FROM THE LIBRARY OF REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, D. D, BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO THE LIBRARY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Sectle. 3rf£T/ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/creestianOOmacg $' ^vTofiw^ v SONGS ^ ap^ 20 TQ34 /; A &>/ OF THE CHRISTIAN CREED AND LIFE SELECTED FROM EIGHTEEN CENTURIES TRANSLATED AND NOW RE-ARRANGED BY HAMILTON M. MACGILL, D.D. LONDON : PICKERING & CO., 196 PICCADILLY. EDINBURGH : A. ELLIOT, 17 PRINCES STREET. 1879. CRAWFORD AND M CABE, PRINTERS, 15 QUEEN STREET, EDINBURGH. THESE VERSIONS OF SONGS OF THE CHRISTIAN CREED AND LIFE, ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY THE TRANSLATOR TO HIS GRACE CI)* iHo^t Etberenir fticfjartr Cljenefctr Crenel), ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN, wko, by his wide erudition, his large acquaintance with the writings of the Fathers, and his deep sympathy, at once with vital truth and literary beauty, has done more effective service than any other English Critic to sacred Latin poetry. PREFACE. n^HIS volume seems to promise too much, when its title em- braces the ' Christian Creed and Life ;' and especially when it professes'to range over ' eighteen centuries.' The translator, with all deference, has to plead that both parts of the title are strictly true to fact. The Christian creed, and the way of salvation, are distinctly, though in no dogmatic form, held forth in this volume ; and in a light which reflects more or less the complexion of all the Christian centuries. An able friend who has perused the volume in proof, has, with much felicity, expressed one reflection, which the translations are fitted to suggest, or at least illustrate ; and the beauty and comfort of the thought will be most fitly given in the words in which he has clothed it : 1 When a Christian looks back over eighteen centuries of his Church's songs, one thought springs up foremost in his mind ; the most refreshing of all his meditations. In these at least, he finds one bond of brotherly union that never has been broken. Through all these ages, wherever the Godhead of the Redeemer Son has been adored, His worshippers have had but one theme, sung often in the same words. Creed, ritual, the source of Church authority, passion, ambition, malice, and wickedness, have, alas ! divided them from one another ; but in praise they have remained one — undivided, and, apparently, indivisible. 1 The songs which were sung so early in the Eastern Church, and are still in use among its various divisions, are also sung and long have been, in the Latin Church ; and not in these only, but in their various divisions, by many millions who, in Europe and America, and the new-found islands of the South, worship the Lord ; though, for authority, they recognize neither the Eastern PREFACE. nor the Western Churches. And not only is this so with the more . ancient hymns, but those of later centuries are likewise received by all. How many in different lands, and different tongues, separated by other diversities, unite to sing Toplady's " Rock of Ages," Newman's " Lead, kindly Light," with the hymns of Heber, and the Wesleys and Cowper and Watts, and many, many more. Is it not, then, to be believed and rejoiced in, that united here in the service of praise, the Lord whom they serve is thus, and in this, keeping His children as one, though they see it not ; and in their united earthly praise preparing them, for the great service above, where they shall together "see His face," "having the harps of God" in their hands, and shall sing "the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the Song of the Lamb." ' The translator of these ' Songs of the Christian Creed and Life,' has, for some years, devoted occasional hours of leisure to the Hymnology of the Church, in the earlier and mediaeval centuries. He is fully alive to the fact, that loads of metrical compositions of the most wooden, or rather leaden character, are extant, bearing the too sacred name of ' Hymns,' or of ' Christian Poetry,' though singularly destitute of the essential elements of either poetry or Christianity. He is, nevertheless, aware that amidst much rubbish, there exists no small sprinkling of the most fine gold, which must prove a rich treasure of delight, perhaps of surprise, to inquirers endowed at once with Christian feeling, and with any gift of poetical appreciation. No small proportion of the baser material in question has overflowed into the numerous Breviaries, now or formerly in use in different places and at different dates, among the priests of the Roman Church. Few of these compends of devotion could be named, that are not disfigured by so-called hymns, which, from their want of devotion, from their poverty of thought, and their want of poetical conception ; as well as from their redundancy of compliment to saints, virgins, especially PREFACE. The Virgin Mary, and not seldom to angels, must prove intolerable to all who have any just idea of the very definition of a Christian hymn. The incomparable service done to Latin Christian poetry by Archbishop Trench has been in various ways, however inadequately, acknowledged in this volume. To his labours the translator owes his first irresistible attraction to this department of Christian liter- ature. He desires also to make suitable reference to another, whose much greater ecclesiastical remoteness ought not to re- press an affectionate allusion. Dr John Henry Newman, in join- ing the Church of Rome, has left behind him profounder regrets among Protestant admirers, than any other who has yielded to so strange a fascination. Unlike Daniel, Mone, and Wackernagle, Dr Newman has confined himself to four or five Breviaries as his sources of supply ; and although his selection is necessarily partial, he has done a service, neglected by all editors of Latin Hymns known to the Translator : he has published not a few fine hymns from the Paris Breviary, the superiority of which, over other priestly manuals of devotion, may be inferred from the charge sometimes brought against it, that it was prepared under the inspiration of Jansenists. The selection which follows, though limited, is widely Catholic — in the only proper sense of the term — its materials having been derived, without partiality, from almost all the Churches, and al- most all the Centuries. To render it more distinctly evangelical, the translator has converted into Latin a considerable proportion of our best English hymns, without any wider departure, he trusts, from that standard of Latinity, to which they are conformed, than is usual in similar compositions — a standard of which some expla- nation and defence is given, in a few paragraphs immediately after the index following these prefaces. For several years, having had much to do with what may be described, in scriptural words, as 'the outward business of the PREFACE. house of God,' in connection with the extensive Foreign Missions of the United Presbyterian Synod, he has found it a congenial task to devote certain 'odds and ends of time' to devotional poetry, including some of those treasures of Latin sacred song which the Christian Church possessed long before the existence of a single pre-eminent original hymn in the English language. The writer may suggest that his little work is throughout, as he believes, fitted to serve the purpose of devotional reading, though some portions of it be unsuited and undesigned for acts of worship. The Rev. Dr Ray Palmer of New York, in a letter to the translator, has most justly remarked : ' For reading, not less than for singing, hymns should frequently be used ; and what- ever fixes attention on them must help to extend their usefulness.' Hymns of the higher order are the product, as they form in no limited degree the expression, and, indeed, in subordination to the Psalms, the aliment of earnest Christian life ; and hence, 'times of refreshing,' in the history of the Church, have conspicu- ously been times of fresh accessions to her fittest materials for sacred song. In every respect, therefore, whether viewed as historical monuments, as developments of spiritual life and of Christian belief, or as vehicles of devotion, those songs, which express the common mind and heart of all God's people, are to be hailed as harbingers of better times. Special thanks are due to friends whose services in the form of valuable suggestions, the translator cannot adequately acknow- ledge in this preface. He desires, at least, here to record their names— The Rev. Dr R. J. Bryce, Belfast; Dr A. Hamilton Bryce, Edinburgh ; The Rev. Dr George Jeffrey, Glasgow ; The Rev. Dr William Lindsay Alexander, Edinburgh ; and the Rev. Professor John Cairns, D.D., Berwick-upon-Tweed. H. M. M. Edinburgh, 9 Doune Terrace, utk December 1875. PREFATORY NOTE TO SEPARATE GREEK- LATIN AND GREEK TEXTS. THE issue, by themselves, apart from the English renderings of these ' Songs of the Christian Creed and Life, selected from Eighteen Centuries,' needs little explanation or apology. The Latin text has been carefully revised by the Compiler ; and not a few corrections of a minor kind have been made upon his Latin translations, of some of the best known, and most highly appre- ciated of our English Hymns. The first lines and the authors of these are indicated in a future page. The present reprint embraces the 'Notes Biographical and Critical' prefixed to the former edition, though it excludes the Translator's English renderings ; of which, the favourable recep- tion by the press, and by literary judges, moving in various circles widely apart from one another, have been more highly encouraging than he had ventured to anticipate. If opportunity should offer he may, after due time, submit to the public his English transla- tions, possibly without those originals, and Latin versions, which are herewith issued by themselves. H. M. M. Edinburgh, 9 Doune Terrace, November 1876. PREFACE TO ENGLISH VERSIONS OF SONGS OF THE CHRISTIAN CREED AND LIFE. A YEAR ago the Latin and Greek texts of these Christian Hymns were published by themselves. Twelve months earlier the original volume, comprising the Latin and Greek versions as well as the English, was published in its complete form, the originals and the translations being in each case printed on alternate pages, and thus in immediate juxtaposition. The volume was intended, within certain limits, to represent eighteen centuries, and its mate- rials were derived indiscriminately from all the churches, and from all christian times, in so far as these materials supplied selections truly catholic, in the highest and truest meaning of that term. It thus became necessary to include specimens of English hymns belonging to the two centuries which embraced the lives of Isaac Watts and John Keble ; and, accordingly, to preserve the bilingual method of the book, twenty-eight hymns, representing the last two hundred years, were turned into that form of mediaeval Latin verse, which, with all its non-classical attributes, nevertheless with its flexibility and power of dense expression, enshrines the largest body of ancient hymns — good, bad, and indifferent — existing in any one language. PREFACE TO ENGLISH VERSIONS. The treasures of Greek hymnology have never been laid open to English readers. The late Dr Neal, the most laborious explorer in the field of Latin sacred song, whom this country has produced, has done more than all others put together, though even he has done but little, to acquaint English readers with specimens of christian poetry, which lie hidden amidst no small amount of rubbish in the offices of the Greek Church. His own exquisite hymn — 'Art thou weary, art thou languid f — of which he must have got the starting thought, we should suppose, somewhere in the 'Oktojtjxoq, though he does not tell us where, is to all intents and purposes an original hymn of his own, and ought never to have been put among his 'translations' from the Greek, as he himself too gradually and too tardily came to confess. It was natural for those who felt the sweet and touching pathos of a hymn, so modern in its complexion, to desire a sight of the Greek original, which we are bold to aver no man has ever seen. Though, on Dr Neale's authority, the hymn was assigned to Stephen the Sabaite, and to the eighth century, yet in our collection it was treated as an original English hymn, and translated into Latin. (See No. 81 of Latin and Greek texts.) There are some rich veins of devout poetry of a high class imbedded here and there in the enormous strata of non-metrical offices of the Greek Church, as any one may quickly discover by glancing through the 'Oktu>7]x o Q] an d we naturally hope that the reviving interest in Greek sacred poetry of this class (differing so much from the specimens given in Daniel's Thesaurus) will, in a few years, bring it into light. Surely some qualified translator will carry out the work which Dr Neale has inaugurated in his little volume, and will exhume some gems of christian song, which, so far as English readers are concerned, have for centuries been buried amidst a mass of prolix liturgical material. Cardinal Pitra, libra- rian of the Holy See, is understood to be better acquainted than PREFACE TO ENGLISH VERSIONS. any other man with the treasures of Greek hymnology. His volumes, when fully published, will justify, we doubt not, his repu- tation for fidelity and industry, as well as for incomparable oppor- tunity of research, into this department. But it is sadly disap- pointing to find him devoting the greater part of 200 quarto pages in a recent work, exhibiting vast acquaintance with the subject, to prove a coincidence of view between the Eastern and the Western Churches, in the worship they both render to St Peter and the rest of the Apostles. It will be observed by those who examine this reprint, and who care to compare it with the former edition, that some correc- tions of a minor kind have been made, and that two additional English versions have been attempted, from naked and literal renderings of Spanish and Bohemian sources with the originals, of which the Translator professes no acquaintance. To these his attention was attracted, when visiting some portions of the Re- formed Churches of Spain and Bohemia. Like not a few similar and even superior fragments of christian song, at present in actual use among foreign and missionary churches, scattered abroad, though known to few in this country, they seem to merit translation into the English language. It is almost superfluous to add, that a modified duplicate of the first edition of these ' Songs of the Christian Creed and Life,' may be had by simply adding to this issue of the English version, the edition of the Latin and Greek texts sent forth a year ago. The publisher has accordingly provided some copies of the doulle reprint, thus reproducing the original volume, changed, indeed, so far, in form and structure, but identical in substance with the earlier publication. Edinburgh, 9 Doune Terrace, December 1877. NOTE. *HP HE present re-issue, in one volume, of the originals and transla- tions of these Christian Songs or Hymns, differs from what has already been submitted to the public, mainly in arrangement. The original number of separate songs was one hundred and one. The number now consists of one hundred and four. The three added to the original number comprise two English translations, one from the Spanish, another from the Bohemian, and a third from the hand of Dr Mason Neal, which he at last practically admitted to be a composition of his own, though he gave it first forth as a translation from the Greek of Stephen. We refer to the hymn, 'Art thou weary, art thou languid ?' — which every competent judge will admit to be a contribution to hymnology superior to any translated hymn he has given to the Christian Church. The present Translator attaches less practical value to his translations into Latin, than even to his renderings of the songs belonging to the earlier centuries, into our mother tongue. Yet a second revision of the Latin renderings of English hymns has revealed obvious blemishes, which are noted in italics in the following lines, in which the words italicised are to be preferred as superseding the corresponding words printed in the text. The figures indicate the number of the hymn, of the stanza, and of the line. Stanza. English — The cross He bore is life and health. Hastam latere effltientes. In exequiis Defunctomm. Credo carnis resurrectionem. Ipse de genis tergebit. Tota die nitente. Diligis Me ? Atquiluum hocce donum. Tibi sonti condonanti. Regna noctis relictura. Cane, sursum volatura I Hymn. 44 58 62 Stanza. 6.1 1.4 Titles 63 7-3 70 72 3-4 Title 74 i-4 104 5-2 104 8-3 104 8-4 NOTE. We may notice that, with one exception, which we know to have been ' inspired] all the criticisms have been fair, and, indeed, much more favourable than the Translator had felt reason to expect. In one instance a kindly London critic has found, per- haps just fault, with the Translator's somewhat fond wish to claim Sedulius Scotus as a Scotchman (in which view he would be entitled to the earliest place in the roll of Scottish poets), and we frankly admit that there is no historical certainty for such an inference. The observations of our critic on the rival claim upon Sedulius as an Irishman, are invalidated only by their tone of certainty. A 'Scotus' might have dwelt in the north-east of Ireland, or, in the north-west of Scotland, anywhere from Argyle to Galloway ; or, he might have passed between the one island and the other anytime within a century before the birth, or after the death of Sedulius ; there having been so-called Scoti on both sides of the narrow channel, who had gradually 'oozed' out of Ireland, through those early centuries ; though there is no trace then, or at any later time, of any outstanding immigration into Scot-land, of those whose name was stamped arbitrarily upon our country, hundreds of years after they had begun to possess it, though in a very limited degree. Edinburgh, December %5th, 1878. ENGLISH VERSIONS OF SONGS OF THE CHRISTIAN CREED AND LIFE SELECTED FROM EIGHTEEN CENTURIES AUTHORS AND THEIR CENTURIES. CENTURIES Second, Morning Hymn, Anon., 5 » Evening Hymn, Anon., Third, Clement of Alexandria, d. Fourth, Hilary, d. 369, 11 Ambrose, b. 340, d. 397, » Augustine, b. 354, d. 430, HYMN I 2 220, . . 90 . 94 ( 4, 49, 89, 95, 96, ( 98, IOO . 65, 66, 92 Gregory ofNaz., £. 330, d. 389 or 390, 13, 87, 88 26, 27, 28, 29, Fifth, Prudentius, b. 348, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, 30, 3i, 39, 40, 62, 84, 85, 86, 101 • 25 36,37, 41, 51 . 10 Sedulius, fl. 430, Fortunatus, b. 530, d. 609, Evening Hymn, Anon., Advent Hymn, Anon., . . . .22 Primitive Witnesses, Anon., quoted by Bede, 57 Stephen the Saba'ite, 725-794, ... 81 Charlemagne crowned by Leo III., a.d. 800, 54 Hartmann of St Gall, d. 924, ... 24 Robert II. of France, succeeded 997, . 55 Damiani, b. 1002, d. 1072 [see Anselm), . 83 The Redeemer's Resurrection, Anon., . 46 Anselm, b. 1053, d. 1 109 {see Augustine), . 83 Hildebert, b. 1057, d. 1 134, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 Bernard, b. 1091, d. 1153, ... 50 ,, Adam of St Victor, d. 1192, ... 48 ,, Emmanuel the Hope of Israel, A non., . 18 Thirteenth, Thomas of Celano, 53 Fourteenth, Thomas A. Kempis, 1 380- 147 1, . . 64 ,, Advent Hymn, Anon., 35 Fifteenth, Our Lord's Passion, Anon., 14th or 15th, 75 ,, Mauburn, 1460- 1502, .... 20 A UTHORS AND THEIR CENTURIES. centuries Fifteenth, hymns Flaminius, 1498- 1550, ,, Advent Hymn, Anon., . ,, Advent Hymn, Anon., . Sixteenth. Xavier, 1506- 1552, ,, Christ's Love in Dying, . ,, Buchanan, 1506- 1582, ,, Easter Morning Hymn, Anon., ,, Easter Hymn, Anon., „ Nicholas Hermann, 1 or ui tig hymn. X Basil, Vol. iii. p. 72, B. (Parisiis 1730). Chrysostom, Homily 69 on Matth. Gregory Naz. (No. 13 infra, lines 40-44). V OF SONG. } Th I . . means j . ' Praise 2 being tad word in any g. The devout pro- . ihrough a ring men tc This melodious Thirteen t m their psalm- . g, the gilded swat . rver- g - - .. :he song of seems! inro the m:. X r : the 'Te Dec _r has been, and : t can be : ar by . _ . nor Hilary, but probably (about the year 535) . ' . me for the g and the and 2 action), on . . . tails. (4) 7. t< God on hig :stolic Cor_- - : ~ .3 by ; dom : ; I in the daily morning service of the Greek ~ ;h, and in 1 Angik . . ' ; the follow- ing : : thai the 1 :: to Telesphorus, Bishop 2) that ] ".:ymn to v t Ltu:. X TIL _- - \'i this par- I h mnlred years, :; - XOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AXD CRITICAL. in jeeringly refers, as the ' ode with many names/* On the whole, we have little hesitation in referring this hymn to the second century. ; ) Once moi 2 is unquestionably very ancient. It received at a - time, a name implying that it was sung at the kindling of the evening church light-. - gh antiquity passage of Basil, where he is handling the doctrine of the Holy Spir long ago settled and accepted by the Church, and he quotes, as an an autlwrity, the words which constitute the kernel of this hymn. In a sen- tence in which he . an old hymn of Athenogenes (A.D. 196), and refers also to the author of this evening hymn, he adds, though he cannot that authors name : ' At all events the people gave forth this ancient or formula of praise/ 'We -ing praise t: the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit of God.' Our conclusion is, that this hymn, v was viewed as ancient, and whose authors name was untraceable in Basil st have belonged to the third century at the very latest, but more probably to the second, and poss: ///. NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL ANL CRITICAL. Adam of St Victor flourished in the twelfth century. He was a monk of the order of St Victor, a religious house successively in the suburbs and in the city of Paris. His known sacred pieces, including some compositions of a high order, now number, after some recent discoveries, abou hundred. Archbishop Trench regards .-.lam as the 'most fertile' and 'the greatest of the Latin Irymnologis:- E 1 Qdtfle Ages. 1 In one hymn * ^ee Bingham. v.t supra, xiv. 2. 2. The many name; art r : z :'r.:ei : u: "zy Eir.r- ham nor by Smith, whom he quotes. We submit whether the atheistic writer may z. : I very probably have had his eye upon the following, as the 'many names,' Y^ioioc* BaTiXevc. Exovpavtoc, ITar/'/o. TL:n-: ■;.■:<-<•.>,■. ifovoycyjfc, lnaovg : X . — _. Urnua. 6 'Auvbc. t i-fivoe roi- \v\vikov. t It is remarkable that the editors of that portion of Bingham x ■ 5 Jo not quote :z-z:r::z. :" :r.e ;. ; •. regies : A:"zrz: zer.es. :':.: ugz. .: szezia/y zr:ves Ba» to be speaking of very old authorities, and tins in the year 354. C XOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. of this exquisite writer, given in our collection (No. 48), a thought common to several of the Christian poets (see Nos. 47 and 51) is wrought out with great skill and beauty. The Latin tongue, in the hands of Adam, is an instrument of marvellous flexibility, such indeed, that, especially in his re- condite symbolisms, much of the beauty must evaporate in a translation. This difficulty no translator could have encountered more successfully than Dr Neale, and yet his endeavour can scarcely be counted a success. Augustine, had he attempted rhyme, might have anticipated Adam, for Augustine possessed an acuteness and mastery over words which has never been surpassed ; or Hildebert, who knew every artifice of language, might have shown the Victorine the way to his most mystic analogies ; but a translator gifted even like these fathers, would probably fail to express all Adam of St Victor's subtleties in flowing English verse.* Ambrose, b. A. D. 340, d. 397. See Nos. 4, 49, 89, 95, 96, 98, 99, 100. He was Bishop of Milan, having attained his high position by the force and ele- vation of his character ; qualities which he had occasion to bring into action in dealing, as a bishop, with men both small and great. Of a considerable number of hymns ascribed to him, there are about twelve which may with adequate certainty be counted as his own. These are all composed in iambic metre, without rhyme, which was a later development. He fol- lowed the example of Hilary in choosing this easy and melodious measure, which has been largely used by hymn-writers in all succeeding centuries. No hymns have been in wider use than those of Ambrose both before and since the Reformation ; and they have helped to suggest to hymn-writers during the last fourteen centuries, by their severely grave and simple dic- tion, that a hymn, like a Hebrew psalm, though giving opportunity to the loftiest forms of human thought, is yet, ' when unadorned adorned the most. ' * Though it is no part of our plan to give special notices of any authors, except those whose verses we translate, it were ungrateful to name the late Dr Neale, without a very cordial acknowledgment, that Latin Hymnology owes him, as an explorer and editor, an immense debt of gratitude. His claim as a translator merits the warmest recognition of all lovers of hymns ; his exquisite renderings of Stephen (No. 81), and of Bernard of Clugny, being of themselves an accession to the very best treasures of sacred song in the English language. NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. In the hymns of this old father, the friend and spiritual guide of Augustine, there is a homely vigour of conception and expression, in beautiful keeping with what was heroic and commanding in his character. Anselm. b. a.d. 1033, d. 1109. He was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, though not an Englishman, having been born in Piedmont, and having passed through several grades as a monk in Normandy. He was a man of deep philosophical acumen, and a profound divine. He possessed great strength of purpose, which he displayed as an 'Ultramon- tanisf in church politics. He was, nevertheless, a faithful minister, an able theologian, and a Christian deeply devout ; though, it is painful to add, that, under the influence of a false tradition, which he did nothing to neutralize, he lived and died an inveterate worshipper of saints and angels. (See Xo. 83 ; also notes on Augustine and Damiani. ) Augustinus Aurelius, b. a.d. 354, d. 430. The celebrated Bishop of Hippo has probably influenced human thought, on the most important of all subjects, more than any uninspired man. He makes some touching allusions to the hymns of Ambrose ; but with the exception of a lorfg piece of iambic versification, intended for popular use, against the Donatists (vol. IX. pp. 40-52), he produced nothing, known to us, in the form of Christian song. The beautiful poem of Damiani, on" the Joys of Heaven, ::een ascribed to him, as has also the spirited verses denominated 'Augustine's Antidote to the Tyranny of Sin,' Xo. 83. See Daniel, vol. II. p. 37S. The explanation of these mistakes is simple. A fame like that of Augustine attracted to itself the more pointed utterances of other minds ; when these were copied, as they often were, without their authors' names. The editors of the Paris Benedictine Reprint of Augustine (E. Congregatione S. Mauri), specify (vol. VI, p. 11) a whole series of authors, whose treatises have been incorporated with the works of this great father. We have observed several prayers of singular excellence occurring in the 'Preces Privata?,' put forth by authority in the reign of Elizabeth, which were then ascribed to Augustine. In the Parker Society's edition, the 'per Augustinum' is amplified by these words : ' aut per hominem versatum in voluminibus NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. Augustini.' This alter-homo is, in many cases, Anselm. Probably the text of the Antidote (No. 83) was found by Damiani in a passage of Anselm, erroneously ascribed to Augustine. The passage is the following (Augus- tini opera, VI. p. 1380; and Anselmi, Parisiis, vol. I. p. 296 : 'Peccatum in se habet foeditatem suam ; in se trahit seternam infelicitatem. Melius est eligere tormentum, quod per se foeditatem non attrahit, quam peccatum quod sua cum foeditate, dolores asternas jungit.' It may be objected to Damiani's authorship of the more exquisite form of this thought, that he belonged to an earlier time of the eleventh century than Anselm ; yet they were contemporary for more than half of their lives. The passages of prose ascribed to Augustine, Nos. 65, 66, and 92, which we have attempted to versify, are, like many others in his Confessions, Soliloquies and Medi- tations, fit to be converted into hymns. St Bernard of Clairvaux (distinguished from his contemporary Bernard of Clugny), b. a.d. 1091, d. 1153. His direct authority was limited to the order of monks he founded, but his influence probably extended more widely than that of any man of his era. That influence, which wielded mobs, and controlled kings and popes, was based not merely on his commanding eloquence and intellectual power, but on the irresistible force of his earnest- ness and spiritual character. His writings will continue to enrich and edify those who read them till the end of time. The missionary hymn (No. 50) is selected, and partially transposed, from a long and evidently extemporaneous effusion of about fifty stanzas, the thought of which has flowed from Bernard's heart in a spontaneous and uninterrupted stream, without plan or progress, and has left this rich deposit, from which translators have long been quarrying, and hewing ; transposing the materials to suit their purpose. We are aware that this poem is held by some, but we think on insufficient grounds, to have been mistakenly ascribed to Bernard. The germs of a multitude of hymns are scattered abundantly through his varied and voluminous prose ; and his meditations, letters, and even expo- sitions, especially his commentary on the Song of Songs, irresistibly remind us of the heavenly Samuel Rutherford, whose devotional prose, like that of Bernard, needs sometimes little change to exalt it into poetry. NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. Bonar, Horatius, D.D., Edinburgh. A living writer of hymns which have been widely accepted by almost all churches which use the English language in their worship. Our collection contains two (Nos. 70 and 76) which we have endeavoured to render into the older tongue. Among surviving British hymn-composers he is facile princeps. Boyd, Robert, b. a.d. 1578, d. 1627. His name it is customary to connect with the property of his family (Robertus Bodius a Trochoregia), was conspicuously an academical man. He held the office of Principal, first of the Glasgow, and secondly of the Edinburgh University. Being a man of much decision, it will not be thought strange, since the forty-nine years of his life embraced portions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, that he should have been subjected to some of the troubles of his time. He occupied, for some years, the position of Theological Professor at Saumur, in France, where he produced his ponderous commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians. To this work a well-known theologian, Andrew Rivet (from whose Prolegomena to the commentary we derive most of the facts here recorded) gives the most admiring testimony, endorsing its orthodoxy and praising its eloquence. Boyd being a scion of a distinguished family (the Regent of that name having been one of his ancestors), was recom- mended to James VI. ; and the king recalled him from his exile to be Principal of Glasgow College. Thereafter he discharged the functions of Principal in the corresponding Edinburgh seat of learning, then a recently established university. This office he held for a very brief time. The influence of the prelatic party was directed against him, and to avoid humiliation, to which a man of lower tone and feebler convictions would have stooped, he sought retirement in his native Trochrig, an estate in the county of Ayr, where he soon afterwards died. Boyd's Christian poem, from which a selection of stanzas has been given (in No. 42), is designated ' Ad Christum Servatorem Hecatombe.' It consists of a hundred Sapphic and Adonic stanzas, a rhythm ill-adapted to a hymn. It seems to have been often printed. We have quoted our selection from Lauder's edition of Arthur Johnston's