of the high importance placed upon sacred song by the\ndivine mind.\n\nThe results of the thoughtful use of song, both in ancient times and\nthe recent past, abundantly illustrate its value and are genuine\nlaboratory proof of its power in deepening the spirituality of\nindividuals, of communities, and even of nations. The hymns of Huss\nand of Luther, the psalmody of Calvin and of Knox, the preparatory\neffect of the hymns of Watts for the great Second Reformation in\nEngland and its intensification by the hymns of the Wesleys, the\njoyous singing of rudely fashioned psalms and the newly introduced\nhymns in the Great Awakening in New England, the great evangelistic\nmovement in America and in England with its enthusiastic singing of\nunpretentious Gospel songs\u2014all establish on unquestionably scientific\nbasis the spiritual value of sacred song.\n\n\n                      _Cultural Value of Hymns._\n\nCompare the number of people in any given city or community who read\npoetry in any of its forms with the number of church attendants who\nread, even when they do not sing, from three to eight hymns every\nLord\u2019s Day. In literary influence, unconsciously absorbed, this wide\nuse of hymns is vastly more effective upon the public at large than\nthe more intensive and conscious influence of distinctly literary\nverse.\n\nMillions of homes in Great Britain and America have copies of the\nBible and of some hymnbook, while few of them have books of poetry.\nPhrases from hymns and psalms are a large part of the religious\nvocabulary of millions. They are quoted not only in sermons, but in\nessays and general writings and in the public press, perhaps more\ngenerally than are poems.\n\nThey have been appreciated by the greatest minds, who found them to be\nof great comfort and even delight, including such men as Benjamin\nFranklin (who first issued Watts\u2019 hymns in America), George\nWashington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and William Ewart Gladstone.\nThey deeply interested the man, Matthew Arnold, although the literary\ncritic, Matthew Arnold, had no use for them.\n\n\n                     _Spiritual Value of Hymns._\n\nHymns touch and influence the most intimate life of men, the moral and\nspiritual, and are always influential for good. They concentrate the\ncomforting truths of the Gospel, make them rememberable; what is even\nmore important, they add the emotional vitality to those truths that\nmake them real and actual.\n\nTo leave out the hymns from a single service might be an interesting\nexperiment; but omit them permanently, as was the former custom among\nthe Friends, and note how arid and flat the service becomes.\n\nTo some, the hymnbook is simply the Bible in another form, bringing\nits doctrines, its ideals, its hopes, its promises, its comforts, and\nits spiritual inspirations in a more apprehensible form. Having passed\nthrough the crucible of the actual personal experience of the writers\nof the hymns, they are more concrete, more appealing, more actual.\n\n\n          _The Value of Singing Hymns Too Often Overlooked._\n\nSince the hymn has so high a spiritual value, it is all the more\ndistressing that its possibilities of spiritual helpfulness are so\ngenerally overlooked and ignored by our ministers and their people.\nEven where it seems to be distinctly cultivated and emphasized, it is\noften the merely physiological effects that are sought. In other\napparently earnest endeavors to develop its value, there is the\naridity of merely artistic and literary emphasis, or the formal\nliturgical aspect that is stressed!\n\nThere is an absence of clear comprehension of what the hymns are\nintended to accomplish, of their meaning, of the emotions they are\nsupposed to express, and of the methods to be used to vitalize them\nand to make them effective. They are used mechanically, in deference\nto tradition and good ecclesiastical form. Most ministers select hymns\nto fit the themes of their discourses, fitness depending solely on\nlogical relations.\n\nThe spiritual life of the churches is not only the poorer and the\nshallower because of this loss of the quickening influence of the\nhymn, but this mechanical attitude is carried over to the other\nexercises of the divine service. The preacher who sings mechanically\nwill pray mechanically, preach mechanically.\n\n\n          _The Need of Emphasis on Efficient Use of Hymns._\n\nThe actual fact is that in the hymn the preacher has a most valuable\nfactor in making his service spiritually effective. Even as a\nperfunctory exercise it has at least a social value; but if its\nemotional and spiritual possibilities are fully developed and\nexploited, it becomes one of the most impressive and thrilling means\nof securing genuinely religious results among his people. It is a\ntragedy that so many clergymen have such dull and unattractive\nservices when through a proper use of hymns they might be made\nthrillingly interesting. Professor H. M. Poteat, of Wake Forest\nCollege, does not use too severe language in his _Practical Hymnology_\nwhen he says, \u201cAs a result of inexcusable ignorance, carelessness, and\nlaziness, the singing of hymns, in all too many churches, instead of\nbeing an act of worship, has degenerated into a mere incident of the\nservice, holding its place solely because of immemorial custom.\u201d\n\nIt is the purpose of this treatise at least to prevent the ignorance\nProfessor Poteat complains of so bitterly. The other difficulties can\nbe removed only \u201cby fasting and prayer.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                          THE SINGING CHURCH\n\n\n\n\n                                PART I\n                      THE CHARACTER OF THE HYMN\n\n\n\n\n                             _Chapter I_\n                           WHAT IS A HYMN?\n\n\n                      I. DEFINITION OF THE HYMN\n\n\n                 _Importance of Accurate Definition._\n\nBefore undertaking the study of the hymn in its various aspects and\nrelations, theoretical and practical, it should be very carefully\ndefined. This is all the more necessary because the word \u201chymn\u201d is\nused to cover so wide a sweep of religious poetry, and because our\ndiscussion is to be largely limited to its practical use in church\nwork.\n\nDr. Austin Phelps\u2019 test of a genuine hymn, \u201cGenuineness of religious\nemotion, refinement of poetic taste, and fitness to musical\ncadence\u2014these are essential to a faultless hymn, as the three chief\ngraces to a faultless character,\u201d[1] is a very clear and charming\nstatement of some essentials of a hymn, which needed emphasis in his\nrather prosaic day, but does not include all the requisites of a\nuseful hymn.\n\n\n                       _Inadequate Definition._\n\nThe narrow etymological definition of a hymn would confine it to\nsacred poems that, in at least some part of them, are directly\naddressed to some person of the Deity. St. Augustine limits the word\n\u201chymn\u201d to \u201csongs with praise to God\u2014without praise they are not hymns.\nIf they praise aught but God, they are not hymns.\u201d Even now there are\nhymnologists who insist upon this limited conception. No less a writer\nthan W. Garrett Horder, in his fresh and illuminating _The Hymn\nLover_, insists that \u201cthe cardinal test of a hymn should be that it is\nin some one, if not the whole of its parts, addressed to God.\u201d This\nshuts out the use of sacred poetry in instruction, inspiration,\nexhortation, and special practical applications of hymns. Moreover, if\nthe hymn is to be limited to worship, then the unconverted can never\nsing sincerely in the public service, and the ancient and medieval\nchurches were justified in withdrawing the privilege of religious song\nfrom the general laity.\n\n\n       _Definition Must Be Based on Practical Considerations._\n\nThe hymn is simply a means to the supreme end of all religious effort.\nThat form of the hymn, that method of its use, and that musical\nassistance, which realize most fully the immediate and ultimate ends\nin view under given circumstances can be approved and used. This\npractical basis of actual spiritual results must govern in formulating\nthe conception of the Christian hymn, as well as in forms of worship\nand prayer, in preaching, or in church organization.\n\nSince our discussion of the hymn has in view its contributing\nefficiently to concrete spiritual results, its definition must have a\npractical basis. Etymological, scholastic, traditional, abstractly\nidealistic considerations can have only minor weight.\n\n\n                          _Types of Hymns._\n\nThe hymn may be viewed from too many angles to confine it to any one\ndefinition. Hence we must recognize different types of the hymn: (a)\nThere is the poem regarding religious life and feeling that cannot be\nbrought within the limitations of a musical setting, constituting the\n_Reading Hymn_; (b) we have the formless, but elevated, expression of\nworship or religious truth that at best can only be chanted, which we\nmay call the Canticle, in which may be included such hymns as the Te\nDeum, the Sanctus, and unmetrical psalms; these, together with poems\nthat are expressions of emotion, yet are not fitted for mass singing\nbut may be effectively set to music of a different order, may be\nrecognized as Solo, or Choral, Hymns, such of The Stabat Mater, The\nDies Irae, and Sunset and Evening Star.\n\nThere is left us the sacred poem of such a form and type that it may\nbe called the _Congregational_ or _Singing Hymn_, which is really the\nsubject of the present practical discussion, and may be strictly\ndefined as follows:\n\n\n               _Definition of the Congregational Hymn._\n\nThe Congregational Hymn is a poem expressing worship, praise,\nthanksgiving, and prayer on the Godward side; personal spiritual\nexperience, emotion, and inspiration on the human side; and\ninstruction on the religious side. It must be adapted to mass thinking\nand expression, in a form fitted to be sung by a Christian\ncongregation, and calculated to express and stimulate or create\nreligious feeling and purpose.\n\n\n                     II. THE HYMN MUST BE POETRY\n\n\n                _To Be Poetry, It Must Be Emotional._\n\nThe initiating force of all poetry must be emotion of some kind. That\nemotion may be mere earnestness, it may be satire, it may be\nsatisfaction in contemplation of beautiful scenes, or satisfaction in\nideas and memories, or displeasure at impressions painful or\nabhorrent. Few of us realize how unfailing is the flow of emotion in\nour minds responding to the world about us and in us.\n\nTo view life and the world through the eye of reason is valuable, of\ncourse; but if that vision lacks the support of the eye of emotion, it\nbrings only a silhouette, without perspective, wanting a sense of\nreality. That is the weakness of abstract thinking, whether in\ntheology or political economy.\n\nIf the hymn, therefore, is to perform its functions, it must be\ndefinitely emotional to a greater or less extent. This is particularly\ntrue of hymns of Christian experience or in the hymn\u2019s functioning in\ninspiration and exhortation. To confuse animal excitement with emotion\nis bad psychology. The genuine emotionality of a hymn is the best\ncriterion of its practical value, for only through emotion can the\nwill be reached.\n\n\n                    _It Must Have Poetical Form._\n\nThe first requirement in this definition is that the hymn must be\npoetry. It should have meter and rhyme, else there can be no musical\nsetting practicable for congregational use. The first task Calvin and\nhis associates faced, after reaching the conclusion that only the\ninspired Psalms could be sung in the public religious assembly, was\nthe preparation of a metrical version. True, the Psalms had been sung\nby the Greek and Roman Catholic churches, but only as chants by\npriestly choirs. In the English church service, these chants were\nfrequently only led by the choir, the congregation joining in their\nsinging. But this was practicable only in larger and long-established\ncongregations, and even then there was more or less confusion. In\ngeneral, this chanting was a failure, and the English church adopted\nthe metrical versions. The use of the Psalms for responsive readings\nin our modern church services is a definitely practicable way of\nutilizing their liturgical and spiritual values.\n\nThe ostensible hymns of the Greek Church, of which Dr. Neale and Dr.\nBrownlie have furnished translations, or rather transformations, are\nnot verse but prose. They were not sung by the congregations, or put\ninto their hands, but were reserved for the reading of the clergy.\n\nIn like manner, the Latin hymns, although poetical in form\u2014often\ncomplicated to an absurd degree\u2014were not sung by the people, but were\nversified devotions inserted in the prose Psalms usually read by the\npriests.\n\nIn the Reformed churches for many centuries the word \u201chymn\u201d referred\nto verses of \u201chuman composure,\u201d as opposed to metrified inspired\nPsalms.\n\nThe famous American hymnologist, Dr. Louis J. Benson, lays less stress\non this metrical form: \u201cA Christian hymn, therefore, is a form of\nwords appropriate to be sung or chanted in public devotions.\u201d This\nopens the way for the inclusion of the \u201cTe Deum Laudamus,\u201d the\n\u201cSanctus,\u201d and other canticles among our hymns. But as these historic\ntexts are rarely or never sung by the people outside of the Church of\nEngland service, and used chiefly as texts for more or less elaborate\nmusical compositions sung by choirs, we may accept the common\nconception of the hymn as a metrical composition.\n\n\n                    _It Must Be Poetic in Spirit._\n\nWhile having the superficial music of the regularly recurring accents,\nand the liquid harmony of the vowels and consonants of the words as\nthey flow through the lines, there must be also the deeper, more\nentrancing music of the literary grace of spiritual thought singing\nits beautiful expression. If poetry is \u201cthe expression of thought\nsteeped in imagination and feeling,\u201d all the more must the hymn be\nexpressive of religious thought transfigured by deep and sincere\nemotion.\n\nWhile a hymn may be didactic, formulating doctrine, or enforcing\nobligation, it is not a really good and effective hymn unless the\nthought or exhortation is vitalized by imagination and emotion. Arid\nversification of Christian doctrines metaphysically conceived, or of\nethical discussions with no heat of conviction, will stir no pulses of\nbody, mind, or soul, but will conduce to the all too prevalent sense\nof the unreality of religious ideas and life.\n\n\n                     _The Hymn Must Have Unity._\n\nIt must have unity of thought, emotion, and expression, all growing\nout of a definite vision of emotion, having a beginning, middle, and\nend, which mark the progress of the idea or feeling seeking\nformulation.[2]\n\n\n             _The Poetical Element Is Contributory Only._\n\nYet this element must be felt in the spirit of the hymn rather than in\nintention. Preciosity of phrase, elaborate metaphors and similes,\nobscure allusions, flights of fancy, are rarely in place. John Newton,\nthe great hymn writer, speaks to this point in his usual forceful way:\n\u201cPerspicuity, simplicity, and ease should be chiefly attended to; and\nthe imagery and coloring of poetry, if admitted at all, should be\nindulged in very sparingly and with great judgment.\u201d Sir Roundell\nPalmer is more detailed in his criticism: \u201cAffectation or visible\nartifice is worse than excess of homeliness; a hymn is easily spoiled\nby a single falsetto note.\u201d[3]\n\nThe emphasis of the literary and poetical elements in hymns has\nproduced some most valuable sacred lyrics, notably the hymns of Keble\nand Heber; but occasionally it has also led to such refinement, to\nsuch sought-out subtlety, and to such conscious preciosity that the\nvirility and emotional contagion of what might have been an otherwise\nreally effective hymn have been lost.\n\n\n\n\n         III. THE CHRISTIAN HYMN MUST BE DISTINCTLY RELIGIOUS\n\n\n            _Poems of Semi-religious Fancy Are Not Hymns._\n\nPoems of fancy with a few religious allusions cannot be classed as\nChristian hymns. The objection to the \u201cBeautiful Isle of Somewhere\u201d[4]\nhas been rather heatedly urged, and there is no small justification\nfor the criticism. The aboriginal idea of \u201cthe happy hunting grounds\u201d\nmight be referred to by its rather invertebrate fancy, instead of the\nheaven of the Christian faith. Eugene Field\u2019s \u201cThe Divine Lullaby\u201d so\nvaguely suggests the divine care that it can hardly pass muster as a\nhymn. For use as a hymn, a poem must be explicitly Christian in\nthought and expression.\n\n\n                  _Mere Moralizing Will Not Serve._\n\nThat a poem has a good moral does not authorize it to pose as a\nChristian hymn. \u201cBrighten the Corner Where You Are\u201d cannot be\nrecognized as a Christian hymn, since it has no direct religious\nsignificance. There are recent ostensible sociological and\nhumanitarian hymns that are open to the same criticism. It is not\nenough that the underlying assumptions are of Christian origin; they\nmust be fundamentally religious, no matter what the application to\npractical living may be.\n\n\n               _Special Propaganda Is Not Admissible._\n\nThe value of hymns as a method of introducing and enforcing doctrines\nwas recognized by the enemies of Christianity early in its history.\nThe Arians in Asia Minor and in Northern Africa, and later throughout\nthe Roman Empire, flooded the world with songs sung to the popular\nmelodies attacking the deity of Christ; and by their influence nearly\nwrecked Christianity. In our own day various \u201csports\u201d from\nChristianity, and hybrids with other religions, are issuing\ncollections of songs and garbled Christian hymns to serve their\npurposes. The Buddhists of Japan also are taking Christian songs\nbodily, with such changes as seem to them necessary. Unitarian hymnal\neditors have not hesitated to alter orthodox hymns to suit their own\nviews.\n\nThat these emasculated hymns are no longer Christian hymns need not be\nargued at length. The difficulty is that they have lost the kernel of\ngenuine Christian thought. The same is true of humanistic lyrics of\npropaganda in behalf of brotherhood or social welfare or economic\njustice, in which the religious motive is not urged. In general, a\ncontroversial poem cannot be recognized as a hymn; there is no\nreligious help in controversy. Its emotions are combative, not devout.\n\n\n        _Christian Hymns Should Be Genuinely Christocentric._\n\nA Christian hymn should express some definite recognition of God as\nmanifested in Jesus Christ. Even if, as in metrical psalms, the name\nof Christ is not used, it should be implied, and unanimously accepted\nas implied. It may be worship, praise, prayer, confession, acceptance\nof salvation through Jesus Christ, spiritual experience, consecration,\nChristian doctrine, Christian hopes\u2014or any other aspect or activity of\nthe Christian faith. This is the very heart of the Christian hymn.\n\n\n\n\n                 IV. SCRIPTURAL ELEMENTS OF THE HYMN\n\n\n                   _Hymns Based on the Scriptures._\n\nIf the hymn is to be religious and Christian, it must be based on\nscriptural ideas, of course; we have no other authoritative source for\nour doctrines or experiences. All our other religious ideas and\nmethods\u2014our doctrines, our ethics, our religious ideals and\nimpulses\u2014find their roots there. We cannot afford to sing far-fetched\ninferences from unrelated scriptural passages when we have such bodies\nof stupendous truth awaiting our contemplation, and when the hymnic\nexpression of the emotions which those high and conspicuous doctrines\ncall forth is so freely available. Scriptural truth, so plain that he\nwho runs may sing, is the only raw material from which Christian hymns\ncan be produced. It will provide for every religious need of the\nindividual and of the Church.\n\n\n                 _Use of Scriptural Forms Desirable._\n\nThere can be no question but that when scriptural phraseology is used\nspontaneously, it adds very much to the impressiveness of the hymn\nbecause of the devout associations it brings up in the minds of the\nsingers. The hymn by so much acquires an authoritativeness and\nelevation beyond ordinary verbiage.\n\nBut while the body of thought in a hymn must be distinctly religious,\nand therefore scriptural, it does not follow that the forms of\nexpression must be scriptural as well. A distinguished writer on the\nsubject here seems to be at fault: \u201cNothing should be called a hymn\nand nothing should be sung in our assemblies which is not virtually a\nparaphrase\u2014and that a very faithful one\u2014of Scripture passages, whether\nthey are immediately connected in the Holy Word or not.\u201d Apply that\nrule to our hymnbooks and what would we have left?\n\nAlthough biblical phrases do occur in many hymns, a very close\nadherence to this rule would stifle the poet\u2019s spontaneity and make\nhis hymn stiff and mechanical, like most of the metrical psalms. Such\na rule may seem very devout to the cursory reader, but really it is\nmischievous; it is sheer bibliolatry, an emphasis of the letter that\nkilleth at the expense of the spirit that maketh alive.\n\n\n\n\n             V. THE HYMN MUST BE FITTED FOR MASS SINGING\n\n\nThat the hymn is a distinctly social expression, participated in by\nthe varied personalities massed in a congregation, introduces marked\nlimitations that cannot be evaded.\n\n\n     _Congregational Singing Is a Pronounced Christian Exercise._\n\nIt is a remarkable fact that only in Hebrew and Christian worship is a\ncongregational use of hymns conspicuous. With all their literary and\npoetic urge for expression, the Greeks had no singing connected with\ntheir temple rites.[5] In so far as the Egyptians had musical elements\nin their temple ritual, it was choral and not congregational. In\nvisiting pagan temples, one is struck by the utter absence of\norganized assembled worship; what worship occurs is individual only.\n\nThe Vedic hymns were not singing hymns, but reading hymns, for recital\nand meditation. According to Max Mueller, the only share the women had\nin the sacrifices was that the wife of the officiating priest, or head\nof the house, should recite the necessary hymns. Although in India\nthere is singing connected with great festivals and processions, the\nsongs used are so obscene that respectable Hindus are making an effort\nto have the public singing of them forbidden. They are usually sung by\nthe female attendants of the idol, temple prostitutes, who are the\nprofessional singers of these ostensibly religious songs.[6]\n\nThe reason for this absence of true hymns is correctly indicated by W.\nGarrett Horder in his _The Hymn Lover_: \u201cBut so far as the material\nbefore us enables us to form an opinion, it is that hymns, as an\nessential of worship, have been mostly characteristic of the Christian\nand, in a less degree, of its progenitor, the Hebrew religion. Nor is\nthis much to be wondered at, since it is the only religion calculated\nto draw out at once the two elements necessary to such a form of\nworship\u2014awe and love\u2014awe which lies at the heart of worship, and love\nwhich kindles it into adoring song.\u201d\n\n\n                  _Meter Essential to Mass Singing._\n\nThe form of the verse is practically of commanding importance. The\nmusical form of the hymn tune definitely fixes the form of the stanza.\nIt must not be complicated or free in form, else the tune loses its\nneeded simplicity and symmetry. More elaborate forms of stanza may do\nfor solo or choral numbers, where skilled composers write music that\nfollows the vagaries of the form of the text; but the general\ncongregation cannot be expected to sing tunes of elaborate and\nconfusing structure. Although an occasional hymn of unusual form of\nstanza is fortunate in finding a happy musical mate, like \u201cLead,\nkindly Light\u201d or \u201cO Love, that wilt not let me go,\u201d the usual hymn\nmust be adapted to one of about a dozen fundamental meters. Although\nthe Gospel song is not so circumscribed in its form, because its\nsetting goes with it, its forms are only rhythmical variations of the\nstandard meters.\n\n\n\n\n                  VI. PRACTICABILITY FOR ACTUAL USE\n\n\n                   _Ideas Must Be Plainly Evident._\n\nThe thought of a good hymn must lie on the surface. It must appeal not\nonly to the scholarly and subtle minds in a singing congregation, but\nalso to all who are expected to join the religious exercise. Paul\u2019s\nword regarding unknown tongues applies here: \u201cExcept ye utter by the\ntongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be understood, how\nshall it be known what is spoken?\u201d The practical Paul enforces the\nparallel by saying a few verses further on, \u201cI will sing with the\nspirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.\u201d No matter how\nhigh the thought or how deep the sentiment of a poem may be, or how\nfelicitously they may be expressed, it is not an effective hymn if\nstudy (for which there is no time at the moment of singing) is\nrequired to bring out its meaning and feeling.\n\n\n            _Hymns May Not Be Extremely Individualistic._\n\nWhile a hymn may be the expression of the individual poet, it must be\nan appropriate expression of the mind and heart of the whole\ncongregation as it sings. Yet in addition to the evident, clearly\nexpressed thought, there may be singing, _sotto voce_ between the\nlines, of deeper experiences and higher soarings of the spirit that\nonly prolonged meditation can reveal.\n\nSome sacred poems express a religious emotion in so individual and\nunusual a way that they are not at all fitted to express the emotion\nof a congregation. As an illustration of a poem too personal and\nindividualistic, here are a few stanzas of a hymn of Rev. Samuel J.\nStone, which is found in an increasing number of current hymnals:\n\n  \u201cMy feet are worn and weary with the march\n    On the rough road and up the steep hillside;\n  O city of our God, I fain would see\n    Thy pastures green where peaceful waters glide.\n\n                            * * * * * * *\n\n  Patience, poor soul! The Saviour\u2019s feet were worn,\n    The Saviour\u2019s heart and hands were weary too;\n  His garments stained and travel-worn, and old,\n    His vision blinded with pitying dew.\u201d\n\nThis is a beautiful poem that would make an admirable text for a solo,\nbut it is out of place on the lips of a congregation. Compare with\nthis the very useful hymn by Bonar:\n\n  \u201cI was a wand\u2019ring sheep,\n    I did not love the fold;\n  I did not love my Shepherd\u2019s voice,\n    I would not be controlled.\u201d\n\nEvery one of the first eight lines of this once widely used hymn\nbegins with the pronoun of the first person singular, yet there is no\nparticular individuality in this confession; it is the expression of\nthe common experience in a straightforward manner, void of all\nidiosyncrasy.\n\nIn some hymns there is found an intensity of feeling that leads to an\napparent extravagance of expression that a single soul can sometimes\nsincerely accept as the vehicle of its own experience, but which a\ngathering of miscellaneous people cannot sing without the great mass\nof them being insincere. For a careless person idly to sing with\nFaber,\n\n  \u201cI love Thee so, I know not how\n  My transports to control,\u201d\n\nor\n\n  \u201cAh, dearest Jesus, I have grown\n  Childish with love of Thee,\u201d\n\nis sheer blasphemy. It is the sin of Uzziah!\n\nThe following verses from one of Charles Wesley\u2019s hymns combine the\ntwo faults of extravagance and too-intense individualism:\n\n  \u201cOn the wings of His love I was carried above\n    All sin and temptation and pain;\n  I could not believe that I ever should grieve,\n    That I ever should suffer again.\n\n  I rode in the sky (freely justified I),\n    Nor envied Elijah his seat;\n  My soul mounted higher in a chariot of fire,\n    And the moon it was under my feet.\u201d\n\n\n            _Distracting Figures and Forms of Expression._\n\nOther poems are so full of imagination, so crowded with unusual and\nalmost bizarre figures of speech, that they fail to be the natural\nexpression of the religious emotion of an assembly of religious\npeople. George Herbert wrote a great many religious poems whose beauty\nand charm are only enhanced by their quaint and unusual imagery.\nOccasionally a hymnal editor ventures on a selection, but it is so\nforeign to the methods of thought and expression of the churches as\nnot to appeal to their taste and feeling. Take the beautiful poem on\nthe Sabbath day, \u201cO day most calm, most bright.\u201d The first line is\nspontaneous, expressive, and musical, and appropriate for a hymn. The\nsecond line, \u201cThe fruit of this, the next world\u2019s bud,\u201d with its\nantithetical structure, is already somewhat formal and forced. But\nwhen the third and fourth lines,\n\n  \u201cThe indorsement of supreme delight,\n  Writ by a Friend and with His blood,\u201d\n\noffer a purely legal and unpoetical figure, one\u2019s sense of song is\nentirely obscured.\n\nYet, when Herbert\u2019s imagery is most matter-of-fact and ungenial, there\nis a body of thought and there are a certain fitness and a clearness\nof relation that command admiration.\n\n\n               _Verses Must Be Complete in Themselves._\n\nHymns that have long, intricate sentences extending through two or\nmore verses are impracticable for use in a song service, as the break\nbetween the stanzas dislocates the development of the idea. Every\nverse must be practically complete in itself, no matter what its\nrelation to the development of the general idea of the hymn may be.\n\n\n                        _Musical Limitations._\n\nIt must also be recognized that there are limits to the expression\ncongregational music can give. A poem that is vividly descriptive, or\nis in part intensely dramatic, cannot be recognized as a practicable\nhymn, since all stanzas have the same tune, a tune which cannot vary\nits musical effect to suit the differing stanzas.\n\nThen there are hymns that are too majestic, too glowing, for a\nhymn-tune composer to write a fitting tune out of the limited\nresources of musical effects available to him. Such a hymn is that one\nof Henry Kirke White, of lamented memory:\n\n  \u201cThe Lord our God is clothed with might,\n    The winds obey His will;\n  He speaks, and in His heavenly height\n    The rolling sun stands still.\n\n                            * * * * * * *\n\n  His voice sublime is heard afar,\n    In distant peals it dies;\n  He yokes the whirlwind to His car\n    And sweeps the howling skies.\u201d\n\nWith a chorus of a thousand trained singers, an organ of extraordinary\npower, and an orchestra of five hundred instruments, all concentrated\non \u201cSt. Anne,\u201d one might make the music adequate to the words, but in\nan ordinary congregation the incongruity is painful. This must remain\na reading hymn.\n\n\n                           _Outworn Hymns._\n\nThe efficient hymn must not distinctly belong to previous generations\nin its style and vocabulary or in its peculiar formulation of\ndoctrine. Only as many of the older hymns have been purged of their\nobsolete and archaic words and turns of thought have they survived.\nFor instance, we no longer sing, \u201cEye-strings break in death,\u201d as\nToplady originally wrote it.\n\n\n                 _Mistaken Objections to Some Hymns._\n\nSome minds, although strong and keen, seem to have a very small visual\nangle. Some such persons condemn all hymns that are not direct praise.\nThe line in Lyte\u2019s \u201cAbide with Me\u201d\u2014\u201cHold Thou Thy cross before my\nclosing eyes\u201d\u2014has been objected to as Romish by some, blind to the\nfact that it is a prayer to Christ.\n\nOthers exclude hymns in which the pronoun of the first person singular\noccurs. Bishop Wordsworth, himself a hymn-writer of no mean merit\n(_vide_ \u201cO Day of rest and gladness\u201d and \u201cSee, the Conqueror rides in\ntriumph\u201d), says, in his introduction to his _Holy Year_, that while\nthe ancient hymns are distinguished by self-forgetfulness, the modern\nhymns are characterized by self-consciousness. As illustrative\nexamples, he cites the following: \u201cWhen I can read my title clear,\u201d\n\u201cWhen I survey the wondrous cross,\u201d \u201cMy God, the spring of all my\njoys,\u201d and \u201cJesus, Lover of my soul.\u201d It is strange that so keen a\nmind should not have seen that his objection would apply to all\nliturgies!\n\nThe minister with his eye fixed upon his spiritual purpose can afford\nto ignore all these supersensitive critics who have refined refinement\nuntil sensibility becomes hyperesthesia, a veritable disease.\n\nThe use of hymns of a somewhat indifferent literary value is often\nthoughtlessly condemned because the importance of the recognition of\nits topic is overlooked. Such a topic as \u201cChurch Erection,\u201d or\n\u201cEducation,\u201d may not occasion the deep feeling necessary to the\nwriting of a great hymn, and yet it must find a place in the practical\nwork of the church. Here again Dr. Phelps gives a useful warning: \u201cThe\nseverity of aesthetic taste must not be permitted to contract the\nrange of devotional expression in song.... Our desire to restrict the\nnumber of hymns upon occasions, and other hymns of infrequent use,\nought not to banish such hymns entirely.... A hymn intrinsically\ninferior, therefore, may be so valuable relatively, as justly to\ndisplace a hymn which is intrinsically its superior.\u201d\n\nAside from the topical symmetry referred to, this principle will find\nother applications in the practical use of hymns. Some inferior hymns\nhave for some occasions a greater immediate effect than much better\nones, perhaps because of a more singable tune or because its sentiment\nfits into the situation or because it makes a desired impression in a\nmore efficient way.\n\n\n\n\n                             _Chapter II_\n                    THE PURPOSE AND VALUE OF HYMNS\n\n\n\n\n                    I. THE IMPULSE TO WRITE HYMNS\n\n\nThe writing of the best hymns of the Christian Church was not a matter\nof ulterior purpose, any more than is the singing of the hermit thrush\nin the wilderness. They are the result of the urge for expression that\nlies back of all the best architecture, literature, and art of the\nhuman race. There is the vision, the sense of reality, the subjective\nresponse to truth, to beauty, and to exalted experiences that must\nfind an objective bodying-forth in some appropriate form.\n\nThe great doctrines of Christianity loom up in their dignity and\nmajestic sweep, in their adequacy to the highest and deepest needs of\nthe human soul. The spontaneous hymn is but a cry of astonished\ndelight, of exalted inspiration, of self-forgetful contemplation of\nthe revealed glory, an instinctive appeal to other souls to share the\nrapture of the vision. Such a hymn is not calmly planned; it forces\nitself upon the mind of the rapt poet.\n\n\n\n\n                     II. PURPOSE IN WRITING HYMNS\n\n\n                     _The Influence of Purpose._\n\nThis instinct for sharing with others, for winning their attention and\nparticipation in a blessed experience, may produce a measure of\npremeditation and become a more or less clearly defined purpose. The\nidea of the needs of other souls, or of the Church at large, may\nbecome an additional factor, bringing in the recognition of the\nimportance of adaptation to the mental processes of those to be\nhelped, or of practical methods of reaching them.\n\nAlso the originating impulse may grow, as in the case of Isaac Watts,\nout of the call of some perceived need among the writer\u2019s fellows, or\nof some lack in the work of the Church. The emotional and poetic\nelements may be marshaled by bringing up the memory of some past\nexalted vision of the truth, or of some former quickening spiritual\nexperience, or (better yet!) by an abiding realization of the truth of\nsome doctrine, or by a perennial flow of devout feeling.\n\nDr. Martineau insisted that \u201cevery spontaneous utterance of a deep\ndevotion is poetry in its essence, and has only to fall into lyrical\nform to be a hymn.\u201d But he went further and declared that \u201cno\nexpression of thought or feeling that has an ulterior purpose (i.e.,\ninstruction, exposition, persuasion, or impression) can have the\nspirit of poetry.\u201d His idealism failed to realize that the spirit of\npoetry in a writer may be associated with a purpose of helpfulness\nurging expression in an efficient form. To delete all the hymns in our\nchurch collections that have definite spiritual purposes would rob the\nChristian Church of most of its devoutest and most helpful hymns.\n\n\n        _The Purpose Must Affect Only the Practical Aspects._\n\nBoth the literary and devotional value of a hymn of purpose will\ndepend upon the writer\u2019s ability to reproduce the mental conditions of\na purely spontaneous hymn. If the purpose can be confined to the\npractical aspects of the hymn, while the spiritual and poetic impulses\ncontrol the thought and spirit, then the most valuable and effective\nhymn may be produced.\n\nBut if the ulterior purpose fully occupies the mind of the writer, the\nhymn will be mechanical and uninspiring. In the more prolific hymn\nwriters, like Watts and Charles Wesley, the relative influence of\nvision and purpose is easily detected. In their best hymns, the\npurpose is still present, but latent, and its guidance unconscious.\n\n\n\n\n                  III. PURPOSE OF THE USER OF HYMNS\n\n\nWhen we speak of the purpose of the hymn, therefore, it is not so much\nthe mental attitude of the writer that is to be considered as that of\nthe user of the hymn. He finds a body of religious verse ready to his\nhand, some of which is adapted to secure spiritual ends, or fitted to\nthe social conditions which he seeks to improve. His purpose controls\nnot the production of available verse, but the selection from existing\nstores of religious lyrics.\n\nThe choice of hymns by the user will be determined by the\ncharacteristics and limitations which his practical purposes demand.\nThere are three inevitable factors: the end to be realized, the people\nto be influenced, and the hymns adapted to affect both.\n\n\n\n\n                 IV. PURPOSES SERVED BY SINGING HYMNS\n\n\n    _Hymns Unite Christians in Worship and Christian Activities._\n\nThe singing of hymns is the most practicable method of uniting\nassembled Christians in worship and praise and of creating a common\ninterest in the various church activities. This is really the leading\npurpose of such a gathering.[1]\n\nWorship in prayer, when it is spontaneous, must be largely individual;\nwhen it is expressed in responsive ritual, there is great danger of\nmechanical stiffness in the outward form of the prayers and in their\nreading, and also in the limited area of the thought to be expressed.\nBut song is the natural and spontaneous vehicle for exalted feeling\nand gives the greatest opportunity for varied sentiment. No one\nindividual could hope to strike all the strings of noble praise as\nhave a thousand saints who have written our hymns.\n\n\n             _Hymns Concentrate Interest and Attention._\n\nThere is a concentration of interest and attention. The common\nthought, the common emotion, the common impulse of devotion, the\ncommon expression, the unanimous attitude of will and purpose\u2014all\nquicken the susceptibilities and enlarge the spiritual horizon. God\nseems nearer, more actual, and more realizable as the source of every\nblessing. Abstract ideas of God as Father, of his Son Jesus Christ as\nSaviour, of the Holy Spirit as Comforter, quicken into blessed\nrealities. It is easy to appropriate the joy, the reverence, the\nadoration, the intimate communion with God, which the hymns so\nclearly, so movingly, so contagiously, even so rapturously express,\nand to make them intimately our own. This is true worship, the high\npeak in man\u2019s experience of God.\n\nThe social elements in human nature come into play and intensify the\nreligious emotions. The personal distractions and inhibitions that\nhamper devotion are eliminated. Under properly effective conditions\nthere is a mass attitude, a mass emotion, that needs only a mass\nexpression to affect every individual unit. The contagion of the crowd\nin expression and in action will affect the most sluggish and\nindifferent and carry them into an experience that they could not have\nreached alone. Add to this the stimulation of the music and the\nphysical exhilaration of singing, and the worship is lifted to a pitch\nof enthusiasm not otherwise possible.\n\nThis worshipful use of hymns exercises a most inspiring and vitalizing\ninfluence on the participants. The reaction of the mind and soul of\nthe singers to the exalted sentiments sung must have a profoundly\nspiritualizing effect upon their natures. One cannot sing the old\nLatin hymn, \u201cJesus, the very thought of Thee,\u201d in any genuine way\nwithout feeling an accession of greater love to Christ; or \u201cMy faith\nlooks up to Thee,\u201d by Ray Palmer, without a deeper realization of\none\u2019s dependence on Jesus Christ for salvation and for keeping grace.\n[2]\n\n\n      _Hymns Afford a Means of Expression for the Congregation._\n\nAnother office of the church hymn is to give a voice to those deep\nexperiences in spiritual things that enrich the lives of the children\nof God. Many excellent Christians are dumb, unable to give expression\nto their genuine spiritual experiences. Others find their means of\nvoicing what they feel totally inadequate. The hymns they sing and\nappropriate to themselves unstop their silent tongue. High tides of\nspiritual blessings, times of refreshing when Christ is near to the\nsoul, hours of privilege when the whispering of the Holy Spirit is\nheard, victories over fierce or subtle temptation when God\u2019s grace\nproves sufficient, moments of God\u2019s overshadowing presence when the\nwhole world is transfigured, and a thousand other marvelous\nexperiences in the Christian life\u2014all call for hymns to express them.\nThey must be tender hymns, ecstatic hymns, triumphant hymns that will\nsatisfy the craving of the soul to voice forth its deepest love, its\nspiritual ecstasies, its strange sense of overcoming power. The dumb\nsoul, unable to speak of its explorations of divine grace, finds a\nvoice in these hymns written by saints who had the divine gift of\nexpressing like glimpses of the divine glory.[3]\n\n\n           _Hymns Provide Help and Comfort in Dark Hours._\n\nThese hymns not only bring the joy of giving articulate expression to\nthese mountain-top experiences, thus reviving them again and again,\nbut they validate these experiences by showing that others have shared\nthem and give them reality in the hours when faith fails and the\ntemptation arises to consider them mere mirages and illusions. Others\nhave been with us in Bunyan\u2019s Beulah Land and verify our experiences\nof its delights.\n\n\n         _Hymns Afford Clear Expressions of Christian Truth._\n\nAnother purpose in the use of hymns is to secure the clearest, most\nimpressive, most appealing, most rememberable statement of the leading\ntruths of the Christian faith that will fix them most ineradicably in\nthe consciousness and the life of the individual and of the church.\nSuch hymns must not be dry formulations of abstract doctrines,\ndesiccated by logical discussions and metaphysical hair-splittings.\nTruth that is dry is no longer vital truth. Its vitamins of reality,\nof the deep feelings called forth by a sense of its actuality, of\nspiritual and poetic intuition, of self-propagating vitality, have\nbeen lost. Aridity of orthodoxy begets aridity of heterodoxy and is\nusually responsible for it.\n\nDidactic hymns that will serve the purposes of the Church must be\nliving hymns, expressing truth transfigured by the feelings aroused by\nthe contemplation of its glorious reality. \u201cThere is little heresy in\nhymns.\u201d Heresies for the most part arise from arid mechanical\nreasonings; hymns flow from the intuitions of the heart.[4] This\nexplains why some of our best hymns about Christ were written by\nUnitarians.\n\n\n      _Hymns Give Opportunity for Active Participation by All._\n\nAnother purpose of the singing of hymns is to secure the active\nparticipation of the whole congregation in the service. Although the\nresponsive reading is valuable in this respect, the union of all the\nvoices of the people in song is more striking, calls for more\naggressive effort, and definitely wins the attention of all to the\nsentiments expressed in the hymn. It creates more interest and\nstimulates both body and mind.\n\n\n                       _Hymns Provide Variety._\n\nThe singing of hymns also adds marked variety to the order of service\nand so renders it more attractive. It supplies climaxes in different\nparts of the program and relaxations of attention to the spoken word.\nIt represents a greater contrast with the other exercises because it\ncalls for active participation and produces entirely different\neffects. The lack of song in the services of the Friends has been one\nof the greatest factors in the limited growth of a movement\nrepresenting deep earnestness, conscientiousness, and spirituality.\n\nThis variety and the opportunity to take a modest part in the service\nhave proved among the greatest attractions. The more singing, the more\npeople, is the universal experience.\n\n\n                _Hymns Create a Religious Atmosphere._\n\nThe use of hymns creates an atmosphere of religious interest and\nfeeling that is realized not only by the believers in the\ncongregation, but by the unregenerate as well. They may not enter\nfully into the spirit of the exercises, but an intellectual interest\nis awakened by the singing that may rise into spiritual interest and\ninto an approach to the spiritual life. Rev. George F. Pentecost,\nfamous in his day as a preacher and as a very successful evangelist,\nrecognized the aggressive and practical value of hymn-singing: \u201cI am\nprofoundly sure that among the divinely ordained instrumentalities for\nthe conversion and sanctification of the soul, God has not given a\ngreater, besides the preaching of the Gospel, than the singing of\npsalms and hymns and spiritual songs. I have known a hymn to do God\u2019s\nwork in a soul when every other instrumentality has failed\u2014I have seen\nvast audiences melted and swayed by a simple hymn when they have been\nunmoved by a powerful presentation of the Gospel from the pulpit.\u201d\n\n\n                         _Hymns in the Home._\n\nNo small practical value in Christian hymns is found in their use in\nfamily life where young and old sing them together and so sanctify and\nspiritualize the household atmosphere. The storing of the memories of\nthe children with the leading hymns of the church is no small factor\nin their Christian nurture. The older members of the family also will\nbe stimulated spiritually, finding in the memorized hymns strength and\nsolace while they bear the heat and burden of the day. We have lost\nthe spiritual atmosphere in many of our Christian homes, not only by\nthe neglect of the family altar, but also by the neglect of the\nsinging and memorizing of the hymns and tunes of the church.\n\nOne of the chief influences in the preparation of Ira D. Sankey for\nhis great life-work was the singing of hymns as the family gathered\naround the great log-fire in the homestead. He not only familiarized\nhimself with the old hymns and tunes and popular sacred songs, but he\nwas impressed by their spirit and by their adaptation to the needs of\nthe human soul.\n\n\n                      _Hymns in Personal Work._\n\nThe use of hymns in personal work, in the visitation of the sick, in\nimprovised religious gatherings in private homes, has been largely\nabandoned, much to the loss of the churches. When D. L. Moody was\ntrying out Ira D. Sankey during the latter\u2019s pregnant first visit to\nChicago, his singing to the sick and to the spiritually needy ones\nthey called upon was a notable item in the practical test.\n\nProf. Waldo S. Pratt, of the Hartford Theological Seminary, whose most\nvaluable book has been quoted in these pages again and again, sums up\nthe results of an intelligent and devout use of hymns most admirably:\n\u201cHymn-singing may surely be called successful when it affords an\navenue for true approach to God in earnest and noble worship; when it\nexerts a wholesome and uplifting reflex influence on those who engage\nin it, establishing them in the truth and quickening their\nspirituality; and when it creates a diffused atmosphere of high\nreligious sympathy and vigorous consecration, so that even unbelievers\nare affected and constrained by it.\u201d[5]\n\nBut if these purposes of the singing of hymns are to be realized and\ntheir values exploited, they must be properly employed. They must be\nmade vital and their messages brought home to the hearts of the\npeople. There should be no listless, merely formal singing of noble\nChristian hymns. There is unwitting sacrilege in doing that. The truth\nof God, the high experiences of his saints, are rendered unreal and\nlose their appeal\u2014they become stale.\n\nThere are multiplied millions of true believers who duplicate the\nunhappy experience of a prominent London preacher who declared that he\ndid not exactly disbelieve the cardinal doctrines of Christianity, but\nthat they had become unreal to him. They were only abstractions,\nplaythings of his logical faculties, husks from which the living\nkernel had fallen, which left his soul hungry. How could a minister by\nthe discussion of what seemed to him unrealities inspire and\nspiritualize his hearers? How can any minister to whom the hymns in\nhis hymnal are dry and abstract rhymes about vague and uninteresting\nplatitudes at best, be able to make his song service a vital\ncontribution to the spiritual progress of his people? If the hymns\nstir him, he can easily make them stir the people.\n\n\n\n\n         V. REASONS FOR THE MINISTER\u2019S APPRECIATION OF HYMNS\n\n\n          _Hymns Are Evidences of the Effect of the Bible._\n\nThe hymnbook is an evidence of what the Bible can do with unregenerate\nhuman nature. That the truth of the Bible should be able to take\nNewton, the slave driver, and make of him a minister of God, not only\nhimself writing such hymns as \u201cAmazing grace, how sweet the sound,\u201d\n\u201cGlorious things of Thee are spoken,\u201d or \u201cHow sweet the name of Jesus\nsounds,\u201d but inspiring and encouraging the poor hypochondriac, William\nCowper, so that from his heart should well forth the hymns, \u201cThere is\na fountain filled with blood,\u201d \u201cGod moves in a mysterious way,\u201d and\n\u201cSometimes a light surprises,\u201d is in itself one of the great evidences\nof Christianity.\n\n\n         _Hymns and Psalms Affected the Life of the Church._\n\nThe extraordinary result of the use of hymns and psalms in the life of\nthe church and of believers is another reason for the minister\u2019s\nvaluing hymns highly. The awkward lines of Sternhold and Hopkins\u2019\nversion of the psalms entered into the speech and private devotion of\nScotch and English Christians as even the Bible itself did not,\nbecoming a very liturgy to the condemners and flouters of liturgies.\nThomas Jackson in his life of Charles Wesley remarks that \u201cit is\ndoubtful whether any human agency has contributed more directly to\nform the character of the Methodist societies than the hymns. The\nsermons of the preachers, the prayers of the people, both in their\nfamilies and social meetings, are all tinged with the sentiments and\nphraseology of the hymns.\u201d\n\n\n              _Hymns in Personal Christian Experience._\n\nListen to the personal experiences of Christians in our own day and\nyou will hear more reference to hymns than to the Scriptures. There is\nnow no such committing to memory of passages of the Bible and of hymns\nas there was in preceding generations, but almost without set purpose,\nby simple absorption, the average Christian can quote more lines of\nhymns than he can of Scripture verses. This extraordinary place in the\naffections and life of Christian people is no derogation to the Bible,\nfor the hymns are simply the Bible in another form.\n\n\n      _Hymns as Stimulating the Spiritual Life of the Minister._\n\nTo some men who lack emotional and poetic insight, the hymnbook may\nappear dry and uninteresting. It certainly is uninteresting to the\nunspiritual man, no matter how poetical he may be, and this will\naccount for the occasional attack upon the hymns of the Christian\nChurch as being without poetical power or merit. But the Christian\nminister, who deals with spiritual things, for whom the emotions of\nthe human heart give a great opportunity for sowing the seed of life,\nought to find the study of his hymnbook a great delight.\n\n\n                      _Hymns Approved by Paul._\n\nIf there were no other reason why a minister should be profoundly\ninterested in hymns and their use in religious work, the example and\nexhortations of Paul should be sufficient. He does not lay as much\nstress upon preaching, nor upon praying, as he does on singing. He\nadmonishes the Ephesians that they \u201cbe filled with the Spirit\u201d; and\nthat divine possession should manifest itself in \u201cspeaking to\nyourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making\nmelody in your heart to the Lord.\u201d A part of this exercise of singing\nwas to consist of \u201cgiving thanks unto God and the Father in the name\nof our Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d[6]\n\nHe exhorts the Colossians, \u201cLet the word of Christ dwell in you richly\nin all wisdom,\u201d and one of the results of such indwelling was to be\n\u201cteaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and\nspiritual songs\u201d; he even urges earnestness and sincerity in such\nsinging, \u201cSinging with grace in your hearts to the Lord.\u201d[7] Such\nsinging should not be with mere enthusiasm, for he assures the\nCorinthians that his singing was not only devout but intelligent as\nwell: \u201cI will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the\nunderstanding also.\u201d[8] There is more than a suspicion that in some of\nhis most striking passages he is quoting a current hymn or\ninterjecting a part of an improvised hymn.\n\n\n                     _Hymns in the Early Church._\n\nThe emphasis placed on the value of song by the early church is made\nclear by Tertullian, who states that at the current \u201clove feasts\u201d each\nperson in attendance was invited at the close of the feast to sing\neither from the Holy Scriptures or from the dictates of his own spirit\na song of adoration to God.\n\nIn the middle of the third century St. Basil testifies to the value of\ncongregational singing as practiced in his day: \u201cIf the ocean is\nbeautiful and worthy of praise to God, how much more beautiful is the\nconduct of the Christian assembly where the voices of men and women\nand children, blended and sonorous like the waves that break upon the\nbeach, rise amidst our prayers to the very presence of God.\u201d The\nremark is made by one of the ancient fathers that the singing of the\nchurches often attracted \u201cGentiles\u201d\u2014i.e., unconverted persons\u2014to their\nservices, who were baptized before their departure.\n\n\n     _Hymns Prepared the Church for Periods of Marked Progress._\n\nWhile by no means the only cause for such progress, a great increase\nin the writing and singing of hymns has been a conspicuous feature in\nevery great religious movement. The converse is also true that when\nthe privilege of congregational singing was curtailed or withdrawn,\nspiritual declension followed.\n\nThe victory of the Church over Arianism was a singing victory both in\nthe Eastern and Western churches. The Crusades were marked by\nprocessional singing of religious songs. The singing Lollards and\nHussites heralded the Great Reformation, and the most effective\npreaching of Huss and Luther and Calvin was the hymns and metrical\npsalms they introduced. Watts prepared the way for the Wesleyan\nrevival, and the Wesley brothers entered the path he had blazed and\nmade a great highway of Christian song. Dour New England found its\nvoice during the Great Revival under Jonathan Edwards and later under\nNettleton. The preachers who saved the pioneers of the Appalachian\nrange of mountains and the budding Middle West from relapsing into\npaganism and savagery were \u201csinging parsons\u201d with their repertoire of\n\u201cspiritual\u201d revival choruses and religious ballads.\n\nEven Charles G. Finney, the great praying evangelist and later founder\nof Oberlin College, whose revivals swept through New York and northern\nOhio like a prairie fire, had the popular _Christian Lyre_, edited by\nJoshua Leavitt, as a breeze to fan the flame, although he often\nforbade the singing of hymns in certain conditions in his meetings.\nWilliam B. Bradbury, S. J. Vail, Robert Lowry, William H. Doane, Fanny\nCrosby, George F. Root, Philip Phillips, P. P. Bliss, and many others\nhad written and taught the American people the songs that prepared the\nway for the Moody and Sankey revival movement which so profoundly\naffected the religious life of both America and England and, through\nthe missionaries, intensified the faith of the Christian Church\nthroughout the world.\n\nThrough all the centuries it has been the singing armies that have won\nthe religious wars. The successful denominations and individual\nchurches have been pre-eminently singing churches led by singing\npreachers who swayed their communities. Cardinal Newman is now chiefly\nremembered for his hymn, \u201cLead, Kindly Light.\u201d Washington Gladden, a\ngreat religious leader, will have his memory kept green by his hymn,\n\u201cO Master, let me walk with Thee,\u201d and Bishop Phillips Brooks fifty\nyears hence will be chiefly remembered for his Christmas carol, \u201cO\nlittle town of Bethlehem.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                  VI. STRANGE INDIFFERENCE TO HYMNS\n\n\n                    _The Minister\u2019s indifference._\n\nIn view of the considerations and facts here marshaled, how strange is\nthe general lack of interest among ministers toward their hymn\nservice, toward the hymns themselves, their history, their meaning,\nthe methods to be used in exploiting their great value. Is it saying\ntoo much to suggest that three out of five ministers have no adequate\nconception of the possibilities of hymn singing or appreciation of its\nvalue?\n\n\n                 _Indifference of the Congregation._\n\nOutside of the lamentable weakness of egocentric human nature it is\ndifficult to discover why the part of the divine service devoted to\nsacred song should be so utterly subordinated to the other parts of\nthe sacred program; but that it is true is so evident to any\nreasonable observer that it needs little or no proof. The janitor\nreligiously postpones opening or shutting windows, or shaking down the\nfurnace, during the prayer, or sermon even, until the hymn is being\nsung. Members of the congregation seize the opportunity to leave the\nroom, or to consult with others about church affairs in all too\naudible voices.\n\nThe hymn ought to be the consummate note of prayer and praise and\ndevout meditation on sacred themes, the great co-operative climax in\nthe worship of God. It is too often looked upon as a merely physical\nstimulus to liven up the tedious service.[9]\n\nThis ought not so to be! For the primary object of assembling the\nsaints is united worship\u2014united praise. There can be no true public\nprayer without an element of worship; but it has a recognition of\npersonal needs and even wants. This human factor makes it a composite\nof the human and the divine and lowers its dignity. In genuine praise\nthere is a forgetfulness of the human element and a rising into the\npure realm of the divine. In true praise the human soul is unconscious\nof self and utterly absorbed in God.\n\nHence it is not too much to say that congregational song is the\nsupreme element in all worship.\n\n\n\n\n                            _Chapter III_\n                     THE LITERARY ASPECT OF HYMNS\n\n\n\n\n                  I. WHAT MAKES THE HYMN LITERATURE?\n\n\n               _Its Character as a Transcript of Life._\n\nIn so far as a hymn is a transcript of a genuine conviction,\nintensified by emotion, or of a profound experience, it is literature.\nThere have gone into it vision, feeling, imagination, sincerity,\nintimate experience\u2014an appropriation of the influences life offers a\nsoul that gazes upon it with wide-open eyes. It is not the measure or\nthe rhyme that makes literature of a hymn. A bald formulation in\nmetrical form of doctrines dissected by metaphysical processes may be\ncalled a hymn by courtesy, but it is not literature any more than\nwould be a textbook on mathematics.\n\nBut a hymn in which the hurried pulse and the throbbing heartbeat of\ndeep human feeling can be felt is genuine literature, a revelation of\nhuman personality and of the collective life of which it is\nrepresentative. It is the story of the experience of an exploring soul\nseeking knowledge of the deeper spiritual relations with God and his\nKingdom.[1]\n\n\n                       _Its Wide Distribution._\n\nThe importance of the hymn as literature is further attested by the\nresponse to it of the many generations which have made it the vehicle\nof their religious life. Dr. Reeves calls attention to the wide\ndistribution of hymnbooks; they have come from the printing press by\nthe multiplied millions during the last four hundred years. Three\nmillions of the _Methodist Hymnal_ have been broadcast over the United\nStates, sixty million _Hymns Ancient and Modern_ over the British\nEmpire. Hundreds of other contemporary hymnals, both official and\nunofficial, aggregate even more millions. If we add collections of\nGospel Songs, we get many millions more. No other form of literature\nhas had so wide a distribution. A single hymnal has had more active\nreaders than all the poetry in the world, ancient and modern.[2] To\ndispose of an edition of one hundred thousand volumes of Palgrave\u2019s\n_Golden Treasury_, the standard collection of the poems of the ages\napproved by critics, would take a score of years. Moreover, they would\ngo largely into libraries, private and public, for occasional\nreference.\n\n\n              _Its Acceptance Through Many Generations._\n\nBut wideness of distribution is no final criterion of literary\nquality, else our newspapers might lay an earnest claim to literary\nstanding. But these hymnals do not severally represent individual\nwriters, as do most of the books of poetry; they contain a common body\nof hymns representing the major portion of all of them. That selection\nof hymns, fundamental to all of them, has been culled out from the\ngreat mass of sacred lyrics written through many centuries, by the\nconsensus of different generations, of different backgrounds, of\ndifferent grades of social and literary culture, of different peoples\nand even races, and accepted as the most complete expression of the\nfundamental Christian life of them all. If that unanimity of\nresponsiveness and practical endorsement by continued use does not\nconfer the accolade of literature upon that body of hymns, the\naccepted definition of literature is faulty and inadequate.\n\n\n                      _Its Profound Influence._\n\nNo other verses have been read so often. They have not only shaped the\nreligious thought and experience of vast peoples and developed their\ncharacter, but have affected their general modes of thought and forms\nof expression and influenced their secular literature. Without their\nrugged, ax-hewn version of the Psalms, would the Scotch have become\nthe stern, dour, conscience-driven people the world has learned to\nknow and value? Without the vigorous \u201cspirituals\u201d and the lively\nrhythms of its gospel songs, would the American church life have\ndeveloped the freedom from ecclesiastical tradition and formalism, and\nthe fearless aggressiveness that has lighted the beacons of salvation\nin every land? The hymn has been the expression of life, and in turn\nhas become the wellspring of life.\n\nWhatever of culture and refinement other forms of literature have\nbrought has directly touched only a small minority, and but indirectly\nthe great mass of civilized peoples; but the hymn has had a direct\ninfluence on the life and character of the mass of the people, and has\nappealed to their instincts and imaginations and shaped their ideals\nin the most immediate and striking way. Where one person has been\nrefined and enriched in mind by the poetry of Milton, or Wordsworth,\nor Tennyson, a thousand have been comforted, inspired, and transformed\nby Sternhold and Hopkins, Watts, or Wesley.\n\nArchbishop Trench, the fault of whose hymns was chiefly that they were\ntoo few, was admonished by his friend, John Sterling, to give more\nattention to hymn-writing: \u201cYou would influence millions whom poetry\nin any other form would never reach.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n         II. OBJECTIONS TO RECOGNIZING ITS LITERARY CHARACTER\n\n\n              _Due to Narrow Definition of Literature._\n\nIn spite of these facts that surely entitle the hymn to be considered\nliterature in the most vital sense of the word, there are critics who\nlook upon it with undisguised indifference, if not with scorn. Partly\ndue to an utter lack of sympathy with the use of it, partly to an\nacademic idea of what literature really is, emphasizing form and\nrhetorical interest, partly because its appeal is emotional and not\nmainly intellectual, these objectors are blind to the larger interests\ninvolved. If there is any truth in the insistence of some literary\ncritics that there are few hymns that are good from a literary point\nof view, Montgomery\u2019s statement may give a sufficient reason: \u201cOur\ngood poets have seldom been Christians and our good Christians have\nseldom been good poets.\u201d[3]\n\n\n          _Due to Failure to Realize Limitations of Hymns._\n\nA better reason is that such critics have seldom realized the\nlimitations the singing hymn presents to the poet. Milton was a great\npoet, but he could not condense his ideas sufficiently or give them\nthe needed terse expression. He needed a large canvas, while the\nsuccessful hymn-writer is confined to a miniature. Even Tennyson, who\nsucceeded in small lyrics, wrote only one hymn and that ill-adapted to\nactual congregational use.\n\nPalgrave, in the preface to his _Treasury of Sacred Songs_, compares\nsecular and sacred verse as follows: \u201cSecular verse covers many\nprovinces: manners, incident, love, landscape, the vast sphere of\ndrama\u2014in a word, all the many-colored romance of life. Sacred verse\ncan hardly go beyond one province: to expect masterpieces in one field\napproximately numerous as those in the secular lyric is unreasonable.\nEven more unreasonable is it, when of this single province a district\nonly is chosen for censure, and treated as the whole domain. Hymns,\nwell-nigh limited to the functions of prayer and praise, are precisely\nthat region in which a practical aim is naturally, almost inevitably,\npredominant!\u201d\n\n\n                 _Some Critics and Their Criticism._\n\nDr. Samuel Johnson\u2019s criticism of hymns may be brushed aside as based\non a wrong conception of poetry, which to his mind called not for\nsimplicity, but for something near to that artificiality which he\nconceived of as art: \u201cContemplative piety, or the intercourse between\nGod and the human soul, cannot be poetical.\u201d... \u201cThe paucity of its\ntopics enforces perpetual repetition, and the sanctity of its matter\nrejects the ornament of figurative diction.\u201d\n\nIn mitigation of the false judgment of the old literary dictator, it\nmay be said that the golden age of English hymnody had not yet\narrived.\n\nThe later criticism of the hymn by Matthew Arnold represents more\nfully the attitude of the literary critic in our own day. The\npractical aspects of life were not ignored by him, but they did not\nbulk large in his mind. Hence it is not surprising that, while he\nfully comprehended the wide influence of the hymn, he had little or no\nsympathy with its spirit and even less with its purpose, so that he\ncould write about it after this fashion: \u201cHymns, such as I know them,\nare a sort of composition which I do not at all admire.... I regret\ntheir prevalence and popularity among us.\u201d Could anti-religious\nrationalism go further?\n\nAmong more recent critics, Edmund Clarence Stedman speaks of the hymn\nas \u201cthe kind of verse which is, of all, the most common and\nindispensable.