HYMNS 
 
HYMNS 
 
 Their History and Development 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Greek and Latin Churches 
 
 Germany 
 and Great Britain 
 
 BY 
 ROUNDELL, EARL OF SELBORNE 
 
 LONDON AND EDINBURGH 
 
 ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 
 
& V 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THIS volume is, with a few additions 
 and variations, and with illustrations by 
 selected hymns (accompanied, when not 
 English, by translations), a reprint from 
 Volume XII., published in 1881, of the 
 last edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. 
 
HYMNS 
 
 i. CLASSICAL HYMNODY 
 
 THE word " hymn " (v/xvos) was employed 
 by the ancient Greeks to signify a song or 
 poem composed in honour of gods, heroes, 
 or famous men, or to be recited on some 
 joyful, mournful, or solemn occasion. Pol- 
 ymnia was the name of their lyric muse. 
 Homer makes Alcinous entertain Odysseus 
 with a " hymn " of the minstrel Demodocus, 
 on the capture of Troy by the wooden horse. 
 The Works and Days of Hesiod begins with 
 an invocation to the Muses to address hymns 
 to Zeus, and in his Theogonia he speaks of 
 them as singing or inspiring " hymns " to 
 all the divinities, and of the bard as " their 
 
2 HYMNS 
 
 servant, hymning the glories of men of old, 
 and of the gods of Olympus." Pindar calls 
 by this name odes, like his own, in praise of 
 conquerors at the public games of Greece. 
 The Athenian dramatists (Euripides most 
 frequently) use the word and its cognate 
 verbs in a similar manner ; they also de- 
 scribe by them metrical oracles and apo- 
 phthegms, martial, festal, and hymenaeal 
 songs, dirges, and lamentations or incanta- 
 tions of woe. 
 
 Hellenic hymns, according to this con- 
 ception of them, have come down to us, 
 some from a very early and others from a 
 late period of Greek classical literature. 
 Those which passed by the name of Homer 
 were already old in the time of Thucydides. 
 They are mythological poems (several of 
 them long), in hexameter verse, some very 
 interesting. That to Apollo contains a tra- 
 ditionary history of the origin and progress 
 of the Delphic worship ; those on Hermes 
 and on Dionysus are marked by much liveli- 
 ness and poetical fancy. Hymns of a like 
 general character, but of less interest (though 
 these also embody some fine poetical tradi- 
 
HYMNS 3 
 
 tions of the Greek mythology, such as the 
 story of Tiresias, and that of the wanderings 
 of Leto), were written in the third century 
 before Christ, by Callimachus of Cyrene. 
 Cleanthes, the successor of Zeno, composed 
 (also in hexameters) an " excellent and 
 devout hymn " (as it is justly called by 
 Cudworth, in his Intellectual System) to 
 Zeus, which is preserved in the Eclogce of 
 Stobasus, and from which Aratus borrowed 
 the words, " For we are also His offspring," 
 quoted by St. Paul at Athens. The so-called 
 Orphic hymns, in hexameter verse, styled 
 reAerat, or hymns of initiation into the 
 " mysteries " of the Hellenic religion, are 
 productions of the Alexandrian school, as 
 to which learned men are not agreed whether 
 they are earlier or later than the Christian 
 era. 
 
 The Romans did not adopt the word 
 " hymn " ; nor have we many Latin poems 
 of the classical age to which it can properly 
 be applied. There are, however, a few 
 which approach much more nearly than 
 anything Hellenic to the form and character 
 of modern hymnody. 
 
4 HYMNS 
 
 Of these, the simplest and most graceful 
 is the following of Catullus to Diana : 
 
 Dianse sumus in fide 
 Puellas et pueri integri : 
 Dianam pueri integri 
 Puellseque canamus. 
 
 O Latonia, maximi 
 Magna progenies Jovis ! 
 Quam mater prope Deliam 
 Deposivit olivam, 
 
 Montium domina ut fores, 
 Sylvarumque virentium, 
 Saltuumque reconditorum, 
 Amniumque sonantum : 
 
 Tu Lucina dolentibus 
 Juno dicta puerperis : 
 Tu potens Trivia, et notho es 
 Dicta lumine Luna. 
 
 Tu cursu, Dea, menstruo 
 Metiens iter annuum, 
 Rustica agricolas bonis 
 Tecta frugibus exples. 
 
 Sis quocunque placet tibi 
 Sancta nomine ; Romulique 
 Antiquam, ut solita es, bona 
 Sospites ope gentem ! 
 
 Dian's votaries are we, 
 Spotless boys and maidens free : 
 Unto Dian lift the voice, 
 Maidens and spotless boys* 
 
 Daughter of Latona's love, 
 Mighty child of mightiest Jove ! 
 
HYMNS 5 
 
 Whom thy mother bore and laid 
 In Delos' olive shade, 
 
 Of the mountains to be Queen 
 And of all the forests green, 
 And of the grassy solitudes, 
 And of the sounding floods ; 
 
 Matrons in the throe of dread 
 Ask from thee Lucina's aid ; 
 Thou art Trivia, name of might, 
 And Moon with borrowed light. 
 
 Goddess, thou in monthly race 
 Measuring out the long year's space, 
 Cheerest with the fruits of earth 
 The yeoman's rustic hearth. 
 
 Holy be thy name, whate'er 
 Please thee best ! and may thy care 
 Still on old Rome's children pour 
 Blessings, as heretofore ! 1 
 
 Another, of like character, is the twenty- 
 first Ode of Horace's first book : 
 
 Dianam tenerge dicite virgines, 
 Intonsum, pueri, dicite Cynthium, 
 Latonamque supremo 
 
 Dilectam penitus Jovi, etc. 
 
 Translated by Conington 
 
 Of Dian's praises, tender maidens, tell ; 
 Of Cynthus' unshorn God, young striplings, sing ; 
 And bright Latona, well 
 
 Beloved of Heaven's high king, etc. 
 
 1 Translated by the Author, in 1834. 
 
6 HYMNS 
 
 2. HEBREW HYMNODY 
 
 For the origin and idea of Christian 
 hymnody we must look, not to Gentile, but 
 to Hebrew sources. 
 
 In the Books of Chronicles, the history of 
 the establishment by David l of three orders 
 of singers and players upon musical instru- 
 ments for the services of the Tabernacle 
 (and afterwards, under Solomon and his 
 successors, for the Temple 2 ) is related. 
 Their chiefs, Asaph, Heman, and Ethan or 
 Jeduthun, represented the three families of 
 the sons of Levi. They were " set in the 
 house of the Lord, according to the com- 
 mandment of David, and of Gad the king's 
 seer, and of Nathan the prophet ; for so was 
 the commandment of the Lord by His pro- 
 phets." 3 A prophetic office, as well as the title 
 of " Seer," was ascribed to them. 4 They took 
 part, playing upon their proper instruments, 
 in the solemnity of bringing up the Ark to 
 
 1 i Chron. vi. 31-47 ; xv. 16-24 ; xvi. 4-6, and 
 37-42 ; xxiii. 5 ; xxv. 1-7. 
 
 ' 2 2 Chron. viii. 14. 3 2 Chron. xxix. 25. 
 
 4 i Chron. xxv. i, 2, 5 ; 2 Chron. xxix. 30, 
 xxxv. 15. 
 
HYMNS 7 
 
 Mount Zion ; and they sang on that occasion 
 the whole or parts of three psalms (now 
 numbered 105, 96, and 106) which "David 
 delivered into the hand of Asaph and his 
 brethren." 1 And when the Ark was in its 
 place, they were appointed to minister con- 
 tinually before it, "as every day's work 
 required," and "to give thanks unto the 
 Lord) becattse His mercy endure th for ever "^ 
 This is the refrain of every verse of the 
 1 36th psalm. 3 They also took part in the 
 dedication of Solomon's Temple ; and it 
 was while they were singing the same psalm 
 on that occasion, that the Divine glory was 
 specially manifested. " It came to pass, 
 when the priests were come out of the holy 
 place : (for all the priests that were present 
 were sanctified, and did not then wait by 
 course ; also the Levites which were the 
 singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, 
 of Jeduthun, with their sons and their 
 brethren, being arrayed in white linen, 
 having cymbals and psalteries and harps, 
 
 1 i Chron. xvi. 7-36. 2 Ibid. 37-41. 
 
 s It is also the refrain of some verses of other 
 psalms of later date : the io6th, iO7th, and n8th. 
 
8 HYMNS 
 
 stood at the east end of the altar, and with 
 them an hundred and twenty priests sound- 
 ing with trumpets :) it came even to pass, 
 as the trumpeters and singers were as one, 
 to make one sound to be heard in praising 
 and thanking the Lord, saying, For He is 
 goodj for His mercy endureth for ever : 
 that then the house was filled with a cloud, 
 even the house of the Lord ; so that the 
 priests could not stand to minister by reason 
 of the cloud : for the glory of the Lord had 
 rilled the house of God." * 
 
 The same psalm was one of those sung 
 before the army of Jehoshaphat, when Judea 
 was delivered from the invasion, in that 
 king's time, of the Moabites, Ammonites, 
 and Edomites. 2 And after the return from 
 the Captivity, when the foundation of the 
 second Temple was laid, " they sang to- 
 gether by course in praising and giving 
 thanks unto the Lord ; because He is good^ 
 and His mercy end^treth for ever" B 
 
 The Psalms, as we now have them, are 
 
 1 2 Chron. v. 11-14. 
 
 2 2 Chron. xx. 21. They also " praised the beauty 
 of holiness" (see Psalm xcvi. 9). 3 Ezra iii. u. 
 
HYMNS 9 
 
 of different times and authorships, though 
 the name of David is given to the whole 
 book. They were all used in the Temple 
 services ; some of them, in their Hebrew 
 titles, contain musical directions ; and some 
 are addressed to particular companies of 
 the singers. 
 
 The modern distinction between psalms 
 and hymns is arbitrary. The former word 
 was used by the LXX. as a generic designa- 
 tion, probably because it implied an accom- 
 paniment by the psaltery (said by Eusebius 
 to have been of very ancient use in the East) 
 or other instruments. The psalms were 
 undoubtedly sung to the music of trum- 
 pets, cymbals, and other instruments, called 
 in the Greek translation " cinyra " and 
 "nabla," in the English "harp" and "psal- 
 tery." The cognate verb " psallere " has 
 been constantly applied to hymns, both in 
 the Eastern and in the Western Church ; and 
 the same compositions which they described 
 generically as " psalms" were also called by 
 the LXX. "odes" (i.e. songs) and "hymns." 
 The latter word occurs, e.g., in Ps. Ixxii. 20 
 ("the hymns of David the son of Jesse"), 
 
io HYMNS 
 
 in Ps. Ixv. i, and also in the Greek titles of 
 the 6th, 54th, 55th, 6;th, and 76th. 1 The 
 44th chapter of Ecclesiasticus, " Let us now 
 praise famous men," etc., is entitled in the 
 Greek Trarepuv vpvos, "The Fathers' Hymn." 
 Bede speaks of the whole book of Psalms as 
 called "liber hymnorum," by the universal 
 consent of Hebrews, Greeks, and Latins. 
 
 The Psalms have always had an important 
 place in the public and private devotions of 
 Christians. No other part of the Scriptures 
 of the Old Testament has so universally 
 influenced the current of religious feeling. 
 From them Christian hymnody has derived 
 two characteristics, to which there is nothing 
 parallel in heathen poetry. The first is their 
 living spirituality, their intense realisation of 
 a direct personal relation between the indi- 
 vidual human soul and God. The other is 
 their vivid exhibition of a pervading harmony 
 between natural and revealed religion, not 
 only in particular instances (such as Psalms 
 19, 29, 65, 104, 148), but throughout the 
 book. The Object of Faith is seen in them, 
 not only as the Life-giver and Lord of the 
 1 As numbered in the English version. 
 
HYMNS ii 
 
 spirits of men, but as the Governor of the 
 world, the Maker of all things, revealing, by 
 " the things which are seen," " His invisible 
 things, even His eternal power and God- 
 head." l 
 
 In the New Testament we find our Lord 
 and His apostles singing a hymn (vfj.vrj- 
 cravres t?jX6ov) after the institution of the 
 Lord's Supper ; St. Paul and Silas doing the 
 same (VJJLVOVV rbv $eov) in their prison at 
 Philippi ; St. James recommending psalm- 
 singing (i/'aAAeTw), and St. Paul "psalms 
 and hymns and spiritual songs" (^aA/xots KOL 
 vfiivoLs KCU wSats TTvevfJiaTiKais). St. Paul 
 also, in the I4th chapter of the first epistle 
 to the Corinthians, speaks of singing (^aAw), 
 and of every man's psalm (e/cao-ro? vpuv 
 \pa\fjiov '^X i )j m a context which plainly has 
 reference to the assemblies of the Corinthian 
 Christians for common worship. All the 
 words thus used were applied by the 
 LXX. to the Davidical psalms ; it is 
 therefore possible that these only may 
 be intended, in the places referred to. 
 But there are in St. Paul's epistles several 
 1 Romans i. 20. 
 
12 HYMNS 
 
 passages (Eph. v. 1 4 ; i Tim. iii. 1 6 ; i Tim. 
 vi. 15, 1 6 ; 2 Tim. ii. n, 12) which have so 
 much of the form and character of later 
 Oriental hymnody as to have been supposed 
 by Michaelis and others to be extracts from 
 original hymns of the Apostolic age. Two 
 of them are apparently introduced as quota- 
 tions, though not found elsewhere in the 
 Scriptures. A third has not only rhythm, 
 but rhyme. The thanksgiving prayer of the 
 assembled disciples, recorded in Acts iv., is 
 both in substance and in manner poetical ; 
 and in the Canticles, " Magnificat," " Bene- 
 dictus," etc., which manifestly followed the 
 form and style of Hebrew poetry, hymns or 
 songs, proper for liturgical use, have always 
 been recognised by the Church. 
 
 St. Augustine's definition of a hymn, gen- 
 erally accepted by Christian antiquity, may 
 be summed up in the words, " praise to God 
 with song" ("cum cantico"). Bede under- 
 stood the " canticum " as properly requiring 
 metre ; though he thought that what in its 
 original language was a true hymn might 
 retain that character in an unmetrical trans- 
 lation. Modern use has enlarged the defini- 
 
HYMNS 13 
 
 tion : Roman Catholic writers extend it to 
 the praises of saints ; and the word now 
 comprehends rhythmical prose as well as 
 verse, and prayer and spiritual meditation 
 as well as praise. 
 
 3. EASTERN CHURCH HYMNODY 
 
 The hymn of our Lord, the precepts of 
 the apostles, the angelic song at the Nativity, 
 and " Benedicite omnia opera," are referred 
 to in a curious metrical prologue to the 
 hymnary of the Mozarabic Breviary, as pre- 
 cedents for the practice of the Western 
 Church. In this respect, however, the West- 
 ern Church followed the Eastern, in which 
 hymnody prevailed from the earliest times. 
 
 Philo describes the " Therapeutae " of the 
 neighbourhood of Alexandria as composers 
 of original hymns, which (as well as old) 
 were sung at their great religious festivals, 
 the people listening in silence till they 
 came to the closing strains, or refrains, at 
 the end of a hymn or stanza (the " acrote- 
 leutia " and " ephymnia "), in which all, 
 women as well as men, heartily joined. 
 
14 HYMNS 
 
 These songs, he says, were in various metres 
 (for which he uses a number of technical 
 terms) ; some were choral, some not ; and 
 they were divided into variously constructed 
 strophes or stanzas. 
 
 Eusebius, who thought that the Therapeu- 
 tae were communities of Christians, says that 
 the Christian practice of his own day was 
 in exact accordance with this description. 
 Gibbon considered it to be proved, by 
 modern criticism, that the Therapeutas were 
 not Christians, but Essene Jews ; but he 
 recognised in their customs "a very lively 
 image of primitive discipline " ; and he 
 states that the Christian religion was em- 
 braced by great numbers of them, and that 
 they were probably, by degrees, absorbed 
 into the Church, and became the fathers of 
 the Egyptian ascetics. Apollos, "born at 
 Alexandria," may possibly have been one of 
 them. 
 
 The practice, not only of singing hymns, 
 but of singing them antiphonally, appears, 
 from the well-known letter of Pliny to 
 Trajan, to have been established in the 
 Bithynian churches at the beginning of the 
 
HYMNS 15 
 
 second century. They were accustomed 
 " stato die ante lucem convenire, carmenque 
 Christo, quasi Deo, dicere secuin invicem" 
 This agrees well, in point of time, with the 
 tradition recorded by the historian Socrates, 
 that Ignatius (who suffered martyrdom 
 about 107 A.D.) was led by a vision or dream 
 of angels singing hymns in that manner to 
 the Holy Trinity to introduce antiphonal 
 singing into the Church of Antioch, from 
 which it quickly spread to other churches. 
 There seems to be an allusion to choral 
 singing in the epistle of Ignatius himself 
 to the Romans, where he exhorts them, 
 "Xpos yei/o/zei/ot " ("having formed them- 
 selves into a choir "), to " sing praise to the 
 Father in Christ Jesus." A statement of 
 Theodoret has sometimes been supposed to 
 refer the origin of antiphonal singing to a 
 later date ; but this seems to relate only 
 to the singing of Old Testament psalms 
 (rrjv AauiSi/o)i' /^eAtoSiav), the alternate 
 chanting of which, by a choir divided into 
 two parts, was (according to that statement) 
 first introduced into the Church of Antioch 
 by two monks famous in the history of their 
 
16 HYMNS 
 
 time, Flavianus and Diodorus, under the 
 emperor Constantius II. 
 
 Other evidence of the use of hymns in 
 the second century is contained in a fragment 
 of Hippolytus, 1 preserved by Eusebius, which 
 refers to " all the psalms and odes written 
 by faithful brethren from the beginning," as 
 "hymning Christ, the Word of God, as 
 God." Tertullian also, in his description 
 of the " Agapae," or love-feasts, of his day, 
 says that, after washing hands and bringing 
 in lights, each man was invited to come 
 forward and sing to God's praise something 
 either taken from the Scriptures or of his 
 own composition (" ut quisque de Sacris 
 Scripturis vel proprio ingenio potest "). 
 Bishop Bull believed one of those primitive 
 compositions to be the hymn appended by 
 Clement of Alexandria to his Padagogus ; 
 
 1 Hippolytus was Bishop of Porto in the earlier 
 part of the third century. The fragment appears 
 under the name of Caius in Dr. Routh's Reliquia 
 Sacrce (vol. ii. pp. 129, 130). But Dr. Routh's own 
 opinion seems to have been, that Hippolytus was its 
 true author (ibid. pp. 143, 145), and that opinion 
 has been confirmed by more recent criticism. (See 
 Bishop Christopher Wordsworth's St. Hippolytus 
 and the Church of Rome ', pp. 129, 161, 162.) 
 
HYMNS 17 
 
 and Archbishop Ussher considered the 
 ancient morning and evening hymns, of 
 which the use was enjoined by the Apostoli- 
 cal Constitutions, and which are also men- 
 tioned in the tract " On Virginity " printed 
 with the works of St. Athanasius, and in 
 St. Basil's treatise upon the Holy Spirit, to 
 belong to the same family. Clement's 
 hymn, in a short anapaestic metre, beginning 
 crrofjuov TrwAcov ctSawv (or, according to some 
 editions, flacriXtv dytW, Aoye TravSa/zarwp 
 translated by Mr. Chatfield, "O Thou, 
 the King of saints, all-conquering Word"), 
 is rapid, spirited, and well adapted for sing- 
 ing. The Greek " Morning Hymn" (which, 
 as divided into verses by Archbishop Ussher 
 in his treatise De Symbolis, has a majestic 
 rhythm, resembling a choric or dithyrambic 
 strophe) is the original form of " Gloria in 
 Excelsis," still said or sung, with some 
 variations, in the liturgies of the Oriental, 
 Latin, and Anglican Churches. The Latin 
 form of this hymn (of which that in the 
 English communion office is an exact trans- 
 lation) is said, by Bede and other ancient 
 writers, to have been brought into use at 
 
i8 HYMNS 
 
 Rome by Pope Telesphorus, as early as the 
 time of the emperor Hadrian. A third, the 
 Vesper or " Lamp-lighting " hymn (" cws 
 t\apov aytas So??s" translated by Canon 
 Bright, "Light of Gladness, Beam Divine"), 
 holds its place to this day in the services of 
 the Greek rite. In the third century Origen 
 seems to have had in his mind the words of 
 some other hymns or hymn of like character 
 when he says (in his treatise Against Celsus) : 
 " We glorify in hymns God and His only 
 begotten Son ; as do also the Sun, the Moon, 
 the Stars, and all the host of heaven. All 
 these, in one Divine chorus, with the just 
 among men, glorify in hymns God who is 
 over all, and His only begotten Son." So 
 highly were these compositions esteemed in 
 the Syrian churches that the council which 
 deposed Paul of Samosata from the see of 
 Antioch in the time of Aurelian justified that 
 act, in its synodical letter to the bishops of 
 Rome and Alexandria, on this ground (among 
 others) that he had prohibited the use of 
 hymns of that kind, by uninspired writers, 
 addressed to Christ. 
 
 After the conversion of Constantine, the 
 
HYMNS 19 
 
 progress of hymnody became closely con- 
 nected with church controversies. There 
 had been in Edessa, at the end of the 
 second or early in the third century, a Gnostic 
 writer of ability, named Bardesanes, who 
 was succeeded, as the head of his sect 
 or school, by his son Harmonius. Both 
 father and son wrote hymns, and set them 
 to agreeable melodies, which acquired, and 
 in the fourth century still retained, much 
 local popularity. Ephraem Syrus, the first 
 voluminous hymn- writer whose works remain 
 to us, thinking that the same melodies might 
 be made useful to the faith if adapted to 
 more orthodox words, composed to them 
 a large number of hymns in the Syriac 
 language, principally in tetrasyllable, penta- 
 syllabic, and heptasyllabic metres, divided 
 into strophes of from 4 to 12, 16, and even 
 20 lines each. When a strophe contained 
 five lines, the fifth was generally an 
 " ephymnium," detached in sense, and con- 
 sisting of a prayer, invocation, doxology, or 
 the like to be sung antiphonally, either in 
 full chorus or by a separate part of the choir. 
 The Syriac Chrestomathy of Hahn (publisher) 
 
 7 
 
 [( UNIVERSITY 
 
20 HYMNS 
 
 at Leipsic in 1825), and the third volume 
 of Daniel's Thesaurus Hymnologicus^ con- 
 tain specimens of these hymns. Some of 
 them have been translated into (unmetrical) 
 English by the Rev. Henry Burgess. 1 A 
 considerable number of those so translated 
 are on subjects connected with death, resur- 
 rection, judgment, etc., and display not only 
 Christian faith and hope, but much simplicity 
 and tenderness of natural feeling. Theodoret 
 speaks of the spiritual songs of Ephraem as 
 very sweet and profitable, and as adding 
 much, in his (Theodoret's) time, to the 
 brightness of the commemorations of martyrs 
 in the Syrian Church. 
 
 The Greek hymnody contemporary with 
 Ephraem followed, with some licence, class- 
 ical models. One of its favourite metres 
 was the Anacreontic ; but it also made 
 use of the short anapaestic, ionic, iambic, 
 and other lyrical measures, as well as the 
 hexameter and pentameter. Its principal 
 authors were Methodius, Bishop of Tyre 
 (who died about 311 A.D.), Synesius, who 
 
 1 Select Metrical Hymns of Rphrem Syrus, etc. , 
 1853. 
 
HYMNS 21 
 
 became Bishop of Ptolemais in Cyrenaica 
 in 410, and Gregory Nazianzen, for a short 
 time (380-381) patriarch of Constantinople. 
 The merits of these writers have been per- 
 haps too much depreciated by the admirers 
 of the later Greek " Melodists." They have 
 found an able English translator in the Rev. 
 Allen Chatfield. 1 Among the most striking 
 of their works are /zi/weo X/HO-TC (" Lord 
 Jesus, think of me "), by Synesius ; ere rbv 
 acfrOiTov fjLovdpxyv (" O Thou, the One 
 Supreme ") and rt crot $eAets yevecr$at (" O 
 soul of mine, repining "), by Gregory ; also 
 ai/a>#ej/7ra/o#eVoi("The Bridegroom cometh") 
 by Methodius. There continued to be Greek 
 metrical hymn writers, in a similar style, 
 till a much later date. Sophronius, patriarch 
 of Jerusalem in the seventh century, wrote 
 seven Anacreontic hymns ; and St. John 
 Damascene, one of the most copious of the 
 second school of " Melodists," was also the 
 author of some long compositions in trimeter 
 iambics. 
 
 An important development of hymnody 
 
 1 Songs and Hymns of Earliest Greek Christian 
 Poets, etc., London, 1876. 
 
22 HYMNS 
 
 at Constantinople arose out of the Arian 
 controversy. Early in the fourth century 
 Athanasius had rebuked, not only the doc- 
 trine of Arms, but the light character of 
 certain hymns by which he endeavoured to 
 make that doctrine popular. When, towards 
 the close of that century (A.D. 398), St. 
 John Chrysostom was raised to the metro- 
 politan see, the Arians, who were still 
 numerous at Constantinople, had no places 
 of worship within the walls ; but they were 
 in the habit of coming into the city at sun- 
 set on Saturdays, Sundays, and the greater 
 festivals, and congregating in the porticoes 
 and other places of public resort, where they 
 sang, all night through, antiphonal songs, 
 with " acroteleutia " (closing strains, or re- 
 frains), expressive of Arian doctrine, often 
 accompanied by taunts and insults to the 
 orthodox. Chrysostom was apprehensive 
 that this music might draw some of the 
 simpler church people to the Arian side ; 
 he therefore organised, in opposition to it, 
 under the patronage and at the cost of 
 Eudoxia, the Empress of Arcadius (then his 
 friend), a system of nightly processional 
 
HYMNS 23 
 
 hymn-singing, with silver crosses, wax-lights, 
 and other circumstances of ceremonial pomp. 
 Riots followed, with bloodshed on both 
 sides, and with some personal injury to the 
 Empress's chief eunuch, who seems to have 
 officiated as conductor or director of the 
 church musicians. This led to the suppres- 
 sion, by an imperial edict, of all public Arian 
 singing ; while in the church the practice of 
 nocturnal hymn-singing on certain solemn 
 occasions, thus first introduced, remained 
 an established institution. 
 
 It is not improbable that some rudiments 
 of the peculiar system of hymnody which 
 now prevails throughout the Greek com- 
 munion, and whose affinities are rather to 
 the Hebrew and Syriac than to the classical 
 forms, may have existed in the Church of 
 Constantinople, even at that time. Ana- 
 tolius, patriarch of Constantinople in the 
 middle of the fifth century, was the precursor 
 of that system ; but the reputation of being 
 its proper founder belongs to Romanus, of 
 whom little more is known than that he 
 wrote hymns still extant, and lived towards 
 the end of that century. The importance 
 
24 HYMNS 
 
 of that system in the services of the Greek 
 Church may be understood from the fact 
 that the late Dr. Neale computed four-fifths 
 of the whole space (about 5000 pages) con- 
 tained in the different service-books of that 
 church to be occupied by hymnody, all in a 
 language or dialect which has ceased to be 
 spoken. 
 
 The system has a peculiar technical 
 terminology, in which the words " troparion," 
 " ode," "canon," and "hirmus" (etp/zos) 
 chiefly require explanation. 
 
 The troparion is the unit of the system, 
 being a strophe or stanza, seen, when 
 analysed, to be divisible into verses or 
 clauses, with regulated caesuras, but printed 
 in the books as a single prose sentence. 
 The following, from a " canon " by John 
 Mauropus, in the Horologion (published at 
 Venice in 1845), may be taken as an 
 example : rbv aypinrvov <pv\aKa rrjs e///^s 
 
 | ^ V X^ K,6 7T/)OCTTaT7yV, | T>Js to7JS fJLOV KOI 
 
 ocfyybv, I 0eo Oev ov e'Aa^ov, ty/,va> ore, | 
 "AyyeAe 6e?e Oeov TravroKpdropos " The 
 never-sleeping Guardian, | the patron of my 
 soul, | the guide of my life, | allotted me 
 
HYMNS 25 
 
 by God, I hymn thee, | Divine Angel of 
 Almighty God." Dr. Neale and most other 
 writers regard all these "troparia" as 
 rhythmical or modulated prose. Cardinal 
 J. B. Pitra, on the other hand, who in 1867 
 and 1876 published two learned works on 
 this subject, maintains that they are really 
 metrical, and governed by definite rules of 
 prosody, of which he lays down sixteen. 
 According to him, each "troparion" con- 
 tains from three to thirty-three verses ; each 
 verse varies from two to thirteen syllables, 
 often in a continuous series, uniform, alter- 
 nate, or reciprocal, the metre being always 
 syllabic, and depending, not on the quantity 
 of vowels or the position of consonants, but 
 on a harmonic series of accents. 
 
 In various parts of the services solitary 
 troparia are sung, under various names, 
 "contacion," "cecos," etc., which mark 
 distinctions either in their character or in 
 their use. 
 
 An ode is a song or hymn compounded 
 of several similar " troparia," usually three, 
 four, or five. To these is always prefixed a 
 typical or standard " troparion," called the 
 
26 HYMNS 
 
 S) by which the syllabic measure, the 
 periodic series of accents, and in fact the 
 whole structure and rhythm of the stanzas 
 which follow it are regulated. Each suc- 
 ceeding "troparion" in the same "ode" 
 contains the same number of verses, and of 
 syllables in each verse, and similar accents 
 on the same or equivalent syllables. The 
 "hirmus" may either form the first stanza 
 of the "ode" itself, or (as is more frequently 
 the case) may be taken from some other 
 piece ; and, when so taken, it is often indi- 
 cated by initial words only, without being 
 printed at length. It is generally printed 
 within commas, after the proper rubric of 
 the "ode." A hymn in irregular "stichera" 
 or stanzas, without a "hirmus," is called 
 "idiomelon." A system of three or four 
 odes is "triodion" or " tetraodion." 
 
 A canon is a system of eight (theoretically 
 nine) connected odes, the second being 
 always suppressed. Various pauses, re- 
 lieved by the interposition of other short 
 chants or readings, occur during the singing 
 of a whole " canon." The final " troparion " 
 in each ode of the series is not unfrequently 
 
HYMNS 27 
 
 detached in sense (like the "ephymnia" of 
 Ephraem Syrus), particularly when it is in 
 the (very common) form of a " theotokion," 
 or ascription of praise to the mother of our 
 Lord, and when it is a recurring refrain or 
 burden. 
 
 There were two principal periods of 
 Greek hymnography constructed on these 
 principles, the first that of Romanus 
 and his followers, extending over the 
 sixth and seventh centuries ; the second 
 that of the schools which arose during 
 the Iconoclastic controversy in the eighth 
 century, and which continued for some 
 centuries afterwards, until the art itself 
 died out. 
 
 The works of the writers of the former 
 period were collected in Tropologia, or 
 church hymn-books, which were held in 
 high esteem till the tenth century, when 
 they ceased to be regarded as church- 
 books, and fell into neglect. They are now 
 preserved only in a very small number of 
 manuscripts. From three of these, belong- 
 ing to public libraries at Moscow, Turin, 
 and Rome, Cardinal Pitra has lately printed, 
 
28 HYMNS 
 
 in his Analecta, a number of interesting 
 examples, the existence of which appears to 
 have been unknown to the late learned Dr. 
 Neale, and which, in the Cardinal's estima- 
 tion, are in many respects superior to the 
 " canons," etc., of the present Greek service- 
 books, from which all Dr. Neale's transla- 
 tions (except some from Anatolius) are taken. 
 Cardinal Pitra's selections include twenty- 
 nine works by Romanus, and some by 
 Sergius, and nine other known, as well as 
 some unknown, authors. He describes them 
 as having generally a more dramatic charac- 
 ter than the "melodies" of the later period, 
 and a much more animated style ; and he 
 supposes that they may have been originally 
 sung with dramatic accompaniments, by way 
 of substitution for the theatrical performances 
 of Pagan times. As an instance of their 
 peculiar character, he mentions a Christmas 
 or Epiphany hymn by Romanus, in twenty- 
 five long strophes, in which there is, first, 
 an account of the Nativity and its accom- 
 panying wonders, and then a dialogue 
 between the wise men, the Virgin mother, 
 and Joseph. The magi arrive, are admitted, 
 
HYMNS 29 
 
 describe the moral and religious condition 
 of Persia and the East, and the cause and 
 adventures of their journey, and then offer 
 their gifts. The Virgin intercedes for them 
 with her Son, instructs them in some parts 
 of Jewish history, and ends with a prayer 
 for the salvation of the world. 
 