Latin Psalms, in the preface to which the editor remarks : ' Atque id carmen pueris in scholis, olim, idque meritissimo NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. perlegi solitum, accepimus.' The merit of this hymn selected from the Hecatombe, we regard as justifying the preceding notice of its author, of whom Wodrow has left a somewhat detailed biography. See M'Crie's Life of Melville, vol. II. p. 310. Buchanan, George {b. at Killearn, A.D. 1 506, d. 1 582), was the most dis- tinguished Scotchman of the sixteenth century. Having adopted Reforma- tion principles, and pungently satirized the Franciscans, he incurred the resentment of Cardinal Beaton ; and though he had secured the confidence of James V., was compelled to flee Scotland for his life. He accordingly went to France in 1539, where he had repeatedly resided as a student in his earlier days, and where (in Bordeaux) he became a teacher of the Latin language, in which no man of his time was more accomplished. He after- wards became a professor in the University of Coimbra, in Portugal, and was called thence to various tutorships, which he exercised in France and Italy. In 1556 he published the first specimens of his Latin translations of the Psalms. He calls his version ' Paraphrasis. ' It is executed in a manner which pays less homage to the grand directness and simplicity of the Hebrew style, than to the rules of Latin diction and prosody, his familiarity with which was second only to that of Horace and Catullus. He seems to have wanted that spiritual instinct which ruled Ambrose, and thoroughly guided later composers of Latin hymns, to break those classical fetters which, as Archbishop Trench has demonstrated, would have -repressed the develop- ment of Christian Latin poetry. The incongruity between the Horatian metres and the Hebrew psalmody, is palpable to those who are familiar at once with Buchanan's Paraphrase, and with the best specimens of Latin hymns. His Latinity, in its idiomatic purity, especially that of his history, is inferior only to the classical models. Were this the place to refer to him specially as a politician, a historian, or a jurist, we might add not a little to his praise ; and would have special satisfaction in dwelling on the manliness of his bearing, in an age of adulation, towards his quondam pupil James VI., when they had exchanged places ; the preceptor having become the subject, and the pupil the king. Our chief object is to draw attention to Buchanan's NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. only original Hymn, Xo. 97 in this collection, composed in that very measure, which seems to have been first effectively consecrated by Hilary and Ambrose to Christian hymnology; and which, in Buchanan's com- positions is preserved more exactly than in those of these early fathers, in its classical exactitude. Latin writers with whom Buchanan would not have chosen to be classed, who less regarded the letter than the spirit, by making quantity within certain limits, yield to accent, framed for them- selves a prosody much better suited for their purpose than the metres of Horace and Buchanan. Cameron, Rev. William, b. A.D. 1 751, d. 1811. He was a minister of the Church of Scotland, and altered the hymn of Watts (Xo. 63), as he did other hymns, to the form in which they appeared in 1781, in the collection of Scottish ' Translations and Paraphrases. ' Charlemagne (b. A.D. 742, d. 814), like King Robert II. of France, belongs rather to political than literary history ; yet to these potentates is ascribed the authorship of hymns to the Holy Spirit, which have attained the very highest place in Christian poetry. Sufficient reason has not been given for depriving their names of the honour belonging to the author- ship of these two transcendent hymns (Xos. 54 and 55). In the year 809 Charlemagne was present at a Synod, and took part in its action in affirming the doctrine (embodied in hymn Xo. 54, last stanza), that the Spirit proceeds equally from the Father and the Son. This is the one hymn which the compilers of the English prayer-book have retained. It is still used on all specially solemn occasions, as it has been for ten centuries, viz., in the installation of popes, the election or consecration of bishops, the ordination of priests, and the coronation of kings. (Daniel I., 207.) Clement of Alexandria, d. in the year 220. The date of his birth is un- known, but he is understood to have become a teacher of Christianity in that city with which his name is linked, about the year 189. His contribu- tions to Christian literature are those of a vigorous and independent NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. thinker and of an earnest believer. The hymn (No. 90) appended to one of his earliest treatises, called Haicayoyog, is obviously an emanation of the same mind as produced that treatise. It would not, indeed, be difficult to quote a series of passages, in which are used the same names, epithets, or metaphors, as he employs in his hymn. This effusion, though pre- senting serious difficulties to a translator, is interesting, as being the first extant versified Christian hymn, with a fixed authorship, after the comple- tion of the Christian Scriptures. The best authorities seem to be agreed that sacred song in the primitive church must have consisted chiefly of the psalms, many of which, like other Old Testament odes, were suited to alternate or responsive choirs.* The antiphonal form of Clement's hymn, we think, is evident from its internal structure, which, however, has been marred by the traditional punctuation. We cannot, indeed, accept the highly artificial form into which it has been forced by a recent editor, Albertus Thierfelder (Leipsic, 1868), who by suppressions and transpositions, unsupported by manuscript authority, endeavours to make out a perfect metrical equilibrium among the four parts into which he has divided it. That a learned man like Clement should have followed the Greek tragic poets, by introducing choric responses into a Christian hymn ; and that he should have been opposed in doing so in Alexandria, about the close of the second century, can surprise no one acquainted with his writings. (Neander I. 262-265 ; Pressense, Martyrs and Apologists, p. 297.) That a hymn like this of Clement should stand alone, would have been surpris- ing, had we been entirely unacquainted with the reaction against those corrupt maxims and usages, with which the heathen stage was familiar. There prevailed an instinctive jealousy against the introduction of anything resembling the Grecian chorus and its music, into Christian worship ; and this narrowness, as some may deem it, seems not to have been overcome by the abundant use of responsive poetry in the Hebrew Scriptures. A cen- tury before Clement, that is, previous to the death of Trajan, as we learn from his friend and representative Pliny the younger, antiphonal song and * Exod. xv. 20, 21 ; Ps. cxxxv. ; Ps. cxxxvi. See Lowth, Hebrew Poetry, ii. p. 25-32. NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. music had been introduced into Christian assemblies. ' Soliti stato die ante lucem convenire, carmenque Christo quasi Deo dicere secum invicem. (Plinii epistolarum X. 97.) Yet the responsive character of Christian psalmody, to which we find not a few allusions in Augustine (who wrote more than two hundred years after the date of Clement's hymn) seems to have disappeared for a time from the structure of sacred song, mainly, we believe, in consequence of the natural repugnance of Christian mind.-, against the most distant resemblance to the heathen theatre. Cowper, William, b. a.d. 1731, d. 1800. He composed sixty-seven of the Olney Hymns, of which the Rev. John Newton wrote the other two hundred and seventy-three. Mr Newton published the entire collection in 1779. Damiani, Peter, b. a.d. 1002, d, 1072 (see No. 83). He was a Cardinal Bishop, who composed various Christian poems of great beauty and pathos. His association with Hildebrand, with whom he was on terms of close affinity, could scarcely but open his eyes, to the sight of personal ambition and thirst for worldly power, under the guise of zeal for the Church. It is creditable to Damiani, that while that haughty ecclesiastic was only climbing the steps to St Peter's Chair, he himself had turned away from the scramble for power, and resigned his Cardinalate, in order to spend his last years in private devotion. Hildebrand ascended the papal throne in the year 1073, under the title of Pope Gregory VII. In the preceding year Damiani died, and verified his own words : ' Jam quod magnum credebatur, nil fuisse cernitur. ' We have elsewhere expressed an opinion, that this poet expanded a thought of Anselm, into the spirited effusion, Hymn 83. The life of this amiable Chris- tian man is written by Mabillon, in his Acta Sanctorum, under the date of 22d February (a.d. 1072) — a day accorded to him, as a canonized saint. In the Roman Breviary is recorded a brief outline of his character. His life was evidently that of a devout ascetic, who in his disinterested- ness and devotion, rose much above the common level of ecclesiastics in his day. He was better able to do service to literature, than to administer the matters of the Church, in a time of ambitious reconstruction. Yet he was commissioned to manage certain difficult affairs not likely to be in- D NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. trusted to a man of inferior capacity. Mabillon makes no allusion to any of his verses except those intended by him for his epitaph. He seems to record his approval of the course which Damiani desired to take, and which others can follow, who, unlike him, have no Cardinal's office nor other power or honour to lay down. ' Quam bene providit, qui te, male munde reliquit, Mente prius carni, quam tibi carne mori.' Doddridge, Philip, D.D., /;. A.D. 1702, d. 1 75 1 (No. 19). A theologian and a New Testament expositor, who laboured as a pastor, successively at Kibworth, Market -Harborough, and Northampton. He acted for many years as tutor in a Theological Academy in the last-named place, trained many for the Nonconformist ministry, published a considerable number of works on sacred literature, and composed between three and four hundred hymns, which were not given to the world till about four years after his death. He was a man of susceptible temperament, of great capacity and industry, and of earnest Christian life ; and made no inconsiderable mark within his wide and important sphere, on the Christian intelligence and life of his own and of the following generation. Elliott, Charlotte, b. a.d. 1 789, d. 1 87 1 (Hymn 68). The late Miss Elliott is descended of a Christian family, some members of which for not a few successive generations, have been ministers in the Church of England. The names Henry, and John Venn, have long been venerable in connection with the cause of evangelical religion and Christian missions. Miss Elliott's maternal grandfather was the Rev. Henry Venn, Rector of Yelling, the well-known friend of Lady Huntingdon, and the author of ' The Complete Duty of Man.' Her father was Charles Elliott, Esq., Clapham, whose local and evangelical affinities induced Sir James Stephen to claim him as a member of that so-called ' Clapham sect,' which, in his sparkling account of it, he loads with alternate layers of eulogy and satire. The remoter relation of Sir James himself to that local evangelical group, for it was not even a fraternity, much less a 'sect,' was a privilege which lent to his reviews a portion of their charm. He calls the Rev. E. B. Elliott, author of Hora? NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. Apocalyptica?, ' one of the most eminent members of the sect of the second generation.' To Miss Elliott, this author's sister, belongs the same tinction. Her one hundred and twelve hymns, especially that incompar- able one with which we have enriched our collection, are enough to confer on her name a kind of honour, which no sect, and no critic can either give or take away. Flaminius, M. Antonius, b. 1498, d. 1550, the author of certain pieces of sacred poetry, printed at Paris in 1550, under the title, 'M. Antonii Flaminii, de rebus divinis, carmina ad Margaritam Henrici Gallorum 1 sororem.' From this collection a few good hymns, of which we have chosen one (No. 73), were embodied in the Preces Privatae, collected and approved by royal authority in 1564. An Italian poet of the same name, has left, among the Carmina Illustrium Poetarum Italorum, a number of very grace- ful verses, vieing with those of Horace, partly in style, and partly in Pagan sentiment. It is conceivable that a man could pen the following couplet before, but certainly not after, an honest attempt to write Christian hymns : — ' Saepe Deum supplex clamavi numina, sed non Audierunt nostra numina surda preces.' There were two Flaminii, father and son, both poets, specimens of whose compositions are to be found among the ' Poemata Italorum. ' Some of the father's pieces may have been mistaken for the son's. Fortunatus Venantius Honorius, b. A.D. 530, d. 609 (Xos. 36, 37, 41, 51). He was an Italian, and spent his earlier years in Ravenna, but afterwards lived chiefly in France ; where he became, like Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, and where he died, two hundred and forty years later than Hilar)-, at the age of seventy-nine. His life seems to have been partly divided between travel and verse-making, and partly devoted to the duties of the priesthood. He cannot be said to have been driven from his native country by the incur- sion of the Lombards, but his return was prevented by the unsettled state XOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. of affairs, resulting from this invasion from the north. His own words reveal his deep feeling that he was a stranger and a pilgrim : ' Tristis erro nimis patriis vagor exul ab oris.' He passed nine years on the shores of Brittany, but his later life he spent in Poitiers. There is much true feeling in his poetry, yet the hymns we have selected are favourable specimens. A sad blemish, attaching to a large proportion of early and mediaeval Christian poetry, is saint worship. The three volumes of Latin hymns edited by Mone are thus distributed : the first volume consists of hymns to God ; the second of hymns to saints ; and the third of those to angels. From the charge of this lamentable species of idolatry, Fortunatus cannot be absolved. His earliest peregrina- tion seems to have been a pilgrimage to the grave of Saint Martin, where he and his friend Felix, both labouring under serious eye disease, were miraculously cured, by anointing their eyes with the oil of the lamp placed near that Pontiff's grave. Fortunatus repaid this miracle by celebrating the merits and miracles of Martin in nearly three thousand hexameter lines. Many of his pieces honour the name of Queen Rhadegunda, a woman of saintly fame, whose life Hildebert has written, and to whom Fortunatus owed not indeed his sight, as he did to Martin, but his worldly position and at length his bishopric. At her instance he had borne, as her trusted ambassador, not a few messages to kings and bishops. He survived his patroness only a few years. Gregory of Nazianzus, b. A.D. 330-390 (Nos. 1 3, 84, 85). This volu- minous Christian father has attracted to himself the title of theologian rather than of poet, although the mass of his poetry, as printed in the beautiful Paris edition (begun in 1778, and completed in 1840, a period longer than the author's life), exceed in number thirty thousand verses. Some doubt hangs over the dates of his birth and death. Dr Carl Ullman of Heidelberg, who has written a full biography of this eminent father, specifies certain remarkable dates, relating to his father, who, like the son, was a bishop of the Church of Nazianzus. The elder Gregory was born a.d. 275, baptized 325, ordained 329, and died in 374, at the age of ninety- XOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AXD CRITICAL. nine. The son was born in 330, went to Athens about 349. and left that city about 359, was ordained about 361, and died about 390, — his life having em- braced emphatically troublous times. In conjunction with his father, and with his friend Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, he had a long conflict with the Arians. He became associated in office with his father at Xazianzus, 1: v summoned, at a later time, to the bishopric of Constantinople, as fittest advocate of evangelical truth against the powerful Arian - From this position he was, ere long, driven, by a stormy faction of eccle- siastics, influenced by motives which the noble nature of Gregory spurned. He succumbed to an opposition which he could not respect, and surrendere 1 the bishopric to which he had so lately been promoted. He yielded to the storm with a grim humour, flavoured with contempt, reminding us of his vigorous tone elsewhere (Xos. 87, SS). He invited his enemies to dis him, saying, in the tempest of opposition raised against him, in the v. of Jonah : ' Take me up and cast me into the sea, so shall the sea be calm to you ; for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.' Not a few of his poems are of a plaintive and complaining cast, due partly to that sensitive temperament which was nursed and intensified by the ascetic fallacies which he and his friend Basil did too much to foster. His poetry being mainly the product of his later years, when he had griefs and w: not a few to remember, is tinged with a certain melancholy which - relief in utterance. His father died, as we have seen, in extreme old age. The younger Gregory, on occasion of his father's death, del: a funeral oration in the hearing of the people, his mother being present, her own departure, as soon appeared, being near at hand ; to whom turning, he uttered those memorable words : ' There is only one life ; that is, to live with a constant view to the divine life. There is only one death ; th sin. "When we have learned to think thus, O my mother, then shall we not feel elated on account of life, nor alarm ourselves on account of c. Soon thereafter this mother (Xonna) attended the funeral of her son Caesarius, dressed in white, intimating thereby her persuasion, that the day was rather a nuptial than a funereal occasion. Caesarius had lived in the palace, as the physician of two emperors, first of Constantine, and after- wards of Julian the apostate. He had kept, in this tempting situation, NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. Christian integrity. His mother soon followed him to the assembly of the spirits of the just made perfect. ' I no longer have Basil,' says Gregory, under a sense of loneliness, ' no longer Caesarius, the one my spiritual, the other my natural brother. I may say with David, "My father and my mother have forsaken me ;" the Church is without a shepherd ; good is dis- appearing ; we are journeying in the night; also there is only one escape for me from these evils, and that is death.' This utterance was in keeping with the good man's shrinking temperament, which was in chronic conflict with his heroic sense of duty. This conflict is the secret of whatever was vacillating in the life of Gregory. His mother gave no example of this feebleness. She seems to have possessed the germ of that force, in virtue of which her family have, under God, attained a place in the memory of the Church for the last fifteen centuries, which they will hold for centuries to come. In one page of his history, Neander, speaking of the mothers of Chrysostom, of Theodoret, of Augustine, informs us that the elder Gregory was won to Christ by Nonna his wife, and that by the blessing of God, she accomplished a similar result on behalf of her children. Hartmann was a learned monk of St Gall in Switzerland, a Benedictine establishment, founded by a Scottish missionary in the eighth century. Hartmann seldom went out of the monastery. He devoted himself to its peculiar occupations, and ruled as its Abbot from 921 till 924, when he died. To this monk is ascribed the little rhyming hymn No. 24 ; a piece to which he was evidently more than equal. He seems to have antici- pated Notker, to whom Dr Neale mainly attributes the introduction of those hymns termed sequences. Of this kind of spiritual songs, Hartmann seems to have composed, at least, a few. He was conversant with Greek and Hebrew, and possessed some knowledge of Arabic. These accomplish- ments were scantily diffused among the monasteries of the tenth century ; but St Gall was long and justly celebrated for its learning ; and it is not any stretch of imagination to conceive Hartmann sitting under the shelter of that old Abbey, with his Greek and Hebrew manuscripts before him ; sur- rounded by other learned monks, copying some of those classical treasures, which have enriched that monastery through one half of the Christian era. NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. Heber, Reginald, b. 1783, d. 1S26 (No. 52), the son of an English clergy- man. He was Bishop of Calcutta for the last three years of his life, was a man of much force of character, of high accomplishments, and of unques- tionable genius. Besides other poetical effusions, he has given to the world fifty-seven hymns, some of which, from their elevation of thought and dignity of expression, have taken a permanent place in Christian psalmody. The hymn on Christ's coming to judgment, was one of those he first pub- lished in the Christian Observer, a.d. 181 1. Referring, in his preface, to his first collection, 'intended for the use of his own congregation, ' and speak- ing justly of familiar and ' erotic addresses to Him whom no unclean lips can approach,' he says : ' It is not enough to object to such expressions that they are fanatical — they are positively profane.' — Life, vol. I. p. 371. Hilary, d. a.d. 369. The year of his birth is unknown, but as he was a convert from Paganism, and had a wife and family at the time of his ordina- tion, he probably was born near the beginning of the century. He became Bishop of Poitiers in France, about the year 350. He is entitled to special notice, as the first of extant Latin Hymns (No. 94 in our collection) has, on adequate authority, not indeed unquestioned, been ascribed to him. That beautiful effusion is well entitled to stand in the first rank, for higher than mere chronological reasons. Its priority in time, rests on sufficient evidence, for Hilary entered on his episcopal functions, in Poitiers, about a quarter of a century before Ambrose became bishop, in the more important city of Milan. Among the lost works of Hilary is specified a book of hymns. But besides the morning hymn above referred to, probably not more than other four ascribable to him are extant ; and it is not superfluous to observe, that in most of these, special references are devoutly made to the Holy Spirit. None of the fathers of the Church, and we may add, few of the moderns, have treated the subject of the Trinity theologically, in a manner more original and profound than Hilary. The Arian conflict had made much progress before the tidings of it disturbed the Church at Poitiers. The controversy had developed violent ecclesiastical partisanship and passion, and even political faction — elements alien to the subject, and foreign to the mind of Hilary— before any formulated statement of the question in dispute, NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AXD CRITICAL. een set before him. But his theology, drawn from the two sources ord and the experience of his own Christian life, had prepared him promptly to declare himself on the side of Athanasius. This he did, - ver, with the reservation of one who comprehended the principles of _■ us liberty, which few in any past century have ever understood so ; and so, when the Emperor Constantius arrived in France, in the 555, with the view of recruiting the Arian ranks he found in Hilary one who had his mind made up upon the question ; and who was pre- pared, with manly frankness, to give a reason for the hope that was in him, with meekness, if not with fear. Such was this ancient Latin hymno- t, who has been quoted with respect on the question of the Trinity, by writers on this subject, from Augustine to Domer. Hildebert, b. A.D. 1057, d. 1134. He was Bishop of Mans (Cenomanensis civitatis) probably for twenty-eight years, and was thereafter for nine years Bishop of Tours. Some confusion attaches to these dates. The life of this eminent and devout bishop seems to have been in keeping with the elevation of his sacred poetry. Those who have sketched his life refer to his humility, his devotion, his beneficence, and his intrepidity. The editor of the best edition of his works, referring to the completeness of his character, in the active as well as the contemplative virtues, says, that it combined in one, tha and Mary. Archbishop Trench refers justly to the excessive praise bestowed by Hildebert on his teacher, Berengarius. Yet this tendency in such a man was not the result of weakness, or defective penetration ; but sprang from deep constitutionaL ; veneration and affection. We might cite from his letters to Anselm (who was his senior by many years), and to Bernard of Clairvaux, much his junior, expressions of regard which, proceed- ing from a less manly nature than that of our poet, or addressed to smaller men than the English archbishop or the French monk, would appear downright adulation ; whereas it was the simple utterance of esteem and ration, directed to two of the greatest and best men of his time, to whom aid be hard to name a superior, even in an age when great men were not scarce. It is interesting, and not out of place to note, that Hildebert had applied XOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AXD CRITICAL to Anselm * for the perusal of a treatise or. tl 3 pint, which theologian had delivered in the Council of Beri. This . had sent for Hildebert's perusal. Those who appreciate the grand and m. lous poem on the Godhead (Xos. 5-1 1 in our collection) would be in the profound discussion of this subject in Anselm's Monologue, and would not be surprised at Hildebert's appreciation of it ; for the Archbishop's prose, though less skilfully compacted, is c mould with the amazingly precise and impressive verses of our author. Hildebert tha his friend, in terms as hones: as they were grateful ; but which to some may seem extravagant (Epist. 53, 161). ' Et dies laetus, e: vultus solex cum tuo tractatu mihi pariter accesserunt. Susceperam prius benedictionem tuam servus ego, servus tuus : et egit gratias Deo et tibi devotus aflf meus. Humanum quidem fuit subvenire proximo, per compassionis turn ; sed divinum, fidem defen a, per inhabitantem Spiritum sanctum. Utrumque autem operatus est unus ac idem Spiritus, volens tibi virtutum exuberare gratiam, quem suae processionis a Eilio defen- sorem reservabat.' He closes his letter in the following manner : — ' Fare- well most holy father ; I know that with desire, my soul desires to see and I would encoimter wind or sea if it were only allowed me I get tha counsel from thee, which I believe is nowhere to be foimd, if no: v This letter was written while Hildebe Cenomans,' that is, before the year 1097. One-third of a century there- after, when he, as the Archbishop of Tours, had opened cortes] with Saint Bernard, who was his junior -four years, and these men had exchanged the stateliest, and yet the m st cordial compli- ments, asking each others prayers, \ Bernard solicits his friend's inn.. I + Epistolx Bernardi. 122. 12:. and 124. Hildebert. referring to Bernard - (like ointment poured forth . says: — ' Being aware of your devotion, I h.v to be admitted to the inner chamber of your fel!; .: I might be with you, in remembrance, when iway from intercourse with mortals, and speak in behalf of mortals, to the King >f Angels ' his ans-.ver. observes: — 'As : re-pec:> myself, I -ee in ; .: I am, bul to be. and '■ ever shame me to become. Nevertheless, whatsoever I am is yours; and if, gifts of God. I ever be anything thy, be it made ove -. most revered and most beloved Father.' E NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. at a critical time, when Innocent II. was in the act of claiming St Peter's Chair, though he had not received the suffrages of Hildebert and of others. He tells the Archbishop that the persecutors of Innocent persecute innocence itself. ' We do not blame your tardiness,' says Bernard, ' that is a sign of gravity, and takes away the appearance of your acting lightly. But do not carry this delay too far. I confess to feeling shame, that the old Serpent, by a new stretch of audacity, leaving senseless women, should seem to try the strength of your heart, and should attempt to shake such a pillar of the Church. But we are confident, that though the pillar be shaken it will not be cast down, since the friend of the Bridegroom standeth, and rejoiceth because of the Bridegroom's voice, a voice of joy and safety, a voice of unity and peace? Kelly, Thomas (o. 1 769, d. 1855), composed 767 hymns, few of which are equal in merit to the one we have selected (No. 44). He was ordained to the ministry, in the Episcopal Church, but separated himself from that communion. Zeble, John, b. 1 792, d. 1 866, an eminent clergyman of the Church of England, who has produced a large amount of devout and soothing Chris- tian poetry, full of exquisite touches, and marvellously free from errors in taste. He specifies ' the soothing tendency of the Prayer-Book ' as that feature which, in his Christian Year, it was his chief purpose to exhibit. This design accounts at once for one chief excellence, and also for one main defect of ' the Christian Year. ' From a poet of such elaborate finish and unfailing beauty, it were perhaps too much to expect outbursts of vigour' and fire ; yet, for such qualities, most readers would gladly exchange, sometimes at least, the monotony of unimpeachable smoothness and grace. His Evening Hymn (No. 93), even in its usual truncated form, is one of the most perfect in the English language ; yet it is not superfluous to note, that its finest stanza bears a remarkable resemblance to the following words in the well known hymn to the Guardian Angel : — ' Quo sine nolim mori Nee ausim vivere.' iVOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AXD CRITICAL. Kirke-White, Henry, b. 1 785, d. 1806. A young poet, a laborious student, and a devout Christian, who died in the midst of an eager struggle for scholarly pre-eminence, which he would, have reached had his life been spared but for a little longer. His sun went down while it was yet day, for he died before completing his twenty-second year. Of the few hymns he wrote no one is equal to the fragment, which, as retouched by Fanny Fuller Maitland (Xo. 82), appears in many collections. This lady's hymns appeared in 1827, in a volume with the title : ' Hymns" for Private De- votion, Selected and Original.' Mauburn, John, b. 1460, d. 1502. The most notable circumstance in this man's life seems to be, that he composed, besides other spiritual songs, a poem of thirteen stanzas, of which the three given in No. 20 of our collec- tion, are of conspicuous merit, and have been widely accepted as a Chris- tian hymn. It seems to have been much more extensively used among Protestants than Roman Catholics, though its author was a monk, who spent the last part of his short life as Abbot of Livry, a village about ten miles from Paris. The hymn is one which demands, as it deserves, a musical rendering suited to the progress of its thought, beginning with the tender, and closing with the triumphant. Neale, John Mason, D.D., b. 1818, d. 1868. (No. 81). See szipra, note on Adam of St Victor. Neumark, George, b. 1 62 1, d. 1 68 1 ; Nicholas Heermann, d. 1 56 1. Frag- ments of hymns by these two writers have been woven into a separate song, fit to be sung in the certain hope of a glorious resurrection. Neumark held the position of librarian at the Court of Weimar. Heermann was a schoolmaster at Touchimsthall in Bohemia. He published, two years before his death, a collection of hymns and tunes. We give, in the words of Mr Sedgwick, Sun Street, London, what we have learned of this compilation in its English form (No. 61 in our collection) from which we have translated it into rhymed Latin : ' Nicholas Heermann's hymn, " Wenn mein stuncllein vorhauden ist," has been the dying song of many A T OTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. pious Christians, of princes, and others ; and it is also said to have been a favourite hymn of the late deeply lamented Prince Consort. Two stanzas of it (4, 5) were sung, in an English translation (" I shall not in the grave remain"), by Edgar Alfred Bowring, at his funeral in St George's Chapel, Windsor, on the 23d of December 1861.' The fragment of Heermann, with the concluding chorale from Neumark, constitute a unique and beautiful utterance of that blessed hope which conquers death. Newman, John Henry, D.D., b. in London, 1801 (No. 80), a living author who probably did more than any other, not excepting Keble or Pusey, in originating the Oxford movement embodied in ' Tracts for the Times. ' The offence occasioned by these Tracts culminated when number ninety of the series made its appearance ; and when Mr Newman, its author, was censured by the University authorities, as breaking down the line of Pro- testant defence, which separates the Anglican communion from the Church of Rome. On his making the obvious discovery that, with the views he held, his position would be more logically and morally tenable in the Romish Church, he left the Church of England and entered into the fellowship of Rome. This step has ever been viewed as a calamity by the party which he abandoned ; inasmuch as it contained the verdict against Anglo -Catho- licism, of a judge surpassed by none in logical subtilty, in moral honesty, and in knowledge of the case. Dr Newman is thoroughly acquainted with the merits and demerits of the Latin hymns. No better selection than his own, from Church hymns, if judged by his standard as a Roman Catholic, could be made. His earlier labours as an editor appeared before those of Daniel, who might have enriched his own collection, by introducing some hymns from Newman's. This, however, would have involved what Daniel did not design, the introduction of hymns later than the fifteenth century. As an author and translator, Newman has done notable service to English hymnology ; and in partial proof of this, we specify his beautiful translation of the greatly transmuted and much improved hymn of Ambrose, as given in the Paris Breviary — 'Jam lucis orto sidere (see Nos. 95 and 98) ;' and his still more exquisite original hymn — 'Lead, Kindly Light,' composed at Palermo, while he was yet doubtfully on the Protestant side. NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. Newton, John, b. 1725, d. 1S07 (No. 16). He was ultimately Rector of St Mary's, Woolnoth, London ; but before this, and after his great change, he was Curate of Olney, where he became the friend and counsellor of William Cowper, whose timid steps often carried him through his own garden, contiguous to that of the parsonage, when he had not courage to go round by the village street, to meet with Mr Newton. Newton's force of thought, and his experienced devotion, were united with Cowper'.