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FROM THE LIBRARY OF
REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, D. D
BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO
THE LIBRARY OF
PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
ENGLISH HYMNOLOGY.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2013
http://archive.org/details/engnologyOObigg
/ L DHC 18 1934
Reprinted (with additions and corrections) from the
MONTHLY PACKET.
IS
THE REV! LOUIS COUTIER BIGGS, M.A.,
Rector of West Chickerell, Weymouth.
PRICE FOUR SHILLINGS
PUBLISHED B Y SUBSCRIPT/OX.
[LONDON: MOZLEYS, 6, PATERNOSTER ROW
1873.
BUTLER & TANNER,
THE SELWOOD PRINTING WORKS,
FROME, AND LONDON.
PREFACE.
THE following papers were written shortly after my pub-
lication of the 'Annotated Edition of Hymns Ancient and
Modern/ Among the many kind judgments passed upon
that work, more than one expressed regret that so much
labour should have been exclusively given to one collection
of hymns. Moreover, I became sensible of many errors and
defects' in my former work. These were chiefly pointed
out to me by correspondents, though I must gratefully
acknowledge the helpful criticism bestowed on my work by
the reviewer in the Church Choirmaster and Organist. While
most of my reviewers were content simply to praise my
work, only one (so far as I know) assailing it with unmixed
censure, 1 the Church Choirmaster showed me where and how
I was wrong. On several points, the following pages will be
found to set right such mistakes as I have detected in the
'Annotated Edition.' I much regret that I have not been
able to wait for the appearance of the enlarged hymnal of the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. I should also
have been glad to publish with these articles a reprint of the
1 Songs of Other Churches,' the series now appearing in the
1 The Athenceum, whose reviewer must have been strangely ignorant of
the subject of hymnology. Will it be credited that he supposed me to be
the sole compiler of ' Hymns Ancient and Modern/ that he accused me
of undervaluing Keble because I quoted Lord Nelson's statement that
some versions altered by the author of the ' Christian Year/ which had
been given in the ' Salisbury Hymn-Book/ would be found, with the
original text restored, in the enlarged and revised edition ? But most
wonderful of all, I am charged with ' flunkeyism/ because I have men-
tioned the Prince Consort's love for the hymn, ' Rock of Ages/ in the
note where reference is made to translations of it in German.
vi Preface.
Monthly Packet, and which, I hope, will, on their completion,
be presented separately.
Among recent hymn-books deserving of notice, perhaps the
most interesting is the ' American Church Hymnal ' now au-
thorized by the General Convention of the Protestant Episco-
pal Church of the United States. It is a large collection, 520
hymns ; yet evident care has been used to exclude anything
objectionable. Unfortunately, the arrangement of the hymns
according to their subjects is not very clearly made out, nor
very consistently maintained. Moreover, it is burdened with
a larger proportion of the old-fashioned psalmody than would
now be quite acceptable to the altered tastes of our own
English congregations.
The question has recently been raised, how far it would
be expedient to authorize a single hymnal for the use of the
English Church. I cannot help feeling that such a step
would be most injurious to the interests of the Church. In
the first place, it would be impossible to satisfy all parties
in the Church without extending the collection far beyond
the usual limits. This would increase the expense of print-
ing and binding, and prevent the book from being a cheap
one, in spite of the enormous number of copies which would
be required. Next, it is obvious that the work could not be
compulsorily introduced everywhere at once without manifest
injustice to those who had recently adopted other books.
Some years must be allowed, as for the introduction of the
New Lectionary, and when these were expired, the book would
already require an appendix. Again, difficulties about copy-
right would arise, and would prove almost insuperable. A
small compensation may suffice from a compiler whose work,
after all, will probably have but little effect in diminishing
Preface. vii
the sale of the older hymn-book. But the question is wholly
altered when we have to deal with compilers whose work is
to render all books that have previously appeared useless
and worthless.
A compromise might possibly be made in the following
manner. Such of our older hymns as could be reprinted
without question as to copyright might be authorized by
Convocation for use wherever they would be acceptable.
Gaps might be left in the numbering of these, and it might
be ordered that after a certain date no new hymnal should
be introduced into any church unless its hymns, correspond-
ing in number to the authorized hymns, were identical with
them, and distinguished in type, if this were thought neces-
sary, from the other hymns. Thus for special occasions it
would be easy to select hymns which would be identical in
number in the several different collections, and when addi-
tional hymns were authorized, they might fall into their
places between the others. The first set of authorized hymns
might be numbered by tens; the next might be 5, 15, 25,
etc. Both authorized and unauthorized hymns might be in-
creased in number without disturbance of the original book,
and without the drawback of appendix or supplement. My
apology for suggesting this plan must be the difficulties
which would surely attend any attempt to establish an
authorized hymnal in the ordinary way.
The numerous correspondents who have helped me in the
compilation of this book will, I hope, accept my sincere
thanks for their kind and welcome aid.
CJiickerell, Weymouth,
S. Bartholomews Day, 1872.
The Reprint of the " Songs of Other Churches " will be published
as soon as One Htmdred Copies are subscribed for, at Six Shi Hi figs
per Copy. Subscribers' names received by Rev. L. C. BlGGS,
Chickerell, Weymouth.
ENGLISH HYMNOLOGY.
i.
INTRODUCTORY.— MORNING AND EVENING HYMNS.
The general revival of Church hymns forms a most interesting
feature in the great restoration which God is now being pleased to
work in our holy English Church. We are placed in the midst of a
great and still increasing spiritual movement ; we are living in an age
which shows itself active to renew, not merely the sculptured tracery,
the external beauty, of the Church's fabric, but also the ancient
graving of her doctrines, the towering harmony of her praise. And
though in some details the waywardness of man may have marred
the noble work, yet surely its existence and advance must be matters
of deep thankfulness to us all. Nor is the luxuriant and fruitful
growth of our hymnology by any means a small part of these bless-
ings. Hymns possess a wonderful power, for evil or for good : —
for evil, when they are made the vehicle of false teaching, as they
were by the early heretics ; ] — for good, when they attune men's
hearts to thankfulness and praise, and meanwhile unite them, in the
bonds of peace and truth, more closely with the Head' of the
Church.
It is the purpose of the present series of articles briefly to review
the best of our English hymns, glancing incidentally at anything
which may help to illustrate them, assigning them, as far as possible,
to their sources, and noticing where the hymns, as generally known,
materially differ from the original compositions of their authors. The
hymns which it is intended to consider will be chiefly those adapted
to form a part of public worship, though some of them may perhaps
be regarded as more suitable for private devotion. The classification
1 Especially by Bardesanes the Gnostic, and later by Arius and Apollinarius .
Instances nearer home are not wholly wanting.
B
English Hymnology
will follow, with few, variations, the order of the subjects contained in
the Book of Common Prayer, reserving to the last the consideration
of ' General Hymns.' In justification of such an arrangement, we
may quote the language of Archdeacon Wordsworth : ' A Hymn-book
of the Church of England may perhaps best be described as a com-
panion to the Book of Common Prayer.' In the first place, then,
parallel with the Order for Morning and Evening Daily Prayer,
would be found hymns for the different hours of the day, and days
of the week. It seems to be the especial province of morning and
evening hymns to note the passing phenomena of sunrise or sunset,
and turn them to spiritual account. Springing from individual obser-
vation, their natural expression is usually singula?'. This is exempli-
fied in Bishop Ken's well-known morning and evening hymns. It is
related that he often sang his morning hymn, before dressing, to his
lute — probably to the tune known as Tallis's Canon. The exact
text of these and of his midnight hymn, as they were first written,
may be seen in Mr. Daniel Sedgwick's edition of Ken's hymns, or in
Anderdon's Life of Ken, published by Pickering. The version in
Sir Roundell Palmer's ' Book of Praise ' contains the author's latest
corrections, many of them apparently made to improve the position
of accented syllables. Thus : — ' Glory to Thee,' is in two places
corrected to ' All praise to Thee ; ' ' Influenced by the Light Divine,'
to ' By influence of;' 'ye Angelic Host,' (in the Doxology,) to 'ye
heavenly Host.' In the Evening Hymn, the last two lines of the
third stanza are altered from
and given thus —
Teach me to die, that so I may
Triumphing rise at the last day.'
To die, that this vile body may
Rise glorious at the awful day.'
The address to the Guardian Angel is changed into a prayer for
his protection. In the midnight hymn, the only material changes
are in the first two stanzas.
Perhaps the best known morning and evening hymns, after those
of Bishop Ken, are taken from the first two poems of the Christian
English Hymnology.
Year. There is no doubt that some years intervened between their
composition and their publication in 1827. For the full understand-
ing of those verses which are sung in church, it will be found very
useful to become thoroughly familiarized with the rest, especially the
introductory verses,, which raise the soul to the realization of the
feelings expressed in the hymn. The true difficulty of actually
feeling and entering into the spirit of the morning hymn is, that so
few persons are really familiar with sunrise in summer, and that for
so many the ' Hues of the rich unfolding morn/ the ' rustling breeze,'
the ' fragrant clouds of dewy steam,' are indeed but wasted ' treasures
of delight.' If only we had more experience of these things, if they
greeted us hastening early to the sanctuary of God, we should gain
much more from our daily lives. But evening hymns are more real
to us, because they refer to a time when we are more frequently alive
to the beauties of nature.
As a hymn for morning and evening, perhaps there is none which
surpasses Mrs. Alexander's, 'The roseate hues of early dawn.' The
authoress has given a somewhat less happy version of it as an even-
ing hymn in ' Hymns, Descriptive and Devotional.' A ' Morning or
Evening Hymn,' by Dr. Watts, has acquired some celebrity — ' My
God, how endless is Thy love,' — but it seems less fitted for public
than for private worship. His morning hymn, (from Psalm xix.)
1 Behold the morning sun,' was once very popular in the modified
form in which Mr. Hall presented it in the ' Mitre Collection.'
Two morning hymns by Charles Wesley are well known. The first,
1 Christ, Whose glory fills the skies,' will be found in Wesleyan
collections with an entirely different first verse, beginning, ' O dis
close Thy lovely Face,' — the hymn in them beginning, ' Christ,
Whose glory fills the skies,' not being a morning hymn, nor in the
same metre. Wesley's other morning hymn, ' Forth in Thy Name,
O Lord, I go,' is only appropriate for week-day use. The following
hymn, by the Rev. Thomas Davis, may be new to some of our
^aders.
' With Thee, Lord, will I walk by day,
And thankful praise, and trustful pray ;
Nor hope from sorrow to be free,
as I know repose in Thee.
English Hymnology.
1 To Thee, on each returning night,
My soul shall wing her peaceful flight ;
And this my morning joy shall be,
That, waking, I am still with Thee.
' With Thee, the Source of life and light,
And joys unnumbered, infinite,
Through this fair world, and all on high,
That light and deck the midnight sky.
' When days and nights have passed away,
And breaks the one Eternal Day,
O give me, Lord, to wake, and be
Still, and for evermore, with Thee.'
Of translated hymns for the morning, the most noticeable is Miss
Winkworth's beautiful version of Heinrich Albert's ' @ o 1 1 be§ £tm=
mel6 unb ber Chten.' The first line is the same as that of an evening
hymn, (the composition of Bishop Heber, to which Archbishop
Whately added another verse,) ' God, Who madest earth and
heaven :' — the two have sometimes been confounded together. It is
worthy of notice that Archbishop Whately's stanza is evidently an
adaptation of the Compline Antiphon : — ' Salva nos, Domine, vigi-
lantes, custodi nos dormientes, ut vigilemus in Christo, et requies-
camus in pace.' 'When morning gilds the skies' is by the Rev. E.
Caswall, given in his Lyra Catholica as a translation from ' ©elobt
fei) SefuS Shrift'; but I have quite failed to trace the original
German. ' Now that the daylight fills the sky,' is Dr. Neale's trans-
lation from, * Jam lucis orto sidere,' written by S. Ambrose. It is
improved in the Sarum Hymnal, where it begins, ' While now the
daylight fills the sky.' The two Sunday morning hymns from the
Paris Breviary 1 have supplied us with two excellent English hymns
— ' Morn of morns, and Day of days/ translated by Sir H. W. Baker,
and, ' Now morning lifts her dewy veil,' translated by I. Williams and
J. Chandler; the latter borrowing much from the translation of the
1 ' Die dierum principe,' and ' Ad templa nos rursus vocat.' It must be remem-
bered that the Paris Breviary hymns have no claim to antiquity, having been
mainly composed in the eighteenth century by Santeul and Coffin. Yet, as Dr.
Newman says, they ' breathe an ancient spirit ; and even where they are the work
of one pen, are the joint and invisible contribution of many ancient minds.'
English Hymnology.
former. The Ambrosian hymn, ' Splendor Paternse Gloriae/ has been
well translated by Chandler, whose version appears, slightly altered,
in ' Hymns, Ancient and Modern,' — ' O Jesu, Lord of Light and
Grace.' Dr. Wordsworth's Sunday Morning Hymn, ' O Day of rest
and gladness,' in spite of one or two weak stanzas, is exceedingly
beautiful ; its second stanza commemorates the threefold joy of the
Day — the creation of Light, the Resurrection of the Lord, the gift
of the Spirit — even more successfully than Sir H. W. Baker's hymn,
' On this Day, the first of days.' l ' This is the day of light,' by Rev.
John Ellerton, is also a good Sunday morning hymn. There are
some beautiful verses in Miss Elliot's hymn, beginning —
'Thou glorious Sun of Righteousness,
On this clay risen to set no more,
Shine on me now to heal, to bless
With brighter beams than e'er before.'
It will be found in Mr. Snepp's 'Songs of Grace and Glory.' 'Again
the Lord's own Day is here,' altered from ' The Sunday morn again
is here,' is Dr. Neale's translation from ' En Dies est Dominica,' a
mediaeval hymn of singularly rugged and uncouth structure. The
daily hymn for the third hour in the Roman and Sarum Breviaries, 2
has been translated by Dr. Newman as follows : —
' Come, Holy Ghost, Who ever one
Art with the Father and the Son ;
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls possess
With Thy full flood of holiness.
' Let mouth, and heart, and flesh combine
To herald forth our Creed Divine ;
And love so wrap our mortal frame,
Others may catch the living flame.'
1 O God of truth, O Lord of might,' 3 and ' O God of all the strength
and power/ 4 are much altered in ' Hymns Ancient and Modern ' from
1 From a Le Mans Breviary hymn, • Die parente temporum.'
2 Nunc Sancte nobis Spiritus. The version given above is copied from the
Translator's MS., and is materially altered in the small volume of poems in which
it was reprinted in 1853. It originally appeared in ' Tracts for the Times/ 1836.
3 Rector potens, verax Deus. 4 Rerum Deus tenax vigor.
English Hymnology
Dr. Neale's hymns for the sixth and ninth hours. ' As the sun doth
daily rise/ is given in the Sarum hymnal as a translation from King
Alfred's ' Matutinus altiora.' ' The radiant morn hath passed away '
is by the Rev. Godfrey Turing, written as an afternoon hymn.
Of Evening hymns, after those of Bishop Ken and Keble, few
would refuse the highest place to the Rev. H. F. Lyte's hymn,
* Abide with me ! fast falls the eventide/ written within two months
of the author's death at Berry Head. The original has eight verses.
Faber's evening hymn, ' Sweet Saviour, bless us ere w r e go,' is beau-
tiful ; as are also Edmeston's lines, beginning, ' Holiest, breathe an
evening blessing;' and Joseph Anstice's hymn, 'Father, by Thy
Love and Power.' Thomas Kelly's, ' Through the day Thy love
hath spared us,' finds a place in most hymn-books ; but it is difficult
to imagine how we can really sing in church the second line, ' Now
we lay us down to rest.' Dr. Neale's translation from a Greek hymn
of S. Anatolius, 1 ' The day is past and over/ suits a week-day evening
best. His rendering of the daily compline hymn in the Roman
Breviary, 2 ' Before the ending of the day,' is far surpassed by Bishop
Mant's version, ' Ere the waning light decay.' The hymn, ' As now
the sun's declining rays/ translated from the Paris Breviary hymn
for the ninth hour, 3 has been much improved from Rev. J. Chan-
dler by the compilers of ' Hymns Ancient and Modern.' Some-
what similar in subject is Caswall's translation from an original, now
unfortunately lost, 4 'The sun is sinking fast.' Dr. Neale's 'O Trinity
of Blessed Light' is taken from an Ambrosian evening hymn. 5
'Three in One, and One in Three' by the Rev. Dr. Gilbert
Rorison was written in 1850 for his church at Peterhead. It is
altered in later collections, and is founded on parts of two Roman Bre-
viary hymns, 'Tu Trinitatis Unitas/ and 'Jam sol recedit igneus.'
' At even, ere the sun did set ' is by the Rev. Henry Twells. The
hymn ' O Father, Who didst all things make ' first occurs in the
Rev. William Beadon Heathcote's Prayers for Children, published
1 Trju 7)/jt,epa.p 8l6\$u>v. 2 Te, lucis ante terminum.
3 Labente jam solis rota. 4 Sol praeceps rapitur, proxima nox adest.
5 O Lux Beata, Trinitas.
English Hymnology.
in 1846. A morning hymn on the same framework is given in this
book. The original doxology in both runs thus : —
' Praise be to Father ; praise to Sox ;
Blest Spirit, equal praise to Thee :
Glory to God, the Three in One ;
Glory to God, the One in Three.'
' Hail gladdening Light ' is translated from the Greek of S. Atheno-
genes 1 (who died in 175 a.d.), by Rev. J. Keble. It originally
appeared in ' Lyra Apostolica. ; ' Saviour, again to Thy dear Name
we raise/ by Rev. John Ellerton, and Canon Bright's ' And now the
wants are told, that brought,' are written for the close of evening
service. We extract from ' The Rock,' the following verses by Mr.
William Ouin, as possibly deserving a place in our hymnals.
' To Thee we come, our Saviour dear,
For now the night of rest is near ;
Oh ! let Thy wings of mercy, Lord,
A safe protection us afford !
' Oh ! watch us through the hours of night,
Till we again behold the light ;
Then be with us throughout the day,
And guard us, lest from Thee we stray.
* And when the night of death shall come,
When here our earthly task is done ;
Oh ! Saviour, in Thy Gracious Love,
Receive us in Thy Arms above ! '
We do not possess many Sunday evening hymns of the highest
order. Two translations by the compilers of ' Hymns Ancient and
Modern ' may be noticed : one from the Sunday vespers hymn in
the Paris Breviary, 2 ' Great God, Who, hid from mortal sight ; ' the
other, 3 ' Blest Creator of the Light,' taken (with some few lines from
Chandler's translation) from the corresponding hymn in the Roman
Breviary. We cannot very deeply regret that W. Mason's Sunday
evening hymn, ' Soon shall the evening star, with silver ray,' has
been omitted in most of the hymn-books now in use. Though it may
1 <£cDs IXapbv. 2 O Luce Qui mortalibus. 3 Lucis Creator optiem
English Hymnology.
be truly poetical, it can hardly be called truly devotional. Miss Wink-
worth has very successfully translated Stegmann's Sunday evening
hymn, 1 'Abide among us with Thy Grace;' and her lines would
doubtless have been more generally known if Keble and Lyte had
not already paraphrased the text on which they are founded. 2
The Paris Breviary hymns for nocturns of the week-days 3 have
been fairly rendered into English by the compilers of 'Hymns
Ancient and Modern,' (in Hymns 25-30,) but their work is in some
small measure founded on previous translations. The consideration
of hymns appropriate for Friday will come under that of hymns for
Holy Week. On Saturday, Isaac Williams's rendering of the Paris
Breviary hymn for Saturday at vespers, 4 ' Great Mover of all hearts,
Whose Hand,' may be sung ; or the hymn adapted from Rev. T.
Whytehead's ' Seventh Day of Creation,' and which begins, ' Resting
from His Work to-day.' The author of this hymn, after a brilliant
career at Cambridge, died young in New Zealand, where he was one
of the first missionaries.
1 2lc$ Mcifc mit JDeintt ®nate. 2 St. Luke xxiv. 29.
3 Dei canamus Gloriam, {Monday) : — Jubes, et in prseceps aquis, ( Tuesday] : —
Miramur, O Deus, Tuse, {Wednesday) : — Isdem creati fluctibus, {Thursday) : —
Jam sanctius moves opus, {Friday) : — Tandem peractis, O Deus, {Saturday).
Charles Coffin is the author of all these.
4 Supreme Motor cordium.
^4&
II.
HYMNS FOR THE FESTIVALS FROM ADVENT TO
SEPTUAGESIMA.
The greatest- and noblest of our English hymns will be found
thickly clustered round our two highest festivals, Christmas and
Easter. Some of them belong to the two preparatory seasons of
Advent and Lent ; others naturally attach themselves to the festivals
in the two periods of forty days which follow. We have at present
to deal with the Christmas group of hymns.
Advent has given the key-note to many of the hymns which have
come down to us from ancient times. Among these, the first in rank
is certainly Thomas of Celano's ' Dies Iras.' Sir Walter Scott's free
imitation of it, ' That Day of Wrath, that dreadful Day,' has more of
the spirit and tone of an English hymn than most of the more literal
translations. The version in ' Hymns Ancient and Modern' is by Dr.
Irons. 1 Dean Alford has less successfully rendered it in the version
beginning, ' Day of anger, that dread Day.' Isaac Williams has a
much better translation, 'Day of Wrath ! that awful Day.' The Earl
of Roscommon's translation is good. Some Stanzas of it, beginning
' The last loud trumpet's wondrous sound,' are given in Bickersteth's
and Hall's collections. Abp. Trench has given an exceedingly
literal translation, beginning ' Oh that day, that day of ire.' It could
hardly be employed as a hymn for English use, and parts of it
would scarcely be understood by a person unacquainted with the
original. Versions in several languages may be found in Daniel's
Thesaurus Hymnologicus.' The original belongs to the fourteenth
or fifteenth century, and is noticeable as an early example of a Latin
1 Altered in the first and last verses. In the first, for Dr. Irons's ' See once
more the Cross returning,' (from 'Crucis expandens vexilla,') is substituted 'See
fulfilled the prophet's warning,' (from the true reading, 'Teste David cum
Sibylla ;')— in the last verse, for ' Grant us Thine eternal Rest,' is given, 'Grant
them^ more literally translating ' Dona eis Requiem.'
io English Hymnology.
Hymn in which the singular number is used throughout. The popular
hymn, ' Lo ! He comes with clouds descending,' is based on John
Cennick's imitation of 'Dies Irse,' published in 1752. Charles
Wesley in 1758 wrote two hymns, from which the first two and the
last stanza of those usually given in our hymn-books are taken. He
also wrote the verse —
' The dear tokens of His Passion
Still His dazzling Body bears ;'
but these two, ' Every island, sea, and mountain,' and ' Now Re-
demption, long expected,' are by Cennick. Wesley's last stanza
ends with a line softened in most of our collections —
' Jah, Jehovah ! Everlasting God, come down.'
An anonymous Latin versification of some of those Christmas
antiphons which begin with O Saftientia, appears, much improved
from Dr. Neale's rendering, in 'Hymns Ancient and Modern': —
' O come, O come, Emmanuel.' l On the other hand, Chandler's
beautiful translation from the Advent noctu'rns hymn in the Paris
Breviary, 2 has there been altered without apparent reason. The
original begins thus —
1 The Advent of our God
Our prayers must now employ,
And we must meet Him on His road
With hymns of holy joy.'
The two other Paris Breviary hymns for Advent given in ' Hymns
Ancient and Modern,' are, 'On Jordan's bank the Baptist's cry,' 3
and 'When shades of night around us close;' 4 the former altered
from Chandler, the latter translated by the compilers. One of the
best verses of Chandler's is omitted :
1 ' Veni, veni, Emmanuel.' The original is in a French missal of the twelfth
century. The antiphons represented by its five verses are the seventh, third,
fifth, fourth, and second, respectively.
2 Instantis Adventum Dei. 3 Jordanis oras prsevia.
4 In noctis umbra, desides.
English Hymnology. i r
4 E'en now the air, the sea, the land,
Feel that their Maker is at hand ;
The very elements rejoice,
And welcome Him with cheerful voice.'
These three hymns were all written by Charles Coffin. ' Creator
of the starry height/ 1 and 'O heavenly Word, eternal Light,' 2 are
translations by the compilers of ' Hymns Ancient and Modern ' from
two Sarum and Roman Breviary Advent hymns.
Caswall has most successfully rendered one of the Ambrosian
Advent hymns, 3 'Hark ! a thrilling voice is sounding.' The popular
Advent hymn, 'Great God ! what do I see and hear!' is an imita-
tion from Bartholomew (not Benjamin) Ringwaldt. 1 The author of
the first English stanza is unknown; it was given in 1812 by
Dr. Collyer with three additional stanzas of his own, the first two
of which have been transferred with alterations to our present hymn-
books. Miss Wink worth has beautifully rendered Rist's glorious
Advent hymn, 5 'Arise, the kingdom is at hand!' Freylinghausen's
hymn, of somewhat later date, G is known to us in Miss Cox's version,
' Wake ! the welcome Day appeareth !' Two of Heber's Advent
hymns, 'The Lord will come! the earth shall quake!' and 'In
the sun and moon and stars,' attained some popularity, though less
deservedly than his grand lines —
'The Lord of might from Sinai's brow
Gave forth His Voice of thunder.'
Mrs. Alexander's hymn, 'When Jesus came to earth of old,' is
exceedingly beautiful. ' Hark ! the glad sound ! the Saviour comes,'
1 Conditor alme siderum.
2 • Verbum supermini prodiens,
A Patre olim exiens.'
It must not be confounded with S. Thomas Aquinas's Eucharistic hymn, which
borrows its first line.
3 En clara vox redarguit.
4 (53 ift getoifflicty nn ter 3eit. " Hitf, cmf, tl)r 9ieic$«g«wfieit.
6 Jhif! auf! lvcil tec Sag ccfd;einen.
12 English Hymnology.
is by Philip Doddridge. Dr. Wordsworth's ' See, He comes ! Whom
every nation ' deserves to be better known j as do also Sir Edward
Denny's 'Hope of our hearts ! O Lord, appear,' and Dr. Monsell's
'Praise the Lord! rejoice, ye Gentiles!' 'O quickly come, dread
Judge of all ' is a beautiful hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett. Of Dr.
Bonar's somewhat numerous Advent hymns, perhaps the best are
'A few more years shall roll' and * Come, Lord, and tarry not'
W. H. Bathurst's 'Angels, from your blissful station' is an unsuc-
cessful parody of Montgomery's Christmas Eve hymn noticed
below. Jane Crewdson's 'Oh, for the peace that floweth as a
river' begins well, but almost breaks down in the later stanzas.
Charles Wesley's ' Thou Judge of quick and dead ' is very slightly
but very judiciously altered in ' Hymns Ancient and Modern,' less
sparingly in the Sarum Hymnal.
For S. Andrew's Day, (Nov. 30,) Mrs. Toke's 'Jesus calls us o'er
the tumult' is appropriate. For S. Thomas's Day, (Dec. 21,) may
be used Neale's ' We have not seen, we cannot see.'
For Christmas Eve we have Madan's variation of Wesley, 1 ' Hark !
the herald angels sing,' Nahum Tate's 'While shepherds watched
their flocks by night,' and James Montgomery's magnificent hymn,
' Angels from the realms of Glory.' John Cawood wrote the lines
beginning, 'Hark! what mean yon holy voices?' The Paris
Breviary hymn for nocturns of Christmas Day 2 may be appro-
priately sung on the midnight which ushers in the festival. It may
be questioned whether the compilers of 'Hymns Ancient and Modern'
have improved upon the Rev. James Russell Woodford's original
rendering —
' God from on high hath heard,
Let sighs and sorrows cease ;
The skies unfold, and lo !
Descends the gift of Peace.'
1 Wesley's original begins thus —
' Hark ! how all the welkin rings,
Glory to the King of kings.'
2 'Jam desinant suspiria,' by Charles Coffin.
English Hymnology. 13
Isaac Williams's translation will be seen to be from its metre scarcely
so well fitted for church use : —
• Away with sorrow's sigh,
Our prayers are heard on high ;
And through Heaven's crystal door,
On this our earthly floor,
Comes meek-eyed Peace to walk with poor mortality.'
Of very high merit is the following —
1 It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old ;'
though it is perhaps rather a carol than a hymn. The author is
Edmund H. Sears, an American poet.
Of our translated hymns for Christmas morning, the most notice-
able are the various renderings of ' Adeste, fideles,' a hymn probably
not older than the fifteenth century. We owe to Canon Oakeley the
most popular of these, though his first line, 'Ye faithful, approach
ye,' has often been altered. 1 That in the Salisbury Hymn-Book is
the most regular in structure, and probably due in part to the
Rev. J. Keble. It begins, ' Draw nigh, all ye faithful, joyous and
triumphant.' Dr. Xeale's rendering, 'Be present, ye faithful, joyful
and triumphant,' is less poetic. John Byrom's Christmas hymn,
1 Christians, awake ! salute the happy morn,' is most familiar to us.
in a shortened form : there are sixty lines in the original. Bp.
Christopher Wordsworth's Christmas morning hymn, ' Sing, O sing
this blessed Morn,' is very beautiful, though too long.
One of our earliest Christmas hymns comes from the ninth in
the Cathemerinon of Prudentius, 2 which begins with a few lines
1 In the S. P. C. K. Collection and ' Hymns Ancient and Modern ' it is given
' O come, all ye faithful.' In Master's Hymns and Introits the original first line is
retained, but there are alterations in the rest of the hymn.
2 ' Da, puer, plectrum, choreis ut canam fidelibus
Dulce carmen et melodum, gesta Christi insignia.'
Its title is ' Hymnus omni hora.'
14 English Hymnology
unsuited for a church hymn. The largest selections from it have
been made in the Hereford Breviary, and translated by Sir H. W.
Baker, who has, however, adopted some lines from Dr. Neale. His
version begins, ' Of the Father's Love begotten, ere the worlds
began to be.' 1 Sir H. W. Baker has also given in 'O Christ,
Redeemer of our race,' a translation of an Ambrosian Christmas
hymn, 2 less literal than the Rev. W. J. Copeland's version —
' JESU, Redeemer, from on high,
Who, ere the daylight shone,
Sole Offspring of His Majesty,
Art with the Father One.'
The Christmas hymn, ' High let us swell our tuneful notes,' which
crept into Tate and Brady's supplement about 1810, is by Philip
Doddridge.
For S. Stephen's Day we have the translation of Jean Baptiste
Santeul's Paris Breviary hymn, 3 given in ' Hymns Ancient and
Modern ' —
' First of martyrs, thou whose name
Doth thy golden crown proclaim.'
The allusion is here to the meaning of the Greek name Zre'cpavos a
crown. Adam of S. Victor had written similarly in his sequence for
S. Stephen's Day : — 4
' Thou by name a Crown impliest ;
Meetly then in pangs thou diest
For the Crown of Righteousness ! '
and S. Anatolius appears to have the same idea, 5 which is perhaps
glanced at in Heber's hymn for this festival, ' The Sox of God goes
forth to war.' ' Jesu, Lord, Thy praise we sing,' is a translation by
1 Corde natus ex Parentis ante mundi exordium.
2 Jesu Redemptor omnium. 3 O Qui tuo, dux martyrum.
4 ' Heri mundus exsultavit,' translated in 'Yesterday with exultation,' a scarcely
English version founded on Dr. Neale.
5 In his hymn, Ty BacrtXe? Kal Aea-jro-rri, translated by Dr. Neale.
English Hymnology. 15
the Rev. H. H. Wyatt from an original which I have not been able
to trace. It was first published in the translator's ' Psalms and
Hymns for Public Worship.'
For S. John the Evangelist our grandest hymn is that written by
Mr. Keble in 1857 : 'Word Supreme, before creation.' founded
partly on two ancient sequences. 1 An altered form of Caswall's
translation from an anonymous hymn in the Cluniac I ' The
Life which God's Incarnate Word.' appears in ' Hymns Ancient and
Modern.' 'An exile for the Faith' 3 is also partly his, but properly
belongs to the lesser Commemoration of S. John (as a Martyr) on
May 6th.
For the Holy Innocents' Day we have several translations of
Prudentius's 4 hymn : — Dr. Kynaston's rendering is perhaps the
most poetical. It begins —
' Hail. Martyr sweets deflowered,
On morning's lintels cast,
Like blossoms thickly showered
Before the icy blast.'
The Venerable Bede has a hymn more fitted for church use: 5 the
translation in 'Hymns Ancient and Modern' is altered from Dr.
Xeale's. But the best hymn for this festival. ; Glory to Thee
Lord,* was contributed by Mrs. Toke in 1S53 to the first S. P. C. K.
Hymn-Book.
For the Circumcision, two Paris Breviary hymns have
taken from Chandler's translation for ' Hymns Ancient and Modern' —
•' O Blessed Day. when first was poured.' and ' The Word, with God
the Father One.' The latter is originally an Epiphany hymn. In
the translation, (by the compilers of the book,} which
1 ; Verbi vere substantivi,' by Adam of S. Victor, and 'Yereum Dei. Deo
2 Qus dixit, egit, pertulit.
3 From 'J ini pro Fide," \ Paris Breviary.) by Nicholas le Touniti
- vete Acres martyrum. 5 Hymnum canentes martyrum.
' ' Felix Dies, quam proprio," by the Abbe Besnault, and ' Verbum Quod ante
i^ecula.' {Anon.)
1 6 English Hymnology.
ancient law departs,' 1 something more than the metre has been
caught from Keble's poem, ' The year begins with Thee.' We owe
to the Rev. Henry Downton a beautiful hymn for New Year's Eve,
* For Thy Mercy and Thy Grace ; ' and to the compilers of ' Hymns
Ancient and Modern,' ' The year is gone beyond recall,' the nocturns
hymn for the Circumcision in the Meaux Breviary. 2 Some hymns
for the 'Name of Jesus,' (August 7th,) may be sung on this day.
Among these may be mentioned 'Conquering kings their titles
take,' altered from ' 'Tis for conquering kings to gain,' J. Chandler's
translation from an anonymous hymn 3 in the Paris Breviary. A
favourite hymn in Germany for the Name of Jesus 4 is that which
Dr. Neale has translated, ' To the Name that brings salvation,' which
the compilers of ' Hymns Ancient and Modern' have adapted in ' To
the Name of our Salvation.' 'Let every heart exulting beat' 5 is a
translation from a Sarum Breviary hymn by J. D. Chambers,
Recorder of Salisbury.
One of our most popular hymns for the Epiphany, 'Earth has
many a noble city,' is also one of the oldest, being taken from the
Cathemerindn of Prudentius : — it is altered from Caswall's transla-
tion. The significance of the wise men's gifts is skilfully unfolded in
the fourth verse. Ccelius Sedulius has left us an Epiphany hymn, 6
which Dr. Neale has translated, 'Why, impious Herod, vainly
fear.' Two Epiphany hymns in ' Hymns Ancient and Modern ' have
been altered by Mr. Keble — the first, 'The Heavenly Child in
stature grows,' 7 from a translation by J. Chandler j the second,
' Hail to the Lord's Anointed,' from James Montgomery. Rist's
Epiphany hymn 8 is well rendered by Miss Winkworth, ' All ye
Gentile lands, awake ! ' In Mrs. Alexander's ' The wise men to
Thy cradle throne,' and Bishop Heber's ' Brightest and best of the
1 From 'Debilis cessent elementa legis,' in the Paris Breviary, by the Abbe
Besnault.
2 ' Lapsus est annus ; redit annus alter.' {Anon.)
3 Victis sibi cognomina. 4 Gloriosi Salvatoris. 5 Exsultet cor praecordiis.
6 'Herodes hostis impie,' or, 'Crudelis Herodes, Deum,' in Roman Breviary for
Vespers.
7 ' Divine crescebas Puer,' Paris Breviary. 8 SBcrfce ticfyt, fcu ©tafct tcr $etben.