 The controversies and persecutions of the 
 eighth and succeeding centuries turned the 
 thoughts of the " melodists " of the great 
 monasteries of the Studium at Constantinople 
 and St. Saba in Palestine and their followers, 
 and those of the adherents of the Greek rite 
 in Sicily and South Italy (who suffered much 
 from the Saracens and Normans), into a less 
 picturesque but more strictly theological 
 course ; and the influence of those contro- 
 versies, in which the final success of the 
 cause of " Icons " was largely due to the 
 hymns as well as to the courage and suffer- 
 ings of these confessors, was probably the 
 cause of their supplanting, as they did, the 
 works of the older school. Cardinal Pitra 
 gives them the praise of having discovered 
 a graver and more solemn style of chant, 
 and of having done much to fix the 
 
3 o HYMNS 
 
 dogmatic theology of their church upon 
 its present lines of near approach to the 
 Roman. 
 
 Among the "melodists" of this latter 
 Greek school there were many saints of the 
 Greek Church, several patriarchs, and two 
 emperors Leo the Philosopher, and Con- 
 stantine Porphyrogenitus, his son. Their 
 greatest poets were Theodore and Joseph 
 of the Studium, and Cosmas and John 
 (called Damascene) of St. Saba. Dr. Neale 
 has translated into English verse several 
 selected portions, or centos, from the works 
 of these and others, together with four from 
 earlier works by Anatolius. Some of his 
 translations particularly " The day is past 
 and over," from Anatolius, and " Christian, 
 dost thou see them," from Andrew of Crete 
 have been adopted into hymn-books used in 
 many English churches ; and the hymn 
 "Art thou weary," etc., which is rather 
 founded upon than translated from one by 
 Stephen the Sabaite, has obtained still more 
 general popularity. 1 
 
 1 The older learning on the subject of Greek 
 hymnody and church music is collected in a disserta- 
 
HYMNS 31 
 
 4. WESTERN CHURCH HYMNODY 
 
 It was not till the fourth century that 
 Greek hymnody was imitated in the West, 
 where its introduction was due to two great 
 lights of the Latin Church St. Hilary of 
 Poitiers and St. Ambrose of Milan. 
 
 Hilary was banished from his see of 
 Poitiers in 356, and was absent from it for 
 about four years, which he spent in Asia 
 Minor, taking part during that time in one 
 of the councils of the Eastern Church. He 
 thus had full opportunity of becoming ac- 
 quainted with the Greek church music of 
 that day ; and he wrote (as St. Jerome, who 
 was thirty years old when he died, and who 
 was well acquainted with his acts and writ- 
 ings, and spent some time in or near his 
 diocese, informs us) a " book of hymns," to 
 
 tion prefixed to the second volume for June of the 
 Bollandists' Acta Sanctorum ; the more recent in 
 Cardinal Pitra's Hymnographie de V&glise Grecque 
 (Rome, 1867), and Analecta Sacra, etc. (Paris, 
 1876) ; in the Anthologia Grceca Carminum Chris- 
 tianorum (Leipsic, 1871) ; and in Dr. Daniel's 
 Thesaurus Hymnologicus. There is also an able 
 paper on Cardinal Pitra's works, by M. Emmanuel 
 Miller, in the Journal des Savants for 1876. 
 
32 HYMNS 
 
 one of which Jerome particularly refers in 
 the preface to the second book of his own 
 commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians. 
 Isidore, Archbishop of Seville, who presided 
 over the fourth council of Toledo, in his 
 book on the offices of the Church, speaks of 
 Hilary as the first Latin hymn- writer ; that 
 council itself, in its thirteenth canon, and the 
 prologue to the Mozarabic hymnary (which 
 is little more than a versification of the 
 canon), associate his name, in this respect, 
 with that of Ambrose. A tradition, ancient 
 and widely spread, ascribed to him the 
 authorship of the remarkable " Hymnum 
 dicat turba fratnim, hymnum cantus per- 
 sonet" ("Band of brethren, raise the hymn, 
 let your song the hymn resound "), which is 
 a succinct narrative, in hymnal form, of the 
 whole Gospel history, and is perhaps the 
 earliest example of a strictly didactic hymn. 
 Both Bede and Hincmar much admired this 
 composition, though the former does not 
 mention, in connection with it, the name of 
 Hilary. The private use of hymns of such 
 a character by Christians in the West may 
 probably have preceded their ecclesiastical 
 
HYMNS 33 
 
 use ; for Jerome says that in his day those 
 who went into the fields might hear " the 
 ploughman at his hallelujahs, the mower at his 
 hymns, and the vine-dresser singing David's 
 psalms." Besides this, seven shorter metrical 
 hymns attributed to Hilary are extant. 
 
 Of the part taken by Ambrose, not long 
 after Hilary's death, in bringing the use of 
 hymns into the Church of Milan, we have a 
 contemporary account from his convert, St. 
 Augustine. Justina, mother of the Emperor 
 Valentinian, favoured the Arians, and desired 
 to remove Ambrose from his see. The % 
 "devout people," of whom Augustine's mother 
 Monica was one, combined to protect him, 
 and kept guard in the church. "Then," 
 says Augustine, " it was first appointed that, 
 after the manner of the Eastern churches, 
 hymns and psalms should be sung, lest the 
 people should grow weary and faint through 
 sorrow ; which custom has ever since been 
 retained, and has been followed by almost 
 all congregations in other parts of the world." 
 He describes himself as moved to tears by 
 the sweetness of these "hymns and can- 
 ticles " : " The voices flowed into my ears ; 
 
34 HYMNS 
 
 the truth distilled into my heart ; I overflowed 
 with devout affections, and was happy." 
 To this time, according to an uncertain but 
 not improbable tradition which ascribed the 
 composition of the " Te Deum " to Ambrose, 
 and connected it with the conversion of 
 Augustine, is to be referred the commence- 
 ment of the use in the Church of that sub- 
 lime unmetrical hymn. 
 
 It is not, however, to be assumed that 
 the hymnody thus introduced by Ambrose 
 was from the first used according to the 
 precise order and method of the later 
 Western ritual. To bring it into (substan- 
 tially) that order and method appears to 
 have been the work of St. Benedict. Wala- 
 fridus Strabo, the earliest ecclesiastical writer 
 on this subject (who lived at the beginning 
 of the ninth century), says that Benedict, on 
 the constitution of the religious order known 
 by his name (about 530), appointed the 
 Ambrosian hymns to be regularly sung in 
 his offices for the canonical hours. Hence 
 probably originated the practice of the Italian 
 churches, and of others which followed their 
 example, to sing certain hymns (Ambrosian, 
 
HYMNS 35 
 
 or by the early successors of the Ambrosian 
 school) daily throughout the week, at 
 "Vespers," "Lauds," and " Nocturns," and 
 on some days at " Compline " also varying 
 them with the different ecclesiastical seasons 
 and festivals, commemorations of saints and 
 martyrs, and other special offices. Different 
 dioceses and religious houses had their own 
 peculiarities of ritual, including such hymns 
 as were approved by their several bishops 
 or ecclesiastical superiors, varying in detail, 
 but all following the same general method. 
 The national rituals, which were first re 
 duced into a form substantially like that 
 which has since prevailed were probably 
 those of Lombardy and of Spain, now known 
 as the " Ambrosian " and the " Mozarabic." 
 That of Spain was settled in the seventh 
 century by Leander and Isidore, brothers, 
 successively archbishops of Seville. It con- 
 tained a copious hymnary, the original form 
 of which may be regarded as canonically 
 approved by the fourth council of Toledo 
 (633). By the thirteenth canon of that 
 council, an opinion (which even then found 
 advocates) against the use in churches of 
 
3 6 HYMNS 
 
 any hymns not taken from the Scriptures 
 apparently the same opinion which had been 
 held by Paul of Samosata was censured ; 
 and it was ordered that such hymns should 
 be used in the Spanish as well as in the 
 " Gallican " churches, the penalty of excom- 
 munication being denounced against all who 
 might presume to reject them. 1 
 
 The hymns of which the use was thus 
 established and authorised were those which 
 entered into the daily and other offices of 
 the Church, afterwards collected in the 
 
 1 In Mansi's text of the acts of this council 
 (vol. x. pp. 616, 620, 623, 630), five canons (in- 
 cluding the'thirteenth and fourteenth, as to hymns) 
 have " Galliam" etc., and " Gallicanis" where the 
 marginal reading, from the Lucca manuscript, is 
 " Galliciam," etc., and " Gallicianis." The forty- 
 first canon has, in the text, " in Gallicice partibus. " 
 A Spanish council could not make canons for any 
 Gallican churches, except those included in the 
 Gothic kingdom of Spain. Those of Galicia, within 
 the peninsula itself, and of Narbonne, on the other 
 side of the Pyrenees, were in A.D. 633 within the 
 Gothic kingdom. The fourth council of Toledo 
 was attended by (among others) the Archbishop of 
 Narbonne, and its canons were doubtless meant to 
 extend to that province. (See Mansi's marginal 
 note to canon 2 of the third council of Toledo, vol. 
 ix. p. 993, where the word in the text is " Gallcecice^ 
 and the note is " vel Gallics, sc. Narbonensis, ex parte 
 duntaxat"} 
 
HYMNS 37 
 
 " Breviaries " ; in which the hymns "proper" 
 for "the week," and for "the season," con- 
 tinued for many centuries, with very few 
 exceptions, to be derived from the earliest 
 epoch of Latin Church poetry, reckoning 
 that epoch as extending from Hilary and 
 Ambrose to the end of the pontificate of 
 Gregory the Great. The "Ambrosian" 
 music, to which those hymns were generally 
 sung down to the time of Gregory, was 
 more popular and congregational than the 
 " Gregorian," which then came into use, and 
 afterwards prevailed. In the service of the 
 mass it was not the general practice, before 
 the invention of sequences in the ninth 
 century, to sing any hymns, except some 
 from the Scriptures esteemed canonical, 
 such as the " Song of the Three Children " 
 ^ Benedicite omnia opera"}. But to this 
 rule there were, according to Walafridus 
 Strabo, some occasional exceptions ; particu- 
 larly in the case of Paulinus, patriarch of 
 Aquileia under Charlemagne, himself a hymn- 
 writer, who frequently used hymns, composed 
 by himself or others, in the eucharistic office, 
 especially in private masses. 
 
38 HYMNS 
 
 Some of the hymns called " Ambrosian " 
 (nearly 100 in number) are beyond all 
 question by Ambrose himself, and the rest 
 probably belong to his time or to the follow- 
 ing century. Four, those beginning "^Eterne 
 rerum conditor" ("Dread Framer of the 
 earth and sky"), " Deus Creator omnium" 
 ("Maker of all things, glorious God"), 
 4 Vent Redemptor Gentium" ("Redeemer 
 of the nations, come"), and "Jam surgit 
 hora tertia" ("Christ at this hour was 
 crucified "), are quoted as works of Ambrose 
 by Augustine. These, and others by the 
 hand of the same master, have the qualities 
 most valuable in hymns intended for con- 
 gregational use. They are short and com- 
 plete in themselves ; easy, and at the same 
 time elevated in their expression and rhythm ; 
 terse and masculine in thought and language ; 
 and (though sometimes criticised as deficient 
 in theological precision) simple, pure, and 
 not technical in their rendering of the great 
 facts and doctrines of Christianity, which 
 they present in an objective and not a sub- 
 jective manner. They have exercised a 
 powerful influence, direct or indirect, upon 
 
HYMNS 39 
 
 many of the best works of the same kind 
 in all succeeding generations. 
 
 One example of them may be given, with 
 Bishop Mant's version, which (if in some 
 places inadequate) is the best in our lan- 
 guage : 
 
 Splendor Paternae glorias 
 De luce lucem proferens, 
 Lux lucis et fons luminis, 
 Dies diem illuminans, 
 
 Verusque Sol, illabere 
 Micans nitore perpeti, 
 Jubarque Sancti Spiritus 
 Infunde nostris sensibus. 
 
 Votis vocemus et Patrem, 
 Patrem perennis gloriae, 
 Patrem potentis gratiae, 
 Culpam releget lubricam : 
 
 Confirmet actus strenuos, 
 Dentem retundat invidi, 
 Casus secundet asperos, 
 Donet gerendi gratiam. 
 
 Mentem gubernet, et regat 
 Castos fideli corpore ; 
 Fides calore ferveat ; 
 Fraudis venena nesciat. 
 
 Christusque nobis sit cibus ; 
 Potusque noster sit fides ; 
 Laeti bibamus sobriam 
 Ebrietatem Spiritus. 
 
40 HYMNS 
 
 Lsetus dies hie transeat ; 
 Pudor sit ut diluculum ; 
 Fides velut meridies ; 
 Crepusculum mens nesciat. 
 
 Aurora cursus provehit, 
 Aurora totus prodeat 
 In Patre totus Filius, 
 Et totus in Verbo Pater. 
 
 Image of the Father's might, 
 Of His light essential ray, 
 Source of splendour, Light of light, 
 
 Day that dost illume the day ; 
 Shining with unsullied beam, 
 Sun of truth, descending stream ; 
 And upon our clouded sense 
 Pour Thy Spirit's influence ! 
 
 Father ! Thee too we implore, 
 
 Father of Almighty grace, 
 Father of eternal power, 
 
 Taint of sin from us efface ! 
 Every faithful act advance, 
 Turn to good each evil chance, 
 Blunt the sting of envy's tooth, 
 Keep us in the ways of truth ! 
 
 Rule our minds, our actions form ; 
 
 Cleanse our hearts with chastity ; 
 Give us love sincere and warm, 
 
 Uprightness from falsehood free : 
 Christ, our living spring and meat, 
 Freely let us drink and eat ; 
 And our gladden' d souls imbue 
 With the Spirit's healthful dew, 
 
HYMNS 41 
 
 Joy be ours the passing day ; 
 
 Pureness like the morning's glow ; 
 Faith as clear as noontide ray ; 
 
 May the mind no twilight know ! 
 Welcoming the dawning bright, 
 Thus, we pray, a holier Light 
 From th' Eternal Fountain drawn, 
 On our waken'd souls may dawn. 
 
 With the Ambrosian hymns are properly 
 classed those of Hilary, and the contem- 
 porary works of Pope Damasus (who wrote 
 two hymns in commemoration of saints), 
 and of Prudentius, from whose Cathemerina 
 (" Daily Devotions ") and Peristephana 
 (" Crown-songs for Martyrs") all poems of 
 considerable, some of great length about 
 twenty-eight hymns, found in various Brevi- 
 aries, were derived. Prudentius was a lay- 
 man, a native of Saragossa, and it was in 
 the Spanish ritual that his hymns were 
 most largely used. In the Mozarabic Brevi- 
 ary almost the whole of one of his finest 
 poems (from which most churches took one 
 part only, beginning " Corde natus ex 
 Parentis") was appointed to be sung between 
 Easter and Ascension -Day, being divided 
 into eight or nine hymns ; and on some of 
 the commemorations of Spanish saints long 
 
42 HYMNS 
 
 poems from his Peristephana were recited 
 or sung at large. He is entitled to a high 
 rank among Christian poets, many of the 
 hymns taken from his works being full of 
 fervour and sweetness, and by no means 
 deficient in dignity or strength. 
 
 These writers were followed in the fifth 
 and early in the sixth century by the priest 
 Sedulius, whose reputation perhaps exceeded 
 his merit ; Elpis, a noble Roman lady, wife 
 of the philosophic statesman Boethius ; Pope 
 Gelasius ; and Ennodius, Bishop of Pavia. 
 Sedulius and Elpis wrote very little from 
 which hymns could be extracted ; but the 
 small number taken from their compositions 
 obtained wide popularity, and have since 
 held their ground. Gelasius was of no great 
 account as a hymn-writer ; and the works 
 of Ennodius appear to have been known 
 only in Italy and Spain. The latter part of 
 the sixth century produced Pope Gregory 
 the Great, and Venantius Fortunatus, an 
 Italian poet, the friend of Gregory, and a 
 favourite of Radegunda, Queen of the Franks, 
 who died (609) Bishop of Poitiers. Eleven 
 hymns of Gregory and twelve or thirteen 
 
HYMNS 43 
 
 (mostly taken from longer poems) by Fortun- 
 atus, came into general use in the Italian, 
 Gallican, and British churches. Those of 
 Gregory are in a style hardly distinguishable 
 from the Ambrosian ; those of Fortunatus 
 are graceful, and sometimes vigorous. He 
 does not, however, deserve the praise given 
 to him by Dr. Neale, of having struck out 
 a new path in Latin hymnody. On the 
 contrary, he may more justly be described 
 as a disciple of the school of Prudentius, 
 and as having affected the classical style, 
 at least as much as any of his pre- 
 decessors. 
 
 The poets of this primitive epoch, which 
 closed with the sixth century, wrote in the 
 old classical metres, and made use of a 
 considerable variety of them anapaestic, 
 anacreontic, hendecasyllabic, asclepiad, 
 hexameters and pentameters, and others. 
 Gregory and some of the Ambrosian authors 
 occasionally wrote in sapphics ; but the most 
 frequent measure was the iambic dimeter, 
 and, next to that, the trochaic. The full 
 alcaic stanza does not appear to have been 
 used for church purposes before the sixteenth 
 
44 HYMNS 
 
 century, though some of its elements were. 
 In the greater number of these works, a 
 general intention to conform to the rules of 
 Roman prosody is manifest ; but even those 
 writers (like Prudentius) in whom that con- 
 formity was most decided allowed themselves 
 much liberty of deviation from it. Other 
 works, including some of the very earliest, 
 and some of conspicuous merit, were of the 
 kind described by Bede as not metrical but 
 " rhythmical," i.e. (as he explains the term 
 " rhythm") "modulated to the ear in imita- 
 tion of different metres." It would be more 
 correct to call them metrical (e.g. still 
 trochaic or iambic, etc.), but, according to 
 new laws of syllabic quantity, depending 
 entirely on accent, and not on the power of 
 vowels or the position of consonants laws 
 by which the future prosody of all modern 
 European nations was to be governed. There 
 are also, in the hymns of the primitive period 
 (even in those of Ambrose), anticipations 
 irregular indeed and inconstant, but certainly 
 not accidental of another great innovation, 
 destined to receive important developments, 
 that of assonance or rhyme in the final 
 
HYMNS 45 
 
 letters or syllables of verses. Archbishop 
 Trench, in the introduction to his Sacred 
 Latin Poetry^ has traced the whole course 
 of this transition from the ancient to the 
 modern forms of versification, ascribing it 
 to natural and necessary causes, which made 
 such changes needful for the due develop- 
 ment of the new forms of spiritual and in- 
 tellectual life, consequent upon the con- 
 version of the Latin -speaking nations to 
 Christianity. 
 
 From the sixth century downwards we see 
 this transformation making continual pro- 
 gress, each nation of Western Christendom 
 adding, from time to time, to the earlier 
 hymns in its service-books others of more 
 recent and frequently of local origin. For 
 these additions, the commemorations of 
 saints, etc., as to which the devotion of one 
 place often differed from that of another, 
 offered especial opportunities. This pro- 
 cess, while it promoted the development of 
 a mediaeval as distinct from the primitive 
 style, led also to much deterioration in the 
 quality of hymns, of which, perhaps, some 
 of the strongest examples may be found in 
 
46 HYMNS 
 
 a volume published in 1865 by the Irish 
 Archaeological Society from a manuscript in 
 the library of Trinity College, Dublin. It 
 contains a number of hymns by Irish saints 
 of the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries 
 in several instances fully rhymed, and in one 
 mixing Erse and Latin barbarously together, 
 as was not uncommon, at a much later date, 
 in semi-vernacular hymns of other countries. 
 The Mozarabic Breviary, and the collection 
 of hymns used in the Anglo-Saxon churches, 
 published in 1851 by the Surtees Society 
 (chiefly from a Benedictine MS. of the 
 eleventh century in the college library of 
 Durham, supplemented by other MSS. in 
 the British Museum), supply many further 
 illustrations of the same decline of taste 
 such sapphics, e.g.) as the " Festum insigne 
 prodiit coruscum " of Isidore, and the 
 
 O veneranda Trinitas laudanda, 
 Valde benigna gloriaque digna, 
 Nostras exaudi preces quibus Tibi 
 Canimus ymnum, etc., 
 
 of the Anglo-Saxon books. The early 
 mediaeval period, however, from the time of 
 Gregory the Great to that of Hildebrand, 
 
HYMNS 47 
 
 was far from deficient in the production of 
 good hymns, wherever learning flourished. 
 Bede in England, and Paul " the Deacon " 
 the author of a fairly classical sapphic ode 
 on St. John the Baptist in Italy, were 
 successful followers of the Ambrosian and 
 Gregorian styles. Eleven metrical hymns are 
 attributed to Bede by Cassander ; and there 
 are also in one of Bede's works (Collectanea 
 et Flores) two rhythmical hymns of consider- 
 able length on the Day of Judgment, with 
 the refrains "/# tremendo die" and "Attende 
 homo" both irregularly rhymed, and, in 
 parts, not unworthy of comparison with the 
 "Dies Irae." Paulinus, patriarch of Aquileia, 
 contemporary with Paul, wrote rhythmical 
 trimeter iambics in a manner peculiar to 
 himself. Theodulph, Bishop of Orleans 
 793-835), author of the famous processional 
 hymn for Palm Sunday in hexameters and 
 pentameters, " Gloria, laus, et honor tibi 
 sit, Rex Christe Redemptor" ("Glory and 
 honour and laud be to Thee, King Christ 
 the Redeemer") and Hrabanus Maurus, 
 Archbishop of Mentz (847-856), the pupil 
 of Alcuin, and the most learned theologian 
 
48 HYMNS 
 
 of his day, enriched the Church with some 
 excellent works. Among the anonymous 
 hymns of the same period there are three of 
 great beauty, of which the influence may be 
 traced in most, if not all, of the " New 
 Jerusalem" hymns of later generations, 
 including those of Germany and Great 
 Britain: " Urbs beata Hierusalem" (of 
 which the best English translation is Arch- 
 bishop Benson's " Blessed city, heavenly 
 Salem"); "Alleluia piis edite laudibus" 
 ("Alleluias sound ye in strains of holy 
 praise" called, from its burden, "Alleluia 
 perenne ") ; and " Alleluia dulce carmen" 
 which, being found in Anglo-Saxon hymnaries 
 certainly older than the Conquest, cannot 
 be of the late date assigned to it, in his 
 Mediceval Hymns and Sequences, by Dr. 
 Neale. These were followed by the " Chorus 
 novcs Hierusalem" ("Ye Choirs of New 
 Jerusalem ") of Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres 
 (1007-1028). This group of hymns is re- 
 markable for an attractive union of melody, 
 imagination, poetical colouring, and faith. 
 It represents, perhaps, the best and highest 
 type of the middle school, between the severe 
 
HYMNS 49 
 
 Ambrosian simplicity and the florid luxuri- 
 ance of later times. 
 
 The difference may be illustrated by com- 
 paring (what has been supposed to be) one 
 of the latest of these with the earliest ex- 
 ample of the succeeding style. 
 
 Alleluia, dulce carmen 
 
 Vox perennis gaudii, 
 Alleluia laus suavis 
 
 Est choris caelestibus, 
 Quam canunt Dei manentes 
 
 In domo per ssecula. 
 
 Alleluia lasta mater 
 
 Canit Hierusalem ; 
 Alleluia vox tuorum 
 
 Civium gaudentium ; 
 Exules nos flere cogunt 
 
 Babylonis flumina. 
 
 Alleluia non meremur 
 
 Nunc perenne psallere ; 
 Alleluia nos reatus 
 
 Cogit intermittere ; 
 Tempus instat, quo peracta 
 
 Lugeamus crimina. 
 
 Inde laudando precamur 
 
 Te, beata Trinitas, 
 Ut tuum nobis videre 
 
 Pascha des in aethere, 
 Quo Tibi laeti canamus 
 
 Alleluia perpetim. 
 
S o HYMNS 
 
 Alleluia ! best and sweetest 
 
 Of the hymns of praise above ! 
 Alleluia ! thou repeatest, 
 
 Angel host, these notes of love, 
 This ye utter 
 
 While your golden harps ye move. 
 
 Alleluia ! Church victorious, 
 
 Join the concert of the sky ! 
 Alleluia ! bright and glorious, 
 
 Lift, ye saints, this strain on high ! 
 We, poor exiles, 
 
 Join not yet your melody. 
 
 Alleluia ! strains of gladness 
 
 Suit not souls with anguish torn : 
 
 Alleluia ! sounds of sadness 
 Best become our state forlorn. 
 
 Our offences 
 We with bitter tears must mourn. 
 
 But our earnest supplication, 
 
 Holy God, we raise to Thee : 
 Visit us with Thy salvation, 
 
 Make us all Thy joys to see : 
 Alleluia ! 
 
 Ours at length this strain shall be. 1 
 
 In the later and more florid style, the 
 earliest (and also the best) composition is 
 the " Rhythm on the glory and joys of Para- 
 dise" of Cardinal Damiani, 2 a friend and 
 
 1 The English is from the Rev. John Chandler's 
 Hymns of the Primitive Church, p. 65. 
 
 2 Printed at length in Archbishop Trench's Sacred 
 Latin Poetiy. In some editions of St. Augustine's 
 works it has been attributed to that Father. 
 
HYMNS 51 
 
 fellow -labourer of Hildebrand (afterwards 
 Gregory VII.) in the eleventh century, who 
 was noted for his severe asceticism, and em- 
 ployed in many important Church affairs by 
 Pope Alexander II. and his predecessors. It 
 consists of twenty long assonant trochaic 
 triplets, of which the first ten, with a ver- 
 sion l (perhaps closer than may elsewhere 
 be found), are subjoined. 
 
 Ad perennis vitae fontem mens sitivit arida, 
 Claustra carnis praesto frangi clausa quaerit anima, 
 Gliscit, ambit, eluctatur exul frui patria. 
 
 Dum pressuris ac aerumnis se gemit obnoxiam, 
 Quam amisit, dum deliquit, contemplatur gloriam ; 
 Praesens malum urget boni perditi memoriam. 
 
 Nam quis promat summae pacis quanta sit laetitia, 
 Ubi vivis margaritis surgunt aedificia, 
 Auro celsa micant tecta, radiant triclinia ? 
 
 Solis gemmis pretiosis haec structura nectitur ; 
 Auro mundo, tanquam vitro, urbis via sternitur ; 
 Abest limus, deest fimus, lues nulla cernitur. 
 
 Hiems horrens, aestas torrens, illic nunquam saeviunt ; 
 Flos perpetuus rosarum, ver agit perpetuum ; 
 Candent lilia, rubescit crocus, sudat balsamum. 
 
 Virent prata, vernant sata, rivi mellis influunt ; 
 Pigmentorum spirat odor, liquor est aromatum ; 
 Pendent poma floridorum non lapsura nemorum. 
 
 1 By the Author. 
 
52 HYMNS 
 
 Non alternat luna vices, sol, vel cursus siderum ; 
 Agnus est felicis urbis lumen inocciduum ; 
 Nox et tempus desunt ei, diem fert continuum. 
 
 Nam et sancti quisque velut sol prseclarus rutilant ; 
 Post triumphum coronati mutuo conjubilant, 
 Et prostrati pugnas hostis jam securi memorant. 
 
 Omni labe defaecati, carnis bella nesciunt ; 
 Caro facta spiritalis et mens unum sentiunt ; 
 Pace multa perfruentes, scandalum non perferunt. 
 
 Mutabilibus exuti, repetunt originem, 
 
 Et praesentis Veritatis contemplantur speciem ; 
 
 Hinc vitalem vivi Fontis hauriunt dulcedinem. 
 
 By Life's eternal Fountain, thirsty still and dry, 
 For freedom from her fleshly bonds th 1 imprisoned 
 
 soul doth sigh, 
 Pants and struggles for her country, with an exile's 
 
 yearning cry. 
 
 Groaning beneath her heavy load, by miseries press'd 
 
 down, 
 
 She gazes on sin's forfeit, the glory once her own, 
 Lost good, by present ill to memory clearer shown. 
 
 For of that perfect peace who can the joys recite, 
 Where the building is of living pearl, where golden 
 
 splendours bright 
 Shine from the lofty roofs, fill the festal halls with 
 
 light ? 
 
 Their fabric is all bonded with gems of precious 
 
 stone ; 
 The City's street, like glass, paved with pure gold 
 
 alone ; 
 Nothing baneful or unclean within those walls is 
 
 known. 
 
HYMNS 53 
 
 There is no icy winter, no scorching heats consume ; 
 It is spring there for ever ; perpetual roses bloom, 
 White lilies, blushing crocus, balm dropping sweet 
 perfume. 
 
 Green the meadows and the corn-fields, the brooks 
 with honey flowing ; 
 
 Soft odours from all colours, liquid spices health- 
 bestowing, 
 
 Woods of flowery trees, their fruits never falling, ever 
 growing. 
 
 No change is there of moon or sun or starry courses 
 
 bright ; 
 
 For the Lamb is that blest City's never-setting light ; 
 Eternal Day is there, Day without time or night 
 
 And there shines every Saint with the brightness of 
 
 a sun ; 
 They have triumphed, they are crowned, they rejoice 
 
 all as one, 
 Safe now, counting over the battles they have won. 
 
 Dross and stain purged away, from fleshly contests 
 
 freed, 
 
 Mind and spiritual body in one law agreed, 
 To the joys of that great peace no snares of sin 
 
 succeed. 
 
 Stripped of all that suffered change, to the Author 
 
 of their race 
 They return, and with Present Truth standing face 
 
 to face 
 From the Living Well-spring drink the sweetness of 
 
 His grace. 
 
 Another celebrated hymn, which belongs 
 to the first mediaeval period, is the " Veni 
 
54 HYMNS 
 
 Creator Spiritus" ("Come, Holy Ghost, 
 our souls inspire "). The earliest recorded 
 occasion of its use is that of a translation 
 (898) of the relics of St. Marcellus, men- 
 tioned in the Annals of the Benedictine 
 order. It has since been constantly sung 
 throughout Western Christendom (as ver- 
 sions of it still are in the Church of Eng- 
 land) as part of the appointed offices for 
 the coronation of kings, the consecration 
 and ordination of bishops and priests, the 
 assembling of synods, and other great 
 ecclesiastical solemnities. It has been at- 
 tributed probably in consequence of certain 
 corruptions in the text of Ekkehard's Life of 
 Notker (a work of the thirteenth century) 
 to Charlemagne. Ekkehard wrote in the 
 Benedictine monastery of St. Gall, to which 
 Notker belonged, with full access to its 
 records ; and an ignorant interpolator, re- 
 gardless of chronology, added, at some later 
 date, the word " Great " to the name of 
 "the Emperor Charles," wherever it was 
 mentioned in that work. The biographer 
 relates that Notker a man of a gentle 
 contemplative nature, observant of all around 
 
HYMNS 55 
 
 him, and accustomed to find spiritual and 
 poetical suggestions in common sights and 
 sounds was moved by the sound of a 
 mill-wheel to compose his "sequence" on 
 the Holy Spirit, " Sancti Spiritus adsit 
 nobis gratia " (" Present with us ever be 
 the Holy Spirit's grace ") ; and that, when 
 finished, he sent it as a present to u the 
 Emperor Charles," who in return sent him 
 back, "by the same messenger," the hymn 
 " Vent Creator" which (says Ekkehard) 
 the same " Spirit had inspired him to write " 
 (" Sibi idem Spiritus inspiraverat "). If 
 this story is to be credited and, from its 
 circumstantial and almost dramatic char- 
 acter, it has an air of truth the author of 
 " Veni Creator" was not Charlemagne, but 
 may have been his grandson Charles the 
 Bald, who succeeded to the royal crown in 
 840, about the time when Notker was born, 
 and to the imperial in 875. Notker him- 
 self long survived that emperor, and died 
 in 912. 
 