\u201d But Professor Boynton in the _Cambridge History of\nAmerican Literature_, gives as much space to \u201cYankee Doodle\u201d as he\ndoes to American Hymnody and refers to its \u201csentimental ornateness,\u201d\n\u201ctawdry sentimentalism,\u201d and \u201cbanalities of evangelistic song,\u201d\nunconsciously drawing an unhappy portrait of his own spiritual\ncondition.[4]\n\nThe older criticism of the hymn had at least the merit of\nthoughtfulness and serious consideration of its value and of its\nshortcomings.\n\nThe hymns that would have satisfied literary critics would have\nrequired a spiritual delicacy and refinement, an elegance and artistry\nof phrase, a vagueness of religious idea devoid of genuine feeling,\nthat would shut them out from use in the workaday world in which we\nlive. To set aside the \u201cgood and useful purpose\u201d acknowledged by\nMatthew Arnold in the consideration of the hymn is to ignore its whole\nreason for being, and, what is vastly more important, to ignore the\ndeepest needs of the human soul.\n\n\n                      III. THE WRITING OF HYMNS\n\n\n                _The Handicap of Thought and Diction._\n\nAlfred Tennyson clearly recognized the limitations that handicap the\nwriter of hymns. \u201cA good hymn is the most difficult thing in the world\nto write!\u201d The hymn he did write, \u201cSunset and Evening Star,\u201d beautiful\nas it is, failed in practicability for congregational use. Its\nunfitness for mass singing in its various phases is the chief\nstumblingblock.\n\nThe hymn writer finds in the limitations, which he must bear in mind\nas he writes, no small hindrance to spontaneity and poetic vision. He\nmust limit the thought not only to the comprehension, but to the\nnatural feelings of the people who are to sing what he writes. He must\nnot use unusual or polysyllabic words. Striking figures, startling\ntropes, involved similes, obscure metaphors, allusions to things known\nby but few, descriptive or dramatic lines, are all forbidden. Every\nverse, whether in single or double meter, must be complete in itself,\nwhatever its relation in thought to what precedes or follows. There\nmust be unity, simplicity, condensation of thought, and yet a\nclearness that shuts out involved thought or mysticism that cannot be\ninstantly grasped. The hymn writer is like a violinist called upon to\nplay on a single string.[5]\n\nThomas Hornblower Gill, an English hymn writer who is slowly gaining\nrecognition in current hymnals\u2014_The Revised Presbyterian Hymnal_ has\nfive of his hymns\u2014gives his conception of what hymns should be, in his\npreface to his first volume, issued in 1868. He insists that the true\nhymn is a true poem in every case, while it is debarred from liberties\nof luxuriance which may be claimed by other poetry. \u201cIt may easily be\ntoo figurative; it cannot be too glowing or imaginative... They should\nexhibit all the qualities of a good song\u2014liveliness and intensity of\nfeeling, directness, clearness and vividness of utterance, strength,\nsweetness, and simplicity and melody of rhythm: excessive subtlety and\nexcessive ornament should be alike avoided.\u201d\n\n\n                       _The Handicap of Meter._\n\nNot the slightest handicap is the necessity of choosing a form of\nstanza that will at the same time fit the writer\u2019s sentiment and be\nadapted to singable tunes known to the congregations which are to be\nlyrically served. This range of form is quite limited. Most of these\ntunes call for iambic or trochaic measure, because anapaestic or\ndactylic numbers lack the dignity and the impressiveness necessary for\ngeneral hymns.\n\nThe form of the stanza may take the elevated, heavy \u201cLong\u201d Meter, the\nmore widely expressive \u201cCommon\u201d Meter, the sententious \u201cShort\u201d Meter,\n\u201cSevens and Sixes,\u201d \u201cEights and Sevens,\u201d plain \u201cSevens\u201d or \u201cSixes,\u201d or\nthe more lively \u201cSixes and Fours\u201d or \u201cSixes and Fives.\u201d[6]\n\nThese different meters have very marked characteristics. It is really\nmarvelous how the instinct of true hymn writers in all generations has\nunconsciously, or at most subconsciously, taken account of them and\nwith practical unanimity observed them.\n\nThe Long Meter is stately and dignified. It is the fit expression of\nnoble praise like the Long Meter Doxology, \u201cLord of all being, throned\nafar,\u201d \u201cFrom all that dwell below the skies,\u201d \u201cBefore Jehovah\u2019s awful\nthrone,\u201d or elevated sentiment like \u201cGod is the refuge of His saints,\u201d\n\u201cWhen I survey the wondrous cross,\u201d and \u201c\u2019Tis midnight, and on Olive\u2019s\nbrow.\u201d Its long, even lines, broken by no strong stops, afford a\nsmooth, graceful expression for general truths and Christian doctrine\nin poetic form, such as \u201cO Jesus, our chief cornerstone,\u201d \u201cJesus shall\nreign where\u2019er the sun,\u201d and \u201cO Love! how deep, how broad, how high!\u201d\n\nThe Common Meter is much more varied in its possibilities of\nexpression, as its unequal lines and alternate rhymes give greater\nfreedom. It is the prevailing meter of the old English ballad. It is\nreally the most adaptable and pliable form of stanza open to the hymn\nwriter, giving equal opportunity of expression to all emotions and\nclasses of truth. It is a fit vehicle alike for the elevated praise of\n\u201cAll hail the power of Jesus\u2019 name,\u201d the majesty of \u201cI sing th\u2019\nalmighty pow\u2019r of God,\u201d the doctrinal statement of \u201cThere is a\nfountain filled with blood,\u201d the tenderness of \u201cJesus, the very\nthought of Thee,\u201d the vigor of \u201cAwake, my soul, stretch every nerve,\u201d\nand the quiet resignation of \u201cFather, whate\u2019er of earthly bliss.\u201d On\naccount of this adaptability it has become the Common Meter in fact as\nwell as in name. Its exclusive use in some of the collections of\nmetrical psalms shut out the use of tunes in other meters and so led\nto the singing of only a few of the more popular Common Meter tunes;\nthe result was that the congregational singing in the churches in\nEngland, Scotland, and America was nearly wrecked.\n\nS. M. might stand for sententious meter as well as for Short Meter, as\nthe two short lines and the long pauses at the end of each of them\ngive it an emphatic, terse, even epigrammatic style. This may be seen\nin \u201cMy soul, be on thy guard,\u201d \u201cWelcome, sweet day of rest,\u201d \u201cStand up\nand bless the Lord,\u201d \u201cCrown Him with many crowns,\u201d and \u201cCome, Holy\nSpirit, come.\u201d John Fawcett was not happy in the selection of this\nmeter for his otherwise very useful and precious hymn, \u201cBlest be the\ntie that binds,\u201d as the strong pause at the end of the first line in\nall but one of his stanzas cuts his sentences in two and makes the\nhymn alike difficult to read and sing. The same difficulty will be\nfound in the reading of other hymns in this meter, the limitations of\nwhich have not always been recognized by writers using it. It would be\na very slow, heavy meter did not the longer third line give it needed\nmovement.\n\nThe meter known as 6s lacks the longer third line and is therefore\npeculiarly grave and disjointed. It is well adapted for hymns of\npassive faith or resignation, such as \u201cMy Jesus, as Thou wilt,\u201d \u201cThy\nway, not mine, O Lord,\u201d or for dolorous prayers like \u201cMy spirit longs\nfor Thee,\u201d and \u201cI hunger and I thirst.\u201d\n\nThe meter 6s and 4s in its various forms might be supposed to be even\nslower than the 6s because of the additional short lines of four\nsyllables each. The opposite is true. In some cases the first four\nlines are rhythmically equivalent to two lines of ten syllables each,\nso slight is the pause of actual thought at the end of the\nsix-syllable line, with the result that the slowness is quickened into\nsimple dignity and elevation. But even where the pauses at the end of\nthe first and third lines are long, the shorter second and fourth\nlines, as in common meter, give added movement. In the other form of\n6s and 4s, the first two six-syllable lines are so knit together by\ntheir common rhyme and, if properly written, have so markedly a common\ngoal of completeness of thought in the third line toward which they\nhurry that again the movement is hastened and the severity of the 6s\nis mitigated. The same principle applies to the following three or\nfour lines, depending on the form examined. Hence we have in the\nvarious forms of this meter some of our noblest hymns of prayer,\npraise, and victory, such as \u201cNearer, my God, to Thee,\u201d \u201cMore love to\nThee, O Christ,\u201d \u201cWe are but strangers here,\u201d \u201cFade, fade, each\nearthly joy,\u201d \u201cMy faith looks up to Thee,\u201d \u201cRise, glorious Conqueror,\nrise,\u201d \u201cCome, Thou Almighty King,\u201d and \u201cMy country, \u2019tis of thee.\u201d\n\n\n           IV. THE LITERARY QUALITY NOT TO BE OVERESTIMATED\n\n\n          _Literary Quality Not the Supreme Consideration._\n\nAlthough poetical feeling and imagination and nice literary\ncraftsmanship are not to be undervalued, but rather to be earnestly\nsought for in our hymns, after all, they are not the supreme\nconsiderations. Practical use has proved many hymns that conspicuously\nlacked them to have been supremely useful because of their spiritual\ncontent, sincerely and lucidly expressed. When hymn writers like Watts\nand Newton have deliberately ignored and even avoided literary values,\nand yet have written among the most useful hymns in our collections,\nthe critic who insists on poetical quality has by no means a _prima\nfacie_ case. Charles Wesley was a poet, but in his valuable hymn \u201cA\ncharge to keep I have\u201d he is a pedagogue without poetic afflatus.\nStandards of literary value, when not artificial, as in Samuel\nJohnson\u2019s case, have their place, but a place that is modest and not\nsupreme.\n\n\n              _Literary Quality Should Be Subconscious._\n\nThe danger in unduly emphasizing the literary aspect of hymns is well\nexpressed by Dr. Louis F. Benson: \u201cThe hazard is implicit in the very\nmotive of hymn singing; the heightening of religious emotion. The\ndanger is of mistaking sugary sentiment for true feeling and its\nrhetorical expression in \u2018soft, luxurious flow\u2019 for true poetry.\u201d In\nother words, the conscious seeking of the hymn writer after literary\natmosphere and skill of treatment is fatal to genuineness of feeling,\nand to his success in producing a true hymn.\n\nIt will do no harm to iterate here that the two essentials to a\nsuccessful hymn are spirituality and the power to express it so as to\nreach the understanding as well as the hearts of the people who are to\nsing. According to Paul, the first commandment in hymn writing and\nsinging is: \u201cI will sing with the spirit\u201d; the second is like unto it:\n\u201cI will sing with the understanding also.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                             _Chapter IV_\n                       THE EMENDATION OF HYMNS\n\n\n                     I. THE CHANGES IN OUR HYMNS\n\n\n                           _Early Changes._\n\nThe question of changes made in hymns by others than their writers\ndeserves consideration. The point is not that the individual preacher\nis supposed to air his critical skill, but that he should understand\nwhy changes have been made by hymnal editors and better appreciate the\nprinciples involved and the literary niceties that are to be observed.\n\nIn the first compilations of hymnbooks, the rights of the authors of\nthe individual hymns were entirely below the horizon. Many hymns were\npublished without the names of their writers. To this day Charles\nWesley\u2019s claim to \u201cJesus, Lover of My Soul,\u201d as against that of his\nbrother John, depends wholly on considerations of style and form of\nstanza. There is not even a well-founded tradition.\n\nIt was the adaptation of the hymn to immediate actual needs that\ncounted, not the writer. There was no moral copyright, much less\nlegal, to stay the hand of the mutilator.\n\nWatts did not hesitate to incorporate in his hymns lines and even\nwhole stanzas from the hymns of others. John Wesley had no scruples in\nrewriting lines and stanzas and even whole hymns already in print.\nToplady\u2019s alterations were often quite radical, as, for example, his\ndrastic revision of Charles Wesley\u2019s \u201cBlow ye the trumpet, blow\u201d[1] to\nsuit his intensely Calvinistic views.\n\n\n                _The Abuse of the Editorial Revision._\n\nDr. Worcester, in this country, who issued several collections of\npsalms and hymns, chiefly by Watts, was lavish in his alterations,\nmostly for the worse\u2014so much so that the New England churches\nrevolted. Lord Selborne said of these mutilations by many hands,\n\u201cThere is just enough of Watts left here to remind one of Horace\u2019s\nsaying that \u2018you may know the remains of a poet even when he is torn\nto pieces.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe needless alteration of hymns that occurred in these early days is\nto be greatly deplored, especially of those most widely known. \u201cRock\nof Ages\u201d and \u201cJesus, Lover of My Soul\u201d were fair targets for the\neditorial spear\u2014out of the twenty-four lines of the former only eleven\nhave escaped change. The line \u201cWhen mine eyestrings break in death\u201d\nwas the only one peremptorily demanding a change, although a few other\nalterations may be accepted as slight improvements, as, for instance,\n\u201cwounded\u201d instead of \u201criven\u201d side. So many people have committed this\nhymn with its differing lines to memory that when it is sung there is\nfrequently the clash of these variations instead of the desirable\nuniformity of utterance.\n\nThe same is true of Wesley\u2019s hymn. In spite of John Wesley\u2019s warning\nagainst changes in the Methodist hymns\u2014\u201cHymn-cobblers should not try\nto mend them. I really do not think they are able\u201d\u2014more than thirty\nvariations occur in the first stanza of \u201cJesus, Lover of My Soul.\u201d\n\nThe pity is that while uniformity is extremely desirable in these and\nmany other hymns, it is now out of the question. The several\nvariations have their partisan upholders.\n\nJames Montgomery spent years of his life amending and modifying the\nhymns of others, but asked that others should not change his verses.\nHe insisted that if good people could not conscientiously adopt his\ndoctrines and diction, it was a little questionable in them to impose\ntheirs on him.\n\nIt is interesting to note that Montgomery could not \u201cconscientiously\nadopt the doctrine and diction\u201d of the first verse of Cowper\u2019s \u201cThere\nis a fountain filled with blood\u201d and substituted a verse of his own of\nwhich he said, \u201cI think my version is unexceptionable.\u201d But hymnal\neditors did not find it so and unanimously repudiated it. It was\nregarded as \u201cfaultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null.\u201d\n\n\n                      _The Return to Originals._\n\nThis abuse of the editorial revision produced a reaction, and in the\nlast half century, under the leadership of Dr. Louis F. Benson, a\nstrong movement appeared among hymnal editors whose slogan was \u201cBack\nto the originals!\u201d In many cases that was not practicable, as the\nchanges made were evident improvements, but the new tendency often\nproved to be a very useful one in restoring many a good original\nphrase in place of a much inferior alteration.\n\n\n          II. PRINCIPLES OF EQUITY INVOLVED IN THESE CHANGES\n\n\n                 _The Rights of the Original Writer._\n\nThere are some principles of equity that lie upon the surface. The\nwriter of hymns has rights that must be recognized. His name should be\ngiven as its author. No name other than his own should be connected\nwith the product of his pen. Unless there are sufficient reasons, the\nhymn should be given as he wrote it. If his name is given, no doctrine\nor experience should be interpolated. In business affairs that would\nbe adjudged forgery in the second degree. If interpolations or changes\nof ideas become necessary for practical reasons, due notice should be\ngiven that the original writer is not responsible for the new ideas or\nthe changes of phraseology. Unitarian hymnal editors have not always\nrecognized this obligation. Our recent well-edited hymnals have been\nscrupulous in this particular.\n\n\n                 _The Limits of the Author\u2019s Rights._\n\nBut there are distinct limits to the author\u2019s rights. If the hymnal\nwere a merely literary compilation, the liberty to make changes would\nnot be admissible. But the hymnal is not an anthology; it is a\ncollection of hymns for a definite and practical purpose of an exalted\ncharacter\u2014to aid congregations in the worship of God and in the\nrealization of the spiritual aims he has set before them. That purpose\nhas the right of eminent domain. If the original hymn has faulty lines\nor weak verses that jeopardize its otherwise practical effectiveness,\ncompetent editors of collections of hymns for congregational use have\nthe right to amend, or condense, and so add to its usefulness in the\nwork of the church, in so far as it does not affect the general spirit\nand tenor of the original. Isaac Watts recognized this principle,\nsaying, \u201cWhere an unpleasing word is found, he that leads the worship\nmay substitute a better one.\u201d Indeed, in 1737, he acknowledged that\n\u201cMany a line needs the file to polish the roughness of it and many a\nthought wants richer language to adorn and make it shine\u2014but I have at\npresent neither inclination nor leisure to correct and I hope I never\nshall.\u201d\n\n\n                  III. EFFECT OF CHANGES ON QUALITY\n\n\n                 _Loss of Original Writer\u2019s Vision._\n\nIt has been strongly urged that the emendation of hymns is dangerous\nto their quality; that the original writer was a better judge of both\nthought and phrasing than the cold critic whose very attitude prevents\nthe high feeling that must inspire the most appealing forms of\nexpression.\n\nBut the protest overlooks the fact that the very fervor and urge of\nfresh vision and its consequent emotion may prevent attention to nice\ndetails of phraseology or even to the proper balance of parts of a\nhymn. Furthermore, the writer with the creative urge may lack the\ncritical faculty and fine discrimination necessary to polish up his\nverses after the impulse of writing has spent its force.\n\nThis being true, the editor who supplies the wanting critical attitude\nshows no presumption, provided his vision is clear and his skill in\nsupplying more accurate, more melodious, or more practical phraseology\nadds value to the hymn. Martin Madan was no hymn writer, but when he\nrewrote Watts\u2019 hymn,\n\n  \u201cHe dies, the Heavenly Lover dies!\n    The tidings strike the doleful sound\n  On my poor heartstrings; deep he lies\n    In the cold caverns of the ground,\u201d\n\nand gave us the noble stanza,\n\n  \u201cHe dies, the Friend of sinners, dies;\n    Lo! Salem\u2019s daughters weep around;\n  A solemn darkness veils the skies,\n    A sudden trembling shakes the ground,\u201d\n\nhe not only gave it a dignified and Biblical content and form, but he\nrescued the hymn for the spiritual edification of coming generations.\n\n\n                        _Biblical Precedent._\n\nThere is plenty of Biblical precedent. The original compiler and\neditor of the Psalms, be he Asaph or Ezra, inserted a version of the\neighteenth psalm differing from the original as found in the\ntwenty-second chapter of Second Samuel. It cannot escape the most\ncasual reader of the New Testament that its quotations from the Old\nTestament, whether poetical or prose, are by no means accurately\nreproduced. Moreover, the writers of psalm versions from Marot and\nLuther down to Watts did not hesitate to condense, alter, or\ninterpolate new ideas in their transcriptions of the sacred originals.\nThey had no sense of presumption; their minds were preoccupied with\nthe practical ends they were trying to serve.\n\n\n                     IV. ANALYSIS OF CHANGES MADE\n\nIt may be instructive to study more in detail the occasions for\nchanges made in our hymns and learn the justification for many of\nthem. If some of them seem somewhat microscopic and even captious,\nnone the less they make for exactness, for nice discrimination, and\nfor more intelligent appreciation of the literary and spiritual values\nof our magnificent body of hymns.[2]\n\n\n                      _The Omission of Verses._\n\nA very important change from the original of many hymns is the\nomission of some of the less valuable stanzas, or even a condensation\nof some of them by omitting unattractive lines.\n\n\u201cOh for a thousand tongues to sing,\u201d the fine hymn that opens all but\nrecent Methodist hymnals, originally began, \u201cGlory to God and praise\nand love,\u201d and had eighteen stanzas. The hymn as now used consists of\nstanzas 7 to 12 of the original. Some hymnals omit stanza 10.\n\nIn the Trinity hymn sometimes ascribed to Charles Wesley, \u201cCome, Thou\nAlmighty King,\u201d the second of the original five stanzas is always\nomitted:\n\n  \u201cJesus, our Lord, arise,\n  Scatter our enemies,\n    And make them fall;\n  Let thine almighty aid\n  Our sure defense be made,\n  Our souls on thee be stayed;\n    Lord, hear our call.\u201d\n\nThe evident imitation of the second stanza of the British National\nanthem is too obvious:\n\n  \u201cO Lord, our God, arise,\n  Scatter his enemies,\n    And make them fall.\n  Frustrate their knavish tricks,\n  Confound their politics,\n  On Him our hearts we fix;\n    God save the King.\u201d\n\nIn Bishop Brooks\u2019 original of \u201cO little town of Bethlehem,\u201d so widely\nknown and used, the fourth stanza is omitted:\n\n  \u201cWhere children, pure and happy,\n    Pray to the Blessed Child;\n  Where misery cries out to thee,\n    Son of the Mother mild;\n  Where charity stands watching,\n    And faith holds wide the door,\n  The dark night wakes, the glory breaks,\n    And Christmas comes once more.\u201d\n\nThe reasons are not far to seek: the double rhyme in the third line is\nso forced as to be awkward; the first two lines refer to Jesus in the\nthird person, but the next two in the second; more important still,\nthe stanza does not make a sufficient addition to the value of the\nhymn to warrant the added length.\n\nThe stanza,\n\n  \u201cThy body slain, sweet Jesus, thine,\n    And bathed in its own blood,\n  While all exposed to wrath divine,\n    The glorious suff\u2019rer stood,\u201d\n\nif retained, despite its medieval picture of our suffering Lord, would\nhave added nothing to Watts\u2019 noble hymn, \u201cAlas! and did my Saviour\nbleed,\u201d but rather would have hemmed the progress of its thought and\nfeeling.\n\nFew of the lovers of Robinson\u2019s classic hymn, \u201cCome, Thou Fount of\nevery blessing,\u201d would have enjoyed singing and visualizing the\nomitted fourth stanza,\n\n  \u201cO that day when freed from sinning,\n    I shall see thy lovely face!\n  _Richly clothed in blood-washed linen_,\n    How I\u2019ll sing thy sovereign grace!\u201d\n\nA stanza was omitted from a hymn by Isaac Watts by Dr. Worcester, and\nhe was compelled by public sentiment to replace it in his next\ncollection. Who was right\u2014Dr. Worcester, or Watts and the church\npublic?\n\n  \u201cBut while I bled and groaned and died,\n    I ruined Satan\u2019s Throne;\n  High on my cross I hung and spy\u2019d\n    The monster tumbling down.\u201d\n\nWhat a travesty in this stanza of Christ\u2019s words, \u201cI beheld Satan as\nlightning fall from heaven\u201d!\n\nThe omission of all the older hymns regarding \u201cthe state of the\nunpenitent dead\u201d in our more recent hymnals is due to their usually\nrather lurid expressions, going beyond those of the Scriptures, to the\nreaction in the church at large against the rather mechanical and\nheartless emphasis of the painful doctrine\u2014not only in hymns, but in\nsermons as well\u2014and also to the realization that it is not a theme\nfitted for singing.\n\nWhat modern congregation could sing Watts\u2019 stanza formulating the\ndoctrine,\n\n  \u201cUp to the courts where angels dwell,\n    It [the soul] mounts triumphant there;\n  Or devils plunge it down to hell\n    In infinite despair\u201d?\n\nWhen we come to the hymns constructed by selecting stanzas from long\npoems\u2014e.g., by John Keble or by John Greenleaf Whittier\u2014we reach\nmarvels of skill in selection and co-ordination that have greatly\nenriched English hymnody.\n\n\n             _Reconstructing and Rewriting Faulty Hymns._\n\nJohn Wesley inveighed against \u201chymn-cobblers,\u201d but he was a most\nefficient and skillful \u201chymn-cobbler\u201d himself. He deserves high\ncommendation for his literary skill and taste in cutting the rough\ndiamonds that passed through his editorial hands. A few instances will\nillustrate his success.\n\n\u201cBefore Jehovah\u2019s awful throne\u201d is recognized as one of Watts\u2019 noblest\nhymns of worship. But it is Wesley\u2019s reconstruction that brought out\nits essential nobility.\n\nWatts began it in rather mechanical fashion,\n\n  \u201cSing to the Lord with joyful voice,\n    Let every land his name adore;\n  The British Isles shall send the noise\n    Across the ocean to the shore.\u201d\n\nWesley omitted this stanza entirely. Beginning with the second stanza,\n\n  \u201cWith gladness bow before his throne,\n    And let his presence raise your joys;\n  Know that the Lord is God alone\n    And formed our soul and framed our voice\u201d\n\n(which shows that Watts\u2019 inspiration had begun to rise), Wesley\ntransformed it into a majestic expression of pure worship:\n\n  \u201cBefore Jehovah\u2019s awful throne,\n    Ye nations, bow with sacred joy;\n  Know that the Lord is God alone,\n    He can create and he destroy.\u201d\n\nHe was equally successful with Watts\u2019 third stanza:\n\n  \u201cInfinite power, without our aid,\n    Figured our clay to human mould;\n  And when our wandering feet had strayed,\n    He brought us to his sacred fold.\u201d\n\nThe first line is faulty: the accent of \u201cinfinite\u201d is on the first\nsyllable: Watts placed it on the second. The second line conveys no\nclear idea: how is clay \u201cfigured\u201d? The third and fourth lines are bald\nand ordinary, lacking in poetic grace. See how deftly Wesley took\nWatts\u2019 material and gave it grace and dignity:\n\n  \u201cHis sovereign power, without our aid,\n    Made us of clay and formed us men;\n  And when like wand\u2019ring sheep we strayed,\n    He brought us to his fold again.\u201d\n\nTransforming Watts\u2019 fourth stanza in like manner, he added a majestic\nfifth stanza of his own:\n\n  \u201cWide as the world is thy command,\n    Vast as eternity thy love;\n  Firm as a rock thy truth shall stand\n    When rolling years shall cease to move,\u201d\n\ncompleting one of the noblest hymns in the language.\n\nAnother hymn of Isaac Watts was enriched by passing through the hands\nof John Wesley. Besides correcting minor infelicities and curtailing\nits impracticable length, he rewrote the third stanza of the very\npopular hymn, \u201cCome, ye that love the Lord,\u201d transforming Watts\u2019\n\n  \u201cThe God that rules on high\n    And thunders when he please,\n  That rides upon the stormy sky\n    And manages the seas,\u201d\n\ninto\n\n  \u201cThe God that rules on high,\n    That all the earth surveys,\n  That rides upon the stormy sky\n    And calms the roaring seas.\u201d\n\nHe might have gone further and obviated the break of the sentence\noccurring between the third and fourth stanzas. Some hymnal editors\nmeet the difficulty by omitting both.\n\nRev. Martin Madan wrote no hymns; his only claim to immortality rests\non his emendations of the hymns of greater men. But he well deserves\nto be remembered for some of his happy improvements of important\nhymns. His revision of Watts\u2019 hymn \u201cHe dies! the Heavenly Lover dies!\u201d\nhas already been referred to.\n\nMadan very fortunately changed Charles Wesley\u2019s\n\n  \u201cHark how all the welkin rings,\n  Glory to the King of Kings,\u201d\n\ninto the much more poetical lines:\n\n  \u201cHark! the herald angels sing,\n  \u2018Glory to the newborn King.\u2019\u201d\n\n\n                     _Minor Felicitous Changes._\n\nNo small improvement in our hymns consists of the change of individual\nphrases because of misplaced accents, unfortunate consonantal\ncombinations, inept metaphors, and phrases that are secular in spirit\nand associations.\n\nIn Cowper\u2019s \u201cJesus, where\u2019er thy people meet,\u201d the second line had the\nword \u201cinhabitest,\u201d difficult to sing; it was changed to \u201cDost dwell\nwith those.\u201d\n\nIn Bishop Ken\u2019s \u201cEvening Hymn\u201d some bad cases of wrong accents have\nbeen corrected. \u201cUnder thy own almighty wings\u201d now is \u201cBeneath the\nshadow of thy wings,\u201d and \u201cTriumphing rise at the last day\u201d is become\n\u201cRise glorious at the judgment day.\u201d\n\nIsaac Watts\u2019 theory that hymns should eschew poetic grace was carried\ntoo far\u2014into euphonic slovenliness. In \u201cWelcome, sweet day of rest\u201d he\nwrote \u201cOne day amidst the place,\u201d ignoring the fact that \u201camidst\u201d is\nnot singable. \u201cOne day in such a place\u201d is much more suave. In \u201cJoy to\nthe world! The Lord is come!\u201d he wrote in the first line of stanza\nthree \u201clet sins and sorrows grow\u201d; the excessive sibilation has been\nremoved by using singular nouns.\n\nIn Charles Wesley\u2019s very useful hymn, \u201cYe servants of God, your Master\nproclaim,\u201d \u201cThe praises of Jesus\u201d is substituted for \u201cOur Jesus\u2019\npraises,\u201d distributing the hissing s\u2019s more musically. The second and\nthird stanzas are wisely omitted; few congregations could sing, with\nthe solemnity the rest of the hymn calls for, such lines as\n\n  \u201cWhen devils engage, the billows arise,\n  And horribly rage and threaten the skies.\u201d\n\nCharles Wesley in his hymn, \u201cJesus, let thy pitying eye,\u201d had a very\nrealistic vision of the crucifixion and wrote \u201cMy Saviour _gasped_,\n\u2018Forgive!\u2019\u201d which for singing purposes was well emended to \u201cprayed.\u201d\nHow did it escape the eagle eye of his brother John? Or did the\ninfluence of the Moravians, who were fond of these physical touches in\nwriting of the crucifixion, affect both the Wesleys?\n\nThe \u201cProtestant Te Deum,\u201d \u201cAll hail the power of Jesus\u2019 name,\u201d has\nfared well\u2014or ill, according to the point of view\u2014at the hands of\n\u201chymn-tinkers.\u201d Revisers have omitted\n\n  \u201cLet highborn seraphs tune the lyre\n    And, as they tune it, fall\n  Before His face who tunes their choir,\n    And crown him Lord of all.\u201d\n\nThey have transformed the stanza,\n\n  \u201cLet every tribe and every tongue\n    That bound creation\u2019s call\n  Now shout in universal song\n    The crowned Lord of all,\u201d\n\ninto the nobler stanza,\n\n  \u201cLet every kindred, every tribe\n    On this terrestrial ball,\n  To him all majesty ascribe,\n    And crown him Lord of all.\u201d\n\nOmitting one or two more stanzas, Dr. John Rippon has added a last\nstanza that puts a fitting climax to the whole hymn:\n\n  \u201cOh, that, with yonder sacred throng,\n    We at his feet may fall!\n  We\u2019ll join the everlasting song,\n    And crown him Lord of all.\u201d\n\nEdward Mote began his widely-used hymn, \u201cMy hope is built on nothing\nless,\u201d with a \u201cstumble on the threshold,\u201d writing \u201cNor earth nor hell\nmy soul shall move,\u201d a very unintelligent plunging _in medias res_.\nWas it Bradbury, who wrote the popular and effective tune that gave\nthe hymn wings, that had the happy impulse to combine parts of the\nfirst and second stanzas, using the first two lines of the second\nstanza and the last two of the first? This gave an arresting first\nline and eliminated a line impossible to put on the lips of a general\ncongregation, \u201cMidst all the hell I feel within.\u201d\n\nThe very familiar and useful hymn of George Heath, \u201cMy soul, be on thy\nguard,\u201d is a notable example of the value of a competent editor\u2019s\nemendations. In stanza three Heath wrote,\n\n  \u201cNe\u2019er think the vict\u2019ry won,\n    Nor _once at ease sit down_;\n  _Thy arduous work_ will not be done\n    Till thou _hast got thy_ crown.\u201d\n\nAgain in the fourth stanza he wrote,\n\n  \u201cFight on, my soul, till death.\n    God will thy work applaud,\n  Reveal his love at thy last breath,\n    And take to his abode.\u201d\n\nThe improvement in both stanzas, as found in our hymnals, is obvious\nat a glance.\n\nEven so finished a poet as the distinguished historian Milman\ndisfigured his noble Palm Sunday hymn, \u201cRide on, ride on in majesty,\u201d\nby such a line as \u201cThine humble beast pursues its road,\u201d which Murray\nchanged to the graceful and appealing line, \u201cSaviour meek, pursue thy\nroad.\u201d\n\nSpace is wanting to exhaust the various changes in hymns that are\namply justified if their most effective use is to be secured. It is\nsufficient to say that changes of text must increase the perspicuity,\nprecision, propriety, and force of the hymn. Single phrases may wisely\nbe modified if a change corrects a wrong accent, makes a line more\neuphonious, adds to its vividness, expressiveness, or vigor, increases\nits dignity, clarifies the sense, or better adapts it to public use.\n\n\n\n\n                             _Chapter V_\n                       THE CONTENT OF THE HYMN\n\n\nThe hymn is not an independent entity, sufficient unto itself, whose\nwhole purpose is to be beautiful and to give pleasure to those\nresponsive to its charm. The hymn has a definite message, is big with\npurpose.\n\nIt is related to its writer in satisfying the urge for expression of\nideas that will give him power over the thoughts and feelings of\nothers, or of emotions that demand to be voiced forth in the mystic\nexpressiveness of rhythm and rhyme.\n\nIt is related to God as the original source of its impulse and as the\nrecipient of its response in love and praise.\n\nIt is related to the church in the aid it affords to its collective\nlife and to the reader or singer whose spirituality is to be inspired,\ndeveloped, and expressed.\n\nIt is the content expressing these several relations and purposes that\nseparates the hymn from purely literary ideals and criticisms.\n\n\n                        I. ITS RELATION TO GOD\n\n\n                           _Thanksgiving._\n\nThe first impulse is a recognition of the blessings and privileges\nthat God bestows upon his creatures in general and upon the writer and\nthe singer in particular. There is consciousness of self in this\nexpression of gratitude. The soul still has its feet upon the ground.\n\nThere is nothing unworthy in this recognition of self as the recipient\nof God\u2019s favor, for the soul honors God in its realization of its\ndependence on him and in its clear vision of the source of its\nblessedness. Indeed, God asks it as his due.\n\n\n                    _Prayer for Future Blessing._\n\nThe cynic who declares that gratitude is usually tinctured with the\nhope of favors to come may not properly represent the soul as it gives\nthanks to God, but there is a kinship between thanksgiving and prayer\nthat makes it easy and logical to pass from the one to the other. The\nmemory of benefits received inevitably suggests needs yet to be\nsupplied.\n\nIn its relation to God the hymn may well be a vehicle for the prayer\nthat envisages the spiritual lack that God alone can supply, and\nvitalizes the recognition with a desirous urgency that must\ncharacterize true prayer.\n\nHere again we find not only divine authority, but encouragement and\nassurance. Whether the hymn is an individual or a collective prayer\nmatters not. The individual need is also a need common to all\npetitioners, and the prayer by a congregation is still the individual\nprayer of its units, only intensified objectively toward God and\nsubjectively toward the singers by its mass expression. This\nintensification is multiplied not arithmetically but geometrically.\n\n\n                             _Adoration._\n\nThe hymn of adoration lifts the soul into a higher plane, into a\ncontemplation of the glory and majesty of the infinite perfections of\nits God in which self is forgotten and a consciousness of the\ninfinitude of divine beauty, nobility, and spiritual elevation remains\nto thrill the soul. It rises on wings of selfless delight and\nrejoicing in God into a very ecstasy that only song can express.\n\nWhether the soul stands on some high peak of earth and surveys the\nbillowing world that stretches far and wide with its beetling cliffs\nand rocky headlands, its forests and fields, its meadows and orchards,\nfilled with the overwhelming mystery of life and force obeying\nimplicitly the laws formulated only in inherent nature; or gazes into\nthe great vault of the sky, with the silent majesty of circling stars\nand developing universes, it will find the anonymous hymn of more than\na century ago voicing its deepest awe, its noblest joy:\n\n  \u201cPraise the Lord! ye heavens adore him,\n    Praise him, angels in the height;\n  Sun and moon rejoice before him,\n    Praise him, all ye stars of light.\u201d\n\nWhen the soul on some mountaintop of inner experience and vision\nglimpses something of the sublimity of the divine character, its\njustice, its truth, its purity, its invincible power and will guided\nby infinite knowledge and wisdom, its boundless mercy and forgiving\ngrace flowing from the eternal Source of its all-embracing love, again\nit can adopt as its very own the solemn notes of Tersteegen, echoed in\nEnglish by John Wesley:\n\n  \u201cLo! God is here; let us adore\n    And own how dreadful is this place;\n  Let all within us feel his power,\n    And humbly bow before his face.\u201d\n\nThis is the highest office of the hymn and should be made its largest\nuse; in no other way can the minds and hearts of Christian worshipers\nbe filled and thrilled with a consciousness of an indwelling God as by\nhymns of praise, fully comprehended and sung with unflawed sincerity.\n\n\n                       _The Hymn of Communion._\n\nBeyond the hymn of exultant praise is the hymn of communion with God,\nwhere the soul expresses its joy, not simply in the objective glories\nof the divine nature, but in actual communion, companionship, and\nconscious unity with God in desire, ideals, and purposes. The soul\nthinks the thoughts of God, delights in what God approves, walks in\nhis ways with spontaneous gladness, and lives in absolute harmony with\nhis will, not mechanically under a stress of duty, but by urge of the\ndeepest depths of the soul. Objective praise may pull out all the\nstops of the soul\u2019s enthusiasm and the high imaginings of the spirit,\nbut the hymn of communion may express itself in tenderness and\nsweetness, in upwelling love and quiet affection. It often is a\npersonal rather than a collective hymn.\n\n\n                      II. RELATION TO THE SINGER\n\n\n                        _The Hymn of Emotion._\n\nGiven a definite emotion based on realization of some religious truth,\nman will urgently call for some expression of it, directly by speaking\nor writing, or by means of some provided method.[1] Christians are\nstimulated by being impressed by the experiences of others. There is a\nblessed contagion in these expressions of the profound experiences of\nthe saints of God as found in the hymnbooks of all our churches. One\nfeels the accelerated spiritual heartbeat as one reads (or, better\nyet, sings) Watts\u2019 emotional cry as he stands before the cross of\nChrist:\n\n  \u201cWhen I survey the wondrous cross\n    On which the Prince of glory died,\n  My richest gain I count but loss\n    And pour contempt on all my pride.\u201d\n\nWho can fail to follow him in his final consecration,\n\n  \u201cLove so amazing, so divine,\n    Demands my soul, my life, my all\u201d?\n\nMedley\u2019s hymn, \u201cOh, could I speak the matchless worth,\u201d in not a\nsingle phrase directly addresses the Deity. It is a purely subjective\nexpression of delight in the Lord Jesus Christ; and yet how\nimpressive, how delightful, how eminently worthy of the feelings of\nany great congregation, is this hymn of Christian joy.\n\nThe hymn of emotion, therefore, supplies the soul\u2019s demand, for it\nsatisfies the instinct for expression. It clarifies the intellectual\nbasis of the emotion and in so doing intensifies it. The collective\nsinging and mass expression of a common emotion intensify it still\nfurther and fit it more fully to affect the will and the character,\nand so give permanence to the influence of the truth underlying the\nfeeling. Where at the beginning the truth is but dimly perceived and\npassively accepted, the resulting shallow feeling will be deepened. In\nthis way the hymn becomes a very generator of desirable religious\nemotion.\n\n\n                      _The Hymn of Inspiration._\n\nIt follows that the hymn may be a means of stimulating interest and\nenthusiasm in connection with a topic or proposed course of action,\nand may become the hymn of inspiration. Any line of thought or method\nof presentation appealing to any emotion or impulse that creates\ncourage, hopefulness, confidence, assurance of success, will be\npertinent and desirable. The intenser element of direct exhortation\nmay be added, making a hortative hymn of one of mere inspiration.\n\n\n                  _The Hymn of Personal Experience._\n\nThe hymn of personal experience differs from that of emotional\nexpression in being more subjective, more analytical of the effect\nproduced on the mind by the apprehension of the religious truth. The\nlatter is based on the realization of some objective truth or\ndoctrine, while the hymn of personal experience emphasizes the inner\nexperience in prayer, in specific exercise of faith, in a reaction of\nthe soul to some accomplished task, or to a season of communion with\nGod. The hymn of the blind poet, George Matheson, which has been so\nwidely used,\n\n  \u201cO Love that wilt not let me go,\n  I rest my weary soul on Thee,\u201d\n\nis distinctly a hymn of Christian experience; while Isaac Watts gives\npoignant expression to the emotions of the Christian, as he\ncontemplates the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, borne to atone\nfor his sins,\n\n  \u201cAlas! and did my Saviour bleed?\n    And did my Sovereign die?\n  Would he devote that sacred head\n    For sinners such as I!\u201d\n\nThe hymn of personal experience has been rather heatedly objected to\nby critics like Bishop Wordsworth. In some cases these \u201cI and My\u201d\nhymns have been rewritten to meet the objection.\n\nThese critics who find their own \u201cego\u201d offended by the apparent\nemphasis of the hymn writer\u2019s \u201cego\u201d forget some rather important\nfactors in the situation.\n\n1. It would have been rather presumptuous on the part of the writer to\nspeak for the collective \u201cWe\u201d and \u201cUs\u201d who presumably were to sing his\nverses.\n\n2. As a spontaneous expression of personal experience, the hymn had to\nbe individualistic. Not often, if ever, are particular religious\nexperiences common to a body of believers at a given moment.\n\n3. The high peaks of religious experience which are most valuable as\nfurnishing ideals and stimulus to the members of a singing\ncongregation can be reached only by individuals, not by a mass of\npeople. To restrict the expression of religious experience to that\ncommon to all Christians, would be to omit the most inspiring and\nhelpful hymns, and keep our song service at a dead level of inferior\nvalue.\n\n4. It must not be forgotten that it is not the congregation that\nsings; it is its individual units! The congregation is an abstraction,\na merely mental conception. The singing of each member is\nfundamentally as purely individual as if he were absolutely alone!\nHence the \u201cI and My\u201d hymn is entirely fitting. Each sings what is, or\nought to be, his own individual experience. Indeed, he makes his best\ncontribution to the collective effect if he is intensely\nindividualistic in his singing.\n\n5. In all ages this individualistic participation in mass singing has\nbeen natural and spontaneous. The children of Israel sang an\nindividualistic \u201cI and My\u201d hymn in rejoicing over the army of Pharaoh.\nThe psalms are largely \u201cI and My\u201d hymns of praise, of prayer, and of\nconfession. David sings, \u201cThe Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.\u201d\n\nIt is too much to expect that every singer shall apprehend the full\nimport of the words he sings; to accuse him of insincerity and\nhypocrisy if he fails to rise to their level, or if he takes them on\nhis lips thoughtlessly, is uncharitable. In most cases the fault lies\nwith the leader of the service who does not bring out the meaning and\ndoes not prepare the minds and hearts of the singers for the hymn\nabout to be sung.\n\nIt is, therefore, not a question of the first person singular, but of\nthe kind of personal experience that finds a voice. Is it artificial\nor genuine? Is it morbid or wholesome? Is it depressing or stimulating\nto the spiritual life? Is it an experience to which all have attained\nor may attain, in terms all can accept, or is it morbid, fanatical,\nextravagant?\n\nNo congregation should be expected to sing offhand with Faber,\n\n  \u201cI love Thee so, I know not how\n  My transports to control,\u201d\n\nor\n\n  \u201cOh, dearest Jesus, I have grown\n  Childish with love of thee.\u201d\n\nThere are other limits that need to be considered. A hymn may properly\nbe the vehicle for a confession of sin or of spiritual unworthiness;\nbut it should not take exaggerated forms of expression that only a few\ncould honestly adopt. The same is somewhat true of hymns of\nconsecration. Some hymns are title deeds to gifts to Jesus Christ so\ncomprehensive that few could sincerely subscribe to them. All these\nhymns, though they may have been spontaneous outbursts from the hearts\nof the writers, will seem unreal and forced to the singer, and will\nonly aggravate the mechanical unreality and the unwitting insincerity\nthat vitiate the average service of song.\n\n\n                      _The Hymn of Meditation._\n\nThe hymn of meditation is less emotional than that of personal\nexperience or feeling. It is quiet in rhetorical style and gentle in\nmood. Its purpose is not didactic, although it often superficially\nseems to be so. It is occupied with doctrinal truth only in an\ninferential way. It contemplates all religious truth, whether\ndoctrinal or ethical, in an objective, impersonal way and notes its\nimplications and corollaries. It is, therefore, emotionally negative,\nblending with the other elements of the service rather than\ncontrolling them.\n\nPerhaps as typical an instance as can be cited is Bishop Bickersteth\u2019s\n\n  \u201cPeace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?\n    The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.\u201d\n\nCharles Wesley\u2019s meditation on the Christian\u2019s duties, \u201cA charge to\nkeep I have,\u201d is another hymn of this class. Faber\u2019s \u201cThere\u2019s a\nwideness in God\u2019s mercy\u201d (\u201cWas there ever kinder shepherd\u201d) is also in\nthe meditative mood.\n\n\n                      _The Hymn of Exhortation._\n\nAt first blush it may seem a little absurd that the members of a\ncongregation should sing at each other such a hymn as \u201cStand up, stand\nup for Jesus\u201d or \u201cWork, for the night is coming.\u201d But this is an\nartificial and not a genuine objection. The instinct of the human race\nis toward the singing of just such hortatory songs as these. The\nMarseillaise Hymn, which was one of the strongest influences leading\nto the French Revolution, is simply an exhortation, but it swept the\nFrench people off their feet and helped prepare the way for the great\ntransformation of the social structure of the nation. The Church has\ngone on producing and singing these hortatory hymns throughout all\ngenerations from the time of David until now, because the impulse is\nnative to the human heart.\n\n\n                         _The Didactic Hymn._\n\nThe hymn may be used to teach truth as well as to express emotion. If\nwe are to accept Paul\u2019s statements regarding the use of song in the\nchurches in his early day, the didactic hymn is the oldest form of the\nChristian hymn. \u201cTeaching and admonishing one another\u201d is his phrase\nin Colossians 3:16. Indeed, we can go back to Moses for authority for\nit, for the ninetieth Psalm is largely didactic. In the Psalms we find\nmore instruction than worship. There is really no reason why an\nassembly should not sing truth, as well as recite it, as it does in\nthe Apostles\u2019 or in the Nicene Creed.\n\nThe didactic value of the hymn is too great that we should refuse its\nhelp in laying a foundation of doctrine in the hearts of the people of\nGod. Never was it more necessary than now. It is significant of John\nWesley\u2019s appreciation of its didactic value that in his announcement\nof his hymnal of 1780, _The Large Hymn Book_, he refers to his\ngrouping of the hymns under subjects, making the hymnal \u201ca little body\nof experimental and practical divinity.\u201d\n\nMany of our most frequently used hymns are unfeignedly didactic.\nBishop Wordsworth\u2019s \u201cO day of rest and gladness\u201d is a resume of the\narguments for the validity of the Christian Sabbath. \u201cThe Church\u2019s one\nfoundation\u201d is one of a series of hymns by Samuel J. Stone expounding\nthe Apostles\u2019 Creed. Heber\u2019s hymn, \u201cHoly, holy, holy, Lord God\nAlmighty\u201d is suffused with poetical feeling, but is none the less a\ndidactic hymn emphasizing the doctrine of the Trinity.\n\nAt the same time, this religious truth must have a poetic element. It\nis the great value of a hymn as a teaching method that it puts heart\nand feeling into the doctrine it expresses, and so gives it reality\nand appeal. Despite Dr. Austin Phelps\u2019 rejection of Montgomery\u2019s\n\u201cPrayer is the soul\u2019s sincere desire\u201d as \u201cwithout the wings of song,\u201d\nthe Church at large has been singing it for a century. Even if the\nlast stanza were omitted, it would still be a good hymn, because the\ndoctrine of prayer is clothed in such beautiful and inspiring language\nthat it is eminently fitted for the expression of a congregation in\nsong.\n\n\n                        _The Doctrinal Hymn._\n\nThe doctrinal hymn is simply a limited form of the didactic hymn in\nthat it is devoted to the promulgation of the leading Christian\ndoctrines, while the general didactic hymn may be used to inculcate\nany truth or duty, whether of a fundamental character or not.\n\nThe use of the hymn to teach the doctrines of the Church has numerous\nadvantages. It is clear and succinct, not obscuring the truth with\nphilosophical or metaphysical subtleties. It is dogmatic and not\nargumentative. It has the mnemonic advantage of rhythm and rhyme and\nis easily remembered. It has the inspiration of collective singing.\nAbove all it is vivid and poetical, emotionalizing and vitalizing what\nin the philosopher\u2019s hands becomes abstract and dry.\n\nAmerica\u2019s most distinguished hymnologist clearly differentiates the\ndoctrinal theologian and the doctrinal hymn writer: \u201cThe theologian\nand the hymn writer traverse day by day the same country, the Kingdom\nof our Lord. They walk the same paths; they see the same objects; but\nin their methods of observation and in their reports of what they see,\nthey differ. So far as theology is a science, the theologian deals\nsimply with the topography of the country: he explores, he measures,\nhe expounds. So far as hymn-writing is an art, the writer deals not\nwith topography, but with the landscape: he sees, he feels, he sings.\nThe difference in method is made inevitable by the variance of\ntemperament of the two men, the diversity of gifts. But both methods\nare as valid as inevitable. Neither man is sufficient in himself as an\nobserver or a reporter. It is the topography and the landscape\ntogether that make the country what it is. It is didactics and poetry\ntogether that can approach the reality of the spiritual Kingdom.\u201d[2]\n\nIt follows that the doctrinal hymn is not simply reluctantly\nadmissible, it is actually peremptorily necessary if the doctrines of\nthe Christian faith are to be impressed upon each rising generation.\nThis function of the hymn is all the more important because of the\ndecline of doctrinal preaching. It is the \u201csubstance of doctrine\u201d the\nhymns supply rather than the rigid philosophical shell which the\ncreeds and the catechism offer. It is this shell that is \u201cdry,\u201d not\nthe realities it too often hides.\n\n\n                       _The Homiletical Hymn._\n\nThe homiletical hymn is a homily, as its name implies\u2014a sermonette.\nThe term refers to its form, not to its content, for that is usually\ndoctrinal and always didactic. It is sermonic because it proceeds from\npoint to point, leading the way to a practical application. This form\nof hymn makes up the great body of the older hymnody, because it was\nwritten by sermonizers who applied homiletical methods to their hymns.\n\nTake Doddridge\u2019s hymn, \u201cYe servants of the Lord\u201d: the first stanza\nmakes the general appeal for service; the second emphasizes the need\nof readiness for that service; the third, attention to the Lord\u2019s\ncommands; the fourth exclaims over the joy and the reward of service;\nthe fifth, the honors that Christ shall heap on his servant. That\nmakes a fine outline for a sermon!\n\nThe homiletical hymn was often dry because the sermon was dry. They\nwere both too frequently \u201cproses\u201d in a sense different from the\nmedieval use of the word.\n\n\n                      _The Hymn of Propaganda._\n\nThe hymn of propaganda calls for consideration. It is a didactic hymn,\nof course, but its purpose is not to express the fundamental doctrines\nof the faith, but to urge some subordinate article of it out of all\nproportion to its intrinsic importance, or to win adherents for some\nnew religious ideas. There are hymns of Perfectionism, of Holiness, of\nUnity, of Premillenialism, of Second Adventism, of Christian Science,\nof phases of Theosophy, that fall within this category.\n\nThe spiritual value of some of these is not to be underrated, but each\nhymn must be judged on its own merits. The danger of exaggeration is\nthe chief point calling for circumspection. Hymns of propaganda\ncriticizing or antagonizing the Christian Church must be rejected.\n\n\n                    _Hymns of the Social Gospel._\n\nA few years ago, when the sociological aspect of Christianity won wide\nattention, it was seriously proposed to rewrite the whole hymnbook and\ninject the \u201cSocial Gospel.\u201d A few desirable hymns on Brotherhood were\nwritten which fill out a previously somewhat neglected rubric.\nBrotherhood is not a discovery of the twentieth century, but has been\nan integral part of Christianity from the beginning and was never so\nfully exemplified as at that period.\n\nIn so far as the \u201cSocial Gospel\u201d is simply the application of the\ngospel of Christ to old wrongs that yet need to be righted, like\nslavery, and war, and alcoholism, or to new social complexes in our\nmodern economic life where there is injustice, or where there is need\nof help for body, mind, or soul, hymns may prove desirable helps. They\nwill, however, be written spontaneously, not as propaganda, and will\nbe used freely in so far as there is practical and emotional\njustification for them. The onward progress of the Kingdom in these\nunfinished tasks will most likely depend on the stimulation of the\ngreat motives that have given victory in the past. It is the appeal to\nthese motives that gives vitality to such a hymn as \u201cWhere cross the\ncrowded ways of life,\u201d by Frank Mason North.\n\n\n                           _Special Hymns._\n\nIt is a little difficult to supply hymns for subordinate topics which\ndo not stir the spiritual pulses, and hence the poorest hymns in our\nhymnbooks are found in these divisions. The doctrines of Human\nDepravity, Regeneration, Sanctification, the State of the Impenitent\nDead, do not lend themselves to attractive hymnic expression.\n\nThese hymns have no wings; they are unemotional and without appeal to\nthe imagination. Yet the selectors of hymns who have a purely\nhomiletical point of view demand that a hymnal shall supply\nappropriate lyrics to fit subjects and occasions that have no lyrical\npossibilities. If the demands of symmetrical completeness in a hymnal,\nor of close fitness of theme in a service, must be met, then one must\nbe content with prosaic verses lacking in poetic charm or emotional\ninspiration.\n\n\n                      _The Great Hymnic Themes._\n\nThere are certain doctrines, certain experiences, that appeal so\nstrongly to Christian hearts that the impulse to write and sing about\nthem far exceeds that growing out of less general, less striking\nthemes. There may be a great difference in the favorite themes of\ndifferent persons, under different circumstances, in different\ngenerations. The Latin medieval hymnists greatly stressed the\nsuffering Christ; Watts sang of the majesty and glory of God and of\nhis reign in the moral and spiritual world, and his hymns are found\nlargely in the purely worshipful rubrics of our hymnals; Charles\nWesley wrote in the midst of a great revival, and his hymns emphasize\nthe plan of salvation and voice the personal experiences of the saved.\nIn our own day the ideas of service, of public welfare, of works of\nphilanthropy and mercy, and of social justice find expression.\n\nThe supreme theme, of course, is Christ. Whatever phases of Christian\ndoctrine or experience may seem to absorb the mind of any generation,\nstill the songs cluster about the person of Jesus Christ. As Dr.\nAustin Phelps eloquently insists, \u201chere the rapture of holy song\nculminates on earth, as it does in heaven. Here every grace of\nreligious character, and every experience of a devout life, has found\nfreedom to express itself in hymns of worship. Where can another such\nbody of sacred poetry be found in any language, as that which\ncomprises the Christology of the songs of the Church?\u201d\n\nThis hymnody is all the more appealing in that it sings a living and\nnot a dead Christ, a present personality, near and dear, and not\nmerely a historical character. The singer does not strain his power of\nthought and elevation of expression to hymn adequately the perfections\nof an infinite God, but spontaneously rejoices in a Friend who\n\u201csticketh closer than a brother\u201d!\n\n\n\n\n                             _Chapter VI_\n                           THE GOSPEL HYMN\n\n\nIf this were a purely scholastic and literary treatise on the hymnody\nof the Church, the subject of this chapter might be ignored; but this\ndiscussion purports to be practical, and the Gospel hymn is too large\na factor in the life and work of our churches to be thus brushed\naside. It is a conservative estimate to say that four out of five\nchurches in our land make use of these hymns to a greater or less\nextent. They even elbow their way into the most exclusive hymnals\nissued by ecclesiastical authorities. Collections of them are found\nnot only in rural or village communities, but in urban churches as\nwell. Great denominational publishing houses issue them by the hundred\nthousand. They are heard in the great ecclesiastical gatherings and\nconventions of the land. Great evangelistic movements depend on them\nfor inspiration and for aggressive energy.\n\nYet the Gospel hymn has been treated as a convenient \u201cpunching bag\u201d\nfor the literary and musical idealist. One respects the antagonistic\nattitude of the high liturgist to whom the form is so significant, or\nof the literary or scholarly man whose susceptibilities are outraged\nby the acknowledged shortcomings and banalities of many of these\npopular religious lyrics. Nonetheless, one is astonished that persons\nof high intelligence, in their devotion to exclusively literary and\nmusical standards, should be blind to the great spiritual value of the\nbetter specimens of this indiscriminately condemned class of hymns,\nand to the extraordinary effectiveness and the immense results in\naggressive religious work which this people\u2019s hymnody has\ndemonstrated.\n\nThis is really only the recrudescence of an ancient feud between the\nconception of the hymn as exclusively worshipful and belonging to the\nliturgical service, and as the free lyrical expression of the\nreligious life of the people adapted to all phases of Christian\nlife\u2014individual, domestic, and social, as well as ecclesiastical. As\nthe church life of the early Christians began to crystallize, the\nformer improvisations were discouraged. In time, the service of song\nwas taken from the laity in the interest of greater dignity and\nchurchliness. The Arian controversy with its hymnic outburst freed the\nwings of popular religious song, only for them to be restrained again\nby the rigid formalism organized and enforced by Gregory the Great.\n\nThe Waldenses, the Hussites, the Lollards, each group had its own\npopular hymnody. In the general breaking of bonds in the Reformation,\nthe popular hymns of Huss and Luther and their associates, and the\nmetrical psalms of Marot and Sternhold set to popular secular\nmelodies, were the first manifestations of the new freedom.\n\nThe same outcry was heard against the hymns of Watts, and a little\nlater against those of the Wesleys, not only in Great Britain, but in\nNew England as well. In the latter the outcry was heard against the\n\u201ccamp-meeting ditties\u201d of the aggressive Methodists as they spread\ninto the West.\n\nEven now, in Germany there is frequent protest against the use in\nchurch service of the simpler \u201cfolk\u201d hymns, like \u201cHarre des Herrn\u201d\n(Wait on the Lord), \u201cIch will streben\u201d (I will strive), and \u201cSei\ngetreu bis in den Tod\u201d (Be faithful unto death), because they are more\nrecent in origin and have not the severe dignity of the older hymns\nand chorals.\n\nAnd so the feud between the devout formalism of the liturgical spirit\nand the free attitude of aggressive spirituality has gone on from\ncentury to century and from land to land, and will continue to do so\n\u201cuntil He come.\u201d\n\n\n                      _Lack of Discrimination._\n\nThere is an utter lack of discrimination shown in the opposition to\nGospel hymns.\n\nIt is no more true that all Gospel and Sunday-school hymns are crude,\nilliterate, and undignified than is the anti-foreign Chinese\u2019s charge\nthat all Americans are liars and thieves. Many of the Gospel hymns\nwere written by devout, cultured people of high intelligence. Fanny\nCrosby has had wide recognition, and there have been many others of\nequal ability, but lacking her adventitious appeal for sympathy. There\nare many Gospel hymns which deserve the harshest denunciations that\nhave been expressed. In a people\u2019s hymnody that was inevitable; but\nthere are others so fine that the line of essential values between the\nGospel and the standard hymn is difficult to trace. Lowell Mason and\nThomas Hastings\u2019 _Spiritual Songs_ was practically a people\u2019s Gospel\nsongbook, used for the same purposes and in the same relative spirit,\nand largely made up of new materials in text and music just like a\nmodern Gospel songbook, being even issued in parts. Among its new\nhymns were Palmer\u2019s \u201cMy faith looks up to Thee\u201d and Smith\u2019s \u201cThe\nmorning light is breaking,\u201d now recognized as leading standard hymns.\nThe same is true of Gilmore\u2019s \u201cHe leadeth me, O blessed thought!\u201d and\nKate Hankey\u2019s \u201cI love to tell the story\u201d and Mrs. Hawks\u2019 \u201cI need Thee\nevery hour.\u201d Mrs. Gates\u2019 \u201cI will sing you a song of that beautiful\nland,\u201d E. E. Hewitt\u2019s \u201cMore about Jesus would I know,\u201d Hopper\u2019s\n\u201cJesus, Saviour, pilot me,\u201d Stite\u2019s \u201cSimply trusting every day,\u201d\nWalford\u2019s \u201cSweet hour of prayer,\u201d Hunter\u2019s \u201cIn the Christian\u2019s home in\nglory,\u201d Bliss\u2019 \u201cAlmost persuaded,\u201d Spafford\u2019s \u201cIt is well with my\nsoul,\u201d and Pres. Dr. J. E. Rankin\u2019s \u201cGod be with you till we meet\nagain\u201d are none of them illiterate or undignified. Indeed, many of the\nwriters of these despised hymns were college professors, clergymen of\nhigh standing, editors, women of education and culture and of profound\nspiritual life. Many Gospel song writers are far and away superior to\nthe average of the hymnists of the eighteenth century\u2014indeed, have\nwritten nothing so unpoetical and so distinctly offensive to good\ntaste as some of the hymns published by Watts and Wesley, the hymnic\ngiants of that age.\n\nThere is an impulse to distinguish between Gospel hymns and Gospel\nsongs, accepting the former and rejecting the latter; but that is\nplaying with words. Good Gospel songs are to be baptized Gospel hymns\nand allowed to enter the golden gates of approved hymnody. Others draw\nthe line at the end of the Moody and Sankey campaigns, closing the\ncanon at that time and regarding all later Gospel songs as apocryphal!\nBut the worst specimens that have appeared were issued before that\ndate and many excellent ones have been written since. No such\nmechanical criteria can be applied. The acid test of actual usefulness\nmust be employed with Gospel songs as it was to formal hymns. That\nmany of the former have won a permanent place without the emendation\nneeded by the latter shows how unjustified is the indiscriminate\ncondemnation of this whole class of sacred lyrics.\n\n\n                _Wrong Assumptions of the Opposition._\n\nIn much of the discussion there seems to be an underlying assumption\nthat there is an inherent antagonism between the standard and the\nGospel hymn, that the latter is intended to displace the former.\nNothing can be farther from the truth. It is true there is an\noccasional church where the standard hymns are neglected, but they are\na negligible minority. The current Gospel song collections practically\nall supply a large department of standard hymns and their tunes, in\nmany cases all that are in actual general use. The value of the\nstandard hymn is recognized everywhere as having a most important\nplace in the work of the church.\n\nBut its very dignity and strength occasion the limitations to its use,\nand beyond those limitations the Gospel hymn comes as a complementary\nhelp. The wise preacher does not use Gospel hymns in his formal,\nworshipful services, but finds them indispensable in popular evening\nservices, where not awe and solemnity but spirit and aggressiveness,\nand appeal to the person of average or less culture, are needed. His\nprayer meeting and other subordinate meetings of groups need the\nindividual feeling and intimacy with religious things supplied by the\nGospel hymns.\n\nIn evangelistic meetings a few of the standards can express the high\npeaks of interest, but the Gospel songs lead up to those heights. The\ngreat revivals of the nineteenth and of the early decades of this\ncentury were distinctly characterized by the use of Gospel songs, many\nof them not even of the higher type.\n\n\n                  _Unfairness in Comparisons Made._\n\nWhile the worst specimens of Gospel hymns have usually been selected\nas the basis of attack, the very best of the standard hymns have been\nheld up as the criterion of value; the utter unfairness of such\ncomparison is evident enough. Gospel hymns should be judged by their\nbest specimens when compared with standard hymns.\n\nThe inequity of such a comparison is made more flagrant by the fact\nthat these standard hymns, only hundreds in number, which are justly\nappreciated and lauded, are the survivors of multiplied tens of\nthousands that were written through the generations. Of the more than\nseven hundred written by Isaac Watts, twenty-three appear in the\nrecent _Presbyterian Hymnal_. Of the nearly seven thousand hymns of\nCharles Wesley, the new _Methodist Hymnal_, naturally biased in\njudgment by tradition, uses only fifty-five, while the _New\nPresbyterian Hymnal_ finds space for only eighteen. This tremendous\nmortality is not necessarily due to offensive weakness and faults, for\nhundreds served their day and generation most acceptably and well. In\nlike manner the older Gospel hymns, which have had their day of\nusefulness are fading out of these collections, making way for new\nones that express the feelings of the present generation more\nintimately. This is as it should be.