-, humble trust in Christ, and poetic fervour, in producing the Olney hymns ; a collection of sacred pieces which we believe the Church of the future will not willingly let die. Palmer, Ray, D.D., b. 1808, a living American hymn-writer, who, within the last few years, has become more favourably known in that character than any other American. His hymn, beginning ' My Faith looks up to Thee, ' takes rank among the twelve or twenty which stand highest in the English language. The Rev. W. Fleming Stevenson mentions, in the singularly accurate biographical index to his 'Hymns for the Church and Home,' that the Syrian Protestants were in the act of singing this hymn in Arabic, when the Druses burst in upon them in the massacre of i860. They had just reached these lines when they were savagely interrupted : 'While life's dark maze I tread, And griefs around me spread, Be Thou my guide ; Bid darkness turn to day, Wipe sorrow's tears away, Nor let me ever stray From Thee aside.' Perronet, Edward, a Wesleyan minister, and afterwards one of Lady Huntingdon's Connection, whose death occurred in 1792, a few months after that of John Wesley. His hymn (No. 15 in our selection), ' All hail the power of Jesus' name,' is one of those in which alterations made on the author's version are improvements. It is often used on occasions of special hope or of unusual solemnity. It was sung, for example, in the act of solemnly constituting the Evangelical Alliance. Prudentius, Aurelius Clemens, b. A. D. 348, was a Spaniard, and a Christian NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. poet, whose poetry was the result of his conversion late in life. The year 424 is named as that of his death ; but this date is no more than a conjecture. It seems that his cordial acceptance of the gospel did not take place till 405. At the age of seventeen he applied himself to the study of rhetoric, and surrendered himself to the art of making the worse appear the better cause. This hackneyed charge against a certain class of legal pleaders we do not throw out at random. Not only does Cicero declare it to be a capital aim of the rhetorical art, to teach how it is possible, by dint of speaking, to make the worse appear the better cause ( ' quemadmodum causa inferior dicendo fieri superior posset'); but Pru- dentius himself, in his penitential introduction to the Cathemerinon, con- fesses to have yielded as a pleader to this sin : ' Mox docuit toga Infectum vitiis falsa loqui, non sine crimine.' His life, previous to his conversion at the age of fifty-seven, was somewhat eventful, for he evidently held twice what may be called Colonial govern- ment appointments : (' Bis legum moderamine Fraenos nobilium reximus urbium ') ; and he was afterwards promoted to a high position in the army. On all his past life he looks back with sorrow, and resolves to devote his age, now when his locks were becoming grey, to the blessed occupation of Christian song : ' Peccatrix anima stultitiam exuat ; Saltern voce Deum concelebret si meritis nequit ; Hymnis continuet dies, Nee nox ulla vacet, quin Dominum canat.' This resolution he made good by inditing, after his middle age had passed, more than ten thousand lines, of which various estimates have been formed, but which no man, with any just feeling of poetry, not to speak of religion, can lightly esteem. Some critics are tempted by the facility of punning on Prudentius. Fortunatus, alluding to the abundant references in his poems to the martyrs, thus plays upon his name — ' Martyribusque piis hsec donaria mittens, Prudens prudenter Prudentius immolat actus.' NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. Cardinal John Bona calls him Prudentius Pindarus Christianus dulcissimus et prudentissimus Christi vates. Taubmann adds another epithet — pruden- tissimus et eruditissimus. Scaliger calls him elegantissimus poeta ; and even Erasmus, with all the weight and caution of his praise, speaks of him as breathing such an air of saintliness and sacred erudition, as to deserve being numbered among the Doctors of the Church. He has unquestionably incurred the criticisms of the mere grammarians, who are apt to borrow one another's strictures ; and yet we find specified in the Delphin edition of his poems, only forty-three instances in which it is alleged he has erred in quantity, to which these grammarians assigned a higher place than Pruden- tius chose to give it. We shall add, in a note, the bold and most just remarks of Archbishop Trench upon this subject :* Robert n., King of France, ascended the throne on the 24th October 997, on the death of his father, better known as Hugh Capet, than by any more kingly name. Capet, who was a vigorous and prudent man, became the founder of a dynasty, and his son Robert became the progenitor of a long succession of French kings, none of whom seem to have equalled him in regard to the higher attributes of character, although several excelled him in capacity to reign. It is worth notice, that Charlemagne, the second monarch after the previous revolution, and Robert the second of this new dynasty, which supplanted the Carlovingian line, have contributed two of the finest hymns to the Holy Spirit, ever composed (Nos. 54 and 55). Archbishop Trench has pronounced King Robert's hymn (No. 55 in our collection) the ' loveliest, ' as the ' Dies irae ' is the ' grandest, ' of all the Latin hymns. This * 'When it is charged against Prudentius, in the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, that "his Latinity is not formed, like that of Juvencus and Victorinus, upon the best ancient models, but is confessedly impure," that is really his praise — namely, that, whether consciously or unconsciously, he did act on the principle that the new life claimed new forms in which to manifest itself, — that he did not shrink from helping forward that great transformation of the Latin language, which it needed to undergo, now that it should be the vehicle of truths which were altogether novel to it. Let any one compare his poems with those of Juvencus or Sedulius, and his vast superiority will be at once manifest — that superiority mainly consisting in this, that he does not attempt, as they did, to pour the new wine into old bottles, but has felt and understood that the new thoughts and feelings which Christianity has brought into the world, must of necessity weave new garments for themselves.'— Sacred Latin Poetry (1864)/. 120. NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL estimate is not likely to be questioned. Robert II., though a lover of peace, had to taste the bitterness of war, and the ' superior pain ' of power. He had formed no high estimate of the value of an earthly crown, for he refused the kingdom of Italy, and the imperial throne of Germany. When, we are tempted to ask, since his day, have the kings of France been found declining kingdoms, or inditing immortal hymns ? It is most pleasing to think of this unworldly monarch, like another psalmist, consecrating his royal home, by inviting the Blessed Spirit as his guest, singing his own simple lines to his own music (for in ' concord of sweet sounds ' he was proficient), and obtaining as he sang, the fulfilment of his own prayer : — ' Flecte quod est rigidum, Fove quod est languidum, Rege quod est devium.' We shall specify here an honour, unique in its kind, which has been put by the Protestant .Church on this hymn of King Robert. It is quoted in the Augustan Confession, composed by Melancthon, and presented to Charles V. in Wittenberg, in the year 1530, by the heads of the Protestant Church, including some of the most illustrious princes of Germany. The section in which the testimony of this hymn, as one long used in the Church, is invoked, relates to ' good works ;' and in the passage referred to, it is contended by the Reformers, that human faculties and powers, without the Holy Ghost, are beset with sinful tendencies, and are too weak to per- form works good in the sight of God. Quare et Christus dixit, 'sine me nihil potestis facere ' et Ecclesia canit : ' Sine tuo Numine, Nihil est in homine, Nihil est innoxium.' * Robertson, William B., D.D., minister of Trinity United Presbyterian Church, Irvine, Ayrshire, ordained in 1843. Dr Robertson has composed several pieces, such as 'the Veiled Bride,' and 'the Child's Angel,' in the exqui- site style of that which appears in our collection (No. 56). He is known to have written other poems of a kindred merit, which he is too reluctant to give to the world. * Sylloge Confessionum : Augustana Confessio 1531 (non 1540). Oxonii 1827 p. 133. iXOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. Scott, Sir Walter, b. at Edinburgh 1 77 1, d. at Abbotsford 1832. His finest hymn (No. 79), for it is not his only one, as the ' Lay of the Last Minstrel' attests, was given in Ivanhoe in 1821. Were we asked to name a half dozen of the most eminent men, whom Scotland has produced, and to whom a seventh cannot yet be added, Sir Walter would stand high on the list. We name them in the order of their times : — John Knox, George Buchanan, Robert Burns, Walter Scott, Thomas Chalmers, and one more, for whom we shall not cease to hope, who still survives in advanced age, after leaving his deep mark on the thought and language of his country ; one whose insight into retribution in human history, cannot but scorn the shallow materialistic scepticism of an age, which he has been teaching to hate shams, and revere righteousness. It is not out of place to say that all these Scottish 'Mighties,' with one exception, or perhaps two, are more or less identified with the literature of hymns. Sedulius, Coelius, the first known Scottish writer, flourished in the first half of the fifth century. It is impossible with certainty to say at what precise time he was born or died. A prevalent and well sustained opinion is, that his life embraced the reign of Theodosius, and hence the year 430 is specified. Others name a. d. 470, as more accurately marking the time when it might be said he ' flourished. ' But that time cannot, we think, be justly assigned to so late a date. Fortunatus names five Christian poets, in the following order (and we add the date when each is understood to have flourished): — Juvencus, a.d. 330; Sedulius, first half of fifth century; Prudentius, converted 405 ; Paulinus, died 458 ; Arator flourished 560 : and Fortunatus seems to name them in the order of their dates, an order which fits precisely the assumption that Sedulius belonged to the first half of the fifth century. The most satisfactory indication of the date of his chief poem is its dedication to Theodosius, whose reign extended from 408 to 450, and this coincides with our conclusion, suggested by the lines of Fortunatus, that Sedulius flourished during the first half of the fifth century. We enter into these particulars, because they seem to fix, within narrow limits, the time when the first known Christian poet, indeed the first known NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. author of Scottish nationality,* lived and wrote. Had he continued in his own country, he should never have been heard of. But by his native force of character, and at the prompting of his teacher, who has been designated Bishop Hildebert, he went forth in quest of learning. He travelled, we are told, in France, in Italy, in Asia, in Greece, and at length acquired splendour (refulsit) as a teacher of Christianity in Rome. He is referred to by not a few writers, such as Isidorus, Sigebertus, and Bede. The last named father (a.d. 672-735), who was a judge of sacred poetry, and who descanted on Latin prosody with the precision, and with much of the nomen- clature of a modern critic, treats Sedulius very much as a prosodic model. His principal poem is a minute, lively, and occasionally picturesque narra- tive of the Scripture miracles, and extends to 1700 hexameters, composed on the Virgilian standard. Probably the best lines he ever wrote, are those we have given in No. 25 of this collection. The age and the fatherland of this Christian poet irresistibly suggest inquiries regarding the introduction of Christianity into Britain ; for we do not recognise the conjecture that his native land was Ireland. The early annals of the Christianity of Scotland, like those of England, are wrapt in mist hopelessly impenetrable ; not, indeed, because it wants professed histo- rians, but because of that facile faith by which, at centuries of distance from the facts, they have turned legend into history. We marvel at the industry with which a man of such sagacity as Archbishop Ussher, has laboured to build up an historical structure out of materials so dubious as those which constitute British Church history in the first three Christian centuries, f We doubt not but Christianity reached both England and Scotland, * Scotland might possibly dispute with England the distinction of being the native land of the amiable heretic Pelagius. t Ussher (a.d. 1580-1656) in his Britannicarum Ecclesiartim Antiquitates after quoting Bede, the highest and most ancient authority he cites, whose history was com- pleted in the year 731, writes down the names of no less than twenty-three authorities, who give a like number of conflicting dates (ranging from the year 137 to 190), to which the acceptance of Christianity by the British king Lucius is assigned. The story is, that Lucius sent a letter to Pope Eleutherus, entreating, as Bede expresses it, that he might be made a Christian (' Christianus efficeretur '). The request was granted, and Ussher gives in full the Pope's letter of reply ! That some reality belongs to this narrative, as point- ing to the introduction and partial spread of Christianity in Britain in the second century, is probable from the hold which the story has taken on the earliest annalists of Britain. XOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. separately and independently, before the end of the second century. But, with Dean Milman,* we believe it had almost entirely disappeared under the hand of persecution, and the barbarous inroads of pagan tribes. In the year 432, about the very time when Sedulius had settled down in Rome, St Patrick, commiserating Ireland, went forth from a Scottish village, to seek the conversion of the Irish people. This generally admitted fact im- plies the presence of Christianity in Scotland ; as does the existence of our Scottish Christian poet Sedulius, and of Hildebert, from whom he re- ceived his early training. This first teacher of Sedulius is named in the early Scottish list of ' Bishops ' ; but it is the merest fancy to count him as aught else than Bishop and Presbyter in the scriptural sense (Acts xx. 17, 20) in which thousands had been so, between his days and those of the Apostles, not a few of these having ministered in and around Rome itself. There is one source of information of a general kind relating to the early spread of Christianity, to which Ussher very cursorily refers, and which we deem of more value than a score of later authorities. Tertullian tells us that, in his time, parts of Britain into which the Romans had not then found access (evidently referring to the north), were subject to the true Messiah. In a passage of singular eloquence, arguing with the unbelieving Jews, he names many nations such as Judah, Babylon, the old kingdom of Nebuchadneser (from India to Ethiopia), the empire of Alexander over Asia, the Germans, ' the Britons, shut tip within the circtut (ambitum) of their ocean,'' the Moors, the Getulians, the Romans : and he adds these words : ' Yet the kingdom and the name of Christ are extending everywhere ; He is believed on everywhere, among all the above-named nations ; every- where is worshipped ; everywhere reigns and is adored.' This passage was written in the second century, and being of the nature of a challenge, con- stituted an appeal to indubitable history. Thomas of Celano, the reputed author of the Dies irae, flourished in the earlier half of the thirteenth century. He died after 1250, though in what precise year seems to be unknown. He was the disciple and biographer of St Francis of Assisi, and is the author of two hymns of a sadly super - " Latin Christianity, Vol. ii. NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. abundant class — we mean those addressed to saints — none of which do we deem worthy of translation. The two to which we refer were composed in honour of Saint Francis, who, with all his errors, as the founder of the Franciscan order, could not have inspired a high-toned man like Thomas of Celano, his most intimate disciple, with the unfeigned respect, amounting to worship, embodied in these two hymns, had he not been eminent in the saintly virtues. Luther has spoken of Francis thus : ' He was, no doubt, an honest and just man. He little thought that such superstition and unbelief should have proceeded out of his life.' There can be no doubt that the author of his first memoir had, in composing it, the just conscious- ness of dealing with a character at once pure and true. The contribution, however, for which Thomas of Celano is famous, is his hymn on the day of judgment. It has so grouped, and so tersely and compactly expressed, certain scriptural images, as to have laid hold, for ages, of the human imagination ; and probably next to divine revelation, has moulded the popular conception of that great and terrible day. The Trochaic stanza, with its double rhyme, though the easiest in Latin, from the wealth of that language in words having a suitable termination, is certainly the most difficult in our own English tongue ; and the Trochaic measure seems an indispensable adjunct to the hymn. The incomparable imitation by Sir Walter Scott, fails only in this particular, and in its being but a fragment. There are three particulars connected with this hymn, on each of which we offer a remark. (i.) The idea of the final judgment is primarily one of revelation ; yet, in this case, the human conscience endorses and attests the utterances of inspiration. Hence the final conflagration is announced, 'Teste David et Sibylla.' The Sibyl has, by mistake, been likened to a ' spaewife 7' Xo two concep- tions stand more widely apart, than that of the weird and beggarly fortune- teller who trades on vulgar curiosity, and that of this majestic creation of the old classical mind, the Sibylline prophetess, who gathered up and embodied in hexameters, amongst other prognostications, the floating idea of a rewarding and avenging Nemesis. It is this grand personification, NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. which, in sympathy with the earliest fathers of the Church, Thomas of Celano calls in, along with David, as a witness of the coming judgment ; and what is this, but a true rendering of Bible poetry, when it invokes human conscience, and bids even 'the sea roar, and the fields rejoice, before the Lord ; for he cometh ; for he cometh to judge the earth.' (2.) There is a reading of the verse : ' Qui Mariam absolvisti,' which we deem preferable, on higher grounds than mere manuscript autho- rity. The line just quoted, turns a baseless conjecture into a personal wrong, against the earlier life of one of the humblest and gentlest of women ; and we accept the other reading as not improbably the true one : 'Peccatricem absolvisti.' (3.) The last four lines are probably the manufacture of a later age, introduced to make the hymn not what it was intended by its author, namely, a prayer of the living, but to make it, at the close, a prayer for the dead. This idea, so foreign to the hymn, we have designedly excluded in our translation. The feebleness of the superadded termination ought not, however, to be misunderstood. It is the hush and the calm, after the thunder has ceased to ' bellow through the deep.' In no other view could this finale be endured. Kempis, Thomas A., i.e., Thomas Hammerken of Kempen, a village in the diocese of Cologne, was born a.d. 1380, and died 1471, at the age of 91. His reputation rests on his well attested (though not unquestioned) author- ship of the 'Imitation of Christ, ' a book more widely circulated than any other, excepting the Bible and the Pilgrim's Progress. Of the undoubted productions of his pen, his spiritual song on the joys of heaven (No. 64 in this collection) is pronounced by competent judges as pre-eminently the best of all his poetry. Toplady, Augustus Montague, b. 1740, d. 1 778. Though a somewhat voluminous writer, who has proved himself an able thinker, on the more difficult points of Calvinistic theology, which he defended with vigour against the Arminian system, Toplady is yet much more widely known as NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. a hymn-writer than in any other character. * Of his hymns, amounting to more than one hundred, a few take the highest rank in the English language. Of these few, Nos. 58, 74, and 91 in our collection, may be safely cited as examples. His resolute defence of the divine sovereignty in all its aspects, has exposed him to the severity, if not antipathy, of certain critics, whose theology, to say the least, has neither been more honestly embraced, nor more successfully defended, than his own. South ey refers to his adoption of 'all the vulgar Puritan calumnies against Charles and Laud,' and states, with seeming animus, the interesting fact, that he was con- verted at the age of sixteen, in an Irish barn, by an illiterate lay preacher. Toplady was an earnest man, warmly loyal to his own convictions. His intensity revealed itself in other forms than theological controversy. It sought an outlet in a volume of poetry, published before he had reached the age of twenty. It expressed itself in action ; for when he discovered that the presentation to his first 'living,' in the Church of England (at Blagdon) had been purchased for him, his conscience could not rest till he had resigned it. The same fervour sparkled in his preaching. It glowed in his hymns; and seems to have connected itself, through excessive and consuming study, with his early death, at the age of thirty-eight. Watts, Isaac, D.D., b. 1 674, d. 1 748. For upwards of a hundred years the hymns of Isaac Watts have been more widely sung than those of any other sacred poet in the English language. Over Great Britain and America, and amongst all sects, in the little churches, and among the scattered rural homes of our colonizing population, who are laying the foundations of great future commonwealths at the ends of the earth, multi- tudes are every day singing the hymns of Isaac Watts ; which, indeed, have become so free of all the world, as to be often unassociated with his name. It is remarkable, however, that this 'father of English hymnody,' who has written so many admirable, some of them transcendent stanzas, should have composed not a few astoundingly void of taste. Little need be said of the life of Dr Watts, which though lengthened to seventy-four years, and though fruitful of literature, not only in sacred verse, but in theology and in philosophical speculation, was yet largely the life of an invalid. NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. Johnson, in his Lives of the Poets, though touched with Isaac's affliction and devotion, yet indulges in his wonted imperious prejudice ; for, not only does he advise his readers to imitate Watts 'in all but his Nonconformity,' but makes the following sweeping remarks, in which he unconsciously breaks his own head, not against the fame of Watts so much, as against the loftiest monument on which the name of poet ever was inscribed-. The ponderous critic had forgotten the Psalter, when he penned these words, pointing them to Watts : ' His devotional poetry is like that ot others, unsatisfactory. The paucity of its topics enforces perpetual repetition, and the sanctity of the matter rejects the ornaments of figurative diction !' Wesley, Charles, b. 1 708, d. 1 788. Charles Wesley excelled his elder brother in the composition of hymns, as far as John excelled him in action and organization. From the year 1738 to 1763, Charles issued nearly a score of volumes of sacred poetry ; and the number of his hymns in all amounted to more than six thousand. Next to Watts, his fervid effusions have minis- tered to the devotion of churches and families in this country and in America. His life was inseparably linked with that of his brother, whom, at the age of twenty-seven, he accompanied to America as a missionary of the Gospel Propagation Society. This position he soon relinquished, and returned to England, where he spent his life as ' the poet of Methodism, ' and as one of its most popular preachers. In his preface to the Wesleyan Methodist Hymn-Book, John Wesley, as its compiler, exacts a kind of loyalty to his own text, which he did not always observe towards that of others. The history of the society of which he was the founder and ruler, furnishes, along with his surpassing zeal, toil, and spiritual success, the excuse for that autocracy to which he rose among his brethren. He lays down a law, the principle of which has been systematically trampled under foot, in reference to hymns, more than to any other kind of literature, for the last fifteen hundred years. That rule is probably, at this moment, more rigorously enforced by public opinion than it ever was in any previous age ; and though unsupported by Wesley's own example, it is expressed by him with a confidence and force fit for one who felt that his word was law. Speaking of ' gentlemen' who might ven- NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. ture to change the hymns in his collection, he says : ' I desire they would not attempt to mend them : for they really are not able. None of them is able, to mend either the sense or the verse. Therefore I must beg of them, one of these two favours, — either to let them stand just as they are, and to take them for better for worse ; or to add the true reading in the margin, or at the bottom of the page, that we may no longer be accountable either for the nonsense or for the doggerel of other men. ' Xavier, Francis, b. 1506, d. 1 552. He was born of a noble family in Spain. He was one of the earliest and most devoted followers of Ignatius Loyola. He became a Jesuit missionary and went to India. In this capacity he passed to Ceylon, Malacca, and Japan ; and died at the age of forty-six, within sight of China, for which he was bound, seeking a fresh field of mis- sionary labour. An estimate of his missionary influence has been formed in a biography of Xavier, by the late Rev. Henry Venn, than whom no one, was better qualified to do justice to the subject. The result of Mr Venn's survey of the life and labours of this earnest and self-sacrificing Romish missionary, amounts to this, — that while it is impossible to explain his life, without a cordial admission of his unselfish, and heroic faith and devotion, yet his subjection to popish doctrine, and to Jesuit discipline, led him to present an utterly distorted Christianity to the heathen ; so that the myriads who were counted as his converts were, with few exceptions, it is to be feared, destitute of the knowledge, the faith, and the life, by which a Christian is distinguished from a pagan. The twin hymns of Xavier (Nos. 77 and 78) in our selection, are not meritorious specimens of Latinity, or of Mediaeval metre, but are interesting on higher grounds. They have been sometimes rendered into English in a tone of exaggerated disinterestedness and self-annihilation, which is not only out of accord with Scripture, but is not in harmony with Xavier himself. The two hymns in question are an effusion, not of his Jesuitism, but of his Christianity. How sad that a system, so oppugnant to the gospel, should derive its very designation from that name ' which is above every name.' *#* It is worth notice that hymn 77 would be much improved if its first stanza were replaced by stanza first of No. 78. PART I. SONGS OF THE CHRISTIAN CREED. SOXGS OF THE CHRISTIAN CREED. THE ANGEL SONG. Morning Hymn. I f*LORY be to God on high, ^ Peace on earth, to men good will ; Thee we bless and glorify, Thank, and praise, and worship still. Thou art clothed in glory great, Homage, Lord, to Thee we bring, Swaying worlds Thou didst create, God and Father, Heavenly King ; And to Thee, God's only Son, Jesus, the Incarnate Word ; And to Thee, O Blessed One, Holy Spirit, God and Lord. Lamb of God, Eternal Son ! Thou that takest sins away, Sins that have the world undone, Pitying hear us when we pray. THE TRINITY. Thou that takest sins away, Sins which have the world undone, Mercy grant us when we pray, Hear us from Thy Father's throne. For Thou art the Lord alone, Holy in Thy works and ways ; Thou art the anointed One, To the Eternal Father's praise. First or Second Century. EVENING HYMN H OLY Jesus ! Blessed Light, Beaming with the likeness bright Of the Father, who on high Reigns immortal in the sky. As we watch the setting sun, Seeing dusky eve begun, Father, Son and Spirit ! we Lift our even-song to Thee. Thou art worthy to receive, Evermore at morn and eve, Hymns of praise ascending high, Voiced and winged with melody. Son of God all praise be Thine, Thou impartest life divine ; Therefore all the world will raise Songs of glory to Thy praise. First or Second Century. JESUS CHRIST. TO THE FATHER. I believe in God the Father. T'HOU needest not our feeble praise; Yet with a Father's love, Delightest when Thy children cry For mercy from above. Let the deep silence of the night, Sing of Thy searchless ways ; Let morn and midday as they shine, Thy brighter mercy praise. Beneath these mighty wonders, Lord ! Our hearts, our tongues, are stilled ; Yet Love wots not to hold her peace, And all her heart is thrilled : Then let her burst into a song ! And claim a Father's love, To hide us in this evil day, And point to realms above. Thither, though flesh and heart are weak, Our souls' desires ascend : Jesus ! O be Thyself our Guide, Who art our Way and End. PARIS BREVIARY. JESUS CHRIST. PRAYER TO JESUS. I believe in Jesus Christ. Morning Hymn. nr HOU image of the Father, bright ! Effulgent glory, Light of light, Radiance divine that shines for aye ; Thy dawn is that of endless day. True Sun ! illume our inner sight ; Pour down Thy Spirit's living light ; Through all our senses, o'er our head, Unsetting Sun ! Thy brightness shed. Father of lights ! on Thee we call ; Father of glory, All in all, Father of grace and power, we pray, Put all our sin and guilt away. Each earnest deed make strong and pure, Bid Satan cease to wound or lure ; Make smooth the path of grief and care ; Our burden give us grace to bear. Control our hearts, and all within; Keep our whole being pure from sin : Let faith with holy fervour toil, Nor know the poison cup of guile. O Christ ! be Thou our bread from heaven ; Let faith athirst for Thee be given ; So let us drink with joy, until Our hearts and souls Thy Spirit fill. GOD THE FATHER. Then glad the day we shall begin ; Blush with the morning for our sin ; Our faith grow like the midday bright, But know no twilight, and no night. As dawn ascends to noon of day, Be Thou our rising Sun for aye ; Thee, let us in Thy Father see, And find the Father all in Thee. Unto the Father, God of heaven, And to the Son be glory given, And to the Spirit, evermore, One God, the God whom we adore. AMBROSE, a.d., 340-397. HILDE BERT'S MOST DEVOUT PRAYER TO THE THREE PERSONS OF THE HOLY TRINITY. 