 From the ninth century downwards the 
 poetry of the Latin Church was more and 
 more marked by the character which clerical 
 
56 HYMNS 
 
 celibacy, the monastic life, and the ecclesi- 
 astical use of an unspoken language might 
 be expected to produce in devout minds, 
 that of abstraction from the world, and an 
 enthusiastic (often mystical) contemplation 
 of heavenly things. But the invention of 
 "sequences" by Notker may be regarded 
 as the beginning of the later mediaeval epoch 
 of Latin hymnody. In the eucharistic ser- 
 vice, in which (as has been stated) hymns 
 were not generally used, it had been the 
 practice, except at certain seasons, to sing 
 "laud," or "Alleluia," between the epistle 
 and the gospel, and to fill up what would 
 otherwise have been a long pause, by ex- 
 tending the cadence upon the two final 
 vowels of the "Alleluia" into a protracted 
 strain of music. It occurred to Notker 
 that, while preserving the spirit of that part 
 of the service, the monotony of the interval 
 might be relieved by introducing at that 
 point a chant of praise specially composed 
 for the purpose. With that view he pro- 
 duced the peculiar species of rhythmical 
 composition which obtained the name of 
 " sequentia^ (probably from following after 
 
HYMNS 57 
 
 the close of the "Alleluia"), and also that 
 of "prosa" because its structure was origin- 
 ally irregular and unmetrical, resembling in 
 this respect the Greek " troparia," and the 
 "TV Deum" " Benedicite" and Canticles. 
 That it was in some measure suggested by 
 the forms of the later Greek hymnody seems 
 probable, both from the intercourse (at that 
 time frequent) between the Eastern and 
 Western churches, and from the application, 
 by Ekkehard in his biography, and else- 
 where (e.g. in Lyndwood's Provinciale), of 
 some technical terms, borrowed from the 
 Greek terminology, to works of Notker and 
 his school and to books containing them. 
 
 Dr. Neale, in a learned dissertation pre- 
 fixed to his collection of sequences from 
 mediaeval Missals, and enlarged in a Latin 
 letter to Dr. Daniel (printed in the fifth 
 volume of Daniel's Thesaurus), has investi- 
 gated the laws of caesura and modulation 
 which are discoverable in these works. 
 Those first brought into use were sent by 
 their author to Nicholas I., pope from 858 
 to 867, who authorised their use, and that 
 of others composed after the same model 
 
58 HYMNS 
 
 by other brethren of St. Gall, in all churches 
 of the West. 
 
 Although the sequences of Notker and 
 his school, which then rapidly passed into 
 most German, French, and British Missals, 
 were not metrical, the art of "assonance" 
 was much practised in them. Many of those 
 in the Sarum and French Missals have every 
 verse, and even every clause or division of 
 a verse, ending with the same vowel "a" 
 perhaps with some reference to the terminal 
 letter of " Alleluia." Artifices such as these 
 naturally led the way to the adaptation of 
 the same kind of composition to regular 
 metre and fully developed rhyme. Dr. 
 Neale's full and large collection, and the 
 second volume of Dr. Daniel's Thesaurus^ 
 contain numerous examples, both of the 
 " proses," properly so called, of the Not- 
 kerian type, and of those of the later school, 
 which (from the religious house to which 
 its chief writer belonged) has been called 
 " Victorine." Most Missals appear to have 
 contained some of both kinds. In the 
 majority of those from which Dr. Neale's 
 specimens are taken, the metrical kind 
 
HYMNS 59 
 
 largely prevailed ; but in some (e.g. those of 
 Sarum and Liege) the greater number were 
 Notkerian. 
 
 Of the sequence on the Holy Ghost, sent 
 by Notker (according to Ekkehard) to the 
 Emperor Charles, Dr. Neale says that it 
 "was in use all over Europe, even in those 
 countries, like Italy and Spain, which usually 
 rejected sequences " ; and that, " in the 
 Missal of Palencia, the priest was ordered 
 to hold a white dove in his hands, while 
 intoning the first syllables, and then to let 
 it go." Another of the most remarkable 
 sequences attributed to Notker, 1 beginning 
 "Media in vita" (" In the midst of life we 
 are in death"), is said to have been sug- 
 gested to him while observing some work- 
 men engaged in the construction of a bridge 
 over a torrent near his monastery. Miss 
 Winkworth states that this was long used as 
 a battle-song, until the custom was forbidden, 
 on account of its being supposed to exercise 
 a magical influence. A translation of it 
 
 1 Mr. Julian, however, in his Dictionary of 
 Hymnology (Murray, 1892), gives reasons, well 
 worthy of attention, for the opinion that this was 
 not Notker' s. 
 
60 HYMNS 
 
 ("Mitten wir im Leben sind") is one of 
 Luther's funeral hymns ; and all but the 
 opening sentence of that part of the burial 
 service of the Church of England which is 
 directed to be " said or sung " at the grave, 
 " while the corpse is made ready to be laid 
 into the earth," is taken from it. 
 
 The " Golden Sequence," " Vent, Sancte 
 Spiritus" is an early example of the transi- 
 tion of sequences from a simply rhythmical 
 to a metrical form. 
 
 Veni, Sancte Spiritus, 
 Et emitte caslitus 
 Lucis tuae radium : 
 
 Veni Pater pauperum, 
 Veni Dator munerum, 
 Veni Lumen cordium ; 
 
 Consolator optime, 
 Dulcis hospes animse, 
 Dulce refrigerium : 
 
 In labore requies, 
 In aestu temperies, 
 In fletu solatium. 
 
 O lux beatissima, 
 Reple cordis intima 
 Tuorum fidelium. 
 
 Sine Tuo nomine 
 Nihil est in homine, 
 Nihil est innoxium. 
 
HYMNS 61 
 
 Lava quod est sordidum, 
 Riga quod est aridum, 
 Sana quod est saucium : 
 
 Flecte quod est rigidum, 
 Fove quod est frigidum, 
 Rege quod est devium. 
 
 Da Tuis fidelibus 
 In Te confidentibus 
 Sacrum septenarium. 
 
 Da virtutis meritum, 
 Da salutis exitum, 
 Da perenne gaudium. 
 
 Holy Spirit, Lord of Light, 
 From Thy clear celestial height 
 Thy pure beaming radiance give : 
 
 Come, Thou Father of the poor, 
 Come, with treasures that endure, 
 Come, Thou Light of all that live. 
 
 Thou, of all consolers best, 
 Visiting the troubled breast, 
 Dost refreshing peace bestow ; 
 
 Thou in toil art comfort sweet ; 
 Pleasant coolness in the heat ; 
 Solace in the midst of woe. 
 
 Light immortal ! light divine ! 
 Visit Thou these hearts of Thine, 
 And our inmost being fill. 
 
62 HYMNS 
 
 If Thou take Thy grace away, 
 Nothing pure in man will stay ; 
 All his good is turned to ill. 
 
 Heal our wounds, our strength renew ; 
 On our dryness pour Thy dew ; 
 Wash the stains of guilt away. 
 
 Bend the stubborn heart and will, 
 Melt the frozen, warm the chill ; 
 Guide the steps which go astray. 
 
 Thou, on those who evermore 
 Thee confess and Thee adore, 
 In Thy seven-fold gifts descend ! 
 
 Give them comfort when they die, 
 Give them life with Thee on high, 
 Give them joys which never end ! 1 
 
 Archbishop Trench, who esteemed this 
 " the loveliest of all the hymns in the whole 
 circle of Latin sacred poetry," was inclined 
 to give credit to a tradition which ascribed its 
 authorship to Robert II., King of France, 
 son of Hugh Capet (997-1031). Others have 
 assigned to it a later date some attribut- 
 ing it to Pope Innocent III., and some to 
 Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury. 2 
 
 1 The English is from the Rev. Edward Caswall's 
 Lyra Catholica, p. 234. 
 
 ' 2 Bunsen (Gesangbuch of 1871, No. no) attri- 
 butes it to King Robert. The question is examined 
 by Mr. Julian, who concludes that King Robert was 
 
HYMNS 63 
 
 Many translations, in German, English, and 
 other languages, attest its merit. Beren- 
 garius of Tours, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, 
 and Abelard, in the eleventh century and 
 early in the twelfth, followed in the same 
 track ; and the art of the Victorine school 
 was carried to its greatest perfection by 
 Adam of St. Victor (who died between 1 173 
 and 1194) "the most fertile, and" (in the 
 concurrent judgment of Archbishop Trench 
 and Dr. Neale) "the greatest of the Latin 
 hymnographers of the Middle Ages." The 
 Archbishop's selection contains many ex- 
 cellent specimens of his works. 
 
 But the two most widely celebrated of all 
 this class of compositions works which have 
 exercised the talents of the greatest musical 
 composers, and of innumerable translators 
 in almost all languages are the "Dies 
 Irce" ("That day of wrath, that dreadful 
 day") by Thomas de Celano, the com- 
 panion and biographer of St. Francis of 
 Assisi (who died in 1226), and the " Stab at 
 
 certainly not the author ; but thinks it probable, 
 from a statement of Ekkehard, who lived in Pope 
 Innocent the Third's time, that it is that Pontiff's 
 work. 
 
64 HYMNS 
 
 Mater dolorosa" ("By the cross sad vigil 
 keeping ") of Jacopone or Jacobus de Bene- 
 dictis, a Franciscan humorist and reformer, 
 who was persecuted by Pope Boniface VIII. 
 for his satires on the prelacy of the time, 
 and died very old in 1306. Besides these, 
 the thirteenth century produced the famous 
 sequence "Lauda Sion Salvatorem" ("Sion, 
 lift thy voice and sing"), and the four other 
 well-known sacramental hymns of St. Thomas 
 Aquinas, viz. " Pange lingua gloriosi cor- 
 poris mysterium" ( u Sing, my tongue, the 
 Saviour's glory "), " Verbum supernum pro- 
 diens" ("The Word, descending from 
 above" not to be confounded with the 
 Ambrosian hymn from which it borrowed 
 the first line), " Sacris solemntis juncta sint 
 gaudia" (" Let us with hearts renewed our 
 grateful homage pay"), and " Adoro Te 
 devote^ latens Deltas" (" O Godhead hid, 
 devoutly I adore Thee") a group of re- 
 markable compositions, written by him for 
 the then new festival of Corpus Christi, of 
 which he induced Pope Urban IV. (1261- 
 1265) to decree the observance. In these, 
 which passed rapidly into Breviaries and 
 
HYMNS 65 
 
 Missals, the doctrine of transubstantiation is 
 set forth with a wonderful degree of scholastic 
 precision ; and they exercised, probably, a 
 not unimportant influence upon the general 
 reception of that dogma. They are un- 
 doubtedly works of genius, powerful in 
 thought, feeling, and expression. 
 
 These and other mediaeval hymn-writers 
 of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries may 
 be described, generally, as poet-schoolmen. 
 Their tone is contemplative, didactic, theo- 
 logical ; they are especially fertile and in- 
 genious in the field of mystical interpretation. 
 Two great monasteries in the East had, in 
 the eighth and ninth centuries, been the 
 principal centres of Greek hymnology ; and, 
 in the West, three monasteries St. Gall, 
 near Constance (which was long the especial 
 seat of German religious literature), Cluny 
 in Burgundy, and St. Victor, near Paris 
 obtained a similar distinction. St. Gall 
 produced, besides Notker, several distin- 
 guished sequence - writers, probably his 
 pupils Hartmann, Hermann, and Gott- 
 schalk, 1 to the last of whom Dr. Neale 
 1 In Mr. Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology it is 
 
66 HYMNS 
 
 ascribed the "Alleluiatic Sequence" ("Cante- 
 mus cuncti melodiim mine Alleluia "), known 
 in England through his translation. 
 
 The original is not so well known, and is 
 rare in Missals and Sequence-books. 
 
 Cantemus cuncti melodum nunc Alleluia ; 
 
 In laudibus osterni Regis haec plebs resultet 
 
 Alleluia ; 
 Hoc denique caelestes chori cantent in altum 
 
 Alleluia ; 
 Hoc beatorum per prata paradisiaca psallat 
 
 concentus Alleluia. 
 Quin et astrorum micantia luminaria jubilent 
 
 altum Alleluia : 
 Nubium cursus, ventorum volatus, fulgurum corus- 
 
 catio et tonitruum sonitus, dulce consonent 
 
 simul Alleluia ; 
 Fluctus et undae, imber et procellse, tempestas et 
 
 serenitas, cauma, gelu, nix, pruinse, saltus, 
 
 nemora, pangant Alleluia. 
 Hinc varise volucres Creatorem laudibus con- 
 
 cinite cum Alleluia ; 
 Ast illic respondeant voces altae diversarum 
 
 bestiarum Alleluia. 
 
 Istinc montium celsi vertices sonent Alleluia ; 
 Hinc vallium profunditates saltent Alleluia. 
 Tu quoque, maris jubilans abysse, die Alleluia, 
 Necnon terrarum molis immensitates, Alleluia. 
 Nunc omne genus humanum laudans exultet, 
 
 Alleluia, 
 Et Creatori grates frequentansconsonet, Alleluia. 
 
 said, that the "Alleluiatic Sequence" is by Notker, 
 and that, for ascribing it to Gottschalk, there is 
 " no evidence whatever." 
 
HYMNS 67 
 
 Hoc denique nomen audire jugiter delectatur, 
 
 Alleluia, 
 Hoc etiam carmen caeleste comprobat ipse 
 
 Christus, Alleluia. 
 
 Nunc vos socii cantate Isetantes, Alleluia, 
 
 Et vos pueruli respondete semper, Alleluia. 
 
 Nunc omnes canite simul Alleluia Domino, Alleluia 
 
 Christo, Pneumatique Alleluia ; 
 Laus Trinitati aeternse in baptismo Domini quae 
 
 clarificatur, hinc canamus, Alleluia. 
 
 The strain upraise of joy and praise, Alleluia ! 
 To the glory of their King shall the ransomed people 
 
 sing, Alleluia ! 
 And the choirs that dwell on high shall re-echo 
 
 through the sky, Alleluia ! 
 They in the rest of Paradise who dwell, the blessed 
 
 ones, with joy the chorus swell, Alleluia ! 
 The planets beaming on their heavenly way, the 
 shining constellations join and say, Alleluia ! 
 Ye clouds that onward sweep, 
 Ye winds on pinions light, 
 Ye thunders, echoing loud and deep, 
 Ye lightnings wildly bright, 
 In sweet consent unite your Alleluia ! 
 Ye floods and ocean billows, 
 Ye storms and winter snow, 
 Ye days of cloudless beauty, 
 Hoar frost and summer glow, 
 Ye groves that wave in spring, 
 And glorious forests, sing, Alleluia ! 
 First let the birds, with painted plumage gay, exalt 
 their great Creator's praise, and say, Alleluia ! 
 Then let the beasts of earth, with varying strain, join 
 in Creation's hymn, and cry again, Allehiia! 
 Here let the mountains thunder forth sonorous, 
 
 Alleluia 1 
 There let the valleys sing in gentler chorus, Alleluia! 
 
68 HYMNS 
 
 Thou jubilant abyss of ocean, cry, Alleluia ! 
 Ye tracts of earth and continents, reply, Alleluia ! 
 To God, who all Creation made, 
 The frequent hymn be duly paid, Alleluia ! 
 This is the strain, the eternal strain, the Lord 
 
 Almighty loves, Alleluia ! 
 This is the song, the heavenly song, that Christ the 
 
 King approves, Alleluia ! 
 Wherefore we sing, both heart and voice awaking, 
 
 Alleluia ! 
 
 And children's voices echo, answer making, Alleluia ! 
 Now from all men be outpoured Alleluia to the 
 
 Lord; 
 With Alleluia evermore the Son and Spirit we 
 
 adore ! 
 
 Praise be done to the Three in One, Alleluia ! 
 Alleluia! Alleluia! 
 
 The chief poets of Cluny were two of its 
 abbots Odo (who died in 947), and Peter 
 the Venerable (1122-1156), and one of 
 Peter's monks, Bernard of Morlaix, who 
 wrote the remarkable poem on " Contempt 
 of the World" in about 3000 long rolling 
 "leonine -dactylic" verses, from parts of 
 which Dr. Neale's popular hymns, "Jeru- 
 salem the golden," etc., are taken. The 
 abbey of St. Victor, besides Adam and his 
 follower Pistor, was destined afterwards to 
 produce the most popular church poet of the 
 seventeenth century. 
 
 There were other distinguished Latin 
 
HYMNS 69 
 
 hymn-writers of the later mediaeval period, 
 besides those already mentioned. The name 
 of St. Bernard of Clairvaux cannot be passed 
 over with the mere mention of the fact that 
 he was the author of some metrical sequences. 
 He was, in truth, the father, in Latin hymnody, 
 of that warm and passionate form of devo- 
 tion which some may consider to apply too 
 freely to Divine Objects the language of 
 human affection, but which has, nevertheless, 
 been popular with many devout persons, 
 in Protestant as well as Roman Catholic 
 churches. Spee, Scheffler, Madame Guyon, 
 Bishop Ken, Count Zinzendorf, and Frederick 
 William Faber may be regarded as disciples 
 in this school. Many hymns, in various 
 languages, have been founded upon St. Ber- 
 nard's " Jesu dulcis memoria" ("Jesu, the 
 very thought of Thee"), "Jesu dulcedo 
 cordium" ("Jesu, Thou joy of loving hearts"), 
 "Jesu Rex admirabilis" ("O Jesu, King 
 most wonderful "), and "Jesu, decus Angeli- 
 cum" ("O Jesu, Thou the Beauty art") 
 four portions of one poem, nearly 200 lines 
 long. Marbode (Bishop of Rennes) in the 
 eleventh, Hildebert (Archbishop of Tours) in 
 
70 HYMNS 
 
 the twelfth, and Cardinal Bonaventura in 
 the thirteenth centuries, are other eminent 
 men, who added poetical fame, as hymno- 
 graphers, to high public distinction. 
 
 Before the time of the Reformation, the 
 multiplication of sequences (often as unedi- 
 fying in matter as unpoetical in style) had 
 done much to degrade the common concep- 
 tion of hymnody. ^ In some parts of France, 
 Portugal, Sardinia, and Bohemia, their use 
 in the vernacular language had been allowed. 
 In Germany also there were vernacular 
 sequences as early as the twelfth century, 
 specimens of which may be seen in the 
 third chapter of Miss Winkworth's Christian 
 Singers of Germany. Scoffing parodies 
 upon sequences are said to have been among 
 the means used in Scotland to discredit the 
 old church services. After the fifteenth 
 century they were discouraged at Rome. 
 They retained for a time some of their old 
 popularity among German Protestants, and 
 were only gradually relinquished in France. A 
 A new " prose," in honour of St. Maxentia, 
 is among the compositions of Jean Baptiste 
 Santeul ; and Dr. Daniel's second volume 
 
HYMNS 71 
 
 closes with one written in 1855 upon the 
 dogma of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 The taste of the Renaissance was offended 
 by all deviations from classical prosody and 
 Latinity. Pope Leo X. directed the whole 
 body of the hymns in use at Rome to be 
 reformed ; and a volume of " new ecclesias- 
 tical hymns," prepared by Ferreri, a scholar 
 of Vicenza, to whom Leo had committed 
 that task, appeared in 1523, with the sanc- 
 tion of a later pope, Clement VII. The 
 next step was to revise the whole Roman 
 Breviary. That undertaking, after passing 
 through several stages under different popes 
 (particularly Pius V. and Clement VIII.), 
 was at last brought to a conclusion by 
 Urban VI 1 1., in 1631. From this revised 
 Breviary a large number of mediaeval hymns, 
 both of the earlier and the later periods, were 
 excluded ; and in their places many new 
 hymns, including some by Pope Urban 
 himself, and some by Cardinal Bellarmine 
 and another cardinal (Silvius Antonianus) 
 were introduced. The hymns of the primi- 
 tive epoch, from Hilary to Gregory the 
 Great, for the most part retained their places 
 
72 HYMNS 
 
 (especially in the offices for every day of 
 the week); and there remained altogether 
 from seventy to eighty of earlier date than 
 the eleventh century. Those, however, 
 which were so retained were freely altered, 
 and by no means generally improved. The 
 revisers appointed by Pope Urban (three 
 learned Jesuits, Strada, Gallucci, and 
 Petrucci) professed to have made " as 
 few changes as possible" in the works of 
 Ambrose, Gregory, Prudentius, Sedulius, 
 Fortunatus, and other " poets of great 
 name." But some changes, even in those 
 works, were made with considerable bold- 
 ness ; and the pope, in the " constitution " 
 by which his new book was promulgated, 
 boasted that, " with the exception of a very 
 small number (' perpancis^ which were 
 either prose or merely rhythmical, all the 
 hymns had been made conformable to the 
 laws of prosody and Latinity, those which 
 could not be corrected by any milder method 
 being entirely rewritten." The latter fate 
 befell, among others, " Urbs beat a Hieru- 
 salem" which now assumed the form (to 
 many, perhaps, better known) of " Ccelestis 
 
HYMNS 73 
 
 urbs Jerusalem" Of the "very few" which 
 were spared, the chief were "Aye maris 
 Stella" ("Gentle star of ocean"), "Dies 
 Ira" " Stabat Mater dolorosa" the hymns 
 of St. Thomas Aquinas, two of St. Bernard, 
 and one Ambrosian hymn, "Jesu nostra 
 Redemptio" ("O Jesu, our Redemption"), 
 which approaches nearer than others to the 
 tone of St. Bernard. A then recent hymn 
 of St. Francis Xavier, with scarcely enough 
 merit of any kind to atone for its neglect of 
 prosody, " O Deus^ ego amo Te" ("O God, 
 I love Thee, not because"), was at the 
 same time introduced without change. This 
 hymnary of Pope Urban VIII. is now in 
 general use throughout the Roman Com- 
 munion. 
 
 The Parisian hymnary underwent three 
 revisions the first in 1527, when a new 
 " Psaltery with hymns " was issued. In 
 this such changes only were made as the 
 revisers thought justifiable upon the prin- 
 ciple of correcting supposed corruptions of 
 the original text. Of these, the transposi- 
 tion, " Urbs Jerusalem beat a" instead of 
 " Urbs beat a Hierusalem" may be taken as 
 
74 HYMNS 
 
 a typical example. The next revision was 
 in 1670-1680, under Cardinal Pere'fixe, pre- 
 ceptor of Louis XIV., and Francis Harlay, 
 successively archbishops of Paris, who em- 
 ployed for this purpose Claude Santeul, of 
 the monastery of St. Magloire, and, through 
 him, obtained the assistance of other French 
 scholars, including his more celebrated 
 brother, Jean Baptiste Santeul, of the abbey 
 of St. Victor, better known as " Santolius 
 Victorinus." The third and final revision was 
 completed in 1735, under the primacy of 
 Cardinal Archbishop de Vintimille, who 
 engaged for it the services of Charles Coffin, 
 then rector of the university of Paris. Many 
 old hymns were omitted in Archbishop 
 Harlay's Breviary, and a large number of 
 new compositions, by the Santeuls and 
 others, were introduced. It still, however, 
 retained in their old places (without further 
 changes than had been made in 1527) about 
 seventy of earlier date than the eleventh 
 century, including thirty-one Ambrosian, 
 one by Hilary, eight by Prudentius, seven 
 by Fortunatus, three by Paul the Deacon, 
 two each by Sedulius, Elpis, Gregory, and 
 
HYMNS 75 
 
 Hrabanus Maurus, " Vent Creator" and 
 " Urbs Jerusalem beata" Most of these 
 disappeared in 1735, although Cardinal 
 Vintimille, in his preface, professed to have 
 still admitted the old hymns, except when 
 the new were better {"veteribus hymnis 
 locus datus est) nisi quibus^ ob sententiarum 
 vim, elegantiam verborum^ et teneriores 
 pietatis sensus^ recentiores anteponi satius 
 msum est "). The number of the new was, 
 at the same time, very largely increased. 
 Only twenty -one more ancient than the 
 sixteenth century remained, of which those 
 belonging to the primitive epoch were but 
 eight, viz. four Ambrosian, two by For- 
 tunatus, and one each by Prudentius and 
 Gregory. The number of Jean Baptiste 
 Santeul's hymns (who had died in 1697) 
 rose to eighty-nine; those by Coffin in- 
 cluding some old hymns, e.g. "Jam lucis 
 orto sidere" ("Once more the sun is beam- 
 ing bright "), which he substantially rewrote 
 were eighty-three ; those of other modern 
 French writers, ninety -seven. Whatever 
 opinion may be entertained of the principles 
 on which these Roman and Parisian revisions 
 
76 HYMNS 
 
 proceeded, it would be unjust to deny very 
 high praise as hymn-writers to several of 
 their poets, especially to Coffin and Jean 
 Baptiste Santeul. 
 
 The following noble hymn by Coffin (for 
 Vespers on the Lord's Day) is not the only 
 one of his works which breathes the true 
 Ambrosian spirit. 
 
 O luce qui mortalibus 
 Lates inaccessa, Deus ! 
 Prsesente quo sancti tremunt 
 Nubuntque vultus Angeli : 
 
 Hie, ceu profunda conditi 
 Demergimur caligine : 
 Aeternus at noctem suo 
 Fulgore depellet dies. 
 
 Hunc nempe nobis prseparas, 
 Nobis reservas hunc diem, 
 Quern vix adumbrat splendida 
 Flammantis astri claritas. 
 
 Moraris, heu ! nimis diu, 
 Moraris,'optatus dies ! 
 Ut te fruamur, noxii 
 Linquenda moles corporis. 
 
 His cum soluta vinculis 
 Mens evolarit, O Deus, 
 Videre Te, laudare Te, 
 Amare Te, non desinet. 
 
HYMNS 77 
 
 Ad omne nos apta bonum, 
 Foecunda donis Trinitas : 
 Fac lucis usurse brevi 
 Aeterna succedat dies. 
 
 O Thou, who in the light dost dwell 
 To mortals unapproachable, 
 Where Angels veil them from Thy rays, 
 And tremble as they gaze : 
 
 While us the deeps of darkness bar, 
 From Thy bless' d Presence set afar, 
 Till brightness of th' eternal day 
 Shall chase the gloom away : 
 
 Such day Thou hast in store with Thee, 
 Hid in Thy boundless majesty, 
 Of which the sun, in glorious trim, 
 Is but a shadow dim. 
 
 Why lingers thus light's golden wheel 
 Which shall to us that day reveal ? 
 But we must cast this flesh aside, 
 Ere we with Thee abide. 
 
 But when the soul shall take her wing 
 From out her dark enveloping, 
 To see Thee, praise Thee, love Thee still, 
 Her urn within shall fill. 
 
 Dread Three in One, mould us and bless 
 In Thine o'erflowing bounteousness, 
 To pass unharmed through this our night 
 And see Thine endless light. 1 
 
 1 Translation by the Rev. Isaac Williams, Hymns 
 from the Parisian Breviary, p. 10. 
 
7 8 HYMNS 
 
 Santeul (generally esteemed the better poet 
 of the two) delighted in alcaics, and did not 
 greatly affect the primitive manner. But there 
 can be no question as to the excellence of 
 such hymns as his " Fumant Sabcets templa 
 vaporibus" (''Sweet incense breathes 
 around "), " Stupete gentes^fit Deus hostia " 
 ("Tremble, ye Gentile lands"), and "Teinpli 
 sacratas pande, Sion, fores" ("O Sion, open 
 wide thy gates ") ; and (perhaps as goodjas 
 any of them) the hymn for All-Saints' Day : 
 
 Hymnis dum resonat curia Coelitum, 
 Hie flemus, patriis finibus exules : 
 Hie suspensa tenemus 
 Mutis cantibus organa. 
 
 Quando mens misero libera carcere 
 Se vestris sociam ccetibus inserat, 
 Et caligine pulsa 
 
 Caeli lucem habitabimus ? 
 
 Obscurse fugient mentis imagines, 
 Cum, stantes propius luminis ad jubar, 
 Nos Verum sine nube 
 Ipso in fonte videbimus. J 
 
 Nobis, sancta cohors, sis bona ; fluctibus 
 Luctantes mediis quos modo respicis, 
 Da portus, duce Christo, 
 Da contingere prosperos. 
 
 1 In this and the first stanza, some of the thoughts 
 are evidently taken from Damiani's Rhythm (ante, 
 P- 5 1 )- 
 
HYMNS 79 
 
 A quo cuncta fluunt, maxima laus Patri : 
 Qui mundum reparat, maxima Filio : 
 Et quo pectora flagrant 
 Sit laus maxima Flamini. 
 
 With hymns the Heavenly Courts are ringing : 
 We, exiles from our country, weep ; 
 And silence from glad singing 
 Our harps suspended keep. 
 
 When shall the soul, her fetters burst, 
 
 Be joined to those assemblies bright, 
 
 All darkness then dispers'd, 
 
 Her dwelling-place Heav'n's light ? 
 
 Far off shall all dim fancies flee, 
 When, to light's glory brought more near, 
 Without a cloud we see 
 
 Truth in her Fountain clear. 
 
 If, blessed Saints, ye watch our pain, 
 Still striving amid stormy waves, 
 Pray, that safe port we gain 
 
 Through Christ, who only saves. 
 
 Praise to the Father, Source of All ! 
 The Son, Repairer of our Fall ! 
 And the Blest Spirit's Name, 
 Who doth our hearts inflame. 1 
 
 It is a striking testimony to the merits of 
 these writers that such accomplished trans- 
 lators as the Rev. Isaac Williams and the 
 Rev. John Chandler appear (from the title- 
 page of the latter, and the prefaces of both) 
 1 Translated by the Author. 
 
8o HYMNS 
 
 to have supposed their hymns to be "ancient" 
 and " primitive." Among the other authors 
 associated with them, perhaps the first place 
 is due to the Abbe Besnault, of Sens, who 
 contributed to the book of 1735 tne " Urbs 
 beat a vera pads Visio Jerusalem? in the 
 opinion of Dr. Neale "much superior" to 
 the "Ccelestis urbs Jerusalem " of the Roman 
 Breviary. This stood side by side with the 
 " Urbs Jerusalem beata" of 1527 (in the 
 office for the dedication of churches) till 
 1822, when the older form was at last finally 
 excluded by Archbishop de Quelen. 
 
 The ancient hymn, whatever its merits, 
 had some blemishes which might account 
 for endeavours to mend it. But the de- 
 parture from it, both in the Roman and 
 in the Parisian Breviary, went much further. 
 In the former most of the architectural 
 imagery, in the latter the whole concep- 
 tion of the Heavenly City "as a Bride 
 prepared and adorned for her husband," * 
 was left out ; and what was retained of the 
 original thoughts was altered in expres- 
 sion and arrangement. Considered as new 
 1 Revelation xxi. 2. 
 
HYMNS 81 
 
 hymns, both the Roman and the Paris- 
 ian are spirited and attractive. Of their 
 comparative merits, the best judgment may 
 be formed by placing them (with transla- 
 tions) side by side. 
 
 Roman. 
 
 Ccelestis urbs Jerusalem, 
 Beata pacis visio, 
 Quas celsa de viventibus 
 Saxis ad astra tolleris, 
 Sponsaeque ritu cingeris 
 Mille Angelorum millibus : 
 
 O sorte nupta prospera, 
 Dotata Patris gloria, 
 Respersa Sponsi gratia, 
 Regina formosissima, 
 Christo jugata Principi, 
 Coeli corusca Civitas ! 
 
 Hie margaritis emicant 
 Patentque cunctis ostia : 
 Virtute namque praevia 
 Mortalis illuc ducitur, 
 Amore Christi percitus 
 Tormenta quisquis sustinet. 
 
