.** M \&\w f IsiffrW > Division ^~ *>*-* Section Number./ OO ^< PAGE TO THE READER . . . ... . . .XI CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER II. THE FIRST HYMN-BOOK 18 CHAPTER III. EYMNS OP THE LATTER DAY MORNING ..... 37 CHAPTER IV. EYMNS OF THE FATHERS 07 CHAPTER V. MORE HYMNS OF THE FATHERS 74 CHAPTER VI. HYMNS OF OLD ENGLAND'S CHRISTIAN BIRTH-TIME . . 02 V1U CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. I'AliK HYMNS FROM OLD CLOISTERS . . . . . .111 CHAPTER VIII. SONGS IN HIGH PLACES 129 CHAPTER IX. SONGS IN PRISON 150 CHAPTER X. PSALMS IN ENGLISH METRE 171 CHAPTER XI. HYMN -MENDERS 192 CHAPTER XII. HYMNS OF CREATION 212 CHAPTER XIII. HYMNS ABOUT THE BOOK 233 CHAPTER XIV. HYMNS OF THE SABBATH . . . . . . . 253 CHAPTER XV. HYMNS BY THE WAY 274 CHAPTER XVI. HYMNS ON THE WATERS 295 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER XVII. SONGS OF THE MORNING . . . - • • .01/ CHAPTER XVIII. SONGS IN THE NIGHT PAGE .31 ; 33; CHAPTER XIX. MARRIAGE SONGS AND BIRTH-DAT HYMNS .... '354 CHAPTER XX. HYMNS FROM BENEATH THE CLOUD . . . . .378 CHAPTER XX T. HYMNS OF GETHESEMANE AND THE CROSS .... 398 CHAPTER XXII. FUNERAL HYMNS 418 CHAPTER XXIII. JUDGMENT HYMNS 435 CHAPTER XXIV. SONGS OF GLORY 454 TO THE READER. ' ' What ! another hymn-book ? Why surely the world has hymn-books enough." Well, that may be, and yet here is something like another. It is something like another, as there are hymns in it ; and yet it is rather unlike any other in that it has the hymns inter- woven with what may be called gossip, innocent, and, it is hoped, not unpleasant gossip, about the hymns and those who wrote them. Who does not like to know the why, the when, and the wherefore of men and things ? Who does not love a chat about the people and the affairs which interest him ? Here, then, is chat about hymns, their birth and parentage, their circumstances, their character, and their influence. These pages make no pretension to learning — that is left to the doctors. Nor do they aim at criticism, that belongs to those who go up the Rhine. Neither do they affect the style of history — that has been well done in other volumes. It will be enough if the lover of sacred music should snatch up the book now and Xll TO THE READEK. then, after a good practice in psalmody, and opening it anywhere, find a chapter containing some story about a dear old hymn which makes that hymn still dearer to his heart. Or, if those who like to have some fresh stanzas always on their merry lips, should catch new strains from the voices which mingle in these chap- ters of chat; or, if those who turn over the leaves should find an hour^s pleasant communion with the spirit of Christian hymns, or with the mind and hearts of those who wrote them • or, if a chapter, perchance, arrest the soul of any reader, and teach him the secret of a happy, cheerful, and tuneful life., a life of inward hymn and song ; the book will answer its purpose, and fill its place. Whatever may be thought of the setting, the gems with which these pages are enriched, the psalms and hymns which illuminate the text, need no commendation but their own transparent rich- ness and beauty. Many of these hymns are from* living* authors, and grateful acknowledgments are due for permission to reprint them. Mrs. Julius Collinses fine rendering of the hymn from the Synagogue Morning Service has been inserted by the kind consent of Dr. Benisch. Mrs. Charles has freely sanctioned the use of several of her translations of- ancient hymns. The following are hers: — Hymn from Ephrem Syrus "On the Chil- dren in Paradise;" St. Ambrose's "Advent Hymn;" Bede's hymn " On the Ascension •" portions of St. Bernard's hymn, "To Christ on the Cross;" the TO THE READER. Xlll " Yeni, Sancte Spiritus," by King Eobert II. of France ; and the " Dies Iras/' These are all taken from her beautiful and instructive " Voice of Christian Life in Song." Five hymns translated by Miss Wink- worth are reprinted from her " Lyra Germanica," by permission of Messrs. Longman, Green, and Co. — " Gustavus Adolphus' Battle Song," " Queen Maria of Hungary's Song/'' " Jesus my Redeemer Lives/' by Louisa Henrietta, Electress of Brandenburgh ; "Leave all to God/' by Anton Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick ; and Notker's hymn by Luther, "In the Midst of Life, Behold." All the other renderings of ancient hymns, without a name in the volume, are new. Among the modern hymns selected, those by the Rev. John S. B. Monsell are from his " Parish Musings/' and are given by the gifted author's permission. The Rev. John Keble, author of the " Christian Year," very kindly sanctions the use of those hymns, which are inserted as from his pen. Most of the other hymns in the volume come from hymnists who are now above our thanks ; but "the memory of the just is blessed." Yes, it may be repeated, " the memory of the just is blessed /' for scarcely had the above record of John "Keble's Christian kindness found its way to the press before he too had joined the hymnists who are " now above our thanks." It was but the other evening that one looked at him as his bending form moved gently over the sands along the beautiful shore of Mount's Bay, in Cornwall ; and as his peaceful face was now and XlV TO THE READER. then turned upwards to the star-lighted heavens, it seemed as if he were inwardly singing his own deeply spiritual hymn for " the Fourth Sunday after Easter;" but those who kept him company little thought that he would so soon realize the consoling prophecy of his own verse : — Then, fainting soul, arise and sing ; Mount, but be sober on the wing ; Mount up, for Heaven is won by prayer, Be sober, for thou art not there ; Till death the weary spirit free, Thy G-od hath said, 'Tis good for thee To walk by faith and not by sight : Take it on trust a little while ; Soon shalt thou read the mystery right In the full sunshine of His smile. S. W. C. Croydox, May, 1866. HYMN-WRITERS AXD THEIR HYMNS. WvdxBbndaxn (STIjapter, jpF^g1 SAL M S of praise were the firstfruits of crea- !i raS3 tion. Hymns were the earliest utterances of ■agfeil human nature in the morning light of the world — man's first responses to the voice of his Creator — the earth's first echoes to the music of the heavens, when " the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." This world's first love was told in hymns. Music first broke forth in psalms. The earliest recorded essays of human language are in spiritual song. Spiritual songs were the delight of the world in the days of her youth ; they have been her solace during her advance towards maturity ; and they will brighten the eventide and close of her life. The antediluvian age seems to have had its darling household songs. In patriarchal times the father's blessing was sometimes poured forth in lofty hymnic measures. In the youth-tide of her national life, Israel gave out her joys of deliverance in sea- side hymns. She was once shut up between the mountains, the sea, and her infuriated enemies. In 1 Z HYMN-WRITERS AND THEIR HYMNS. her distress, God divided the waters before her, and the tribes went safely through the depths. Their foes, essaying to follow them, were overwhelmed in the flood ; and while charioteer and horseman were strug- gling with the waves, and the sea was uttering a loud requiem over the sinking hosts, the redeemed multi- tude confidently stood on the shore, and mingled their hymn of triumph with the sound of the waters. Sing unto the Lord, For He hath triumphed gloriously ! The horse and his rider He hath cast into the sea ! The Lord is my strength and song, And He is become my salvation. ******* "Who is like unto Thee, 0 Lord, among the gods ? Who is like Thee— Glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, Doing wonders ? ******* The Lord shall reign for ever and ever ! The song which thus first rose "o'er Egypt's dark sea" rose again, ever and anon, along the desert, and in the land of promise. Israel kept up the circlings of her religious dances to the song of Moses and the music of Miriam. In the fulness of her meridian strength, her psalms were her delights as she went up to the house of the Lord, and plaintive hymns have been the solace of her faithful children all throup-h the weary periods of her decline. The primitive and purer literature of even those false or corrupted systems of religion which sprung up against the early claims of the true Messiah take the hymnic form, as if INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. -y that form must be the most natural, the most sacred, and the most happy mode of religious utterance. The