5 To the Father. ALPHA, Omega, Almighty ! 1 ^~~*- God, my God, most high most true ; Thine it is creation filling, All to know and all to do. Highest good lives in Thy Being ; Working good, undoing sin, Thou art over all and under, All beyond and all within ; All within, yet not included, All above but not upstayed ; 10 All beyond but not excluded, All beneath, not underlaid. All Thou art, o'er all presiding, All beneath, sustaining all, All beyond, all things embracing, All within, Thou nllest all. THE SON OF GOD. Though in all, Thou art unbounded, All beyond, yet distant never ; High o'er all but not upholden, Under all nor burdened ever. 20 Wandering worlds, unmoved Thou movest, All containing, uncontained : Changing times, Thyself unchanging, Change restraining, unrestrained. Fate within or power beyond Thee, There is none to bend Thy will ; Boundless past and boundlf .-s future, All to Thee are present still. For to Thee all time is ever But a glorious to-day ; 30 And in it forecasting, framing Worlds on worlds, spirit or clay, Thou dost mould them to the pattern, Imaged in Thy thought for aye. Prayer to the Son. Son of God, Thy Father's equal Of His substance, and arrayed In the brightness of His glory, Maker ! yet like creature ' made,' In our garb of flesh Thou earnest For our rescue from on high : 40 Born in time, though everlasting, Deathless, Thou didst come to die ; God in man, and man in Godhead, God with mortal flesh allied ; Manhood not with God confounded, Godhead not undeified. One in Godhead with the Father, He has mortal flesh assumed : THE HOI Y SPIRIT. Man is to God's bosom taken, And yet man is unconsumed. 50 God Most High and Virgin mother, Claim that first-begotten One. Mystic tie ! it links both natures, Ours with His who fills the throne : Both uniting, both conserving, Marvel heretofore unknown ! O Almighty Mediator, Thou art Lawgiver for me : Circumcised, baptized, uplifted, Thou didst hang upon the tree. 60 Lowly laid in sleep and buried, Thou didst rise and soar on high ; Judged by men, Thou com'st to judge them, Throned in glory in the sky. TO THE HOLY SPIRIT. I believe in the Holy Ghost. God the Spirit, uncreated Comes, unborn, the Holy One ; One with both, alike proceeding From the Father and the Son: Equal in His power and glory, Nor diverse in being He ; 70 One is He, with them in greatness, One are all those Blessed Three ; Equal when, and wheresoever Space may stretch or time may be. One is Father by begetting, One by being born is Son ; And the Spirit from both proceedeth, Yet the Three subsist in One ; THE TRUE FAITH. Filled alike with all the Godhead, Not three gods, but One in Three, 80 In one glorious being blended, Three are One Divinity ; One in undivided essence, While in persons they are Three. In these persons none is prior, Higher, lower in degree : Each has been the same for ever, And for evermore shall be ; From all inner change and outward, To all everlasting free. 90 The True Creed. This the faith is, true and holy From all noxious error free, As I utter I believe it, So the devious path I flee. Wondrous love ! O God most gracious, That in guilt but not despair, Hell deserving, I, in dying, Endless life may seek and share. Nought I offer to appease Thee, Save that in this faith I rest ; 100 I believe, unbind my burden, Leave me not with guilt oppressed. Power of God unto Salvation. By this mystic means of cleansing, Balm for dying souls is made. Though Thy creature all-corrupting, Corpse-like in its grave be laid, Under winding-sheet and tombstone, Speak ! it will obey Thy call, Give the word ! the stone is lifted, Give the word ! the grave clothes fall ; 1 10 PENITENCE. For it wots not how to linger Summoned so from death and thrall. On this sea my bark is tossing, Driven by winds, by pirates pressed, Here by foes and there by tempests, Crying, dying, all distressed. But do Thou O Holy Pilot, Come and calm the wind and sea, Bid begone those Demon Pirates, Steer me safe to port with Thee. 120 Penitential Breathings. True my fig-tree has been barren, And its branches withered all ; ' Hew it, burn it,' were the sentence That might quickly on it fall, But for this year ! Mercy spare it ! Dig and prune and wait return, If it yield no fruit — (I utter Woful words) — ' then it will burn.' Satan's rage, in fire and water, Plunges me as if his own, 130 So that sunken, scorched and weary I am cast on Thee alone. Heal me, O Almighty Healer, Bid the infernal foe depart, To Thyself with prayer and fasting, I would bring this smitten heart : By these twain as Thou dost witness, Grace will set my spirit free, Disenthralled from plague of Satan, Lowly will I worship Thee. 140 Give me godly fear, and give me Love to cast out dark despair, 10 TRUST IN GOD. Faith and hope to temper wisely, Earthly life with heavenly care. Give me, worldly lust disdaining, Relish for celestial fare. God a Portion. God ! my all, I trust Thee ever, God ! to Thee is all my quest. Highest good ! my song, my portion, In my labour Thou art rest, 150 In my weariness refreshment, In my grief, my song my lyre, To my fretted spirit bringing Music soft to soothe mine ire. From my straits Thou dost enlarge me, Stumbling, lead'st me on my way, Onward going dost uphold me, Falling bidd'st me hope for aye. Is wrong done me ? Thou avengest ; Threatened ? Thou dost raise Thy shield. 160 Thou dost solve the dark and doubtful, Shrouding what must be concealed. Perdition. God forbid that I should ever Pass within that nether realm, Where all fear and woe and weeping, All who enter overwhelm. Where each sinner is confounded, And each sin uncovered lies, Where is woe that never endeth; And the worm that never dies. 170 And where death for ever dying, Cries for rest but vainly cries. THE HE A VENL V JER USALEM. 11 A Song of the Heavenly City. in Zion ! peaceful city ! Let my wandering soul be stayed ; He who made the sun hath built her ; Of the cross her gates are made ; Living stones her walls and pillars, King of kings her light and shade. No night shrouds that city golden, Endless spring and peace are there, 180 All her sky is filled with fragrance, And with songs of joy her air ; No corrupting taint there enters, None are maimed and none deform'd, Plaint and aching void are ended, All to Jesus are conform'd. City blest, celestial city ! On the rock thy bulwarks rest ; Lo from far I seek thy haven Thee I hail most calm, most blest, 190 Waiting, weary, sighing, panting, To go in and be thy guest. How thy myriads feast together, What love bindeth each to all, How they dwell in peace for ever, What bright gems o'erspread thy wall, In chaldcedon set, and jacinth. Those may tell who enter shall ! On that city's sapphire pavement, With its saintly choir, would I 200 Near to Moses and Elias, Raise my hallelujah high. Amen. HILDEBERT, a.d. 1057-1134. CHRIST THE CREATOR. CHRIST THE MAKER OF HE A VEN AND EARTH. 12 Before the dawn of the Lord's Day. T* HIS day — the King of days, heaven-born, 1 Which turned our night to glorious morn, Christ, from the hold of death and night, Rose on the world, its Life and Light. When Death and Chaos heard His word, And trembling owned Him as their Lord ; O shame on us ! more deaf than they, If we His summons disobey. While all is wrapt in night's dark shade, And nature all in sleep is laid, Let us, as ' children of the light,' Arise and sing away the night. While all the world lies hushed around, Let God's own house with praise resound. To songs of prophets, wake the lyre, To Psalms that glow with light and fire. Bright morn ! like trump of heaven clear, Break on our sleep, that we may hear, And with our risen Lord may rise, To nobler life that seeks the skies. Thou Fount of love in all our way Be near ! and we shall never stray ; O with Thy word, from hour to hour Thy Spirit give — Thy living power. Unto the Father glory be, Unto the Son, and unto Thee Blest Spirit ! O our hearts inspire, Then shall they glow with sacred fire. FROM THE PARIS* BREVIARY. CHRIST THE CREATOR. CHRIST THE MAKER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH 13 Evening Hymn. '"pHEE we praise, all-blessed Lord ! Christ the uncreated Word ! Light of unbeginning Light, Giver of the Spirit of might : Triune glory all-divine, Centres in that light of Thine. Christ the Creator. Thou didst form the new-born light And didst scatter ancient night. Chaos, formless, vast, of old, Into order Thou didst mould : Raised into a world, it smiled, Changed, and turned to beauty mild. Thou didst, by Thy power divine, Make the human spirit shine. Have I reason ? it is Thine ; Have I wisdom ? 'tis not mine. Thou hast lit this lamp of thought, Where Thou hast Thine image wrought ; That Thy heavenly light might glow, In that image here below. With those changing lights on high, Thou hast strewn the vaulted sky. Thou hast bid the night and day : Gently own each other's sway; CHRIST THE CREATOR. !3 Friends and fellow-workers they ! Day with night, and night with day ! Night descendeth, and the while Thou dost call a halt to toil ; Bidding labour pause and rest, Lulling care in weary breast. When from rest again set free, Sweet our work if done for Thee ; And we haste from night away, All to hail the endless day, — Day, most happy and most bright, Ne'er to end in darksome night. So bid sleep with gentle wing O'er mine eyes her shadow fling ; Nor let dumb repose too long Seal my tongue, nor hush my song ; Which, responsive I would raise, To the angels' song of praise. Thus, with holy thoughts of Thee, Let my bed familiar be, Lest ignoble dreams betray The misdoings of the day ; Lest my brain with phantoms teem, Breeding trouble in my dream. Rather let my soul take wing, Free from thrall of sense, and sing : To the Father and the Son, And the Holy Spirit, One ; Glory, honour, power to Thee ! Be to all eternity. Amen. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, a.d. 330-390. u PROVIDENCE. PROVIDENCE. /^OD moves in a mysterious way ^- I His wonders to perform ; He plants His footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable mines Of never-failing skill, He treasures up His bright designs, And works His sovereign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take ; The clouds ye so much dread Are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His grace ; Behind a frowning Providence He hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour ; The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan His work in vain ; God is His own interpreter, And He will make it plain. COWPER, a.d. 1731-1779. THE NAME OF JESUS. THE NAME OF JESUS. 1 At the name of Jesus every knee should bow. all hail the power of Jesus' Name, ■**" Let angels prostrate fall ; Bring forth the royal diadem, And crown Him Lord of all. Ye ransom'd sinners, ne'er forget Your former sin and thrall ; Go, spread your trophies at His feet, And crown Him Lord of all. Let ev'ry kindred ev'ry tribe, Responsive to His call, To Him all majesty ascribe, And crown Him Lord of all. Oh ! that with yonder sacred throng, We at His feet may fall, Join in the everlasting song, And crown Him Lord of all. PERRONET, 1785 16 JESUS. The Name that is above every name. T T ow sweet the Name of Jesus sounds 1 In a believer's ear ! It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, And drives away his fear. It makes the wounded spirit whole And calms the troubled breast.; 'Tis manna to the hungry soul, And to the weary rest. 17 THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS. Dear Name ! the rock on which I build, My shield and hiding place, My never-failing treasury, filled With boundless stores of grace. By Thee my prayers acceptance gain, Although with sin defiled ; Satan accuses me in vain, And I am owned a child. Jesus, my Shepherd, Husband, Friend, My Prophet, Priest, and King, My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End, Accept the praise I bring. Weak is the effort of my heart, And cold my warmest thought ; But, when I see Thee as Thou art, I'll praise Thee as I ought. Till then, I would Thy love proclaim With every fleeting breath ; And may the music of Thy Name Refresh my soul in death ! NEWTON, 1799. THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS. /^OME, Thou long expected Jesus, ^ Born to set Thy people free ; From our fears and sins release us ; Let us find our rest in Thee. EMMANUEL. Israel's strength and consolation, Hope of all the earth, Thou art ; Dear Desire of every nation, Joy of every longing heart. Born Thy people to deliver ; Born a child and yet a King ; Born to reign in us for ever ; Now Thy gracious kingdom bring. By Thine own eternal Spirit, Rule in all our hearts alone ; By Thine all-sufficient merit, Raise us to Thy glorious throne. CHARLES WESLEY, ad. 1772. 18 THE HOPE OF ISRAEL. r~\ COME ! Emmanuel hear our call ! ^ And free Thine Israel from her thrall , She groans in exile, far from Thee, And longs the Son of God to see. Rejoice, O Israel ! Wherefore mourn ? Emmanuel comes, thy Brother born. O come ! thou Rod of Jesse, come ! Lead Thy down-trodden pilgrims home ; From hoof of ruthless foe them save, From doleful pit, and dreary grave. Rejoice, O Israel ! Wherefore mourn ? Emmanuel comes, thy Brother born. THE LORD'S COMING. O come ! Thou Dawn of holier day ! And glad us by Thy heavenly ray ; Our dark clouds scatter by Thy light, Disperse the shades of death and night. Rejoice, O Israel ! Wherefore mourn ? Emmanuel comes, thy Brother born. O come ! throw wide the gates of heaven ; Thou, to whom David's key is given, Make safe a pathway from below, And close the ways that lead to woe, Rejoice, O Israel ! Wherefore mourn ? Emmanuel comes, thy Brother born. O come ! O come ! Thou Lord of lords, Whose law, with trump and voice of words, From Sinai's awful brow was given, Thy glory filling earth and heaven. Rejoice, O Israel ! Wherefore mourn ? Emmanuel comes, thy Brother born. Tenth or Eleventh Century. THE COMING SA VIOUR. IT ARK, the glad sound, the Saviour comes The Saviour promis'd long ; Let ev'ry heart prepare a throne, And every voice a song ! On Him the Spirit, largely pour'd, Exerts its sacred fire ; Wisdom and might, and zeal and love, His holy breast inspire. BORN OF THE VIRGIN MAR I. He comes ! the pris'ners to release, In Satan's bondage held ; The gates of brass before Him burst, The iron fetters yield. He comes ! from thickest films of vice To clear the mental ray ; And on the eye-balls of the blind To pour celestial day. He comes ! the broken heart to bind, The bleeding soul to cure ; And with the treasures of His grace To enrich the humble poor. Our glad hosannas, Prince of peace, Thy welcome shall proclaim ; And heaven's eternal arches ring With Thy beloved name. DODDRIDGE, 1755. THE NATIVITY. 20 Advent Hymn. vyHY dost Thou so lowly lie, VV Mighty Renovator ! Lifting from the stall Thy cry, Infant ! and Creator ? Where, O King, Thy purple pall, Where Thy hall and vassals all, With their homage loyal ? Here, though Want, with all her train, Keepeth court, and claims to reign ; Love alone is royal. BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY. Jesus answers. Ah ! poor sinner for thy kind, Love has made Me lowly ; For thou art undone, and blind, Through thyself, unholy. By My want and My disgrace, By the riches of My grace, I have come to own thee. By this lowly birth of Mine, Pouring out My soul for thine, I have come to throne thee. Believer's doxology. With ten thousand songs of praise Doth my heart applaud Thee ; For such miracles of grace, I will laud and laud Thee. O Thou Lover of my soul, Unto Thee, from pole to pole, Through the worlds extending, From the whole adoring heaven, Honour, glory, praise be given, Never, never ending. JOHN MAUBURN, ad. 1460-1502. 91 Advent Hymn. "117HEREFORE, O Most High and Holy, ^ v Dost Thou here so meanly lie, Shivering in a manger lowly, Who didst light the starry sky ? Wonderworking love ! O Jesus ! As we muse its wonders rise ; Mighty love ! to man the exile, Driven far from Paradise. JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD. Highest Power stoops down in meekness, And the Infinite seems small ; The Eternal born in weakness, Giveth freedom, brooketh thrall. Wonderworking love ! O Jesus ! As we muse its wonders rise ; Mighty love ! to man the exile, Driven far from Paradise. Infant wants and weakness knowing, To Thy mother's bosom given, Child of grief! Thy tears are flowing, Yet with joy Thou fillest heaven. Wonderworking love ! O Jesus ! As me muse its wonders rise ; Mighty love ! to man the exile, Driven far from Paradise. About the Fifteenth Century. 9 o His only Son our Lord. Advent Hymn. npHOU who didst build the starry sky, -*■ Dost lighten every faithful heart, Thou who our sole Redeemer art, O listen to our lowly cry. In pity for our ruin, when Helpless and sunk in dire dismay, Our dying world in anguish lay, Thou broughtst Thy cure to guilty men. OUR LORD. For, when the Virgin's Son was born, The world had sunk to noon of night, But He came bridegroom-like in might, To shed o'er earth a brighter morn. Jesus ! Thy will let all obey, In heaven and to earth's utmost end ; O let all being lowly bend, Beneath Thine everlasting sway. The world's all Holy Judge Thou art, And Thou wilt come when time is o'er ; Till then, O shield us, we implore, From fiendish snare and poisoned dart. Praise, honour, power, and glory be, To God the Father, God the Son, And God the Spirit, Three in One, Now henceforth and eternally. Seventh Century. 03 He dwelt among us. "pvOWN from the realms of glory driven, Shrouded in gloom and far away, Our wayward race had gone astray, Nor knew, nor sought the path to heaven. But lo! the King Himself, Most High, From heaven a lowly exile came, To win the exiles and reclaim, And take them with Him to the sky. EPIPHANY. O how those wanderers did He tend ! To weary ones imparting strength, Till home He brought them all at length, Himself the Way, Himself the End. Jesus Thou art the Truth, the Light, In veil of human flesh concealed, Yet to the pure in heart revealed ; Oh shine on us when comes the night ! PARIS BREVIARY. 24 The Three Manifestations. T HRICE, with wonder upon wonder, This glad day was crowned of old : Let those wonders, with the thunders Of our loudest sones be told. Far, from eastern sky to western, Sages, star-lit, sought their Lord ; There the nations, with ovations, Broueht oblations, and adored. i & j Next, the flowing water, glowing, Blushed, and turned to bridal wine. Saints believe it, and receive it, As Messiah's primal sign. Lo ! the Lowliest and the Holiest John baptized in Jordan's stream. Thence O river ! cleansed for ever, Thou and all things earthly seem. 25 EPIPHANY. As thou readest, as thou pleadest, May the King His blessing send ; And let bounding joy resounding With thy loud hosannas blend. Amen. HARTMANN OF ST GAUL, d. 924. Three manifestations. Born of the Virgin. I MPIOUS Herod ! wherefore tremble, That the Christ should claim His own, He who gives a heavenly kingdom, Comes to climb no earthly throne. Lo these pilgrim sages followed, Where their starry signal led, Sought the True Light, tribute bearing, Bowing at His lowly bed. See Him cleanse the very laver, When He touched old Jordan's flood, Lamb of God ! our sins He carried, And He washed us in His blood. See anon the conscious water, Changing at His word divine, For it saw its Lord, and blushing, Quickly turned to richest wine. SEDULIUS, ad. 430. 26 THE WISE MEN FROM THE EAST CATHEMERINON HYMN XII. There came wise men from the East ALLye who seek the Lord of love, ^*- Lift up your eyes to heaven above ; There ye may see His signal shine, Of glory endless and divine. That onward star with piercing ray Outshines the dawn and noon of day, And tells that in this earthly sphere, God has in human form come near. That star tracks not alone by night, . The changing moon's highway of light, But with the noontide seems to vie, Claiming the empire of the sky. What though those polar stars on high, Wheel retrogressive in the sky, And set not, yet the clouds below Oft rise and hide them where they glow. But this bright star no storm can hide, It never sets in ocean tide ; No cloud can veil it from the eye, Or dim its flaming torch on high. If blazing comet come from far, Sweeping the sky ; if falling star Shoot Sirius-like with eye of blood. It sinks before that light of God. 27 THE WISE MEN FROM THE EAST The wonderful star. Lo ! far from under Persic skies, Whence orient sunbeams take their rise, Men skilled to know each starry sign, Hail this bright banner as divine. For when it flashes forth its light, All other orbs sink back to night, And even the lovely morning star, Pales in this light more lovely far. What mighty Potentate, they cry, Is this Who rules the starry sky, To whom the heavens such homage pay, Whom all etherial things obey ? Some hidden god-like One appears, Knowing no cause, no end of years ; Most High, ineffable, sublime, Elder than Chaos, Heaven, or Time. Behold the sign : it brings to view The King of Gentile and of Jew ; The promised Shiloh oft foretold, To Abram and his seed of old. That Sire whom all the faithful own, Who offered up his only son, Well knew his numerous seed would vie With star dust sprinkled o'er the sky. Now out of Jesse's lowly root, Is David's sceptre seen to shoot, And from that sceptre-rod there springs, The flower that crowns all human things. THE GIFTS OF THE WISE MEN. With onward steps and upward eyes, The wise men scanning all the skies, Turn whereso'er the star on high, Tracks its bright furrow in the sky. 28 They presented unto Him gifts. Behold ! the sign has ceased to move, It hangs that august Child above, And downward shining it has shed, Its lustre on that sacred head ; Which when those joyful pilgrims see, Their vows they pay on bended knee ; And all their orient gifts unfold, Frankincense, myrrh, and royal gold. See in these signs, O Holy Child ! Thy throne, Thy nature undefiled, Thy Godhead innate, unbestowed, Thou infant King, Thou Son of God ! The treasure by these pilgrims given, Proclaims the King of earth and heaven ; Incense bespeaks His Godhead, myrrh The ashes of His sepulchre ; That very sepulchre in which, In death's dark realm He made a breach ; That mortal frame thence raising high Which He had given up to die. 2 9 The fame of Bethlehem . Of all the cities of renown, Bethlehem thou dost wear the crown ; Chosen from all the scenes on earth, To witness the Redeemer's birth. 30 HEROD. The Father chose thy nursing home, To which the Heir of all should come ; The Spirit clothed in flesh and blood That Son of man, the Eternal God. His heirship all the seers revealed, His sovereignty they signed and sealed ; To Him the Father willed His throne, Yea all His kingdom as His own ; That kingdom which embraces all, This sky, these depths, this earthly ball ; Far as the western sun can sweep, Far as high heaven or nether deep. Herod is troubled. Aghast the tyrant rack'd with care, Hears that the King of kings is there, To claim all Israel as His own, And sit and reign on David's throne. Madly he lifts his voice on high, * Guards ! haste, another King is nigh, Search, sword in hand, from door to door, Each cradle drench with infant gore. 1 Each nursling in the arms lay bare, Sabre each man-child sheltered there : Rifling each mother's bosom, smite And dye your steel before her sight. ' Let not Bethlehem mothers foil My sword or counsel by their guile. I dread lest mother wit, not might, Some nursling boy may snatch from sight. FIRST MARTYRS FOR CHRIST. With naked steel on slaughter bent, To find some babe each minion went, Its new-born life, its feeble frame, With stealthy hand to smite and maim. That slender neck ! O deed of shame ! Those little limbs, that infant frame, Can scarce the murderer afford, One spot where he can hide his sword. O-savage sight ! against the stones They headlong dashed those little ones ; Their milky brain and eye-balls lay, Unsightly, mingling with the clay ; Or they were merged amid the stream, Whose waters quickly stopped their scream, Where gurgling mouthfuls, mixed with breath, Soon hushed their breathing into death. Ql Infant Martyrs. Hail ye the flowers of martyrs bright, Whom at the dawn of the great Light, The tyrant swept among the dead, As whirlwind sweeps some rosy bed. Once victims, to the altar driven, Now at God's altar high in heaven ; Victors ! with crowns and palms ye play, All-childlike in your ecstacy. Herod ! what boots thy wicked art ? From savage hand comes joy of heart ? Amid the crowds of infants slain, The Christ untouched yet lives to reign. 32 CHRIST FORESHADO WED. Amid those streams of infant blood, Unscathed came forth the Son of God, The Virgin's Son thy sword beguiled, Which slaughtered many a mother's child. Christ foreshadowed. So Moses Israel's destined guide, Turned into folly Pharaoh's pride ; The tyrant's plots he marked and foiled, Foreshadowing the Holy Child. For Pharaoh thought by deep decree, To crush the Hebrew pedigree, Debarring mothers' loving care, The nurture of their sons to share. But lo ! a midwife wise and mild, By stealth preserved one smiling child, Her hope foresaw his great renown, Nor feared the foolish tyrant's frown. That child was destined from his birth, Priest of the Lord of heaven and earth, By whom, His law engraved on stone, He called the world to hear and own. Some shadow here may we not see, Of Christ who sets His people free ? For Moses the Egyptian smote, And Israel out of bondage brought. So when oppressed by Satan's sway, We strayed in error's downward way, Our Leader smote our mighty foe, And set us free from endless woe. L CHRIST KING OF KINGS. When Moses lifting up his rod, Led through the depths the tribes of God, Those floods supplied a cleansing tide, That fiery column proved their guide. When against Amalek he rose, To bring defeat on Israel's foes, With arms outspread against the sky, He seemed to lift the Cross on high. Jesus in Joshua too appears, Who after weary wandering years, Led on his tribes with mighty hand, Victorious to their promised land. And when old Jordan back was rolled, Those stones in number twelve times told, He built upon the naked ford, To mark the apostles of the Lord. OQ The universal King. Well had those wise men from afar, That light deemed Judah's royal star, Since Israel's leaders all of old, The Christ of God had so foretold. He, Judge of judges, who of yore The Church's royal sceptre bore, Reigneth supreme within her fold, Lord of the temple, new and old. Him Ephraim's sons with awe adore, Manasseh stoops His face before, The twelve tribes all with one acclaim, Bow down to worship at His name. 34 BORN OF THE VIRGIN MAR Y. Yea, and the motley Gentile crew, Who choose the false and shun .the true, Where'er they've kindled in the fire, Incense to Baal — idol dire ; Now fail their fathers gods to own, Grim gods of metal, wood, and stone, Graven, or cleft, or hewn ; and raise To Christ the Lord their songs of praise. Rejoice all lands from East to West, By One King yet to be possessed, Judea, Rome, Greece, Scythia, Egypt and Thrace and Persia. O praise your King all ye below, Ye men of joy, ye men of woe, Living or dead, sing praises high, Henceforth ye sleep but cannot die. PRUDENTIUS, a.d. 348-424. O Advent Hymn. BLESSED night ! O rich delight ! When, joy with wonder blending, To us from heaven A Son was given, Angelic hosts attending. For when in thrall From Adam's fall, The world in death was lying ; In flesh like mine, The Life divine, Rose sun-like o'er the dying. 35 BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY. O God of Might ! Eternal Light ! In swaddling bands they bound Thee ; Thrust from the hall, To lowly stall, The herd was gathered round Thee. That cradled Child, Lay mute and mild, That ' Word ' whose voice is thunder ; The world's great Light Withdrew from sight, Oh who can solve the wonder ? God stoops to dwell In lowly cell, Nor shame nor want refusing ; He leaves His throne, His foes to own, For heaven a manger choosing Fifteenth Century. Advent Hymn. A CHILD is born in Bethlehem ; •**- Exult for joy Jerusalem ! Lo, He who reigns above the skies, There, in a manger lowly lies. The ox and ass in neighbouring stall, See in that Child the Lord of all ; And kingly pilgrims, long foretold, From East bring incense, myrrh, and gold, 36 CHRIST THE CONQUEROR. And enter with their offerings To hail the new-born King of kings. He comes, a maiden mother's son, Yet earthly father hath He none ; And from the serpent's poison free, He owned our blood and pedigree. Our feeble flesh and His the same, Our sinless kinsman He became, That we from deadly thrall set free Like Him, and so like God should be. Come then, and on this natal day, Rejoice before the Lord and pray ; And to the holy One in Three Give praise and thanks eternally. Fourteenth Century. Our enemy conquered. C ING the Cross ! the conflict telling, •^ Crown'd with glory more than woe ; Sing the battle and the triumph, Tell its fame to all below, How by death the world's Redeemer Overthrew and bound His foe. Touch'd with pity for the ruin Of our first-made father's fall, When the fatal fruit he tasted, On one mouthful staking all ; God mark'd out the tree of Calvary, Eden's tree to match withal. 