 Scalpri salubris ictibus 
 Et tunsione plurima, 
 Fabri polita raalleo, 
 Hanc saxa molem continent, 
 Aptisque juncta nexibus 
 Locantur in fastigio. 
 
 Decus Parenti debitum 
 Sit undequaque Altissimo, 
 
82 HYMNS 
 
 Natoque Patris Unico, 
 Et inclyto Paraclito : 
 Cui laus, potestas, gloria, 
 Aeterna sit per ssecula ! 
 
 Jerusalem, thou City blest ! 
 Dear Vision of celestial rest, 
 Which far above the starry sky 
 Piled up with living stones on high, 
 Art as a Bride encircled bright 
 With million Angel forms of light ! 
 
 Oh, wedded in a prosperous hour ! 
 The Father's glory was thy dower ; 
 The Spirit all His graces shed, 
 Thou peerless queen, upon thy head, 
 When Christ espoused thee for His Bride, 
 O City bright and glorified ! 
 
 Thy gates a pearly lustre pour ; 
 Thy gates are open evermore : 
 And thither evermore draw nigh 
 All who for Christ have dared to die, 
 Or, smit with love of their dear Lord, 
 Have pains endured, and joys abhorr'd. 
 
 Thou too, O Church, which here we see, 
 No easy task hath builded thee : 
 Long did the chisels ring around, 
 Long did the mallet's blows resound, 
 Long worked the head and toiled the hand, 
 Ere stood these stones as now they stand. 
 
 To God the Father, glory due 
 Be paid by all the heavenly host, 
 And to His only Son most true, 
 With Thee, O mighty Holy Ghost ! 
 
HYMNS 83 
 
 To Whom praise, power, and blessing be 
 Through ages of eternity ! * 
 
 Parisian. 
 
 Urbs beata, vera pacis 
 
 Visio, Jerusalem, 
 Quanta surgit ! celsa saxis 
 
 Conditur viventibus : 
 Quae polivit, hsec coaptat 
 
 Sedibus suis Deus. 
 
 Singulis ex margaritis 
 
 Singulse portse nitent ; 
 Murus omnis fulget auro, 
 
 Fulget unionibus : 
 Angularis Petra Christus 
 
 Fundat urbis moenia. 
 
 Ejus est Sol csesus Agnus, 
 
 Ejus est Templum Deus : 
 Aemulantes hie beati 
 
 Puriores spiritus 
 Laude jugi Numen Unum 
 
 Terque Sanctum concinunt. 
 
 Hinc et inde sunt aperta 
 
 Civitatis ostia : 
 Quisquis ambit hue venire 
 
 Inserique moenibus, 
 Ante duris hie probari 
 
 Debuit laboribus. 
 
 Sit perennis laus Parenti, 
 
 Sit perennis Filio : 
 Laus Tibi, qui nectis ambos, 
 
 Sit perennis, Spiritus ! 
 Chrisma cujus nos inungens 
 
 Viva templa consecrat. 
 
 1 Translated by the Rev. Edward Caswall. 
 
84 HYMNS 
 
 Blessed City, Vision bright 
 
 Of true peace, Jerusalem ! 
 See her rise to wondrous height, 
 
 Built of many a living gem, 
 Polished, and by God's own hand 
 Framed in order due to stand. 
 
 Each one pearl of ray transcendent 
 
 Are her portals, equal all : 
 Shines with purest gold resplendent, 
 
 Shines with pearls, the City wall : 
 Christ its Founder, Christ alone 
 Is its Rock and Corner-stone. 
 
 God that City's Temple is, 
 
 And her Sun the Lamb once slain : 
 
 There pure spirits in their bliss 
 Vie in one triumphal strain, 
 
 One, Thrice Holy, God the Lord 
 
 Praising still with sweet accord. 
 
 There for all who seek is room ; 
 
 Every gate is open wide ; 
 Only, who would thither come 
 
 And within those walls abide, 
 Trial sore of toil and woe 
 He must suffer first below. * 
 
 To the Father endless praise, 
 Endless to th" Incarnate Son, 
 
 And to Thee, Spirit of grace, 
 Bond of Holiest Union ! 
 
 Who anointest us to be 
 
 Living temples, meet for Thee ! 1 
 
 The Parisian Breviary of 1735 remained 
 in use till the national French service-books 
 
 1 Translated by the Author. 
 
HYMNS 85 
 
 were superseded (as they have now been, 
 generally, if not universally) by the Roman. 
 Almost all French dioceses followed, not 
 indeed the Breviary, but the example, of 
 Paris ; and before the end of the eighteenth 
 century the ancient Latin hymnody was all 
 but banished from France. 
 
 In some parts of Germany, after the 
 Reformation, Latin hymns continued to be 
 used, even by Protestants. This was the 
 case at Halberstadt until quite a recent date. 
 In England, a few are still occasionally used 
 in the older universities and colleges. Some, 
 also, have been composed in both countries 
 since the Reformation. The " Carmina 
 Lyrica" of John Jacob Balde, a native of 
 Alsace, and a Jesuit priest in Bavaria, 
 have received high commendation from 
 eminent German critics, particularly Herder 
 and Augustus Schlegel. Some of the Latin 
 hymns of William Alard, a Protestant 
 refugee from Belgium, and pastor in Hoi- 
 stein (i 572-1645), have been thought worthy 
 of a place in Archbishop Trench's selec- 
 tion. Two by W. Petersen (printed at the 
 end of Haberkorn's supplement to Jacobi's 
 
86 HYMNS 
 
 Psalmodia Germanica) are good in different 
 ways one, "Jesu dulcis amor meus " 
 ("Jesus, Thee my soul doth love"), being 
 a gentle melody of spiritual devotion, and 
 the other, entitled Spes Sionis, violently 
 controversial against Rome. An English 
 hymn of the seventeenth century, in the 
 Ambrosian style, " Te Deum Patrem coli- 
 mus" ("Almighty, Father, just and good"), 
 is sung on every May-day morning by the 
 choristers of Magdalen College, Oxford, from 
 the top of the tower of their chapel ; and 
 another in the style of the Renaissance, of 
 about the same date, " Te de profundis, 
 summe Rex" ("Thee, from the depths, 
 Almighty King"), is, or until lately was, 
 sung as part of a grace by the scholars of 
 Winchester College. 1 
 
 1 The principal ancient authorities on Latin 
 hymnody are the 25th chapter (" De hymnis et 
 cantilenis et incrementis eorum " ) of the treatise of 
 Walafridus Strabo, and a treatise of the fourteenth 
 century ("De Psalterio observando"}, by Radulphus, 
 Dean of Tongres in the Netherlands. Next to those 
 are the first book of Clichtoveus's Elucidalorium 
 Ecclesiasticum (Paris, 1556) ; the chapter on Am- 
 brosian and other hymns in the works of George 
 Cassander (Paris, 1616) ; the Psalterium, etc., in 
 the second volume of the works of Cardinal J. M. 
 
HYMNS 87 
 
 5. GERMAN HYMNODY 
 
 Luther was a proficient in and a lover 
 of music. He desired (as he says in the 
 
 Thomasius (Rome, 1747); and the treatise " De 
 Hymnis Ecclesiasticis," prefixed to the Hymnodia 
 Hispanica of Faustinas Arevalus (Rome, 1786). The 
 present century, more especially within the last fifty 
 years, has added much to the stores of learning 
 accessible on this subject. In Germany, Rambach's 
 Christian Anthology ; Mone's Hymni Latini medii 
 sEvi ; Daniel's Thesaurus Hymnologicus ; and 
 Mohnike's Hymnologische Forschungen ; and in 
 England, Archbishop Trench's Sacred Latin Poetry, 
 Dr. Neale's two collections of Latin Hymns and 
 Sequences (Oxford, 1851 and 1852), and his Essays 
 on Liturgiology and Church History ; the Oxford 
 collection of Hymns from the Roman, Sarum, York, 
 and other Breviaries (1838); the Psalter, etc., ac- 
 cording to Sarum use, of Mr. J. D. Chambers (1852); 
 and the two volumes already referred to of Anglo- 
 Saxon and Irish hymns, published in 1851 and 1865 
 by the Surtees Society and the Irish Archaeological 
 Society, have left little to be added by any future 
 labourers in this field. The same period has also 
 produced numerous English translations of Latin 
 hymns, many of which are good and interesting, 
 though perhaps few of the translators have overcome 
 the inherent difficulties of their task sufficiently either 
 to represent the characteristic merits of the originals, 
 or to add to our vernacular hymns many adapta- 
 tions really well suited for popular use. The most 
 important are Mr. Isaac Williams's Hymns from 
 the Parisian Breviary (1839), and Mr. Chandler's 
 Hymns of the Primitive Church (1837) ; Bishop 
 M.?ctiC Ancient Hymns (1837), and the Rev. Edward 
 
88 HYMNS 
 
 preface to his hymn-book of 1545) that this 
 " beautiful ornament " might " in a right 
 manner serve the great Creator and His 
 Christian people." The persecuted Bo- 
 hemian or Hussite Church, then settled on 
 the borders of Moravia under the name of 
 " United Brethren " (which their descend- 
 ants still retain), had sent to him, on a 
 mission in 1522, Michael; Weiss, who not 
 long afterwards published a number of 
 German translations from old Bohemian 
 hymns (known as those of the " Bohemian 
 Brethren "), with some of his own. These 
 Luther highly approved and recommended. 
 He himself, in 1522, published a small 
 volume of eight hymns, which was enlarged 
 to 63 in 1527, and to 125 in 1545. He 
 had formed what he called a "house choir" 
 of musical friends, to select such old and 
 
 Caswall's Lyra Catholica (1849), both from the 
 Roman Breviary ; the versions of Mr. Chambers, in 
 hisSarum Psalter, etc. ; Dr. Neale's Medi&val Hymns 
 and Sequences (1862), with his versions, separately 
 published, of some other works ; and Hymns of the 
 Latin Church, translated by David T. Morgan, with 
 the originals appended (privately printed in 1871). 
 The first lines, in English, given here, are generally 
 adopted from some of these. 
 
HYMNS 89 
 
 popular tunes (whether secular or ecclesi- 
 astical) as might be found suitable, and to 
 compose new melodies, for church use. His 
 fellow-labourers in this field (besides Weiss) 
 were Justus Jonas, his own especial col- 
 league ; Paul Eber, the disciple and friend 
 of Melanchthon ; John Walther, choirmaster 
 successively to several German princes, and 
 professor of arts, etc., at Wittenberg ; 
 Nicholas Decius, who from a monk became 
 a Protestant teacher in Brunswick, and 
 translated the " Gloria in Excelsis" etc. ; 
 and Paul Speratus, chaplain to Duke Albert 
 of Prussia in 1525. Some of their works 
 are still popular in Germany. Weiss's 
 " Funeral Hymn," " Nun lasst uns den 
 Leib begraben" (" Now lay we calmly in the 
 grave"); Eber's " Herr Jesu Christ, wahr 
 Mensch und Gott" (" Lord Jesus Christ, 
 true Man and God "), and " Wenn wir in 
 hochsten Nbthen sein" ("When in the hour 
 of utmost need"); Decius's " Allein Gott 
 in der Hoh set Ehr" ("To God on high be 
 thanks and praise"); and Speratus's " Es 
 ist das Heil uns kommen her" ("Salvation 
 now has come for all"), are among those 
 
90 HYMNS 
 
 which at the time produced the greatest 
 effect, and are still best remembered. 
 
 The palm, in point of poetry, may per- 
 haps be given to Walther's " New Heavens 
 and New Earth." 
 
 Herzlich thut mich erfreuen 
 
 Die liebe sommerzeit, 
 Wenn Gott wird schon erneuen 
 
 Alles zur ewigkeit : 
 Den himmel und die erden 
 
 Wird Gott neu schaffen gar, 
 All creatur soil werden 
 
 Ganz herrlich, schon und klar. 
 
 Kein zunge kann erreichen 
 
 Die ew'ge schb'nheit gross ; 
 Man kann's mit nichts vergleichen, 
 
 Die wort' sind viel zu bloss : 
 Drum miissen wir das sparen 
 
 Bis an den jiingsten tag ; 
 Dann wollen wirs erfahren, 
 
 Was Gott ist und vermag. 
 
 Denn Gott wird bald uns alle, 
 
 Was je geboren ist, 
 Durch sein posaun mit schalle 
 
 In seim Sohn Jesu Christ 
 In unserm fleisch erwecken 
 
 Zu groszer herrlichkeit, 
 Und klarlich uns entdecken 
 
 Die ew'ge seligkeit. 
 
 Er wird uns frohlich leiten 
 
 Ins ew'ge paradeis, 
 Die hochzeit zu bereiten 
 
 Zu seinem lob und preis : 
 
HYMNS 91 
 
 Da wird sein freud und wonne 
 In rechter lieb' und treu 
 
 Aus Gottes schatz und bronne 
 Und taglich werden neu. 
 
 Ach Gott, durch deine giite 
 
 Fiihr mich auf rechter bahn ! 
 Herr Christ, mich wohl behiite 
 
 Vor allem bosen wahn : 
 Halt mich im glauben feste 
 
 In dieser bosen zeit, 
 Hilf, dass ich mich stets riiste 
 
 Zur ew'gen hochzeitfreud. 
 
 Hiemit will ich beschliessen 
 
 Das frohe sommerlied, 
 Es wird gar bald ausspriessen 
 
 Die ew'ge sommerbliith, 
 Das ew'ge jahr herfliessen : 
 
 Gott geb in diesem jahr, 
 Dass wir der friicht geniessen : 
 
 Amen ! das werde wahr ! 
 
 Now fain my joyous heart would sing 
 
 That lovely summer-time, 
 When God reneweth everything 
 
 In His celestial prime ; 
 When He shall make new heavens and earth, 
 
 And all the creatures there 
 Shall spring from out that second birth 
 
 All-glorious, pure, and fair. 
 
 The perfect beauty of that sphere 
 
 No mortal tongue may speak, 
 We have no likeness for it here, 
 
 Our words are far too weak ; 
 And we must wait till we behold 
 
 The hour of judgment true, 
 
HYMNS 
 
 That to the soul shall all unfold 
 What God is, and can do. 
 
 For God ere long will summon all 
 
 Who once on earth were born ; 
 This flesh shall hear the trumpet's call 
 
 And live again that morn ; 
 And when in Christ His Son we wake, 
 
 These skies asunder roll, 
 And all the bliss of heaven shall break 
 
 Upon the raptured soul. 
 
 And He will lead the white-robed throng 
 
 To His fair Paradise, 
 Where from the marriage-feast the song 
 
 Of endless praise shall rise, 
 And from His fathomless abyss 
 
 Of perfect love and truth 
 Shall flow perpetual joy and bliss 
 
 In never-ending youth. 
 
 Ah God ! now lead me of Thy love 
 
 Through this dark world aright ; 
 Lord Christ, defend me lest I rove, 
 
 Or lies delude my sight : 
 And keep me steadfast in the' faith 
 
 Till these dark days have ceased, 
 And ready still in life or death 
 
 For Thy great marriage-feast. 
 
 And herewith will I end the song 
 
 Of that fair summer-time ; 
 The blossoms shall burst out ere long 
 
 Of heaven's eternal prime, 
 The year begin, for ever new ; 
 
 God grant us from on high, 
 To see our vision here made true, 
 
 And eat the fruits of joy ! l 
 
 1 Translated by Catherine Winkworth. 
 
HYMNS 93 
 
 Luther's own hymns, thirty-seven in num- 
 ber (of which about twelve are translations 
 or adaptations from Latin originals), are for 
 the principal Christian seasons ; on the 
 sacraments, the church, grace, death, etc. ; 
 and paraphrases of several psalms, of a 
 passage in Isaiah, and of the Lord's Prayer, 
 the Ten Commandments, Creed, Litany, and 
 " Te Deum." There is also a very touch- 
 ing and stirring song on the martyrdom of 
 two youths by fire at Brussels, in 1523-24. 
 Homely and sometimes rugged in form, and 
 for the most part objective in tone, they are 
 full of fire, manly simplicity, and strong 
 faith. Three rise above the rest. One for 
 Christmas, " Vom Himmel hock da komm 
 ich her" (" From Heaven above to earth I 
 come"), has a reverent tenderness, the in- 
 fluence of which may be traced in many 
 later productions on the same subject. That 
 on salvation through Christ, of a didactic 
 character, " Nun freuet euch, lieben Christen 
 g*mein" ("Dear Christian people, now re- 
 joice "), is said to have made many conver- 
 sions, and to have been once taken up by 
 a large congregation to silence a Roman 
 
94 HYMNS 
 
 Catholic preacher in the cathedral of Frank- 
 fort. Pre-eminent above all is the celebrated 
 "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" " the pro- 
 duction" (as Ranke says) "of the moment 
 in which Luther, engaged in a conflict with 
 a world of foes, sought strength in the con- 
 sciousness that he was defending a divine 
 cause which could never perish." Carlyle 
 compares it to "a sound of Alpine ava- 
 lanches, or the first murmur of earthquakes." 
 Heine called it "the Marseillaise of the 
 Reformation." 
 
 Ein feste burg ist unser Gott, 
 Ein gute wehr und waffen, 
 Er hilft uns frei aus aller noth, 
 Die uns jetzt hat betroffen : 
 Der alt bose feind 
 Mit ernst ers jetzt meint, 
 Gross macht und viel list 
 Sein grausam riistung ist, 
 
 Auf erd ist nicht seins gleichen. 
 
 Mit unser macht ist nichts gethan, 
 
 Wir sind gar bald verloren, 
 Es streit fur uns der rechte mann, 
 Den Gott selbst hat erkoren. 
 Fragst du, wer der ist ? 
 Er heisst Jesus Christ, 
 Der Herr Zebaoth 
 Und ist kein andrer Gott, 
 Das feld muss er behalten. 
 
HYMNS 95 
 
 Und wcnn die welt voll teufel war, 
 Und wollt uns gar verschlingen, 
 So furchten wir uns nicht so sehr, 
 Es soil uns doch gelingen. 
 Der fiirst dieser welt 
 Wie saur er sich stellt, 
 Thut er uns doch nicht, 
 Das macht, er ist gericht, 
 Ein wortlein kann ihn fallen. 
 
 Das wort sie sollen lassen stahn, 
 
 Und kein dank dazu haben, 
 Er ist bei uns wohl auf dem plan, 
 Mit seinem Geist und gaben. 
 Nehmen sie den leib, 
 Gut, ehr, kind und weib, 
 Lass fahren dahin 
 Sie habens kein gewinn : 
 
 Das reich muss uns doch bleiben. 
 
 A mighty Fortress is our God ; 
 
 Well He defends and arms us ; 
 He brings relief from the distress 
 Which now so sore alarms us : 
 The ancient Foe, with fell intent, 
 Is on our swift destruction bent ; 
 Great through earth's length 
 His craft and power ; 
 Earth has no tower 
 To match his strength. 
 
 'Tis nought that we ourselves can do ; 
 
 We should be lost for ever 
 But for the Man, God's chosen One, 
 
 Who can and will deliver. 
 Tell those who ask us, What His Name ? 
 'Tis Jesus Christ ; His praise proclaim ! 
 
9 6 HYMNS 
 
 He, God adored, 
 
 Will hold the field, 
 
 For all must yield 
 To Sabaoth's Lord. 
 
 If Satan's malice filled the world 
 
 Us to devour preparing, 
 We should not fear, but safe would stand, 
 
 The Conqueror's banner bearing. 
 One little word can overthrow 
 All the wild fury of the Foe : 
 Though world and hell 
 Their powers unite, 
 Not all their might 
 Can make us quail. 
 
 His word shall prosper and prevail ; 
 
 Not ours, but His the merit : 
 He sets our battle in array ; 
 
 We have His gifts and Spirit. 
 Take wings and vanish, earthly life ! 
 Fly, goods and honours, child and wife ! 
 These could not gain 
 His Heavenly Rest : 
 That Kingdom blest 
 Shall ours remain. 1 
 
 Luther spent several years in teaching his 
 people at Wittenberg to sing these hymns, 
 which soon spread over Germany. Without 
 adopting the hyperbolical saying of Coleridge, 
 that " Luther did as much for the Reforma- 
 tion by his hymns as by his translation of 
 1 By the Author. 
 
HYMNS 97 
 
 the Bible," it may truly be affirmed that, 
 among the secondary means by which the 
 success of the Reformation was promoted, 
 none was more powerful. They were sung 
 everywhere, in the streets and fields as well 
 as the churches, in the workshop and the 
 palace, " by children in the cottage and by 
 martyrs on the scaffold." It was by them 
 that a congregational character was given 
 to the new Protestant worship. This suc- 
 cess they owed partly to their metrical 
 structure, which, though sometimes complex, 
 was recommended to the people by its ease 
 and variety; and partly to the tunes and 
 melodies (many of them already well known 
 and popular) to which they were set. They 
 were used as direct instruments of teaching, 
 and were therefore, in a large measure, 
 didactic and theological ; and it may be 
 partly owing to this cause that German 
 hymnody came to deviate, so soon and so 
 generally as it did, from the simple idea ex- 
 pressed in the ancient Augustinian definition, 
 and to comprehend large classes of composi- 
 tions which, in most other countries, would 
 hardly be thought suitable for church use. 
 
98 HYMNS 
 
 The principal hymn-writers of the Lutheran 
 school, in the latter part of the sixteenth 
 century, were Selnecker, Nicholas Herman, 
 and Hans Sachs, the shoemaker of Nurem- 
 berg, also known in other branches of litera- 
 ture. All these wrote some good hymns. 
 They were succeeded by men of another 
 sort, to whom Cunz gives the name of 
 " master-singers," as having raised both the 
 poetical and the musical standard of German 
 hymnody, Ringwaldt, Helmbold, Pappus, 
 S dialling, Rutilius, and Weingartner. The 
 principal topics of their hymns (as if with 
 some foretaste of the calamities which were 
 soon to follow) were the vanity of earthly 
 things, resignation to the Divine will, and 
 preparation for death and judgment. The 
 well-known English hymn, " Great God^ 
 what do I see and hear" is founded upon 
 one by Ringwaldt. Of a quite different 
 character were two of great beauty and uni- 
 versal popularity, composed by Philip Nicolai, 
 a Westphalian pastor, during a pestilence 
 in 1597, and published by him, with fine 
 chorales, two years afterwards. One of 
 these, " Wie schon leuchft uns der Morgcji- 
 
HYMNS 
 
 99 
 
 stern " (" O morning Star, how fair and 
 bright"), became the favourite marriage 
 hymn of Germany. The other (the " Sleepers , 
 wake^ a voice is calling " of Mendelssohn's 
 oratorio, St. Paul) belongs to the family 
 of Advent or New Jerusalem hymns. 
 
 Wachet auf ! ruft uns die stimme 
 Der wachter sehr hoch auf der zinne : 
 
 Wach auf, du stadt Jerusalem ! 
 Mitternacht heisst diese stunde 
 Sie rufen und mit hellem munde : 
 Wo seid ihr klugen jungfrauen ? 
 Wohl auf, der brautgam kommt ! 
 Steht auf, die lampe nehmt ! 
 
 Hallelujah ! 
 Macht euch bereit 
 Zur hochzeitfreud : 
 Ihr miisset ihm entgegengehn. 
 
 Zion hort die wachter singen, 
 
 Das herz thut ihr vor freude springen, 
 
 Sie wachet und steht eilend auf : 
 Ihr freund kommt vom himmel prachtig, 
 Von gnaden stark, von wahrheit machtig, 
 Ihr licht wird hell, ihr stern geht auf. 
 Nun komm, du werthe kron ! 
 Herr Jesu Gottes Sohn ! 
 
 Hosianna ! 
 Wir folgen all 
 Zum freudensaal 
 Und halten mit das abendmahl. 
 
 Ehr und preis sei dir gesungen 
 Mit menschen und mit engelzungen, 
 
HYMNS 
 
 Mil harfen und mit zymbeln schon ! 
 Von zwolf perlen sind die thore 
 An deiner stadt, wir stehn im chore 
 Der engel hoch um deinen thron : 
 Kein aug hat je gespiirt, 
 Kein ohr hat je gehort 
 
 Solche freude : 
 Dess jauchzen wir, 
 Und singen dir, 
 Das hallelujah fur und fur. 
 
 Awake, awake, for night is flying, 
 
 The watchmen on the heights are crying ; 
 
 Awake, Jerusalem, at last ! 
 Midnight hears the welcome voices, 
 And at the thrilling cry rejoices : 
 
 Come forth, ye virgins, night is past ! 
 The Bridegroom comes, awake, 
 Your lamps with gladness take ; 
 
 Hallelujah ! 
 
 And for His marriage-feast prepare, 
 For ye must go to meet Him there. 
 
 Zion hears the watchmen singing, 
 And all her heart with joy is springing, 
 
 She wakes, she rises from her gloom ; 
 For her Lord comes down all-glorious, 
 The strong in grace, in truth victorious, 
 Her Star is risen, her Light is come ! 
 Ah come, Thou blessed One, 
 God's own Beloved Son, 
 
 Hallelujah ! 
 
 We follow till the halls we see 
 Where Thou hast bid us sup with Thee. 
 
 Now let all the heavens adore Thee, 
 And men and angels sing before Thee 
 
HYMNS 101 
 
 With harp and cymbal's clearest tone ; 
 Of one pearl each shining portal, 
 Where we are with the choir immortal 
 Of angels round Thy dazzling throne ; 
 No eye hath seen, nor ear 
 Hath yet attain' d to hear 
 
 What there is ours, 
 But we rejoice, and sing to Thee 
 Our hymn of joy eternally. 1 
 
 The hymns produced during the Thirty 
 Years' War are characteristic of that un- 
 happy time, which (as Miss Winkworth 
 says) " caused religious men to look away 
 from this world," and made their songs more 
 and more expressive of personal feelings. 
 In point of refinement and graces of style, 
 the hymn-writers of this period excelled their 
 predecessors. Their taste was chiefly formed 
 by the influence of Martin Opitz, the founder 
 of what has been called the " first Silesian 
 school" of German poetry, who died com- 
 paratively young in 1639, and who, though 
 not of any great original genius, exercised 
 much power as a critic. Some of the best 
 of these works were by men who wrote 
 little. In the famous battle-song of Gustavus 
 Adolphus, published (1631) after the victory 
 
 1 Translated by Catherine Winkworth. 
 
102 HYMNS 
 
 of Leipsic, for the use of his army, " Verzage 
 nicht, du Hduflein klein" ("Fear not, O little 
 flock, the foe"), we may perhaps 1 have a 
 composition of the hero-king himself, the 
 versification corrected by his chaplain Fabri- 
 cius, and the music composed by Altenburg, 
 whose name has been given to the hymn. 
 This was sung by Gustavus and his soldiers 
 before the fatal battle of Liitzen. Two very 
 fine hymns, one of prayer for deliverance 
 and peace, the other of trust in God under 
 calamities, were written about the same time 
 by Lowenstern, a saddler's son, poet, musi- 
 cian, and statesman, who was ennobled after 
 the peace by the Emperor Ferdinand III. 
 Martin Rinckhart, in 1636, wrote the 
 " Chorus of God's faithful children," in- 
 troduced by Mendelssohn in his " Lob- 
 gesang" which has been called the " Te 
 Deum" of Germany, being usually sung on 
 occasions of public thanksgiving. Miss 
 Winkworth's spirited and faithful version 
 of it is, of all hymns borrowed from Ger- 
 
 1 This is the opinion of Mohnike ; it is contro- 
 verted by Koch, and by Mr. Julian, in his Dictionary 
 of Hymnology. 
 
HYMNS 103 
 
 many, that most frequently sung in English 
 Churches. 
 
 Nun danket alle Gott 
 Mit herzen, mund, und handen, 
 
 Der grosse dinge thut 
 An uns und alien enden : 
 Der uns von mutterleib 
 Und kindesbeinen an 
 Unzahlig viel zu gut 
 
 Und noch jetzund gethan. 
 
 Der ewig reiche Gott 
 Woll uns bei unserm leben 
 Ein immer frohlich herz 
 Und edlen frieden geben, 
 Und uns in seiner gnad 
 
 Erhalten fort und fort, 
 Und uns aus aller noth 
 Erlosen hier und dort. 
 
 Lob, ehr und preis sei Gott, 
 Dem Vater und dem Sohne, 
 
 Und dem der beiden gleich 
 Im hochsten himmels-throne : 
 Dem dreimaleinen Gott, 
 
 Als der urspriinglich war 
 Und ist und bleiben wird 
 Lob jetzt und immerdar. 
 
 Now thank we all our God 
 With hearts and hands and voices, 
 
 Who wondrous things hath done, 
 In Whom His world rejoices ; 
 Who, from our mother's arms, 
 Hath bless' d us on our way 
 With countless gifts of love, 
 And still is ours to-day. 
 
io 4 HYMNS 
 
 O may this bounteous God 
 Through all our life be near us, 
 
 With ever joyful hearts 
 And blessed peace to cheer us, 
 And keep us in His grace, 
 
 And guide us when perplex'd, 
 And free us from all ills 
 In this world and the next. 
 
 All praise and thanks to God 
 The Father now be given, 
 
 The Son, and Him who reigns 
 With Them in highest Heaven, 
 The One eternal God, 
 
 Whom earth and heaven adore ; 
 For thus it was, is now, 
 And shall be evermore ! 
 
 Weissel, in 1635, composed a beautiful 
 Advent hymn, " Macht hoch die Thtir, die 
 Thor macht iveit" (" Lift up your heads, ye 
 mighty gates"), and Meyfart, Professor of 
 Theology at Erfurt, in 1642, a fine adapta- 
 tion of the ancient " Urbs beata Hierusalem" 
 The hymn of trust in Providence by Neu- 
 marck, librarian to that Duke of Weimar 
 who was a distinguished general in the war, 
 " Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst wait en" 
 (" Leave God to order all thy ways "), is 
 scarcely, if at all, inferior to that of Paul 
 Gerhardt on the same theme. Paul Flem- 
 
HYMNS 105 
 
 ming, a great traveller and lover of nature, 
 who died young in 1640, also wrote excellent 
 compositions, coloured by the same tone 
 of feeling ; and some, of great merit, were 
 composed, soon after the close of the war, 
 by Louisa Henrietta, electress of Branden- 
 burg, granddaughter of the famous Admiral 
 Coligny, and mother of the first king of 
 Prussia. With these may be classed (though 
 of later date) a few striking hymns of faith 
 and prayer under mental anxiety by Anton 
 Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick, whose nominal 
 conversion to Romanism cast a shade over 
 the close of a life otherwise conscientious 
 and honourable. 
 
 The most copious, and in their day most 
 esteemed, hymn-writers of this first half of 
 the seventeenth century were Heermann 
 and Rist. Heermann, a pastor in Silesia, the 
 theatre (in a peculiar degree) of war and perse- 
 cution, experienced in his own person a very 
 large share of the miseries of the time, and 
 several times narrowly escaped a violent 
 death. His Devoti Musica Cordis, pub- 
 lished in 1630, reflects the feelings natural 
 under such circumstances. With a correct 
 
106 HYMNS 
 
 style and good versification, his tone is sub- 
 jective, and the burden of his hymns is not 
 praise, but prayer. Among his works (which 
 enter largely into most German hymn-books), 
 two of the best are the " Song of Tears " 
 and the " Song of Comfort," translated by 
 Miss Winkworth in her Christian Singers 
 of Germany. Rist published about 600 
 hymns, "pressed out of him," as he said, 
 "by the cross." He was a pastor, and son 
 of a pastor, in Holstein, and lived after the 
 peace to enjoy many years of prosperity, 
 being appointed poet-laureate to the emperor, 
 and finally ennobled. The bulk of his hymns, 
 like those of other copious writers, are of 
 inferior quality ; but some, particularly those 
 for Advent, Epiphany, Easter Eve, and on 
 Angels, are very good. They are more ob- 
 jective than those of Heermann, and written, 
 upon the whole, in a more manly spirit. 
 Next to Heermann and Rist in fertility of 
 production, and above them in poetical 
 genius, was Simon Dach, professor of poetry 
 at Konigsberg, who died in 1659. Miss 
 Winkworth ranks him high among German 
 poets, " for the sweetness of form and depth 
 
HYMNS 107 
 
 of tender contemplative emotion to be found 
 in his verses." 
 