English Hymnology. ij
sons of the morning,' some may perhaps take exception at the
apostrophe to the guiding star. One of the best Epiphany hymns,
' The people that in darkness sat/ is taken from ' The race that
long in darkness pined,' written by John Morrison as a paraphrase
on Isaiah ix. 6, 7. Dr. Wordsworth's Epiphany hymn, 'Songs of
thankfulness and praise,' is very beautiful, as are also Harriet Auber's
'Bright was the guiding star that led,' and W. C. Dix's 'As with
gladness men of old.' 'Thy kingdom come, O God/ is one of the
best of the Rev. L. Hensley's hymns. The following translation, by
Dr. Neale, from one of the hymns in the Paris Breviary for the week
after Epiphany appeared in print for the first time in the original
issue of these articles : —
' Lo ! crowds of mourners press
To show their evil deeds,
Where in Judaea's wilderness
The Lord's Forerunner pleads.
' The Lamb of God draws nigh ;
The Holy 'midst the impure ;
The Lamb of God, so soon to die
Our pardon to assure.
' Beneath that fleshly veil
The Baptist knows his Sun :
How can he dare, or what avail
To cleanse the Holy One ?
' O Baptist, 'tis thy part
To cleanse alone the flesh ;
He sends His Spirit on the heart
To hallow it afresh.'
The Doxology has been left untranslated in Dr. Neale's MS.
The original hymn, ' Clamantis ecce vox sonans/ is by Nicholas
Le Toumeaux. ' What star is this with beams so bright/ is John
Chandler's translation from a hymn by Charles Coffin, ' Quae Stella
sole pulchrior.'
For the Conversion of S. Paul, (Jan. 25,) we find several hymns
applying to him Jacob's prophecy concerning his tribe of Benjamin, 1
1 Gen. xlix. 27.
1 8 English Hymnology.
especially two from the Paris Breviary — the Rev. Francis Pott's
1 The shepherd now was smitten/ l and the Rev. J. Chandler's
"Gainst what foemen art thou rushing?' 2 The same idea will be
found in 'To-day in Thine Apostle shine,' Dr. Wordsworth's
hymn for this day.
For the Purification, (Feb. 2,) we have the hymn, ' Blest are the
pure in heart/ (taken partly from the Christian Year,) and Caswall's
translation from the Paris Breviary, 3 ' O Sion, open wide thy gates.'
There are several other renderings of this hymn ; but on the whole
we have certainly fewer hymns for this festival than we should expect
to find.
1 Pastore percusso, minas.
2 Quos in hostes, Saule, tendis. 3 Templi sacratas pande, Syon, fores.
III.
HYMNS FOR SEPTUAGESIMA, ETC.— FOR LENT, AND FOR
HOLY WEEK.
The commemoration of God's creating the world in perfect beauty
and purity, marred so soon after by the fall of man, occupies our
hymns at Septuagesima. With the remembrance of our first parents'
sin comes the necessity to suspend the joyous Alleluias of Christmas :
and the Sequence of Godescalcus may fitly be used as a ' farewell to
Alleluia.' It is admirably given, with easy and expressive music, in
' Hymns Ancient and Modern,' where Dr. Neale's version has been
adopted almost unaltered. It begins ' The strain upraise of joy and
praise, Alleluia I' 1 Very familiar to us are those other words of the
same translator. ' Alleluia, song of sweetness,' 2 which so beautifully
contrast the often interrupted strains of earthly praise with the
undying ' triumph song ' of that ' true Jerusalem and free ' which is
' the Mother of us all' 3 To the same purpose, but with less poetry,
speaks the Paris Breviary hymn, by Charles Coffin, 4 known to us in
the version based on J. Chandler's translation, ' Creator of the world,
to Thee. ; Isaac Williams has rendered very successfully another of
this author's hymns from the same Breviary, ' O Lord, in perfect
bliss above.' 5 Chandler's version, ' Thou, great Creator, art pos-
sessed,' is given in the Sarum Hymnal. The Septuagesima poem of
the Christian Year, ' There is a book, who runs may read,' was
written at least as early as 1819, eight years before its publication,
'Jesus is God, the solid earth,' is part of a beautiful hymn on the
Creation, by Faber. For Sexagesima may be used several hymns on
the Parable of the Sower, which forms the Gospel for this day : —
1 ' Cantemus cuncti melodum nunc Alleluia !' It occurs in a Stuttgart Breviary.
2 4 Alleluia, dulce carmen.' — Magdeburg Breviary. Author unknown.
3 Gal. iv. 26. 4 Te loeta, mundi Conditor.
3 Rebus creatis nil egens
20 English Hymnology.
perhaps the most popular of them is by the Rev. John Cawood, —
' Almighty God, Thy Word is cast.' Heber's hymn on the same
subject is too little known ; it begins, ' O God, by whom the seed is
given.'
The Rev. Lewis Hensley's hymn for Sexagesima, ' How brief the
story of man's first estate,' ends with a stanza descriptive of the
' better Eden,' which has some beauty ; —
' The Tree of Life shall bear the whole year long,
And ciystal founts with living water flow :
No note of sadness mingle with the song
Of saints who fear no curse, no death, no woe.'
For Quinquagesima we have a beautiful hymn by Bishop
Wordsworth, 'Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost,' and Bishop Mant's
hymn, ' Holy Spirit, in my breast,' besides I. Williams's translation
from Charles Coffin's Paris Breviary hymn, 1 ' Great Mover of all
hearts, Whose Hand;' — all illustrating the Collect and the Epistle
for the day. In ' How blest were they who walked in love,' their
translation of Coffin's ' Vos ante Christi tempora,' the compilers of
' Hymns Ancient and Modern ' have availed themselves of both
Williams's and Chandler's versions.
Lent brings us a great mass of ancient hymns, of which our trans-
lators have, to speak generally, scarcely produced satisfactory
renderings. The old Ambrosian vespers hymn 2 reads much better
in Drummond's version than in Dr. Neale's, ' O Maker of the world,
give ear,' improved in ' Hymns Ancient and Modern ' to * O merciful
Creator, hear,' which is the same as Drummond's first line. The
second verse in Drummond is perhaps the best : —
' Thou mildest Searcher of the heart,
Who knowest the weakness of our strength,
To us forgiving grace impart,
That we may seek Thy Face at length.'
1 ' Supreme Motor cordium. ' See p. 8. There is a much better translation of
his hymn by J. R. Woodford in the Sarum Hymnal.
2 ' Audi, benigne Conditor.' This hymn is also ascribed to Prudentius and
Gregory. See Daniel, Th. Hymn, I., 179.
English Hyvmology. 21
Bishop Doane's S. M. version of this hymn, ' Father of mercies,
hear,' is given in the Sarum Hymnal. Of the Sunday matins hymn,
by S. Ambrose, 1 Dr. Neale's altered version, ' By precepts taught of
ages past,' is perhaps the most successful. Caswall's, ' Now with the
slow revolving year,' is deficient in dignity ; Chambers's, ' In solemn
course, as holy lore,' is spoilt by such stilted language as ' Curtail
superfluous mirth.' The Sarum Breviary Vespers hymn for Midlent
Sunday, 2 ' Behold the accepted time appear,' is much better rendered
by the same translator. Dr. Neale's version begins ' Lo ! now is our
accepted day,' and is given with alterations in ' Hymns Ancient and
Modern.' Caswall's rendering of the Roman Breviary hymn for
lauds, 8 ' When darkness fleets, and joyful earth,' is a beautiful
morning hymn for Lent. Chandler's translation from the Paris
Breviary Lent hymn for lauds, 4 ' The solemn season calls us now,'
is much improved in ' Hymns Ancient and Modern ' — ' Once more the
solemn season calls.' ' Christian, dost thou see them,' 5 imitated by
Dr. Neale from S. Andrew of Crete, is given with some improve-
ment, and the omission of the last verse in ' The People's Hymnal.'
•'And wilt Thou pardon, Lord,' is Dr. Neale's translation from S.
Joseph of the Studium. 6 The Stuttgard Breviary contains a hymn 7
which the Rev. John William Hewett has well translated, ' O Thou
Who dost to man accord.' Copeland's translation of the Quadra-
gesima vespers hymn in the Sarum Breviary, - O Christ, that art
the Light and Day,' 8 deserves to be mentioned ; — it is much altered,
and on the whole improved, in ' Hymns Ancient and Modem.' From
the German we have one grand hymn of Crasselius, 9 ' Awake, O man,
and from thee shake,' in Miss Winkworth's translation, but the peculiar
metre in which it is written, prevents its being widely adopted.
Of Lent Hymns, originally written in English, one of the oldest is
1 Ex more docti mystico.
2 ' Ecce tempus idoneum,' ascribed to Gregory. 3 O sol salutis, intimis.
4 Solemne nos jcjunii.
6 Ou yap /3\^7reis roi>s rapdrTOvras. ° TcDv ap-apnuv p.ov rr\v tv\t}6vv.
7 ' Summi Largitor praemii.' In the Annotated Edition of ' Hymns Ancient and
Modern,' I have wrongly ascribed this hymn to Gregory.
s ( IHRISTE, Qui Lux es et Dies. 9 (Snwacfy, 9Renf$, cm\iifc.
22 English Hymnology.
John Market or Marckant's Humble Lamentation of a Sinner, ' O
Lord, turn not Thy Face from me.' Bishop Heber's altered version
of it l lacks much of the fire and spirit of the original. A hymn by
the Rev. J. D. Carlyle, 'Lord, when we bend before Thy Throne,'
has lost much by the omission of two stanzas, which, though not of
equal merit with the rest, are necessary to the plan of the hymn,
which seeks for hope in answer to confession ; for faith to assist our
prayers, and to make us feel that they are heard, even though denied ;
and for love to tell us that God is our Father, in answer to our
hymns. The omitted verses are as follows : —
' When our responsive tongues essay
Their grateful hymns to raise,
Grant that our souls may join the lay,
And mount to Thee in praise.
' Then, on Thy Glories while we dwell,
Thy mercies we'll review ;
Till Love Divine transported tell
Our God 's our Father too.'
This hymn was a favourite one, as it appears, of Lady Flora
Hastings, and being found in her handwriting, was, after her death,
wrongly ascribed to her. Heber has a beautiful Lent hymn, ' Lord
of mercy and of might.' 2 Some of the concluding stanzas of a poem
in ' The Baptistery,' by I. Williams, have found a place in many of
our hymn-books. They begin, ' Lord, in this Thy mercy's Day,'
and are taken from ' Image the twentieth ; — The day of days, or the
Great Manifestation.' The Canterbury Hymnal has an excellent
emendation of the last line, ' Ltst we nrc-er see Thy Face.' ' Out of
the deep I call ' was written by Sir H. Baker for the ' Appendix to
Hymns Ancient and Modern.' For the same collection Caswall him-
self altered his hymn, beginning ' If there be any special thing ' into
the much more suitable ' O Jesu Christ, if aught there be.' ' Weary
of earth, and laden with my sin,' is from the Rev. S. J. Stone's Lyra
1 Given in Sir Roundell Palmer's 'Book of Praise.'
2 Two versions of it are given in his own collection, one for the Circumcision,
the other for Quinquagesima.
English Hymnology. 23
Fidelium. Only the last two lines are materially altered. The new
version of the Fifty-first Psalm, ' Have mercy, Lord, on me,' has
three stanzas (1, 2, and 10) which form a Lent hymn in several
collections. Other verses have been selected, but not very happily,
by the S. P. C. K., and in ' Hymns Fitted to the Order of Common
Prayer.' Anstice has a hymn on the Temptation of our Lord, which
we may be surprised not to find more generally inserted in hymn-
books, ' Lord, in the desert bleak and bare.' A poem, of which
the original appeared in ' The 1?enny Post,' Vol. VI., p. 60, 1 has
supplied the material for the beautiful hymn, ' Forty days and forty
nights.' Miss Ada Cambridge has written a hymn which ought to
become popular, in spite of some blemishes of expression : — ' Humbly
now, with deep contrition.' We cannot tell on what grounds Greville
Phillimore's awkward lines, ' Not for three or four transgressions,'
have been admitted into the Sarum Hymnal. We must only mention
three more general hymns for Lent : — ' Thy Works, not mine, O
Christ,' by Dr. Bonar, — ' Saviour, when in dust to Thee,' by Sir
R. Grant, (largely altered in most collections) — and, 'In sorrow
and distress,' by Bishop Wordsworth. For the Fifth Sunday in
Lent, regarded as ' Passion Sunday,' perhaps the most appropriate
hymn is one varied from Cowper's ' The Saviour ! what a noble
flame,' by W. J. Hall, ' Oh, what unbounded Zeal and Love.' It is,
however, too much altered. The best known of our ancient hymns 2
for this day is due to Venantius Fortunatus ; and its most popular
translation is by Dr. Neale, ' The Royal Banners forward go.' ' Jesu,
grant me this, I pray,' is Sir H. Baker's translation from a Latin
hymn 3 about which Daniel can give no information as to author-
ship, date, or source.
There is a beautiful American hymn by the Rev. Charles William
Everest, M.A., of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, ' Take up
Thy cross, the Saviour said,' first printed in ' Visions of Death, and
other Poems,' 1833. The following is a faithful copy of the original
1 The initials there given are those of the Rev. George Hunt Smyttan.
2 ' Vexilla Regis prodeunt.' In the third verse, there is an allusion to the Italic
Version of Psalm xcvi. 10, in which text Justin Martyr accuses the Jews of sup-
pressing the words ' from the tree.' 3 Dignare me, O Jesu, rogo Te.
24 English Hymnology.
which, as may be seen, has been much altered in the collec-
tions : —
' Take up thy cross ! the Saviour said,
If thou wouldst My disciple be :
Take up thy cross, with willing heart,
And humbly follow after Me.
' Take up thy cross ! let not its weight
Fill thy weak soul with vain alarm ;
His strength shall bear thy spirit up,
And brace thy heart, and nerve thine arm.
' Take up thy cross ! nor heed the shame,
And let thy foolish pride be still :
Thy Lord refused not e'en to die
Upon a Cross, on Calvary's hill.
' Take up thy cross, then, in His strength,
And calmly Sin's wild deluge brave :
'Twill guide thee to a better home,
It points to glory o'er the grave.
' Take up thy cross, and follow on,
Nor think till death to lay it down ;
For only he who bears the cross,
May hope to wear the glorious crown ! '
There is a somewhat similar hymn in Monsell's Parish Musings —
' Take up thy cross, my soul, nor grieve.' Kelly's hymn, 'We sing
the praise of Him Who died/ and Watts's magnificent lines, ' When
I survey the wondrous Cross,' are also appropriate. Palm Sunday
brings us the beautiful hymn 1 composed in the prison at Metz by S.
Theodulph of Orleans, which gained liberty for its author from the
emperor. ' Glory and laud and honour,' is Dr. Neale's translation,
of which only the first line is changed, and, as he owns, improved, in
' Hymns Ancient and Modern.' Dean Milman's hymn, ' Ride on,
ride on in Majesty!' is given for this day in Heber's 'Hymns.'
Heber's own hymn, * Hosanna to the living Lord,' appointed by
its author for Advent Sunday, may be also used on Palm Sunday.
For Holy Week we have innumerable hymns, many of them not
1 Gloria, laus, et honor.
English Hymnology.
entirely restricted of necessity to that solemn season. One part of
S. Bernard's hymn, 1 in the same metre as Gerhardt's German version, 2
is by Sir H. W. Baker — ' O sacred Head, surrounded.' It must be
distinguished from J. W. Alexander's translation from Gerhardt, ' O
sacred Head, now wounded.' 'Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle '
is, though much improved from Dr. Neale's translation, one of the
least satisfactory hymns in the 'Appendix to Hymns Ancient and
Modern.' The original 3 is by Venantius Fortunatus. The i Stab at
Mater dolorosa' of Jacopone da Todi is best known to us in the
translation in ' Hymns Ancient and Modern,' taken partly from
CaswalPs 'At the Cross, her station keeping,' but chiefly from Bishop
Mant. Being mostly, in the original, addressed to the Blessed Virgin
as a prayer, no very close rendering of it for English use is possible.
Bishop Mant's first two stanzas run thus, —
1 By the cross, sad vigil keeping,
Stood the mother doleful, weeping,
Where her Son extended hung ;
For her soul, of joy bereaved,
Smit with anguish, deeply grieved,
Lo ! the piercing sword had wrung.
' O how sad and sore distressed
Now was she, that mother blessed
Of the Sole-begotten One !
Woe-begone, with heart's prostration,
Mother meek, the bitter passion
Saw she of her glorious Sox.'
Dr. Mant has imitated still more freely an ancient hymn (either by S.
Ambrose or Venantius Fortunatus) in his lines beginning, ' See the
destined day arise/ 4 A hymn, somewhat similar in the English
though widely different in the original, is, ' In the Lord's atoning
Grief,' 5 Canon Oakeley's translation from S. Bonaventura, a Cardinal
of Alba in the thirteenth century. This hymn would be more gene-
rally acceptable if one or two faults of taste had been corrected. S.
1 ' Salve Caput cruentatum.' There is some doubt concerning Bernard's claim to
the authorship.
2 £) fiavtyt, soil 33(ut unb Q&untcn. 3 Pange lingua gloriosi lauream certaminis.
From ' Lustra sex Qui jam peregit.' 5 In Passione Domini.
2 ."
ran on I : o, inspire j t y : ". i e contenip I .
.zi:s: :; ; ':. _ :obe
really song from the heart by a congreg alls
:r:.-f".:.: .-. ii 7z_z 1.: r Ir.tr — :■.::'. r ::._::.' is :':.::-. : . in m :s:
:.: . .-^:::f A i :::;.::._ .. Ertvinry i;yn_n ::" :ht 5tvtn:ttn:i;
centnry 3 Ins been trans 1:. Neale, 'Raise, nise thine e
ii - . with alterations in ■ Hymns
and II ere the metre .und rhymes are slightly changed, coin-
ciding in some erses .i. a rendering by the Rev. F. Pott. It may
be Ln:trt=:in; :; :;zir.irt :hr :h::i verit in :i:t :"•": :r :.;i;.- ::.:
7 ■ '
I ' .
F:::.
Of the same date with this hymn, or e -.:. are two R:
instated by Caswall — ■ He Who once in
wngpgnrp/ * and ' O'erwhelmed in depths of woe ;' 4 one by Sir H.
ow, my souL I _ ' from the Paris, and
another, ~ reep no more," 5 from the Roman Bre
iament; behold your God/ is altered from Chandlers
translation of Coffin's 'Logete, pacis angeli.' 'Angels of pe
7: - Av. : V.
' '-■-- -: . :--.:..-.-. " -.-: - :;7.:.:i :_-'::zt.
: ?::-- . - -t.-_i . :.— -.
English Hymnology.
look down from heaven and mourn,' in the Sarum Hymnal, is I.
Williams's translation. ' Glory be to Jesus,' is Caswali's translation
of an Italian indulgence-prayer. 1 Chandler's translation, ' His trial
o'er, and now beneath A Friday hymn, deserves especial
mention. The hymn in 'The People's Hymnal,' byT. W. C, which
embodies the seven Words on the Cross, * Draw near, thou lowly
Christian,' is less devotional than Miss Cox's translation, ' Seven times
our blessed Saviour spake.' 3 ' O come and mourn with me awhile/
is much improved for English use by the changes from Fabers original
made in ' Hymns Ancient and Modern.' ' Rock of Ages, cleft for
me.' Toplady's world-renowned hymn, is founded on the marginal
rendering of I 4. It first appeared in the Gospd Magazine
for March. 1776, entitled, • A Living and Dying Prayer for the Holiest
Believer in the World.' Mr. Bridges has evidently imitated it in his
hymn, ' Soul of Jesus, once for me.' We owe chiefly to the Hon.
and Rev. Walter Shirley the hymn, 'Sweet the moments, rich in
blessing,' though he has evidently based his work on ''While my
Jesus I'm possessing,' by Allen. Montgomery wrote 'Go to dark
emane,' a hymn rendered appropriate to Holy Week by the
omission of the last verse, which commemorates the Resurrection.
• Hark ! the Voice of Love and Mercy,' is attributed to Jonathan
Evans, but his claim to it is disputed. For Easter Eve we have a
beautiful hymn by Dr. Neale, ' With Christ we share a mystic grave, 1
appropriate for Baptisms. The somewhat rugged lines of
Whytehead's ' Sabbath of the saints of old,' have been re-cast into
a beautiful hymn, * Resting from His Work to-day. 1 isworth's,
1 Upon the sixth day of the week,' would supply another, if treated
somewhat simi".
For S. Mat: 24) there is scarcely any hymn of high merit
to be found. The best is perhaps by Gerard Moultrie, — ; Bishop of
the souls of men.' Dr. Xo longer Thou in human
form,' is woefully below his usual standard of excellence. On the
1 v.
Opprobrii- ur. (Par. Brev. Passion Sunday at noctaras.)
28 English Hymnology
Annunciation (March 25) may be sung ' Praise we the Lord this
day/ a hymn published anonymously at Oxford in 1846; Dr. Neale's
translation from Venantius Fortunatus, ' The God Whom earth,
and sea, and sky;' x and W. W. How's 'Jesus! Name of wondrous
Love ! ' We cannot entirely recommend Sir H. Baker's hymn ' Shall
we not love thee, Mother dear/ though we fail to see in it any grave
doctrinal error.
1 Quern terra, pontus, tethera. (Rom. Brev.)
IV.
EASTER, ASCENSIONTIDE, WHITSUNTIDE, AND TRINITY
SUNDA Y HYMNS.
If, like our Lord and His disciples, 1 the Church sings hymns in the
very presence of His hours of suffering, yet are her strains then few
and low compared with the songs of triumph with which she con-
tinues to celebrate His victory, until once more she is summoned
to the Mount of Olives to receive His parting blessing. A Greek
hymn 2 of the eighth century, by S. John Damascene, for Easter Day,
has become deservedly popular in Dr. Neale's translation, 'Tis the
day of resurrection.' From the same 'Golden Canon' two other
hymns might be adopted, almost unaltered, for English use — ' Let us
rise in early morning,' 3 and ' Thou hallowed chosen morn of praise.' 4
The latter is given in the ' People's Hymnal,' from Neale's first
edition, thus losing some excellent corrections made in the later
copies of his work. ' Come ye faithful, raise the strain,' is Dr. Neale's
translation from S. John Damascene's Canon for S. Thomas's Sun-
day. 5 A long Latin hymn for Easter, by S. Ambrose, 6 appears,
variously divided into two or three parts, in our hymn-books. The
version in ' Hymns Ancient and Modern,' ' Light's glittering morn
bedecks the sky,' is based on Dr. Neale's. The two following
specimens are translated from the Roman Breviary : —
'The dawn is purpling o'er the sky,
The air with Alleluias shakes,
The glad earth shouts her triumph high,
Hell in each shuddering cavern quakes.'
Rev. W. J. Copland.
1 S. Matt. xxvi. 30. - WvcMTTaaeus ij/xepa. The irregularity of the first
line is corrected in most of the hymnals. 3 'OpOpiaupLev opdpov (Sadtos.
4 Avtt] i] kXtjttj. ° "A(TU}p.€i/, iravres Xdot.
f> ' Aurora lucis rutilat ' CSarum Breviary). The version given in the Roman
Breviary, ■ Aurora ccelum purpurat,' is much altered from the original.
30 Englisli Hymnology.
'The dawn was purpling o'er the sky ;
With Alleluias rang the air ;
Earth held a glorious jubilee,
Hell gnashed its teeth in fierce despair.'
Rev. E. Caswall.
Another Ambrosian hymn, 1 also in the Sarum Breviary, is improved
from Dr. Neale's rendering, 'The Lamb's high banquet we await;' in
' Hymns Ancient and Modern,' ' The Lamb's high banquet called to
share/ Two recast versions, much inferior in the Latin, have sup-
plied English hymns of at least equal merit w r ith those translated
from the original. The first, 2 in the Roman Breviary, gives us ' At
the Lamb's high feast we sing/ translated for the 'S. Andrew's
Hymnal,' by Robert Campbell. From the original MS. of this
translation it would seem to have been intended as a sort of Easter
adaptation from Wesley's ' Hark ! the herald-angels sing.' There is
another translation, by Copeland, ' In garments dight of virgin
white,' very beautiful, but less fitted for church use. The Paris
Breviary contains a hymn 3 imitated by Charles Coffin from the
same Latin original. The following translation from S. Fulbert of
Chartres, 4 in common metre, is much more spirited than Dr. Neale's
(which begins similarly) in long metre. It is due to Robert Camp-
bell, editor of the ' S. Andrew's Hymnal.' It has been altered
somewhat in later collections.
1 Ye choirs of New Jerusalem,
Your sweetest notes employ,
The Paschal Victory to hymn
In strains of holy joy.
1 How Judah's Lion burst His chains,
And crushed the Serpent's head,
And brought with Him from death's domains
The long imprisoned dead.
' From hell's devouring jaws the prey
Alone our Leader bore ;
His ransomed hosts pursue their way
Where He hath gone before.
Ad ccenam Agni providi. 2 Ad regias Agni dapes.
3 Forti tegente Brachio. Chorus Nov?e Jerusalem.
EnglisJi Hymnology . 3 1
'Triumphant in His glory now,
His sceptre ruleth all :
Earth, heaven, and hell, before Him bow,
And at His footstool fall.
' While joyful thus His praise we sing,
His mercy we implore,
Into His palace bright to bring,
And keep us evermore.
' Through times unknown to earthly thought,
O Father, praise to Thee,
To Him Who our deliverance wrought,
And to the Spirit be.
One of the most jubilant ' proses ' of the French Service-books, 1 the
composition of an unknown author in the twelfth century, has
suffered sadly from sundry efforts to torture it into an English hymn.
The least unfortunate rendering is perhaps by J. D. Chambers, —
'Children of men, rejoice and sing!' Dr. Neale's, 'Ye sons and
daughters of the King,' is made most unnecessarily worse in 'Hymns
Ancient and Modern/ ('0 sons and daughters, let us sing,') where it
has indeed become a ' prosaic and meaningless ditty/ 2 A much
more pleasing hymn, in the same metre, ' The strife is o'er, the
battle done,' is the Rev. F. Pott's translation of a twelfth-century
Easter hymn. 3 Dr. Neale's, retaining the very peculiar metre of the
original, is too evidently constrained by the exigencies of its rhymes.
It begins thus : —
' Alleluia ! Alleluia !
Finished is the battle now ;
The crown is on the Victor's brow !
Hence with sadness !
Sing with gladness
Alleluia ! '
Dr. Bonar's version : —
1 Alleluia ! Alleluia !
The battle now is done,
The victory is won ;
Let us joy and sing
Alleluia ! '
1 O filii et filias. 2 R. H. Baynes. 3 Finita jam sunt prselia.
English Hymnology.
is scarcely more successful. The compilers of ' Hymns Ancient and
Modern' have themselves translated the Roman Breviary matins
hymn for ' Low Sunday/ [i.e. the First Sunday after Easter,] ' O
Christ, the heavens' Eternal King.' 1 Gaswall's version, ' O Thou
the heavens' Eternal King,' is in common metre. A very free
translation from the ' Salve Festa Dies ' for Easter, beginning, ' Hail !
Day of days, in peals of praise,' is ascribed to Copeland in ' The
People's Hymnal,' but is not in his published book. There is a
very beautiful translation of this hymn by Rev. John Ellerton,
' Welcome, happy morning.' It is given in Mr. Snepp's ' Songs of
Grace and Glory.' Copeland is the translator of the Sarum Breviary
compline hymn 3 as given in 'Hymns Ancient and Modern,' 'Jesu,
the world's redeeming Lord,' but his work has been much improved.
The twelfth-century ' prose ' in the Roman and Paris Missals 3 is
freely imitated in
' Christ the Lord is risen to-day ;
Christians, haste your vows to pay ! '
There seem to be scarcely sufficient grounds for ascribing this trans-
lation to a Miss Leeson, whom Mr. Sedgwick supposes to be the
author. More literal translations are, ' Praise to the Paschal Victim
bring,' in the ' People's Hymnal,' and Dr. Neale's ' To the Paschal
Victim.'
One of the oldest German hymns, composed by Michael Weiss, 4
has been beautifully translated by Miss Winkworth, — ' Christ the
Lord is risen again.' More than a century later than Weiss, Louisa
Henrietta, Electress of Brandenburgh, wrote her Easter hymn, 5 also
found in Miss Winkworth's Lyra Germanica — 'Jesus my Redeemer
lives.' C. F. Gellert's Easter hymn, 6 which somewhat resembles
this, belongs to the eighteenth century. Miss Cox's translation of
it, ' Jesus lives ! No longer now,' is somewhat spoiled in sixteen col-
lections now lying before us, every one of which has omitted the
last two lines of each stanza. Miss Cox's original may be seen in
1 Rex Sempiterne coelitum. 2 Jesu Salvator sceculi.
n Victimce Paschali laudes. 4 GljrifhiS ift evfknten. 5 Sefufl mctnc Btn>erji<$t.
6 3cfu3 (cfrt ! nut 3f;m and; id;.
English Hymnology. 33
* Hymns from the German, by F. E. Cox,' or in ' Lyra Messianica,'
for which it was revised by the authoress. Luther's Easter hymn, —
' In the bonds of Death he lay,' in Miss C. Winkworth's translation,
— can only be used on the morning of Easter Day.
The Easter hymn, 'Jesus Christ is risen today ! Alleluia!' has
been traced by Mr. Sedgwick to a school-book of sacred history,
printed at Northampton about the middle of the eighteenth century,
written by one C. B., probably a pupil or friend of Dr. Doddridge.
L T nhappily, all the old records of its printers were destroyed in a fire
at the Mercury office a few years ago. Mrs. Alexander's % Easter
hymn, ' He is risen, He is risen !' is scarcely so beautiful as most of
her sacred poetry. The hymn
' Christ the Lord is risen to-day
Sons of men and angels say,'
is by Charles Wesley. Dr. Xeale wrote, partly in imitation of
ancient sequences, the irregularly divided lines beginning, ' The foe
behind, the sea before.' ' The happy morn is come,' by Haweis, is
a fine hymn, though it is perhaps improved by the alterations with
which the Rev. R. H. Baynes prints it in ' The Canterbury Hymnal,'
where it begins —
' Lo ! the glad morn is come ;
The Lord is risen indeed
Victorious from the tomb ;
He hath His people freed !
Thy praise we sing, the Church's Head,
O Thou Who livest and wast dead ! '
Heber's hymn, ' God is gone up with a merry noise,' is much more
appropriate for Ascension ' Day. Wordsworth's 'Alleluia! Alleluia!
Hearts to Heaven and voices raise,' is exceedingly beautiful, yet
falls short of his other hymn, ' In Thy glorious Resurrection,' which
echoes, in no faint tones, the poetry of Adam of S. Victor, in whose
style it is written, and whose Easter sequences 2 it cannot fail to
recall. Monsell's beautiful Easter hymn, 'Christ is risen! Alleluia!'
1 (Shrift laq in Xobtffaiften.
2 Especially ' Ecce Dies Celebris ' and ' Zyma vetus expurgetur.'
D
34 English Hymnology
and H. Bonar's, 'The tomb is empty; wouldst thou have it full?'
must be mentioned. The hymn which in Thomas Kelly's original
begins, ' He's gone ; see where His Body lay/ has been in the
collections mostly altered to * Come, see the place where Jesus lay.'
This is the first line of a hymn by the Rev. A. T. Russell, but
Kelly wrote another quite different hymn, beginning —
' Come, ye saints, look here and wonder ;
See the place where Jesus lay.'
For Rogationtide, Keble's hymn, 'Lord, in Thy Name Thy
servant^ plead/ written for the 'Salisbury Hymn-Book' in 1857,
may be used ; and on the three Rogation days, Neale's ' Till its holy
hours are past.' Perhaps the only hymn of Sir H. Baker's that can be
regarded as in any sense a failure, is that which he has adapted to
the tune of a German litany, 1 from which, indeed, the words of its
first verse are imitated.
Ascensiontide is very rich in hymns. One of the most interesting, 2
as to its history, has come to us from S. Bede. The Ascension was
a favourite theme with him, and was one of the last subjects of his
song. It is well translated in Hymnal Noted, 3 ' Sing we triumphant
hymns of praise,' but better still in Mrs. Charles's, ' A hymn of glory
let us sing.' S. Ambrose's hymn for Ascension Day 4 is much im-
proved from Dr. Neale's ' Eternal Monarch, King most high,' in
' Hymns Ancient and Modern,' where it begins, 'O Lord most high,
Eternal King.' Copeland's translation, ' King Eternal, Power un-
bounded,' begins well, but breaks down in the last two stanzas. The
Paris Breviary vespers hymn for Ascension Day 5 has been greatly
altered from Chandler's version in 'Hymns Ancient and Modern/ 'O
Saviour, Who for man hast trod.' There is a much more spirited
version in ' The People's Hymnal/ altered from W. J. Blew —
'Anointed One ! Thy work is done.' The hymn in the same
Breviary for lauds 6 (' O Christ, our Hope, our heart's Desire/
1 ,33.atev, wn tern tyikfyftcu Xi)Xon.' A much better tune has been written for it
by Dr. Hayne.
2 Hymnum canamus glorise. 3 The version there given is not by Dr. Neale.
4 Sterne Rex Altissime. 5 'Opus peregisti Tuum,' by Charles Coffin.
c Jesu, nostra Redemptio.
English Hymnology. 35
in Chandler's translation, greatly surpasses the altered Latin ] in the
Roman Breviary, which Copeland has translated, 'Author of lost
man's Salvation.' The fourth ode in S. Joseph of the Studium's
Canon for Ascension Day s supplies the hymn, ' Jesus, Lord of Life
Eternal.' The stanzas are alphabetically arranged in the Greek as
well as in this (Dr. Neale's) translation. This was probably done
to assist the memory, and in imitation of the Hebrew poets. 3 J.
Zwick's Ascension hymn 4 is somewhat tamely rendered in Miss
Winkwortlrs ' To-day our Lord went up on high.'
The most popular of our English Ascension hymns, ' Hail the day
that sees Him rise,* is much improved from Charles Wesley's original
in most collections. Some of Wesley's last stanzas will be new to
many : 5 —
'Master, (will we ever say,)
Taken from our head to-day, G
See Thy faithful servants, see,
Ever gazing up to Thee.
' Ever upwards may we rove,
Wafted on the wings of Love ;
Looking when our Lord shall come,
Longing, gasping, after home :
' There we shall with Thee remain,
Partners of Thine endless reign :
There Thy Face unclouded see ;
Find our Heaven of heavens in Thee.'
1 See the Conqueror mounts in triumph,' by Up. Wordsworth, is
rather a beautiful poem than a successful hymn. "Mrs. Toke's best
hymn, 'Thou art gone up on high,' was first printed in 1S51. The
hymn from the Paris Breviary for the Octave of the Ascension, 7 ' O
Christ, Who has prepared a place,' in Chandler's translation, may
fitly be sung on the Sunday after Ascension Day. For Whitsun-Eve
1 ' Salutis humanae Sator.' See Daniel, 'Thesaurus Hymnologicus," i. p. 63.
2 'Irjaovs 6 faodoT-rjs. 3 Compare, e^r. Psalm cxix.
4 8uf bicfen Sag bebenfcn toir.
5 They are given with alterations in the S.P.C.K. collection as a separate hymn.
6 Compare 2 Kings ii. 3, 5. 7 Nobis, Olympo redditus.
36 English Hymnology.
we have ' Ruler of the hosts of light,' one of the most successful
renderings by Sir H. Baker and his co-compilers, from an anonymous
hymn in the Paris Breviary. 1 The second part of Wordsworth's last-
mentioned hymn is also suitable for this day : — ' Holy Ghost,
Illuminator.'