37 BIR7H AND DEATH OE JESUS. Law could only yield our rescue As the fruit of pains and toils ; Art by art the great Restorer Foiled, and took the Traitor's spoils Thus His healing balm He gathered Where the foe had spread his wiles. At the time afore appointed, Coming in His Father's name, In the womb of Virgin Mother Clothed in flesh, with feeble frame ; Born a man, the world's Creator From the throne of glory came. Hark ! the cry of Infant wailing In the manger, meanly laid ; Child all lowly, God all holy ! Not in robes of light array'd ; But in swaddling bands enfolded By that blessed Mother-Maid. Christ crucified. Thirty winters has He number'd Here on earth in quest of me ; Yea, my soul ! thy great Redeemer Agonizing on the tree, As the Lamb of God, uplifted, Bleeds, and bows the head for thee. Fainting, lo ! the gall He tasteth ; See the thorns, the nails, the spear, From His ebbing life are drawing Crimson blood and water clear ! Fit for cleansing souls, and cleansing Earth, and sea, and starry sphere. THE CROSS OF CHRIST. Faithful Cross of Christ, we hail thee ; Of all trees on earth most fair ! None in all the forest yieldeth Leaf, or flower, or fruit so rare. Sweetest wood ! yea, sweetest iron ! Sweetest burden, fit to bear. Tree of awful beauty, bend thee, Bend ; thy stubborn branches bring Softly round the Form thou bearest ; O'er His head thy shadow fling ; Gently in thine arms uphold Him, For of glory He is King. Worthy Thou to bear the ransom Of a shipwreck'd world art found, And to be our Ark of safety, For celestial harbour bound ; Sacred, hence, that blood has made thee, As it flowed and wrapt thee round. Judge of all ! when Thou descendest, Throned in awful majesty ; When aloft Thy Cross effulgent Beams amid the milky way, O be Thou Thyself our refuge, And the dawn of endless day ! Glory, glory, everlasting, To the blessed Trinity ! Praise to Thee, Eternal Father ! Praise, Eternal Son to Thee ! Praise to Thee, Eternal Spirit ! Three in One, and One in Three. FORTUNATUS, a.d 530-609. JESUS BORN. CA THEMERINON.—HYMN XL 38 The Lengthening Day, T 1 7"HY seeks the sun around the sky, ^ v To sweep a wider course on high ? The Christ is born, and brighter light Streams as He stoops to cheer our night. How soon the night was wont to fall, And wrap us in her dreary pall, And quench the flaming torch of day ! Brief hours of gracious light were they ! Let heaven pour down its floods of light, Let earth drink in the new delight ; For now the sun ascending far Climbs higher in his blazing car. All welcome to our dark abode ! Of virgin born, Thou Son of God ! All hail ! most sweet and holy Child, By whom the lost are reconciled. 39 .... 44 lines omitted. Hark how that Infant's cries begin To ring the knell of curse and sin : For wintry blight, He comes to bring To all the world a holier spring. The fields, I ween, will bloom again ; And fairer flowers will strew the plain, Perfuming even the desert ground, With nard and nectar all around. Earth feels Thee near, O holy Child ! Things hard and savage turn to mild ; The rude rocks yield, and round them fling The many coloured garb of spring. JESUS JUDGE AND KING. 40 28 lines omitted. O sinner ! comes the day of doom ! When the last trump shall shake the tomb, And strew the heavens with ruin dire, And wrap the earth in flaming fire, When low in dust thy soul shall own That lofty One upon His throne : Tears on that day will not prevail, And grief for guilt will not avail ; For throned in clouds, the Judge on high Will deal to all their destiny, To some the realms of endless light, To some the shades of endless night. Then Jewry ! Him thy heart will know, Around whose cross the lightnings glow ; Thy word, 'Away; with Him away,' Death heard ; and seized, — but lost his prey. PRUDEXTIUS, a.d. 348-424. 41 The Cross of Christ. THE King's bright banners onward bear, The wondrous cross exalt, for there The Word 'made flesh,' the Lord Most High. Who 'made all flesh,' was nailed to die. Deep from His wounded side there flowed A stream of water and of blood, Drawn by the soldier's cruel spear, Our souls from sin and guilt to clear. M HE SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE. There David's song fulfilled we see, For Jesus, lifted on that* tree, .*.**■ XCV J- *° ■',.,«« . TT . nusinterpreted. Has claimed all nations as His own, And reigned a Priest upon His throne. O tree most goodly and most fair ! Chosen that sacred form to bear ; His royal purple wrapt thee round, Profusely streaming to the ground. Blest tree ! where wide thy beams did sway, Our ransom-price He seemed to weigh ; 'Twas His who could the ransom pay, From Death and Hell to take the prey. FORTUNATUS, a.d. 530-609. kz\ He bore the sins of many. t ORD ! let some swift-winged angel ^ Come with Thine altar fire, To touch these lips all guilty, And so my soul inspire, To praise Thee when the day dawns When noontide streameth bright, And when the twilight falling, Veils the fair world in night. My Lord! my God! Effulgence Of the Eternal Light ! Thou glory of the Father, Bearing His image bright, Sole refuge art for sinners, Benighted, wrecked, undone, Our light, our burden-bearer, Our home, our heaven begun. 43 WAS CRUCIFIED BEAD. Thy woes hush all our sorrows, Thy tears soothe all our pains, Thy griefs heal all our sadness, Thy bonds undo our chains. Thy toils are our refreshment, Thy wounds our balm and cure, Thy nakedness enrobes us, Thy wants our wealth ensure. Against Thee fainting, wounded, Nailed to the cursed tree, The wrath of foes beat ruthless, Like waves of raging sea. Yea, Death and Hell assailing, By fury self-decoyed, Came as if all-devouring ; There to be self-destroyed. O give me wings to soar, then, Where sin can never come, Where dread, or want, or sorrow, Shall never find a home, That, loud among the ransomed, This human voice may ring With higher hallelujahs Than seraphim can sing. ROBERT BOYD, a.d. 1578-1627. THE WONDROUS CROSS. ^1 7HEX I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride. CHRIST 'S CROSS AND CROWN. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ, my God ; All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood. See, from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down ! Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown ? Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small ; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all ! WATTS, 1709. 44 Crowned with glory and honour. T HE head that once was crown'd with thorns, Is crown'd with glory now ; A royal diadem adorns The mighty Victor's brow. The highest place that Heaven affords Is His, is His by right, The King of kings, and Lord of lords, And Heaven's eternal Light ; The joy of all who dwell above, The joy of all below, To whom He manifests His love, And grants His name to know. THE THIRD DA Y HE AROSE FROM THE DEAD. To them the Cross, with all its shame, With all its grace, is given ; Their name an everlasting name, Their joy the joy of Heaven. They suffer with their Lord below, They reign with Him above, Their profit and their joy to know The mystery of His love. The cross He bore in life and health, Though shame and death to Him ; His people's hope, His people's wealth, Their everlasting theme. KELLY, 1769-1S55. 45 Easter Morning Hymn. TVJOW morning purples all the skies, ^ The heavens with songs of praise resound, Earth jubilant with joy replies, And horror startles hell profound. Our mighty King comes forth to save, Shaking the realms of Death and Night ; For rising saints He bursts the grave, And brings them back to life and light. Men set their watch, and sealed the stone, Where low He lay in death's dark cave ; But soon the victory He won, And left for Death that empty grave. THE THIRD DA Y HE AROSE FROM THE DEAD. Cease then funereal grief and gloom ! ' Weep not ' the bright-robed Angel cries ; 1 The Victor gives to Death His tomb And soars triumphant to the skies.' O from our grave of sin, we pray, Almighty Lord ! our souls set free ; Then life will be one festal day, Of joy to us, of praise to Thee. Now to the Father, and to Thee, Who from the dead didst soar on high, And to the Spirit, One in Three, All glory be eternally. Extant in the sixteenth century. 4fi ^ v The Redeemer's Resurrection. "T^RE the third day's sun had risen, -*-' Forth He came from Death's dark prison, Judah's Lion, Lamb of love ! Through the bars of Hades breaking, And ourselves the partners making Of His life and throne above. To His grave with fragrant spices, Sad their hearts and hushed their voices, Holy women came in fear ; From their loving tryst not swerving, Little hoping, yet deserving Angels bright to see and hear. HE AROSE FROM THE DEAD. Weeping love had drawn them thither, At His grave to meet together ; And amazed, the stone they found Rolled away, its signet broken ; And angelic words were spoken : 1 Let not fear but joy abound ; 1 Go ! the happy tidings carry, Go to Simon ; do not tarry Till the joy to all be given : Jesus mighty, from His prison All unharmed, self-rescued, risen, Breathes the air of His own heaven.' Eleventh century. n 7 Easter Hymn, /"""LAP hands, O ye heavens, ^ Thou firmament ring ! From highest to lowest, Thou universe sing ! The darkness and tumult Have ended in calm ; And glory has come, And victory's palm. Come forth, O ye flowers ; Come forth with the Spring ! And deck the fair plains With each blossoming thing ; With violets meek Let roses be joined, And marigolds bright With lilies combined. 48 HE AROSE FROM THE DEAD. Thou song of our joy ! Rise higher and higher ; Thou spirit of gladness Breathe forth from the lyre ; For Jesus is risen, As truly He said : Unconquered, unharmed, He has come from the dead. Clap hands, O ye mountains, Ye valleys all ring ! O warble ye fountains ; Ye little hills sing ! He liveth again, As truly He said : Unconquered, unharmed, He has come from the dead. Extant — sixteenth century. JOYFUL from her earthy bed, Spring leads forth her new-born train ; Jesus, rising from the dead, All things calls to life again : All the elements obey, Feeling their Creator's sway, And keep solemn holiday. Even the forked lightning darts, And the floating ether parts, And the falling water glides, And the stable earth abides, HE SITTETH AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. All by Him : things great and small, Light or weighty, rise or fall ; And His touch reneweth all. Now He gives serener skies, And the billows cease to rise ; And the breeze breathes still and light, And our vale is blooming bright. Green the thirsty uplands grow ; Winter's fetters melt and flow As the vernal zephyrs blow. Ice-bound Death thus melts and fails ; And the ' Prince of this world ' quails, And his cursed empire all, Totters to its final fall. Satan came and nothing found ; Jesus, whom he would have bound, Shook his throne to hell profound. Life from Death thus wins the prize ; For mankind recovers more Than they lost or knew before, Than the joys of Paradise : And as promised by the Lord, Lo, He sheaths the flaming sword, And the cherub-guarded way Opens into endless day. ADAM ST VICTOR, Twelfth Century, A Q Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him. DEDEEMERof the nations, come ! 1V Display Thy wondrous birth abroad : Ye ages all ! be still, and know Such birth beseems the Son of God. HE SITTETH AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. V.) Of God, all-overshadowing, And not of man He draws His birth ; The Word eternal is made flesh, And stoops, of woman born, to earth. Her child the holy Virgin bears, He comes ! with banners spread abroad, Bright with the graces, where He moves His temple is, for He is God. Forth from His royal hall He comes, Like a strong man his race to run ; The Son of man, the mighty God ! He rises like the rising sun. Down from His Father's throne He comes, Circling again above the sky ; His goings stretch beneath, to hell ; Thence upward to the throne on high. O Thou ! God's co-eternal Son, Dost lift our flesh in triumph high ; And by Thine everlasting strength, Dost make us that we cannot die. Thy manger now with glory shines ; Its midnight breathes a radiance bright, Whose sun no coming night can quench, Or dim its ever-during light. AMBROSE, a.d. 340-397. JESUS A SAVIOUR FOR THE WORLD. oyj Missionary Hymn. qpHOu! Hope of all the lowly ! To thirsting souls how kind ; Gracious to all who seek Thee, Oh what to those who find ! My tongue but lisps Thy praises, Yet praise be my employ ; Love makes me bold to praise Thee, For Thou art all my joy. In Thee my soul delighting, Findeth her only rest ; And so in Thee confiding, May all the world be blest. Dwell with us, and our darkness Will flee before Thy light ; Scatter the world's deep midnight, And fill it with delight. O all mankind ! behold Him, And seek His love to know, And let your hearts in seeking, Be fired with love and glow. O come, O come great Monarch ! Eternal glory Thine ; The longing world waits for Thee, Arise, arise and shine. BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX, a.d. 1091-1153. AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. 51 Easter Hymn. TTAIL, thou day, through all the ages! Festal day ! when, strong to save, Jesus, over Hell victorious, Rose to glory from the grave. Thanks break forth from all creation, With the all-reviving Spring ; Earth her choicest gifts returning, All to hail her rising King. At the feet of Him who conquered Death, and made Hell's squadrons fly, Leaf and blade, of plain and woodland,. Buds and blossoms, lowly lie. Cloud and sunbeam, field and ocean, Sing to Him who burst those bars, As above the sky He riseth To His throne beyond the stars. When the Crucified, triumphant Over all His sceptre sways, Tribute to Him, as Creator, All created being pays. FORTUNATUS, Sixth Century. 52 He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. H E Lord will come ! the earth shall quake ; The hills their fixed seat forsake ; And, withering from the vault of night, The stars withdraw their feeble light. T HE SHALL COME TO JUDGE. The Lord will come ! but not the same As once in lowly form He came, A silent Lamb to slaughter led, The bruised, the suffering, and the dead. The Lord will come ! a dreadful form, With wreath of flame, and robe of storm, On cherub wings, and wings of wind, Anointed Judge of human-kind. Can this be He who wont to stray, A pilgrim on the world's highway ; By power oppressed, and mocked by pride- O God ! is this the Crucified ? Go tyrants, to the rocks complain ; Go seek the mountain's cleft, in vain ; But faith victorious o'er the tomb, Shall sing for joy — ' the Lord is come.' HEBER, 18: 53 00 The day of judgment. T~\AY of anger ! sinners dooming, Heaven and earth to dust consuming, Seer and Psalmist see it looming ! Hearts and rocks will then be rending, As the Judge is seen descending ; And the doom of all is pending. Blares aloud, that trump of thunder, Crashing, waking Death in wonder, Citing all the white throne under. TO JUDGE THE QUICK AND THE DEAD. 53 Death, his horror not dissembling, Sees creation rising, trembling ; And before the Judge assembling. Comes that Judge His book unsealing Secret writ of doom revealing, All attent, but none appealing. Wrongs for ages never righted, Buried, rise to be recited ; Nothing there goes unrequited. Ah what plea shall I then tender ? Whom invoke as my Defender, When the holiest must surrender. King of awful glory ! ever Of free grace the Sovereign Giver ; Fount of goodness ! me deliver. Think, good Lord, let it appease Thee, That Thou earnest to release me ; Lest the second death should seize me. Weary, wayworn, Thou hast sought me, By Thy cross salvation brought me ; Why in vain shouldst Thou have bought me ? Just Judge ! piercing all disguises, Save me ere that morning rises, Bringing in the dread assizes. See my soul its guilt unveiling, Shame confessing, sin bewailing, Mercy grant me all-availing. TO JUDGE THE QUICK AND THE DEAD. 53 Thou didst save the woman pleading, And the thief beside Thee bleeding, Grant me hope, like pity needing. Vows and prayers can save me never ; Grace alone can me deliver From the fire that burns for ever. With Thy sheep, Good Shepherd, guide me, From the herd of goats divide me ; On Thy right hand guard and hide me. When the doom'd depart, descending Into burnings never ending, Call me with Thy saints ascending. Hear me ! contrite, lowly lying : From the dust my heart is crying ; Save, O save my soul undying. Woful day ! when thunder-shaken, From his ashes man shall waken, And before the Judge be taken. Then O God ! to be forgiven ! Then let rest to me be given, Mercy-loving Lord in heaven — Amen. THOMAS OF CELANO, Thirteenth Century / BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST. 54 I believe in the Holy Ghost. /CREATOR Holy Spirit! come, ^ And make Thy people's hearts Thy home, Our souls at first were framed by Thee, Thy chosen temples let them be. Our Comforter ! most blessed name, Gift of the Highest ! Thee we claim, Thou Fount of life ! Thou Fire ! and Love ! Shed down Thine unction from above. Thy sevenfold gifts to us impart, Finger of God ! touch every heart, Each voice atune to joyful song, O Blessed Spirit promised long. Our sight enlighten from above, Our hearts replenish with Thy love ; And when our feeble flesh would fail, In Thy great strength make us prevail. Far from us thrust the infernal foe ; But cause our hearts Thy peace to know ; If only Thou our Guide wilt be, From every snare we shall be free. Show us the Father, Holy One ! Reveal to us the Eternal Son ; Spirit of Both for evermore, Thee let us trust and Thee adore. CHARLEMAGNE, a.d. 742-814. 00 THE HOL Y SPIRIT. I believe in the Holy Ghost. IT OLY Spirit, God of light ! - 1 - 1 Come, and on our inner sight Pour Thy bright and heavenly ray ! Father of the lowly ! come ; Here, Great Giver ! be Thy home, Sunshine of our hearts, for aye ! Inmost Comforter and best ! Of our souls the dearest Guest, Sweetly all their thirst allay ; In our toils be our retreat ; Be our shadow in the heat ; Come and wipe our tears away. O Thou Light, all pure and blest ! Fill with joy this weary breast, Turning darkness into day. For without Thee nought we find, Pure or strong in human kind, Nought that has not gone astray. Wash us from the stains of sin, Gently soften all within. Wounded spirits heal and stay. What is hard and stubborn bend, What is feeble soothe and tend, What is erring gently sway, o COMMUNION OF SAINTS. To Thy faithful servants give, Taught by Thee to trust and live, Sevenfold blessing from this day ; Make our title clear, we pray, When we drop this mortal clay ; Then, — O give us joy for aye ! ROBERT II., KING OF FRANCE, fl. a.d. 997-1031 THE DEPARTED NIGH. 56 (I believe) in the communion of saints. ■pvEPARTED, say we ? is it *^ Departed, or come nigh ? Dear friends in Christ more visit Than leave us when they die. What thin vail still may hide them, Some little sickness rends, And lo ! we stand beside them ; Are they departed friends ? Their dews on Zion mountain Our Hermon hills bedew ; Their river from the Fountain Flows down to meet us too. The oil on the head, and under, Down to the skirts hath run ; And though we seem asunder, We still in Christ are one. The many tides of ocean Are one vast tidal wave, That sweeps, in landward motion, Alike to coast and cave : THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. And life, from Christ outflowing, Is one wave evermore, To earth's dark caverns going, Or heaven's bright pearly shore. Hail, perfected immortals ! Even now we bid you hail ; We at the blood-stained portals, And ye within the vail ! The thin cloud-vail between us Is mere dissolving breath, One heaven surrounds, and screens us ; And where art thou, O Death ? Dr W. B. ROBERTSON. 57 PRIMITIVE WITXESSES. OIXG to the Lord with joy and praise, ^ Of martyrs and their victories ; For to all ages they are given, E'er since from earth He rose to heaven. The Church's princes near and far, Went forth to wage the heavenly war ; Girt with ethereal armour bright, By light to conquer, not by might. Oh, how they spurned all earthy fear, And welcomed pain, and death, with cheer ; Triumphant in their latest breath, Gaining a blessed life in death. Martyrs were flung into the fire, And to the teeth of monsters dire, Men, vulture-like, athirst for gore, Their flesh with cruel anguish tore. THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS Wounded and scorned these men of God, For Jesus bold to shed their blood, Unshaken, brooked the cruel strife, Nerved by the faith of endless life. O Faith which every foe controls ! O dauntless hope of noble souls ! O perfect love ! which breaks the spell Of fear, or earthly snare, or hell. The Father here His grace unfolds, His heart's desire the Son beholds, The Spirit here finds blest employ, And so all heaven o'erflows with joy. Gracious Redeemer ! ours and theirs ! Their songs accept : accept our prayers ; Join all in one, that we and they, One home may have, one heart for aye. Seventh century. k o I believe in the forgiveness of sins. ROCK of Ages ! * cleft for me, * isa. xxvi. 4 . Let me hide myself in Thee ; Engl mar Let the water and the blood, From Thy riven side which flowed, Be of sin the double cure ; Cleanse me from its guilt and power. Not the labour of my hands, Can fulfil Thy law's demands : Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears for ever flow, All for sin could not atone; Thou must save and Thou alone. 59 THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS. Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to Thy cross I cling; Naked, come to Thee for dress, Helpless, look to Thee for grace, Foul, I to the fountain fly ; Wash me, Saviour ! or I die. Whilst I draw this fleeting breath, When mine eyelids close in death, When I soar through tracks unknown, See Thee on Thy judgment throne, Rock of Ages ! cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee. TOPLADY, 1776. Remission of sins. HERE is a fountain fill'd with blood, Drawn from Emmanuel's veins ; And sinners plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains. T The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in his day ; And there have I, as vile as he, Wash'd all my sins away. Dear dying Lamb ! Thy precious Blood Shall never lose its power, Till all the ransomed Church of God Be saved, to sin no more. E'er since, by faith, -I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, And shall be till I die. THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS. Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I'll sing Thy power to save, When this poor lisping, stammering tongue, Lies silent in the grave. Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared, Unworthy though I be, For me a blood-bought free reward, A golden harp for me : 'Tis strung, and tuned for endless years, And form'd by power divine, To sound in God the Father's ears, No other name but Thine. COWPER, 1779. 60 Forgiveness. JESUS, Lover of my soul ! Let me to Thy bosom fly, While the nearer waters roll, While the tempest still is high ! Hide me, O my Saviour hide, Till the storm of life is past ; Safe into the haven guide ; O receive my soul at last ! Other refuge have I none ; Hangs my helpless soul on Thee, Leave, ah ! leave me not alone ; Still support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is stay'd ; All my help from Thee I bring ; Cover my defenceless head With the shadow of Thy wing ! THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. Plenteous grace with Thee is found, — Grace to pardon all my sin ; Let the healing streams abound — Make and keep me pure within, Thou of life the Fountain art, Freely let me take of Thee ; Spring Thou up within my heart — Rise to all eternity ! CHARLES WESLEY, 1740. (31 I believe in the resurrection of the body. T SHALL not in the grave remain, Since Thou death's bonds hast severed, But hope with Thee to rise again, From fear of death delivered. I hope to find Thee where Thou art, Dwell with Thee, from Thee never part, Therefore to die is rapture. And so to Jesus Christ I go, My longing arms extending, So fall asleep in slumber deep, Slumber that knows no ending, Till Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Shall ope the gate and point the road To life and bliss eternal. HEERMANN, a.d. 1561. To Thee, O Lord, I yield my spirit, Who break'st in love this mortal chain, My life I but from Thee inherit, And death becomes my chiefest gain ; In Thee I live, in Thee I die, Content, for Thou art ever nigh, NEUMARK, 1621-1681. THE RESURRECTION. THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. ^9 I believe in the resurrection of the body. o SORROW ! now cease thy lamenting ; Ye mothers be doleful no more ; De a th leads to the home of the deathless, Your hostages death will restore. What mean your stones hollowed and sculp- tured ? What mean all your monuments fair ? They tell you, you trust to their keeping, What goes into sleep, not despair. That body bereft of its spirit, Which wrapt in its rest you deplore, Though empty awhile and forsaken, Will claim its bright tenant once more. For swiftly will roll on the ages ; New warmth in those ashes will glow ; And wandering through its old channels, The life-blood will pulsating flow. Those bodies laid under their tombstones, All mouldering into decay ; Restored to their glorified spirits, Will soar into infinite day ; So lives the dry seedling that blossoms, Long dead, and deep buried in earth, When out from the clod, it remembers To burst up anew into birth. THE LIFE EVERLASTEXG. O Earth ! ope thy bosom, receivii This dust to thy tender embrace ; Tis noble, though lowly and shattered ; 'Tis Man's, O then give it a place. That dust was the home of a spirit Infused by the breath of the Lord ; The thought that once sparkled within it Christ woke by the power of His wv Then cover the sacred deposit, Its Maker can never forget ; His likeness It bears ; He will own it, And He will inquire for it yet. Haste, haste ! O ye times of requital When Hope will be weary no more ; The form I lay low in thy keeping Earth ! thou art bound to restore. PRUDENTOJS, d. 424. KATH : X. fj^ What are these vrhich are arrayed in white robes ? TTOW bright these glorious spirits shine ! Whence all their white array ? How came they to the blissful seats Of everlasting day ? Lo !^ these are they from surY 'rings great. Who came to realms of light, And in the blood of Christ have wash'd Those robes which shine so brierht. 64 LIFE ETERNAL. Now, with triumphal palms, they stand Before the throne on high, And serve the God they love, amidst The glories of the sky. His presence fills each heart with joy, Tunes ev'ry mouth to sing ; By day, by night, the sacred courts With glad hosannahs ring. Hunger and thirst are felt no more, Nor suns with scorching ray ; God is their sun, whose cheering beams Diffuse eternal day. The Lamb which dwells amidst the throne, Shall o'er them still preside ; Feed them with nourishment divine, And all their footsteps guide. Mong pastures green he'll lead His flock, Where living streams appear ; And God the Lord from ev'ry eye Shall wipe off ev'ry tear. WATTS & CAMERON, 1781. Songs of Angels. R' OUND His throne, the choirs of angels Stand and sing their Maker's praise ; * See the King,' in all ' His beauty,' And aloud His glories raise. LIFE ETERNAL. Hark ! they join with harps and timbrels, Wing'd, or resting in the sky, Robed in brightness, chanting, chiming, Worshipping the Trinity. Hear them singing : ' Holy ! Holy ! Holy !' — as these accents rise, Sorrow far, and pain and weeping, Flee that city of the skies. Sweet to hear their voices blending, All to praise their God above ! Sweet to see their hearts all rising, In one flame of holy love ! While, unveiled beneath the glory Of the blessed Trinity, Wond'ring, lost, they gaze in worship On that awful Majesty. Fired with ardour never dying, All the Seraphim adore, And the Cherubim deep musing Sing His honour evermore. Oh those seats of bliss and glory, And those myriads bright and fair ! Choirs of men, and choirs of angels ! Oh how joyful to be there ! Glorious city, I would hail thee ! Bright abode of rest, on high ! Light and peace for all thy people, Flood thy streets, and fill thy sky. LIFE ETERNAL. 64 Every dweller in that city Shines in robes all chaste and fair ; With the law of love complying, All one badge of union bear. There none toil, in doubt or darkness, None are tempted, none distressed ; All are healed, and saved, and joyful, Heirs of all, of God possessed ! THOMAS A'KEMPIS, 1380-1471. END OF PART FIRST, PART II SONGS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. SONGS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 65 M CHRISTIAN LIFE. Y Life ! Fount of my being ! All joy Thou makest mine ; Life, without which I perish, Joy, without which I pine. Thou Life of lives, most loving ! Come nigh and live in me ; That I of self all-weary, May find my all in Thee. Almighty Life where art Thou ? ' Come nigh,' my faint soul cries ; On thoughts of Thee it liveth, But without Thee it dies. Thy voice I hear, and quickly, Life cometh back to me ; But when Thy face Thou hidest, I hear, but cannot see. Lord hast Thou said that no one, Can live who seeth Thee ? then, behold me willing, To die that I may see. If I but see by dying, My heart in death would cry : 1 'Tis better far to see Thee, And so, I long to die.' AUGUSTINE, b. 354, d. 430. 66 REPENTANCE UNTO LITE. PENITENCE. ^RUE life within me was not, A When I was far from Thee ; My soul benumbed and blinded, Slept listlessly in me. My foes ! they drew me downward, Yet strange, I did not grieve. Ah me ! my soul was wounded, Yet I did not perceive. True life within me was not, For I was far from Thee ; Sins were the foes that thralled me, And took their will of me. They stripped me bare, despoiling, Defiling, piercing me ; They buffeted and slew me, For I was far from Thee. My Lord ! my Life, my Buckler, My solace in my woes, My God, my Hope, my Courage, O save me from my foes. Rise ! let them flee before Thee, They hate both Thee and me ; Drive them as smoke is driven, Then I will live in Thee. 67 PENITENCE. They took the robe that clothed me, Nor was it mine but Thine ; Under their feet they trod me, Foul spoilers of Thy shrine. A blinded slave they bound me, I followed in their train, Naked, where'er they drew me, I hugged and dragged my chain. O Word divine ! for shelter I come, I cleave to Thee; For whensoe'er I leave Thee, Life dies away in me. AUGUSTINE, b. 354-470. Return unto the Lord thy God. pOME, let us to the Lord our God ^ With contrite hearts return ; Our God is gracious, nor will leave The desolate to mourn. His voice commands the tempest forth, And stills the stormy wave ; And, though His arm be strong to smite, 'Tis also strong to save. Long hath the night of sorrow reign'd ; The dawn shall bring us light ; God shall appear, and we shall rise With gladness in His sight. FAITH. Our hearts, if God we seek to know, Shall know Him, and rejoice ; His coming like the morn shall be, Like morning songs His voice. As dew upon the tender herb, Diffusing fragrance round ; As showers that usher in the spring, And cheer the thirsty ground, So shall His presence bless our souls, And shed a joyful light ; That hallow'd morn shall chase away The sorrows of the night. JOHN MORRISON, 1770. 68 Buy without money. JUST as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come ! Just as I am, and waiting not To rid my soul of one dark blot, To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come ! Just as I am, though tossed about With many a conflict, many a doubt, Fightings and fears, within, without, O Lamb of God, I come ! FAITH. Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind ; Sight, riches, healing of the mind, Yea, all I need, in Thee to find, Lamb of God, I come ! Just as I am, Thou wilt receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve, Because Thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come ! Just as I am, Thy love unknown Has broken every barrier down ; Now, to be Thine, yea, Thine alone, O Lamb of God, I come ! CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT, i8 4 r. 69 Look unto Me and be ye saved. i\ /TY faith looks up to Thee, 1V1 Thou Lamb of Calvary, Saviour divine : Now hear me while I pray ; Take all my guilt away ; O let me from this day Be wholly Thine ! May Thy rich grace impart Strength to my fainting heart, My zeal inspire ! As Thou hast died for me, O may my love to Thee Pure, warm, and changeless be, A living fire. 70 FAITH. While life's dark maze I tread, And griefs around me spread, Be Thou my Guide ! Bid darkness turn to day, Wipe sorrow's tears away, Nor let me ever stray From Thee aside. When ends life's transient dream, When death's cold sullen stream Shall o'er me roll ; Blest Saviour ! then, in love, Fear and distrust remove ; O bear me safe above, A ransom'd soul ! RAY PALMER, 1830. The Master is come and calleth thee. T HEARD the voice of Jesus say, A ' Come unto Me and rest ; ' Lay down, thou weary one, lay down 'Thy head upon My breast !' I came to Jesus as I was, Weary, and worn, and sad ; I found in Him a resting-place, And He has made me glad. I heard the voice of Jesus say, ' Behold ! I freely give The living water ; thirsty one, Stoop down, and drink, and live ! ' HE FIRST LOVED US. I came to Jesus, and I drank Of that life-giving stream ; My thirst was quench'd, my soul revived, And now I live in Him. I heard the voice of Jesus say, ' I am this dark world's light ; Look unto Me, thy morn shall rise, And all thy day be bright.' I look'd to Jesus, and I found In Him, my star, my sun ; And in that light of life I'll walk, Till travelling days are done. BONAR, 1857. 