 The fame of all these writers was eclipsed 
 in the latter part of the same century by 
 three of the greatest hymnographers whom 
 Germany has produced Paul Gerhardt 
 (1604-1676), John Franck (1618-167 7), and 
 John Scheffler (1624-1677), the founder of 
 the " second Silesian school," who assumed 
 the name of "Angelus." Gerhardt is by 
 universal consent the prince of Lutheran 
 poets. His compositions (which may be 
 compared, in many respects, to those of the 
 Christian Year) are lyric poems, of con- 
 siderable length, rather than hymns, though 
 many hymns have been taken from them. 
 They are, with few exceptions, subjective, 
 and speak the language of individual ex- 
 perience. They occupy a middle ground 
 between the masculine simplicity of the old 
 Lutheran style and the highly wrought re- 
 ligious emotion of the later Pietists, towards 
 whom they (on the whole) incline. Being 
 nearly all excellent, it is not easy to dis- 
 tinguish among the 123 those which are 
 entitled to the highest praise. Two, which 
 
io8 HYMNS 
 
 were written, one during the war and the 
 other after the conclusion of peace, " Zeuch 
 ein zu deinen Thoren" ("Come to Thy 
 temple here on earth "), and " Gottlob^ nun 
 ist erschollen" ("Thank God, it hath re- 
 sounded "), are historically interesting. Of 
 the rest, one is well known and highly 
 appreciated in England through Wesley's 
 translation, " Commit thou all thy ways" 
 etc. ; and the Evening and Spring-tide 
 hymns, "Nun ruhen alle Walder" ("Now 
 all the woods are sleeping"), and " Geh 
 aus, mein Her -z, und suche Freud" ("Go 
 forth, my heart, and seek delight "), show an 
 exquisite feeling for nature ; while nothing 
 can be more tender and pathetic than " Du 
 bist zwar mein undbleibest mein " (" Thou'rt 
 mine, yes, still thou art mine own "), on the 
 death of his son. More suitable than these 
 for public worship is his Advent hymn, 
 of which eight out of ten stanzas are here 
 extracted. 
 
 Wie soil ich dich empfangen ? 
 
 Und wie begegn' ich dir ? 
 O aller welt verlangen ! 
 
 O meiner seelen zier ! 
 
HYMNS 109 
 
 O Jesu, Jesu setze 
 
 Mir selbst die fackel bei, 
 Damit, was dich ergetze, 
 
 Mir kund und wissend sei. 
 
 Dein Zion streut dir palmen 
 
 Und griine zweige bin, 
 Und ich will dir in psalmen 
 
 Ermuntern meinen sinn. 
 Mein herze soil dir griinen 
 
 In statem lob und preis 
 Und deinem namen dienen, 
 
 So gut es kann und weiss. 
 
 Ich lag in schweren banden, 
 
 Du kommst und machst mich los ; 
 Ich stund in spott und schanden, 
 
 Du kommst und machst mich gross, 
 Und hebst mich hoch zu ehren, 
 
 Und schenkst mir grosses gut, 
 Das sich nicht last verzehren, 
 
 Wie irdisch reichthum thut. 
 
 Nichts, nichts hat dich getrieben 
 
 Zu mir vom himmelszelt 
 Als das geliebte lieben 
 
 Damit du alle welt 
 In ihren tausend plagen 
 
 Und grosser jammerslast, 
 Die kein mund aus kann sagen 
 
 So fest umfangen hast. 
 
 Das schreib dir in dein herze, 
 
 Du hochbetriibtes heer, 
 Bei denen gram und schmerze 
 
 Sich haust je mehr und mehr. 
 Seid unverzagt ! ihr habet 
 
 Die hiilfe vor der thiir ! 
 Der cure herzen labet 
 
 Und trostet, steht allhier. 
 
HYMNS 
 
 Ihr diirft euch nicht bemuhen, 
 
 Noch sorgen tag und nacht, 
 Wie ihr ihn wollet ziehen 
 
 Mit cures armes macht. 
 Er kommt, er kommt mit willen, 
 
 1st voller lieb und lust 
 All angst und noth zu stillen, 
 
 Die ihm an euch bewusst. 
 
 Auch diirft ihr nicht erschrecken 
 
 Vor eurer siindenschuld ; 
 Nein ! Jesus will sie decken 
 
 Mit seiner lieb und huld ! 
 Er kommt, er kommt, den siindern 
 
 Zum trost und wahren heil, 
 Schafft, dass bei Gottes kindern 
 
 Verbleib ihr erb und theil. 
 
 Er kommt zum weltgerichte 
 
 Zum fluch dem, der ihm fluent ; 
 Mit gnad und siiszem lichte 
 
 Dem, der ihn liebt und sucht. 
 Ach komm, ach komm, O sonne, 
 
 Und hoi uns allzumal 
 Zum ewgen licht und wonne 
 
 In deinen freudensaal ! 
 
 How shall I meet Thee? How my heart 
 
 Receive her Lord aright ? 
 Desire of all the earth Thou art, 
 
 My hope, my sole delight ! 
 Kindle the lamp, Thou Lord alone, 
 
 Half- dying in my breast, 
 And make Thy gracious pleasure known 
 
 How I may greet Thee best. 
 
 Her budding boughs and fairest palms 
 Thy Zion strews around ; 
 
HYMNS in 
 
 And songs of praise and sweetest psalms 
 
 From my glad heart shall sound. 
 My desert soul breaks forth in flowers, 
 
 Rejoicing in Thy fame, 
 And puts forth all her sleeping powers 
 
 To honour Jesus' name. 
 
 In heavy bonds I languish 1 d long, 
 
 Thou com'st to set me free ; 
 The scorn of every mocking tongue, 
 
 Thou com'st to honour me. 
 A heavenly crown wilt Thou bestow 
 
 And gifts of priceless worth, 
 That vanish not as here below 
 
 The fading wealth of earth. 
 
 Nought, nought, dear Lord, had power to move 
 
 Thee from Thy rightful place, 
 Save that most strange and blessed Love 
 
 Wherewith Thou didst embrace 
 This weary world and all her woe, 
 
 Her load of grief and ill 
 And sorrow, more than man can know ; 
 
 Thy Love is deeper still. 
 
 O write this promise in your hearts, 
 
 Ye sorrowful, on whom 
 Fall thickening cares, while joy departs 
 
 And darker grows your gloom. 
 Despair not, for your help is near, 
 
 He standeth at the door 
 Who best can comfort you and cheer, 
 
 He comes, nor stayeth more. 
 
 Nor vex your souls with care, nor grieve 
 
 And labour longer thus, 
 As though your arm could aught achieve 
 
 And bring Him down to us. 
 
ii2 HYMNS 
 
 He comes, He comes with ready will, 
 
 By pity moved alone, 
 To soothe our every grief and ill, 
 
 For all to Him are known. 
 
 Nor ye, O sinners, shrink aside, 
 
 Afraid to see His face ; 
 Your darkest sins our Lord will hide 
 
 Beneath His pitying grace. 
 He comes, He comes, to save from sin, 
 
 And all its pangs assuage, 
 And for the sons of God to win 
 
 Their proper heritage. 
 
 He comes to judge the earth, and ye, 
 
 Who mock'd Him, feel His wrath ; 
 But they who loved and sought Him see 
 
 His light o'er all their path. 
 O Sun of Righteousness ! arise 
 
 And guide us on our way 
 To yon fair mansion in the skies 
 
 Of joyous cloudless day. 1 
 
 Franck, who was burgomaster of Guben 
 in Lusatia, has been considered by some 
 second only to Gerhardt. If so, it is with 
 a great distance between them. His ap- 
 proach to the later Pietists is closer than 
 that of Gerhardt. His hymns were pub- 
 lished, under the title of Spiritual Zion, in 
 1674, some of them being founded on Am- 
 brosian and other Latin originals. Miss 
 1 Translated by Catherine Winkworth. 
 
HYMNS 113 
 
 Winkworth gives them the praise of a con- 
 densed and polished style, and fervid and 
 impassioned thought. 
 
 It was after his conversion to Romanism 
 that Scheffler adopted the name of " An- 
 gelus," and published (1657) his hymns, 
 under a fantastic title, and with a still more 
 fantastic preface. Their key-note is divine 
 love ; they are enthusiastic, intense, exuber- 
 ant in their sweetness, like those of St. 
 Bernard among mediaeval poets. An adapt- 
 ation of one of them, by Wesley, " Thee 
 will I love, my Strength, my Tower" is 
 familiar to English readers. His hymns 
 are generally so free from the expression, 
 or even the indirect suggestion, of Roman 
 Catholic doctrine, that it has been supposed 
 they were written before his conversion, 
 though published afterwards. The evan- 
 gelical churches of Germany found no diffi- 
 culty in admitting them to that prominent 
 place in their services which they have ever 
 since retained. 
 
 The following (abridged by the omission 
 of three out of eleven stanzas) is an example 
 of his best style. 
 
 8 
 
ii4 HYMNS 
 
 Sommerlied. 
 
 Keine Schonheit hat die Welt, 
 Die mir nicht vor Augen stellt 
 Meinen schonsten Jesum Christ, 
 Der der Schonheit Ursprung ist. 
 
 Wenn die Morgenroth entsteht 
 Und die goldne Sonn aufgeht, 
 So erinnre ich mich bald 
 Seiner himmlischen Gestalt. 
 
 Seh ich dann den Mondeschein 
 Und des Himmels Aeugelein, 
 So gedenk ich, Der diess macht, 
 Hat viel tausend grossre Pracht. 
 
 Schau ich in dem Friihling an 
 Unsern bunten Wiesenplan, 
 So bewegt es mich zu schrein, 
 Ach, wie muss der Schopfer sein ! 
 
 Lieblich singt die Nachtigall, 
 Siisse klingt der Flotenschall ; 
 Aber iiber alien Ton 
 Ist das Wort : Marien Sohn ! 
 
 Anmuth giebt es in der Luft, 
 Wenn die Echo wieder ruft ; 
 Aber nichts ist iiberall, 
 Wie des Liebsten Wiederhall. 
 
 Ei nun, Schonster, komm herfiir, 
 Komm und zeige selbst dich mir, 
 Lass mich sehn dein eigen Licht 
 Und dein blosses Angesicht. 
 
 Ach, mein Jesu, nimm doch hin, 
 Was mir decket Geist und Sinn, 
 Dass ich dich zu jeder Frist 
 Sehe, wie du selber bist. 
 
HYMNS 115 
 
 Earth has nothing sweet or fair, 
 Lovely forms or beauties rare, 
 But before my eyes they bring 
 Christ, of beauty source and spring. 
 
 When the morning paints the skies, 
 When the golden sunbeams rise, 
 Then my Saviour's form I find 
 Brightly imaged on my mind. 
 
 When, as moonlight softly steals, 
 Heaven its thousand eyes reveals, 
 Then I think : Who made their light 
 Is a thousand times more bright. 
 
 When I see, in spring-tide gay, 
 Fields their varied tints display, 
 Wakes the awful thought in me, 
 What must their Creator be ! 
 
 Sweet the song the night-bird sings, 
 Sweet the lute with quivering strings ; 
 Far more sweet than every tone 
 Are the words, " Maria's Son." 
 
 Sweetness fills the air around 
 At the echo's answering sound, 
 But more sweet than echo's fall 
 Is to me the Bridegroom's call. 
 
 Lord of all that's fair to see ! 
 Come, reveal Thyself to me ; 
 Let me, 'mid Thy radiant light, 
 See Thine unveil'd glories bright. 
 
 Come, Lord Jesus ! and dispel 
 This dark cloud in which I dwell ; 
 Thus to me the power impart, 
 To behold Thee as Thou art. 1 
 
 1 Translated by Frances Elizabeth Cox. 
 
n6 HYMNS 
 
 Towards the end of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury a new religious school arose, to which 
 the name of " Pietists "; was given, and of 
 which Philip Jacob Spener was esteemed 
 the founder. He and his pupils and suc- 
 cessors, August Hermann Fran eke and 
 Anastasius Freylinghausen, all wrote hymns. 
 Spener's hymns are not remarkable, and 
 Francke's are not numerous. Freyling- 
 hausen was their chief singer : his rhythm 
 is lively, his music florid ; but, though his 
 book attained extraordinary popularity, he 
 was surpassed in solid merit by other less 
 fertile writers of the same school. The 
 " Auf hinauf zu deiner Freude" ("Up, yes, 
 upward to thy gladness") of Schade may 
 recall to an English reader a hymn by Sea- 
 grave, and more than one by Lyte ; the 
 " Malabarian hymn " l of Schiitz, " Set Lob 
 und Ehr dem hochsten Gut" ("All glory to 
 the Sovereign Good"), has been popular in 
 England as well as Germany ; and one of the 
 most exquisite strains of pious resignation 
 ever written is by Rodigast, which (as it 
 finds a place in Bunsen's Gesangbuc/t) may 
 1 So called by Jacobi. 
 
HYMNS 117 
 
 be given here, though it has more the char- 
 acter of private meditation than of church 
 hymnody. 
 
 Was Gott thut, das ist wohl gethan ; 
 
 Es bleibt gerecht sein wille. 
 Wie er fangt meine sachen an 
 Will ich ihm halten stille : 
 Er ist mein Gott, 
 Der in der noth 
 Mich wohl weiss zu erhalten 
 Drum lass ich ihn nur walten. 
 
 Was Gott thut, das ist wohl gethan : 
 
 Er wird mich nicht betriigen, 
 Er fiihret mich auf rechte bahn ; 
 So lass ich mich begniigen 
 An seiner huld, 
 Und hab geduld, 
 Er wird mein ungliick wenden : 
 Es steht in seinen handen. 
 
 Was Gott thut, das ist wohl gethan : 
 
 Er wird mich wohl bedenken, 
 Er, als mein arzt und wundermann, 
 Wird mir nicht gift einschenken 
 Fur arzenei ; 
 Gott ist getreu, 
 Drum will ich auf ihn bauen, 
 Und seiner giite trauen. 
 
 Was Gott thut, das ist wohl gethan : 
 
 Er ist mein licht und leben, 
 Der mir nichts boses gonnen kann ; 
 Ich will mich ihm ergeben 
 In freud und leid, 
 Es kommt die zeit, 
 Da offentlich erscheinet 
 Wie treulich er es meinet. 
 
n8 HYMNS 
 
 Was Gott thut, das ist wohl gethan : 
 
 Muss ich den kelch gleich schmecken, 
 Der bitter ist nach meinem wahn, 
 Lass ich mich doch nicht schrecken, 
 Weil doch zuletzt 
 Ich werd ergotzt 
 Mit slissem trost im herzen ; 
 Da weichen alle schmerzen. 
 
 Was Gott thut, das ist wohl gethan : 
 
 Dabei will ich verbleiben, 
 Es mag mich auf die rauhe bahn 
 Noth, tod und elend treiben, 
 So wird Gott mich 
 Ganz vaterlich 
 In seinen armen halten ; 
 Drum lass ich ihn nur walten. 
 
 Whate'er my God ordains is right, 
 
 His will is ever just ; 
 Howe'er He order now my cause, 
 I will be still and trust. 
 He is my God ; 
 Though dark my road, 
 He holds me that I shall not fall, 
 Wherefore to Him I leave it all. 
 
 Whate'er my God ordains is right, 
 
 He never will deceive ; 
 He leads me by the proper path, 
 And so to Him I cleave, 
 And take content 
 What He hath sent ; 
 His hand can turn my griefs away, 
 And patiently I wait His day. 
 
HYMNS 119 
 
 Whate'er my God ordains is right, 
 
 He taketh thought for me ; 
 The cup that my Physician gives 
 No poison'd draught can be, 
 But medicine due ; 
 For God is true, 
 
 And on that changeless Truth I build, 
 And all my heart with hope is fill'd. 
 
 Whate'er my God ordains is right, 
 
 My Light, my Life is He, 
 Who cannot will me aught but good, 
 I trust Him utterly ; 
 For well I know, 
 In joy or woe, 
 
 We once shall see as sunlight clear 
 How faithful was our Guardian here. 
 
 Whate'er my God ordains is right, 
 
 Though I the cup must drink 
 That bitter seems to my faint heart, 
 I will not fear nor shrink ; 
 Tears pass away 
 With dawn of day, 
 Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart, 
 And pain and sorrow all depart. 
 
 Whate'er my God ordains is right, 
 
 Here will I take my stand ; 
 Though sorrow, need, or death make earth 
 For me a desert land, 
 My Father's care 
 Is round me there, 
 He holds me that I shall not fall, 
 And so to Him I leave it all. 1 
 
 1 Translated by Catherine Winkworth. 
 
120 HYMNS 
 
 Joachim Neander, a schoolmaster at 
 Diisseldorf, and a friend of Spener and 
 Schiitz (who died before the full develop- 
 ment of the " Pietistic " school), was the 
 first man of eminence in the "Reformed" 
 or Calvinistic Church who imitated Lutheran 
 hymnody. This he did, while suffering 
 persecution from the elders of his own 
 church for some other religious practices, 
 which he had also learned from Spener's 
 example. As a poet, he is sometimes 
 deficient in art ; but there is feeling, warmth, 
 and sweetness in many of his " Bundes- 
 lieder" or "Songs of the Covenant," and 
 they obtained general favour, both in Re- 
 formed and in Lutheran congregations. 
 The hymn on the Glory of God in Crea- 
 tion, " Himmel) Erde> Luft^ und Meer " 
 ("Lo, heaven and earth and sea and air"), 
 is an instance of his best style. 
 
 With the "Pietists" may be classed 
 Schmolke, Cotter, and Dessler, representa- 
 tives of the "Orthodox" division of Spener's 
 school ; Killer, their leading poet in South 
 Germany ; Arnold and Tersteegen, who were 
 practically independent of ecclesiastical or- 
 
HYMNS 121 
 
 ganisation, though connected, one with the 
 "Orthodox" and the other with the "Re- 
 formed" churches ; and Louis Count Zinzen- 
 dorf. Schmolke, a pastor in Silesia, called 
 the Silesian Rist (1672-1737), was perhaps 
 the most voluminous of all German hymn- 
 writers. He wrote 1188 religious poems 
 and hymns, a large proportion of which do 
 not rise above mediocrity. His style, if less 
 refined, is also less subjective and more simple 
 than that of most of his contemporaries. 
 Among his best and most attractive works 
 (which, indeed, it would be difficult to praise 
 too highly) is the "Hosianna! David* sSohnJ 1 
 for Palm Sunday much resembling a shorter 
 hymn by Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 Hosianna ! David's Sohn 
 Kommt in Zion eingezogen : 
 
 Ach bereitet ihm den thron, 
 Setzt ihm tausend ehrenbogen ; 
 
 Streuet palmen, machet bahn, 
 
 Dass er einzug halten kann. 
 
 Hosianna ! sei gegrusst ! 
 Komm, wir gehen dir entgegen : 
 
 Unser herz ist schon geriist, 
 Will sich dir zu fiissen legen. 
 
 Zeuch zu unsern thoren ein, 
 
 Du sollst uns willkommen sein. 
 
HYMNS 
 
 Hosianna! friedensfurst, 
 Ehrenkonig, held im streite ! 
 
 Alles, was du schaffen wirst, 
 Das 1st unsre siegesbeute. 
 
 Deine rechte bleibt erhoht 
 
 Und dein reich allein besteht. 
 
 Hosianna ! lieber gast, 
 Wir sind deine reichsgenossen, 
 
 Die du dir erwahlet hast ; 
 Ach so lass uns unverdrossen 
 
 Deinem scepter dienstbar sein ; 
 
 Herrsche du in uns allein. 
 
 Hosianna ! komme bald 
 Lass uns deine sanftmuth kiissen ; 
 
 Wollte gleich die knechtsgestalt 
 Deine majestat verschliessen, 
 
 Ei so kennet Zion schon 
 
 Gottes und auch David's Sohn. 
 
 Hosianna ! steh uns bei ! 
 O Herr hilf, lass wohlgelingen, 
 
 Dass wir ohne heuchelei 
 Dir das herz zum opfer bringen. 
 
 Du nimmst keinen jiinger an, 
 
 Der dir nicht gehorchen kann. 
 
 Hosianna ! lass uns hier 
 An den olberg dich begleiten, 
 
 Bis wir einstens fur und fur 
 Dir em psalmenlied bereiten. 
 
 Dort ist unser Bethphage : 
 
 Hosianna in der hoh ! 
 
 Hosianna nah und fern ! 
 Eile bei uns einzugehen 
 
 Du gesegneter des Herrn, 
 Warum willst du draussen stehen ? 
 
 Hosianna ! bist du da ? 
 
 Ja, du kommst, hallelujah ! 
 
HYMNS 123 
 
 Hosanna to the Son of David ! Raise 
 Triumphal arches to His praise, 
 
 For Him prepare a throne 
 Who comes at last to Zion, to His own ! 
 Strew palms around, make plain and straight 
 
 the way 
 For Him who His triumphal entry holds to-day ! 
 
 Hosanna ! welcome above all Thou art ! 
 Make ready each to lay his heart 
 
 Low down before His feet ! 
 Come, let us hasten forth our Lord to meet, 
 And bid Him enter in at Zion's gates, 
 Where thousand-voiced welcome on His coming 
 waits. 
 
 Hosanna ! Prince of Peace and Lord of Might ! 
 We hail Thee Conqueror in the fight ! 
 
 All Thou with toil hast won 
 Shall be our booty when the battle's done. 
 Thy right hand ever hath the rule and sway, 
 Thy kingdom standeth fast when all things else 
 decay. 
 
 Hosanna ! best-beloved and noble Guest ! 
 Who makest us by Thy behest 
 
 Heirs of Thy realm with Thee : 
 Oh let us therefore never weary be 
 To stand and serve before Thy righteous throne; 
 We know no King but Thee, rule Thou o'er us 
 alone ! 
 
 Hosanna ! come, the time draws on apace, 
 We long Thy mercy to embrace ; 
 
 This servant's form can ne'er 
 Conceal the majesty Thy acts declare : 
 Too well art Thou here in Thy Zion known, 
 Who art the Son of God, and yet art David's 
 Son. 
 
i2 4 HYMNS 
 
 Hosanna ! Lord, be Thou our help and friend, 
 Thy aid to us in mercy send, 
 
 That each may bring his soul 
 An offering unto Thee, unstain'd and whole. 
 Thou wilt have none for Thy disciples, Lord, 
 But those who truly keep, not only hear Thy word. 
 
 Hosanna ! let us in Thy footsteps tread, 
 Nor that sad Mount of Olives dread 
 Where we must weep and watch, 
 Until the far-off" song of joy we catch 
 From Heaven our Bethphage, where we shall sing 
 Hosanna in the highest to our God and King ! 
 
 Hosanna ! let us sound it far and wide ! 
 Enter Thou in and here abide, 
 Thou Blessed of the Lord ! 
 Why standest Thou without, why roam'st 
 
 abroad ? 
 
 Hosanna ! make Thy home with us for ever ! 
 Thou comest, Lord ! and nought us from Thy love 
 shall sever. 
 
 Hallelujah I 1 
 
 Dessler was a greater poet then Schmolke. 
 Few hymns, of the subjective kind, are better 
 than his " Ich lass dich nicht, du Hulf in 
 alien Nothen" ("I will not let Thee go, 
 Thou Help in time of need") ; " Wie wohl 
 ist mir^ O Freund der Seelen" (" O Friend 
 of souls, how well is me"); and " Oeffne 
 mir die Perlenthoren" ("Now the pearly 
 gates unfold"), etc. Hiller was a pastor in 
 
 1 Translated by Catherine Winkworth. 
 
HYMNS 125 
 
 Wiirtemberg (1699-1769) who, falling into 
 ill-health during the latter part of his ministry, 
 published a Casket of Spiritual Songs^ in a 
 didactic vein, with more taste than power, 
 but (as Miss Winkworth says) in a tone of 
 "deep, thoughtful, practical piety." They 
 were so well adapted to the wants of his 
 people, that to this day Miller's Casket is 
 prized, next to their Bibles, by the peasantry 
 of Wiirtemberg ; and the numerous emigrants 
 from that part of Germany to America and 
 other foreign countries generally take it with 
 them wherever they go. Arnold, a professor 
 at Giessen, and afterwards a pastor in 
 Brandenburg, was a man of strong will, 
 uncompromising character, and austere views 
 of life, intolerant and controversial towards 
 those whose doctrine or practice he dis- 
 approved, and more indifferent to separatism 
 and sectarianism than the " Orthodox " 
 generally thought right. His hymns, like 
 those of our own Toplady (whom in these 
 respects he resembled), unite with consider- 
 able strength more gentleness and breadth 
 of sympathy than might be expected from 
 a man of such a character. Tersteegen 
 
126 HYMNS 
 
 (1697-1769), who never formally separated 
 himself from the " Reformed " communion, 
 in which he was brought up, but whose 
 sympathies were with the Moravians and 
 Count Zinzendorf, was, of all the more 
 copious German hymn-writers after Luther, 
 perhaps the most remarkable man. Pietist, 
 mystic, and missionary, he was also a great 
 religious poet. His 1 1 1 hymns were pub- 
 lished in 1731, in a volume called The 
 Spiritual Flower -gar den. They are in- 
 tensely individual, meditative, and sub- 
 jective. Wesley's adaptations of two 
 " Lo / God is here; let us adore" and 
 " Thou hidden Love of GW, whose source " 
 are well known. Miss Cox speaks of him 
 as "a gentle heaven-inspired soul, whose 
 hymns are the reflection of a heavenly, 
 happy life, his mind being full of a child- 
 like simplicity " ; and his own poem on the 
 child-character, which Miss Winkworth has 
 appropriately connected with Innocents' Day, 
 "O liebe Seele ! Kb'nntst du werden" 
 (" Dear Soul, couldst thou become a child " ) 
 one of his best compositions, exquisitely 
 conceived and expressed, though it can 
 
HYMNS 127 
 
 hardly be called a hymn, shows that this 
 was in truth the ideal which he sought to 
 realise. 
 
 The following stanzas (eight out of eleven) 
 exhibit favourably his manner and power. 
 
 Kommt, briider, lasst uns gehen, 
 
 Der Abend kommt herbei : 
 Es 1st gefahrlich stehen 
 
 In dieser wiistenei : 
 
 Kommt, starket euren muth 
 Zur ewigkeit zu wandern, 
 Von einer kraft zur andern : 
 
 Es ist der ende gut. 
 
 Es soil uns nicht gereuen 
 
 Der schmale pilgerpfad, 
 Wir kennen ja den treuen, 
 
 Der uns gerufen hat : 
 
 Kommt, folgt und trauet dem ; 
 Ein jeder sein gesichte 
 Mit ganzer wendung richte 
 
 Fest nach Jerusalem. 
 
 Schmuckt euer herz aufs beste, 
 Sonst weder leib noch haus ; 
 
 Wir sind hier fremde gaste, 
 Und ziehen bald hinaus : 
 Gemach bringt ungemach ; 
 
 Ein pilger muss sich schicken, 
 
 Soil dulden und sich biicken 
 Den kurzen pilgertag. 
 
 Kommt kinder, lasst uns gehen, 
 
 Der Vater gehet mit : 
 Er selbst will bei uns stehen 
 
 In jedem sauren tritt : 
 
128 HYMNS 
 
 Er will uns machen muth, 
 Mit siissen sonnenblicken 
 Uns locken und erquicken : 
 
 Ach ja, wir habens gut. 
 
 Kommt kinder, lasst uns wandern, 
 Wir gehen hand in hand ; 
 
 Ems freuet sich am andern, 
 In diesem wilden land : 
 Kommt, lasst uns kindlich sein, 
 
 Uns auf dem weg nicht streiten, 
 
 Die engel uns begleiten 
 Als unsre briiderlein. 
 
 Kommt, lasst uns munter wandern, 
 Der weg kiirzt immer ab ; 
 
 Ein tag der folgt dem andern, 
 Bald fallt das fleisch ins grab : 
 Nur noch ein wenig muth, 
 
 Nur noch ein wenig treuer, 
 
 Von alien dingen freier, 
 Gewandt zum ewgen gut. 
 
 Es wird nicht lang mehr wahren, 
 
 Halt noch ein wenig aus ; 
 Es wird nicht lang mehr wahren, 
 
 So kommen wir nach haus ; 
 
 Da wird man ewig ruhn, 
 Wenn wir mit alien frommen 
 Daheim zum Vater kommen ; 
 
 Wie wohl, wie wohl wirds thun. 
 
 O freund, den wir erlesen, 
 
 O allvergniigend gut, 
 O ewig bleibend wesen, 
 
 Wie reizest du den muth : 
 
 Wir freuen uns in dir, 
 Du unsre wonn und leben, 
 Worin wir ewig schweben, 
 
 Du unsre ganze zier. 
 
HYMNS 129 
 
 Come, brethren, let us go ! 
 
 The evening closeth round, 
 'Tis perilous to linger here 
 
 On this wild desert ground. 
 
 Come, towards eternity 
 
 Press on from strength to strength, 
 Nor dread your journey's toils nor length, 
 
 For good its end shall be. 
 
 We shall not rue our choice, 
 
 Though strait our path and steep, 
 We know that He who call'd us here 
 
 His word shall ever keep. 
 
 Then follow, trusting ; come, 
 
 And let each set his face 
 Toward yonder fair and blessed place, 
 
 Intent to reach our home. 
 
 The body and the house 
 
 Deck not, but deck the heart 
 With all your powers ; we are but guests, 
 
 Ere long we must depart. 
 
 Ease brings disease ; content, 
 
 Howe'er his lot may fall, 
 A pilgrim bears and bows to all, 
 
 For soon the time is spent. 
 
 Come, children, let us go ! 
 
 Our Father is our guide ; 
 And when the way grows steep and dark, 
 
 He journeys at our side. 
 
 Our spirits He would cheer, 
 
 The sunshine of His love 
 Revives and helps us as we rove ; 
 
 Ah ! blest our lot, e'en here ! 
 
 Come, children, let us go ! 
 We travel hand in hand ; 
 Each in his brother finds his joy 
 In this wild stranger land. 
 
i 3 o HYMNS 
 
 As children let us be, 
 Nor by the way fall out ; 
 The angels guard us round about, 
 And help us brotherly. 
 
 Come, wander on with joy, 
 
 For shorter grows the way ; 
 The hour that frees us from the flesh 
 
 Draws nearer day by day. 
 
 A little truth and love, 
 
 A little courage yet, 
 More free from earth, more apt to set 
 
 Your hopes on things above. 
 
 It will not last for long ; 
 
 A little further roam ; 
 It will not last much longer now 
 
 Ere we shall reach our home : 
 
 There shall we ever rest, 
 
 There with our Father dwell, 
 With all the saints who served Him well 
 
 There truly, deeply blest. 
 
 Friend of our perfect choice, 
 
 Thou joy of all that live, 
 Being that know'st nor chance nor change, 
 
 What courage Thou dost give ! 
 
 All beauty, Lord, we see, 
 
 All bliss and life and love, 
 In Him in whom we live and move, 
 
 And we are glad in Thee ! l 
 
 The hymns of Zinzendorf are often dis- 
 figured by excess in the application of the 
 language and imagery of human affections 
 
 1 Translated by Catherine Winkworth. 
 
HYMNS 131 
 
 to Divine Objects ; and this blemish is also 
 found in many later Moravian hymns. But 
 one hymn, at least, of Zinzendorf may be 
 mentioned with unqualified praise, as unit- 
 ing the merits of force, simplicity, and 
 brevity "Jesu, geh voran" ("Jesus, lead 
 the way "), which is taught to most children 
 of religious parents in Germany. Wesley's 
 "Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness" is a 
 translation from Zinzendorf. 
 