\n\nBut when the detractor of current Gospel hymns finds some delectable\nbit of vulgarity or of literary clumsiness or of grammatical solecism,\nlet him remember that Watts published lines like these:\n\n  \u201cTame heifers here their thirst allay\n  And for the stream wild asses bray.\u201d\n\n  \u201cI\u2019ll purge my family around\n  And make the wicked flee\u201d;\n\nand that John Wesley allowed his brother to publish\n\n  \u201cIdle men and boys are found\n  Standing on the devil\u2019s ground;\n  He will give them work to do,\n  He will pay their wages too.\u201d\n\nRemember also that William Cowper, the poet acclaimed by literary\ncritics as the father of a new movement in poetical writing, issued\nsuch a stanza as this:\n\n  \u201cNot such as hypocrites suppose\n    Who with a graceless heart\n  Taste not of Thee, but drink a dose\n    Prepared by Satan\u2019s art.\u201d\n\nIf the great poets and hymn writers of that age wrote such lines, what\nmust have been the character of the verses of the obscure scribblers\nand poetasters of their day!\n\nNot only do the best of the standard hymns alone survive, but those\nsurvivors have been rewritten and amended by a half-century of editors\nand hymn revisers, their revisions being re-revised by succeeding\ncritics, as we have seen in a previous chapter. Every line and phrase\nhas been submitted again and again to the microscope of the literary\ncritic, until we have a body of hymns established in every detail by\nthe consensus of the best literary minds of the last century. This is\nno derogation of our accepted hymns, but a great advantage to them;\nbut it must not be overlooked in making a fair comparison.\n\n\n                      _Criteria for Evaluation._\n\nMuch of the criticism of the Gospel hymn is due to excessive emphasis\non the literary and poetical aspects of the verses to which objection\nis made. But we have already insisted on the fact that these are not\nthe final criteria of the value of hymns, although they are important\nfactors not to be overlooked.\n\nSpeaking of a hymnal containing material of inferior literary quality,\nDr. Austin Phelps, of Andover Seminary, who shared with his colleague\nin the faculty of that institution the honor of being the fathers of\nAmerican hymnology, wisely remarks: \u201cIt is a shallow judgment either\nto approve or to condemn such a work in the spirit of a connoisseur in\naesthetics. The very conditions of excellence in a body of popular\npsalmody must extend its limits out of the range of a purely Attic\ntaste.\u201d\n\nThe approval or rejection of a hymn, or of a body of hymns, is not a\nquestion of personal taste or liking, nor even of personal religious\nreactions, but a question of the needs of the people to be stimulated\nand helped, and the results of interest and spiritual impression\nsecured among them by the hymns under consideration.\n\n\n                   _Gospel Hymns and the Unsaved._\n\nThere is a distressing lack of understanding both of the real function\nof the hymn and of the needs of the body of Christians as a whole, and\neven a greater ignorance of the psychology of reaching the unsaved. If\nthe body of our standard hymns fails to develop needed interest among\na large element in our churches, how much less will it appeal to these\noutside the fold! If these intellectually and culturally less\nprivileged masses in and out of the Church are to follow the Apostolic\nexample and \u201csing with the understanding,\u201d the songs must lie within\nthe range of their understanding. Professor A. S. Hoyt, D.D., of\nAuburn Theological Seminary, sums up the situation very wisely: \u201cA few\nof the modern revival hymns make quick appeal to the modern heart, are\neasily sung, and may be teachers of religious life. The majority of\nthem are shallow in thought and without musical worth. But in all\nmatters of education we must help men as we find them and patiently\nlift them to better things.\u201d\n\n\n              _Gospel Hymns and the Demands of Worship._\n\nPerhaps the most misleading assumption among those who reject the\nGospel hymn is that the chief use of hymns is in worship. They will\nsing didactic hymns, hortative hymns, inspirational hymns, addressed\nsolely to human ears and hearts in the stated church service and then\ncast out the Gospel hymn because it is not fitted for solemn worship.\nThat attitude conceives the Divine Being as a literary connoisseur, or\nas a music critic who applies conventional academic criteria in\naccepting what his people bring him. Their slogan is that we must\nbring to God only our best, insisting that anything but our best is an\ninsult to him, forgetting that we do not bring the hymn, but the\nspiritual results of the hymn in devotion and love and consecration,\nand that hymn which produces these in the given congregation is the\nbest.\n\nMoreover, the approach to God is not the sole function of effective\nhymns; it may instead be the approach to men. The best hymn in that\ndepartment is the one that succeeds most fully in affecting the souls\nto be influenced. There, not the abstract values of the hymn count,\nbut its psychological adaptation to the actual mental, moral, and\nspiritual condition of the minds and hearts to be helped, not\noverlooking even the physical factors essential to religious results.\n\nFurthermore, there are lines of church activity which need the\nreligious atmosphere and suggestiveness but are concerned with social\nand administrative work, with the temporalities of church life, for\nwhich many of these Gospel hymns are eminently fitted. There are\ncampaigns, drives, and movements that need musical help such as many\nof the less subjectively pious Gospel hymns can give.\n\n\n              _Gospel Hymns in the Preparatory Service._\n\nThere are large and miscellaneous church gatherings where there is no\npreparation of mind to sing worthily and deeply religious hymns, and\nwhere it would be a sacrilege to ask the miscellaneous crowd to take\nupon their lips such a hymn as \u201cO Love that wilt not let me go\u201d or\n\u201cOh, worship the King, all-glorious above.\u201d Better to sing the\nsemi-religious and shallow \u201cBrighten the corner where you are\u201d until\nthe crowd has been psychically organized.\n\n\n                  _Gospel Hymns in the Laboratory._\n\nWhen we come to organized campaigns to persuade unconverted persons,\nold and young, to accept Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, the need of\nthese informal, stimulating, emotional folk songs becomes immediately\napparent. Awe, impressiveness, spiritual elevation of mind, such as\nare supposed to be produced by the standard hymns, are not the stimuli\nthat create aggressiveness of mind among Christian workers, nor are\nthey calculated to awaken a response among the unspiritual. It is\nproved as surely by actual laboratory experiment that Gospel songs\nproduce the conditions needed for securing a religious revival as that\nhydrochloric acid and water poured over zinc clippings will produce\nhydrogen.\n\nLord Shaftesbury, the great English philanthropist and Christian\nworker, speaking in Ireland in the interest of evangelistic work\nthere, said: \u201cTherefore go on circulating the Scriptures. I should\nhave been glad to have had also the circulation of some well-known\nhymns, because I have seen the effect produced by those of Moody and\nSankey. If they would only return to this country, they would be\nastonished at seeing the influence exerted by those hymns which they\nsing.\u201d\n\nIt is worthy of incidental note that the most of those to whom the\nGospel hymn is anathema are not much in sympathy with any evangelistic\nmethods; nay more, they seem to shrink from popular manifestations of\nreligious life. They have sharpened the edge of their religious\nrefinement until it will no longer cut.\n\n\n                  _The Advantages of Gospel Hymns._\n\nThese Gospel hymns have several distinct advantages that should not be\noverlooked. They are simple, easily understood by everybody, quickly\nappropriated as his own expression by the most limited in education or\nculture. They are quite emotional, expressing feeling and creating it.\nThey are spontaneous and free, with no labored subtlety or recondite\nallusion. They are usually more or less rhythmical and stimulating,\nphysically as well as mentally. They are adaptable to various\nsituations and states of feeling. Even more than standard hymns they\nexpress personal religious experiences, and are more direct in their\nhortative method. The chorus, if intelligently written, emphasizes the\nfundamental idea of the hymn in an unescapable way. As a tool for\naggressive effort it has no substitute, and but one rival\u2014earnest and\nspirit-filled preaching.\n\n\n             _Discrimination in the Use of Gospel Songs._\n\nIt should be said, however, that the inventory of its values mentioned\nabove applies to only a comparatively small part of the Gospel songs\noffered to the public, just as the accepted standard hymns are a very\nsmall part of the formal hymns from which they have been gleaned.\nUsually its faults are aridity, vapidity, and shallowness. Yet in all\nthese shortcomings, specimens of equal weakness and futility can be\nfound in verses by accepted hymn writers.\n\nThe better Gospel songs are after all the sincere expression of a\ncertain stage of culture of mind and soul. That stage may not be high\nnor admirable, but it must be allowed its spontaneous expression.\n\nEvery generation has had its own ephemeral hymnody and will continue\nto have it in spite of all the scolding critics. When our religious\npeople stop writing and singing new songs and are satisfied to sing\nover and over again the songs of preceding ages, it will prove that\nthe process of ossification has set in and that vital force is passing\naway. Better that literary unskillfulness and mediocre musical talent\nshall continue to write, better to have ephemeral, shallow, and\nunsatisfying songs written by the thousands, than that the impulse to\nexpress spontaneously the vital godliness within should be entirely\nlost.\n\n\n\n\n                          THE SINGING CHURCH\n\n\n\n\n                               PART II\n                 HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF HYMNS\n\n\n\n\n                            _Chapter VII_\n                   APOSTOLIC ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT\n\n\nIn considering the origin of the Christian hymn, one must remember\nthat it is an outgrowth of man\u2019s innate impulse to express his\nfeelings in hymns and songs. That impulse is constitutional; man sings\nbecause he was so made that he cannot help singing.\n\nFurthermore, the Christian hymn is the natural development of the\nHebrew psalm, just as Christianity is the consummation of the Jewish\nreligion. The two systems of religion are related as closely as the\nfoundation and the superstructure of a great temple. We shall find the\nHebrew voice of worship not only leading the songs of the Apostolic\nChurch, but through all the succeeding ages sounding the controlling\nnote of all Christian praise. David and the sons of Asaph led the\nchoirs and congregations in chapel and church and cathedral as truly\nas they did those in the temple and synagogues. Christianity gave the\nPsalms a larger, more inspiring message and a more literary and more\nmusical setting; but the thrumming of David\u2019s harp has been heard\nthrough all the long centuries and is still heard around the world.\n\nThe Greek atmosphere in which the Early Church developed might be\nsupposed to have influenced the character of the Apostolic hymnody;\nbut the Greek Christians were not literary in culture, and the Greek\nreligion had no congregational singing. It took several generations\nbefore it began to affect the form and music of the Christian hymnody,\nbut eventually it was to become a formative force.\n\n\n              I. SACRED SONG IN THE NEW CHRISTIAN CHURCH\n\n\n            _The Rise of Sacred Song in Apostolic Times._\n\nBut when the baptism of the Holy Spirit vitalized and organized the\nChristian Church, the tide of sacred song began to swell. It had a\ngreat heritage from the dying Jewish church: its fundamental ideas,\nits laws, its prophets, its hope of the Messiah now transformed into a\nreality; but not the least of its inheritances were the habit of\npraise and worship, and the lyrics that gave them form.\n\nWe read that the Church was filled with joy and praised God.\nIncidentally, we learn that, despite sufferings from cruel scourging,\nPaul and Silas sang hymns in the Philippian prison, showing that with\nthe new wine of Christian joy there were created new bottles to\ncontain it. We may be sure this was not an isolated instance, but the\noccurrence of an established practice.\n\n\n                 _Apostolic Emphasis of Sacred Song._\n\nJames says, \u201cIs any merry, let him sing psalms.\u201d Whether he meant\nDavid\u2019s or \u201cprivate\u201d psalms is left open to conjecture. The American\nRevised Version translates it \u201cpraise.\u201d Paul is most definite in\nrecognizing \u201chymns and spiritual songs\u201d as distinguished from\n\u201cpsalms.\u201d Some commentators have interpreted the latter as David\u2019s\npsalms, the \u201chymns\u201d as the already accepted canticles, and the\n\u201cspiritual songs\u201d as the new songs, more or less improvised, that were\nsung by individuals, \u201cteaching and admonishing one another,\u201d \u201csinging\nwith grace in the heart.\u201d\n\nPaul\u2019s conception of the hymn, therefore, was not a collective hymn,\nsung by all, but a hymn of edification sung by individual singers. The\npractice of solo singing assumed in Paul\u2019s exhortations in Ephesians\nand Colossians, due to the perennial danger of governmental raids and\npersecutions, still continued in the time of Tertullian (circa 198).\nHe writes that after their common meal \u201ceach man, according as he is\nable, is called on, out of the Holy Scriptures, or of his own mind, to\nsing publicly to God. Hence it is proved in what degree he hath\ndrunken\u201d\u2014a refutation of the common charge of gluttony and\ndrunkenness.\n\n\n                  _Traces of Hymns in the Epistles._\n\nIn the eagerness to unearth traces of the supposed hymnody of the\nApostolic church, the wish has been father to the thought, and\npassages have been pointed out as probable quotations from hymns\ncurrent in the churches. Some of them are quite plausible, but others\nare examples of the periodic structure so manifest in the style of\nboth Christ and Paul and in the Oriental proverbial form, but lacking\nthe parallelism of the Psalms.\n\nIn Ephesians 5:14, Paul has the formula of quotation from the Old\nTestament, but no such passage, or anything approaching it, can be\nfound in either the canonical or uncanonical books of the Old\nTestament. If we should substitute \u201cit\u201d for \u201che,\u201d the second word of\nthe passage \u201cit\u201d might refer to a hymn in common use. Westcott and\nHort put it in metrical form, but the Revised Versions do not. It is\nvery plausible, however; even in the English translation the structure\nis distinctly metrical:\n\n  \u201cAwake, thou that sleepest,\n  And arise from the dead,\n  And Christ shall give thee light.\u201d\n\nEqually plausible is the passage in 1 Timothy 3:16, although not\nformally quoted:\n\n  \u201cGod was manifested in the flesh,\n    Justified in the spirit,\n      Seen of angels,\n  Preached unto the Gentiles,\n  Believed on in the world,\n  Received up into glory.\u201d\n\nThis is particularly true of such passages as have rhetorical warmth\nrather than inherent lyric quality. The extraordinary flight of the\nSpirit that has been called the \u201cHymn of Love\u201d (1 Cor. 13) can be\ncalled a hymn only by stretching the limits of the definition beyond\nall reasonable bounds. Noble as it is, no composer has ever succeeded\nin setting it to worthy music. As well call Lincoln\u2019s Gettysburg\naddress a Memorial Day Hymn. The same may be said of the ecstatic\npassage which opens Paul\u2019s letter to the Ephesians (1:2-12).\n\n\n                    _The Hymns of the Apocalypse._\n\nIt has been suggested that the choral passages of the Book of\nRevelation are quotations from current hymns. If that were true, how\ncould the little gatherings of Christians have risen to the majesty of\nthese marvelous hymns of adoration, either vocally or spiritually?\nThey are so intimately a part of the stupendous scenes in which they\nappear as to make their being merely quotations seem impossible. Only\nthe itch of a German-type scholarship to press out the last drop of\npossibility from any given historical material, and the calm assurance\nthat the results must be true, since it has recognized them, can\nexplain this hypothesis.\n\nThese hymns are too integral a part of the scenes, too consonant with\ntheir elevated spirit, and logically too inevitable, that they should\nhave been mechanically introduced or even adapted from current\nhymns\u2014they are too choral in the grand manner.\n\nIn general, we may accept the same judgment of Dr. Lyman Coleman, in\nhis work _The Primitive Church_. \u201cThe argument is not conclusive, and\nall the learned criticism, the talent and the taste, that have been\nemployed on this point, leave us little else than uncertain conjecture\non which to build a hypothesis.\u201d\n\n\n                       \u201c_The Odes of Solomon._\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Odes of Solomon\u201d is a Syriac collection of hymns which good\nauthorities claim to be of the Apostolic Age; one authority, Mrs.\nGibson, insists that it precedes Paul\u2019s letter to the Ephesians, while\nthe most conservative concede that it belongs to the first century, or\nthe first half of the second.\n\nIts discoverer, Dr. Rendell Harris, Director of studies at Woodbrooke,\nthe Quaker center at Selly Oak, England, says of the \u201cOdes\u201d: \u201cThey are\nutterly radiant with faith and love, shot through and through with\nwhat the New Testament calls \u2018the joy of the Lord.\u2019\u201d He quotes one of\nthem: \u201cA great day has shined upon us; marvelous is He who has given\nus of His glory. Let us, therefore, all of us unite together in the\nname of the Lord, and let us honor Him in His goodness, and let us\nmeditate in His love by night and by day.\u201d[1]\n\nThe first stanza of Ode XXVI is translated as follows:\n\n  I poured out praise to the Lord,\n    For I am his:\n  And I will speak his holy song,\n    For my heart is with him,\n  For his harp is in my hands,\n  And the odes of his rest shall not be silent.\n  I will cry unto him from my whole heart;\n  I will praise and exalt him with all my members.\n    For from the East and even to the West\n      Is his praise;\n    And from the South and even to the North\n      Is his confession:\n    And from the top of the hills to their utmost bound\n      Is his perfection.\n\n\n        _The Failure of Apostolic Spiritual Songs to Survive._\n\nIt is likely that the reason why no definitely recognized collection\nof hymns has survived from Apostolic times, and immediately\nthereafter, is that the singing, outside of the Psalms and Gospel\ncanticles, was largely extemporaneous. The later hymnic form and\nstructure had not yet developed. Dr. Neale, who deserves to be\nrecognized as a high authority, referring to the apostolic \u201chymns\u201d and\n\u201cspiritual songs,\u201d says: \u201cFrom the brief allusions we find to the\nsubject in the New Testament we should gather that the hymns and\nspiritual songs of the Apostles were written in metrical prose.\u201d\nRhyming did not come into use until very much later. The singing was\nin recitative with rather formless melodies. Such extemporizations as\nappealed to the body of believers were passed on from place to place,\nthe very best from generation to generation, from memory and by word\nof mouth, for illiteracy was the common lot of the mass of early\nbelievers. These people\u2019s spiritual songs were presently lost, much as\nwere most of our early American \u201cspirituals\u201d that served so excellent\na purpose.\n\nIndeed, it would be entirely correct to conceive of the stream of\ndevout song flowing steadily on from the \u201chymns and spiritual songs\u201d\nof the Apostolic times down through the centuries until our own time,\nsometimes finding temporary subterranean channels, as with the\nAlbigenses, the Hussites, and the Lollards, but always inspiring,\nrefreshing, and comforting the generations as it passes. It was the\n_Laus Perennis_, the unfailing sacrifice of praise, that day and night\nrose without break or intermission to the ears of the Almighty. In\nevery generation, hymns that had nobly served preceding generations\nwere replaced by new ones fresh from throbbing hearts that had\nre-experienced the vital truths of Christianity.\n\nIt is no condemnation of a hymn that the Church lays it aside. That it\nserved only for a season may have been due to its peculiar adaptation\nto the individuality of the age, to the temporary conditions and needs\namong God\u2019s saints of that particular time.\n\n\n\n\n                            _Chapter VIII_\n                       THE POST-APOSTOLIC HYMN\n\n\n            _The Post-Apostolic Church a Singing Church._\n\nWhatever conclusion we reach regarding the song service during the\nApostolic age, because of the meager facts we have regarding it, we\nhave sufficient information regarding the second, third, and fourth\ncenturies to be sure that the hymn had become a more and more\nimportant feature of the religious life. The tide of song swells\nlouder and higher as the generations pass. Clement of Alexandria, the\nreputed writer of the earliest surviving Christian hymn, \u201cShepherd of\ntender youth,\u201d writes, \u201cWe cultivate our fields, praising; we sail the\nsea, hymning.\u201d Jerome writes to Marcellus, \u201cYou could not go into the\nfield, but you might hear the plowman at his hallelujahs, the mower at\nhis hymns, and the vinedresser singing David\u2019s psalms.\u201d Tertullian, a\nlittle earlier, when the antiphonal singing was still in vogue,\nobjects to the marriage of a Christian with an unbeliever, because\nthey cannot sing together, whereas the Christian mates each would\nchallenge the other \u201cwhich shall better chant to the Lord.\u201d The early\nchurch was, therefore, a singing church.\n\nTertullian was not a writer of hymns, for he declared \u201cWe have a\nplenty of verses, sentences, songs, proverbs.\u201d We do not have their\nhymns, but we have the names of prominent hymn writers who sealed\ntheir faith with their blood: Ignatius, Athenogenes, Hippolytus, and\nmany others who did not win a martyr\u2019s crown.\n\nAll these hymns blossomed out of the consuming love for the Lord Jesus\nChrist, for which the Jewish psalms could give no expression. That\nthey were used for public worship we have the testimony of Pliny (A.D.\n110). His report from Bithynia to the Emperor Trajan was that \u201cthe new\nsect have a custom of meeting before dawn on a stated day and singing\nby turn a hymn to Christ as God.\u201d\n\n\n                   _The Earliest Surviving Hymns._\n\nUnless we accept the Syriac \u201cOdes of Solomon\u201d as an apostolic\nhymnbook, none of the \u201cspiritual songs\u201d of that age survive. The hymn\nwritten (or quoted?) by Clement in 170 is accepted as the earliest\nhymn handed down to us, with the \u201cCandlelight Hymn\u201d as possibly\ncontemporaneous.\n\nClement\u2019s hymn \u201cShepherd of tender youth\u201d is found in most of our\nhymnals and is in actual use.[1] Dr. Henry M. Dexter\u2019s version, as\ngenerally used, is an attenuation suited to the taste of our day\nrather than a faithful reproduction of the original, which begins with\na rather violent figure, \u201cCurb for stubborn steed\u201d (E. H. Plumptre).\n\nThe date of the \u201cCandlelight Hymn\u201d is very uncertain. It was so old in\n370 that another St. Basil could throw no light on its origin: \u201cIt\nseemed fitting to our fathers not to receive the gift of light at\neventide in silence, but on its appearing immediately to give thanks.\u201d\nThe version by John Keble is still in use:\n\n  \u201cHail, glad\u2019ning Light, of His pure glory poured\n  Who is the immortal Father heavenly, blest,\n  Holiest of holies, Jesus 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.\u201d\n\n\n           _The Relation of Hymns to Psalms and Canticles._\n\nIn the very nature of the case, these individual songs and hymns and\npsalms had no authority back of them. They were the \u201cspirituals,\u201d the\nGospel songs of their day and generation. Most of them were\nimprovisations for a single service\u2014flying sparks from the anvil of\nthe Spirit. Undoubtedly others had a longer life, were written out and\npassed from hand to hand and even from generation to generation.\n\nThese hymns were mostly in Greek, though some were in Syriac, and as\nfar as they were given a standard form they used Greek classical\nmeters. Some were modeled on the Septuagint psalms and were known as\n\u201cprivate psalms.\u201d Many were odes, like the \u201cOdes of Solomon.\u201d\n\nBut it is quite evident that this body of song was never regarded as\non an equality with the Psalms of the Jewish church, or with the\nCanticles of the New Testament. These had the sanctions of the rapidly\ncrystallizing canon of the New Testament, and the established canon of\nthe Old, which gave an authority that was lacking in the current\nhymnody. The relation was even more pronounced than that in our own\nday between the body of hymns surviving through the generations\nrecognized as \u201cstandard\u201d and the current religious songs of the hour.\n\nIn addition to the Psalms taken over from the Jewish psalter (not over\none-half of which were ever sung) and the Canticles of Luke\u2019s Gospel,\nthere gradually rose a subsidiary body of canticles which by the\nfourth century had been for the most part fully formulated. They were\ndevelopments of passages from both the Old and New Testament. In\naddition to the ejaculatory responses, \u201cAlleluia\u201d and \u201cHosanna,\u201d the\nfollowing were hymns authorized to be used in Christian services:\n\n1. The _Gloria in Excelsis_, developed from the song of the angels as\nfound in Luke, known as the Greater Doxology.\n\n2. The _Ter Sanctus_, based on Isaiah 6:3, possibly later associated\nwith Revelation 4:8, and called the Cherubical Hymn.\n\n3. The _Benedicite_, the song of the three Hebrew children in the\nfurnace, a paraphrase of the forty-eighth Psalm, likely taken from the\nApocrypha.\n\n4. The _Gloria Patri_ or Lesser Doxology, apparently handed down from\nthe Apostolic time, developed from the baptismal formula. It was\nexpanded during the Arian controversy, adding \u201cAs it was in the\nbeginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.\u201d[2]\n\n\n                      _The Hymn as Propaganda._\n\nThe inferiority of the popular hymnody became ever more pronounced as\nthe hymn was employed by heretical sects as a means of propagating\ntheir pernicious doctrines. Bardesanes and his son Harmonius in\nEdessa, Asia, a little later composed an entire psalter of one hundred\nand fifty psalms, \u201cdeserting David\u2019s truth and preserving David\u2019s\nnumbers,\u201d as Ephrem Syrus expressed it.\n\nThe Gnostic hymns during the third century were slowly undermining the\nfaith of the people, but it was not until Arius appeared with his\ndenial of the deity of Jesus Christ and spread broadcast his \u201cThalia,\u201d\na collection of practical hymns emphasizing practical duties and the\nvalue of the daily life of the people, as well as magnifying the\nhumanity of Jesus, that the full extent of the revolution in the\nreligious sentiment of the people became evident. He fitted his\nmeasures to well-known popular tunes, sung only by those \u201cwho sing\nsongs over their wine with noise and revel.\u201d\n\nArius, an ungainly giant of tremendous force of personality and\nunbounded energy, thus began a movement that was to convulse with its\ncontroversy the whole Roman Empire through many generations, even down\nto our own times, and was to prepare Asia and Northern Africa for the\nsuperimposition of the Mohammedan personality and cult upon an\nemasculated Christianity.\n\nIn 269, Paul of Samosata, an Arian Bishop, banished from his churches\nthe hymns that had come down from the second century because they were\naddressed to Christ as God and \u201cas being innovations, the work of men\nof later times.\u201d He began the Arian fashion of propaganda by means of\nhymns. As an answer to this came the great hymnic outburst of the\nfourth century, headed by Gregory of Nazianzus and participated in by\nSt. Chrysostom.[3]\n\nIt is not surprising, therefore, that the Synod that met in Laodicea\nin 363 ordered that \u201cpsalms composed by private men must not be read\nin the church, nor uncanonical books, but only the canonical of the\nNew and Old Testament.\u201d\n\nNor need we wonder that with the Arian fanatics interrupting orthodox\nservices by starting their heterodox hymns, the same Synod decided\nthat \u201cbeside the psalm singers appointed thereto who mount the ambo\nand sing out of the book, no others shall sing in church.\u201d\n\nThis robbing the lips and the hearts of the congregation of its share\nof the public praise, in order to prevent Gnostic and Arian heretics\nfrom profaning public services with their strife and contention,\nhardened into a perpetual prohibition, and in the Greek church the\npeople are mute to this day.[4]\n\nIt should be remembered that these prohibitions applied only to public\nservices and their liturgies. Outside the walls of the larger churches\nthe people were still singing. Indeed, the popular song was used by\nthe orthodox to displace the heretical songs of the Arians, as was\ndone by Chrysostom in Constantinople, in order to stem the tide of\nattack on the doctrine of the deity of Christ.\n\n\n\n\n                             _Chapter IX_\n                          THE GREEK HYMNODY\n\n\n                         I. EARLY GREEK HYMNS\n\nThe reaction of the Greek Church to the hymnic attack of Arians\ninterests us because of its influence on the general development of\nthe Christian hymn.\n\nOf the earliest hymn writers we know little, and their work has not\ncome down to us. We have a hymn of Methodius (311) based on the\nparable of the ten virgins, of considerable vigor and merit.\n\nThe most prominent figure that greets us is that of Gregory of\nNazianzus (327-389). He was called to Constantinople by the Emperor\nTheodosius to lead the orthodox forces against the Arian enemy. He was\nappointed court preacher, Patriarch of the Eastern Church, and\npresident of the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople; but the pious,\ngentle monk, while a great preacher and a fertile hymn writer (it is\nsaid that he wrote thirty thousand hymns), was not fitted for the\nstrife and intrigue rampant in the Capital; within a few years he\nreturned to his cell at Nazianzus in Cappadocia. His hymns are ranked\nvery high. Dr. Brownlee has given an excellent version of his \u201cEvening\nHymn\u201d:\n\n  \u201cO word of truth! In devious paths\n    My wayward feet have trod;\n  I have not kept the day serene\n    I gave at morn to God.\n\n  And now \u2019tis night, and night within,\n    O God, the light hath fled!\n  I have not kept the vow I made\n    When morn its glories shed.\n\n  For clouds of gloom from nether world\n    Obscured my upward way;\n  O Christ, the Light, thy light bestow,\n    And turn my night to day!\u201d\n\nSynesius (375-430), Bishop of Cyrene, was a brilliant man, a friend of\nHypatia, whom most general readers know as the heroine of Charles\nKingsley\u2019s great historical romance. He wrote some very tender hymns\nand poems that have been widely appreciated. He is best known by his\nhymn, \u201cLord Jesus, think on me,\u201d a free paraphrase of which (by Allen\nW. Chatfield) is found in some of our hymnals.\n\nAnatolius (d. 458) is known to us, not as the able and noble Byzantine\npontiff, but as the original writer of two quite different hymns,\ntranslated by Dr. Mason Neale: the evening hymn, \u201cThe day is past and\nover,\u201d and the descriptive hymn, \u201cFierce was the wild billow.\u201d He was\none of the first to forsake the classical forms and to put his\nthoughts into harmonious prose. He wrote few hymns, but all of great\nexcellence.\n\n\n                      II. THE LATER GREEK HYMNS\n\nThe earlier Greek hymn writers wrote in the classical measures and\nevinced an admirable sense of form; but the later hymnists, following\nthe example of Anatolius, wrote in rhythmical prose and not by any\nmeans as felicitously. Moreover, the later Greek language greatly\ndegenerated, losing its lucidity and subtlety of expression.[1]\n\nThe later Greek hymns had many ecclesiastical and theological phrases\ndifficult to render. They were filled with grotesque figures; the\nworship of Mary, and even of the saints, is offensive. Being mostly in\nrhythmical prose, they were not intended to be sung\u2014at most only to be\nchanted. Really they were not hymns in the ordinary sense of the word;\nrather they were the raw materials of hymns. As Dr. Brownlie says,\n\u201cThe writers are not poets, in the true sense, and their language is\nnot Greek as we have known it.\u201d\n\nThe more conspicuous of these later Greek devotional writers do not\nappear until the eighth century.\n\nAndrew of Crete (660-732), an archbishop, was a very voluminous\ndevotional writer. Among his more important works are the \u201cGreat\nCanon,\u201d[2] the \u201cTriodion,\u201d and the \u201cPentecostarion.\u201d The \u201cGreat Canon\u201d\nhas more than three hundred stanzas, illustrating by Scripture\nexamples the feelings of a penitent confessing his sins. He is\nrepresented in some of our hymnals by the hymn, \u201cChristian, dost thou\nsee them?\u201d translated by Dr. John Mason Neale and said to be taken\nfrom the \u201cGreat Canon.\u201d\n\nThe other hymnists of this century are John of Damascus (d.780), his\nfoster-brother Cosmas, the Melodist (d.760), and Stephen the Sabaite,\nhis nephew (725-794).\n\nJohn of Damascus wrote the best Greek of his generation and was most\npoetical in spirit and style. Gibbon calls him the \u201clast of the Greek\nFathers.\u201d His verse is characterized by being written in iambics (the\nmost common measure in modern hymns). His best-known hymn is \u201c\u2019Tis the\nday of resurrection,\u201d taken from his great Easter canon, styled the\n\u201cQueen of Canons\u201d and the \u201cGolden Canon\u201d by the Greek Church.\n\nJohn\u2019s foster-brother, Cosmas, survives in the Christmas hymn, \u201cChrist\nis born! exalt his name.\u201d Although his canons are very thoughtful, his\nstyle is often turgid and difficult to follow.\n\nStephen the Sabaite, the nephew of John of Damascus, the third of this\n\u201cnest of singing birds\u201d (to use Dr. Gillman\u2019s phrase), came to Mar\nSaba as a boy and remained there all his life. Dr. Neale found the\ninspiration of his hymn \u201cArt thou weary, art thou languid?\u201d in some\nlines of Stephen.\n\nThese three Greek hymn writers were monks in the monastery of San\nSaba, to be seen to the north from the highway between Jerusalem and\nJericho, on the rugged heights overlooking the Jordan valley.\n\nAnother group of Greek hymn writers appears a little later, headed by\nTheodore (759-826), abbot of the Studium, a great monastery at\nConstantinople. The group was quite controversial, the occasion being\nnot the Deity of Christ, but the enforced destruction of ikons, or\nimages. The hymns of this group were not all controversial.\nTheoctistus (c.890), an obscure and later member of it, when the heat\nof strife had presumably subsided, could write this devout hymn of\npraise to Christ:\n\n  \u201cJesu, name all names above,\n    Jesu, best and dearest.\n  Jesu, fount of perfect love,\n    Holiest, tend\u2019rest, nearest.\n\n  Jesu, source of grace completest,\n  Jesu purest, Jesu sweetest.\n  Jesu, well of power divine,\n  Make me, keep me, seal me thine.\u201d\n\nJoseph of the Studium (c.840), because of his many hymns, was called\nthe Hymnographer. He wrote too much to write well. His work is\ncharacterized as tautological, tawdry, tedious. Three of his hymns,\nhowever, had enough suggestiveness to inspire Dr. Neale to write \u201cLet\nour choir new anthems raise,\u201d \u201cO happy band of pilgrims,\u201d and \u201cSafe\nhome, safe home in port.\u201d Dr. Neale\u2019s pump seems to have needed but\nslight priming to bring up stirring lyrics from the deepest spiritual\nexperiences and emotions!\n\nThe most striking characteristic of the Greek hymnody is its sheer\nobjectivity. It is self-forgetful in its rapt, ecstatic contemplation\nof the doctrines and facts of the Christian faith. It is never\nexperiential or self-analytical except when it confesses sin and\nunworthiness. The sustained dignity and elevation of its praise and\nadoration are other admirable traits. Its consciousness of God, its\nunflawed acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, its assurance\nof the indwelling Spirit, give it a liturgical value beyond that of\nany other ancient hymnody.\n\n\n\n\n                             _Chapter X_\n                          THE LATIN HYMNODY\n\n\n                  I. THE BEGINNINGS OF LATIN HYMNODY\n\nThe early disciples in the West were accustomed to use the Greek\nlanguage, as may be gathered from Paul\u2019s writing his Epistle to the\nRomans in Greek. It is probable that their religious services were\nlargely in that language until there were Romans enough added to the\nchurches to make the use of Latin necessary.\n\nThat great ode, the \u201cTe Deum,\u201d comes to us only in a Latin form. The\ntradition is that it was an antiphon improvised by Ambrose and\nAugustine on the occasion of the latter\u2019s baptism, but that is\ndoubtless a hero-worshiping fancy of the ninth century. That a good\ndeal of it came from the Greek was to be expected and is quite\ncertain, whether the Dacian Bishop, Nicetius of Remisiana, gathered up\nthe Greek material or not (circa 400).\n\nOn the other hand, there is no Greek version extant, except a much\nlater one which is evidently a translation from the Latin.\n\nIt may have been written (or compiled) during the Arian controversy as\na creedal song to be sung by clerical or monastic choirs. It may have\ngrown by gradual accretion, from generation to generation, like the\nEaster hymn \u201cJesus Christ is risen today,\u201d which, begun in the\nfourteenth century, was not given final form until 1816.\n\nThis magnificent ode, for it is a hymn only by a considerable\nextension of the definition, appears in our modern hymnals only as a\nchant, and is practically never sung in our non-liturgical\ncongregations. It has been used as a choral text throughout all its\nhistory, never as a congregational hymn. It has had unnumbered\nsettings by the greatest composers of Christendom.\n\nIt is the high festival ode of the ages, used in celebrating victories\nor other stately occasions of great public interest. Its\ncomprehensiveness, nobility of thought, and elevated style befit the\ncoronation of kings or the investiture of popes. For the mass of our\nchurches, great as it is, it has only a historical interest. It might\nfind impressive use as a responsive reading.\n\n\n                     II. EARLY LATIN HYMN WRITERS\n\nBishop Hilary of Poitiers (circa 300-367), \u201cthe hammer of the Arians,\u201d\nwas exiled into Phrygia by Constantius because he called the Arian\nemperor \u201cThe Antichrist.\u201d In his exile he came in touch with the\nfierce propaganda waged on both sides by means of hymns. His\ncontroversial zeal recognized the opportunity, and he wrote a great\nmany anti-Arian hymns, which he gathered on his return to France into\nhis _Liber Mysteriorum_. That his book was lost was no great calamity,\nfor his fiery, combative spirit, valuable enough at the time, had no\nmessage for future generations. He woke a new interest in singing and\nfurnished a more practicable model. He undoubtedly suggested the\nantiphonal singing he found in the \u201cHinterland\u201d of Asia Minor and thus\nprepared the way for his fellow-countryman, Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.\nIf the latter is recognized as the father of Latin hymnody, and even\nof all the Western hymnody, Catholic and Protestant, Hilary is its\ngrandfather.\n\nAmbrose (340-397) had been a lawyer, not a product of the\necclesiastical system, and he brought to his office a freshness of\ninsight and of resources that might have been atrophied in the\nmechanical clerical education of his day. The value of song in\nsupporting the spirits of his followers when besieged for days in his\ncathedral suggested to his practical mind, stimulated by his musical\nnature, its wider use when the battle was won.\n\nAmbrose broke new ground for Latin hymnody in several essential\nparticulars. He transformed the merely reading hymn, confined to the\nclergy, to a singing hymn for the congregation, writing hymns for the\nexpress purpose of promoting congregational song. He passed by the\nartificial classical meters for the simplest of lyrical meters, four\nlines of four iambic measures each, which has come down to us through\nthe centuries as Long Meter. He also introduced the free use of\nrhymes.\n\nAmbrose was not only a learned man of great ability, but\u2014what is more\nto our present purpose\u2014a man of great piety and devotion. He sought to\nvitalize and actualize the devotions, personal and collective, of the\nChristian Church, to make them genuine and heartfelt as against the\nformalists to whom the mere letter is all-important. His hymns are\nevidences of his spirituality. There is room for stanzas from only a\nfew of them:\n\n  \u201cO splendor of the Father\u2019s face,\n    Affording light from light,\n  Thou Light of light, thou fount of grace,\n    Thou day of day most bright.\n\n  Thee, in the morn with songs of praise,\n    Thee, in the evening time, we seek;\n  Thee, through all ages, we adore,\n    And suppliant of thy love we speak.\u201d\n\nIn spite of the opposition of the Roman See, and the later effort of\nCharlemagne, in his zeal for the Gregorian system, to destroy all\ncopies of the Ambrosian hymns and tunes, the \u201cAmbrosiani\u201d still keep a\nsmall place in the Roman Breviary.\n\nAmong the contemporaries of Ambrose, no hymnist stands out more\nconspicuously than the Spaniard, Prudentius (348-424). He also had\nbeen a lawyer and a man of affairs. He had more literary gifts than\nAmbrose, and his poems show more personality, more charm, more\nunaffected sincerity. Bentley calls him \u201cthe Horace and Virgil of the\nChristians.\u201d A single stanza may illustrate his spirit and style:\n\n  \u201cThe bird, the messenger of day,\n    Cries the approaching light;\n  And thus doth Christ, who calleth us,\n    Our minds to life excite.\u201d\n\nMention should be made of Fortunatus (530-609). He was, like the later\nMarot of psalm-version fame, \u201cthe fashionable poet of the day,\u201d a\nprecursor of the troubadours. Later in life he became religious, a\npriest, an almoner of a monastery, and finally Bishop of Poitiers. He\nwrote a processional to be used at the reception of a piece of the\ntrue cross presented by Queen Rhadegunda. The hymn \u201cVexilla regis\nprodeunt\u201d has come down the ages. Dr. Neale calls it \u201cone of the\ngrandest in the treasury of the Latin church.\u201d We make room for the\nfirst and last stanzas of Dr. Neale\u2019s translation:\n\n  \u201cThe royal banners forward go;\n  The cross shines forth in mystic glow;\n  Where he in flesh, our flesh who made,\n  Our sentence bore, our ransom paid.\n\n                            * * * * * * *\n\n  Hail, altar! Hail, O Victim! Thee\n  Decks now thy passion\u2019s victory\n  Where life for sinners death endured,\n  And life, by death, for man procured.\u201d\n\nThe influence and power of the Roman hierarchy were steadily exercised\nagainst the use of hymns and in behalf of the sole use of Scripture\npsalms and canticles. It is a far cry from Gregory the Great to John\nCalvin and John Knox, demanding the sole use of canonical material in\nthe services of the church; and a like far cry from the Council of\nToledo in Spain in 633, which made a strong plea for the use of hymns\nin the church\u2019s devotions, to Isaac Watts and his prefaces to his\nseveral collections of modified psalms and of hymns. It was only\ntoward the end of the twelfth century that hymns of \u201chuman composure\u201d\nwere used in Roman churches, and then were sung by clerical choirs in\nthe larger basilicas of the capital city. The people were still shut\nout from their use.\n\nBut the impulse to write devotional material for the church service\npersisted. The Venerable Bede (672-735), scholar, theologian,\nphilosopher, historian, general encyclopedist, wrote both Latin and\nAnglo-Saxon hymns in his faraway monastery at Yarrow, England.\nTheodulph (d.821), Paulus Diaconus, Odo of Cluny, Cardinal Damiana,\nand other minor hymnists wrote hymns, some of which, transformed by\nskillful translators, have found use in our day.\n\nNotker, called Balbulus (850-912), of St. Gall in Eastern Switzerland,\nbecame weary of the long-drawn-out notes of the cadences of the final\nsyllable of the \u201cAlleluia,\u201d which was prolonged to enable the deacon\nto ascend to the rood-loft to chant the Gospel. It was suggested that\na text be supplied, a syllable for every note. At first these texts\nhad no metrical form and were called Proses. Later they were given a\ndefinite form and were called sequences, because they followed the\n\u201cAlleluia.\u201d These sequences continued to be written for over three\ncenturies and were brought to technical perfection by Adam of St.\nVictor.\n\nThese sequences, however, were an evidence of the abiding urge for\nlyrical expression rather than a step in the progressive development\nof the Christian hymn.\n\n\n                        III. GREAT LATIN HYMNS\n\nA more important figure in our study of Latin hymns is Rabanus Maurus\n(776-856), archbishop of Mainz, Germany, a great scholar, an\ninfluential teacher, a profound theologian, a voluminous writer, as\nwell as a great hymn writer. He had been a notable figure in German\nchurch history before hymnological investigators proved that he was\nthe writer of the great hymn, \u201cVeni, Creator Spiritus,\u201d the worthy\nsuccessor of Fortunatus\u2019 \u201cVexilla regis prodeunt.\u201d Its authorship had\nbeen credited at different times to Ambrose, Gregory the Great,\nCharlemagne, and Notker Balbulus. It is the only metrical hymn\nofficially recognized by the early English Church. It is sung at high\nceremonies like the coronation of kings or the consecration of\nbishops. The accepted version is by Bishop Cosin. It appears in our\nleading hymnals.\n\nThe next bead in our rosary of great hymns is \u201cVeni, Sancte Spiritus,\u201d\nby the helpless little paralytic and humpback, Hermannus Contractus\n(1013-1054). An excellent historian, a renowned philosopher and\ntheologian, a mathematician of unusual attainments, in short a\nuniversal and encyclopedic scholar, his chief glory now is that he\nwrote this hymn which Archbishop Trench rated \u201cas the loveliest of all\nthe hymns in the whole cycle of Latin sacred poetry.\u201d There is space\nfor one stanza only, the third of this great hymn:\n\n  \u201cO most blessed Light divine,\n  Shine within these hearts of thine,\n    And our inmost being fill;\n  Where thou art not, man hath naught,\n  Nothing good in deed or thought,\n    Nothing free from taint of ill.\u201d\n\nThe tide of the years had been flowing quietly with only here and\nthere rapids or an eddy, but now the current was hastening toward the\ngreat whirlpool of the Crusades. Hildebert, Peter the Hermit, Bernard\nof Clairvaux, Abelard, Peter the Venerable, Adam of St. Victor, stand\nout as lighthouses on an uncharted sea.\n\nNot the least of these was Bernard, the abbot of Clairvaux\n(1091-1153), scholar, orator, statesman, and man of affairs, of whom\nArchbishop Trent declares: \u201cProbably no man during his lifetime ever\nexercised a personal influence in Christendom equal to his; the stayer\nof popular commotions, the queller of heresies, the umpire between\nprinces and kings, the counsellor of popes.\u201d This does not suggest the\nwriter of such a hymn as \u201cJesu dulcis memoria,\u201d[1] the tenderest,\nsweetest sacred lyric of the Middle Ages. But he was credited with it\nfor centuries until it was found in a manuscript of the eleventh\ncentury and there credited to a Spanish Benedictine abbess, an origin\nmore consonant with its spirit and with its finished Latinity. Would\nwe knew more about her, this medieval precursor of Anne Steele, Sarah\nF. Adams, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Elizabeth P. Prentiss, and Fanny\nCrosby! Dr. S. W. Duffield holds \u201cBernard to be the real author of the\nmodern hymn\u2014the hymn of faith and worship\u201d; but now the iconoclastic\nmodern hymnologist denies him even the authorship of the \u201cSalve Caput\nCruentatum.\u201d[2]\n\nWe know very little about the other Bernard, who was a monk in the\ngreater abbacy of Cluny; but his authorship of the great indictment of\nthe Roman church of his time, \u201cDe Contemptu Mundi,\u201d is undoubted. His\ngreat poem of three thousand lines[3] occupied itself with the vice\nand moral filth which his pure soul detested. In his disgust with the\nmoral ordure in which his feet were immersed, he suddenly takes wing\nand rises to the heights to contemplate \u201cthe Heavenly Land.\u201d Dr.\nNeale, out of scattered lines and phrases of the original, with\nadditions of his own, constructed the wondrous mosaics which we\ndelight to sing: \u201cBrief life is here our portion,\u201d \u201cJerusalem, the\nGolden,\u201d \u201cFor thee, O dear, dear country.\u201d\n\nOne thinks of Thomas Aquinas (1227-1274) as the Aristotelian logician,\nthe profound Augustinian theologian, the philosopher, the invincible\nprotagonist of medieval orthodoxy, rather than as a hymn writer; yet\nsome of our present day hymnals contain two communion hymns of\nprofound thought and deep feeling written by him. \u201cPange, lingua,\ngloriosi\u201d is perhaps the finer; here is one stanza of Edward Caswell\u2019s\nversion:\n\n  \u201cNow, my tongue, the mystery telling\n    Of the glorious body sing,\n  And the blood, all price excelling\n    Which the Gentile\u2019s Lord and King\n  Once on earth amongst us dwelling\n    Shed for this world\u2019s ransoming.\u201d\n\nThe other, \u201cLauda, Sion, Salvatorem,\u201d has been rendered by Alexander\nR. Thompson, as follows:\n\n  \u201cZion, to thy Saviour singing,\n  To thy Prince and Shepherd bringing\n    Sweetest hymns of love and praise,\n  Thou wilt never reach the measure\n    Of thy most ecstatic lays.\u201d\n\n\n                    IV. MEDIEVAL DEVOTIONAL POEMS\n\nWe now reach the consideration of hymns and poems of great excellence\nin themselves but without the appeal, or practicability as hymns,\npossessed by the foregoing. Some of them appear in liturgical hymnals,\nor in more formal hymnals of non-liturgical churches, but their use is\nlimited.\n\nAmong these is Francis of Assisi\u2019s \u201cCanticle of the Sun,\u201d[4] not a\nhymn, but a psalm of praise for all created things. For our day it has\nchiefly literary and antiquarian interest.\n\nHis follower and biographer, Thomas of Celano (?-1255), however, wrote\na sequence or hymn that has intrigued the interest of generation after\ngeneration. Mozart\u2019s \u201cRequiem\u201d uses parts of it as its text. Goethe\nintroduces it in his \u201cFaust.\u201d Unnumbered translations of it have been\nmade into all civilized languages. Theodore Parker called it the\n\u201cdamnation lyric.\u201d In the original \u201cDies irae\u201d there were eighteen\nstanzas. The version of W. J. Irons has fourteen stanzas of three\nlines each, a few of which follow:\n\n  \u201cDay of Wrath! O day of mourning!\n  See fulfilled the prophets\u2019 warning,\n  Heaven and earth in ashes burning!\n\n  Oh, what fear man\u2019s bosom rendeth,\n  When from heaven the Judge descendeth,\n  On whose sentence all dependeth.\u201d\n\nSir Walter Scott\u2019s version is in four-line stanzas, three of which are\nused to make a practicable hymn. But who in our self-complacent age\ncares to sing any of these versions, portraying \u201cThe Last Judgment\u201d?\n\nAnother famous hymn, written by a follower of Francis of Assisi,\nperhaps Jacopone da Todi, \u201cthe fool for Christ\u2019s sake,\u201d is the \u201cStabat\nMater Dolorosa.\u201d It celebrates the sufferings, not of Christ on the\ncross, but of Mary, his mother, standing at its foot. It is the\nsupreme Mariolatrous hymn in sentiment and in diction. It is Roman, of\ncourse, not Catholic, and interests us only as marking the sincerity\nand the depth of the medieval sentiment and devotion to the Madonna.\n\nThis great hymn is noteworthy because of the many translations into\nmodern languages which have been made, seventy-eight into German alone\nand as many more into English, in whole or in part. Its emotional\npossibilities have appealed to many music composers, including\nPalestrina, Pergolesi, Haydn, Rossini, and Dvorak\u2014settings varied in\nstyle from Palestrina\u2019s high dignity to Rossini\u2019s almost theatrical\ntreatment.\n\nIt must be remembered that the Greek hymns of the Eastern church, and\nthe Latin hymns of the Western, were not in dead languages, as they\nappear to us, but in living languages, the vernacular of the persons\nproducing and using them. While the common people may have spoken a\ndifferent dialect, the monks and clergy used the classic speech as a\nvery mother tongue. The hymns were for the most part a perfectly\nspontaneous expression of religious conviction and feeling, a living\nproduct of vital experience, an instinctive expression of profound\nfaith.\n\nIn closing this rapid survey of a thousand years of Greek and Latin\nhymns, one is impressed that they are all clerical\u2014even monastic\u2014in\ntype and character. There are in many of them spontaneity, genuine\nfeeling, and personal experience, a profound sense of spiritual\nrealities; yet over all of them falls the shadow of the tonsured\necclesiastic, with his heart set on the impressiveness of the forms of\nworship rather than on the ultimate result in creating spiritual\nreactions in the individuals of the congregation.\n\n\n                     V. MEDIEVAL POPULAR HYMNODY\n\nAlthough the hymns whose origin we have been tracing were used in\nenriching the services of the Roman Church, and for guiding the\nmeditations and devotions of the clerical spiritually-minded readers,\nwe get hints of a people\u2019s hymnody used privately and in public\nprocessions, usually in the common speech of the region. It was the\nage of the Troubadours, a time of universal song. It is unthinkable\nthat a people in whose lives religion was a commanding influence\nshould have no songs of their own about it.\n\nBut among the Albigenses and Waldenses and other pietistic sects in\nremoter regions there must have been a hymnody all their own. They had\nno clergy, no connection with the Romish Church\u2014were in utter\nopposition to its forms and organization. Hence their natural impulse\nfor worship and praise compelled the creation of hymns of their own.\nThey were spontaneous utterances expressing their spiritual life in a\nnative vocabulary all could understand and appropriate.\n\nAlthough this people\u2019s hymnody has perished, because it was produced\nand used by the populace and contemptuously ignored or denounced by\nthe clerical custodians of the literature of their day, or by those of\nsucceeding generations, the hymns were widely sung in the homes, on\nthe streets, at popular religious festivals, and even in the remoter\nvillage churches where the clerical choirs were wanting.\n\nIt was these popular religious songs, rather than the more stately\nhymns read and chanted by clerical and monastic choirs, that kept\nalive the vital spark of religious feeling and devotion to Christ. If\nmost of the doves of song hovered over the head of the Madonna during\nthis long period, it was because she was the mother of Jesus. It was\nas the representative of all motherhood that she brought home the true\nmanhood of our Lord.\n\nThat this popular hymnody of the medieval period has failed to survive\nis no proof of its worthlessness. It is no condemnation of the sermons\nof Chrysostom, of Peter the Hermit, of Martin Luther, or of a thousand\nsermons preached every Sunday that they perish with the breath that\ngave them utterance. They served a good purpose in their brief hour.\nThat hundreds of Watts\u2019 hymns, and thousands by Charles Wesley, are no\nlonger sung, does not establish their uselessness, but only that their\nspiritual as well as verbal idiom is not adapted to the needs of our\nday.\n\n\n\n\n                             _Chapter XI_\n                      LUTHER AND THE GERMAN HYMN\n\n\n                 I. PRE-REFORMATION VERNACULAR HYMNS\n\nWhile there has been a traceable logical progress in the development\nof the Christian hymn, as in that of material creation, the generative\nrelations are not always clear. The link between Greek and Latin\nhymnody may be found in Hilary of Poitiers in the fourth century, but\nthereafter for five centuries they developed side by side along\nindependent lines.\n\nThe same may be said regarding the Latin and German hymns, Luther\nfurnishing the connection. But his connection is not so apparent with\nthe clerical Latin hymn as with the general impulse toward the\nvernacular hymn.\n\nLuther did not directly build upon the Latin hymns, although he did\ntranslate a few of them, but on the popular songs and hymns that were\ncurrent in his day. Since the eleventh century vernacular hymns and\nreligious songs had been in private use. The Gregorian rule that\nScripture psalms and canticles only should be sung in public services\nhad been strictly enforced in the monasteries and larger centers; but\neven there the proses and sequences had been allowed\u2014in Latin, of\ncourse. The first hymns sung in the common speech were enlargements of\nthe short responses allowed the people, \u201cKyrie eleison\u201d and \u201cChriste\neleison\u201d being surviving Greek phrases which were used as refrains to\nthe stanzas of the hymns. They were called \u201cLeisen,\u201d or \u201cLeichen.\u201d Our\nEnglish word \u201clay\u201d is a derivative from the same source. Many of these\n\u201cLeisen\u201d mingled German and Latin words.\n\nBack of the wrong conception of the way of salvation and the\nfanaticism expressed in self-torture, the Flagellant Monks of the\nlater medieval period had an intensity of conviction and a selfless\ndevotion that inevitably found expression in song. Bands of them made\npilgrimages through Christian lands in processions, singing hymns to\nMary and her Son in the common speech, little recking that they were\nhelping to fertilize the soil from which should spring the Great\nReformation.\n\nWhen King Conrad was anointed in 1024, our information is that\n\u201cjoyfully they marched, the clergy singing in Latin, the people in\nGerman, each after his own fashion\u201d, but this was not a church\nservice, it was a festival procession.\n\nVernacular hymns became more and more numerous during the twelfth and\nthirteenth centuries. The troubadours and minnesingers could not but\nstimulate their production, furnishing the metrical and rhythmical\nmodels and no small part of the hymns themselves, especially those\nglorifying the divine motherhood of Mary. The monks, the custodians of\nthe literary and scholarly product of this age, had no motive for\nmaking a record of these hymns, much less of their tunes, for which,\nindeed, no adequate system of notation existed; hence but little of\nthis popular hymnody survives. It was not until Gutenberg brought in\nthe age of printing that some of it was handed down to us.[1]\n\nThe great mystic, John Tauler (1290-1361), a Dominican monk of\nStrassburg, and others, wrote hymns of profound personal religious\nexperience that were widely sung. John Huss of Prague (1369-1415), the\nrenowned Bohemian martyr, wrote hymns in both Czech and Latin. In 1501\nand 1505 Czech hymnbooks were issued, the first congregational\nhymnbooks in the vernacular, the latter containing no less than four\nhundred hymns, while Luther\u2019s first collection, in 1524, nineteen\nyears later, contained only eight.\n\nIt will be seen that the foundations of vernacular singing by the\npeople, with popular tunes, had been laid, deep and wide, foundations\non which Luther could later build his German hymnody. In almost every\nparticular he had been anticipated by the Bohemian reformers, in\nvernacular hymns and psalms, in the use of the people\u2019s tunes, in the\nrevision of hymns current among the Catholics\u2014by discarding their\nworship of Mary and the saints\u2014in the emphasis placed on music as a\nvehicle for conveying Gospel truths and for the intensifying of the\nneeded propaganda.\n\nIn France, in England and Scotland, in the Netherlands, the same\nimpulses were felt. The fullness of the times had been prepared, and\nthe great protagonist and organizer of the spiritual revolt against\nthe hierarchy of Rome made of the hymn, which the ecclesiastical\nbuilders had rejected, one of the cornerstones of the new Church.\n\n\n               II. LUTHER\u2019S RELATION TO GERMAN HYMNODY\n\nLuther\u2019s objective in regard to the hymn was entirely different from\nthat of these representatives of traditional worship. He did not have\nin mind the perfecting of a liturgical service on the lines of\necclesiastical tradition, but the spiritual edification of the mass of\nthe people whom the liturgic monks had been ignoring. While too\nappreciative of the Latin liturgy to cast aside psalms and canticles,\nas well as sequences, he rejected them as models for his hymns, and\nhis creative impulse made the more appealing and practical folk songs\nhis basis of form and spirit.\n\nLuther was a great lover of poetry and music. In his youth he went\nabout singing in the streets and in private homes. He knew both the\npopular and the churchly music and was well prepared for his future\npost of liaison officer between the Latin and the coming German\nhymnody.\n\nHis great work in hymnody is that he took both the psalm and the hymn\nfrom the clergy, put them into the vernacular in metrical form, with\npopular tunes, and restored them to the people. He added to the\nfunction of the hymn as worship those of instruction, meditation, and\nexhortation. He added an entirely new dimension to the value of the\nhymn, making it a means of creating a religious atmosphere for the\nwhole life of the Christian\u2014personal, family, community. He made the\nGerman people a singing people and laid the foundations for their\nlater musical pre-eminence. As Dr. Benson says, \u201cHe took it [the hymn]\nout of the liturgies and put it into the people\u2019s hearts and homes. He\nrevived, that is to say, Paul\u2019s conception of hymnody as a spiritual\nfunction.\u201d[2]\n\nLuther\u2019s hymns are the root out of which grew all our Protestant\nhymnody. They are like Ambrose\u2019s in their plainness but, owing to\ntheir popular models, are superior in their metrical variety and in\ntheir cheerfulness. They are purposely cheerful: \u201cWhen we sing, both\nheart and mind should be cheerful and merry.\u201d They had also a more\ndefinite evangelical content, both objective and subjective, more\npersonal experience, more exhortation, thus immensely widening the\nhorizon of the hymn. Much of this was doubtless due to the Hussite\ninfluence.\n\nLuther anticipated Isaac Watts in demanding that the psalm should be\ntransformed into a hymn, retaining its important subject matter, but\nexcluding \u201ccertain forms of expression and employing other suitable\nones.\u201d\n\nThe most important characteristic of the hymns of Luther and his\nassociates was the burden of biblical truth. \u201cWhat I wish is to make\nGerman hymns for this people, that the Word of God may dwell in their\nhearts by means of song also,\u201d gives us his ideal and his practical\npurpose.\n\nLuther\u2019s hymns bear the characteristics of their writer. They were\nstraightforward, clear, and unpretentious, full of force and strong of\nconviction. He was no poet. He was not conscious of literary impulses.\nHis diction often is more forcible than elegant. Indeed, he was a\npeasant within whose horizon the elegant did not appear. Dr. Philip\nSchaff says of him: \u201cHe had an extraordinary faculty of expressing\nprofound thought in the clearest language. In this gift he is not\nsurpassed by any uninspired writer; and herein lies the secret of his\npower.... His style is racy, forcible, and idiomatic.\u201d\n\nLord Selborne, an English hymnologist, remarks on Luther\u2019s hymns,\n\u201cHomely and sometimes rugged in form, and for the most part objective\nin tone, they are full of fire, manly simplicity, and strong faith.\u201d\n\nLuther wrote thirty-eight hymns. Twelve of them were based on Latin\nhymns, among others, \u201cVeni, Redemptor gentium,\u201d \u201cVeni, Creator\nSpiritus,\u201d \u201cO Lux beata Trinitas,\u201d and \u201cTe Deum Laudamus\u201d; four were\nrewritten pre-Reformation hymns; seven were versions of Latin psalms;\nsix were paraphrases of other portions of Scripture, such as the Ten\nCommandments and the Lord\u2019s Prayer; nine were original hymns.\n\nNine collections were issued by Luther, beginning with the \u201cAchtlieder\nBuch,\u201d the first evangelical hymnbook in the German language, issued\nin 1524. It contained but eight hymns, four by Luther, three by Paul\nSperatus, court chaplain at Koenigsberg, and one of unknown\nauthorship. Later in the year it was increased to twenty-five hymns,\nbringing fourteen new hymns by Luther; it was called the \u201cErfurt\nEnchiridion.\u201d During this year, 1524, he wrote twenty-one of his\nthirty-eight hymns. Five years later, 1529, he issued another hymnbook\ncontaining fifty-four hymns. The issue of 1553, seven years after his\ndeath, contained one hundred and thirty-one hymns. Three of these nine\nissues had prefaces, as noteworthy as those of Watts to his several\nbooks of psalms and hymns in formulating the principles of the new\nChristian hymnody.\n\nLuther\u2019s masterpiece, \u201cEin\u2019 feste Burg ist unser Gott\u201d (\u201cA mighty\nfortress is our God\u201d), is based on the forty-sixth Psalm. It is one of\nthe greatest hymns in the whole Christian hymnody, great in itself,\ngreat in its influence on the Protestantism of northern Europe. Ranke,\nthe noted church historian, says: \u201cIt is the production of the moment\nin which Luther, engaged in a conflict with a world of foes, sought\nstrength in a consciousness that he was defending a divine cause,\nwhich could never perish.\u201d Carlyle recognized its majesty, \u201ca sound of\nAlpine avalanches, or the first murmurs of earthquakes.\u201d Calling up\nthe inspiration it brought to the Protestant armies, German and\nSwedish, in the religious wars after the Reformation, Heine\ncharacterized it as \u201cthe Marseillaise of the Reformation.\u201d It has been\nrecognized as the national hymn of Protestant Germany.\n\nA number of translations into English have been made. Carlyle\nsuccessfully reproduces its rugged strength in his version, but for\ncongregational use the translation of Rev. Frederick H. Hedge, made in\n1853, is more practicable.\n\nLuther\u2019s tune is worthy of the text in its ponderous majesty. A small\ncongregation, or a larger one that does not know it very well, can do\nlittle with it; only a large congregation singing lustily and in the\ncharacteristically German slow _tempo_ can do it justice.\n\nHis Christmas hymn, \u201cVom Himmel hoch da komm\u2019 ich her\u201d (\u201cFrom heaven\nabove to earth I come\u201d), his praise of Jesus Christ, \u201cGelobet seist\ndu, Jesu Christ\u201d (\u201cAll praise to Thee, eternal Lord\u201d), a revision of a\npre-Reformation popular hymn, and his doctrinal hymn, rejoicing over\nthe salvation wrought out by Jesus Christ, \u201cNun freuet euch, lieb\u2019\nChristen G\u2019mein\u201d (\u201cDear Christian people, now rejoice\u201d), have been\nvery much beloved and were very effective in building up the\nProtestant cause.\n\nLuther deserves well of the Christian Church, not only because of his\nown hymns, but because of the inspiration he afforded others among his\ncontemporaries, and to the generations since his day, to take up the\nwriting of hymns. Among the co-laborers in this field in his own\ngeneration were Justus Jonas, Paul Eber, Erasmus Alber, Lazarus\nSpengler, Paul Speratus, and Nicolaus Decius. Luther furnished the\nidea, the inspiration, and the model for all these hymnists. According\nto Koch, fifty-one writers contributed hymns to swell the Lutheran\nhymnody between 1517 and 1560.\n\nAs was to be expected, the early German hymnody was also enriched by a\nnumber of excellent hymns from the Bohemian Brethren. They were\ntranslated by Michael Weiss and Johann Roh, German ministers who had\nbeen associated with them.