Many of the Latin Whitsun Day hymns 2 contain some reference to the
giving of the Law, which the Jews commemorated on this day. There is
a curious parallelism, and yet more strange contrast, between this gift and
that of the Holy Ghost. The morning's first lesson (old lectionary) of
Ascension Day takes us up the Mount Sinai with Moses, even while we
celebrate the Ascension into heaven of the 'Prophet like unto' Moses.
Whitsun Day brings from both their several gifts, the one written on
stone, the other on 'fleshy tables of the heart.' If we have no popular
translations of the hymns which thus present Whitsun Day in its double
significance, we have an English hymn, no doubt partly suggested by
them, 3 Keble's ' When God of old came down from heaven;' and they
are glanced at in Wordsworth's 'When the Lord of Hosts ascended.'
Another class of Whitsuntide hymns is addressed to the Holy Ghost.
The best known of these 4 is retained from the ancient Ordinal in our
own Ordination Service, where there are two translations given. The
first, in long metre, 5 is much the better ; it is the work of Bishop
Cosin, in whose 'Devotions ' it may be found. It begins, 'Come, Holy
Ghost, our souls inspire.' Other translations are Dryden's ' Creator
Spirit ! by Whose aid,' a free paraphrase in thirty-nine lines, and
' Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest,' by the compilers of ' Hymns
Ancient and Modern.' The authorship of the Latin hymn is variously
ascribed to Rhabanus Maurus, to Charlemagne, and to Gregory. The
Whitsun Day sequence in the Roman and Paris Missals 6 has been
popularly ascribed to Robert II. of France ; but Pitra, the editor of
1 Supreme Rector ccelitum.
2 Compare especially ' Inter sulphurei fulgura turbinis,' the Paris Breviary Whit-
sun Day hymn for nocturns.
3 ' I dare say they gave me hints, and I am glad at any rate of the coincidence.'
(Letter of Rev. J. Keble, dated December 13th, 1865.)
4 Veni Creator Spiritus.
5 It is perhaps better divided into three stanzas of six lines each.
e Veni Sancte Spiritus.
English Hymnology. 37
' Spicilegium Solesmense] assigns it, on contemporary testimony, to
Stephen Langton. Caswall's translation, ' Come, Thou Holy Spirit,
come,' though less strictly following the metre of the original, is much
better than Dr. Neale's ' Come, Thou Holy Paraclete.' We also owe
to Caswall, 'Above the starry spheres,' the best rendering of the
Ambrosian hymn, 1 given in the Roman Breviary for the matins of
Whitsun Day. The hymn for lauds, written by S. Hilary, 2 has been
translated by Blew rather poorly, ' Round roll the weeks our hearts
to greet ; ' better by Copeland, ' Again the circling seasons tell.'
The alterations from his version in ' Hymns and Introits ' are all
improvements.
From the German hymn of Johann Rist 3 for Whitsun Day Miss
F. E. Cox has made a beautiful translation, ' This day sent forth His
heralds bold,' but it is hardly fitted for Church use. Paul Gerhardt's
Pentecostal Hymn 4 is known to us in two translations; that of Jacobi,
as altered by Toplady, ' Holy Ghost, dispel our sadness,' and Miss
Winkworth's, ' Sweetest joy the soul can know.' Simon Browne's
hymn —
' Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove,
My sinful maladies remove,'
is found thus altered in most collections, (perhaps first in Hall,
1836)-
'Come, Gracious Spirit, Heavenly Dove,
With Light and Comfort from above'
It must not be confounded with Watts's —
1 Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove,
With all Thy quickening Powers,'
and Hart's ' Come, Holy Spirit, come.' * Spirit of Mercy, Truth,
and Love ' is not, as commonly supposed, by the Rev. R. W. Kyle,
but much older, being first found in * Foundling Hymns.' Miss
Auber's Hymn, ' Our Blest Redeemer, ere He breathed,' is from her
' Spirit of the Psalms.' ' Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost ' is by Bishop
Wordsworth.
1 Jam Christus astra ascenderat. 2 Beata nobis gaudia.
3 £eut I;ai terijvcjie §tmmel6$crr. 4 3)u allerjupte gvcute.
38 English Hymnology.
Trinity Sunday has a beautiful hymn assigned to it in the old Anglo-
Saxon hymnaries, 1 which Chambers has well translated, ' All hail !
Adored Trinity,' and which contrasts favourably with the Paris
Breviary lauds hymn, 2 ' Blest Trinity, from mortal sight/ which even
the compilers of ' Hymns Ancient and Modern ' have been unable to
clothe with poetry. Miss Winkworth's versions of Angelus, ' Most
High and Holy Trinity/ 3 and Tersteegen, 'Thee, Fount of Blessing,
we adore/ 4 may be used, but are not equal to Heber's grand hymn
on the portion of Holy Scripture appointed for the Epistle for this
day, ' Holy, Holy, Holy ! Lord God Almighty.' ' O God of Life,
Whose Power benign/ is by A. T. Russell. In Morrell and How's
' Psalms and Hymns' it is given by mistake as 'from the German.'
' Father of Heaven, Whose Love profound/ was first printed in
Cotterill's Collection, 18 10, and in marked copies of that book is
ascribed to ' J. Cooper,' a writer otherwise unknown. Wordsworth's
' Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord ! ' and Monsell's ' Mighty Father !
Blessed Son ! ' deserve to be better known. Faber's hymn, ' Most
ancient of all mysteries ' is very good.
For S. Mark's Day (April 25th) we have scarcely any hymns spe-
cially appropriate ; those for Evangelists generally will be considered
in another paper. Dr. Wordsworth's poem in 'The Holy Year/
1 The virtues of Thy saints, O Lord,' is even less like a hymn than
Keble's ' Oh ! who shall dare in this frail scene.' SS. Philip and
James's Day (May 1st) is better provided for. Bishop Doane's 'Thou
art the Way, to Thee alone/ is appropriate to the Collect and Gospel;
Wordsworth's ' Blest be, O Lord, the grace of Love/ is one of his
best saints'-day hymns. Gurney's ' Memory of the blest departed '
is unfit for use in church. The Latin hymn, sung on the tower of
Magdalen College, Oxford, on the morning of this day, was given in
the Monthly Packet, volume xvii. p. 527, with a translation in English :
it is not specially appropriate to the Festival. Neale has written
a beautiful hymn for the day, given in his ' Hymns for Children' — 'All
is bright and cheerful round us."
1 Ave, colenda Trinitas ! 2 O Luce Qure Tua Iates.
3 £«$$etttge ©reicititgfeit. 4 ©runn alleS §etf$, Tirf> cl)vcn tohr.
HYMNS FOR SAINTS' DAYS, FOR CHURCH DEDICATION,
FOR CHORAL FESTIVALS.
Many of the festivals of the Saints have come before us already in
the course of the Church's year. There remain, however, the festivals
from June to November ; and we have besides to consider the Saints'
Day hymns of more general appropriateness.
For S. Barnabas (June 1 1) 'The People's Hymnal' gives a translation
by A. L. P. {i.e. A London Priest, Dr. R. F. Littledale, one of its
compilers) from the vespers hymn in the Paris Breviary, 1 'Thou,
Barnabas, hast won repose.' It might be possible to select verses
suitable for a hymn from Dr. Wordsworth's poem, ' Buried in heathen
darkness lay.' For S. John Baptist's two festivals, (June 24, Nat. —
August 29, Decoll.) the Paris Breviary has a long poem by Charles
Coffin, divided into six hymns. The third of these 2 has been well
translated by I. Williams, (in the metre of Tate and Brady's 148th
Psalm,) ' Lo, from the desert homes.' The original, though some-
times very homely in its language, 3 has considerable beauty. S.
Bede's hymn for this day 1 is known to us in Dr. Neale's translation,
'The great forerunner of the morn.' The Roman Breviary has a
long hymn in the same metre as that in the Paris, much older, but
not nearly equal to it. The author is Paul the Deacon, a monk of
the eighth century. From the first verse of this hymn were taken
the French names of first six notes of the scale : —
' Hit queant laxi.s rrsonare fibris
It'll ra gestorum famuli Tuorum,
•$olve polluti labii reatum,
Sancte Joannes.'
1 ' Ccelo datur quiescere.' I. Williams's version, 'Crowned with immortal
jubilee,' is given in the ' Child's Christian Year.'
2 Nunc suis tandem novus e latebris.
3 e.g., St. John is called a 'precious infant,' in the nocturns hymn.
4 Precursor altus Luminis.
40 English Hymnology
' The People's Hymnal ' attempts to present this hymn in its original
metre, with very indifferent success. 1 The translation begins,
' Greatest of prophets, messenger appointed,' and keeps clear of the
invocations of S. John which mar the original. Caswall's rendering
of part of this hymn appears in 'Hymns and Introits,' beginning, ' O
blessed Saint of snow-white purity.' 2 The Paris Breviary hymn for
the Octave of the Epiphany, 3 'Judaea's desert heard a sound,' in I.
Williams's translation, is appropriate for this Festival. Wordsworth's
hymn, ' In the wilderness prepare ye for the Lord a Way to go,' is
grand, but too long. ' When Christ the Lord would come on
earth,' is Dean Alford's beautiful hymn for S. John Baptist's Day.
Drummond's hymn, ' The last and greatest herald of Heaven's King,'
is apparently imitated from the Breviaries.
The festival of S. Peter (June 29) brings us several hymns, of
which the best is perhaps Heber's ' Creator of the rolling flood.' Of
Dr. Wordsworth's two hymns for this Saint, the second, which com-
memorates S. Peter in prison, (August i,) 4 is the more poetical; the
first, ' " Cephas and Peter," — heaven-taught name,' records the share
of S. Peter in the Gospel history. One of the most beautiful poems
in Lyra Aftglicana, ' The Apostle slept, — a light shone in the prison,'
by J. D. Burns, takes its subject from the deliverance of S. Peter.
An appropriate hymn for the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin
(July 2) is Heber's 'Virgin-born, we bow before Thee.' The Sarum
.Breviary vespers hymn for this festival is given in ' The People's
Hymnal,' 'Saints! the glorious Mother greeting,' 5 from Chambers's
translation ; it is a miserably frigid production, utterly breaking down
in both poetry and doctrine in the Doxology. Truly the day which
produced the Mag?iificat needs not such hymns as this. For S. Mary
Magdalene's Day our best hymn is that given in ' Hymns Ancient
and Modern,' partly from Caswall's translation, ' Son of the Highest,
1 Copeland has given a rendering of it in blank verse.
2 From ' O nimis felix, meritique celsi.' 3 Clamantis ecce vox sonans.
4 Lammas is said to be a corruption of ' S. Peter ad VincuLA Mass.' The hymn
begins, ' How blessed is the force of prayer.'
5 Festum Matris gloriosae.
English Hymnology. 41
deign to cast.' 1 It is perhaps scarcely fair to use hymns which
assume the identity of this saint with the ' woman which was a sin-
ner/ and with the sister of Lazarus, as is done in the York Breviary
hymn for vespers of her festival. A hymn ' for S. James's Day/* (July
25,) by Heber, ' Though sorrows rise, and dangers roll,' seems to
contain nothing specially appropriate to the day. Wordsworth's
lines, ' To-day, O Lord, the holy James,' might supply material for a
hymn.
For the Transfiguration, (August 6,) the translation from the
Sarum Breviary, 2 ' O wondrous type, O vision fair,' may be used. It
is based on Dr. Neale's, 'A type of those bright rays on high.'
Montgomery's 'When on Sinai's top I see,' has some fitness for this
festival ; but the best original English hymn for it is Dr. Words-
worth's, ' At Thy Transfiguration, Lord.' Dr. Neale has translated
a Greek hymn of S. Cosmas for this day,' 3 — ' The choirs of ransomed
Israel.' From this is taken, ' In days of old, in Sinai.' There are
several Danish Hymns suitable for this festival, but I know of
scarcely any good English translations of them.
Nearly all the hymns for S. Bartholomew's Day identify him with
Nathanael. This is done in ' The Christian Year,' and by R. C.
Coxe in 'Behold an Israelite indeed.' positively; by Bishop Words-
worth in his ' The tribes of Israel revered,' more doubtfully.
For S. Matthew's Day (September 21) Mr. W. C. Dix has written
a hymn, ' Sitting at receipt of customs,' which, though scarcely hymn-
like in some of its language, is powerful, as an appeal written by a
business-man in the name of business-men might be expected to be,
realizing the spirit of Keble's lines : —
1 There are in this loud stunning tide
Of human care and crime,
1 From 'Summi Parentis Uxice,' Roman Breviary. There seems a strange
inconsistency in the admission of a special hymn for this day by the compilers of
'Hymns Ancient and Modem,' who have not even allowed themselves a special
hymn for S. Peter.
2 ' Ccelestis formam glorire. ' In Hymnal Noted Dr. Neale has by mistake given
the first line, ' O nata Lux de lumine,' of the hymn for lauds.
8 Xopos 'la-parjX.
English Hymnology.
"With whom the melodies abide
Of the everlasting chime ;
Who cany music in their heart
Through dusky lane and wrangling mart,
Plying their daily task with busier feet,
Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat.'
Some stanzas of Wordsworth's 'Four Rivers from one holy Fount
arise,' may be used.
For the festival of S. Michael and all Angels, (September 24,) we
have Dr. Neale's cento from S. Joseph of the Studium's canon of the
'Bodiless Ones,' beginning 'Stars of the morning, so gloriously
bright' The Scotch Episcopal Collection has a beautiful hymn, by
Robert Campbell, editor of S. Andrew's Hymnal, ' They come,
God's messengers of Love,' improved in 'Hymns Ancient and
Modern.' Copeland's translation from the Roman Breviary lauds
hymn, 1 ' Christ of the holy angels light and gladness,' is too trip-
ping in its pseudo-Sapphic metre to make a really good hymn. Rist's
hymn for this festival 2 has been well translated by Miss Winkworth's
'Praise and thanks to Thee be sung.' AVe owe to the Rev. R. M.
Benson the hymn, ' Praise to God who reigns above/ wherein the
ninefold orders of the angels are enumerated. Dr. Wordsworth's
poem for this day, ' How dreadful is this place ! God's House,' needs
but little change to make it a sublime hymn. Toplady's 'Inspirer
and Hearer of prayer,' though its metre 3 is unfortunate, has much
beauty. ' Behold the glories of the Lamb ' in the Sarum Hymnal is
Keble's variation from Watts's ' Come let us join our cheerful songs,'
' O God the Son Eternal, Thy dread might,' is altered from ' Oh
Captain of God's Host, Whose dreadful might,' Heber's hymn for
this day. ' O ye immortal throng' is by Philip Doddridge, (1755).
'Around the throne in circling band' is by Dr. Neale, written in
1850. ' Bright the vision that delighted,' is by Bishop Mant.
S. Luke's Day (October 18) brings us not many hymns. In the
1 Christe, sanctorum Decus angelorum.
2 (Bbx uub £>anf fci £iv gefungen.
3 It is perhaps needless to caution any one against attempting to give it a long
metre tune.
EnglisJi Hymnology. 43
Rev. R. R. Chope's hymnal, the lines, ' Behold, and see Christ's
chosen saint,' are adapted from the Christian Year. Dr. Wordsworth
has given two scarcely poetical summaries of the two books written
by S. Luke. A much more successful hymn is ' O Saviour of our
earthly race,' by the late Rev. Joseph Francis Thrupp. The early
death of its author has been a real loss to Hymnology, as well as to
several other departments of religious literature. The Rev. Gerard
Moultrie has contributed to ' The People's Hymnal ' verses of some
beauty, beginning, ' O Jesu, O Redeemer.'
It is worth while to notice, in passing, a very excellent hymn for S.
Crispin's Day, (October 25,) by W. C. Dix, beginning, ' O Christ,
Thou Sox of Mary.' The second verse is especially good : —
' Our feet be shod, as pilgrims,
With bands of Gospel peace,
Till life's long march be ended,
And strife and struggle cease :
Till on the ground most holy,
Our shoes from off our feet
We put, with holy gladness, —
The pilgrimage complete.'
Its author advocates the use of similarly appropriate hymns on other
minor festivals ; but unfortunately our knowledge of the histories
which would supply the material for such hymns is exceedingly
limited. Even in the case of the two Apostles, SS. Simon and Jude ;
whose festival (October 28) comes next before us, our scanty in-
formation causes a corresponding dearth of hymns. Neale's hymn.
1 Saints of God, whom faith united,' makes scarcely any reference to
their history, but has much intrinsic beauty, connecting the idea of
autumn with Christian thoughts in much the same way that ' All is
bright and cheerful round us ' — his hymn for SS. Philip and James —
treats the idea of spring. Wordsworth's first four and last three
stanzas of the hymn beginning ' When Thou, O Lord, didst send the
Twelve,' treats what is known of SS. Simon and Jude more fully. ^
All Saints' Day brings us two Greek hymns, S. John Damascene's, 1
Tds i8pas ras aluvias.
44- EnglisJi Hymnology.
'Those eternal bowers' in Neale's translation, and a cento from the
canon for SS. Timothy and Maura, by S. Joseph of the Studium, 1
which the same translator has rendered ' Let our choir new anthems
raise.' The Paris Breviary hymn for lauds of the vigil of this day 2 is
well translated in I. Williams's 'O heavenly Jerusalem.' W. Palmer's
translation of the prose from the Paris Missal, 3 ' Spouse of Christ, in
arms contending,' is beautiful. The magnificent German hymn of
Theodore Schenk 4 is known to us in two translations, Miss Wink-
worth's 'Who are those before God's Throne/ and Miss F. E. Cox's
still more beautiful 'Who are these like stars appearing.' Miss
Winkworth has only translated ten of the original fourteen stanzas.
Bishop Mant's hymn, ' For all Thy Saints, O Lord,' appears in an
altered form as the last of ' Hymns Ancient and Modern.' Words-
worth's ' Hark the sound of holy voices,' is one of the finest hymns
he ever wrote. Anstice's hymn for All Saints' Day, ' What countless
crowd on Sion stands,' has some similarity to Wesley's ' What are
these arrayed in white,' which again resembles Dr. Watts's 'What happy
men or angels these.' Mary Lundie Duncan is the author of the
lines begining ' Lo, round the Throne, a glorious band.' A memoir
of this writer was published by her mother, Mrs. Lundie. She died
in 1840, aged only 25. Another paraphrase of the same text 5 is
better known in Cameron's variation, ' How bright those glorious
spirits shine,' than in its original form : —
' These glorious minds, how bright they shine !
Whence all their bright array ?
How came they to the happy seats
Of everlasting day ?'
Sir Roundell Palmer has given the re-cast version in his ' Book of
Praise.' 6
1 TcD?' lepQtv dd\o(p6po}v.
2 Ccelestis O Jerusalem. 3 Sponsa Christi quae per orbem.
4 20cr ftnb tie sot ©otteg Zijvcne. 5 Rev. vii. 13-17.
6 He has, however, taken a modern hymnal very severely to task for adopting
Cameron's variation from Doddridge's ' Hark ! the glad sound ! the Saviour
comes.'
English Hymnology. 45
Hymns common to all festivals of saints are mostly of modern
date. Heber's hymn for S. Stephen's Day may be thus used, and
Bishop M ant's hymn, ' O Jesu, Source of sanctity/ ' From all Thy
saints in warfare/ was written by Lord Nelson for the Sarum
Hymnal. ' For all Thy saints, who from their labours rest,' is by the
Rev. W. W. How. Wesley's hymn, ' Come let us join our friends
above/ is improved in the re-cast version, ' Let saints on earth in
concert sing.' Few hymns for Apostles come to us from very early
times. One of the first is by S. Ambrose, 1 of which CaswalTs
rendering, ' The Lord's eternal Gifts,' is far more spirited than Dr.
Xeale's, ' The eternal Gifts of Christ the King/ Mr. Woodford's
version, ' The eternal Spirit's Gifts,' is also good. J. B. Santeul has
contributed to the Paris Breviary a very remarkable hymn, 2 which
I. Williams has well translated, ' Disposer Supreme/ It needs some
explanation, and the following analysis of it may not be unaccept-
able : —
' How does the Judge of the world choose for His ministers the poor and
unlearned; (1 Cor. i. 27) as treasures (2 Cor. iv. 7) or lamps (Judges vii. 16-20)
have been sometimes placed in earthen pitchers. The pitchers are broken, — the
lights shine forth at the word of command, and the trumpets sound 3 as they also
sounded before Jericho, (Joshua, vi. 20,) overthrowing the strongholds of Satan.
(2 Cor. x. 4.) May we awaken from sin at the sound of the Gospel, not delaying
till the archangel's trump is blown. May we be illumined by this light, not walking
in darkness, lest we be cast at last into the outer darkness, which no beams of mercy
shall ever pierce.'
The Paris Breviary lauds hymn, by Santolius Victorinus, 4 ' Captains
of the saintly band ' in Sir H. W. Baker's translation, ' Ye captains of
a heavenly host ' in I. Williams's, ought only to be used on the
festivals of the Twelve, not, e.g., on S. Barnabas' Day.
For Evangelists we have the Paris Breviary vespers and nocturns
hymn, 5 beautifully translated by the compilers of ' Hymns Ancient
'.Tterna Christi munera,
Apostolorum gloriam.
2 Supreme, quales, Arbiter.
3 Compare Christian Year for Advent Sunday. 4 Ccelestis Aubo Principes.
5 Christ J perennes nuntii.
4.6 English Hymnology.
and Modern,' ' Behold the messengers of Christ.' The version of
Isaac Williams, ' Christ's everlasting messengers,' has some, though
very small, similarity to theirs. The idea of the fourfold river of
Eden as typical of the evangelists is worked out at some length in
Adam of S. Victor's sequences, two of which l are imitated by Mr.
Robert Campbell, of Skerrington, in the hymn 'Come, pure hearts,
in sweetest measures.' Dr. Littledale's 'From hidden source arising,'
would have been improved by the omission of the very prosaic
stanzas assigning the four living creatures of Ezekiel's vision to the
evangelists as their antitypes. Dr. Watts's ' How beauteous are their
feet ' may be used on the festivals of evangelists.
For Martyrs we have Neale's version ' Let our choir new anthems
raise,' taken from S. Joseph of the Studium's, Ta>v UpS>u dOXocpopav.
We have also several versions of S. Ambrose's two hymns. The
first 2 (freely imitated in Robert Campbell's ' Ye servants of a martyred
Lord ') may be, seen literally translated in Copeland's ' The unfading
crowns by Christ bestowed,' a version utterly unfit for church use.
The other Ambrosian hymn 3 is well translated in Dr. Neale's ' O
God, Thy soldiers' great Reward.' 'Blessed feasts of blessed
Martyrs ' is Dr. Neale's version of what he calls a ' very elegant
sequence of German origin.' 4 It is to be regretted that his transla-
tion has not reproduced much of the elegance of which he speaks,
and the compilers of ' Hymns Ancient and Modern ' have on the
whole made the hymn still more offensive. ' For man the Saviour
shed,' 5 is translated by the compilers of ' Hymns Ancient and
Modern ' from the Paris Breviary, where we also find ' Pugnate
Christi milites,' the original whence the Rev. J. H. Clark has trans-
lated ' Soldiers who are Christ's below.' Sir H. W. Baker's hymn
' Oh, what, if we are Christ's,' may be appropriately used; or the
Rev. W. Blight's ' Saviour, while we dwell securely.' For saints not
1 Jucundare, plebs fidelis.
2 yEterna Christi munera
Et Martyrum victorias.
3 Deus Tuorum militum. 4 O beata beatorum.
5 ' Ex quo, Salus mortalium, ' by J. E. Santeul.
English Hymnology. 47
martyrs may be sung, ' Not by the martyr's death alone,' 1 1. Williams's
translation from the Paris Breviary. His first verse is borrowed by
the compilers of ' Hymns Ancient and Modern.' ' O Shepherd of
the sheep ' is by Mr. V. S. C. Coles. For Virgins, Xeale's translation
from Ambrose, * Jesu, the virgins' crown, do Thou,' 2 may be used,
or Mr. Coles's hymn 'O Lamb of God, Whose love Divine.' There
is a hymn for Doctors, ' Jesu, for the Beacon-light,' contributed by
Sir H. W. Baker to the Appendix, which is very suitable for use on
the black-letter days which commemorate SS. Jerome, Ambrose, and
Augustine. It is difficult to imagine why the English calendar should
be supposed to give opportunity for using such a hymn as that trans-
lated from Cardinal Sylvius, 3 ' How blest the matron, who endued.'
If we are to commemorate S. Perpetua, we certainly expect some
reference to her martyrdom ; while for S. Anne's Day we cannot use a
hymn which omits all that is supposed to be known about her, and
puts in what is certainly improbable, considering that it is applied to
a Jewish matron.
The beautiful old Church Dedication Hymn, known to us in Dr.
Xeale's version, ' Blessed City, heavenly Salem,' 4 has a remarkable
change of subject at the seventh stanza, where it turns from
celebrating the heavenly Jerusalem to a prayer of dedication.
Hence Daniel, followed by Dr. Xeale, considers the concluding
stanzas as a later addition. The authorship of the hymn is not
known. ' Christ is our Corner-stone ' is a translation of the second
part, ' Angulare, Fundamentum.' The Paris Breviary hymn 5 bv
Guiet has been translated by Isaac Williams, ' O Word of God
above ; ' — only his first stanza is adopted by the compilers of ' Hymns
Ancient and Modern.' Xeale's hymn, ' O God, who lovest to abide,'
somewhat resembles this. For laying the foundation of a church, Dr.
Xeale's ' O Lord of Hosts, Whose glory fills,' taken from his ' Hymns
for Children,' may be used. Montgomery has many hymns for this
occasion, the best being 'This stone to Thee in faith we lay.'
1 Xon parta solo sanguine. 2 jESU, Corona virginum.
3 Fortem virili pectore. 4 Urbs beata Hirusalem.
5 Patris aiterni Soboles coava.
48 English Hymnology.
For choral festivals we have few hymns of the highest order.
George Withers quaint old hymn, ' Come, O come ! in pious lays,'
may be used. Baring Gould's two processional hymns, ' Now severed
is Jordan,' and ' Onward, Christian soldiers,' are less beautiful than
•' Much in sorrow, oft in woe,' Kirke White's fragment, completed by
Miss Maitland. There has been recently composed for it a beau-
tiful tune by Dr. Dykes. ' Brightly gleams our banner,' given anony-
mously in ' The People's Hymnal,' is by T. J. Potter. ' Rejoice, ye
pure in heart' is by the Rev. E. H. Pluraptre.
VI.
HYMNS OX THE SACRAMENTS, OX CONFIRMATION, ETC., EOR
EMBER DAYS, ORDINATIONS, AXD MISSIONS.
We may perhaps feel some surprise that no place for the singing of
anthem or hymn is formally appointed in our offices of Holy Com-
munion and Holy Baptism. Custom has, however, long sanctioned
the use of a hymn at the beginning of the former service, and also
before the sermon or homily contained in it; and though this place
for the second hymn is not without objections, it seems the most
convenient for those churches where the choir is not present during
the celebration. A baptismal hymn may be sung either before or
after the office, or it might be introduced immediately after the
reception into the congregation of the person newly baptized.
There was at the time when these articles first appeared, a strange
and lamentable dearth of Eucharistic hymns in some of the best
collections of Church hymns. There are only five in ' Hymns
Ancient and Modern,' x seven in the enlarged S. P. C. K. Collection,
one in the ' Hymnal for Use in the English Church,'" one in ' Hymns
and Introits.' Gratitude is due to the editor of Lyra Eucharistica for
directing attention to this deficiency, and endeavouring to supply it.
And since the above was written we have had the 'Appendix to
Hymns Ancient and Modern/ with six Eucharistic hymns, and the
new Appendix to the S. P. C. K. book, with three.
Two Greek writers of the eighth century — S. Andrew of Crete and
S. John Damascene — have produced Eucharistic hymns very similar
in their beginning, but otherwise quite different. The former 2 is,
' Oh, the Mystery, passing wonder,' in Dr. Neale's translation j the
latter, 3 ' Christ, we turn our eyes to Thee.' The mediaeval hymns
1 Of the books put forth as supplements to this hymnal, Mr. Baynes's contains
ten Eucharistic hymns; Mr. Jellicoe's thirty-eight; Mr. Palmer's eight; Mr.
Nicholson's three.
- To fxiya ~SlvaTT]pL0v. :< Mrya to ~MvaTrjpiov.
K
50 English Hymnology.
of the Western Church, which have met with the widest acceptance,
and which have been most often translated, are those of S. Thomas
Aquinas. ' Now, my tongue, the mystery telling,' is translated from
one of his hymns * by the compilers of ' Hymns Ancient and
Modern.' We may be astonished to find a translation of it in the
1 New Congregational [Nonconformist] Hymn Book.' It there
begins, ' Sing, my tongue, the Saviour's Glory.' One stanza is
omitted, and the expression of several lines is considerably weakened.
Another of the same author's hymns, 2 ' Thee we adore, O hidden
Saviour, Thee,' has been admirably adapted for English use by J. R.
Woodford. There is a curious alteration in some hymn-books
of the last stanza, the two concluding lines of which should run
thus : —
' To gaze cm Thee unveiled, and see Thy Face, —
The vision of Thy Glory and Thy Grace.'
Neale's version, ' Humbly I adore Thee, hidden Deity,' and
Caswall's translation, ' O Godhead hid, devoutly I adore Thee,' are
more literal, but less suitable as English hymns. S. Thomas's vesper
hymn on the Eucharist 3 is not very happily rendered by Mr.
Chambers, 'Let this our solemn Feast.' 'The Word descending
from above ' is Caswall's translation from another * of S. Thomas's
hymns. His longest and most elaborate sequence, 5 ' Laud, O Sion,
thy Salvation,' can hardly be adapted for use in our services. From
the last two stanzas are taken Sir H. W. Baker's version, ' Lo ! the
Angels' food is given,' which first appeared in the introits to ' Hymns
Ancient and Modern.' Here also, until they transferred it to the
Appendix, the compilers gave the hymn ' The heavenly Word
proceeding forth,' from S. Thomas's ' Verbum Supernum prodiens.'
They have based their translation on that of Neale. Gerard Moultrie
has admirably rendered the prayer of the cherubic hymn in the
1 Pange, lingua, gloriosi. 2 Adoro Te devote, latens DEITAS.
3 Sacris solemniis juncta sint gaudia.
4 Verbum Supernum prodiens.
5 ' Lauda, Syon, Salvatorem,' — the part used as a hymn begins ' Ecce Panis
Angelorum. '
EnglisJi Hymnology. 5
Liturgy of S. James, ' Let all mortal flesh keep silence.' x Neale's
hymn, ' Draw nigh, and take the Body of the Lord,' is translated from
a Bangor antiphonary ; the original 2 is at least as old as the seventh
century. The Canterbury Hymnal gives a beautiful translation from
an ancient anthem, 3 ' O Bread to pilgrims given,' also translated in
' O Food that weary pilgrims love,' by the compilers of ' Hymns
Ancient and Modern.' A sixteenth-century sequence, 4 translated by
A. M. Morgan, ' The sun that lights this happy day,' deserves to be
better known, as do also two other hymns by the same translator,
' Christ sits at His Own Board,' 5 and ' Hail ! Flesh of Christ the
Regal.' 6 A selection from one of S. Bernard's long hymns ~ appears
in Ray Palmer's translation, ' Jesus, Thou Joy of loving hearts,' as
an Eucharistic hymn.
The German hymns on the Holy Communion seem mostly
adapted rather for private meditation than for church use. Miss
Winkworth's translations from Kern, 8 ' Oh, how could I forget,
Him ; ' from Tersteegen, 9 ' Jesus, Whom Thy Church doth own ; '
and from Rist, 10 ' O living Bread from Heaven ; ' are examples of this.
On the other hand, Rambach's eucharistic hymn, 11 ' O Lord, Who on
that last sad eve,' in Miss Cox's translation, is well suited for public
worship, though too long to be used without curtailment. From the
Italian of S. Alphonso is translated R. A. Coffin's beautiful hymn,
'When the loving Shepherd.' 12
Our most popular and very beautiful hymn, ' My God, and is Thy
Table spread,' is by the Nonconformist preacher, Philip Doddridge.
It is very curious to notice how its assertion of sacramental doctrine
has been strong enough to offend some Church of England compilers.
In Hall's Collection, verse 2 stands thus : —
1 ZiyrjadTOj irdaa £ /3/>ora'a. 2 Sancti, venite, Corpus CHRISTI sumite.
3 O Esca viatormn. 4 Hodiernae Lux diei.
5 Recolamus sacram Coenam. 6 Ave ! Caro Christi Regis.
7 'Jesu, Dulcedo Cordium,' from 'Jesu, dulcis' memoria.' The authorship is
disputed.
8 2Bie fount id; Sein oergcffcn. 9 Sefti ter $)it bifi atfettte.
10 Sic n>ot;l fyajl SDu gelobet. ll SKein 3e fu, tec J) it for tent Scfyeitcn.
12 Partendo dal Mondo, l'amante Pastore.
52 English Hymnology.
1 Hail, sacred feast, which Jesus makes ;
Memorial of His Flesh and Blood !
Blest, who with lively faith partakes
That sacred cup, that heavenly food.'
John Wesley's sacramental hymn, ' All hail, Redeemer of mankind/
asserts plainly the sacrifice of the altar, and evidently implies a daily
Celebration. Charles Wesley's hymn, ' Victim Divine, Thy grace we
claim,' ends with the following stanza : —
1 We need not now go up to heaven,
To bring the long-sought Saviour down ;
Thou art to all already given,
Thou dost even now Thy Banquet crown :
To every faithful soul appear,
And show Thy real Presence here.'
To Josiah Conder, a Nonconformist minister, we owe the hymn,
' Bread of Heaven, on Thee I feed.' The beautiful lines beginning
' O God unseen, yet ever near,' were contributed to Hall's collection
by Edward Osier, a layman of the Church of England. James
Montgomery has left two Eucharistic hymns, one of which, 'According
to Thy gracious Word,' has attained great popularity. Dr. Neale has
a beautiful hymn for the Sunday evening after Communion, ' O Jesu,
once for sinners slain.' Dr. Wordsworth's ' Son of God, Incarnate
Word,' is too long. In his other hymn, ' The waters were Thy path,'
there is very poetically brought out a comparison between our
Lord's unexpected Presence at Capernaum and His Presence in the
Holy Communion. Heber's ' Bread of the world, in mercy broken,'
though beautiful, is somewhat short, and its peculiar metre makes it
difficult to lengthen it by the addition of a doxology. Of Bonar's
two hymns, ' True Bread of Life, in pitying mercy given,' and ' Here,
O my Lord, I see Thee face to face,' the latter has more depth, but
the former is perhaps the more widely known, ' Lamb of God,
Whose dying Love ' is re-cast, and greatly changed from Charles
Wesley's ' Lamb of God, Whose bleeding Love.' Mrs. Alexander's
glorious poems on the Eucharist, ' O Jesu, bruised and wounded
more, and ' He cometh, — on yon hallowed Board,' could scarcely
have been intended for public worship ; but they are admirably fitted
English Hymnology. 53
for meditation during any pause in the Service before receiving. R.