 The transition from Tersteegen and 
 Zinzendorf to Gellert and Klopstock marks 
 strongly the reaction against Pietism which 
 took place towards the middle of the eigh- 
 teenth century. ^}\z Spiritual Odes and Songs 
 of C. F. Gellert were published in 1757, and 
 are said to have been received with an 
 enthusiasm almost like that which " greeted 
 Luther's hymns on their first appearance." 
 It is a proof of the moderation both of the 
 author and of those times, that they were 
 largely used, not only by Protestant con- 
 gregations, but in those German Roman 
 Catholic churches in which vernacular 
 services were established through the in- 
 fluence of the emperor Joseph II. They 
 
132 HYMNS 
 
 became the model which was followed by 
 most succeeding hymn-writers, and exceeded 
 all others in popularity till the close of the 
 century, when a new wave of thought was 
 generated by the movement which produced 
 the French Revolution. Since that time 
 they have been, perhaps, too much depre- 
 ciated. They are, indeed, cold and didactic, 
 as compared with Scheffler or Tersteegen ; 
 but there is nevertheless in them a spirit of 
 genuine practical piety ; and, if not marked 
 by genius, they are pure in taste, and often 
 terse, vigorous, and graceful. 
 
 Klopstock, the author of the Messiah^ 
 cannot be considered great as a hymn-writer, 
 though his "Sabbath Hymn" (of which 
 there is a version in Hymns from the Land 
 of Luther) is simple and good. Generally 
 his hymns (ten are translated in Mr. 
 Sheppard's Foreign Sacred Lyre) are artificial 
 and much too elaborate. 
 
 Of the "romantic" school, which came 
 in with the French Revolution, the two lead- 
 ing writers are Frederick von Hardenberg, 
 called " Novalis," and Frederick de Ja Motte 
 Fouque, the celebrated author of Undine 
 
HYMNS 133 
 
 and Sintram^ both romance-writers, as 
 well as poets. The genius of Novalis was 
 early lost to the world; he died in 1801, 
 just thirty years old. Some of his hymns 
 are very beautiful ; but even in his best 
 works there is a feeling of insulation and of 
 despondency as to good in the actual world, 
 which was perhaps inseparable from his 
 ecclesiastical idealism. Fouque survived till 
 1843. In his hymns there is the same deep 
 flow of feeling, richness of imagery, and 
 charm of expression, which distinguishes his 
 prose works. Among his best are the two 
 missionary hymns " Wie schdumt so feier- 
 lich zu unsern Fiissen" ("Thou, solemn 
 Ocean, rollest to the strand ") and " In die 
 Segel sanft undlinde " (" In our sails all soft 
 and sweetly ") and the exquisite composi- 
 tion which finds its motive in the gospel 
 narrative of blind Bartimeus. 
 
 Was du vor tausend Jahren, 
 
 Mein Heiland, hast gethan, 
 Lasst du noch jetzt erfahren 
 
 Die so dir glaubig nahn. 
 So wie den armen Blinden, 
 
 Nach deines Worts Bericht, 
 Liess'st du mich Gnade finden 
 
 Und gabst mir Freud und Licht. 
 
134 HYMNS 
 
 Betriibt sass ich am Wege, 
 
 Tiefblind in meinem Geist, 
 Sehnsucht im Herzen rege, 
 
 Doch Wehmuth allermeist : 
 Die Psalmen hort ich singen, 
 
 Die Palmen fiihlt ich wehn, 
 Die dir die Glaubgen bringen, 
 
 Und konnte dich nicht sehn. 
 
 Zu gross wards mit dem Schmerze, 
 
 Zu driickend ward die Pein, 
 Da fasst ich mir ein Herze, 
 
 Hub an nach dir zu schrein : 
 Sohn David's, rette, heile, 
 
 Wie du's verheissen hast ; 
 O liebster Jesu, eile, 
 
 Nimm von mir Nacht und Last. 
 
 Und immer heisser weinend, 
 
 Mit immer lauterm Wort, 
 Stets mehr mein Herz entsteinend, 
 
 Fuhr ich zu rufen fort. 
 Da ward mein Aengsten minder, 
 
 Da sagte was zu mir : 
 Getrost, du armer Blinder, 
 
 Getrost, er rufet dir ! 
 
 Du standst, ich fuhlt es, stille, 
 
 Ich wankte zu dir hin, 
 Abfiel mein eigner Wille, 
 
 Verandert war der Sinn. 
 Du sprachst : Was willst du haben ? 
 
 O Herr, ich mochte sehn, 
 An deinem Blick mich laben, 
 
 Du sprachst : Es soil geschehn ! 
 
 Und was du hast gesprochen, 
 Das fehlt ja nimmer nicht ; 
 
 Mein Zagen ward gebrochen 
 Und meiner Seele Licht. 
 
HYMNS 135 
 
 Du giebst mir deinen Segen ; 
 
 Frei von der alten Schmach, 
 Folg ich auf deinen Wegen 
 
 Dir, Herr, in Freuden nach. 
 
 A thousand years have fleeted, 
 
 And, Saviour, still we see 
 Thy deed of love repeated 
 
 On all who come to Thee. 
 As he who sat benighted, 
 
 Afflicted, poor, and blind, 
 So now, Thy word is plighted, 
 
 Joy, light, and peace I find. 
 
 Dark gloom my spirit filling, 
 
 Beside the way I sat ; 
 Desire my heart was thrilling, 
 
 But anguish more than that : 
 To me no ray was granted, 
 
 Although I heard the psalms 
 The faithful sweetly chanted, 
 
 And felt the waving palms. 
 
 With grief my heart was aching, 
 
 O'erwhelming were my woes, 
 Till, heaven-born courage taking, 
 
 To thee my cry arose : 
 ' ' O David's Son, relieve me, 
 
 My bitter anguish quell ; 
 Thy promis'd succour give me, 
 
 And this dark night dispel !" 
 
 With tears that fast were flowing, 
 I sought Thee through the crowd, 
 
 My heart more tender growing, 
 Until I wept aloud : 
 
136 HYMNS 
 
 Oh ! then my grief diminish* d ; 
 
 For then they cried to me, 
 " Blind man, thy woe is fmish'd : 
 
 Arise, He calleth thee." 
 
 I came with steps that falter'd, 
 
 Thy course I felt Thee check ; 
 Then straight my mind was alter'd, 
 
 And bowed my stubborn neck. 
 Thou saidst, " What art thou seeking?' 
 
 " O Lord ! that I might see !" 
 Oh ! then I heard Thee speaking : 
 
 " Believe, and it shall be." 
 
 Our hope, Lord, faileth never, 
 
 When Thou Thy word dost plight : 
 My fears then ceased for ever, 
 
 And all my soul was light. 
 Thou gavest me Thy blessing ; 
 
 From former guilt set free, 
 Now heavenly joy possessing, 
 
 O Lord! I follow Thee. 1 
 
 The later German hymn-writers of the 
 present century are numerous, and belong, 
 generally, to the revived " Pietistic " school. 
 Some of the best, e.g. Arndt, Albertini, 
 Krummacher, and especially Spitta, have 
 produced works not unworthy of the fame of 
 their nation. Mr. Massie, the able translator 
 of Spitta's Psaltery and Harp (published at 
 Leipsic in 1833), speaks of it as having 
 " obtained for him in Germany a popularity 
 1 Translated by Frances Elizabeth Cox. 
 
HYMNS 137 
 
 only second to that of Paul Gerhardt." 
 Such praise is hyperbolical ; posterity alone 
 can adjust the relative places of the writers 
 of this and of former generations. In 
 Spitta's poems (for such they generally are, 
 rather than hymns) the subjective and 
 meditative tone is tempered, not ungracefully, 
 with a didactic element ; and they are not, 
 like some contemporary hymns, disfigured 
 by exaggerated sentiment, or by a too florid 
 and rhetorical style. 1 
 
 1 The best and fullest modern collection of 
 choice German hymns is that of Baron von Bunsen, 
 in his Versuch eines allgemeinen Gesang- und 
 Gebetbuchs of 1833, unfortunately not reprinted after 
 the first edition. This contains about 900 hymns. 
 In his later Allgemeines evangelisches Gesang- und 
 Gebetbuch of 1846 the number was reduced to 440. 
 Many other authors, besides those who have been 
 here mentioned, are represented in these collections, 
 and also in the excellent English translations con- 
 tained in the Lyra Germanica of Miss Winkworth ; 
 Miss Cox's Sacred Hymns from the German ; Miss 
 Fry's Hymns of the Reformation ; Miss Dunn's 
 Hymns from the German; the Misses Borthwick's 
 Hymns from the Land of Luther ; and the Rev. 
 Arthur T. Russell's Hymns for the Church of England. 
 In Cunz's Geschichte des deutschen Kirchenliedes 
 (Leipsic, 1855) tne number of German hymn- 
 writers named considerably exceeds 300. Besides 
 the volumes of mixed translations from different 
 authors just enumerated, (of which the earliest is 
 that of Miss Cox, 1841), translations of Luther's 
 
138 HYMNS 
 
 6. BRITISH HYMNODY 
 
 After the Reformation the development 
 of hymnody was retarded, in both parts of 
 Great Britain, by the example and influence 
 of Geneva. Archbishop Cranmer appears 
 at one time to have been disposed to follow 
 Luther's course, and to present to the people, 
 
 hymns were published by Mr. John Hunt, of Preston, 
 in 1853, and by Mr. Massie, of Eccleston, in 1854. 
 The Lyra Domestica of Mr. Massie (which 
 appeared in 1860) contains his translations from 
 Spitta. A much earlier series of English versions of 
 ninety-three mixed German hymns was published in 
 1722, 1725, and 1732, by John Christian Jacobi, 
 under the patronage of Caroline, queen of George II. 
 To this collection, entitled Psalmodia Germanica, a 
 supplement, containing thirty-one more, and also 
 two Latin hymns by Petersen, was added by John 
 Haberkorn in 1765, with a dedication to the mother 
 of George III. Some of these are now sung 
 (though not without considerable alteration) in 
 English churches. 
 
 Much of the historical and critical information 
 contained in the foregoing account of German 
 hymnody has been taken from Miss Winkworth's 
 book, entitled Christian Singers of Germany 
 (Macmillan, 1869) ; and from her also are in most 
 instances taken the English renderings of the first 
 lines of hymns. The principal German authorities 
 on the subject, Wackernagel's Das Deutsche Kir- 
 chenlied, Koch's Geschichte des Kirchenliedes und 
 Kirchengesanges, etc., are mentioned in her pre- 
 face ; to which may be added the work already 
 mentioned, of F. A. Cunz. 
 
HYMNS 139 
 
 in an English dress, some at least of the 
 hymns of the ancient church. In a letter 
 to King Henry VIII. (7th October 1544), 
 among some new " processions " which he 
 had himself translated into English, he men- 
 tions the Easter hymn, " Salve^ festa dies, 
 to to memorabilis <zvo" ("Hail, glad day, to 
 be joyfully kept through all generations "), 
 of Fortunatus. In the two " Primers," of 
 J 535 (by Marshall), and of 1539 (by Bishop 
 Hilsey of Rochester, published by order of 
 the King's vicar -general Cromwell), there 
 had been several rude English hymns, none 
 of them taken from ancient sources. King 
 Henry's " Primer " of 1545 (commanded by 
 his injunction of the 6th May 1545 to be 
 used throughout his dominions) was formed 
 on the model of the daily offices of the 
 Breviary ; and it contains English metrical 
 translations from some of the best-known 
 Ambrosian and other early hymns. But in 
 the succeeding reign different views pre- 
 vailed. A new direction had been given to 
 the taste of the " Reformed " congregations 
 in France and Switzerland, by the French 
 metrical translation of the Old Testament 
 
140 HYMNS 
 
 Psalms, which appeared about 1540. This 
 was the joint work of Clement Marot, valet 
 or groom of the chamber to Francis I., and 
 Theodore Beza, then a mere youth, fresh 
 from his studies under Wolmar at Orleans. 
 
 Marot's Psalms were dedicated to the 
 French king and the ladies of France, and, 
 being set to popular airs, became fashionable. 
 They were sung by Francis himself, and by 
 the queen, the princesses, and the courtiers, 
 upon all sorts of secular occasions ; and also, 
 more seriously and religiously, by the citizens 
 and the common people. They were soon 
 perceived to be a power on the side of the 
 Reformation. Calvin, who had settled at 
 Geneva in the year of Marot's return to 
 Paris, was then organising his ecclesiastical 
 system. He rejected the hymnody of the 
 Breviaries and Missals, and fell back upon 
 the idea, anciently held by Paul of Samosata, 
 and condemned by the fourth council of 
 Toledo, that whatever was sung in churches 
 ought to be taken out of the Scriptures. 
 Marot's Psalter, appearing thus opportunely, 
 was introduced into his new system of 
 worship, and appended to his catechism. 
 
HYMNS 141 
 
 On the other hand, it was interdicted by 
 the Roman Catholic priesthood. Thus it 
 became a badge to the one party of the 
 " Reformed" profession, and to the other 
 of heresy. 
 
 The example thus set produced in 
 England the translation commonly known 
 as the " Old Version " of the Psalms. It 
 was begun by Thomas Sternhold, whose 
 position in the household of Henry VIII., 
 and afterwards of Edward VI., was similar 
 to that of Marot with Francis I., and whose 
 services to the former of those kings were 
 rewarded by a substantial legacy under his 
 will. Sternhold published versions of thirty- 
 seven Psalms in 1549, with a dedication to 
 King Edward, and died soon afterwards. 
 A second edition appeared in 1551, with 
 seven more Psalms added, by John Hopkins, 
 a Suffolk clergyman. The work was con- 
 tinued during Queen Mary's reign by 
 British refugees at Geneva, the chief of 
 whom were William Whittingham (afterwards 
 Dean of Durham), who succeeded John Knox 
 as minister of the English congregation there, 
 and William Kethe (or Keith), said by 
 
142 HYMNS 
 
 Strype to have been a Scotchman. They 
 published at Geneva in 1556 a service-book, 
 containing fifty-one English metrical Psalms, 
 which number was increased, in later 
 editions, to eighty-seven. On the accession 
 of Queen Elizabeth, this Genevan Psalmody 
 was at once brought into use in England, 
 first (according to a letter of Bishop 
 Jewell to Peter Martyr, dated 5th March 
 1560) in one London church, from which it 
 quickly spread to others, both in London 
 and in other cities. Jewell describes the 
 effect produced by large congregations, of 
 as many as 6000 persons, young and old, 
 women and children, singing it after the 
 sermons at St. Paul's Cross ; adding, " Id 
 sacrifices et diabolum agre habet; vident 
 enim sacras condones hoc pacto profundius 
 descendere in hominum ammos." The first 
 edition of the completed " Old Version " 
 (containing forty Psalms by Sternhold, sixty- 
 seven by Hopkins, fifteen by*Whittingham, 
 six by Kethe, and the rest by Thomas 
 Norton a barrister, Robert Wisdom, John 
 Mardley, and Thomas Churchyard) appeared 
 in 1562. 
 
HYMNS 143 
 
 In the meantime, the Books of Common 
 Prayer, of 1549, 1552, and 1559, had 
 been successively established as law by the 
 Acts of Uniformity of Edward VI. and 
 Queen Elizabeth. In these no provision 
 was made for the use of any metrical psalm 
 or hymn on any occasion whatever, except 
 at the consecration of bishops and the 
 ordination of priests, in which offices (first 
 added in 1552) an English version of 
 " Vent Creator" (the longer of the two now 
 in use) was appointed to be " said or sung." 
 The canticles, " Te Deum? " Benedicite? 
 etc., the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, the 
 " Gloria in Excelsis" and some other parts 
 of the communion and other special offices, 
 were also directed to be "said or sung"; 
 and, by general rubrics, the chanting of the 
 whole service was allowed. 
 
 The silence, however, of the rubrics in 
 these books, as to any other singing, was 
 not meant to exclude the use of psalms not 
 expressly appointed, when they could be 
 used without interfering with the prescribed 
 order of any service. It was expressly 
 provided by King Edward's First Act of 
 
144 HYMNS 
 
 Uniformity (by later Acts made applicable 
 to the later books) that it should be lawful 
 "for all men, as well in churches, chapels, 
 oratories, or other places, to use openly 
 any psalms or prayers taken out of the 
 Bible, at any due time, not letting or omit- 
 ting thereby the service, or any part thereof, 
 mentioned in the book." And Queen 
 Elizabeth, by one of the injunctions issued 
 in the first year of her reign, declared her 
 desire, that the provision made, " in divers 
 collegiate and also some parish churches, 
 for singing in the church, so as to promote 
 the laudable service of music," should 
 continue. After allowing the use of " a 
 modest and distinct song in all parts of the 
 common prayers of the church, so that the 
 same may be as plainly understanded as if 
 it were read without singing," the injunction 
 proceeded thus "And yet, nevertheless, 
 for the comforting of such that delight in 
 music, it may be permitted that in the 
 beginning or in the end of the Common 
 Prayer, either at morning or evening, there 
 may be sung an hymn, or such like song to 
 the praise of Almighty God, in the best sort 
 
HYMNS 145 
 
 of melody and music that may be con- 
 veniently devised, having respect that the 
 sentence " (i.e. sense) " of hymn may be 
 understanded and perceived." 
 
 The " Old Version," when published (by 
 John Daye, for the Stationers' Company, 
 " cum gratia et privilegio Regiae Majestatis"), 
 bore upon the face of it that it was " newly 
 set forth, and allowed to be sung of the 
 people in churches, before and after morn- 
 ing and evening prayer, as also before and 
 after the sermon." The question of its 
 authority has been at different times much 
 debated, chiefly by Heylin and Thomas 
 Warton on one side (both of whom disliked 
 and disparaged it), and by Bishop Beveridge 
 and the Rev. H. J. Todd on the other. 
 Heylin says it was " permitted rather than 
 allowed," which seems to be a distinction 
 without difference. " Allowance," which 
 is all that the book claimed for itself, 
 is authorisation by way of permission, not 
 of commandment. Its publication in that 
 form could hardly have been licensed, nor 
 could it have passed into use as it did with- 
 out question, throughout the churches of Eng- 
 
146 HYMNS 
 
 land, unless it had been " allowed " by some 
 authority then esteemed to be sufficient. 
 Whether that authority was royal or ec- 
 clesiastical, does not appear ; nor (consider- 
 ing the proviso in King Edward's Act of 
 Uniformity, and Queen Elizabeth's injunc- 
 tions) is it very important. No inference 
 can justly be drawn from the inability of 
 inquirers, in Heylin's time or since, to dis- 
 cover any public record bearing upon this 
 subject ; many public documents of that 
 period having been lost. 
 
 In this book, as published in 1562, and 
 for many years afterwards, there were 
 (besides the versified Psalms) eleven metri- 
 cal versions of the " Te Deum" canticles, 
 Lord's Prayer, etc. etc. (the best of which 
 is that of the " Benedicite") ; and also " Da 
 pacem, Domine" a hymn suitable to the 
 times, rendered into English from Luther ; 
 two original hymns of praise, to be sung 
 before Morning and Evening Prayer ; two 
 penitential hymns (one of them the "Humble 
 Lamentation of a Sinner") ; and a hymn of 
 faith, beginning, " Lord, in Thee is all my 
 trust" In these respects, and also in the 
 
HYMNS 147 
 
 tunes which accompanied the words (stated 
 by Dr. Burney, in his History of Music, to 
 be German, and not French), there was a 
 departure from the Genevan platform. 
 Some of these hymns, and some of the 
 psalms also (e.g. those by Robert Wisdom, 
 being alternative versions), were omitted at 
 a later period ; and many alterations and 
 supposed amendments were from time to 
 time made by unknown hands in the Psalms 
 which remained ; so that the text, as now 
 printed, is in many places different from 
 that of 1562. 
 
 In Scotland, the General Assembly of the 
 kirk caused to be printed at Edinburgh in 
 1564, and enjoined the use of, a book 
 entitled The Form of Prayers and Ministry 
 of the Sacraments used in the English 
 Church at Geneva, approved and received by 
 the Church of Scotland; whereto, besides 
 that was in the former books, are also added 
 sundry other prayers, with the whole Psalms 
 of David in English metre. This contained 
 all the Psalms of the "Old Version" by 
 Sternhold, Whittingham, and Kethe, but only 
 thirty-seven of those by Hopkins, and none 
 
148 HYMNS 
 
 by any of the other English translators. 
 Instead of those omitted, it had nineteen 
 more by Kethe and Whittingham ; one by 
 John Pulleyn (one of the Genevan refugees, 
 who became Archdeacon of Colchester) ; 
 six by Robert Pont, Knox's son-in-law, who 
 was a minister of the kirk, and also a lord 
 of session ; and fifteen signed with the 
 initials I. C., supposed to be John Craig. 
 
 So matters continued in both churches 
 until the Rebellion. During the interval, 
 King James I. conceived the project of 
 himself making a new version of the Psalms, 
 and appears to have translated thirty-one of 
 them, the correction of which, together 
 with the translation of the rest, he entrusted 
 to Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of 
 Stirling. Sir William having completed his 
 task, King Charles the First (after having it 
 examined and approved by several arch- 
 bishops and bishops of England, Scotland, 
 and Ireland) caused it to be printed in 1631 
 at the Oxford University Press, as the work 
 of King James ; and, by an order under the 
 royal sign manual, recommended its use in 
 all churches of his dominions. In 1634 he 
 
HYMNS 149 
 
 enjoined the Privy Council of Scotland not 
 to suffer any other Psalms, " of any edition 
 whatever," to be printed in or imported into 
 that kingdom. In 1636 it was republished, 
 and was attached to the famous Scottish 
 Service-book, with which the troubles began 
 in 1637. It need hardly be added that the 
 king did not succeed in bringing this Psalter 
 into use in either kingdom. 
 
 When the Long Parliament undertook, 
 in 1642, the task of altering the liturgy, its 
 attention was at the same time directed to 
 psalmody. It had to judge between two 
 rival translations of the Psalms^ one by 
 Francis Rouse, a member of the House of 
 Commons, afterwards one of Cromwell's 
 councillors, and finally provost of Eton ; the 
 other by William Barton, a clergyman of 
 Leicester. The House of Lords favoured 
 Barton, the House of Commons Rouse, who 
 had made much use of the labours of Sir 
 William Alexander. Both versions were 
 printed by order of Parliament, and were 
 referred for consideration to the Westminster 
 Assembly. They decided in favour of 
 Rouse. His version, as finally amended, 
 
150 HYMNS 
 
 was published in 1646, under an order of 
 the House of Commons dated 1 4th November 
 1645. In the following year it was 
 recommended by the Parliament to the 
 General Assembly at Edinburgh, who 
 appointed a committee, with large powers, 
 to prepare a revised Psalter ; recommending 
 to their consideration not only Rouse's book 
 but that of 1564, and two other versions 
 (by Zachary Boyd, and Sir William Mure 
 of Rowallan), then lately executed in Scot- 
 land. The result of the labours of this 
 committee was the " Paraphrase " of the 
 Psalms, which, in 1649-1650, by the con- 
 current authority of the General Assembly 
 and the Committee of Estates, was ordered 
 to be exclusively used throughout the church 
 of Scotland. Some use was made in the 
 preparation of this book of the versions to 
 which the attention of the revisers had been 
 directed, and also of Barton's ; but its basis 
 was that of Rouse. It was received in 
 Scotland with great favour, which it has 
 ever since retained ; and it is fairly entitled 
 to the praise of striking a tolerable medium 
 between the rude homeliness of the " Old," 
 
HYMNS 151 
 
 and the artificial modernism of the " New " 
 English versions perhaps as great a success 
 as was possible for such an undertaking. 
 Sir Walter Scott is said to have dissuaded 
 any attempt to alter it, and to have pro- 
 nounced it, "with all its acknowledged 
 occasional harshness, so beautiful, that any 
 alterations must eventually prove only so 
 many blemishes." No further step towards 
 any authorised hymnody was taken by the 
 kirk of Scotland till the following century. 
 
 In England, two changes bearing on 
 church hymnody were made, upon the 
 revision of the Prayer-book after the Restora- 
 tion, in 1661-1662. One was the addition, in 
 the offices for consecrating bishops and or- 
 daining priests, of the shorter version of 
 " Vent Creator" ("Come, Holy Ghost, our 
 souls inspire "J, 1 as an alternative form. 
 The other, and more important, was the 
 insertion of the rubric after the third Collect 
 at Morning and Evening Prayer : " In 
 quires and places where they sing, here 
 followeth the Anthem." By this rubric, 
 synodical and parliamentary authority was 
 1 By Bishop Cosin. 
 
152 HYMNS 
 
 given for the interruption, at that point, of 
 the prescribed order of the service by sing- 
 ing an anthem ; the choice of which was 
 left to the discretion of the minister. Those 
 actually used, under this authority, were, 
 from the first, 1 hymns in verse, as well as 
 unmetrical passages of Scripture, set to 
 music by Blow, Purcell, and other composers, 
 of the same kind v/ith the anthems still 
 generally sung in cathedral and collegiate 
 churches. The word "anthem" had no 
 technical signification, which could be an 
 obstacle to the use under this rubric of 
 metrical hymns. 
 
 The "New Version" of the Psalms, by 
 Dr. Nicholas Brady and the poet-laureate 
 Nahum Tate (both Irishmen), appeared in 
 1696, under the sanction of an order in 
 council of William III., "allowing and per- 
 mitting" its use "in all such churches, 
 chapels, and congregations as should think 
 fit to receive it." Dr. Compton, Bishop of 
 London, recommended it to his diocese. 
 No hymns were then appended to it ; but 
 
 1 There are such hymns in the earliest anthem - 
 book of Charles the Second's Chapel Royal. 
 
HYMNS 153 
 
 the authors added a " Supplement " in 1703, 
 which received a similar sanction from an 
 order in council of Queen Anne. In 
 that Supplement there were several new 
 versions of the canticles, etc., and of the 
 " Vent Creator" ; a variation of the old 
 "Humble Lamentation of a Sinner" ; six 
 hymns for Christmas, Easter, and Holy 
 Communion (all versions or paraphrases of 
 Scripture), which are still usually printed at 
 the end of the Prayer-books containing the 
 new version ; and a hymn " On the Divine 
 use of Music " ; all accompanied by tunes. 
 The authors also reprinted, with very good 
 taste, the excellent version of the " Bene- 
 dicite " which appeared in the book of 1562. 
 Of the hymns in this "Supplement," one 
 (" While shepherds watched their flocks by 
 night ") greatly exceeded the rest in merit. 
 It has been ascribed to Tate ; but it has a 
 character of simplicity unlike the rest of his 
 works. 
 
 The relative merits of the "Old" and 
 " New " versions have been very variously 
 estimated. Competent judges have given 
 the old the praise, which certainly cannot be 
 
154 HYMNS 
 
 accorded to the new, of fidelity to the 
 Hebrew. In both, it must be admitted 
 that those parts which have poetical merit 
 are few and far between ; but a reverent 
 taste is likely to be more offended by the 
 frequent sacrifice, in the new, of depth 
 of tone and accuracy of sense to a fluent 
 commonplace correctness of versification 
 and diction, than by any excessive homeli- 
 ness in the old. In both, however, some 
 Psalms, or portions of Psalms, are well 
 enough rendered to entitle them to a per- 
 manent place in our hymn-books, especially 
 the 8th, and parts of the i8th Psalm, by 
 Sternhold ; the 57th and 84th, by Hopkins ; 
 the i ooth, which is probably l by Kethe ; 
 and the 23rd, 34th, and 36th, and part of 
 the 1 48th, by Tate and Brady. 
 
 The judgment which a fastidious critic 
 might be disposed to pass upon both these 
 books may perhaps be considerably mitigated 
 
 1 This question is discussed in Mr. Julian's 
 Dictionary of Hymnology. The old looth Psalm was 
 attributed in the Anglo-Genevan Psalter of 1561 to 
 Sternhold ; in the Scottish and another reprint from 
 that book, of 1561 and 1564, to Kethe; and in 
 Daye's Psalter of 1587 to Hopkins. 
 
HYMNS 155 
 
 by comparing them with the works of other 
 labourers in the same field ; of whom Mr. 
 Holland, in his interesting volumes entitled 
 Psalmists of Great Britain^ enumerates 
 above 150. Some of them have been real 
 poets the celebrated Earl of Surrey, Sir 
 Philip Sidney and his sister the Countess of 
 Pembroke, George Sandys, George Wither, 
 John Milton, and John Keble. In their 
 versions, as might be expected, there are 
 occasional gleams of power and beauty, 
 exceeding anything to be found in Sternhold 
 and Hopkins, or Tate and Brady ; but even 
 in the best these are rare, and chiefly occur 
 where the strict idea of translation has been 
 most widely departed from. In all of them, 
 as a rule, the life and spirit, which in prose 
 versions of the Psalms are so wonderfully 
 preserved, have disappeared. The conclu- 
 sion practically suggested by so many 
 failures is, that the difficulties of metrical 
 translation, always great, are in this case 
 insuperable ; and that, while the Psalms 
 (like other parts of Scripture) are abundantly 
 suggestive of motive and material for 
 hymnographers, it is by assimilation and 
 
156 HYMNS 
 
 adaptation, and not by any attempt to trans- 
 form their exact sense into modern poetry, 
 that they may be best used for this purpose. 
 
 The order in council of 1703 is the latest 
 act of any public authority by which an 
 express sanction has been given to the use 
 of psalms or hymns in the Church of Eng- 
 land. At the end, indeed, of many modern 
 Prayer-books there will be found, besides 
 some of the hymns sanctioned by that order 
 in council, or of those contained in the book 
 of 1562, a Sacramental and a Christmas 
 hymn by Doddridge ; a Christmas hymn 
 (varied by Martin Madan) from Charles 
 Wesley ; an Easter hymn of the eighteenth 
 century, beginning "Jesus Christ has risen 
 to day " ; and abridgments of Bishop Ken's 
 Morning and Evening Hymns. These 
 additions first began to be made in or about 
 1791, in London editions of the Prayer- 
 book and Psalter, at the mere will and 
 pleasure (so far as appears) of the printers. 
 They have no sort of authority. 
 
 In the state of authority, opinion, and 
 practice disclosed by the preceding narrative, 
 may be found the true explanation of the 
 
HYMNS 157 
 
 fact, that, in the country of Chaucer, Spen- 
 ser, Shakespeare, and Milton, and notwith- 
 standing the example of Germany, no native 
 congregational hymnody worthy of the name 
 arose till after the commencement of the 
 eighteenth century. Yet there was no want 
 of appreciation of the power and value of 
 congregational church music. Milton could 
 write, before 1645, 
 
 There let the pealing organ blow 
 
 To the full-voiced quire below 
 
 In service high, and anthems clear, 
 
 As may with sweetness through mine ear 
 
 Dissolve me into ecstasies, 
 
 And bring all Heaven before mine eyes. 
 
 Thomas Mace, in his Music's Monument 
 (1676), described the effect of psalm-sing- 
 ing before sermons, by the congregation 
 in York Minster on Sundays, during the 
 siege of 1644 : " When that vast concording 
 unity of the whole congregational chorus 
 came thundering in, even so as it made the 
 very ground shake under us, oh, the unutter- 
 able ravishing soul's delight ! in the which I 
 was so transported and wrapt up in high 
 contemplations, that there was no room left 
 in my whole man, body, soul, and spirit, for 
 
158 HYMNS 
 
 anything below divine and heavenly rap- 
 tures ; nor could there possibly be anything 
 to which that very singing might be truly 
 compared, except the right apprehension or 
 conceiving of that glorious and miraculous 
 quire, recorded in the Scriptures at the 
 dedication of the Temple." Nor was there 
 any want of men well qualified, and by the 
 turn of their minds predisposed, to shine 
 in this branch of literature. Some (like 
 Sandys, Boyd, and Barton) devoted them- 
 selves altogether to paraphrases of other 
 Scriptures as well as the Psalms. Others 
 (like George Herbert, and Francis and 
 John Quarles) moralised, meditated, solilo- 
 quised, and allegorised in verse. Without 
 reckoning these, there were a few, even 
 before the Restoration, who came very near 
 to the ideal of hymnody. 
 