71 Dying Love. -\r~E rocks of marble ! melt and weep, * Ye frowning rocks, relenting, Ye stars, that gild the azure deep, Ye winds ! join all lamenting ; The King of Glory from above, Comes down to bleed, and die of love O weep all men ! drop tears like dew ; Be love by grief attended, A flowing stream, love claims from you, Of blood with weeping blended ; Lo ! for the lost, His love to prove, He came, He died of grief and love, 71 DYING LOVE. Oh, who that mighty love can tell, In cruel anguish crying, The gazing-stock of earth and hell, Bleeding, atoning, dying ! Who could have dreamt of love so high, — That God, for man, should deign to die ! Pour forth your plenteous flood, mine eyes ! To see that Sufferer languish ; And Memory ! wake to sighs and cries, For sins that caused such anguish : This tribute to such love and woe, God claims from all who dwell below. O mighty love ! beyond compare, Behold in Jesus dying ; Ah ! grief beyond all grief was there To God in anguish crying ; For grief and love both winged the dart, That struck and pierced that bleeding heart. Daughter of Zion, forth, and mourn ! The Son of man beholding ; Thorns for a diadem, in scorn, His bleeding head enfolding ; From weeping thou may'st not refrain, Thy Bridegroom has been pierced and slain. My soul ! see Love in matchless power, Thy death as Surety sharing ; See matchless sorrow in that hour, Thy crushing burden bearing : If tears own not such love divine, A heart all-brutish must be thine. ANON., Sixteenth Century. 12 LOVE CALLED IN QUESTION. Lovest thou Me? IT ARK, my soul ! it is the Lord ; *■*■ Tis thy Saviour, hear His word ; Jesus speaks, and speaks to thee, — ' Say, poor sinner, lovest thou Me? I delivered thee, when bound, And, when bleeding, healed thy wound ; Sought thee wandering, set thee right, Turned thy darkness into light. 1 Can a woman's tender care Cease towards the child she bare ? * Yes ! she may forgetful be, Yet will I remember thee. Mine is an unchanging love, Higher than the heights above, Deeper than the depths beneath, Free and faithful, strong as death. ' Thou shalt see My glory soon, When the work of grace is done ; Partner of My throne shalt be ; — Say, poor sinner, lovest thou Me ?' Lord it is my chief complaint, That my love is weak and faint ; Yet I love Thee, and adore ; Oh for grace to love Thee more ! COWPER, 1779. 73 A' LOVE TO CHRIST. LL-HOLY Jesus ! mine Thou art, Smit with Thy love, my bleeding heart Would breathe its secret in Thine ear ; Stoop Jesus from Thy throne, and hear. These shackles burst, of sense and sin, Which bind and burden all within, That to Thy blessed presence I May spread my happy wings and fly. O teach my whole soul more and more, To burn with love and to adore ; Till from the snares of sense set free, She find supreme delight in Thee. Be Thou my bliss, without alloy ; My highest hope, my deepest joy, What most I love beneath the skies, Compared with Thee, let me despise. Yea, let me count all things as vile, That would my heart from Thee beguile. Whether the sun gild all below, Making the realms of ether glow ; Or night her starry vigils keep, While I am wrapt in balmy sleep ; Whether in peace I dwell at home, Or far abroad my footsteps roam ; Still let my winged soul be free To soar, and sing, and call on Thee ; To hail Thy will, to wait Thy call, Happy in Thee her All in all. M. A. FLAMINIUS, 1550. 74 LOVE TO CHRIST. /^vBJECT of my first desire, ^ Jesus, crucified for me ; All to happiness aspire, Only to be found in Thee : Thee to please, and Thee to know Constitute our bliss below : Thee to see, and Thee to love, Constitute our bliss above. Lord ! it is not life to live, If Thy presence Thou deny : Lord ! if Thou Thy presence give, 'Tis no longer death to die. Source and Giver of repose, Singly from Thy smile it flows : Peace and happiness are Thine ; Mine they are, if Thou are mine. Whilst I feel Thy love to me, Every object teems with joy ; Here, O may I walk with Thee, Then, into Thy presence die ! Let me but Thyself possess, Total sum of happiness ! Real bliss I then shall prove, Heaven below, and heaven above. TOPLADY, 1740-1778. LOVE TO JESUS. n K Our Lord's passion. 1 \ 7HO will send me, who will lend me, Like a dove, wings for my soul ? Mounting, singing, swiftly winging, I would make the Cross my goal, There was Jesus, to release us, Nailed, the gazing-stock of hell ; God's Elected, long expected, Craved by all on earth who dwell. Upward flying, soul undying ! Sound the depths of love divine ; Jesus guide me, deeply hide me In those sacred wounds of Thine. Through life's stages, Rock of Ages ! In Thy lofty clefts me lay ; There abiding, resting, hiding, All my griefs shall pass away. God and Brother ! Holy Lover ! Didst Thou bleed and die for me ? For my wretched soul rejected, Wast Thou nailed upon that tree ? When the dying thief was crying, Wert Thou raised for him on high Oh ! life-giving, ever-living Lamb, for me didst Thou not die ! Life were fameless, life were aimless, Jesus, if I loved not Thee : For her treasure, without measure, At that Cross Love paid for me. LOVE TO GOD. Blessed ever, fainting never, Be the love that nerves my heart ; All-surmounting, bravely counting As a dream, Death and his dart. Love first framed me, and then claimed me, When I lay, undone, unblest ; Love all-glorious, all-victorious, Light thy fire within my breast. Fill with glowing overflowing Love to Thee, this heart of mine ; Jesus ! own me, claim me, throne me, Living, dying, ever Thine ! Before the Fifceenth Century, nn Seek those things that are above. r*0 up, go up, my heart, ^ Dwell with thy God above ; For here thou canst not rest, Nor here give out thy love. Go up, go up, my heart, Be not a trifler here ; Ascend above these clouds, Dwell in a higher sphere. Let not thy love flow out To things so soiled and dim ; Go up to Heaven and God, Take up thy love to Him. LOVE TO JESUS. Waste not thy precious stores On creature-love below ; To God that wealth belongs, On Him that wealth bestow. Go up, reluctant heart, Take up thy rest above ; Arise, earth-clinging thoughts ; Ascend my lingering love ! BONAR, 1856. 7 ( Constraining love of Christ. C\ God let not my love to Thee, Be only that Thou savest me ; Or that the souls Thy love who spurn, Are doomed in penal fire to burn. Jesus ! Thine arms encompassed me, When Thou wast stretched upon the tree ; The nails, the spear, the bitter scorn, All for my rescue Thou hast borne. Ah ! Thou didst bear unnumbered woes, And wrongs and anguish from Thy foes ; Yea, and the curse of death for me, From endless woe to set me free. Oh where then should my love find rest, But in Immanuel, holy, blest ; Not only in Thy mercies given — Escape from hell or hope of heaven : 78 LOVE TO GOD. But as Thou first hast loved me, My love will rest alone in Thee ; My God ! my King ! for what Thou art, Thine be the love of all my heart. We love Him because He first loved us. o God my love goes forth to Thee, Because Thou first hast loved me ; Bound by this chain my soul is free, Thy captive glad to follow Thee. Let Memory ne'er recall a thought That is not with Thy glory fraught ; Let Reason seeking Wisdom be Inspired with thoughts alone of Thee. Let no desire my bosom fill, Save but to know what is Thy will ; The precious gifts Thou hast made mine, I render back as wholly Thine. Accept what came from Thine own hand, Let them be all at Thy command ; Thy will be mine, my heart be Thine, Thou Lover of my soul, divine. O grant but this, Thy love to me, That I may give my love to Thee ; This gift my all I shall esteem, And count all else an idle dream. FRANCIS XAVIER, 1506-1552. TRUST IN GOD >S GUIDANCE. 79 Ps. cv. 39. W 1 HEX Israel, of the Lord beloved, Out of the land of bondage came, Her father's God before her moved, An awful guide in smoke and flame. By day, along the astonished lands, The cloudy pillar glided slow ; By night, Arabia's crimsoned sands r Returned the fiery column's glow. There rose the choral hymn of praise, And trump and timbrel answered keen, And Zion's daughters poured their lays, With priest's and warrior's voice between. But present still, though now unseen, When brightly shines the prosperous day, Be thoughts of Thee a cloudy screen, To temper the deceitful ray ! And oh, when stoops on Judah's path, In shade and storm, the frequent night, Be Thou — long-suffering, slow to wrath — A burning and a shining light ! SIR WALTER SCOTT, 1819. GOD OUR LIGHT AND KEEPER. SO oyj Light in darkness. T EAD, Kindly Light, amid th' encircling gloom, Lead Thou me on. The night is dark, and I am far from home, Lead Thou me on ; Keep Thou my feet ; I do not ask to see The distant scene — one step enough for me. I was not ever thus, nor pray'd that Thou Shouldest lead me on ; I loved to choose and see my path ; but now, Lead Thou me on ; I loved the garish day ; and, spite of fears, Pride ruled my will : Remember not past years. So long Thy Power has blest me, sure it still Will lead me on, O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till The night is gone, — And with the morn those angel faces smile, Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile. JOHN HENRY NEWMAN. CHRIST ALL AND IN ALL. Q 1 Blessed are they that seek Him with the whole heart. ART thou weary, art thou languid, ^- Art thou sore distrest ? ' Come to Me,' saith One, ' and coming, Be at rest' Hath He marks to lead me to Him, If He be my guide ? ' In His feet and hands are wound-prints, And His side.' Is there diadem, as monarch, That His brow adorns ? ' Yes, a crown, in very surety, But of thorns ! ' If I find Him, if I follow, What His guerdon here ? ' Many a sorrow, many a labour, Many a tear.' If I still hold closely to Him, What hath He at last ? ' Sorrow vanquished, labour ended, Jordan past !' If I ask Him to receive me, Will He say me nay ? ' Not till earth, and not till heaven, Pass away !' Finding, following, keeping, struggling, Is He sure to bless ? ' Prophets, angels, virgins, martyrs, Answer, Yes !' 'Dr J. Mason Neale's (b. 1818, d. 1868) translation from the Greek of St Stephen, 725-794. 82 CHRISTIAN COURAGE. Christian warfare. TV /T UCH in sorrow, oft in woe, **■ ^ Onward, Christians ! onward go ; Fight the fight, and, worn with strife, Steep with tears the Bread of Life. Onward, Christians, onward go ; Join the war, and face the foe ; Faint not ! much doth yet remain ; Dreary is the long campaign. Shrink not, Christians ! will ye yield ? Will ye quit the painful field ? Will ye flee in danger's hour ? Know ye not your Captain's power ? Let your drooping hearts be glad ; March, in heavenly armour clad ; Fight, nor think the battle long ; Victory soon shall tune your song. Let not sorrow dim your eye, Soon shall every tear be dry ; Let not woe your course impede ; Great your strength, if great your need. Onward then to battle move ; More than conquerors ye shall prove ; Though opposed by many a foe, Christian soldiers, onward go. HENRY KIRKE WHITE, 1806. F. F. MAITLAND, 1827. S CHRISTIAN COURAGE. GO Augustine's antidote against sinful compliances. ^pYRANT ! dost thou think to seize us ? All thy vaunting threats are vain ; Do thy worst ! the love of Jesus Mocks at all the power of pain. Sweet to kiss the cross ! defying Dread of pain my soul to move : Better dying than complying ; Mightier is the power of love ! Light your stake ! and let it crackle ; Let your galling lash be brought ; Bring the sword, the cross, the shackle, Love will set them all at nought. Sweet to kiss the cross ! defying Dread of pain my soul to move ; Better dying than complying ; Mightier is the power of love. Happy sorrows ! sweet afflictions ! Death comes once, and comes no more. Hail a thousand crucifixions ! All their pangs will soon be o'er. Sweet to bear those wounds ! defying Dread of pain my soul to move ; Better dying than complying ; Mightier is the power of love. PETER DAM IAN I, Eleventh Century. WA TCHFULNESS. 84 Cockcrow T HE bird that hails the early morn, Heralds aloud the coming day ; So Christ who stirs our slumbering hearts, Bids us awake to live and pray. Sleeper arise ! the herald cries, Shake off dull sloth, aw r ake and hear. All true, and pure, and watchful be ; Night passes and the day is near. 'Tis late to spurn your beds of down, When morn has gilded all the skies ; Unless the labours of the night, Of rest have robbed your weary eyes. The day of judgment. We hear the birds around our homes, Sing to the morn's first dawning ray ; So let us hear the Judge of all, And wait the coming of that day. Sunk in our slumber long and deep, And wrapt in shades of deepest night, He bids us leave our listless rest, To meet that day's all-piercing light ; As if it were some common morn, Casting its gleam athwart the sky, Flooding with hope the sons of toil, Who hail its sunshine from on high. Here, oft the sleep that comes and goes, Wears more the guise of death than rest, For sin like midnight, wraps us round, And lays its nightmare on our breast. But Jesus from above lets fall, His blessed voice upon our ear, To break our slumber and to tell, How night retreats and day draws near, WA TCHFULNESS. Lest life its weary course should run, In one long-slumbering round of sin, And lest the spirit sunk in flesh, Should reck not of the light within. 85 Simon Peter. 'Tis said that vagrant fiends which hide, And revel in the shades of night, Startled at cock crow, far and wide, Trembling betake themselves to flight. Where'er their dark retreat is tracked, The hated glimmer of the light, The near approach of grace or God, Scatter that baleful brood of night. Full well they know, that voice of morn Echoes the Master's faithful word, That thus our souls from slumber free, May hail the coming of our Lord. That bird can wake the slumbering heart, As Simon learned with grief and shame, Forewarned was he, that ere it crew, He thrice his Master would disclaim. The deed was done, before that voice Had hailed the morn, and done its part, To read its lesson to mankind, Or rouse and pierce that sinning heart. Ah ! soon those bitter tears flowed down, For words he never could unsay ; O'er fealty fallen low, he wept, Fealty — not lost or cast away ; For false or faithless word, again, That tongue outspoken ne'er beguiled ; He heard the warning bird, and back Appalled his bleeding heart recoiled. WA TCHFULNESS. 86 Motives to vigilance. It came to pass as we may know That as the dawn shot through the gloom, When that shrill bird sung out his strain, The Lord of life forsook the tomb. Then broken was the reign of Death, Hell bowed before all-conquering might ; Victorious day then took the sway, And so unsceptred Death and Night. Henceforth let deeds of darkness cease, Let low-browed Vice lethargic lie, Let Wrong and all her deadly brood, Sleep out their dream and droop and die. But let our spirits vigil keep And bravely labour on with might, While life's brief day holds on to shine, And till we reach the goal of night. Jesus ! we would Thy name extol Whether we pray, or watch or weep ; For if our cry ascend the sky, Our very cry will break our sleep. Too long in vain and wandering dreams, Has dull oblivion wrapt our clay, Drawing our spirits to the dust ; Now let our slumbers pass away. As dreamers we have spent our days, For when they pass in strict review, Their glory seemeth false and vain : To watch and pray alone is true. Our gold, our pleasure, and our joy, Our wealth, our honour, and our gain, Howe'er they bulk and shine by night, Morn dawns ; and then they all seem vain. CHRISTIAN WATCHFULNESS. O Jesus ! scatter all our dreams, And burst these chains of Night and Sin, Dissolve the guilt of all the past, And shed new sunshine all within. PRUDENTIUS, a.d. 348-424. 87 AGAINST THE DEVIL. IT ELP Lord ! and bid begone, That dark and savage one, Man's deadliest foe and bane ; Satan ! Why trouble me ? Guiltless of wrong to thee, Murderer ! begone amain ! Plunge in that deep of thine, Ma tt. viii. 32. And fill it with thy swine ; For thou hast learned the way ; Those depths, as thou dost go, Will hail thee from below ; So haste thee quick away ! From me, at least, take flight, Lest with the Cross I smite Thy head, and break thy spell : All things thrill with the shock Of its almighty stroke, Which shakes both earth and hell. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, a.d. 330, 389, Compose'd within six years of his death. VIGILANCE AND COURAGE. S3 Resist the Devil and he will flee from you. 1 T_T O ! thou comest, Prince of Darkness ! ■*■■*■ Yet thou comest curb'd and bound : From thy nether fires uprising, I can scent thy smoke around, By thy Dragon breath infected, Looming from the dark profound. 1 Fiend ! • the cross I raise against thee, Tis my life-guard and my sword, Tis the power this world that bindeth To the sceptre of its Lord. At this signal, cowering, trembling, To thy darksome realm descend ! God hath called me, and installed me As His servant and His friend. 'Wherefore then shouldst thou oppress me ? All thy labour is in vain, Know'st thou, that Jehovah-Jesus Died for me, and rose to reign ? . Murderer ! dread the engulphing waters, Where thy herd ran down amain. ' Once thy poisoned cup of pleasure, Thou didst mix for me of old ; And again the deadly poison, To my lips thou fain wouldst hold. Get thee hence ! back from thy presence, All within me shrinks and turns. Though my feeble flesh thou troublest, Yet thy touch my spirit spurns.' GREGORY OF NAZIAXZUS, a.d. 383. 89 WA TCHFULNESS. COCKCROW. Morning Hymn. ■pTERNAL God, who built the sky, -^ Benignly ruling night and day ! By bidding light or darkness fly, Thou dost our weariness allay. The herald bird now hails the morn : Lo ! he has watched the live-long night, And like some wayside lamp forlorn, Mark'd here the midnight, there the light. Waked by His voice, the star of morn Begins to clear the darkling sky ; Fiends prowling hear that piping horn, And scared, in troops adown they fly. The land-bound sailor hears the call, And sees the very waves grow tame. Simon, the Rock, raised from his fall, Dissolves in tears of grief and shame. Up sleeper, then ! and ope thine eyes, Eager to seize the rising day ; The shrill reprover bids thee rise, And chides thy drowsy dull delay. His voice brings hope, and quiets fear, Brings health where pining sickness lies ; It sheathes the midnight robber's spear ; It calls the fallen saints to rise. 90 DISCIPLINE. On fallen ones O turn Thine eye ; For in Thy look Thy power appears, One glance can make the fallen rise, And melt the tempted into tears. Sun of my soul ! shed down Thy rays ; Dissolve those dreams of Sin and Night, Be all within me stirred to praise And pay my vows, with all my might. To Thee, O Father ! and to Thee, Thou Son of God ! all glory be, With Thee, O Spirit ! One in Three, Now, and to all eternity. AMBROSE, Fourth Century. HYMN TO CHRIST THE SAVIOUR. Chorus of teachers, HTHYSELF, Lord, be the bridle ! These wayward wills to stay ; Be Thine the wing unwandering ! To speed their upward way ; ' The helm for youth embarking On the all-treacherous sea ! Shepherd of lambs ! Thou only, Their King and Leader be! O bring your tender young ones, To chant their hymns of praise, And holy hallelujahs, With hallowed lips to raise. 90 DISCIPLINE. Let them with songs adoring, Their artless homage bring To Christ the Lord, and crown Him The children's Guide and King. Chorus of pupils singing to the great Child-leader. Thou King of all the holy, Thou all-subduing Word ! Son of the Highest Father, All-wise, all-holy Lord ! Thou stay of drooping sorrow ! All-blest eternally ! Undying life Thou givest To men who weep and die ; Our husbandman and ' Shepherd/ Our ' Helm ' when floods arise, Our * Bridle ' to restrain us, Our ' Wing ' to cleave the skies. From raging seas of evil, Fisher of men divine, Thou lurest them from peril, By heavenly life like Thine. Lead, Holy Shepherd, lead us, Thy feeble flock, we pray, Thou King of little pilgrims ! Safe lead us all the way. In Thy blest footprints guide us, Along the heavenward road : Thine age fills all the ages, Undying Word of God ! 90 DISCIPLINE. Fountain of love o'erflowing ! Light of the world's dark night ! Working all good, Thou reignest, To do, and guard the right. That life, O Christ ! is noblest Which praises God the best, — A life celestial, nourished At Wisdom's holy breast. By her good nurture let us, Thy little ones, be fed ; And by her guidance gentle, Our wandering steps be led. O fill us with Thy Spirit, Like morning dew shed down ! And with our praises loyal King Jesus we shall crown. O be our lives our tribute, The meed of praise we bring ; When thus we join to honour Our Teacher and our King. Chorus of teachers and pupils united. Come, then, all-childlike, joining Our hymns, our hearts, in one, Sing peacefully and gladly To God's Almighty Son. Come ! all ye Christ-begotten, The God of peace adore ; All lowly-wise, one chorus ! And laud Him evermore. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, Second Century. THE DYING CHRISTIAN. Q1 The dying Christian to his soul. T^vEATHLESS principle, arise! -^ Soar, thou native of the skies ; Pearl of price, by Jesus bought, To His glorious likeness wrought ! Go, to shine before His throne ; Deck His mediatorial crown ; Go, His triumphs to adorn ; Made for God, to God return 1 Lo, He beckons from on high ! Fearless to His presence fly ! Thine the merit of His Blood ; Thine the Righteousness of God. Angels, joyful to attend, Hovering round thy pillow, bend, Wait to catch the signal given, And escort thee quick to Heaven. Is thy earthly house distrest, Willing to retain her guest ? 'Tis not thou, but she, must die ; Fly, celestial tenant, fly ! Burst thy shackles, drop thy clay, Sweetly breathe thyself away ; Singing, to thy crown remove, Swift of wing and fired with love. THE D YING CHRISTIAN. Shudder not to pass the stream ; Venture all thy care on Him ; Him, whose dying love and power Still'd its tossing, hush'd its roar, Safe is the expanded wave, Gentle as a summer's eve ; Not one object of His care, Ever suffered shipwreck there. See the haven full in view ; Love Divine shall bear thee through ; Trust to that propitious gale ; Weigh thy anchor, spread thy sail, Saints, in glory perfect made, Wait thy passage through the shade : Ardent for thy coming o'er, See, they throng the blissful shore ! Mount, their transports to improve ; Join the longing choir above ; Swiftly to their wish be given ; Kindle higher joy in Heaven ! Such the prospects that arise, To the dying Christian's eyes ; Such the glorious vista faith Opens through the shades of death. TOPLADY, a.d. 1740-1778 THE LIFE EVERLASTING. Q9 The life everlasting. CHOW me Thy love, Lord, by Thy light, ^ Shine down and clear my darkling sight Seen gifts bespeak unseen from Thee ; The loftiest in the least we see. Oh if this mortal sight descry Thy gifts in earth, in sea, in sky, In light, in shade, in dew, in shower, In bird, in beast, in fruit, in flower ; How vast must be the gifts in store Where I shall see Thee evermore ; Where in the holy Fatherland, Gifts come direct from out Thy hand. If in Thy prison where I dwell, Midway from heaven, midway from hell, Such goodness manifold I see, What in Thy palace must it be ? If bounties vast and rare as those, Are lavished here upon Thy foes, What countless gifts of boundless love, Await Thy loving friends above ! If in this day of sighs and fears, Such sweetness mingles with our tears, Oh how all grief shall flee away, When dawns the glorious bridal day. There without measure, without end, Thy gifts through ages all extend, Thyself the Gift to conquerors given, The Prize, the Joy, the All of heaven. AUGUSTINE. EVENING HYMN no Evening Hymn. QUN of my soul, Thou Saviour dear, ^ It is not night if Thou be near : Oh ! may no earth-born cloud arise To hide Thee from Thy servant's eyes. When the soft dews of kindly sleep My wearied eyelids gently steep, Be my last thought, — how sweet to rest For ever on my Saviour's breast ! Abide with me from morn till eve, For without Thee I cannot live ; Abide with me when night is nigh, For without Thee I dare not die. Come near and bless us when we wake, Ere through the world our way we take, Till in the ocean of Thy love We lose ourselves in heaven above. KEELE, 1827. 94 Morning Hymn. r\ FOUNT of day ! Lord ! Thou dost shine, ^ Arrayed in light — that robe of Thine ; When midnight's shadows pass away, 'Tis Thine to launch the rising day. That trembling star whose fainting light, Hovers between the day and night, Is not my hope, lit up afar ; Jesus ! Thou art my morning star ; 94 A VER Y ANCIENT MORNING HYMN My dawn, my endless day begun, My truest Light, my better Sun ! Whose beams their blessed radiance dart, Through the deep midnight of my heart. Jesus ! Thou former of the light, Thou image of the Father bright, If Thou Thy helping grace deny, My heart and flesh must faint and die. Thy blessed Spirit, Lord impart, The indwelling God — to fill my heart, Lest the dire foe should spread his toils, And take me in his treacherous wiles : Then, in my round of daily care, Under the earthly load I bear, Released from thoughts and deeds of ill, My heart shall bow to Thy sweet will. With thoughts all pure my heart inspire, To conquer every base desire ; That so this mortal frame may be A temple holy unto Thee. To hope like this would I aspire ; This is my soul's supreme desire, That Thou who art my morning Light, Shouldst be my Shield when comes the night. HILARY, Ob., a.d. 369. MORNING HYMNS. 95 ° u Morning Hymn vrow morning sprinkles all the sky, •^ And down the day glides from on high ; The bounding sunshine fills all heaven : The wiles of night away be driven ! Ye phantoms of the dark away ! Like midnight at the rise of day ; The gloom of guilt be all undone Like shades of night before the sun. That so that great and final dawn, To which our thoughts are ever drawn, May shine on us with sweet surprise, Even while our morning songs arise. Unto the Father, God of heaven, And to His Son be glory given, And to the Spirit evermore, One God — the God whom we adore, AMBROSE, b. 340, d. 397. 9 6 Morning Hymn, HTIIE star of morn is in the skies ; Then let our prayers to God arise, That*in our daily round He may From harm and error stop the way ; That He our tongue may bridle in, Hushing the bitter strife of sin, And, by His grace, may keep our eyes From feasting upon vanities, u MORNING. O suffer not this haughty flesh To lord it o'er our hearts afresh ; Let us by Godly fast beware, To curb and stint it of its fare ; That when the day's receding light, Gives place again to shady night, We may, from worldly passion free, Give all the glory unto Thee. Unto the Father, God of heaven, And to the Son be glory given, And to the Spirit evermore, One God — the God whom we adore. AMBROSE, b. 340, d. 397. 97 Morning Hymn r\ thou ! eternal Son of God, ^ Sharing Thy Father's throne and might, Thou art true God of very God, True Light Thou art of very Light. Night goeth, and the morn on high, Tinged with the gleam of rising day, Purples the solid earth and sky, Sweeping the shades of night away. But ah ! in shades of deeper night, , Prostrate our souls beclouded lie, Hopeless and sunk, bereft of light, Until Thy sunshine fill our sky. MORNING AND EVENING. Jesus ! our Sun, arise and shine, Shed all abroad Thy quickening ray, Dissolve our clouds by light divine, And turn our darkness into day. O let our coldness melt and flow, Bid wintry chill and death depart , Let spring o'er all Thy vineyard glow, And spread the joy of life athwart. Shed down from heaven Thy dew divine ! Wide over all our barren ground, Then shall that living seed of Thine, With fruit an hundredfold abound. GEORGE BUCHANAN, d 1582. 98 Evening Hymn. M AKER of all ! Thou God of love ! Ruling in earth and heaven above, Robing the day in garb of light, Hast wrapt in sleep the shady night, To give the weary rest awhile, To fit us for to-morrow's toil ; To give our drooping hearts repose, Dissolving all our griefs and woes. Thanks for the day, whose sinking light Foreshadows now the coming night ! Guilty, to Thee for help we fly, In hymns our voices lifting high. E VENING HYMN. To Thee our inmost hearts we raise ; To Thee our voices rise in praise ; To Thee our love would heavenward soar ; Thee all our powers of thought adore ; That when the darkness seals our sight, And closes round in deepest night, Our faith no gloom, no shade may know, But through the night her radiance throw. Let not our souls in slumber share, 'Else sin will sleep in ambush there : Faith be our sentinel in sleep ; Then shall our rest be pure and deep. O let our hearts, from sin set free, Dream in their inmost depths of Thee ! And let no dread of secret foes Ruffle the calm of our repose. Eternal Son ! we cry to Thee ; Father and Spirit ! One in Three, And Three in One, through ages all ; Almighty ! hear us when we call. Amen. AMBROSE, ad. 54Q-397 OO Morning Hymn. ^HE star of morn is in the skies, Let prayers and praises heavenward rise And may the uncreated Light, Shed on our path His sunshine bright. TO THE THREE-ONE GOD. Oh ! let no thought or deed of guile Our words misguide, our hands defile; Let truth all simple rule our tongue, And love our hearts — love pure and strong. And as the day fleets fast away, O Christ, keep watch o'er all our way, Our senses guard — the soul's wide gates, For there the foe in ambush waits. If Thou wilt keep our feet from snares, Our very toils will rise to prayers, Finding our great first cause in Thee, Thou too our great last end wilt be, Unto the Father, God of heaven, Unto the Son, be glory given, And to the Spirit evermore, One God, the God whom we adore, PARIS BREVIARY. C. COFFIN, d. 1749. TO THE THREE-ONE GOD. 1 r\r\ Eveniag Hymn. "V\ rHEN sinks in night that radiant sun, Still shine, Thou blessed Three-in-One Thou everlasting One-in-Three, O let us find our Sun in Thee, Thy praise we sing by morning light, Our prayers arise when falls the night : Oh, when night follows day no more, Thy Godhead we would still adore ! COCKCROW. Unto the Father, God of heaven, And to the Son be glory given, And to the Spirit evermore, One God, the God whom we adore. AMBROSE, a.d. 340-397 101 COCKCROW. Hymn introduced into many Breviaries, and selected from Nos. 84-86, w. 1-8, 81-84, 97-100. 'T'HE bird that heralds in the light A Crows loud to hail the rising day ; And from our sleep of Death and Night, Christ bids us rise and come away. Wake up ! ye slumberers, He cries, Sunken in sloth and earthly cheer ; And pure, and right, and wakeful, rise ; The night is spent, the day is near. Jesus ! Thy name be lifted high, By watchful souls that pray or weep ; Oh, let our cry ascend the sky, The very cry will banish sleep. O Christ, unbind the chains of Night ; Undo the guilt, the power of sin ; Scatter its slumber by Thy might, And shed new sunshine all within. To God the Father glory be ! And to His only Son, Most High ! And to the Spirit, One in Three ! Now, henceforth, and eternally. Amen. PRUDENTIUS, b. 348. VESPER HYMN FOR SATURDA Y EVENING. VESPER HYMN FOR SATURDAY EVENING. 