foundations of the Christian Church, too, were laid amidst the hymnings of her first converts. She owes the preservation of her spiritual life, and the continued purity of her belief, in a large measure, to the service of song ; and how many of her generations have left hymns as the only living memorials of their character and works. " Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs'-' form the native language of Christianity. The religion of the new covenant is the happy religion. It calls its people to u rejoice evermore, and in everything to give thanks/' When it is allowed to exert its proper and full influence on the human character, it regulates the affections, without destroying man's capacity for de- light ; it composes and cheers the soul ; it banishes mere levity, and checking all vicious and boisterous mirth, it fills the mind with serene joy, and gives a tone of cheerfulness to the manners and to the voice But how many have mistaken the Christian's calling ! The Christianity of some has been seemingly made up of depressing recollections of the past, gloomy views of the present, and dark apprehensions of the future. And if an inward joy is ever felt, such people think it their duty to repress it, or at least not to give it expression, but rather to keep up an aspect in unbroken accordance with the gravity of their notions. They are not of this world, they say, and therefore they have no smiles for those around them, no songs for themselves. Theirs are melancholy manners, austere looks, and voiceless lives — a religion which threatens to extino-uish all gladness, to dark the face of nature, and to destroy the very relish of life. But does not the Saviour call his people to open a cheerful face upon the world, and 4 HYMN-WRITERS AND THEIR HYMNS. to cheer it with grateful hymns. (C Let your light so shine before men," says He, " that they may see your beautiful works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." " Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, and clear as the sun ?" Is it not the Messiah's spouse, the Saviour's Church ? And who should be as cheerful as the sunlight, if Christ's people are not ? " Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is to behold the sun ; which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race." All nature is glad when the day-spring opens. The sparkling sea, the lucid rivulet, the fluttering leaf, the colours and the tones of creation, all tell how the sunbeams cheer the world. All see the light, and all bless the light-bearer. And what is so cheerful in its character and influence as the Christian religion ? " Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart." Revelation opens around the Christian solem- nities holy enough to chasten his spirit, but it throws a light upon God^s character and will which inspires the believer with sacred cheerfulness. All the prin- ciples and all the feelings which now command him dispose the Christian to form the habit of turning the bright side of things towards himself — the habit of keeping Divine goodness in sight, of marking the blessings of every moment as it passes, and of com- muning with a happy future, until he learns to speak to himself " in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in his heart unto the Lord." And wThen praise thus lives in the heart, it will express itself in pleasant music and lively measures. The peaceful conscience and merry heart will have songs for the outside world. And when all Christians INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 5 breathe this happy spirit of their religion, the Christian Church will be the beautiful embodiment of a happy godliness, and will be ceaseless in its service of song. But as the rise and advance and decline of the human race, or of human empires, or of religious systems, may somewhat answer to the stages of an individual life — or as the history of a single life may picture the course of the world, or the career of a people — so those favourite modes of utterance which the world or any one of its communities have used, as distinctive of the different stages of its course, have their answering types in the most-loved forms of individual expression. Childhood loves to lisp its joys in a hymn. Manhood, in its times of purest and most exalted feeling, speaks to itself in hymns. Hymns, too, most naturally weave themselves into the language of declining life, and often supply the departiug soul with its most happy words. There is scarcely anything that maintains a more permanent influence over human thought and feeling in the present life than the hymns and songs which the soul drinks in during our childhood. The sim- plicity of children makes them capable of being swayed through life by the earliest lessons. The little one's mind is so retentive that first impressions are most lasting and powerful. The first supplies of knowledge find the deepest and most secure lodgement in the soul; and especially when the knowledge comes in an agreeable form as in the rhythm and rhyme of simple hymns. These are entertained for life, and often live to make themselves felt in spite of all the changes and distracting circumstances of the later course. There has been many, many an instance like those which, a few years ago, were recorded in a pastoral address to 6 HYMN- WRITERS ■ AND THEIR HYMNS. a Christian Church. The minister was guarding his flock against the danger of betrayal into hardness and bitter feeling by those trials which, spring out of the seeming unequal distribution of good and evil in the world. " I am free to tell you/' said he, " that some- times in the course of my life, I have been powerfully tempted to hardness, when the thought has been insinuated, that my share in life has been wearisome toil and frequent depression, while others have been lapped in ease and plenty, though apparently not a whit more deserving than myself; and I confess that now and then the temptation has been so timed that my soul has gone too far through the process of trans- formation into something like cold iron or steel. But one gentle corrective has always prevented the harden- ing process from being complete. When I have been all but shut up to the curse of a stony heart, some stanza from one of the simple hymns or ( divine songs/ which used to touch and soften me in childhood, has come up from its home in my memory, and, like a divine charm, has soothed and melted me into child- like tenderness, simplicity, and love. Yerses that seemed to have been lost for years, have suddenly sprung into life again, and brought so many good recollections in their train, that my rugged nature has yielded at once, and all within and all without have responded to the music of the hymn, as the face of nature answers to the genial sunbeams of spring. And I have met in the course of my life with many others whose experience might be taken as a reflection of my own. One remarkable instance, however, somewhat varies from the rest ; inasmuch as it shows how the well- timed recurrence of verses, once fondly cherished by the young memory and heart, may give the deciding INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. / touch, to the wandering soul, and convert a prodigal from ' the error of his way/ A good man in declining- life told me that the first book in which, as a child, he took an interest, was a small edition of Watts\s, 1 Hymns and Divine Songs' for children. Each hymn was headed by a woodcut, and one especially was his favourite. It represented a little boy, something like himself, as he thought, leaning at an open window, looking with a calm, happy face on the setting sun, which was throwing his parting light upon a quiet country scene. Many of the hymns, and that one in particular, had been read often, until they lived in his soul. But as he grew up, the impressions were worn off by more exciting and less pure thoughts and pursuits. He fell into a course of dissipation and vice, and seemed for a time to be given up to sin, and devoted to ruin. Worn down at last, and threatened with, consumption, he was ordered into the country for change of air ; and after some time spent in quietness and retirement, far away from the scenes of old temp- tations, he wandered out one evening about sunset, and hanging pensively over a gate, he watched the sun as it sunk behind the copse, and was throwing its last beams upon the silent and peaceful hill side. There was a hush, upon his spirits, and suddenly, as if sketched by an unseen hand before his inward eye, the little picture which, used to interest his boyish mind lived again, and