\n\nNo small part of the immediate success of Luther\u2019s hymns was the tunes\nwhich he provided. He used the melodies already current among the\npeople. He had providentially associated with him musical helpers like\nJohann Walther and Ludwig Senfl, who did the musical editorial work on\nhis issues. His settings of his \u201cEin\u2019 feste Burg ist unser Gott\u201d and\n\u201cGelobet seist du, Jesu Christ\u201d are still a valuable part of the\nmelodic treasury of the Christian Church.\n\n\n\n\n                            _Chapter XII_\n                       THE LATER GERMAN HYMNODY\n\n\n              I. THE RISING STANDARD OF LITERARY VALUES\n\nAfter Luther\u2019s death, the impetus of his hymnic influence gradually\nlost its evangelical force, and a more self-consciously literary\ncoterie raised both the literary and musical standards. Prominent\namong them was Bartolomaeus Ringwaldt (1530-1598), who wrote \u201cEs ist\ngewisslich an der Zeit\u201d\u2014the German \u201cDies Irae\u201d\u2014which probably\nsuggested the English hymn, \u201cGreat God! what do I see and hear?\u201d He\nwas a very fertile writer. Equally fertile was Nicolaus Selnecker\n(1530-1592), who wrote nearly one hundred and fifty hymns.\n\nMore important than either was Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608), a\nWestphalian pastor, whose \u201cWie schoen leuchtet der Morgenstern\u201d (\u201cO\nMorning Star, how fair and bright\u201d) and \u201cWachet auf, ruft uns die\nStimme\u201d (\u201cSleepers, wake, a voice is calling\u201d) have been and are the\nmost widely used of all German hymns outside of Luther\u2019s two\nmasterpieces. Nicolai wrote them while a great pestilence was raging\nin Unna, during which fourteen hundred persons perished. He wrote the\nhymns for his own comfort and that of his people. He also wrote the\nchorales to which they are sung and which have been called\nrespectively the \u201cQueen\u201d and \u201cKing\u201d of German chorales. On the basis\nof their intrinsic value rather than on that of adaptation to American\nspirit and type of church life, they occasionally appear in our\nhymnals, but they are rarely or never sung. Miss Winkworth\u2019s\ntranslation of the \u201cKing\u201d may be judged by the first stanza:\n\n  \u201cWake, awake, the night is flying;\n  The watchmen on the heights are crying,\n    Awake, Jerusalem, at last!\n  Midnight hears the welcome voices,\n  And at the thrilling cry rejoices;\n    Come forth, ye virgins, night is past!\n      The Bridegroom comes, awake,\n      Your lamps with gladness take;\n        Alleluia!\n      And for his marriage-feast prepare,\n      For ye must go to meet him there.\u201d\n\nThis chorale was used by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy as one of the\nclimaxes of his great oratorio, \u201cSt. Paul.\u201d\n\nThe popular \u201cTe Deum\u201d of Germany, \u201cNun danket alle Gott\u201d (\u201cNow thank\nwe all our God\u201d), was written by Martin Rinkart (1586-1649). Miss\nWinkworth\u2019s version is found in most modern hymnals and deserves wide\nuse, for it is entirely practicable in a congregation of average size.\nMendelssohn used this chorale in his cantata \u201cLobgesang\u201d with much\neffectiveness. This great hymn was written at the conclusion of the\nhorrible and disastrous Thirty Years\u2019 War. Michael Altenburg\n(1584-1640) wrote the famous battle hymn of Gustavus Adolphus with\nwhich the great Warrior King has been credited; \u201cVerzage nicht, du\nHaeuflein klein\u201d (\u201cFear not, O little flock, the foe\u201d) is still used\nin Germany. However, Luther\u2019s \u201cEin\u2019 feste Burg ist unser Gott\u201d was the\nmore usual battle hymn, as Altenburg\u2019s hymn was not introduced until\nlate in Gustavus Adolphus\u2019 campaigns\u2014indeed, has been called his \u201cSwan\nsong.\u201d Martin Opitz (1597-1639) deserves mention as a valuable\ninfluence in regulating the meters and in stressing poetical values.\nOne of the immortal hymns written during this period was that of Georg\nNeumark (1621-1681), librarian of the Duke of Weimar, \u201cWer nur den\nlieben Gott laesst walten\u201d (\u201cIf thou but suffer God to guide thee\u201d).\nOther hymn writers during this distressful period were Johann Heermann\n(1585-1647), who wrote distinctive hymns of prayer in a correct style\nand good versification; Johann Rest (1607-1667), who wrote six hundred\nand eighty hymns intended to cover the whole domain of theology (two\nhundred of which were in common use in the German churches); and\nMatthaeus Apelles von Loewenstein (1594-1648), Johannes Matthaeus\nMeyfart (1590-1642), and Paul Fleming (1609-1640).\n\nThis was a period of tribulation, calamity, and desperation, which, as\nMiss Winkworth remarks, \u201ccaused religious men to look away from this\nworld\u201d and led to a more subjective type of hymn, expressing personal\nfeeling. In general, the literary value of the hymns of this period,\nin form and diction and imagination, exceeded that of those of the\nprevious generation.\n\n\n                 II. THE GOLDEN AGE OF GERMAN HYMNODY\n\nThe spiritual deepening of this age of sorrow, the widening of the\nscope of the hymn by the inclusion of more subjective elements, and\nthe literary advance in the structure and diction were preparing the\nway for the Golden Age of German hymnody which followed the conclusion\nof the great religious war. It extended from Paul Gerhardt (1604-1676)\nto Christian Fuerchtegott Gellert (1715-1769).\n\nGerhardt had spent his young manhood amid the desolation and\ndifficulties of the Thirty Years\u2019 War. He did not enter the ministry\nuntil he was nearly fifty years old, having written no hymns up to\nthat time. A great preacher and a devoted pastor, he was a man of deep\npiety and of unflinching loyalty to the truth, as it was given to him\nto see it. As calamity followed calamity, under strict divine\ndiscipline in preparation for his great work in the writing of hymns,\nnot only for the German church, but also for the whole Christian\nworld, he united in himself the two tendencies, the one of viewing God\nand divine things in an objective way, characteristic of the early\nLutheran hymns, and the other, the expression of the emotion produced\nby such contemplation in the heart of the Christian, characteristic of\nthe subsequent period. He had the body of the older hymnody and the\nspirit of the new.\n\nMoreover, Gerhardt was a poet. Indeed, his writings were extensive\nlyrics rather than hymns. Some of them have furnished several hymns.\nHe was the Keble of German hymnody, and his influence upon subsequent\nhymn writing has been most helpful. There is a poetic fertility in the\nman lacking in his predecessors.\n\nHe wrote one hundred and twenty-three hymns, of which Dr. Philip\nSchaff declares that they \u201care among the noblest pearls in the\ntreasury of sacred poetry.\u201d They are of such uniform excellence that\nit is difficult to select those of outstanding merit. \u201cBefiehl du\ndeine Wege\u201d (\u201cGive to the winds thy fears\u201d) was translated by John\nWesley. \u201cO Jesu Christ, mein schoenstes Licht\u201d (\u201cJesus, thy boundless\nlove to me\u201d) is another most successful translation by the same hand.\n\u201cO Haupt voll Blut und Wunden\u201d (\u201cO sacred head, now wounded\u201d) leans\nhard on \u201cSalve, caput cruentatum,\u201d but has a spirituality the older\nhymn does not so fully display. Thirty of his hymns are in general use\nin the German churches, and Germany recognizes him as her prince of\nhymnists, superior even to Luther.\n\nGerhardt\u2019s contemporaries, John Franck (1618-1677) and John Scheffler\n(1624-1677), while fairly prominent do not compare with him in\nthoughtfulness and literary felicity. Both are more pietistic. The\nlatter has a somewhat exuberant style, intense and enthusiastic. John\nWesley translated and adopted one hymn known to our hymnals as \u201cThee\nwill I love, my strength, my tower.\u201d\n\n\n                   III. THE PIETISTIC HYMN WRITERS\n\nIn the latter decades of the seventeenth century, Philipp Jacob\nSpener, August Hermann Francke, and Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen\nled a strong movement of protest, called Pietism, against the arid\nscholasticism and cold formalism of the Lutheran church. It was a\nsecond Reformation, emphasizing piety and sincere emotionalism. It\npostponed the blight of Rationalism for a few decades and led a\ngeneration into a devouter, more genuine, religious life.\n\nSpener was a great leader and a good man, but no hymn writer; Francke\nwrote but few hymns, and so this phase of their work devolved on\nFreylinghausen. He was full of spirit, with attractive rhythms and\nflorid music. His songs were very popular, but lacked permanent merit.\nOther writers of this school were Schade, Schutz, and Rodigast.\n\nLess immediately connected with the Pietistic movement, but under its\ninfluence, are Hiller of South Germany, Arnold, a professor at the\nUniversity of Giessen, and Tersteegen of Westphalia, a mystic, all of\nwhom wrote very acceptable hymns. Tersteegen was highly appreciated by\nJohn Wesley, who translated his \u201cGott rufet noch; sollt\u2019 ich nicht\nendlich hoeren?\u201d (\u201cGod calling yet! shall I not hear?\u201d). \u201cGott ist\ngegenwaertig! lasset uns anbeten\u201d (\u201cLo! God is here; let us adore\u201d)\nand \u201cJedes Herz will etwas lieben\u201d (\u201cSomething every heart is loving\u201d)\nare others found translated in current hymnals. Lord Selborne speaks\nof him as \u201cof all the more copious German hymn writers after Luther,\nperhaps the most remarkable man, pietist, mystic, and missionary, he\nwas also a great religious poet.\u201d That he was a layman makes his\nreligious life all the more remarkable.\n\nA more widely known and striking personality was Count von Zinzendorf\n(1700-1760), a very devout but somewhat erratic man. He became the\npatron saint of the Moravian Church and shared\u2014perhaps created\u2014its\nzeal for foreign missions. He spent some time in the United States, in\neastern Pennsylvania, and in the West Indies, doing evangelistic work.\nHe wrote two thousand religious lyrics, disfigured to a large extent\nby extravagances and by repulsive materialistic similes and phrases.\nHis associate and successor, Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg, long\nresident in America, and Bishop Christian Gregor also wrote very\nuseful hymns. The Moravian hymnody is all the more noteworthy in that\nit had a great influence over the hymnic work of the Wesleys.\n\n\n                     IV. GERMAN REFORMED HYMNODY\n\nThe Reformed Church in Germany long followed Calvin in exclusively\nusing the Psalms of David, but finally felt the impulse of the\nLutheran hymnody. Tersteegen, mentioned above, leaned to this branch\nof the German church, although not officially connected with it.\nJoachim Neander (1650-1680), a Reformed minister at Bremen, wrote some\nextremely valuable and popular hymns of praise and was called the\nPsalmist of the New Covenant. Among his best are \u201cSieh, hier bin ich,\nEhren-Koenig\u201d (\u201cBehold me here in grief draw near\u201d), \u201cLobe den Herren,\nden maechtigen Koenig der Ehren\u201d (\u201cPraise to the Lord! He is King over\nall the creation\u201d), \u201cUnser Herrscher, unser Koenig\u201d (\u201cSovereign Ruler,\nKing victorious\u201d), still sung in every pious home in Germany.\n\n\n                 V. TRANSITION TO RATIONALISTIC HYMNS\n\nThe transitional personality between this Pietistic and the succeeding\nRationalistic era, was Christian F. Gellert (1715-1769), a professor\nin Leipzig University. He was a man of sincere piety; he was a\nteacher, not only in the classroom, but in all his literary efforts.\nHe wrote moral _Tales and Fables_, _Moral Poems_, _Didactic Poems_, as\nwell as _Sacred Odes and Hymns_. There were fifty-four of these, all\nin the same didactic style. They lacked the rugged strength of Luther,\nthe poetical element of Gerhardt, and the mystic insight of\nTersteegen; but this very matter-of-factness made his writings\nimmensely popular. Of all his hymns, but one survives in our modern\nhymnals, his Easter hymn, \u201cJesus lebt, mit ihm auch ich\u201d (\u201cJesus\nlives, no longer now\u201d).\n\n\n                      VI. RATIONALISM IN HYMNODY\n\nGerman hymnody suddenly fell from its exalted Pietistic rhapsodies\ninto a crass materialism. Dr. Philip Schaff gives a vivid glimpse into\nthe situation: \u201cHe (Klopstock) was followed by a swarm of hymnological\ntinkers and poetasters who had no sympathy with the theology and\npoetry of the grand old hymns of faith; weakened, diluted, mutilated,\nand watered them, and introduced these misimprovements into the\nchurches.... Conversion and sanctification were changed into\nself-improvement, piety into virtue, heaven into the better world,\nChrist into Christianity, God into Providence, Providence into fate.\nThe people were compelled to sing rhymed sermons on the existence of\nGod, the immortality of the soul, the delights of reunion, the dignity\nof man, the duty of self-improvement, the nurture of the body, and the\ncare of animals and flowers.\u201d\n\nThere is no poetical, much less religious, lyrical impulse in\nrationalism, and the church lyrics of this period have left little\nimpress on the hymnody of the Christian Church. It was the classic\nperiod of German literature, but it had few Christian elements in it.\nAthens and Rome, not Jerusalem, were the centers of intellectual\ninterest; and it might almost be said that it is a pagan literature.\n\n\n                 VII. HYMNS OF RENEWED RELIGIOUS LIFE\n\nAs in the immediate pre-Reformation age, in spite of the decadence of\nreligious life among the Roman Catholic leaders, there was a\nsemi-submerged piety that forced the Reformation inside the church; so\nin this recrudescence of paganism in the German church, there was a\ngreat body of earnest, pious Christians who kept the spirit of true\nGerman devoutness alive.\n\nThese were represented by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803),\nwho, although he set the disastrous fashion of re-writing the older\nhymns in order to improve their literary value by removing archaisms\nand harsh lines, was yet a devout man, writing the great German epic\n\u201cMessias\u201d and also some deeply religious hymns that were too poetic\nfor the common people. Another devout writer was Johann Kasper Lavater\n(1741-1801), better known by his treatise on physiognomy, who wrote\nsome hymns after the style of Klopstock, but with greater popular\nsuccess, for his \u201cO suessester der Namen all\u201d (\u201cO name than every name\nmore dear\u201d) has been translated and used in English hymnals.\n\nWhen the first intoxication of the new freedom from churchly, and even\nmoral, restraint passed away, the German church again found able\nrepresentatives to give expression to its religious life. Friedrich\nvon Hardenberg (1772-1801), also called \u201cNovalis,\u201d a mining engineer\nof fine literary ability, wrote some hymns of deep feeling and\nbeautiful style. Friedrich de la Motte Fouque (1777-1843), chiefly\nknown as the author of _Undine_, and as an outstanding representative\nof the Romantic school in literature, wrote some very beautiful hymns,\nincluding two missionary hymns of great excellence. There is a\nliterary and imaginative charm in these hymns, as in his general\nGerman style, that betrays his Huguenot heredity. Both these writers\nhad the literary emphasis that somewhat discounted the value of their\nhymns for the common people. They stand, however, as landmarks of the\nsubsidence of the rationalistic period in German hymnody.\n\n\n                    VIII. HYMNS OF PIETISTIC TYPE\n\nIn the reaction from Rationalism, Pietism again came into its own and\na noble roster of sacred lyrists have given it expression. This\nincludes Ernst Moritz Arndt, professor of history at the University of\nBonn, whose \u201cWahres Christentum\u201d was as necessary to every Christian\nhome as the Bible itself, a patriot who won the hatred and persecution\nof Napoleon Bonaparte by his patriotic songs, and whose hymns are no\nsmall part of the treasury of later German hymnody. Among them are\n\u201cIch weiss, an wen ich glaube\u201d (\u201cI know in whom I put my trust\u201d),\nwhich is one of the German classics.\n\nFriedrich Adolf Krummacher (1767-1845) is best remembered by his hymn\n\u201cMag auch die Liebe weinen\u201d (\u201cThough love may weep with breaking\nheart\u201d) and his missionary hymn, \u201cEine Herde und ein Hirt\u201d (\u201cOne\nshepherd and one fold to be\u201d). Still others are Friedrich Ruckert\n(1789-1866) whom Dr. Schaff calls \u201cone of the greatest masters of\nlyric poetry,\u201d Albert Knapp (1798-1864), editor of the outstanding\ncritical collection of German hymns, \u201cDer Liederschatz,\u201d and writer of\nmany widely used hymns, and Meta Heusser-Schweizer (1797-1876), of\nSwitzerland, \u201cthe most eminent and noble among all the female poets of\nour whole evangelical Church.\u201d[1]\n\nThe primate of them all is Karl Johann Philipp Spitta (1801-1859),\n\u201cthe most popular hymnist of the nineteenth century.\u201d The fifty-fifth\nedition of his _Psalter und Harfe_ appeared in 1889. He was an\nHanoverian pastor. He had been under rationalistic teachers at the\nUniversity of Goettingen, but toward the end of his university course\nhad a profound religious experience that affected all his future life;\nhe wrote no secular verse after that time. He was recognized as a\nmystic and pietist and his promotion was antagonized on that ground.\n\nMany of his hymns have been translated into English. Among the most\nsuccessful are \u201cO Jesu, meine Sonne\u201d (\u201cI know no life divided\u201d), \u201cEs\nkennt der Herr die Seinen\u201d (\u201cHe knoweth all His people\u201d), \u201cO selig\nHaus, wo man dich aufgenommen\u201d (\u201cO happy home, where thou art loved\nthe dearest\u201d), \u201cO treuer Heiland, Jesu Christ\u201d (\u201cWe praise and bless\nthee, gracious Lord\u201d).\n\nSpitta may be called \u201cthe Gerhardt of the nineteenth century,\u201d for he\nhas many of that great hymn writer\u2019s qualities as well as his\npopularity. He was sincerely devout, a man of an abiding sense of\nGod\u2019s care and nearness; his style is smooth and melodious as well as\npoetical.\n\nSpitta\u2019s hymns are very practical in length and form of stanza, and\nhis themes grow out of the common needs and experiences of general\nhumanity. For this reason they have been very largely translated into\nEnglish\u2014no less than thirty-three of them\u2014and, what is more\nsignificant, selected by editors of hymnals, especially in England.\n\nKarl von Gerok (1815-?) is another exceedingly popular religious\nlyrist of the nineteenth century, hardly second to Spitta. His\n\u201cPalm-blaetter,\u201d issued in 1857, reached its fifty-sixth edition in\n1886. By this time it has likely reached the century mark. But his\nverses are religious poetry, not hymns, and but a few centos have been\nadmitted to German hymnbooks.\n\nRecently the new rationalism and sensual materialism have again\nsubmerged the religious life of Germany and the impulse to write hymns\nhas lost its urgency. Whether the shattering of the illusion of\nworld-wide power, and the sobering effect of its terrible losses of\nmen and of wealth, will bring Germany back to her religious senses\nmust be patiently awaited by those eager for her highest welfare. The\nrecrudescence of paganism and its threat of renewed striving after\nworld dominance need not blast this pious hope. God\u2019s hand is still on\nthe tiller of the German national bark, and the heart of the German\npeople is not represented by the bulletins on the surface of its\ncurrent events, caused by the pride of nationalism in the shallow\nvocal stratum that stridently claims the world\u2019s attention.\n\nIn this hurried review of the development of the German hymn from\nLuther to Spitta much that is interesting and profitable has been\nomitted. But it is manifest that this German hymnody holds the supreme\nplace in the hymnody of the Christian Church in all ages and nations.\nThe reasons for this lie on the surface: the German people are a\nsinging people, and the instinct to sing their thoughts and feelings\nis stronger than in any other race. Again, they did not lose two\ncenturies under the spell of Calvin\u2019s devotion to the Hebrew Psalms,\nas did Great Britain and America. In contrast with the Latin and Greek\nhymnodies, it is the voice of the people, not the restrained\nliturgical voice of the clergy.\n\nThe German hymnody is often ponderous and heavy, often tediously\nprolix and dull, but at the heart of it is a profound realization of\nthe actualities of the Christian faith, and a responsiveness to its\nappeals to the hearts of men, that one cannot find elsewhere to the\nsame extent.\n\n\n\n\n                            _Chapter XIII_\n                          METRICAL PSALMODY\n\n\n           I. CALVIN\u2019S CONCEPTION OF CONGREGATIONAL SINGING\n\nWhile Luther recognized the value of hymns as pre-eminent in his work,\nhe still left a large place for the Psalms, himself making some\nadmirable versions and inciting others to do the same. But there were\nlimits to his sympathy with an undue and merely formal emphasis of\nthem. He canceled the obligation of repeating the whole Psalter once a\nweek, instituted by Cardinal Quimonez, as \u201ca donkey\u2019s burden.\u201d Luther\nwas a reformer, changing only what needed changing in order to secure\na deeper spirituality. Calvin and Zwingli were not reformers, but\nre-creators, setting wholly aside all the liturgy, the ecclesiastical\norganization, the clerical rules, and the distinctive doctrines of the\nRoman church, and building up an entirely new church with no other\nsanction than their interpretation of the Word of God.\n\nPerhaps unconsciously, Calvin harked back to the Roman attitude of\nGregory the Great, in insisting on purely Scriptural sources for the\nservice of song. He was too good a Biblical scholar not to know that\nthe Apostolic Church used \u201chymns and spiritual songs\u201d as well as\nPsalms; indeed he never categorically forbade hymns of \u201chuman\ncomposure.\u201d But the people had been forbidden the Bible. The Psalms\nhad been sung by the clergy alone in an already dead language. Calvin\ndeclared that \u201cif a man sang in an unknown tongue, he might as well be\na linnet or a popinjay.\u201d So he reacted somewhat violently. He had a\nprofound sense of the authority of the Word of God, and his mind was\npossessed by the idea of the divine sovereignty; hence religious rites\nof human origin seemed trifling and negligible.\n\nThis attitude was emphasized all the more by the Latin hymns sung and\nread in the churches, and on religious occasions, whose chief burden\nwas worship of the Madonna, and even of the saints, against which his\nmind rose in outraged horror.\n\n\n                 II. CALVIN\u2019S FOLLOWERS MORE EXTREME\n\nHuman nature being what it is, it was inevitable that Calvin\u2019s\nfollowers should carry his ideas to an extreme, and mechanically add\nthe conclusion that hymns independent of the lyrics of the Scriptures\nshould be forbidden.\n\nWhile Luther stressed the Biblical content of the hymns and exalted\nthe Psalms as the source of religious lyrical impulses, Calvin and his\ndisciples added a rigid and almost superstitious regard for the mere\nform of the Scripture lyrics. They accepted their distortion and\nmutilation in giving them a metrical form as justified by the\ncongregational necessity, and by the evident devotional results among\nthe people.\n\n\n                   III. MAROT\u2019S SUCCESSFUL VERSIONS\n\nBeneath his austerity Calvin evidently had an appreciation of literary\nbeauty and grace, for he developed an ambition to clothe the Hebrew\nPsalms in a literary French metrical dress. It was while this problem\nwas exercising his mind that there fell into his hands the French\nversion of some of the Psalms by Clement Marot (1497-1544), who had\ncome under the influence of Marguerite de Valois, the Huguenot\nprincess, whose _valet de chambre_ he was during his early twenties.\nIt is possible that he and Calvin met at Ferrara in 1535. Though the\nwork of a Huguenot poet, these lyrics were admired in high political\nand social circles in France. Written in measures fitting them to\npopular tunes, they were very popular among the royal courtiers,\nCatholics as well as Protestants, and were soon introduced into other\ncountries.\n\nThat he was later persecuted by the Roman ecclesiastics only\nrecommended him the more to Calvin. Here was a poet of high\nreputation, a skillful versifier of the Psalms, a fellow-sufferer at\nthe hands of the Roman hierarchy\u2014why not commit to his hands the task\nof supplying Calvin\u2019s new church with its needed book of Psalms? So\nMarot was called to Geneva.\n\n\n                IV. DEVELOPMENT OF THE GENEVAN PSALTER\n\nIn 1543, nineteen years after Luther\u2019s first venture, the _Acht\nLiederbuch_, appeared, _The Genevan Psalter_ was issued in the French\nlanguage. It contained fifty psalms by Marot. Marot died in 1544. The\ncompletion of the Psalter was committed to Theodore Beza of Burgundy,\nwho revised Marot\u2019s verses, eliminating the classical allusions and\noffensive gaiety. With the help of Bourgeois, and later of Goudimel,\nin completing and harmonizing the tunes, he finished the Psalter in\n1562.[1]\n\n\n              V. ENGLISH PSALM VERSIONS BEFORE STERNHOLD\n\nThere had been English versions of some of the Psalms before Sternhold\nundertook the task. Bishop Aldhelm of Sherborne, who died in 709 A.D.,\ncomposed a complete psalter. Two versions were due to Lutheran\ninfluence. That of Miles Coverdale, _Ghoostly Psalms and Spiritual\nSongs_, appearing sometime between 1530 and 1540, used some of the\nGerman chorales, including the great \u201cEin\u2019 feste Burg.\u201d\n\nThe Wedderburn brothers of Dundee, Scotland, issued the _Compendious\nBooke of Gude and Godlie Ballates_, also known as _Dundee Psalms_, on\nthe return of John Wedderburn, soon after 1539, from Wittenberg, where\nhe had been under the influence of both Luther and Melanchthon. Latin\npsalms and hymns had no value with young people, he insisted in his\npreface; \u201cbut when they hear it sung into their vulgar tongue, or sing\nit themselves, with sweet melody, then shall they love their God with\nheart and mind, and cause them to put away bawdry and unclean songs.\u201d\nWhile considerably better than the songs the collection displaced, the\nnew book was too cheaply popular, and undignified in many of its\nreligious parodies of popular songs, to satisfy the elders of the\nScottish Kirk (!) and they tried to suppress it.\n\nBut the lines of religious, social, doctrinal, and political influence\nconnected England and Scotland with France and Geneva so closely that\nit happened that the new English and Scotch psalmody was based on the\nwork of Marot and Calvin and not on that of Luther. To human minds\nwith some sense of literary dignity and style and of a more\nspontaneous expression of religious life and experience, it seems a\ngreat pity!\n\nThe first response in England to the new version of Marot was the\nLatin version of George Buchanan in 1548. Latin was an entirely dead\nlanguage to the commonalty, but was quite generally familiar to people\nof scholarship and culture. This version, in the scholarly language of\nall Europe (like the Mandarin in China), found wide appreciation in\nintellectual circles and many editions of it were issued. Of course,\nthe mass of the English people was not affected by it, and it had\nlittle or no influence on the development of English psalmody.\n\nThat there were vernacular versions already in use, is quite certain.\nRobert Cowley anticipated Sternhold and Hopkins in the versifying of\nthe whole Psalter, issuing his work in 1549. In the preface to this\ncollection he refers to previous versions which had passages \u201cobscure\nand hard.\u201d Probably they were Lollard or Wycliffite in origin, for\nthese \u201csweet singers,\u201d precursors of the Reformation to come, worked\namong the lower classes in the Low Countries as well as in England,\nsinging the Gospel in the vernacular.\n\n\n                 VI. VERSION OF STERNHOLD AND HOPKINS\n\nUndoubtedly it was the French Psalms of Marot, and their great\npopularity in the highest circles in France, that incited Thomas\nSternhold to undertake a like version in the English language. His\nfirst issue, probably in 1547 and 1548, contained nineteen Psalms. In\n1549 he published another edition containing thirty-seven Psalms.\nSternhold died in 1549, leaving but nineteen additional Psalms\nunpublished. Another poet, John Hopkins, a near neighbor in\nGloucestershire, contributed to the edition of 1551. In 1562 the\npsalter was completed. Of the one hundred and fifty Psalms, Sternhold\nhad supplied fifty-one, Hopkins sixty, all in common meter, and the\nrest were contributed by various writers. It also contained metrical\nversions of the Canticles, the Ten Commandments, the Athanasian Creed,\nthe Te Deum, the Lord\u2019s Prayer, an English version of the festival\nhymn, \u201cVeni, Creator Spiritus,\u201d and several original English hymns.\n\nThis psalter had a popularity equaled only by _Hymns Ancient and\nModern_ and the _Gospel Hymns_ series in the recent past. Within half\na century more than fifty editions were issued. By 1841 no less than\nsix hundred and fifty different editions had been absorbed by the\nreligious public\u2014more than all other metrical versions combined.\n\nThis version was adopted by the Church of England in 1562 and\ncontinued to be used for nearly two hundred and fifty years, despite\nits notorious crudities and imperfections, and despite the many\nefforts made to supersede it by other versions and by hymns. The\nsinging of Psalms became universal. At St. Paul\u2019s Cross, after the\nservice, there were sometimes six thousand persons engaged in singing\nPsalms. It was a time of genuine community singing.\n\n\n                       VII. THE SCOTCH VERSION\n\nIn 1556, John Knox issued his _Anglo-Genevan Psalter_, based on the\n1551 edition of Sternhold and Hopkins, with some alterations and\nadditions. It naturally was greatly influenced by Calvin\u2019s _Genevan\nPsalter_. The _Anglo-Genevan Psalter_ is significant chiefly because\nof its influence on the Scotch Psalter. Through that, it is the source\nof some psalms and tunes still in use\u2014notably, \u201cAll people that on\nearth do dwell\u201d and \u201cOld Hundredth\u201d to which the Long Meter Doxology\nis sung.\n\nThe Scotch Psalter developed on a different line. The Psalm editors of\nthe Scottish Church accepted eighty-seven of the Anglo-Genevan Psalms,\nadded and somewhat altered forty-two from the final Sternhold and\nHopkins editions, and supplied twenty-one from their own versifiers.\nIt appeared in 1564 and was adopted by the General Assembly as its\nauthorized Psalm book.\n\nIn 1600 James I began a revision and himself wrote thirty-five of the\nPsalms before his death. This psalter was completed by William\nAlexander and was issued in 1630, being known as the _Royal Psalter_.\nCharles I bound up a revised edition of it with a new liturgy prepared\nby the Scotch bishops in 1536, and ordered its exclusive use. But the\nScotch clergy declined with thanks, having no use for \u201cthe mass in\nEnglish.\u201d\n\nBut the question of a revision of this Psalter having been raised, its\ndeficiencies, which had been passively accepted, rose up into\nconsciousness. Rous\u2019 version, adopted by the Westminster Assembly in\n1643, and hence widely used in England, was made the basis of the new\nScotch Psalter and, after seven years of amending and revision, was\nadopted in 1650. It is still used in Scotland and in American\nPresbyterian churches whose eyes look back reverently to Scotland.\n\n\n                         VIII. ROUS\u2019 VERSION\n\nRous\u2019 version was made by Francis Rous, Provost of Eton College,\nOxford, a Presbyterian lawyer and a man of public affairs. It was an\nimprovement on Sternhold and Hopkins, but still left much to be\ndesired in smoothness of versification and grace of diction, owing to\nthe continued loyalty to the original phraseology of the Psalms. Hence\nit had some \u201cawful examples,\u201d to use Matthew Arnold\u2019s phrase, whose\nrepetition here might amuse but not edify. But it also had some happy\nstanzas that we still are glad to sing, e.g.:\n\n  \u201cThe Lord\u2019s my Shepherd, I\u2019ll not want;\n    He makes me down to lie\n  In pastures green; he leadeth me\n    The quiet waters by.\u201d\n\nCompare this with Archbishop Parker\u2019s version of the Shepherd Psalm\nwritten in 1557:\n\n  \u201cTo feed my neede: he will me leade\n    To pastures green and fat:\n  He forth brought me: in libertie\n    To waters delicate.\u201d\n\nBut with the blindness of the versifiers to the need of diversifying\ntheir meters in the interest of varied and attractive tunes, all the\npsalms were written in Common Meter.[2]\n\n\n                  IX. TATE AND BRADY\u2019S \u201cNEW VERSION\u201d\n\nA new version by two Irishmen, Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady, appeared\nin 1696. Tate was a literary man, a playwright, a poet, and finally\npoet laureate. Brady had a rather varied clerical career in Ireland\nand in England, becoming chaplain to King William. This will partly\nexplain why this version received royal endorsement and gradually\nreplaced Sternhold and Hopkins in the English Church. It was adopted\nby the Protestant Episcopal Church of America in 1789. The fact that\nthe Nonconformist churches remained faithful to the \u201cOld Version\u201d and\nto Rous\u2019 version, no doubt had its bearing on the final acceptance of\nthe \u201cNew Version\u201d by the Established Church.\n\nThis \u201cNew Version\u201d was a little smoother than the \u201cOld Version,\u201d and\nhad a little more literary grace, but still was shackled by devotion\nto \u201cpurity\u201d\u2014to the exact thought and phraseology of the Hebrew Psalms.\nNevertheless, as Gillman says, \u201cthis book contained a plentiful supply\nof chaff, but perhaps a few more grains of golden corn than\nSternhold\u2019s.\u201d \u201cAs pants the hart for cooling streams\u201d and \u201cThrough all\nthe changing scenes of life\u201d are still highly prized, and Tate\u2019s\nChristmas Carol, \u201cWhile shepherds watched their flocks by night\u201d\n(which appeared in a supplement to the \u201cNew Version\u201d) is a masterly\nadaptation of the Nativity story. On the other hand, Montgomery, in\ncomparing the \u201cNew Version\u201d with the \u201cOld Version,\u201d remarks: \u201cIt is\nnearly as inanimate as the former, though a little more refined.\u201d Of\nthe \u201cOld Version\u201d he says: \u201cThe merit of faithful adherence to the\noriginal has been claimed for this version and need not be denied, but\nit is the resemblance which the dead bear to the living.\u201d Old Thomas\nFuller wittily says of Sternhold and Hopkins that \u201cThey are men whose\npiety was better than their poetry, and they had drunk more of Jordan\nthan of Helicon.\u201d Thomas Campbell even more harshly exclaims: \u201cWith\nthe best intensions and the worst taste, they degraded the spirit of\nHebrew poetry by flat and homely phraseology, and, mistaking vulgarity\nfor simplicity, turned into bathos what they found sublime.\u201d From the\nliterary point of view these dicta are correct enough, but they\noverlook what is vastly more important\u2014the high moral and spiritual\nuses which these homely versions so amply served.\n\n\n                         X. AMERICAN PSALMODY\n\nThe Pilgrims brought with them from Leyden Ainsworth\u2019s version of the\nPsalms, published in Amsterdam\u2014Genevan rather than English in\ncharacter. Its use was largely confined to the Pilgrims and their\ndescendants. Presently the copies of both versions became rare and the\nservice of song depended on the \u201clining out\u201d of the verses.\n\nThe first book printed in America was the _Bay Psalm Book_, an\nindependent version of the Psalms made by Thomas Welde, Richard\nMather, and John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians, a committee\nappointed in 1636. It was proposed to make it more scriptural than\neither of the previous versions used. It appeared in 1640. Its preface\nconsisted of a discourse urging that psalm-singing was both lawful and\nnecessary. During the next century and a half no less than seventy\neditions were printed. It was improved by Dunster and Lyon and\nreprinted in Great Britain, eighteen editions being called for in\nEngland and twenty-two in Scotland. This was America\u2019s first\ncontribution to the song service of the Mother Country, but by no\nmeans the last.\n\nIt may be interesting to see just what literary style this _Bay Psalm\nBook_ could display, and a few specimens are herewith given. The one\nhundred and thirty-seventh Psalm, for instance, was given the\nfollowing form:\n\n  1. \u201cThe rivers on of Babilon\n      There when wee did sit downe:\n    Yea, even then wee mourned when\n      wee remembred Sion.\n\n  2. Our Harp wee did hang it amid\n      Upon the willow tree,\n    Because there they that us away\n      led in captivitee,\n\n  3. Required of us a song and thus\n      ask mirth: us waste who laid,\n    sing us among a Sion\u2019s song\n      unto us then they said.\n\n  4. The Lord\u2019s song sing can wee? being\n      in stranger\u2019s land. Then let\n    loose her skill my right hand, if I\n      Jerusalem forget.\n\n  5. Let cleave my tongue my pallate on\n      if minde thee doe not I\n    if chief joys or\u2019e I prize not more\n      Jerusalem my joy.\u201d\n\nCotton Mather\u2019s rhymeless version was much more sensible in its form,\nfor it eliminated the chief handicap in producing a literal version in\nmetrical form.\n\nAs in the Psalm versions of England and Scotland, there was a vivid\nconsciousness of literary and poetic shortcomings; but the sense of\nobligation to supply a literal translation of the Hebrew overrode all\nimpulses toward a smoother rendering. The preface frankly states the\nposition of the committee: \u201cIf therefore the verses are not always so\nsmooth and elegant as some may desire or expect; let them consider\nthat God\u2019s altar needs not our polishing (Ex. 20), for we have\nrespected rather a plaine translation, than to smooth our verses with\nthe sweetness of any paraphrase, and soe have attended Conscience\nrather than Elegance, fidelity rather than poetry, in translating the\nHebrew words into English language and David\u2019s poetry into English\nmeetre.\u201d\n\nThere were other American Psalm versions, but the only versions worth\nconsidering are the revisions of Isaac Watts\u2019 Psalms, which will come\nup in introducing American hymnody later.\n\n\n                 XI. THE VALUE OF THE PSALM VERSIONS\n\nIn smiling over this rude psalmody of England, Scotland, and America,\nit is always to be remembered that these versions were not a literary\nendeavor. Their ambition was to secure \u2018purity,\u2019 loyalty to the rather\nprosaically conceived doctrines of the originals. There was no thought\nof poetry or of literary finish. The meter and rhyme were practical\ndevices to make congregational singing possible.\n\n\n\n\n                            _Chapter XIV_\n                    THE ENGLISH HYMN BEFORE WATTS\n\n\n                     I. THE EARLIEST ENGLISH HYMN\n\nJust as Gregory the Great did not create the music that bears his\nname, nor Luther the congregational hymnody, so Isaac Watts did not\noriginate the English hymnody of which he is often termed the father.\nThe Lollards, or Wickliffites, sang metrical psalms, and also hymns,\nin the Low Countries, as well as in England, long before Luther, or\nMarot, or Sternhold.\n\nMoreover, the emphasis of the Psalms was an ecclesiastical, clerical\nattitude, while the people at large to whom the Scriptures had been a\nclosed book, and the Psalms an unknown language, sang such vernacular\nhymns as sprang up among them; so, while we cannot doubt but that they\nsang some metrical psalms, based on the Wickliffe English Bible, the\nbody of their singing was presumably hymnic.\n\nIndeed, we must go back much farther to find the spring of religious\nsong that was to become a great river of praise. Caedmon, a monk,\noriginally a swineherd, of the early seventh century, supplied the\nearliest recorded English hymns:\n\n  \u201cNow must we hymn the Master of heaven,\n  The might of the Maker, the deeds of the Father,\n    The thought of his heart.\u201d\n\nUndoubtedly the times before Caedmon were resonant with earlier songs,\nfor the Venerable Bede (673-735) in the next generation records the\nfact of a great deal of singing among the people. Indeed, he himself\nwrote hymns in Anglo-Saxon, as well as in Latin. Patrick and Colombo\nsang psalms and hymns and made them a means of converting the pagans\nof Ireland and Scotland.\n\n\n          II. ENGLISH HYMNODY SUBMERGED BY REFORMED PSALMODY\n\nThe urge, not only for versifying all parts of the Scriptures,\nincluding genealogies, but of actually singing them with fervor,\nsubmerged the native impulse of song. The religious loyalty to the\nletter of the Scriptures that followed closed the door against the\ndevelopment of the English hymn.[1]\n\nProfessor Reeves in his _The Hymn as Literature_ remarks: \u201cAs vigorous\nand variegated and prevalent as this union of popular poetry and\npopular music was in England, it strangely weakened and paled at the\none time in English history when it might have been expected most to\nflourish. The Reformation, born of that new freedom of thought and\nworship which produces the best hymnody, did not in England, as it\ngloriously did in Germany, speak out richly in the native vernacular\nhymn.\u201d[2]\n\n\n       III. ENGLISH LITERARY IDEALS UNFAVORABLE TO HYMN-WRITING\n\nBut it was not only the blight of a narrow bibliolatry that prevented\nthe development of the English religious lyric. English poetry had\nlost its spontaneity and its gracious simplicity in a self-conscious\ndevotion to false literary ideals.\n\nThe conception of a congregational hymn did not exist among the\nliterary men of the Reformation and later. Indeed, that Reformation\namong the cultured and intellectual classes was not so much a\nreligious transformation as a political and cultural repudiation of\nclerical bonds, and an enjoyment of new liberties. There was some\nreligious feeling, of course, but it was expressed in elaborate forms,\nnot in spontaneous simple lyrics that the people could sing.\n\nThe technic of the singing hymn had not been developed, nor its\nlimitations recognized. It took nearly a century before even an\napproximation could be reached to the practicability of the Lutheran\nhymns, which were written, not by literary connoisseurs, but by men in\nclose touch with the people, men who had with singleness of mind\nstriven to win and edify them. As we study the English lyrics,\nwritten, not to be sung, but simply to express the personal feelings\nof the writer in the current style and in complicated measures, we see\nhow far English poets had to go before a practicable singing hymn\ncould be written.\n\nThe conceptions of poetry, the prevalent grandioseness of style, the\nstudied phrasemaking, the excessive Latinity of vocabulary among\ndistinctively literary men, made the simplicity needed in a\ncongregational hymn impossible. Despite Mr. Horder\u2019s enthusiasm over\nthe possible use Luther would have made of John Milton, the German\nhymnody creator could have done nothing with the ponderous\nlarge-planning author of _Paradise Lost_, with his wealth of classical\nallusions and mythology, and his phrasing rich with preciosity.\nMilton\u2019s Psalm versions, fine as they are, were simply not singable by\nthe commonalty of his time who were to be depended on to do the\nsinging. He was a writer of odes, not of singing hymns.\n\nHere is a literary hymn\u2014balancing phrases, piling up antitheses,\nconsciously seeking striking and euphonious combinations of words:\n\n  \u201cI praise Him most, I love Him best, all praise and love is His;\n  While Him I love, in Him I live, and cannot live amiss.\n  Love\u2019s sweetest mark, laud\u2019s highest theme, man\u2019s most desired\n              Light,\n  To love Him life, to leave Him death, to live in Him delight.\u201d\n\nThe writer of the foregoing, Robert Southwell, a Romanist martyr,\nwriting in prison, could write simple lyrics out of the fullness and\ngenuineness of his religious experience, but it was not in the\naccepted fashion. What Protestant dare refuse to sing this simple hymn\nof his?\n\n  \u201cYet God\u2019s must I remain,\n    By death, by wrong, by shame;\n  I cannot blot out of my heart\n    That grace wrought in his name.\u201d\n\n\n     IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TECHNIC OF WRITING SINGING HYMNS\n\nAll these writers, and many others that might be mentioned, had not\nacquired the technic of congregational hymn writing. They either did\nnot recognize the limitations of the singing hymn, or refused to be\nhampered by its restraints.\n\nBut presently the idea of the singing hymn defined itself. Thomas\nCampion in 1613 issued a number of lyrics that combined spiritual\ninsight, literary grace, and practical availability to a hitherto\nunattained degree. Dr. Benson characterizes his\n\n  \u201cNever weather-beaten sail\n  More willing beat to shore,\u201d\n\nas \u201camong the loveliest of the lyrics expressing the heavenly\nhomesickness.\u201d Campion was a musician as well as a poet, which partly\naccounts for the singability of his hymns.\n\nIn 1623 George Withers issued a complete hymnbook for the Established\nChurch. It was made up of Scriptural paraphrases and hymns for special\noccasions. The hymns are superior to previous attempts in structure\nand method, in their simple piety and practical purpose, and in their\navailability for actual congregational singing. But in the midst of\nadmirable lines there were strange lapses in taste. The hymn whose\nfirst verse began so auspiciously,\n\n  \u201cCome, oh, come, in pious lays\n  Sound we God Almighty\u2019s praise;\n  Hither bring in one consent\n  Heart and voice and instrument,\u201d\n\nmakes the singing congregation a conductor directing a vast chorus:\n\n  \u201cFrom earth\u2019s vast and hollow womb\n  Music\u2019s deepest bass may come;\n  Seas and floods, from shore to shore,\n  Shall their counter-tenors roar,\u201d etc.\n\nClever in a way, but hardly devotional!\n\nWithers\u2019 \u201cMusicians\u2019 Hymn\u201d has a very practical hint to the \u201csingers\u2019\ngallery,\u201d as well as to the congregation:\n\n    \u201cHe sings and plays\n  The songs which best Thou lovest,\n    Who does and says\n  The things which Thou approvest.\u201d\n\nWhat Withers\u2019 influence on subsequent English hymnody might have been\nwe can only conjecture: the Company of Stationers boycotted his book\nbecause he had secured the king\u2019s order to bind it up with the Psalter\nand shut it out from the regular channels of trade. His second\ncollection, \u201cHallelujah,\u201d was even more practicable and candidly\ndidactic in style. But Withers had but a slight, if any, influence,\nfor Sternhold and Hopkins still ruled the worship of the churches.\n\nHis immediate successors in hymn writing, Herbert, Donne, Crashaw, and\nVaughan, were not influenced by his practical spirit and sang to\nplease themselves, not to lead the congregation.\n\nGeorge Herbert (1593-1633) was a devout soul, full of a usually\ncharming fantasy and fertile in imagery; but antithesis was still an\nallurement to poets in his generation. His \u201cAntiphon\u201d makes an\neffective hymn, but the inevitable contrast is still there:\n\n  \u201cThe heavens are not too high,\n  His praise may thither fly;\n  The earth is not too low,\n  His praises there may grow.\u201d\n\nDonne, Crashaw, and Vaughan all share in the quaintness of Herbert and\nalso in his general hymnic impracticability.\n\nRobert Herrick (1591-1674), the singer of rather worldly songs, but a\nliterary artist withal, in his \u201cLitany to the Holy Spirit\u201d reaches\nmore nearly up to the ideal of the singing hymn:\n\n  \u201cIn the hour of my distress,\n  When temptations me oppress,\n  And when I my sins confess,\n    Sweet Spirit, comfort me.\u201d\n\nBut when in the second stanza he descends to a description of a\nfeverish sleepless night,\n\n  \u201cWhen I lie within my bed\n  Sick in heart and sick in head,\n  And with doubts discomforted,\n    Sweet Spirit, comfort me,\u201d\n\na doubt of its congruity on the lips of a crowd of worshipers begins\nto rise. But when in the fourth and fifth verses one is asked to sing,\n\n  \u201cWhen the artless doctor sees\n  No one hope but of his fees,\n  And his skill runs on the lees,\n    Sweet Spirit, comfort me.\n\n  When his potion and his pill,\n  His or none or little skill,\n  Meet for nothing but to kill,\n    Sweet Spirit, comfort me,\u201d\n\none understands why, despite some fine lines, hymnal editors hesitate\nto use it.\n\nRichard Baxter (1615-1691), chiefly remembered by his _Saints\u2019\nEverlasting Rest_ and _Call to the Unconverted_ and a mass of other\nmost useful writings, prepared a metrical psalter which found little\nresponse; he also wrote some poetry, but, as a child of his age,\ndelighted in antithesis. One of his books of poetry had as its\nsubtitle _The Concordant Discord of a Broken-healed Heart_. His hymns,\nhowever, are simple in style and make a close approach to the\npracticable type. Two of them are still largely in use: \u201cLord, it\nbelongs not to my care\u201d and \u201cYe holy angels bright.\u201d Had the churches\nin his day given a fair opportunity, or furnished the inspiration of\ndemand, Baxter might have been one of our great hymnists, superior to\nWatts in his deeper spirituality.\n\nJohn Austin (?-1669) wrote some excellent hymns for a book of\n\u201cDevotions\u201d for family use. Among them is\n\n  \u201cBlest be Thy love, dear Lord,\n    That taught me this sweet way,\n  Only to love Thee for Thyself\n    And for that love obey,\u201d\n\nwhich still finds a worthy place in our hymnals.\n\nAbout this time (1616) the long poem, \u201cHierusalem, my happie home,\u201d\nappears to have been written. Only the initials F. B. P. are attached\nto the manuscript, now in the British Museum. It is conjectured that\nthey stand for Francis Baker Priest. Out of it have been fashioned two\nvery useful hymns: \u201cJerusalem, my happy home,\u201d by Joseph Bromehead in\n1795, and \u201cO mother dear, Jerusalem,\u201d by an unknown hand. The debt of\nthe original to the Latin is quite evident, but it has original values\nas well. Aside from its length, a common fault in its time, it\napproaches the final type of the congregational hymns very nearly in\nits simplicity, devoutness, and in its practicable measure.\n\nClosely allied to the Herbert school of religious lyrics, Bishop\nThomas Ken (1637-1711) had the advantage of belonging to a later\ngeneration in which the conception of the congregational hymn had\nbegun to crystallize into a definite form. His Morning and Evening\nHymns are both simple in structure\u2014in Ambrose\u2019s iambic long meter\u2014free\nfrom affectations and bizarre rhetoric, easily comprehensible, and\ndevout and spiritual. They have been accepted as among the best hymns\nin the language.\n\nThe doxology with which the two hymns close has been sung more\nfrequently and with greater elevation of mind and heart than any other\nfour lines in all earth\u2019s literature. There is in this doxology a\nnobility, a majesty, a comprehensiveness of praise which have not been\napproached elsewhere outside of the choruses found in the Book of\nRevelation. English hymnody had at last found its voice, its spirit,\nand its model.\n\nThe conception of the congregational hymn had now been clearly defined\nand, from Bishop Ken on, English hymnody was established as a distinct\ndepartment of English lyrical poetry. Hymn writers thenceforward were\ncontent to accept the mediocrity Montgomery later called for. The\ndifficulty was that the English Protestant churches, still\npsalm-fanatic, were not ready to sing the hymns they needed so much\nfor their highest spiritual development, and which now began to be\nsupplied.\n\nThat the idea of singing hymns of \u201chuman composure\u201d was making\nprogress is evidenced by the issue in 1659 of the first collection of\nhymns, _A Century of Select Hymns_, by William Barton (1603-1678). He\nhad issued a collection of versified Psalms in 1644 and a little book\nof Psalms and hymns of thanksgiving in 1651. A little later he\npublished a review of the current Psalm version discussing its\n\u201cerrors\u201d and \u201cabsurdities.\u201d He issued six collections during his\nlifetime, most of whose content we would recognize as hymns. His work\nhas little interest to us except as it, as well as that of Wither,\nBaxter, and Mason, helped to clarify the ideas of the young man Watts.\n\n\n              V. THE IDEAL OF THE SINGING HYMN REALIZED\n\nIt was the lack of preparation on the part of the churches, rather\nthan any essential inferiority to Isaac Watts, that prevented John\nMason (?-1694) from being recognized as the father of English hymnody.\nWatts\u2019 superiority lay in his having an intenser consciousness of the\ngreater value of the free hymn and the strength and ability to force\nthe issue to a final conclusion.\n\nMason\u2019s hymns were the first to be used in regular congregational\nworship. Twenty editions of his _Spiritual Songs_ were issued;\nconsidering the times and the small population, this was a marvelous\nsuccess. This collection may be considered the thin edge of the wedge,\nlater driven by Watts, between the churches and psalmody. Horder in\nhis _Hymn Lover_ declares that \u201crarely did Watts rise to the height of\nthought and beauty of expression which are found in Mason\u2019s hymns.\u201d\n\nOne of Mason\u2019s most widely used hymns is\n\n  \u201cNow from the altar of my heart\n    Let incense flames arise;\n  Assist me, Lord, to offer up\n    Mine evening sacrifice.\n\n  Awake, my Love! awake, my Joy;\n    Awake, my Heart and Tongue:\n  Sleep not: when Mercies loudly call,\n    Break forth into a Song.\u201d\n\nHigh authority claims that Mason\u2019s hymn, \u201cThou wast, O God, and Thou\nwast blest,\u201d is one of the best in the language. Its third verse is\nparticularly noble:\n\n  \u201cTo whom, Lord, should I sing but Thee,\n    The Maker of my tongue?\n  Lo, other lords would seize on me,\n    But I to Thee belong.\n  As waters hasten to their sea,\n    And earth unto its earth,\n  So let my soul return to Thee,\n    From whom it had its birth.\u201d\n\nHis influence on Watts was very considerable. George MacDonald says of\nMason\u2019s hymns: \u201cDr. Watts was very fond of them; would that he had\nwritten with similar modesty of style.\u201d Mason was made to supply many\na good line to the hymns of Watts, we are told by those who have\ncompared the hymns of the two writers.[3]\n\nThe hymns are good, because the writer was good! Richard Baxter styled\nhim \u201cthe glory of the Church of England,\u201d saying that \u201cthe frame of\nhis spirit was so heavenly, his deportment so humble and obliging, his\ndiscourse of spiritual things so weighty, with such apt words and\ndelightful air, that it charmed all that had any spiritual relish.\u201d\n\nBefore closing this chapter, mention must be made of Joseph Addison\n(1672-1719), who is so widely known because of his connection with the\nfamous _Spectator_, a weekly devoted to essays on various topics,\nliterary and otherwise. While his essays are his chief claim to\nliterary honor, he wrote five hymns, three of which are found in most\nof our larger hymnals: \u201cThe spacious firmament on high,\u201d \u201cWhen all thy\nmercies, O my God,\u201d \u201cHow are thy servants blest, O Lord.\u201d These hymns\nare all most thoughtful and felicitously expressed. They are admirably\nadapted for the worship of God, but they too unanimously ignore the\nhigher attributes of the divine nature as manifested in Jesus Christ,\nand the salvation he wrought out for fallen and needy humanity, to\ntake a high place in Christian Hymnody. The same is true of Psalms, of\ncourse, but they were written before Christ appeared.\n\n\n\n\n                             _Chapter XV_\n                      ISAAC WATTS AND HIS PERIOD\n\n\n                    I. THE HYMNIC NEED OF THE TIME\n\nWe have now reached the point in the development of the English hymn\nwhere the shortcomings of the metrical versions of the Psalms were\nkeenly realized, and where the conception of the practicable\ncongregational hymn was clarified and the model definitely\nestablished.\n\nSomeone of combative courage and of organizing ability was needed who\nwould break down the wall of mere usage and custom in the churches\u2014of\nthe sheerly mechanical tradition and mental inertia; all the better,\nif he could replace the outworn Psalm versions with practicable\ncongregational hymns that would more intelligently and efficiently\nvoice the faith and the experience of God\u2019s people. He needed to be a\nman of clear vision of the essential lyric needs of the church, of a\nclear conception of the type of hymns best fitted to supply those\nneeds, of literary culture and adaptativeness, and of a high moral\ncourage to face and overcome the extreme conservativeness that seems\nto be inherent in all ecclesiastical organizations.\n\n\n                        II. THE LIFE OF WATTS\n\nIn the distinct providence of God, the man appeared, exactly fitted\nfor the important task. Isaac Watts was born at Southampton, England,\nJuly 17, 1674, the son of a very intelligent and devout schoolmaster,\nwho during the reign of Charles II was imprisoned and exiled from his\nfamily for his nonconformity. Isaac was extraordinarily precocious,\nstudying Greek and Hebrew at the age of eight years, writing verses\nwhen a mere child, and attempting Latin and English poetry in his\nschooldays. His brilliant scholarship brought him offers of a career\nat one of the universities, but he refused, being staunch in his\nnonconformity.\n\nHe became a Nonconformist minister in 1698 and pastor of the\nIndependent Church, Berry Street, London, in 1702. His health being\nfrail, owing to his excessive study as a student, he was given an\nassistant, Rev. Samuel Price, with whom he spent \u201cmany harmonious\nyears of fellowship in the Gospel.\u201d\n\nVisiting Sir Thomas Abney, a staunch Dissenter living at Theobalds in\nHertfordshire, for a week, Watts was persuaded to remain with him and\nhis wife permanently, making his home with them the rest of his life.\nHe never married. His health was always precarious, and his pastorate\nat the Berry Street Independent Church, which ended only with his\ndeath, was largely nominal.\n\nWe rarely think of Isaac Watts as anything more than a hymn writer,\nbut his intellectual activities were wide and his writing outside of\nhymnody extensive. He wrote a number of treatises on Theology. His\ntextbooks on Geography, Astronomy, and Logic were used in the English\nuniversities, and at Yale and Harvard.\n\n\n                     III. WATTS AS A HYMN WRITER\n\nWatts had been recognized from childhood as having a talent in the\nmaking of verses. Returning from a church service in Southampton, he\nsharply criticized the hymns of Barton\u2014an inferior contemporary of\nJohn Mason. His devout father, a deacon in the church, playfully,\nperhaps seriously, replied that he should try his skill in supplying a\nbetter one. The challenge was accepted and he brought his father the\nhymn:\n\n  \u201cBehold the glories of the Lamb\n    Amidst his Father\u2019s throne;\n  Prepare new honors for his name,\n    And songs before unknown.\u201d\n\nHe little realized that it was his life\u2019s most illustrious task to\nfulfill the exhortation of the last two lines.\n\nThe success of the new hymn when lined out to the congregation and\nsung by them led to a demand for more. Thus unconsciously and\nunpretentiously was ushered in a new epoch in the devotional singing\nof the Christian Church. Presumably this occurred in his twenty-first\nyear, for this and the succeeding year were spent at home in\nSouthampton in varied studies and in writing hymns.\n\nThese hymns seem to have remained in manuscript for some years,\ndespite the earnest protest of his younger brother, who declared that\n\u201cMason now reduces this kind of writing to a sort of yawning\nindifference, and honest Barton chimes us asleep.\u201d This literary\njudgment of young Enoch must not be taken too seriously, except as\nexpressing his eagerness to have his brilliant brother\u2019s hymns brought\nbefore the public.\n\nIt was nearly or quite ten years after the first hymn that a\ncollection of hymns and odes and other poems, _Hor\u00e6 Lyric\u00e6_, was\nissued, in 1706. It contained twenty-five hymns, four psalm\nparaphrases, and eleven religious songs in varied measures and meters.\nIt also contained elegies, odes, and blank verse of a purely literary\ncharacter. In his preface he suggests the spirit and methods which\nshould later be more fully developed. \u201cThe hymns were never written to\nappear before the judges of wit, but only to assist the meditations\nand worship of vulgar Christians.\u201d[1]\n\nIn 1709 the second edition of the _Hor\u00e6_ furnished an increased number\nof hymns. In the preface of this edition he confesses that in the\nhymns of the _Hor\u00e6_ \u201cthere are some expressions which are not suited\nto the plainest capacities, and differ too much from the usual methods\nof speech in which holy things are proposed to the general part of\nmankind.\u201d\n\nThe hymns contained in the more popular _Hymns and Spiritual Songs_ in\n1707, and in the augmented edition of 1709, were of a plainer type for\n\u201cthe level of vulgar capacities.\u201d The edition of 1709 contained two\nhundred and fifty-five hymns, seventy-eight paraphrases, and\ntwenty-two communion hymns. The hymns were in only three meters, Long,\nCommon, and Short. Watts had an eye single for practicability.\n\nThe four Psalm versions contained in his _Hor\u00e6 Lyric\u00e6_ had a prefatory\nnote, \u201cAn essay on a few of David\u2019s Psalms translated into plain\nverse, in language more agreeable to the clearer revelations of the\nGospel,\u201d which makes certain that he had already clearly in mind the\nevangelical psalter which, despite his absorption in other tasks and\nhis long illness in 1712, finally appeared in 1719, \u201cThe Psalms of\nDavid imitated in the language of the New Testament and apply\u2019d to the\nChristian state and worship.\u201d Watts excluded twelve Psalms entirely\nand omitted passages from some of the one hundred and thirty-eight\nthat were retained, because they were not adapted to Christian use.\n\nAlthough he never married, Watts was very fond of children. In 1715,\nin the midst of his program for the public service of song, his _opus\nmagnum_, he prepared his \u201cDivine Songs, attempted in easy language for\nthe use of children.\u201d It was to be used in connection with the\n\u201cCatechism\u201d he had prepared for their use. It was the first collection\nof its kind and was the forerunner of the immense supply of children\u2019s\nsongs that was to grow out of the activities of the Sunday school. One\nis amazed that the writer of \u201cWhen I survey the wondrous cross,\u201d or\n\u201cOur God, our help in ages past,\u201d could write so tender and graceful a\nlullaby as\n\n  \u201cHush, my babe, lie still and slumber,\n    Holy angels guard thy bed!\n  Heavenly blessings without number\n    Gently falling on thy head.\u201d\n\n\n                  IV. WATTS\u2019 ARGUMENTS FOR THE HYMN\n\nHowever kindly we may estimate the value of Watts\u2019 hymns and of his\nevangelical metrical versions of the Psalms, we must recognize that\nhis service as the protagonist of the free hymn is quite as great. His\nhymns and evangelical psalter would likely have suffered the fate of\nthose of Wither and Mason, his immediate predecessors, had he not\nwritten attractive and practicable congregational hymns and versions,\nand not accomplished two other results essential to the substitution\nof the free hymn for the often grotesque Psalm versions.\n\nHe did not simply write a miscellaneous lot of religious lyrics and\nshoot them like arrows into the air; he had a clear and efficient\ntheory of church song, recognizing not only the varied needs, but the\npsychology underlying those needs, and produced \u201ca system of praise\u201d\nthat supplied those needs and conciliated current prejudices.\n\nAgain, in his prefaces and in his _Essay towards the Improvement of\nPsalmody_, he laid hymnological foundations that not only prepared the\nway for the introduction of his own hymns and versions, but also for\nsuch a fresh consideration of the whole subject as led to the\nrevolution in the English song service; from these have come the\nfreedom and spontaneity, genuineness and sincerity, definiteness of\npurpose, and deepening of personal experience which have blessed\nsucceeding generations.\n\nHis supreme merit, in this definite onslaught on the rigid literalism\nof the churches, was that he not only brought destructive criticism,\nbut supplied an adequate substitute for that which he condemned.\n\nWatts denied the obligation to sing the Bible. The Scriptures were the\nWord of God to the soul and the hymn was the work of the soul in\nresponse to God. He further denied that the Book of Psalms was given\nas a hymnbook for the Christian Church. It was not even adapted to its\nuse, for it was distinctly Jewish and not Christian in ideals and\nspirit. \u201cSome of \u2019em are almost opposite to the spirit of the Gospel;\nmany of them are foreign to the state of the New Testament and widely\ndifferent to the present circumstances of Christians.\u201d Before they can\nbe sung in a Christian service they must be rewritten as if David were\na Christian and not a Jew.\n\nEven allowing that there was an obligation to sing the Word of God,\nWatts denied that the metrical Psalm was the pure Word of God. The\ndemands of meter and rhyme so refashioned and even mutilated the\nPsalms that they no longer were the words of the Scripture, nor even\nits ideas. Its inspiration suffered a total eclipse under the hands of\nthe versifiers, and the metrical Psalm became a work of \u201chuman\ncomposure\u201d with none of the vital spirit of the free hymn.\n\nWatts could not understand why \u201cwe under the Gospel should sing\nnothing else but the joys, hopes, and fears of Asaph and David.\u201d He\ndeclared that \u201cDavid would have thought it very hard to have been\nconfined to the words of Moses and sung nothing else on all his\nrejoicing days but the drowning of Pharaoh in the fifteenth of\nExodus.\u201d He complained that even in those places where the Jewish\npsalmist seems to mean the Gospel, excellent poet as he was, he was\nnot able to speak it plain, by reason of the infancy of that\ndispensation, and longs for the aid of a Christian writer.\n\nHe set aside the prevalent \u201csuperstitious reverence for the letter of\nthe Jewish Scriptures,\u201d and in an almost defiant spirit declared,\n\u201cThough there are many gone before me who have taught the Hebrew\nPsalmist to speak English, yet I think I may assume the pleasure of\nbeing the first who hath brought down the royal author into the common\naffairs of the Christian life, and led the Psalmist of Israel into the\nChurch of Christ, without anything of the Jew about him.\u201d\n\nWhatever devotional value we may assign to the Psalms, we must accept\nWatts\u2019 fundamental idea that they are not the exclusive formulary of\nthe use of song in the worship of God and in the life of the Church.\nHis further contention that not all the Psalms, nor all parts of them,\nare adapted to Christian use, we cannot now gainsay. The Jews\nthemselves only used about forty of them. It was not until centuries\nafter the Apostolic Age had elapsed that, due to monkish superstition,\nall the Psalms were recognized as of equal exclusive use.\n\nSo many versions of individual Psalms make such satisfactory hymns and\nso many hymns are such faithful transcripts of passages from the\nPsalms, or echoes of their sentiments, that the distinction between\npsalm versions and hymns in individual cases might well be set aside\nentirely, as having no actual basis or value.\n\n\n                V. WATTS\u2019 INSISTENCE ON PRACTICABILITY\n\nWhile Watts laid the strongest emphasis on the awkwardness and\nabsurdity of much of the Psalm paraphrasing, he was also impressed\nwith the unavailability of the literary hymns of his predecessors, or\neven of some of his own in his first book. The common people would not\nsing them, they were out of their reach; moreover, they were not in\npracticable meters and measures, and did not fit the accepted tunes\nthe people knew. Watts accepted the current Psalm version meters, Long\nMeter, Common Meter, and Short Meter, and the Psalm tunes at once\nbecame hymn tunes. It was quite a handicap to a literary hymn writer,\nbut essential to the practical use of the hymn.