H. Baynes's ' Jesu, to Thy Table led,' and ' Great Shepherd of Thy
ransomed flock/ may deservedly be placed in a very high rank as
ante-Communion hymns, as may also ' Lord, when before Thy
Throne we meet,' a hymn contributed in January, 1838, to the Church
of England Magazine, by the Rev. Tressilian George Nicholas. Of
Faber's two best-known Eucharistic hymns, ' Jesu ! my Lord, my
God, my All ! ' 1 and ' Jesu, gentlest Saviour ! ' the latter alone is
adapted for English use. Sir Archibald Edmonstone's ' This is My
Body, take and eat,' and Mrs. Charles's ' No Gospel like this feast,'
must be noticed. The Rev. R. Brown Borthwick has written some
lines not without merit, ' Come, O Jesu, to Thy Table.' ' Once, only
once, and once for all ' is by Dr. Bright ; ' Alleluia, sing to Jesus ' by
W. Chatterton Dix. Dean Alford's ' Lo, the Feast is spread to-day,'
is rather a remonstrance with non-communicants than a hymn for
communicants. Dr. Irons's ' O Saviour, now at God's Right Hand,'
and L. Tuttiett's 'When sink our hearts in famine sore,' deserve to
find a place in our hymnals. For the Communion of the Sick, a
beautiful hymn by Miss Caroline M. Noel may be placed in the
sufferer's hands. It will be found in her little book, ' The Name of
Jesus, and Other Verses for the Sick and Lonely,' and begins
thus : — ■
* Saviour, above all heavens ascended high,
With Angels and Archangels waiting nigh,
Yet still a wounded Lamb upon the Throne,
Still with a human Heart, remembering Thine Own.'
As a processional hymn before a Celebration, J. W. Hewett's ' In the
Name of God the Father ' may be used. For a Celebration at sea,
may be used a hymn by W. C. Dix, given in his 'Altar Songs.' It
begins : —
' Thou Who of old didst hush the storm,
And bid the tempest cease,
We pray Thee, in this awful hour,
To shed on us Thy peace.'
1 This hymn must be distinguished from No. 178 in ' Hymns Ancient and
Modern,' which begins similarly, but is the composition of Rev. Henry Collins,
having been taken from his ' Hymns for Missions.'
54 English Hymnology.
For Holy Baptism, most of our well-known hymns are from modern
sources. It may be interesting to compare two translations of
Benjamin Schmolck's baptismal hymn •} —
'Jesus, Lord, Thy servants see,
Yielding here obedience willing ;
Lo ! this infant comes to Thee,
Thus Thy mandate blest fulfilling :
'Tis for such, Thyself declarest,
Thou the Kingdom now preparest'.
1 Loudly sounds Thy warning plain,
Us with holy fear imbuing —
' ' He must here be born again,
Heart and mind and life renewing,
Born of water and the Spirit,
Who My Kingdom will inherit." '
Frances Elizabeth Cox.
' Blessed Jesus, here we stand,
Met to do as Thou hast spoken,
And this child, at Thy command,
Now we bring to Thee, in token
That to Christ it here is given,
For of such shall be His Heaven.
4 Yes, Thy warning Voice is plain,
And we fain would keep it duly —
" He who is not born again,
Heart and life renewing truly,
Born of water and the Spirit,
Will My Kingdom ne'er inherit." '
Cath erine Win kwo> 'th .
Miss Winkworth's version of a hymn by Albert Knapp, 2 ' O Father-
Heart, Who hast created all/ is much better known than ' Thy
parents' arms now yield thee/ 3 her other translation from the same
author. The latter is addressed, like Dean Alford's, ' In token that
thou shalt not fear,' to the infant baptized ; — thus departing from the
rule, on which some compilers insist, that hymns should be addressed
1 Sicfcfter Sefu, Ijicv finfc hnr. 2 £> Satiety tag Gnrb' mtb $tmme( frf?uf.
3 2lu3 tetnev (vhffit flrmen.
English Hymnology.
3D
to God. Another of Miss Winkworth's translations, from a hymn by
Rambach, 1 'I am baptized into Thy Name/ is more suitable for
Confirmation or for Adult Baptism. ' Glad sight ! The holy Church/
is the Rev. F. Pott's imitation from aSyriac hymn, 2 and well deserves
a place in every Church-of-England hymnal. 'With Christ we
share a mystic grave ' is by Dr. Neale. ' Lamb of God for sinners
slain ' is by James Russell Woodford. Two hymns for Adult Baptism
by Charles Wesley have been given in the Sarum Hymnal. Their
merits are rather doctrinal than poetical. They begin c Come Father,
Sox, and Holy Ghost,' and 'Father, Sox, and Holy Ghost. 5
We owe to Sir Henry Baker "Tis done; — that new and heavenly
birth,' one of our most beautiful post-baptismal hymns. For the con-
clusion of the Service, L. Tuttiett's * Now our work of love is done,'
and Hewett's ' Jesu ! now Thy new-made soldier,' may also be used.
'Saviour, Who Thy flock art feeding,' by W. A. Muhlenberg (1836,)
and J. Moultrie's 'O Guide of faithful Israel,' are intercessions for
those to be baptized. J. G. Deck's hymn, ' Around Thy grave, Lord
Jesus,' is apparently meant to be sung by adults immediately before
or after receiving Baptism.
For Confirmation, the compilers of ' Hymns Ancient and Modern,'
have given a translation of their own from ' Veni, Creator Spiritus.'
Wesley's ' Soldiers of Christ ! arise,' or Hewett's ' To Thy blest
courts, great God and King,' may be sung before the service;
Cas wall's ' Look in pity, Lord of Glory,' Chope's ' Spirit of Wisdom,
guide Thine Own,' Wordsworth's ' O God, in Whose all-searching
Eye,' or the Rev. W. Bright's ' Behold us, Lord, before Thee met,'
may be used before the laying on of hands ; and after it, Dr. Neale's
1 Blessed Saviour, Who hast taught me,' or Wordsworth's ' Our hearts
and voices let us raise,' may be sung by the newly confirmed ; or
Pott's ' Up, soldiers of the Saviour's Cross,' an exhortation to them
by the congregation, may conclude the service. ' My God, accept
my heart this day ' is by Matthew Bridges. Cotterill's ' Look down
1 jfr bin ijftauft auf Xcir.cn Sftamea.
- The original may be seen, with a Latin Prose translation, in Daniel's Thesau-
rus, vol. iii., page 226.
56 English Hyvinology.
O Lord ! and on our youth,' may be sung on the Sunday before a
Confirmation ; and Doddridge's ' O happy day, that fixed my choice,'
seems adapted to the Sunday after.
Our Wedding hymns are not very numerous. ' Rise high, ye
notes, a glad ovation,' 1 Miss Cox's translation from an anonymous
hymn, is well suited for use before the service. George Wither's
hymn for ' those who purpose a contract of marriage,' is so exceed-
ingly quaint, that a brief specimen must be given : —
' We see no contradicting cause
But that we may be joined,
Without infringement of the laws
Whereby we are confined.'
Another of his hymns, however, ' To grace, O Lord, a marriage
feast,' is very beautiful, and might be used with little or no alteration.
Charles Wesley's marriage hymn, ' Thou God of Truth and Love,' is
one of his best. But the noblest song of pre is 2 for the wedding-day
which we possess is Keble's, ' The Voice that breathed o'er Eden.'
There is indeed scarcely any hymn equal to it in comprehensiveness:
— its retrospect stretches back to the union of our first parents ; its
prospect extends to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Sir H. W.
Baker's hymn, ' How welcome was the call,' may be sung after the
Service, or Collyer's shorter and somewhat abrupt hymn, ' Deign this
union to approve.' Bishop Wordsworth's marriage hymn begins
' How blest are hearts which Christ the Lord.'
The introduction of a hymn into the Funeral Service may often be
of great comfort to the mourners • but though we may strongly recom-
mend its use, great care must be exercised that the sanctity of sorrow
should have even its prejudices respected. When the corpse is
leaving the church, some short and appropriate hymn may be sung ;
such as ' Christ will gather in His Own/ 2 Miss Winkworth's transla-
tion from Zinzendorf and Gregor, or some stanzas from her version
from Michael Weiss, ' Now lay we calmly in the grave,' 3 or Caswall's
1 Days and moments quickly flying.' The sentences at the grave
1 ©vljefrt cuct), fvolje Sufccdictcv. 2 5l((ev ©Iflub'gen ©anunefykfc.
Shin faff't mt? ten ?cit> fcccjva&eu.
3
English Hymnology. 57
(except the first, taken from Job xiv. i, 2) are from a hymn of the
tenth century by Xotker, 1 popularly known in Germany through
Luther's translation, 2 which Miss Winkworth has rendered into
English, ' In the midst of life behold.' Dr. Watts's Ninetieth Psalm,
'Our God ! our Help in ages past,' or Wesley's 'Come, let us join
our friends above,' from which ' Let saints on earth in concert sing'
is taken, may be used in the service ; but perhaps the most appropri-
ate hymn is Milman's 'When our heads are bowed with woe.' Dr.
Bonar's ' A few more years shall roll ' is also suitable. ' Cease, ye
tearful mourners,' 3 is a translation by Caswall from Prudentius, and,
like Notker's hymn, a great favourite in Germany, where Nicholas
Hermann's translation of it was long sung at every funeral.
Monsell's ' Soon and for ever,' and J. E. Bode's ' O death, the change
of earthly things,' though beautiful in their way, are not suitable for
introduction into a service where the chief aim should be to tranquil-
lize the feelings, rather than to excite them. Xor can such special
intercessions for the rest of the departed one as G. Moultrie's
' Brother, now thy toils are o'er,' be sung without some risk of offence
to surviving friends, or, on the other hand, of encouraging in them an
exaggerated idea of the power of prayer to affect the condition of the
departed. For the funeral of an infant, Dr. Irons's hymn, ' Oh, who
are they, so pure and bright,' may be used, or Miss Winkworth's
' Tender Shepherd, Thou hast stilled,' translated from Wilhelm
Meinhold. 4 In the second line of this hymn there is a somewhat
daring alteration in 'Hymns Ancient and Modern,' 'brief for
' long.' As funeral hymns adapted rather to meditation than to song,
we may instance Toplady's ' Deathless principle, arise ; ' C. Wesley's
' Happy soul ! thy days are ended ; ' John Newton's ' Oft as the bell,
with solemn toll,' and ' In vain my fancy strives to paint ; ' Heber's
1 Thou art gone to the grave, but we will not deplore thee ; ' and
Milman's ' Brother, thou art gone before us.' Pope's Ode of the
Dying Christian to his Soul, 'Vital spark of heavenly flame,' was
certainly written for music, but can hardly be called a hymn. It is
1 Media in vita in morte somus.
- Rtttffl tviv in I'ctcn (int. 3 Jam mcesta quiesce querela.
4 0Ktei ->;iit. Xn f\ift .jefttdt.
5 8 English Hymnology.
partly imitated from the verses composed by the dying emperor
Hadrian.
On behalf of those at sea, Mr. Whiting's beautiful hymn, ' Eternal
Father ! strong to save/ may be sung, or Littledale's hymn in ' The
People's Hymnal,' ' O God, Who metest in Thine Hand.' Those at
sea may use Wordsworth's sailor's hymn, ' The Ark of God in safety
rode,' or stanzas selected from it; — or Keble's Morning and Evening
Hymns for those at Sea may be found useful. G. Thring's ' The
ocean hath no danger,' is too much confused in idea, and too much
involved in expression, to be recommended. Montgomery's thanks-
giving for deliverance from perils on the sea, ' They that toil upon the
deep,' falls far below its author's average merit.
For Ember Days our hymns are mostly modern. One of Dr.
Neale's ' Hymns for Children/ that for Ascension Day, ' Now to our
Saviour let us raise,' has been adapted as an ember hymn by the
omission of the first stanza. In the altered form it begins ' Christ
is gone up : yet ere He passed.' In the second series of these
hymns four ember hymns are given. From that for Lent, ' O God,
we raise our hearts to Thee/ the well-known hymn, ' The earth, O
Lord, is one great field/ is taken. 'Pour out Thy Spirit from on
high/ is by James Montgomery. ' O Guardian of the Church Divine/
is a compilation from several hymns, which owes its present shape to
the Rev. T. Chamberlain. Littledale's ' Set upon Sion's wall ' varies
in its accentuation so much, that it must be difficult to sing it
throughout to the same tune. ' O Thou Who makest souls to shine/
is a beautiful hymn by Bishop Armstrong.
The hymn in the Ordination Service is given in two forms in our
Prayer-Book. The c. m. version appears, with a few trifling variations,
in Sternhold and Hopkins's Supplement. This hymn has already
been noticed among the hymns for Whitsun-Day. The last six stanzas
of Wordsworth's ' O Lord, Who in Thy Love Divine ' may be used
if an additional hymn is required. For the Consecration of a Bishop,
a more striking and appropriate hymn than Charles Wesley's 'Prayer
for the Bishops ' would be hard to find. It begins ' Draw near, O
Son of God, draw near.'
For Home Missions may be recommended a small book, ' Hymns
English Hymnology. 59
for Missions, etc./ edited by the Rev. H. Collins. 'I was wandering
and weary,' by the Rev. F. W. Faber, and Bonar's ' I was a wandering
sheep,' 1 treat the recovery of the straying more successfully than
Littledale's ' Jesu, most loving One,' a translation from ' Jesu dulcis-
sime ! e Throno Glorias. ' Several of Bonar's hymns have some
fitness for use in English Missions ; — ' I lay my sins on Jesus,' and
1 1 heard the Voice of Jesus say/ may be given as examples. Miss
Ada Cambridge's ' Light of the world ! O shine on us,' is especially
beautiful. Fabers ' O come to the merciful Saviour that calls you/
is an earnest exhortation to repentance and confession, an invitation
more gently urged in ' Sweet is the Spirit's strain,' a hymn given
without name by Mr. Jellicoe in his Supplemental Collection.
In behalf of Foreign Missions, Bishop Heber's hymn, ' From
Greenland's icy mountains/ is the best known. It was written at
Hodnet, in 1820. The alteration of 'Ceylon' into 'Java' in the
second line of the second stanza seems to have been made by Heber
himself while in India. Watts's Seventy-second Psalm, 'Jesus shall
reign where'er the sun,' and Marriott's 'Thou, Whose Almighty
Word,' are deservedly popular. From America we have Bishop
Doane's ' Fling out the banner ! let it float,' and A. C. Cox's
' Saviour, sprinkle many nations.' ' Spread, O spread, thou mighty
Word,' 2 is Miss C. Wink worth's translation from Bahnmaier, poorly
rendered in Miss Cox's ' Far and near, Almighty Word.' Archdeacon
Churton's version of Psalm lxvii., ' God of Grace, O let Thy Light,'
is given in ' Hymns Ancient and Modern ' as a missionary hymn.
' Almighty God, Whose only Son,' was written by Sir H. W. Baker
for the Appendix. Of James Montgomery's missionary hymns, ' O
Spirit of the Living God,' ' Sow in the morn thy seed,' and ' Fall
down, ye nations, and adore,' are perhaps the best, (except his
Seventy-second Psalm, already noticed as an Epiphany hymn.)
' Lord, a Saviour's Love displaying,' by Ernest Hawkins; ' Souls in
heathen darkness lying/ by Mrs. Alexander; 'O God, from Thee
alone/ by R. K. Greville ; and W. Shrubsole's ' Arm of the Lord !
'Founded partly on ' Arte mini, miro consilio.'
- ffiattf, iva(tc nab' unt fan.
6o English Hymnology
awake, awake ! ' must be mentioned. Cotterill's ' O'er the realms of
pagan darkness/ seems to have borrowed its first lines from W.
Williams's ' O'er the gloomy hills of darkness.' Watts's ' How beau-
teous are their feet,' Montgomery's ' Hark, the song of Jubilee,' and
E. Perronet's ' All hail the power of Jesu's Name/ may be sung as
missionary hymns ; or stanzas may be selected from ' The Banner
of the Cross/ by Dr. Wordsworth. For missions to the Jews, Lyte's
paraphrase of Psalm xiv. 7, (B. V.) ' Oh, that the Lord's Salvation,'
or Joyce's ' Oh, why should Israel's sons, once blessed,' maybe used.
Kelly's ' On the mountain's top appearing,' and Sir Edward Denny's
' O Zion, when thy Saviour came/ are also appropriate.
VII.
HYMNS FOR CHILDREN. HYMNS FOR TIMES OF TROUBLE
AND THANKSGIVING.
The plan of these articles was stated at the outset as a following of
the order observed in our Book of Common Prayer. Now, our
Church has thought fit to assign a prominent place in her public ser-
vice to the catechizing of children, and has incorporated the Cate-
chism with her Occasional Offices. I have, however, ventured to
defer till now considering the hymns which correspond with the
Catechism, because children's hymns seem to me too important to
be dismissed with a brief notice.
1 Hymns,' writes the Rev. E. Monro, 1 ' are peculiarly the voice and
expression of childhood. Many a truth has sunk into a child's heart
[by their means] which would otherwise have lain cold and barren on
its surface. Hymns become the means of conveying them to the
inmost soul, and half a child's conscious Christianity often consists
in its hymns. We cannot be too careful in selecting them for chil-
dren, and in storing their minds with them when young.'
The best plan of a child's hymn-book would seem to be one
which should treat in turn the subjects of the Catechism. If the
doctrinal usefulness of such a book is to be systematic, and not
merely occasional and accidental, it must evidently follow closely in
the track of that dogmatic teaching which it is intended to impress
and enforce. The best writer of a child's hymn-book would be one
whose poetical genius has been early developed, and whose sympa-
thies with a child's ways of speaking and thinking have been brought
out strongly by circumstances and opportunities. Others may write
hymns about children, but can scarcely ever succeed in writing hymns
for them. I must beg leave to illustrate the causes of success by
the instance of a lady whose ' Hymns for Little Children ' are with •
1 'Parochial Work,' p. in. (Second Edition.)
62 English Hymnology.
out question the most successful poetical exposition of the Church
Catechism that has been ever put forth. It will, I am sure, be most
interesting to all true lovers of hymns to know how very early this
authoress gave proof of her powers of versification. It was a custom
of her father's to receive into a box in his study, called 'The
Budget/ contributions composed by all his children, as soon as they
could write. The contents were read with criticisms every Saturday
evening. The handwriting was to be disguised, but no disguise
could conceal from her father and mother that their daughter
' Fanny ' was born a poetess. One day, whilst she was with a cousin
on a visit to the Marquis of Abercorn, some one in the house found
one of her poems, and, suppressing the name, sent it up to Lord
Abercorn, only stating that it was written by a child of eleven.
The marquis, whose literary judgment was in constant request, re-
ceived the poem while the authoress was in the room, and rather
hastily pushed it away to a friend on the other side of the table,
asking him to look at it. The friend was much struck by it ; and
Lord Abercorn reading it over with him, they agreed that it could
never have been written by so young a child. ' But,' said Lord
Abercorn, ' let Fanny take it to her mother when she goes home.
Her mother will know pretty well whether it is likely that a child
could write that poem.' Accordingly ' Fanny' was made the bearer
of her own composition to her mother, and, on her reaching home,
the authorship was of course at once revealed.
More than twenty years ago, the Rev. J. Keble wrote, concerning
Mrs. Alexander's ' Hymns for Little Children,' — ' [I] think and
hope . . . that they will win a high place for themselves in
the estimation of all who know how to value true poetry and primi-
tive devotion.' The sale of more than three hundred thousand
copies has justified the very high opinion then given. The book
consists of forty-one hymns, of which fourteen are on the Creed, nine
on the Lord's Prayer, and ten on the Commandments. As in-
stances of the admirable way in which doctrines are brought within
the comprehension of children, see the hymn on the Incarnation,
1 Once in Royal David's city,' or the second of those on the Holy
Catholic Church, ' The faithful men of every land.' For the practi-
English Hymnology. ' 63
cal application of precepts which a false delicacy too often ignores
in the instruction of children, see the hymns, ' We were washed in
holy water/ and ' I love the little snowdrop flower.' The arguments
and illustrations are all not only such as children can be made to
understand, but such as they naturally use. To country children
especially, the flowers, the birds, the flocks, form the natural poetry
of life ; and no book will attract them so surely, or fix itself so
deeply in their love, as one which presents a counterpart of
out-door things, and brings them to bear upon their daily duties,
and upon that life within them which is ever becoming more and
more conscious. It is very much to be regretted that the engravings
of Messrs. Dalziel in the large edition are in no sense explanatory
of the text, and are, with few exceptions, peculiary unsuited to
children. Seven of the hymns are in a metre scarcely to be found
elsewhere. The following stanza may be taken as a specimen : —
' If we may turn and cling to Him,
Before Whose Face the angels fall,
Sure we must give Him our whole hearts,
And love Him best of all.'
The argument in these lines I have known quoted, and applied to
his own conduct, by a child six years old. For village schools these
hymns, properly explained, are invaluable, and it is a pity that there
is not a still cheaper edition for their use. The ' Hymns Descriptive
and Devotional' are not nearly so easy, though there are many of
them much more suitable in language and in metre than the first
morning hymn, ' Once again the radiant morning,' or the first even-
ing hymn, ' 'Twas at evening when the voice of greeting.' The
* Moral Songs' of the same authoress are excellent; the 'Narrative
Hymns for Village Schools ' are very good, but suffer somewhat by
comparison with the • Hymns for Little Children,' the ideas of
which are made to do duty a second time in the Narrative Hymns.
Hymns 361, 362, and 363 in the 'Appendix to Hymns Ancient and
Modern' are by Mrs. Alexander.
Isaac Williams attempted with no very great success to present
the Paris Breviary hymns in a translation suited for children's use.
64 English Hymnology
He entitled his book 'Ancient Hymns for Children;' but we must
remember that few of the Latin hymns there translated are older
than the seventeenth century. The ' Child's Christian Year,' pub-
lished in 1 841, with a preface by Keble, contains about thirty hymns
by Isaac Williams, mostly translations, and nearly as many by
Joseph Anstice. We find there Keble's earliest hymn, ' Our God in
glory sits on high,' given for the First Sunday after Easter. The
hymn for Christmas Day there given was written by the youngest
daughter of the Dean of Winchester, who died aged fourteen.
' Think on the mercy of our God,
Our great Redeemer's Love ;
How the dim waste of earth He trod,
And left His Throne above !
And all, frail man, His foe, to save,
And show him hopes beyond the grave.
' He came not in a warrior's path,
With mighty armies strong ;
He came not as a God in wrath
Avenging Judah's wrong : —
To preach on earth His Father's Word,
A little Child, came Christ the Lord.
' Glad was our Saviour's natal morn,
Angels rejoiced in Heaven
That " unto us a Child is born,
To us a Son is given ; "
And Angels left their home on high
To tell of Christ's Nativity.'
Miss E. Wiglesworth is the author of ' Verses for the Christian Year,'
— a child's book of poetry of high average merit, though wanting in
originality, and sometimes in appropriateness to the festivals for
which hymns are given. Those for the Sundays of Advent, es-
pecially 'Thrice Blessed Word of God,' are good, as is also,
'Father, I my robes would keep/ the poem assigned to S. Bar-
tholomew's Day.
In very strong contrast with the latter efforts to provide suitable
hymns for children appear Dr. Watts's ' Divine and Moral Songs.'
English Hymnology. 65
Scarcely anything can be more injurious to a child of lively ima-
gination than the constant contemplation of horrible things, the
oft-recurring pictures of hell, and of sudden death as a punishment
to children's sins. Probably no croquemitaine of the nursery ever
did half the harm that has been wrought in children's minds by such
lines as these : —
1 God quickly stopped their wicked breath,
And sent two raging bears,
That tore them limb from limb to death,
With blood, and groans, and tears.'
Most of the hymns seem to be specially adapted to very naughty
children, living in very bad company. The hymns for Sunday evening,
' Lord, how delightful 'tis to see,' and the ' General Song of Praise
to God,' beginning ' How glorious is our Heavenly King,' are per-
haps the best. Dr. Watts is sometimes completely a slave to the
exigencies of rhyme in his children's hymns, and still more so in the
' Moral Songs.' Hence the picture of the 'madman' who 'will fling
about fire, And tell you " Tis all but in sport," ' is dragged in, and
the rose is called ' the glory of April and May. 1
An infinite improvement upon Dr. Watts's ' Divine and Moral
Songs ' were the ' Hymns for Infant Minds,' first published by Ann
and Jane Taylor about sixty years ago. Ann, the surviving sister,
afterward became the wife of Mr. Joseph Gilbert. To her are due
the well-known lines beginning ' I thank the goodness and the grace.'
There are some scattered touches in these hymns, which seem to
have been derived from the grand scenery of North Devon and
Cornwall, among which the writers of them spent many years. A
few of the hymns are somewhat deficient in simplicity of language
e.g., that entitled 'The Hay Fields.' But the ideas are almost always
simple, and tolerably natural to children's minds. The hymn of
confession, ' Lord, I confess before Thy Face,' that of encourage-
ment, ' God is so good that He will hear,' and that on attending
public worship, 'When to the House of God we go,' are especially
good : indeed, the last approaches very nearly to the excellencies of
Mrs. Alexander. An apologetic foot-note has been inserted in re
F
66 English Hymnology.
cent editions concerning the use of the word * Sabbath' in the sense
of ' Lord's Day.' The two hymns on pride were greatly admired by
Archbishop Whately as one of the best practical descriptions of
Christian humility and its opposite ; but there is something rather
unfair in the first, ' The way to find out Pride.' After directing a
minute self-examination, the hymn boldly asserts that of the forms of
pride enumerated —
' Some one will suit you, as you go,
And force your heart to tell you so :
But if they all should be denied,
Then you're too proud to own your pride.'
The Lyra Innocentium of Keble is rather a volume of poetry for
parents than of hymns for children. Childish comprehension will,
however, enter into the spirit of such lines as ' The Gleaners,' ' The
Boy with the Five Loaves,' and ' The Walk to Church.' The ves-
pers and compline poems for Christmas, that for Easter Eve, and the
1 Redbreast in Church,' are also suitable pieces for children.
Elizabeth Strafford's ' Hymns for the Collects ' are on the whole
good and poetical, especially that for the Sunday after Ascension-
Day, ' Beyond the star-lit sky.' Dr. Neale's ' Hymns for Children,'
in three series, have supplied some hymns for general church use.
Most of them are very beautiful : we may especially notice the Sun-
day evening hymn, ' The Apostles were assembled,' that for Thurs-
day evening, ' Thou art gone up, O Lord, on high,' the five hymns
for various hours of the day, and that for the Holy Innocents, ' Let
children, Lord, Thy Presence seek.' These are all in the first
series ; the second is for older children ; and the third series supple-
ments the other two. We have not among these hymns the very
curious lines by Dr. Neale, transcribed into ' The People's Hymnal,'
which begin ' Christian children hear me,' 1 and of which the rhymes
are in some instances even more unsuitable than in
' How elect your
Architecture ! '
These originally appeared in ' The Churchman's Companion ' where they are
even more painfully ludicrous than in the version found in ' The People's Hymnal.'
English Hymnology. 6j
and have not, as that couplet has, the excuse of being cramped by a
Latin metre.
Dr. Littledale's Eucharistic hymn for children, ' I worship Thee
Lord Jesu,' exacts an adoration of the outward Elements of the
Lord's Supper, scarcely suitable for a child. ' Come unto Me, ye
weary,' by W. C. Dix, is beautiful ; as are also Montgomery's ' Glory
to the Father give/ and Prynne's ' Jesu, meek and gentle/ The
following lines were contributed to 'The People's Hymnal' by a little
boy only ten years old : —
1 O God, bow down Thine Ear to earth,
And hear Thy children's cry,
And fill our weak and throbbing hearts
With blessings from on high.
1 Forsake us not, O loving Lord,
But hear us while we pray ;
And, Jesu, when at last we die,
Wipe all our tears away.
' O Jesu, there is naught to fear,
If Thou Thy blessing give ;
Keep us from every danger free,
And guard us, while we live.
1 Give us a heart to love Thee, Lord,
And Thine Almighty Son,
And may we love the Holy Ghost,
While this short life we run. Amen.'
1 Now the day is over ' is a successful hymn for a child by the Rev.
S. Baring Gould. F. T. Palgrave's ' Little Child's Hymn for Night
and Morning,' beginning 'Thou that once, on mother's knee,' is
rendered almost absurd by its endeavours to be simple and child-
like. W. W. How's ' Lord, Thy children guide and keep,' ends
every stanza with a couplet from which two lines of Mr. Uix's
Epiphany hymn seem to be taken : —
1 Holy Jesu, day by day
Lead us in the narrow way.'
'Come sing with holy gladness,' is by J. J. Daniell. 'Seeing I
63 English Hymnology.
am Jesu's lamb,' 1 is Miss Winkworth's translation from Luise H.
von Haym. ' There's a Friend for little children/ given anony-
mously in ' The People's Hymnal,' is by Albert Midlane. ' There is
a happy land,' is by Andrew Young ; ' When, His salvation bringing,'
by Joshua King ; ' Star of morn and even,' by F. T. Palgrave. The
Rev. E. H. Plumptre wrote the beautiful hymn, * O Light, Whose
beams illumine all' Sir H. W. Baker's hymn, ' Lord Jesus, God
and- Man,' begins somewhat like Faber's ' O Jesu, God and Man,'
but the similarity extends little further than the first two lines. ' O
Holy Lord, content to dwell] is given almost tmaltered 2 from How
in ' Hymns Ancient and Modern.' ' Here we suffer grief and pain,' 3
is by Thomas Bilby; 'Blessed Father! great Creator!' by John
Cawood ; ' Children of the Heavenly King,' is by John Cennick.
Mrs. Hemans's ' Child, amidst the flowers at play,' is scarcely a
hymn. Benjamin Gough's address to an afflicted child, ' Gentlest
lamb of Jesu's fold,' is exceedingly good. Gottfried Hoffman's
lines to a dying child, ' Depart, my child ! the Lord thy spirit calls,' 4
will be found in Miss Borthwick's * Hymns from the Land of Luther.'
' I think, when I read that sweet story of old,' was written by Mrs.
Samuel Luke, then Miss Jemima Thompson, in 1841. Several of
Anne Shepherd's ' Hymns Adapted to the Comprehension of Young
Minds' are good, in spite of a certain flippancy in style, and some-
times in metre : — ' God has a family on earth,' is perhaps the best.
Charles Wesley's ' Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,' is deservedly well
known. ' Gracious Saviour, gentle Shepherd,' is also Charles
Wesley's, varied slightly by Keble. ' Thy Cross, O Lord, the holy
sign,' is from the Rev. Hugh Stowell, almost unaltered. Dr. Words-
worth has an excellent children's hymn, ' Heavenly Father, send
Thy blessing.' The Rev. John Moultrie (father of the Rev. Gerard
Moultrie, author of ' Hymns and Lyrics,') has written several good
hymns for children: 'O Lord, a wondrous story,' is his. 'Jesus,
1 SBeif tcf) 3efu Scfyafletn Hit.
2 The version in 'The Book of Praise,' ' content to live] is an alteration from
Mr. How, made without his consent.
Perhaps imitated from 3CBivt> fcaS nictyt ftreube fctyn? ' by H. C. /3n Schweinitz.
4 3eucfy»I;m, mem Jviub.
English Hymnology. 69
tender Shepherd, hear me,' is by M. L. Duncan. ' The Children's
Home Hymn Book,' edited by Erskine Clarke, contains some beauti-
ful hymns. The ' Hymns for Infant Children,' published by Masters,
are not always perfectly poetical, but are good in their way. Some-
times they borrow from Mrs. Alexander, sometimes from Ken; e.g. —
' Christian child, awake ! arise !
Though thy heavy limbs are loth ;
Pay thy morning sacrifice
By a conquest over sloth ! '
Sometimes they are indeed original ; e.g. —
' Waste not precious time in dressing ;
Be alert, alive, awake.'*
For times of trouble, Miss Winkworth's rendering from Paul
Eber 1 may be used, 'When in the hour of utmost need,' or Cowper's
'God of my life, to Thee I call.' Sir Robert Grant's 'When
gathering clouds around I view,' is better suited for private use, as is
also the case with most of Miss C. M. Noel's hymns. In times of
war, Sir H. W. Baker's * O God of Love, O King of Peace,' may be
sung, or 'Give us Thy blessed peace, God of all Might, 2 a transla-
tion from C. B. Garve in 'Hymns from the Land of Luther.'
'Dread Jehovah, God of Nations,' is by T. Cotterill ;'' Great King
of nations, hear our prayer,' is by J. H. Gurney. Richard Massie's
translation from Spitta, 3 ' Our life is often dark/ may be used in a
time of dearth ; for which Dr. Littledale's ' O God of Mercy, God
of Love,' is appropriate if it results from lack of rain. In a bad
harvest, Onderdonk's lines, 'Although the vine its fruit deny,' or Sir
H. W. Baker's translation from Benjamin Schmolk, ' What our
Father does is well,' 4 may fitly be used. For time of pestilence,
Dr. Bullock's ' In grief and fear to Thee, O Lord,' is very suitable,
or Mrs. Steele's 'Almighty Lord, before Thy Throne.' For cattle
plague, Neale's hymn, 'All Creation groans and travails,' may be
used.
1 , 2Bcnn nnr in H\f ften Rotten fcin.' The German is from the Latin of Joachim
Camerarius.
2 ®i0 Xcincn grictcn un$, D -fterr tcr 2t5rfc !
3 Da« Sefcen toirt en tvube. 4 28ae ©ott tf>ut, ta* iff wo^etyan.
JO English Hymnology.
For harvest thanksgiving we have Dean Alford's hymn, ' Come, ye
thankful people, come,' given, with alterations greatly reprobated by
its author, in 'Hymns Ancient and Modern.' The object of the
changes there made in the second stanza has evidently been to
reduce the writer's somewhat confused ideas derived from different
parables to unity and consistency. The purpose of the changes in
the last two stanzas is less evident. Anstice's ' Lord of the Harvest !
once again/ and Sir H. W. Baker's ' Praise, O praise our God and
King,' 1 may also be used. While the harvest is being gathered in,
Neale's hymn, 'God the Father, Whose creation,' or Alice \iiot
Anne] Flowerdew's ' Fountain of Mercy, God of Love,' or Dix's ' To
Thee, O Lord, our hearts we raise,' may be sung in church. ' Praise
to God, immortal praise,' is by Mrs. Barbauld ; ' Lord of the
harvest, Thee we hail,' by J. H. Gurney; 'O Father, Whose
Almighty Hand,' by Rev. J. W. Hewett. Miss Cox's hymn, 'We
come, our hearts with gladness glowing,' is from the German' 3 of
Liebich. ' We plough the fields and scatter,' was taken from a
translation from the German, 3 supplied by the Rev. C. S. Bere. For
general thanksgiving, perhaps our best hymn is ' Now thank we all
our God,' 4 Miss Winkworth's rendering from Martin Rinckart. ' God
the Lord has heard our prayer,' by H. H. Wyatt, is also good.
For restored public health, we have ' O Father of mercies, O Spirit
of Love,' by M. F. Tupper; for the restoration of peace, Mont-
gomery's ' Come and behold the works of God,' and Miss Winkworth's
translation from Paul Gerhardt, 'Thank God it hath resounded.' 5
1 ' Praise, O praise our Heavenly King,' is evidently only an altered version of
Sir H. W. Baker's hymn ; it is attributed to Trend in ' The People's Hymnal.'
2 , 2£ir Eotnmen, 5>etne £utt ju feievn.' It is omitted in her second edition.
3 The original is by Matthias Claudius (1783) and begins ,3m &ttfang ttjart auf
©rten' : — the part given is imitated from the third and following stanzas, , SBif
Vpgen unt ivir ftreuen.' See Monthly Packet, New Series, Vol. XL, p. 214.
4 ,9tun tanfet atte @ctt/ from Ecclus. 1. 22, 23. 5 ©ctt lefr, mintft cifd;cttcn.
VIII.
GENERAL HYMNS, METRICAL PSALMS, ETC.
We now come to the consideration of hymns very difficult to classify,
except by such arbitrary divisions as would rather hinder than help
our readers. We may, however, take first of all the various versifica-
tions of Psalms, not hitherto noticed, which claim a position in our
hymn-books.
Seeing that versified psalmody had received some sort of sanction,
many early compilers seem to have felt constrained to burden their
hymn-books with at least a hundred and fifty so-called Psalms, mostly
based on the Old and New Versions, though sometimes much more
suitable and poetical. We could not here give a general history of all
the various English rhymed versions of the Psalms without departing
from our original plan; we will therefore confine our notice almost
exclusively to the most successful attempts. The sixth Psalm appears
to much greater advantage in ' Gently, gently lay Thy rod,' by H. F.