the hymn which it illustrated seemed to be spoken sweetly to his heart — And now another day is gone, I'll sing my Maker's praise. * # # # The tear started. He had seen many of his days. 8 HYMN-WKITEKS AND THEIE HYMNS. go ; but as yet Ms Maker had never heard an even- song from his lips, or from his heart. What an un- grateful life his had been ! The c remembrance was grievous/ But his heart was broken, and there and then the softened man made his vows of return to God, and offered the prayer which was answered in blessings which filled both the mornings and evenings of his mature life with hymns and songs of thanksgiving and praise/' And how important, and holy, and happy is the office of psalms and hymns in the service of human nature amidst the struggles and toils, the conflicts and victories, the sorrows and joys of mature life. Their mission has been to the multitude as well as the indi- vidual heart. How often has the popular use of a few songs swayed the thoughts and feelings of a nation, or quickened, united, directed, and ruled the energies of a people, or permanently given a distinct character to an entire race. Facts would sustain the philosophy of the man who said, " Let me furnish a nation with its songs, and I will govern it." Psalms and hymns, too, have many times afforded the secret of union, and harmony, and strength, and consolation to persecuted households, down-trodden tribes, and oppressed popu- lations. They have been as food to the famine- stricken crowd, and as waters in the wilderness to fugitive churches. How often have they cheered the souls of congregated confessors in Roman catacombs, in the recesses of Eastern deserts, in the fastnesses of Swiss mountains, and in the Highland glens and moorland hollows of Scotland. The psalm and choral chant have sometimes nerved the host for battle on behalf of home, and conscience, and truth. The Divine • Spirit himself has recorded an exemplar " hallelujah INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. V victory." Jehoshaphat's appeal for divine help against the enemies of goodness and faith was answered by a revelation of God's order of battle. " And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord, for his mercy endureth for ever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Amnion, Moab, and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah, and they were smitten/'' The singers were victorious ; the spoil was gathered to the music of psalms. "And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah, for there they blessed the Lord ; therefore the name of the same place was called the valley of Berachah unto this day. Then they returned every man of Judah and Jeru- salem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies/'' Yes, and since then many a Christian army has kept up the strain, and have made prayerful hymns and hymns of praise their battle songs. Nor has Jehoshaphat's victory been the only " hallelujah victory/-' It was probably repeated once on the Welsh border, and has had its antitypes in the history of Protestant struggles for freedom on many a storied field of Europe. And how much of their youthful freshness, and manly courage, and constitutional vigour, and public spirit, nations owe to the habitual use of their national anthems, who can tell ? How France has glowed at the sound of a popular hymn ! how Scotland kindles at an old psalm or song which embalms the name of 10 HYMN-WKITEES AND THEIR HYMNS. Her Hero ! and how Englishmen's hearts swell and come together when they sing Bule Britannia ! or when they nncover and unite in the grand old strain, God save our gracious Queen ! It is most pleasant to the Christian, however, to trace the influence of devout psalmody in the shaping of a people's happily distinct character. Among the most blessed results of faithfully-administered truth to a teachable and obedient people, is their perpetu- ated fondness for " psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs." Nor can there be any richer or more agree- able fruits of the Holy Spirit's work upon human masses, than a popular love for psalmody, the culture of sacred music in the people's homes, and the habitual enjoyment of favourite hymns continued from parents to children, and renewing its freshness among children's children. Will the old Scotch version of the psalms ever cease to be music to those who owe so much to the covenanting fathers who first sang them ? Will the spiritual songs of the first Reformers ever die out from the mind and heart of Germany ? The cheerful character and influence of the primitive churches left memorials for many generations among the hymn-singing populations of many spots in Europe. Richard Baxter' slab ours at Kidderminster were crowned with many a holy song. He toiled and prayed until from every house within his pastorate there was daily the all but ceaseless voice of psalms and hymns. He was literally " compassed about with songs of deliver- ance." Vital piety makes people cheerful, and their INTRODUCTOKY CHAPTER. 11 cheerfulness naturally expresses itself in devout and merry rhyme and metre. Perhaps no district in England has a population so deeply and widely imbued with religious thought and feeling as the county of Cornwall. As a whole, the Cornish folk may be called a religious people, and their great love for sacred music, and especially hymn singing, may be at once a cause and effect of their sustained religious life. Nowhere has the gospel of Christ wrought more happy changes ; nowhere has it left a more permanently cheerful impress; nowhere could an entire population so generally illustrate obedience to the apostolic rule, "Is any merry, let him sing psalms." No one who has seen them can forget the lines and knots of merry creatures who preserve a kind of elegant appearance amidst their rough work, in open sheds, and among heaps of tin and copper ore on the surface of the Cornish mines. "Who could forget these girls' standard and style of beauty ? and who that has heard them will ever forget the music of their hymns, as they sing in concert, while they ply their hammers, that music at once so reverent, so earnest, and so lovely ? They seem to have hymns appropriate for all times and seasons, and sometimes their stanzas have been beautifully timed. A few of the more gay and thoughtless of a large group had been indulging a laugh at one good Christian girl, whom they charged with inconsistent conformity to the world because she wore a pair of tasteful ear-rings. The jeers were meekly borne for a while ; but at length the persecuted girl lifted up her voice in song, and quietly taking the jewels from her ears, she placed them on the block before her, and demolished them with a stroke of her hammer, 12 HYMN-WRITERS AND THEIR HYMNS. singing as she did it a stanza from a favourite hymn — Neither passion nor pride Thy cross can abide, But melt in the fountain that streams from Thy side. Her persecutors were silenced, and blushed as she sang out her hyniu of submissive but triumphant faith. The same spirit of holy song is breathed by the men, who cheer the deep caverns in which they toil with heartfelt psalmody. The road-side and the cottage hearth, the engine-house, the stream works, the moorland, and the barren earn, the unpretending chapel and the quiet grave-yard, are all hallowed in turn by the melodies and harmonies of this hymn and anthem-loving race. Seldom have the hearts and voices of a race been more graciously blended in the service of Him who said, by the spirit of prophecy, " In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee." The claims of Christianity as the religion of uni- versal man, and its adaptation to all races and people, circumstances and times, are beautifully illustrated by the fact, that those happy features of character which it impressed upon the Cornish families are the same with those which distinguish the Christianized tribes of Southern Africa. On the testimony of a venerable missionary, who was the first to open the gospel to the Little Namacquas, that popular love of sacred song which is so peculiar to the Keltic masses in Western England, became the habitual feeling and distinctive pleasure of the converted African tribes. Hymn singing in both cases seemed to be the natural action of public religious life. Spiritual songs, says the African evangelist, were soon interwoven with INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 13 their daily existence ; all their movements seemed to be made to the music of hymns; and how many a time I have listened to their voices of an evening, as they walked