 First in time is the Scottish poet John 
 Wedderburn, who translated several of 
 Luther's hymns, and in his Compendious 
 Book of Godly and Spiritual Songs added 
 others of his own (or his brothers') com- 
 position. Some of these poems, published 
 before 1560, are of uncommon excellence, 
 
HYMNS 159 
 
 uniting ease and melody of rhythm, and 
 structural skill, with grace of expression, 
 and simplicity, warmth, and reality of reli- 
 gious feeling. Those entitled " Give me 
 thy heart" "Go, heart" and "Leave me 
 not" (which will be found in a collection of 
 1860 called Sacred Songs of Scotland)^ 
 require little, beyond the change of some 
 archaisms of language, to adapt them for 
 church or domestic use at the present day. 
 Next come the two hymns of " The New 
 Jerusalem," by an English Roman Catholic 
 priest signing himself F. B. P. (supposed 
 by the late Mr. Sedgwick to be " Francis 
 Baker, Presbyter "), and by a Scottish poet, 
 David Dickson, of which the history is 
 given by Dr. Bonar, in his edition of Dick- 
 son's work. This (Dickson's), which begins 
 " O mother dear, Jerusalem" and has long 
 been popular in Scotland, is a variation and 
 amplification (by the addition of a large 
 number of new stanzas) of the English 
 original, beginning "Jerusalem, my happy 
 home" written in Queen Elizabeth's time, 
 and printed (as appears by a copy in the 
 British Museum) about 1616, when Dick- 
 
160 HYMNS 
 
 son was still young. Both are in great 
 part founded on Cardinal Damiani's "Rhythm 
 on the glory and joys of Paradise " ; both 
 have an easy natural flow, and a simple 
 happy rendering of the beautiful Scriptural 
 imagery upon the subject, with a spirit of 
 primitive devotion uncorrupted by mediaeval 
 peculiarities. The English hymn (of which 
 some stanzas are now often sung in churches) 
 is the true parent of the several shorter 
 forms all of more than common merit 
 which, in modern hymn-books, begin with 
 the same first line, but afterwards deviate 
 from the original. Kindred to these is the 
 very fine and faithful translation, by Drum- 
 mond of Hawthornden (who was Dick- 
 son's contemporary), of the ancient " Urbs 
 beata Hierusalem" ("Jerusalem, that place 
 divine "). Other ancient hymns (two of 
 Thomas Aquinas, and the "Dies Ires") 
 were also well translated, in 1646, by Cra- 
 shaw, after he had become a Roman 
 Catholic, and had been deprived by the 
 Parliament of his fellowship at Cambridge. 
 
 Conspicuous among the sacred poets of 
 the two first Stuart reigns in England is the 
 
HYMNS 161 
 
 name of George Wither, an accomplished 
 layman, of strong church principles, whose 
 fate it was to be opposed and slighted while 
 he was a staunch churchman and Royalist, 
 and afterwards to be driven into the Parlia- 
 mentary and Puritan ranks ; for which 
 cause, probably, recognition was denied to 
 his genius as a poet by Dryden, Swift, and 
 Pope. He had almost fallen into oblivion, 
 when attention was recalled to his merits by 
 the more discerning criticisms of Charles 
 Lamb and Southey ; and, when his Halle- 
 lujah was republished in 1857 by Mr. Farr, 
 only two copies of it were known to exist, 
 one in the British Museum, and another 
 which had been in Mr. Heber's library. His 
 Hymns and Songs of the Church appeared 
 in 1622-23, under a patent of King James I., 
 by which they were declared " worthy and 
 profitable to be inserted, in convenient man- 
 ner and due place, into every English Psalm- 
 book to metre." This patent was opposed, 
 as inconsistent with their privilege to print 
 the "singing-psalms," by the Stationers' 
 Company, to Wither's great mortification 
 and loss. His Hallelujah (in which some 
 
162 HYMNS 
 
 of the former Hymns and Songs were re- 
 peated) followed, after several intermediate 
 publications of a different kind, in 1641. 
 The Hymns and Songs were set to music 
 by Orlando Gibbons ; and those in both 
 books were written to be sung, though for 
 the most part privately, there being no evi- 
 dence that the author contemplated the use 
 of any of them in churches. They included, 
 however, hymns for every day in the week 
 (founded, as those contributed nearly a 
 century afterwards by Coffin to the Parisian 
 Breviary also were, upon the successive 
 works of the days of creation) ; hymns for 
 all the church seasons and festivals, in- 
 cluding saints' days ; hymns for various 
 public occasions ; and hymns of prayer, 
 meditation, and instruction, for a great 
 number of different sorts and conditions of 
 men and women, in a variety of circum- 
 stances incident to human life, being at 
 once a " Christian Year " and a manual of 
 practical piety. Many of them rise to 
 a high point of excellence, particularly 
 the " general invitation to praise God" 
 (" Come, O come, in pious lays"), with 
 
HYMNS 163 
 
 which Hallelujah opens ; the Thanksgivings 
 for Peace and for Victory, the Coronation 
 Hymn, a Christmas, an Epiphany, and an 
 Easter Hymn, and one for St. Bartholomew's 
 day. 1 All these are properly entitled to 
 the designation of hymns; which can hardly 
 be conceded to some others, of singular 
 beauty, viz. the Cradle-song ( "Sleep, baby, 
 sleep, what ails my dear"), the Anniversary 
 Marriage Song (" Lord, living here are we"), 
 the Perambulation Song ("Lord, it hath 
 pleased Thee to say "), the Song for Lovers 
 " Come, sweet heart, come, let us prove "), 
 the Song for the Happily Married ("Since 
 they in singing take delight "), and that for 
 a Shepherd (" Renowned men their herds to 
 keep "). 2 There is also in the second part 
 a fine song (No. 59), of historical as well 
 as poetical interest, upon the evil times in 
 which the poet lived, beginning 
 
 Now are the times, these are the days, 
 Which will those men approve 
 
 Who take delight in honest ways 
 And pious courses love ; 
 
 1 Hymns i, 74, 75, and 84 in part i., and 26, 29, 
 36, and 54 in part ii. , of Hallelujah. 
 
 2 Nos. 50 in the first part, 17 and 24 in the second, 
 and 20, 21, and 41 in the third. 
 
i64 HYMNS 
 
 Now to the world it will appear 
 
 That innocence of heart 
 Will keep us far more free from fear 
 
 Than helmet, shield, or dart. 
 
 Wither wrote, generally, in a pure nervous 
 English idiom, and preferred the reputation 
 of "rusticity" (an epithet applied to him 
 by Baxter) to the tricks and artifices of 
 poetical style which were then in favour. It 
 may be partly on that account that he has 
 been better appreciated by posterity than by 
 his contemporaries. 
 
 - Cosin, afterwards Bishop of Durham, 
 published in 1627 a volume of "Private 
 Devotions," for the canonical hours and 
 other occasions. In this there are seven or 
 eight hymns of considerable merit among 
 them a very good version of the Ambrosian 
 "Jam lucis or to sidere" and the shorter 
 version of the " Veni Creator" which was 
 introduced after the Restoration into the 
 consecration and ordination services of the 
 Church of England. 
 
 The hymns of Milton (on the Nativity, 
 Passion, Circumcision, and "at a Solemn 
 Music"), written about 1629, in his early 
 manhood, were probably not intended for 
 
HYMNS 165 
 
 singing ; they are odes full of characteristic 
 beauty and power. 
 
 During the Commonwealth, in 1654, 
 Jeremy Taylor published, at the end of his 
 Golden Grove^ twenty-one hymns, described 
 by himself as " celebrating the mysteries 
 and chief festivals of the year, according to 
 the manner of the ancient church, fitted to 
 the fancy and devotion of the younger and 
 pious persons, apt for memory, and to be 
 joined to their other prayers." Of these, 
 his accomplished editor, Bishop Heber, 
 justly said : 
 
 ' ' They are in themselves, and on their own 
 account, very interesting compositions. Their metre, 
 indeed, which is that species of spurious Pindaric 
 which was fashionable with his contemporaries, is an 
 obstacle, and must always have been one, to their 
 introduction into public or private psalmody ; and the 
 mixture of that alloy of conceits and quibbles which 
 was an equally frequent and still greater defilement of 
 some of the finest poetry of the seventeenth century 
 will materially diminish their effect as devotional or 
 descriptive odes. Yet, with all these faults, they are 
 powerful, affecting, and often harmonious ; there are 
 many passages of which Cowley need not have been 
 ashamed, and some which remind us, not disadvan- 
 tageously, of the corresponding productions of Milton." 
 
 He mentions particularly the Advent 
 hymn ("Lord, come away"}, part of the 
 
i66 HYMNS 
 
 hymn " On Heaven," and (as "more regular 
 in metre, and in words more applicable to 
 public devotion ") the " Prayer for Charity " 
 (" Full of mercy, full of love "). 
 
 The epoch of the Restoration produced 
 in 1664 Samuel Grossman's Young Maris 
 Calling, with a few " Divine Meditations " 
 in verse attached to it; in 1668 John 
 Austin's Devotions in the Ancient Way of 
 Offices, with psalms, hymns, and prayers for 
 every day in the week and every holyday in 
 the year; and in 1681 Richard Baxter's 
 Poetical Fragments. In these books there 
 are altogether seven or eight hymns, the 
 whole or parts of which are extremely 
 good : Grossman's " New Jerusalem " 
 (" Sweet place, sweet place alone "), one of 
 the best of that class, and " My lifers a shade, 
 my days"; Austin's "Hark, my soul, how 
 everything" " Fain would my thoiights fly 
 up to Thee," " Lord, now the time returns? 
 " Wake all my hopes, lift up your eyes " ; 
 and Baxter's "My whole, though broken 
 heart, O Lord? and "Ye holy angels bright." 
 Austin's Offices (he was a Roman Catholic) 
 seem to have attracted much attention. 
 
HYMNS 167 
 
 Theophilus Dorrington, in 1686, and after- 
 wards Hickes, the nonjuror, published vari- 
 ations of them under the title of Reformed 
 Devotions ; and the Wesleys, in their earliest 
 hymn-book, adopted hymns from them, with 
 little alteration. 
 
 Four stanzas, from a longer hymn of 
 Austin, may be taken as a simple and good 
 example of his style : 
 
 Blest be Thy love, dear Lord, 
 That taught us this sweet way, 
 Only to love Thee for Thyself, 
 And for that love obey. 
 
 O Thou, our souls' chief hope ! 
 We to Thy mercy fly : 
 Where'er we are, Thou canst protect, 
 Whate'er we need, supply. 
 
 Whether we sleep or wake, 
 To Thee we both resign ; 
 By night we see, as well as day, 
 If Thy light on us shine. 
 
 Whether we live or die, 
 Both we submit to Thee ; 
 In death we live, as well as life, 
 If Thine in death we be. 
 
 These writers were followed by John 
 Mason in 1683, and Thomas Shepherd in 
 1692, the former, a country clergyman, 
 
168 HYMNS 
 
 much esteemed by Baxter and other Non- 
 conformists ; the latter himself a Noncon- 
 formist, who finally emigrated to America. 
 Between these two men there was a close 
 alliance, Shepherd's Penitential Cries being 
 published as an addition to the Spiritual 
 Songs of Mason. Their hymns came into 
 early use in several Nonconformist congre- 
 gations ; but, with the exception of one by 
 Mason (" There is a stream which issues 
 forth"\ they are not suitable for public 
 singing. In those of Mason there is 
 often a fine vein of poetry ; and later 
 authors have, by extracts or centos from 
 different parts of his works (where they were 
 not disfigured by his general quaintness), 
 constructed several hymns of more than 
 average excellence. 
 
 Of the following four stanzas, 1 each is 
 taken from a different hymn by Mason : 
 
 Lord, in the day Thou art about 
 
 The paths wherein I tread ; 
 And in the night, when I lie down, 
 
 Thou art about my bed. 
 
 1 In the Rev. John Hampden Gurney's hymn- 
 book for the churches of St. Marylebone. 
 
HYMNS 169 
 
 While others in God's prisons lie, 
 
 Bound with affliction's chain, 
 I walk at large, secure and free 
 
 From sickness and from pain. 
 
 'Tis Thou dost crown my hopes and plans 
 
 With good success each day ; 
 This crown, together with myself, 
 
 At Thy blest feet I lay. 
 
 O let my house a temple be, 
 
 That I and mine may sing 
 Hosanna to Thy majesty, 
 
 And praise our heavenly King ! 
 
 Three other eminent names of the 
 seventeenth century remain to be mentioned, 
 John Dryden, Bishop Ken, and Bishop 
 Simon Patrick ; with which may be asso- 
 ciated that of Addison, though he wrote in 
 the eighteenth. 
 
 Dryden's translation of " Vent Creator" 
 (a cold and laboured performance) is to be 
 met with in many hymn-books. Abridg- 
 ments of Ken's Morning and Evening 
 Hymns are in all. These, with the Mid- 
 night Hymn (not inferior to them), first 
 appeared in 1697, appended to the third 
 edition of the author's Manual of Prayers 
 for Winchester Scholars. Between these 
 and a large number of other hymns (on the 
 
170 HYMNS 
 
 Attributes of God, and for the Festivals of 
 the Church) published by Bishop Ken after 
 1703 the contrast is remarkable. The 
 universal acceptance of the Morning and 
 Evening Hymns is due to their transparent 
 simplicity, warm but not overstrained de- 
 votion, and extremely popular style. Those 
 afterwards published have no such qualities. 
 They are mystical, florid, stiff, didactic, and 
 seldom poetical, and deserve the neglect 
 into which they have fallen. Bishop Pat- 
 rick's hymns were chiefly translations from 
 the Latin, most of them from Prudentius. 
 The best is a version of "Alleluia dulce 
 carmen" Of the five attributed to Addison, 
 not more than three are adapted to public 
 singing; one (" The spacious firmament on 
 high ") is a very perfect and finished com- 
 position, taking rank among the best hymns 
 in the English language. 1 
 
 1 The authorship of this and of one other, ' ' When 
 all Thy mercies, O my God" has been made a sub- 
 ject of controversy, being claimed for Andrew 
 Marvell (who died in 1678), in the preface to 
 Captain Thomson's edition (1776) of Marvell's 
 Works. But this claim does not appear to be sub- 
 stantiated. The editor did not give his readers the 
 means of judging as to the real age, character, or 
 
HYMNS 171 
 
 From the preface to Simon Browne's 
 hymns, published in 1720, we learn that 
 down to the time of Dr. Watts the only 
 hymns known to be " in common use, either 
 in private families or in Christian assem- 
 blies," were those of Barton, Mason, and 
 Shepherd, together with "an attempt to 
 turn some of Mr. Herbert's poems into 
 common metre," and a few sacramental 
 hymns by authors now forgotten, Vincent, 
 Boyse, and (Joseph) Stennett. Of the 1410 
 authors of original British hymns enumer- 
 ated in Mr. Sedgwick's catalogue, published 
 in 1863, 1213 are of later date than 1707 ; 
 
 value of a manuscript to which he referred ; he did 
 not say that these portions of it were in Marvell's 
 handwriting ; he did not even himself include them 
 among Marvell's poems, as published in the body of 
 his edition ; and he advanced a like claim on like 
 ground to two other poems, in very different styles, 
 which had been published as their own by Tickell 
 and Mallet. It is certain that all the five hymns 
 were first made public in 1712, in papers contributed 
 by Addison to the Spectator (Nos. 441, 453, 465, 
 489, 513), in which they were introduced in a way 
 which might have been expected if they were by the 
 hand which wrote those papers, but which would 
 have been improbable, and unworthy of Addison, if 
 they were unpublished works of a writer of so much 
 genius, and such note in his day, as Marvell. They 
 are all printed as Addison's in Dr. Johnson's edition 
 of the British Poets. 
 
172 HYMNS 
 
 and, if any correct enumeration could be 
 made of the total number of hymns of all 
 kinds published in Great Britain before and 
 after that date, the proportion subsequent 
 to 1707 would be very much larger. 
 
 The English Independents, as represented 
 by Dr. Watts, have a just claim to be con- 
 sidered the real founders of modern English 
 hymnody. Watts was the first to understand 
 the nature of the want ; and, by the publication 
 of his Hymns in 1 707-1709, and Psalms (not 
 translations, but hymns founded on psalms) 
 in 1719, he led the way in providing for it. 
 His immediate followers were Simon Browne 
 and Doddridge. Later in the eighteenth 
 century, Hart, Gibbons, Grigg, and Mrs. Bar- 
 bauld (the two first Independents, the two 
 last Presbyterians), and Miss Steele, Medley, 
 Samuel Stennett, Ryland, Beddome, and 
 Swaine (all Baptists), succeeded to them. 
 
 Among these writers (most of whom pro- 
 duced some hymns of merit, and several 
 are extremely voluminous), Watts and 
 Doddridge are pre-eminent. It has been 
 the fashion with some to disparage Watts, 
 as if he had never risen above the level of 
 
HYMNS 173 
 
 his Hymns for little Children. No doubt 
 his taste is often faulty, and his style very 
 unequal ; but, looking to the good, and 
 disregarding the large quantity of inferior 
 matter, it is probable that more hymns 
 which approach to a very high standard of 
 excellence, and are at the same time suit- 
 able for congregational use, may be found 
 in his works than in those of any other 
 English writer. Such are " When I survey 
 the wondrous cross" "Jesus shall reign 
 wherever the sun" " Before Jehovatts awful 
 throne " (which first line, however, is not his, 
 but Wesley's), "Joy to the world^ the Lord 
 is come" "My soul, repeat His praise" 
 " Why do we mourn departing friends" 
 " There is a land of pure delight? " Our 
 God) our help in ages past " " Up to the hills 
 I lift mine eyes" and many more. It is 
 true that in some of these cases dross is 
 found in the original poems mixed with 
 gold ; but the process of separation, by 
 selection without change, is not difficult. 
 As long as pure nervous English, unaffected 
 fervour, strong simplicity, and liquid yet 
 manly sweetness are admitted to be char- 
 
174 HYMNS 
 
 acteristics of a good hymn, works such as 
 these must command admiration. 
 
 Of the examples which follow, one has 
 been chosen for the sake of comparison 
 with other compositions upon the same sub- 
 ject, and the other, because it may not be 
 so generally known as it deserves to be. 
 
 (i) Advent Hymn (Psalm xcviii.) 
 
 Joy to the world ; the Lord is come ; 
 
 Let earth receive her King ; 
 Let every heart prepare Him room, 
 
 And Heaven and Nature sing. 
 
 Joy to the earth ; the Saviour reigns ; 
 
 Let men their songs employ, 
 While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains 
 
 Repeat the sounding joy. 
 
 No more let sins and sorrows grow, 
 
 Nor thorns infest the ground : 
 He comes to make His blessings flow 
 
 Far as the curse is found. 
 
 He rules the world with Truth and Grace, 
 
 And makes the Nations prove 
 The glories of His Righteousness 
 
 And wonders of His love. 
 
 (2) Morning Hymn 
 
 God of the morning, at whose voice 
 The cheerful sun makes haste to rise, 
 
 And like a giant doth rejoice 
 
 To run his journey through the skies ; 
 
HYMNS 175 
 
 From the fair chambers of the East 
 
 The circuit of his race begins, 
 And without weariness or rest 
 
 Round the whole earth he flies and shines. 
 
 O like the sun may I fulfil 
 
 Th' appointed duties of the day, 
 With ready mind and active will 
 
 March on, and keep my heavenly way. 
 
 But I shall rove and lose the race, 
 If God, my Sun, should disappear, 
 
 And leave me in this world's wild maze 
 To follow every wandering star. 
 
 Lord, Thy commands are clean and pure, 
 Enlightening our beclouded eyes, 
 
 Thy threatenings just, Thy promise sure, 
 Thy Gospel makes the simple wise. 
 
 Give me Thy counsel for my guide, 
 And then receive me to Thy bliss : 
 
 All my desires and hopes beside 
 
 Are faint and cold, compar'd with this. 
 
 To these (which are complete works, 
 unaltered and unabridged) may be added 
 two specimens of the excellent parts of some 
 compositions, in which they are mixed with 
 prosaic and commonplace matter. 
 
 (3) From Version of Psalm Ixxii. (First Part) 
 
 As Rain on meadows newly mown, 
 So shall He send His influence down : 
 His grace on fainting souls distils, 
 Like heavenly Dew on thirsty hills. 
 
 /&***. uaHAfi&L 
 
 #?& 0' THC ^"N 
 
 (; UNIVERSITY ) 
 V r*. ' ,,* J 
 
176 HYMNS 
 
 The heathen lands, that lie beneath 
 The shades of over-spreading death, 
 Revive at His first dawning light, 
 And deserts blossom at the sight. ' 
 
 The Saints shall flourish in His days, 
 Brest in the robes of joy and praise ; 
 Peace, like a River, from His Throne 
 Shall flow to Nations yet unknown. 
 
 (4) Heavenly Joy on Earth 
 
 Come, we that love the Lord, 
 And let our joys be known ; 
 Join in a song with sweet accord, 
 And thus surround the Throne. 
 
 The men of grace have found 
 Glory begun below ; 
 Celestial fruits on earthly ground 
 From Faith and Hope may grow. 
 
 The hill ofZion yields 
 A thousand sacred sweets, 
 Ere yet we reach the heavenly fields, 
 Or walk the golden streets. 
 
 Then let our songs abound, 
 And every tear be dry : 
 
 We're marching through Emmanuel's ground 
 To fairer worlds on high. 
 
 Doddridge is, generally, more laboured 
 and artificial ; but his place also as a 
 hymn - writer ought to be determined, not 
 by his failures, but by his successes, of 
 
HYMNS 177 
 
 which the number is not inconsiderable. 
 In his better works he is distinguished by 
 a graceful and pointed, sometimes even a 
 noble style. 
 
 Among other good examples, " Ye golden 
 lamps of Heaven, farewell" " To-morrow r , 
 Lord, is Thine" and that which, in a form 
 slightly varied, became the " O God of 
 Bethel, by whose hand" of the Scotch para- 
 phrases, deserve mention. Doddridge's 
 hymn, entitled " Chris? s Message" is in 
 the original less forcible, because of the 
 addition of two weak stanzas ; but when 
 these are omitted, it is as sweet, vigorous, 
 and perfect a composition as can anywhere 
 be found. That entitled "God's care a 
 remedy for ours" well represents his softer 
 manner. 
 
 (i) " Christ's Message" (five of seven stanzas) 
 
 Hark the glad sound ! the Saviour comes ! 
 
 The Saviour promised long ! 
 Let every heart prepare a throne, 
 
 And every voice a song. 
 
 He comes the prisoners to release, 
 
 In Satan's bondage held ; 
 The gates of brass before Him burst, 
 
 The iron fetters yield. 
 
178 HYMNS 
 
 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 
 
 T' enrich the humble poor. 
 
 Our glad hosannas, Prince of Peace, 
 
 Thy welcome shall proclaim, 
 And Heav'n's eternal arches ring 
 
 With Thy beloved Name. 
 
 (2) " God's care a remedy for ours " 
 
 How gentle God's commands, 
 How kind His precepts are ! 
 Come, cast your burdens on the Lord, 
 And trust His constant care. 
 
 While Providence supports, 
 Let saints securely dwell : 
 That Hand, which bears all Nature up, 
 Shall guide His children well. 
 
 Why should this anxious load 
 Press down your weary mind ? 
 Haste to your heavenly Father's throne, 
 And sweet refreshment find. 
 
 His goodness stands approved 
 Down to the present day ; 
 I'll drop my burden at His feet, 
 And bear a song away. 
 
 Of the other followers in the school of 
 Watts, Miss Steele (1780) is the most 
 
HYMNS 179 
 
 popular, and perhaps the best. Her hymn 
 beginning " Far from these narrow scenes 
 of night" deserves high praise, even by the 
 side of other good performances on the 
 same subject. 
 
 The influence of Watts was felt in Scot- 
 land, and among the first whom it reached 
 there was Ralph Erskine. This seems to 
 have been after the publication of Erskine's 
 Gospel Sonnets ', which appeared in 1732, 
 five years before he joined his brother 
 Ebenezer in the Secession Church. The 
 Gospel Sonnets became (as some have said) 
 a " people's classic " ; but there is in them 
 very little which belongs to the category of 
 hymnody. More than nineteen-twentieths 
 of this curious book are occupied with what 
 are, in fact, theological treatises and cate- 
 chisms, mystical meditations on Christ as 
 a Bridegroom or Husband, and spiritual 
 enigmas, paradoxes, and antithetical con- 
 ceits, versified, it is true, but of a quality of 
 which such lines as 
 
 Faith's certain by fiducial acts, 
 Sense by its evidential facts, 
 
 may be taken as a sample. The grains of 
 
i8o HYMNS 
 
 poetry scattered through this large mass of 
 Calvinistic divinity are very few ; yet in one 
 short passage the fire burns with a brightness 
 so remarkable as to justify a strong feeling 
 of regret, that the gift which this writer 
 evidently had in him was not more often 
 cultivated. 
 
 O send me down a draught of love, 
 Or take me hence to drink above ! 
 Here, Marah's water fills my cup ; 
 But there all griefs are swallowed up. 
 
 Love here is scarce a faint desire ; 
 But there, the spark's a flaming fire ; 
 Joys here are drops, that passing flee ; 
 But there, an overflowing sea. 
 
 My faith, that sees so darkly here, 
 Will there resign to vision clear ; 
 My hope, that here's a weary groan, 
 Will to fruition yield the throne. 
 
 Here fetters hamper freedom's wing ; 
 But there, the captive is a king ; 
 And grace is like a buried seed ; 
 But sinners there are saints indeed. 
 
 My portion here's a crumb at best ; 
 But there, the Lamb's eternal feast ; 
 My praise is now a smother'd fire ; 
 But there, I'll sing and never tire. 
 
 Another passage, not so well sustained, 
 but of considerable beauty (part of the last 
 
HYMNS 181 
 
 piece under the title " The Believer's Soli- 
 loquy"), became afterwards, in the hands 
 of Berridge, the foundation of a very 
 striking hymn. 
 
 O happy saints, who dwell in light, 
 And walk with Jesus, clothed in white ; 
 Safe landed on that peaceful shore 
 Where pilgrims meet to part no more. 
 
 Released from sin, and toil, and grief, 
 Death was their gate to endless life ; 
 An open'd cage, to let them fly 
 And build their happy nest on high. 
 
 And now they range the heavenly plains 
 And sing their hymns in melting strains ; 
 And now their souls begin to prove 
 The heights and depths of Jesus' love. 
 
 He cheers them with eternal smile ; 
 They sing hosannas all the while ; 
 Or, overwhelmed with rapture sweet, 
 Sink down adoring at His feet. 
 
 Ah, Lord ! with tardy steps I creep, 
 And sometimes sing, and sometimes weep : 
 Yet strip me of this house of clay, 
 And I will sing as loud as they. 
 
 After his secession, Ralph Erskine pub- 
 lished two paraphrases of the "Song of 
 Solomon," and a number of other "Scripture 
 songs," paraphrased, in like manner, from 
 the Old and New Testaments. In these the 
 
182 HYMNS 
 
 influence of Watts became very apparent, 
 not only by a change in the writer's general 
 style, but by the direct appropriation of no 
 small quantity of matter from Dr. Watts's 
 hymns, with variations which were not 
 always improvements. His paraphrases of 
 i Cor. i. 24, Gal. vi. 14, Heb. vi. 17-19, 
 Rev. v. n, 12, vii. 10-17, and xii. 7-12 
 are little else than Watts transformed. One 
 of these (Rev. vii. 10-17) is interesting as 
 a variation and improvement, intermediate 
 between the original and the form which it 
 assumed in 1782 as the 66th "Paraphrase" 
 of the Church of Scotland, of Watts's " What 
 happy men or angels these" and " These 
 glorious minds ', 'how bright they shine" No 
 one can compare it with its ultimate product 
 without perceiving that Cameron followed 
 Erskine, and only added finish and grace to 
 his work, both excelling Watts, in this 
 instance, in simplicity as well as concise- 
 ness. 
 
 How bright these glorious spirits shine ! 
 
 Whence all their white array ? 
 How came they to the blissful seats 
 
 Of everlasting day ? 
 
HYMNS 183 
 
 Lo ! these are they from sufferings great, 
 
 Who came to realms of light, 
 And in the blood of Christ have wash'd 
 
 Those robes which shine so bright. 
 
 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 every mouth to sing ; 
 By day, by night, the sacred courts 
 
 With glad hosannas 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 every eye 
 
 Shall wipe off every tear. 
 
 Of the contributions to the authorised 
 " Paraphrases," (with the settlement of 
 which committees of the General Assembly 
 of the Church of Scotland were occupied 
 from 1745 or earlier till 1781), the most 
 
184 HYMNS 
 
 noteworthy (besides the two already men- 
 tioned) were those of John Morrison and 
 those claimed for Michael Bruce. The 
 obligations of these " Paraphrases " to 
 English hymnody, already traced in some 
 instances (to which may be added the adop- 
 tion from Addison of three out of the five 
 " hymns 3J appended to them), are percep- 
 tible in the vividness and force with which 
 these writers, while adhering with a severe 
 simplicity to the sense of the passages of 
 Scripture which they undertook to render, 
 fulfilled the conception of a good original 
 hymn. " The race that long in darkness 
 pined" and " Come, let us to the Lord our 
 God" by Morrison, and " Where high the 
 heavenly temple stands " (whether this is by 
 Logan or Michael Bruce), are well entitled 
 to that praise. The advocates of Bruce in 
 the controversy, not yet closed, as to the 
 poems said to have been entrusted by him 
 to John Logan, and published by Logan in 
 his own name, also claim for him the credit 
 of having varied the paraphrase "Behold, 
 the mountain of the Lord" from its original 
 form, as printed by the committee of the 
 
HYMNS 185 
 
 General Assembly in 1745, by some excel- 
 lent touches. 
 
 Attention must now be directed to the 
 hymns produced by the " Methodist " move- 
 ment, which began about 1738, and which 
 afterwards became divided between those 
 esteemed Arminian, under John Wesley, 
 those who adhered to the Moravians when 
 the original alliance between that body and 
 the founders of Methodism was dissolved, 
 and the Calvinists, of whom Whitefield (him- 
 self no poet) was the leader, and Selina, 
 Countess of Huntingdon, the patroness. 
 Each of these sections had its own hymn- 
 writers, some of whom did, and others did 
 not, secede from the Church of England. 
 The Wesleyans had Charles Wesley, Sea- 
 grave, Olivers, and Bakewell; the Moravians, 
 Cennick and Hammond (with whom, perhaps, 
 may be classed John Byrom, who imbibed 
 the mystical ideas of some of the German 
 schools) ; the Calvinists, Toplady, Berridge, 
 William Williams, Madan, Batty, Haweis, 
 Rowland Hill, John Newton, and Cowper. 
 
 Among all these writers, the palm un- 
 doubtedly belongs to Charles Wesley. In 
 
186 HYMNS 
 
 the first volume of hymns published by the 
 two brothers are several good translations 
 from the German, believed to be by John 
 Wesley, who, although he translated and 
 adapted, is not supposed to have written 
 any original hymns ; and the influence of 
 German hymnody, particularly of the works 
 of Paul Gerhardt, Scheffler, Tersteegen, 
 and Zinzendorf, may be traced in a large 
 proportion of Charles Wesley's works. He 
 is more subjective and meditative than 
 Watts and his school ; there is a didactic 
 turn, even in his most objective pieces (as, 
 for example, in his Christmas and Easter 
 hymns) ; most of his works are supplicatory, 
 and his defects are connected with the same 
 habit of mind. He is apt to repeat the 
 same thoughts, and to lose force by redun- 
 dancy he runs sometimes even to a tedious 
 length ; his hymns are not always symmet- 
 rically constructed, or well balanced and 
 finished off. But he has great truth, depth, 
 and variety of feeling ; his diction is manly, 
 and always to the point ; never florid, 
 though sometimes passionate and not free 
 from exaggeration ; often vivid and pictur- 
 
HYMNS 187 
 
 esque. Of his spirited manner some of the 
 best known examples are " O for a thou- 
 sand tongues to sing" " Rejoice^ the Lord is 
 King" and " Come^ let us join our friends 
 above " ; of his more tender vein, " Happy 
 soul) thy days are ended" With those whose 
 taste is for hymns in which warm religious 
 feelings are warmly and demonstratively ex- 
 pressed, " Jesus ) Lover of my soul" is as 
 popular as any of his works. 
 