Lyte, that in the same author's l. m. version, ' Correct us, Lord, we
know it good.' Both Churton's versions of Psalm viii., ' O Lord, our
Lord, in all the world,' and ' Lord of earth's wide realms, alone,' are
very good. In the Old Version of the eighteenth Psalm, by Thomas
Sternhold, we have an exception to the ordinary prosaicism of this
translator. It begins, ' O God, my Strength and Fortitude ; ' but the
verses best known are the ninth and tenth, beginning, ' The Lord
descended from above.' The nineteenth Psalm, in Addison's well-
known paraphrase, 'The spacious firmament on high,' is better
adapted for reading as a poem than for singing as a hymn. Conder's
' The heavens declare His glory/ is an excellent rendering of this
psalm. The twenty-second Psalm, like all those which describe the
Sufferings of the Saviour, has been wofully maltreated by most of
its translators. Addison's twenty-third Psalm, ' The Lord my pasture
shall prepare,' is unaccountably omitted in some of the most popular
72 Engl is J i Hymn
hymn-books recently published. Wesley's version of the twenty-
fourth Psalm, ' Our Lord is risen from the dead,' though somewhat
stilted in style, has gained some notice as a hymn for Ascension Day.
Montgomery's version of Psalm xxvii., ' God is my strong Salvation,'
deserves to be better known. Psalm xxxi. has given the key-note to
two very beautiful hymns, Lyte's ' My spirit on Thy care,' and
Harriet Auber's ' The Lord Who hath redeemed our souls.' Tate
and Brady's thirty-fourth Psalm, ' Through all the changing scenes of
life,' has obtained admission into many hymnals, on what ground it is
rather hard to say. Lyte's thirty-fifth Psalm, ' O plead my cause, my
Saviour, plead,' and his thirty-seventh, ' O God of love, how blest
are they,' are both good. 'Jehovah, let me know mine end,' the
Rev. J. F. Thrupp's version of Psalm xxxix., has some beauty.
Spohr's glorious anthem has helped to preserve in our hymnals, ' As
pants the hart for cooling streams,' Tate and Brady's rendering of
Psalm xlii. This psalm is also well translated in Bishop Lowth's
'As pants the wearied hart for cooling springs,' and in John
Bowdler's 'As panting in the sultry beam.' Dr. Watts's 'My
Saviour and my King,' though beautiful as a version of Psalm xlv.,
is far surpassed by Keble's ' Fair art Thou, bright and fair,' and Miss
Auber's ' With hearts in love abounding.' ' There is a River, pure
and bright,' by Montgomery, is founded on Psalm xlvi. Psalm xlviii.
is well rendered in Watts's ' Great is the Lord our God.' Lyte's
version of Psalm liv., ' Save me by Thy glorious Name,' is somewhat
marred by the strangeness of its metre, as is also ' O had I, my
Saviour, the wings of a dove,' 1 his translation of Psalm lv. Watts
has well adapted Psalm lvii. for use as a hymn in ' My God, in
Whom are all the springs.' 'Hail, gracious Source of every good,'
by Miss Auber, is founded on Psalm lxi. It is really strange that
the beautiful harvest hymn contained in Psalm lxv. has never been
worthily rendered into English verse. Doddridge's ' Eternal Source
of every joy,' is weaker than the New Version, and Montgomery's,
' The God of Harvest praise,' can scarcely be called even a para-
1 This does indeed nearly resemble the ' Old 104th ' metre ; but an additional
syllable in the first two lines of each stanza imparts an Anacreontic levity to the
whole, which is most unsuitable in a hymn.
English Hymnology. 73
phrase from the Psalm. Tate and Brady have given a rendering of
Psalm lxvii., 'To bless Thy chosen race,' far excelling their average ;
whereas Lyte's ' God of Mercy, God of Grace,' is scarcely worthy
of its author. In Dr. Watts's 'Jesus shall reign where'er the sun,'
from Psalm Ixxii., (already noticed as a missionary hymn,) an unac-
countable alteration 1 has been made in the second line of the third
stanza in many copies of ' Hymns Ancient and Modern,' where
'loose' is given instead of 'lose,' which Watts wrote, and which
makes a much clearer sense. In Morell and How's collection,
'burst' is substituted, not very felicitously. Miss Auber's 'Whom
have we, Lord, in Heaven but Thee,' is founded on Psalm lxxiii. ;
Montgomery's ' In time of tribulation,' on Psalm lxxvii. ' Thou
gracious God, and kind/ is William Goode's paraphrase of Psalm
lxxix. The Scotch Presbyterian version of Psalm lxxxiv., 'How
lovely is Thy dwelling-place,' rises in one or two stanzas above the
usual doggrel of its translators. Of this Psalm, Montgomery, in
' How amiable, how fair,' and Watts, in ' Lord of the worlds above,'
have given renderings in the same metre as Psalm cxlviii. New
Version. Conder's ' How honoured, how dear,' and Tate and
Brady's 'O God of Hosts, the mighty Lord,' are not unworthy
translations of this Psalm. Milton's 'How lovely are Thy dwellings
fair,' can scarcely be used as a hymn. ' Glorious things of thee are
spoken,' John Newton's paraphrase of Psalm lxxxvii., begins well,
but breaks down utterly in the rhymes of the third and fifth stanzas.
Psalm xc. is perhaps better rendered in Watts's ' Our God, our help
in ages past,' than in any other metrical version. The alteration to
' O God ' in the first line seems to have been originally made by the
Wesleys, when transcribing the hymn for their collection. The New
Version of Psalm xcv., ' O come, loud anthems let us sing,' has
some stanzas suitable for Church use. Keble's version of Psalm
xcvi., ' Sing the song unheard before,' deserves to be better known.
Watts's version of Psalm xcviii., ' Joy to the world ; the Lord is
come,' is suitable as an Advent hymn. The authorship of the Old
1 It is but fair to the compilers, however, to say, that according to their last
account, ' loose ' is only an accidental error.
74 English Hymnology.
Version of Psalm c. is disputed. No initials are given to 'All,
people that on earth do well,' in the earliest copies, but in later ones
the Psalm is ascribed to J. H. (/. e. John Hopkins.) In the Scottish
Psalter of 1564 the initials W. K. are given, whence some have con-
cluded that the psalm is by William Kethe, Rector of Okeford,
Dorset. In the library of St. Paul's Cathedral is a psalter bearing
date 1 56 1, in which the initials of Thomas Sternhold are attached to
it, but this is almost certainly a mistake. The New Version, ' With
one consent let all the earth/ is too familiar in our ears to be fairly
criticized. It lacks the majestic simplicity of the Old Version, but
has more smoothness of diction. The last verse seems partly copied
from the older rendering. Watts's 'Plain Translation,' beginning,
*Ye nations round the earth rejoice,' is less known than his para-
phrase, which, as altered by Wesley, begins, ' Before Jehovah's
awful Throne.' 1 Lyte's paraphrase of Psalm ciii., beginning, 'Praise,
my soul, the King of Heaven/ is given, with some improvements,
and the omission of an inferior stanza, in ' Hymns Ancient and
Modern.'
The Old Version of the 104th Psalm has been greatly admired by
some hymn-writers, but it is difficult to say exactly wherein its ex-
cellencies consist. It is the composition of William Kethe, and
begins, ' My soul, praise the Lord.' Sir R. Grant's ' O worship the
King,' is founded upon it. In Sweden, Wallin's paraphrase of this
Psalm, beginning , @juit& nun n>tf ! ten G&igri Icf/ is perhaps as
great a favourite as the ' Old 100th'' is with us. Howitt's translation
of it, 'Sing, my soul, the Eternal's praise,' may be seen in Newland's
' Forest-life in Norway and Sweden.' As a specimen of the extent to
which unacknowledged alteration has been sometimes carried, the
following may be interesting : it is given in R. Carus Wilson's
Psalms and Hymns/ as the Old Version of this Psalm : — ■
1 The original begins with an inferior stanza : —
' Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice
Let even- land His Name adore ;
The British isles shall send the noise
Across the ocean to the shore.'
English Hymnology. 75
' My soul, praise the Lord, His greatness proclaim :
Jehovah, our God ! how glorious Thy Name !
Surpassing in honour, dominion, and might ;
Thy throne is the heaven, Thy robe is the light.'
1 The glorious sky a curtain is made ;
Thy chamber of state on ocean is laid ;
The clouds are a chariot Thy glory to bear ;
Thou guidest the whirlwind, Thou walkest on air.
' As rapid as fire, the spirits on high,
To speed Thy commands, all zealously fly ;
The earth on immovable basis sustained,
Is fashioned and fixed as Thy wisdom ordained.
' O measureless Might ! Unspeakable Love !
While angels delight to praise Thee above,
Thy humbler creation, though feeble their lays,
With true adoration shall sing to Thy praise.'
The version in the Cleveland Psalter, by Archdeacon Churton,
beginning, ' My soul, praise the Lord, speak good of His Name,'
retains the metre of the Old Version, and is beautiful and poetical,
but will hardly meet with favour as a church hymn. In Keble's
version of Psalm cvi.. ' Praise ye the Lord, for good is He,' the first
three stanzas are good, but in an unusual metre. James Merrick's
version of Psalm cvii., 'To God above from all below,' is a fairly
satisfactory paraphrase : it keeps much closer to the original than
Addison's ' How are Thy servants blest, O Lord \ ' but has less
poetic force. Lyte's version of Psalm cviii., ; My God, my King,' is
much spoiled by its metre. Bishop Mant has fairly rendered Psalm
cxiii. in ' Alleluia ! praise the Lord.'' Milton turned Psalm adv.
into English verse at the early age of fifteen ; but his translation,
beginning ' When the blest seed of Terah's faithful son," is not suitable
for singing. Cennick's ' Not unto us, but Thee alone.' from Psalm
cxv.. would be very good, were it not marred by its imperfect rhymes.
Watts's version of Psalm cxviii., 'This is the day the Lord hath
made,' forms a suitable Sunday hymn. Scarcely any of the metrical
renderings of Psalm cxix. are fit for church use. Keble's rendering
of verses 153-160 is in a curious variety of short metre. The follow-
ing may serve as a specimen : —
7 6 English Hymnology
' Mine anguish and my woe
Behold, and let me go ;
My heart is ever on Thy laws,
Deliverer, plead my cause."
The following version of Psalm cxxi. seems to be due to Edward
Osier :—
' From Sion's hill my help descends ;
To God I lift mine eyes ;
My strength on Him alone depends,
Who formed the earth and skies.
1 He ever watchful, ever nigh,
Forbids my foot to slide ;
Nor sleep nor slumber seals the Eye
Of Israel's Guard and Guide.
' He on my side, arrayed in might,
His shield shall o'er me spread ;
Nor sun by day, nor moon by night,
Shall hurt my favoured head.
' Safe shall I go, and safe return,
While He my life defends,
Whose Eyes my every step discern,
Whose Mercy never ends.'
Tate and Brady's translation, ' To Sion's hill I lift my eyes/ is good.
John Bowdler's version of Psalm cxxiii., ' Lord, before Thy Throne
we bend,' deserves to be mentioned. J. Montgomery's 'Oat of the
depths of woe,' from Psalm cxxx., is less known than ' Lord, for ever
at Thy side,' his rendering of Psalm cxxxi. His rendering of Psalm
cxxxiii. is rather poetical than hymn-like. It runs thus : —
' How beautiful the sight
Of brethren who agree
In friendship to unite,
And bonds of charity !
'Tis like the precious ointment, shed
O'er all his robes, from Aaron's head.
• 'Tis like the dews that fill
The cups of Hermon's flowers,
Or Zion's fruitful hill,
Bright with the drops of showers,
When mingling odours breathe around,
And glory rests on all the ground.
English Hymnology. J J
' For there the Lord commands
Blessings, a boundless store,
From His unsparing Hands,
Yea, Life for evermore :
Thrice happy they who meet above,
To spend eternity in Love.'
Some stanzas of Keble's translation of Psalm cxxxvi., 'Praise the
Lord, for He is Love,' will be found in the S. P. C. K. Hymnal.
Churton's version, though partly imitated from former translators, has
great animation and freshness. It begins, ' O praise the Lord, for
He is Love.'
Milton's translation, ' Let us with a gladsome mind,' though written
when he was quite a boy, is one of his best, and with very few alter-
ations supplies the material for an excellent hymn of Thanksgiving.
Thomas Churchyard's solitary contribution to the Old Version is a
translation of this Psalm, beginning, ' O praise the Lord benign.'
The New Version of Psalm cxxxvii., ' When we, our wearied limbs to
rest,' ekes out its second stanza somewhat less absurdly than ' When
we did sit in Babylon,' Whittingham's rendering in the Old Version.
' We hanged our harps and instruments
The willow-trees upon :
For in that place men for their use
Had planted many one.'
Old Version.
1 Our harps, that when with joy we sung,
Were wont their tuneful parts to bear,
With silent strings neglected hung
On willow-trees that withered there.''
New Version.
Churton's version, ' In thraldom's lonely woe,' is much better than
most of the older renderings. Lyte's ' Far from my heavenly home,'
is given as a paraphrase of this psalm ; but the second stanza, which
most nearly resembles the original, is omitted in ' Hymns Ancient
and Modern.' Goode's version, ' Far from Zion, far from home,' is
excellent in idea, but weak and unpoetical in expression. Mant's
' Behold me unprotected stand,' from Psalm cxlii., has some beauty,
To Mant is usually attributed a paraphrase of Psalm cxlviii., begin-
7 8 English Hymnology.
ing ( Praise the Lord ! ye heavens adore Him ;' but this is a
mistake. Mrs. Mant inserted it in her 'Parents 5 Anthology,' (1813)
but she took it from ' Psalms, &c, for the Foundling Chapel ' (1809),
where it appears without name. The best of Simon Browne's
attempts to versify the Psalms is perhaps his rendering of this, which
begins : —
' Oh for a hymn of universal praise !
Its Maker's fame may every creature raise :
Ye lofty heavens, begin the solemn sound,
And let it spread the wide creation round.'
Many of the versifiers of Psalm cxlix. have followed the metre of
Tate and Brady's ' O praise ye the Lord, prepare your glad voice.'
We may notice as examples, Thomas Park's ' My soul, praise the
Lord, speak good of His Name,' Goode's ' Prepare a new song,
Jehovah to praise,' and Lyte's ' O praise ye the Lord with heart and
with voice.' The last two are certainly not improved by the rhymes
in the middle of the lines. In Keble's version, ' O sing to the Lord,
sing out a new strain,' the rhymes ending the lines are alternate.
Churton's version of Psalm cl., ' Praise God, Who in the Holiest
dwells,' is chiefly taken from Miles Smyth, whose version of the Book
of Psalms appeared in 1668.
Before we proceed to the consideration of paraphrases from other
parts of the Bible, we may state a few of the objections which exist
against making these versifications, together with metrical Psalms,
serve as the staple of Church hymnody. In the first place, we have
sufficient provision made for the singing of the Psalms in the un-
metrical version, in which the compilers of our Prayer-Book appear
to have carefully suited the rhythm to the music of our own English
chants. We have thousands of unmetrical anthems, setting every pas-
sage of Holy Scripture that is suitable for singing, and a great many
that are not, to music. And some of these are within the singing
powers of even a village choir. As to the average poverty of metri-
cal paraphrases, we cannot do better than quote the criticism of a
Scotch reviewer : l —
1 'Hymnals and Hymn Books,' in the Gospel Messenger, April 20, 1858.
English Hymnology. 79
* These rhymed bits of Scripture always remind us of the rhymed multiplication-
table. While one hymn of the old authors will contain the spirit of fifty different
passages, showing a knowledge of Scripture now attained by few, it was left for
the days of ignorance of the eighteenth century to suppose that a hymn was pro-
duced by stretching four or five verses of Scripture on the rack of rhyme.'
Yet there are some paraphrases which must be admitted to be excel-
lent hymns; being for the most part such as have been half unconsciously
moulded on the ideas of Scripture, rather than deliberately done into
verse from its very words. Doddridge's ' O God of Jacob, by Whose
Hand/ 1 may be taken as an example : most of Logan's improvements
in it change it from the actual language of the passage on which it is
founded. Of course every good hymn must take its key-note from
some passage in the Word of God ; and when this is a moderately
short text, it is certainly an advantage to have it given out before the
hymn is sung. But it could hardly be said that all hymns are para-
phrases of their texts, though it is often difficult to draw the line of
distinction. Of Michael Bruce's paraphrases, the best known are,
'O happy is the man who hears,' 2 from the Old Testament, and
1 Where high the heavenly Temple stands,' 3 from the New. Logan's
dishonest appropriation of Bruce's hymns is one of the most dis-
graceful blots in the annals of literature. The story is told at full
length in Mr. Grosart's edition of Michael Bruce's works. Bruce and
Logan were college friends at Edinburgh. The former left the
University of Edinburgh for a life of ill-paid and severe toil, ended
by a lingering consumption, in his twenty-second year. The latter
became a popular Presbyterian preacher at Leith. On hearing of
Bruce's death, Logan obtained from his parents the MS. of his poems,
on pretence of publishing it for their benefit. After a long delay he
had seven of the poems printed as Bruce's, professing to have added
others to make up a miscellany. The non-appearance of the ' Gospel
Sonnets' in this volume brought thedeceased poet's father to Edinburgh
to remonstrate with Logan, who replied that he had lost the book.
But he afterwards published, in 1781, ' Poems by the Rev. Mr. Logan,'
wherein he appropriated as his own several of the poems in Bruce's
1 Gen. xxviii. 20-22. 3 From Prov. iii. 13-17.
3 From Ilcb. iv. 14-16.
8o English Hymnology.
MS. It is satisfactory to know that his treachery to his deceased
friend met with its deserved reward. He died poor and neglected
in London. His coadjutors in the preparation of the Scotch Para-
phrases were Dr. Hugh Blair, Dr. Morrison, and William Cameron.
Of their united production, (in which free use has been made of
Watts's and Doddridge's writings,) it is impossible to speak highly.
Some of Watts's best paraphrases seem to have been excluded in
consequence of their being in short metre ; as for instance, ' How
beauteous are their feet,' 1 and 'To God the only wise.' 2
The following quaint old lines, by William Cardale, may be interest-
ing to some of our readers. Their date is about 1635.
' Though blossomes all from fig-trees fall,
And vines noe fruit shall bring ;
Yet on my God will I rely,
And to Him prayses sing.
Though the olive-tree shall fruit-less be,
Yielding noe suppling oyle ;
Yet on my God will I rely,
Whose mercies never faile.
' Though the harvest field no meate shall yield,
But threaten famine sore ;
Yet on my God will I rely,
And still His Grace implore.
Though nought is seen in pastures greene,
The flocks exiled the folde ;
Yet on my God will I rely,
His bounty makes me bolde.
' Though cattle all, both great and small,
Should perish from our coastes ;
Yet on my God will I rely,
For He's the Lord of Hostes.
Though the herds of neat our enemyes eat,
And leave none in the stalle ;
Yet on my God will I rely,
And prayse His Name for all.
From Isaiah, lii. 7-10 ; and S. Matt. xiii. 16, 17. • From S. ]ude, 24, 25.
English Hymnology. 81
' Though the creature failes, and nought avayles
Whereon fraile men depend ;
Yet on my God will I rely,
Till time shall never end.
With heart and voyce will I rejoyce,
For God's my Rock and strength :
Yea, on my God will I rely,
To be supply'd at length.
' Doth God correct ? It shall affect
My heart with due submission :
I'll be content and patient
In every condition.
Or low or high, if poverty
Or ritches me befall,
Lord, I'll resign my will to Thine,
And bless Thy Name for all.'
They are taken from Hab. iii. 17, 18.
Very few paraphrases from the New Testament possess great excel-
lence as hymns. The danger of dwindling into mere paraphrase has
always beset such attempts as W 7 ordsworth's and Hensley's to provide
hymns founded on the Epistles and Gospels. The hymn by Lewis
Hensley for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity, ' We were baptized into
the Saviour's Death/ 1 is the most successful of his efforts to versify
any part of the Epistles. Several of Heber's hymns are paraphrased
from the Epistles and Gospels of the Sundays to which they are
allotted: — 'In the sun and moon and stars/ 2 'The God of glory
walks His round/ 3 and ' Lo, the lilies of the field/ 4 may serve as
examples. One of the poet Cowper^s most popular paraphrases,
'Hear what God the Lord hath spoken/ 5 is marred by an extra-
ordinary failure of rhyme in the second stanza, of which the first four
lines run thus : —
' There, like streams that feed the garden,
Pleasures without end shall flow,
For the Lord, your faith rewarding)
All His Bounty shall bestow.'
1 From Romans vi. 3-1 1. 2 S. Luke xxi. 25-31. 3 S. Matt. xx. i-S.
4 S. Matt. vi. 25-30. 5 From Isaiah lx.
82 English Hymnology.
A. C. Coxe's 'Who is this with garments gory,' 1 is a very beautiful
poem, but does not appear exactly suitable for a hymn. ' Who cometh
here, from Edom's rocks,' in Lyra Mystica, by Archdeacon Mant,
is open to the same remark.
1 From Isaiah lxiii.
IX.
GENERAL HYMNS.— {Continued.)
There is, for all true hymns, a sphere of usefulness besides that
which they possess in what may be called their public capacity as
forming part of the Church services. They may be used in private
devotion as fit subjects for meditation ; they may thus be taken more
closely to the heart of each individual Christian, while they attune
his spirit the better to join in the songs which are the prelude to the
eternal harmonies of heaven. It is on hymns designed chiefly for
meditation and private use that we would now venture a few remarks,
only premising that we are unavoidably giving a very incomplete
view of these hymns, and passing over very many that are worthy of
notice.
The number of hymns suitable for this purpose is greatly increased
by the fact that, to most educated persons, the quaintness of ex-
pression which prevents the works of our older sacred poets from
being sung in church, rather recommends them for, than disqualifies
them from, private use. There are two very interesting volumes
published by the Parker Society : — ' Select Poetry of the Elizabethan
Period, chiefly Devotional, edited by Edward Farr, Esq.' They con-
tain many curious specimens of versions of the Psalms by Sir Philip
Sidney and his sister, the Countess of Pembroke, by Archbishop
Parker (in whose version they are preceded by ' Arguments,' and
followed by Collects), by William Hunnis, by Francis Davison, and
one by Queen Elizabeth herself. The following is from ' Certaine
short and pithy Praiers unto Jesu Christ our Saviour,' by W.
Hunnis : —
' O Jesu sweet, grant that Thy grace
Ahvaies so worke in mee,
I may desire the thing to doo
Most pleasing unto Thee.
84 English Hymnology.
4 O Jesu meeke, Thy Will be mine,
My will be Thine also ;
And that my will may follow Thine
In pleasure, paine, and wo ;
' O Jesu ; what is good for me,
I say best knowne to Thee ;
Therefore, according to Thy Will,
Have mercie now on mee.
* # #
' O Jesu, oft it greeveth me
And troubleth sore my mind,
That I so weake and fraile am found,
To wander with the blind.
' O Jesu deare, Thy lasting light,
Whose brightness doth excell,
The clearness of Thy beams send downe,
Within my heart to dwell.
' O Jesu, quicken Thou my soule,
That it may cleave to Thee ;
And for Thy painefull Passion sake,
Have mercie now on mee.'
We have an anonymous translation from S. Peter Damiani's 'Ad
perennis vitse fontem,' beginning —
' My thirsty soule desires her drought
At heavenly fountaines to refresh.'
Some of the classical metres appear, e.g., in A. W.'s 'Saphickes upon
the Passion of Christ ' and Abraham Fraunce's hexametrical version
of the Psairiis, but t.iey are not very successful. Some of the poems
are in no sense devotional, and such lines as those by J. Rhodes
against the Papists might well have been omitted.
There is scarcely any need to direct attention to the poetry of
George Herbert, the best known, and most frequently quoted, writer
of quaint sacred verses. His lines seem to have been written with
the very purpose of repelling all but the most thoughtful and medi-
tative readers. His own words are the best possible apology for the
want of poetic smoothness with which some have charged him : —
English Hymnology. 85
* The finenesse which a hymne or psalme affords,
Is, when the soul unto the line accords.
' He who craves all the minde,
And all the soul, and strength, and time,
If the words onely ryme,
Justly complains that somewhat is behinde
To make His verse, or write a hymne in kinde.
' Whereas if th' heart be moved,
Although the verse be somewhat scant,
God doth supplie the want.'
The strange fashion in which he often plays with his metre, his
words, and his thoughts, is yet always subordinated to a spirit of
deep reverence ; and when once the tangled web of his language is
unravelled, it shows the beautiful transparent simplicity of his mind.
That so few can use his poems as he himself did, singing them to his
own music, results perhaps less from a scanty appreciation of their
merits, than from the lack of that pure and noble spirit which
inspired him. It was on the last Sunday of his life that he composed
and sang to his lute some of his well-known lines on Sunday : —
' O Day most calm, most bright,
The fruit of this, the next world's bud,
Th' indorsement of supreme delight,
Writ by a Friend, and with His Bloud ;
The couch of Time ; Care's balm and bay ;
The week were dark, but for thy light ;
Thy torch doth show the way.'
We must confine our notice of George Herbert to one more speci-
men, perhaps the easiest to comprehend of all his hymns : —
* King of Glorie ! King of Peace !
I will love Thee,
And that love may never cease,
I will move Thee.
* Thou hast granted my request,
Thou hast heard me !
Thou didst note my working breast,
Thou hast spared me !
86 English Hymnology.
1 Wherefore with my utmost art
I will sing Thee,
And the cream of all my heart
I will bring Thee.
1 Though my sinnes against me cried,
Thou didst cleare me !
And alone, when they replied,
Thou didst heare me !
' Seven whole dayes, not one in seven,
I will praise Thee.
In my heart, though not in heaven,
I can raise Thee.
' Thou grew'st soft and moist with tears,
Thou relentedst,
And when Justice call'd for fears,
Thou dissentedst.
' Small it is, in this poore sort
To enroll Thee.
Ev'n eternitie is too short
To extoll Thee.'
Wales, the native country of George Herbert, produced, some
twenty years later, a poet, whose sacred verses, strangely neglected
in his own days, are yet more strangely but little noticed now.
Henry Vaughan, named from his birth-place The Silurist, 1 has few of
the difficulties we find in George Herbert, and writes frequently in a
more definitely hymn-like style. To Lyte's edition of his Silex
Scintillans (i.e. Sparks from the Flint-stone), an excellent biography
of Vaughan is prefixed. There can be no doubt that the Silurist
studied, and sometimes closely imitated, the poems of Herbert. 2
Thus we find stanzas in Vaughan much resembling those given
above, and beginning —
' King of Comforts ! King of Life !
Thou hast cheered me ;
And when fears and doubts were rife,
Thou hast cleered me !
1 As being born among the Silures, the tribe which peopled South Wales,
a He speaks of himself as a convert, won by the holy life and verse of Mr.
George Herbert.
English Hymnology. 87
' >7ot a nook in all my breast,
But Thou fill's! it ;
Not a thought that breaks my rest,
But Thou kill'st it.
1 Wherefore with my utmost strength
I will praise Thee,
And as Thou giv'st line and length,
I will raise Thee ;
' Day and night, not once a day,
I will blesse Thee ;
And, my soul, in new array
I will dresse Thee. '
Though Vaughan never displays any distinctive Romanism like
Crashaw, he is not always so moderate in his language as might be
desired. Perhaps almost the only lines of his which have found
acceptance in any of our hymnals are those inserted in ' The People's
Hymnal ' which have so grievously offended some reviewers, wherein
he thus addresses the Blessed Virgin : —
' Thou art the true Love-knot ; by thee
God is made our allie ;'
But it is not fair to judge the author by this really exceptional
specimen of his language. The following more fairly represents his
style. Its subject is f Departed Friends.'
' They are all gone into the world of Light !
And I alone sit lingering here !
Their very memory is fair and bright,
And my sad thoughts doth clear.
' It glows and glitters in my cloudy breast,
Like stars upon some gloomy grove.
Or those faint beams in which this hill ' is drest
After the sun's remove.
1 I see them walking in an air of glory,
Whose light doth trample on my days ;
My days, which are at best but dull and hoar)',
Meer glimmering and decays.
Sketh-rock.
88 English Hymnology.
' O holy Hope, and high Humility !
High as the heavens above !
These are your walks, and you have shew'd them me,
To kindle my cold love.
' Dear, beauteous Death ! the Jewel of the Just !
Shining nowhere but in the dark ;
What mysteries do lie beyond the dust,
Could man outlook that mark !
1 He that hath found some fledg'd bird's nest may know
At first sight if the bird be flown ;
But what fair dell or grove he sings in now,
That is to him unknown.
' And yet, as Angels in some brighter dreams
Call to the soul when man doth sleep,
So some strange thoughts transcend our wonted theams,
And into glory peep.'
His lines on Peace, beginning, ' My Soul, there is a Countrie,' are
very beautiful. His ' Wreath ' is an evident imitation from George
Herbert's. His lines, ' King of Mercy, King of Love,' remind us of
the similarly irregular metre found in Jeremy Taylor's ' Full of Mercy,
full of Love.' There is a fair selection from Vaughan in Fosbery's
' Hymns and Poems for the Sick and Suffering,' where may also be
seen extracts from many seventeenth-century writers, whom we have
not space to mention here. The hymns in Dean Hickes's Devotions
are by John Austin, an author who joined the Church of Rome about
the middle of that century. Though intended for private use, many
of them may, with very little alteration, be used in church. Of those
which can only be used in private we may notice ' Let others court
what joys they please,' ' Fain would my thoughts fly up to Thee/ and
' And now, my soul, canst thou forget.' The works of Creation are
beautifully commemorated in his hymn, ' Hark, my soul, how every
thing/ ' My God, to Thee ourselves we owe/ is also by Austin. 1
In the voluminous compositions of Watts, the Wesleys, Simon
Browne, and other writers of their time, we see an increasing tendency
to make hymns, intended for public use, so full of individual and
1 ' With all the powers my poor soul hath/ is taken by Austin, with alterations,
from Crashaw's translation of l Adoro Te devote,' by S. Thomas Aquinas.
English Hymnology. 89
personal aspirations and experiences, as to render them only suitable
for private meditation. Sometimes, indeed, the self-exaltation of the
individual becomes so absurd as to render the hymn wholly worth-
less; e.g. —
' When I can read my title clear
To mansions in the skies,
I bid farewell to every fear,
And wipe my weeping eyes.'
Dr. Watts.
Frequently, however, the use of the singular number in the hymns of
these authors is only, so to speak, an accidental feature, which it is
often undesirable to change for church use, perhaps rather from their
being familiar to us in their original forms than from anything else. 1
In Dr. Watts's hymns, the Morning Song, ' Once more, my soul, the
rising day,' and the Evening Song, ' Dread Sovereign, let my evening
song,' may be used as hymns of meditation, as may also ' Alas ! and
did my Saviour bleed/ or the lines beginning —
' Arise, my soul, my joyful powers,
And triumph in my God ;
Awake, my voice, and loud proclaim
His glorious Grace abroad.'
1 I need not apologize for the following illustration of my meaning ;— a transla-
tion by Dr. Neale of Watts's hymn, ' When I survey the wondrous Cross.' The
permission to reprint it was due to the kindness of the editor of The Christian
Remembrancer.
Crucem sequentes praeviam,
Qua Rex pependit Gloriae,
Per lucra damnum quaerimus,
Et temnimus superbiam.
O Crux, tuorum cordibus
Tu sola sis jactatio :
Pendentis ad Regis Pedes
Spretae voluptates jacent.
Quae vana complexi sumus,
Jam non placebunt amplius ;
Dum per Pedes, Manns, Caput,
Amore mixtus it Cruor ;
' O cui nee antea Cruor
Talis se Amori junxerat !
O nulla Regis spineae
Corona comparabilis !
' Qui debitas victoriae
Tantae rependimus vices,
Ni, Qui redemit, nos Deo
Fiamus ipsi victimae ?
' Sit laus Patri; laus Filio,
Tristi levato stipite,
Cum Spiritu Paraclito
In saeculorum saecula. Amen.'
Here, as will be seen, the plural is substituted for the singular throughout, and the
translation, though really very close in other respects, seems scarcely to recall the
original hymn.
90 English Hymnology.
It seems almost useless to give the first lines of the very numerous
hymns by the Wesleys, which are chiefly suitable for private use. The
following are but a few : — ' Thou hidden love of God, whose height,' 1
' O for a heart to praise my God,' ' Jesu, Thy boundless love to me,'
' Father, in the Name I pray,' ' O Love Divine, how sweet thou art/
' Open, Lord, my inward ear,' ' God of my life, what just return,'
' Jesu, Thou art my Righteousness/ For the death-bed of one pre-
pared to die, his lines, ' Happy soul, thy days are ended,' seem more
suitable than Toplady's ' Deathless principle, arise !' or Montgomery's
'Spirit! leave thine house of clay!' 2 Of John Newton's hymns,
* How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds,' ' Come, my soul, thy suit
prepare,' 'Why should I fear the darkest hour,' 'Approach, my soul,
the mercy-seat,' and ' I hear the tempest's awful sound,' (the last
specially appropriate for use at sea,) must be mentioned. But many
more hymns of meditation are due to William Cowper. There is
indeed a vein of melancholy pervading many of his hymns, which is
only too well accounted for by the author's sad history. ' God moves
in a mysterious way,' ' O Lord, my best desire fulfil,' and ' O for a
closer walk with God,' all bear traces of having been written ' in the
twilight of departing reason.' ' Hark, my soul ! it is the Lord,' and
' Far from the world, O Lord, I flee,' breathe a happier spirit, as do
also many of his translations from Madame Guyon, which are far too
little known. ' Blest, who, far from all mankind,' 3 and ' Love is the
Lord whom I obey,' 4 are especially good, as are also ' Night ! how
I love thy silent shades/ 5 and indeed all those on watching to God
in the night-season. It may be interesting to compare a stanza of
the original French with Cowper's translation : —
' Tous sont obliges de T'aimer,
Je le suis d'avantage ;
Cent fois Tu m'as scu delivrer
D'un mortel esclavage :
1 By John Wesley, from Tersteegen's ,Q$erfcorgne ©ottcSlicbc 3)u.'
2 This is not among Montgomery's published hymns, though probably adapted
by himself (from a poem written in 1803) for Dr. Collyer's collection, 1812.
3 From ■ Heureux, qui, loin de tout le monde.'
4 L' Amour me tient asservie. 5 Nuit, que vous m'etes favorable.
English Hymnology. 91
Mon Petit-Maitre, mon Amour,
Que j'expire en Toi chaque jour !'
' All are indebted much to Thee,
But I far more than all ;
From many a deadly snare set free,
And raised from many a fall :
Overwhelm me from above
Daily "with Thy boundless Love.'
Some suitable pieces may be found also in Lyra Evangelica,
translated from Malan by Miss Arnold.
Many of Charlotte Elliott's poems are suitable for private devotion.
Her best-known hymn, ' My God and Father, while I stray,' seems
to have been originally intended for use in this way. ( O Holy
Saviour, Friend unseen,' ' Just as I am, without one plea/ and ' O
Thou, the contrite sinner's Friend,' are also well adapted for medita-
tion. In H. F. Lyte's sacred verses there are, besides many others
equally worth mentioning, ' Jesus, I my cross have taken,' ' Long did
I toil, and knew no earthly rest,' and ' When at Thy footstool, Lord,
I bend.' For meditation in times of trouble there are some lines by
Dr. Thomas Gibbons, beginning —
'To Thee, my God, Whose Presence fills
The earth, and seas, and skies,
To Thee, Whose Name, Whose heart is Love,
With all my powers I rise.'