homeward from the field or the bush singing some favourite hymn, as a kind of spiritual march. I remember having my heart deeply touched once as I hearkened to the happy bands psalming it, and responding to one another while approaching the village. I caught the strain of an old Dutch hymn — Faith loves the Saviour, and beholds His sufferings, death, and pain ; And this shall ne'er grow old nor cold, Till we with Him shall reign. It was the song of Southern Africans first love. The first-fruits of Ethiopia's praise to God ; the tuneful earnest of what an ancient hymn foretold. " Princes shall come out of Egypt, Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. Sing unto God, ye king- doms of the earth ; 0 sing praises unto the Lord ; Selah \" But what Christian psalmody has done for nations, and races, and tribes, it does for many an individual man and woman. What hymns have been to the multitude they have been to many a solitary Christian soul. To the gentle and to the simple, to the great and to the small, to the bond and to the free, to the strong and to the weak, to the cultured and to the rude, divine songs have served to brighten and bless the different stages and turns of personal history. Many of the ruling spirits of the world, men whose names will always be landmarks in history, have had tender fondness for psalmody and holy song. There have been royal psalmists, imperial songsters, and courtly 14 HYMN-WRITERS AND THEIR HYMNS. hymnists. Many a great leader of his generation, while he has been guiding the world's mind and heart amidst the dangers of revolution, and through the deep and broad processes of moral and religious re- newal, has cheered his own soul with favourite hymns. Hymns have been his chosen expressions of joy in success. Hymns have been his solace in moments of darkness and depression. Luther and his companions with all their bold readiness for danger and death in the cause of truth, had times when their feelings were akin to those of a divine singer who said, (C Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul V9 But in such hours the unflinching Eeformer would cheerily say to his friend Melancthon, " Come, Phillip, let us sing the forty- sixth Psalm ;" and they could sing it in Luther's own characteristic version. A sure stronghold our God is He, A timely shield and weapon ; Our help He'll be, and set us free From every ill can happen. ***** And were the world with devils fill'd, All eager to devour us, Our souls to fear shall little yield, They cannot overpower us. Later Reformers in our own land have been equally remarkable for their love of sacred music, and their aptness at using it for the encouragement of the multitude, and their own secret comfort amidst their sufferings and toils. Some of the noblest intellects, too, the most cul- tured and refined of their race ; men whose thoughts and feelings are embalmed in an undying literature, have had each his own cherished psalm or tenderly- INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 15 loved hymn. And the psalm or hymn has been called up in every time of need ; as if it had a comforting power which no other voice could bring. The great Niebuhr was lovingly attached to von Lowenstern's hymn — Christ, Thou the champion of that war-worn host. And might be heard now and then refreshing his own soul amidst its intense labours and researches by murmuring the metrical prayer — And give us peace ; peace in the church and school, Peace to the powers who o'er our country rule, Peace to the conscience, peace within the heart, Do Thou impart. So shall Thy goodness here be still adored, Thou Guardian of Thy little flock, dear Lord ; And heaven and earth through all eternity Shall worship Thee ! And what was the solace of Niebuhr has been the consolation of many a commanding and highly cultured mind. The hymn of joy and the hymn of plaintive appeal have ministered strength and peace, in sweet alternation, through all the scenes of mental action. And how often has the master mind, the truly great soul finished its brilliant and successful course with a closing hymn ! Saintly and useful men like Eowland Hill have died on consecrated ground with the music of a hymn in their souls. But minds of another class also have ended their course with songs. Walter Scott's last utterances were stanzas of favourite ancient hymns. It is stated that Cobden departed repeating that grand old strain, rendered from the German by John Wesley — 16 HYMN- WRITERS AND THEIR HYMNS. Thee will I love, my joy, my crown, Thee will I love, my Lord, my God : Thee will I love, beneath Thy frown, Or smile — Thy sceptre or Thy rod : What though my flesh and heart decay, Thee shall I love in endless day ! And our own Prince Albert " the good/' breathed as his last song, while his spirit mounted — Rock of Ages cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee ! And how many thousands after thousands in the more retired and obscure scenes of life have had psalms and hymns of victory on their dying lips. Indeed, the holiest and best of people, those who have done most to make the world happy, have hallowed every stage of life, every turn in their history, every relation which they have sustained, and every time and season of their mortal pilgrimage with " thanksgiving and the voice of melody.^ Their re- cord is above ; but neither they nor their hymns can be forgotten below. Many of their names are recorded in the following pages ; and some of their hymns are interwoven with the outlines of their character and the memorials of their history. And perhaps the lover of sacred melody will learn to love hymn-writers and their hymns more deeply, and to siug with more spiritual joy, while he spends an hour, now and then, over chajDters about the first hymn-book; and hymns of the latter day morning, hymns of the fathers, and hymns of old England's Christian birth-time ; hymns from old cloisters, songs in high places, and songs in prison. From these he may pass to chapters about psalms in English metre, hymn menders, and songs of creation. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 17 Then come hymns about the book, songs of the Sabbath, hymns by the way, hymns on the waters, hymns of the morning, and songs in the night. Nor will the world ever lose its interest in chapters on marriage songs, and birth-day hymns, or hymns from beneath the cloud, hymns of Gethsemane, and the cross, funeral hymns, judgment hymns, and songs of glory. To catch the spirit, and to be enriched with the music of the first hymn-book, is to be prepared for daily (< speaking to ourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord ; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ ; " and a life thus spent will certainly issue in songs of glory. Ofbapter IL THE FIKST HYMN-BOOK. " Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage." jPEAK to yourselves in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing, and making melody in your heart to the Lord." Happy advice from a happy man ! If ever man had his life on earth enriched and brightened by the psalmody of heaven, St. Paul was that man. He seems now and then to be an im- personation of the jubilant religion which he preached. Here and there he uses a threefold form of speech, as if the notion of a Trinity were ever in his mind, and as if the Triune form gave the completest possible expres- sion to his feeling as to that full harmony of fixed belief, triumphant principle, and exultant feeling, to which he called the Christian Church. He challenged the generations of the future to an unbroken service of song, and the family lines of God's children have ever since been singing and chanting in response. Paul had heard the chant of the Temple service, and had so often joined in the songs and hymns of the synagogue that like his fellow apostles of the circumcision, he enjoyed ample means of expression for all the joys of the Holy THE FIRST HYMN-BOOK. 19 Spirit's dispensation. The church of his fathers had treasured the forms of praise which now furnish the kingdom of Christ with hymns and songs for all ages of its militant and triumphant course. Nor is the har- mony of inspired truth ever felt to be more impressive than in the use which the blessed Spirit makes of Old Testament psalmody in his work on the souls of New Testament saints. The three inspired songs which graced the manifestation of Immanuel ; the rich gush of Mary's devotional joy, the prophetic strain of Zacharias, and the holy song of Simeon, all show the influence of Old Testament style and spirit. " The Word of Christ/' as once issued in the law of " Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms," had dwelt in Mary's heart so " richly " as to give its own character to her rapturous utterances. The lips of Zacharias were touched with fire from the very altar before which the Messianic seers had kindled into ecstacy. And Simeon had chanted the hymns of his rapt ancestry until his own inspired sentences breathed in unison with voices from " holy men of old." Mary, and Hannah, and Deborah drank into one another's spirit ; and their tones have that likeness and unlike- ness which belong to daughters of the same family. The celebration of Old Testament victories and the joy of gospel salvation melt into oneness and harmony in " the song of Moses and the Lamb." And when will earth or heaven cease to echo to the psalms of ancient Zion ? Judah's holy song book, " the Book of Psalms, hath exercised the hearts and lips of all saints, and is replenished with the types of all possible spiritual feelings, and suggests the forms of all God- ward emotions, and furnishes the choice expressions of all true worship, the utterances of all divine praise 20 HYMN-WRITEKS AND THEIR HYMNS. the expressions of all spiritual humility, with the raptures of all spiritual joy." This well-spring in the desert has never failed to refresh the pilgrim church from age to age. Israelite and Samaritan, "Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond and free/' east and west, the old world and the new — all confess the sacred power and sweet- ness of David's voice ; all kindle into songs under his leadership. That ever-living sympathy with the most cherished interests of God's children, that spirituality which so deeply touches the believer's inner man ; and that expression which so engages all conditions of men, and adapts itself to all circumstances of humanity ; indeed, all the immortal sweetness, grandeur, and power which distinguish the Old Testament Psalms, are found living still, and renewing their freshness in the inspired hymns and songs of those who went up to the Temple in " the last days," and spoke " in other tongues the wonderful works of God, as the Spirit gave them utterance." How much like a psalm of ancient Israel is that early song of the primitive Christians which the spirit has left on record. The little persecuted community sang in the style of their fathers, when they " lift up their voices to God with one accord and said," Lord, Thou art God, Which hast made heaven and earth, And the sea, And all that in them is : Who by the mouth of David Thy servant, hast said, Why did the heathen rage And the people imagine vain things ? The kings of the earth stood up, THE FIRST HYMN-BOOK. 21 And the rulers were gathered together Against the Lord, And against his Christ. For of a truth, Against thy Holy Child Jesus, Whom Thou hast anointed, Both Herod and Pontius Pilate, With the Gentiles, And the people of Israel, Are gathered together ; For to do whatever thy hand And thy counsel Determined before to be done. And now, Lord ! Behold their threatenings ! And grant unto thy servants, That with all boldness They may speak thy word, By stretching forth thy hand to heal ; And that signs and wonders May be done By the name Of thy Holy Child Jesus. Xearest akin to these odes of highest inspiration are the songs of the synagogue service. The family features, and much in the distinctive manner, some- times deeply touch the soul. In their simple grandeur, lofty vigour, solemn measure, and glow of holy feeling, they are felt to be close allies of the anthems of reve- lation; though not bearing the divine honours of those holier forms into which the Spirit of God once " breathed the breath of life." Would you realize the grand simplicity of primitive hymns ? Then go to the synagogue and hear the lineal descendants of God's ancient people sing in their Sabbath morning service — 22 BYMN-WKITERS AND THEIE HYMNS. Praised be Thy name for ever, 0 our King ! Thou Sovereign God ! The Great and the Holy in heaven and in earth : For unto Thee, Jehovah, our God, And the God of our fathers , Belong song and praise ; Hymn and psalm ; Strength and dominion ; Victory, greatness, and power ; Adoration and glory ; Holiness and majesty ; Blessings and thanksgivings ; From this time forth and for ever ! Blessed art Thou, Jehovah ! Sovereign God ! Great in praises ; The God of thanksgivings ; The Lord of wonders ; The Chooser of song and psalmody ; King Eternal ! Ever-living God ! Sometimes the utterance of the synagogue is as the voice of one longing soul; now jubilant, now melting into warm, tender, spiritual feeling, and now swelling again into lofty celebrations of Divine Majesty; as if the devout heart breathed by turns the spirit of the Psalms, the Canticles, and the Prophets. So it is in "the Hymns of Glory" Sweet hymns I attune, And songs I weave, For my soul panteth after Thee ! My soul longeth in the shadow of thy hand All thy secret of secrets to know ! Whilst my words speak thy glory My heart is yearning for thy love. Therefore in Thee I speak of thy glorious things ; And with songs of love I honour thy name : THE FIRST HYMN-BOOK. Zb I will tell of thy glory Though I saw Thee not ; And though I knew Thee not, I arrange my similitudes of Thee. By the band of thy prophets, By thy trusty servants, Thou hast symbolized the glorious honour of thy majesty . Thy greatness and thy might They named after the powers of thy creation. They compared Thee, But not as Thou art ; And they likened Thee, According to thy works, They represented Thee in multiplied visions : Yet behold, Thou art one in all semblances ! ***** The Head, thy Word, is the Truth, Proclaiming from the beginning, From generation to generation, Thy people are ever seeking Thee ! Array thyself in the multitude of my psalms, And let my singing come near to Thee ! Let my praise be a crown to thy head, And my hymns acceptable incense. Let the song of the poor be precious to Thee, As the anthems over the gifts of the altar. Let my blessing ascend to the Almighty Head, The Beginning, the Lifegiver, the Righteous Mighty One! And when I bless, let thy Head be inclined to me, And take it to thyself as chief perfumes ; Let it be pleasant to Thee For my soul panteth unto Thee ! The daughters of Israel have not yet lost the spirit of ancient psalmody. There are Hebrew women now who can emulate the mothers of Hebrew song, who have spiritual warmth enough to revive the service of praise in both synagogue and household ; and whose heart, intellect, taste, and culture are sufficient to 24 HYMN-WEITEES AND THEIR HYMNS. prove that the hymns of their fathers may be happily rendered in English metre and rhyme. Mrs. Hester Eothschild has inserted the opening hymn of the Sabbath morning service in her volume of " Prayers and Meditations/' and acknowledges her obligation to the talented pen of Mrs. Julias Collins for this beautiful version : — Before thy heavenly Word revealed the wonders of thy will ; Before the earth and heavens came forth from chaos, deep and still ; E'en then Thou reignedst Lord supreme ! as Thou wilt ever reign, And moved thy holy spirit o'er the dark unfathom'd main ; But when through all the empty space thy mighty voice was heard, Then darkness fled, and heavenly light came beaming at thy word; All nature then proclaimed the king, most blessed and adored ! The great Creator ! God alone ! — the Universal Lord ! And when this vast created world returns to endless night, When heaven and earth shall fade away at thy dread word of might ; Still Thou in Majesty wilt rnle, Almighty One alone, Great God, with mercy infinite, on thy exalted throne. Immortal power ! Eternal One ! with Thee what can com- pare, Thy glory shines in heaven and earth, and fills the ambient air; All time, all space, by Thee illumed, grows bright and brighter still, Obedient to thy high behest, and to thy heavenly will. To Thee dominion sole belongs, and 'tis to Thee alone My Father! Saviour! living God! I make my sorrows known ; THE FIRST HYMN-BOOK. 25 Thy love celestial and divine descends upon my heart, Inspiring courage, hope, and joy, and bidding grief depart. Protected by thy boundless love, my body sinks to rest ; My soul, within thy heavenly arm reposes, calm and blest. Lord of my life! in darkest night I sleep and have no fear, And in the early dawn of day I wake and find Thee near. As the official honours and powers which have their united seat in Him who is Head over all things to the Church, are by his Spirit divided and distributed among his people, so the " lights and perfections " which are all harmoniously embodied in the psalmody