\n\nWatts deliberately avoided distinctly literary quality in his hymns,\nseeking only lucidity and plainness of expression, all within the\ncapacity of the common people. To quote from his prefaces, he\n\u201cendeavored to make the sense plain and obvious.... The metaphors are\ngenerally sunk to the level of vulgar capacities.... Some of the\nbeauties of poesy are neglected and some wilfully defaced.\u201d\n\nDr. Benson, whom it is always profitable to quote, says: \u201cWatts\u2019 work\nearns a place in the literature of power, the literature that leaves\nesthetic critics cold while it moves men.\u201d Palgrave included nothing\nof Watts in his _Golden Treasury_, but elsewhere speaks of him as \u201cone\nof those whose sacrifice of art to direct usefulness has probably lost\nthem those honors in literature to which they were entitled.\u201d\n\n\n              VI. THE INESTIMABLE VALUE OF WATTS\u2019 HYMNS\n\nThe offensive lines in Watts must be judged with due regard to their\nbackground. The Sternhold and Hopkins version was vastly worse. It was\na time of dry doctrinal preaching and of a literal interpretation of\nthe Bible which to the preachers was largely a mere collection of\nisolated proof texts. In these matters he was speaking in the idiom\nand with the accent of his own generation. In the two centuries that\nhave since passed, the sand and gravel and debris have been washed\naway, and our hymnals contain the pure gold of his verse for our\nedification and delight. Outside of the hymnbooks of the Wesley\nbrothers, where can we find such a placer mine of spiritual wealth?\n\nAt his best Watts wrote hymns of majesty and ecstatic adoration that\nhave never been excelled:\n\n  \u201cOur God, our Help in ages past,\n    Our Hope for years to come;\n  Our Shelter from the stormy blast,\n    And our eternal Home.\u201d\n\nHow he has made the Long Meter measure sound like the great Open\nDiapason of the pipe organ in the following lines!\n\n  \u201cBefore Jehovah\u2019s awful throne,\n    Ye nations bow with sacred joy;\n  Know that the Lord is God alone,\n    He can create, and he destroy.\u201d\n\nWhat if John Wesley does add a majestic note or two in the foregoing\nhymn; the singer of the whole hymn is the noble spirit of little Dr.\nWatts.\n\nHad David himself returned with an English tongue, he could not have\nreproduced the spirit of the seventy-second Psalm more nobly:\n\n  \u201cJesus shall reign where\u2019er the sun\n  Doth his successive journeys run;\n  His Kingdom spread from shore to shore,\n  Till moons shall wax and wane no more.\u201d\n\nSolomon\u2019s coronation song (Ps. 72) was no more majestic than this\ncrowning hymn Watts wrote for his Lord.\n\nBut Watts could not only be majestic; he could be tender:\n\n  \u201cWhen I survey the wondrous cross\n    On which the Prince of Glory died,\n  My richest gain I count but loss,\n    And pour contempt on all my pride.\u201d\n\nIs there a tenderer strain in all English hymnody than the third\nverse?\n\n  \u201cSee, from his head, his hands, his feet,\n    Sorrow and love flow mingled down!\n  Did e\u2019er such love and sorrow meet,\n    Or thorns compose so rich a crown?\u201d\n\nNot in the same exquisite vein of noble tenderness, but perhaps all\nthe more useful for its reduced voltage, is his other hymn of the\nCrucifixion,\n\n  \u201cAlas! and did my Saviour bleed?\n    And did my Sovereign die?\n  Would he devote that sacred head\n    For such a worm as I!\u201d\n\nIts last verse has deepened the consecration of unnumbered millions as\nthey sang the sacred vow:\n\n  \u201cBut drops of grief can ne\u2019er repay\n    The debt of love I owe;\n  Here, Lord, I give myself away\u2014\n    \u2019Tis all that I can do.\u201d\n\nThe list of the great hymns that have come down to us from Isaac Watts\nis too long to be given here, but they enrich the pages of all our\nhymnals and exalt the spirit of all our church services.\n\nThe criticism often urged that Watts wrote too much cannot well be\ngainsaid, but the striking fact confronts us that most of the great\nhymns were written by men who wrote too much! The same is true of the\ncomposers of our greatest music, as, for instance, Mendelssohn and\nHandel. Much writing develops technic, ease, spontaneity,\nunselfconsciousness, that make the heights of feeling and expression\nmore accessible. But what Watts needed was not so much to write less,\nbut to have a competent editor like John Wesley to eliminate his\nvulgar and often grotesque lines.\n\nThat Watts should find plenty of antagonists to pick up the gauge of\nchallenge he threw out was inevitable. His hymns were called \u201cWatts\u2019\nWhims\u201d in sardonic derision. It is noteworthy that the opposition did\nnot prove so heated against his hymns as against his _The Psalms of\nDavid Imitated_ (1719). In daring to amend the Judaism of David he had\ncommitted sacrilege! This volume practically closed his work of\nreforming the service of song in the English language. He was but\nforty-four years old at this time and he lived thirty years more\u2014spent\nin theological, educational, and devotional writings.\n\nThe hymns of Watts slowly found their way among the Nonconformist\nchurches. Before his death a large part of the Presbyterian and\nCongregational churches were nearly monopolized by them. However, the\nEstablished Church still clung to the Psalm Versions.\n\n\n                     VII. CONTEMPORARIES OF WATTS\n\nA contemporary of Watts, Simon Browne (1680-1732) issued a collection\nof hymns in 1720, _Hymns and Spiritual Songs_, designed as a\nsupplement to Dr. Watts, containing one hundred and sixty-six hymns\nwhich had considerable vogue during the next generation. Now only one\nhymn, \u201cCome, gracious Spirit, heavenly Dove,\u201d survives in some of our\nhymnals.\n\nAnother contemporary was John Byrom (1691-1763), scientist and mystic,\nwhose \u201cChristians, awake, salute the happy morn\u201d is still a Christmas\nfavorite and whose \u201cMy spirit longeth for Thee\u201d is \u201cterse and tender\nin a very high degree.\u201d[2] MacDonald speaks of his few hymns as a\n\u201cwell of the water of life, for its song tells of the love and truth\nwhich are the grand power of God.\u201d\n\nAnother hymn writer of Watts\u2019 day was Robert Seagrave (1693-?), who\nadded fifty of his own hymns to a collection prepared for his own\nchurch at Lorimer\u2019s Hall, Cripplegate, London, all of which had a high\ndegree of excellence, of which \u201cRise, my soul, and stretch thy wings\u201d\nis found in most of our current hymnbooks.\n\nA greater than any of the above was Philip Doddridge (1702-1751), who\nwas a close friend of Isaac Watts, although nearly thirty years\nyounger. He wrote three hundred and seventy-five hymns, most of them\nas pendants to sermons, recapitulating and enforcing the points of his\ndiscourse. They were not collected and published until four years\nafter his death. The fine character and high ability displayed by\nDoddridge endeared him to many of the most important people of his\nday. The devoutness, literary grace, and adaptation to actual use of\nhis lyrics were immediately recognized. Their distinctly homiletical\ncharacter, combined with deep religious feeling and tenderness, and\ntheir varied topics, greatly appealed to ministers, and they were\nrecognized as second only to Watts. The Church owes some of its most\nuseful hymns to him: \u201cAwake, my soul, stretch every nerve,\u201d \u201cGrace;\n\u2019tis a charming sound,\u201d \u201cHow gentle God\u2019s commands,\u201d \u201cO happy day,\nthat fixed my choice,\u201d \u201cMy gracious Lord, I own thy right,\u201d are among\nthe many found in all our hymnals. His relative standard may be\ninferred from the use made of leading hymn writers by Dr. Benson in\nhis _Revised Presbyterian Hymnal_: Watts 49, Charles Wesley 24,\nDoddridge 13.\n\n\n\n\n                            _Chapter XVI_\n                      THE WESLEYS AND THEIR ERA\n\n\n               I. THE INFLUENCE OF WATTS ON THE WESLEYS\n\nThe line of hymnic succession between Watts and the Wesleys was direct\nand not through Doddridge, for the latter\u2019s hymns did not appear until\n1754. One-half of John Wesley\u2019s _American Collection_, the first\nhymnbook published in America, issued in Charleston, South Carolina,\nin 1737, after two years\u2019 work in the new Colony of Georgia, consisted\nof Watts\u2019 hymns. It goes without saying that Watts\u2019 hymnbooks, with\nothers like Tate and Brady\u2019s _New Version_, George Herbert\u2019s poems,\nthe hymns of John Austin, of Henry More, and of Norris of Bemerton,\nwere so well known, and so appreciated, that copies of them were\nincluded among the books carried to America. In early manhood they met\nthe already elderly Watts, and as they walked they sang together.\nIndeed, with Dr. Benson we may \u201cinfer that Watts\u2019 _Psalms and Hymns_,\nin connection with Tate and Brady\u2019s _New Version_, furnished the\nmaterials for the singing of the \u2018Holy Club.\u2019\u201d\n\nIt is evident from the list of hymnbooks, and from the list of\nWesley\u2019s selections for his _American Collection_, that Watts was not\nthe only influence that gave the impulse and fashioned the Wesleyan\nideals of the public song service. It is noteworthy that Barton and\nMason were not included. The High-Church Anglican Wesleys were not so\nprejudiced against Watts\u2019 Nonconformist hymns as to exclude them.\n\n\n                     II. THE HOME OF THE WESLEYS\n\nWith the Wesleys perhaps the strongest influence was that of the\nfamily and the home. Their grandfather, John Wesley, was a\nNonconformist clergyman, and, what is more to the point, a poet. Their\nfather, Samuel Wesley, was quite a voluminous poet (sixteen volumes),\nowing his Epworth rectorship to Queen Mary\u2019s approval of his _Life of\nChrist, an Heroic Poem_. One of his hymns, \u201cBehold the Saviour of\nmankind,\u201d still appears in some of our current hymnals.\n\nTheir maternal grandfather was Rev. Samuel Annesley, LL.D., a\nscholarly Nonconformist clergyman. Their mother, Susanna Annesley, is\nrecognized as a woman of extraordinary force of character, organizing\nability, and intense piety, the \u201cMother of Methodism,\u201d and even more\ngifted than her gifted but less steady and dependable husband. It will\nbe noted that both grandfathers were dissenting clergymen.\n\nThe Epworth rectory life was intellectual, intensely devout, and full\nof the singing of psalms and hymns, for it was \u201ca nest of singing\nbirds.\u201d When students at Oxford, John and Charles used to walk out\ninto the meadows and sing songs and hymns together.[1]\n\n\n                     III. THE MORAVIAN INFLUENCE\n\nAs we shall see, another extremely important influence was that of the\nMoravians on their personal religious experience, which under the\nMoravian guidance, on the Atlantic voyage and later, became intense\nand profound, furnishing tremendous motive power for all their work.\nThe Moravian missionaries brought the realization of the power the\nChristian hymn can wield, and of the deep spirituality it may be used\nto express. It was not only the hymns the Moravian brethren sang that\nimpressed John Wesley, but the spirit and genuineness of feeling with\nwhich they sang.\n\n\n                           IV. JOHN WESLEY\n\nJohn Wesley was born at Epworth in 1703. He inherited his mother\u2019s\norganizing and administrative ability, no less than her deep religious\nnature. He was to Methodist hymnody what John Calvin was to the\nReformed psalmody, its initiator and director. He added a critical\npower and a practical sense of relation of means to ends his younger\nbrother lacked\u2014Charles Wesley wrote the hymns and John winnowed and\nedited them. At Oxford he was called the \u201cFather of the Holy Club.\u201d\nHis aggressive spirit drove him to Georgia as a missionary, where he\nwas a misfit, but where he was subjected to needed spiritual\ndiscipline, and to the influence of the Moravian pietism and\nabsorption in spiritual things, so valuable for his symmetrical\npreparation for his future work. It led to his conversion\u2014or, if you\nprefer, to his baptism of the Holy Spirit\u2014and that of Charles, in\n1738, which opened out to them both a new spiritual dimension. It also\nled to his interest in the Moravian \u201cGesangbuch,\u201d or hymnbook, from\nthe German of which he translated several hymns for his _Charleston\nCollection_. On his return to England he took an early opportunity to\nvisit Herrnhut, Saxony, the parent society of the connection. He was\ndelighted with the atmosphere of piety and Christian song which he\nfound there. His pietistic and mystical tendencies were greatly\nstrengthened by his intercourse with Count Zinzendorf and Rothe whom\nhe there met.\n\nOn his return to London John Wesley kept up his association with the\nMoravian brethren for some time; but his active temperament could not\nlong be content with their quiet, contemplative attitude, nor could he\novercome his dislike for the emphasis they placed on the merely\nphysical aspects of the life and death of Christ which they had\nbrought over from the Roman Catholic mystics. So they presently parted\ncompany to the advantage of the aggressive spirit the Wesleys were\ndeveloping.\n\nJohn Wesley was a scholarly man who had acquired all the culture of\nseven generations of intellectual family life and of the literary\ntraining of a great English university. He had the critical faculty\nwell developed, a nice sense of the value of words, and the ability to\nmarshal them for the expression of his thoughts. His sermons and his\ntheological treatises reveal his logical and analytical mind. His\nfeelings were strong, but not of the effusive character.\n\nWith this type of mind, it was not strange that as a hymn writer he\nwould succeed better as a translator than as an original hymnist. His\nimportant contribution, therefore, consisted of translations from the\nGerman of Tersteegen, Gerhardt, Scheffler, Spangenberg, and\nZinzendorf, and the amendment or even recasting of hymns by Watts, or\nof poems by George Herbert. Perhaps his greatest work in hymnody lay\nin encouraging as well as editing the work of his younger brother,\nCharles.[2]\n\nIn John Wesley\u2019s plans to elevate the degraded population of England\nboth spiritually and mentally, the hymn bears an important part. His\nkeen and critical literary faculty was brought to bear upon its\ncultural as well as spiritual aspects, and his drastic corrections and\nrevisions, as well as his translations, did much to lift the hymnody\nof his age to a higher literary plane.\n\n\n                          V. CHARLES WESLEY\n\nCharles Wesley was born at Epworth in 1707, being four and a half\nyears younger than John. He inherited a full portion of the family\nreligious nature, but with his mother\u2019s mental energy he combined a\ndouble portion of the Wesley poetic temperament. With less of the\nrigid will of his older brother, he had a more sensitive spirit, a\nmore emotional nature, a greater literary impulse. Critics scold that\nhe wrote too much.[3] As well scold the mockingbird for being so\nprodigal of its notes or that it occasionally merely twitters.\n\nWhen he \u201cgot religion,\u201d his religion made him sing. Did he rejoice?\nHis joy found utterance in a joyous hymn, \u201cO for a thousand tongues to\nsing.\u201d Had he trials? What more natural than a hymn of prayer, \u201cMy\nGod, my God, to Thee I cry\u201d? Was there a riot about him? A hymn of\nsteadfastness, \u201cThou hidden Source of calm repose,\u201d sang in his heart.\nThe impulse to write was not always accompanied by creative insight,\nso, of course, he wrote inferior hymns. The urge to write was too\nspontaneous that it should wait for the critical attitude. Let John\nsupply that! Charles had the joy of writing and John winnowed the\nproduct. There was chaff, of course, but the golden wheat cannot grow\nwithout chaff.\n\nIt must not be assumed that Charles was only a hymn writer.\nImmediately on his conversion, he began to preach the need of the new\nbirth, and for fifteen years he vied with John in field work in behalf\nof the new movement. With his background, his culture and education,\nhis poetic nature and wealth of vocabulary and depth of experience,\nCharles might be expected to preach a vivid, glowing, flaming\nmessage\u2014and such was his style. His meetings carried him into all\nparts of England, Wales, and Ireland.\n\nWhat a team the Wesley brothers were! John with his masterly logical\nsermons and profound theological writings, Charles with his hymns and\nhis sermons aflame with feeling, the Annesley organizing instinct in\nboth of them. What a spiritual force they set in motion that\ntransformed the spiritual and moral life of England and saved its\nsoul\u2014nay more, it swept around the whole earth, and determined the\ncharacter of nations yet waiting to be born.\n\n\n             VI. CHARLES WESLEY\u2019S HYMNS QUITE SUBJECTIVE\n\nBy the necessities of the situation, by the character of the work, and\nby his own temperament, Charles Wesley was led to write subjective,\nemotional hymns, keeping personal experience to the fore. But his\nemotionality was not shallow sentiment, but spontaneous and genuine\nfeeling, based on clear recognition of the actual truths of the\nScriptures. In a very intense way he had actually experienced the\nsorrow for sin, the joy of salvation from its guilt and power,\ncomplete assurance of divine acceptance, the longing for divine\ncommunion, the sense of the love of God as it planned and fashioned\nhis inner as well as his outward life, the certainty of safety from\nthe power of sin in sanctification. He could write affecting\ninvitations to sinners, for he knew their condition and danger, and\nalso the results of peace and joy, of power and efficiency, that the\nacceptance of Christ would bring. The truths of the Gospel in passing\nthrough the crucible of his personality acquired an actuality, a\npoignancy of appeal, that made his hymns a mighty power, not only in\nthe immediate campaigns of the Wesley brothers, but in the life and\nwork of the Church in the generations to come.[4]\n\n\n                    VII. WATTS AND CHARLES WESLEY\n\nThat was the difference between Wesley and Watts. The latter was\nobjective, reasonable, formal. The majesty of a sovereign God appealed\nto him. He delighted in the infinite perfections of the divine nature.\nHe surveyed the wondrous cross. He trembled before it, as did the\nchildren of Israel before the Holy Mount. His attitude was that of the\nOld Testament. Watts viewed the sovereignty of God objectively; Wesley\nfelt the facts of salvation as actual experiences.\n\nCharles Wesley was subjective; he expressed the feelings that the\ntruths of the Gospel produced in him.[5]\n\nGod to him also was great, but as a Saviour, companion, friend. Why\nshould he tremble? He was not Moses viewing the burning bush, but John\nleaning on the breast of Jesus. He shared the ecstasies of the\napostles and disciples portrayed in the New Testament.[6]\n\nSo Watts gives dignity and majesty to the early topics of our\nhymnbooks on the attributes of God, his worship, the awe of the soul\nin the presence of its sovereign Lord in hymns like \u201cBefore Jehovah\u2019s\nawful throne,\u201d \u201cGreat God! how infinite thou art,\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll praise my\nMaker while I\u2019ve breath,\u201d \u201cJesus shall reign where\u2019er the sun,\u201d \u201cOur\nGod, our help in ages past,\u201d while Charles Wesley fills the sweeter,\ntenderer, more intimate departments of salvation, forgiveness,\ncommunion with God, with the odor of the spikenard of his heart in\nhymns like \u201cDepth of mercy! can there be,\u201d \u201cI know that my Redeemer\nlives,\u201d \u201cJesus, Lover of my soul,\u201d \u201cLove divine, all loves excelling.\u201d\nHow well these singers of the Lord\u2019s song supplement each other, and\nhow much more symmetrical and complete are our hymnals because both\nhave written in their own lines and styles!\n\nWhich is the greater hymn writer? That is a mooted question that need\nnot be decided here. In Scriptural content the older man is superior,\nas, at his best, he is in majesty of style. For formal services of\nworship his hymns are more fitting and impressive. On the other hand,\nWesley was superior in quantity and in the number of hymns of high\nquality. It must be granted that he is more poetical, more graceful,\nmore suave and human. His range is more extensive, his emotion deeper\nand more noble. In immediate results on the lives of the people\nCharles Wesley is incomparably richer than Watts, for his hymns then\nand since turned multitudes unto righteousness.[7]\n\n\n                VIII. THE ISSUES OF THE WESLEYAN HYMNS\n\nSpace is wanting, and the profit would be slight, to give a catalogue\nof the sixty-four original issues of hymns that John published from\n1737 to 1790, the mass of them for the use of the evangelistic\ncampaign. They were largely occasional, issued to meet a pressing but\nonly temporary need. They varied from a single sheet containing but a\nsingle hymn (Charles Wesley\u2019s hymn praying for his brother\u2019s long\nlife) to the two volumes with two thousand and thirty short hymns on\nScripture passages. It was not until 1780 that a regular hymnbook \u201cfor\nthe use of the people called \u2018Methodists\u2019\u201d was issued, containing five\nhundred and twenty-five hymns.\n\n\n                       IX. THE METHODIST TUNES\n\nSo practical a mind as that of John Wesley, who had from childhood\nengaged in sacred song, would not be expected to overlook the great\nimportance of the tunes to which the new hymns were to be sung. In\n1742 he printed a _Collection of Tunes_ in which only three of the\n_Old Version_ tunes appeared. Tunes were freely borrowed from the\nmusical _Supplement to the New Version_, six were secured from German\nMoravian sources, and a few were new. Tunes were later supplied by\nHandel and Lampe; popular melodies which the Wesleys picked up in\ntheir preaching tours were also adopted.\n\nSome twenty years later fugal tunes became popular among the churches,\nbut became known as \u201cOld Methodist Tunes,\u201d although they had never\nbeen officially recognized and had first been written in Scotland.\n\nWhen we regard the quantity and quality of the Wesleyan hymns, or\ntheir adaptation to the spiritual and evangelistic purposes for which\nthey were written, or the body of teaching they conveyed, or the\nspiritual fervor they created and are still creating in millions of\nsouls, or the influence they exerted on all subsequent hymnody, we do\nnot find the sweeping statement of Dr. James Martineau, the Unitarian\ndivine and hymnbook editor, as exaggerated: \u201cAfter the Scriptures, the\n_Wesley Hymn Book_ appears to me the grandest instrument of popular\nreligious culture that Christendom has produced.\u201d\n\n\n              X. INFLUENCES OPPOSING THE WESLEYAN HYMNS\n\nThe contemporary prejudice against the Wesleyan hymnody was very\nstrong and bitter. There were many influences against them: the\nconservative devotion to the psalm versions, \u201cNew\u201d and \u201cOld,\u201d the\nNonconformist loyalty to the psalms and hymns of Watts, the\nEstablished Church\u2019s resentment against the revolters against\nestablished rule and custom within her bounds, the formalist objection\nto what seemed to them the fanatical, extravagant, and effusive type\nof piety, the emotional, subjective, experiential style of the hymns,\nand (worst of all!) the low social class that constituted the bulk of\nthe followers of the Wesleys. The result was that both in Great\nBritain and in America the Wesleyan hymns crept very slowly into the\nhymnbooks of the churches outside the Methodist movement. It was many\nyears before any appeared in the English church hymnals; even when\nthey did, Charles Wesley\u2019s name did not appear with them; it even\nhappened that other writers were credited with them. In America, where\nthe Methodists were the Salvation Army of their day, the Wesleyan\nhymns were slow of recognition. This was partly due to the general,\nalmost fanatical, devotion to Watts\u2019 hymnody.\n\nThe Arminian attitude of the Wesleys, as against the rigid Calvinism\nof both the Established and the Nonconformist churches, led to acrid\ntheological discussions that intensified the opposition to the\nmovement they headed. Even among those favorable to the spiritual\nreformation was there an element antagonistic to the Wesleys.\nWhitefield, Toplady, and the Countess of Huntingdon were leaders in\nthis revolt.\n\nThe fact that Charles Wesley rather monopolized the writing of hymns\nundoubtedly had its adverse influence. John Wesley did not encourage\nothers to write.[8] This accounts for the fact that comparatively few\nof their immediate associates wrote hymns, and some of these drifted\ninto other relations. What else could a man expect who fearlessly\namended, revised others\u2019 hymns, and then warned the general hymnbook\nmaker regarding the Wesleyan hymns as follows: \u201cHymn-cobblers should\nnot try to mend them. I really do not think they are able.\u201d\n\n\n                   XI. OTHER METHODIST HYMN WRITERS\n\nAmong these transient supporters was Edward Perronet (1726-1792) of\nHuguenot stock. He wrote \u201cAll hail the power of Jesus\u2019 name,\u201d which\nmakes so noble a climax for many of our services. For a time he was a\npreacher in the Wesleyan connection. He then adopted Calvinistic\nviews, and joined the forces of the Countess of Huntingdon, preaching\nunder her direction. His caustic Gallic wit, exercised against the\nEstablished Church, offended his patroness and he became the pastor of\na small congregation of dissenters.\n\nAnother associate of the Wesleys was Thomas Olivers (1725-1799), who\nhad small educational advantages, but was an indefatigable worker. One\nof his hymns has kept its place in our hymnals, \u201cThe God of Abraham\npraise.\u201d Montgomery says of it: \u201cThis noble ode, though the essay of\nan unlettered man, claims special honor. There is not in our language\na lyric of more majestic style, more elevated thought, or more\nglorious imagery.\u201d\n\nJohn Bakewell, the head of a prominent academy at Greenwich, was a\nlocal preacher of whom his tombstone, near to that of John Wesley in\nthe cemetery of the City Road Chapel, records that \u201che adorned the\ndoctrine of God, our Saviour, 80 years and preached his Gospel 70\nyears.\u201d He is remembered by the hymn, \u201cHail, Thou once despised\nJesus,\u201d which is found in most of the current hymnals.\n\n\n               XII. CALVINISTIC-METHODIST HYMN WRITERS\n\nThere were no poetic restraints felt by the adherents of the\nCalvinistic wing of the Methodist movement as met the associates of\nthe Wesleys, and the number of hymn writers in its ranks is larger.\n\nWilliam Williams (1717-1791), \u201cthe Watts of Wales,\u201d spent his life in\nworking in the Welsh Calvinistic-Methodist connection. Early in his\ncareer the need of appropriate Welsh hymns was so pressing that\nrecourse was had to a sort of Eisteddfod of hymn-writing in which he\neasily won first honors. He was an indefatigable preacher, taking all\nWales for his parish. His chief claim to immortality is his hymn,\n\u201cGuide me, O Thou great Jehovah,\u201d originally written in Welsh, but\nsoon used in the Whitefield Methodist Connection in England. His\nmissionary hymn, \u201cO\u2019er the gloomy hills of darkness,\u201d while not so\npopular, has had a wide use.\n\nJohn Cennick (1718\u20141755) was originally associated with the Wesleys as\na preacher, but the burning question of Calvinism separated them and\nhe became associated with Whitefield and later with the Moravians. Two\nhymns of his were extremely popular both in Great Britain and in the\nearly years of Methodism in America: \u201cJesus, my all, to heaven is\ngone,\u201d and \u201cChildren of the heavenly King.\u201d The former was used as the\nverse basis of a great many \u201cspiritual\u201d choruses in pioneer times. His\n\u201cLo! He comes with clouds descending\u201d was reshaped and rewritten by\nCharles Wesley and Martin Madan. The literary quality of his hymns is\nnot high, but their sincerity and adaptation to universal Christian\nexperience give them practical value.\n\nAugustus Montague Toplady (1740-1778) was associated with the Wesleys\nand with the Calvinistic-Methodist leaders, but was a Church of\nEngland clergyman. He wrote four hundred and nineteen hymns; only a\nfew continue in use. Notable among these is \u201cRock of Ages, cleft for\nme,\u201d which has been almost universally used and most mercilessly\namended and revised. It has been translated into many languages:\nGladstone having translated it into Latin, Greek, and Italian.\n\nMontgomery says of Toplady\u2019s hymns: \u201cThere is a peculiarly etherial\nspirit in some of these, in which, whether mourning or rejoicing,\npraying or praising, the writer seems absorbed in the full triumph of\nfaith.\u201d Another hymn of Toplady\u2019s, \u201cDeathless principle, arise,\u201d has\nbeen characterized as \u201calmost peerless,\u201d but it is rather a reading\nhymn.\n\n\n                      XIII. BAPTIST HYMN WRITERS\n\nWhile the Methodists were enriching the hymnody of the Christian\nChurch, the Baptists were not idle. The second reformation of England\ndid not leave them unaffected, even though they were not officially\nassociated with it.\n\nTheir chief hymn writer was Anne Steele (1716-1778), an invalid of\ngreat spirituality and piety and of much literary felicity as well as\nfacility. She wrote one hundred and forty-four hymns and thirty-four\nversions of psalms. Her hymns are meditative in style, graceful and\ngentle in spirit. She is best remembered by her hymn of resignation,\n\u201cFather, whate\u2019er of earthly bliss.\u201d Other hymns still widely used are\n\u201cNow I resolve with all my heart,\u201d the hymn regarding the Scriptures,\n\u201cFather of mercies, in Thy word What endless glory shines,\u201d and the\n(for her) enthusiastic hymn of praise to Christ, \u201cTo our Redeemer\u2019s\nglorious name.\u201d Her vogue in America at one time was very great.\n\nJohn Fawcett was another Baptist hymnist of note. He issued one\nhundred and sixty-six hymns, three of which are standards in our day:\n\u201cHow precious is the book divine,\u201d \u201cLord, dismiss us with Thy\nblessing,\u201d and \u201cBlest be the tie that binds.\u201d Besides the duties of a\nheavy pastorate at Wainsgate (with a salary of less than two hundred\ndollars) he did a great amount of literary work. The third hymn\nmentioned above has done more for Christian unity than all arguments\nand commissions.\n\nAnother hymn writer of note, who may be classed as a Baptist, was\nRobert Robinson (1735-1790). Converted under Whitefield\u2019s preaching,\nhe later took a Baptist pastorate at Cambridge. He was very active in\na literary way. He began a _History of Baptists_ in 1781 which\nappeared in 1790, but in spite of laborious research it did not reach\nthe completeness he desired. Besides eleven hymns of but moderate\nvalue written for Whitefield, he wrote a Christmas hymn, \u201cMighty God,\nwhile angels bless Thee\u201d and the ever-useful and prayerful \u201cCome, Thou\nFount of every blessing.\u201d This was another favorite basis for\n\u201cSpiritual\u201d revival choruses in America. There was a lack of\nsteadiness in his temperament. After writing _A Plea for the Divinity\nof Our Lord Jesus Christ_, he later came under suspicion as a\nUnitarian and Socinian.\n\nSamuel Medley was a midshipman in the navy, but being sorely wounded\nin a terrible naval battle off Cape Lagos, he refused to continue as a\nnaval officer. During his recovery he was soundly converted under the\ninfluence of his grandfather Tonge. After being at the head of a\nschool for a time, he accepted a Baptist pastorate. Medley wrote a\nnumber of hymns, of which \u201cO could I speak the matchless worth,\u201d\n\u201cAwake, my soul, to joyful lays,\u201d \u201cI know that my Redeemer lives,\u201d and\n\u201cMortals, awake, with angels join,\u201d are still found in most of our\nhymnals. He claimed no literary merit for himself, but his hymns have\nfound a hearty response in England, and even more in America.\n\nJoseph Grigg (1720-1768) was not a Methodist or a Baptist, but a\nPresbyterian. He is further noteworthy as an \u201cinfant phenomenon,\u201d\nhaving written a very familiar hymn, \u201cJesus, and shall it ever be?\u201d at\nthe age of ten years. He was in humble circumstances at first, \u201ca\nlaboring mechanic.\u201d He was assistant minister in a prominent London\nPresbyterian church for four years, then \u201cmarried well\u201d and retired,\nstill writing and preaching. His \u201cBehold, a Stranger at the door,\u201d\nwith a stirring tune by T. C. O\u2019Kane, has been widely used in America\nas an evangelistic hymn with a refrain.\n\n\n\n\n                            _Chapter XVII_\n                    HYMNS IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND\n\n\n           I. RISE OF SPIRITUAL LIFE IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH\n\nAlthough the Wesleys were Church of England clergymen, the tide of\nreligious feeling they set in motion could not sweep over the mass of\nthe population without its waves dashing across all ecclesiastical and\ntraditional barriers. But John Wesley\u2019s somewhat arrogant spirit, the\nextreme methods which he found necessary to reach the lower classes,\nso desperately in need of a new religious impulse, above all, his\nsharp reaction against the high Calvinistic theology of the Church,\nrepelled many who had been deeply affected by the Methodist atmosphere\nthat enveloped them and had felt a new sense of obligation to bring\nback their people to a true religious life.\n\n\n              II. EARLY COLLECTIONS OF EVANGELICAL HYMNS\n\nThe effectiveness of the spontaneous Methodist singing was evident\nenough and the Evangelical ministers of the Established Church felt\nthe need of collections of hymns that should achieve the same results\nwithout what seemed to them the doctrinal vagaries and emotional\nextravagances of the Wesleyan hymns. Nor were they at first willing to\nset entirely aside the psalmody that had served the church for so many\ngenerations.\n\nAs might be expected, the earliest collections of hymns for use in the\nEstablished churches were largely based on Nonconformist and Wesleyan\nmaterials, since most of their editors, and the churches they wished\nto serve, were under the influence of the Countess of Huntingdon, who\nin turn was in close touch with the Calvinistic-Methodist movement.\n\nOne of the first of the collections of the Evangelical wing was that\nof Martin Madan, _Psalms and Hymns_, containing 170 hymns without\norder or arrangement, except that sacramental hymns had a department\nby themselves. Madan used a free hand in revising and remodeling the\nhymns he selected, sometimes for good, frequently for ill. He was\nquite a musician, supplying tunes, thirty-three of which were his own\ncomposition, of which \u201cHuddersfield\u201d and \u201cHelmsley\u201d still occasionally\nappear in our hymnals. His book was used to a considerable extent and\nhelped to hasten the introduction of hymns in the Church of England.\nOther collections of the same name and type were issued by Berridge\nand Conyers.\n\nMore important was Toplady\u2019s _Psalms and Hymns_, issued in 1776.\nDespite his virulent attacks on the Wesleys, he used quite a number of\ntheir hymns, without credit and drastically revised. His collection\ncontained 418 hymns, some by Watts and by other Nonconformists. His\nrevisions were not wholly on doctrinal grounds, but on literary as\nwell\u2014\u201cGod is the God of _Truth_, of Holiness, and of Elegance.\nWhoever, therefore, has the honor to compose, or to compile, anything\nthat may constitute a part of his worship should keep those three\nparticulars constantly in view.\u201d In this remark, found in his preface,\nToplady anticipated the later period of the literary hymn by Heber,\nKeble, and Milman. This collection continued in use for nearly fifty\nyears.\n\n\n                    III. EVANGELICAL HYMN WRITERS\n\nWith the exception of this later collection of Toplady these hymnbooks\nwere mere compilations. The impulse of this Evangelical wing to write\nhymns of their own did not long delay. The most notable of these hymn\nwriters were John Newton (1725-1807) and William Cowper (1731-1800).\nThey co-operated in the issue of _Olney Hymns_, so called after the\nvillage of which Newton was the curate.\n\nJohn Newton was born in London. His mother, who was a pious Dissenter,\nand had dedicated her boy from his birth to the Christian ministry and\nhad tried to train him in preparation for this work, died when he was\nbut seven years old. He grew up to be a wild, profligate, wicked young\nman; he speaks of himself as \u201conce an infidel and libertine, a servant\nof slaves in Africa.\u201d At the age of twenty-three he again came under\nreligious influences and became an ardent Christian.\n\nIt was not until he was nearly thirty-nine years old that he entered\nthe ministry of the Established Church, being appointed curate of the\nvillage of Olney. He had always had an impulse, even during his\nwildest years, to read and study and to add to his general culture.\nHence, in spite of his vagrant life (having spent eighteen years on\nthe sea) and his secular pursuits, he came into the ministry with a\nrough-hewn education, and a practical and resourceful attitude of\nmind, that served him well in his aggressive ministry. His spiritual\nexperience was deep and intense. He had been in close touch with\nWhitefield, the Wesleys, and other leaders in the great evangelistic\nmovement.\n\nFor his work as a curate in the Established Church, the hymns of Watts\nlacked the deep personal spirituality for which his own soul sought\nexpression. The Wesleys supplied that element abundantly, but their\nhymnbooks did not express his Calvinistic attitude, nor fit his local\nneeds. His own urge to write hymns and his intimacy with Cowper, which\nundoubtedly seemed a providence, encouraged him to produce Olney\nHymns, which contained 280 hymns by Newton and 68 by Cowper.\n\nNewton sympathized with Watts in his objection to pronouncedly poetic\nelements in hymns; in his preface he remarks that \u201cthe imagery and\ncoloring of poetry, if admitted at all, should be admitted very\nsparingly.\u201d The book was dedicated to \u201cthe use of plain people,\u201d to\npromote the faith and comfort of sincere Christians. To secure these,\n\u201cperspicuity, simplicity, and ease\u201d were sought. Yet some of Newton\u2019s\nbest hymns closely approach the best of his friend, the poet Cowper.\nGenuine feeling gave lyric wings.\n\nOf his 280 hymns, the most successful in maintaining a place in our\nhymnals are: \u201cAmazing grace! how sweet the sound,\u201d \u201cApproach, my soul,\nthe mercy seat,\u201d \u201cGlorious things of thee are spoken,\u201d \u201cCome, my soul,\nthy suit prepare,\u201d \u201cHow sweet the name of Jesus sounds,\u201d \u201cSafely\nthrough another week,\u201d \u201cWhile with ceaseless course the sun,\u201d \u201cOne\nthere is, above all others.\u201d What a noble chaplet of pearls for his\nLord is this amazing contribution by the former \u201cservant of slaves\u201d!\n\nNewton\u2019s famous coworker on the _Olney Hymns_, William Cowper, was the\nson of one of the chaplains of George II and was born in Hertfordshire\nin 1731. He was frail and shy, and had a very painful experience among\nthe boys of the Westminster School which he attended for ten years.\nDoubtless his later mental affliction was due in large part to the\nbullying of his schoolmates. He studied law, but did not find it to\nhis taste. At the age of thirty-six he moved to Olney, where he met\nJohn Newton, who became his close friend and protector as well as his\nleader in the writing of hymns. He co-operated with Newton\u2019s religious\nwork as lay reader and wrote his hymns for the cottage prayer meetings\nthat were a feature in Newton\u2019s work.\n\nWhile his literary work shows no trace of his melancholia, being\ncheerful and even humorous, his hymns frequently show traces of it,\nnotably in \u201cGod moves in a mysterious way\u201d and \u201cOh, for a closer walk\nwith God.\u201d Newton\u2019s habit of introspection may have influenced him,\nand the obscurity of the people and of the occasions for which he\nwrote may have given him a sense of freedom in expressing his deeper,\nsubconscious experience. He was an exceedingly spiritual-minded man.\nIt was said of him by one who often heard him, \u201cOf all the men I ever\nheard pray, none equaled Mr. Cowper.\u201d He had a vivid and intense\nexperience when he was converted: \u201cFor many succeeding weeks tears\nwere ready to flow if I did but speak of the Gospel, or mention the\nname of Jesus. To rejoice day and night was all my employment. Too\nhappy to sleep much, I thought it was lost time that was spent in\nslumber.\u201d\n\nCowper\u2019s literary work was done after he was fifty years old\u2014indeed,\nafter his contributions to _Olney Hymns_ had been made. His hymns were\nreally preliminary studies for his secular work.\n\nCowper made a very important contribution to the Christian hymnody of\nthe ages: \u201cGod moves in a mysterious way,\u201d \u201cOh, for a closer walk with\nGod,\u201d \u201cJesus, where\u2019er thy people meet,\u201d \u201cSometimes a light\nsurprises,\u201d \u201cThere is a fountain filled with blood,\u201d \u201cHark, my soul,\nit is the Lord,\u201d which will all survive as long as devout hearts\nmeditate and sing. _Olney Hymns_ was very widely accepted and had more\nto do with the introduction of hymns into Anglican services than any\nother hymnbook up to that time. It was speedily reprinted in America\nand was very popular there.\n\nBeyond all its Church of England predecessors, it established the\nideal of the hymn as evangelical, as an expression of personal\nspiritual experience, as a vehicle for the conveying of spiritual\ntruth. It was closely akin to the Methodist ideal, but more sober and\nsedate, with less of the poetical element. The hymnbook was the\ncrystallizing force of the Evangelical party and its unifying\ndiscipline. It did not win the co-operation of the whole Church, by\nany means, but it prepared the way for the final acceptance of the\nhymn as an inherent part of the Church service in that communion.\n\nWhile the _Olney Hymns_ continued in use by the Evangelical wing of\nthe Established Church, there continued to be _Psalms and Hymns_\nissued by various compilers, Basil Woodd, Simeon Bidulph, Cecil Venn,\nand others, all giving increasing attention to the hymns, and\nextending their use, in the church service.\n\n\n               IV. HYMN WRITERS OF THE ROMANTIC SCHOOL\n\nIf in the actual singing hymn up to this time there had been any\ndefinitely literary quality or poetic spirit, it had been in spite of\na theory that the hymn must be plain and simple and adapted to plain\npeople, as in those of Watts and Newton, or somewhat unconsciously so\nby reason of an imagination vitalized by deep feeling, as in those of\nCharles Wesley. The hymn had been a practical religious vehicle for\nexpressing feeling and impressing truth, not an artistic and a\nliterary effort.\n\nFrom this time on the Romantic movement in literature began to affect\nthe ideal of the hymn. Since the hymn was to become a part of the\nreligious service, instead of a Nonconformist addition to the sermon,\nand since the metrical psalm was to pass away because of its literary\nshortcomings and absurdities, it was felt that the opportunity had\ncome to put a higher literary quality, a more vivid imagination, a\nmore definitely poetic element into the hymn\u2014hence the literary\nsinging hymn came into being.\n\nThis was all the more opportune, since literature was turning to\nreligion for its themes. Coleridge issued his _Religious Musings_,\nWordsworth his _Ecclesiastical Sonnets_, Moore his _Sacred Songs_, and\nthe libertine Byron his _Hebrew Melodies_. In 1807 the literary\nremains of the lamented Henry Kirke White, including his ten hymns,\namong which was the sublime \u201cThe Lord our God is clothed in might\u201d and\nhis spiritually autobiographical \u201cWhen marshalled on the mighty\nplain,\u201d were edited by Robert Southey. It is also worth while noting\nthat from 1809 to 1816 Reginald Heber printed his religious poems and\nhis hymns. In 1827 John Keble\u2019s _The Christian Year_ made its\nappearance with its materials for singing hymns. In the same year the\nhymns of Bishop Heber and of Henry Hart Milman greeted the Christian\npublic.\n\nAs early as 1809 Heber was considering the use of a hymnal in his\nparish church. In 1811 he published four hymns in the _Christian\nObserver_ as specimens of a series he was contemplating. He proposed a\nhymnbook that should be \u201ca collection of sacred poetry.\u201d He sought the\nhelp of Sir Walter Scott, Robert Southey, and other literary men of\nprominence, but only Henry Hart Milman, the great church historian,\nresponded. The ecclesiastical authorities sympathized, but thought the\nchurch unready for an authorized hymnbook.\n\nAfter Heber\u2019s death in India in 1826, his widow brought the manuscript\nback to England and it was published in 1827\u2014not as a hymnbook,\nhowever, but in the form and style of current poetic issues. In this\nbook appeared fifty-seven hymns by Heber and twelve by Milman. Having\ndue regard to its size, it was probably the richest contribution ever\nmade to Christian hymnody.\n\nAfter the lapse of a century, his hymns are still in current use, many\nof them inevitable in every hymnal whether churchly or popular, such\nas \u201cFrom Greenland\u2019s icy mountains,\u201d \u201cHoly, holy, holy, Lord God\nAlmighty,\u201d \u201cThe Son of God goes forth to war,\u201d \u201cBy cool Siloam\u2019s shady\nrill,\u201d \u201cBread of the world, in mercy broken,\u201d \u201cBrightest and best of\nthe sons of the morning.\u201d\n\nThe beauty of Heber\u2019s style was recognized from the first. His hymns\nwere distinctly literary in flavor, poetically conceived, with varied\nrhythms and forms of stanza. But he did not transgress the limitations\nof the singing hymn, as had the literary men of a century and more\nbefore, nor did he ignore the practicability of the small number of\nverses. The hymns were poems, but they were congregational hymns none\nthe less. But they might have been all this and yet perished by the\nway. It was their deep spirituality, their lucid expression of\nChristian truth, transmuted by intense conviction and personal\nexperience into a personal appeal that was abiding, that have made\nthem immortal.\n\nDean Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868) was a brilliant scholar and church\nhistorian and a poet of great reputation. His hymns are strong,\nchurchly, thoughtful to a high degree, but they lack the poetic charm\nof those of Heber. Of the eleven that appeared in Heber\u2019s posthumous\ncollection, and of others that were printed later, only one, his Palm\nSunday hymn, \u201cRide on, ride on in majesty,\u201d is certain to be included\nin every hymnal. The litany, \u201cWhen our hearts are bowed with woe,\u201d and\n\u201cOh help us, Lord, each hour of need,\u201d are only occasionally used.\n\nLike Saul among the prophets, we find the author of _Lalla Rookh_,\nThomas Moore (1779-1852), enrolled among our English hymn writers. The\ncharm of his secular verse and songs is found also in his _Sacred\nSongs_, from which his ever-useful and tender \u201cCome, ye disconsolate\u201d\nhas been taken; it is found in most of our hymnals. Less often do his\n\u201cSound the loud timbrel o\u2019er Egypt\u2019s dark sea\u201d and \u201cO Thou who driest\nthe mourner\u2019s tear\u201d find a place. Not directly associated with\necclesiastical circles and lacking in religious fervor, he yet\ndeserves a place among distinctly literary hymn writers.\n\nNo small factor in the development of the literary hymn was _The\nChristian Year_ by John Keble (1792-1866). It was not a collection of\nhymns, but a series of poems appropriate to all the several sacred\ntimes and seasons; but out of it were salvaged a number of hymns that\nhave served the needs of high liturgical churches on special days.\n_Hymns Ancient and Modern_, the High-Church hymnal so popular in Great\nBritain and its dominions, contains no less than eleven of these\nadapted hymns. The Christian Church at large is a grateful debtor to\nthis devotional poetry for the two hymns, \u201cSun of my soul, thou\nSaviour dear,\u201d the evening hymn, and \u201cThe voice that breathed o\u2019er\nEden,\u201d the wedding song. Beyond the value of these excerpts from his\npoems was the poetic stimulus that enriches all subsequent hymnody by\nraising the literary quality of the ideal hymn.\n\nIt was this literary quality of the work of the foregoing writers,\ntheir definite recognition of the liturgic needs of the Church, and\ntheir high church ideals and sympathies, that won the final victory of\nthe hymn over the metrical psalm in the Church of England. This party\nhad been the last stronghold in England of metrical psalmody.\n\n\n                     V. CONTEMPORARY HYMN WRITERS\n\nAlthough contemporary with the foregoing romantic school, Thomas Kelly\n(1769-1854), originally an Evangelical Church of England clergyman,\nlater on an Independent, was not particularly influenced by them. He\nwas an indefatigable hymn writer; his collection of _Scripture Hymns_\nfinally contained 765 hymns, all original. His ideal was still that of\nWatts, Wesley, and Newton\u2014the useful hymn. He had no conscious\nstriving after literary quality, but, like Newton, frequently rose to\na high standard in this particular when lifted by his theme. He was an\nearnest, pious, zealous, enthusiastic preacher, and liberal with his\nlarge wealth. His influence in Ireland was widespread and counted\nlargely for piety and for evangelistic aggressiveness.\n\nSome of our most widely used hymns are from his pen: \u201cHark, ten\nthousand harps and voices,\u201d \u201cLook, ye saints, the sight is glorious,\u201d\n\u201cOn the mountain\u2019s top appearing,\u201d \u201cThe Head that once was crowned\nwith thorns,\u201d \u201cZion stands with hills surrounded.\u201d\n\nAnother distinguished contemporary, James Montgomery (1771-1854), was\nprobably more directly influenced by the literary impulses of the\ntimes. A Moravian layman, the son of a Moravian minister, he was a\nprofessional writer and editor of a secular newspaper of considerable\ninfluence. For years a worldling, he was forty-two years old before he\npublicly professed his acceptance of Christ.\n\nHe had written quite a good deal of secular poetry up to this time;\nnow he turned to writing hymns, which he had ceased to do since he was\na boy of fourteen. His poetry was highly appreciated at the time, but\nit is now forgotten, although his hymns keep his memory green. He had\nserved a full literary apprenticeship and had formulated his theories\nof the hymn\u2014its character, its content, its limitations\u2014before he\nbegan writing, so that his hymns have an average excellence and\neffectiveness that can be paralleled only by those of Bishop Heber.\nHis critical attitude is very evident in his introduction to his\nsecond book, _Christian Psalmist_: \u201cThe faults in ordinary hymns are\nvulgar phrases, low words, hard words, technical terms, inverted\nconstruction, broken syntax, barbarous abbreviations that make our\nbeautiful English horrid even to the eye, bad rhymes, or no rhymes\nwhere rhymes are expected, but above all numbers without cadence.\u201d It\nis not surprising that, with this keenly critical approach, he made\nmany alterations in Cotterill\u2019s _Selection of Psalms and Hymns_, which\nhe was asked to edit, nor that he almost rewrote the Moravian hymnbook\non which he labored for twelve years.\n\nThe list of Montgomery\u2019s widely accepted hymns is very large: _The New\nMethodist Hymnal_ has 8, the _New Presbyterian Hymnal_ 9, _Hymns\nAncient and Modern_ (1904 Ed.) 13.\n\nThe most widely used of Montgomery\u2019s hymns are: \u201cAngels from the\nrealms of glory,\u201d \u201cForever with the Lord,\u201d \u201cHail to the Lord\u2019s\nAnointed,\u201d \u201cHark the song of jubilee,\u201d \u201cIn the hour of trial,\u201d \u201cPrayer\nis the soul\u2019s sincere desire,\u201d \u201cOh, where shall rest be found,\u201d \u201cThe\nLord is my Shepherd, No want shall I know.\u201d\n\n\n                        VI. MINOR HYMN WRITERS\n\nThere are some minor writers in this and the succeeding generation\nthat deserve passing mention. The man of a single hymn sometimes\nstrikes twelve.\n\nAmong these is John Marriott (1780-1825), a Church of England vicar\nwhose \u201cThou, whose almighty word\u201d is in the first rank because of its\ndignity and sustained feeling. It is one of our best missionary hymns.\n\nJames Edmeston (1791-1867), a London architect, served his day and\ngeneration with hundreds of hymns for adults and children; only one of\nthem has become a permanent addition to English hymnody, the evening\nhymn, \u201cSaviour, breathe an evening blessing.\u201d\n\nAnother layman, Sir Robert Grant (1785-1838), was conspicuous in his\nday as a statesman, and finally as Governor of Bombay; he was a man of\ndeep piety and elevation of mind. He wrote a number of thoughtful and\nimpressive hymns, but he made his most permanent contribution to the\nChristian Church\u2019s sacrifice of praise in his noble \u201cOh, worship the\nKing, all-glorious above,\u201d which is in the first rank for its noble\npoetry as well as its profound devotion.\n\nAnother writer of high merit is the butcher\u2019s son, Henry Kirke White\n(1785-1806), whose death at the early age of twenty-one years, after\nwriting at the age of seventeen some poems of such merit as to arrest\nthe attention of the literary world, was a distinct loss to English\nhymnody. How great that loss can be judged from the high quality of\nhis \u201cThe Lord our God is clothed with might,\u201d \u201cOft in danger, oft in\nwoe,\u201d and his Christmas hymn, \u201cWhen marshaled on the nightly plain.\u201d\nHis struggles with poverty in seeking an education, with skepticism in\nfinding peace of soul, with dread disease to which he had to succumb,\ninvest his story with a poignant pathos.\n\nAnother hymnist deserving attention was Bernard Barton (1784-1849), a\nQuaker banker, twenty of whose hymns came into general use. Two of\nthem seem to have won a permanent place in our hymnody, \u201cLamp of our\nfeet, whereby we trace\u201d and \u201cWalk in the light! so shalt thou\nknow\u201d\u2014not great hymns, but extremely useful.\n\nHenry Francis Lyte (1793-1847) entered the church as a profession, but\npresently was led into a deep religious experience by attending the\ndying bed of a neighboring clergyman who, too, had looked upon his\nwork as a means of livelihood. The fruit of this experience was the\nhymns that have been so loved and appreciated on both sides of the\nocean. The favorites among them are \u201cAbide with me! Fast falls the\neventide,\u201d \u201cJesus, I my cross have taken,\u201d \u201cAs pants the hart for\ncooling streams,\u201d and \u201cPraise, my soul, the King of heaven.\u201d The\npathetic story of his last days has touched the hearts of God\u2019s people\nas they have sung his swan song, \u201cAbide with me\u201d\u2014the finest evening\nhymn of the Christian church\u2014if it is accepted as an evening hymn.\n\nThat a Unitarian, Sir John Bowring (1792-1872), should have written so\nnoble a hymn about the cross of Christ as \u201cIn the cross of Christ I\nglory,\u201d expressing all its spiritual implications, can be explained\nonly by his orthodoxy of heart. His superficial reasonings were the\noutgrowth of his early educational and social environment, and were\nnot in co-ordination with his deeper convictions. He was a voluminous\nwriter. His extraordinary genius for languages is revealed in his\nseries of \u201cSpecimens\u201d from the poetry of no less than five European\nlanguages. Politically he was even more conspicuous than Sir Robert\nGrant, but, like him, his name will be ever revered for a single great\nhymn, \u201cIn the cross of Christ I glory.\u201d Other hymns in common use are\n\u201cWatchman, tell us of the night\u201d and \u201cGod is love; his mercy\nbrightens.\u201d\n\nJosiah Conder (1789-1855), the compiler of the _Congregational Hymn\nBook_, wrote fifty-six hymns for it, one of which is very impressive\nand worshipful, \u201cThe Lord is King! lift up thy voice,\u201d which will\nundoubtedly live through coming generations. His other hymns are\nuniformly good and of a high literary standard, but with less appeal.\n\n\n                VII. THE HYMNS OF THE OXFORD MOVEMENT\n\nCardinal Newman held that John Keble was the originator of the Oxford\nMovement[1] by his great Assize sermon on \u201cThe Great Apostasy\u201d\npreached at Oxford, and by his emphasis of the church\u2019s calendar in\nhis _The Christian Year_; but he can hardly be associated with the\nschool of hymn writers that grew out of it, for some of them\nrepudiated the literary hymn entirely.\n\nJohn Henry Newman (1801-1890) was the leader of the movement back to\nthe ideals of the pre-Reformation church. He wrote some poetry,\nnotably \u201cThe Dream of Gerontius,\u201d and a few hymns. Of these, \u201cLead,\nkindly Light, amid the encircling gloom\u201d is the most widely known,\nbecause of its attractive music, as he himself testifies. \u201cPraise to\nthe Holiest in the height\u201d is really a more serviceable hymn for\nactual church services.\n\nHis disciples, Edward Caswall (1814-1878) and John Mason Neale\n(1818-1866), opened new veins of hymnic wealth in their translations\nfrom the Latin and the Greek, with which they greatly enriched the\ntreasury of sacred song. In the enthusiasm evoked by their success,\nthe suggestion was seriously made that all the post-Reformation\nhymnody be set aside to give way to the medieval and even earlier\nhymns!\n\nCaswall devoted himself to the Latin medieval hymns and sequences and\nmade some surpassing translations, or, if you please,\ntransformations\u2014e.g., \u201cJesus, the very thought of Thee,\u201d \u201cThe sun is\nsinking fast,\u201d \u201cMy God, I love Thee, not because,\u201d and \u201cWhen morning\ngilds the skies\u201d from the German. He was a Church of England man, but\nin 1847 he entered the Roman Catholic Church, following his leader,\nDr. Newman.\n\nDr. Neale did not leave the English Church, but was quite prominent in\nHigh-Church circles. He was intensely interested in the liturgics of\nhis church, which led to his studies of the early Greek church and its\nbreviaries. He brought to his translations of Greek hymns a literary\nskill, a spiritual insight, and a fervor that made him the primate\namong those who found their inspiration in these ancient books of\nservice and breathed into these ancient lyrics the breath of modern\nlife. Among his most notable successes are: \u201cArt thou weary, art thou\nlanguid?\u201d \u201cChristian, dost thou see them?\u201d \u201cThe day is past and over,\u201d\n\u201cFierce was the wild billow,\u201d \u201c\u2019Tis the day of resurrection,\u201d \u201cBrief\nlife is here our portion,\u201d \u201cJerusalem the golden.\u201d It must be\nremembered that these are not literal translations, but English hymns\nmade up of ideas suggested by phrases in the originals. Only a poet\nimbued with devout feelings, responding to the vague suggestions of\nthe often obscure originals, could have produced them.\n\nAnother disciple of Cardinal Newman who also followed him into the\nRoman Catholic Church was Frederick W. Faber (1814-1863), a poet by\nthe grace of God, a devout Christian, a man of intense convictions,\nbut somewhat temperamental and impulsive. Among his many good hymns\nare: \u201cMy God, how wonderful thou art,\u201d \u201cThere\u2019s a wideness in God\u2019s\nmercy\u201d (sometimes beginning \u201cWas there ever kindest Shepherd\u201d), \u201cO\nParadise! O Paradise,\u201d \u201cHark, hark, my soul! angelic songs are\nswelling,\u201d \u201cFaith of our fathers! living still.\u201d Few that sing the\nlast-mentioned hymn realize that it refers to the faith of the Roman\nCatholic saints and that the hymn had to be cleansed of its Mariolatry\nbefore being used in our Protestant hymnals. Nevertheless, in its\npresent form it is a very impressive and valuable hymn that has been\nredeemed from the propagandist vagary of its original writer.\n\nStill under the influence of the Oxford High, or Anglo-Catholic\nChurch, we find Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander, (1823-1895), the writer\nof many hymns, especially for children, among which are a number that\npromise permanent usefulness: \u201cThere is a green hill far away,\u201d \u201cJesus\ncalls us, o\u2019er the tumult,\u201d \u201cThe roseate hues of early dawn.\u201d\n\nBishop W. W. How (1823-1897) wrote a number of excellent hymns for his\nhymnal, _Psalms and Hymns_, some of which have since found their way\ninto other hymnals. Perhaps those that have appealed most are \u201cO\nJesus, Thou art standing,\u201d \u201cWe give Thee but Thine own,\u201d \u201cO Word of\nGod incarnate,\u201d \u201cSoldiers of the cross, arise,\u201d \u201cSummer suns are\nglowing.\u201d His hymns are thoughtful, devout, and full of tender\nfeeling; their literary quality is admirable.\n\nA very copious writer of the same generation was Frances Ridley\nHavergal (1836-1879), whose devotional poetry touched the heart of her\ngeneration to a remarkable degree. Her pen was quite facile, and not\nall she wrote had more than transient value: but some of her hymns the\nChristian Church will permanently treasure: \u201cTake my life, and let it\nbe,\u201d \u201cI could not do without Thee,\u201d \u201cTrue-hearted, whole-hearted,\u201d\n\u201cLord, speak to me, that I may speak,\u201d \u201cI gave my life for thee.\u201d Miss\nHavergal was a woman of profound Christian experience, which is voiced\nby her hymns.\n\nAmong the later writers is Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1927), voluminous\nwriter on a variety of topics as well as a fairly popular novelist. He\nwrote the stirring \u201cOnward, Christian soldiers\u201d for a local\nprocessional of school children and assured himself of an immortality\nby a half hour\u2019s writing that all his laborious literary work would\nnot have won him. He also wrote an appealing evening hymn, \u201cNow the\nday is over,\u201d that Joseph Barnby has made popular by his pleasing\ntune, \u201cMerrial.\u201d\n\nIn spite of Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns and a number of minor\npoets, and in spite of a wealth of charming folk songs, to prove that\nthe spirit of song dwells in the Scottish breast, Scotland has made\nbut a small contribution to English hymnody. The metrical psalm ruled\nthe Scotch religious heart with a rod of iron. Only during the last\ngeneration has Scotia almost unwittingly made an important\ncontribution. Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) was an industrious writer on\nmany topics. He allowed no hymns to be sung in his church, but by a\nstrange anomaly he issued three series of _Hymns of Faith and Hope_\u2014in\n1856, 1861, and 1866. While these hymns were being increasingly sung\naround the world, his church sang metrical psalms! More than one\nhundred of his hymns are in common use. Among them are the following:\n\u201cI heard the voice of Jesus say,\u201d \u201cI lay my sins on Jesus,\u201d \u201cGo, labor\non; spend and be spent,\u201d \u201cBeyond the smiling and the weeping,\u201d \u201cA few\nmore years shall roll,\u201d \u201cI was a wand\u2019ring sheep,\u201d \u201cWhen the weary,\nseeking rest.\u201d\n\nAnother Scotchman, George Matheson (1842-1906), the blind preacher,\nhas written, among many others, a hymn whose beauty and mystical\nsuggestiveness has rapidly given it wide usefulness: \u201cO Love, that\nwilt not let me go.\u201d Fortunate in having a very pleasing and effective\ntune, St. Margaret by Albert L. Peace, it promises to be a permanent\nfountain of blessing.\n\n\n\n\n                           _Chapter XVIII_\n                           AMERICAN HYMNODY\n\n\n              I. THE TRANSITION FROM PSALMODY TO HYMNODY\n\nThe metrical versions used in New England were Ainsworth\u2019s in Plymouth\nand vicinity under Pilgrim influence, and Sternhold and Hopkins\u2019,\nwhere Puritan influence controlled. The New England ministers were\nscholarly and knew their Hebrew Bible. The Sternhold and Hopkins\nversion was unsatisfactory, not so much for its literary deficiencies,\nbut because it was not literal enough, did not reproduce the Hebrew\nminutely enough. This led, as we have seen in Chapter X, to the Bay\nPsalm Book of 1640, which was widely adopted, although Sternhold and\nHopkins still had its partisans.\n\nThese versions could not but find sharp critics among a more or less\nscholarly ministry and in time their absurdities weakened their hold\nupon the New England churches.\n\nThe utter collapse of the congregational singing due to the lack of\ntunes in the psalm books, and the absence of competent precentors,[1]\nhastened the revolt among some of the Churches against the versions.\nYet the tyranny of \u201cuse and wont\u201d kept most of the churches in line,\nonly a few of them adopting the later version of Tate and Brady.\n\nThe interest aroused by the \u201csinging school,\u201d and by the organization\nof choirs due to the multiplication of tune books, both English and\nAmerican, delayed the abolition of the older metrical versions and\npostponed the introduction of Watts\u2019 Imitations and Hymns for several\ndecades, but the complaints from the larger and more cultured churches\nand their scholarly ministers became more vociferous.[2] The\ncombination of the absurdities of the metrical versions, and those\ncreated by the senseless repetition made necessary by the fugue tunes\nthen in use, became unendurable.\n\n\n                 II. THE INTRODUCTION OF WATTS\u2019 HYMNS\n\nWatts\u2019 _The Psalms of David Imitated_ was very well adapted to serve\nas an entering wedge. It brought a certain sanction by making David\u2019s\nPsalms the foundation. They were still psalms, not hymns, and so\nsatisfied to some degree the claims of tradition, and placated those\nwho would have balked at hymns of \u201chuman composure.\u201d Benjamin Franklin\nin 1729 was the first to reprint the Imitation, but complained that\nthe copies remained on his shelves unsold. The demand evidently grew,\nfor in 1741 he issued a second edition. The first reprint of Watts\u2019\nHymns appeared in 1739 in Boston. Three years later, in 1742, Franklin\nreprinted them in Philadelphia, and years later still, they were\nrepublished in New York.\n\nWhitfield\u2019s visit to America and the outburst of singing of the Great\nAwakening (1742), with its profound religious experiences that could\nfind no adequate expression in the Psalms alone, gave Watts\u2019 Hymns a\nlarger opportunity. In 1744 the singing of Watts\u2019 Hymns was one of the\ndiversions of the people when they met together.\n\nIt was not until after the Revolution that the introduction of Watts\u2019\nPsalms and Hymns became general. There were a number of issues with\nsuch abridgments or changes as were made necessary by Watts\u2019\nreferences to British conditions, by Joel Barlow, a patriotic poet,\nauthor of the _Columbiad_, and later U. S. Minister to France, and by\nNathan Strong, Samuel Worcester, and Timothy Dwight, the distinguished\npresident of Yale College. All these had considerable vogue,\nespecially the last which contained metrical versions of the Psalms\nWatts had omitted and other psalms versified anew. President Dwight\u2019s\n\u201cI love Thy kingdom, Lord\u201d appeared as a versification of Psalm 137.\nIt is a classic, one of the two leading hymns on the Christian Church,\nand is rarely omitted in our hymnals. Besides the Psalms it contained\n263 hymns, 168 of which were by Watts.\n\nThe contentions which had occurred over methods of singing\u2014the\n\u201cDeaconing\u201d or lining out of the hymns, the use of choirs, the fugal\ntunes\u2014now gave way to differences over the use of various editions of\nWatts, or over the use of hymns in church service. The tradition,\nhappily unjustified now, that the music of the church constituted \u201cthe\nwar department\u201d seems to have been originated during that century of\nconflict.\n\n\n               III. THE BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN HYMNODY\n\nWherever Watts had been able to overthrow the tyranny of the metrical\nversions, he seemed to have instituted a tyranny of his own, to the\ndetriment of the development of an American hymnody. But here and\nthere lonesome birds were singing songs of their own, early harbingers\nof the springtime of American sacred song.