102 /^REAT God ! unseen, Thou sit'st on high, ^ Jr In light concealed from mortal eye : With awe, bright angels Thee adore, Stooping and veiled, Thy throne before. Here, as beneath some midnight sky, Buried in darkness deep we lie ; Yet the glad light of ceaseless day, Will drive our gloomy night away. After this dark and weary night, That day will dawn, all fair and bright, In loftier skies, and fairer far, Than ever followed morning star ! Too long, alas ! O Day most bright, Thou dost delay thy blessed light : We long to drop this mortal clay,. And revel in thy beams for aye. For when we burst our bonds, and fly, O God of Light, above the sky ! Then shall we see Thee, as we soar, And praise, and love Thee evermore. Rich in Thy gifts, Thou Three- One God ! Oh make us meet for Thine abode, Meet, when this short-lived light is o'er To hail the Sun that sets no more. PARIS BREVIARY C. COFFIN, d. 1749. CHRIST OUR GUARDIAN. iA5 The Lord is thy Keeper. Evening Hymn. C\ CHRIST, Thy light brings endless day, And sweeps our gloomy night away : Faith claims and names Thee * Light of light/ Telling of day all blest and bright. O Holy Lord ! through all this night Guard us from danger by Thy might ; Make the hushed night our canopy, Where we may find sweet rest in Thee ; Lest some dread sleep should on us fall, Or the dark foe our soul appal ; Lest fancy lured by Satan's wiles, Should fall into his guilty toils. Let slumber seal our eyes in sleep ; But let our hearts their vigils keep ; Thine arms be round us and above, To guard the servants of Thy love. Watch over us in our repose, Scatter the ambush of our foes ; Let us Thy- blood bought servants be Ruled, as we are redeemed by Thee. Remember us Lord, day by day, Oppressed by this dull load of clay ; Our soul's Defence forever be, Come near ! and keep us near to Thee. Seventh Century. NEW YEAR. 104 A S the rapid year has sped, ■**■ Thou, my soul ! art speeding so ; It has gone into the past, — To the future thou must go. To the past Eternity Time for ever hastes away ; To the Eternity to come, Is thy grand and awful way. Glory not in mortal strength, Child of weakness ! in thy pride ; Ruthless, shrouded in his mask, Death, with Life, walks side by side. Boasting Life cries, ' I am strong ;' 1 1 am stronger,' Death replies ; Drops his mask, unsheathes his sword, And the boaster lowly lies. Give thyself to God my soul ! To be sheltered and forgiven ; By the blood of Jesus bought, Lay thou hold of life and heaven. Let thy years then pass and go, Thou dost seek a better way ; They but sink to endless night. Thou dost rise to endless day. x 105 AD VENT HYMN. Bid the pale-faced monarch hail, ' Come and welcome,' be thy cry ; Far above the milky way, Claim the future, climb the sky. Thine to rest when night has come But to work while it is day ; Then to leave the realms of night, And with songs to soar away. MODERN. ADVENT HYMN. HP HE Lord is born : all joy be ours ! Behold, the Rose of Sharon flowers ! To us the Virgin's Son has come, The King of kings, to find a home. All joy be ours ! the seers of old His joyful coming all foretold ; To us the Virgin's Son has come, The King of kings, to find a home. Rejoice ! He leaves the realms of day, To robe Himself in mortal clay; To us the Virgin's Son has come, The King of kings, to find a home. Rejoice ! the mighty foe is spoiled, Sinners redeemed, and Satan foiled ; To us the Virgin's Son has come, The King of kings, to find a home. JESUS THE HA VEN OF SAL V ATI ON. O God, Thy pitying grace bestow, And shield us from the infernal foe ! His birth we plead, who leaves the sky, For us, to be a man and die. Jesus, O lead us to the end, Eternal Comforter and Friend, Our God, our Brother-born, we pray, Lead us from death to endless day. From the Bohemian (Ancient). JESUS THE HAVEN OF SALVATION. J. UO Modern Spanish Hymn, ' "H\ARK and dread that sea, O sinner, Thou art swiftly passing o'er ; And thy soul, forecasting shipwreck, Dreads the surge, and dreads the shore. Seest thou not the signal shining, All that troubled sea across ? Light all lovely ! faithful beaming ; 'Tis our signal-light, the Cross ! Light all lovely ! faithful beaming ; 'Tis our signal-light, the Cross ! 1 Happy haven ! where, upspringing, Flows the stream of endless life ; Where in calm the soul reposes, Free from deadly storm and strife. O thou world ! I count thee tainted ; Homeward from the taint I flee. JESUS THE HAVEN OF SALVATION. Jesus, Thee I seek, sure Refuge For the soul that trusts in Thee ! Jesus, Thee I seek, sure Refuge For the soul that trusts in Thee ! After Thee my spirit longeth, All to wrap me in Thy love ; All to serve Thee and adore Thee, Lowly here, and throned above. Blighting age and death can never Reach that haven of the blest ; Rock of Ages ! in Thy shelter, Saved and crowned, the just shall rest, Rock of Ages ! in Thy shelter Saved and crowned, the just shall rest.' From the Spanish (1868). INDEX OF ENGLISH HYMNS. Italics indicate that the Hy7?in is translated into Latiti. A Child is born in Bethlehem, Aghast the tyrant racked with care, All hail the power of Jesus name, All holy Jesus ! mine Thou art, All ye who seek the Lord of love, Alpha and Omega ; Almighty ! A rt thou weary, art thou languid, As tlie rapid year lias sped, . Behold ! the sign has ceased to move Clap hands O ye heavens, Come let us to the Lord our God, Come TJiou long expected Jesus, Creator Holy Spirit ! come, Dark and dread that sea, O sinner, Day of anger ! sinners dooming, Deathless principle, arise I Departed, say zve? . Down from the realms of glory driven Ere the third day's sun had risen, Eternal God who built the sky, God moves in a mysterious way, God my all ! I trust Thee ever, HYMN 14TH Century, 35 Prudentius, 3° Perronet, 15 Antonius Flaminius, 73 Prudentius, 26 HlLDEBERT, 5 J. Mason Neale, 81 Anon., . 104 >, Prudentius, . 28 i6th Century, 47 Morrison, 67 C. Wesley, 17 Charlemagne, 54 Modern Spanish, 106 Thomas of Celano, 53 Toplady, 9i Robertson, 56 n, Paris Breviary, 23 iith Century, 46 Ambrose, 89 Cowper, 14 HlLDEBERT. 10 INDEX OF ENGLISH HYMNS. HYMN HlLDEEERT, . 7 BoNAR, . . 76 ist or 2D Century, . i God the Spirit, uncreated, Go up ! go tip ! my heart, Glory be to God on high, Great God ! unseen, Thou sit'st on high, Paris Breviary, Hail thou day through all the ages, . Hail ye the flowers of martyrs bright, Hark how that Infant's cries begin, . Hark, my soul! it is the Lord, Hark, the glad sound, tlte Saviour comes . Help Lord ! and bid begone, . Holy Spirit, God of Light ! Holy Jesus ! blessed Light, Ho ! thou comest, Prince of Darkness ! How bright tliese glorious spirits shine ! How sweet the name of Jesus sounds, I Jieard the voice of Jesus say, Impious Herod! wherefore tremble, It came to pass as we may know, Jesus, Lover of my soul ! Joyful from her earthy bed, Just as I am, witlwut one plea, Lead, Kindly Light, . Lo ! far from under Persic skies, Lord ; let some swifc-winged angel, Maker of all ! Thou God of love ! Much in sorrow, oft in woe, My faith looks up to Tltee, My Life ! Fount of my being, Now morning purples all the skies, Fortunatus, . 5 1 Prudentius, . 31 Prudentius, 39 CoWPER, 72 Doddridge, i9 Gregory of Nazianzus, 87 Robert ii. of France, 55 ist or 2D Century, . 2 Gregory of Nazianzus, 88 Watts and Cameron, 63 Newton, 16 BONAR, 70 Sedulius, 25 Prudentius, 86 Charles Wesley, 60 Adam of St Victor, . 48 Miss Elliott, . 68 John Henry Newman, 3o Prudentius, . . 27 Robert Boyd, . . 42 Ambrose, . . 98 K. White and Maitland, 82 Ray Palmer, . . 69 Augustine, . . 65 i6th Century, . 45 INDEX OF EXGLISH HYMNS. Now morning sprinkles all the sky. Object of my first desire, O blessed night \ O rich delight. O Christ, Thy light brings endless day, O come ! Emmanuel hear our call, Of all the cities of renown, O Fount of day ! Lord ! Thou dost shine, O God let not my love to Thee, O God my love goes forth to Thee. O in Zion ! peaceful city ! O sinner ! comes the day of doom, O sorrow now cease thy lamenting, . O Thou! eternal Son of God, . Redeemer of the nations, come, Rock of Ages I cleft for me, Round His throne the choirs of angels, Show me Thy love, Lord, by Thy light, Sing the Cross ! the conflict telling, . Sing to the Lord with joy and praise, So Moses, Israel's destined guide, Son of God ! Thy Father's equal, Sun of my soul I Thou Sa~. HYMN Ambrose, 95 Toplady, 74 15TH Century, 34 7th Century, . 103 iith Century, 18 Prudentius, 29 Hilary, 94 Xavier, 77 Xayier, 78 HlLDEBERT, 11 Prudentius, 40 Prudentius, 62 George Buchanan, 97 Ambrose, 49 Toplady, 53 - 64 Augustine, 92 FORTUNATUS, . 30 7TH or Sth Century, . 57 Prudentius, 32 Hildebert, 6 Keble, 93 The bird that hails the early morn, The bird that heralds in the light, Thee we praise all blessed Lord, Prudentius, Prudentius, Gregory of Nazianzi Tlie head tluzt once was crowned 'with tlior us, Kelly, The King's bright banners onward bear, Fortunatus, . There is a fountain filled with blood, Cowper, The Lord is born : all joy be ours ! . Ancient Be :-. Tlie Lord will come, tJte earth will sJiake, Heber, The star of morn is in the skies, . Ambrose, :- INDEX OF ENGLISH HYMNS. The star of morn is in the skies, Thirty winters has He numbered, This day, the king of days, heaven-born, This the faith is, true and holy, Thou Hope of all the lowly, Thou image of the Father bright, Thou needest not our feeble praise, Thou who didst build the starry sky, Thrice with wonder upon wonder, Thyself, Lord, be the bridle ! Tis said that vagrant fiends which hide, To Thee O Lord I yield my spirit, . True life within me was not, True, my fig tree has been barren, Tyrant ! dost thou think to seize me ? Well had those wise men from afar, . JV/ieti Israel of the Lord beloved, WJien I stirvey t/ie zuo)idrous cross, . When sinks in night that radiant sun, . Wherefore, O Most High and Holy ? Who will send me, who will lend me, . Why dost Thou so lowly lie ? Why seeks the sun around the sky ? . Ye rocks of marble melt and weep, HYMN Paris Breviary, 99 FORTUNATUS, . 37 Paris Breviary, 12 HlLDEBERT, 8 St Bernard, . So Ambrose, 4 Paris Breviary, 3 7TH Century, . 22 Hartmann, 24 Clement of Alexandria, 90 Prudentius, 85 Hermann and Neumark, 61 Augustine, 66 HlLDEBERT, 9 Damiani (from Anselm ?), 83 Prudentius, 33 Sir Walter Scott, . 79 Watts, 43 Ambrose, 100 13TH Century, 21 14.TH or 15TH Century. 75 Mauburn, 20 Prudentius, . 38 Mediaeval, 71 EDINBURGH '. CRAWFORD AND M'CABE, PRINTERS, 15 QUEEN STREET. LATIN VERSIONS OF SONGS OF THE CHRISTIAN CREED AND LIFE SELECTED FROM EIGHTEEN CENTURIES FIRST LINES AND AUTHORS Of English Hymns of which Latin versions have been given. A 11 hail tlie power 0/ Jesus' name, A rt thou weary, art thou languid, As the rapid year has sped, Come let us to tlie Lord our Goa, Come Thou long expected Jesus, Deathless principle, arise ! Departed, say iue ? God moves in a mysterious way, Go up I go up ! my heart, Hark, my soul! it is tlie Lord, . Hark, the glad sound, the Saviour comes ! How bright these glorious spirits shine ! How sweet tlie name of Jesus sounds, . I heard tlie voice of Jesus say, . Jesus, Lover of my soul I Just as I am, without one plea, Lead, Kindly Light, Much in sorrow, oft in woe, My faith looks up to Thee, Object of my first desire, Rock of Ages I cleft for me, Su?i of my soul I Thou Saviour dear ! . TJie head that once was crowned with thorns. There is a fountain filled with blood, . The Lord will come, the earth will shake, To Tliee O Lord I yield my spirit, When Israel of tlie Lord beloved, When I survey the wondrous cross, HYMN' Perronet, . i5 J. Mason Neale, . 81 Anon., 104 Morrison, . 67 C. Wesley, . 17 TOPLADY, 9i Robertson, 56 Cowper, 14 Bonar, 76 Cowper, 72 Doddridge, 19 Watts and Cameron, 63 Newton, 16 Bonar, 70 Charles Wesley, . 60 Miss Elliott, ^3 John Henry Newman, 80 K.White and Maitland , 82 Ray Palmer, 69 Toplady, 7 4 TOPLADY, 58 Keble, 93 Kelly, 44 Cowper, 59 Heber, 52 Hermann and Neumark 61 Sir Walter Scott, 97 Watts, 43 PARS PRIMA. FIDEI CHRISTIANAE CARMINA. FIDEI CHRISTIANAE CARMINA. "YMNOS 'EQGINOS. ^OSA EV VlpLGTOLQ 0fW, Kai ETtI J71Q Eipi)V11j Ev avOpwiroig evSok'ui, Alvovfiiv (Tf, El/XoyOW/UEV (T£, UpOGKVVOVJlEV (78, Ao^oXoyovfiiv (7£, Eu^apt(TTOU/U£V OOl, Aia TT7V jUE-yaArjv iog, v \v iv (J)(jjt\ tol TravTa KTtcrrjc, Kai Tl)v CLGTCLTOV l)Xr)V Sr/jayc, fiop(pojv elg koct/zov, Kat tt)v vvv zvKoaiiiav. ' Oc vovv l(j)(i)TLaag av^punrov AoyqTE Kal (jotyiq, Aa/unrpoTTiTOQ Trig avio Kat KaTO) Stlg UKOva, "Iva (pu)Tl j5Xiiry to Kai 7rpa£ac rac croi i\ag. 1 lva to (Tkotoq (jtvyovreg apoig, QiQ /ur) yXwaaav v/ULViodbv 'E7Tt 7roXv VEKpovaOai. Mi]T avTi(pii)vov ayyiXujv nAaayxa (tov i)GV\aZ,uv. Svv croi Se KOITH] evatfielg 'Evvoiac IraJ^krii), Mrjoa tl rwv pvirapwv 'H/ulpag vv% t\£yxy> Myi^I waiyvia WKrbg 'EvU7TVta OpOUTU)' Now? 0£ Kai GWfiarog ci%a 2oi, 0££, TrpoaXaXeLTO), Tw Flarpl, fcai rw Yiw Kai rio ayiio IIv£u/xaT7, Oil Ti/uLri, c)o£a, Kparog, Etc Tovg alCjvag. A/ul{)v. rPHropios"o eEOAoros, a.d. 330-390. Opera Parisiis, vol. ii., p. 290. XIV PROVIDENTIA DEL PROVIDENTIA. T^EUS opera molitur Mira, latens at sentitur ; Supra mare spatiatur, Alis turbinis vectatur. Condit sapiens ignota Sicut in thesauris vota Fulgida, mox prolaturus, Quicquid velit perfecturus. Fortes este O credentes ! Fundent pluvias faventes Gravidae benignitate Nubes, quas sic formidate. Dominum ne judicetis, Gratiam ne recusetis ; Fronte subter torva latet Risus, at fidenti patet. Mox proposita florescent, Protinusque maturescent ; Gemma reddet dulcem florem Acrem etsi det saporem. Errant Deo non credentes, Operantem nee cernentes ; Semet Ipse revelabit, Et obscura explicabit. COWPER, a.d. 1731-1770. NO MEN JESUS. NO MEN JESUS. XV Ad nomen Jesu omne genu se flectat. C ALVE Jesu ! forte nomen ! **-* Angcli vos adorate, Diadema ferte, Regem Dominumque coronate. Recordamini redempti Servitutis et peccati, Propria tropsea ferte, Dominumque coronate. Cunctae gentes tribus cunctae Adestote provocatae, Illi Numen assignantes, Dominumque coronate. O si liceat mi prono In cadis Eum laudare, Inter choros jubilantes, Dominumque coronare ! PERRONET, 1785. NOMEN JESUS. XVI Nomen quod est supra omne nomen, ESUS ! O quam dulce nomen, Fidis sonat felix omen ! Mulcet plagas et dolores, Omnes et fugat timores. J Pectus sanat sauciatum, Cor pacificat turbatum ; Manna est esurienti, Requiemque dat languenti. JESUS DESIDERATUS. Nomen Tuum est umboni Mi, rupique, Jesu Bone ! Est thesauro mi ingentis Gratiae Omnipotentis. Per Te Deo fiunt gratae Preces sordibus foedatae, Satan frustra me culpante, Sibi Deo adoptante. Pastor, Domine, Amator, Vates, Pontifex, Regnator, Vita, Via, Finis meus ! Audi laudes, O mi Deus ! Inter cantum cor languescit, Totus ardor, heu ! frigescit, At quum olim Te spectabo, Laudes dignius cantabo. Mi in orbe hoc terrarum Nomen Tuum erit carum ; Gaudioque dein ingenti O sit mihi morienti. JOANNES NEWTON. 1799. DESIDERATUS CUNCTIS GENTIBUS. XVII yENl Jesu ter Optate ! Ad nos liberandos nate ; A timore et peccato, Pacis Rex nos liberato. XVIII EMMANUEL EXOPTATUS. Tu spes omnium, Tutamen Israelis et Solamen, Gentibus Desideratus, Fidis cordibus optatus ! Veni, Magne Liberator, Infans nate, sed Regnator ! Regnum veniat supermini, Nosque regas in aeternum. Spiritus aeterni lege Solus nostra corda rege ; Tui meriti per donum, Tuum tolle nos in thronum. CAROLUS WESLEY, a.d. DE ADVENTU DOMINI. ttENI, veni Emmanuel! * Captivum solve Israel ! Qui gemit in exilio, Privatus Dei Filio, Gaude, gaude, Emmanuel Nascetur pro te, Israel. Veni O Jesse virgula ! Tuos hostis ex ungula, De specu tuos Tartari Educ, et antro barathri. Gaude, gaude, Emmanuel Nascetur pro te, Israel. XIX AD VENI US DOMINI. Veni, veni O oriens ! Solare nos adveniens, Noctis depelle nebulas, Dirasque noctis tenebras. Gaude, gaude, Emmanuel Nascetur pro te, Israel. Veni Clavis Davidica ! Regna reclude coelica, Fac iter tutum superum, Et claude vias inferum. Gaude, gaude, Emmanuel Nascetur pro te, Israel. Veni, veni Adonai ! Qui populo in Sinai Legem dedisti vertice, In Majestate gloriae. Gaude, gaude, Emmanuel Nascetur pro te, Israel. Saeculo decimo aut undecimo. REDEMPTOR VENIENS, T AETA vox ! venit Salvator, Exoptatus Liberator ; Omne cor sit Illi throno, Cantet quisque laeto sono. Ilium, Spiritus insignis Instar imbris, instar ignis Fusus, sanctum, sapientem, Fortem reddit, et ardentem. NATUS EX MARIA VIRGINE. Liberat Is vinculatos, Diro hoste laqueatos, Ruptae portae sunt ahenae Per Ilium, cadunt catenae. Venit umbras dissipatum, Mentis aciem purgatum, Ut in oculos caecorum Splendeat jubar cselorum. Laesa corda vult ligare, Mentes saucias sanare, Gratiaque salutari Pauperes locupletari. Laeta voce Te canemus, Pacis Regem Te laudemus. Resonare sic docentes Jesum caelos audientes. DODDRIDGE, a.d. 1755. BE NATIVITATE DOMINI. XX Loquitur peccator- IT EU quid jaces stabulo Omnium Creator, Vagiens cunabulo Mundi Reparator ; Si rex, ubi purpura Vel clientum murmura, Ubi aula regis ; Hie omnis penuria, Paupertatis curia, Forma novae legis. NATUS EX MARIA VIRGINE. Jesus respondit. Istuc amor generis Me traxit humani, Quod se noxa sceleris Occidit profani. His meis inopiis Gratiarum copiis Te pergo ditare, Hocce natalitio Vero sacrificio Te volens beare. Laudant fideles. O te laudum millibus Laudo, laudo, laudo; Tantis mirabilibus Plaudo, plaudo, plaudo ; Gloria, sit gloria, Amanti memoria Domino in altis ; Cui testimonia Dantur et praeconia Cselicis a psaltis. JOANNES MAUBURN, a.d. 1460-1502. XXI Jesus in Praesepio. A LTITUDO quid hie jaces, "**■ In tarn vili stabulo ? Qui creasti caeli faces, Alges in praesepio ? O quam mira perpetrasti, Jesu propter hominem ! Tarn ardenter quern amasti Paradiso exulem. JESUS NOSTER DOMINUS. Fortitudo infirmatur, Parva fit immensitas ; Liberator alligatur, Nascitur aeternitas. quam mira perpetrasti, Jesu propter hominem Tam ardenter quem amasti Paradiso exulem. Premis ubera labellis, Sed intactae Virginis ; Ploras vividis ocellis, Caelum replens gaudiis. O quam mira perpetrasti, Jesu propter hominem Tam ardenter quem amasti Paradiso exulem. Circiter quintum decimum saeculum. XXII De adventu Domini. /^ONDITOR alme siderum ^ Aeterna lux credentium, Christe Redemptor omnium Exaudi preces supplicum. Qui condolens interitu Mortis perire saeculum, Salvasti mundum languidum Donans reis remedium. A T OSTER DOMINUS. Vergente mundi vespere Uti sponsus de thalamo, Egressus honestissima Virginis matris clausula. Cujus forti potentiae Genu curvantur omnia, Caelestia, terrestria Fatentur nutu subdita. Te deprecamur Hagie, Venture judex saeculi, Conserva nos in tempore Hostis a telo perfidi. Laus, honor, virtus, gloria Deo Patri et Filio, Sancto simul Paraclito, In sempiterna saecula. Decimo saeculo. XXIII Habitavit inter nos, ■pULSUM supernis sedibus, Umbris tot annos obsitum, Caelestis ignarum viae, Errabat humanum genus. Caelestis en Rex curiae, Ut monstret ad caelum viam Secumque ducat exules, Se sponte fecit exulem. k EPIPHANIA. Se deviis praebet ducem, Vires dat ambulantibus ; Est ipse qua ducit via ; Quo ducit, ipse terminus. Deus, suprema Veritas, Umbrata velo corporis, Puris videnda mentibus, Lustra tuo nos lumine. E. BREVIARIO PARISIENSI. Epiphania Domini. AaIV Tria signa. '"pRlBUS signis Deo dignis A Dies ista colitur ; Tria signa laude digna Ccetus hie persequitur. Stella Magos duxit vagos Ad praesepe Domini ; Congaudentes omnes gentes Ejus psallunt nomini. Novum mirum, aqua vinum Factum est ad nuptias ; Mundus credit, Christus dedit, Signorum primitias. A Johanne in Jordane Christus baptizatus est ; Unde lotus mundus totus Et purificatus est. EPIPHANIA. Lector, lege ; a summo Rege Tibi benedictio Sit in cselis ; plebs fidelis Psallat cum tripudio. Amen. HARTMANNUS, ob. 924. XXV Epiphania Domini. Tria signa. TT ERODES hostis impie, ■ n - Christum venire quid times ? Non eripit mortalia Qui regna dat cselestia. Ibant magi quam viderant Stellam sequentes praeviam : Lumen requirunt lumine, Deum fatentur munere. Lavacra puri gurgitis, Caelestis Agnus attigit, Peccata quae non detulit Nos abluendo sustulit. Novum genus potentiae, Aquae rubescunt hydriae Vinumque jussa fundere Mutavit unda originem. SEDULIUS, a.d. 430. MAGI AB ORIENTE. CATHEMERINON PRUDE NT I I HYMNUS XII XXVI Magi ab Oriente venerunt. QUICUMQUE Christum quaeritis, \£ Oculos in altum tollite : Illic licebit visere Signum perennis gloriae. Haec Stella, quae solis rotam Vincit decore ac lumine, Venisse terris nuntiat Cum carne terrestri Deum. Non ilia servit noctibus. Secuta lunam menstruam : Sed sola caelum possidetis, Cursum dierum temperat. Arctoa quamvis sidera In se retortis motibus Obire nolint, attamen Plerumque sub nimbis latent. Hoc sidus aeternum manet, Haec stella nunquam mergitur, Nee nubis occursu abdita Obumbrat obductam facem. Tristis cometa intercidat, Et, si quod astrum Sirio Fervet vapore, jam Dei Sub luce destructum cadat. MAGI AB ORIENTE. XXVII SteUa ""ignis. En Persici ex orbis sinu, Sol unde sumit januam, Cernunt periti interpretes Regale vexillum Magi. Quod ut refulsit, ceteri Cessere signorum globi, Nee pulcher est ausus suam Conferre formam Lucifer. Quis Iste tantus, inquiunt, Regnator, astris imperans, Quern sic tremunt caelestia, Cui lux et aethra inserviunt ? Illustre quiddam cernimus, Quod nesciat finem pati : Sublime, celsum, interminum, Antiquius caelo et Chao. Hie ille rex est gentium, Populique rex Judaici, Promissus Abrahae patri, Ejusque in aevum semini. ^Equanda nam stellis sua Cognovit olim germina, Primus sator credentium, Nati immolator unici. Jam flos subit Davidicus Radice Jessaea editus, Sceptrique per virgam virens Rerum cacumen occupat. DONA MAGORUM. Exin sequuntur preciti Fixis in altum vultibus, Qua stella sulcum traxerat, Claramque signabat viam. XXVIII Obtulerunt Ei oblationee. Sed verticem pueri supra Signum pependit imminens, Pronaque summissum face Caput sacratum prodidit. Videre quod postquam Magi, Eoa promunt munera, Stratique votis offerunt Thus, myrrham, et aurum regium. Agnosce clara insignia Virtutis ac regni tui, Puer O, cui trinam Pater Praedestinavit indolem. Regem Deumque annuntiant Thesaurus et fragrans odor Thuris Sabaei : ac myrrheus Pulvis sepulcrum praedocet. Hoc, hoc sepulcrum, quo, Deus Dum corpus extingui sinit, Atque id sepultum suscitat, Mortis refregit carcerem. XXIX O sola magnarum urbium Major Bethlem, cui contigit Ducem salutis caelitus Incorporatum gignere ! HER ODES. Altrice te, summo Patri Haeres creatur unicus, Homo ex Tonantis Spiritu, Idemque sub membris Deus. Hunc et prophetis testibus, Isdemque signatoribus, Testator et sator jubet Adire regnum et cernere. Regnum, quod ambit omnia Dia, et marina, et terrea, A solis ortu ad exitum, Et Tartara, et caelum supra. XXX Herodes rex turbatus est. Audit tyrannus anxius Adesse regum principem, Qui nomen Israel regat, Teneatque David regiam. Exclamat amens nuntio, Successor instat, pellimur : Satelles, i, ferrum rape, Perfunde cunas sanguine. 'o Mas omnis infans occidat, Scrutare nutricum sinus, Interque materna ubera Ensem cruentet pusio. Suspecta per Bethlem mihi Puerperarum est omnium Fraus, ne qua furtim subtrahat Prolem virilis indolis. FLORES MARTYRUM. Transfigit ergo carnifex Mucrone districto furens EfTusa nuper corpora, Animasque rimatur novas. Locum minutis artubus Vix interemtor invenit, Quo plaga descendat patens, Juguloque major pugio est. O barbarum spectaculum ! Illisa cervix cautibus Spargit cerebrum lacteum, Oculosque per vulnus vomit. Aut in profundum palpitans Mersatur infans gurgitem : Cui subter arctis faucibus, Singultat unda et halitus. XXXI Mai-tyres infantes. Salvete flores Martyrum, Quos Lucis ipso in limine Christi, insecutor sustulit, Ceu turbo nascentes rosas. Vos prima Christi victima, Grex immolatorum tener, Aram ante ipsam simplices Palma et coronis luditis. Quo proncit tantum nefas ? Quid crimen Herodem juvat ? Unus tot inter funera Impune Christus tollitur. CHRIS TUS PRAEFIGURATUS. Inter coaevi sanguinis Fluenta solus integer : Ferrum, quod orbabat nurus, Partus fefellit Virginis. XXXII Christus praefiguratus. Sic stulta Pharaonis mali Edicta quondam fugerat Christi figuram praeferens Moses, receptor civium. Cautum et statutum jus erat, Quo non liceret matribus, Cum pondus alvi absolverent, Puerile pignus tollere. Mens obstetricis sedulae Pie in tyrannum contumax Ad spem potentis gloriae Furata servat parvulum : Quern mox sacerdotem sibi Assumpsit orbis Conditor, Per quern notatam saxeis Legem tabellis traderet. Licetne Christum noscere Tanti per exemplum viri ? Dux ille caeso ^Egyptio Absolvit Israel jugo. At nos, subactos jugiter Erroris imperio gravi, Dux noster Hoste saucio Mortis tenebris liberat. / CHRISTUS REX REGUM. Hie expiatam fluctibus Plebem marino in transitu Repurgat undis dulcibus, Lucis columnam prseferens. Hie praeliante exercitu, Pansis in altum brachiis, Sublimis Amalec premit, Crucis quod instar tunc fuit. Hie nempe Jesus verior : Qui longa post dispendia Victor suis tribulibus Promissa solvit jugera. Qui ter quaternas denique Refluentis amnis alveo Fundavit et fixit petras, Apostolorum stemmata. XXXIII Rex universalis. Jure ergo se Judae ducem Vidisse testantur Magi, Cum facta priscorum ducum Christi figuram finxerint. Hie Rex priorum Judicum, Rexere qui Jacob genus, Dominaeque Rex Ecclesiae, Templi et novelli et pristini. Hunc posteri Effrem colunt, Hunc sancta Manassse domus, Omnesque suspiciunt tribus Bis sena fratrum semina. NATUS DE VIRGINE. Quin et propago degener Ritum secuta inconditum, Quaecumque dirum fervidis Baal caminis coxerat : Fumosa avorum numina, Saxum, metallum, stipitem, Rasum, dolatum, sectile, In Christi honorem deserit. Gaudete, quicquid gentium est, Judaea, Roma, et Graecia, yEgypte, Thrax, Persa, Scytha, Rex unus omnes possidet. Laudate vestrum Principem Omnes beati, ac perditi, Vivi, imbecilli, ac mortui : Jam nemo posthac mortuus. PRUDENTIUS, a.d. 348-424. O -X.X.A.I V Adventus Domini TER foecundas, O ter jucundas Beatae noctis delicias, Quae suspiratas E caelo datas In terris paris delicias. Gravem primaevae Ob lapsum Evae, Dum jamjam mundus emoritur : In carne meus, Ut vivat Deus, Sol vitae mundo suboritur. NATUS EX MARIA VIRGINE. Aeternum lumen, Immensum numen Pannorum vinculis stringitur ; In vili caula Exclusus aula Rex caeli bestiis cingitur. In cunis jacet, Et infans tacet, Verbum, quod loquitur omnia ; Sol mundi friget, Et flamma riget : Quid sibi volunt haec omnia ? Quod in spelaeum Depressit Deum, O hoc amoris telum est, Astra valete, Antra salvete, Jam mihi stabulum caelum est. Decimo quinto saeculo. XXXV Adventus Domini. pUER natus in Bethlehem, Unde gaudet Jerusalem. Hie jacet in praesepio, Oui regnat sine termino. Is. i. 3 . Cognovit bos et asinus Quod puer erat Dominus. Reges de Saba, veniunt, Aurum, tus, myrrham offerunt. REDEMPTOR TRIUMPHANS. Intrantes domum invicem Novum salutant Principem. De matre natus Virgine Sine virili semine ; Sine serpentis vulnere De nostro venit sanguine. In carne nobis similis, Peccato sed dissimilis ; Ut redderet nos, homines Deo et sibi similes. In hoc natali gaudio Benedicamus Domino : Laudetur sancta Trinitas, Deo dicamus gratias. Quarto decimo saeculo. XXXVI Quomodo victus est Hostis. "DANGE lingua gloriosi Proelium certaminis, Et super crucis trophaeo Die triumphum nobilem, Qualiter Redemptor orbis Immolatus vicerit. De parentis protoplasti Fraude facta condolens, Quando pomi noxialis Morsu in mortem corruit, Ipse lignum tunc notavit Damna ligni ut solveret. NAT US ET MORTUUS EST Hoc opus nostrae salutis Ordo depoposcerat ; Multiformis proditoris Ars ut artem falleret, Et medelam ferret inde Hostis unde laeserat. Quando venit ergo sacri Plenitudo temporis, Missus est ab arce patris Natus orbis conditor Atque ventre virginali Carne amictus prodiit. Vagit infans inter arcta Conditus praesepia, Membra pannis involuta Virgo mater alligat, Et Dei manus pedesque Stricta cingit fascia. XXXVII Christus Moriens. Lustra sex qui jam peregit, Tempus implens corporis Sponte libera redemptor Passioni deditus, Agnus in crucis levatur Immolandus stipite. Felle potus ecce languet : Spina, clavi, lancea Mite corpus perforarunt, Unda manat et cruor : Terra, pontus, astra, mundus Quo lavantur flumine. CHRISTI CRUX. 37 Crux fidelis inter omnes Arbor una nobilis, Silva talem nulla profert Fronde, flore, germine : Dulce ferrum, dulce lignum, Dulce pondus sustinent. Flecte ramos arbor alta, Tensa laxa viscera, Et rigor lentescat ille Quern dedit nativitas. Et superni membra Regis Tende miti stipite. Sola digna tu fuisti Ferre mundi victimam, Atque portum praeparare Area mundo naufrago, Quern sacer cruor perunxit Fusus agni corpore. Quando judex orbis alto Vectus axe veneris Et crucis tuae tropaeum Inter astra fulserit O sis anxiis asylum Et salutis aurora. Sempiterna sit beatae Trinitati gloria, Aequa patri filioque, Par decus paraclito : Unius trinique nomen Laudet universitas. FORTUNATUS, a.d. 530-609. JESUS NAT US CATHEMERINON PRUDENTII.