of Holy Writ, are scattered and variously apportioned among the later children of song. With one is the grandeur, with another the beauty ; here the sweetness, there the power; this voice is plaintive, that trium- phant. Now we have harmony, now gracefulness ; now deep contemplative life, and now a full and holy unc- tion. There are different ministrations. Nor has the gift of coming most agreeably near to the standard of highest hymnic inspiration always fallen on those to whom the Church would soonest look for aid. That God, who perfectly knows every man's mental and moral constitution, and sees at a glance all the fitnesses of human agency for the fulfilment of his own purposes, may sometimes tax the gifts of even a Balaam, and, wrapping him in awful visions, constrain him to give out utterances with wmich his own will and disposition are somewhat in discord, and which become immortalized as at once witnesses for God, and memorials of the faithless prophet's unconsecrated talents. A Rousseau may dream of heavenly music, and wake to jot down the melody which has helped many Christians to give touching expression to their 26 HYMN-WRITERS AND THEIR HYMNS. purest and sweetest hymns. And who would expect a combination of features so near akin to those of old prophetic psalmody as are now associated in a few pro- ductions of Byron, Scott, and Olivers ? What a trio ! a sensuous scorner, an idolized novelist, and a metho- dist preacher ! And were all these among the pro- phets ? If to write hymns like prophets' hymns is to have the shadow of a prophet's claim, let them share the honour of being in the train of prophetic hymnists. The three men wrote three remarkable hymns, each of which is instinct with some virtue of Hebrew psalmody. Byron has happily caught the spirit of the 137th Psalm, and in his plaintive but spirited melody gives the soul pleasant yet mournful touches, after the manner of the original ode, "By the rivers of Babylon," etc. — We sat down and wept by the waters Of Babel, and thought of the day "When our foe, in the hue of his slaughters, Made Salem's high places his prey ; And ye, oh her desolate daughters ! Were scatter'd all weeping away. While sadly we gazed on the river Which rolled on in freedom below, They demanded the song; but, oh never That triumph the stranger shall know ! May this right hand be wither' d for ever, Ere it string our high harp for the foe. On the willow that harp is suspended — Oh Salem ! its sound should be free ; And the hour when thy glories were ended, But left me that token of thee : And ne'er shall its soft tones be blended With the voice of the spoiler by me ! THE FIRST HYMN-BOOK. 27 He who could breathe so deeply in unison with the harp of captive Judah, cannot, with all his sins and errors, be shut out from among the children of sacred minstrelsy. It may still be a wonder how such a hand as his could string its harp to melody like this ; but there must have been something in the poet, both in his heart and intellect, which was capable of occa- sional sympathy with the sublime mysteries of the Old Testament, the grand march of its history, and the deep variations of its prophetic songs. It was this occasional sympathy which expressed itself in the awful dramas, " Cain " and " Heaven and Earth, " and which sometimes showed itself in more pleasing beauty and power in his " Hebrew Melodies." Will the religious world ever forget his musical verses on Sennacherib ? The Assyrian came down like a -wolf on the fold ; but where and when had the touch been given which ever after acted now and then like a charm, and hushed his dark tempestuous soul into communion with the scenes, and the men, and the music of the Bible ? Minds and hearts like his are not left by God without Divine visitation from above. Truth speaks at intervals with commanding power. A loving voice sometimes whispers, "My salvation is near/-' and to Byron such a voice came in his earlier course. " Lord Byron and I met once," said an old man to a friend, as they sat in the window of a quiet little parlour looking out upon Falmouth harbour. " It was one evening in the year 1809. I had been sitting here thinking how Providence and the Holy Ghost work together in promoting the salvation of man, when the servant girl, who had gone out on an errand, 28 HYMN-WEITERS AND THEIR HYMNS. came rushing back in a great hurry , and ran upstairs. She was closely followed by a gentleman, who, when he saw me, apologized in a jaunty way for his intrusion, but at the same time walked in, took a seat, and seemed at perfect ease. He was a noble, handsome young man. I shall never forget the bright glance of his light eyes as they playfully lightened from under his very dark eyebrows. Their sparkles of fire seemed to float on the surface of a thoughtful depth. " ' Was that your girl, old gentleman V said he. " ' Yes, sir; pray what is the matter V " c Oh, nothing ; but I wanted to make her acquain- tance on the terrace yonder. She gave me a spirited reception, and provoked me to the chase ; so here I am. I admire that girl of yours for her virtuous energy. But now, letting her alone in her retreat, turn out your cards, and let us have some play.' " ' We keep no cards here, sir,' said I, looking at him gravely. " ' No cards ! Perhaps you have a novel or two one could look over V " ' No sir; such things are never found in this house.'' " ' What have you got then, eh V " ' I have a book here that might interest you/ I replied, ( and one that I am sure will not only refine your taste, but do your heart good/ I opened the Bible before him. He started. The gay life passed away from his countenance, and he was silent and thoughtful, while I gave him some lessons on the Bible and from the Bible. ' I have not the pleasure of knowing your name, sir/ said I, as he rose to depart, ' but I pray God to bless you/ " ' Thank you/ was his parting reply, f my name is George, Lord Byron. Good-bye V " THE FIRST HYMN-BOOK. 29 It was the future poet on his way to Lisbon, and who knows how far the quiet old Methodist's lesson <( on the Bible and from the Bible" influenced his after thought and feeling, as the author of " Hebrew Me- lodies ;" and was it the echo of that good little man's touching* appeal that sometimes in after days, and in other climes, made him (C silent and sombre/' as when he said in the presence of his friend Shelley, " Here is a little book which somebody has sent me about Chris- tianity, that has made me very uncomfortable ; the reasoning seems to me very strong, the proofs are very staggering. I don't think you can answer it, Shel- ley, at least, I am sure I can't, and what is more, I don't wish it." Poor Byron ! his heart cherished some early lessons " on the Bible and from the Bible ;" and sometimes, as in his correspondence with Mr. Shep- herd, prompted him to express his feelings of concern about his own spiritual condition, by nobly saying, " I can assure you that all the fame which ever cheated humanity into higher notions of its importance would never weigh in my mind against the pure and pious interest which a virtuous being may be pleased to take in my welfare." But whatever he owed to the words and prayers of the old man in the quiet parlour at Falmouth, he owed something, and, perhaps, much, to another, who seems to have been the only man who was kind, and faithful, and Christian enough to warn him against evil, and recommend him to the good, in the midst of his successes, and in the height of his poetic glory. That man, was Sir Walter Scott. " "Would you have me turn Methodist ? " said Byron, in reply to his friend's advice. S ~xTd£^ C ?