\n\nSamuel Davies, the eloquent President of the College of New Jersey,\nnow Princeton University, began writing hymns in the middle of the\neighteenth century that were accepted in English hymnbooks before they\nbecame generally known in America. Their quality may be judged from\nhis hymn of consecration:\n\n  \u201cLord, I am thine, entirely thine,\n  Purchased and saved by blood divine;\n  With full consent thine I would be\n  And own thy sovereign right in me.\u201d\n\nThe other verses are equally good, if not superior.\n\nMather Byles, the brilliant Tory preacher of Boston, was a poet of no\nmean pretentions and in close touch with Swift, Pope, and Watts. He\nwrote hymns that served their purpose in his day and generation, but\nhave not been recognized since, partly because of his political\nattitude and his advanced views, being one of the first to use Watts\u2019\nHymns in his congregation. His somewhat oratorical style is evident in\nhis hymn on the greatness of God:\n\n  \u201cWho can behold the blazing light?\n    Who can approach consuming flame?\n  None but thy wisdom knows thy might;\n    None but thy word can speak thy name.\u201d\n\nAnother early songbird was Samson Occom, the Mohegan Indian, who\nraised the money in England which later became the financial nucleus\nof the present Dartmouth College. His autobiographical hymn, \u201cWaked by\nthe Gospel\u2019s joyful sound,\u201d was widely used in England and translated\ninto Welsh, among whom it was used in their revivals and \u201cled many\nhundred sinners to the cross of Christ.\u201d\n\nHarry Alline (1748-1783) was the most copious hymn writer of that\nearly day, his _Hymns and Spiritual Songs_ containing four hundred and\neighty-seven Hymns, all from his own pen. His\n\n  \u201cAmazing sight, the Saviour stands,\n    And knocks at every door!\n  Ten thousand blessings in his hands\n    To satisfy the poor,\u201d\n\nwas quite a favorite for many years, but was finally submerged in the\nlarger tide of sacred song that sprang up through the years.\n\nThe scholarly and eloquent Nathan Strong in his _Hartford Selection_\nused several hymns of his own. His patriotic hymn, \u201cSwell the anthem,\nraise the song,\u201d has had a long life of wide usefulness.\n\nWhile Watts still reigned supreme during the next quarter of a\ncentury, the impulse and the ability to write acceptable hymns was\nrapidly developing. Eccentric Elder John Leland (1754-1851) among a\nlot of almost amusing trash wrote an evening hymn that had very wide\nacceptance. Dr. Duffield characterizes it as a \u201cclassic in its\nunpretending beauty,\u201d and Dr. Charles S. Robinson esteemed it so\nhighly as to exclaim, \u201cMay it live forever and ever!\u201d Unfortunately\nthe supply of fine evening hymns is so great that in the competition\nLeland\u2019s hymn has fallen by the way. The last verse will enable the\nreader to savor its quality:\n\n  \u201cAnd when our days are past,\n    And we from time remove,\n  Oh, may we in Thy bosom rest,\n    The bosom of Thy love.\u201d\n\nHow many ministers who sing \u201cCoronation\u201d so heartily are aware that\nthe composer, Oliver Holden (1765-1844), was a hymn writer as well as\na musician? Yet one of his hymns had a wide use in both America and\nEngland:\n\n  \u201cThey who seek the throne of grace\n  Find that throne in every place;\n  If we live a life of prayer,\n  God is present everywhere.\u201d\n\nAfter a long and useful life, it, too, has practically disappeared\nfrom our hymnals.\n\n\n                  IV. COLLECTIONS OF AMERICAN HYMNS\n\nBy 1824 the evangelistic movement, partly a heritage from the Great\nAwakening, partly due to the Methodist aggressiveness, and partly to\nthe religious needs of a widely scattered and pioneer population, made\nit evident that the hymns of Watts and his school, with minds set on\nworship in more or less formal services for the edification of the\nelect, and ignoring the needs of an urgent discipling, were not fitted\nfor revival work. Rev. Asahel Nettleton, an evangelistic minister\ngreatly interested in foreign missions, issued his _Village Hymns_,\ncontaining six hundred hymns, only fifty of which were by Watts. Some\nof Charles Wesley\u2019s hymns were included, but most of these were\ncredited to other authors. While other English sources were drawn\nupon, the book was noteworthy for the American hymns that appeared in\nit. Hymns by Davies, Occom, Alline, Strong, and Dwight were used. An\neager quest for new American hymnists was rewarded by contributions\nfrom William B. Tappan (\u201c\u2019Tis midnight; and on Olive\u2019s brow\u201d and \u201cThe\nransomed spirit to her home\u201d); from Phoebe Hinsdale Brown (\u201cI love to\nsteal awhile away\u201d); and from Abby B. Hyde (\u201cDear Saviour, if these\nlambs should stray\u201d).\n\nWilliam B. Tappan (1794-1849) was a largely self-educated man, having\nattended school but six months. His hymn \u201cThere is an hour of peaceful\nrest\u201d was widely published in America and England, and on the\nContinent, and used to be inevitable in the hymnbooks of sixty years\nago. His \u201c\u2019Tis midnight; and on Olive\u2019s brow\u201d still holds its place,\nthough largely descriptive, but none the less impressive and useful.\n\nMrs. Phoebe Hinsdale Brown (1783-1861) still is represented in most of\nour hymnals by her \u201cI love to steal awhile away,\u201d with its pathetic\nstory of her misunderstood habit of prayer among the scenes of nature.\nGreater than the hymn, valuable as it has been, is her contribution to\nthe progress of Christ\u2019s Kingdom in the work of her missionary son,\nRev. Samuel R. Brown, in China and Japan and that of her grandsons in\nthe latter country.\n\nBut the revival took on an intenser form under the preaching and\npraying of Charles G. Finney and, bright as was the spirit of the\n_Village Hymns_, it called for something more vigorous and with a\ngreater appeal to the unsaved people who were to be won, especially in\nthe music. Rev. Joshua Leavitt, a Congregational minister, a militant\nreformer, enemy of intemperance and slavery (a dangerous attitude in\nthose days), and an ardent believer in the revival work of Finney,\nissued his _The Christian Lyre_ in 1830, which created quite a\nsensation. Its hymns did not differ much from those of _Village\nHymns_, but it was more practical in that it supplied the music on the\npage opposite to each hymn, no small advance on the ponderous tune\nbook that had to be held in one hand and the hymnbook in the other.\nLowell Mason and Thomas Hastings had been editing these tune books\nfilled with dull and stupid music, in whose abundant chaff an\noccasional grain of gold occurred, which the Christian Church has been\nglad to cherish. The music in _The Christian Lyre_ was bright and\npopular, being secular melodies the people were singing. Leavitt had\ntaken a leaf out of the book of the old mass-writers, who used popular\nmelodies for their descants, and of Luther and Bourgeois, in taking\npopular tunes to reach the people. It was an anticipation of Horace\nWaters\u2019 policy in his _Sabbath School Bell_ in 1859. It was also an\nanticipation of Moody and Sankey\u2019s _Gospel Hymns_, except that Leavitt\nhad no Fanny Crosby or Lydia Baxter to supply new texts, and no\nreserve of popular music by Lowry, Doane, Bliss, and others to draw\nupon.\n\nAs Horace Waters stimulated Bradbury into developing the popular\nSunday school music, one of whose by-products was the Gospel song, so\nLeavitt stirred up Mason and Hastings to begin the issue in 1832 of\n_Spiritual Songs for Social Worship_, in twelve parts, more nearly the\narchetype of the future _Gospel Hymns_. _The Christian Lyre_ left no\nresiduum for future generations, but Spiritual Songs, edited by men of\nwide experience, in touch with the most cultivated clerical circle of\nthe day, one of them a hymnist of both facility and felicity, made\nimportant permanent contributions not only to American but to\nuniversal Christian hymnody.\n\nIn this collection appeared Thomas Hastings\u2019 \u201cHail to the brightness\nof Zion\u2019s glad morning,\u201d \u201cGently, Lord, O gently lead us,\u201d \u201cHow calm\nand beautiful the morn,\u201d \u201cChild of sin and sorrow.\u201d Here also appeared\nhis enlargement of Thomas Moore\u2019s \u201cCome, ye disconsolate.\u201d Add to\nthese his tunes \u201cOrtonville,\u201d \u201cRetreat,\u201d \u201cZion,\u201d \u201cToplady,\u201d and others\nand his other hymns, \u201cReturn, O wanderer, to my home,\u201d \u201cDelay not,\ndelay not, O sinner, draw near,\u201d \u201cThe Saviour bids thee watch and\npray,\u201d and it will be seen that Thomas Hastings, even if he is not in\nthe first rank as hymnist or composer, deserves well of the Christian\nChurch.\n\nIn this same volume of Spiritual Songs first appeared Rev. Samuel F.\nSmith\u2019s two great hymns, \u201cThe morning light is breaking\u201d and \u201cMy\ncountry, \u2019tis of thee.\u201d He was still a theological student,\ntwenty-four years of age, when these were written. The theme of the\nlatter was suggested in a general way by Lowell Mason, who needed a\npatriotic song for his children\u2019s singing schools, and who supplied\nhim with some music he had recently received from Germany. During a\nleisure moment his eye fell on \u201cHeil dir im Sieger-Kranz,\u201d the German\n\u201cGod Save the King,\u201d written to the English tune, \u201cGod Save the King.\u201d\nThis latter fact he did not know, but liked the tune and was moved to\nwrite unknowingly our National Hymn. Sung by Lowell Mason\u2019s children\u2019s\nchorus, it was rapidly introduced and was presently _viva voce_\naccepted as the long-desired National Anthem. Practically an\nimprovisation, not intended for wide use, it is open to criticism; but\nit is greatly superior to its only competitor for national honors,\n\u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner,\u201d because of its practicability in singing,\nits dignity, and its noble expression of the American spirit. That it\nrefers to hills and not to prairies, and speaks of \u201cpilgrim\u2019s pride\u201d\n(without the capital) is open only to captious criticism.\n\nHis \u201cThe morning light is breaking\u201d was due to the missionary spirit\nthat was prevalent in the theological seminaries during that period.\nIt is the peer of Heber\u2019s \u201cFrom Greenland\u2019s icy mountains\u201d as a\nmissionary hymn; many recent critics greatly prefer it.\n\nAnother great hymn that made its premier appearance in _Spiritual\nSongs_ was \u201cMy faith looks up to Thee,\u201d by Dr. Ray Palmer (1808-1887),\nset to one of Lowell Mason\u2019s best tunes, \u201cOlivet.\u201d Meeting Dr. Palmer\non the street, Mason asked him whether he had not an appropriate hymn\nfor his forthcoming book; young Palmer remembered he had some verses\nin his pocketbook and handed them to Mason. Meeting Palmer a few days\nafterwards on the street, Mason with great earnestness exclaimed: \u201cMr.\nPalmer, you may live many years and do many good things, but I think\nyou will be best known to posterity as the author of \u2018My faith looks\nup to Thee!\u2019\u201d The prophecy, so literally fulfilled, speaks well for\nMason\u2019s critical acumen. Ray Palmer, despite Bishop Wordsworth\u2019s\nobjection to the pronouns of the first person, wrote \u201cMy faith,\u201d \u201cI\npray,\u201d \u201cmy guilt,\u201d for his hymn was not intended to be sung, but\nsimply to express his own spiritual experience. It was a personal\nprayer none the less that it took a metrical form. It is one of the\ngreat factors in its world-wide appeal that it becomes the personal\nexpression of every individual who sings it.\n\nBut Dr. Palmer was not the author of only a single song: he wrote many\nothers of almost equal value. Writing a sermon on the words of Peter,\n\u201cJesus Christ, whom having not seen ye love,\u201d he was suddenly\noverwhelmed by his rapture of love for the Christ, and, the sermon\nforgotten, he wrote down the hymn the church will never allow to die:\n\n  \u201cJesus, these eyes have never seen\n    That radiant form of thine;\n  The veil of sense hangs dark between\n    Thy blessed face and mine.\n\n  I see thee not, I hear thee not,\n    Yet art thou oft with me;\n  And earth hath ne\u2019er so dear a spot\n    As where I meet with thee.\u201d\n\nIn his dying hour he was heard to repeat with broken voice the last\nstanza of this hymn:\n\n  \u201cWhen death these mortal eyes shall seal,\n    And still this throbbing heart,\n  The rending veil shall thee reveal,\n    All glorious as thou art.\u201d\n\nOther important hymns of Dr. Palmer\u2019s are: \u201cCome, Jesus, Redeemer,\nabide Thou with me,\u201d \u201cO Jesus, sweet the tears I shed,\u201d \u201cTake me, O my\nFather, take me,\u201d \u201cO Christ, the Lord of heav\u2019n, to Thee,\u201d \u201cCome, Holy\nGhost, in love.\u201d His translation of \u201cJesu, dulcedo cordium,\u201d the Paris\ncento of \u201cJesu, dulcis memoria,\u201d by an unknown Spanish abbess, is most\nhighly esteemed: \u201cJesus, Thou joy of loving hearts.\u201d This cento is\nmade up of selected verses from \u201cJesu, dulcis memoria,\u201d from which\nEdward Caswell took his admirable \u201cJesus, the very thought of Thee.\u201d\n\nDr. Leonard Bacon (1802-1881), the son of a missionary among the\nIndians of Michigan, is noteworthy in two particulars: he issued, at\nthe age of twenty-one, the first collection of missionary hymns\nprinted in America, and he wrote the New England patriotic hymn still\nused in our churches,\n\n  \u201cO God, beneath thy guiding hand\n    Our exiled fathers crossed the sea;\n  And when they trod the wintry strand\n    With prayer and psalm they worshiped Thee.\u201d\n\nBorn in Detroit, he sang the praise of the divine hand that founded\nthe New England churches.\n\n\n                      V. EPISCOPAL HYMN WRITERS\n\nWhile the Anglican Church remained faithful to the traditional\nmetrical versions well into the nineteenth century, the American\nEpiscopal Church was hospitable to hymns much earlier. Already in 1789\nthe House of Bishops ratified the addition of hymns to the psalter.\nFrom decade to decade the demand for additional hymns grew until in\n1823 William A. Muhlenberg, a rector of Lancaster, Pa., issued his\n_Church_ _Poetry_, consisting of psalms and hymns, which was adopted\nby the rectors of other Episcopal churches. In 1827 appeared _Hymns of\nthe Protestant Episcopal Church_, the majority of whose hymns were by\nWatts, Doddridge, Steele, and Charles Wesley. Its most distinctive\nfeature was the new hymns supplied by five Episcopal writers, Dr. H.\nU. Onderdonk, Dr. William Augustus Muhlenberg (1796-1877), Bishop\nGeorge W. Doane (1799-1859), J. W. Eastburn, and Francis S. Key\n(1779-1843).\n\nOf Dr. Onderdonk\u2019s nine hymns one came into general use, \u201cThe Spirit\nin our hearts.\u201d\n\nDr. Muhlenberg was more successful, for three of his five are\nrecognized as a part of American Hymnody: \u201cI would not live alway; I\nask not to stay,\u201d \u201cShout the glad tidings, exultingly sing,\u201d and the\nbaptismal hymn, \u201cSaviour, who thy flock art feeding.\u201d\n\nBishop Doane was represented by two hymns, both of which still find a\nplace in our hymnals: \u201cThou art the way; to thee alone,\u201d \u201cSoftly now\nthe light of day.\u201d The latter is one of our most acceptable evening\nhymns. Fully as useful is his vigorous missionary hymn, which, with\nits very appropriate tune, \u201cWaltham,\u201d by J. Baptiste Calkin, is adding\ninspiration everywhere to the cause,\n\n  \u201cFling out the banner! let it float\n    Skyward and seaward, high and wide;\n  The sun, that lights its shining folds,\n    The cross, on which the Saviour died.\u201d\n\nFrancis S. Key, the well-known writer of \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner,\u201d\nto whom Baltimore has erected an elaborate statue, furnished a fine\nhymn of praise, \u201cLord, with glowing heart I\u2019d praise Thee.\u201d\n\n\n                        VI. UNITARIAN HYMNODY\n\nThe production of original hymns in New England took a peculiar\ncourse. After Samuel F. Smith, the spirit of praise left the Orthodox\nchurches and took refuge with the ostensible Unitarians. The reaction\nagainst the rigid and harsh Calvinism was not so much against the\ndoctrine of the deity of Christ, as against the false corollaries\ndrawn metaphysically from the noble doctrine of the Sovereignty of\nGod, as well as the crass, materialistically conceived, conception of\nthe state of the impenitent dead, that was painted so luridly and\noffensively in song as well as in sermon.\n\nHenry Ware, Jr. (1794-1843), was the son of Professor Henry Ware, who\nheld the chair of Divinity in Harvard College for thirty-five years.\nHe himself became professor of Pulpit Eloquence and Pastoral Care in\nthe same institution in 1830. The pastor for thirteen years of a\nprominent Unitarian church in Boston, he never wavered in his faith in\nthe deity of Jesus Christ. How otherwise could he have written that\ntriumphant Easter hymn:\n\n  \u201cLift your glad voices in triumph on high,\n  For Jesus hath risen, and man cannot die;\n  Vain were the terrors that gathered around him,\n  And short the dominion of death and the grave.\u201d\n\nWilliam Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), America\u2019s first great poet, wrote\nfive hymns for Henry D. Sewall\u2019s Unitarian Church hymnal in 1820. He\nwas a member of the First Congregational Unitarian Church in New York\nCity. Yet in 1865 he could write a hymn containing the following\nstanza:\n\n  \u201cLo! in the clouds of heaven appears\n    God\u2019s well-beloved Son;\n  He brings the train of brighter years;\n    His Kingdom is begun;\n  He comes, a guilty world to bless\n  With mercy, truth, and righteousness.\u201d\n\nIn 1875 he could still write in a hymn on \u201cThe Star of Bethlehem,\u201d\n\n  \u201cYet doth the Star of Bethlehem shed\n    A luster pure and sweet;\n  And still it leads, as once it led,\n    To the Messiah\u2019s feet.\u201d\n\nAn even more remarkable Unitarian was Oliver Wendell Holmes\n(1809-1894), the great physician, but even greater poet. He had the\nreputation of being rather radical in his religious views; he was a\nhumorist whom human life rather amused than impressed seriously\n(though he was tender enough to human suffering), but, when a hymn\nseemed an appropriate close for one of his genial essays, he could\nwrite,\n\n  \u201cLord of all being, throned afar,\n  Thy glory flames from sun and star;\n  Center and soul of every sphere,\n  Yet to each loving heart how near.\u201d\n\nBut unless in the deeper depths of his soul there still lingered faith\nin Jesus Christ as the Son of God, how could he write,\n\n  \u201cO Love divine, that stooped to share\n    Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear,\n  On thee we cast each earthborn care;\n    We smile at pain while thou art near.\u201d\n\nEspecially that last verse of unshaken faith:\n\n  \u201cOn thee we fling our burdening woe,\n    O Love divine, forever dear;\n  Content to suffer while we know,\n    Living and dying, thou art near.\u201d\n\nWhat might not Oliver Wendell Holmes have done for Christian hymnody,\nhad he had Charles Wesley\u2019s evangelical experience and piety?\n\nAnother Unitarian deserving recognition was Edmund Hamilton Sears\n(1810-1876), who is not remembered because of his successful pastoral\ncareer of forty years, nor by his theological treatises and religious\nwritings, but by his two Christmas hymns, perhaps the best written in\nAmerica (not forgetting Bishop Brooks\u2019 \u201cO Little town of\nBethlehem\u201d)\u2014\u201cCalm on the listening ear of night\u201d and \u201cIt came upon the\nmidnight clear.\u201d The first was written soon after his graduation from\nHarvard College in 1834, and the other in 1849 after he had been in\nthe pastorate over a decade. Of course, he was a firm believer in the\ndeity of Christ, else he could not have written these hymns.\n\nAfter Dr. Ray Palmer, our best American hymnist is John G. Whittier\n(1807-1892), who never aspired to such honors! His hymns have been\nmost deftly extracted from longer poems and, despite their being mere\nfragments, are distinctive hymns in progress of thought and structure.\nMoreover, they are the very choicest passage in these longer poems.\nThe additional marvel is that this Unitarian Hicksite Quaker, who was\nnot taught to sing hymns in his youth, should have given finer\nexpression than any other writer to the sense of present intimate\ncommunion with Christ:\n\n  \u201cBut warm, sweet, tender, even yet\n    A present help is He;\n  And faith has still its Olivet,\n    And love its Galilee.\u201d\n\n\n                   VII. LATER ORTHODOX HYMN WRITERS\n\nTo this generation George Duffield, Jr. (1818-1888), may be said to\nhave belonged. His hymn, \u201cStand up, stand up for Jesus,\u201d is never\nomitted from any reputable collection of hymns, liturgic or popular.\nHe was a foremost figure in the Philadelphia revival of 1857 and 1858,\nbeing associated with Alfred Cookman, the Methodist, and Dudley A.\nTyng, the Episcopalian, whose dying words suggested the hymn.\n\nOld Dr. Lyman Beecher was a giant in his day, but his chief glory was\nin his remarkable family of children. While Henry Ward was most\nconspicuous in his day, he was hardly more so than Harriet Beecher\nStowe (1812-1896), the author of _Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin_, which, with\nHanby\u2019s _Darling Nellie Gray_, prepared the heart of the North to buy\nat a tremendous cost of treasure and blood the Emancipation\nProclamation. But Mrs. Stowe is not simply a historic character whose\nwork is done; she is living still in her hymns, notably the exquisite\nmorning hymn, \u201cStill, still with thee, when purple morning breaketh,\u201d\na fitting mate for Lyte\u2019s evening hymn, \u201cAbide with me; fast falls the\neventide.\u201d\n\nMention should be made of Anna Warner (1820-1915), whose children\u2019s\nhymn, \u201cJesus loves me, this I know,\u201d set to Bradbury\u2019s simple\npentatonic melody has girdled the globe. Other hymns by Miss Warner\nare \u201cOne more day\u2019s work for Jesus\u201d and \u201cWe would see Jesus; for the\nshadows lengthen.\u201d\n\nAmong later American hymn writers is Mary Artemisia Lathbury\n(1841-1913), who wrote \u201cBreak Thou the bread of life\u201d (not a communion\nhymn, by the way) and \u201cDay is dying in the West,\u201d with William F.\nSherwin\u2019s tunes, which are to be found in all our hymnals and which\nare very tender, very useful.\n\nThe American Episcopal Church has supplied some admirable hymns\nthrough Bishop Arthur Cleveland Coxe (1818-1896), who wrote \u201cOh, where\nare kings and empires now,\u201d the almost apocalyptic \u201cWe are living, we\nare dwelling,\u201d and the missionary \u201cSaviour, sprinkle many nations,\u201d\nall hymns of high worth; and Bishop Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), whose\n\u201cO little town of Bethlehem\u201d is a favorite Christmas carol.\n\nMrs. Frances Crosby Van Alstyne (1820-1915), familiarly known as\n\u201cFanny Crosby,\u201d would be the premier hymn writer of America if the\ncriteria were quantity and wideness of use. There can be no question\nas to the evangelistic and devotional value of her hymns, whatever\ntheir literary quality or permanent appeal may be. \u201cSafe in the arms\nof Jesus,\u201d \u201cRescue the perishing,\u201d \u201cBlessed Assurance,\u201d \u201cPass me not,\nO gentle Saviour,\u201d \u201cSaviour, more than life to me,\u201d \u201cI am thine, O\nLord, I have heard thy voice,\u201d \u201cJesus, keep me near the cross,\u201d and\nmany others will probably be permanent in hymnals and song collections\nof a popular and evangelistic type.\n\nValuable hymns of the same practical gospel song type have been\nwritten by Mrs. Lydia Baxter, Philip Paul Bliss, Annie Sherwood Hawks,\nMrs. Ellen Huntington Gates, Rev. E. A. Hoffman, Miss E. E. Hewitt,\nMrs. C. H. Morris, President J. E. Rankin, D.D., and many others.\n\nMrs. Elizabeth Prentiss (1818-1878), daughter of the saintly and\ngreatly beloved Rev. Edward Payson, wrote _Stepping Heavenward_, a\nbook that stimulated and cheered multiplied thousands and lifted their\nspiritual ideals. Of her 123 _Religious Poems_, one has won a\npermanent place in our hymnals, \u201cMore love to Thee, O Christ.\u201d It is\nnot a substitute for Mrs. Adams\u2019 \u201cNearer, my God, to Thee,\u201d but a\ncomplement.\n\nOther writers of single hymns that the Church has used with great\neffect are Dr. Washington Gladden\u2019s (1836-1918) \u201cO Master, let me walk\nwith Thee,\u201d a hymn of Christian service; Dr. Sylvanus Dryden Phelps\u2019\n\u201cSaviour, Thy dying love;\u201d Dr. Edward Hopper\u2019s \u201cJesus, Saviour, pilot\nme;\u201d Dr. Joseph Henry Gilmore\u2019s (1834-1918) \u201cHe leadeth me, O blessed\nthought;\u201d Ernest W. Shurtleff\u2019s (1862-1917) \u201cLead on, O King eternal;\u201d\nFrank Mason North\u2019s (1850-1935) \u201cWhere cross the crowded ways of\nlife\u201d; the second, third, and fourth of the songs just mentioned have\na Gospel song origin.\n\nMore recent writers are Rev. Frederick L. Hosmer and Rev. William C.\nGannett in whose _The Thought of God_ are found hymns of deep piety\nand strong religious feeling. Room is made for two stanzas of Dr.\nHosmer\u2019s \u201cFound,\u201d\n\n  \u201cO Name, all other names above,\n    What art thou not to me,\n  Now I have learned to trust thy love\n    And cast my care on thee?\n\n  What is our being but a cry,\n    A restless longing still,\n  Which thou alone canst satisfy,\n    Alone thy fullness fill?\u201d\n\nA more important recent hymn writer is Rev. Louis F. Benson, D.D.\n(1855-1930), the editor of the current Presbyterian hymnals. This\nhistory of Christian hymnody cannot close more fittingly than to quote\npart of a stirring hymn by this greatest of American hymnologists:\n\n  \u201cForward! singing \u2018Glory\n    To our Lord the King\u2019;\n  Forward! Trusting only\n    In the name we sing.\n  See the day is breaking\n    And the road points far;\n  March, with eyes uplifted\n    To the Morning Star.\n\n  Blessed is the Kingdom;\n    Blessed be the King!\n  Crowned is every duty\n    His commandments bring.\n  Now to serve like soldiers,\n    Now to work like men;\n  Oh, to love as God loves\n    And to conquer then.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                          THE SINGING CHURCH\n\n\n\n\n                               PART III\n                         PRACTICAL HYMNOLOGY\n\n\n\n\n                            _Chapter XIX_\n                          THE STUDY OF HYMNS\n\n\n                 I. IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY OF HYMNS\n\nIt has been said that the two great books which every minister should\nstudy are the Bible and human nature. A third great book may be added,\nin which the foregoing two unite in a new combination\u2014the Hymnbook.\n\nIn that collection of hymns the truths of the Bible find their\nexpression in a new form. They are no longer Oriental in spirit, based\nupon human experiences under different conditions and in a different\nintellectual atmosphere, but modern, and strong with a fresh vitality.\nThey have passed through the crucible of intense personal feeling and\nexperience, and have been recast in forms more comprehensible to a\ndifferent race and to a different age.\n\nNext to his library of comment upon the Bible, and of exposition of\nits doctrines, should be that of the minister\u2019s hymnological books\ngiving the history, the illustrations, and the methods of making\neffective the hymns he uses in his congregation.\n\n\n            II. PERSONAL ADVANTAGES OF SUCH STUDY OF HYMNS\n\nThe first line of the study of hymns should be contributory to his own\npersonal development.\n\n\n                         _Literary Pleasure._\n\nA great delight awaits the minister of cultivated taste and\nsensibility, for there are not only ten really good hymns, as a famous\nliterary doctor[1] once insisted, but hundreds of them, whose\ndistinction and beauty of phraseology, whose fresh and orderly\ndevelopment of ideas, and whose elevation and glory of thought give\nunfailing literary pleasure. How can one read Harriet Beecher Stowe\u2019s\n\u201cStill, still with Thee,\u201d that best of American morning hymns, without\nexquisite delight?\n\n  \u201cStill, still with Thee, when purple morning breaketh,\n    When the bird waketh, and the shadows flee:\n  Fairer than morning, lovelier than daylight,\n    Dawns the sweet consciousness, I am with Thee.\u201d\n\nProminent among these literary hymns will be that hymn of majestic\npraise by Sir Robert Grant:\n\n  \u201cOh, worship the King, all-glorious above,\n  Oh, gratefully sing his power and his love;\n  Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of days,\n  Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.\n\n  Oh, tell of his might, oh, sing of his grace,\n  Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space:\n  His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,\n  And dark is his path on the wings of the storm.\u201d\n\nHere are majesty and beauty of thought, flawless phraseology, and\nmusical numbers. No editor has found excuse to alter or amend it.\n\nEven Isaac Watts, who boasted his freedom from literary trammels and\nwho illustrated that freedom all too often and too perversely, proved\nhis latent poetic powers in the noble poetry of\n\n  \u201cOur God, our Help in ages past,\n    Our Hope for years to come,\n  Our shelter from the stormy blast,\n    And our eternal home.\u201d\n\nThat the literary quality of Adelaide A. Procter\u2019s hymn, \u201cMy God, I\nthank Thee who hast made,\u201d is high no one would deny:\n\n  \u201cMy God, I thank Thee, who hast made\n    The earth so bright,\n  So full of splendor and of joy,\n    Beauty and light;\n  So many glorious things are here,\n    Noble and right.\u201d\n\nThe minor chord in the third verse but renders more poignant the high\nglory of her praise:\n\n  \u201cI thank Thee more that all our joy\n    Is touched with pain;\n  That shadows fall on brightest hours,\n    That thorns remain;\n  So that earth\u2019s bliss may be our guide,\n    And not our chain.\u201d\n\nThere is a mine of inestimable literary wealth awaiting the search of\ndiscriminating taste.[2]\n\n\n                         _Literary Culture._\n\nBut many ministers of limited native susceptibility to literary and\npoetic beauty, and perhaps of none too efficient literary\nopportunities, will not be able at once to enter into the delight of\nthe literary qualities of hymns. All the more will it be important for\nthem to study their hymnal for the sake of its opportunity for\ndeepening their capacity for enjoying literary values. Their\nimaginations need to be stimulated. Their response to the charm of\nmusical phrases, to the clearness and lucidity of the thought\nexpressed, to the fitness of the unexpected and pleasing metaphors\nused, to the nice selection of the words employed to weave a garb of\nbeauty for the message the hymn is intended to convey, can be and must\nbe developed, if not only the proper appreciation of the hymns but\nalso their highest efficiency as preachers are to be secured.\n\nFew preachers realize the importance of this literary culture; yet,\napart from his deity, Jesus Christ was the greatest literary man the\nrace has developed. His parables, his similes, his aptness of phrase,\nhis wit, his clearness of style, despite the great topics on which he\ndiscoursed, cannot be paralleled in any literature. The literary value\nof the Gospels is one of the reasons of their agelong and race-wide\nappeal.\n\nThe effort of the preacher to sensitize his mind and spirit, in order\nto appreciate what his hymnal offers, will give him more of the\nextraordinary winsomeness of his Master\u2019s style.\n\nWhile not all hymns are distinctly literary in style and vocabulary,\nmost of them have some poetical and imaginative qualities, and a great\nmany of them have marked literary value. A careful canvass of these\nvalues will develop literary discrimination and taste. Hymns like\nKeble\u2019s \u201cSun of my soul, thou Saviour dear\u201d and Heber\u2019s \u201cBrightest and\nbest of the sons of the morning\u201d must stimulate genuine literary\nappreciation. To segregate carefully in his mind the genuinely\nliterary hymns\u2014those that are full of imagination, symmetrical in\nstructure, gracious in phraseology\u2014will be a literary exercise of\ninestimable value.\n\n\n                  _Development of Emotional Nature._\n\nBut the finest literary discrimination and the highest literary\ndelight cannot be secured without an emotional responsiveness that\nministers do not always bring to their reading of hymns. But this\nemotion must not simply be poetic, it must be spiritual, based on an\nactualization of the profound spiritual truths expressed in the hymns.\n\nThe most common fault among ministers is an aridity of mind, a dryness\nof feeling, a habit of abstract, academic thinking which have no\nresponse to the emotional values in the doctrines they preach. It is\nthe secret of many an empty church, of many a barren pastorate.\n\nTo some men who lack emotional and poetic insight, the hymnbook may\nappear dry and uninteresting. It certainly is unappealing to the\nunspiritual man, no matter how poetical he may be, and this will\naccount for the occasional attack upon the hymns of the Christian\nChurch as being without poetical power or merit. But the Christian\nminister, who deals with spiritual things, for whom the emotions of\nthe human heart are a great opportunity, ought to find in the study of\nhis hymnbook a great deepening of emotional intuition.\n\nHere he comes in touch with the saints of the Church who have risen to\nthe greatest heights of spiritual insight, and who have sung because\nthe feelings within them were so impelling that they could not do\notherwise than sing. His own deficient emotion and his own dull\ninsight into spiritual truth are here inspired and stimulated until he\ntoo stands upon the mountaintop. For his own spiritual edification,\ntherefore, there is nothing, outside the Bible, so likely to be of\nspiritual help as the hymnbook. When he is discouraged, its hymns of\ninspiration and encouragement cannot but lift the cloud. When his\nheart is dull, and his vision of his Lord obscured, such hymns as\n\u201cJesus, I love Thy charming name,\u201d by Philip Doddridge,\n\n  \u201cJesus, these eyes have never seen\n  That radiant form of Thine,\u201d\n\nby our own Ray Palmer, or\n\n  \u201cJesus, the very thought of Thee\n  With sweetness fills my breast,\u201d\n\nby that unknown saintly abbess of the Middle Ages, surely will once\nmore set his spiritual pulses in motion and thrill him with the\nvitalizing vision of his Lord.\n\nIt is with this emotional attitude alone that a minister should study\nhis hymns; otherwise, he will fail in realizing any of their values.\nTo come to them coldly dissecting them with knife and scalpel is to\nmiss their beauty, their spiritual appeal. The minister who prays over\nhis sermon would do well to pray with equal fervency over the hymns he\nstudies and selects. If he vitalizes them for himself, that fresh\nvision of their meaning will reach the congregation directly and\nindirectly.\n\n\n            III. THE PRACTICAL VALUES OF INDIVIDUAL HYMNS\n\nNot the least important consideration in the study of hymns is clearly\nto envisage their several effective values. To know the literary worth\nand the spiritual stimulus of a given hymn is most desirable; but to\nrealize what spiritual results it is fitted to secure, and how, is\neven more important. Each hymn has its individual force, its\nindividual adaptation to definite mental and spiritual results; for\nthe minister not to recognize these varying effects is like the\nfailure of a physician to know the differing reactions of baking soda\nand strychnine. To announce \u201cAll hail the power of Jesus\u2019 name,\u201d when\nthe situation calls for the tenderness of \u201cHow sweet the name of Jesus\nsounds,\u201d is malpractice none the less that it is so frequently done.\n\n\n                 _Classifying Hymns by Their Nature._\n\nIt will be helpful to classify hymns, deciding to which group each one\nbelongs. Some are purely didactic, bearing instruction rather than\nemotion. Others are meditative, combining elements of instruction and\npersonal experience. Another class expresses personal experience and\nthe resultant emotion; such hymns may be tender or joyous or even\nexultant. Taking another step upward, we find hymns of inspiration and\nexhortation, fundamental expressions of faith and enthusiasm. Rising\nhigh above all the foregoing are the hymns of worship and adoration,\nthanksgiving and praise.\n\nThis is the primary process in evaluating the practical possibilities\nof hymns. It is in these pigeonholes of his memory that the minister\nfinds the hymn called for by a given situation.\n\n\n     _Classifying Hymns by Their Fitness for Definite Purposes._\n\nThen there is the classification of fitness for different purposes,\norganizing them according to the particular work each is fitted to do.\nSome hymns are distinctly liturgical, fitting only into a solemn and\nstately service by the great congregation\u2014e.g., Faber\u2019s \u201cMy God, how\nwonderful Thou art,\u201d Watts\u2019 \u201cBefore Jehovah\u2019s awful throne,\u201d or\nTersteegen\u2019s \u201cLo, God is here: let us adore.\u201d\n\nIn a less formal class are Van Dyke\u2019s \u201cJoyful, joyful, we adore Thee,\u201d\nGrant\u2019s \u201cOh, worship the King, all-glorious above,\u201d \u201cPraise the Lord!\nye heavens, adore Him,\u201d and many others in which rejoicing in the Lord\ntakes a less majestic but none the less genuine form, fitting smaller\nassemblies and what without derogation may be called ordinary church\nservices.\n\nHymns of still another class, represented by Robinson\u2019s \u201cCome, Thou\nFount of every blessing,\u201d Wesley\u2019s \u201cO Love divine, how sweet Thou\nart,\u201d Keble\u2019s \u201cSun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear,\u201d are still\ndistinctly worshipful, but have an intimacy of communion in which\ntenderness and joy veil the sense of infinite majesty.\n\nThe foregoing classes of worshipful hymns are available for the\nregular services of the church, although some of them call for a\npreparation of the worshipers for their intelligent and sincere\nsinging. They are helpful to devout people in their approach to the\nTriune God.\n\nJesus Christ is not only God in the fullest, truest sense; he is our\nRedeemer, our Mediator, our Sharer of the deeper experiences of the\nsoul, our Comrade in the march of life, our intimate Friend in time\nand eternity. Hence, there are many hymns of praise and adoration of\nJesus Christ that are elevated in mood, even majestic, like Wesley\u2019s\n\u201cOh, for a thousand tongues to sing,\u201d Robinson\u2019s \u201cMighty God, while\nangels bless thee,\u201d Hammond\u2019s \u201cAwake and sing the song,\u201d which will\nfit into the most exalted service of worship. There are many others\nlike \u201cFairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of all nature,\u201d Medley\u2019s \u201cOh, could I\nspeak the matchless worth,\u201d Havergal\u2019s \u201cO Saviour, precious Saviour,\u201d\nwhich are keyed a little lower, but are still most appropriate for an\naverage church service.\n\nIn addition to these there are hymns of communion with Christ, of love\nfor and delight in him, yea, even of intimate affection, like\nCaswall\u2019s \u201cMy God, I love Thee, not because,\u201d Newton\u2019s \u201cHow sweet the\nname of Jesus sounds,\u201d Palmer\u2019s \u201cMy faith looks up to Thee,\u201d which are\nso fine in feeling, so heartfelt, so intimate, that they require\npreparation of the congregation before they can be sung sincerely.\nSome of them are so intense, like \u201cI need Thee every hour,\u201d \u201cMy Jesus,\nI love Thee, I know Thou art mine,\u201d and Palmer\u2019s \u201cJesus, these eyes\nhave never seen,\u201d that their use seems limited to assemblies, small or\nlarge, entirely made up of earnest believers. Indeed, there are many\nof our intensest hymns of devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ that can\nbe worthily sung only in prayer meetings where there is profound\nemotion to be expressed. Some of them cannot be sung by the general\ncongregation except when the tide of religious fervor runs high.\n\nWithout further analysis, enough has been said to show that in the\npractical classification of hymns two major factors must be\nconsidered: the character, depth, and quality of the emotional burden\nof the hymn, and the character and the emotional responsiveness of the\npeople who are expected to sing it. Ignorance of the former and lack\nof proper diagnosis of the latter will bring defeat to the minister\nwho is depending on his hymns for help in securing spiritual results.\n\n\n                    IV. THE MINUTE STUDY OF HYMNS\n\nThere can be no adequate knowledge of a hymn without a survey of the\nwhole field of hymnology. It is necessary to understand the character\nand limitations of the hymn, to visualize its history and development,\nin order to secure its proper interpretation and use. It is\nunfortunate that too many ministers are satisfied with this general\nknowledge which is, after all, only a preparation for the study of the\nindividual hymn. It is only in the individual hymn that the point of\ncontact with practical results is reached. One may know all about\nIsaac Watts and yet know so little of his great hymn \u201cWhen I survey\nthe wondrous cross\u201d as to announce it at a church banquet before all\nthe people are done eating! Imagine John, Peter, and the rest munching\ndried figs or dates as they stand before the cross on which their\nMaster is dying!\n\nOnly as the individual hymns are fully understood as to their meaning,\nand as to the methods required to get that meaning transformed into\nexperience and character, can hymnology become a practical force.\n\n\n                       _Analysis of the Hymn._\n\n1. The first step is the investigation of its structure. The form of\nthe stanza, the kind of measure used, the proper occurrence of\naccents, the schedule of rhymes all are important, controlling the\nmusic and the reading of the hymn.\n\nThe logical structure is even more important as governing the\ndevelopment of thought. Recognition of the relation of the several\nverses to the general plan of the hymn will reveal their individual\nvalue and prevent mutilation when circumstances demand omission of\nverses. This structure is more evident in didactic and homiletical\nhymns, of course, but the progress of thought usually lies near the\nsurface. The doctrinal teachings should be clearly and explicitly\nthought out.\n\n2. There is a logic of emotion more or less paralleling that of\nthought. There are ebb and flow of feeling, radical change of feeling,\none feeling merging into another, that must be recognized. The\nclimaxes of interest in the succeeding verses, rising higher and\nhigher and culminating in the supreme climax of the last verse, should\nbe noted that they may be expressed in the reading and the singing.\nThis recognition of the emotional character of the hymn is absolutely\nessential to its real effectiveness. The hymn is fundamentally an\nexpression of emotion, and only as such has it practical value.\n\n3. After this general analysis of the structure and thought and of the\ngeneral emotion of the hymn, there will need to be a study of its\ndetailed phrases. The minister ought to study it line by line and\nphrase by phrase. The Scriptural allusions need to be located and\ntheir connections noted. What did Charles Wesley mean in his great\nhymn, \u201cLove divine, all loves excelling,\u201d by the phrase in the second\nverse, \u201cthe second rest\u201d? Why did he pray \u201cFinish, then, thy new\ncreation\u201d?[3] What is the Scriptural justification for the phrases of\nNewton\u2019s \u201cHow sweet the name of Jesus sounds\u201d?[4] In Doddridge\u2019s\n\u201cAwake, my soul, stretch every nerve,\u201d what Biblical authority has he\nfor \u201ccloud of witnesses,\u201d or the ideas of \u201cprize\u201d and \u201crace\u201d?[5] What\ndid Watts mean in the third verse of his \u201cNot all the blood of\nbeasts,\u201d\n\n  \u201cMy faith would lay her hand\n    On that dear head of Thine,\n  While like a penitent I stand\n    And there confess my sin\u201d?\n\nWithout the picture of the high priest laying his hands on the head of\nthe scapegoat and confessing the sins of the people before sending it\nout into the wilderness (Lev. 16:21), what meaning can these lines\nconvey?\n\n\n                    _The Background of the Hymn._\n\n1. The interpretation of the hymn cannot be complete without a\nrecognition of the person who wrote it. His type of mind, his\nresponsiveness to divine truth, his conception of the work of the\nChurch, stamp themselves on the product of his pen. The personality of\nWatts, of Wesley, of Whittier, and of Faber interpret their several\nhymns.\n\nKnowledge of the circumstances under which a given hymn was written\nwill add to the value and correctness of the interpretation, by giving\na sense of actuality to the thought and feeling expressed.\n\n2. The age in which a hymn was written will be a large factor in its\ninterpretation. The sheer objectiveness of the ancient hymns, the\nmeditativeness of the medieval hymns stressing the sufferings of\nChrist on the cross, the worship character of the pre-Wesley hymns,\nincluding those of Watts, the warm, tender, experiential hymns of the\nWesleyan Revival, all stamp their several hymns ineffaceably with\ntheir characteristics. \u201cA mighty fortress is our God\u201d bears the\n_stigmata_ of the opening battles of the German Reformation. \u201cJesus,\nthe very thought of Thee\u201d is permeated by the peace and ardent piety\nof the Spanish nunnery whose devout abbess wrote the Latin original.\n\u201cStand up, stand up for Jesus\u201d sounds the militant note of the great\nPhiladelphia revival of 1857 and the Antislavery campaign that was so\nsoon to drench the South with the noblest blood of both sections.\n\nWatts\u2019 hymns must be analyzed in the light of the prevailing psalmody,\nof the religious aridity of his time, and of the formalism, not of the\nEstablished Church only, but of that of the Nonconformist societies as\nwell. Wesley\u2019s hymns cannot be understood except as expressing the\nstruggle between extreme worldly-mindedness, sensuality, and social\ndecay outside of the Church, allied with the mere formalism and the\ncold and sheerly pharisaic morality within, on the one side, and the\nemphasis of conversion, profound religious experience, and aggressive\nevangelistic propaganda on the other. The objectivity and essentially\nliturgic spirit of Watts\u2019 hymns and the subjective warmth and the\npoetic glow of those of Charles Wesley immediately become full of\nmeaning and historic vitality.\n\n3. The greater hymns gather about themselves the noble associations of\nthe many generations which have lived and died with their lines upon\ntheir lips. Would \u201cRock of Ages, cleft for me\u201d or \u201cJesus, Lover of my\nsoul,\u201d if written now, speedily win the place they now hold in our\nChristian hymnody? Would \u201cCome, Thou Fount of every blessing\u201d be\nwidely sung, if it were not that in England and America it had been an\nimpressive voice of worship in chapel and home, in stately church, and\nin mountain schoolhouse on the American frontier? Lips now trembling\nwith age lisped them in childhood; memories of father and mother, of\nthrilling religious experiences, when the very heavens seemed to open\nto the soul, cluster about them.\n\n4. Only in this way can he secure a clear idea of what parts of a hymn\nwill serve his immediate purpose, which lines and phrases will enrich\nhis discourses or bring his points to an incandescent glow, or which\nverses when sung will assure the definite effect he has in mind. There\nmay well be occasions when he will want his people to sing, not the\nfirst verse of Whittier\u2019s tender hymn, \u201cWe may not climb the heavenly\nsteeps,\u201d but the second,\n\n  \u201cBut warm, sweet, tender, even yet\n    A present help is He;\n  And faith has still its Olivet,\n    And love its Galilee,\u201d\n\nor the even more comforting third verse,\n\n  \u201cThe healing of the seamless dress\n    Is by our beds of pain;\n  We touch him in life\u2019s throng and press,\n    And we are whole again.\u201d\n\nSuch a study in interpretation will greatly enhance the spiritual\nvalues of the hymns to the minister himself, enriching mind and heart.\nIt will make it possible for him to interpret them to his people. To\nany person the hymn is what he understands it to mean, no more; its\neffect on him is in due proportion to the completeness of his\ninterpretation of it. The minister, therefore, is in duty bound to\nsupply each singer in his congregation with an accurate and complete\nunderstanding of the hymns that are sung.\n\n\n                    _Making a Hymnal of His Own._\n\nThe minister who has given his hymnal the study that has been\nsuggested will wish to garner and organize the materials he has thus\nwon. He will proceed to make a little hymnal of his own by selecting a\ngiven number of the hymns that appeal to him\u2014say one hundred\u2014in his\nregular hymnal. This will constitute his inner hymnal to which from\ntime to time he will make additions.\n\nThese hymns will be marked in his own copy of the church hymnal, a\nwide margined one, or an interleaved one, if it can be secured. As he\nanalyzes each one, finding the joints in its structure, he will\nindicate the results by lines of division with the proper captions.\nHis dissection of the phrases will disclose more or less obscure\nallusions needing explanation, like \u201cSiloam\u2019s pool,\u201d \u201cMt. Nebo\u2019s\nlonely height,\u201d \u201cGog and Magog,\u201d \u201cEbenezer\u201d and many others that\nconvey no meaning to the average mind. These should be underlined for\nexplanation. Some phrases are so suggestive, so packed with meaning,\nthat their value eludes the ordinary singer\u2014for instance, the second\nverse of Monsell\u2019s \u201cMy sins, my sins, my Saviour.\u201d These should be put\nin quotation marks to remind the preacher to unpack by spirited\ncomment their wealth for the edification of his people.\n\nNumbers referring to his card index or commonplace book will bring to\nmind helpful facts about the hymn, or its writer, or illustrations\nthat will quicken both mind and heart. Enclosing a verse or verses in\nbrackets will mark those that can be omitted without wrecking the\nsymmetrical progress of the thought. That will eliminate the usual\nthoughtless phrase, \u201cWe will omit the third verse.\u201d If there is a\nchoice of tunes, the most practicable one can be indicated; or a tune\nbetter known to the congregation elsewhere in the hymnal may be\nsuggested with its number.\n\nVerses to be read by the congregation, or to be sung by the choir or\nby a soloist, before being sung by the people may be starred. Changes\nof force, or speed, may be marked _p._ for soft singing, or _f._ for\nloud singing. A passage marked _rit._ will be retarded, or hurried if\nmarked _accel._ A repeat sign, _bis_, after a verse will suggest that\na verse may be profitably repeated. Scripture references will suggest\npassages that can be used to emphasize the sentiment of the hymn, such\nas Genesis 28:10-13, for the hymn, \u201cNearer, my God, to Thee.\u201d _M_\nbefore a verse may mark it as a memory verse to be sung with closed\nhymnal. _P_ may indicate that it is a prayer, to be sung before the\nlong prayer. Dates connected with a hymn will show when it has been\nsung, and so prevent its unduly frequent repetition from mere force of\nhabit. Every alert-minded minister will have methods and devices of\nhis own that should be recorded in connection with the hymns so\ntreated.\n\nSuch a hymnal, individual, practical, wealthy in resources, will be of\nincalculable value to the wide-awake, aggressive minister, rendering\nhim independent of moods, of dull spirits, of disturbing environments.\nHe needs but open his hymnal, a treasure house of practical\nsuggestions, and his resources, immediately accessible and fully\nprepared, await his use.\n\nA personal hymnal like this will not be made in a day or a month. Week\nby week, as hymns are selected, they are fully investigated and\nstudied and their points recorded in the preacher\u2019s copy. His skimming\nof newspapers and magazines, his daily experiences, his hearing of\naddresses and sermons; his reading of history and literature, no less\nthan his study of hymnological literature, will pay heavy tribute to\nsuch a royal treasury.\n\nThe books of hymnic material, pretty largely historical, are fairly\nnumerous, and their help should not be despised, for they offer very\nuseful illustrative matter. Robinson\u2019s _Annotations upon Popular\nHymns_ is not as up-to-date nor as scholarly exact as the later\nDuffield\u2019s _English Hymns_, or as Nutter and Tillett\u2019s _Hymns and Hymn\nWriters of the Church_, but is richer anecdotally and more suggestive\nof expository comment. Dr. Benson\u2019s still later _Studies of Familiar\nHymns_, Series I and II, will be found very rich in practical\nmaterial. The present writer\u2019s _Practical Hymn Studies_[6] offers help\nmost ministers need. The matter found in these and other like\ncollections should be carefully sifted and recorded. A condensation of\nthe selected items, particularly of the longer anecdotes, may be ample\nfor all practical purposes.\n\nIs it necessary to suggest again that all this varied material should\nbe well organized in a loose-leaf blank book small enough to be\ncarried about or, better yet, in a rebound, interleaved hymnal?\n\nIn making such a thorough study of as many hymns as he has leisure to\nanalyze, the minister is really editing a hymnal of his own, none the\nless his own that it is embedded in the larger collection. There are\nvery few preachers who do not have such an inner hymnal made up of the\nhymns they are in the habit of using; the pity is that it is\nfrequently so small, so poorly selected, so unsymmetrical, so\ndependent on an unresponsive memory, and so lacking in the materials\nthat would help to make the hymns effective.\n\n\n                         _Memorizing Hymns._\n\nA large number of hymns should be committed to memory for his own\nmental enrichment and comfort. It will enlarge his devotional\nvocabulary, his power of expression of spiritual things\u2014nay more,\nincrease the spontaneity and spirituality of his thinking and feeling,\nfor memory lies nearer the springs of subconscious intuition and\nimpulses than the printed word. A wealth of spiritual thought, of\nsanctified imagination, of vibrant religious feeling, of apt and\nexpressive phrase and vocabulary, is provided by such a well-stocked\nmemory.\n\nThe subconscious mind will furnish the fitting quotation, whether he\nwrites his sermon or speaks _ex tempore_. In unexpected emergencies,\nwhen there is no time to leaf over the hymnal for a verse to be sung,\nthe mind automatically supplies it. In personal work, in cheering the\nsick, in comforting those who mourn, in inspiring the lagging and\ndiscouraged ones, the apt quotation will be exceedingly effective.\nThere are moments in a service, unexpected episodes of an emotional\ncharacter, climaxes of feeling in a discourse, when a verse of a hymn\nsung by the congregation will exceed in impressiveness any oratorical\noutburst; if the minister can trust his memory, he can carry the\nfaltering memories of his people and realize an effect otherwise\nimpossible, not only not losing any momentum, as he would if it were\nnecessary to refer to the hymnal, but indefinitely increasing it. The\ngreat hymns of the Church should be made a part of his mental\nfurniture, become a large share of his clerical working capital. He\nshould not be satisfied to have less than a hundred hymns at his\nmental fingers\u2019 ends for efficient use at a moment\u2019s notice.\n\n\n                     V. A STUDY OF METHODS OF USE\n\nBut it is not enough to gather the materials and study the individual\nhymns. A magazine of blasting powder has immense possibilities of\npower; but unless methods are invented for applying that power to\ndesired ends, it is a liability and not an asset. Having learned all\nabout hymns, the next study is how efficiently to use them, to\norganize the best methods of exploiting the social, mental, and\nspiritual values their singing offers.\n\n\n                      _Using Hymns in Sermons._\n\nFew ministers utilize the possibilities of apt Scripture quotations in\ntheir sermons; fewer still know how to draw on the treasures found in\ntheir hymnals to increase interest and intensify emotion. In many\ncases the very finest climax to a section of a sermon, or to the\nsermon itself, will be found in one or more verses of a hymn which\nbrings the emotion of the theme to its high culmination. There is no\nlack of material; for the expression of every Christian doctrine that\nlends itself to lyric feeling there are intense and poignant phrases\nand lines steeped in transcendent emotion. Abstract truth has\nintellectual value of course, but has spiritual value only when\ntransmuted into the gold of intense conviction in the heart of true\nbelievers. It is the genuine hymn that raises the temperature to the\ntransmuting point, if properly introduced and emotionally used.\n\n\n            _Studying Responsiveness of the Congregation._\n\nThe intelligent preacher will study his congregation and its\ncapacities of song to determine what he can do. He will canvass their\nresponsiveness to certain classes of hymns, solemn, cheerful,\naggressive, meditative, emotional, didactic\u2014literary, popular. Their\ntaste in the tunes to be used will need to be carefully considered. It\nwould be folly to announce \u201cWhen the Roll is Called up Yonder\u201d in a\ncongregation used to singing and enjoying Luther\u2019s \u201cEin\u2019 feste Burg\nist unser Gott\u201d; equally so to ask a congregation that enjoys singing\n\u201cThere\u2019s sunshine in my soul\u201d to sing Iron\u2019s version of the \u201cDies\nIrae.\u201d\n\nA survey must needs be made of the musical resources and of the\nadaptability of musical helpers. In some cases such adaptability needs\nto be trained and developed. Their pliancy in rapidly taking up new\nmethods, and executing unexpected plans of the preacher quickly, will\nrequire training.\n\n\n    _Studying Methods of Announcement and Securing Participation._\n\nAn important study will be how to announce and introduce the hymns in\nsuch a way as to awaken the interest and to win the sympathetic\nattention of the members of the congregation, and also how to help the\npeople to sing with their minds and hearts, as well as with their\nvocal cords.\n\nThe methods to be used in securing full participation in the singing,\nwithout losing sight of the deeper meaning of the hymn, will need to\nbe formulated or borrowed from successful leaders of song. The problem\nis not met by merely urgent demands that everybody sing; they must all\nbe moved upon to want to sing. Can it be done by illustrations, by\nmoving anecdotes, by tender appeals bearing on the thought and feeling\nof the hymn in hand? The kind of anecdotes and how they are to be\nused, before or during any given hymn, will call for careful\ndiscrimination. How shall the preacher acquire the power of\nintroducing a hymn in a very few well-chosen words, vibrant with the\nfeeling the hymn expresses, striking the spiritual key connecting up\nthe hymn with the religious purpose of the whole service? Year after\nyear, by observation of other ministers and song leaders, by his\nreading, by experiments of his own, he will acquire a body of\nefficient methods with which to vitalize his song service.\n\n\n           _Studying Use of Hymnal for Specific Purposes._\n\nThis will include methods of using hymns for specific purposes. Is his\ncongregation indifferent with regard to some particular line of work\nthat he wishes to present\u2014missions, for instance: what hymns, and\nmethods of using them, will stimulate their minds and prepossess them\nfor this as yet unappealing topic? Are they careless or irreverent in\nmood as they gather: can he sober their minds and awe their souls with\na consciousness of God\u2019s actual presence with a solemn hymn and its\nimpressive tune? How shall he use the singing of the hymns to affect\nand win the unsaved whom he plans to invite to accept Jesus Christ as\nSaviour and Master? In a thousand ways the intelligent and adroit\nminister can make his hymns count largely in accomplishing his\nbeneficent purposes.\n\n\n                       VI. A STUDY OF THE TUNES\n\nOne of the most important lines of study will be that of the tunes to\nwhich the hymns are to be sung.[7] To use a botanical figure, a hymn\nwill not bear fruit unless it is pollenized by a vital tune. Who would\nbe even aware of Cardinal Newman\u2019s \u201cLead, Kindly Light,\u201d if it were\nnot for Dykes\u2019 tune? Without Lowry and Doane\u2019s music what recognition\nwould the modest lyrics of Fanny Crosby have won? Wesley\u2019s \u201cHark, the\nherald angels sing\u201d owes the wideness of its Christmas use to\nMendelssohn\u2019s tune. Tennyson\u2019s \u201cSunset and Evening Star\u201d and \u201cSweet\nand Low\u201d were brought to wide public attention by Barnby\u2019s two\nsettings. Without the wings of melody few hymns would get very far in\nplace or time. A mediocre hymn with a good singable tune will do\nvastly more good than a great hymn with an impracticable one.\n\nHence it is the minister\u2019s business to study the tunes. Not the notes,\nnot the harmony: he can leave them to his musical experts, if he has\nthem. He must study the singability of the tune, its appeal to his\nparticular people, its adaptation to the sentiment of the hymn with\nwhich it is associated. Its age, its traditional or conventional use,\nits style, its composer, its elaboration of harmony\u2014all these are\nmerely incidental. That it is singable, fitted to express and\nintensify the sentiment of the hymn, to give it access to the hearts\nof the congregation, to create the contagion of feeling in the\nassembly\u2014these are the essentials of a good tune.\n\nJust as the sales departments of our great manufacturing\nestablishments make an intensive study of the psychology of\nsalesmanship in all its phases, so the ministry of the church, in its\nschools of preparation and in its several organizations, should\nincrease its efficiency as salesman of vital religion by a like study\nof the psychology of the hymn and of its use.\n\n\n\n\n                             _Chapter XX_\n                      THE PRACTICAL USE OF HYMNS\n\n\n                   I. THE HYMN AS A MEANS TO AN END\n\nWhile our discussion attempts to consider every phase of the Christian\nhymn, its chief interest to us lies in it as a means to an end. It may\nbe a work of literary art, the expression of a noble genius admirable\nin itself; it may be an interesting epitome of some noble doctrine\nthat calls for appreciation of its lucidity and comprehensiveness; but\nfor us its primary quality must be its adaptation to meet spiritual\nneeds, in other words, its usefulness in religious work. In some way\nit must help in the work of the church, if it is to come within the\nsweep of our present horizon.\n\n\n            II. ANALYSIS OF PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF HYMNS\n\nThere are two values in the singing of hymns that must needs be taken\ninto consideration: one is the sheerly musical or nervous value; the\nother is the message or burden of the hymn. The two must co-operate\nfor the best results.\n\nThere are two lines of application in using hymns: the one is the\nexpression and further intensification of an existent religious\nfeeling; the other, the creation of religious interest or emotion\nwhere none exists. The two types of hymns must be clearly\ndistinguished, if proper and efficient use is to be made of them.\n\nThe first type is worshipful, religiously emotional, based on personal\nexperience, tenderly meditative. The second is didactic,\ninspirational, or hortatory.\n\n\n        III. THE USE OF HYMNS FOR CREATING RELIGIOUS INTEREST\n\nIn selecting hymns for the opening of a religious meeting, the\nexisting nervous and emotional condition of the congregation is an\nimportant factor. That condition may be due to an unlimited number of\ninfluences. Are they gathering under the open sky, in a tent, in a\nrough tabernacle, or amid churchly surroundings? What is the character\nand background of the assembled people? In a distinctly unreligious\nenvironment, the crowd will be disorganized, in a nervous flutter, in\na secular state of mind, more consciously interested in securing a\ndesirable seat than in the purpose of the meeting. The people need to\nbe psychically organized as a unit, need to have their attention\nconcentrated on the occasion of the meeting, need to be brought into a\nreligious state of mind. There is nothing better than the singing of a\nhymn to secure these very essential results. The unifying effect of\ncommon action, the nervous calming of the music, the religious\nsuggestiveness of the hymn itself, all will co-operate in creating the\nproper attitude of mind.\n\nWhat hymn shall we use to secure such a diversified result? Shall it\nbe \u201cMy faith looks up to Thee,\u201d or \u201cO Love that wilt not let me go\u201d?\nThey are both superexcellent hymns, but they would be utterly out of\nplace. They belong to the first type, the expression of existent\nreligious feeling; but there is little or no such feeling under the\nproposed circumstances. The people are not in a state of mind to sing\nthem sincerely and earnestly. It would lead to the all too common\nhypocrisy of indifference.\n\nMoreover, the tunes to these hymns are not of the organizing or\nstimulating type, fine as they are. They are tunes of expression of\nexisting feeling, not of exhilaration or inspiration.\n\nFor such a miscellaneous crowd as has been described, a much less\nemotional hymn with a somewhat livelier tune is called for, such as\n\u201cBlow ye the trumpet, blow,\u201d \u201cCome, we that love the Lord,\u201d or\n\u201cOnward, Christian soldiers.\u201d In most cases a lively Gospel song, such\nas \u201cSunshine in my soul,\u201d \u201cRescue the perishing,\u201d or even, in extreme\ncases, \u201cBrighten the corner where you are\u201d is more effective. The\nproblem is not so much that of making a religious impression, as of\npreparing the people to receive a religious impression. To use tender,\ndeeply emotional, profoundly spiritual hymns for such preliminary\ntreatment is to flout psychology.\n\nIf the congregation meets in a church or other distinctly sacred\nedifice, the religious associations will simplify the problem. In\npart, at least, the secular attitude will have given place to a\nhospitality of mind for religious ideas and impressions. Under\nfavorable circumstances the nervous strain will relax and religious\nsusceptibilities will begin to function. These nervous and mental\ntransformations of mood will be deepened by the organ prelude, if that\nhas been wisely selected and effectively played.\n\nIn some conservative, devout congregations where solemn earnestness is\nthe prevailing mood, and the bowed head on entering the pew is not a\nmere convention, the usual Doxology may be used after the call to\nworship; but usually an introit, such as \u201cThe Lord is in His holy\ntemple\u201d or \u201cOh, come, let us worship,\u201d sung by the choir, will be the\nwiser preparation for the preacher\u2019s invocation. The \u201cGloria Patri\u201d\nshould prepare the congregation for some solemn hymn of profound\nworship, such as \u201cMy God, how wonderful Thou art,\u201d or \u201cLord of all\nbeing, throned afar.\u201d By the time this is sung, the members of the\ncongregation should be united in sympathy and responsiveness to the\nworshipful exercises that follow.\n\nIf the service is to be a joyous one, with an aggressive purpose, the\nhymns should still be strictly worshipful, but more animated. \u201cCome,\nsound His praise abroad,\u201d \u201cOh, worship the King, all-glorious above,\u201d\nor \u201cKingdoms and thrones to God belong\u201d should be the unifying\nspiritualizing agency.\n\nBut if the social instincts are allowed to find expression as the\npeople gather, and more or less furtive conversation and even gossip\nare heard, or worse yet, if the Sunday school has overflowed into the\nauditorium or, for lack of separate room, has occupied it, and the\ngoing out of the school and the coming in of the congregation make a\nconfusion that submerges the hallowed associations of the place, a\nmuch more difficult problem is faced, and a more conscious effort must\nbe made to prepare the people in mind and heart for the experience of\nthe hour.