Very much of the sacred poetry of Germany is suitable for private
use. The subjective character found especially in many of the
later hymns adapts them to this end. C. J. P. Spitta's works are
excellent for domestic edification, for which indeed they were primarily
designed. Mr. Massie has in his Lyra Domestica, translated the
' Psaltery and Harp ' of Spitta successfully on the whole. ' O blessed
Sun, whose Splendour,' 1 and ' My Lord and God, Whose gracious
Hand,' 2 deserve especial mention. His rendering of the parting
hymn, 3 ' How mean ye thus by weeping,' though retaining the double
rhymes of the original, is perhaps not equal to ' What mean ye by
1 D Seftt, mcine Sonne. 2 3TJein J? err unt ©ott, £cy gutcv frmb.
5 SQBaS mad>t i§r, tap if;r tueinet.
English Hymnology.
this wailing, 5 the version given in ' Hymns from the Land of Luther.'
Spitta's poem on Patience l is beautifully translated in ' Christian
Lyrics/ by M. S. M., in the lines beginning —
1 Throughout this earth in stillness
An angel walks abroad,
For consoling in our weakness,
He is strengthened of the Lord.'
Miss Winkworth's lines beginning, ' O Father- Eye, that hath so truly
watched/ are from Spitta. 2 Among the older German hymns some
of the most suitable are taken from Angelus Silesius. Space forbids
us here to give a hitherto unpublished version of his best-known
hymn, 3 kindly sent us by the Rev. T. L. Kingsbury, which Miss Cox
has translated ' Love, Who in the first beginning/ and Miss Wink-
worth, ' O Love, Who formedst me to wear/
Miss A. L. Waring's lines, beginning ' Father, I know that all
my life/ are very beautiful, excelling even Miss A. A. Proctor's ' My
God, I thank Thee, Who hast made.' In weariness of spirit, two
hymns by F. W. Faber, ' O Lord, my heart is sick/ and, ' I come to
Thee once more, my God,' may be used. His lines beginning,
' Hark ! hark ! my soul ! angelic songs are ringing/ have become
very popular as a sacred song, under the title of the ' Pilgrims of the
Night.' Bonar's ' Thy way, not mine, O Lord/ and ' Cease, my
soul, thy strayings/ may well be thus used.
The plan of regularly introducing a hymn into daily private de-
votions is admirably carried out in the Rev. A. G. Jackson's ' Penny
Pocket-book of Prayers and Hymns.' 4 Here we have the lines of
Caswall, which are perhaps the best preface to a meditation upon
death that has ever been written : —
' Now let me close mine eyes,
And strive to picture to myself the day,
When, stretched in my last dying agonies,
I here no more may stay.
1 @3 §ie$t em flitter Gngel.
2 O aScitevfyanb, bte mtcfy fo treu gefiiljvet. 3 Siefce, £>ie 3)u mtd> mm 23i(be.
4 We should, however, have been glad to see a hymn provided more definitely
suitable for Sunday morning than any of those given.
English Hymnology. 93
1 Ah ! when will be the time
For Thee, my soul, to wing thy solemn flight ?
Shall it be winter's snow, or summer's prime ?
Shall it be day or night ?
' And will my death come slow,
Or sudden as the lightning's vivid blast ?
Ah me ! I cannot say, — but this I know,
That come it must at last.
' Oh then, since thus I live,
Certain of death, uncertain of the day,
This grace to me, immortal Saviour, give,
In Thy dear Love I pray ;
' That whatsoe'er befall
Of good or ill, I evermore may be
Ready, whenever sounds Thy solemn call,
At once to answer Thee.'
Two other pieces on the same subject, by the same author, ' Come,
my soul, and let us dwell,' and ' Borne as an arrow from the bow,'
are also good. Many of CaswalPs meditative pieces deserve to be
better known. His Hymn of Reparation to the Holy Sacrament,
beginning ' O Jesu, O Redeemer,' may be found useful. This idea
is also well expressed in a hymn by the Rev. T. L. Kingsbury,
hitherto unpublished : —
' And art Thou coming, Lord, once more
To fill this worthless heart of mine,
To break for me the Eternal Store,
And shed for me Thy deathless Wine ?
' What so can move Thee to forsake
Thy throne above the boundless sky ;
These lowly forms of earth to take,
Nor pass the meanest suppliant by ?
' Canst Thou forgive my sinful shame,
My long neglects, my stubborn pride ?
And canst Thou from Those Eyes of Flame
My vileness, my pollution hide ?
94 English Hymnology.
' Yet, Jesus ! all my Peace and Joy !
If so Thou must to me incline,
Come, what Thou hatest to destroy,
And make me all and only Thine. '
The following lines of Archbishop Trench, with which we must
now conclude, remind us forcibly of George Herbert's style of
thought : —
1 When prayer delights thee least, then learn to say,
Soul, now is greatest need that thou shouldst pray.
1 Crooked and warped I am, and I would fain
Straighten myself by Thy right line again.
' Oh, come, warm sun, and ripen my late fruits ;
Pierce, genial showers, down to my parched roots.
1 My well is bitter ; cast therein the Tree,
That sweet henceforth its brackish waves may be.
' Say what is prayer, when it is prayer indeed ?
The mighty utterance of a mighty need.
' The man is praying who doth press with might
Out of his darkness into God's Own light.
' White heat the iron in the furnace won :
Withdrawn from thence, 'tis cold and hard anon.
' Flowers from their stalks divided, presently
Droop, fail, and wither in the gazer's eye.
' The largest river, from its fountain-head
Cut off, leaves soon a parched and dusty bed.
' All things that live from God their sustenance wait,
And sun and moon are beggars at His gate.
' All skirts extended of thy mantle hold,
When angel-hands from Heaven are scattering gold.'
-^M
X.
GENERAL HYMNS. —{Continued.)
It has sometimes been explicitly stated, and much more often taken
for granted, that hymns cannot be filled with doctrinal statements
without detracting from their merits as songs of praise. But it is
rather true, that though any polemic assertion of doctrine is out of
place in a hymn, yet the hymn from which all distinctive teaching
has been evaporated must always be weak and unsatisfactory. The
true doctrinal function of hymns is not unhappily expressed by Dr.
Bonar in the preface to his first series of hymns : —
1 They are what they are here called, Hymns of Faith and Hope. They belong
to no church or sect. They are not the expressions of one man's or one party's
faith and hope ; but are meant to speak what may be thought and spoken by all
to whom the Church's ancient Faith and Hope are dear.'
It is absolutely necessary that hymns, while they avoid such
details of doctrine and practice as cannot be given without injury to
their poetic character, should yet clearly set forth Christian Truths
to be believed, and Christian Graces to be cultivated. The negation
of what is heretical or false can only be well expressed in the sim-
plest language. Thus, Toplady's —
• Not the labour of my hands
Can fulfil Thy Law's demands,'
expresses soberly and successfully what the translator of Mowes's
1 Alleluia ! I believe,' l in ' Hymns from the Land of Luther/ has
merely rendered grotesque : —
* Ice-bound fields of legal labour
I have left, with all their toil,
While the fruits of love are growing
From a new and genial soil.'
Dean Alford has worked out the same idea more elaborately, but not
very felicitously, in a hymn which begins : —
1 3c$ gtou&f, -ftaUetujcu) !
g6 English Hymnology.
1 Not in anything we do,
Thought that's pure or word that's true,
Saviour, would we put our trust ;
Frail as vapour, vile as dust,
All that flatters we disown,
Righteousness is Thine alone.'
The true office of Faith is much better set forth in his earlier hymn,
' We walk by faith, and not by sight/ the language of which runs
somewhat parallel to that of J. H. Gurney's, ' We saw Thee not,
when Thou didst come.' As a supplication for increase of faith, few
hymns have gained a better deserved popularity than J. Montgomery's
' In the hour of trial.' It is most unaccountably omitted in several of
our new hymnals, and it is given in others as anonymous. It is No.
193, in Montgomery's Original Hymns for Christian Worship, being
the first of the 'Prayers on Pilgrimage.' The second line, 'Jesus,
pray for me,' has been objected to, as if it ignored the Divinity of our
Lord ; but surely it only asks Him to do that for us which we know
that He did for S. Peter, and to make that intercession for us which
He ever liveth to make for those who come to God by Him. Very
beautiful are also Dean Milman's lines, ' O help us, Lord, each hour
of need,' and Anstice's, ' O Lord, how happy should we be.' Thomas
Haweis, in ' O Thou from whom all goodness flows,' has well shown
how the 'prayer of faith' may itself be fashioned into a hymn. As a
profession of faith in our Lord, the hymn, ' Behold the Lamb,' 1 by
Matthew Bridges, deserves notice. There is a poem on Faith by
this author, given in Lyra Mystica, of which we take the liberty of
extracting a few stanzas : —
' Faith is the dawning of a Day
Where darkness was before,
The rising of a solar ray
To set in night no more.
' Faith yields a sense of life and love,
Upborne on wings of prayer,
Swift as an eagle or a dove
That cleaves the liquid air.
1 Altered in ' Hymns Ancient and Modern ' and elsewhere to ' Behold the Lamb
of God. '
English Hymnology. 97
' Faith leads me onwards to the Civ .
And through it to a Crown,
When purified from all the dross
That weighs the spirit down.
' O Lord, increase this Grace in me,
That with each fleeting breath
I more and more may know of Thee,
And hail the hand of death !
* So Faith shall in Fruition end,
And Grace in Glory cease,
Where Praise her powers can never spend,
Nor aught disturb their peace. '
There is a painful want of dignity in the once favourite hymn of John
Newton, ' Begone, unbelief, my Saviour is near,' which, added to its
doubtful orthodoxy, 1 has doubtless caused its recent disuse. ' As
when the weary traveller gains ' is a much better hymn by the same
author. The blessings of faith are well set forth in Conder's hymn,
'Blessed are they whose hearts are pure;' much less successfully by-
Daniel Turner in ' Faith adds new charms to earthly bliss.' Faith
raising itself through afflictions could hardly find its expression in
more suitable words than ' Nearer, my God, to Thee,' which Mrs.
Adams contributed in 1840 to Fox's ' Hymns and Anthems.' It is
much to be regretted that the first line of the second stanza, with its
reference to Jacob, 'Though like the wanderer,' has been so generally
altered. Godfrey Turing's ' Fierce raged the tempest o'er the deep,'
and Ryland's ' O Lord, I would delight in Thee,' breathe a some-
what similar spirit. W. W. How is the author of 'Lord Jesus,
when we stand afar,' a prayer for faith inspired by the contempla-
tion of our Lord's Passion, which is also implied in Mrs. Alexander's
'When wounded sore the stricken heart.' 'O Lord, Thou knowest
all the snares,' was contributed by Mrs. Toke to the first S. P. C. K.
Hymnal. ' Thou that art the Father's Word,' by Dean Alford, is
given as an Epiphany Hymn in 'The Year of Praise,' but without
any very evident special appropriateness.
1 See especially v. 4 —
'■Determined to save, He watched o'er my path,
When, Satan's blind slave, I sported with d
H
98 English Hymnology.
The mutual relationship of the Christian Graces is well described
in Wordsworth's lines : —
1 Thou hast a temple founded,
Thy Church, on Thee the Rock :
By Faith securely grounded,
She stands the tempest's shock :
' Her stones are all united
By the cement of Love :
Her spire of Hope is lighted
By sunbeams from above.'
Miss Winkworth's ' Faith is a living power from heaven,' from the
German 1 of the Bohemian Brethren, and ' I know in whom I put
my trust/ from E. M. Arndt, 2 are good as hymns of faith. Her
hymn, ' Fear not, O little flock, the foe,' is partly from Altenburg's
translation 3 of Gustavus Adolphus's battle song, 4 partly from an
anonymous version of the two additional stanzas, which were written
in 1633 by Dr. Samuel Zelmer.
So many of the hymns on Hope have special reference to the joys
and glories of Paradise, a subject which we are reserving for our
next article, that we have but few to notice here. ' O'er the distant
mountains breaking,' is a beautiful hymn by Dr. Monsell, whose
' Rest of the weary ' may also be classed as a hymn of Hope.
Bonar's ' The Church has waited long,' is one of his best hymns, but
is much improved by the omissions in Dean Alford's version of it,
given in ' The Year of Praise.' ' Ye servants of the Lord,' by Dr.
Doddridge, and Mrs. Eric Findlater's ' Rejoice, all ye believers,' 5 are
good as admonitions to Christian Hope and Watchfulness. ' Come,
Lord Jesus, quickly come,' is by H. G. Tomkins ; ' Come to Thy
Temple, Lord,' is by Dean Alford. Mrs. Charles's ' Commit thy
way to God,' and G. Turing's ' Dead to life, yet loth to die,' are well
suited to encourage a patient Hope. F. T. Palgrave's ' Hope of
those that have none other,' is scarcely equal to its author's usual
1 2>cr @(aub' ift cine (cfcnfcigc Jivaft. 2 3d; toeijj an SEBen id) alciufce.
3 8?erjage nid;t, tit Jpauficin tttin. 4 Soi'ffiraS c|, tn litta fjop.
3 From , (Svmiintcrt cud;, il;v ffrominen,' by Laurentius Laurenti.
English Hymnology. 99
merit. Miss Borthwick's * Jesus, still lead on,' 1 is good, and only
needs a suitable tune for its very peculiar metre to make it a popular
hymn. The same remark may apply to R. H. Baynes's lines
beginning : —
' When across the heart deep waves of sorrow
Break, as on a dry and barren shore ;
While Hope glistens with no bright to-morrow,
And the storm seems sweeping evermore.'
Toplady's ' When languor and disease invade/ has fifteen stanzas in
the original ; it was written during an illness. Wesley's ' O Thou, to
whose all-searching sight,' 3 and Bonar's ' O Everlasting Light,' may
perhaps be fitly mentioned here.
The hymns on Love fall naturally into two classes : those which
have Divine Love for their subject, and those which set forth the
duty of Love to God and man as a Christian Grace.
Scarcely any translated hymn has been more acceptable to English
ears than the ' rhythmic song in commemoration of the Lord's
Passion,' popularly ascribed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux. 8 In
Daniel's Thesaurus Hymnologicus reasons are adduced for attributing
to St. Bernard only eleven stanzas, and even these not with any
great certainty. Those with which the hymn now commences were
added, as Daniel believes, by a Cistercian nun in the fourteenth
century. Later interpolators have extended the hymn to its present
length ; and some of them, when dividing it into shorter portions for
insertion in the breviaries, have disregarded its original rules of
rhyme. Caswall's version, 'Jesu, the very thought of Thee,' is in
five parts, and is by far the best we possess. From his second part
is taken, 'Jesu, Thy mercies are untold.' 1 Dr. Neale's 'Jesu ! the
very thought is sweet,' and Copeland's 'Jesu ! how sweet those
1 From ,3 c fu, gel) 1 »ora»,' by Ludwig von Zinzendorf.
2 This hymn has been given by Dr. Rogers as translated by John Wesley from
the German of Gerhard Tersteegen ; but Mr. Ktibler knows no hymn of hi
which it corresponds, and it is not given at the end of Tersteegen's Memoir among
the hymns translated by Wesley.
3 It begins 'Jesu dulcis memoria,' and has forty eight stanza?.
1 Amor Jesu dulcissimus.
ioo English Hymnology.
accents are,' deserve mention, though not nearly equal to Caswall's
rendering. We have already had occasion to mention ' Jesus ! Thou
Joy of loving hearts,' taken from this poem by Ray Palmer, as an
Eucharistic Hymn. The following version of the stanzas which form
part hi. of hymn 157 in 'Hymns Ancient and Modern' 1 may not be
unacceptable to our readers. It is due to Robert Campbell, Esq., of
Skerrington.
'Jesu, highest heaven's Completeness,
Name of Music to the ear,
To the lips surpassing sweetness,
Wine the fainting heart to cheer.
' Eating Thee, the soul may hunger,
Drinking, still athirst may be,
But for earthly food no longer,
Nor for any stream but Thee.
'Jesu, all delights exceeding,
Only Hope of hearts distrest ;
Weeping eyes, and spirits bleeding,
Find in Thee a place of rest.
1 Stay, O Beauty uncreated,
Ever ancient, ever new,
Banish deeds of darkness hated,
With Thy sweetness all bedew.
Jesu, fairest Blossom, springing
From a Maiden ever pure,
May our lips Thy praise be singing,
While eternal years endure.'
' O Love ! how deep ! how broad ! how high !' 2 is a translation by
Dr. Neale of part of a fifteenth century hymn. Dr. Kynaston's
1 Jesu Decus Angelicum.
2 'O Amor quam exsts liens.' The original begins with a stanza not translated :
' Apparuit Benign itas
Dei, necnon Humanitn?,
Fx Caritate nlmia
Ad nos atque gratuilaV
English Hymnology. 101
'JesU, Solace of my Soul/ is translated from Anselm, 1 Bishop of
Lucca in the eleventh century. W. C. Dix's 'No songs shall break
our gloom to-day,' and C. G. Rossetti's ' I bore with thee long weary
days and nights/ are very poetical, but scarcely suited for church
use. There is a beautiful little poem of unknown date and author-
ship, 2 to which Dr. Kynaston's version, though reproducing very
ingeniously the rhymes of the original, scarcely does justice : —
' Lend, O lend me wings to send me,
Heavenly Dove, careering soon
Where the palmy Cross with balmy
Shadows hides the burning noon.'
Mr. Campbell's translation, given in the S. Andrew's Hymnal, ' Lend
Thy Wings, O Holy Dove,' is much better.
There is a festival introduced into the more recent breviaries which
gives several hymns on the Saviour's Love, — the Feast of the Heart
of Jesus. Caswall's ' All ye who seek for sure relief/ 3 and ' To
Christ the Prince of peace,' 4 are translations of the hymns com-
posed for this festival in the Roman Breviary. ' Jesus, Thy Love
unbounded/ is a beautiful hymn, given anonymously in Bosworth's
Church Hymns. ' Jesu, Lover of my Soul/ was written by Charles
Wesley in 1740, and is certainly one of his best hymns. 5 Since pub-
lishing the 'Annotated Edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern/ I
have ascertained that the author of ' Jesu, meek and lowly/ is Henry
Collins. ' From highest Heaven the Eternal Sox,' was written by
Sir Henry Baker to suit the tune of the Old 113th Psalm. ' My faith
looks up to Thee,' is a beautiful hymn by Dr. Ray Palmer. Dr.
Millard's ' God Eternal, Lord of all/ and Faber's ' My God, how
wonderful Thou art !' maybe noticed now, though somewhat differ-
ing in subject from most of those mentioned above.
1 Jesu mi dulcissime.
- 'Ecquis binas columbinas.' — See 'Songs of other Churches' in Monthly
Packet, vol. xi. (Xew Series), page 429.
8 Quicumque certum quaeritis. *■ Summi Parentis Filio.
5 For a strangely severe criticism upon its language, see the preface to Words-
worth's Holy Year, p. xxxi.
102 English Hymnology
On the duty of Love to God's Service, there is scarcely a more
popular hymn than ' We love the place, O God,' of which the first
four stanzas given in ' Hymns Ancient and Modern,' are by Dr. Bul-
lock, and the last three by Sir H. W. Baker. ' Come, we that love
the Lord,' by Dr. Watts ; ' Songs of praise the Angels sang,' and
' Stand up and bless the Lord,' both by J. Montgomery — are exhor-
tations to the expression of love and thanksgiving. Miss Cox's
' Good. and pleasant 'tis to see,' from Michael Miiller's German, 1 and
' O ye, your Saviour's Name who bear/ 2 from Jacob Ritter, are
excellent exhortations to the spirit of Charity, as is also Alford's
' Little children, dwell in love/ As prayers for this grace, we have
Toplady's ' Jesu, God of Love, attend,' Alford's 'Thou Who on that
wondrous journey,' C. Wesley's, ' O Thou Who earnest from above,'
and ' Jesus, Lord, we look to Thee,' and J. H. Gurney's ' Lord, as
to Thy dear Cross we flee. ; ' Blest be the dear uniting Love,' is by
C. Wesley ; ' Go up, go up, my heart,' by Dr. H. Bonar. ' Our God
is Love, and all His Saints,' first appeared in Cotterill's Collection,
and its authorship is perhaps due to him. ' Fountain of Good, to
own Thy Love,' is a recast version, probably by Edward Osier, of a
hymn by Dr. Doddridge, which begins, 'Jesus, my Lord, how rich
Thy Grace !' It is especially applicable to occasions of Almsgiving.
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XI.
GENERAL HYMNS.— THE HEAVENLY COUNTRY.
If it be true, that the brightest flame of heathen poetry has been
kindled from the dim and smouldering conceptions of another world,
which reached even where God's Revelation was unknown, much
more may we expect that the most radiant pages of Christian lyrics
will be those into which is transfused somewhat of the Heavenly
City's lustre. If some of the sweetest strains ever sung are those in
which the exile mourns his absence from his loved and distant home,
we shall not be surprised to see that many of the best hymns have
the heavenly home-sickness for their key-note, and that there con-
stantly recurs in them the thought of this life being only a state of
banishment from Heaven, or at best, of weary pilgrimage thither.
Sometimes it is suggested by the retrospect of the first earthly para-
dise, forfeited by Adam's fall ; as in those beautiful, though scarcely
hymn-like lines, which Dr. Xeale has translated from S. Theophanes,
wherein Adam himself, as the representative of his race, is mourning
his exclusion from Eden : —
' O glorious Paradise ! O lovely clime !
( > ( k)D-built mansion ! Joy of eveiy saint !
Happy remembrance to all coming time !
Whisper, with all thy leaves, in cadence faint,
One prayer to Him who made them all,
One prayer for Adam in his fall ! —
That lie, Who formed thy gates of yore,
Would bid those gates unfold once more
That I had closed by sin : *
1 Tt would almost seem that Coffin must have had these lines of S. Theophanes
before him when he wrote-
1 Adre scelus quas clauserat,
Reclude ccelestes domos.'
104 English Hymnology.
And let me taste that holy Tree
That giveth immortality
To them that dwell therein !
Or have I fallen so far from grace,
That mercy hath for me no place ?'
Sometimes, as in ' Thou New Jerusalem, arise and shine,' translated
by Neale from S. John Damascene's Golden Canon, 1 the hymn-
writer starts from the contemplation of the Saviour's Resurrection
Victory, — sometimes, as in S. Romanus the Melodist's beautiful
hymn, 2 inadequately rendered in W. C. Dix's ' Bethlehem hath
opened Eden,' from the Incarnation, as the means and source of our
recall. Our examples have been taken thus far from the hymns of
the Greek Church, but they might have been as easily found among
spiritual songs written in English, or German, or Latin. Indeed, but
for the lack of suitable English verse translations, we might have
gone still farther from home, and might have quoted the metrical
homily in which S. Ephraem the Syrian describes Paradise, or the
Song of the Saints, in the Abyssinian ' Degua.' 3
Perhaps no hymn has ever attained such marvellous and speedy
popularity as Dr. Neale's translation from Bernard, a monk of
Clugny in the twelfth century. The author, born of English parents
at Morlaix in Bretagne, must not be confounded with his more illus-
trious namesake, S. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux. The very long
poem, ' De Contemptu Mundi,' from the opening part of which the
hymn is taken, is a bitter satire on the gross corruptions of the age
in which Bernard lived. The following are the best-known extracts
from Neale's translation which have found their way into our
hymnals : — ' The world is very evil,' 4 ' Brief life is here our portion.' 5
'For thee, O dear, dear Country!' 6 and — most widely appreciated
1 (purLfov, (porri^ov. 2 Ttjv 'Edefx BrjdXeept. tfvoii;€, devre i'd^uev.
3 See Dr. Burgess's ' Syriac Hymns,' pp. 1 13-125. Rev. J. M. Rodwell's
' /Ethiopic Prayers, &c.,' No. II., p. 94. Some attempts at versification from
these sources will be found in ' Songs of other Churches,' now nearly completed in
The Monthly Packet.
4 Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus !
5 Hie breve vivitur, hie breve plangitur, hie breve fletur.
6 O bona Patria, lumina sobria te speculantur.
English Hymnology. 105
and adopted of all — 'Jerusalem the Golden.' 1 Of the eighteen col-
lections in which I have had time to compare its text, perhaps the
worst attempts at improvement are made by the following, of which
a few lines are given as a specimen : —
' Jerusalem the golden !
Fair city of the blest !
The hope of pilgrim Christians !
The saints' eternal rest !
Nor eye hath seen thy glories,
Nor ever tongue declared,
What God for them that love Him
Within thee hath prepared.'
Supplement to Hall's Collection.
'Jerusalem the golden,
Where milk and honey flow,
Both heart and voice sink fainting
Beneath thy crystal glow.
I know not, oh ! I know not
What joys of home are there,
What bright unfolding glory,
What bliss beyond compare.' 2
S. IV. Christophers.
The fact that even Dr. Neale found it impossible to 'torture our
language into any distant resemblance of the original rhythm,' might
have deterred others from attempting it, and, almost as a matter of
course, failing. But it is difficult to say for what other reason than
for the sake of such imitation Mrs. Charles has chosen the extra-
ordinary metre of her version, ' Here brief is the sighing, and brief is
the crying, for brief is the life.' This line certainly contains the same
number of syllables as the Latin, but the essentially different position
of the accented syllables makes them perfectly distinct from each
1 Urbs Syon aurea, Patria lactca, cive decora.
2 In the old Salisbury Hymn Book (of the alterations in which Dr. Neale
specially complains; these two lines are given thus : —
1 What radiance of glory,
What depth of bliss to share.'
Mr. Christophers's alterations are the less excusable, because he gives the hymn
in immediate connection with Dr. Neale's anecdote of the dying child who was
quieted by hearing it read, as Dr. Neale has translated it.
io6 English Hymnology
other in rhythm and general effect. Nor does Mr. Moultrie's trans-
lation succeed much better ; it begins : —
' Fast fall the sands of time, high fills the cup of crime : watch ! For the
warning
Light through the gloom is shed, showing to quick and dead the Judgment
morning.'
He means it as a transference of the Latin metre into English, but
allows himself an entire liberty of 'shifting the ictus from the first to
the second syllable of the dactyl ad libitum? This liberty, exempli-
fied near the end of the second line given above, would render it
very difficult, if not impossible, to sing his translation.
We have already mentioned (p. 47) the hymn on the Heavenly
City appointed for the Dedication of Churches. There are some
lines by S. Peter Damiani 1 which contain much the same description
of the New Jerusalem as that given there. Dr. Neale's translation,
' For the fount of Life eternal longs the soul with eager thirst/ is
based on Mr. Wackerbarth's, and is perhaps inferior in beauty to
Dr. Littledale's ' For the fount of Life eternal is my thirsting spirit
fain.' From these three versions the cento in 'The People's Hymnal
is made up. CaswalTs translation, of which the first stanza is sub-
joined, differs slightly in metre from the original :■ —
'On the fount of Life eternal
Gazing wistful and athirst ;
Yearning, straining, from the prison
Of confining flesh to burst ;
Here the soul in exile sighs
For her native Paradise.'
Four of Dr. Neale's translations from hymns of the fifteenth century,
given in his ' Hymns on the Joys and Glories of Paradise,' may be
mentioned : — ' My Father's Home eternal,' 2 ' If there be that skills
to reckon/ 3 'Light's Abode, Celestial Salem,' 4 and ' Eye hath never
1 ' Ad perennis vitse fontem mens sitivit arida.' Gerard Moultrie's beautiful
lines on ' The Gates of Gold,' beginning, ' Thirsts my weary spirit,' seem to have
been suggested by S. Peter Damiani's poem. See also page 84.
2 In Domo Patris. 3 Quisquis valet numcrare.
4 Jerusalem luminosa.
EnglisJi Hymnclogy. 107
seen the glory.' 1 They are all of unknown authorship ; but the last
three, which apparently form parts of one poem, probably all proceed
from the same pen. Not much more recent than the original of these
is the English of one of our most familiar hymns, 'Jerusalem, my
happy home;' or, to give the antique orthography of the original,
' Hierusalem, my happie Home.' For a complete history of its
various modifications, its appropriation by David Dickson the Cove-
nanter, and its discovery among the MSS. of the British Museum, I
must refer to Dr. Bonar's book on ' The New Jerusalem.' It is pos-
sible that the lines of S. Peter Damiani, or of Bernard of Morlaix,
were present to the mind of its writer. The initials F. B. P. are
attached to it in the British Museum MS., and are supposed to be
those of Francis Baker {Pater or Presbyter ',) a Roman Catholic who
suffered in the persecution either of Elizabeth or of James I. There
is a Francis Augustus Baker mentioned in Lowndes's Catalogue as
the author of some books of Devotions, whom Air. Sedgwick identi-
fies with the writer of this hymn. Mr. Miller, in his ' Singers and
Songs of the Church,' traces the popular form of it in our hymn-
books to Williams and Boden's Hymnal, 1801, where it is said to be
taken from the ' Eckington Collection.' It is referred by Air. Miller
to ' Urbs beata Hirusalem,' as its Latin original ; but this seems, if not
wholly wrong, at least only partially right. William Burkitt, Vicar of
Dedham, published the hymn in 1693 with alterations of his own,
some of them wantonly destructive to its spirit and meaning. Thus,
where F. B. P. had written :—
' Thy gardens and thy gallant roalkcs
Continually are greene,'
Mr. Burkitt substituted ' pleasant fruits,' leaving it to his readers to
reconcile the pleasantness of the fruits with the fact of their con-
tinually remaining green.
The best known German hymn on the Heavenly City 2 is by
Meyfart, or rather is Kosegarten's imitation of it. ' Jerusalem, thou
city fair and high,' Miss Winkworth's translation, 'Jerusalem, thou
1 Xec quisquam oculis vidit. 2 3erufaTem J tu Iu\-kic(\iutc Stat t.
l o8 English Hymnology
city towering high,' Miss Cox's rendering, and Dr. Neale's 'Jerusa-
lem, thou city built on high,' all imitate the metre of the original.
' Now fain my joyous heart would sing,' is Miss Winkworth's render-
ing from J. Walther. 1
The following is a translation from a very beautiful hymn of
Riickert, 2 by Archbishop Trench : —
1 Oh ! Paradise must show more fair
Than any earthly ground ;
And therefore longs my spirit there
Right quickly to be found.
' In Paradise a stream must flow
Of everlasting Love ;
Each tear of longing shed below,
Therein a pearl will prove.
' And there the tree of stillest peace
In verdant spaces grows ;
Beneath it one can never cease
To dream of blest repose.
' A cherub at the gate must be,
Far off the world to fray,
That its rude noises reach not me,
To fright my dream away.
' All here I sought in vain pursuit
Will freely meet me there ;
As from green branches golden fruit,
Fair flowers from gardens fair.
' My youth, that by me swept amain,
On swift wing borne away,
And love, that suffered me to drain
Its nectar for a day —
' These, never wishing to depart,
Will me for ever bless,
Their darling fold unto the heart,
And comfort and caress.
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EnglisJi Hymnology. 109
' And there the Loveliness, Whose Glance
From far on me did gleam ;
But Whose unveiled Countenance
Was only seen in dream,
' Will, meeting all my soul's desires,
Unveil itself to me,
When to the choir of starry lyres
Shall mine united be.' 1
' Heavenward doth our journey tend,'- is Miss Winkworth's transla-
tion from B. Schmolck ; ' Come, Brothers, let us onward, 3 is by Mrs.
E. Findlater, from Gerhardt Tersteegen. Among her translations of
hymns on the Heavenly Country, may also be noticed, ' Ah ! this
heart is void and chill,' 1 and 'O how many hours of beauty,' 5 from
Spitta. 'What no human eye hath seen,' 6 from Lange; 'Tell me
not of earthly love,' 7 a hymn of unknown authorship; and 'A pil-
grim and a stranger,' 8 from Paul Gerhardt, are translated by her
sister, Miss Borthwick. The last-mentioned translation has some
beautiful stanzas, but is much disfigured by a vulgar colloquialism : —
' There's nothing here that tempts me
To wish a longer stay.'
Two other hymns by Gerhardt, 'To God thy way commending,' 9
and ' Come forth, my heart, and seek delight/ 10 in Miss Cox's transla-
tion, may be mentioned as examples of the way in which the trials
and the blessings of this world may suggest and lead up to the
thought of the better Life. The latter hymn has also been translated
in Miss Winkworth's 'Go forth, my heart, and seek delight.'
Sir H. Baker's hymn, ' There is a blessed Home,' sets forth very
beautifully the joys of that Rest which 'remaineth to the people of
1 Compare a Spanish hymn, by G. A. de Valeria, in No. xvi. of ' Songs oi
Other Churches. 9
- J&tmmeltodrta ge$t unfte *8a$n.
3 ,Jvommt, 'Brfiber, (aft unS ge^en.' Miss Winkworth has rendered this hymn
more successfully in ' Come, Brethren, let us go.'
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1 1 o EnglisJi Hymnology.
God.' Samuel Crossman's 'Jerusalem on high/ is taken from a
poem beginning ' Sweet place, sweet place alone/ By the omission
of the inferior stanzas with which Thomas Gisbome's hymn, ' A
soldier's course, from battles won,' begins, it might be much im-
proved. 'A living stream, as crystal clear,' is a recast version, by
the compilers of the Salisbury Hymn Book, of ' There is a stream,
which issues forth,' by John Mason.
The excessive homeliness of John Berridge's ' O happy saints, who
dwell in light,' 1 almost precludes its use as a church hymn. Mrs.
Elizabeth Rowe's ' Hail, sacred Salem, placed on high,' is almost as
unsuitable through erring on the opposite side. Dr. Stennett's ' On
Jordan's stormy banks I stand,' expresses less happily the same
leading idea as Watts's ' There is a land of pure delight.' ' Come,
let us join our cheerful songs,' also by Dr. Watts, is perhaps the most
popular among hymns of invitation to the Church on earth to unite
with the saints in Heaven.
It would almost seem as if Charles Wesley in ' Come, let us join
our friends above,' had tried to combine the beauties of both Dr.
Watts's compositions. Many of Dr. Bonar's hymns descriptive ot
Paradise would supply excellent material for church use, and some
might be employed without any omission or alteration. We may
instance : ' This is not my place of resting,' ' These are the crowns
that we shall wear/ and the concluding stanzas of ' Nay, 'tis not
what we fancied it.' A hymn might perhaps be made from some
lines in ' Brethren, arise.' Josiah Conder's hymn on the Better
Country, 'Shepherd of Thine Israel, lead us,' 3 is beautiful, as is also
'Oh! happy land above!' the concluding chorus of a Tragedy on
the death of Saul, by Dr. Neale's father. The following, by the Rev.
D. T. K. Drummond, deserves to be better known : —
' Our glorious home above,
The City of our God,
1 Imitated from a hymn in Erskine's 'Gospel Sonnets.'
- Founded, perhaps, on ' Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah/ a hymn double 3
translated from the Welsh of William Williams, whether by himself or by William
Evans is unknown.
English Hymnology. 1 1 r
The resting-place of peace and Love,
The pilgrim's sweet abode !
' Oh for an angel's wing,
To soar above the skies,
And join the angelic choir who sing
Their hallowed symphonies.
' Pure mansions of the blest,
Prepared by Jesu's Hand,
That all His Own may sweetly rest
Safe in Emmanuel's Land.
' May each we love be there,
From death and darkness free ;
Our joy unspeakable to share
Throughout eternity. '
Benjamin Rhodes wrote the beautiful hymn beginning 'Jerusalem
Divine.' Sir Edward Denny's 'Bride of the Lamb, awake! awake !'
and ' Children of light, arise and shine,' are good, though the former
is somewhat tinged by its author's millenarian opinions. Fabers
hymn, ' My God, how wonderful Thou art/ sets forth the blessedness
of seeing God in Heaven. The lines on Heaven beginning, ' We
speak of the realms of the blest,' are by Airs. Elizabeth Mills, 1829,
and were written after reading Bridges on Ps. cxix. 44 (' We speak
of Heaven, but oh ! to be there!'), a short time before the death
by consumption of the authoress. Dr. Watts's ' Nor eye has seen,
nor ear has heard,' and ' Lo, what a glorious sight appears,' are both
good. T. R. Taylor's ' I'm but a stranger here,' has gained con-
siderable popularity, as has also Anne Steele's ' Far from these
narrow scenes of night.' ''Oh for the robes of whiteness,' by Miss
Charitie Lees Smith, has great beauty. Dr. Raffles's hymn, ' High
in yonder realms of light,' and Thomas Grinfield's, ' Oh, could we
pilgrims raise our eyes,' cannot be so highly commended. It is
very strange that ' Lord of earth, Thy forming Hand,' one of Sir
Robert Grant's best hymns, has been so much neglected. Mrs.