<^Js ©fbaptcr IIL HYMNS OF THE LATTER DAY MORNING. "But who the melodies of morn can tell." HE morning; lio-lit of the Christian Church fell upon Pliny the younger ; and in that light he saw the martyr spirit of our first century. He had seen the Christians of his time suffer, and knew that their sufferings never broke their joy. Their morning hymns had never, perhaps, touched his ear ; but he has bequeathed a precious testimony to the cheerful devotion of the people who could be charged with no crime but that of meeting on " a stated day before it was light, to sing hymns to Christ as God," and to renew their mutual pledges of truthfulness, purity, and love. Blessed souls ! " The word of Christ dwelt in them so richly " that they must needs "present the dawning of the day" with their songs. The apostolic spirit was still alive in them. They were rejoicing in the dawn of the latter day. They were in jeopardy every hour; every little group was "baptized for the dead " ; but they ate their " meat with glad- ness," cheering their meat-time with joyful psalmody; their love -feasts were brightened with chant and 38 HYMN-WEITERS AND THEIR HYMNS. chorus, and their homes were vocal with simple melo- dies and favourite hymns. What hymns must they have been which were pure overflowings of hearts full of divine influence ? What songs, when every singer gave out the form of old anthems newly instinct with Christian life, or extemporized in melody and rhythm according to his own distinctive spiritual gift ? What was their style of hymn ? How did they sing ? Their psalmody must have been at once a reiteration of the past and an embodiment of exemplar songs for the future. Echoes from that morning of church music come to our ears and hearts even now in some hymns which still breathe the perfume of an apostolic age. The warm and jubilant spirit, and the triumphant heavenliness of tone which distinguish those ancient songs, give life to our modern liturgies, and are so like the worship of prophets, apostles, and martyrs, that in singing them we may enjoy a feeling of unison with choirs of the first Christian converts. When we join u with angels and archang-els " in the ' ' thrice holy," or lift up our hearts with the " gloria in excelsis," or help to swell the anthem peal of the Te Denm, are we not using fragments from that early collection of hymns in which the praises of the old covenant saints were taken up and poured ouward in richer Christian har- mony through the first ages of Messiah's kingdom ? In them we have the first Christian responses to the songs of patriarchal and prophetic days. The first song in which the people join at the Holy Communion " with angels and archangels/' etc., is one of the first echoes of the Christian Church to those voices of seraphims which the prophet heard in the temple, and which were answered and repeated from Patmos in the hearing of a rapt apostle : — HYMNS OF THE LATTER DAY MORNING. 39 Holy, holy, holy Jehovah Sabaoth, The whole earth is full Of his glory. The anthem of ' ' Glory to God in the Highest/' sang by the multitude of " heavenly hosts/' was first re- sponded to by the happy shepherds as they " returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen •" and then both angels and shepherds were answered by the martyr church in the glorious old Greek hymn which in our English Liturgy the communicants are called to chant at the close of the Sacramental Supper. And if, as the tradition goes, the Te Deum broke in alternate parts from the lips of Ambrose and Augustine during the solemnities of Augustine's baptism, it is probable that the holy singers merely caught the full-toned expression of an earlier time, the day-spring of the Church, when the company of believers gave forth utterances in which creeds, and praises, and thanksgivings, and intense prayer, and living hopes were interwoven and wrought up into one grand church hymn for all generations and all times. One incident in the history of Robert Hall serves to set forth the native majesty of the Te Deum, and its close conformity to the spirit and manner of inspired psalms. He had composed a sermon on a text which had touched his fine sense of grandeur and had deeply moved his heart. On completing his ser- mon, he turned to the concordance to find the text. It was not to be found. It was not in the Bible. It was a sentence from the Te Deum, " All the earth doth worship Thee, the Father everlasting." All ears are not fine enough to be charmed with the rhythm of these ancient hymns ; and many sincere worshippers 40 HYMN-WEITEKS AND THEIR HYMNS. even lack the power of fairly appreciating their simple grandeur and glowing power. Translations necessarily dim their glory, lower their tone, and lessen their power. But now and then some hymnist of deep sympathy with the past, drinks inspiration from these ever-living springs of song, and casts the whole breathing measures into metrical form and rhyme, which at once suit the taste and command the hearts of wider multitudes and later times. How many who were never moved into fellowship with " all the com- pany of heaven" by the liturgical translation of the Ter Sandus, have risen into something like an approach to the old strain when singing Bishop Mantes more popular but beautiful verses — Bright the vision that delighted Once the sight of Judah's seer, Sweet the countless tongues united To entrance the prophet's ear. Round the Lord in glory seated, Cherubim and seraphim Fill'd his temple, and repeated Each to each th' alternate hymn. " Lord, thy glory fills the heaven, Earth is with its fulness stored ; Unto Thee be glory given, Holy, holy, holy Lord !" Heaven is still with glory ringing, Earth takes up the angels' cry, " Holy, holy, holy," singing, " Lord of hosts, the Lord most high !" Ever thus in God's high praises, Brethren, let our tongues unite ; Chief the heart when duty raises God-ward at his mystic rite : "With his seraph train before Him, With his holy Church below, Thus conspire we to adore Him, Bid we thus one anthem flow ! HYMNS OF THE LATTER DAY MORNING. 41 " Lord, thy glory fills the heaven, Earth is with its fulness stored ; Unto Thee be glory given, Holy, holy, holy Lord !" Thus thy glorious name confessing, We adopt thy angels' cry. " Holy, holy, holy," blessing Thee, " the Lord of hosts most high !" As rank after rank from " the noble army of mar- tyrs" passed away during the morning tide of the Church, leaving no record, and without the least care about the preservation of tlieir memory upon earth, so, many of the hymnists of early days were happy in expressing their joys in song while they lived, and then departed, bequeathing their hymns to following generations, without a single effort to secure for their own names the future honours of authorship. Some of their simple, tender, trustful hymns, full of Christ and winged with heavenliness, still remain as nameless memorials of the generation whose purity inspired contemporary authorities with wonder. One hymn there is which seems to claim a place among those which Pliny says the Christians used to sing before the morning dawn. It is in the spirit of the Psalmist, who said, " My eyes prevent the night watches," and may be rendered thus : From our midnight sleep uprising, Thee, Gracious One, we will adore ; Loud the angels' hymn uplifting To Thee, Almighty, evermore ! The holy, holy, holy Lord and God art Thou! In mercy's name, have mercy on us now! From the couch and death-like slumber Thou makest me, 0 Lord, to rise : Thou my mind and heart enlighten And free my lips from sinful ties, 42 HYMN-WRITERS AND THEIR HYMNS. So may I 'fore Thee, Triune God, with praises bow ; For holy, holy, holy Lord and God art Thou ! With multitudes on multitudes, The coming Judge will soon be here ; And ev'ry deed of ev'ry man, Will bare and open then appear. We'll wait in filial fear, cheering our midnight now, With holy, holy, holy Lord and God art Thou ! Many of the voices which were thus lifted up in the night watches of Pliny's time, were contemporaries of the " beloved disciple" ; and among the rhythmical fragments which survive there seem to be traces of the influence which the last of the apostles had shed upon the mind and heart of the youthful Church. Indica- tions may be found here and there of familiarity with the last apostle's closing utterances, " Hereby know ye the Spirit of God : every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, .... and we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols." This clos- ing admonition was sacredly observed by these " little children," while they kept their adoring eyes on John's last vision of " the Lamb in the midst of the throne," and continued to admonish one another "in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs" about the incarnate Saviour, their reigning Lord. One of their strains is so like John, and so befitting his " little children" in its pure simplicity, its joyful earnestness, and reverent friendship with a present Saviour, that it must ever have a charm for all who have spiritual sympathy with the apostle of " perfect love." It loses much, of HYMNS OP THE LATTER DAY HORNING. 