—HYMNUS XL XXXVIII UID est quod arctum circulum Sol jam recurrens deserit ? Christusne terris nascitur, Qui lucis auget tramitem ? Q' XXXIX Heu quam fugacem gratiam Festina volvebat dies ! Quam paene subductam facem Sensim recisa extinxerat ! Caelum nitescat laetius, Gratetur et gaudens humus : Scandit gradatim denuo Jubar priores lineas. Emerge dulcis pusio, Quern mater edit castitas, Parens et expers conjugis, Mediator et duplex genus. Vagitus ille exordium Vernantis orbis prodidit ; Nam tunc renatus sordidum Mundus veternum depulit. Sparsisse tellurem reor Rus omne densis floribus, Ipsasque arenas Syrtium Fragrasse nardo et nectare. Te cuncta nascentem, puer, Sensere dura et barbara, Victusque saxorum rigor Obduxit herbam cotibus. XL JESUS JUDEX ET REX. Peccator, intueberis Celsum coruscis nubibus, Dejectus ipse, et irritis Plangens reatum fletibus, Cum vasta signum buccina Terris cremandis miserit, Et scissus axis cardinem Mundi mentis solverit ; Insignis ipse et praeminens Meritis rependet congrua, His lucis usum perpetis, Illis Gehennam et Tartarum. Judaea, tunc fulmen Crucis Experta, qui sit, senties, Quern, te furoris praesule, Mors hausit, et mox reddidit. PRUDENTIUS, a d. 348-424- XLI Christi Crux. ^TEXILLA regis prodeunt, Fulget crucis mysterium, Quo carne carnis Conditor Suspensus est patibulo. Quo vulneratus insuper Mucrone diro lanceae, Ut nos lavaret crimine Manavit unda sanguine. PASS US SUB PONTIO PPLATO. Impleta sunt quae concinit David fideli carmine Dicens : in nationibus Resmavit a* ligno Deus * Ps. xcvi. 10 perperam inter- r pretatus. Arbor decora et fulgida Ornata regis purpura, Electa digno stipite Tarn sancta membra tangere. Beata cuius brachiis Pretium pependit saeculi, Statera facta saeculi Praedamque tulit tartaris. FORTUNATUS, a.d. 530-609. CHRISTI SUBSTITUTIO. XLII Dolores nostros Ipse portavit. TVJUNCIUS praepes mihi labra summo •^ Tangat e caelo volitans, reatu Tangat infectas gemino micanti Forcipe fibras. Te canam, lucis jubar ut resurget ; Te, breves quando jacientur umbrae ; Teque, quum praeceps teget ora mundi Lucida lampas. De Deo verus Deus, increatae Lucis aeternum jubar, ora vivus Patris ad vivum referens character, Alter et idem. Te, salus rerum, profugis receptus, Naufragis portus, miseris medela, Lumen extinctis, onerum levamen, Meta laborum ! CRUCIFIX US. Nos tui maestos hilarant pavores, Ora lugentum lacrimae serenant, Sanat afflictos dolor, ipsa vinctos Vincula solvunt. Languor infirmos reficit, fluentem Vulnus admotum cohibet cruorem, Nuditas nudos tegit, indigentes Ditat egestas. Squalidus, nudus, lacer, ora pallens, Obrutus probris, coopertus irae Fluctibus, clavis miseranda fixus Membra quaternis. Ipse cumprimis jacet orcus ingens, Ense confossus proprio, dolosam Dum crucis, rictu nimium furenti, Devorat offam. Hue ferar, quo nil penetrat malignum, Nulla fit voto mora, nil timendum Restat, hue sanctus mihi fervor alas, Christe ! ministret : Ut canam rerum Domino triuni Mentibus laudes meritas beatis Mistus, humano potiusque pangam Pectore carmen. ROBERTUS BODIUS, a.d. 1578-1627 XLIII CRUX MIRABILIS. tv/TIRABILEM videns crucem, **■*■*■ Qua Rex pependit gloriae, Lucrum meum damnum puto, Superbiam temnens meam. CHRIST! CRUX ET CORONA. Ut glorier, absit, Deus ! Si non de morte Domini ; Deliciarum omnium Jactura fiat pro cruce. Amor dolorque defluunt, (Amans dolor, dolens amor), Ex artubus pallentibus, Spinis caput cingentibus. Si totus orbis sit meus, Donum foret hoc parvulum ; Meipso, vita, mente, vi, Tantus amor dignissimus. WATTS, 1709. XLI V Gloria et honore coronatus. QPINIS caput coronatum ^ Gloria nunc est ornatum : Diademate nunc cinctus Triumphator olim vinctus. Summa sedes alti poli En est 1111 jure soli, Regum Regi sempiterno, Lumini cadi superno. Gaudium ccelicolarum, Gaudium terricolarum Est, quos gratia prehendit, Quibus gloriam ostendit. TERTIA DIE RESURREXIT. Crux amara crux probrosa En est illis gratiosa. Illis nomen est aeternum, Illis gaudium supernum. Hie cum Illo patiuntur, Illic regno potiuntur ; Ter felices meditari Et amorem admirari. Ipst, crux probro lethali, Suis vitae immortali Est, opum speique plena Est aeterna cantilena. THOMAS KELLY, 1769-1855. XLV Hymnus paschalis matutinus. A URORA caelum purpurat, "**■ Aether resultat laudibus, Mundus triumphans jubilat, Horrens avernus infremit : Rex ille dum fortissimus De mortis inferno specu Patrum Senatum liberum Educit ad vitae jubar. Cujus sepulchrum plurimo Custode signabat lapis, Victor triumphat, et suo Mortem sepulchro funerat, CHRISTI RESURRECTIO. Sat funeri, sat lacrymis, Sat est datum doloribus : Surrexit extinctor necis, Clamat coruscans angelus. Ut sis perenne mentibus Paschale Jesu gaudium ; A morte dira criminum Vitae renatos libera. Deo Patri sit gloria, Et Filio, qui a mortuis Surrexit, ac Paraclito, In sempiterna saecula. Decimo sexto saeculo. Brev. Rom. XL VI Christi Resurreetio. i\ /r ITIS agnus, leo fortis, 1V1 Triduanae somno mortis Excitatur hodie ; Inferorum fractis portis Nos consortes suae sortis Emcit et gloriae. Ad sepulcrum cum unguentis, Pari voto piae mentis, Accesserunt feminae ; Afferentes unctionem, Angelorum visionem Meruerunt cernere. RESURREXIT. Par accessus, amor idem ; Ad eumdem habent fidem Sub eodem nomine ; Lapis erat revolutus, Ouidam eis est locutus : * Nolite metuere. Festinantes ite retro ; Nuntiantes visa Petro Caeterisque propere ! Resurrexit vere Jesus ; Immortalis et illaesus Vivit jam in aethere.' Saeculo undecimo. XL VII Hymnus pastfbalis. pLAUDITE caeli ! -*■ Rideat aether ! Summus et imus Gaudeat orbis ! Transivit atrae Turba procellae ! Subiit almae Gloria palmae ! Surgite verni, Surgite flores, Germina pictis Surgite campis ! Teneris mistae Violis rosae ; Candida sparsis Lilia calthis I XL VIII RESURREXIT. Currite plenis Carmina venis, Fundite laetum Barbita metrum ; Namque revixit Sicuti dixit Pius illaesus Funere Jesus. Plaudite montes, Ludite fontes, Resonent valles, Repetant colles : Io, revixit, Sicuti dixit, Pius illaesus Funere Jesus. Decimo sexto (feeculo. TV/TUNDI renovatio ^- L Nova parit gaudia, Resurgente Domino Conresurgunt omnia : Elementa serviunt, Et Auctoris sentiunt Quanta sint sollemnia. Ignis volat mobilis, Et aer volubilis, Fluit aqua labilis, Terra manet stabilis, SEDET AD DEX7ERAM DEL Alta petunt levia, Centrum tenent gravia, Renovantur omnia. Caelum fit serenius, Et mare tranquillius, Spirat aura levius, Vallis nostra floruit ; Revirescunt arida, Recalescunt frigida, Quia ver intepuit Gelu mortis solvitur, Princeps mundi tollitur, Et ejus destruitur In nobis imperium ; Dum tenere voluit In quo nihil habuit, Jus amisit proprium. Vita mortem superat ; Homo jam recuperat Quod prius amiserat Paradisi gaudium. Viam praebet facilem Cherubim, versatilem Amovendo gladium. ADAM ST VICTOR, Decimo secundo saeculo. XLIX Propter quod et Deus Ulum exaltavit. ^crEXI Redemptor gentium, v Ostende partum Virginis, Miretur omne saeculum : Talis decet partus deum. n SEDET AD DEXTER AM DEI. 49 Non ex virili semine, Sed mystico spiramine Verbum dei factum est caro, Fructusque ventris floruit. Alvus tumescit virginis, Claustra pudoris permanent, Vexilla virtutum micant, Versatur in templo deus. Procedit e thalamo suo, Pudoris aula regia, Geminae gigas substantias Alacris ut currat viam. Egressus ejus a patre, Regressus ejus ad patrem, Excursus usque ad inferos, Recursus ad sedem dei. Aequalis aeterno patri Carnis tropaeo accingere, Infirma nostri corporis Virtute firmans perpetim. Praesepe jam fulget tuum, Lumenque nox spirat novum, Quod nulla nox interpolet, Fideque jugi luceat. AMBROSIUS, 340-397. JESUS MUNDI SALVATIO. Gaudium magnum quod erit omni populo. JESU ! spes pcenitentibus, Quam pius es petentibus ; Quam bonus Te quaerentibus ; Sed quid invenientibus ? Quum digne loqui nequeam, De Te tamen ne sileam ; Amor facit ut audeam, Cum de Te solum gaudeam. Tu mentis delectatio, Amoris consummatio ; Tu mea gloriatio, Jesu mundi salvatio. Mane nobiscum Domine, Et nos illustra lumine ; Pulsa mentis caligine, Mundum replens dulcedine. Jesum omnes agnoscite, Amorem Ejus poscite ; Jesum ardenter quaerite, Quaerendo inardescite. Veni Veni, Rex optime, Pater immensae gloriae ; AfTulge menti clarius, Jam expectatus saepius. BERNARDUS CLARIVALLENSIS, 1071-1153. SEDET AD DEXTERAM DEI, LI Hymnus paschalis. CALVE, festa dies, toto venerabilis aevo, ^ Qua Deus infernum vicit, et astra tenet. Ecce renascentis testatur gratia mundi Omnia cum Domino dona redisse suo. Namque triumphanti post tristia Tartara Christo Undique fronde nemus, gramina flore favent. Legibus inferni oppressis super astra meantem Laudant rite Deum lux, polus, arva, fretum. Qui crucifixus erat, Deus ecce per omnia regnat, Dantque Creatori cuncta creata precem. FORTUNATUS, Sexto saeculo. LII Venturas ad judicandos vivos et mortuos. ■p^EUS veniet ; trementes *^ Montes salient horrentes ; De polo stellae marcentes Collabentur pallescentes. Veniet, quantum mutatus Ab Illo ! qui judicatus, Silens, patiens, mactandus Stabat, agnus immolandus. VENTURUS AD JUDICANDUM. Veniet ! vestitus ira. Devolans, flammaque dira, Angelorum et ventorum Alis, Arbiter cunctorum. Idem Isne nos amavit, Peregrinus et lustravit Terram, fastu aspernatus ? Isne tandem perforatus ? Territi tyranni sontes Fissos tunc vocate montes ; Sancti sed surgent gaudentes, ' Venit Dominus ' canentes, HEBER, a/d. i8it. LIU Dies judieiL -pvIES irae, dies ilia *-^ Solvet saeclum in favilla, Teste David cum Sibylla, Quantus tremor est futurus Quando judex est venturus, Cuncta stricte discussurus ! Tuba mirum spargens sonum Per sepulcra regionum, Coget omnes ante thronum. VENTURUS AD JUDICANDUM. 53 Mors stupebit et natura Cum resurget creatura Judicanti responsura. Liber scriptus proferetur, In quo totum continetur, Unde mundus judicetur. Judex ergo cum sedebit, Quidquid latet apparebit, Nil inultum remanebit. Quid sum miser tunc dicturus ? Quern patronum rogaturus ? Cum vix Justus sit securus. Rex tremendae majestatis, Qui salvandos salvas gratis, Salva me, fons pietatis. Recordare, Jesu pie, Quod sum causa tuae viae, Ne me perdas ilia die. Quaerens me, sedisti lassus ; Redemisti crucem passus : Tantus labor non sit cassus. Juste judex ultionis, Donum fac remissionis Ante diem rationis. Ingemisco tanquam reus, Culpa rubet vultus meus ; Supplicanti parce, Deus. VENTURUS AD JUDICANDUM. 53 Peccatricem absolvisti, Et latronem exaudisti ; Mihi quoque spem dedisti. Preces meae non sunt dignae, Sed tu bonus fac benigne Ne perenni cremer igne. Inter oves locum praesta ; Et ab haedis me sequestra, Statuens in parte dextra. Confutatis maledictis, Flammis acribus addictis, Voca me cum benedictis. Oro supplex et acclinis, Cor contritum quasi cinis, Gere curam mei finis. Lacrymosa dies ilia, Qua resurget ex favilla Judicandus homo reus, Huic ergo parce, Deus. Pie Jesu Domine, Dona eis requiem. THOMAS DE CELANO, Decimo tertio saeculo. CREDO IN SANCTUM SPIRITUM. LI V Credo in Spiritum Sanctum. T 7* EN I Creator spiritus, v Mentes tuorum visita, Imple superna gratia Quae tu creasti pectora. Qui Paraclitus diceris Altissimi donum Dei, Fons vivus, ignis, caritas Et spiritalis unctio. Tu septiformis munere, Dextrae Dei tu digitus, Tu rite promissum patris, Sermone ditans guttura. Accende lumen sensibus, Infunde amorem cordibus Inflrma nostri corporis Virtute firmans perpeti. Hostem repellas longius, Pacemque dones protinus, Ductore sic te praevio Vitemus omne noxium. Per Te sciamus da patrem, Noscamus atque filium, Te utriusque Spiritum Credamus omni tempore. CAROLUS MAGNUS a.d. 742-814. SANCTUS SPIRITUS. LY Credo in Spiritum Sanctum. 'i 7EXI Sancte Spiritus, v Et emitte cselitus Lucis tuae radium. Veni Pater pauperum, Veni dator munerum, Veni lumen cordium. Consolator optime, Dulcis hospes animae, Dulce refrigerium : In labore requies, In aestu temperies, In fletu solatium. O lux beatissima, Reple cordis intima, Tuorum fidelium. Sine tuo numine Nihil est in homine, Nihil est innoxium. Lava quod est sordidum ; Riga quod est aridum ; Sana quod est saucium ; Flecte quod est rigidum ; Fove quod est languidum, Rege quod est devium. o CO MM UNI O SANCTORUM, Da tuis fidelibus, In te confitentibus, Sacrum Septenarium ; Da virtutis meritum, Da salutis exitum, Da perenne gaudium. ROBERTUS II., REX GALLI/E,. 997. DISC ESS I TAMEN PROPINQUI. Lt\ x Credo in Communionem A BISSE sanctos aiunt : ■"■ Distantne ? proximi Visunt magisquam linquunt Nostri carissimi. Et nosmet aegrotamus, Velumque ruptum vi, En ! inter illos stamus, Cessere num illi ? Stillat, Zion in monte Manans eorum ros ; Et ex eorum Fonte Rivus fluit ad nos. It oleum deorsum De Capite ad oras : Videmur ut seorsum, Stat tamen unitas. Per aequoris arenas, Per antra, unicus Aestus marinas aquas Volvit circumfluus. CO MM UNI O SANCTORUM. Christique semper ita In sancta pectora Fluit per orbem vita, Caelique litora. Salvete immortales ! Extra fores hie nos Nunc stamus, O sodales ! Intraque velum vos. Sed nubilum est velum, Ceu aura vitae sors ; Nobis est unum caelum, Et ubinam tu Mors ? W. B. ROBERTSON LVII MARTY RES. A ETERNA Christi munera ^~~*- Et martyrum victorias, Laudes ferentes debitas Laetis canamus mentibus. Ecclesiarum principes, Belli triumphales duces, Caelestis aulae milites Et vera mundi lumina. Terrore victo saeculi Poenisque spretis corporis Mortis sacrae compendio Vitam beatam possident Traduntur igni martyres Et bestiarum dentibus, Armata saevit ungulis Tortoris insani manus. REMISSIO PECCATORUM. Nudata pendent viscera, Sanguis sacratus funditur, Sed permanent immobiles Vitae perennis gratia. Devota sanctorum fides Invicta spes credentium, Perfecta Christi caritas Mundi triumphat principem. In his paterna gloria, In his voluntas Filius Exultat in his Spiritus, Caelum repletur gaudiis. Te nunc redemptor quaesumus Ut ipsorum consortio Jungas precantes servulos In sempiterna saecula. Saeculo septimo. LVIII Remissio peccatorum. DUPES aevum fissa quondam ■^ Pro me, memet in Te condam ; Sanguis et aqua sequentes Hastam, latere efluentes, Valeant contra peccatum Vim delere et reatum. Tota vi si laborarem, Coram Te culpatus starem : Ardor si non se laxaret, Fletus si nunquam cessaret, Haec nequirent Te placare ; Solus Tu potes salvare. RE MI SSI PECCATORUM. Mecum fero nil immundo, Crucem brachiis circumdo ; Te vestitum nudus oro, Inops gratiam imploro, Fontem adeo lauturus ; Si non laves, periturus. Dum haec vita est degenda, Mors quum adest, mox delenda, Super astra quum volaro, Et in throno Te spectaro, Rupes aevum fissa quondam Pro me, memet in Te condam ! TOPLADY, 177: LIX Remissio peccatorum QANGUIS en Emmanuelis ^ Fons est praeditus medelis ; Quo peccator emundatus, Sordes abluit reatus. Gaudens vidit hunc immundus Olim latro moribundus ! Illic mique licet stare Memet sordidum lavare. Crux, O Agne ! vim piandi Non amittet, aut lavandi, Donee Tui sint securi In caslo, non exituri. Ex quo rivum redimentis Vidi sanguinis fiuentis, Te cantavi, et cantabo Redemptorem, dum spirabo. RE MISS 10 PECCATORUM. Dein salutem canam ore, Carmine nobiliore, Quum sepulchro silet ilia Balba lingua, quam tranquilla ! Credo lyram Te parasse Auream, et Te curasse, Domine, ut et indigno Mi amoris esset signo. Est divinitus formata, Et in aevum modulata, Nomen ad Tuum sonandum Patre coram, et laudandum. COWPER, 1779. J LX Remissio peccatorum. ESU ! Animae Amator, Ad Te fugio, Salvator ! Rivo propius fluente, Aestum turbine ciente. In Te condar donee, vita Procellosa hac finita, Anima expers jacturae Portum capiat secure. Aliud asylum nolo, Pendens inops de Te solo ; Ne relinquas; Adjutori Mi sis semper, et Fautori. In Te mea tota fides, Inopem me Jesu, vides, Alis tegas caput, reus Oro Te, Benigne Deus ! CARNIS RESURRECTIO. Ipse pronus es nefandam Ad culpam mi condonandam ; Sordes flumen salutare Meas valeat lavare. Vita defluit Te sponte ; Ex Te hauriamque Fonte ; In me, sis Fonti scatenti Mi, perenne salienti. C. WESLEY, a.d. 1740. LXI Credo camis resurrectionem. "i 7INCLA Mortis Tu rupisti, * Nee sepulchro tradidisti Sempiterno, me sperantem Tecum surgere laetantem ; Assequar Te suscitatus, Metu mortis liberatus, Tecum esse, Te amare ; Mori sic est exsultare. Nam ad Jesum properabo, Supplex animam levabo, Diuturne dormiturus ; Nee e somno surrecturus, Donee, Jesu me ducente, Et fores aperiente, Vita fruar immortali, In urbe caelestiali. HERMANNUS, Ob: 1561 Tibi spiritum dementi, Vitae vinclum hoc rumpenti Trado ; Tuus sum, non meus, Vitam mi dedisti Deus ; Hanc libenter mi tradenti Erit lucro mors ingenti, Morienti seu viventi, Tarn felici, Te praesente. NEUMARKUS, 1621-1681 RESURRECTIO. IN EXEQUIIS NUFDECTORUM. LXII Credo carminis resurrectionem. JAM moesta quiesce querela, Lacrimas suspendite matres ; Nullus sua pignora plangat, Mors haec reparatio vitae est. Quidnam sibi saxa cavata, Quid pulchra volunt monumenta, Res quod nisi creditur illis Non mortua, sed data somno. Nam quod requiescere corpus Vacuum sine mente videmus, Spatium breve restat ut alti Repetat collegia sensus. Venient cito saecula, cum jam Socius calor ossa revisat, Animataque sanguine vivo Habitacula pristina gestet Quae pigra cadavera pridem Tumulis putrefacta jacebant, Volucres rapientur in auras Animas comitata priores. Sic semina sicca virescunt Jam mortua, jamque sepulta Quae reddita cespite ab imo Veteres meditantur aristas. VITA AETERNA. Nunc suscipe terra fovendum, Gremioque hunc concipe molli : Hominis tibi membra sequestro, Generosa et fragmina credo. Animae fuit haec domus olim, Factoris ab ore creatae ; Fervens habitavit in istis Sapientia principe Christo. Tu depositum tege corpus ; Non immemor ille requiret Sua munera fictor et auctor Propriique aenigmata vultus. Veniant modo tempora justa Quum spem Deus impleat omnem, Reddas patefacta necesse est Oualem tibi trado figuram. PRUDENTIUS d. an. 424. KATHEMERINON X., versus 117-120, 53-56, 33-44, 121-140. VITA AETERNA. LXIII ' ^ iui amicti sunt stolis albis— qui sunt ? NIMAE clare lucentes ! Unde sic fulsere ? Ad domos coelicolarum Quomodo venere ? A 1 Ex doloribus infandis Caelum adiere ; Vestes et nitentes, Christi Sanguine lavere. P VITA AETERNA. Nunc victores in triumpho Ante thronum clamant, Cantibusque laetis, Deo Serviunt quern amant. Corda gaudio, et cantu Ipse complet ora ; Nocte, die, caelum voce Resonat canora. Illis nee fames sitisve, Neque sol nocebit ; Illic Sol Deus aeternam In diem lucebit. Agnus medio in throno Illis est Rectori, Illis danti cibum caeli Duci et Pastori. Pecudes ad pastum ducet, Et fontes aquarum ; Ipso de genis tergente Guttas lacrimarum. WATTS ET CAMERO, 17S1 LXIV Cantus Angelorum. A STANT angelorum chori, ■^ Laudes cantant Creatori ; " Regem cernunt in decore, Amant corde, laudant ore, VITA AETERNA. Tympanizant, citharizant, Volant alis, stant in scalis, Sonant nolis, fulgent stolis Coram summa Trinitate. Clamant : Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus ; Fugit dolor, cessat planctus In superna. civitate. Concors vox est omnium, Deum collaudantium ; Fervet amor mentium, Clare contuentium, Beatam Trinitatem in una Deitate ; Quam adorant Seraphim Ferventi in amore, Venerantur Cherubim Ingenti sub honore ; Mirantur nimis Throni de tanta. maj estate. O quam prseclara regio, Et quam decora legio Ex angelis et hominibus ! O gloriosa civitas, In qua. summa tranquillitas, Lux et pax in cunctis fmibus ! Cives hujus civitatis Veste nitent castitatis, Legem tenent caritatis, Firmum pactum unitatis. Non laborant, nil ignorant ; Non tentantur, nee vexantur ; Semper sani, semper laeti, Cunctis bonis sunt repleti. A. KEMPIS, a.d. 1380-1471 PARTIS PRIM/E FINIS. PARS SECUNDA. CHRISTIANAE VITAE CARMINA. CHRISTIANAE VITAE CARMINA. VITA C HR IS TIA NA . LXV "\ TIT A, per quam vivo, sine qua morior; vita, per quam resuscitor, sine qua pereo; vita per quam gaudio sine qua tribulor : Vita vitalis dulcis et amabilis, semperque memo- rialis. Ubi quaeso es ? ubi Te inveniam, ut in me deficiam et in Te subsistam ? Prope esto mihi in animo, prope in corde, prope in ore, prope in auxilio ; quia amore langueo, quia sine Te morior, quia Te recolens sus- citor .... Ubi es absconditus, pulcher quern desidero ? Odorem Tuum haurio, vivo et gaudio ; Te autem non video. . Vocem tuam audio et revivisco. Sed cur faciem tuam abscondis ? Forte dicis u non vidcbit me homo et vivet" (Ex. xxxiii. 20). Eia, Domine, moriar ut Te videam. Videam, ut hie moriar. Nolo vivere volo mori; dis- solvi cupio et esse cum Christo. AUGUSTINI, Opera VI., 1263 (Gaume Parisiis 1837). RESIPISCENTIA AD VITAM. POENITENTIA. LXVI pUM fui sine Te, non fui : quia nihil fui. ^ Et ideo caecus eram surdus et insensi- bilis ; quia nee bonum discernebam, nee malum fugiebam. . . Vae mihi ! vulne- raverunt me et non dolui : traxerunt me et non sensi ; quia nihil eram quia sine vita eram . . . Domine Lux mea, inimici mei de me fecerunt quaecumque volue- runt ; percusserunt, nudaverunt, polluerunt, corruperunt, vulneraverunt et occiderunt me ; quia recessi a Te, et factus sum nihil sine Te. Heu Domine, Vita mea qui fecisti me, Lux mea quae direxisti me, Defensor vitae meae, miserere mei et resuscita me. Domine, Deus meus, spes mea, virtus mea, fortitudo mea, consolatio mea, in die tribu- lationis meae, respice inimicos meos,et eripe me ; fugiant a facie tua qui oderunt Te, et ego vivam in Te, per Te. Ipsi enim Domine consideraverunt me, et videntes me, sine Te, despexerunt me. Diviserunt sibi vestimenta virtutum quibus ornaveras me ; fecerunt sibi viam, viam per me, sub pedibus suis conculcaverunt me ; faecibus peccatorum polluerunt templum sanctum Tuum, posuerunt me desolatum et mcerore confectum. Ibam post eos caecus POENITENTIA. nudus et illaqueatus funibus peccatorum. . . Caecus eram Csecitatem desiderabam. Vinctus eram, vincula non horrebam. . . Adhaeream ergo tibi, Verbum ! ut conser- ves me ; quia ubi a Te recessi, perii in me. AUGUSTINUS, VI. 1268. LXVII Convertere, Israel, ad Dominum Deum. AfENIAMUS poenitentes v Coram Domino dolentes ; Ille clemens non negabit, Nee lugentes improbabit. Ventos evocat fu rentes, Fluctus et mollit tumentes ; Et si valet castigare Dextra, valet et sanare. Nox regnavit dolorosa, Dies autem ut formosa Deus veniet ; surgemus Gestientes et canemus. Dominum desiderantes Cognoscemus jubilantes ; Ille ceu jubar micabit, Dulciterque nos vocabit. 9 FIDES. Mane ceu ros super flores, Fundit undique odores, Sicut imbres ver ducentes, Mulcent agros sitientes ; Deus ita recreabit, Oriensque nos beabit ; Dies ilia radiabit, Noctis et luctus fugabit JOANNES MORRISON, 1770 LXVIII Emite absque argento. '"PIBI, qualis sum, O Christe ! Pro me vitam qui fudisti, Atque mi 'veni' dixisti, Talis adsum, Agne Dei ! Qualis sum, nolens morari, Unam maculam purgare, Tibi, qui potes mundare, Talis adsum, Agne Dei ! Qualis sum, metu turbatus, Et in dubio versatus, Pugnis, litibus jactatus, Talis adsum, Agne Dei ! Ccecus, inops, periturus, Cuncta sed in Te nacturus, Ut sim salvus et securus, Talis adsum, Agne Dei ! FIDES. Fretus Te recipiente, Abluente et tuente Me reum, mi ignoscente, Talis adsum, Agne Dei ! Qualis — O mirum amorem ! Duri cordis nunc victorem, Totus ut Te hinc adorem, Talis adsum, Agne Dei ! C. ELLIOTT, i8 4 j LXIX Respicite ad Me et servemini. 'X 1 E fides mea spectat, A Me tua crux allectat, Deus ! O mi Amator ; Te adeo rogatum, Ut deleas reatum ; Dehinc Tuum, beatum, Totum me fac, Salvator ! Mi languido vigorem Des Christe, des favorem, Zelumque calescentem ; Quum condolens Tu sortem, Pro me subisses mortem, Amorem mi da fortem, Purum, pium, ardentem. FIDES. Ambagibus obsepto, Dolori nee erepto Mini sis Jesu Duci, Caliginem pellenti, Dolentem me mulcenti, Vagantem reducenti ; Mi proximae sis Luci. In amne mortis vita Quum mergitur sopita, Mi vita ne sit dempta ; Accende turn amorem, Et amove timorem, Te sursum ut adorem Dein anima redempta ! R. PALMER, 1830. i^XX Dominus venit et vocat te (fpojvei). T O QU ENTEM exaudivi -^ Jesum : 'veni, quiesce, Sinu meo, defessus Caput tu requiesce.' Lassus fui venique, Tristis, gravis labore, Et in Eo quievi, Deposito dolore. Loquentem et audivi ; ' Tibi do Ego sponte, Sititor, aquam vivam ; Vivas bibens de Fonte.' PR I US NOS AM A VI T. Simulque veni, bibi, Et anima renata, Yivifico de rivo, Vivo, siti sedata. Loq_uentem et audivi : 'Lux sum, tibi videnti Me. lumen affulgebit, Tota die nitenti.' Vidi, refulsit Ille, Xocturnus, Matutinus : Ej usque luce domum Incedo peregrinus. BONAI LA.A.1 Amor morientis Christ: t UGETE dura marine ^ Cautesque lacrymate. Lugete cali sidera, Ventique suspirate, En languet orbis gloria, Et moritur amore. Rorate fletu lumina, Amor jubet dolorque, Homo profunde flumina Fletusque sanguinisque. En propter tua crimina Hie moritur dolore. PRIUS NOS AM A VIT. 1 O charitatis victima, O dira vis amoris : Crudelitatis hostia, Spectaculum doloris, Quis cogitasset talia, Mori Deum pro nobis Deflete mea lumina Tanti luctas amoris, Deflete mea crimina, Tanti causas doloris, Hoc petit tanti gratia Doloris ac amoris. O amor super omnia, Jesu sic morientis, O dolor super omnia Jesu sic patientis, Amoris ecce spicula, Et victimam doloris. Exite Sion filiae, Videte Jesse natum, Spinarum diademate Lugete coronatum, Sponsumque vestrum plangite Crudeliter necatum. O quanta vis amoris est In Jesu moriente, O quanta vis doloris est In Jesu patiente ! Plorare, nisi tigris es, Debes ac redamare. Decimo sexto saeculo. AMOR IN DUBIUM VOCATUS. LXXII DeligisMe? AUDI, Anima ! loquentem ■"■ Jesum cor tuum petentem ; Ille loquitur Amator : 1 Diligas Me, die peccator ? ' Liberavi laqueatum, Et curavi vulneratum, Tibi vago fui Duci, Tenebrosa nocte, Luci. ' Potest mulier cessare Prolem propriam amare, Vocis ejus obliviscens? Potest ; atqui reminiscens 1 Tui, diligo amore Fido, morte fortiore, Alto caelo altiore, Inferis profundiore. 1 Brevi gloriam videbis Renovatus, et sedebis In throno mecum spectator ; Me amesne ? die peccator.' Est mi, Domine, querelae, Quod cor sit tam infidele ; Debilem amorem ploro, Attamen amans adoro. COWPER, 1779. AMOR ERGA CHRISTUM. LXXIII rp E, sancte Jesu, mens mea, Amoris icta vulnere, Suspirat. O salus mea, Me solve tandem vinculis Istis, ut evolem tuam Beatus ad praesentiam : Fac interim magis magis Amore totus ardeam : Ut pura mens a corporis Contagione amplexibus Evadat aptior tuis. Tu spes, voluptas, unicum Cordis mei sis gaudium. Benigne Jesu, da, precor, Humana cuncta spernere Te propter, omnia fac mihi Te propter unum sordeant : Seu pulcher oras aetheris Sol lustrat almo lumine ; Seu nox benigno languida Rigat sopore corpora, Domi forisque mens mea Te quaerat, invocet, canat, Solumque felix in tuo Dulci acquiescat numine. M. ANTONIUS FLAMINIUS, a.d. 1550. AMOR ERGA CHRISTUM. LXXIV JESU ! ter desiderate Jesu, pro me vulnerate ! Optat quiddam quisque bonum, Autem hocce Tuum donum. Te novisse, Te laudare, Hac in terra est laetari ; Te videre et amare, Erit in aevum bead. Vita mors est, Te absente, Mors est vita, Te praesente ; Morior Te spem negante, Vivo felix opem dante. Requies caelesti fonte Defluit Teipso sponte ; Tua pax beata, Deus ! Mea est, si Tu sis meus. Te praesentem sentienti Placent cuncta mi gaudenti ; Vivus tecum ambulabo, Moriens ad Te volabo. Si Teipsum des mi dono, Sisque meo Summo Bono, Comes ero beatorum Hie, et in cselo caelorum. TOPLADY, a.d. 1740-1778. AMOR ERG A JESUM. LXXV De passione Dob "pCQUlS binas columbinas ■^ Alas dabit animae ? Ut in almam cruris palmam Evolet citissime, In qua Jesus totus laesus, Orbis desiderium, Et immensus est suspensus, Factus improperium ! O cor scande, Jesu pande Charitatis viscera, Et profunde me reconde Intra sacra vulnera ; In superna me caverna Colloca maceriae ; Hie viventi, quiescenti Finis est miseriae. O mi Deus, amor meus ! Tune pro me pateris ? Proque indigno, crucis ligno Jesu mi suffigeris ? Pro latrone, Jesu bone, Tu in crucem tolleris ! Pro peccatis meis, gratis Vita mea moreris ! Non sum tanti, Jesu ! quanti Amor tuus aestimat ; Heu cur ego vitam dego, Si cor te non redamat ? AMOR ERG A DEUM. Benedictus sit invictus Amor vincens omnia, Amor fortis, tela mortis Reputans ut somnia. Iste fecit, et refecit Amor, Jesu, perditum ; O insignis, Amor, ignis Cor accende frigidum. O fac vere cor ardere, Fac, me te diligere, Da conjungi, da defungi Tecum Jesu, et vivere. Amen. Ante decimum quintum saeculum. LXXVI Quae sursum sunt quaerite. CURSUM, sursum ! cor conscendas, ^ Cum Deoque habites, Nugas diligens inanes, Non quiescere potes. Sursum, sursum ! cor conscendas, Nugax ne sis futilis ; Nubes super illas scande, Caelum quaere, nobilis ! Effluentem nee amorem Dissipes in turpia, Sed petas polum Deumque, Nitens ad coelestia. AMOR ERG A JESUM. Nee amoris vim effunde, Creaturae tarn amans, Cordis en ! opes Creator Postulat desiderans. Sursum cor invitum, carpe Requiem et gloriam, Amor ! exue ascendens Indolem terrigenam. BONAR, 1856. LXXVII Amor Christi nos constringit. C\ Deus ego amo te, Nee amo te, ut salves me, Aut quia non amantes te Aeterno punis igne. Tu, tu mi Jesu totum me Amplexus es in cruce ; Tulisti clavos, lanceam, Multamque ignominiam, Innumeros dolores, Sudores, et angores, Ac mortem, et haec propter me, Ac pro me peccatore. Cur igitur non amem te, O Jesu amantissime ! Non, ut in caelo salves me, Aut ne aeternum damnes me ; AMOR ERGO DEUM. Nee praemii alius spe Sed sicut tu amasti me ; Sic amo, et amabo te, Solum, quia Rex meus es. T Y YVTTT Nos ergo diligimus Deum quoniam LAA V lii Deus prior dilexit nos. C\ Deus ego amo te, Nam prior tu amasti me, En libertate privo me, Ut sponte vinctus sequar te. Nil suggerat memoria, Nisi de tua gloria, Nil intellectus sapiat, Praeterquam ut te capiat. Protestor nihil velle me, Nisi quod sciam velle te ; Quae dono tuo mea sunt, Haec dono meo tua sunt. A te accepi, recipe, Quid iis velis, praecipe ; Guberna sicut scis, et vis, Nam scio, quod amator sis. Amore solo dona me, Ut ego quoque amem te ; Haec dando dabis omnia, Nam cetera sunt somnia. FRANCIS XAVIER, a.d. 1506-1552. DEUS DUX ET LUX. LXXIX Psalmus cv, 39. T7XEUNTE Israele ■ L ' Servitute de crudeli, Deus patrius stupendus Antecessit, Dux tremendus ! Nimbus, en ! terras diurnus Verrit, ignis at nocturnus, Arabum campo stupente, Nube flammea fulgente. Seniores, bellatores Tubis, tympanis, cantores Feminis turn respondere, Et Jehovam laudavere. Ades, Tua vi latente, Luce prospera. fulgente, Diem lucidum velare Perfidoque temperare. Atra nocte circumdante Nos, et saepe aestuante, Nobis Duci sis faventi, Luminique sis fulgenti. CLARISSIMUS GUALTERUS SCOTT, i8iq. DEUS LUX ET CUSTOS. LXXX ^ tenebris lumen. C\ Lux benigna duce, Tua per umbras luce, Mi semper Tu sis Duci ! Aterrima nox adest, Domusque procul abest, Tu mihi esto Luci ! Pedes tueri volo, Viam spectare nolo, Procul videndo lassus ; Sat unicus mi passus. Turn ita non putavi, Te neque sic oravi, Tu mi ut esses Duci ; Via tunc eligenda Mi, quoque providenda ; Tu mi sed es nunc Luci ; Festiva mi placebat Dies, cor at timebat : Fastu superbienti Ignosce, tarn amenti. Omnipotens beasti Diiique me servasti ; Dehinc eris mi Duci, Per loca scopulosa, Deserta et limosa, Donee cedat nox luci ; Et mane angelorum Renideant eorum Vultus, quos tunc amavi Amissos et ploravi. J. H. NEWMAN OMNIA ET IN OMNIBUS CHRISTUS. LXXXI Beati ex toto animo quaerentes Eum. ISNE lassus, aerumnosus Corde, die, languescas ?' Ille dicit : 'veni Mihi Fidens et quiescas.' S ' Tales fertne notas Ille Quales dignas Duce?' En ! in latere membrisque, Plagas fert a cruce. ' Sed est Illi diadema Plurium terrarum ? ' Est, revera, diadema, Attamen spinarum. ' Venienti prosequenti Ecquid mi donabit ?' Et labores et dolores Lachrymasque dabit. ' Quid mi sit Illi haerenti, Usque finem vitae ?' Crux relicta, Mors devicta, Lachrymae finitae. ' Nonne clemens, me petentem Gratiam, audibit ?' Donee terrae et caelorum Machina peribit. ' Persequentem et perstantem Nonne me beabit ?' Clamant vates virgo martyr : 'Beatificabit!' Ex Anglicana versione St Stephani (a.d. 725-794). per J. M. Neale, D.D., b. 1818, d. 1868. FORTITUDO. LXXXII Militia Christiana. ■\ 70S dolores tolerantes, * Christo fidi, dimicantes, Valde bello lacessiti Flentes, proeliantes ite. Ite, O fideles ite Debellatum hostem vitae ; Vobis nunquam est cessandum, Longe quamvis militandum. O fideles, an cedetis ? Aut trementes fugietis ? Pugnam asperam timentes, Ducis vires nescientes ? Ponite dolorem laeti ; Lucis et armatu freti, Iter longum ne putetis, Jubilantes mox canetis, Brevi luctus est ponendus, Fletus mox est abstergendus : Ne malis septi tardetis, Inopes opes habetis. Ite, fidi bellatores Plus futuri quam victores, Hoste quamvis lacessiti, Ite, O fideles, ite ! HENRICUS KIRKE WHITE, 1806. S FORTITUDO. LXXXII1 Sancti Augustini antidotum contra tyrannidem peccati. QUID, Tyranne ! quid minaris ? Quid usquam poenarum est, Quidquid tandem machinaris : Hoc amanti parum est ; Dulce mihi cruciari, Parva vis doloris est : Malo mori quam foedari ! Major vis amoris est. Para rogos, quamvis truces, Et quidquid flagrorum est : Adde ferrum, adde cruces : Nil adhuc amanti est ! Dulce mihi cruciari, Parva vis doloris est : Malo mori quam foedari ! Major vis amoris est. Nimis blandus dolor ille ! Una mors quam brevis est ! Cruciatus amo mille, Omnis poena levis est. Dulce mihi sauciari, Parva vis doloris est : Malo mori quam foedari ! Major vis amoris est. PETRUS DAMIANUS, 1002-1072. VIGILANTIA. LXXXIV Vox galli matutina. A LES diei nuntius ■**- Lucetn propinquam praecinit ; Nos excitator mentium Jam Christus ad vitam vocat. Auferte, clamat, lectulos ^Egros, soporos, desides : Castique, recti, ac sobrii Vigilate : jam sum proximus. Post solis ortum fulgidi Serum est cubile spernere ; 10 Ni parte noctis addita Tempus labori adjeceris. Vox ista, qua strepunt aves, Stantes sub ipso culmine, Paulo ante quam lux emicet, Nostri ngura est Judicis. Tectos tenebris horridis Stratisque opertos segnibus, Suadet quietem linquere Jamjamque venturo die. 20 Ut cum coruscis flatibus Aurora ccelum sparserit Omnes labore exercitos Confirmet ad spem luminis Hie somnus ad tempus datus, Est forma mortis perpetis : Peccata, ceu nox horrida, Cogunt jacere ac stertere. Sed vox ab alto culmine Christi docentis praemonet : 30 Adesse jam lucem prope, Ne mens sopori serviat. VIGILANT1A. Ne somnus usque ad terminos Vitae socordis opprimat Pectus sepultum crimine, Et lucis oblitum suae. LXXXV Simon Petrus. Ferunt, vagantes daemonas Laetos tenebris noctium, Gallo canente exterritos Sparsim timere et cedere. 40 Invisa nam vicinitas Lucis, salutis, numinis, Rupto tenebrarum situ Noctis fugat satellites. Hoc esse signum praescii Norunt repromissae spei : Qua nos soporis liberi Speramus adventum Dei. Quae vis sit hujus alitis, Salvator ostendit Petro, 50 Ter ante quam gallus canat, Sese negandum praedicans. Fit namque peccatum prius, Quam praeco lucis proximae Illustret humanum genus Finemque peccandi ferat. Flevit negator denique Ex ore prolapsum nefas : Cum mens maneret innocens, Animusque servaret fidem. 60 Nee tale quicquam postea Linguae locutus lubrico est : Cantuque galli cognito Peccare Justus destitit. VIGILANTIA. LXXXVI Incitamenta vigilantiae. Inde est, quod omnes credimus, Illo quietis tempore Quo gallus exsultans canit, Christum redisse ex Inferis. Tunc mortis oppressus vigor, Tunc lex subacta est Tartari, 70 Tunc vis diei fortior Noctem coegit cedere. Jamjam quiescant improba, Jam culpa furva obdormiat, Jam noxa letalis suum Perpessa somnum marceat. Vigil vicissim spiritus Quodcumque restat temporis, Bum meta noctis clauditur, Stans ac laborans excubet. 80 Jesum ciamus vocibus, Flentes, precantes, sobrii : Intenta supplicatio Dormire cor mundum vetat Sat convolutis artubus Sensum profunda oblivio Pressit, gravavit obruit Vanis vagantem somniis. Sunt nempe falsa et frivola, Quae mundiali gloria, 90 Ceu dormientes, egimus ; Vigilemus ; hie est Veritas. Aurum, voluptas, gaudium, Opes, honores, prospera, Ouaecumque nos inflant mala, Fit mane ? nil sunt omnia. VIGILANTIA. Tu, Christe, somnum disjice, Tu rumpe noctis vincula : Tu solve peccatum vetus, Novumque lumen ingere. ioo PRUDENTII CATHEMERINON, Hymnus I. Natus 348. LXXXVI1 EIS TON AIABOAON. AEON /3ow, ti tovto) tytvye jjlol ra^og, &EVJ* (L KCLKIGTOV 0lf}plOV fipOTOKTOVOV. Ti fiot §Loy\z Ig ovStv ^StKrjjut vog ; Tt5v aai\iK.£)v. Touc govq a^Xeig Ylaicag ajEipov, Alvelv aylwg, 'Yfivtlv a§6\iog t 90 DISCIPLINA SACRA. 'Akukoiq arofiaatv Ha&wv riyiiTopa Xptorov. Chorus discipulorum canentium -r, -\ - «• , Tov Uaidayioyov. BdGlAEV ayiivv, Aoye Travcafiar^p Ylarpbg vipiarov, So0mc Trpvravi, 'Sri'ipLyfAa 7rovwv, Bporiag yeveag ^Cjrsp Iyjgov, TLoifxrjv, apOTijp, O'/a^, OTOflLOV, Tlrepbv ovpavLOV Ylavayovg iroifiviiQ ' ' AXlEV flEpOTTUJV, TlzXayovg kukiciq 't Cl- f v l^^rwc ayvovQ Kv/maroQ Ejftpov TXvKEpy Zwij SeXeaZojv. 'HyOV, 7Tpoj5aT(i)V AoyiKldV TTOLfAllV, "Aytf, 17701), BacrtXtD ira&wv avETTCKpwv y 'I\VLa Xpiarov, OSbg ovpavia, Aoyog atvaog, Alwv a.7rXerog, 90 DISCIPLINE tpiijg ciiciov, f PfKT))p aperr)g. ^s/dvi) fiiOTrj OtOV VflVOVVTWV, XplCTTt lt](JOV, Ta\a ovpaviov, Maorajv yXvKepwv Nvju^c \aptrwv, ^ocpiag rr)g