\n\nThe prelude must be calculated to cover disturbing sounds and to call\nthe people to order\u2014an entirely different type of prelude from that\nused in the previous hypothetical situation. Once quiet and order are\nsecured, the music may begin a quieter, more religious movement. But\nthe high ecstasy of the Long Meter Doxology is out of the question. An\nearnest Call to Worship by the preacher, and a quiet sentence or\nintroit by the choir, will hush the people\u2019s minds into sympathy with\nthe invocation, that may possibly be somewhat longer and more earnest,\nwhich in turn will prepare them for a sincere and thoughtful\nparticipation in the \u201cGloria Patri.\u201d The wise and observant preacher\nwill have been able to anticipate their state of mind and decide\nwhether they are ready to Sing with sincerity \u201cO day of rest and\ngladness,\u201d \u201cSafely through another week,\u201d or the more elevated \u201cHoly,\nholy, holy, Lord God Almighty,\u201d or \u201cBefore Jehovah\u2019s awful throne.\u201d\n\nBy the time this hymn is sung, the fate of the service has practically\nbeen settled. The people will have been won and are ready to go on to\na deeper interest and to a fuller yielding of themselves to the\ninfluence of the service; or they are dull and unresponsive, even\nsomnolent, with an unconscious resentment that they have not been\nstirred and quickened. The failure of the service is assured, unless a\nmiracle happens.\n\nIf the minister is a slave to the conventional order of service, that\nmiracle will not happen. He may be so complacent over the smooth\nunfolding of the wonted numbers as not to recognize that the interest\nin the minds of his people has dropped.\n\nIn such a situation the best means to redeem it is a hymn with a\nprofound appeal. But it cannot function, if it is used in the\nordinary, conventional way. If the minister is alert and senses the\nstupor that is shadowing the minds of his people, and if the success\nof his service is more important to him than the mechanical regularity\nof the usual order of events, he can bring the miracle to pass by the\nuse of the next hymn in an unexpected, thrilling way.\n\nIf the scheduled hymn does not lend itself to his purpose, he can\nexercise the audacity without which no public man can hope to succeed,\nby changing it to one that will, and by that act will storm the first\ndefense of Morpheus, the god of sleep. Of course, he will always keep\nin mind practical considerations of teamwork with his musical helpers,\ntaking enough time in introducing the substituted hymn in an\ninteresting way to enable them to find it and decide to what tune it\nis to be sung. Usually that takes but a moment. Announcing the hymn,\nhe will explain the message of the hymn in doctrine or in feeling, as\na preliminary to its intelligent and sympathetic singing; or he may\nmake emotional comment, or relate a fitting anecdote that will grip\nthe feelings, leaving historical data for some other occasion; or he\nmay ask the congregation to join him in silent prayer for divine\nguidance into the heart of the hymn to be sung; or he may ask his\npeople to read the first verse in concert, in order that they may sing\nit with more intelligence; or if he has a sympathetic soloist, he can\nask him or her to sing a verse, letting the people sing the rest of\nthe hymn.\n\nIf the people are submerged in indifference and stupor, he may treat\nthe whole hymn in like fashion, verse by verse, always careful to make\nhis few words count, for prolixity will defeat his purpose. He will be\neven more careful that there shall be a _crescendo_ movement of\nincreasing impressiveness and deepening feeling.\n\nSuch a jolt to the passive attitude of an unresponsive people,\ngenially administered in a confident manner, and with sincere feeling,\nwill waken the most indifferent congregation and avert the impending\ndefeat. It will make the frequent use of such unusual methods\nunnecessary by creating a latent expectation of the unexpected.\n\nFortunate is the minister who has a native sensitiveness to the tides\nof feeling that ebb and flow in his congregation, to whom the faces\nand attitudes of his people are an open book. Most ministers must\ndevelop such a power by keen and persistent observation and by\nintelligent experimentation. This psychical _en rapport_ is very\nimportant to the minister. As well might an organist play without\nhearing his instrument as for a minister to be ignorant of the states\nof feeling of his congregation. He is a blind man trying to paint a\npicture.\n\nSome ministers think themselves lacking in magnetism, in sensitiveness\nto outside influences, and make no effort to develop their latent\npowers. This inferiority complex is wrong; the very sense of\nlimitation is a proof that the capacity for it exists. It is too\nessential to the largest success that a man should not use every\npossible effort and method to develop it.\n\n\n          IV. THE HYMN AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR TEACHING TRUTH\n\nAnother practical use of the hymn that will prove very valuable is to\nmake those hymns that are didactic or meditative the occasion of\ndiscussing for a few minutes the doctrines they express, and so to\nteach, to bring back to memory, or to vitalize the articles of their\nfaith which average Christians are apt to forget. There are Christian\nbeliefs that do not call for elaborate discussion in a sermon, that\nare best impressed by emotional treatment in connection with a hymn.\n\u201cDepth of mercy! can there be,\u201d with a background of pure-minded\nCharles Wesley\u2019s consciousness of sin, will give an opportunity of\nimpressing the people with sin\u2019s subtle and soul-destroying power.\n\u201cThere is a fountain filled with blood\u201d will be the basis of a very\nshort but a clear and tender exposition of the atonement made for sin\nby Christ on the cross. That a person may be conscious of salvation,\nof acceptance by God through Jesus Christ, will find fitting\nexplanation in an exposition of \u201cRock of Ages, cleft for me.\u201d What\nbetter opportunity for emphasizing the Christian\u2019s dependence on\nChrist could be afforded than a study of \u201cJesus, Lover of my soul\u201d?\nOur inability to understand the ways of God\u2019s providences, and our\nneed of a faith that does not demand explanations, may well be\nstressed in an analysis of \u201cGod moves in a mysterious way.\u201d A score of\nsuch hymn discussions at irregular intervals during the year would\nprove illuminating, and help to remove the haze that prevents clear\ndefinition in the minds of the people of the doctrines on which their\nspiritual life must rest. Singing the hymn after such comments will\nmake it more effective and fasten the Christian teachings in the minds\nof the hearers with links of steel.\n\n\n                  V. HYMN SERMONS AND HYMN SERVICES\n\nThe versatile and adaptable preacher, full of resources, quick to take\nadvantage of unusual methods, will find the Song Sermon, or rather the\nHymn Sermon, a most attractive and impressive way of using hymns.\nInstead of finding an appropriate proof text from the Scriptures for\neach leading point of the discourse, search out a hymn, or a single\nverse, expressing it in a lucid and emotional way and have it sung by\nthe congregation, by the choir, or by a soloist. Comment on the hymn\nand its illustration, consonant with the development of the general\ntheme, will supply a new line of most interesting materials. Care must\nbe taken not to let the hymn hem the momentum of the sermon, but to\nmake it add to the tide of interest. There will be no time for playing\nthe tune or to find the hymn, while the preacher is silently waiting.\nClose connection and sharp attack are absolutely essential. Such a\nsermon will be sure to win a great hearing.[1]\n\nA less formal use of hymns may be made in the Song (or Hymn) Service\nin which eight or ten hymns with historical, illustrative, and\ndevotional comment are sung by soloists, choir, and congregation. Less\nvaluable in formal teaching than the Hymn Sermon, it will probably win\nlarger popular acceptance. Such a religious service should not be\nallowed to degenerate into merely a Sacred Concert.\n\n\n                 VI. THE USE OF HYMNS IN EMERGENCIES\n\nThere are occasional disturbing and disorganizing occurrences during\nservices\u2014a violent storm, a noisy epileptic, a fanatical intruder, a\nfire where a panic would be disastrous\u2014when it is important to keep\nthe disturbance down to a minimum, or even to control the\ncongregation. The singing of an efficient hymn is often the solution\nof the problem when there is a leader of presence of mind (preferably\nthe minister) who will promptly start it. It must be a hymn that\neverybody knows; it must not be a tender, experiential hymn, but one\nwith a stirring spirit to a stimulating tune that everybody can sing,\nsuch as \u201cOnward, Christian soldiers.\u201d[2]\n\nSuch occasions sometimes suggest fitting hymns that turn what might\nhave been disaster into a spiritual victory. In such a case there must\nbe a peculiar fitness to the difficulty, an adaptation to the form it\ntakes. In case of a death, or paralytic stroke, the hymn will not be\nloud, but tender like \u201cRock of Ages,\u201d \u201cHe Leadeth Me,\u201d or \u201cThe Sweet\nBy and By.\u201d Softly sung, the episode will be turned from a shock into\na deep spiritual impression.\n\n\n\n\n                            _Chapter XXI_\n                        THE SELECTION OF HYMNS\n\n\n             I. SELECTION SHOULD SECURE UNITY OF SERVICE\n\nNext in importance to the minister\u2019s selection of his text comes the\nselection of his hymns. If he has a clear conception of the real unity\nof his service, it will appear in this more than in anything else.\n\n\n                    _Narrow Conception of Unity._\n\nIf the minister is a narrow, mechanically-minded man, with a sense of\nthe need of mere logical unity, he will make the subject of his sermon\nthe governing consideration in all parts of his service. The hymns\nwill needs be all or nearly all didactic, the type with the least\nemotional or inspiring value.\n\nThe early hymns of the service will in an ineffective way anticipate\nthe points of his discourse and, in so far as they have effectiveness,\nweaken by their more lucid and concise statement the discussion in the\nsermon. As the congregation usually does not know what the topic of\nthe discourse is to be, the pertinency of the selection is not\nevident. The same is true of the Scripture lesson, if it is read\nbefore the long prayer. Logically the whole basis of selection is\nabsurd.\n\n\n                    _Broader Conception of Unity._\n\nThe sermon is simply a co-ordinate part of divine service, not its\ngoverning feature to which all things else must be subordinated. The\nearly hymns should not be selected with reference to the theme of the\nsermon; the last hymn should sum up not so much the ideas of the\nsermon as its emotional values.\n\n\n                      _Unity Based on Purpose._\n\nAmong heathen people instruction must be the leading purpose of any\nmeeting held for their benefit; but among well-taught Christian\npeople, the chief purpose should be worship, to which the sermon\nshould be simply one of several aids. The hymns should be emotional,\nworshipful, and not exclusively didactic, and should harmonize with\nthe sermon by being subordinated, with the sermon, to the\nclearly-conceived worshipful purpose of the entire service. Dr. Austin\nPhelps, more than three-fourths of a century ago, enunciated the right\npolicy: \u201cIt aims at unity of worship, not by sameness of theme, but by\nresemblance of spirit. It would have a sermon preceded and followed,\nnot necessarily by a hymn on the identical subject, but by a hymn on a\nkindred subject, pertaining to the same group of thought, lying in the\nsame perspective, and enkindling the same class of emotions.\u201d To\nannounce the theme of the coming sermon in the first hymn, to read a\nScriptural passage as a basis for it, to grope around that theme in\nthe prayer, to emphasize another phase in the second hymn, is a case\nof professional egotism so flagrant that its only shocking mitigation\nis that it is the accepted clerical estimate of the situation.\n\nNow every service, of whatever form or character, is properly intended\nto bring the soul into conscious relation with God. Every phase of the\nsoul\u2019s activities is to be brought under the influence of this\ndominating purpose. As it cannot comprehend God in His completeness at\nany one moment, different attributes of His nature and the varied\nrelation of these several attributes to manifold human needs furnish\nan endless abundance of worshipful themes. They will appeal to the\nunderstanding through the truth, to the heart through an emotional\nrealization of that truth, and to the will by the choices offered to\nthe soul\u2019s supreme tribunal. Here, then, in this clearly-conceived\nphase of worshipful attitude, you find the basis for the logical unity\nof the service\u2014a living unity that moves heart and will as well as\nreason.\n\nThere is in this no fetter to the intellectual activity of the\npreacher, but rather a fresh stimulus and source of suggestion. It\nbrings to bear vital forces within the speaker\u2019s own soul that too\noften find little exercise, and changes the emotional elements of the\nservice, the prayer, and the music\u2014now too often mere haphazard,\ncharacterless excrescences\u2014into definite sources of power for the\nrealization of the desired spiritual results.\n\nA preacher whose heart is a barometer of the spiritual condition of\nhis people has no difficulty in finding subjects and texts for his\nsermons. If the needs of his people press upon him, those needs\nfurnish an arc light that illuminates the Bible, and a suggestiveness\nthat brings him an embarrassment of homiletical riches. Given a clear\nrecognition of a definite immediate need and the consequent definite\npurpose, it will not only make sermonizing easy but will control the\nrest of the service. Not the theme of the sermon, but the purpose of\nthe service as a whole, will be the organizing vitality.\n\n\n                  II. SUGGESTIVE SELECTIONS OF HYMNS\n\nHere is an earnest pastor who is impressed with the growing\nmaterialism, or worldliness, of his people. How shall be best dredge\nthe stagnant shallows of their souls? He decides, not upon a single\nsermon, but upon a series of services with cumulative power, whose\nwhole outlook shall be upon the Person and Character of God as the\nbasis of his claims upon his creatures. There will be sermons upon\nthese high themes of course, but they will call for noble and elevated\nco-ordinate co-operation in the rest of the service. Now these sermons\nshould all be peculiarly worshipful, but that worship will be set to\ndifferent keys.\n\n\n              _Hymns for Service on God\u2019s Omnipotence._\n\nThe sermon on the Divine Omnipotence calls for a noble enthusiasm. The\nhymns should be majestic and joyful. After profoundly worshipful\npreliminary exercises it will not be wise to sing Watts\u2019 hymn,\n\n  \u201cLet all the earth their voices raise,\n  To sing the great Jehovah\u2019s praise,\n    And bless His holy name,\u201d\n\nto the tune \u201cAriel\u201d for the first hymn in spite of its appropriateness\nof thought: first, because it is not sufficiently elevated, and\nsecondly, because the tune is too light. Watts\u2019 more majestic hymn,\n\n  \u201cBefore Jehovah\u2019s awful throne,\n  Ye nations bow with sacred joy,\u201d\n\nsung to \u201cOld Hundredth,\u201d would be more harmonious with the general\npurpose of the service. By the time the second hymn is reached there\nmust be some exhilaration of spirit. It will not be desirable\ntherefore to select\n\n  \u201cAll people that on earth do dwell,\n  Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice\u201d;\n\nfirst, because it is in exactly the same key of feeling as the\nprevious hymn; second, because for that reason no tune is quite so\nfitting to it as \u201cOld Hundredth,\u201d which is already provided for; and\nthird, because the presumable intensifying of feeling by this time\ncalls for a brighter text and more spirited music. But it must be a\nhymn of worship, none the less; we choose, therefore,\n\n  \u201cOh, worship the King, all-glorious above;\n  Oh, gratefully sing His power and His love,\u201d\n\nthe interrupted dactylic measure and triple time tune giving both\ndignity and movement.\n\nIf the prelude was a joyfully majestic composition, the anthem one of\nelevated praise\u2014e.g., a \u201cVenite\u201d or a \u201cJubilate\u201d\u2014the responsive\nreading and the choir responses reverent and worshipful, the long\nprayer of the preacher exalted with genuine adoration (forgetful of\nthe routine catalogue of petty petitions), and the Scripture passage\nnoble with inspiring truth, the service might close at this point as\nhaving already realized its prime object of worship. There must have\nbeen something radically wrong in the spirit and management of it, if\nthe preacher does not find his people responsive and himself\ninspiringly attuned to his noble theme. At the close of his discourse\non the Divine Omnipotence, his people will presumably be ready to sing\n\n  \u201cLet all on earth their voices raise,\n  To sing the great Jehovah\u2019s praise,\n    And bless His holy name.\u201d\n\nto the exhilarating movement of the tune \u201cAriel.\u201d The organist\u2019s\npostlude will be characterized by a joyful solemnity, some strong\n_maestoso_ movement.\n\n\n                  _Hymns for Service on God\u2019s Love._\n\nA service devoted to the worship of God, as manifested in His love,\noffers a wider range of possibilities. Is it the love manifested in\nthe atonement? there may be the somber element of the crucifixion\ncombined with its nobly elevated aspects; is it the love manifested to\nHis children? there will be a chastened ecstasy in the hymns and\nprayers; is it the love that consoles and comforts? there will be the\ntender and sympathetic development of the theme\u2014each will call for its\nown selection of hymns. As the last is perhaps the most difficult, let\nus see what program we should prepare for it.\n\n_a._ Tender Service.\n\nThe organ prelude will be soft, sweet music, full of chromatic chords\nthat melt one into the other, or a tender, emotional melody with soft\naccompaniment. The usual opening doxology will give way to an introit,\nsung very gently by the choir, set to a text expressing divine\nsympathy or a prayer for help. The invocation will be a plea for God\u2019s\nmanifest presence among His needy people. The first hymn sung by the\ncongregation will sustain the feeling already established,\n\n  \u201cLord, we come before Thee now,\n  At Thy feet we humbly bow,\u201d\n\nsung to the tune \u201cAletta\u201d or \u201cPleyel\u2019s Hymn.\u201d The responsive reading\nmay be the forty-second and forty-third Psalms. The choir, having been\nadvised in good time what was desired, sings some sympathetic setting\nof the twenty-third Psalm, or of the forty-second Psalm, or of the\nhymn \u201cJust as I am.\u201d If the preacher has kept step in his heart with\nthe emotional progress of his service, the long prayer will be an\nexpression of the need of the people and of a tender appreciation of\nGod\u2019s loving sympathy, closing with an ascription of praise to His\nlimitless love. The people ought now to be ready to sing\n\n  \u201cLove divine, all loves excelling,\n  Joy of heaven, to earth come down.\u201d\n\nAfter the discourse, a hymn in direct didactic relation to it may be\nsung in a bright and joyous spirit:\n\n  \u201cGod is love; His mercy brightens\n  All the path in which we rove.\u201d\n\nThe postlude will be tenderly joyous and sympathetic in style.\n\nThere are many preachers whose nervous organizations would not enable\nthem to adjust themselves to so tender an emotional key in developing\nthe service. On the other hand, many congregations would not follow\nit, but would be lulled to sleep by it.\n\n_b._ Joyful Service.\n\nThey would be entirely right in selecting as the opening hymn one of\ngeneral praise and worship:\n\n  \u201cCome, Thou Almighty King,\n  Help us Thy name to sing,\n    Help us to praise\u201d;\n\nor even the quietly majestic hymn,\n\n  \u201cHoly, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!\n  Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee.\u201d\n\nThe second hymn may be more prayerful and tender:\n\n  \u201cGuide me, O Thou great Jehovah,\n  Pilgrim through this barren land,\u201d\n\nor\n\n  \u201cWhen all Thy mercies, O my God,\n  My rising soul surveys.\u201d\n\nThe final hymn may be more didactic:\n\n  \u201cGod is the refuge of His saints,\n  When storms of sharp distress invade\u201d;\n\nor the more stirring and forceful\n\n  \u201cGive to the winds thy fears;\n  Hope, and be undismayed\u201d;\n\nor that wonderful paean of faith in the divine love and providence,\n\n  \u201cHow firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,\n  Is laid for your faith in His excellent word.\u201d\n\nIn this case the postlude will be bright and joyous, preferably with\nsome soft and tender episodical passages.\n\n\n                  _Hymns for a Missionary Service._\n\nThe preacher plans a missionary discourse: what is his order of\nservice to be?\n\nThat means an aggressive, spiritual program whose purpose is\nstimulation of enthusiasm, of courage, of conquering faith, of bold\ndecision.\n\nThe organist will be asked to play a bright prelude with pronounced\nbut dignified rhythm, and striking harmonic progressions. The anthem\nby the choir may be based on some text of praise from the Psalms with\nstirring, somewhat rhythmical music that will stimulate the nerves of\nthe people rather than soothe them. The responsive reading should be a\nPsalm of triumph, say the ninety-sixth. The long prayer for once may\ndrop out of the omnibus conventionality and lead the people in\nmagnifying the irresistible power and the conquering love of God, with\nenough reference to current sorrows in the congregation to serve as a\ncontrast, to make the realization of the strong right arm of God more\nvivid.\n\nThe hymns should be in keeping with this joyous recognition of God\u2019s\ninvincibility and assured triumph.\n\nThe first hymn may be Charles Wesley\u2019s \u201cOh, for a thousand tongues to\nsing.\u201d This is worship\u2014mingled with faith and with aggressive purpose,\nit is true, but nevertheless distinctly worship.\n\nAn equally appropriate selection from Charles Wesley would be \u201cYe\nservants of God, your Master proclaim.\u201d Care should be taken that the\ntune used for either is vigorous and well known. A dull tune for\neither would be a stumble on the threshold of the service.\n\nThe point in the service has not yet been reached where a distinctly\nmissionary hymn is called for; aggressiveness in the Lord\u2019s service is\nstill the mood to be created. There would be a choice between\nShurtleff\u2019s vigorous \u201cLead on, O King Eternal,\u201d with its specific\ndedication of self to any forward movement of the Christian Church, or\nBaring-Gould\u2019s marching hymn with its American tune written by an\nEnglish composer, \u201cOnward, Christian soldiers,\u201d which can hardly fail\nto stimulate the pulses of a presumably already stirred congregation,\nunless it is sung in a drawling, unaccented way.\n\nIf by this time the congregation is not prepared to be thrilled by an\nunexpected missionary sermon, eloquent with an appeal hardly to be\nequaled by any other topic connected with the Church\u2019s activities,\nthere has been something wrong with the preacher or his people.\n\nAt the close of the sermon the hearts of the people will be glad to\nexpress themselves either in Smith\u2019s \u201cThe morning light is breaking,\u201d\nor in Watts\u2019 noble Christianized version of the seventy-second Psalm,\n\u201cJesus shall reign where\u2019er the sun.\u201d For once the organist can pull\nout all his stops and play a brilliant but not flippant postlude\nwithout disturbing the mind and nerves of thoughtful and devout\npeople.\n\nIn these suggested programs it has been evident that the unity is one\nof feeling and not of logic. This gave room for the interest which the\nunexpected supplies. There must be progress of feeling as well as of\nthought. The long prayer or the music after it, be it organ or choir\nor hymn, should be the climax of emotion. It should be allowed to\nsubside a little during the announcements and offering, in order to\nrise to a still higher climax in the sermon and closing hymn.\n\nIn a tender, sympathetic service there is more danger of not taking\nthe audience with you. If the music and the feelings suggested by the\nhymns are too quiet and depressing, there is danger of its acting as a\nlullaby, putting the people to sleep. Many a preacher wonders why some\nof his hearers are asleep before his text is fairly announced. In nine\ncases out of ten, it is due to the depressing character of the music\nused in the devotional part of the service.\n\n\n                     III. IMPORTANCE OF THE TUNES\n\nAs has been incidentally suggested in the course of the illustrative\nprogress, no small importance is to be attached to the selection of\nthe tunes to be used with the hymns. The preacher cannot always afford\nto trust the compiler of the hymnal which he uses. That learned\ngentleman does not know what tune the preacher\u2019s people can sing with\na given hymn to the best advantage. He has to meet the difficulty of\nproviding every hymn with an appropriate tune without having\nwell-known and effective tunes enough to go round; he cannot repeat\nthem over and over, but must use less popular tunes. Who shall judge\nhim harshly, therefore, if in this dilemma he occasionally follows his\nown personal taste rather than the vaguely conceived needs of\nmiscellaneous congregations.\n\nBut the minister must study the tunes in his hymnal lest he limit his\nsong service to the small number he happens to know well. To use a\ndozen or so tunes again and again will cut the nerve of musical\ninterest in his musical helpers and in his congregation as well.\n\nHence, it is the minister\u2019s task to re-edit the hymnal in part,\nremating hymns and tunes in order to secure the greatest results with\nhis own people. Nor need he suffer with a sense of presumption. The\nimportant consideration is the results of the singing of hymns in an\neffective way, not loyalty to his church hymnal at the expense of\nthose results.\n\n\n\n\n                            _Chapter XXI_\n               THE ANNOUNCEMENT AND TREATMENT OF HYMNS\n\n\n                     I. THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF HYMNS\n\nIt may seem quite superfluous to give any attention to the mere\nannouncement of hymns; but in many cases the spiritual success or\nfailure of the congregational song is determined there. It is\ngenerally assumed that any one can announce a hymn and initiate its\nsinging, but probably the least successful work of ninety-nine out of\na hundred ministers is their management of the service of song in\ntheir churches. The writer remembers one minister who would baldly\nannounce the number and then turn round and stare at the choir and\norganist until they began to sing. The awkwardness and helplessness of\nthe man invariably produced a most unfortunate effect upon the\ncongregation. Many ministers announce the number and read the first\nline. It makes no difference whether the first line is complete in\nmeaning or not; they have identified the hymn.\n\nLike a great many others of their professional brethren, they used the\nhymn perfunctorily as a traditionally necessary part of the service,\nwith which they really had little or nothing to do; that it has any\nrelation to the needs or the objects they have in view for the service\ndoes not occur to them. The unpardonableness of an aimless sermon need\nnot be emphasized, but why should it be easier to forgive a preacher\nfor aimlessly selecting and announcing hymns?\n\nMany churches have hymn boards and even bulletins, making the\nmechanical interruption caused by the preacher\u2019s announcement of the\nnumbers unnecessary. The people presumably have found the hymn by the\ntime the tune is played through.[1]\n\nOf course, if these devices for announcing the hymn are absent, the\npreacher must announce the number. If he does so in a listless,\nmechanical way, he will unconsciously give the congregation an\nunfortunate emotional keynote, and, in turn, it will sing in a\nlistless, mechanical way. The psychical and emotional value of the\nsinging of the hymn is already discounted. If it has been announced in\na joyous, or, at least, in an interested spirit, with only a happy\nphrase or two, giving a cue to the spirit in which it is to be sung,\nthe congregation will respond in kind. Twenty seconds of effective\nintroduction will make the difference between success and failure.\n\nIt should be emphasized that a live preacher will not allow the\nregular order of service to prevent needed comment on the hymn as it\nis needed. The order of service has advantages, but if it robs the\npreacher of freedom and spontaneity, it becomes a curse. Too rigidly\nfollowed it makes for dullness and boredom. The congregation should\nnot be allowed to feel that any departure from it is a doubtful\nliberty on the part of the preacher. Opportunity should be made to\ndispel any such idea.\n\nIf a hymn is curtly announced, or courteously suggested with a\n\u201cplease\u201d or a \u201ckindly\u201d (as if to sing it were a special favor to the\npreacher), and if no hint is given as to the message to be conveyed,\nor as to the feeling which is to be expressed, how can the minister\nhope that the merely improvised singing of an unexpected hymn, perhaps\nwith an unknown tune, will have any stimulating, not to say spiritual,\nvalue? If the hymn is well known, it is probably a great hymn, and\nwhat gathering of saints can rise at a moment\u2019s notice to its\nspiritual altitude?\n\nWhat intelligent minister would presume suddenly to ask a trained\nelocutionist to read to his audience a poem he had never before seen?\nOr what honest lawyer would ask a client to sign a legal paper\ninvolving obligations without explanations or previous reading? Yet,\nevery Sunday, congregations are asked to sing hymns they have never\nnoticed, expressing they know not what sentiments, promises, or\nconsecrations, in the most solemn and exalted manner. Is it ethical?\nIs it efficient?\n\n\n                      II. THE TREATMENT OF HYMNS\n\nIf a congregation is to sing a hymn, not thoughtlessly and\nmechanically, but intelligently and with feeling, it must be prepared\nfor the devout exercise. It is the minister\u2019s task to tune his people\nup for the individual hymn, and create the habit of finding meaning\nand genuine feeling in all the hymns they sing. Stupid singing is a\nhabit: why not create a habit of singing thoughtfully and feelingly?\n\nThat may be done; but it cannot be done overnight. It will call for\npersistent training, for a wealth of resources, and for an unbroken\nattitude of genuineness of emotion on the part of the preacher. It is\nno small undertaking to transform sleepy church members into sons of\npraise.\n\nWe may add to the obligations involved still another. If the hymn to\nbe sung is not merely didactic or meditative, but distinctly emotional\nin character, is it not the preacher\u2019s duty to create in those who are\nto sing at least the beginnings of the emotions he asks them to voice?\n\nA rapid sketch of blind Matheson\u2019s experience before writing \u201cO Love\nthat wilt not let me go\u201d will set the heartstrings of the congregation\nquivering in the emotional key of the hymn. A vivid picture of the\ndeath of Christ on the cross in a dozen sentences will inspire a\npreacher\u2019s people to sing \u201cBeneath the cross of Jesus\u201d with genuine\nemotion. Drawing a picture with rapid touches of the charge of the\nLight Brigade as it went to its death at Balaklava, and quoting a few\nlines of Tennyson\u2019s poem, will stir the pulses for the singing of\n\u201cLead on, O King Eternal.\u201d \u201cPrayer is the soul\u2019s sincere desire\u201d may\nbe introduced by a few tender sentences on the vital necessity of\nprayer to a sincere Christian. A minute\u2019s resume of the influence of\nthe cross of Christ on an individual life, or on the upward sweep of\nthe human race under its influence, will give the people a clue to \u201cIn\nthe cross of Christ I glory.\u201d The tender aspect of the atonement made\nby Christ for sin may be solemnly suggested before singing \u201cAlas, and\ndid my Saviour bleed?\u201d\n\nWhere a hymn has allusions not likely to be recognized by the average\nsinger, they ought to be made plain. How many of the millions who have\nsung the well-known hymn, \u201cCome, thou Fount of every blessing,\u201d knew\nwhat the word \u201cEbenezer\u201d signified? Striking phrases, packed with deep\nthought and feeling, like Matheson\u2019s\n\n  \u201cI lay in dust life\u2019s glory dead,\n  And from the ground there blossoms red\n    Life that shall endless be,\u201d\n\nshould have their treasures brought to light, lest the average\nchurchgoer should overlook them. In other words, there should be a\nrapid exposition of unusual and also of over-familiar hymns, so that\nthe congregation may sing with its mind and heart.\n\nThe range of possible comment is so wide, and the opportunity of using\nit is so limited, that only the most striking and impressive\nillustrations should be considered for actual use. Rhetorical and\nanecdotal illustrations should be used sparingly\u2014only when they\npromote an exalted and distinctly spiritual state of mind. They are\napt to be prolix, to distract the mind from spiritual contemplation.\nThey are permissible with joyous, aggressive, victorious hymns rather\nthan with those that are tender, emotional, subjective.\n\nThe inexorable limitations of time must always be borne in mind. When\na hymn is announced the people expect to sing, not to listen to a\nhymnological dissertation or to a long-winded anecdote. The simile or\nmetaphor, or other oratorical comment, must explode with a very short\nfuse of preliminary remark. The anecdote must be compact, shorn of\nunessential preface or background, and reach its peak of interest, or\nof appeal to feeling, with the succinctness of an epigram. Better\nlimit the illustrations and comments to those that can gracefully and\nlucidly be uttered in one or rarely two minutes.\n\nDiscussions and illustrations of hymns are often confined to the hymns\nas hymns, which is rarely necessary. It is not the hymn that needs\nemphasis, much less its writer: it is the message, the burden, the\nfeeling of the hymn that is to be enforced. An instance of the saving\nof a \u201cdown and outer\u201d from the Jerry McAuley mission in New York, or\nthe Pacific Garden mission in Chicago, will create more responsiveness\nto \u201cRescue the Perishing\u201d than biographical facts about Fanny Crosby\nor about the composer, W. Howard Doane. The anecdote of missionary\nsuccess from the last missionary bulletin or magazine will lead a\nCongregation to sing \u201cJesus shall reign where\u2019er the sun\u201d more\nenthusiastically than an explanation of Watts\u2019 having metricized the\nseventy-second Psalm with a free hand, making the Jew, David, sing\nlike a Christian. Illustrating the sense rather than the form of the\nhymn will be found very much more thrilling to the people.\n\nIn evening services of song, or in midweek lectures, historical\nbackgrounds will be very helpful and interesting. A series of lectures\non the great hymns of the Church, or even a general survey of the\ndevelopment of our Christian hymnody, will lay the foundations of a\nmore intelligent song.\n\nIn such services, anecdotal illustrations may have a large place. They\nneed not be emotional under such circumstances, just so they add\ninterest and understanding.\n\nAs an occasional variation in the introduction of the hymn, why not\nhave the congregation read it? \u201cIt is not done?\u201d All the more reason\nfor doing it! They will get more actual values out of the reading of\nthe hymn and its subsequent singing than in any other way; the very\nunusualness of the method will give additional effectiveness. Single\nstanzas can be most impressively treated in this manner. In singing\nIsaac Watts\u2019 great hymn, \u201cWhen I survey the wondrous cross,\u201d ask the\npeople to read the third verse softly,\n\n  \u201cSee, from his head, his hands, his feet,\n    Sorrow and love flow mingled down!\n  Did e\u2019er such love and sorrow meet,\n    Or thorns compose so rich a crown?\u201d\n\nand then sing it very softly and note the effect.\n\nThe same method may be used with Mrs. Alexander\u2019s children\u2019s hymn,\n\u201cThere is a green hill far away,\u201d which adults have adopted for their\nown; have them read the last verse,\n\n  \u201cOh, dearly, dearly has He loved,\n    And we must love Him too,\n  And trust in His redeeming blood,\n    And try His works to do,\u201d\n\nand then sing it quite emotionally.\n\nA great many people deprecate the minister\u2019s reading of the hymns. But\nthat is because so few ministers are able to read hymns with any\ndegree of impressiveness or reality. Perhaps half the ministers who\nread them leave no desirable impression whatever as the result, for\nthe reading has been without even a thoughtful sense of the meaning of\nthe hymn, much less of its emotional force. To allow one\u2019s voice to\nfall at the end of every line, or to make a habit of having a rising\ninflection at the end of each first line and a falling at the end of\neach second, without variation, is so vile, from an elocutionary\nstandpoint, that one cannot wonder that the general congregation\nprefers its omission.\n\nOn the other hand, if the minister\u2019s mind and heart are profoundly\nawake to the thought and feeling of the hymn that is to be used, if\nthe minister has a definite purpose which he wishes to realize through\nthe singing of that hymn, if the whole song service is thoroughly\nvital and earnest, he cannot help reading the hymn in such a way as to\nimpress and interest his people. One need not be a well-trained\nelocutionist to do this. The genuine feeling will develop a natural\nelocution and will even neutralize faulty habits and mannerisms of\nreading that would otherwise make it unendurable.\n\nThe fact that the hymn is a familiar one may be only an additional\nreason for reading it, instead of being an imperative reason for\nomitting its reading. As coins long in circulation often lose their\nsuperscription, these familiar words often lose their meaning and\nreality by constant use, and these may be restored by intelligent and\nemotional reading.\n\nA mere habit of reading a hymn through is sheer mechanism, the fatal\nenemy of interest. The situation, the purpose in view, the character\nof the service and the time allotted to it, even the preacher\u2019s own\npassing mood\u2014all are factors that need to be considered.\n\nAt this point it is well to drop a word of warning against the\nunintelligent omission of verses. Some ministers invariably restrict\nthe number to be sung to three or four. If there are five verses, they\ninvariably omit the fourth, or announce, \u201cWe will sing the first three\nverses,\u201d no matter what the development of thought may be. One of the\nmost painful manifestations of ministerial thoughtlessness and\nindifference to the congregation\u2019s share of the service, is this\nbrutal mutilation of the hymns. The preacher wishes a little more time\nfor his sermon, so he robs God and his people of some of their worship\nby singing the pitiful remains of a hymn he has deprived of its unity,\nits progress of thought, and perhaps of its best stanzas. Or he has\npreached too long and closes with a single verse of some great hymn,\nunwittingly losing the best climax his sermon could have had. Because\nof the same egotism and his obsequious regard for the tyranny of the\ndinner hour, he cuts out the reading and proper introductions of his\nhymns throughout the service.\n\nThe irony of the situation is that by this neglect of his hymns the\npreacher fails to create the enthusiasm and responsiveness of his\nhearers essential to the larger success of his sermon. \u201cThere is that\nwithholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.\u201d (Prov.\n11:24.)\n\nIt may well be that some of the ministers who read this practical\nsection will throw up their hands at the idea of working out the\nrather daunting array of suggestions for exploiting the hymn in their\nchurch work. The pastor\u2019s task is such a varied one, with such a mass\nof details, all of seeming importance, that he is in danger of wasting\ntime on comparative trifles, of \u201cputtering\u201d around, feeling very busy\nwhile accomplishing little. A common remark at the close of the day\nis, \u201cI\u2019ve been busy as a nailer all day and can\u2019t see that I have\naccomplished anything!\u201d\n\nIt is this time that is lost by lack of concentration which could\nquite comfortably be devoted to hymnological studies. The difficulty\nin most cases is not lack of time, but lack of interest, lack of\nrealization as to how great a contribution the hymn service can make\nto the success of his work.\n\nGod has put into the throat of every member of this preacher\u2019s\ncongregation a marvelous musical instrument with a wide range of tones\nand of extremely appealing cadences, of great power to express the\nemotions of the heart of the singer, and to suggest and stimulate the\nfeelings of the minds and hearts of the hearers: is the minister\njustified in neglecting the opportunity it offers to arouse and\nquicken the mental and spiritual natures of the people for whose\nreligious life he is responsible?\n\nIs it not a crying piece of egotism, in view of the proven efficiency\nof hymn singing, to depend exclusively on his own preaching for the\nrealization of the spiritual ends to which his life is devoted? When\nministers realize the positive power the hymn service can exert, they\nwill not begrudge the occasional hours for studying and planning it\nwhich are necessary to its full success. That success will create\n\n                           A SINGING CHURCH\n\n\n\n\n                               EPILOGUE\n\n\n_Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter._ Eccl. 12:7.\n\nIn traversing the long history of the human use of song in religious\nservices, rites, and ceremonies, we have found that\n\n1. The hymn has been recognized in every age, in every generation, by\nevery race, whether savage or cultured, under every sky, as an\nexpression of religious emotion, and as the generator of such emotion.\n\n2. Religious emotions are of various types. It may be the earnestness\nof strong conviction; it may be the hot indignation against sin and\nevil, against neglect of the soul\u2019s highest obligations. It may be the\ndepressing sense of conscious unworthiness, rising into repentance for\nsin, into the tenderness of grateful recognition of the divine love\nand forgiving grace, expressed in tears, joy over the assurance of\nsalvation expressed in beaming countenance or in ejaculations of\ndelight, or even in shouts of victory. The human heart becomes an\n\u00c6olian harp from which the winds of the Spirit of God evoke an\ninfinitude of melodies, grave and solemn, tender and sweet, joyous and\ntriumphant, or vigorous and inspiring,\u2014a very symphonic orchestra.\n\n3. As an expression of religious emotion the hymn has been effective\nin moving the human will, stubborn in its revolt against God, by\nintensifying the mental and spiritual power of religious ideas.\n\n4. The religious idea is primary, of course, but its emotional\nresponse in the heart gives it vitality. It is the team of idea and\nits normal emotion that exerts the power of the hymn. An abstract\nidea, abstract because its emotional reflex has been abstracted, has\nno motive power.\n\n5. In the effective use of the hymn the clear apprehension of its\nideas must be enforced by the vital reproduction of the original\nemotion of its writer which urged its composure. A dry hymn written\nwithout vitalizing feeling has no power to inspire; it gives no sense\nof reality. Dry sermons, not pollinated by emotional vigor, can bear\nno fruit. The effectiveness of sermon or hymn will be determined by\nthe intensity of the feeling behind it.\n\n6. The emotional appeal must be genuine, both writer and singer must\nbe sincere. Artificial emotion, the mere pretense of a feeling that\ndoes not exist, has no power. It is not merely unappealing, it is\noffensive.\n\n7. But emotion necessarily implies an intelligence and a\nsusceptibility to be moved\u2014in other words, a personality. It also\nimplies that one person\u2019s feelings can call forth like emotions in\nother persons. The merely outward expression may even create a like\nemotion among others who do not fully apprehend the primary idea that\nset the original emotion to vibrating, creating a very contagion of\nfeeling.\n\n8. It follows that in actual aggressive work, largely depending on\nemotional transmission, the minister or the leader must supply the\ninitiating impulse. If the minister has a dry mind\u2014there are ministers\nwho desiccate every topic they discuss\u2014religious ideas suffer a blight\nof aridity, killing all sense of reality, this sense of reality being\nthe _sine qua non_ of all spiritual effectiveness. If he is fortunate\nin having a vivid imagination and a heart responsive to religious\ntruth, he can multiply his mental gifts twentyfold by intensifying the\ntruths he expresses.\n\n9. Treated in this way, the hymn becomes the peer of the sermon in\ninfluencing power, and assures the minister eager for spiritual\nresults a large harvest of souls, saved and spiritualized.\n\n\n\n\n                         REFERENCES AND NOTES\n\n\n                             INTRODUCTION\n\n[1]Genesis 4:21, 23.\n\n[2]Genesis 31:27.\n\n[3]Exodus 15:1-21.\n\n[4]Numbers 21:16, 17.\n\n[5]Psalm 90.\n\n[6]Joshua 6:16.\n\n[7]Judges 5:1-31.\n\n[8]I Samuel 2:1-16.\n\n[9]I Samuel 10:5.\n\n[10]I Chronicles 9:22; 11:4, 11:5.\n\n[11]Mark 14:26.\n\n[12]Acts 16:25.\n\n[13]Colossians 3:16.\n\n[14]James 5:13.\n\n[15]Revelation 5:9; 7:9-12; 11:15-18; 14:2,3; 15:3,4; 19:1-7.\n\n\n                              CHAPTER I\n\n[1]Dr. Phelps goes on to say, \u201cYet the greatest of these, that grace\n    which above all else vitalizes a true hymn, is that which makes it\n    true\u2014its fidelity to the realities of religious experience.\u201d\n\n[2]\u201cA hymn must have a beginning, middle, and end. There should be a\n    manifest graduation in the thoughts, and their mutual dependence\n    should be so perceptible that they could not be transposed without\n    injuring the unity of the piece; every line carrying forward the\n    connection, and every verse adding a well-proportioned limb to a\n    symmetrical body. The reader should know when the strain is\n    complete, and be satisfied, as at the close of an air in music.\u201d\n    (James Montgomery.)\n\n[3]Dr. Parks, back in 1857, remarks: \u201cThat is not always the best\n    church song which sparkles most with rhetorical gems. There are\n    spangled hymns which will never excite devotional feeling.\u201d\n\n[4]Sung at President McKinley\u2019s funeral.\n\n[5]Greece never had a sacred book, she never had any symbols, any\n    sacerdotal caste organized for the preservation of dogmas. Her\n    poets and her artists were her true theologians. (Renan, in\n    _Studies in Religious History_.)\n\n[6]\u201cEven when deeds and events of an innocent and pure character are\n    thus sung, there is nothing more of spiritual worship in it than\n    in the recitation of an epic poem. The singer confesses no need,\n    asks no blessing, reveals no yearning, expects no response. There\n    is no communion of thought and feeling, no aspiration for purity,\n    no laying hold of moral strength.\u201d (Rev. G. O. Newport, a\n    missionary in India, quoted in _The Hymn Lover_.)\n\n\n                              CHAPTER II\n\n[1]The instinct to use song in worship was recognized so long ago as\n    1695 by Dr. Hickman: \u201cThere never was any land so barbarous, or\n    any people so polite, but have always approached their gods with\n    the solemnity of music and have expressed their devotions with a\n    song.\u201d (Quoted by Dr. A. S. Hoyt in his _Public Worship for\n    Non-Liturgical Churches_.)\n\n[2]\u201cOur hymns spring out of religious experience at its best, and they\n    tend to lift experience to its highest levels. The very cream of\n    truth and of soul life is gathered into them. They contain the\n    refined riches, the precious essences, the cut and polished jewels\n    of Christianity in all ages. They are truly prophetic, the records\n    of the insight and intuition and rapture of the seer and the\n    saint.\u201d (Dr. Waldo S. Pratt, in _Musical Ministries_. [New York:\n    Revell Co., 1915.] Used by permission.)\n\n[3]Henry Ward Beecher placed a high value on the song service of the\n    church: \u201cI have never loved men under any circumstances as I have\n    loved them while singing with them; never at any other time have I\n    been so near heaven with you, as in those hours when our songs\n    were wafted thitherward.\u201d\n\n[4]\u201cIn all great religious movements the people have been inspired\n    with a passion for singing. They have sung their creed: it seems\n    the freest and most natural way of declaring their triumphant\n    belief in great Christian truths, forgotten or denied in previous\n    times of spiritual depression and now restored to their rightful\n    place in the thought and life of the Church. Song has expressed\n    and intensified their enthusiasm, their new faith, their new joy,\n    their new determination to do the will of God.\u201d (Dr. W. R. Dale.)\n\n[5]Pratt, _Musical Ministries_.\n\n[6]Ephesians 5: 18-20.\n\n[7]Colossians 3: 16.\n\n[8]I Corinthians 14: 15.\n\n[9]Over three-quarters of a century ago, this lament was made by a\n    prominent New England minister: \u201cMany a man, who carefully\n    interrogates his own experience, will confess that, while the\n    voice of public prayer readily engages his attention and carries\n    with it his devout desires, it is not so with the act of praise;\n    that he very seldom finds his affections rising upon its notes to\n    heaven\u2014very seldom can he say at its close that he has worshiped\n    God. The song has been wafted near him as a vehicle for conveying\n    upward the sweet odor of a spiritual service, but the offering has\n    been withheld, and the song ascends as empty of divine honors as a\n    sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.\u201d (Rev. Daniel L. Furber, in\n    _Hymns and Choirs_.)\n\n\n                             CHAPTER III\n\n[1]\u201cTo get behind the hymnbook to the men and women who wrote its\n    contents, and to the events, whether personal or public, out of\n    which it sprang and which it so graciously mirrors, is to enter a\n    world palpitating with human interest. For a hymnbook is a\n    transcript of real life, a poetical accompaniment to real events\n    and real experiences. Like all literature that counts, it rises\n    directly out of life.\u201d (Frederick J. Gillman, in _The Evolution of\n    the English Hymn_. [New York: The Macmillan Co., 1927.] Used by\n    permission.)\n\n[2]J. Balcom Reeves, _The Hymn in History and Literature_. (New York:\n    D. Appleton-Century Co., 1924). Used by permission.\n\n[3]\u201cThere is an inclination to fence in what are called \u2018literary\n    lyrics,\u2019 as if to fence out singing lyrics! Now there is, of\n    course, a distinction between poems meant to be sung and poems\n    written in the pattern of lyrical poetry, but never meant to be\n    sung; but the terminology which classes one kind as literary,\n    thereby implying that the other kind is not of the realm of\n    literature, is inaccurate and unhappy.\u201d _Ibid._\n\n[4]\u201cIn his volume, _The English Lyric_, Professor Felix E. Schelling\n    virtually disposes of the hymn with the remark that \u2018we may or may\n    not \u201caccept\u201d certain hymns, but we do not have to read them.\u2019 That\n    is readily granted\u2014unless, of course, one wishes to know them or\n    to write just criticism about them.\u201d _Ibid._\n\n[5]\u201cFrequently a hymn is a prayer; and it is a rule for the structure\n    of prayers that they exclude all those recondite figures, dazzling\n    comparisons, flashing metaphors, which, while grateful to certain\n    minds of poetic excitability, are offensive to more sober and\n    staid natures, and are not congenial with the lowly spirit of a\n    suppliant at the throne of grace. A simile may be shining, but it\n    may not be exactly chaste; and a hymn prefers pure beauty to\n    bedizening ornament.\u201d (Dr. Edwards A. Park, in _Hymns and\n    Choirs_.)\n\n[6]These numbers, of course, refer to the number of syllables in a\n    line.\n\n\n                              CHAPTER IV\n\n[1]The vagaries of credit for writing given hymns is illustrated in\n    the appearance of the intensely Calvinistic Toplady\u2019s name as the\n    writer of Charles Wesley\u2019s intensely Arminian \u201cBlow ye the\n    trumpet, blow.\u201d\n\n[2]Those who care to make a fuller study of the revision of hymns than\n    the following discussion affords are referred to the full\n    treatment of the subject, and to the abundant cases cited, by\n    Professor Edwards A. Park, D.D., of Andover Theological Seminary,\n    in _Hymns and Choirs_, issued in 1860 by Drs. Austin Phelps,\n    Edwards A. Park, and Daniel L. Furber. The lapse of years has in\n    no way diminished the value of this volume. It is unfortunately\n    out of print and inaccessible to the average pastor, outside of\n    public libraries.\n\n\n                              CHAPTER V\n\n[1]\u201cBut the emotional life, strongest, no doubt, in youth, remains a\n    lifelong element of personality and especially of the religious\n    personality. Feeling is not merely an integral part of religious\n    experience, it is central, vital, its inmost core. William James\n    speaks of it as the deeper source of religion, and says that\n    \u2018philosophical and theological formulas come below it in\n    importance. It is the dynamic factor in the religious life. When\n    it is absent, religion degenerates into mere formalism or barren\n    intellectualism.\u2019\u201d (Gillman, in _The Evolution of the English\n    Hymn_.)\n\n[2]Rev. Louis F. Benson, D.D., in _The Hymnody of the Christian\n    Church_. (New York: Harper and Bros., 1927.) Used by permission.\n\n\n                             CHAPTER VII\n\n[1]Dr. Harris says of his discovery, \u201cThe manuscript had been lying\n    with a heap of other stray leaves of manuscript on the shelves of\n    my library without awakening any suspicion that it contained a\n    lost hymnbook of the early Church of the apostolic times, or at\n    the very latest of the sub-apostolic times.\u201d\n\n\n                             CHAPTER VIII\n\n[1]There is frequent lament that in the translations of Greek, Latin,\n    and German hymns into English much of the original beauty is lost.\n    But the converse is also true: that such translators as Neale,\n    Brownlie, and Palmer have taken the uncut diamonds of the Greek\n    and Latin Fathers and so transformed them by their lapidarian\n    skill that the world-wide Christian Church is rejoicing in their\n    beauty.\n\n[2]The _Te Deum_ has only slight claims to Greek origin and is\n    postponed to a later chapter.\n\n[3]In like manner the rationalists of the age of Frederick the Great\n    of Prussia sought to prevent the use of the Lutheran hymns; the\n    Arians in the pre-Wesleyan times contended for the psalm versions\n    without doxologies recognizing the Trinity; in our own day,\n    extreme Modernists belittle Christian hymns as dogmatic and\n    unpoetical and urge the use of sociological hymns.\n\n[4]This transfer of the song to clerical singers soon had its\n    inevitable result. Jerome begins to be apprehensive that the form\n    of singing would come to have too exclusive consideration. He\n    complained that those who led the song, like comedians, \u201csmoothed\n    their throats with soft drinks in order to render their melodies\n    more impressive, and that the heart alone can properly make melody\n    to God.\u201c\n\n\n                              CHAPTER IX\n\n[1]\u201cThe Greek language lived long and died slowly, and the Christian\n    hymn writers wrote in its decadence.\u201d (Rev. John Brownlie, in his\n    preface to _Hymns of the Greek Church_.)\n\n[2]The canon is an elaborate service consisting of nine odes or hymns\n    of different forms.\n\n\n                              CHAPTER X\n\n[1]\u201cJesus, the very thought of Thee\u201d (Caswall) or \u201cJesus, Thou joy of\n    loving hearts\u201d (Palmer).\n\n[2]\u201cO sacred Head, now wounded,\u201d translated by James W. Alexander from\n    Paul Gerhardt\u2019s \u201cO Haupt voll Blut and Wunden,\u201d a German version\n    of the Latin hymn above.\n\n[3]Imagine a poem of such length in the difficult \u201cLeonine hexameter\u201d\n    of which the following translated lines will give an inkling:\n\n      \u201cThese are the latter times, these are not better times, let us\n            stand waiting!\n      Lo, how with awfulness, He, first in lawfulness, comes\n            arbitrating.\u201d\n\n    Dr. Neale wisely reduced his centos to a plain meter, giving them\n    practical usefulness.\n\n[4]Matthew Arnold described it as \u201cthe utterance of all that is\n    exquisite in the spirit of its century.\u201d (Quoted by Gillman, in\n    his _Evolution of the English Hymn_.)\n\n\n                              CHAPTER XI\n\n[1]As an indication of how prevalent this singing of religious hymns\n    was, we note the fact that in 1512, twelve years before Luther\u2019s\n    first hymnbook appeared, a collection of Roman Catholic hymns, set\n    to profane tunes, was issued in Venice, Italy.\n\n[2]\u201cTo Luther belongs the extraordinary merit of having given to the\n    German people in their own tongue the Bible, the Catechism, and\n    the Hymnbook, so that God might speak directly to them in his\n    Word, and that they might directly answer him in their songs.\u201d Dr.\n    Philip Schaff adds elsewhere that Luther \u201cis the father of the\n    modern High German language and literature,\u201d and that these are\n    the common possession of the Germanic tribes with their\n    diversified dialects from the Adriatic to the Baltic Sea. Erasmus\n    Alber, a contemporary who wrote twenty excellent hymns, calls\n    Luther \u201cthe German Cicero, who not only reformed religion, but\n    also the German language.\u201d Hans Sachs, the poet cobbler of\n    Nuremberg, who, besides a great deal of general poetry, also wrote\n    a number of hymns, styled Luther \u201cthe nightingale of Wittenberg.\u201d\n\n\n                             CHAPTER XII\n\n[1]Dr. Schaff.\n\n\n                             CHAPTER XIII\n\n[1]Dr. Louis F. Benson has well characterized this Psalter in its\n    influence on French character: \u201cThe metrical Psalter made the\n    Huguenot character. No doubt a character nourished on Old\n    Testament ideals will lack the full symmetry of the Gospel. But\n    the Huguenot was a warrior, first called to fight and suffer for\n    his faith. And in singing psalms he found his confidence and\n    strength.... In the wars of religion, the Psalms in meter were the\n    songs of camp and march, the war cry on the field, the swan song\n    at the martyr\u2019s stake.\u201d\n\n[2]\u201cOf course, psalms in the ballad form were easily learned and kept\n    in memory. And in the days when the ability to read was less\n    general than now, these rhymes, scattered so freely broadcast,\n    took root in many a mind and contributed powerfully to the\n    righteousness and stability of the nation.\u201d (J. Balcom Reeves, in\n    _The Hymn in History and Literature_.)\n\n\n                             CHAPTER XIV\n\n[1]Comparing the English church with the German, Horder exclaims: \u201cThe\n    Puritans, indeed, had in their midst a finer poet than Luther, but\n    they never introduced even Milton\u2019s superb renderings of certain\n    of the Psalms into their worship. What a use Luther would have put\n    Milton to, if he had been a member of his church! What songs he\n    would have written! Aye, what music, too!\u201d\n\n[2]\u201cThus the psalms have been at once an inspiration and a bondage:\n    _an inspiration_ in that they have kindled the fire which has\n    produced the hymnody of the entire church; _a bondage_, because,\n    by stereotyping religious expression, they robbed the heart of the\n    right to express in its own words the fears, the joys, the hopes\n    that the Divine Spirit had kindled in their souls.\u201d (W. Garrett\n    Horder, in _The Hymn Lover_.)\n\n[3]Thomas Wright in his recent _Life of Isaac Watts_ remarks: \u201cEarlier\n    in this work I referred to Watts\u2019 enthusiasm for, and his\n    indebtedness to, John Mason, who deserves rather than any other\n    writer the name of the Father of the Modern Hymn. If there had not\n    been a Mason there would never have been a Watts.\u201d\n\n\n                              CHAPTER XV\n\n[1]It is perhaps needless to say that the word \u201cvulgar\u201d did not have\n    the opprobrious connotation that it inevitably brings today. It\n    simply meant \u201cordinary.\u201d\n\n[2]George W. Garrett Horder, in _The Hymn Lover_.\n\n\n                             CHAPTER XVI\n\n[1]\u201cIt was their love of social psalmody that made Methodist hymnody\n    what it was, and it was the desire to better parochial psalmody\n    that furnished John Wesley with the original motive of his work in\n    hymnody.\u201d (Dr. Louis F. Benson, in _The English Hymn_. [New York:\n    Harper and Bros.] Used by permission.)\n\n[2]\u201cJohn Wesley was a good writer and preacher, and possessed\n    extensive learning. He was a man of unfailing perseverance, great\n    self-denial, large liberality, singular devotedness to his\n    Master\u2019s service, and eminent piety. But perhaps his most\n    remarkable gift was the power he possessed of making men willing\n    to fall in with his purposes and of organizing systematic action\n    for the benefit of his followers.\u201d (Josiah Miller, in _Singers and\n    Songs of the Church_.)\n\n[3]\u201cWesley, like Watts, wrote very freely and spontaneously, as the\n    thousands of lyrics he wrote bear witness. Not all of them were\n    good; much of the verse reminds one of a painter\u2019s tentative\n    sketches. But had he not freely written so many, he might not have\n    written the smaller number so consummately well.\u201d (J. Balcom\n    Reeves, in _The Hymn in History and Literature_.)\n\n[4]\u201cThe Wesley hymnbooks constitute an extraordinary interesting human\n    document, palpitating with real life. Every event of those\n    wonderful years, every experience, public or private, through\n    which the singers passed, is mirrored in some sweet song. But\n    there is more in them than that. They are _Pilgrim\u2019s Progress_ in\n    verse. They trace the religious life of every man as he travels\n    from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. They unfold\n    the spiritual drama of man, his hopes and fears, his aspirations\n    and affections, his failures and victories; each chequered\n    experience trembles into songs, and scarcely a note is missing.\n    Springing from the heart of the eighteenth century, their music\n    seems to drown its licentiousness and frivolity in paeans of\n    praise.\u201d (Frederick J. Gillman, in _The Evolution of the English\n    Hymn_.)\n\n[5]Charles Wesley\u2019s best hymns\u2014and who would dare estimate his genius\n    on any other basis?\u2014meet John Drinkwater\u2019s two tests of vital\n    poetry:\n\n     (1) It must spring from vital and intense personal experience.\n\n    (2) It must transfer to the reader by \u201cpregnant and living words\u201d\n    the ecstasy that swelled the heart of the poet.\n\n[6]\u201cThe style of Watts is austere, objective, formal; the style of\n    Wesley is warm, subjective, intimate.\u201d (J. Balcom Reeves, in _The\n    Hymn in History and Literature_.)\n\n[7]Dr. Benson in his exhaustive treatise on _The English Hymn_\n    remarks: \u201cThe Wesleys inaugurated a great spiritual revival; and\n    their hymns did as much as any human agency to kindle and\n    replenish its fervor.... John Wesley led an ecclesiastical revolt\n    and, failing to conquer his own church, established a new one of\n    phenomenal proportions: the hymns prefigured the constitution of\n    the new church and formed the manual of its spiritual discipline.\u201d\n\n[8]He frankly expressed his inhospitable attitude: \u201cWere we to\n    encourage little poets, we should soon be overrun.\u201d\n\n\n                             CHAPTER XVII\n\n[1]The Oxford or Tractarian Movement on the one hand sought a deeper\n    spiritual life than was then prevalent, and on the other\n    emphasized the solidarity of the Church of Christ before and after\n    the Reformation. It recognized the authority of the\n    pre-Reformation theology and of the associated ceremonial liturgy.\n    Many of its leaders entered the Roman Catholic Church, accepting\n    even its worship of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and of the saints.\n\n\n                            CHAPTER XVIII\n\n[1]The condition of congregational singing at this time is reported by\n    Rev. Thomas Walter as follows: \u201cOur tunes are left to the mercy of\n    every unskilful throat to chop and alter, to twist and change,\n    according to their infinitely diverse and no less odd humors and\n    fancies. I have myself paused twice in one note to take breath. No\n    two men in the congregation quaver alike or together; it sounds in\n    the ears of a good judge like five hundred tunes roared out at the\n    same time with perpetual interferings with one another.\u201d\n\n[2]It is related of a New England minister, Rev. T. Bellamy, that\n    after the choir had outdone all its past discord and blundering in\n    rendering the Psalm, he announced another and admonished his\n    choir, \u201cYou must try again, for it is impossible to preach after\n    such singing.\u201d\n\n\n                             CHAPTER XIX\n\n[1]Dr. S. Weir Mitchell.\n\n[2]Dr. Louis F. Benson says of Charles Wesley\u2019s \u201cJesus, lover of my\n    soul\u201d: \u201cThe suspicion remains that the secret of its appeal lies\n    in a poetic beauty that the average man feels without analyzing\n    it, and in a perfection of craftsmanship that makes him want to\n    sing it simply because it awakens the spirit of song in him,\n    rather than a mood of reflection.\u201d\n\n[3]The Wesleyan doctrine of the Second Work, or Holiness, now known as\n    \u201cThe Victorious Life.\u201d\n\n[4]It will be a good introduction to this minute study to work out the\n    Biblical authority for the dozen or more allusions.\n\n[5]Hebrews 12:1.\n\n[6]Fleming H. Revell Co. New York.\n\n[7]A full discussion of hymn tunes will be found in Chapters X to XII\n    of _Music in Work and Worship_ or in Chapters V to X in _Practical\n    Church Music_, of which books the present writer is the author.\n    Both published by Fleming H. Revell Co. New York.\n\n\n                              CHAPTER XX\n\n[1]A fuller discussion of this topic will be found in Chapter XXIX of\n    _Music in Work and Worship_, by the present writer.\n\n[2]When Moody was superintendent of a Sunday school in Chicago, he had\n    a vicious boy in one of the classes whom he had reprimanded again\n    and again for disturbing the meeting. Finally one Sunday the boy\n    was unusually fractious and Moody turned to his chorister and\n    said, \u201cWhen I get up and walk up the aisle, you start \u2018Hold the\n    Fort\u2019 as vigorously as you can.\u201d While the song was being sung\n    with much enthusiasm, Moody dragged the boy out of the class by\n    the collar, took him to an adjacent room, and punished him\n    drastically while the school sang and submerged the boy\u2019s cries.\n    The boy grew up, became a minister, and often told with glee the\n    story of how Moody started the work of grace in his heart.\n\n\n                             CHAPTER XXII\n\n[1]In regular services, single verse tunes may be played through, but\n    only the last half of double verse tunes should be allowed, lest\n    the momentum gained by the introductory comment be lost.