43 course, by translation into English rhyme, but in that form it is most likely to touch the present generation : We adore thy pure image, 0 good Lord, imploring Thee ! Pardon all our sins and failures, Christ, our gracious Deity. Thou didst come in thy good-will, Taking flesh with all its woe, Thy own creatures to redeem From the bondage of the foe. Therefore cry we thankfully, Fulness of delight, to Thee, Our Saviour, once appearing, Purging earth's iniquity. Some of the hymns of early dawn must have mingled with the joy of angels over penitent hearts. Human nature was sinful then as it is now. The contrite heart and broken spirit had its psalm then as it ever will. Apostle churches were never lacking in — The godly grief, the pleasing smart, The meltings of a broken heart ; The tear that tells the son's forgiven, The sighs that waft the soul to heaven. The guiltless shame, the sweet distress, The unutterable tenderness, The genuine meek humility, The wonder, " why such love to me !" One of these plaintive psalms of primitive repen- tance seems to sob and moan with gentle sorrow, and to palpitate with mystic penitential joy and tender longings for Christ : Long-suff 'ring Jesus, precious Jesus ! Heal, oh, heal my wounded soul ! Oh, sweeten Thou my heart, my Jesus ! Save, I pray Thee, make me whole ! 44 HYMN-WRITERS AND THEIR HYMNS. That saved by Thee, my Savour, I May thy great mercy magnify. Lover of man, oh, hear me, Saviour ! Thine afflicted servant cries : Oh, deliver me from judgment ; Bid the sentenced culprit rise ! Thou merciful, long-suffering Son, Oh most sweet Jesus, only One ! Do let thy servant come, my Saviour ! Sinking 'fore Thee now with tears ; Save me, Jesus ! me repenting ! Save from hell, and hellish fears ! O Master ! my deep wounds I feel ! Now heal me ! blessed Saviour, heal ! "With thy strong hand, my Saviour, rescue From that Spirit -murd'rer fell ; In compassion snatch from Satan ; Though I've sinn'd and merit hell : Merciful, long- suff 'ring One, I flee To thy defence ! To Thee ! to Thee ! Oh, meeten me to thy blest kingdom, Jesus, be my inward light ! To my lost soul Thou art salvation ; From hell redeeming by thy might. Here, weeping like a helpless child, Save me, 0 Christ ! 0 Jesus mild ! Such meltings,, bemoanings, struggles of thought, regrets, half-plaintive, half-joyful, now desponding, and now hopeful appeals, are felt to be his own by every prodigal sinner in every age, and all the world over. Repentance never changes its character. Its language, though varied in metre, is essentially one. The old eastern penitential psalm falls naturally from the lips of a penitent transgressor in our modern western world and any genuine living hymn from a truly softened HYMNS OF THE LATTER DAY MOENING. 45 English, heart, appealing to its Saviour, would be chanted amidst tears by penitent worshippers in an Eastern basilica. A good man from the far West, not many years ago, during his pilgrimage in the East, found his way into an Armenian church at Constanti- nople. The people were singing. The language of their hymn was foreign ; but it was evident that the singers were in earnest, and that there was deep feel- ing in the words of their song. The music was a simple melody. All sang with closed eyes, but as the strain continued, tears were starting, and trickling down many, many a cheek. Dr. Pomeroy would fain have joined in the plaintive, tender, yet glowing hymn. What were they singing ? The stanzas were translated, and as they fell on his ear, his heart responded to the pre- cious, well-known verses — Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee ; Let the water and the blood, From thy wonnded side which flowed Be of sin the double cure, Cleanse me from its guilt and power. Not the labours of my hands, Can fulfil thy law's demands, Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears for ever flow, All for sin could not atone ; Thou must save, and Thou alone. Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to thy cross I cling ; Naked, come to Thee for dress ; Helpless, look to Thee for grace ; Foul, I to the Fountain fly : Wash me, Saviour, or I die! 46 HYMN-WRITERS AND THEIR HYMNS. "While I draw this fleeting breath, "When my eye-strings break in death, When I soar through tracts unknown, See Thee on thy judgment-throne : Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee ! Who would not like to nave heard and seen the author of this hymn ? He might have been found once in a sequestered village in the eastern corner of Devon. There, amidst the beautiful hills which are overlooked by the western slopes of the Black Down range, the quiet parish church of Broad Hembury stands silently inviting the folks of the hamlet to " seek the living among the dead." Within those walls on any Sunday about the year 1770 the vicar might be found, during church hours, fervently leading the devotions of his flock, and then dispensing saving truth from the pulpit in a style and spirit not to be enjoyed everywhere, especially in those times. The preacher is described as having an " ethereal countenance, and light, im- mortal form. His voice was music. His vivacity would have caught the listener's eye, and his soul-filled looks and movements would have interpreted his language, had there not been such commanding solemnity in his tones as made apathy impossible, and such simplicity in his words that to hear was to under- stand. From easy explanations he advanced to rapid and conclusive arguments, and warmed into importu- nate exhortations, till conscience began to burn and feelings to take fire from his own kindled spirit, and himself and his hearers were together drowned in sym- pathetic tears." The preacher was Augustus Montague Toplady. He was the son of Major Toplady, who died at the siege of Carthagina in 1740, leaving his HYMNS OF THE LATTER DAY MORNING. 47 infant Augustus to the care of a tender but judicious mother, under whose oversight the gentle and affec- tionate character of the future hymnist was happily developed and matured. He owed much to his mother ; and his heart was always ready for returns of filial love and duty. The genuine and decided nature of his conversion, however, was the deeper secret of his distinctive character as a divine, a preacher, and a hymnist. "When he was but sixteen, during a visit to Ireland with his mother, he found his way into a barn at Codyrnain," where an uncultivated but warm- hearted layman was preaching from Eph. ii. 13. The human instrument was unpolished, but the divine word was effectual ; and looking back, after some years, on the happy change which passed over his heart during that hour in the barn, and speaking of the gracious sentence which so deeply touched him, he says, "It was from that passage that Mr. Morris preached on the memorable evening of my effectual call by the grace of God. Under the ministry of that dear messenger, and under that sermon, I was, I trust, c brought nigh by the blood of Christ/ in August, 1756. Strange that I, who had so long sat under the means of grace in England, should be brought nigh unto God in an obscure part of Ireland, amidst a handful of God's people met together in a barn, and under the ministry of one who could hardly spell his name. Surely it is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous. The excellency of such power must be of God, and cannot be of man." He was ordained in June, 1762. The circumstances and mode of his conversion seem to have disposed him to a strong and ruling conviction of the Calvinistic sense of the articles to which he subscribed, and to 48 HYMN-WRITERS AND THEIR HYMNS. which, as he said, he subscribed because he believed them. He entered on his rural charge at Broad Hembury in 1768. And there his finely-tempered soul regaled itself now and then amidst the delicious retreats on the banks of the Otter stream, by cele- brating the grace of his Redeemer in the immortal hymns and spiritual songs from which so many peni- tent and believing hearts continue to gather saving balm. Strange that harsh and bitter words should have been uttered in controversy with such kindred hymnists as Wesley and Olivers ! When these poetic spirits sang, they were in perfect harmony ; but when they dogmatized, there was intemperate discord. Toplady's strong conviction and warm zeal for those dogmas whose exclusive claims he thought to be demonstrated by his own conversion sometimes mas- tered his native gentleness and Christian feeling, and led him astray into a false position. His example cautions the lover of truth against allowing himself to be provoked into controversy. Better let the truth work its own way. His polemic essays may repose on the theological shelf, but his hymns will for ever wreathe his name with holy light in the memory and heart of the Christian Church. How beautiful was the closing scene of his life ; " Sickness is no affliction," said the saintly pilgrim, " pain no curse, death itself no dissolution/' To one who inquired whether his consolations always abounded, it was replied,