Tonna's ' Tribulation, pain, and woe,' and Joseph Cottle's ' From
every earthly pleasure/ contrast the miseries of earth with the
delights of Heaven. Miss Elliott's 'Oh, how I long to reach my
1 1 2 English Hymnology.
Home,' and J. Montgomery's ' For ever with the Lord,' are beautiful
aspirations for the Better Country. Thomas Davis's, ' O Paradise
eternal,' is a mere echo of Dr. Neale's translation from Bernard.
' What are these in bright array,' by J. Montgomery, might perhaps
have been more fitly noticed among the hymns for All Saints' Day,
as might also Rowland Hill's ' Exalted high at God's Right Hand.'
Miss MenneFs 'We have no home but Heaven,' and R. M.
Mc Cheyne's ' When this passing world is done,' are rather poems than
hymns. 'We've no abiding city here,' by Thomas Kelly, is scarcely
so worthy of its author as two other of his hymns, ' Hark ! ten
thousand harps and voices,' and ' Look, ye saints, the sight is
glorious.' But it could hardly be expected that the writer of seven
hundred and sixty-five hymns would be always successful in his
compositions. There is a long hymn by Thomas Olivers, beginning,
' The God of Abraham praise,' which ought perhaps to be mentioned
here. It was adapted by its author to the music of one of the old
hymns sung by. Leoni at the Jews' Synagogue in 1770. The name
of Leoni has ever since been attached to the tune. Mr. Christo-
phers says that the words of the hymn are a Christianized translation
from the Hebrew, and that their adaptation to the music was the
work not of Olivers, but of Leoni. This statement, however, seems
less probable than the account given above.
■ _^-'=>-^
-rv^
XII.
GENERAL HYMNS— CONCLUSION.
The limits within which we had intended to keep our remarks have
been already exceeded, and still the subject-matter of them is far
from being exhausted. There is one class of hymns somewhat
connected with those which we dwelt upon in our last article, though
sufficiently distinct to be considered separately. ' Thy statutes have
been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage/ wrote the psalmist ;
yet we have ventured to separate the hymns on the Holy Scrip-
tures from those which have for their theme the heavenward pil-
grimage itself.
The first point we have to notice is the marvellous and lamentable
dearth of ancient hymns on the Scriptures. This may be partially
accounted for by taking into consideration that the relationship of
writers in those times to the books they used was widely different
from what is commonly the case now. The Bible of those days
was not a portable and compact volume ; moreover, it was from
the earliest ages supplemented by a traditional teaching, which, as
corruption spread, usurped its functions more and more, until MSS.
of the Word of God took their place, as things unused, but super-
stitiously venerated, among reliques and images. 1 Men had scarcely
come to regard God's Revelation as a completed work, before this
misuse of it began. We may also remember that the ideas of the
middle ages tended to merge the light of God's revealed Word in
the glory of the Incarnate Word. It is less easy to explain the fact
that Germany contributes comparatively few originals of hymns on
the Scriptures which have become well known in an English trans-
lation. Miss Winkworth's rendering of a hymn of unknown author-
1 Nor had they the highest place, as may be seen from the well-known instance
of Harold's oath to William of Normandy, when the latter had procured reliques,
and concealed them beneath the altar to add to the solemnity of the obligation.
I
1 1 4 English Hymnology.
ship, 1 beginning, ' Thy Word, O Lord, like gentle dews/ deserves
mention. There is a beautiful hymn by Spitta, 2 which I am con-
scious that the following translation very imperfectly represents : —
Word of Life, thou fountain bright,
Flowing forth from Heaven's height,
Sprinkling powers of life on those
Who to thee their hearts disclose,
Who, like flowers that fade away
In the bright sun's parching ray,
From the dry and barren waste
Thirsting, stoop thy spring to taste.
Earth, without thy light, appears
But a gloomy vale of tears : —
Heaven's best joys without thy key
Barred from all mankind would be : —
Life without thy quickening breath
But the shadow seems of death : —
Death without thy cheering beams,
Night without a morning seems.
Word of Life ! Not light alone,
Warmth by thee is on us thrown ;
Thou dost show the depths of hell,
And of God's own Kingdom tell :
Chasing sloth and sleep, thy call
Doth the sinner's soul appal ;
Yet, when hapless footsteps slide,
Thou in love the fall wouldst hide.
From thy page we learn to fear
Justice from a Judge severe,
Yet therein a Father find,
Strong and patient, good and kind, —
God, Who, for our sin to atone,
Gives His dear, His Only Son
Guilt upon Himself to take,
Loves the sinner for His sake.
Word of Life, Salvation free
Offering him who heareth thee,
Only he who keeps thee fast,
Shall thy treasure share at last.
1 £ctn aUcvt, £cvr, tfl miftet %\\\\\. 2 5Q3o" tcS SrtenS, (autre OucUe.
English Hymnoiogy. 1 1
May I keep thee, then, thou Sword
Of the Spirit, God's Own Word !
Help me here on earth to strive,
Crowned through thee in Heaven to live.
Anne Steele's hymn, beginning, ' Father of mercies, in Thy Word,
is well known, as is also Benjamin Beddome's ' God, in the Gospel
of His Son.' 'Holy Bible, Book Divine,' is by John Burton, 1799.
1 How precious is the Book Divine,' by Dr. John Fawcett, was
first published in 1782, in a collection of original hymns which their
author intended as a supplement to Dr. Watts's ' Psalms and Hymns.'
1 The Spirit breathes upon the Word,' is by William Cowper. ' I
love the Sacred Book of God ' is due to Thomas Kelly. One of
our best hymns on the Bible is ' Lamp of our feet, whereby we
trace,' written by the Quaker poet, Bernard Barton. ' Pour down
Thy Spirit, gracious Lord,' is a prayer for a blessing on God's Word,
by John Newton. Dr. Watts's ' My dear Redeemer and my Lord,'
is somewhat weak in rhyme, and wants clearness of idea. It con-
trasts the Word of God with the life of our Lord on earth, as if
the record of the latter were not an integral part of the former. A
much more satisfactory hymn, by the same author, begins, ' Great
God, with wonder and with praise,' and compares very successfully
the lessons taught by Nature and by Inspiration. In his hymn,
1 Let every mortal ear attend,' the language is too vehement, and
the rhythm too much neglected ; yet even this is a better hymn
than the miserably prosaic lines beginning, ' The Law commands
and makes us know,' in which he attempts to set forth the difference
between the Law and the Gospel. The hymn on the Word of
God, ' The table of my heart prepare,' by Charles Wesley, is rather
adapted for the private use of the ministry, than for singing in
Church. In the Wesleyan hymn-books, the first two stanzas are
omitted, and it begins, ' When quiet in my house I sit.' ' Inspire]
of the ancient seers, 5 is more suitable for public use, but is not quite
equal to its author's average excellence. ' Precious Bible ! what a
treasure !' by John Newton, cannot be very highly commended.
Of James Montgomery's hymns on the Word of God, the following
n6 English Hymnology.
is perhaps the best, in spite of the weak stanza with which it
begins : —
' The Word of God, the Word of truth,
Instruct our childhood, guide our youth,
Uphold us through life's middle stage,
And be our comfort in old age !
' 'Twas by that Word the heavens were made,
By it the earth's foundations laid ;
All things that are on it depend,
Their source and stay, their rule and end.
4 By it Jehovah gave His Law,
Midst sights of terror, sounds of awe ;
By it the holy men of old
A better covenant foretold.
1 Christ Jesus came, Himself " The Word,"
His Voice the powers of nature heard,
In servant's form they knew His Call,
The Son of God, the Lord of all.
' The Word of Mercy which He brought, "
The Word of Wisdom which He taught,
His Word of Grace, so full, so free,
Our hope, our joy, our portion be.
' That word, if early doomed to death,
Revive us at our latest breath,
And when our souls in judgment stand,
Decree our place at God's Right Hand ! '
' Words of eternal life to me,' 'Thy Word, Almighty Lord,' and
' Behold the Book whose leaves display,' are other hymns by the
same author upon the Word of God. ' Lord, Thy Word abideth,'
is by Sir H. W. Baker. * His light my guide ! His Law my rule ! '
and ' The broken contrite heart oppressed/ are by Dr. Monsell.
I have omitted to mention in its place, ' O what the joy and the
glory must be,' a hymn slightly altered by the compilers of ' Hymns
Ancient and Modern,' from Dr. Neale's translation of a mediaeval
hymn for Saturday —
' O quanta qualia sunt ilia sabbata.'
English Hymnology.
The following have also been accidentally passed over without
notice. Ur. Neale's ' Art thou weary, art thou languid ? ' although
given by him as a translation from S. Stephen the Sabaite, 1 is really
an original hymn. The same remark may apply to his hymn,
' O happy band of pilgrims,' to which S. Joseph of the Studium has
really contributed scarcely a single idea. ' Come, ye faithful, raise
the anthem ' was given by Dr. Neale in the Christian Remembrancer
as a recast version of a hymn by Job Hupton. ' Be Thou my
Guardian and my Guide ' was written by Isaac Williams. ' Christian,
seek not yet repose ' is by Miss Charlotte Elliott, written (as are many
of her hymns) in a form of metre otherwise rare — three long lines
followed by a much shorter one forming the stanza. Matthew
Bridges wrote ' Crown Him with many crowns/ Dr. Newman wrote
'Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,' in 1833 during
a voyage on the Mediterranean. ' Praise to the Holiest in the
height' is also his, being taken from the 'Dream of Gerontius.'
'I need Thee, precious Jesus' first appeared in the Rev. F. Whit-
field's 'Sacred Poems and Prose.' 'Jesus, Lord of life and glory'
is by J. Cummins. Mrs. Alderson contributed 'Lord of glory, Who
hast bought us ' to the Appendix to ' Hymns Ancient and Modern,'
where also the Rev. J. Ellerton's translation 'Sing Alleluia forth in
duteous praise ' was first published. The original, 2 found in the
Mozarabic Breviary, is by Mone attributed to the fifth century.
' Lord of our life and God of our Salvation ' is said to be taken from
an eighth-century Latin Hymn j but I have not been able to discover
the original. It was one of several leaflets contributed by Philip
Pusey, Algernon Herbert, and others, to the first Salisbury Hymn
Book. 'O Jesu, Thou art standing,' and 'We give Thee but Thine
own ' are by W. W. How. Lyte's ' Pleasant are Thy courts above,'
and Miss Auber's 'O praise our great and gracious Lord' are founded
respectively on Psalms lxxxiv. and cv. The omission of two stanzas
in Bishop Wordsworth's ' O Lord of heaven and earth and sea,' as
given in ' Hymns Ancient and Modern,' provoked considerable dis-
1 kottcv re teal KOLfxarov.
2 Alleluia piis edite laudibus.
1 1 8 English Hymnology.
pleasure from the author. SirH. Baker wrote for the Appendix ' The
King of Love my Shepherd is/ founded on Psalm xxiii. Faber's
' O Paradise, O Paradise ' has a curious tinge of Calvinism in its
sixth stanza —
" I greatly long to see
The special place my dearest Lord
Is destining for me ! "
C. Wesley's 'Rejoice, the Lord is King,' arid ' Shepherd Divine, our
wants relieve ' are well-known and popular hymns, as is also Cowper's
' What various hindrances we meet.' ' Sing praise to God, Who
reigns above ' is Miss Cox's translation from J. J. Schiitz. 1 Godfrey
Thring wrote 'Saviour, Blessed Saviour.' Thomas Kelly is the
author of 'The Head that once was crowned with thorns.' 'The
Church's one Foundation ' is from the Rev. S. J. Stone's ' Lyra
Fidelium.' ' Thine Arm, O Lord, in days of old, 1 by the Rev. E. H.
Plumptre, is suitable for use when a Hospital claims the Offertory.
' Thine for ever, God of Love ' was contributed to the first S. P. C. K.
hymn book, by Mary Fawler Maude. The Rev. W. Bright's hymn,
' We know Thee Who Thou art,' is a good hymn in spite of the
somewhat incongruous associations inseparable from its first line.
If some parts of these papers seem to be little more than a mere
catalogue of lines and names, I must remind my readers that without
an enormous extension of space it was impossible to make them
otherwise. I have carefully avoided reprinting hymns here to which
most of those who are interested in hymnology would certainly have
ready access. And, on the other hand, I have usually refrained
from giving such biographical details as have already been published
by Josiah Miller in his ' Singers and Songs of the Church,' or by
Dr. Rogers in his " Lyra Britannica." One concluding remark I
must make on what seems to me a chief source of strength in our
recent English Hymnology. It represents the union of many dif-
ferent elements, not merely old and new, foreign and native, heaped
together, but, what is much more to the purpose, hymns suited alike
* £
ct) SoB unb Gf;t' tern Bicfyftcn ®ut.
English Hymuology. 1 1 g
to every class of society, every order of intellectual ability. This
could not have come as the growth of a single age, or as the product
of one single movement of religious feeling, or Church reform. But
just as the Wesleys united in some degree the various merits of Ken,
Addison, and Watts, so on a larger scale the hymns of Keble, Xeale,
Caswall, Sir H. Baker, I. Williams, Mrs. Alexander, Bonar, Faber,
Dix, and a score of others, have united the merits of nearly all their
predecessors. Simple, but not meagre ; plain, but not childish ;
true, but not common-place ; exalted, but not stilted : such are the
hymns of which our precious store is day by day increasing, and if
some other contributions be in comparison worthless and poor, yet
surely there is enough to excite our thankfulness, enough to awaken
our earnest prayer, that He Who has been pleased to bestow upon
us these treasures may give us grace always to use them to His
honour and glory.
INDEX TO FIRST LINES.
ENGLISH.
the
Abide among us with Thy Grace
Abide with me ; fast falls the eventide
Above the starry spheres . . .
According to Thy gracious Word
A few more years shall roll . . 12
Again the circling seasons tell . .
Again the Lord's Own Day is here
Ah ! this heart is void and chill .
A hymn for martyrs sweetly sing .
A hymn of glory let us sing . .
A living stream, as crystal clear .
All Creation groans and travails .
Alleluia, Alleluia ! Finished is
battle now
Alleluia, Alleluia ! Hearts to Heaven
and voices raise
Alleluia, Alleluia ! The battle now is
done
Alleluia! I believe
Alleluia ! Praise the Lord . . .
Alleluia, sing to Jesus ....
Alleluia ! Song of sweetness . .
All glory, laud, and honour. . .
All hail ! Adored Trinitv . . .
All hail, Redeemer of mankind .
All hail the power of Jesu's name
All is bright and cheerful round us
38
All people that on earth do dwell
All praise to Thee, my God, this
night
All ye Gentile lands, awake . .
All ye who seek for sure relief . .
Almighty God, Thy Word is cast
Almighty God, Whose only Son
Almighty Lord, before Thy Throne
Although the vine its fruit deny
And art Thou coming, Lord, once
more
And now, my soul, canst thou forget
And now the wants are told, that
brought
And wilt Thou pardon Lord . . .
An exile for the faith
Angels from the realms of glory . .
Angels, from your blissful station
Angels, lament ; behold your God .
PAGE
8
6
37
57
37
5
109
15
34
no
69
3i
33
3i
95
75
53
19
24
38
52
60
43
74
2
16
101
20
59
69
69
93
Angels of peace, look down from
heaven and mourn
Anointed One ! Thy work is done
A pilgrim and a stranger . .
Approach, my soul, the mercy-seat
Arise, my soul, my joyful powers.
Arise, the kingdom is at hand
Arm of the Lord ! awake, awake
Around the throne in circling band
Around Thy grave, Lord Jesus .
Art thou weary, art thou languid .
As now the sun's declining rays .
A soldier's course, from battles won
As panting in the sultry beam . . .
As pants the hart for cooling streams
As pants the wearied hart for cooling
springs
As the sun doth daily rise . . .
As when the wean' traveller gains
As with gladness men of old . .
At even, ere the sun was set . .
At the Cross, her station keeping.
At the Lamb's high feast we sing.
At Thy Transfiguration, Lord .
A type of those bright rays on high
Author of lost man's Salvation. .
Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Awake, O man, and from thee shake
Away with sorrow's sigh . . .
Before Jehovah's awful Throne .
Before the ending of the day . .
Begone, unbelief, my Saviour
near
Behold and see Christ's chosen
Saint ,
Behold an Israelite indeed . .
Behold me unprotected stand .
Behold the accepted time appear
Behold the Book, whose leaves dis
play
Behold the glories of the Lamb .
Behold the Lamb
Behold the Lamb of God . . .
Behold the messengers of Christ
Behold the morning sun . . .
Behold us, Lord, before Thee met
122
Index.
Be present, ye faithful 13
Bethlehem hath opened Eden . . 104
Be Thou my Guardian and my Guide 117
66
27
97
47
68
46
54
Beyond the star-lit sky
Bishop of the souls of men
Blessed are they whose hearts are pure
Blessed City, heavenly Salem .
Blessed Father ! Great Creator
Blessed feasts of blessed martyrs
Blessed Jesus, here we stand .
Blessed Saviour, Who hast taught
„ nie 55
Blest are the pure in heart . . . . 18
Blest be, O Lord, the Grace of Love 38
Blest be the dear uniting Love . . 102
Blest Creator of the Light .... 7
Blest Trinity, from mortal sight . 38
Blest, who, far from all mankind . 90
Borne as an arrow from the bow . . 93
Bread of Heaven, on Thee I feed . 52
Bread of the world, in mercy broken 52
Brethren, arise .110
Bride of the Lamb, awake ! awake
Brief life is here our portion . . . 1 04
Brightest and best of the sons of the
morning 16
Brightly gleams our banner ... 48
[Bright Queen of Saints ! God's Virgin
Spouse 87]
Bright the vision that delighted . .
Bright was the guiding star that led
Brother, now thy toils are o'er
Brother, thou art gone before us
Buried in heathen darkness lay .
By precepts taught of ages past .
By the Cross, sad vigil keeping .
Captains of the saintly band . ,
Cease, my soul, thy strayings . ,
Cease, ye tearful mourners
Cephas and Peter, — heaven-taught
name
Child, amidst the flowers at play
Children of light, arise and shine
Children of men, rejoice and sing
Children of the Heavenly King ,
Christian child, awake ! arise !
Christian children, hear me . ,
Christian, dost thou see them . .
Christians, awake ! salute the happy
morn
Christian, seek not yet repose . .
Christ is gone up : yet ere He passed
Christ is our Corner-stone . ,
Christ is risen ! Alleluia . . .
Christ, of the holy angels light and
gladness
Christ's everlasting messengers .
Christ sits at His Own Board .
42
17
57
57
39
21
25
45
92
57
40
68
in
3i
68
69
66
21
*3
117
58
47
33
42
46
5i
PAGE
Christ the Lord is risen again . . 32
Christ the Lord is risen to-day, —
Christians 32
Christ the Lord is risen to-day, —
Sons of men 33
Christ, we turn our eyes to Thee
Christ, Whose glory fills the skies .
Christ will gather in His Own . .
Come and behold the works of God
Come, Brethren, let us go . . . .
Come, Brothers, let us onward . .
Come Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost 55
Come forth, my heart, and seek delight 109
Come Gracious Spirit, Heavenly
Dove
Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest
36,
Come Holy Ghost, Eternal God .
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire
36,
Come, Holy Ghost, Who ever One
Come, Holy Spirit, Come . . .
Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove,
My sinful
Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove,
With all
Come, let us join our cheerful songs
42,
Come, let us join our friends above
45. 57-
Come, let us praise the Name of God
Come, Lord, and tarry not . . .
Come, Lord Jesus, quickly come .
Come, my soul, and let us dwell . .
Come, O come ! in pious lavs . . .
Come, O Jesu, to Thy Table . . .
Come, pure hearts, in sweetest mea-
sures
Come, see the place where Jesus lay
Come sing with holy gladness . ,
Come, Thou Holy Paraclete . .
Come, Thou Holy Spirit, come .
Come to Thy Temple, Lord . . .
Come unto Me, ye weary ....
Come, we that love the Lord . . .
Come ye faithful, raise the anthem .
Come ye faithful, raise the strain
Come, ye saints, look here and wonder
Come, ye thankful people, come . .
Come, ye that love the Lord . .
Commit thy way to God .... 9s
Conquering kings their titles take . 16
Correct us, Lord, we know it good 71
Creator of the rolling flood ... 40
Creator of the starry height ...11
Creator of the world, to Thee . . 19
Creator Spirit ! by Whose aid . . 36
Crowned with immortal jubilee . . 39
49
3
56
70
109
109
37
55
37
37
37
12
98
93
48
53
46
34
67
37
37
98
67
102
117
29
34
70
102
Index.
123
PAGE
Crown Him with many crowns . .117
Day of anger, that dread Day . . 9
[Day of wrath ! O day of mourning . 9]
Day of wrath, that awful Day . . 9
Days and moments quickly flying . 56
Dead to life, yet loth to die ... 98
Deathless principle, arise . . 57, 90
Deign this union to approve ... 56
Depart, my child ! the Lord thy spirit
calls 68
Disposer Supreme 45
Draw near, O Son of God, draw near 58
Draw near, thou lowly Christian . 27
Draw nigh, all ye faithful .... 13
Draw nigh, and take the Body of the
Lord 51
Dread Jehovah, God of nations . 69
Dread Sovereign, let my evening song 89
Earth has many a noble city ... 16
Ere the waning light decay ... 6
Eternal Father ! strong to save . 58
Eternal Monarch, King most high . 34
Eternal Source of every joy .... 72
Exalted high at God's Right Hand . 112
Eye hath never seen the glory . . . 106
Fain would my thoughts fly up to
Thee
Fair art Thou, bright and fair . .
Faith adds new charms to earthly bliss
Faith is a living power from heaven
Faith is the dawning of a day
Fall down, ye nations, and adore
Far and near, Almighty Word
Far from my heavenly home .
Far from these narrow scenes of night
Far from the world, O Lord, I flee
Far from Zion, far from home
Fast fall the sands of time . . .
Father, by Thy Love and Power
Father, I know that all my life .
Father, I my robes would keep
Father, in the Name I pray
Father of Heaven, Whose love pro
found
Father of mercies, hear . . .
Father of mercies, in Thy Word
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
Fear not, O little flock, the foe
Fierce raged the tempest o'er the deep
First of martyrs, thou whose name
Fling out the banner ! let it float .
For all Thy saints, O Lord . .
For all Thy saints, who from their
labours rest
For ever with the Lord ....
For man the Saviour shed . . .
72
97
98
96
59
59
n
in
90
77
106
6
92
64
90
38
21
ii5
55
98
97
14
59
44
45
112
46
PAGE
For thee, O dear, dear Country . . 104
For Thee, O God, our constant
praise (n.v.) 72
For the fount of Life eternal is my
thirsting spirit fain 106
For the fount of Life eternal longs the
soul with eager thirst 106
Forth in Thy Name, O Lord, I go . 3
For Thy dear saint, O Lord (Mant) 44
For Thy Mercy and Thy Grace . . 16
Forty days and forty nights ... 23
Fountain of Good, to own Thy Love 102
Fountain of Mercy, God of Love . 70
Four Rivers from one holy Fount
arise 42
From all Thy saints in warfare . . 45
From every earthly pleasure . . .111
From Greenland's icy mountains . . 59
From hidden source arising ... 46
From highest Heaven the Eternal
Son 101
From Sion's hill my help descends . 76
Full of Mercy, full of Love .... 88
'Gainst what foemen art thou rushing 18
Gentle Jesus, meek and mild . . . 68
Gentlest lamb of Jesu's fold ... 68
Gently, gently lay Thy rod. ... 71
Give us Thy blessed peace, God of
all Might 69
Glad sight ! The holy Church . . . 55
Glorious things of thee are spoken . 73
Glory and laud and honour ... 24
Glory be to Jesus 27
Glory to Thee, my God, this night . 2
Glory to Thee, O Lord 15
Glory to the Father give .... 67
God Eternal, Lord of all . . . . 101
God from on high hath heard . . . 12
God has a family on earth .... 68
God, in the Gospel of His Son . .115
God is gone up with a merry noise . 33
God is my strong Salvation . . ^ 72
God is so good that He will hear . 65
God moves in a mysterious way . . 90
God of Grace, O let Thy light . . 59
God of Mercy, God of Grace ... 73
God of my life, to Thee I call ... 69
God of my life, what just return . . 90
God the Father, from Thy Throne 34
God the Father, Whose Creation . 70
God the Lord has heard our prayer 70
God, Who madest earth and heaven 4
Go forth, my heart, and seek delight 109
Good and pleasant 'tis to see . . . 102
Go to dark Gethsemane 27
Go up, go up, my heart 102
Gracious Saviour, gentle Shepherd. 68
Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost . 20, 37
124
Index.
PAGE
Greatest of prophets, messenger ap-
pointed 40
Great God ! What do I see and hear ! 11
Great God, Who hid from mortal
sight 7
Great God, with wonder and with
praise 115
Great is the Lord our God ... 72
Great King of nations, hear our
prayer 69
Great Mover of all hearts, Whose
Hand 8, 20
Great Shepherd of Thy ransomed
flock 53
Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah . no
Hail ! Day of days, in peals of praise 32
Hail ! Flesh of Christ the Regal . 51
Hail, gladdening Light 7
Hail, gracious Source of every good 72
Hail, martyr sweets deflowered . . 15
Hail, sacred Salem, placed on high . no
Hail the day that sees Him rise . . 35
Hail to the Lord's Anointed ... 16
Happy soul, thy days are ended . 57, 90
Hark ! a thrilling voice is sounding . 11
Hark ! hark ! my soul, angelic songs
are swelling 92
Hark ! how all the welkin rings . . 12
Hark, my soul, how every thing . . 88
Hark, my soul ! it is the Lord . . 90
Hark ! ten thousand harps and voices 112
Hark ! the glad sound ! the Saviour
comes 11, 44
Hark ! the herald angels sing . 12, 30
Hark, the song of Jubilee .... 60
Hark, the sound of holy voices . . 44
Hark ! the Voice of Love and Mercy 27
Hark ! what mean yon holy voices . 12
Have mercy, Lord, on me. . . . 23
Hear what God the Lord hath spo-
ken 81
Heavenly Father, send Thy blessing 68
Heavenward doth our journey tend . 109
He cometh, — on yon hallowed Board 52
He is risen, He is risen 33
Here brief is the sighing, and brief is
the crying, etc 105
Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face
to face 52
Here we suffer grief and pain ... 68
He's gone ; see where His Body lay . 34
He Who once in righteous vengeance 26
Hierusalem, my happy Home . . . 107
High in yonder realms of light . .111
High let us swell our tuneful notes . 14
His Light my Guide ! His Law my
Rule! 116
His trial o'er, and now beneath . . 27
PAGE
Holiest, breathe an evening blessing . 6
Holy Bible, Book Divine . . . .115
Holy Ghost, dispel our sadness. . 37
Holy Ghost, Illuminator .... 36
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord .... 38
Holy, Holy, Holy ! Lord God Al-
mighty 38
Holy Spirit, in my breast ... 20
Hope of our hearts ! O Lord, appear 12
Hope of those that have none other . 98
Hosanna to the living Lord ... 24
How amiable, how fair 73
How are Thy servants blest, O Lord 75
How beauteous are their feet 46, 60, 80
How beautiful the sight 76
How blessed is the force of prayer . 40
How blest are hearts which Christ
the Lord 56
47
20
44
73
73
73
9i
"5
How blest the matron, who endued
How blest were they who walked in
love
How brief the story of man's first
estate
How bright those glorious spirits
shine
How dreadful is this place ! God's
House • ... 42
How glorious is our Heavenly King. 65
How honoured, how dear . . .
How lovely are Thy dwellings fair
How lovely is Thy dwelling-place
How mean ye thus by weeping .
How precious is the Book Divine .
How sweet the name of Jesus sounds 90
How welcome was the call .... 56
Hues of the rich unfolding morn . . 3
Humbly I adore Thee, hidden Deity 50
Humbly now, with deep contrition . 23
I am baptized into Thy Name. . . 55
I bore with thee long weary days and
nights 101
I come to Thee once more, my God. 92
If there be any special thing ... 22
If there be that skills to reckon . . 106
I heard the Voice of Jesus say . . 59
I hear the tempest's awful sound . . 90
I know in Whom I put my trust . . 98
I lay my sins on Jesus 59
I love the little snowdrop flower . . 63
I love the sacred Book of God . . .115
In days of old on Sinai 41
I need Thee, precious Jesus . . .117
In garments dight of virgin white . 30
In grief and fear to Thee, O Lord . 69
In solemn course, as holy lore. . . 21
In sorrow and distress 23
Inspirer and Hearer of prayer ... 42
Inspirer of the ancient seers . . .115
Index.
12;
In the bonds of Death He lay . . . 33
In the hour of trial 96
In the Lord's atoning Grief ... 25
In the midst of life behold .... 57
In the Name of God the Father . 53
In the sun and moon and stars . 11, 81
In the wilderness prepare ye, etc. . 40
In thraldom's lonely woe . ... 77
In Thy glorious Resurrection . . . 33
In time of Tribulation 73
In token that thou shalt not fear . . 54
In vain my fancy strives to paint . . 57
It came upon the midnight clear . . 13
I thank the goodness and the grace . 65
I think, when I read that sweet story
of old 68
I was a wandering sheep .... 59
I was wandering and weary ... 59
I worship Thee, Lord Jesu ... 67
Jehovah, let me know mine end. . 72
Jerusalem Divine in
Jerusalem, my happy home . . . 107
Jerusalem on high no
Jerusalem the golden 105
Jerusalem, thou city built on high . 108
Jerusalem, thou city fair and high . 107
Jerusalem, thou city towering high . 107
Jesu, for the beacon-light .... 47
Jesu, gentlest Saviour 53
Jesu, God of Love, attend. . . . 102
Jesu, grant me this, I pray.
Jesu ! how sweet those accents are
Jesu, Lord, Thy praise we sin
Jesu, Lord, Thy servants see
Jesu, Lover of my soul . . .
Jesu, meek and gentle . . .
Jesu, meek and lowly . . .
Jesu, most loving One . . .
Jesu ! my Lord, my God, my All
Jesu ! now Thy new-made soldier
Jesu, Redeemer, from on high .
Jesus calls us o'er the tumult . .
Jesus Christ is risen to-day ! Alleluia
Jesus, I my cross have taken .
Jesus is God :— the solid earth
Jesus lives ! — No longer now .
Jesus, Lord of Life and glory
Jesus, Lord of Life Eternal .
Jesus, Lord, we look to Thee
Jesus, my Lord, how rich Thy Grace 102
Jesus my Redeemer lives . . .
Jesus ! Name of wondrous Love .
Jesu, Solace of my soul ....
Jesus shall reign where'er the sun
Jesus, still lead on
Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me.
Jesus, Thou Joy of loving hearts 51, 100
59-
PAGE
Jesus, Thy Love unbounded . . . 101
Jesus, Whom Thy Church doth own 51
Jesu ! the very thought is sweet . . 99
Jesu, the very thought of Thee . . 99
Jesu, the Virgins' Crown, do Thou . 47
Jesu, the world's redeeming Lord . 32
Jesu, Thou art my Righteousness . 90
Jesu, Thy boundless love to me . . 90
Jesu, Thy mercies are untold ... 99
Jesu, to Thy Table led 53
Joy to the world ; the Lord is come . 73
Judaea's desert heard a sound ... 40
Just as I am, without one plea. . . 91
King Eternal, Power unbounded ,
King of Comforts, King of Life
King of Glory, King of Peace.
King of Mercy, King of Love.
Lamb of God, Whose bleeding Love 52
Lamb of God, Whose dying Love . 52
Lamp of our feet, whereby we trace . 115
Laud, O Sion, thy Salvation ... 50
Lead, kindly Light, amid the encir-
cling gloom 117
Lend, O lend me wings to send me . 101
Lend Thy Wings, O Holy Dove . 101
Let all mortal flesh keep silence . . 51
Let children, Lord, Thy Presence
seek 66
Let every heart exulting beat ... 16
Let every mortal ear attend . . .115
Let others court what joy they please 88
Let our choir new anthems raise
44, 46
Let saints on earth in concert sing
45. 57
Let this our solemn Feast .... 50
Let us rise in early morning ... 29
Let us with a gladsome mind ... 77
Light of the world ! O shine on us . 59
Light's Abode, Celestial Salem . . 106
Light's glittering morn bedecks the
sky 29
Little children, dwell in love . . . 102
Lo ! crowds of mourners press . . 17
Lo, from the desert homes .... 39
Lo ! He comes with clouds descend-
ing 10
Long did I toil, and knew no earthly
rest 91
Lo, now is our accepted day ... 21
Look down, O Lord ! and on our
youth 55
Look in pity, Lord of Glory ... 55
Look, ye saints, the sight is glorious 112
Lord, a Saviour's love displaying . 59
Lord, as to Thy dear Cross we flee 102
Lord, before Thy Throne we bend 76
126
Index.
PAGE
Lord, for ever at Thy side ... 76
Lord, how delightful 'tis to see . . 65
Lord, I confess before Thy Face . 65
Lord, in the desert bleak and bare . 23
Lord, in this Thy mercy's Day . . 22
Lord, in Thy Name Thy servants
plead 34
Lord Jesus, God and Man ... 68
Lord Jesus, when we stand afar . 97
Lord of earth's wide realms, alone . 71
Lord of earth, Thy forming Hand . in
Lord of glory, Who hast bought us 117
Lord of mercy and of might ... 22
Lord of our life and God of our
salvation 117
Lord of the Harvest, once again . 70
Lord of the Harvest, Thee we hail 70
Lord of the worlds above . . . 73
Lord, pour Thy Spirit from on
high 58
Lord, Thy children guide and keep 67
Lord, Thy Word abideth . . . .116
Lord, when before Thy Throne we
meet 53
Lord, when we bend before Thy
Throne 22
Lo, round the throne, a glorious
band 44
Lo ! the Angels' food is given ... 50
Lo, the Feast is spread to-day . . 53
Lo ! the glad morn is come . . . 33
Lo the lilies of the field 81
Love is the Lord whom I obey . . 90
Love, Who in the first beginning . 92
Lo, what a glorious sight appears . in
Master (will we ever say) . . . . 35
Memory of the blest departed . . 38
Mighty Father ! Blessed Son . . 38
Mine anguish and my woe .... 76
Morn of morns and Day of days . . 4
Most ancient of all mysteries ... 38
Most High and Holy Trinity . . 38
Much in sorrow, oft in woe ... 48
My dear Redeemer and my Lord . 115
My faith looks up to Thee .... 101
My Father's Home eternal . . . 106
My God, accept my heart this day . 55
My God and Father, while I stray 91
My God, and is Thy Table spread . 51
My God, how endless is Thy Love . 3
My God, how wonderful Thou art
101, III
My God, T love Thee ; — not because 26
My God, in Whom are all the
springs 72
My God, I thank Thee, Who hast
made 92
My God, my Father, while I stray 91
PAGE
My God, my King 75
My God, to Thee ourselves we owe . 88
[My joy, my life, my crown (Herbert),
— quoted] 85
My Lord and God, Whose gracious
Hand 91
My Saviour and my King ... 72
My soul, praise the Lord (Cams
Wilson) 75
My soul, praise the Lord (O. V.) . 74
My soul, praise the Lord (Churton) 75
My soul, praise the Lord (Thomas
Park) 78
My Soul, there is a Countrie ... 88
My spirit on Thy care 72
My thirsty soule desires her drought 84
Nay, 'tis not what we fancied it . .110
Nearer, my God, to Thee .... 97
New every morning is the love . . 3
New wonders of Thy mighty Hand . 8
Night ! how I love thy silent shades 90
No Gospel like this feast . . . . 53
No longer Thou in human form ■ . 27
Nor eye has seen, nor ear has heard 111
No songs shall break our gloom to-
day 101
Not by the martyr's death alone . . 47
Not for three or four transgressions . 23
Not in anything we do 96
Not unto us, but Thee alone . . . 75
Now fain my joyous heart would
sing 108
Now lay we calmly in the grave . . 56
Now let me close mine eyes ... 92
Now morning lifts her dewy veil . . 4
Now, my soul, thy voice upraising . 26
Now, my tongue, the Mystery telling 50
Now our work of love is done ... 55
Now severed is Jordan 48
Now thank we all our God .... 70
Now that the daylight fills the sky . 4
Now the day is over 67
Now to our Saviour let us raise . 53
Now with the slow revolving year . 2.1
O Blessed Day, when first was
poured . 15
O blessed saint of snow-white purity 40
O blessed Sun, whose Splendour . . 91
O bread, to pilgrims given . . . . 51
O Captain of God's Host, Whose
dreadful might ....'.. 42
O Christ, our Hope, our heart's
Desire 34
O Christ, Redeemer of our race . 14
O Christ, that art the Light and
Day 21
Index.