 In the vein most characteristic of him 
 fervent and contemplative nothing is better 
 than the poem (" Come, O Thou Traveller 
 unknown"} founded on the wrestling of 
 Jacob with the Angel at Penuel. The fol- 
 lowing are good, as well as short, specimens 
 of his objective and subjective styles : 
 
 Blow ye the trumpet, blow 
 
 The gladly solemn sound ; 
 Let all the nations know, 
 
 To earth's remotest bound, 
 The year of Jubilee is come ; 
 Return, ye ransomed sinners, home. 
 
 Jesus, our great High Priest, 
 Hath full atonement made : 
 
 Ye weary spirits, rest ; 
 
 Ye mournful souls, be glad : 
 
i88 HYMNS 
 
 The year of Jubilee is come ; 
 Return, ye ransomed sinners, home. 
 
 Extol the Lamb of God, 
 
 The all-atoning Lamb ; 
 Redemption through His blood 
 
 Throughout the world proclaim 
 The year of Jubilee is come ; 
 Return, ye ransomed sinners, home. 
 
 Ye slaves of sin and hell, 
 
 Your liberty receive, 
 And safe in Jesus dwell, 
 
 And blest in Jesus live : 
 The year of Jubilee is come ; 
 Return, ye ransomed sinners, home. 
 
 Ye who have sold for nought 
 
 Your heritage above, 
 Shall have it back unbought, 
 
 The gift of Jesus' love : 
 The year of Jubilee is come ; 
 Return, ye ransomed sinners, home. 
 
 The Gospel trumpet hear, 
 
 The news of heavenly grace, 
 And, saved from earth, appear 
 
 Before your Saviour's face : 
 The year of Jubilee is come ; 
 Return, ye ransomed sinners, home. 
 
 O Thou, who earnest from above, 
 The pure celestial fire t' impart, 
 
 Kindle a flame of sacred love 
 On the mean altar of my heart ! 
 
HYMNS 189 
 
 There let it for Thy glory burn 
 
 With inextinguishable blaze, 
 And, trembling, to its source return 
 In humble prayer and fervent praise. 
 
 Jesus ! confirm my heart's desire 
 
 To work, and speak, and think for Thee ; 
 
 Still let me guard the holy fire, 
 And still stir up Thy gift in me ; 
 
 Ready for all Thy perfect will, 
 My acts of faith and love repeat, 
 
 Till death Thy endless mercies seal, 
 And make my sacrifice complete. 
 
 Of the other Wesleyan hymn-writers, 
 Olivers (originally a Welsh shoemaker, 
 afterwards a preacher) is the most remark- 
 able. He is the author of only two works, 
 both odes, in a stately metre, and from their 
 length unfit for congregational singing ; but 
 one of them, " The God of Abraham praise" 
 an ode of singular power and beauty. 
 
 The Moravian Methodists produced few 
 hymns now available for general use. The 
 best are Cennick's " Children of the 
 heavenly King" and Hammond's "Awake 
 and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb" 
 the former of which (abridged), and the 
 latter as varied by Madan, are found in 
 many hymn-books, and are deservedly 
 
IQO HYMNS 
 
 esteemed. Byrom, whose name it is con- 
 venient to connect with these, though he 
 did not belong to the Moravian community, 
 was the author of a Christmas hymn 
 (" Christians awake, salute the happy 
 morn") which enjoys great popularity in 
 the county (Lancashire) of which he was a 
 native ; and also of a short subjective hymn, 
 very fine both in feeling and in expression, 
 "My spirit longeth for Thee within my 
 troubled breast." 
 
 The contributions of the Calvinistic 
 Methodists to English hymnody are of 
 greater extent and value. Few writers of 
 hymns had higher gifts than Augustus 
 Montague Toplady, author of "Rock of 
 Ages" known to everybody, and by some 
 esteemed the finest in the English language. 
 He was a man of ardent temperament, 
 enthusiastic zeal, strong convictions, and 
 great energy of character. " He had," says 
 one of his biographers, "the courage of a 
 lion, but his frame was brittle as glass." 
 Between him and John Wesley there was a 
 violent opposition of opinion, and much 
 acrimonious controversy; but the same 
 
HYMNS 191 
 
 fervour and zeal which made him an in- 
 temperate theologian gave warmth, richness, 
 and spirituality to his poems ; few of which, 
 however, have the character of hymns suit- 
 able for divine worship. In some of them 
 (particularly those which, like "Deathless 
 principle, arise" are meditations after the 
 German manner, and not without direct 
 obligation to German originals) the setting 
 is too artificial ; but his art is never incon- 
 sistent with a genuine flow of real feeling. 
 Others fail to sustain to the end the beauty 
 with which they began, and would have 
 been better for abridgment. 
 
 Our extracts, which are taken from works 
 to which these observations are applicable, 
 exhibit the grace and tenderness of thought 
 and language, and the easy and harmonious 
 versification, of which Toplady was capable. 
 
 (i) From "Deathless Principle," etc. 
 
 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 ; 
 
192 HYMNS 
 
 Singing, to thy crown remove, 
 Swift of wing, and fired with love. 
 
 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 in that propitious gale ; 
 Weigh thy anchor, spread thy sail. 
 
 (2) Written in his last illness 
 
 When languor and disease invade 
 This trembling house of clay, 
 
 'Tis sweet to look beyond the cage, 
 And long to fly away : 
 
 Sweet to look inward, and attend 
 
 The whispers of His love ; 
 Sweet to look upward to the place 
 
 Where Jesus pleads above : 
 
 Sweet to look back, and see my Name 
 In life's fair book set down ; 
 
 Sweet to look forward, and behold 
 Eternal joys my own : 
 
 Sweet to reflect, how Grace Divine 
 
 My sins on Jesus laid ; 
 Sweet to remember, that His blood 
 
 My debt of sufferings paid : 
 
HYMNS 193 
 
 Sweet in His Righteousness to stand 
 Which saves from second death ; 
 
 Sweet to experience, day by day, 
 His Spirit's quickening breath : 
 
 Sweet on His faithfulness to rest 
 
 Whose love can never end ; 
 Sweet on His covenant of grace 
 
 For all things to depend : 
 
 Sweet in the confidence of faith 
 
 To trust His firm decrees ; 
 Sweet to lie passive in His hands 
 
 And know no will but His : 
 
 Sweet to rejoice in lively hope 
 
 That, when my change shall come, 
 
 Angels will hover round my bed, 
 And waft my spirit home. 
 
 Berridge, Williams, and Rowland Hill (all 
 men remarkable for eccentricity, activity, 
 and the devotion of their lives to the 
 special work of missionary preaching), 
 though not the authors of many good 
 hymns, composed, or adapted from earlier 
 compositions, some of great merit. One of 
 Berridge, adapted from Erskine, has been 
 already mentioned ; another, adapted from 
 Watts, is "Jesus, cast a look on me." 
 Williams, a Welshman (who wrote " Guide 
 me, Thou great Jehovah"}, was especially 
 an apostle of Calvinistic Methodism in 
 
i 94 HYMNS 
 
 his own country, and his hymns are still 
 much used in the principality. Rowland 
 Hill wrote the popular hymn beginning 
 " Exalted high at Gods right hand." 
 
 If, however, the number as well as the 
 quality of good hymns available for general 
 use is to be regarded, the authors of the 
 " Olney Hymns " are entitled to be placed 
 at the head of all the writers of this Calvin- 
 istic school. The greater number of the 
 Olney Hymns are, no doubt, homely and 
 didactic ; but to the best of them (and they 
 are no inconsiderable proportion) the tender- 
 ness of Cowper and the manliness of 
 Newton give the interest of contrast, as 
 well as that of sustained reality. If Newton 
 carried to some excess the sound principle 
 laid down by him, that " perspicuity, simpli- 
 city, and ease should be chiefly attended to, 
 and the imagery and colouring of poetry, if 
 admitted at all, should be indulged very 
 sparingly and with great judgment," if he 
 is often dry and colloquial, he rises at other 
 times into " soul-animating strains," such as 
 " Glorious things of thee are spoken^ Zion, 
 city of our God " ; and sometimes (as in the 
 
HYMNS 195 
 
 following) rivals Cowper himself in depth 
 of feeling. 
 
 Approach, my soul, the mercy-seat 
 
 Where Jesus answers prayer ; 
 There humbly fall before His feet, 
 
 For none can perish there. 
 
 Thy promise is my only plea, 
 
 With this I venture nigh ; 
 Thou callest burdened souls to Thee, 
 
 And such, O Lord, am I. 
 
 Bow'd down beneath a load of sin, 
 
 By Satan sorely prest, 
 By war without, and fears within, 
 
 I come to Thee for rest. 
 
 Be Thou my shield and hiding-place, 
 That, shelter'd near Thy side, 
 
 I may my fierce accuser face, 
 And tell him, Thou hast died ! 
 
 O wondrous love ! to bleed and die, 
 To bear the cross and shame, 
 
 That guilty sinners, such as I, 
 
 Might plead Thy gracious Name ! 
 
 Cowper's hymns in this book are, almost 
 without exception, worthy of his name. 
 Among them are " There is a fountain 
 filled with blood" " Far from the world, O 
 Lord, I flee" "God moves in a mysterious 
 way" and " Sometimes a light surprises" 
 
196 HYMNS 
 
 Some, perhaps, even of these, and others of 
 equal excellence (such as " O for a closer 
 walk with God"\ speak the language of a 
 special experience, which, in Cowper's case, 
 was only too real ; but which could not 
 (without a degree of unreality not desirable 
 in exercises of public worship) be applied 
 to themselves by all ordinary Christians. 
 
 Of his contributions to the Olney Hymns, 
 this is perhaps the best : 
 
 Hark, my soul ! it is the Lord ; 
 'Tis thy Saviour, hear His word ; 
 Jesus speaks, and speaks to thee : 
 "Say, poor sinner, lov'st thou Me? 
 
 1 ' I delivered thee when bound, 
 And, when bleeding, heal'd thy wound, 
 Sought thee wandering, set thee right, 
 Turn'd 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, lov'st thou Me?" 
 
HYMNS 197 
 
 Lord, it is my chief complaint 
 That my love is weak and faint ; 
 Yet I love Thee and adore, 
 O for grace to love Thee more ! 
 
 During the first quarter of the present 
 century there were not many indications of 
 the tendency, which afterwards became 
 manifest, to enlarge the boundaries of 
 British hymnody. A few, indeed, of Bishop 
 Heber's hymns, and those of Sir Robert 
 Grant (which, though offending rather too 
 much against John Newton's canon, are 
 well known and popular), appeared between 
 1811 and 1816, in the Christian Observer. 
 In John Bowdler's Remains , published soon 
 after his death in 1815, there are a few 
 more of the same, perhaps too scholarlike, 
 character. But the chief hymn -writers of 
 that period were two clergymen of the 
 Established Church one in Ireland, 
 Thomas Kelly, and the other in England, 
 William Hurn who both became Non- 
 conformists ; and the Moravian^poet, James 
 Montgomery, a native of Scotland. In 
 their works the subjective element is much 
 less prominent than in those of the Methodist 
 poets. 
 
198 HYMNS 
 
 Kelly was the son of an Irish judge, and 
 in 1804 published a small volume of ninety- 
 six hymns, which grew in successive editions 
 till, in the last before his death in 1854, 
 they amounted to 765. There is (as might 
 be expected) in this great number a large 
 preponderance of the didactic and common- 
 place. But not a few very excellent hymns 
 may be gathered from them. Simple and 
 natural, without the vivacity and terseness 
 of Watts or the severity of Newton, Kelly 
 has some points in common with both those 
 writers. 
 
 Some of his hymns have a rich melodious 
 movement ; others are distinguished by a 
 calm subdued power, sometimes (as in the 
 second of the two here extracted) rising from 
 a rather low to a very high key. 
 
 Lo ! He comes ! let all adore Him ! 
 
 'Tis the God of grace and truth ! 
 Go ! prepare the way before Him, 
 
 Make the rugged places smooth ! 
 Lo ! He comes, the mighty Lord ! 
 Great His work, and His reward. 
 
 Let the valleys all be raised ; 
 
 Go, and make the crooked straight ; 
 
HYMNS 199 
 
 Let the mountains be abased ; 
 
 Let all nature change its state ; 
 Through the desert mark a road, 
 Make a highway for our God. 
 
 Through the desert God is going, 
 Through the desert waste and wild, 
 
 Where no goodly plant is growing, 
 Where no verdure ever smiled ; 
 
 But the desert shall be glad, 
 
 And with verdure soon be clad. 
 
 Where the thorn and briar flourish' d, 
 Trees shall there be seen to grow, 
 
 Planted by the Lord and nourish' d, 
 Stately, fair, and fruitful too ; 
 
 They shall rise on every side, 
 
 They shall spread their branches wide. 
 
 From the hills and lofty mountains 
 
 Rivers shall be seen to flow, 
 There the Lord will open fountains, 
 
 Thence supply the plains below. 
 As He passes, every land 
 Shall confess His powerful hand. 
 
 We sing the praise of Him who died, 
 Of Him who died upon the Cross ; 
 
 The sinner's hope let men deride, 
 For this we count the world but loss. 
 
 Inscribed upon the Cross we see, 
 In shining letters, God is Love ; 
 
 He bears our sins upon the tree ; 
 He brings us mercy from above. 
 
200 HYMNS 
 
 The Cross ! it takes our guilt away ; 
 
 It holds the fainting spirit up ; 
 It cheers with hope the gloomy day, 
 
 And sweetens every bitter cup. 
 
 It makes the coward spirit brave, 
 And nerves the feeble arm for fight ; 
 
 It takes its terror from the grave, 
 
 And gilds the bed of death with light : 
 
 The balm of life, the cure of woe, 
 The measure and the pledge of love, 
 
 The sinners' refuge here below, 
 
 The angels' theme in Heaven above. 
 
 Hurn published in 1813 a volume of 
 370 hymns, which were increased after his 
 secession to 420. There is little in them 
 which deserves to be saved from oblivion ; 
 but one at least, " There is a river deep and 
 broad" may bear comparison with the best 
 of those which have been produced upon 
 the same (and it is rather a favourite) 
 theme. 
 
 The Psalms and Hymns of James 
 Montgomery were published in 1822 and 
 1825, though written earlier. More culti- 
 vated and artistic than Kelly, he is less 
 simple. He was the precursor (though 
 it is not probable that he had many 
 conscious imitators) of a more laboured 
 
HYMNS 201 
 
 and ornate style than had been, down to 
 that time, common among English hymn- 
 writers. The number of his valuable con- 
 tributions to our hymnals is, upon the whole, 
 considerable ; and, though it may be doubted 
 whether he ever attains to the first rank, all 
 must acknowledge that he stands high in 
 the second. 
 
 The following are among his more suc- 
 cessful efforts ; though "A poor wayfaring 
 man of grief" (not a hymn) is perhaps his 
 most excellent work. 
 
 Palms of glory, raiment bright, 
 Crowns that never fade away, 
 
 Gird and deck the saints in light, 
 
 Priests and kings and conquerors they. 
 
 Yet the conquerors bring their palms 
 To the Lamb amidst the throne, 
 
 And proclaim in joyful psalms 
 Victory through His cross alone. 
 
 Kings for harps their crowns resign, 
 Crying, as they strike the chords, 
 
 "Take the kingdom, it is Thine, 
 King of kings, and Lord of lords ! " 
 
 Round the altar priests confess, 
 If their robes are white as snow, 
 
 'Twas the Saviour's righteousness 
 And His blood that made them so. 
 
HYMNS 
 
 Who were these ? On earth they dwelt, 
 Sinners once, of Adam's race ; 
 
 Guilt and fear and suffering felt ; 
 But were saved by sovereign grace. 
 
 They were mortal, too, like us : 
 
 Ah ! when we, like them, must die, 
 
 May our souls, translated thus, 
 
 Triumph, reign, and shine on high ! 
 
 For ever with the Lord ! 
 Amen ! so let it be ! 
 Life from the dead is in that word, 
 'Tis immortality. 
 
 Here in the body pent 
 Absent from Him I roam, 
 Yet nightly pitch my moving tent 
 A day's march nearer home. 
 
 My Father's house on high, 
 Home of my soul ! how near, 
 At times, to faith's foreseeing eye, 
 Thy golden gates appear ! 
 
 Ah ! then my spirit faints 
 To reach the land I love, 
 The bright inheritance of saints, 
 Jerusalem above. 
 
 Yet clouds will intervene, 
 And all my prospect flies ; 
 Like Noah's dove, I flit between 
 Rough seas and stormy skies. 
 
 Anon the clouds depart ; 
 The winds and waters cease ; 
 
HYMNS 203 
 
 While sweetly o'er my gladden' d heart 
 Expands the bow of peace : 
 
 Beneath its glowing arch, 
 Along the hallow'd ground, 
 I see cherubic armies march, 
 A camp of fire around : 
 
 I hear at morn and even, 
 At noon and midnight hour, 
 The choral harmonies of heaven 
 Earth's Babel tongues o'erpower. 
 
 Then, then I feel that He, 
 Remember' d or forgot, 
 The Lord, is never far from me, 
 Though I perceive Him not. 
 
 Another voluminous writer, who may 
 properly be associated with these, though 
 his earliest publication was in 1831, is 
 William Hiley Bathurst, nephew of the first 
 Lord Sidmouth, like Hum, 'an English 
 clergyman of the Evangelical school, who 
 became a dissenter. It has been said 1 of 
 him, that he does not in any instance rise 
 above the ordinary level of passable " hymn- 
 writing ; " an opinion which does him less 
 than justice ; for the following is of more 
 than ordinary merit : 
 
 1 Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 118. 
 
204 HYMNS 
 
 O Saviour, may we never rest 
 
 Till Thou art formed within, 
 Till Thou hast calm'd our troubled breast 
 
 And crushed the power of sin. 
 
 O may we gaze upon Thy cross 
 
 Until the wondrous sight 
 Makes earthly treasures seem but dross, 
 
 And earthly sorrows light : 
 
 Until, released from carnal ties, 
 
 Our spirit upward springs, 
 And sees true peace above the skies, 
 
 True joy in heavenly things. 
 
 There, as we gaze, may we become 
 
 United, Lord, to Thee ; 
 And in a fairer, happier home 
 
 Thy perfect beauty see ! 
 
 During the same first quarter of the pre- 
 sent century, the collections of miscellaneous 
 hymns for congregational use, of which the 
 example was set by the Wesleys, Whitefield, 
 Toplady, and Lady Huntingdon, had greatly 
 multiplied ; and with them the practice (for 
 which, indeed, too many precedents existed 
 in the history of Latin and German hymnody) 
 of every collector altering the compositions 
 of other men without scruple, to suit his 
 own doctrine or taste ; with the effect, too 
 generally, of patching and disfiguring, 
 spoiling and emasculating, the works so 
 
HYMNS 205 
 
 altered ; substituting neutral tints for natural 
 colouring, and a dead for a living sense. 
 In the Church of England, the use of these 
 collections had become frequent in churches 
 and chapels (principally in cities and towns) 
 where the sentiments of the clergy approxi- 
 mated to those of Nonconformists. In 
 rural parishes, when the clergy were not of 
 the " Evangelical " school, they were gener- 
 ally held in disfavour ; for which (even if 
 doctrinal prepossessions had not entered 
 into the question) the great want of taste 
 and judgment often manifested in their 
 compilation, and perhaps also the prevail- 
 ing mediocrity of the bulk of the original 
 compositions from which most of them were 
 derived, might be enough to account. In 
 addition to this, the idea that no hymns 
 ought to be used in any services of the 
 Church of England (except prose anthems 
 after the third Collect), without express 
 royal or ecclesiastical authority, continued 
 down to that time to prevail among church- 
 men of the higher school. In Scotland 
 also, the idea that nothing ought to be sung 
 except the versified Psalms and those para- 
 
206 HYMNS 
 
 phrases and hymns which received the sanc- 
 tion of the General Assembly in 1782, still 
 held its ground in the Established Church. 
 
 Two publications, which appeared almost 
 simultaneously in 1827, Bishop Heber's 
 Hymns, with a few added by Dean Milman, 
 and Keble's Christian Year (not a hymn- 
 book, but one from which several admirable 
 hymns have been taken, and the well-spring 
 of many streams of thought and feeling by 
 which good hymns have since been pro- 
 duced), introduced a new epoch ; breaking 
 down the barrier as to hymnody which had 
 till then existed between the different theo- 
 logical schools of the Church of England. 
 In this movement Bishop Mant and Henry 
 Francis Lyte were among the first to co- 
 operate. 
 
 Of Bishop Heber's hymns, one ("I praised 
 the earth, in beauty seen ") may be ranked 
 with Addison's " The spacious firmament on 
 high" as of nearly equal excellence ; and 
 four others ("Holy, holy, holy, Lord God 
 Almighty? " The Son of God goes forth to 
 war? " Hosanna to the living Lord? and 
 "From Greenland's icy mountains") are 
 
HYMNS 207 
 
 universally popular. Keble, besides the 
 evening hymn and others taken from the 
 Christian Year^ contributed to our books an 
 ordination hymn, " Lord^ in Thy name Thy 
 servants plead" and " The voice that breathed 
 o'er Eden " perhaps the only good marriage 
 hymn in our language. Lyte's " Spirit of 
 the Psalms" published in 1834, justifies its 
 title by many works of a high order of merit ; 
 and although few of his other pieces can 
 strictly be called hymns, one of them, "Abide 
 with me ', fast falls the eventide" competes 
 for the palm with the evening hymns of 
 Ken and Keble, from both which it differs 
 much in character. 
 
 The movement, thus begun, received 
 a great additional impulse from the in- 
 creased attention which, about the same 
 time, began to be paid to ancient hymnody, 
 and from the publication in 1833 of Bun- 
 sen's Gesangbuch. Among its earliest fruits 
 was the Lyra Apostolica^ containing hymns, 
 sonnets, and other devotional poems, most 
 of them contributed by some of the lead- 
 ing authors of the Tracts for the Times 
 to the "British Magazine"; the finest of 
 
208 HYMNS 
 
 which is the pathetic " Lead, kindly 
 Light, amid ttt encircling gloom" by John 
 Henry (afterwards Cardinal) Newman, 
 well known, and universally admired. From 
 that time hymns and hymn-writers rapidly 
 multiplied in the Church of England, and 
 in Scotland also, (to which country the 
 same change of sentiment and practice 
 extended itself, though more slowly) ; and 
 their number is still on the increase. Nearly 
 600 authors, whose publications were later 
 than 1827, are enumerated in Mr. Sedg- 
 wick's catalogue of 1863, and many more 
 have since appeared. Works, critical and 
 historical, upon the subject of hymns have 
 also multiplied ; and collections for church 
 use have become innumerable ; several of 
 the various religious denominations, and 
 many of the leading ecclesiastical and 
 religious societies, having issued hymn- 
 books of their own, in addition to those 
 compiled for particular dioceses, churches, 
 and chapels, and to books (like Hymns 
 Ancient and Modern, and Bishop E. H. 
 Bickersteth's Hymnal Companion to the 
 Book of Common Prayer), which have 
 
HYMNS 209 
 
 become popular without any sanction from 
 authority. In these more recent collections, 
 an improved standard of taste has become 
 generally apparent. There is a larger and 
 more liberal admission of good hymns from 
 all sources, than might have been expected 
 from the jealousy, so often felt by churches, 
 parties, and denominations, of everything 
 which does not bear their own mint-mark ; 
 a considerable (perhaps too large) use of 
 translations, especially from the Latin ; and 
 an increased (though not as yet sufficient) 
 scrupulousness about tampering with the 
 text of other men's works. To mention all 
 the authors of good hymns since the com- 
 mencement of this new epoch would be 
 impossible. They belong chiefly to two 
 schools : the one polished and ornate, with 
 various degrees of art and .distinctions of 
 style ; the other tender and emotional. Of 
 the former, James Montgomery, Sir Robert 
 Grant, Bishop Heber, and Dean Milman, 
 may be regarded as the founders ; and in 
 it may be ranked Joseph Anstice (" Lord of 
 the harvest^ once again" etc.) ; Josiah Conder 
 (" The Lord is King^ lift up thy voice" etc.) ; 
 
210 HYMNS 
 
 Dean Alford (" Come, ye thankful people -, 
 come? etc.) ; Sir Henry Baker (" There is a 
 blessed Home? etc.) ; William Chatterton 
 Dix ("As with gladness men of old? etc.) ; 
 John Ellerton (" Saviour, again to Thy dear 
 Name we raise? etc.) ; Godfrey Thring (" The 
 radiant morn hath passed away? and " Thou 
 to Whom the sick and dying? etc.) ; Henry 
 Twells ("At even, when the sun was set n )\ 
 William Whiting ("Eternal Father, strong 
 to save")-, Samuel John Stone (" Weary of 
 earth and laden with my sin? and " The 
 Church's one Foundation? etc.); Matthew 
 Bridges (" Crown Him with many crowns? 
 etc.); Sabine Baring-Gould ("Onward, 
 Christian soldiers? and " Through the night 
 of doubt and sorrow? etc.) ; Caroline Maria 
 Noel ("At the Name of Jesus '"); Frances 
 Ridley Havergal (" Tell it out among the 
 heathen that the Lord is King? etc.) ; Mrs. 
 Cecil Frances Alexander (" The roseate hues 
 of early dawn? etc.); Mrs. Emma Toke 
 (" Thou art gone up on high? etc.) ; John 
 Mason Neale ("Art thou weary, art thou 
 langtiid? and " The day, O Lord, is spent? 
 etc.); Bishop Christopher Wordsworth ("See 
 
HYMNS 211 
 
 the Conqueror mounts in triumph" and " O 
 Lord of heaven and earth and sea" etc.) ; 
 Archbishop Maclagan (" The saints of God, 
 their conflicts o'er") ; and Bishop How ^For 
 all the saints who from their labours rest" 
 etc.). In the softer school, (besides Lyte), 
 James Edmeston (" Lead us, Heavenly 
 Father, lead us" etc.) ; Frederic William 
 Faber (" Sweet Saviour, bless us ere we go" 
 etc.) ; Bishop Edward Henry Bickersteth 
 (" O Jesu, Saviour of the lost," etc.) ; Char- 
 lotte Elliott (" My God and Father, while I 
 stray" and "Just as I am, without one plea" 
 etc.) ; Horatius Bonar (" / heard the voice 
 of Jesus say" and " Thy way, not mine, O 
 Lord" etc.), are pre-eminent. These names 
 fairly represent the qualities characteristic 
 of each school. Some of them certainly 
 reach a high standard of excellence ; but 
 the more tender are sometimes deficient 
 in strength, and the more forcible in 
 simplicity. To criticise in this place the 
 works of living or recent authors, which are 
 on everybody's lips, and in everybody's 
 hands, would be an endless task ; and a 
 greater lapse of time than has yet taken 
 
212 HYMNS 
 
 place is really necessary for an impartial 
 and accurate judgment of them. 
 
 What has been said of British hymnody 
 during the last fifty years is equally true of 
 American. The American hymn -writers 
 belong to the same schools, and have been 
 affected by the same influences. Some of 
 them enjoy a just reputation on both sides 
 of the Atlantic. Among those best known 
 are Bishop Doane, Dr. Muhlenberg, and 
 Mr. Thomas Hastings ; and it is difficult to 
 praise too highly such works as the Christmas 
 hymn, "// came upon the midnight clear" 
 by Mr. Edmund H. Sears ; the Ascension 
 hymn, " Thou, who didst stoop below" by 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Miles ; and two by Dr. Ray 
 Palmer, " My faith looks up to Thee, Thou 
 Lamb of Calvary" and "Jesus, Thou joy of 
 loving hearts^" the latter of which is the 
 best among several good English versions 
 of "Jesu, dulcedo cordtum" 1 
 
 1 Among the authorities of which use has been 
 made in the foregoing account of British Hymnody, 
 are the Appendix on Scottish Psalmody in Mr. 
 Laing's edition of Baillie's Letters and Journals ; 
 Mr. Holland's Psalmists of Britain (1843); Mr. 
 Josiah Miller's Our Hymns, their Authors and 
 Origin (1866); Mr. John Gadsby's Memoirs of the 
 
HYMNS 213 
 
 7. CONCLUSION 
 
 The object aimed at in these pages has 
 been to trace the general history of the 
 principal schools of ancient and modern 
 hymnody, and especially the history of its 
 use in the Christian Church. For this 
 purpose it has not been thought necessary 
 to give any account of the hymns of Racine, 
 Madame Guyon, and others, who can hardly 
 be classed with any school, nor of the works 
 of Caesar Malan and other quite modern 
 hymn-writers of the Reformed churches in 
 Switzerland and France ; nor of the hymns 
 of any other country which has not contri- 
 buted greatly to the growth or development 
 
 Principal Hymn-writers, etc. (3rd ed., 1861) ; the 
 "Annotations" of the Rev. Louis Coutier Biggs to 
 Hymns Ancient and Modern (1867); and the late 
 Mr. Daniel Sedgwick's Comprehensive Index of 
 Names of original Authors of Hymns, etc. (2nd ed., 
 1863). Mr. Sedgwick's name cannot be mentioned 
 without special honour, as one of the most pains- 
 taking, sympathetic, and accurate of all modern 
 students of British hymns. 
 
 [Since the above was written, Mr. Julian's 
 Dictionary of Hymnology (Murray, 1892) has been 
 published ; a work of great accuracy and research, 
 and the most elaborate and comprehensive which 
 has yet appeared upon the subject in any language. ] 
 
214 HYMNS 
 
 of any national or ecclesiastical school of 
 hymnody. 
 
 On a general view of the whole subject, 
 hymnody is seen to have been a not incon- 
 siderable factor in religious worship. It 
 has been sometimes employed to disseminate 
 and popularise particular views, and some- 
 times, when hardened into* dogma, may 
 have been the parent of error ; but its spirit 
 and influence have been Catholic, on the 
 whole. In proportion to its spontaneous- 
 ness and reality, to the predominance in it 
 of meaning over sound and form (though 
 form ought not to be neglected), and to the 
 success with which it condenses the spiritual 
 and practical application of Scripture, it 
 may be an instrument of great power in 
 religious education, taking hold of the ima- 
 gination, and remaining long in the memory. 
 Its power of kindling into great occasional 
 brightness minds which do not often rise 
 above mediocrity has been remarkable. 
 As in the case of the Italian painters of 
 Holy Families and other sacred subjects, 
 " the constant enthusiastic contemplation of 
 a few subjects, dear to the universal heart 
 
HYMNS 215 
 
 of Christendom, and embodying the highest 
 conceptions of Divine purity and beauty, 
 has produced," in its more perfect results, 
 "a simplicity, refinement, and spirituality of 
 style, which never tires, notwithstanding its 
 limited range." It represents the faith, 
 trust, and hope, and no small part of the 
 inward experience, of generation after gen- 
 eration of men, in many different countries 
 and climates, of many different nations, and 
 in many varieties of circumstances and 
 condition. Coloured, indeed, by these 
 differences, and also by the various modes 
 in which the same truths have been appre- 
 hended by different minds (and sometimes 
 reflecting partial and imperfect conceptions 
 of them, and errors with which they have 
 been associated in particular churches, times, 
 and places), its testimony is, nevertheless, 
 generally the same. It bears witness to 
 "the force of a central attraction more 
 powerful than all causes of difference, which 
 binds together times ancient and modern, 
 nations of various race and language, 
 churchmen and nonconformists, churches 
 reformed and unreformed;" to a true 
 
216 
 
 HYMNS 
 
 fundamental unity among good Christians ; 
 and to a substantial identity in their moral 
 and spiritual experience. 1 
 
 1 The words within marks of quotation are from 
 the Preface to the Author's Book of Praise. 
 
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