\n\n\n\n\n                            GENERAL INDEX\n\n\n                                  A\n  Adam of St. Victor                                               123\n  Addison, Joseph                                                  167\n  Adolphus, Gustavus                                               138\n  Ainsworth\u2019s Version                                              155\n  Alber, Erasmus                                                   136\n  Albigenses                                                       128\n  Aldhelm, Bishop                                                  150\n  Alexander, Mrs. Cecil Frances                                    206\n  Alexander, William                                               153\n  Alline, Harry                                                    212\n  Ambrose of Milan                                            120, 124\n  American Hymnody, Beginnings of                                  208\n  American Hymns, Early Collections of                             213\n  American Psalmody                                            155-157\n  American Recent Hymn Writers                                 222-225\n  Anatolius                                                        115\n  Andrew of Crete                                                  116\n  Annesley, Rev. Samuel                                            181\n  Annesley, Susanna                                                181\n  Announcement of Hymns                                          266-8\n  Appelles, von Loewenstein                                        139\n  Aquinas, Thomas                                                  125\n  Arndt, Ernst Moritz                                              144\n  Arnold, Matthew                                               57, 58\n  Austin, John                                                     164\n\n                                  B\n  Bacon, Dr. Leonard                                               218\n  Bakewell, John                                                   189\n  Baring-Gould, Sabine                                             207\n  Barnby, Joseph                                                   207\n  Barton, Bernard                                                  203\n  Barton, William                                                  165\n  Basil, Saint                                                      50\n  Baxter, Richard                                             163, 167\n  Bay Psalm Book                                              156, 209\n  Benedicite, The                                                  111\n  Benson, Louis F.                        7, 62, 65, 85, 133, 174, 225\n  Bernard of Clairvaux                                             124\n  Bernard of Cluny                                                 125\n  Beza, Theodore                                                   150\n  Bliss, P. P.                                             51, 91, 224\n  Bonar, Horatius                                                  207\n  Bourgeois                                                        150\n  Bowring, Sir John                                                204\n  Bradbury, William B.                                              51\n  Brady, Nicholas                                                  154\n  Bromehead, Joseph                                                164\n  Brooks, Bishop Phillips                                 51, 222, 223\n  Brown, Phoebe Hinsdale                                           214\n  Brownlie, Rev. Dr. John                                          114\n  Bryant, William Cullen                                           220\n  Buchanan, George                                            143, 147\n  Byles, Mather                                                    211\n  Byrom, John                                                      178\n\n                                  C\n  Caedmon                                                          158\n  Calkin, J. Baptiste                                              219\n  Calvin, John                                                     148\n  Campbell, Thomas                                                 155\n  Campion, Thomas                                                  161\n  Candlelight Hymn                                                 110\n  Canon, Golden                                                    116\n  Canon, Pentecostarion                                            116\n  Canons, Queen of                                                 116\n  Canon, The Great                                                 116\n  Canon, Triodion                                                  116\n  Carlyle, Thomas                                                  135\n  Caswall, Edward                                             126, 204\n  Celano, Thomas of                                                126\n  Cennick, John                                                    190\n  Character of German Hymnody                                      146\n  Charlemagne                                                      124\n  Christian Lyre                                                   215\n  Christian Year                                                   200\n  Church Poetry                                                    218\n  Clement of Alexandria                                            109\n  Coleman, Dr. Lyman                                               106\n  Compendious Booke of Gude and Godlie Ballates                    150\n  Concordant Discord of a Broken-Hearted Heart                     164\n  Conder, Josiah                                                   204\n  Cosin, Bishop                                                    124\n  Cosmas                                                           116\n  Cotterill, Thomas                                                202\n  Coverdale, Miles                                                 150\n  Cowley, Robert                                                   151\n  Cowper, William, Life of                                    196, 197\n  Coxe, Bishop Arthur Cleveland                                    223\n  Crosby, Fanny                                                51, 261\n\n                                  D\n  Damiana, Cardinal                                                123\n  Da Todi, Jacopone                                                127\n  Davies, Samuel                                                   211\n  Decius, Nicolaus                                                 136\n  De la Motte Fouque                                               144\n  Dexter, Henry M.                                                 110\n  Doane, Bishop George W.                                          219\n  Doane, William H.                                            51, 270\n  Doddridge, Philip                                           233, 238\n  Doddridge, Relative Standing                                     178\n  Duffield, George, Jr.                                            222\n  Dundee Psalms                                                    150\n  Dunster and Lyon                                                 156\n  Dwight, Timothy (Pres.)                                          210\n\n                                  E\n  Earliest English Hymns                                           158\n  Eber, Paul                                                       136\n  Edmeston, James                                                  203\n  Eliot, John                                                      156\n  Emergency Hymns                                                  260\n  English Literary Ideals Discourage Hymn Writing                  159\n  English Psalmody Submerges English Hymnody                       159\n  English Psalm Versions Before Sternhold                          150\n\n                                  F\n  Faber, Frederick W.                                         206, 235\n  Fawcett, John                                                60, 191\n  Finney, Charles G.                                           51, 214\n  Fitting Hymn Tunes to Congregations                              249\n  Flagellant Monks                                                 131\n  Fleming, Paul                                                    139\n  Francis of Assisi                                                126\n  Francke, August Hermann                                          141\n  Franck, John                                                     140\n  Franklin, Benjamin                                               210\n  Freylinghausen, Johann A.                                        141\n  Fuller, Thomas                                                   155\n  Furber, Rev. Daniel L.                                             7\n\n                                  G\n  Gates, Ellen H.                                                   91\n  Gellert, Christian Fuerchtegott                             139, 142\n  Genevan Psalter                                                  150\n  Gerhardt, Paul                                                   139\n  German Te Deum                                                   138\n  Gerok, Karl von                                                  146\n  Ghoostly Psalms and Spiritual Songs                              150\n  Gill, Thomas Hornblower                                           58\n  Gilman, Frederick J.                                             155\n  Gilmore, Joseph H.                                           91, 224\n  Gladden, Washington                                          51, 224\n  Gloria in Excelsis                                               111\n  Gloria Patri                                                     112\n  Goethe                                                           126\n  Gospel Hymn, The                                                  89\n    Adaptation to Practical Work                                 96-99\n    Advantages of                                                   98\n    Almost Universal Use                                            89\n    Discrimination in Use of Gospel Songs Needed                    98\n    Judged by Results                                               90\n    Lack of Discrimination of Critics                               91\n    Precursors of                                                   90\n    Standard Hymns                                                  92\n    Unfair Comparisons                                              93\n    Wrong Assumptions                                               92\n  Goudimel                                                         150\n  Grant, Sir Robert                                      203, 230, 235\n  Great Hymnic Themes                                               88\n  Gregory of Nazianzus                                             114\n  Gregory the Great                                                124\n  Grigg, Joseph                                                    192\n\n                                  H\n  Hammond, William                                                 235\n  Hankey, Kate                                                      91\n  Hardenberg, Friedrich von                                        144\n  Harris, Dr. Rendell                                              107\n  Hastings, Thomas                                        91, 215, 216\n  Havergal, Frances Ridley                                         207\n  Hawks, Mrs. Annie S.                                         91, 234\n  Heath, George                                                     75\n  Heber, Bishop Reginald                                  84, 199, 232\n  Hedge, Frederick H.                                              135\n  Herbert, Geo.                                                36, 162\n  Hermannus Contractus                                             124\n  Herrick, Robert                                                  163\n  Hewitt, Eliza Edmunds                                             91\n  Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers                                  120, 130\n  Hiller                                                           141\n  Holden, Oliver                                                   213\n  Holmes, Oliver Wendell                                           220\n  Hopper, Rev. Edw.                                            91, 224\n  Horder, W. Garrett                                      25, 160, 166\n  Hosmer, Rev. Frederick L.                                        224\n  How, Bishop W. W.                                                206\n  Hoyt, Dr. A. S.                                                   96\n  Hunter, Rev. William                                              91\n  Huntington, Countess of                                          194\n  Huss, John, of Prague                                            131\n  Hyde, Abby B.                                                    214\n  Hymnal as a Text Book of Theology                              84-86\n  Hymnal, Making a Personal                                    240-242\n  Hymn Lover, The                                                   25\n  Hymnology, Works on                                              7-8\n  Hymns                                                             35\n    Adjusted to Mass Singing                                        74\n    As a Pedagogic Device                                           74\n    As Literature                                                   53\n    As Poetry                                                       27\n    Changes in                                                   63-75\n      Character of changes                                       67-72\n      John Wesley as Reviser                                     70-72\n      Limits of author\u2019s rights                                     65\n      Minor changes in hymns                                     73-75\n      Often needless                                                64\n      Return to originals                                           65\n      Rights of authors                                             65\n    Christocentric                                                  31\n    Congregational or Singing Hymn                                  27\n    Create Religious Atmosphere                                     72\n    Definition of Hymn                                              25\n    Definition of Hymn by Dr. Benson                                28\n    Distinctly Religious                                            30\n    Earliest Hymns                                                 110\n    Early Greek Hymns                                              114\n    Efficiency of Hymns                                             21\n    Excessive \u201cEgo\u201d in Hymns                                        81\n    Flaws in Hymns by Standard Writers                              94\n    Ignorance of Hymns                                              21\n    Importance of Hymns                                             17\n    Impulse to Write Hymns                                          40\n    In Apostolic Times                                             104\n    Indifference to Hymns                                        50-52\n    Influence of Purpose on Writing                              40-43\n    In the Epistles                                                105\n    Limitations of                                                  58\n    Literary Criticism of                                    41, 55-57\n    Means of Emotional Expression                                   43\n    Meters of                                                33, 59-61\n    Of the Apocalypse                                              106\n    Of the Social Gospel                                            87\n    Origin and Development of Apostolic Hymns                      104\n    Place of Hymns                                                  17\n    Practicability of                                               34\n    Purpose of Singing Hymns                                        42\n    Purpose of User                                                 42\n    Relation of Hymns to God                                      76-8\n    Relation of Hymns to Singer                                  79-82\n    Scriptural, Must be                                             31\n    Source of                                                      103\n    Special Subjects                                                87\n    Succeeded Psalms                                               103\n    Supreme Theme of                                                88\n    Taken from Congregation                                        112\n    Too Intense                                                    245\n    Use in Propaganda                                              112\n    Valuable Aids in Services                                      242\n    Value of                                                     40-46\n  \u201cHymns Ancient and Modern\u201d                                        54\n  Hymn Sermons and Services                                        254\n  Hymns of the Protestant Episcopal Church                         218\n\n                                  I\n  Irons, Rev. W. J.                                                126\n\n                                  J\n  James I of England                                               153\n  John of Damascus                                                 116\n  Johnson, Dr. Samuel                                               56\n  Joseph of the Studium                                            117\n  Jonas, Justus                                                    136\n\n                                  K\n  Keble, John                                       199, 200, 232, 235\n  Kelly, Thomas                                                    201\n  Ken, Bishop Thomas                                           72, 164\n  Key, Francis S.                                                  219\n  \u201cKing\u201d and \u201cQueen\u201d Chorales                                      137\n  King Conrad                                                      131\n  Klopstock, Friedrich G.                                          143\n  Knapp, Albert                                                    145\n  Knox, John                                                       153\n  Knox\u2019s Version                                                   153\n  Krummacher, Friedrich Adolph                                     145\n\n                                  L\n  Language of Post-Apostolic Hymns                                 111\n  Later American Orthodox Hymnists                                 222\n  Lathbury, Mary Artemisia                                         223\n  Latin Psalm Version by Geo. Buchanan                             151\n  Lavater, Johann Kasper                                           144\n  Leavitt, Rev. Joshua                                             214\n  Leland, John                                                     213\n  Literary Trend in English Hymns                                  198\n  Lollards, The                                                     50\n  Lowry, Robert                                                     51\n  Luther and Calvin                                                148\n  Luther and the Vernacular Hymn                                   130\n  Luther, Martin                                                   130\n  Luther\u2019s Great Chorale                                           134\n  Luther\u2019s Hymn Collections                                        134\n  Luther\u2019s Relation to German Hymnody                              132\n  Luther\u2019s Tunes                                                   136\n  Lyte, Henry Francis                                              204\n\n                                  M\n  MacDonald, George                                           167, 178\n  Madan, Rev. Martin                                           72, 194\n  Marot, Clement                                                   149\n  Marriott, John                                                   203\n  Marseillaise Hymn                                                 83\n  Martineau, Dr. James                                         41, 187\n  Mason, John                                                      166\n  Mason, Lowell                                            91, 215-217\n  Mather, Cotton                                                   157\n  Mather, Richard                                                  156\n  Matheson, Dr. George                                             208\n  Medieval Popular Hymnody                                         146\n  Medley, Rev. Samuel                                         192, 235\n  Memorizing Hymns                                                 243\n  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix                                     138\n  Methodist Hymnal                                                  93\n  Methods of Hymn Study                                        234-240\n  Meyfart, Johannes                                                139\n  Milman, Henry Hart                                      75, 199, 200\n  Milton, John                                                     160\n  Montgomery, James                            56, 64, 155, 190, 201-2\n  Montgomery, James, as Critic                                     202\n  Moore, Thomas                                                    200\n  Moravians                                                        181\n  Morris, Mrs. C. H.                                               224\n  Mote, Edward                                                      73\n  Mozart, Wolfgang A.                                              126\n  Muhlenberg, Rev. William Augustus                                218\n\n                                  N\n  Neale, Dr. Mason                                       115, 125, 205\n  Neumark, Georg                                                   138\n  Newman, Cardinal John Henry                                  51, 204\n  New Presbyterian Hymnal                                           93\n  Newton and Cowper                                                195\n  Newton, John, Life of                                            195\n  Nicolai, Philipp                                                 137\n  North, Frank Mason                                               224\n  Notker, called Balbulus                                     123, 124\n\n                                  O\n  Occom, Samson                                                    212\n  Odes of Solomon                                                  106\n  Odo of Cluny                                                     123\n  Olivers, Thomas                                                  189\n  Olney Hymns (Newton)                                             195\n  Omitting Verses                                                  272\n  Onderdonk, Dr. H. U.                                             219\n  Opitz, Martin                                                    138\n\n                                  P\n  Palgrave                                                     56, 175\n  Palmer, Ray                                          91, 217-18, 233\n  Parker, Archbishop                                               154\n  Parker, Theodore                                                 126\n  Parks, Prof. Edwards A.                                            7\n  Patrick, Saint                                                   159\n  Paul of Samosata                                                 112\n  Paulus Diaconus                                                  123\n  Perronet, Edward                                                 189\n  Personal Hymnal                                                240-2\n  Peter the Hermit                                                 125\n  Phelps, Prof. Austin                                  7, 88, 95, 257\n  Phelps, Dr. Sylvanus Dryden                                      224\n  Phillips, Philip                                                  51\n  Pietism in German Hymnody                                        144\n  Planning Music of Service                                     250-53\n  Popularity of Sternhold and Hopkins Version                      152\n  Poteat, Prof. H. M.                                               21\n  Practical Hymnology                                               21\n  Practical Hymn Studies                                           242\n  Prentiss, Mrs. Elizabeth                                         224\n  Preparing a Congregation to Sing Hymns                        268-72\n  Priest, Francis Baker                                            164\n  Primitive Church, The                                            106\n  Procter, Adelaide A.                                             231\n  Proses                                                           123\n  Protestant Te Deum                                                74\n  Prudentius, Bishop of Poitiers                                   112\n  Psalmody in America                                              209\n  Psychology of Psalmody                                         148-9\n\n                                  R\n  Rabanus, Maurus                                                  123\n  Rankin, Rev. Jeremiah E.                                     91, 224\n  Rationalism in German Hymnody                                    143\n  Reeves, Prof. J. Balcom                                          159\n  Revised Presbyterian Hymnal                                      179\n  Ringwaldt, Bartolomaeus                                          137\n  Rinkart, Martin                                                  138\n  Robinson, Robert                                            191, 235\n  Rodigast                                                         141\n  Roh, Johann                                                      136\n  Root, George F.                                                   51\n  Rous, Francis                                                    153\n  Rous\u2019 Version                                                    153\n  Ruckert, Friedrich                                               145\n\n                                  S\n  Saint Basil                                                       50\n  Saint Colombo                                                    159\n  Saint Patrick                                                    159\n  Sanctus                                                           28\n  Schade                                                           141\n  Schaff, Dr. Philip                                          134, 143\n  Scheffler, John                                                  140\n  Schultz                                                          141\n  Scott, Sir Walter                                                127\n  Seagrave, Robert                                                 178\n  Sears, Edmund Hamilton                                           221\n  Selborne, Lord                                                   134\n  Selnecker, Nicolaus                                              137\n  Senfl, Ludwig                                                    136\n  Shurtleff, Ernest W.                                             224\n  Smith, Samuel F.                                             91, 216\n  Solomon\u2019s Coronation Song                                        176\n  Southwell, Robert                                                160\n  Spafford, Horatio G.                                              91\n  Spener, Philipp Jacob                                            140\n  Spengler, Lazarus                                                136\n  Speratus, Paul                                              134, 136\n  Spirituals                                                        55\n  Spiritual Songs for Social Worship                            216-17\n  Spitta, Karl Johann Philipp                                      145\n  Steele, Anne                                                125, 191\n  Stephen, the Sabaite                                             116\n  Sternhold and Hopkins Versions                                   152\n  Sternhold, Thomas                                                152\n  Stite, Edgar F.                                                   91\n  Stone, Samuel J.                                                  84\n  Stowe, Harriet Beecher                                      222, 230\n  Strong, Nathan                                                   212\n  Studying Hymn Tunes                                         246, 264\n  Studying Methods of Using Hymns                          244-47, 249\n  Study of Hymns, Advantages of                                 229-33\n  Suggestive Selection of Hymns                                 258-64\n  Synesius                                                         115\n\n                                  T\n  Tappan, William B.                                               214\n  Tate and Brady\u2019s Version                                         154\n  Tate, Nahum                                                 154, 209\n  Tauler, John                                                     131\n  Teaching Truth by Use of Hymns                                   253\n  Technic of Hymnwriting Established                               165\n  Te Deum Laudamus                                             28, 119\n  Ter Sanctus, The                                                 111\n  Tersteegen, Gerhardt                                        141, 235\n  Tertullian                                                       109\n  Theodore of the Studium                                          117\n  Theodulph                                                        123\n  Thomas of Celano                                                 126\n  Thompson, Alexander R.                                           126\n  Toplady, Augustus Montague                                       190\n  Toplady\u2019s Hymn Tests                                             194\n  Treasury of Sacred Songs                                          56\n  Trench, Archbishop                                           55, 124\n  Trent, Archbishop                                                125\n  Troubadours                                                      128\n  Two Values in Singing Hymns                                      248\n  Types of Hymns                                                 76-88\n    \u201cI\u201d and \u201cMy\u201d hymns                                              81\n    In Relation to God                                            76-9\n    In Relation to Singer                                           79\n\n                                  U\n  Unitarian Hymnody in America                                     219\n  Unity in Selecting Hymns                                         256\n\n                                  V\n  Valois, Marguerite de                                            149\n  Value of Psalm Versions                                          157\n  Van Alstyne, Frances Crosby                                      223\n  Van Dyke, Dr. Henry                                              235\n  Venerable Bede, The                                         123, 159\n  Verse, Secular and Sacred Compared                                56\n\n                                  W\n  Waldenses                                                        128\n  Walford, H. W.                                                    91\n  Walther, Johann                                                  136\n  Ware, Henry, Jr.                                                 220\n  Warner, Anna                                                     223\n  Waters, Horace                                                   215\n  Watts and Charles Wesley                                         185\n  Watts, Isaac                                   41, 62, 169, 235, 238\n  Watts\u2019 Argument for Hymns                                      172-4\n  Watts\u2019 First Hymn                                                169\n  Watts\u2019 Hor\u00e6 Lyric\u00e6                                          169, 170\n  Watts\u2019 Hymns in America                                          210\n  Watts\u2019 Hymns, Value of                                           175\n  Watts, Life of                                                   168\n  Watts, Stress on Practicability                                  174\n  Wedderburn Brothers                                              150\n  Weiss, Michael                                                   136\n  Welde, Thomas                                                    156\n  Wesley Brothers, Relation of                                     182\n  Wesley, Charles                           62, 88, 183, 235, 238, 254\n  Wesley, Charles, as a preacher                                   184\n  Wesley, Charles, Life of                                         183\n  Wesley Family, The                                               181\n  Wesley Hymns, Issues of                                          186\n  Wesley, John                                            64, 181, 182\n  Wesley, John, American Collection                                182\n  Wesley, John, Changes in Watts\u2019 Hymns                           70-2\n  Wesley, John, Character of                                       183\n  Wesley, John, Life of                                            181\n  Wesley, Samuel                                                   181\n  Wesleys and the Moravians, The                                   181\n  Wesleys, Opposition to                                           187\n  Wesleys, Theology of                                             188\n  White, Henry Kirke                                          198, 203\n  Whitfield, George                                                210\n  Whittier, John G.                                                222\n  Williams, William                                                189\n  Winkworth, Catherine                                             138\n  Withers, George                                                  161\n  Wordsworth, Bishop Christopher                                38, 84\n\n                                  Z\n  Zinzendorf, Count Nicholaus Ludwig von                           182\n  Zwingli, Ulrich                                                  148\n\n\n\n\n                            INDEX OF HYMNS\n\n\n(First lines, except those in parenthesis which are first lines of\nother than first verse, or of first lines of translations.)\n\n                                  A\n  A charge to keep I have                                       62, 83\n  A few more years shall roll                                      208\n  (A mighty fortress is our God)                              134, 239\n  Abide with me; fast falls the eventide                      204, 223\n  Ah, dearest Jesus, I have grown                                   36\n  Alas, and did my Savior bleed                       69, 81, 116, 269\n  All hail the pow\u2019r of Jesus\u2019 name                   60, 74, 189, 234\n  All people that on earth do dwell                           153, 259\n  (All praise to Thee, eternal Lord)                               135\n  Almost persuaded, now to believe                                  91\n  Amazing grace, how sweet the sound                           48, 196\n  Amazing sight, the Savior stands                                 212\n  (And when our days are past)                                     213\n  Angels from the realms of glory                                  202\n  Approach, my soul, the mercy seat                                196\n  Art thou weary, art thou languid                            117, 206\n  As pants the hart for cooling streams                       155, 204\n  Awake and sing the song                                          235\n  Awake, my soul, in joyful lays                                   192\n  Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve                     60, 179, 238\n\n                                  B\n  Be faithful unto death                                            90\n  Befiehl du deine Wege                                            140\n  Before Jehovah\u2019s awful throne        59, 70, 175, 186, 235, 251, 259\n  Behold, a Stranger at the door                                   192\n  Behold the glories of the Lamb                                   170\n  Behold the Savior of mankind                                     181\n  Beneath the cross of Jesus                                       268\n  Beyond the smiling and the weeping                               208\n  Blest be the tie that binds                                      191\n  Blest be Thy love, dear Lord                                     164\n  Blow ye the trumpet, blow                                    63, 251\n  Bread of the world, in mercy broken                              199\n  Break Thou the bread of life                                     223\n  Brief life is here our portion                              125, 206\n  Brighten the corner where you are                        30, 97, 251\n  Brightest and best of the sons of the morning               199, 232\n  (But warm, sweet, tender, even yet)                              222\n  By cool Siloam\u2019s shady rill                                      199\n\n                                  C\n  Calm on the listening ear of night                               222\n  Child of sin and sorrow                                          215\n  Children of the heavenly King                                    190\n  Christ is born, exalt His name                                   116\n  Christian, dost thou see them                                    206\n  Christians, awake, salute the happy morn                         178\n  Come, gracious Spirit, heavenly Dove                             178\n  Come, Holy Ghost, in love                                        218\n  Come, Holy Spirit, come                                           60\n  Come, Jesus, Redeemer, abide Thou with me                        218\n  Come, my soul, thy suit prepare                                  196\n  Come, oh, come, in pious lays                                    161\n  Come, sound His praise abroad                                    251\n  Come, Thou Almighty King                                 61, 68, 261\n  Come, Thou Fount of every blessing                192, 235, 239, 269\n  Come, we that love the Lord                                      251\n  Come, ye disconsolate, where\u2019er ye languish                 200, 211\n  Crown Him with many crowns                                        60\n\n                                  D\n  Day is dying in the West                                         223\n  Day of wrath! O day of mourning                                  127\n  (Dear Christian people, now rejoice)                             135\n  Dear Savior, if these lambs should stray                         217\n  Deathless principle, arise                                       190\n  Delay not, delay not, O sinner, draw near                        216\n  Depth of mercy, can there be                                186, 254\n\n                                  E\n  Ein\u2019 feste Burg ist unser Gott               134, 136, 138, 150, 245\n  Eine Herde und ein Hirt                                          145\n  Es ist gewisslich an der Zeit                                    137\n  Es kennt der Herr die Seinen                                     145\n\n                                  F\n  Fade, fade, each earthly joy                                      61\n  Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of all nature                          235\n  Faith of our fathers, living still                               206\n  Father of mercies, in Thy word                                   191\n  Father, whate\u2019er of early bliss                              60, 191\n  (Fear not, O little flock, the foe)                              138\n  Fierce was the wild billow                                  115, 206\n  Fling out the banner; let it float                               219\n  For thee, O dear, dear country                                   125\n  Forever with the Lord                                            202\n  Forward! singing glory                                           225\n  From all that dwell below the skies                               59\n  From Greenland\u2019s icy mountains                              199, 216\n  (From heaven above to earth I come)                              135\n\n                                  G\n  Gently, Lord, oh, gently lead us                                 215\n  Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ                                  135-6\n  Give to the winds thy fears                                 140, 262\n  Glorious things of thee are spoken                           48, 196\n  Go, labor on, spend and be spent                                 208\n  God be with you till we meet again                                91\n  (God calling yet; shall I not hear?)                             141\n  God is love; his mercy brightens                            204, 261\n  God is the refuge of His saints                              59, 262\n  God moves in a mysterious way                           48, 196, 254\n  Gott ist gegenwaertig! lasset uns anbeten                        141\n  Gott rufet noch, sollt\u2019 ich nicht endlich hoeren?                141\n  Grace, \u2019tis a charming sound                                     179\n  Great God, how infinite Thou art                                 186\n  (Great God, what do I see and hear)                              137\n  Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah                              190, 262\n\n                                  H\n  Hail, glad\u2019ning light, of His pure glory poured                  110\n  Hail, Thou once despised Jesus                                   189\n  Hail to the brightness of Zion\u2019s glad morning                    215\n  Hail to the Lord\u2019s Anointed                                      202\n  Hark, hark, my soul, angelic strains are swelling                206\n  Hark, my soul, it is the Lord                                    197\n  Hark, ten thousand harps and voices                              201\n  Hark, the herald angels sing                                 72, 246\n  Hark, the song of jubilee                                        202\n  Harre des Herrn                                                   90\n  He dies, the Friend of sinners dies                               67\n  (He knoweth all His people)                                      145\n  He leadeth me, O blessed thought                        91, 224, 255\n  He sings and plays the songs which best thou lovest              162\n  Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty                84, 199, 251, 261\n  How are Thy servants blest, O Lord                               167\n  How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord                     262\n  How gentle God\u2019s commands                                        179\n  How precious is the book divine                                  191\n  How sweet the name of Jesus sounds                 48, 196, 236, 238\n  Hush, my babe, lie still and slumber                             172\n\n                                  I\n  I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice                       223\n  I could not do without Thee                                      207\n  I gave my life for Thee                                          207\n  I heard the voice of Jesus say                                   208\n  I hunger and I thirst                                             61\n  (I know in whom I put my trust)                                  145\n  (I know no life divided)                                         145\n  I know that my Redeemer lives (Medley)                           192\n  I know that my Redeemer lives (Wesley)                           186\n  I lay my sins on Jesus                                           208\n  I love Thee so; I know not how                                35, 82\n  I love Thy kingdom, Lord                                         211\n  I love to steal awhile away                                      214\n  I love to tell the story                                          91\n  I need Thee every hour                                       91, 236\n  I praise Him most, I love Him best                               160\n  I sing th\u2019 almighty pow\u2019r of God                                  60\n  I was a wand\u2019ring sheep                                      35, 208\n  I will sing you a song of that beautiful land                     91\n  I would not live alway; I ask not to stay                        219\n  I\u2019ll praise my Maker while I\u2019ve breath                           186\n  Ich weiss, an wen ich glaube                                     145\n  If thou but suffer God to guide thee                             139\n  In the Christian\u2019s home in glory                                  91\n  In the cross of Christ I glory                              204, 269\n  In the hour of my distress                                       163\n  In the hour of trial                                             202\n  It came upon the midnight clear                                  222\n  It is well with my soul                                           91\n\n                                  J\n  Jedes Herz will etwas lieben                                     141\n  Jerusalem, my happy home                                         164\n  Jerusalem the golden, with milk and honey blest             125, 206\n  Jesu, dulcedo cordium                                            218\n  Jesu, dulcis memoria                                        125, 218\n  Jesus, name all names above                                      117\n  Jesus, and shall it ever be                                      192\n  Jesus calls us, o\u2019er the tumult                                  206\n  Jesus, I love Thy charming name                                  233\n  Jesus, I my cross have taken                                     204\n  Jesus, keep me near the cross                                    223\n  Jesus, lebt, mit ihm auch ich                                    142\n  Jesus, let thy pitying eye                                        73\n  (Jesus lives, no longer now)                                     142\n  Jesus, Lover of my soul                    38, 63, 64, 186, 239, 254\n  Jesus loves me, this I know                                      223\n  Jesus, my all, to heaven is gone                                 190\n  Jesus, Savior, pilot me                                      91, 224\n  Jesus shall reign where\u2019er the sun                 59, 176, 186, 263\n  Jesus, the very thought of Thee           43, 60, 205, 218, 233, 239\n  Jesus, these eyes have never seen                      217, 233, 236\n  Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts                                 218\n  Jesus, where\u2019er Thy people meet                              73, 197\n  (Jesus, Thy boundless love to me)                                140\n  Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee                                    235\n  Joy to the world, the Lord is come                                73\n\n                                  K\n  Kingdoms and thrones to God belong                               251\n\n                                  L\n  Lamp of our feet, whereby we trace                               203\n  Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom       34, 51, 205, 246\n  Lead on, O King eternal                                224, 263, 269\n  Let all the earth their voices raise                        259, 260\n  Let our choir new anthems raise                                  117\n  Lift your glad voices in triumph on high                         220\n  Lo! God is here, let us adore                           78, 141, 235\n  Lo! He comes with clouds descending                              190\n  Lo! in the clouds of heaven appears                              220\n  Lobe den Herren, den Maechtigen Koenig der Ehren                 142\n  Look, ye saints, the sight is glorious                           201\n  Lord, dismiss us with Thy blessing                               191\n  Lord, I am Thine, entirely Thine                                 211\n  Lord, it belongs not to my care                                  164\n  Lord Jesus, think on me                                          115\n  Lord of all being, throned afar                         59, 221, 250\n  Lord, speak to me, that I may speak                              207\n  Lord, we come before Thee now                                    261\n  Lord, with glowing heart I\u2019d praise Thee                         218\n  Love divine, all loves excelling                       186, 238, 261\n\n                                  M\n  Mag auch die Liebe weinen                                        145\n  Mighty God, while angels bless Thee                         191, 235\n  More about Jesus would I know                                     91\n  More love to Thee, O Christ                                  61, 224\n  Mortals awake, with angels join                                  192\n  My country, \u2019tis of thee                                     61, 216\n  My faith looks up to Thee                  43, 61, 91, 213, 236, 249\n  (My feet are worn and weary)                                      35\n  My God, how wonderful Thou art                         206, 235, 250\n  My God, I love Thee, not because                            205, 236\n  My God, I thank Thee, who hast made                              231\n  My God, my God, to Thee I cry                                    184\n  My God, the spring of all my joys                                 38\n  My gracious Lord, I own Thy right                                179\n  My hope is built on nothing less                                  74\n  My Jesus, as Thou wilt                                            60\n  My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine                      246\n  My soul, be on thy guard                                      60, 75\n  My spirit longeth for Thee                                   61, 178\n\n                                  N\n  Nearer, my God, to Thee                                 61, 224, 242\n  Never weather-beaten sail                                        161\n  (Not all the blood of beasts)                                    238\n  Now from the altar of my heart                                   166\n  Now I resolve with all my heart                                  191\n  Now must we hymn the Master of heaven                            158\n  Now, my tongue, the mystery telling                              126\n  (Now thank we all our God)                                       138\n  Now the day is over                                              207\n  Nun danket alle Gott                                             138\n  Nun freuet euch, lieb Christen G\u2019mein                            135\n\n                                  O\n  O Christ, the Lord of heaven, to Thee                            218\n  O day of rest and gladness                               38, 84, 251\n  O God, beneath Thy guiding hand                                  218\n  O happy band of pilgrims                                         117\n  O happy day that fixed my choice                                 179\n  (O happy home, where Thou art loved the dearest)                 145\n  O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden                                     140\n  O Jesu Christ, mein schoenstes Licht                             140\n  O Jesu, meine Sonne                                              145\n  O Jesus, our chief cornerstone                                    59\n  O Jesus, sweet the tears I shed                                  218\n  O Jesus, Thou art standing                                       207\n  O little town of Bethlehem                               51, 68, 223\n  O love divine, how sweet Thou art                                235\n  O Love divine, that stooped to share                             221\n  O Love! how deep, how broad, how high                             59\n  O Love that wilt not let me go             34, 80, 97, 208, 249, 268\n  O lux, beata Trinitas                                            134\n  O Master, let me walk with Thee                              51, 224\n  (O Morning Star, how fair and bright)                            137\n  O most blessed Light divine                                      124\n  O mother dear, Jerusalem                                         164\n  O name, all other names above                                    224\n  (O name than every name more dear)                               144\n  O Paradise, O Paradise                                           206\n  (O sacred head now wounded)                                      140\n  O Savior, precious Savior                                        235\n  O selig Haus, wo man dich aufgenommen                            145\n  O splendor of the Father\u2019s face                                  121\n  O sussester der Namen all                                        144\n  O Thou who driest the mourner\u2019s tear                             200\n  O treuer Heiland, Jesu Christ                                    145\n  O Word of God, incarnate                                         207\n  O Word of truth! in devious paths                                114\n  O\u2019er the gloomy hills of darkness                                190\n  Oft in danger, oft in woe                                        203\n  Oh, could I speak the matchless worth                   79, 192, 235\n  Oh, for a closer walk with God                                   196\n  Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing                      68, 235, 263\n  Oh, help us, Lord, each hour of need                             200\n  Oh, where are kings and empires now                              223\n  Oh, where shall rest be found                                    202\n  Oh, worship the King, all-glorious above      97, 203, 235, 251, 259\n  On the mountain\u2019s top appearing                                  201\n  On the wings of His love I was carried above                      36\n  One more day\u2019s work for Jesus                                    223\n  (One Shepherd and one fold to be)                                145\n  One there is above all others                                    196\n  Onward, Christian Soldiers                        207, 251, 255, 263\n  Our God, our help in ages past                    171, 175, 186, 230\n\n                                  P\n  Pange, lingua, gloriosi                                          125\n  Pass me not, O gentle Savior                                     223\n  Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin                   83\n  Praise, my soul, the King of heaven                              204\n  Praise the Lord, ye heavens adore Him                        78, 235\n  Praise to the Holiest in the height                              205\n  (Praise to the Lord! He is King over all the creation)           142\n  Prayer is the soul\u2019s sincere desire                     84, 202, 269\n\n                                  R\n  Return, O wanderer, to thy home                                  216\n  Ride on, ride on in majesty                                  75, 200\n  Rise, glorious Conqueror, rise                                    61\n  Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings                             178\n  Rock of Ages, cleft for me                    64, 190, 239, 254, 255\n\n                                  S\n  Safe home, safe home in port                                     117\n  Safe in the arms of Jesus                                        223\n  Safely through another week                                 196, 251\n  Salve, Caput cruentatum                                     125, 140\n  Savior, breathe an evening blessing                              203\n  Savior, more than life to me                                     223\n  Savior, sprinkle many nations                                    223\n  Savior, Thy dying love                                           224\n  Savior, who Thy flock art feeding                                219\n  (See from his head, his hands, his feet)                         271\n  See, the Conqueror rides in triumph                               38\n  Shepherd of tender youth                                    109, 110\n  Shout the glad tidings, exultingly sing                          219\n  Sei getreu bis in den Tod                                         90\n  Sieh, hier bin ich, Ehrenkoenig                                  142\n  Simply trusting every day                                         91\n  (Sleepers, awake, a voice is calling)                            137\n  Softly now the light of day                                      219\n  Soldiers of the cross, arise                                     207\n  (Something every heart is loving)                                141\n  Sometimes a light surprises                                  48, 197\n  Sound the loud timbrel o\u2019er Egypt\u2019s dark sea                     200\n  (Sovereign Ruler, King Victorious)                               142\n  Stand up and bless the Lord                                       60\n  Stand up, stand up for Jesus                            83, 222, 239\n  Still, still with Thee, when purple morning breaketh        223, 230\n  Summer suns are glowing                                          207\n  Sun of my soul, Thou Savior dear                       200, 232, 235\n  Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer                        91\n  Swell the anthem, raise the song                                 212\n\n                                  T\n  Take me, O my Father, take me                                    218\n  Take my life, and let it be                                      207\n  The bird, the messenger of day                                   122\n  The church\u2019s one foundation                                       84\n  The day is past and over                                    115, 206\n  The God of Abraham praise                                        189\n  The Head that once was crowned with thorns                       201\n  The heavens are not too high                                     162\n  The indorsement of supreme delight                                36\n  The Lord is King, lift up thy voice                              204\n  The Lord is my Shepherd, no want shall I know                    202\n  The Lord our God is clothed with might                  37, 198, 203\n  The Lord\u2019s my Shepherd, I\u2019ll not want                            154\n  The morning light is breaking                           91, 216, 263\n  The ransomed spirit to her home                                  214\n  The rivers on of Babilon                                         156\n  The roseate hues of early dawn                                   206\n  The royal banners forward go                                     122\n  The Savior bids thee watch and pray                              216\n  The Son of God goes forth to war                                 199\n  The spacious firmament on high                                   167\n  The spirit in our hearts                                         219\n  The sun is sinking fast                                          205\n  The voice that breathed o\u2019er Eden                                201\n  Thee will I love, my strength, my tower                          140\n  There is a fountain filled with blood           48, 60, 65, 197, 254\n  There is a green hill far away                              206, 271\n  There is an hour of peaceful rest                                214\n  There\u2019s a wideness in God\u2019s mercy                            83, 206\n  There\u2019s sunshine in my soul                                      245\n  They who seek the throne of grace                                213\n  Thou art the way, to Thee alone                                  219\n  Thou hidden source of calm repose                                184\n  Thou wast, O God, and Thou was blest                             166\n  Thou, whose almighty word                                        203\n  (Though love may weep with breaking heart)                       145\n  Through all the changing scenes of life                          155\n  Thy way, not mine, O Lord                                         60\n  \u2019Tis midnight, and on Olive\u2019s brow                           59, 214\n  \u2019Tis the day of resurrection                                     206\n  To our Redeemer\u2019s glorious name                                  191\n  True-hearted, whole-hearted                                      207\n\n                                  U\n  Unser Herrscher, unser Koenig                                    142\n\n                                  V\n  Veni, Creator spiritus                                 124, 134, 152\n  Veni, Redemptor gentium                                          134\n  Veni, Sancte Spiritus                                            124\n  Verzage nicht, du Haeuflein klein                                138\n  Vexilla regis prodeunt                                      122, 124\n  Von Himmel hoch da komm ich her                                  135\n\n                                  W\n  Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme                                  137\n  (Wait on the Lord)                                                90\n  (Wake, awake, for night is flying)                               138\n  Waked by the Gospel\u2019s joyful sound                               211\n  Walk in the light; so shalt thou know                            203\n  (Was there ever kindest Shepherd)                                206\n  Watchman, tell us of the night                                   204\n  We are but strangers here                                         61\n  We are living, we are dwelling                                   223\n  We give Thee but Thine own                                       207\n  We may not climb the heavenly steeps                             240\n  (We praise and bless Thee, gracious Lord)                        145\n  We would see Jesus, for the shadows lengthen                     223\n  Welcome, sweet day of rest                                    60, 73\n  Wer nur den lieben Gott laesst walten                            138\n  When all Thy mercies, O my God                              167, 262\n  When I can read my title clear                                    38\n  When I survey the wondrous cross           38, 59, 79, 171, 176, 237\n  When marshaled on the mighty plain                               203\n  When morning gilds the skies                                     205\n  When our hearts are bowed with woe                               200\n  When the roll is called up yonder                                245\n  When the weary, seeking rest                                     208\n  Where cross the crowded ways of life                         87, 224\n  While shepherds watched their flocks by night                    155\n  While with ceaseless course the sun                              196\n  Who can behold the blazing light                                 212\n  Wie schoen leuchtet der Morgenstern                              137\n  Work, for the night is coming                                     83\n\n                                  Y\n  Ye holy angels bright                                            164\n  Ye servants of God, your Master proclaims                    73, 263\n  Yet God\u2019s must I remain                                          161\n\n                                  Z\n  Zion stands with hills surrounded                                201\n  Zion, to thy Savior singing                                      126\n\n\n\n\n                          THE SINGING CHURCH\n                    _The Hymns It Wrote and Sang_\n                         By EDMUND S. LORENZ\n\n\nTo this author the hymn is not a dry abstraction but an experience of\nintense reality\u2014of those realities (as of God, Christ, sin, salvation,\ndivine care, eternal life) to which human hearts have responded\nthroughout the ages. His study makes full recognition of the personal\nelements in hymn development. The singers whose vision of spiritual\nthings is fresh and keen stand out in every age, expanding the\npermanent content of church hymnody.\n\nHere is indeed a book which will set the Church to singing once more,\nin an effort to proclaim a new awareness of the presence of God\u2014that\nsame awareness which stirred the composers of our greatest hymns. Dr.\nLorenz makes visible to us the golden stairway of great hymn writers,\nshining at every level of its ascent with the glory of the Christian\nfaith.\n\n\n                             THE CONTENTS\n\nIntroduction. PART I: The Character of the Hymn. _Chapters_: What Is a\nHymn? The Purpose and Value Of Hymns. The Literary Aspect of Hymns.\nThe Emendation of Hymns. The Content of the Hymn. The Gospel Hymn.\n\nPART II: History of the Development of the Christian Hymn. _Chapters_:\nApostolic Origin and Development. The Post-Apostolic Hymn. The Greek\nHymnody. The Latin Hymnody. Luther and the German Hymn. The Later\nGerman Hymnody. Metrical Psalmody. The English Hymn before Watts.\nIsaac Watts and His Period. The Wesleys and Their Era. Hymns in the\nChurch of England. American Hymnody.\n\nPART III: Practical Hymnology. _Chapters_: The Study of Hymns. The\nPractical Use of Hymns. The Selection of: Hymns. The Announcement and\nTreatment of Hymns. Epilogue.\n\nThe study is pre-eminently thorough both in literary analysis and in\nhistorical research. The altogether practical treatment illuminates\nthe whole field of hymnology and its values.\n\n\n\n\n                          THE SINGING CHURCH\n                    _The Hymns It Wrote and Sang_\n                         By EDMUND S. LORENZ\n\n\nThis book merits the careful study of the minister, the choir master,\nthe organist, and others who wish to vitalize public and private\nworship by an intelligent use of our Christian hymnody.\n\nThe book is at once scholarly and practical. No other treats so\ninformatively and yet so interestingly:\u2014\n\n(1) The religious and musical heritage of the hymn writers in the\nGreek, the Latin, the German, the English, and the American epochs;\n\n(2) The outstanding personalities who made valuable and permanent\nhymnological contributions in those epochs;\n\n(3) The occasions and emotional crises out of which many great hymns\nwere born;\n\n(4) The critical standards by which hymns may be adjudged great.\n\nNo less important is the closing section of this impressive study,\n_Practical Hymnology_. Here Dr. Lorenz discusses the ways and means of\nutilizing the hymn in achieving a new awareness of the presence of\nGod.\n\n\nEdmund S. Lorenz, LL.D., Mus.Doc., became interested in church music\nvery early in life, and helped himself through the years of his\nacademic and seminary training (at Otterbein University, the United\nBrethren Seminary, and Yale Divinity School) by writing gospel songs\nand editing various songbooks. After two years in the ministry and a\nyear as president of Lebanon Valley College, where at the beginning of\nthe second year overwork brought on a complete collapse, he turned\nagain to music. In 1890, he began the business known as Lorenz\nPublishing Company.\n\nDr. Lorenz has had many years of experience as editor of Sunday-school\nSongbooks, church hymnals, and choir magazines. This experience and\nhis years of close contact with the work of the Church have given him\na peculiar qualification for the writing of services, choir cantatas,\nsheet music solos, organ compositions, and songbooks. He has written\nmany books, such as _Practical Church Music_, _Church Music\u2014What a\nMinister Should Know about It_, _Music in Work and Worship_,\n_Practical Hymn Studies_. At home and abroad, he has been in wide\ndemand as a lecturer on church music.\n\n\n                 COKESBURY PRESS NASHVILLE TENNESSEE\n                 _Publishers of Cokesbury Good Books_\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_.\n\n--Collated Table of Contents against headings in the text; removed the\n  reference to the (nonexistant) Chapter XV section VI and renumbered\n  subsequent sections.","title":"The Singing Church: The Hymns It Wrote and Sang","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":84957}