127
PAGE
O Christ, the heavens' Eternal
King 32
O Christ, Thou Son of Mary . . 43
O Christ, Who art the Light and
Day 21
O Christ, Who dost prepare a
place 35
O Christ, Who hast prepared a
place 35
O come ! all ye faithful 13
O come and mourn with me awhile . 27
O come, loud anthems let us sing . 73
O come ! O come ! Emmanuel . . 10
O come to the merciful Saviour
that calls you 59
O Day most calm, most bright . . 85
O Day of rest and gladness ... 5
O death, the change of earthly things 57
O disclose Thy lovely face .... 3
O'er the distant mountains breaking 98
O'er the gloomy hills of darkness . 60
O'er the realms of pagan darkness . 60
O'erwhelmed in depths of woe . . 26
O Everlasting Light 99
O Father-Eye, that hath so truly
watched 92
O FATHER-Heart Who hast created
all .... '• 54
O Father of mercies, O Spirit of
Love 70
O Father, Who didst all things
make 6
O Father, Whose Almighty Hand . 70
O Food that weary pilgrims love . . 51
O for a closer walk with God ... 90
O for a heart to praise my God . . 90
O for the peace that floweth as a
river 12
Oft as the bell, with solemn toll . . 57
Of the Father's Love begotten . . 14
O glorious Paradise ! O lovely clime ! 103
O God, bow down Thine Ear on
earth 67
O God by Whom the seed is given . 20
O God, from Thee alone .... 59
O Godhead hid, devoutly I adore
Thee 50
O God, in Whose all-searching Eye 55
O God, my Strength and Fortitude 71
O God, of all the strength and power 5
O God of Bethel, by Whose Hand . 79
O God of Hosts, the mighty Lord . 73
O God of Jacob, by Whose Hand . 79
O God of Life, Whose Power benign 38
O God of Love, how blest are they . 72
O God of Love, O King ot Peace . 69
O God of Mercy, God of Love . . 69
1 of truth,' O Lord of might . 5
O God, our help in ages past . . 57, 73
PAGE
O God the Sox Eternal, Thy dread
might 42
O God, Thy soldiers' great Reward . 46
O God unseen, yet ever near ... 52
O God, we raise our hearts to Thee . 58
O God, Who lovest to abide ... 47
O God, Who metest in Thine Hand 58
O Guardian of the Church Divine . 58
O Guide of faithful Israel . . . . 55
O had I, my Saviour, the wings of
a dove 72
O happy band of pilgrims . . . .117
O happy day, that fixed my choice . 56
O happy is the man who hears . . 79
O happy saints, who dwell in light . no
Oh, could we pilgrims raise our
eyes in
O heavenly Jerusalem 44
O heavenly Word, eternal Light . 11
O help us, Lord, each hour of need 96
Oh for an hymn of universal praise . 78
Oh for the robes of whiteness . . .111
Oh ! happy land above no
Oh, how could I forget Him ... 51
Oh, how I long to reach my home . in
O Holy Lord, content to dwell . . 68
O Holy Lord, content to live ... 68
O Holy Saviour, Friend unseen . . 91
O how many hours of beauty . . . 109
Oh ! Paradise must show more fair . 108
Oh, that the Lord's Salvation. . . 60
Oh, the Mystery, passing wonder . 49
Oh, what, if we are Christ's ... 46
Oh, what unbounded Zeal and Love 23
Oh, who are they so pure and bright 57
Oh ! who shall dare in this frail
scene 38
Oh, why should Israel's sons, once
blest 60
O Jesu, bruised and wounded more 52
O Jesu Christ, if aught there be . 22
O Jesu, God and Man 68
O Jesu, Lord of Light and Grace . 5
O Jesu, once for sinners slain ... 52
O Jesu, O Redeemer 43» 9^
O Jesu, Source of sanctity .... 45
O Jesu sweet, grant that Thy grace . 83
O Jesu, Thou art standing .' . . .117
O Lamb of God, Whose Love
Divine 4-
O Light, Whose beams illumine all . 68
O living Bread from heaven ... 51
O Lord, a wondrous story .... 68
O Lord, how happy should we be . 96
O Lord, in perfect bliss above . . 19
O Lord, I would delight in Thee . 97
O Lord most high, Eternal King . 34
O Lord, my best desire fulfil ... 90
O Lord, my heart is sick .... 92
128
Index.
PAGE
O Lord of heaven, and earth, and
sea 117
O Lord of Hosts, Whose glory fills. 47
O Lord, our Lord, in all the world 71
O Lord, Thou knowest all the snares 97
O Lord, turn not Thy face from me 22
O Lord, Who in Thy Love Divine . 58
O Lord, Who on that last sad eve . 51
O Love Divine, how sweet thou art . 90
O Love ! how deep ! how broad !
how high 100
O Love, Who formedst me to wear . 92
O Maker of the world, give ear . . 20
O merciful Creator, hear .... 20
Once again the radiant morning . . 63
Once in royal David's city .... 62
Once more, my soul, the rising day . 89
Once more the solemn season calls . 21
Once, only once, and once for all . 53
On Jordan's bank the Baptist's cry . 10
On Jordan's stormy banks I stand . no
On that Day, that Day of ire . . . 9
On the fount of Life eternal gazing
wistful and athirst 106
On the mountain's top appearing . . 60
On this Day, the first of days ... 5
Onward, Christian soldiers .... 48
O Paradise eternal 112
O Paradise, O Paradise 118
Open, Lord, my inward ear ... 90
O plead my cause, my Saviour,
plead 72
O praise our great and gracious
Lord 117
O praise the Lord benign .... 77
O praise the Lord, for He is Love . 77
O praise ye the Lord, prepare your
glad voice 78
O praise ye the LORD with heart and
with voice 78
O quickly come, dread Judge of all 12
O Sacred Head, now wounded . . 25
O Sacred Head, surrounded ... 25
O Saviour, now at God's Right
Hand 53
O Saviour of our earthly race. . . 43
O Saviour, Who for men hast trod 34
O Shepherd of the sheep 47
O sing to the Lord, sing out a new
strain 78
O sinner, lift the eye of Faith ... 26
O Sion, open wide thy gates ... 18
O sons and daughters, let us sing. . 31
O Spirit of the Living God ... 59
O Thou from Whom all goodness
flows 96
O Thou, the contrite Sinner's Friend 91
O Thou the heavens' Eternal King . 32
O Thou, to Whose all searching sight 99
PAGE
O Thou, Who earnest from above . 102
O Thou, Who dost to man accord . 21
O Thou Who makest souls to shine . 58
O timely happy, timely wise ... 6
O Trinity of Blessed Light ... 3
Our Blest Redeemer, ere He breathed 37
Our glorious home above . . . .110
Our God in glory sits on high . . 64
Our God is Love, and all His Saints 102
Our God, our help in ages past 57, 73
Our hearts and voices let us raise . 55
Our life is often dark 69
Our Lord is risen from the dead . 72
Out of the deep I call 22
Out of the depths of woe .... 76
O what the joy and the glory must be 116
O wondrous type, O vision fair . . 41
O Word of God above 47
O worship the King 74
O ye immortal throng 42
O ye, your Saviour's Name who bear 102
O Zion, when Thy Saviour came . 60
Pleasant are Thy courts above . .117
Pour down Thy Spirit, gracious
Lord 115
Pour out Thy Spirit from on high . 58
Praise and thanks to Thee be sung . 42
Praise God, Who in the Holiest dwells 78
Praise, my soul, the King of heaven 74
Praise, O praise our God and King 70
Praise, O praise our Heavenly King 70
Praise the Lord, for He is Love . 'j'j
Praise the Lord ! Rejoice ye Gentiles ! 12
Praise the Lord ! ye heavens adore
Him 78
Praise to God, immortal praise . . 70
Praise to God Who reigns above . 42
Praise to the Holiest in the height . 117
Praise to the Paschal Victim bring . 32
Praise we the Lord this day ... 28
Praise ye the Lord, for good is He . 75
Precious Bible! What a treasure ! .115
Prepare a new song, Jehovah to
praise 78
Raise, raise thine eyes a little way . 26
Rejoice, all ye believers 98
Rejoice ! the Lord is King . . . .118
Rejoice, ye pure in heart .... 48
Resting from His Work to-day . 8, 27
Rest of the weary 98
Ride on, ride on in Majesty ... 24
Rise high, ye notes, a glad ovation . 56
Rock of Ages, cleft for me . . 27, 95
Round roll the weeks our hearts to
greet 37
Round the Lord in glory seated
(Mant.) 42
Index.
129
Ruler of the hosts of light
PAGE
• 36
Sabbath of the saints of old ... 27
Saints of God, whom faith united . 43
Saints, the glorious Mother greeting 40
Save me by Thy glorious Name . . 72
Saviour, above all heavens ascended
high 53
Saviour, again to Thy dear Name
we raise 7
Saviour, Blessed Saviour . . .118
Saviour, sprinkle many nations . . 59
Saviour, when in dust to Thee . . 23
Saviour, while we dwell securely . 46
Saviour, Who Thy flock art feeding 55
See, He comes ! Whom every nation 12
Seeing I am Jesu's lamb .... 67
See the Conqueror mounts in triumph 35
See the destined day arise .... 25
Set upon Sion's wall 58
Seven times our blessed Saviour
spake 27
Shall we not love thee, Mother dear 28
Shepherd Divine, our wants relieve . 118
Shepherd of Thine Israel, lead us .110
Sing Alleluia forth in duteous praise 117
Sing, my soul, the Eternal's praise . 74
Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle 25
Sing, my tongue, the Saviour's Glory 50
Sing, O sing this blessed morn . . 13
Sing praise to God, Who reigns above 118
Sing the song unheard before . . 73
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice 74
Sing we triumphant hymns of praise 34
Sion's daughter, weep no more . . 26
Sitting at receipt of customs ... 41
Six days of labour now are past . . 8
Soldiers of Christ ! arise .... 55
Soldiers, who are Christ's below . 46
Songs of praise the Angels sang . . 102
Songs of thankfulness and praise . 17
Son of God, Incarnate Word . . 52
Son of the Highest, deign to cast . 40
Soon and for ever 57
Soon shall the evening star, with
silver ray 7
Soul of Jesus, once for me ... 27
Souls in heathen darkness lying . . 59
Sow in the morn thy seed .... 59
Spirit ! leave thine house of clay . . 90
Spirit of Mercy, Truth, and Love . 37
Spirit of Wisdom, guide Thine Own 55
Spouse of Christ, in arms contending 44
Spread, O spread, thou mighty Word 59
Stand up and bless the Lord . . . 102
Star of morn and even 68
Stars of the morning, so gloriously
bright 42
Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear 3
PAGE
Sweetest joy the soul can know . . 37
Sweet is the Spirit's strain ... 59
Sweet place, sweet place alone . .110
Sweet Saviour, bless us ere we go . 6
Sweet the moments, rich in blessing 27
Take up thy cross, my soul, nor grieve 24
Take up thy cross, the Saviour said 23
Tell me not of earthly love . . . 109
Tender Shepherd, Thou hast stilled 57
Thank God, it hath resounded . . 70
That Day of Wrath, that dreadful
Day 9
The Advent of our God .... 10
The ancient law departs .... 16
The Apostle slept — a light shone in
the prison 40
The Apostles were assembled ... 66
The Ark of God in safety rode . . 58
The Banner of the Cross .... 60
The broken contrite heart oppressed 116
The choirs of ransomed Israel . . 41
• The Church has waited long ... 98
The Church's one Foundation . .118
The dawn is purpling o'er the sky . 29
The dawn was purpling o'er the sky 30
The day is past and over .... 6
The day of resurrection 29
The earth, O Lord, is one great
field 58
Thee, Fount of Blessing, we adore . 38
The eternal Gifts of Christ the King 45
The eternal Spirit's Gifts .... 45
Thee we adore, O hidden Saviour,
Thee 50
The faithful men of every land . . 62
The fish in wave, and bird on wing . 8
The foe behind, the deep before . . 33
The God of Abraham praise . . .112
The God of glory walks His round . 81
The God of Harvest praise ... 72
The God Whom earth, and sea, and
sky 28
The great forerunner of the morn . 39
The happy morn is come .... 33
The Head that once was crowned with
thorns 118
The Heavenly Child in stature grows 16
The Heavenly Word proceeding
forth 50
The heavens declare His glory . . 71
The hymn for conquering martyrs
raise (Neale.) 15
The King of Love my Shepherd is .118
The Lamb's high banquet called to
share 30
The Lamb's high banquet we await . 30
The last and greatest herald of
Heaven's King 40
130
Index.
PAGE
The last loud trumpet's wondrous
sound 9
The law commands and makes us
know 115
The Life which God's Incarnate
Word 15
The Lord descended from above . 71
The Lord my pasture shall prepare 71
The Lord of Might from Sinai's brow 1 1
The Lord's eternal Gifts .... 45
The Lord Who hath redeemed our
souls 72
The Lord will come! the earth shall
quake 11
The ocean hath no danger .... 58
The people that in darkness sat . . 17
The race that long in darkness pined 17
The radiant morn hath passed away 9
There is a blessed Home .... 109
There is a book who runs may read . 19
There is a green hill far away (Mrs.
Alexander) 63
There is a happy land 68
There is a land of pure delight . .110
There is a River, pure and bright . 72
There is a stream, which issues forth no
There's a Friend for little children . 68
The roseate hues of early dawn . . 3
The Royal Banners forward go . . 23
The Saviour ! what a noble flame . 23
These are the crowns that we shall
wear no
These glorious minds, how bright
they shine 44
The Shepherd now was smitten . . 18
The solemn season calls us now . . 21
The Son of God goes forth to war . 14
The spacious firmament on high . . 71
The Spirit breathes upon the Word 115
The strain upraise of joy and praise,
Alleluia 19
The strife is o'er, the battle done . . 31
The Sunday morn again is here . . 5
The sun is sinking fast 6
The sun that lights this happy day . 51
The table of my heart prepare . .115
The tomb is empty ; wouldst thou
have it full 34
The tribes of Israel revered ... 41
The unfading crowns by Christ be-
stowed 46
The virtues of Thy saints, O Lord . 38
The voice that breathed o'er Eden . 56
The waters were Thy path .... 52
The wise men to Thy cradle throne . 16
The Word, descending from above
50 (note)
The Word of God, the Word of
Truth 116
The Word, with God the Father
one 15
The world is very evil 104
They are all gone into the world of
Light 87
They come, God's Messengers of
Love 42
The year begins with Thee .... 16
The year is gone beyond recall . . 16
They that toil upon the deep ... 58
Thine Arm, O Lord, in days of old . 118
Thine for ever, God of Love . . .118
Think on the mercy of our God . . 64
Thirsts my weary spirit 106
This day sent forth His heralds bold 37
This is My Body, take and eat . . 53
This is not my place of resting . .110
This is the day of light 5
This is the day the Lord hath made 75
This stone to thee in faith we lay. . 47
Those eternal bowers 44
Thou art gone to the grave, but we
will not deplore thee 57
Thou art gone up, O Lord, on high 66
Thou art gone up on high .... 35
Thou art the Way, by Thee alone . 38
Thou art the Way, to Thee alone . 38
Thou, Barnabas, hast won repose . 39
Though blossoms all from fig-trees
fall 80
Though sorrows rise, and dangers roll 41
Thou glorious Sun of Righteousness 5
Thou God of Truth and Love . . 56
Thou gracious God, and kind . . . 73
Thou, great Creator, art possessed . 19
Thou hallowed chosen morn of praise 29
Thou hast a temple founded ... 98
Thou hidden love of God, whose
height 90
Thou Judge of quick and dead . . 12
Thou New Jerusalem, arise and shine 104
Thou spak'st the Word, and into one 8
Thou that art the Father's Word . 97
Thou that once, on mother s knee . 67
Thou, Who of old didst hush the storm 53
Thou, Who on that wondrous journey 102
Thou, Whose Almighty Word . . 59
Three in One and One in Three . 6
Thrice Blessed Word of God ... 64
Through all the changing scenes of
life 72
Throughout this earth in stillness. . 92
Through the day Thy love hath
spared us 6
Thy Cross, O Lord, the holy sign . 68
Thy kingdom come, O God ... 17
Thy Parents' arms now yield thee . 54
Thy way, not mine, O Lord ... 92
Thy Word, Almighty Lord . . .116
Index.
m
PAGE
Thy Word, O Lord, like gentle dews 114
Thy works, not mine, O Christ . . 23
Till its holy hours are past .... 34
'Tis done ; that new and heavenlv
Birth '.55
"Tis for conquering kings to gain . . 16
'Tis the day of resurrection. ... 29
To bless Thy chosen race .... 73
To Christ, the Prince of Peace . . 101
To-day in Thine Apostle shine . . 18
To-day, O Lord, a holier work . . 8
To-day, O Lord, the holy James . 41
To-day our Lord went up on high . 35
To God above from all below ... 75
To God the only wise 80
To God thy way commending . . 109
To grace, 6 Lord, a marriage feast 56
To Sion's hill I lift mine eyes ... 76
To Thee, my God, Whose Presence
fills 91
To Thee, O Lord, our hearts we
raise 70
To Thee we come, our Saviour dear 7
To the Name of our Salvation . . 16
To the Name that brings Salvation . 16
To the Paschal Victim 32
To Thy blest courts, great God and
King 55
Tribulation, pain, and woe . . . .111
True Bread of Life, in pitying mercy
given '...'. 52
'Twas at evening, when the voice of
greeting 63
Upon the sixth day of the week . . 27
Up, soldiers of the Saviour's Cross 55
Victim Divine, Thy grace we claim . 52
Virgin-born, we bow before Thee. . 40
Vital spark of heavenly flame ... 57 j
Wake, the welcome day appeareth . n
We are but little children weak (Mrs.
Alexander) 63
Weary of earth, and laden with my
sin .22
We come, our hearts with gladness
glowing 70
We give Thee but Thine own . . .117
We have no home but Heaven . .112
We have not seen, we cannot see. . 12
We know Thee Who Thou art . .118
Welcome, happy morning .... 32
We love the place, O God .... 102
We plough the fields and scatter . . 70
We saw Thee not when Thou didst
come 96
We see no contradicting cause . . 56
We sing the praise of Him Who died 24
PAGE
We speak of the realms of the blest in
We've no abiding city here . . . .112
We walk by faith, and not by sight . 96
We were baptized into the Saviour's
death 81
We were washed in holy water . . 63
What are these arrayed in white . . 44
What are these in bright array . .112
What countless crowd on Sion stands 44
What happy men or angels these . . 44
What mean ye by this wailing. . . 91
What no human eye hath seen . . 109
What our Father does is well . . 69
What star is this with beams so
bright 17
What various hindrances we meet . 118
When across the heart deep waves of
sorrow 99
When at Thy footstool, Lord, I
bend 91
When Christ the Lord would come
on earth 40
When darkness fleets, and joyful
earth 2r
When gathering clouds around I
\-iew 69
When God of old came down from
heaven 36
When, His salvation bringing ... 68
When I can read my title clear . . 89
When in the hour of utmost need . 69
When I survey the wondrous Cross . 89
When Jesus came to earth of old . n
When languor and disease invade . 99
When morning gilds the skies ... 4
When on Sinai's top I see .... 41
When our heads are bowed in woe . 57
When prayer delights thee least, then
learn to say 94
When quiet in my house I sit . . .115
When shades of night around us
close 10
When sink our hearts in famine soie 53
When the blest seed of Terah's faith-
ful son 7;
When the Lord of Hosts ascended . 3b
When the loving Shepherd . . . . 51
When the soft dews of kindly sleep . 3
When this passing world is done . .112
When Thou, O Lord, didst send the
twelve 43
When to the House of God we go . 65
When we did sit in Babylon ... 77
When we, our weary limbs to rest . 77
When wounded sore, the stricken
heart 97
Where high the heavenly Temple
stands 79
While my JESUS I'm possessing . . 27
I ^2
Index.
PAGE
While now the daylight fills the sky . 4
While shepherds watched their flocks 12
Who are these like stars appearing . 44
Who are those before God's throne . 44
Who cometh here from Edom's rocks 82
Who is this with garments gory . . 82
Whom have we, Lord, in heaven
but Thee 73
Why, impious Herod, vainly fear . . 16
Why should I fear the darkest hour . 90
With all the powers my poor soul
hath 88
With Christ we share a mystic
grave 27, 55
With hearts in love abounding . . 72
With one consent let all the earth . 74
With Thee, Lord, will I walk by
day 3
Word of Life, Thou fountain bright 114
Words of Eternal Life to me . . .116
Word supreme, before creation . . 15
Ye captains of a heavenly host . . 45
Ye choirs of New Jerusalem ... 30
Ye faithful, approach ye .... 13
Ye nations round the earth, rejoice . 74
Ye servants of a martyred Lord . . 46
Ye servants of the Lord 98
Ye sons and daughters of the King . 31
Yesterday with exultation .... 14
LATIN.
Ad coenam Agni providi .... 30
Adeste, fideles 13
Adoro Te devote, latens Deitas 50, 88
Ad perennis vitas fontem mens sitivit
arida 84, 106
Ad regias Agni dapes 30
Ad templa nos rursus vocat ... 4
.Eterna Christi munera, Aposto-
lorum 45
^Eterna Christi munera, Et mar-
tyru?n 46
^Eterne Rex Altissime 34
Alleluia, dulce carmen 19
Alleluia piis edite laudibus . . . .117
Amor Jesu dulcissimus 99
Angulare, Fundamentum .... 47
Apparuit Benignitas 100
Arte mini, miro consilio 59
Attolle paulum lumina 25
Audi, benigne Conditor 20
Aurora ccelum purpurat 29
Aurora lucis rutilat 29
Ave ! Caro Christi Regis .... 51
Ave, colenda Trinitas 38
Beata nobis gaudia 37
Cantemus cuncti melodum nunc Alle-
luia 19
Chorus Novae Jerusalem .... 30
Christe Qui Lux es et Dies ... 21
Christe sanctorum Decus angelorum 42
Christi perennes nuntii 45
Clamantis ecce vox sonans . . .17, 4°
Ccelestis Aulae Principes . • • • 45
Coelestis formam glorias 41
Ccelestis O Jerusalem 44
Ccelo datur quiescere 39
Conditor alme siderum n
Corde natus ex Parentis ante
mundi exordium 14
Crucem sequentes prasviam ... 89
Crudelis Herodes, Deum .... 16
Da, puer, plectrum choreis ut canam
fidelibus 13
Debilis cessent elementa legis ... 16
Dei canamus Gloriam 8
Deus Tuorum militum 46
Die dierum principe 4
Die parente temporum 5
Dies Irae, Dies ilia 9
Dignare me, O Jesu, rogo Te . . 23
Divine crescebas Puer 16
Ecce Dies Celebris 33
Ecce Panis Angelorum 50
Ecce tempus idoneum 21
Ecquis binas columbinas .... 101
En clara vox redarguit n
En Dies est Dominica 5
Ex more docti mystico .... 21
Ex quo, Salus mortalium .... 46
Exsultet cor praecordiis 16
Felix Dies, quam proprio .... 15
Festum Matris gloriosae 40
Finita jam sunt praslia 31
Fortem virili pectore 47
Forti tegente Brachio 30
Gloria, laus, et honor 24
Gloriosi Salvatoris 16
Heri mundus exsultavit 14
Herodes hostis impie 16
Hie breve vivitur, hie breve plangitur,
hie breve fletur 104
Index.
133
Hodiernae Lux diei . . .
Hora novissima, tempora p
sunt, vigilemus ....
Hymnum canamus glorias .
Hymnum canentes martyrum
In Domo Patris ....
In noctis umbra, desides .
In Passione Domini . . ,
Instantis Adventum Dei
Inter sulphurei fulgura turbinis
Ira justa Conditoris . . .
Isdem creati fluctibus . ,
Jam Christus astra ascenderat
Jam desinant suspiriaj. .
Jam lucis orto sidere . .
Jam sanctius moves opus
Jam sol recedit igneus .
Jerusalem luminosa . .
Jam moesta quiesce querela
Jesu, Corona virginum .
Jesu, Decus Angelicum .
Jesu, Dulcedo Cordium .
Jesu, dulcis memoria ....
Jesu dulcissime e Throno Glorioe
Jesu mi dulcissime . .
Jesu, nostra Redemptio.
Jesu Redemptor omnium
Jesu, Salvator sasculi
Jordanis oras prasvia . .
Jubes, et in prasceps aquis
Jucundare, plebs fidelis .
Jussu tyranni pro Fide .
Labente jam solis rota. . .
Lapsus est annus ; redit annus
Lauda, Syon, Salvatorem .
Lucis Creator optime . . .
Lugete, pacis angeli . . .
Lustra sex Qui jam peregit .
PAGE
104
34
15
106
10
25
10
36
26
37
12
4
8
6
106
57
47
100
5i
1 99
59
101
34
14
32
10
8
46
15
alter
Matutinus altiora ....
Media, in vita, in morte sumus
Miramur, O Deus, Tuae .
Nee quisquam oculis vidit .
Nobis, Olympo redditus. .
Non parta solo sanguine
Nunc Sancte nobis Spiritus
Nunc suis tandem novus e latebris
O Amor quam exstaticus . . .
O beata beatorum
O bona Patria, lumina sobria
speculantur
O Deus, ego amo Te . . . .
O Esca viatorum
O filii et filiae
107
35
47
5
39
100
46
104
26
5i
3i
O Luce Quae Tua lates . .
O Luce Qui mortalibus . .
O Lux Beata, Trinitas .
O nata Lux de lumine . .
O nimis felix, meritique celsi
Opprobriis, Jesu, satur . .
Opus peregisti Tuum . . .
O quanta qualia sunt ilia Sabbata
O qui tuo, dux martyrum ,
O sol salutis, intimis . .
Pange, lingua, gloriosi Corporis
Pange lingua gloriosi Lauream
Pastore percusso, minas . .
Patris asterni Soboles coasva
Praecursor altus Luminis
Prome vocem, mens, canoram
Pugnate Christi milites .
Quae dixit, egit, pertulit . .
Quae Stella sole pulchrior .
Quern terra, pontus, aethera
Quicumque certum quaeritis
Quisquis valet numerare . .
Quos in hostes, Saule, tendis
Rebus creatis nil egens . .
Recolamus sacram Ccenam
Rector potens, verax Deus ,
Rerum Deus tenax vigor .
Rex Sempiterne coelitum
PAGE
38
7
6
41
40
27
34
116
14
21
50
25
18
47
39
26
46
15
17
28
101
106
18
19
5i
5
5
^2
Sacris solemniis juncta sint gaudia . 50
Saevo dolorum turbine 26
Salve Caput cruentatum 25
Salutis humanae Sator 35
Salve Festa Dies, toto venerabilis aevo 32
Salvete no res martyrum 15
Sancti, venite, Corpus Christi sumite 51
Solemne nos jejunii 21
Sol praeceps rapitur, proxima nox
adest
Splendor Paternae Gloriae .... 5
Sponsa Christi quae per orbem . . 45
Stabat Mater dolorosa 25
Summi Largitor praemii 21
Summi Parentis Filio . . . . 101
Summi Parentis Unice .... 41
Supreme Motor cordium ... 8, 20
Supreme, quales, Arbiter .... 45
Supreme Rector coelitum .... 36
Tandem peractis, O Deus .... 8
Te Deum Patrem colimus [Magd.
Coll. Hymn) 38
Te losta, mundi Conditor .... 19
Te lucis ante terminum 6
Templi sacratas pande, Syon, fores . 18
Tu Trinitatis Unitas ' .... 6
134
Index.
Urbs beata Hirusalem . . . .47,107
Urbs Syon aurea, Patria lactea, cive
decora 105
Ut queant laxis resonare fibris . . 39
Yeni Creator Spiritus . .
Veni Sancte Spiritus . .
Venit e coelo Mediator alto
Veni, veni, Emmanuel . .
Verbi vere substantivi . .
Verbum Dei, Deo natum .
36,
5°
26
iS
PAGE
Verbum Quod ante sascula ... 15
Verbum Supermini prodiens, A
Patre 11
Verbum Supernum prodiens, Nee. . 50
Vexilla Regis prodeunt 23
Victimae Paschali laudes .... 32
Victis sibi cognomina 16
Vos anteCHRiSTi tempora. ... 20
Zyma vetus expurgetur 33
FRENCH.
Heureux, qui, loin de tout le monde . 90
L' Amour me tient asservie .... 90
Nuit, que vous metes favorable . . 90
Tous sont obliges de T'aimer ... 90
GREEK.
'Ai/acrracrews i]fj.epa .
v Aao)fj.€v, iravres Xdot
Al'T7) 7/ k\7)T7] . . .
'lycrou? 6 fa>o§oT7js . .
Koirov re ical Ko.p.arov
Neya to ~Mv .
'OpSpiau/xep 'opdpov (3aveos
Ov yap pXeireis rods TapdrTovras
'Ziyrjaa.Tix) rrdcra aap% (3poTeLa
29
29
*9
35
117
49
29
21
5i
Tas idpas ras aicjvias 43
Hrjv , 'Ed^p.Br}8\€€p.rjvoL^€,8eOT€id(x}ij.€u 104
Trjv 7)p.epav dieXdwi' 6
To p.iya. l&vcjT'fjpiov 49
To; Bao"i\ei /ecu AeairoTrj .... 14
TCov ap.apTiu>i> p.ov TTJv TrXrjdvu . . 21
Twv iepQv ad\o(pbpwv. , . . 44 & 46
$cDs 'Ckapov 7
$a)Ti£ov, (purifov 104
Xopbs 'IcrparjX 41
GERMAN.
5ld; bfeib imt Reiner. ®nabe . .
^Icfj, uu3 toirb ba3 Ǥerj [0 leev .
2ttter ©(ai'tb'gen ^ammelplafc
9lufj auf, \t>x Sieidjggenoffen . .
9luf ! 2Iuf ! ttjeil ber £ag evfetyeinen
2luf biefen £ag bebenfen nnr . .
2luS beinet ©Uevit 2Umen . . .
23efiet)t bu beinc QBcge . . .
58runn aUc8 £citg, £id; efyreu toit
(Shrift (ag in SobeSbanben . .
<5$ttftu3 ift erftanben . . .
25a 3efu8 an beg JtreujeS <£tamm
®a8 Seben ttntb oft trube . . .
S)a3 $arabte3 nmp fdjbner fem .
S5ein 2Gort, D £evr, ift mtlber £!)au
3)ei ©laub' ift cine lebenbtge Jlvaft .
109
56
11
11
35
54
109
38
33
3^
27
69
108
114
98
(5r!?r. unb tr gefuncjen . .
(Srbebt eud;, frolje SubeUietcr . .
(frmuntert eucf?, U)r Svommcn . .
©rttad/, Q)ienfdj, cvmadjc . . .
@3 ift geroipUct) an bcr 3eit . . .
@S jiefyt ein ftiUet ©ngcl ....
®eb/ au«, mcin £cq. unb fud;e Sreub'
®dobt fety 3efu3 Sfrtft . . .
®ib <£)cincn Srieben un8, <§crv
®ott bc3 £tmmcl« unb ber Svbcn .
®ott (ob, nun ift erfd;oUen . . .
®uter £ivt, JDu I;aft gcftiUt . . •
Jjerjlicb, tbut mid; evfrcuen . . .
£eut' fyat bev grope ^immelsbcvr
£immeUuartS gebt unfeve SBa&n . .
£od;f;cUige JSteietnigf eit . .
42
56
98
21
11
92
109
4
69
4
70
57
108
37
109
38
Index.
135
3d) bin ein ®aft auf Grrten . .
3* bin gerauft auf Xeincn Slainen
3d; glaube, <&aHefuia$ ! . . .
3d; rceip an 2Sen id) gfaube . .
Sortie ibr eud; wm (S b r i 1" 1 nennt
3m 2lnfang BMW 'i auf (men . .
Serufalem, tu bodgebaute Statt
3 e i"u tcr 5>n bift atteine . . .
3 e fu , geb' scran
3efug lebt ! mit STjni aud) id) .
3cfu8 meine 3userfid)t . . .
Jtommt, Srufccr, tajst un§ «;cben .
8ieBe, Tie Tu mid; $um 33i(te .
giebfct Seftt, Jterfinbttu: . ■
PAGE
IO9
55
95
98
102
70
107
5i
99
32
109
92
54
SDJcin £err unt (Sett, £c§ guter -§anb 91
Qftein 3efu, tcr ©u WW tern 2d>eiten . 51
OJiitten n>ir in Seben ftnb 57
fflvm tanfct atte ©ott 7°
9lun lofft una ten Beifc begvabeu ... 56
£> £u atferfujjte Jteute 37
£> •kaupt, soil 23lut unt SQBunten . . 25
O 3efu, meine Sonne . . . . * 91
O interbank, tie mid; fo treu gcriiTuct
O £>aterber$, tag (Jrb' unt Jpimmel
O trie manege fd;ene Stunte . .
©aget mit sen feinen Sieben . .
£cr Sob unt g$t! tern f)od)ftcn ®ut
<£icf) roie lieblicb ift'g unt fein .
18 ate t, son tern bodften Sfjrcn .
^erbergne ©ettegliebe 2)u . .
Serjoge nid)t, tu £auflein flein .
£Salte, n\ilte nab unt fern . .
2Bag ©ott tbut, tag ift isoblgetban
9Ba£ fein 2luge t)att gefc^en . • .
2Ga? mad)t ibr, tap ibr tteinet .
2Bcil id) 3efu Sdidflciu titj
SBenn tsir in bbdtften jftotbcn fein
SBecbc Hd)t, tu Statt ter Jpeiten
25er unt tie sor @otteg Xbronc
2Bie fount icb Scin sergeffen .
2£ie rcobl baft Xu gelabet . .
SBitfe tag nid?t 5'ieutc fein .
QSir femmen, Xeiue^ult $u cievu
SBir rj!ugen unt toir ftreuen .
jffiott teg Sebeng, lautrc £aietfe .
92
fdmf 54
109
109
118
102
34
90
59
69
109
9i
68
69
16
44
51
51
68
70
70
114
3cud)»fiin, mein Jvinb 68
SWEDISH.
gorfarai ej, tu UtCa b,op 98 ©iung, min fifi! ! ten (Jsi^cg (of . . 74
ITALIAN.
Partendo dal Mondo l'amante Pas- I Viva ! Viva ! Gesu 27
tore 51 I
?ut!cr& Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frame, and Londo
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