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diff --git a/18444-8.txt b/18444-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f5d3a58 --- /dev/null +++ b/18444-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18953 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Story of the Hymns and Tunes, by Theron +Brown and Hezekiah Butterworth + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Story of the Hymns and Tunes + + +Author: Theron Brown and Hezekiah Butterworth + + + +Release Date: May 24, 2006 [eBook #18444] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, David Wilson, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 18444-h.htm or 18444-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/4/4/18444/18444-h/18444-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/4/4/18444/18444-h.zip) + + + + + +THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES + +by + +THERON BROWN and HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH + + + + + + + + _Multae terricolis linguae, coelestibus una._ + + _Ten thousand, thousand are their tongues, + But all their joys are one._ + + + + +New York, 1906 + + + +[Frontispiece: Thomas Ken] + + + +CONTENTS. + + PREFACE, v + + INTRODUCTION, ix + + 1. HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP, 1 + + 2. SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES, 53 + + 3. HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION AND EXPERIENCE, 100 + + 4. MISSIONARY HYMNS, 165 + + 5. HYMNS OF SUFFERING AND TRUST, 190 + + 6. CHRISTIAN BALLADS, 237 + + 7. OLD REVIVAL HYMNS, 262 + + 8. SUNDAY SCHOOL HYMNS, 293 + + 9. PATRIOTIC HYMNS, 321 + + 10. SAILOR'S HYMNS, 353 + + 11. HYMNS OF WALES, 378 + + 12. FIELD HYMNS, 409 + + 13. HYMNS, FESTIVAL AND OCCASIONAL, 458 + + 14. HYMNS OF HOPE AND CONSOLATION, 509 + + INDEXES OF NAMES, TUNES, AND HYMNS, 543 + + +LIST OF PORTRAITS. + + THOMAS KEN, Frontispiece + OLIVER HOLDEN, Opp. page 14 + JOSEPH HAYDN, " 30 + CHARLES WESLEY, " 46 + MARTIN LUTHER, " 62 + LADY HUNTINGDON, " 94 + AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE TOPLADY, " 126 + THOMAS HASTINGS, " 142 + FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL, " 158 + REGINALD HEBER, " 174 + GEORGE JAMES WEBB, " 190 + JOHN WESLEY, " 206 + JOHN B. DYKES, " 222 + ELLEN M.H. GATES, " 254 + JAMES MONTGOMERY, " 286 + FANNY J. CROSBY, " 302 + SAMUEL F. SMITH, " 334 + WILLIAM B. BRADBURY, " 366 + ISAAC WATTS, " 398 + GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL, " 414 + PHILIP DODDRIDGE, " 446 + LOWELL MASON, " 478 + CARL VON WEBER, " 494 + HORATIUS BONAR, " 526 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +When the lapse of time and accumulation of fresh material suggested the +need of a new and revised edition of Mr. Hezekiah Butterworth's _Story +of the Hymns_, which had been a popular text book on that subject for +nearly a generation, the publishers requested him to prepare such a +work, reviewing the whole field of hymnology and its literature down to +date. He undertook the task, but left it unfinished at his lamented +death, committing the manuscript to me in his last hours to arrange and +complete. + +To do this proved a labor of considerable magnitude, since what had been +done showed evidence of the late author's failing strength, and when, in +a conference with the publishers, it was proposed to combine the two +books of Mr. Butterworth, the _Story of the Hymns_ and the _Story of the +Tunes_, in one volume, the task was doubled. + +The charming popular style and story-telling gift of the well-known +compiler of these books had kept them in demand, the one for thirty and +the other for fifteen years, but later information had discounted some +of their historic and biographical matter, and, while many of the +monographs were too meagre, others were unduly long. Besides, the _Story +of the Tunes_, so far from being the counterpart of the _Story of the +Hymns_, bore no special relationship to it, only a small portion of its +selections answering to any in the hymn-list of the latter book. For a +personal friend and practically unknown writer, to follow Mr. +Butterworth, and "improve" his earlier work to the more modern +conditions, was a venture of no little difficulty and delicacy. The +result is submitted as simply a conscientious effort to give the best of +the old with the new. + +So far as was possible, matter from the two previous books, and from the +crude manuscript, has been used, and passages here and there +transcribed, but so much of independent plan and original research has +been necessary in arranging and verifying the substance of the chapters +that the _Story of the Hymns and Tunes_ is in fact a new volume rather +than a continuation. The chapter containing the account of the _Gospel +Hymns_ is recent work with scarcely an exception, and the one on the +_Hymns of Wales_ is entirely new. + +Without increasing the size of this volume beyond easy purchase and +convenient use, it was impossible to discuss the great oratorios and +dramatic set-pieces, festival and occasional, and only passing +references are made to them or their authors. + +Among those who have helped me in my work special acknowledgements are +due to Mr. Hubert P. Main of Newark, N.J.; Messrs. Hughes & Son of +Wrexham, Wales; the American Tract Society, New York; Mr. William T. +Meek, Mrs. A.J. Gordon, Mr. Paul Foster, Mr. George Douglas, and Revs. +John R. Hague and Edmund F. Merriam of Boston; Professor William L. +Phelps of New Haven, Conn.; Mrs. Ellen M.H. Gates of New York; Rev. +Franklin G. McKeever of New London, Conn.; and Rev. Arthur S. Phelps of +Greeley, Colorado. Further obligations are gratefully remembered to +Oliver Ditson & Co. for answers to queries and access to publications, +to the Historic-and-Geneological Society and the custodians and +attendants of the Boston Public Library (notably in the Music +Department) for their uniform courtesy and pains in placing every +resource within my reach. + +THERON BROWN. + +Boston, May 15th, 1906. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +Augustine defines a hymn as "praise to God with song," and another +writer calls hymn-singing "a devotional approach to God in our +emotions,"--which of course applies to both the words and the music. +This religious emotion, reverently acknowledging the Divine Being in +song, is a constant element, and wherever felt it makes the song a +worship, irrespective of sect or creed. An eminent Episcopal divine, +(says the _Christian Register_,) one Trinity Sunday, at the close of his +sermon, read three hymns by Unitarian authors: one to God the Father, by +Samuel Longfellow, one to Jesus, by Theodore Parker, and one to the Holy +Spirit, by N.L. Frothingham. "There," he said, "you have the +Trinity--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." + +It is natural to speak of hymns as "poems," indiscriminately, for they +have the same structure. But a hymn is not necessarily a poem, while a +poem that can be sung as a hymn is something more than a poem. +Imagination makes poems; devotion makes hymns. There can be poetry +without emotion, but a hymn never. A poem may argue; a hymn must not. +In short to be a hymn, what is written must express spiritual feelings +and desires. The music of faith, hope and charity will be somewhere in +its strain. + +Philosophy composes poems, but not hymns. "It is no love-symphony we +hear when the lion thinkers roar," some blunt writer has said. "The +moles of Science have never found the heavenly dove's nest, and the Sea +of Reason touches no shore where balm for sorrow grows." + +On the contrary there are thousands of true hymns that have no standing +at the court of the muses. Even Cowper's Olney hymns, as Goldwin Smith +has said, "have not any serious value as poetry. Hymns rarely have," he +continues. "There is nothing in them on which the creative imagination +can be exercised. Hymns can be little more than the incense of a +worshipping soul." + +A fellow-student of Phillips Brooks tells us that "most of his verse he +wrote rapidly without revising, not putting much thought into it but +using it as the vehicle and outlet of his feelings. It was the sign of +responding love or gratitude and joy." + +To produce a hymn one needs something more exalting than poetic fancy; +an influence + + "--subtler than the sun-light in the leaf-bud + That thrills thro' all the forest, making May." + +It is the Divine Spirit wakening the human heart to lyric language. + +Religion sings; that is true, though all "religions" do not sing. There +is no voice of sacred song in Islamism. The muezzin call from the +minarets is not music. One listens in vain for melody among the +worshippers of the "Light of Asia." The hum of pagoda litanies, and the +shouts and gongs of idol processions are not psalms. But many historic +faiths have lost their melody, and we must go far back in the annals of +ethnic life to find the songs they sung. + +Worship appears to have been a primitive human instinct; and even when +many gods took the place of One in the blinder faith of men it was +nature worship making deities of the elements and addressing them with +supplication and praise. Ancient hymns have been found on the monumental +tablets of the cities of Nimrod; fragments of the Orphic and Homeric +hymns are preserved in Greek anthology; many of the Vedic hymns are +extant in India; and the exhumed stones of Egypt have revealed segments +of psalm-prayers and liturgies that antedate history. Dr. Wallis Budge, +the English Orientalist, notes the discovery of a priestly hymn two +thousand years older than the time of Moses, which invokes One Supreme +Being who "cannot be figured in stone." + +So far as we have any real evidence, however, the Hebrew people +surpassed all others in both the custom and the spirit of devout song. +We get snatches of their inspired lyrics in the song of Moses and +Miriam, the song of Deborah and Barak, and the song of Hannah (sometimes +called "the Old Testament Magnificat"), in the hymns of David and +Solomon and all the Temple Psalms, and later where the New Testament +gives us the "Gloria" of the Christmas angels, the thanksgiving of +Elizabeth (benedictus minor), Mary's Magnificat, the song of Zacharias +(benedictus major), the "nunc dimittis" of Simeon, and the celestial +ascriptions and hallelujahs heard by St. John in his Patmos dream. For +what we know of the first _formulated_ human prayer and praise we are +mostly indebted to the Hebrew race. They seem to have been at least the +only ancient nation that had a complete psalter--and their collection is +the mother hymn-book of the world. + +Probably the first form of hymn-worship was the plain-song--a +declamatory unison of assembled singers, every voice on the same pitch, +and within the compass of five notes--and so continued, from whatever +may have stood for plain-song in Tabernacle and Temple days down to the +earliest centuries of the Christian church. It was mere melodic +progression and volume of tone, and there were no instruments--after the +captivity. Possibly it was the memory of the harps hung silent by the +rivers of Babylon that banished the timbrel from the sacred march and +the ancient lyre from the post-exilic synagogues. Only the Feast trumpet +was left. But the Jews sang. Jesus and his disciples sang. Paul and +Silas sang; and so did the post-apostolic Christians; but until towards +the close of the 16th century there were no instruments allowed in +religious worship. + +St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers has been called "the father of Christian +hymnology." About the middle of the 4th century he regulated the +ecclesiastical song-service, wrote chant music (to Scripture words or +his own) and prescribed its place and use in his choirs. He died A.D. +368. In the Church calendars, Jan. 13th (following "Twelfth Night"), is +still kept as "St. Hilary's Day" in the Church of England, and Jan. 14th +in the Church of Rome. + +St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, a few years later, improved the work of +his predecessor, adding words and music of his own. The "Ambrosian +Chant" was the antiphonal plain-song arranged and systematized to +statelier effect in choral symphony. Ambrose died A.D. 397. + +Toward the end of the 6th century Christian music showed a decline in +consequence of impatient meddling with the slow canonical psalmody, and +"reformers" had impaired its solemnity by introducing fanciful +embellishments. Gregory the Great (Pope of Rome, 590-604) banished these +from the song service, founded a school of sacred melody, composed new +chants and established the distinctive character of ecclesiastical hymn +worship. The Gregorian chant--on the diatonic eight sounds and seven +syllables of equal length--continued, with its majestic choral step, to +be the basis of cathedral music for a thousand years. In the meantime +(930) Hucbald, the Flanders monk, invented _sight_ music, or written +notes--happily called the art of "hearing with the eyes and seeing with +the ears"; and Guido Arentino (1024) contrived the present scale, or the +"hexachord" on which the present scale was perfected. + +In this long interval, however, the "established" system of hymn service +did not escape the intrusion of inevitable novelties that crept in with +the change of popular taste. Unrhythmical singing could not always hold +its own; and when polyphonic music came into public favor, secular airs +gradually found their way into the choirs. Legatos, with their pleasing +turn and glide, caught the ear of the multitude. Tripping allegrettos +sounded sweeter to the vulgar sense than the old largos of Pope Gregory +the Great. + +The guardians of the ancient order took alarm. One can imagine the +pained amazement of conservative souls today on hearing "Ring the Bells +of Heaven" substituted in church for "Mear" or the long-metre Doxology, +and can understand the extreme distaste of the ecclesiastical +reactionaries for the worldly frivolities of an A.D. 1550 choir. +Presumably that modern abomination, the _vibrato_, with its shake of +artificial fright, had not been invented then, and sanctuary form was +saved one indignity. But the innovations became an abuse so general that +the Council of Trent commissioned a select board of cardinals and +musicians to arrest the degeneration of church song-worship. + +One of the experts consulted in this movement was an eminent Italian +composer born twenty miles from Rome. His full name was Giovanni Pietro +Aloysio da Palestrina, and at that time he was in the prime of his +powers. He was master of polyphonic music as well as plain-song, and he +proposed applying it to grace the older mode, preserving the solemn +beauty of the chant but adding the charming chords of counterpoint. He +wrote three "masses," one of them being his famous "Requiem." These were +sung under his direction before the Commission. Their magnificence and +purity revealed to the censors the possibilities of contrapuntal music +in sanctuary devotion and praise. The sanction of the cardinals was +given--and part-song harmony became permanently one of the angel voices +of the Christian church. + +Palestrina died in 1594, but hymn-tunes adapted from his motets and +masses are sung today. He was the father of the choral tune. He lived to +see musical instruments and congregational singing introduced[1] in +public worship, and to know (possibly with secret pleasure, though he +was a Romanist) how richly in popular assemblies, during the Protestant +Reformation, the new freedom of his helpful art had multiplied the +creation of spiritual hymns. + +[Footnote 1: But not fully established in use till about 1625.] + +Contemporary in England with Palestrina in Italy was Thomas Tallis who +developed the Anglican school of church music, which differed less from +the Italian (or Catholic) psalmody than that of the Continental +churches, where the revolt of the Reformation extended to the +tune-worship as notably as to the sacraments and sermons. This +difference created a division of method and practice even in England, +and extreme Protestants who repudiated everything artistic or ornate +formed the Puritan or Genevan School. Their style is represented among +our hymn-tunes by "Old Hundred," while the representative of the +Anglican is "Tallis' Evening Hymn." The division was only temporary. The +two schools were gradually reconciled, and together made the model after +which the best sacred tunes are built. It is Tallis who is called "The +father of English Cathedral music." + +In Germany, after the invention of harmony, church music was still felt +to be too formal for a working force, and there was a reaction against +the motets and masses of Palestrina as being too stately and difficult. +Lighter airs of the popular sort, such as were sung between the acts of +the "mystery plays," were subsidized by Luther, who wrote compositions +and translations to their measure. Part-song was simplified, and Johan +Walther compiled a hymnal of religious songs in the vernacular for from +four to six voices. The reign of rhythmic hymn music soon extended +through Europe. + +Necessarily--except in ultra-conservative localities like Scotland--the +exclusive use of the Psalms (metrical or unmetrical) gave way to +religious lyrics inspired by occasion. Clement Marot and Theodore Beza +wrote hymns to the music of various composers, and Caesar Malan composed +both hymns and their melodies. By the beginning of the 18th century the +triumph of the hymn-tune and the hymnal for lay voices was established +for all time. + + * * * * * + +In the following pages no pretence is made of selecting _all_ the best +and most-used hymns, but the purpose has been to notice as many as +possible of the standard pieces--and a few others which seem to add or +re-shape a useful thought or introduce a new strain. + +To present each hymn _with its tune_ appeared the natural and most +satisfactory way, as in most cases it is impossible to dissociate the +two. The melody is the psychological coëfficient of the metrical text. +Without it the verse of a seraph would be smothered praise. Like a +flower and its fragrance, hymn and tune are one creature, and stand for +a whole value and a full effect. With this normal combination a +_complete_ descriptive list of the hymns and tunes would be a historic +dictionary. Such a book may one day be made, but the present volume is +an attempt to the same end within easier limits. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. + + +"TE DEUM LAUDAMUS." + +This famous church confession in song was composed A.D. 387 by Ambrose, +Bishop of Milan, probably both words and music. + + Te Deum laudamus, Te Dominum confitemur + Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur + Tibi omnes angeli, tibi coeli et universae potestates, + Tibi cherubim et seraphim inaccessibili voce proclamant + Sanctus, sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth. + +In the whole hymn there are thirty lines. The saying that the early +Roman hymns were echoes of Christian Greece, as the Greek hymns were +echoes of Jerusalem, is probably true, but they were only echoes. In +A.D. 252, St. Cyprian, writing his consolatory epistle[2] during the +plague in Carthage, when hundreds were dying every day, says, "Ah, +perfect and perpetual bliss! [in heaven.] There is the glorious company +of the apostles; there is the fellowship of the prophets rejoicing; +there is the innumerable multitude of martyrs crowned." Which would +suggest that lines or fragments of what afterwards crystalized into the +formula of the "Te Deum" were already familiar in the Christian church. +But it is generally believed that the tongue of Ambrose gave the anthem +its final form. + +[Footnote 2: [Greek: Peri tou thnêtou], "On the Mortality."] + +Ambrose was born in Gaul about the middle of the fourth century and +raised to his bishopric in A.D. 374. Very early he saw and appreciated +the popular effect of musical sounds, and what an evangelical instrument +a chorus of chanting voices could be in preaching the Christian faith; +and he introduced the responsive singing of psalms and sacred cantos in +the worship of the church. "A grand thing is that singing, and nothing +can stand before it," he said, when the critics of his time complained +that his innovation was sensational. That such a charge could be made +against the Ambrosian mode of music, with its slow movement and +unmetrical lines, seems strange to us, but it was _new_--and +conservatism is the same in all ages. + +The great bishop carried all before him. His school of song-worship +prevailed in Christian Europe more than two hundred years. Most of his +hymns are lost, (the Benedictine writers credit him with twelve), but, +judging by their effect on the powerful mind of Augustine, their +influence among the common people must have been profound, and far more +lasting than the author's life. "Their voices sank into mine ears, and +their truths distilled into my heart," wrote Augustine, long afterwards, +of these hymns; "tears ran down, and I rejoiced in them." + +Poetic tradition has dramatized the story of the birth of the "Te Deum," +dating it on an Easter Sunday, and dividing the honor of its composition +between Ambrose and his most eminent convert. It was the day when the +bishop baptized Augustine, in the presence of a vast throng that crowded +the Basilica of Milan. As if foreseeing with a prophet's eye that his +brilliant candidate would become one of the ruling stars of Christendom, +Ambrose lifted his hands to heaven and chanted in a holy rapture,-- + + We praise Thee, O God! We acknowledge Thee to be the Lord; + All the Earth doth worship Thee, the Father Everlasting. + +He paused, and from the lips of the baptized disciple came the +response,-- + + To Thee all the angels cry aloud: the heavens and all the powers + therein. + To Thee cherubim and seraphim continually do cry, + "Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth; + Heaven and Earth are full of the majesty of Thy glory!" + +and so, stave by stave, in alternating strains, sprang that day from the +inspired lips of Ambrose and Augustine the "Te Deum Laudamus," which has +ever since been the standard anthem of Christian praise. + +Whatever the foundation of the story, we may at least suppose the first +public singing[3] of the great chant to have been associated with that +eventful baptism. + +[Footnote 3: The "Te Deum" was first sung _in English_ by the martyr, +Bishop Ridley, at Hearne Church, where he was at one time vicar.] + +The various anthems, sentences and motets in all Christian languages +bearing the titles "Trisagion" or "Tersanctus," and "Te Deum" are taken +from portions of this royal hymn. The sublime and beautiful "Holy, Holy, +Holy" of Bishop Heber was suggested by it. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +No echo remains, so far as is known, of the responsive chant actually +sung by Ambrose, but one of the best modern choral renderings of the "Te +Deum" is the one by Henry Smart in his _Morning and Evening Service_. In +an ordinary church hymnal it occupies seven pages. The staff-directions +with the music indicate the part or cue of the antiphonal singers by the +words Decani (Dec.) and Cantor (Can.), meaning first the division of the +choir on the Dean's side, and second the division on the Cantor's or +Precentor's side. + +Henry Smart was one of the five great English composers that followed +our American Mason. He was born in London, Oct. 25, 1812, and chose +music for a profession in preference to an offered commission in the +East Indian army. His talent as a composer, especially of sacred music, +was marvellous, and, though he became blind, his loss of sight was no +more hindrance to his genius than loss of hearing to Beethoven. + +No composer of his time equalled Henry Smart as a writer of music for +female voices. His cantatas have been greatly admired, and his hymn +tunes are unsurpassed for their purity and sweetness, while his anthems, +his oratorio of "Jacob," and indeed all that he wrote, show the hand and +the inventive gift of a great musical artist. + +He died July 10, 1879, universally mourned for his inspired work, and +his amiable character. + + +"ALL GLORY, LAUD AND HONOR." +_Gloria, Laus et Honor._ + +This stately Latin hymn of the early part of the 9th century was +composed in A.D. 820, by Theodulph, Bishop of Orleans, while a captive +in the cloister of Anjou. King Louis (le Debonnaire) son of Charlemagne, +had trouble with his royal relatives, and suspecting Theodulph to be in +sympathy with them, shut him up in prison. A pretty story told by +Clichtovius, an old church writer of A.D. 1518, relates how on Palm +Sunday the king, celebrating the feast with his people, passed in +procession before the cloister, where the face of the venerable prisoner +at his cell window caused an involuntary halt, and, in the moment of +silence, the bishop raised his voice and sang this hymn; and how the +delighted king released the singer, and restored him to his bishopric. +This tale, told after seven hundred years, is not the only legend that +grew around the hymn and its author, but the fact that he composed it in +the cloister of Anjou while confined there is not seriously disputed. + + Gloria, laus et honor Tibi sit, Rex Christe Redemptor, + Cui puerile decus prompsit Hosanna pium. + Israel Tu Rex, Davidis et inclyta proles, + Nomine qui in Domini Rex benedicte venis + Gloria, laus et honor. + +Theodulph was born in Spain, but of Gothic pedigree, a child of the race +of conquerors who, in the 5th century, overran Southern Europe. He died +in 821, but whether a free man or still a prisoner at the time of his +death is uncertain. Some accounts allege that he was poisoned in the +cloister. The Roman church canonized him, and his hymn is still sung as +a processional in Protestant as well as Catholic churches. The above +Latin lines are the first four of the original seventy-eight. The +following is J.M. Neale's translation of the portion now in use: + + All glory, laud, and honor, + To Thee, Redeemer, King: + To whom the lips of children + Made sweet Hosannas ring. + + Thou are the King of Israel, + Thou David's royal Son, + Who in the Lord's name comest, + The King and Blessed One. All glory, etc. + + The company of angels + Are praising Thee on high; + And mortal men, and all things + Created, make reply. All glory, etc. + + The people of the Hebrews + With palms before Thee went; + Our praise and prayer and anthems + Before Thee we present. All glory, etc. + + To Thee before Thy Passion + They sang their hymns of praise; + To Thee, now high exalted + Our melody we raise. All glory, etc. + + Thou didst accept their praises; + Accept the prayers we bring, + Who in all good delightest, + Thou good and gracious King. All glory, etc. + +The translator, Rev. John Mason Neale, D.D., was born in London, Jan. +24, 1818, and graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1840. He was a +prolific writer, and after taking holy orders he held the office of +Warden of Sackville College, East Grimstead, Sussex. Best known among +his published works are _Mediæval Hymns and Sequences_, _Hymns for +Children_, _Hymns of the Eastern Church_ and _The Rhythms of Morlaix_. +He died Aug. 6, 1866. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +There is no certainty as to the original tune of Theodulph's Hymn, or +how long it survived, but various modern composers have given it music +in more or less keeping with its character, notably Melchior Teschner, +whose harmony, "St. Theodulph," appears in the new _Methodist Hymnal_. +It well represents the march of the bishop's Latin. + +Melchior Teschner, a Prussian musician, was Precentor at Frauenstadt, +Silesia, about 1613. + + +"ALL PRAISE TO THEE, ETERNAL LORD." +_Gelobet Seist du Jesu Christ._ + +This introductory hymn of worship, a favorite Christmas hymn in Germany, +is ancient, and appears to be a versification of a Latin prose +"Sequence" variously ascribed to a 9th century author, and to Gregory +the Great in the 6th century. Its German form is still credited to +Luther in most hymnals. Julian gives an earlier German form (1370) of +the "Gelobet," but attributes all but the first stanza to Luther, as the +hymn now stands. The following translation, printed first in the +_Sabbath Hymn Book_, Andover, 1858, is the one adopted by Schaff in his +_Christ in Song_: + + All praise to Thee, eternal Lord, + Clothed in the garb of flesh and blood; + Choosing a manger for Thy throne, + While worlds on worlds are Thine alone! + + Once did the skies before Thee bow; + A virgin's arms contain Thee now; + Angels, who did in Thee rejoice, + Now listen for Thine infant voice. + + A little child, Thou art our guest, + That weary ones in Thee may rest; + Forlorn and lowly in Thy birth, + That we may rise to heaven from earth. + + Thou comest in the darksome night, + To make us children of the light; + To make us, in the realms divine, + Like Thine own angels round Thee shine. + + All this for us Thy love hath done: + By this to Thee our love is won; + For this we tune our cheerful lays, + And shout our thanks in endless praise. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The 18th century tune of "Weimar" (_Evangelical Hymnal_), by Emanuel +Bach, suits the spiritual tone of the hymn, and suggests the Gregorian +dignity of its origin. + +Karl Philip Emanuel Bach, called "the Berlin Bach" to distinguish him +from his father, the great Sebastian Bach of Saxe Weimar, was born in +Weimar, March 14, 1714. He early devoted himself to music, and coming to +Berlin when twenty-four years old was appointed Chamber musician (Kammer +Musicus) in the Royal Chapel, where he often accompanied Frederick the +Great (who was an accomplished flutist) on the harpsichord. His most +numerous compositions were piano music but he wrote a celebrated +"Sanctus," and two oratorios, besides a number of chorals, of which +"Weimar" is one. He died in Hamburg, Dec. 14, 1788. + + +THE MAGNIFICAT. +[Greek: Megalunei hê psuchê mou ton Kurion.] + + Magnificat anima mea Dominum, + Et exultavit Spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo. + Luke 1:46-55. + +We can date with some certainty the hymn itself composed by the Virgin +Mary, but when it first became a song of the Christian Church no one can +tell. Its thanksgiving may have found tone among the earliest martyrs, +who, as Pliny tells us, sang hymns in their secret worship. We can only +trace it back to the oldest chant music, when it was doubtless sung by +both the Eastern and Western Churches. In the rude liturgies of the 4th +and 5th centuries it must have begun to assume ritual form; but it +remained for the more modern school of composers hundreds of years later +to illustrate the "Magnificat" with the melody of art and genius. +Superseding the primitive unisonous plain-song, the old parallel +concords, and the simple faburden (faux bourdon) counterpoint that +succeeded Gregory, they taught how musical tones can better assist +worship with the beauty of harmony and the precision of scientific +taste. Musicians in Italy, France, Germany and England have contributed +their scores to this inspired hymn. Some of them still have place in the +hymnals, a noble one especially by the blind English tone-master, Henry +Smart, author of the oratorio of "Jacob." None, however, have equaled +the work of Handel. His "Magnificat" was one of his favorite +productions, and he borrowed strains from it in several of his later and +lesser productions. + +George Frederic Handel, author of the immortal "Messiah," was born at +Halle, Saxony, in 1685, and died in London in 1759. The musical bent of +his genius was apparent almost from his infancy. At the age of eighteen +he was earning his living with his violin, and writing his first opera. +After a sojourn in Italy, he settled in Hanover as Chapel Master to the +Elector, who afterwards became the English king, George I. The +friendship of the king and several of his noblemen drew him to England, +where he spent forty-seven years and composed his greatest works. + +He wrote three hymn-tunes (it is said at the request of a converted +actress), "Canons," "Fitzwilliam," and "Gopsall," the first an +invitation, "Sinners, Obey the Gospel Word," the second a meditation, "O +Love Divine, How Sweet Thou Art," and the third a resurrection song to +Welsey's words "Rejoice, the Lord is King." This last still survives in +some hymnals. + + +THE DOXOLOGIES. + + Be Thou, O God, exalted high, + And as Thy glory fills the sky + So let it be on earth displayed + Till Thou art here as there obeyed. + +This sublime quatrain, attributed to Nahum Tate, like the Lord's Prayer, +is suited to all occasions, to all Christian denominations, and to all +places and conditions of men. It has been translated into all civilized +languages, and has been rising to heaven for many generations from +congregations round the globe wherever the faith of Christendom has +built its altars. This doxology is the first stanza of a sixteen line +hymn (possibly longer originally), the rest of which is forgotten. + +Nahum Tate was born in Dublin, in 1652, and educated there at Trinity +College. He was appointed poet-laureate by King William III. in 1690, +and it was in conjunction with Dr. Nicholas Brady that he executed his +"New" metrical version of the Psalms. The entire Psalter, with an +appendix of Hymns, was licensed by William and Mary and published in +1703. The _hymns_ in the volume are all by Tate. He died in London, Aug. +12, 1717. + +Rev. Nicholas Brady, D.D., was an Irishman, son of an officer in the +royal army, and was born at Bandon, County of Cork, Oct. 28, 1659. He +studied in the Westminster School at Oxford, but afterwards entered +Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in 1685. William made him +Queen Mary's Chaplain. He died May 20, 1726. + +The other nearly contemporary form of doxology is in common use, but +though elevated and devotional in spirit, it cannot be universal, owing +to its credal line being objectionable to non-Trinitarian Protestants: + + Praise God from whom all blessings flow, + Praise Him all creatures here below, + Praise Him above, ye heavenly host, + Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. + +The author, the Rev. Thomas Ken, was born in Berkhampstead, +Hertfordshire, Eng., July, 1637, and was educated at Winchester School, +Hertford College, and New College, Oxford. In 1662 he took holy orders, +and seventeen years later the king (Charles II.) appointed him chaplain +to his sister Mary, Princess of Orange. Later the king, just before his +death, made him Bishop of Bath and Wells. + +Like John the Baptist, and Bourdaloue, and Knox, he was a faithful +spiritual monitor and adviser during all his days at court. "I must go +in and hear Ken tell me my faults," the king used to say at chapel time. +The "good little man" (as he called the bishop) never lost the favor of +the dissipated monarch. As Macaulay says, "Of all the prelates, he liked +Ken the best." + +Under James, the Papist, Ken was a loyal subject, though once arrested +as one of the "seven bishops" for his opposition to the king's religion, +and he kept his oath of allegiance so firmly that it cost him his place. +William III. deprived him of his bishopric, and he retired in poverty to +a home kindly offered him by Lord Viscount Weymouth in Longleat, near +Frome, in Somersetshire, where he spent a serene and beloved old age. He +died æt. seventy-four, March 17, 1711 (N.S.), and was carried to his +grave, according to his request, by "six of the poorest men in the +parish." + +His great doxology is the refrain or final stanza of each of his three +long hymns, "Morning," "Evening" and "Midnight," printed in a _Prayer +Manual_ for the use of the students of Winchester College. The "Evening +Hymn" drew scenic inspiration, it is told, from the lovely view in +Horningsham Park at "Heaven's Gate Hill," while walking to and from +church. + +Another four-line doxology, adopted probably from Dr. Hatfield +(1807-1883), is almost entirely superseded by Ken's stanza, being of +even more pronounced credal character. + + To God the Father, God the Son, + And God the Spirit, Three in One. + Be honor, praise and glory given + By all on earth and all in heaven. + +The _Methodist Hymnal_ prints a collection of ten doxologies, two by +Watts, one by Charles Wesley, one by John Wesley, one by William Goode, +one by Edwin F. Hatfield, one attributed to "Tate and Brady," one by +Robert Hawkes, and the one by Ken above noted. These are all technically +and intentionally doxologies. To give a history of doxologies in the +general sense of the word would carry one through every Christian age +and language and end with a concordance of the Book of Psalms. + +[Illustration: Oliver Holden] + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Few would think of any music more appropriate to a standard doxology +than "Old Hundred." This grand Gregorian harmony has been claimed to be +Luther's production, while some have believed that Louis Bourgeois, +editor of the French _Genevan Psalter_, composed the tune, but the +weight of evidence seems to indicate that it was the work of Guillaume +le Franc, (William Franck or William the Frenchman,) of Rouen, in +France, who founded a music school in Geneva, 1541. He was Chapel Master +there, but removed to Lausanne, where he played in the Catholic choir +and wrote the tunes for an Edition of Marot's and Beza's Psalms. Died in +Lausanne, 1570. + + +"THE LORD DESCENDED FROM ABOVE." + +A flash of genuine inspiration was vouchsafed to Thomas Sternhold when +engaged with Rev. John Hopkins in versifying the Eighteenth Psalm. The +ridicule heaped upon Sternhold and Hopkins's psalmbook has always +stopped, and sobered into admiration and even reverence at the two +stanzas beginning with this leading line-- + + The Lord descended from above + And bowed the heavens most high, + And underneath His feet He cast + The darkness of the sky. + + On cherub and on cherubim + Full royally He rode, + And on the wings of mighty winds + Came flying all abroad. + +Thomas Sternhold was born in Gloucestershire, Eng. He was Groom of the +Robes to Henry VIII, and Edward VI., but is only remembered for his +_Psalter_ published in 1562, thirteen years after his death in 1549. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"Nottingham" (now sometimes entitled "St. Magnus") is a fairly good echo +of the grand verses, a dignified but spirited choral in A flat. Jeremiah +Clark, the composer, was born in London, 1670. Educated at the Chapel +Royal, he became organist of Winchester College and finally to St. +Paul's Cathedral where he was appointed Gentleman of the Chapel. He died +July, 1707. + +The tune of "Majesty" by William Billings will be noticed in a later +chapter. + + +TALLIS' EVENING HYMN. + + Glory to Thee, my God, this night + For all the blessings of the light, + Keep me, O keep me, King of kings, + Under Thine own Almighty wings. + +This stanza begins the second of Bp. Ken's three beautiful hymn-prayers +in his _Manual_ mentioned on a previous page. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +For more than three hundred and fifty years devout people have enjoyed +that melody of mingled dignity and sweetness known as "Tallis' Evening +Hymn." + +Thomas Tallis was an Englishman, born about 1520, and at an early age +was a boy chorister at St. Paul's. After his voice changed, he played +the organ at Waltham Abbey, and some time later was chosen organist +royal to Queen Elizabeth. His pecuniary returns for his talent did not +make him rich, though he bore the title after 1542 of Gentleman of the +Chapel Royal, for his stipend was sevenpence a day. Some gain may +possibly have come to him, however, from his publication, late in life, +under the queen's special patent, of a collection of hymns and tunes. + +He wrote much and was the real founder of the English Church school of +composers, but though St. Paul's was at one time well supplied with his +motets and anthems, it is impossible now to give a list of Tallis' +compositions for the Church. His music was written originally to Latin +words, but when, after the Reformation, the use of vernacular hymns, was +introduced he probably adapted his scores to either language. + +It is inferred that he was in attendance on Queen Elizabeth at her +palace in Greenwich when he died, for he was buried in the old parish +church there in November, 1585. The rustic rhymer who indited his +epitaph evidently did the best he could to embalm the virtues of the +great musician as a man, a citizen, and a husband: + + Enterred here doth ly a worthy wyght, + Who for long time in musick bore the bell: + His name to shew was Thomas Tallis hyght; + In honest vertuous lyff he dyd excell. + + He served long tyme in chappel with grete prayse, + Fower sovereygnes reignes, (a thing not often seene); + I mean King Henry and Prince Edward's dayes, + Quene Marie, and Elizabeth our quene. + + He maryed was, though children he had none, + And lyv'd in love full three and thirty yeres + With loyal spowse, whose name yclept was Jone, + Who, here entombed, him company now bears. + + As he dyd lyve, so also dyd he dy, + In myld and quyet sort, O happy man! + To God ful oft for mercy did he cry; + Wherefore he lyves, let Deth do what he can. + + +"THE GOD OF ABRAHAM PRAISE." + +This is one of the thanksgivings of the ages. + + The God of Abraham praise, + Who reigns enthroned above; + Ancient of everlasting days, + And God of love. + Jehovah, Great I AM! + By earth and heaven confessed, + I bow and bless the sacred Name, + Forever blest. + +The hymn, of twelve eight-line stanzas, is too long to quote entire, +but is found in both the _Plymouth_ and _Methodist Hymnals_. + +Thomas Olivers, born in Tregynon, near Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Wales, +1725, was, according to local testimony, "the worst boy known in all +that country, for thirty years." It is more charitable to say that he +was a poor fellow who had no friends. Left an orphan at five years of +age, he was passed from one relative to another until all were tired of +him, and he was "bound out" to a shoemaker. Almost inevitably the +neglected lad grew up wicked, for no one appeared to care for his habits +and morals, and as he sank lower in the various vices encouraged by bad +company, there were more kicks for him than helping hands. At the age of +eighteen his reputation in the town had become so unsavory that he was +forced to shift for himself elsewhere. + +Providence led him, when shabby and penniless, to the old seaport town +of Bristol, where Whitefield was at that time preaching,[4] and there +the young sinner heard the divine message that lifted him to his feet. + +[Footnote 4: Whitefield's text was, "Is not this a brand plucked out of +the fire?" Zach. 3:2.] + +"When that sermon began," he said, "I was one of the most abandoned and +profligate young men living; before it ended I was a new creature. The +world was all changed for Tom Olivers." + +His new life, thus begun, lasted on earth more than sixty useful years. +He left a shining record as a preacher of righteousness, and died in the +triumphs of faith, November, 1799. Before he passed away he saw at least +thirty editions of his hymn published, but the soul-music it has +awakened among the spiritual children of Abraham can only reach him in +heaven. Some of its words have been the last earthly song of many, as +they were of the eminent Methodist theologian, Richard Watson-- + + I shall behold His face, + I shall His power adore, + And sing the wonders of His grace + Forevermore. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The precise date of the tune "Leoni" is unknown, as also the precise +date of the hymn. The story is that Olivers visited the great "Duke's +Place" Synagogue, Aldgate, London, and heard Meyer Lyon (Leoni) sing the +Yigdal or long doxology to an air so noble and impressive that it +haunted him till he learned it and fitted to it the sublime stanzas of +his song. Lyon, a noted Jewish musician and vocalist, was chorister of +this London Synagogue during the latter part of the 18th century and the +Yigdal was a portion of the Hebrew Liturgy composed in medieval times, +it is said, by Daniel Ben Judah. The fact that the Methodist leaders +took Olivers from his bench to be one of their preachers answers any +suggestion that the converted shoemaker _copied_ the Jewish hymn and put +Christian phrases in it. He knew nothing of Hebrew, and had he known +it, a literal translation of the Yigdal will show hardly a similarity to +his evangelical lines. Only the music as Leoni sang it prompted his own +song, and he gratefully put the singer's name to it. Montgomery, who +admired the majestic style of the hymn, and its glorious imagery, said +of its author, "The man who wrote that hymn must have had the finest ear +imaginable, for on account of the peculiar measure, none but a person of +equal musical and poetic taste could have produced the harmony +perceptible in the verse." + +Whether the hymnist or some one else fitted the hymn to the tune, the +"fine ear" and "poetic taste" that Montgomery applauded are evident +enough in the union. + + +"O WORSHIP THE KING ALL GLORIOUS ABOVE." + +This hymn of Sir Robert Grant has become almost universally known, and +is often used as a morning or opening service song by choirs and +congregations of all creeds. The favorite stanzas are the first four-- + + O worship the King all-glorious above, + And gratefully sing His wonderful love-- + Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days, + Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise. + + O tell of His might, and sing of His grace, + Whose robe is the light, whose canopy, space; + His chariots of wrath the deep thunder-clouds form, + And dark is His path on the wings of the storm. + + Thy bountiful care what tongue can recite? + It breathes in the air, it shines in the light, + It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain, + And sweetly distils in the dew and the rain. + + Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail, + In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail. + Thy mercies how tender! how firm to the end! + Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend! + +This is a model hymn of worship. Like the previous one by Thomas +Olivers, it is strongly Hebrew in its tone and diction, and drew its +inspiration from the Old Testament Psalter, the text-book of all true +praise-song. + +Sir Robert Grant was born in the county of Inverness, Scotland, in 1785, +and educated at Cambridge. He was many years member of Parliament for +Inverness and a director in the East India Company, and 1834 was +appointed Governor of Bombay. He died at Dapoorie, Western India, July +9, 1838. + +Sir Robert was a man of deep Christian feeling and a poetic mind. His +writings were not numerous, but their thoughtful beauty endeared him to +a wide circle of readers. In 1839 his brother, Lord Glenelg, published +twelve of his poetical pieces, and a new edition in 1868. The volume +contains the more or less well-known hymns-- + + The starry firmament on high. + + Saviour, when in dust to Thee, + +and-- + + When gathering clouds around I view. + +Sir Robert's death, when scarcely past his prime, would indicate a +decline by reason of illness, and perhaps other serious affliction, that +justified the poetic license in the submissive verses beginning-- + + Thy mercy heard my infant prayer. + + * * * * * + + And now _in age_ and grief Thy name + Does still my languid heart inflame, + And bow my faltering knee. + Oh, yet this bosom feels the fire, + This trembling hand and drooping lyre + Have yet a strain for Thee. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Several musical pieces written to the hymn, "O, Worship the King," have +appeared in church psalm-books, and others have been borrowed for it, +but the one oftenest sung to its words is Haydn's "Lyons." Its vigor and +spirit best fit it for Grant's noble lyric. + + +"MAJESTIC SWEETNESS SITS ENTHRONED." + +Rev. Samuel Stennett D.D., the author of this hymn, was the son of Rev. +Joseph Stennett, and grandson of Rev. Joseph Stennett D.D., who wrote-- + + Another six days' work is done, + Another Sabbath is begun. + +All were Baptist ministers. Samuel was born in 1727, at Exeter, Eng., +and at the age of twenty-one became his father's assistant, and +subsequently his successor over the church in Little Wild Street, +Lincoln's Inn Fields, London. + + Majestic sweetness sits enthroned + Upon the Saviour's brow; + His head with radiant glories crowned, + His lips with grace o'erflow. + + * * * * * + + To Him I owe my life and breath + And all the joys I have; + He makes me triumph over death, + He saves me from the grave. + + * * * * * + + Since from His bounty I receive + Such proofs of love divine, + Had I a thousand hearts to give, + Lord, they should all be Thine. + +Samuel Stennett was one of the most respected and influential ministers +of the Dissenting persuasion, and a confidant of many of the most +distinguished statesmen of his time. The celebrated John Howard was his +parishoner and intimate friend. His degree of Doctor of Divinity was +bestowed upon him by Aberdeen University. Besides his theological +writings he composed and published thirty-eight hymns, among them-- + + On Jordan's stormy banks I stand, + + When two or three with sweet accord, + + Here at Thy table, Lord, we meet, + +and-- + + "'Tis finished," so the Saviour cried. + +"Majestic Sweetness" began the third stanza of his longer hymn-- + + To Christ the Lord let every tongue. + +Dr. Stennett died in London, Aug. 24, 1795. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +For fifty or sixty years "Ortonville" has been linked with this devout +hymn, and still maintains its fitting fellowship. The tune, composed in +1830, was the work of Thomas Hastings, and is almost as well-known and +as often sung as his immortal "Toplady." (See chap. 3, "Rock of Ages.") + + +"ALL HAIL THE POWER OF JESUS' NAME." + +This inspiring lyric of praise appears to have been written about the +middle of the eighteenth century. Its author, the Rev. Edward Perronet, +son of Rev. Vincent Perronet, Vicar of Shoreham, Eng., was a man of +great faith and humility but zealous in his convictions, sometimes to +his serious expense. He was born in 1721, and, though eighteen years +younger than Charles Wesley, the two became bosom friends, and it was +under the direction of the Wesleys that Perronet became a preacher in +the evangelical movement. Lady Huntingdon later became his patroness, +but some needless and imprudent expressions in a satirical poem, "The +Mitre," revealing his hostility to the union of church and state, cost +him her favor, and his contention against John Wesley's law that none +but the regular parish ministers had the right to administer the +sacraments, led to his complete separation from both the Wesleys. He +subsequently became the pastor of a small church of Dissenters in +Canterbury, where he died, in January, 1792. His piety uttered itself +when near his happy death, and his last words were a Gloria. + + All hail the power of Jesus' name! + Let angels prostrate fall; + Bring forth the royal diadem, + To crown Him Lord of all. + + Ye seed of Israel's chosen race, + Ye ransomed of the fall, + Hail Him Who saves you by His grace, + And crown Him Lord of all. + + Sinners, whose love can ne'er forget + The wormwood and the gall, + Go, spread your trophies at His feet, + And crown Him Lord of all. + + Let every tribe and every tongue + That bound creation's call, + Now shout the universal song, + The crownéd Lord of all. + +With two disused stanzas omitted, the hymn as it stands differs from the +original chiefly in the last stanza, though in the second the initial +line is now transposed to read-- + + Ye chosen seed of Israel's race. + +The fourth stanza now reads-- + + Let every kindred, every tribe + On this terrestrial ball + To Him all majesty ascribe, + And crown Him Lord of all. + +And what is now the favorite last stanza is the one added by Dr. +Rippon-- + + O that with yonder sacred throng + We at His feet may fall, + And join the everlasting song, + And crown Him Lord of all. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Everyone now calls it "Old Coronation," and it is entitled to the +adjective by this time, being considerably more than a hundred years +of age. It was composed in the very year of Perronet's death and one +wonders just how long the hymn and tune waited before they came +together; for Heaven evidently meant them to be wedded for all time. +This is an American opinion, and no reflection on the earlier English +melody of "Miles Lane," composed during Perronet's lifetime by William +Shrubsole and published with the words in 1780 in the _Gospel Magazine_. +There is also a fine processional tune sung in the English Church to +Perronet's hymn. + +The author of "Coronation" was Oliver Holden, a self-taught musician, +born in Shirley, Mass., 1765, and bred to the carpenter's trade. The +little pipe organ on which tradition says he struck the first notes of +the famous tune is now in the Historical rooms of the Old State House, +Boston, placed there by its late owner, Mrs. Fanny Tyler, the old +musician's granddaughter. Its tones are as mellow as ever, and the times +that "Coronation" has been played upon it by admiring visitors would far +outnumber the notes of its score. + +Holden wrote a number of other hymn-tunes, among which "Cowper," +"Confidence," and "Concord" are remembered, but none of them had the +wings of "Coronation," his American "Te Deum." His first published +collection was entitled _The American Harmony_, and this was followed by +the _Union Harmony_, and the _Worcester Collection_. He also wrote and +published "Mt. Vernon," and several other patriotic anthems, mainly for +special occasions, to some of which he supplied the words. He was no +hymnist, though he did now and then venture into sacred metre. The new +_Methodist Hymnal_ preserves a simple four-stanza specimen of his +experiments in verse: + + They who seek the throne of grace + Find that throne in every place: + If we lead a life of prayer + God is present everywhere. + +Sacred music, however, was the good man's passion to the last. He died +in 1844. + +"Such beautiful themes!" he whispered on his death bed, "Such beautiful +themes! But I can write no more." + +The enthusiasm always and everywhere aroused by the singing of +"Coronation," dates from the time it first went abroad in America in +its new wedlock of music and words. "This tune," says an accompanying +note over the score in the old _Carmina Sacra_, "was a great favorite +with the late Dr. Dwight of Yale College (1798). It was often sung by +the college choir, while he, catching, as it were, the music of the +heavenly world, would join them, and lead with the most ardent +devotion." + + +"AWAKE AND SING THE SONG." + +This hymn of six stanzas is abridged from a longer one indited by the +Rev. William Hammond, and published in _Lady Huntingdon's Hymn-book_. It +was much in use in early Methodist revivals. It appears now as it was +slightly altered by Rev. Martin Madan-- + + Awake and sing the song + Of Moses and the Lamb; + Join every heart and every tongue + To praise the Savior's name. + + * * * * * + +The sixth verse is a variation of one of Watts' hymns, and was added in +the _Brethren's Hymn-book_, 1801-- + + There shall each heart and tongue + His endless praise proclaim, + And sweeter voices join the song + Of Moses and the Lamb. + +The Rev. William Hammond was born Jan. 6, 1719, at Battle, Sussex, Eng., +and educated at St. John's College, Cambridge. Early in his ministerial +life he was a Calvinistic Methodist, but ultimately joined the +Moravians. Died in London, Aug. 19, 1793. His collection of _Psalms and +Hymns and Spiritual Songs_ was published in 1745. + +The Rev. Martin Madan, son of Col. Madan, was born 1726. He founded Lock +Hospital, Hyde Park, and long officiated as its chaplain. As a preacher +he was popular, and his reputation as a composer of music was +considerable. There is no proof that he wrote any original hymns, but he +amended, pieced and expanded the work of others. Died in 1770. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The hymn has had a variety of musical interpretations. The more modern +piece is "St. Philip," by Edward John Hopkins, Doctor of Music, born at +Westminster, London, June 30, 1818. From a member of the Chapel Royal +boy choir he became organist of the Michtam Church, Surrey, and +afterwards of the Temple Church, London. Received his Doctor's degree +from the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1882. + +[Illustration: Joseph Haydn] + + +"CROWN HIS HEAD WITH ENDLESS BLESSING." + +The writer of this hymn was William Goode, who helped to found the +English Church Missionary Society, and was for twenty years the +Secretary of the "Society for the Relief of Poor Pious Clergymen." For +celebrating the praise of the Saviour, he seems to have been of like +spirit and genius with Perronet. He was born in Buckingham, Eng., April +2, 1762; studied for the ministry and became a curate, successor of +William Romaine. His spiritual maturity was early, and his habits of +thought were formed amid associations such as the young Wesleys and +Whitefield sought. Like them, even in his student days he proved his +aspiration for purer religious life by an evangelical zeal that cost him +the ridicule of many of his school-fellows, but the meetings for +conference and prayer which he organized among them were not unattended, +and were lasting and salutary in their effect. + +Jesus was the theme of his life and song, and was his last word. He died +in 1816. + + Crown His head with endless blessing + Who in God the Father's name + With compassion never ceasing + Comes salvation to proclaim. + Hail, ye saints who know His favor, + Who within His gates are found. + Hail, ye saints, th' exalted Saviour, + Let His courts with praise resound. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"Haydn," bearing the name of its great composer, is in several important +hymnals the chosen music for William Goode's devout words. Its strain +and spirit are lofty and melodious and in entire accord with the pious +poet's praise. + +Joseph Haydn, son of a poor wheelwright, was born 1732, in Rohron, a +village on the borders of Hungary and Austria. His precocity of musical +talent was such that he began composing at the age of ten years. Prince +Esterhazy discovered his genius when he was poor and friendless, and his +fortune was made. While Music Master for the Prince's Private Chapel +(twenty years) he wrote many of his beautiful symphonies which placed +him among the foremost in that class of music. Invited to England, he +received the Doctor's degree at Oxford, and composed his great oratorio +of "The Creation," besides his "Twelve Grand Symphonies," and a long +list of minor musical works secular and sacred. His invention was +inexhaustible. + +Haydn seems to have been a sincerely pious man. When writing his great +oratorio of "The Creation" at sixty-seven years of age, "I knelt down +every day," he says, "and prayed God to strengthen me for my work." This +daily spiritual preparation was similar to Handel's when he was creating +his "Messiah." Change one word and it may be said of sacred music as +truly as of astronomy, "The undevout composer is mad." + +Near Haydn's death, in Vienna, 1809, when he heard for the last time his +magnificent chorus, "Let there be Light!" he exclaimed, "Not mine, not +mine. It all came to me from above." + + +"NOW TO THE LORD A NOBLE SONG." + +When Watts finished this hymn he had achieved a "noble song," whether he +was conscious of it or not; and it deserves a foremost place, where it +can help future worshippers in their praise as it has the past. It is +not so common in the later hymnals, but it is imperishable, and still +later collections will not forget it. + + Now to the Lord a noble song, + Awake my soul, awake my tongue! + Hosanna to the Eternal Name, + And all His boundless love proclaim. + + See where it shines in Jesus' face, + The brightest image of His grace! + God in the person of His Son + Has all His mightiest works outdone. + +A rather finical question has occurred to some minds as to the theology +of the word "works" in the last line, making the second person in the +Godhead apparently a creature; and in a few hymn-books the previous line +has been made to read-- + + God in the _Gospel_ of His Son. + +But the question is a rhetorical one, and the poet's free +expression--here as in hundreds of other cases--has never disturbed the +general confidence in his orthodoxy. + +Montgomery called Watts "the inventor of hymns in our language," and the +credit stands practically undisputed, for Watts made a hymn style that +no human master taught him, and his model has been the ideal one for +song worship ever since; and we can pardon the climax when Professor +Charles M. Stuart speaks of him as "writer, scholar, thinker and saint," +for in addition to all the rest he was a very good man. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Old "Ames" was for many years the choir favorite, and the words of the +hymn printed with it in the note-book made the association familiar. It +was, and _is_, an appropriate selection, though in later manuals George +Kingsley's "Ware" is evidently thought to be better suited to the +high-toned verse. Good old tunes never "wear out," but they do go out of +fashion. + +The composer of "Ames," Sigismund Neukomm, Chevalier, was born in +Salzburg, Austria, July 10, 1778, and was a pupil of Haydn. Though not a +great genius, his talents procured him access and even intimacy in the +courts of Germany, France, Italy, Portugal and England, and for thirty +years he composed church anthems and oratorios with prodigious industry. +Neukomm's musical productions, numbering no less than one thousand, and +popular in their day, are, however, mostly forgotten, excepting his +oratorio of "David" and one or two hymn-tunes. + +George Kingsley, author of "Ware," was born in Northampton, Mass., July +7, 1811. Died in the Hospital, in the same city, March 14, 1884. He +compiled eight books of music for young people and several manuals of +church psalmody, and was for some time a music teacher in Boston, where +he played the organ at the Hollis St. church. Subsequently he became +professor of music in Girard College, Philadelphia, and music instructor +in the public schools, being employed successively as organist (on +Lord's Day) at Dr. Albert Barnes' and Arch St. churches, and finally in +Brooklyn at Dr. Storrs' Church of the Pilgrims. Returned to Northampton, +1853. + + +"EARLY, MY GOD, WITHOUT DELAY." + +This and the five following hymns, all by Watts, are placed in immediate +succession, for unity's sake--with a fuller notice of the greatest of +hymn-writers at the end of the series. + + Early, my God, without delay + I haste to seek Thy face, + My thirsty spirit faints away + Without Thy cheering grace. + +In the memories of very old men and women, who sang the fugue music of +Morgan's "Montgomery," still lingers the second stanza and some of the +"spirit and understanding" with which it used to be rendered in meeting +on Sunday mornings. + + So pilgrims on the scorching sand, + Beneath a burning sky, + Long for a cooling stream at hand + And they must drink or die. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Many of the earlier pieces assigned to this hymn were either too noisy +or too tame. The best and longest-serving is "Lanesboro," which, with +its expressive duet in the middle and its soaring final strain of +harmony, never fails to carry the meaning of the words. It was composed +by William Dixon, and arranged and adapted by Lowell Mason. + +William Dixon, an English composer, was a music engraver and publisher, +and author also of several glees and anthems. He was born 1750, and died +about 1825. + +Lowell Mason, born in Medfield, Mass., 1792, has been called, not +without reason, "the father of American choir singing." Returning from +Savannah, Ga., where he spent sixteen years of his younger life as clerk +in a bank, he located in Boston (1827), being already known there as the +composer of "The Missionary Hymn." He had not neglected his musical +studies while living in the South, and it was in Savannah that he made +the glorious harmony of that tune. + +He became president of the Handel and Haydn Society, went abroad for +special study, was made Doctor of Music, and collected a store of themes +among the great models of song to bring home for his future work. + +The Boston Academy of Music was founded by him and what he did for the +song-service of the Church in America by his singing schools, and +musical conventions, and published manuals, to form and organize the +choral branch of divine worship, has no parallel, unless it is Noah +Webster's service to the English language. + +Dr. Mason died in Orange, N.J., in 1872. + + +"SWEET IS THE WORK, MY GOD, MY KING." + +This is one of the hymns that helped to give its author the title of +"The Seraphic Watts." + + Sweet is the work, my God, my King + To praise Thy name, give thanks and sing + To show Thy love by morning light, + And talk of all Thy truth at night. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +No nobler one, and more akin in spirit to the hymn, can be found than +"Duke Street," Hatton's imperishable choral. + +Little is known of the John Hatton who wrote "Duke St." He was earlier +by nearly a century than John Liphot Hatton of Liverpool (born in 1809), +who wrote the opera of "Pascal Bruno," the cantata of "Robin Hood" and +the sacred drama of "Hezekiah." The biographical index of the +_Evangelical Hymnal_ says of John Hatton, the author of "Duke St.": +"John, of Warrington; afterwards of St. Helens, then resident in Duke +St. in the township of Windle; composed several hymn-tunes; died in +1793.[5] His funeral sermon was preached at the Presbyterian Chapel, St. +Helens, Dec. 13." + +[Footnote 5: Tradition says he was killed by being thrown from a +stage-coach.] + + +"COME, WE THAT LOVE THE LORD." + +Watts entitled this hymn "Heavenly Joy on Earth." He could possibly, +like Madame Guyon, have written such a hymn in a dungeon, but it is no +less spiritual for its birth (as tradition will have it) amid the lovely +scenery of Southampton where he could find in nature "glory begun +below." + + Come, we that love the Lord, + And let our joys be known; + Join in a song with sweet accord, + And thus surround the throne. + + There shall we see His face, + And never, never sin; + There, from the rivers of His grace, + Drink endless pleasures in. + + Children of grace have found + Glory begun below: + Celestial fruits on earthly ground + From faith and hope may grow. + +Mortality and immortality blend their charms in the next stanza. The +unfailing beauty of the vision will be dwelt upon with delight so long +as Christians sing on earth. + + The hill of Sion yields + A thousand sacred sweets, + Before we reach the heavenly fields, + Or walk the golden streets. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"St. Thomas" has often been the interpreter of the hymn, and still +clings to the words in the memory of thousands. + +The Italian tune of "Ain" has more music. It is a fugue piece +(simplified in some tune-books), and the joyful traverse of its notes +along the staff in four-four time, with the momentum of a good choir, is +exhilarating in the extreme. + +Corelli, the composer, was a master violinist, the greatest of his day, +and wrote a great deal of violin music; and the thought of his glad +instrument may have influenced his work when harmonizing the four voices +of "Ain." + +Arcangelo Corelli was born at Fusignano, in 1653. He was a sensitive +artist, and although faultless in Italian music, he was not sure of +himself in playing French scores, and once while performing with Handel +(who resented the slightest error), and once again with Scarlatti, +leading an orchestra in Naples when the king was present, he made a +mortifying mistake. He took the humiliation so much to heart that he +brooded over it till he died, in Rome, Jan. 18, 1717. + +For revival meetings the modern tune set to "Come we that love the +Lord," by Robert Lowry, should be mentioned. A shouting chorus is +appended to it, but it has melody and plenty of stimulating motion. + +The Rev. Robert Lowry was born in Philadelphia, March 12, 1826, and +educated at Lewisburg, Pa. From his 28th year till his death, 1899, he +was a faithful and successful minister of Christ, but is more widely +known as a composer of sacred music. + + +"BE THOU EXALTED, O MY GOD." + +In this hymn the thought of Watts touches the eternal summits. Taken +from the 57th and 108th Psalms-- + + Be Thou exalted, O my God, + Above the heavens where angels dwell; + Thy power on earth be known abroad + And land to land Thy wonders tell. + + * * * * * + + High o'er the earth His mercy reigns, + And reaches to the utmost sky; + His truth to endless years remains + When lower worlds dissolve and die. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Haydn furnished it out of his chorus of morning stars, and it was +christened "Creation," after the name of his great oratorio. It is a +march of trumpets. + + +"BEFORE JEHOVAH'S AWFUL THRONE." + +No one could mistake the style of Watts in this sublime ode. He begins +with his foot on Sinai, but flies to Calvary with the angel preacher +whom St. John saw in his Patmos vision: + + Before Jehovah's awful throne + Ye nations bow with sacred joy; + Know that the Lord is God alone; + He can create and He destroy. + + His sovereign power without our aid + Made us of clay and formed us men, + And when like wandering sheep we stray, + He brought us to His fold again. + + * * * * * + + We'll crowd Thy gates with thankful songs, + High as the heaven our voices raise, + And earth with her ten thousand tongues + Shall fill Thy courts with sounding praise. + + +_TUNE--OLD HUNDRED._ + +Martin Madan's four-page anthem, "Denmark," has some grand strains in +it, but it is a tune of florid and difficult vocalization, and is now +heard only in Old Folks' Concerts. + + * * * * * + +The Rev. Isaac Watts, D.D., was born at Southampton, Eng., in 1674. His +father was a deacon of the Independent Church there, and though not an +uncultured man himself, he is said to have had little patience with the +incurable penchant of his boy for making rhymes and verses. We hear +nothing of the lad's mother, but we can fancy her hand and spirit in the +indulgence of his poetic tastes as well as in his religious training. +The tradition handed down from Dr. Price, a colleague of Watts, relates +that at the age of eighteen Isaac became so irritated at the crabbed and +untuneful hymns sung at the Nonconformist meetings that he complained +bitterly of them to his father. The deacon may have felt something as +Dr. Wayland did when a rather "fresh" student criticised the Proverbs, +and hinted that making such things could not be "much of a job," and the +Doctor remarked, "Suppose _you_ make a few." Possibly there was the same +gentle sarcasm in the reply of Deacon Watts to his son, "Make some +yourself, then." + +Isaac was in just the mood to take his father at his word, and he +retired and wrote the hymn-- + + Behold the glories of the Lamb. + +There must have been a decent tune to carry it, for it pleased the +worshippers greatly, when it was sung in meeting--and that was the +beginning of Isaac Watts' career as a hymnist. + +So far as scholarship was an advantage, the young writer must have been +well equipped already, for as early as the entering of his fifth year he +was learning Latin, and at nine learning Greek; at eleven, French; and +at thirteen, Hebrew. From the day of his first success he continued to +indite hymns for the home church, until by the end of his twenty-second +year he had written one hundred and ten, and in the two following years +a hundred and forty-four more, besides preparing himself for the +ministry. No. 7 in the edition of the first one hundred and ten, was +that royal jewel of all his lyric work-- + + When I survey the wondrous cross. + +Isaac Watts was ordained pastor of an Independent Church in Mark Lane, +London, 1702, but repeated illness finally broke up his ministry, and +he retired, an invalid, to the beautiful home of Sir Thomas Abney at +Theobaldo, invited, as he supposed, to spend a week, but it was really +to spend the rest of his life--thirty-six years. + +Numbers of his hymns are cited as having biographical or reminiscent +color. The stanza in-- + + When I can read my title clear, + +--which reads in the original copy,-- + + Should earth against my soul engage + And _hellish darts be hurled_, + Then I can smile at _Satan's rage_ + And face a frowning world, + +--is said to have been an allusion to Voltaire and his attack upon the +church, while the calm beauty of the harbor within view of his home is +supposed to have been in his eye when he composed the last stanza,-- + + There shall I bathe my weary soul + In seas of heavenly rest, + And not a wave of trouble roll + Across my peaceful breast. + +According to the record,-- + + What shall the dying sinner do? + +--was one of his "pulpit hymns," and followed a sermon preached from +Rom. 1:16. Another,-- + + And is this life prolonged to you? + +--after a sermon from 1 Cor. 3:22; and another,-- + + How vast a treasure we possess, + +--enforced his text, "All things are yours." The hymn,-- + + Not all the blood of beasts + On Jewish altars slain, + +--was, as some say, suggested to the writer by a visit to the abattoir +in Smithfield Market. The same hymn years afterwards, discovered, we are +told, in a printed paper wrapped around a shop bundle, converted a +Jewess, and influenced her to a life of Christian faith and sacrifice. + +A young man, hardened by austere and minatory sermons, was melted, says +Dr. Belcher, by simply reading,-- + + Show pity Lord, O Lord, forgive, + Let a repenting sinner live. + +--and became partaker of a rich religious experience. + +The summer scenery of Southampton, with its distant view of the Isle of +Wight, was believed to have inspired the hymnist sitting at a parlor +window and gazing across the river Itchen, to write the stanza-- + + Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood + Stand drest in living green; + So to the Jews old Canaan stood + While Jordan rolled between. + +The hymn, "Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb," was personal, addressed by +Watts "to Lucius on the death of Seneca." + +A severe heart-trial was the occasion of another hymn. When a young man +he proposed marriage to Miss Elizabeth Singer, a much-admired young +lady, talented, beautiful, and good. She rejected him--kindly but +finally. The disappointment was bitter, and in the first shadow of it he +wrote,-- + + How vain are all things here below, + How false and yet how fair. + +Miss Singer became the celebrated Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe, the spiritual and +poetic beauty of whose _Meditations_ once made a devotional text-book +for pious souls. Of Dr. Watts and his offer of his hand and heart, she +always said, "I loved the jewel, but I did not admire the casket." The +poet suitor was undersized, in habitually delicate health--and not +handsome. + +But the good minister and scholar found noble employment to keep his +mind from preying upon itself and shortening his days. During his long +though afflicted leisure he versified the Psalms, wrote a treatise on +_Logic_, an _Introduction to the Study of Astronomy and Geography_, and +a work _On the Improvement of the Mind_; and died in 1748, at the age of +seventy-four. + + +"O FOR A THOUSAND TONGUES TO SING." + +Charles Wesley, the author of this hymn, took up the harp of Watts when +the older poet laid it down. He was born at Epworth, Eng., in 1708, the +third son of Rev. Samuel Wesley, and died in London, March 29, 1788. The +hymn is believed to have been written May 17, 1739, for the anniversary +of his own conversion: + + O for a thousand tongues to sing + My great Redeemer's praise, + The glories of my God and King, + And triumphs of His grace. + +The remark of a fervent Christian friend, Peter Bohler, "Had I a +thousand tongues I would praise Christ Jesus with them all," struck an +answering chord in Wesley's heart, and he embalmed the wish in his +fluent verse. The third stanza (printed as second in some hymnals), has +made language for pardoned souls for at least four generations: + + Jesus! the name that calms our fears + And bids our sorrows cease; + 'Tis music in the sinner's ears, + 'Tis life and health and peace. + +Charles Wesley was the poet of the soul, and knew every mood. In the +words of Isaac Taylor, "There is no main article of belief ... no moral +sentiment peculiarly characteristic of the gospel that does not find +itself ... pointedly and clearly conveyed in some stanza of Charles +Wesley's poetry." And it does not dim the lustre of Watts, considering +the marvellous brightness, versatility and felicity of his greatest +successor, to say of the latter, with the _London Quarterly_, that he +"was, perhaps, the most gifted minstrel of the modern Church." + +[Illustration: Charles Wesley] + +Most of the hymns of this good man were hymns of experience--and this is +why they are so dear to the Christian heart. The music of eternal life +is in them. The happy glow of a single line in one of them-- + + Love Divine, all loves excelling, + +--thrills through them all. He led a spotless life from youth to old +age, and grew unceasingly in spiritual knowledge and sweetness. His +piety and purity were the weapons that alike humbled his scoffing fellow +scholars at Oxford, and conquered the wild colliers of Kingwood. With +his brother John, through persecution and ridicule, he preached and sang +that Divine Love to his countrymen and in the wilds of America, and on +their return to England his quenchless melodies multiplied till they +made an Evangelical literature around his name. His hymns--he wrote no +less than six thousand--are a liturgy not only for the Methodist Church +but for English-speaking Christendom. + +The voices of Wesley and Watts cannot be hidden, whatever province of +Christian life and service is traversed in themes of song, and in these +chapters they will be heard again and again. + +A Watts-and-Wesley Scholarship would grace any Theological Seminary, to +encourage the study and discussion of the best lyrics of the two great +Gospel bards. + + +_THE TUNES._ + +The musical mouth-piece of "O for a thousand tongues," nearest to its +own date, is old "Azmon" by Carl Glaser (1734-1829), appearing as No. 1 +in the _New Methodist Hymnal_. Arranged by Lowell Mason, 1830, it is +still comparatively familiar, and the flavor of devotion is in its tone +and style. + +Henry John Gauntlett, an English lawyer and composer, wrote a tune for +it in 1872, noble in its uniform step and time, but scarcely uttering +the hymnist's characteristic ardor. + +The tune of "Dedham," by William Gardiner, now venerable but surviving +by true merit, is not unlike "Azmon" in movement and character. Though +less closely associated with the hymn, as a companion melody it is not +inappropriate. But whatever the range of vocalization or the dignity of +swells and cadences, a slow pace of single semibreves or quarters is not +suited to Wesley's hymns. They are flights. + +Professor William Gardiner wrote many works on musical subjects early in +the last century, and composed vocal harmonies, secular and sacred. He +was born in Leicester, Eng., March 5, 1770, and died there Nov. 16, +1853. + +There is an old-fashioned unction and vigor in the style of +"Peterborough" by Rev. Ralph Harrison (1748-1810) that after all best +satisfies the singer who enters heart and soul into the spirit of the +hymn. _Old Peterborough_ was composed in 1786. + + +"LORD WITH GLOWING HEART I'D PRAISE THEE." + +This was written in 1817 by the author of the "Star Spangled Banner," +and is a noble American hymn of which the country may well be proud, +both because of its merit and for its birth in the heart of a national +poet who was no less a Christian than a patriot. + +Francis Scott Key, lawyer, was born on the estate of his father, John +Ross Key, in Frederick, Md., Aug. 1st, 1779; and died in Baltimore, Jan. +11, 1843. A bronze statue of him over his grave, and another in Golden +Gate Park, San Francisco, represent the nationality of his fame and the +gratitude of a whole land. + +Though a slaveholder by inheritance, Mr. Key deplored the existence of +human slavery, and not only originated a scheme of African colonization, +but did all that a model master could do for the chattels on his +plantation, in compliance with the Scripture command,[6] to lighten +their burdens. He helped them in their family troubles, defended them +gratuitously in the courts, and held regular Sunday-school services for +them. + +[Footnote 6: Eph. 6:9, Coloss. 4:1.] + +Educated at St. John's College, an active member of the Episcopal +Church, he was not only a scholar but a devout and exemplary man. + + Lord, with glowing heart I'd praise Thee + For the bliss Thy love bestows, + For the pardoning grace that saves me, + And the peace that from it flows. + + Help, O Lord, my weak endeavor; + This dull soul to rapture raise; + Thou must light the flame or never + Can my love be warmed to praise. + + Lord, this bosom's ardent feeling + Vainly would my life express; + Low before Thy footstool kneeling, + Deign Thy suppliant's prayer to bless. + + Let Thy grace, my soul's chief treasure, + Love's pure flame within me raise, + And, since words can never measure, + Let my life show forth Thy praise. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"St. Chad," a choral in D, with a four-bar unison, in the _Evangelical +Hymnal_, is worthy of the hymn. Richard Redhead, the composer, organist +of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Paddington, Eng., was born at +Harrow, Middlesex, March 1, 1820, and educated at Magdalene College, +Oxford. Graduated Bachelor of Music at Oxford, 1871. He published +_Laudes Dominæ_, a Gregorian Psalter, 1843, a Book of Tunes for the +_Christian Year_, and is the author of much ritual music. + + +"HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, LORD GOD ALMIGHTY." + +There is nothing so majestic in Protestant hymnology as this Tersanctus +of Bishop Heber. + +The Rt. Rev. Reginald Heber, son of a clergyman of the same name, was +born in Malpas, Cheshire, Eng., April 21st, 1783, and educated at +Oxford. He served the church in Hodnet, Shropshire, for about twenty +years, and was then appointed Bishop of Calcutta, E.I. His labors there +were cut short in the prime of his life, his death occurring in 1826, at +Trichinopoly on the 3d of April, his natal month. + +His hymns, numbering fifty-seven, were collected by his widow, and +published with his poetical works in 1842. + + Holy! holy! holy! Lord God Almighty! + Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee. + Holy! holy! holy! merciful and mighty, + God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity. + + Holy! holy! holy! all the saints adore Thee, + Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea; + Cherubim and seraphim, falling down before Thee, + Which wert, and art, and evermore shall be. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Grand as the hymn is, it did not come to its full grandeur of sentiment +and sound in song-worship till the remarkable music of Dr. John B. Dykes +was joined to it. None was ever written that in performance illustrates +more admirably the solemn beauty of congregational praise. The name +"Nicæa" attached to the tune means nothing to the popular ear and mind, +and it is known everywhere by the initial words of the first line. + +Rev. John Bacchus Dykes, Doctor of Music, was born at +Kingston-upon-Hull, in 1823; and graduated at Cambridge, in 1847. He +became a master of tone and choral harmony, and did much to reform and +elevate congregational psalmody in England. He was perhaps the first to +demonstrate that hymn-tune making can be reduced to a science without +impairing its spiritual purpose. Died Jan. 22, 1876. + + +"LORD OF ALL BEING, THRONED AFAR." + +This noble hymn was composed by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, born in +Cambridge, Mass., 1809, and graduated at Harvard University. A physician +by profession, he was known as a practitioner chiefly in literature, +being a brilliant writer and long the leading poetical wit of America. +He was, however, a man of deep religious feeling, and a devout attendant +at King's Chapel, Unitarian, in Boston where he spent his life. He held +the Harvard Professorship of Anatomy and Physiology more than fifty +years, but his enduring work is in his poems, and his charming volume, +_The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table_. Died Jan. 22, 1896. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Holmes' hymn is sung in some churches to "Louvan," V.C. Taylor's +admirable praise tune. Other hymnals prefer with it the music of +"Keble," one of Dr. Dykes' appropriate and finished melodies. + +Virgil Corydon Taylor, an American vocal composer, was born in +Barkhamstead, Conn., April 2, 1817, died 1891. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. + + +JOHN OF DAMASCUS. + +[Greek: Erchesthe, ô pistoi, + Anastaseôs Hêmera.] + +John of Damascus, called also St. John of Jerusalem, a theologian and +poet, was the last but one of the Christian Fathers of the Greek Church. +This eminent man was named by the Arabs "Ibn Mansur," Son (Servant?) of +a Conqueror, either in honor of his father Sergius or because it was a +Semitic translation of his family title. He was born in Damascus early +in the 8th century, and seems to have been in favor with the Caliph, and +served under him many years in some important civil capacity, until, +retiring to Palestine, he entered the monastic order, and late in life +was ordained a priest of the Jerusalem Church. He died in the Convent of +St. Sabas near that city about A.D. 780. + +His lifetime appears to have been passed in comparative peace. Mohammed +having died before completing the conquest of Syria, the Moslem rule +before whose advance Oriental Christianity was to lose its first field +of triumph had not yet asserted its persecuting power in the north. This +devout monk, in his meditations at St. Sabas, dwelt much upon the birth +and the resurrection of Christ, and made hymns to celebrate them. It was +probably four hundred years before Bonaventura (?) wrote the Christmas +"Adeste Fideles" of the Latin West that John of Damascus composed his +Greek "Adeste Fideles" for a Resurrection song in Jerusalem. + + Come ye faithful, raise the strain + Of triumphant gladness. + + * * * * * + + 'Tis the spring of souls today + Christ hath burst His prison; + From the frost and gloom of death + Light and life have risen. + +The nobler of the two hymns preserved to us, (or six stanzas of it) +through eleven centuries is entitled "The Day of Resurrection." + + The day of resurrection, + Earth, tell its joys abroad: + The Passover of gladness, + The Passover of God. + From death to life eternal, + From earth unto the sky, + Our Christ hath brought us over, + With hymns of victory. + + Our hearts be pure from evil, + That we may see aright + The Lord in rays eternal + Of resurrection light; + And, listening to His accents, + May hear, so calm and plain, + His own, "All hail!" and hearing, + May raise the victor-strain. + + Now let the heavens be joyful, + Let earth her song begin, + Let all the world keep triumph, + All that dwell therein. + In grateful exultation, + Their notes let all things blend, + For Christ the Lord is risen, + O joy that hath no end! + +Both these hymns of John of Damascus were translated by John Mason +Neale. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"The Day of Resurrection" is sung in the modern hymnals to the tune of +"Rotterdam," composed by Berthold of Tours, born in that city of the +Netherlands, Dec. 17, 1838. He was educated at the conservatory in +Leipsic, and later made London his permanent residence, writing both +vocal and instrumental music. Died 1897. "Rotterdam" is a stately, +sonorous piece and conveys the flavor of the ancient hymn. + +"Come ye faithful" has for its modern interpreter Sir Arthur Sullivan, +the celebrated composer of both secular and sacred works, but best +known in hymnody as author of the great Christian march, "Onward +Christian Soldiers." + +Hymns are known to have been written by the earlier Greek Fathers, +Ephrem Syrus of Mesopotamia (A.D. 307-373), Basil the Great, Bishop of +Cappadocia (A.D. 329-379) Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop of Constantinople +(A.D. 335-390) and others, but their fragments of song which have come +down to us scarcely rank them among the great witnesses--with the +possible exception of the last name. An English scholar, Rev. Allen W. +Chatfield, has translated the hymns extant of Gregory Nazianzen. The +following stanzas give an idea of their quality. The lines are from an +address to the Deity: + + How, Unapproached! shall mind of man + Descry Thy dazzling throne, + And pierce and find Thee out, and scan + Where Thou dost dwell alone? + + Unuttered Thou! all uttered things + Have had their birth from Thee; + The One Unknown, from Thee the spring + Of all we know and see. + + And lo! all things abide in Thee + And through the complex whole, + Thou spreadst Thine own divinity, + Thyself of all the Goal. + +This is reverent, but rather philosophical than evangelical, and reminds +us of the Hymn of Aratus, more than two centuries before Christ was +born. + + +ST. STEPHEN, THE SABAITE. + +This pious Greek monk, (734-794,) nephew of St. John of Damascus, spent +his life, from the age of ten, in the monastery of St. Sabas. His sweet +hymn, known in Neale's translation,-- + + Art thou weary, art thou languid, + Art thou sore distrest? + Come to Me, saith One, and coming + Be at rest, + +--is still in the hymnals, with the tunes of Dykes, and Sir Henry W. +Baker (1821-1877), Vicar of Monkland, Herefordshire. + + +KING ROBERT II. + +_Veni, Sancte Spiritus._ + +Robert the Second, surnamed "Robert the Sage" and "Robert the Devout," +succeeded Hugh Capet, his father, upon the throne of France, about the +year 997. He has been called the gentlest monarch that ever sat upon a +throne, and his amiability of character poorly prepared him to cope with +his dangerous and wily adversaries. His last years were embittered by +the opposition of his own sons, and the political agitations of the +times. He died at Melun in 1031, and was buried at St. Denis. + +Robert possessed a reflective mind, and was fond of learning and musical +art. He was both a poet and a musician. He was deeply religious, and, +from unselfish motives, was much devoted to the church. + +Robert's hymn, "Veni, Sancte Spiritus," is given below. He himself was a +chorister; and there was no kingly service that he seemed to love so +well. We are told that it was his custom to go to the church of St. +Denis, and in his royal robes, with his crown upon his head, to direct +the choir at matins and vespers, and join in the singing. Few kings have +left a better legacy to the Christian church than his own hymn, which, +after nearly a thousand years, is still an influence in the world: + + Come, Thou Holy Spirit, come, + And from Thine eternal home + Shed the ray of light divine; + Come, Thou Father of the poor, + Come, Thou Source of all our store, + Come, within our bosoms shine. + + Thou of Comforters the best, + Thou the soul's most welcome Guest, + Sweet Refreshment here below! + In our labor Rest most sweet, + Grateful Shadow from the heat, + Solace in the midst of woe! + + Oh, most blessed Light Divine, + Shine within these hearts of Thine, + And our inmost being fill; + If Thou take Thy grace away, + Nothing pure in man will stay, + All our 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 that go astray. + + _Neale's Translation_. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The metre and six-line stanza, being uniform with those of "Rock of +Ages," have tempted some to borrow "Toplady" for this ancient hymn, but +Hastings' tune would refuse to sing other words; and, besides, the +alternate rhymes would mar the euphony. Not unsuitable in spirit are +several existing tunes of the right measure--like "Nassau" or "St. +Athanasius"--but in truth the "Veni, Sancte Spiritus" in English waits +for its perfect setting. Dr. Ray Palmer's paraphrase of it in +sixes-and-fours, to fit "Olivet,"-- + + Come, Holy Ghost in love, etc. + +--is objectionable both because the word Ghost is an archaism in +Christian worship and more especially because Dr. Palmer's altered +version usurps the place of his own hymn. "Olivet" with "My faith looks +up to Thee" makes as inviolable a case of psalmodic monogamy as +"Toplady" with "Rock of Ages." + + +ST. FULBERT. + +"_Chori Cantores Hierusalem Novae._" + +St. Fulbert's hymn is a worthy companion of Perronet's "Coronation"--if, +indeed, it was not its original prompter--as King Robert's great litany +was the mother song of Watts' "Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove;" and +the countless other sacred lyrics beginning with similar words. As the +translation stands in the Church of England, there are six stanzas now +sung, though in America but four appear, and not in the same sequence. +The first four of the six in their regular succession are as follows: + + Ye choirs of New Jerusalem, + Your sweetest notes employ, + The Paschal victory to hymn + In strains of holy joy. + + For Judah's Lion bursts His chains, + Crushing the serpent's head; + And cries aloud, through death's domains + To wake the imprisoned dead. + + Devouring depths of hell their prey + At His command restore; + His ransomed hosts pursue their way + Where Jesus goes before. + + Triumphant in His glory now, + To Him all power is given; + To Him in one communion bow + All saints in earth and heaven. + +Bishop Fulbert, known in the Roman and in the Protestant ritualistic +churches as St. Fulbert of Chartres, was a man of brilliant and +versatile mind, and one of the most eminent prelates of his time. He was +a contemporary of Robert II, and his intimate friend, continuing so +after the Pope (Gregory V.) excommunicated the king for marrying a +cousin, which was forbidden by the canons of the church. + +Fulbert was for some time head of the Theological College at Chartres, a +cathedral town of France, anciently the capital of Celtic Gaul, and +afterwards he was consecrated as Bishop of that diocese. He died about +1029. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The modern tone-interpreter of Fulbert's hymn bears the name "La Spezia" +in some collections, and was composed by James Taylor about the time the +hymn was translated into English by Robert Campbell. Research might +discover the ancient tune--for the hymn is said to have been sung in the +English church during Fulbert's lifetime--but the older was little +likely to be the better music. "La Spezia" is a choral of enlivening but +easy chords, and a tread of triumph in its musical motion that suits the +march of "Judah's Lion": + + His ransomed hosts pursue their way + Where Jesus goes before. + +James Taylor, born 1833, is a Doctor of Music, organist of the +University of Oxford and Director of the Oxford Philharmonic Society. + +Robert Campbell, the translator, was a Scotch lawyer, born in Edinburgh, +who besides his work as an advocate wrote original hymns, and in other +ways exercised a natural literary gift. He compiled the excellent +Hymnal of the diocese of St. Andrews, and this was his best work. The +date of his death is given as Dec. 29, 1868. + + +THOMAS OF CELANO. + + Dies irae! dies illa, + Solvet saeclum in favilla, + Teste David cum Sybilla. + + Day of wrath! that day of burning, + All the world to ashes turning, + Sung by prophets far discerning. + +Latin ecclesiastical poetry reached its high water mark in that awful +hymn. The solitaire of its sphere and time in the novelty of its +rhythmic triplets, it stood a wonder to the church and hierarchy +accustomed to the slow spondees of the ancient chant. There could be +such a thing as a trochaic hymn!--and majestic, too! + +It was a discovery that did not stale. The compelling grandeur of the +poem placed it distinct and alone, and the very difficulty of staffing +it for vocal and instrumental use gave it a zest, and helped to keep it +unique through the ages. + +Latin hymnody and hymnography, appealing to the popular ear and heart, +had gradually substituted accent for quantity in verse; for the common +people could never be moved by a Christian song in the prosody of the +classics. The religion of the cross, with the song-preaching of its +propagandists, created medieval Latin and made it a secondary +classic--mother of four anthem languages of Western and Southern Europe. +Its golden age was the 12th and 13th centuries. The new and more +flexible school of speech and music in hymn and tune had perfected +rhythmic beauty and brought in the winsome assonance of rhyme. + +[Illustration: Dr. Martin Luther] + +The "Dies Irae" was born, it is believed, about the year 1255. Its +authorship has been debated, but competent testimony assures us that the +original draft of the great poem was found in a box among the effects of +Thomas di Celano after his death. Thomas--surnamed Thomas of Celano from +his birthplace, the town of Celano in the province of Aquila, Southern +Italy--was the pupil, friend and co-laborer of St. Francis of Assisi, +and wrote his memoirs. He is supposed to have died near the end of the +13th century. That he wrote the sublime judgment song there is now +practically no question. + +The label on the discovered manuscript would suggest that the writer did +not consider it either a hymn or a poem. Like the inspired prophets he +had meditated--and while he was musing the fire burned. The only title +he wrote over it was "_Prosa de mortuis_," Prosa (or prosa oratio)--from +_prorsus_, "straight forward"--appears here in the truly conventional +sense it was beginning to bear, but not yet as the antipode of "poetry." +The modest author, unconscious of the magnitude of his work, called it +simply "Plain speech concerning the dead."[7] + +[Footnote 7: "Proses" were original passages introduced into +ecclesiastical chants in the 10th century. During and after the 11th +century they were called "Sequences" (i.e. _following_ the "Gospel" in +the liturgy), and were in metrical form, having a prayerful tone. +"Sequentia pro defunctis" was the later title of the "Dies Irae."] + +The hymn is much too long to quote entire, but can be found in _Daniel's +Thesaurus_ in any large public library. As to the translations of it, +they number hundreds--in English and German alone, and Italy, Spain and +Portugal have their vernacular versions--not to mention the Greek and +Russian and even the Hebrew. A few stanzas follow, with their renderings +into English (always imperfect) selected almost at random: + + Quantus tremor est futurus + Quando Judex est venturus, + Cuncta stricte discussurus! + + Tuba mirum spargens sonum + Per sepulcra regionum, + Coget omnes ante thronum! + + O the dread, the contrite kneeling + When the Lord, in Judgment dealing, + Comes each hidden thing revealing! + + When the trumpet's awful tone + Through the realms sepulchral blown, + Summons all before the Throne! + +The solemn strength and vibration of these tremendous trilineals suffers +no general injury by the variant readings--and there are a good many. As +a sample, the first stanza was changed by some canonical redactor to get +rid of the heathen word Sybilla, and the second line was made the +third: + + Dies Irae, dies illa + Crucis expandens vexilla, + Solvet saeclum in favilla. + + Day of wrath! that day foretold, + With the cross-flag wide unrolled, + Shall the world in fire enfold! + +In some readings the original "in favilla" is changed to "_cum_ +favilla," "_with_ ashes" instead of "in ashes"; and "Teste Petro" is +substituted for "Teste David." + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The varieties of music set to the "Hymn of Judgment" in the different +sections and languages of Christendom during seven hundred years are +probably as numerous as the pictures of the Holy Family in Christian +art. It is enough to say that one of the best at hand, or, at least, +accessible, is the solemn minor melody of Dr. Dykes in William Henry +Monk's _Hymns Ancient and Modern_. It was composed about the middle of +the last century. Both the _Evangelical_ and _Methodist Hymnals_ have +Dean Stanley's translation of the hymn, the former with thirteen stanzas +(six-line) to a D minor of John Stainer, and the latter to a C major of +Timothy Matthews. The _Plymouth Hymnal_ has seventeen of the trilineal +stanzas, by an unknown translator, to Ferdinand Hiller's tune in F +minor, besides one verse to another F minor--hymn and tune both +nameless. + +All the composers above named are musicians of fame. John Stainer, +organist of St. Paul's Cathedral, was a Doctor of Music and Chevalier of +the Legion of Honor, and celebrated for his works in sacred music, to +which he mainly devoted his time. He was born June 6, 1840. He died +March 31, 1901. + +Rev. Timothy Richard Matthews, born at Colmworth, Eng., Nov. 20, 1826, +is a clergyman of the Church of England, incumbent of a Lancaster charge +to which he was appointed by Queen Alexandra. + +Ferdinand Hiller, born 1811 at Frankfort-on-the-Main, of Hebrew +parentage, was one of Germany's most eminent musicians. For many years +he was Chapel Master at Cologne, and organized the Cologne Conservatory. +His compositions are mostly for instrumental performance, but he wrote +cantatas, motets, male choruses, and two oratorios, one on the +"Destruction of Jerusalem." Died May 10, 1855. + +The Very Rev. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster, was an author +and scholar whom all sects of Christians delighted to honor. His +writings on the New Testament and his published researches in Palestine, +made him an authority in Biblical study, and his contributions to sacred +literature were looked for and welcomed as eagerly as a new hymn by +Bonar or a new poem by Tennyson. Dean Stanley was born in 1815, and died +July 18th, 1881. + + +THOMAS À KEMPIS. + +Thomas à Kempis, sub-prior of the Convent of St. Agnes, was born at +Hamerkin, Holland, about the year 1380, and died at Zwoll, 1471. This +pious monk belonged to an order called the "Brethren of the Common Life" +founded by Gerard de Groote, and his fame rests entirely upon his one +book, the _Imitation of Christ_, which continues to be printed as a +religious classic, and is unsurpassed as a manual of private devotion. +His monastic life--as was true generally of the monastic life of the +middle ages--was not one of useless idleness. The Brethren taught school +and did mechanical work. Besides, before the invention of printing had +been perfected and brought into common service, the multiplication of +books was principally the work of monkish pens. Kempis spent his days +copying the Bible and good books--as well as in exercises of devotion +that promoted religious calm. + +His idea of heaven, and the idea of his order, was expressed in that +clause of John's description of the City of God, Rev. 22:3, "_and His +servants shall serve Him_." Above all other heavenly joys that was his +favorite thought. We can well understand that the pious quietude wrought +in his mind and manners by his habit of life made him a saint in the +eyes of the people. The frontispiece of one edition of his _Imitatio +Christi_ pictures him as being addressed before the door of a convent +by a troubled pilgrim,-- + + "O where is peace?--for thou its paths hast trod," + +--and his answer completes the couplet,-- + + "In poverty, retirement, and with God." + +Of all that is best in inward spiritual life, much can be learned from +this inspired Dutchman. He wrote no hymns, but in his old age he +composed a poem on "Heaven's Joys," which is sometimes called "Thomas à +Kempis' Hymn": + + High the angel choirs are raising + Heart and voice in harmony; + The Creator King still praising + Whom in beauty there they see. + + Sweetest strains from soft harps stealing, + Trumpets' notes of triumph pealing, + Radiant wings and white stoles gleaming + Up the steps of glory streaming; + Where the heavenly bells are ringing; + "Holy! holy! holy!" singing + To the mighty Trinity! + "Holy! holy! holy!" crying, + For all earthly care and sighing + In that city cease to be! + +These lines are not in the hymnals of today--and whether they ever found +their way into choral use in ancient times we are not told. Worse poetry +has been sung--and more un-hymnlike. Some future composer will make a +tune to the words of a Christian who stood almost in sight of his +hundredth year--and of the eternal home he writes about. + + +MARTIN LUTHER. + +"_Ein Feste Burg Ist Unser Gott._" + +Of Martin Luther Coleridge said, "He did as much for the Reformation by +his hymns as he did by his translation of the Bible." The remark is so +true that it has become a commonplace. + +The above line--which may be seen inscribed on Luther's tomb at +Wittenberg--is the opening sentence and key-note of the Reformer's +grandest hymn. The forty-sixth Psalm inspired it, and it is in harmony +with sublime historical periods from its very nature, boldness, and +sublimity. It was written, according to Welles, in the memorable year +when the evangelical princes delivered their protest at the Diet of +Spires, from which the word and the meaning of the word "Protestant" is +derived. "Luther used often to sing it in 1530, while the Diet of +Augsburg was sitting. It soon became the favorite psalm with the people. +It was one of the watchwords of the Reformation, cheering armies to +conflict, and sustaining believers in the hours of fiery trial." + +"After Luther's death, Melancthon, his affectionate coadjutor, being one +day at Weimar with his banished friends, Jonas and Creuziger, heard a +little maid singing this psalm in the street, and said, 'Sing on, my +little girl, you little know whom you comfort:'" + + A mighty fortress is our God, + A bulwark never failing; + Our helper He, amid the flood + Of mortal ills prevailing. + For still our ancient foe + Doth seek to work us woe; + His craft and power are great, + And, armed with cruel hate, + On earth is not his equal. + + * * * * * + + The Prince of Darkness grim-- + We tremble not for him: + His rage we can endure, + For lo! his doom is sure, + One little word shall fell him. + + That word above all earthly powers-- + No thanks to them--abideth; + The Spirit and the gifts are ours, + Through Him who with us sideth. + Let goods and kindred go, + This mortal life also; + The body they may kill, + God's truth abideth still, + His kingdom is for ever. + +Martin Luther was born in Eisleben, in Saxony, Nov. 10, 1483. He was +educated at the University of Erfurth, and became an Augustinian monk +and Professor of Philosophy and Divinity in the University of +Wittenberg. In 1517 he composed and placarded his ninety-five Theses +condemning certain practices of the Romish Church and three years later +the Pope published a bull excommunicating him, which he burnt openly +before a sympathetic multitude in Wittenberg. His life was a stormy one, +and he was more than once in mortal danger by reason of his antagonism +to the papal authority, but he found powerful patrons, and lived to see +the Reformation an organized fact. He died in his birthplace, Eisleben, +Feb. 18th, 1546. + +The translation of the "Ein feste burg," given above, in part, is by +Rev. Frederick Henry Hedge, D.D., born in Cambridge, March 1805, a +graduate of Harvard, and formerly minister of the Unitarian Church in +Bangor, Me. Died, 1890. + +Luther wrote thirty-six hymns, to some of which he fitted his own music, +for he was a musician and singer as well as an eloquent preacher. The +tune in which "Ein feste Burg" is sung in the hymnals, was composed by +himself. The hymn has also a noble rendering in the music of Sebastian +Bach, 8-4 time, found in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_. + + +BARTHOLOMEW RINGWALDT. + +"Great God, What Do I See and Hear?" + +The history of this hymn is somewhat indefinite, though common consent +now attributes to Ringwaldt the stanza beginning with the above line. +The imitation of the "Dies Irae" in German which was first in use was +printed in Jacob Klug's "_Gesangbuch_" in 1535. Ringwaldt's hymn of the +Last Day, also inspired from the ancient Latin original, appears in his +_Handbuchlin_ of 1586, but does not contain this stanza. The first line +is, "The awful Day will surely come," (Es ist gewisslich an der Zeit). +Nevertheless through the more than two hundred years that the hymn has +been translated and re-translated, and gone through inevitable +revisions, some vital identity in the spirit and tone of the one +seven-line stanza has steadily connected it with Ringwaldt's name. +Apparently it is the single survivor of a great lost hymn--edited and +altered out of recognition. But its power evidently inspired the added +verses, as we have them. Dr. Collyer found it, and, regretting that it +was too short to sing in public service, composed stanzas 2d, 3d and +4th. It is likely that Collyer first met with it in _Psalms and Hymns +for Public and Private Devotion_, Sheffield 1802, where it appeared +anonymously. So far as known this was its first publication in English. +Ringwaldt's stanza and two of Collyer's are here given: + + Great God, what do I see and hear! + The end of things created! + The Judge of mankind doth appear + On clouds of glory seated. + The trumpet sounds, the graves restore + The dead which they contained before; + Prepare, my soul, to meet Him. + + The dead in Christ shall first arise + At the last trumpet sounding, + Caught up to meet Him in the skies, + With joy their Lord surrounding. + No gloomy fears their souls dismay + His presence sheds eternal day + On those prepared to meet Him. + + Far over space to distant spheres + The lightnings are prevailing + Th' ungodly rise, and all their tears + And sighs are unavailing. + The day of grace is past and gone; + They shake before the Judge's Throne + All unprepared to meet Him. + +Bartholomew Ringwaldt, pastor of the Lutheran Church of Longfeld, +Prussia, was born in 1531, and died in 1599. His hymns appear in a +collection entitled _Hymns for the Sundays and Festivals of the Whole +Year_. + +Rev. William Bengo Collyer D.D., was born at Blackheath near London, +April 14, 1782, educated at Homerton College and settled over a +Congregational Church in Peckham. In 1812 he published a book of hymns, +and in 1837 a _Service Book_ to which he contributed eighty-nine hymns. +He died Jan, 9, 1854. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Probably it was the customary singing of Ringwaldt's hymn (in Germany) +to Luther's tune that gave it for some time the designation of "Luther's +Hymn," the title by which the music is still known--an air either +composed or adapted by Luther, and rendered perhaps unisonously or with +extempore chords. It was not until early in the last century that +Vincent Novello wrote to it the noble arrangement now in use. It is a +strong, even-time harmony with lofty tenor range, and very impressive +with full choir and organ or the vocal volume of a congregation. In +_Cheetham's Psalmody_ is it written with a trumpet obligato. + +Vincent Novello, born in London, Sept. 6, 1781, the intimate friend of +Lamb, Shelley, Keats, Hunt and Hazlitt, was a professor of music who +attained great eminence as an organist and composer of hymn-tunes and +sacred pieces. He was the founder of the publishing house of Novello and +Ewer, and father of a famous musical family. Died at Nice, Aug. 9, 1861. + + +ST. FRANCIS XAVIER. + +"_O Deus, Ego Amo Te._" + +Francis Xavier, the celebrated Jesuit missionary, called "The Apostle of +the Indies," was a Spaniard, born in 1506. While a student in Paris he +met Ignatius Loyola, and joined him in the formation of the new "Society +for the Propagation of the Faith." He was sent out on a mission to the +East Indies and Japan, and gave himself to the work with a martyr's +devotion. The stations he established in Japan were maintained more than +a hundred years. He died in China, Dec. 1552. + +His hymn, some time out of use, is being revived in later singing-books +as expressive of the purest and highest Christian sentiment: + + O Deus, ego amo Te. + Nec amo Te, ut salves me, + Aut quia non amantes Te + Æterno punis igne. + + My God, I love Thee--not because + I hope for heaven thereby; + Nor yet because who love Thee not + Must burn eternally. + +After recounting Christ's vicarious sufferings as the chief claim to His +disciples' unselfish love, the hymn continues,-- + + Cur igitur non amem Te, + O Jesu amantissime! + Non, ut in coelo salves me, + Aut in æternum damnes me. + + Then why, O blessed Jesus Christ, + Should I not love Thee well? + Not for the sake of winning heaven, + Nor of escaping hell; + + Not with the hope of gaining aught, + Nor seeking a reward, + But as Thyself hast lovéd me, + Oh, ever-loving Lord! + + E'en so I love Thee, and will love, + And in Thy praise will sing; + Solely because Thou art my God + And my eternal King. + +The translation is by Rev. Edward Caswall, 1814-1878, a priest in the +Church of Rome. Besides his translations, he published the _Lyra +Catholica_, the _Masque of Mary_, and several other poetical works. +(Page 101.) + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"St. Bernard"--apparently so named because originally composed to +Caswall's translation of one of Bernard of Clairvaux's hymns--is by +John Richardson, born in Preston, Eng., Dec. 4, 1817, and died there +April 13, 1879. He was an organist in Liverpool, and noted as a composer +of glees, but was the author of several sacred tunes. + + +SIR WALTER RALEIGH. + +"Give Me My Scallop-Shell of Quiet." + +Few of the hymns of the Elizabethan era survive, though the Ambrosian +Midnight Hymn, "Hark, 'tis the Midnight Cry," and the hymns of St. +Bernard and Bernard of Cluny, are still tones in the church, and the +religious poetry of Sir Walter Raleigh comes down to us associated with +the history of his brilliant, though tragic career. The following poem +has some fine lines in the quaint English style of the period, and was +composed by Sir Walter during his first imprisonment: + + Give me my scallop-shell of quiet, + My staff of faith to walk upon, + My scrip of joy--immortal diet-- + My bottle of salvation, + My gown of glory, hope's true gage-- + And thus I take my pilgrimage. + + Blood must be my body's balmer, + While my soul, like faithful palmer, + Travelleth toward the land of heaven; + Other balm will not be given. + + Over the silver mountains + Where spring the nectar fountains, + There will I kiss the bowl of bliss, + And drink my everlasting fill, + Upon every milken hill; + My soul will be a-dry before, + But after that will thirst no more. + +The musings of the unfortunate but high-souled nobleman in expectation +of ignominious death are interesting and pathetic, but they have no +claim to a tune, even if they were less rugged and unmetrical. But the +poem stands notable among the pious witnesses. + + +MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. + +"_O Domine Deus, Speravi in Te._" + +This last passionate prayer of the unhappy Mary Stuart just before her +execution--in a language which perhaps flowed from her pen more easily +than even her English or French--is another witness of supplicating +faith that struggles out of darkness with a song. In her extremity the +devoted Catholic forgets her petitions to the Virgin, and comes to +Christ: + + O Domine Deus, Speravi in Te; + O care mi Jesu, nunc libera me! + In dura catena, in misera poena + Desidero Te! + Languendo, gemendo, et genuflectendo + Adoro, imploro ut liberes me! + + My Lord and my God! I have trusted in Thee; + O Jesus, my Saviour belov'd, set me free: + In rigorous chains, in piteous pains, + I am longing for Thee! + In weakness appealing, in agony kneeling, + I pray, I beseech Thee, O Lord, set me free! + +One would, at first thought, judge this simple but eloquent cry worthy +of an appropriate tone-expression--to be sung by prison evangelists like +the Volunteers of America, to convicts in the jails and penitentiaries. +But its special errand and burden are voiced so literally that hardened +hearers would probably misapply it--however sincerely the petitioner +herself meant to invoke spiritual rather than temporal deliverance. The +hymn, if we may call it so, is _too_ literal. Possibly at some time or +other it may have been set to music but not for ordinary choir service. + + +SAMUEL RUTHERFORD. + + The sands of time are sinking, + + * * * * * + + But, glory, glory dwelleth + In Immanuel's Land. + +This hymn is biographical, but not autobiographical. Like the discourses +in Herodotus and Plutarch, it is the voice of the dead speaking through +the sympathetic genius of the living after long generations. The strong, +stern Calvinist of 1636 in Aberdeen was not a poet, but he bequeathed +his spirit and life to the verse of a poet of 1845 in Melrose. Anne Ross +Cousin read his two hundred and twenty letters written during a two +years' captivity for his fidelity to the purer faith, and studied his +whole history and experience till her soul took his soul's place and +felt what he felt. Her poem of nineteen stanzas (152 lines) is the voice +of Rutherford the Covenanter, with the prolixity of his manner and age +sweetened by his triumphant piety, and that is why it belongs with the +_Hymns of Great Witnesses_. The three or four stanzas still occasionally +printed and sung are only recalled to memory by the above three lines. + +Samuel Rutherford was born in Nisbet Parish, Scotland, in 1600. His +settled ministry was at Anworth, in Galloway--1630-1651--with a break +between 1636 and 1638, when Charles I. angered by his anti-prelatical +writings, silenced and banished him. Shut up in Aberdeen, but allowed, +like Paul in Rome, to live "in his own hired house" and write letters, +he poured out his heart's love in Epistles to his Anworth flock and to +the Non-conformists of Scotland. When his countrymen rose against the +attempted imposition of a new holy Romish service-book on their +churches, he escaped to his people, and soon after appeared in Edinburgh +and signed the covenant with the assembled ministers. Thirteen years +later, after Cromwell's death and the accession of Charles II. the wrath +of the prelates fell on him at St. Andrews, where the Presbytery had +made him rector of the college. The King's decree indicted him for +treason, stripped him of all his offices, and would have forced him to +the block had he not been stricken with his last sickness. When the +officers came to take him he said, "I am summoned before a higher Judge +and Judicatory, and I am behooved to attend them." He died soon after, +in the year 1661. + +The first, and a few other of the choicest stanzas of the hymn inspired +by his life and death are here given: + + The sands of time are sinking, + The dawn of heaven breaks, + The summer morn I've sighed for-- + The fair, sweet morn--awakes. + Dark, dark hath been the midnight, + But dayspring is at hand; + And glory, glory dwelleth + In Immanuel's land. + + * * * * * + + Oh! well it is for ever-- + Oh! well for evermore: + My nest hung in no forest + Of all this death-doomed shore; + Yea, let this vain world vanish, + As from the ship the strand, + While glory, glory dwelleth + In Immanuel's land. + + * * * * * + + The little birds of Anworth-- + I used to count them blest; + Now beside happier altars + I go to build my nest; + O'er these there broods no silence + No graves around them stand; + For glory deathless dwelleth + In Immanuel's land. + + I have borne scorn and hatred, + I have borne wrong and shame, + Earth's proud ones have reproached me + For Christ's thrice blesséd name. + Where God's seals set the fairest, + They've stamped their foulest brand; + But judgment shines like noonday + In Immanuel's land. + + They've summoned me before them, + But there I may not come; + My Lord says, "Come up hither;" + My Lord says, "Welcome home;" + My King at His white throne + My presence doth command, + Where glory, glory dwelleth, + In Immanuel's land. + +A reminiscence of St. Paul in his second Epistle to Timothy (chap. 4) +comes with the last two stanzas. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The tender and appropriate choral in B flat, named "Rutherford" was +composed by D'Urhan, a French musician, probably a hundred years ago. It +was doubtless named by those who long afterwards fitted it to the words, +and knew whose spiritual proxy the lady stood who indited the hymn. It +is reprinted in Peloubet's _Select Songs_, and in the _Coronation +Hymnal_. Naturally in the days of the hymn's more frequent use people +became accustomed to calling "The sands of time are sinking," +"Rutherford's Hymn." Rutherford's own words certainly furnished the +memorable refrain with its immortal glow and gladness. One of his joyful +exclamations as he lay dying of his lingering disease was, "Glory +shineth in Immanuel's Land!" + +Chretien (Christian) Urhan, or D'Urhan, was born at Montjoie, France, +about 1788, and died, in Paris, 1845. He was a noted violin-player, and +composer, also, of vocal and instrumental music. + +Mrs. Anne Ross (Cundell) Cousin, daughter of David Ross Cundell, M.D., +and widow of Rev. William Cousin of the Free church of Scotland, was +born in Melrose (?), 1824. She wrote many poems, most of which are +beautiful meditations rather than lyrics suitable for public song. Her +"Rutherford Hymn" was first published in the _Christian Treasury_, 1857. + + +GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. + +"_Verzage Nicht Du Hauflein Klein._" + +The historian tells us that before the battle of Lutzen, during the +Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), King Gustavus of Sweden, in the thick fog +of an autumn morning, with the Bohemian and Austrian armies of Emperor +Ferdinand in front of him, knelt before his troops, and his whole army +knelt with him in prayer. Then ten thousand voices and the whole concert +of regimental bands burst forth in this brave song: + + Fear not, O little flock, the foe + Who madly seeks your overthrow, + Dread not his rage and power: + What though your courage sometimes faints, + His seeming triumph o'er God's saints + Lasts but a little hour. + + Be of good cheer, your cause belongs + To Him who can avenge your wrongs; + Leave it to Him, our Lord: + Though hidden yet from all our eyes, + He sees the Gideon who shall rise + To save us and His word. + + As true as God's own word is true, + Nor earth nor hell with all their crew, + Against us shall prevail: + A jest and by-word they are grown; + God is with us, we are His own, + Our victory cannot fail. + + Amen, Lord Jesus, grant our prayer! + Great Captain, now Thine arm make bare, + Fight for us once again: + So shall Thy saints and martyrs raise + A mighty chorus to Thy praise, + World without end. Amen. + +The army of Gustavus moved forward to victory as the fog lifted; but at +the moment of triumph a riderless horse came galloping back to the camp. +It was the horse of the martyred King. + +The battle song just quoted--next to Luther's "Ein feste Burg" the most +famous German hymn--has always since that day been called "Gustavus +Adolphus' Hymn"; and the mingled sorrow and joy of the event at Lutzen +named it also "King Gustavus' Swan Song." Gustavus Adolphus did not +write hymns. He could sing them, and he could make them historic--and it +was this connection that identified him with the famous battle song. Its +author was the Rev. Johan Michael Altenburg, a Lutheran clergyman, who +composed apparently both hymn and tune on receiving news of the king's +victory at Leipsic a year before. + +Gustavus Adolphus was born in 1594. His death on the battlefield +occurred Nov. 5, 1632--when he was in the prime of his manhood. He was +one of the greatest military commanders in history, besides being a +great ruler and administrator, and a devout Christian. He was, during +the Thirty Years' War (until his untimely death), the leading champion +of Protestantism in Europe. + +The English translator of the battle song was Miss Catherine Winkworth, +born in London, Sept. 13, 1827. She was an industrious and successful +translator of German hymns, contributing many results of her work to two +English editions of the _Lyra Germania_, to the _Church Book of +England_, and to _Christian Singers of Germany_. She died in 1878. + +The tune of "Ravendale" by Walter Stokes (born 1847) is the best modern +rendering of the celebrated hymn. + + +PAUL GERHARDT. + +"_Befiehl Du Deine Wege._" + +Paul Gerhardt was one of those minstrels of experience who are-- + + "Cradled into poetry by wrong, + And learn in suffering what they teach in song." + +He was a graduate of that school when he wrote his "Hymn of Trust:" + + Commit thou all thy griefs + And ways into His hands; + To His sure trust and tender care + Who earth and heaven commands. + + Thou on the Lord rely, + So, safe, shalt thou go on; + Fix on His work thy steadfast eye, + So shall thy work be done. + + * * * * * + + Give to the winds thy fears; + Hope, and be undismayed; + God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears, + He shall lift up thy head. + + Through waves and clouds and storms + He gently clears thy way; + Wait thou His time, so shall this night + Soon end in joyous day. + +Gerhardt was born at Grafenheinchen, Saxony, 1606. Through the first and +best years of manhood's strength (during the Thirty Years' War), a +wandering preacher tossed from place to place, he was without a parish +and without a home. + +After the peace of Westphalia he settled in the little village of +Mittenwalde. He was then forty-four years old. Four years later he +married and removed to a Berlin church. During his residence there he +buried his wife, and four of his children, was deposed from the +ministry because his Lutheran doctrines offended the Elector Frederick, +and finally retired as a simple arch-deacon to a small parish in Lubben, +where he preached, toiled, and suffered amid a rough and uncongenial +people till he died, Jan. 16, 1676. + +Few men have ever lived whose case more needed a "Hymn of Trust"--and +fewer still could have written it themselves. Through all those trial +years he was pouring forth his soul in devout verses, making in all no +less than a hundred and twenty-five hymns--every one of them a comfort +to others as well as to himself. + +He became a favorite, and for a time _the_ favorite, hymn-writer of all +the German-speaking people. Among these tones of calm faith and joy we +recognize today (in the English tongue),-- + + Since Jesus is my Friend, + + Thee, O Immanuel, we praise, + + All my heart this night rejoices, + + How shall I meet Thee, + +--and the English translation of his "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden," +turned into German by himself from St. Bernard Clairvaux's "Salve caput +cruentatum," and made dear to us in Rev. James Alexander's beautiful +lines-- + + O sacred head now wounded, + With grief and shame weighed down, + Now scornfully surrounded + With thorns, Thine only crown. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +A plain-song by Alexander Reinagle is used by some congregations, but is +not remarkably expressive. Reinagle, Alexander Robert, (1799-1877) of +Kidlington, Eng., was organist to the church of St. Peter-in-the-East, +Oxford. + +The great "Hymn of Trust" could have found no more sympathetic +interpreter than the musician of Gerhardt's own land and language, +Schumann, the gentle genius of Zwickau. It bears the name "Schumann," +appropriately enough, and its elocution makes a volume of each quatrain, +notably the one-- + + Who points the clouds their course, + Whom wind and seas obey; + He shall direct thy wandering feet, + He shall prepare thy way. + +Robert Schumann, Ph.D., was born in Zwickau, Saxony, June 8, 1810. He +was a music director and conservatory teacher, and the master-mind of +the pre-Wagnerian period. His compositions became popular, having a +character of their own, combining the intellectual and beautiful in art. +He published in Leipsic a journal promotive of his school of music, and +founded a choral society in Dresden. Happy in the coöperation of his +wife, herself a skilled musician, he extended his work to Vienna and the +Netherlands; but his zeal wore him out, and he died at the age of +forty-six, universally lamented as "the eminent man who had done so much +for the happiness of others." + +Gerhardt's Hymn (ten quatrains) is rarely printed entire, and where six +are printed only four are usually sung. Different collections choose +portions according to the compiler's taste, the stanza beginning-- + + Give to the winds thy fears, + +--being with some a favorite first verse. + +The translation of the hymn from the German is John Wesley's. + +Purely legendary is the beautiful story of the composition of the hymn, +"Commit thou all thy griefs"; how, after his exile from Berlin, +traveling on foot with his weeping wife, Gerhardt stopped at a wayside +inn and wrote the lines while he rested; and how a messenger from Duke +Christian found him there, and offered him a home in Meresburg. But the +most ordinary imagination can fill in the possible incidents in a life +of vicissitudes such as Gerhardt's was. + + +LADY HUNTINGDON. + +"When Thou My Righteous Judge Shalt Come." + +Selina Shirley, Countess of Huntingdon, born 1707, died 1791, is +familiarly known as the titled friend and patroness of Whitefield and +his fellow-preachers. She early consecrated herself to God, and in the +great spiritual awakening under Whitefield and the Wesleys she was a +punctual and sympathetic helper. Uniting with the Calvinistic +Methodists, she nevertheless stood aloof from none who preached a +personal Christ, and whose watchwords were the salvation of souls and +the purification of the Church. For more than fifty years she devoted +her wealth to benevolence and spiritual ministries, and died at the age +of eighty-four. "I have done my work," was her last testimony. "I have +nothing to do but to go to my Father." + +At various times Lady Huntingdon expressed her religious experience in +verse, and the manful vigor of her school of faith recalls the unbending +confidence of Job, for she was not a stranger to affliction. + + God's furnace doth in Zion stand, + But Zion's God sits by, + As the refiner views his gold, + With an observant eye. + + His thoughts are high, His love is wise, + His wounds a cure intend; + And, though He does not always smile, + He loves unto the end. + +Her great hymn, that keeps her memory green, has the old-fashioned +flavor. "Massa made God BIG!" was the comment on Dr. Bellany made by his +old negro servant after that noted minister's death. In Puritan piety +the sternest self-depreciation qualified every thought of the creature, +while every allusion to the Creator was a magnificat. Lady Huntingdon's +hymn has no flattering phrases for the human subject. "Worthless worm," +and "vilest of them all" indicate the true Pauline or Oriental +prostration of self before a superior being; but there is grandeur in +the metre, the awful reverence, and the scene of judgment in the +stanzas--always remembering the mighty choral that has so long given the +lyric its voice in the church, and is ancillary to its fame: + + When Thou, my righteous Judge, shalt come + To take Thy ransomed people home, + Shall I among them stand? + Shall such a worthless worm as I, + Who sometimes am afraid to die, + Be found at Thy right hand? + + I love to meet Thy people now, + Before Thy feet with them to bow, + Though vilest of them all; + But can I bear the piercing thought, + What if my name should be left out, + When Thou for them shalt call? + + O Lord, prevent it by Thy grace: + Be Thou my only hiding place, + In this th' accepted day; + Thy pardoning voice, oh let me hear, + To still my unbelieving fear, + Nor let me fall, I pray. + + Among Thy saints let me be found, + Whene'er the archangel's trump shall sound, + To see Thy smiling face; + Then loudest of the throng I'll sing, + While heaven's resounding arches ring + With shouts of sovereign grace. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The tune of "Meribah," in which this hymn has been sung for the last +sixty or more years, is one of Dr. Lowell Mason's masterpieces. An +earlier German harmony attributed to Heinrich Isaac and named +"Innsbruck" has in some few cases claimed association with the words, +though composed two hundred years before Lady Huntingdon was born. It is +strong and solemn, but its cold psalm-tune movement does not utter the +deep emotion of the author's lines. "Meribah" was inspired by the hymn +itself, and there is nothing invidious in saying it illustrates the +fact, memorable in all hymnology, of the natural obligation of a hymn to +its tune. + +Apropos of both, it is related that Mason was once presiding at choir +service in a certain church where the minister gave out "When thou my +righteous Judge shalt come" and by mistake directed the singers to "omit +the second stanza." Mason sat at the organ, and while playing the last +strain, "Be found at thy right hand," glanced ahead in the hymnbook and +turned with a start just in time to command, "Sing the _next_ verse!" +The choir did so, and "O Lord, prevent it by Thy grace!" was saved from +being a horrible prayer to be kept out of heaven. + + +ZINZENDORF. + +"Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness." + +Nicolaus Ludwig, Count Von Zinzendorf, was born at Dresden, May 26, +1700, and educated at Halle and Wittenberg. From his youth he evinced +marked seriousness of mind, and deep religious sensibilities, and this +character appeared in his sympathy with the persecuted Moravians, to +whom he gave domicile and domain on his large estate. For eleven years +he was Councillor to the Elector of Saxony, but subsequently, uniting +with the Brethren's Church, he founded the settlement of Herrnhut, the +first home and refuge of the reorganized sect, and became a Moravian +minister and bishop. + +Zinzendorf was a man of high culture, as well as profound and sincere +piety and in his hymns (of which he wrote more than two thousand) he +preached Christ as eloquently as with his voice. The real birth-moment +of his religious life is said to have been simultaneous with his study +of the "Ecce Homo" in the Dusseldorf Gallery, a wonderful painting of +Jesus crowned with thorns. Visiting the gallery one day when a young +man, he gazed on the sacred face and read the legend superscribed, "All +this I have done for thee; What doest thou for me?" Ever afterwards his +motto was "I have but one passion, and that is He, and only He"--a +version of Paul's "For me to live is Christ." + + Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness + My beauty are, my glorious dress: + 'Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, + With joy shall I lift up my head. + + Bold shall I stand in Thy great day, + For who aught to my charge shall lay? + Fully absolved through these I am-- + From sin and fear, from guilt and shame. + + Lord, I believe were sinners more + Than sands upon the ocean shore, + Thou hast for all a ransom paid, + For all a full atonement made. + +Nearly all the hymns of the great Moravian are now out of general use, +having accomplished their mission, like the forgotten ones of Gerhardt, +and been superseded by others. More sung in Europe, probably, now than +any of the survivors is, "Jesus, geh voran," ("Jesus, lead on,") which +has been translated into English by Jane Borthwick[8] (1854). Two +others, both translated by John Wesley, are with us, the one above +quoted, and "Glory to God, whose witness train." "Jesus, Thy blood," +which is the best known, frequently appears with the alteration-- + + Jesus, Thy _robe_ of righteousness + My beauty _is_, my glorious dress. + +[Footnote 8: Born in Edinburgh 1813.] + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"Malvern," and "Uxbridge" a pure Gregorian, both by Lowell Mason, are +common expressions of the hymn--the latter, perhaps, generally +preferred, being less plaintive and speaking with a surer and more +restful emphasis. + + +ROBERT SEAGRAVE. + +"Rise, My Soul, and Stretch Thy Wings." + +This hymn was written early in the 18th century, by the Rev. Robert +Seagrave, born at Twyford, Leicestershire, Eng., Nov. 22, 1693. Educated +at Cambridge, he took holy orders in the Established Church, but +espoused the cause of the great evangelistic movement, and became a +hearty co-worker with the Wesleys. Judging by the lyric fire he could +evidently put into his verses, one involuntarily asks if he would not +have written more, and been in fact the song-leader of the spiritual +reformation if there had been no Charles Wesley. There is not a hymn of +Wesley's in use on the same subject equal to the one immortal hymn of +Seagrave, and the only other near its time that approaches it in vigor +and appealing power is Doddridge's "Awake my soul, stretch every nerve." + +But Providence gave Wesley the harp and appointed to the elder poet a +branch of possibly equal usefulness, where he was kept too busy to enter +the singers' ranks. + +For eleven years he was the Sunday-evening lecturer at Lorimer's Hall, +London, and often preached in Whitefield's Tabernacle. His hymn is one +of the most soul-stirring in the English language: + +[Illustration: S. Huntingdon] + + Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings; + Thy better portion trace; + Rise from transitory things + Toward Heaven, thy native place; + Sun and moon and stars decay, + Time shall soon this earth remove; + Rise, my soul and haste away + To seats prepared above. + + Rivers to the ocean run, + Nor stay in all their course; + Fire ascending seeks the sun; + Both speed them to their source: + So a soul that's born of God + Pants to view His glorious face, + Upward tends to His abode + To rest in His embrace. + + * * * * * + + Cease, ye pilgrims, cease to mourn, + Press onward to the prize; + Soon your Saviour will return + Triumphant in the skies. + Yet a season, and you know + Happy entrance will be given; + All our sorrows left below, + And earth exchanged for heaven. + +This hymn must have found its predestinated organ when it found-- + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"Amsterdam," the work of James Nares, had its birth and baptism soon +after the work of Seagrave; and they have been breath and bugle to the +church of God ever since they became one song. In _The Great Musicians_, +edited by Francis Huffer, is found this account of James Nares: + +"He was born at Hanwell, Middlesex, in 1715; was admitted chorister at +the Chapel Royal, under Bernard Gates, and when he was able to play the +organ was appointed deputy for Pigott, of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, +and became organist at York Minster in 1734. He succeeded Greene as +organist and composer to the Chapel Royal in 1756, and in the same year +was made Doctor of Music at Cambridge. He was appointed master of the +children of the Chapel Royal in 1757, on the death of Gates. This post +he resigned in 1780, and he died in 1783, (February 10,) and was buried +in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster. + +"He had the reputation of being an excellent trainer of boy's voices, +many of his anthems having been written to exhibit the accomplishments +of his young pupils. The degree of excellence the boys attained was not +won in those days without the infliction of much corporal punishment." + +Judging from the high pulse and action in the music of "Amsterdam," one +would guess the energy of the man who made boy choirs--and made good +ones. In the old time the rule was, "Birds that can sing and won't sing, +must be made to sing"; and the rule was sometimes enforced with the +master's time-stick. + +A tune entitled "Excelsius," written a hundred years later by John Henry +Cornell, so nearly resembles "Amsterdam" as to suggest an intention to +amend it. It changes the modal note from G to A, but while it marches +at the same pace it lacks the jubilant modulations and the choral glory +of the 18th-century piece. + + +SIR JOHN BOWRING. + +"In the Cross of Christ I Glory." + +In this hymn we see, sitting humbly at the feet of the great author of +our religion, a man who impressed himself perhaps more than any other +save Napoleon Bonaparte upon his own generation, and who was the wonder +of Europe for his immense attainments and the versatility of his powers. +Statesman, philanthropist, biographer, publicist, linguist, historian, +financier, naturalist, poet, political economist--there is hardly a +branch of knowledge or a field of research from which he did not enrich +himself and others, or a human condition that he did not study and +influence. + +Sir John Bowring was born in 1792. When a youth he was Jeremy Bentham's +political pupil, but gained his first fame by his vast knowledge of +European literature, becoming acquainted with no less than thirteen[9] +continental languages and dialects. He served in consular appointments +at seven different capitals, carried important reform measures in +Parliament, was Minister Plenipotentiary to China and Governor of Hong +Kong, and concluded a commercial treaty with Siam, where every previous +commissioner had failed. But in all his crowded years the pen of this +tireless and successful man was busy. Besides his political, economic +and religious essays, which made him a member of nearly every learned +society in Europe, his translations were countless, and poems and hymns +of his own composing found their way to the public, among them the +tender spiritual song,-- + + How sweetly flowed the Gospel sound + From lips of gentleness and grace + When listening thousands gathered round, + And joy and gladness filled the place, + +--and the more famous hymn indicated at the head of this sketch. +Knowledge of all religions only qualified him to worship the Crucified +with both faith and reason. Though nominally a Unitarian, to him, as to +Channing and Martineau and Edmund Sears, Christ was "all we know of +God." + +[Footnote 9: Exaggerated in some accounts to _forty_.] + +Bowring died Nov. 23, 1872. But his hymn to the Cross will never die: + + In the cross of Christ I glory, + Towering o'er the wrecks of time; + All the light of sacred story + Gathers round its head sublime. + + When the woes of life o'ertake me + Hopes deceive, and fears annoy, + Never shall the cross forsake me; + Lo! it glows with peace and joy. + + When the sun of bliss is beaming + Light and love upon my way, + From the cross the radiance streaming + Adds new lustre to the day. + + Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure + By the cross are sanctified, + Peace is there that knows no measure, + Joys that through all time abide. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Ithamar Conkey's "Rathbun" fits the adoring words as if they had waited +for it. Its air, swelling through diatonic fourth and third to the +supreme syllable, bears on its waves the homage of the lines from bar to +bar till the four voices come home to rest full and satisfied in the +final chord-- + + Gathers round its head sublime. + +Ithamar Conkey, was born of Scotch ancestry, in Shutesbury, Mass., May +5th, 1815. He was a noted bass singer, and was for a long time connected +with the choir of the Calvary church, New York City, and sang the +oratorio solos. His tune of "Rathbun" was composed in 1847, and +published in Greatorex's collection in 1851. He died in Elizabeth, N.J., +April 30, 1867. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION AND EXPERIENCE. + + +"JESU DULCIS MEMORIA." + +"Jesus the Very Thought of Thee." + +The original of this delightful hymn is one of the devout meditations of +Bernard of Clairvaux, a Cistercian monk (1091-1153). He was born of a +noble family in or near Dijon, Burgundy, and when only twenty-three +years old established a monastery at Clairvaux, France, over which he +presided as its first abbot. Educated in the University of Paris, and +possessing great natural abilities, he soon made himself felt in both +the religious and political affairs of Europe. For more than thirty +years he was the personal power that directed belief, quieted +turbulence, and arbitrated disputes, and kings and even popes sought his +counsel. It was his eloquent preaching that inspired the second crusade. + +His fine poem of feeling, in fifty Latin stanzas, has been a source of +pious song in several languages: + + Jesu, dulcis memoria + Dans vera cordi gaudia, + Sed super mel et omnium + Ejus dulcis presentia. + +Literally-- + + Jesus! a sweet memory + Giving true joys to the heart, + But sweet above honey and all things + His _presence_ [is]. + +The five stanzas (of Caswall's free translation) now in use are familiar +and dear to all English-speaking believers: + + Jesus, the very thought of Thee + With sweetness fills my breast, + But sweeter far Thy face to see, + And in Thy presence rest. + + Nor voice can sing nor heart can frame + Nor can the memory find, + A sweeter sound than Thy blest name, + O Saviour of mankind. + +The Rev. Edward Caswall was born in Hampshire, Eng., July 15, 1814, the +son of a clergyman. He graduated with honors at Brazenose College, +Oxford, and after ten years of service in the ministry of the Church of +England joined Henry Newman's Oratory at Birmingham, was confirmed in +the Church of Rome, and devoted the rest of his life to works of piety +and charity. He died Jan. 2, 1878. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +No single melody has attached itself to this hymn, the scope of +selection being as large as the supply of appropriate common-metre +tunes. Barnby's "Holy Trinity," Wade's "Holy Cross" and Griggs' tune (of +his own name) are all good, but many, on the giving out of the hymn, +would associate it at once with the more familiar "Heber" by George +Kingsley and expect to hear it sung. It has the uplift and unction of +John Newton's-- + + How sweet the name of Jesus sounds + In the believer's ear. + + +"GOD CALLING YET! SHALL I NOT HEAR?" + +Gerhard Tersteegen, the original author of the hymn, and one of the most +eminent religious poets of the Reformed German church in its early days, +was born in 1697, in the town of Mors, in Westphalia. He was left an +orphan in boyhood by the death of his father, and as his mother's means +were limited, he was put to work as an apprentice when very young, at +Muhlheim on the Ruhr, and became a ribbon weaver. Here, when about +fifteen years of age, he became deeply concerned for his soul, and +experienced a deep and abiding spiritual work. As a Christian, his +religion partook of the ascetic type, but his mysticism did not make him +useless to his fellow-men. + +At the age of twenty-seven, he dedicated all his resources and energies +to the cause of Christ, writing the dedication in his own blood. "God +graciously called me," he says, "out of the world, and granted me the +desire to belong to Him, and to be willing to follow Him." He gave up +secular employments altogether, and devoted his whole time to religious +instruction and to the poor. His house became famous as the "Pilgrims' +Cottage," and was visited by people high and humble from all parts of +Germany. In his lifetime he is said to have written one hundred and +eleven hymns. Died April 3, 1769. + + God calling yet! shall I not hear? + Earth's pleasures shall I still hold dear? + Shall life's swift-passing years all fly, + And still my soul in slumber lie? + + * * * * * + + God calling yet! I cannot stay; + My heart I yield without delay. + Vain world, farewell; from thee I part; + The voice of God hath reached my heart. + +The hymn was translated from the German by Miss Jane Borthwick, born in +Edinburgh, 1813. She and her younger sister, Mrs. Findlater, jointly +translated and published, in 1854, _Hymns From the Land of Luther_, and +contributed many poetical pieces to the _Family Treasury_. She died in +1897. + +Another translation, imitating the German metre, is more euphonious, +though less literal and less easily fitted to music not specially +composed for it, on account of its "feminine" rhymes: + + God calling yet! and shall I never hearken? + But still earth's witcheries my spirit darken; + This passing life, these passing joys all flying, + And still my soul in dreamy slumbers lying? + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Dr. Dykes' "Rivaulx" is a sober choral that articulates the +hymn-writer's sentiment with sincerity and with considerable +earnestness, but breathes too faintly the interrogative and expostulary +tone of the lines. To voice the devout solicitude and self-remonstrance +of the hymn there is no tune superior to "Federal St." + +The Hon. Henry Kemble Oliver, author of "Federal St.," was born in +Salem, Mass., March, 1800, and was addicted to music from his childhood. +His father compelled him to relinquish it as a profession, but it +remained his favorite avocation, and after his graduation from Harvard +the cares of none of the various public positions he held, from +schoolmaster to treasurer of the state of Massachusetts, could ever wean +him from the study of music and its practice. At the age of thirty-one, +while sitting one day in his study, the last verse of Anne Steele's +hymn-- + + So fades the lovely blooming flower, + +--floated into his mind, and an unbidden melody came with it. As he +hummed it to himself the words shaped the air, and the air shaped the +words. + + Then gentle patience smiles on pain, + Then dying hope revives again, + +--became-- + + See gentle patience smile on pain; + See dying hope revive again; + +--and with the change of a word and a tense the hymn created the melody, +and soon afterward the complete tune was made. Two years later it was +published by Lowell Mason, and Oliver gave it the name of the street in +Salem on which his wife was born, wooed, won, and married. It adds a +pathos to its history that "Federal St." was sung at her burial. + +This first of Oliver's tunes was followed by "Harmony Grove," "Morning," +"Walnut Grove," "Merton," "Hudson," "Bosworth," "Salisbury Plain," +several anthems and motets, and a "Te Deum." + +In his old age, at the great Peace Jubilee in Boston, 1872, the baton +was put into his hands, and the gray-haired composer conducted the +chorus of ten thousand voices as they sang the words and music of his +noble harmony. The incident made "Federal St." more than ever a feature +of New England history. Oliver died in 1885. + + +"MY GOD, HOW ENDLESS IS THY LOVE." + +The spirited tune to this hymn of Watts, by Frederick Lampe, variously +named "Kent" and "Devonshire," historically reaches back so near to the +poet's time that it must have been one of the earliest expressions of +his fervent words. + +Johan Friedrich Lampe, born 1693, in Saxony, was educated in music at +Helmstadt, and came to England in 1725 as a band musician and composer +to Covent Garden Theater. His best-known secular piece is the music +written to Henry Carey's burlesque, "The Dragon of Wantley." + +Mrs. Rich, wife of the lessee of the theater, was converted under the +preaching of the Methodists, and after her husband's death her house +became the home of Lampe and his wife, where Charles Wesley often met +him. + +The influence of Wesley won him to more serious work, and he became one +of the evangelist's helpers, supplying tunes to his singing campaigns. +Wesley became attached to him, and after his death--in Edinburgh, +1752--commemorated the musician in a funeral hymn. + +In popular favor Bradbury's tune of "Rolland" has now superseded the old +music sung to Watts' lines-- + + My God, how endless is Thy love, + Thy gifts are every evening new, + And morning mercies from above + Gently distil like early dew. + + * * * * * + + I yield my powers to Thy command; + To Thee I consecrate my days; + Perpetual blessings from Thy hand + Demand perpetual songs of praise. + +William Batchelder Bradbury, a pupil of Dr. Lowell Mason, and the +pioneer in publishing Sunday-school music, was born 1816, in York, Me. +His father, a veteran of the Revolution, was a choir leader, and +William's love of music was inherited. He left his father's farm, and +came to Boston, where he first heard a church-organ. Encouraged by Mason +and others to follow music as a profession, he went abroad, studied at +Leipsic, and soon after his return became known as a composer of sacred +tunes. He died in Montclair, N.J., 1868. + + +"I'M NOT ASHAMED TO OWN MY LORD." + +The favorite tune for this spiritual hymn, also by Watts, is old +"Arlington," one of the most useful church melodies in the whole realm +of English psalmody. Its name clings to a Boston street, and the +beautiful chimes of Arlington St. church (Unitarian) annually ring its +music on special occasions, as it has since the bells were tuned: + + I'm not ashamed to own my Lord + Or to defend His cause, + Maintain the honor of His Word, + The glory of His cross. + + Jesus, my God!--I know His Name; + His Name is all my trust, + Nor will He put my soul to shame + Nor let my hope be lost. + +Dr. Thomas Augustine Arne, the creator of "Arlington," was born in +London, 1710, the son of a King St. upholsterer. He studied at Eton, and +though intended for the legal profession, gave his whole mind to music. +At twenty-three he began writing operas for his sister, Susanna (a +singer who afterwards became the famous tragic actress, Mrs. Cibber). + +Arne's music to Milton's "Comus," and to "Rule Brittannia" established +his reputation. He was engaged as composer to Drury Lane Theater, and in +1759 received from Oxford his degree of Music Doctor. Later in life he +turned his attention to oratorios, and other forms of sacred music, and +was the first to introduce female voices in choir singing. He died March +5, 1778, chanting hallelujahs, it is said, with his last breath. + + +"IS THIS THE KIND RETURN?" + +Dr. Watts in this hymn gave experimental piety its hour and language of +reflection and penitence: + + Is this the kind return? + Are these the thanks we owe, + Thus to abuse Eternal Love + Whence all our blessings flow? + + * * * * * + + Let past ingratitude + Provoke our weeping eyes. + +United in loving wedlock with these words in former years was "Golden +Hill," a chime of sweet counterpoint too rare to bury its authorship +under the vague phrase "A Western Melody." It was caught evidently from +a forest bird[10] that flutes its clear solo in the sunsets of May and +June. There can be no mistaking the imitation--the same compass, the +same upward thrill, the same fall and warbled turn. Old-time folk used +to call for it, "Sing, my Fairweather Bird." It lingers in a few of the +twenty- or thirty-years-ago collections, but stronger voices have +drowned it out of the new. + +[Footnote 10: The wood thrush.] + +"Thacher," (set to the same hymn,) faintly recalls its melody. +Nevertheless "Thacher" is a good tune. Though commonly written in +sharps, contrasting the B flat of its softer and more liquid rival of +other days, it is one of Handel's strains, and lends the meaning and +pathos of the lyric text to voice and instrument. + + +"WHEN I SURVEY THE WONDROUS CROSS." + +This crown of all the sacred odes of Dr. Watts for the song-service of +the church of God was called by Matthew Arnold the "greatest hymn in the +English language." The day the eminent critic died he heard it sung in +the Sefton Park Presbyterian Church, and repeated the opening lines +softly to himself again and again after the services. The hymn is +certainly _one_ of the greatest in the language. It appeared as No. 7 in +Watts' third edition (about 1710) containing five stanzas. The second +line-- + + On which the Prince of Glory died, + +--read originally-- + + Where the young Prince of Glory died. + +Only four stanzas are now generally used. The omitted one-- + + His dying crimson like a robe + Spreads o'er His body on the tree; + Then am I dead to all the globe, + And all the globe is dead to me. + +--is a flash of tragic imagination, showing the sanguine intensity of +Christian vision in earlier time, when contemplating the Saviour's +passion; but it is too realistic for the spirit and genius of +song-worship. That the great hymn was designed by the writer for +communion seasons, and was inspired by Gal. 6:14, explains the two last +lines if not the whole of the highly colored verse. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +One has a wide field of choice in seeking the best musical +interpretation of this royal song of faith and self-effacement: + + When I survey the wondrous Cross + On which the Prince of Glory died, + My richest gain I count but loss, + And pour contempt on all my pride. + + Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast + Save in the death of Christ my God; + All the vain things that charm me most, + I sacrifice them to His blood. + + See from His head, His hands, His feet, + Sorrow and love flow mingled down; + Did e'er such love and sorrow meet; + Or thorns compose so rich a crown? + + Were the whole realm of Nature mine, + That were a present far too small; + Love so amazing, so divine, + Demands my soul, my life, my all. + +To match the height and depth of these words with fitting glory of sound +might well have been an ambition of devout composers. Rev. G.C. Wells' +tune in the _Revivalist_, with its emotional chorus, I.B. Woodbury's +"Eucharist" in the _Methodist Hymnal_, Henry Smart's effective choral in +Barnby's _Hymnary_ (No. 170), and a score of others, have woven the +feeling lines into melody with varying success. Worshippers in spiritual +sympathy with the words may question if, after all, old "Hamburg," the +best of Mason's loved Gregorians, does not, alone, in tone and +elocution, rise to the level of the hymn. + + +"LOVE DIVINE, ALL LOVES EXCELLING." + +This evergreen song-wreath to the Crucified, was contributed by Charles +Wesley, in 1746. It is found in his collection of 1756, _Hymns for Those +That Seek and Those That Have Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ_. + + Love Divine all loves excelling, + Joy of Heaven to earth come down, + Fix in us Thy humble dwelling, + All Thy faithful mercies crown. + + * * * * * + + Come Almighty to deliver, + Let us all Thy life receive, + Suddenly return, and never, + Nevermore Thy temples leave. + + * * * * * + + Finish then Thy new creation; + Pure and spotless let us be; + Let us see our whole salvation + Perfectly secured by Thee. + + Changed from glory into glory + Till in Heaven we take our place, + Till we cast our crowns before Thee + Lost in wonder, love and praise! + +The hymn has been set to H. Isaac's ancient tune (1490), to Wyeth's +"Nettleton" (1810), to Thos. H. Bailey's (1777-1839) "Isle of Beauty, +fare thee well" (named from Thomas Moore's song), to Edward Hopkins' +"St. Joseph," and to a multitude of others more or less familiar. + +Most familiar of all perhaps, (as in the instance of "Far from mortal +cares retreating,") is its association with "Greenville," the production +of that brilliant but erratic genius and freethinker, Jean Jacques +Rousseau. It was originally a love serenade, ("Days of absence, sad and +dreary") from the opera of _Le Devin du Village_, written about 1752. +The song was commonly known years afterwards as "Rousseau's Dream." But +the unbelieving philosopher, musician, and misguided moralist builded +better than he knew, and probably better than he meant when he wrote his +immortal choral. Whatever he heard in his "dream" (and one legend says +it was a "song of angels") he created a harmony dear to the church he +despised, and softened the hearts of the Christian world towards an evil +teacher who was inspired, like Balaam, to utter one sacred strain. + +Rousseau was born in Geneva, 1712, but he never knew his mother, and +neither the affection or interest of his father or of his other +relatives was of the quality to insure the best bringing up of a child. + +He died July, 1778. But his song survives, while the world gladly +forgets everything else he wrote. It is almost a pardonable exaggeration +to say that every child in Christendom knows "Greenville." + + +"WHEN ALL THY MERCIES, O MY GOD." + +This charming hymn was written by Addison, the celebrated English poet +and essayist, about 1701, in grateful commemoration of his delivery from +shipwreck in a storm off the coast of Genoa, Italy. It originally +contained thirteen stanzas, but no more than four or six are commonly +sung. It has put the language of devotional gratitude into the mouths of +thousands of humble disciples who could but feebly frame their own: + + When all Thy mercies, O my God + My rising soul surveys, + Transported with the view I'm lost + In wonder, love and praise. + + Unnumbered comforts on my soul + Thy tender care bestowed + Before my infant heart conceived + From whom those comforts flowed. + + When in the slippery paths of youth + With heedless steps I ran, + Thine arm unseen conveyed me safe, + And led me up to man. + +Another hymn of Addison-- + + How are Thy servants bless'd, O Lord, + +--was probably composed after the same return from a foreign voyage. It +has been called his "Traveller's Hymn." + +Joseph Addison, the best English writer of his time, was the son of +Lancelot Addison, rector of Milston, Wiltshire, and afterwards Dean of +Litchfield. The distinguished author was born in Milston Rectory, May 1, +1672, and was educated at Oxford. His excellence in poetry, both English +and Latin, gave him early reputation, and a patriotic ode obtained for +him the patronage of Lord Somers. A pension from King William III. +assured him a comfortable income, which was increased by further honors, +for in 1704 he was appointed Commissioner of Appeals, then secretary of +the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and in 1717 Secretary of State. He died +in Holland House, Kensington, near London, June 17, 1719. + +His hymns are not numerous, (said to be only five), but they are +remarkable for the simple beauty of their style, as well as for their +Christian spirit. Of his fine metrical version of the 23rd Psalm,-- + + The Lord my pasture shall prepare, + And feed me with a shepherd's care, + +--one of his earliest productions, the tradition is that he gathered its +imagery when a boy living at Netheravon, near Salisbury Plain, during +his lonely two-mile walks to school at Amesbury and back again. All his +hymns appeared first in the _Spectator_, to which he was a prolific +contributor. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The hymn "When all Thy mercies" still has "Geneva" for its vocal mate in +some congregational manuals. The tune is one of the rare survivals of +the old "canon" musical method, the parts coming in one after another +with identical notes. It is always delightful as a performance with its +glory of harmony and its sweet duet, and for generations it had no other +words than Addison's hymn. + +John Cole, author of "Geneva," was born in Tewksbury, Eng., 1774, and +came to the United States in his boyhood (1785). Baltimore, Md. became +his American home, and he was educated there. Early in life he became a +musician and music publisher. At least twelve of his principal song +collections from 1800 to 1832 are mentioned by Mr. Hubert P. Main, most +of them sacred and containing many of his own tunes. + +He continued to compose music till his death, Aug. 17, 1855. Mr. Cole +was leader of the regimental band known as "The Independent Blues," +which played in the war of 1812, and was present at the "North Point" +fight, and other battles. + +Besides "Geneva," for real feeling and harmonic beauty "Manoah," adapted +from Haydn's Creation, deserves mention as admirably suited to +"Addison's" hymn, and also "Belmont," by Samuel Webbe, which resembles +it in style and sentiment. + +Samuel Webbe, composer of "Belmont," was of English parentage but was +born in Minorca, Balearic Islands, in 1740, where his father at that +time held a government appointment; but his father, dying suddenly, left +his family poor, and Samuel was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker. He +served his apprenticeship, and immediately repaired to a London teacher +and began the study of music and languages. Surmounting great +difficulties, he became a competent musician, and made himself popular +as a composer of glees. He was also the author of several masses, +anthems, and hymn-tunes, the best of which are still in occasional use. +Died in London, 1816. + + +"JESUS, I LOVE THY CHARMING NAME." + +When Dr. Doddridge, the author of this hymn, during his useful ministry, +had finished the preparation of a pulpit discourse that strongly +impressed him, he was accustomed, while his heart was yet glowing with +the sentiment that had inspired him, to put the principal thoughts into +metre, and use the hymn thus written at the conclusion of the preaching +of the sermon. This hymn of Christian ardor was written to be sung after +a sermon from Romans 8:35, "Who shall separate us from the love of +Christ?" + + Jesus, I love Thy charming name, + 'Tis music to mine ear: + Fain would I sound it out so loud + That earth and heaven should hear. + + * * * * * + + I'll speak the honors of Thy name + With my last laboring breath, + Then speechless, clasp Thee in my arms, + The conqueror of death. + +Earlier copies have-- + + The _antidote_ of death. + +Philip Doddridge, D.D., was born in London, June 26, 1702. Educated at +Kingston Grammar School and Kibworth Academy, he became a scholar of +respectable attainments, and was ordained to the Non-conformist +ministry. He was pastor of the Congregational church at Northampton, +from 1729 until his death, acting meanwhile as principal of the +Theological School in that place. In 1749 he ceased to preach and went +to Lisbon for his health, but died there about two years later, of +consumption, Oct. 26, 1752. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The hymn has been sometimes sung to "Pisgah," an old revival piece by +J.C. Lowry (1820) once much heard in camp-meetings, but it is a +pedestrian tune with too many quavers, and a headlong tempo. + +Bradbury's "Jazer," in three-four time, is a melody with modulations, +though more sympathetic, but it is hard to divorce the hymn from its +long-time consort, old "Arlington." It has the accent of its sincerity, +and the breath of its devotion. + + +"LO, ON A NARROW NECK OF LAND." + +This hymn of Charles Wesley is always designated now by the above line, +the first of the _second_ stanza as originally written. It is said to +have been composed at Land's End, in Cornwall, with the British Channel +and the broad Atlantic in view and surging on both sides around a +"narrow neck of land." + + Lo! on a narrow neck of land, + Twixt two unbounded seas, I stand, + Secure, insensible: + A point of time, a moment's space, + Removes me to that heavenly place, + Or shuts me up in hell. + + O God, mine inmost soul convert, + And deeply on my thoughtful heart + Eternal things impress: + Give me to feel their solemn weight, + And tremble on the brink of fate, + And wake to righteousness. + +The preachers and poets of the great spiritual movement of the +eighteenth century in England abated nothing in the candor of their +words. The terrible earnestness of conviction tipped their tongues and +pens with fire. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Lady Huntingdon would have lent "Meribah" gladly to this hymn, but Mason +was not yet born. Many times it has been borrowed for Wesley's words +since it came to its own, and the spirit of the pious Countess has +doubtless approved the loan. It is rich enough to furnish forth her own +lyric and more than one other of like matter and metre. + +The muscular music of "Ganges" has sometimes carried the hymn, and there +are those who think its thunder is not a whit more Hebraic than the +words require. + + +"COME YE SINNERS POOR AND NEEDY." + +Few hymns have been more frequently sung in prayer-meetings and +religious assemblies during the last hundred and fifty years. Its +author, Joseph Hart, spoke what he knew and testified what he felt. Born +in London, 1712, and liberally educated, he was in his young manhood +very religious, but he went so far astray as to indulge in evil +practices, and even published writings, both original and translated, +against Christianity and religion of any kind. But he could not drink at +the Dead Sea and live. The apples of Sodom sickened him. Conscience +asserted itself, and the pangs of remorse nearly drove him to despair +till he turned back to the source he had forsaken. He alludes to this +experience in the lines-- + + Let not conscience make you linger, + Nor of fitness fondly dream; + All the fitness He requireth + Is to feel your need of Him. + +During Passion Week, 1767, he had an amazing view of the sufferings of +Christ, under the stress of which his heart was changed. In the joy of +this experience he wrote-- + + Come ye sinners poor and needy, + +--and-- + + Come all ye chosen saints of God. + +Probably no two hymn-lines have been oftener repeated than-- + + If you tarry till you're better + You will never come at all. + +The complete form of the original stanzas is: + + Come ye sinners poor and needy, + Weak and wounded, sick and sore; + Jesus ready stands to save you, + Full of pity, love and power. + He is able, + He is willing; doubt no more. + +The whole hymn--ten stanzas--is not sung now as one, but two, the second +division beginning with the line-- + + Come ye weary, heavy laden. + +Rev. Joseph Hart became minister of Jewin St. Congregational Chapel, +London, about 1760, where he labored till his death, May 24, 1768. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +A revival song by Jeremiah Ingalls (1764-1828), written about 1804, with +an easy, popular swing and a _sforzando_ chorus-- + + Turn to the Lord and seek salvation, + +--monopolized this hymn for a good many years. The tunes commonly +assigned to it have since been "Greenville" and Von Weber's "Wilmot," in +which last it is now more generally sung--dropping the echo lines at the +end of each stanza. + +Carl Maria Von Weber, son of a roving musician, was born in Eutin, +Germany, 1786. He developed no remarkable genius till he was about +twenty years old, though being a fine vocalist, his singing brought him +popularity and gain; but in 1806 he nearly lost his voice by accidently +drinking nitric acid. He was for several years private secretary to Duke +Ludwig at Stuttgart, and in 1813 Chapel-Master at Prague, from which +place he went to Dresden in 1817 as Musik-Director. + +Von Weber's Korner songs won the hearts of all Germany; and his immortal +"Der Freischutz" (the Free Archer), and numerous tender melodies like +the airs to "John Anderson, my Jo" and "O Poortith Cauld" have gone to +all civilized nations. No other composer had such feeling for beauty of +sound. + +This beloved musician was physically frail and delicate, and died of +untimely decline, during a visit to London in 1826. + + +"O HAPPY SAINTS WHO DWELL IN LIGHT." + +Sometimes printed "O happy _souls_." This poetical and flowing hymn +seems to have been forgotten in the making up of most modern church +hymnals. Hymns on heaven and heavenly joys abound in embarrassing +numbers, but it is difficult to understand why this beautiful lyric +should be _universally_ neglected. It was written probably about 1760, +by Rev. John Berridge, from the text, "Blessed are the dead who die in +the Lord," + +The first line of the second stanza-- + + Released from sorrow, toil and strife, + +--has been tinkered in some of the older hymn-books, where it is found +to read--, + + Released from sorrows toil and _grief_, + +--not only committing a tautology, but destroying the perfect rhyme with +"life" in the next line. The whole hymn, too, has been much altered by +substituted words and shifted lines, though not generally to the serious +detriment of its meaning and music. + +The Rev. John Berridge--friend of the Wesleys, Whitefield, and Lady +Huntingdon--was an eccentric but very worthy and spiritual minister, +born the son of a farmer, in Kingston, Nottinghamshire, Eng., Mar. 1, +1716. He studied at Cambridge, and was ordained curate of Stapleford and +subsequently located as vicar of Everton, 1775. He died Jan. 22, 1793. +He loved to preach, and he was determined that his tombstone should +preach after his voice was still. His epitaph, composed by himself, is +both a testimony and a memoir: + + "Here lie the earthly remains of John Berridge, late vicar of + Everton, and an itinerant servant of Jesus Christ, who loved his + Master and His work, and after running His errands many years, was + called up to wait on Him above. + + "Reader, art thou born again? + + "No salvation without the new birth. + + "I was born in sin, February, 1716. + + "Remained ignorant of my fallen state till 1730. + + "Lived proudly on faith and works for salvation till 1751. + + "Admitted to Everton vicarage, 1755. + + "Fled to Jesus alone for refuge, 1756. + + "Fell asleep in Jesus Christ,--" (1793.) + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The once popular score that easily made the hymn a favorite, was +"Salem," in the old _Psalmodist_. It still appears in some note-books, +though the name of its composer is uncertain. Its notes (in 6-8 time) +succeed each other in syllabic modulations that give a soft dactylic +accent to the measure and a wavy current to the lines: + + O happy saints that 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 sorrow, toil and strife, + Death was the gate to endless life, + And now they range the heavenly plains + And sing His love in melting strains. + +Another version reads: + + ----and welcome to an endless life, + Their souls have now begun to prove + The height and depth of Jesus' love. + + +"THOU DEAR REDEEMER, DYING LAMB." + +The author, John Cennick, like Joseph Hart, was led to Christ after a +reckless boyhood and youth, by the work of the Divine Spirit in his +soul, independent of any direct outward influence. Sickened of his +cards, novels, and playhouse pleasures, he had begun a sort of +mechanical reform, when one day, walking in the streets of London, he +suddenly seemed to hear the text spoken "I am thy salvation!" His +consecration began at that moment. + +He studied for the ministry, and became a preacher, first under +direction of the Wesleys, then under Whitefield, but afterwards joined +the Moravians, or "Brethren." He was born at Reading, Derbyshire, Eng., +Dec. 12, 1718, and died in London, July 4, 1755. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The word "Rhine" (in some collections--in others "Emmons") names a +revival tune once so linked with this hymn and so well known that few +religious people now past middle life could enjoy singing it to any +other. With a compass one note beyond an octave and a third, it utters +every line with a clear, bold gladness sure to infect a meeting with its +own spiritual fervor. + + Thou dear Redeemer, dying Lamb, + I love to hear of Thee; + No music like Thy charming name, + Nor half so sweet can be. + +The composer of the bright legato melody just described was Frederick +Burgmüller, a young German musician, born in 1804. He was a remarkable +genius, both in composition and execution, but his health was frail, and +he did not live to fulfil the rich possibilities that lay within him. He +died in 1824--only twenty years old. The tune "Rhine" ("Emmons") is from +one of his marches. + + +"WHILE THEE I SEEK, PROTECTING POWER." + +Helen Maria Williams wrote this sweet hymn, probably about the year +1800. She was a brilliant woman, better known in literary society for +her political verses and essays than by her hymns; but the hymn here +noted bears sufficient witness to her deep religious feeling: + + While Thee I seek, Protecting Power, + Be my vain wishes stilled, + And may this consecrated hour + With better hopes be filled. + Thy love the power of thought bestowed; + To Thee my thoughts would soar, + Thy mercy o'er my life has flowed, + That mercy I adore. + +Miss Williams was born in the north of England, Nov. 30, 1762, but spent +much of her life in London, and in Paris, where she died, Dec. 14, 1827. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Wedded so many years to the gentle, flowing music of Pleyel's "Brattle +Street," few lovers of the hymn recall its words without the melody of +that emotional choral. + +The plain psalm-tune, "Simpson," by Louis Spohr, divides the stanzas +into quatrains. + + +"JESUS MY ALL TO HEAVEN IS GONE." + +This hymn, by Cennick, was familiarized to the public more than two +generations ago by its revival tune, sometimes called "Duane Street," +long-metre double. It is staffed in various keys, but its movement is +full of life and emphasis, and its melody is contagious. The piece was +composed by Rev. George Coles, in 1835. + +The fact that this hymn of Cennick with Coles's tune appears in the _New +Methodist Hymnal_ indicates the survival of both in modern favor. + +[Illustration: Augustus Montague Toplady] + + Jesus my all to heaven is gone, + He whom I fixed my hopes upon; + His track I see, and I'll pursue + The narrow way till Him I view. + The way the holy prophets went, + The road that leads from banishment, + The King's highway of holiness + I'll go for all Thy paths are peace. + +The memory has not passed away of the hearty unison with which +prayer-meeting and camp-meeting assemblies used to "crescendo" the last +stanza-- + + Then will I tell to sinners round + What a dear Saviour I have found; + I'll point to His redeeming blood, + And say "Behold the way to God." + +The Rev. George Coles was born in Stewkley, Eng., Jan. 2, 1792, and died +in New York City, May 1, 1858. He was editor of the _N.Y. Christian +Advocate_, and _Sunday School Advocate_, for several years, and was a +musician of some ability, besides being a good singer. + + +"SWEET THE MOMENTS, RICH IN BLESSING." + +The Hon. and Rev. Walter Shirley, Rector of Loughgree, county of Galway, +Ireland, revised this hymn under the chastening discipline of a most +trying experience. His brother, the Earl of Ferrars, a licentious man, +murdered an old and faithful servant in a fit of rage, and was executed +at Tyburn for the crime. Sir Walter, after the disgrace and long +distress of the imprisonment, trial, and final tragedy, returned to his +little parish in Ireland, humbled but driven nearer to the Cross. + + Sweet the moments, rich in blessing + Which before the Cross I spend; + Life and health and peace possessing + From the sinner's dying Friend. + +All the emotion of one who buries a mortifying sorrow in the heart of +Christ, and tries to forget, trembles in the lines of the above hymn as +he changed and adapted it in his saddest but devoutest hours. Its +original writer was the Rev. James Allen, nearly twenty years younger +than himself, a man of culture and piety, but a Christian of shifting +creeds. It is not impossible that he sent his hymn to Shirley to revise. +At all events it owes its present form to Shirley's hand. + + Truly blesséd is the station + Low before His cross to lie, + While I see Divine Compassion + Beaming in His gracious eye.[11] + +[Footnote 11: "Floating in His languid eye" seems to have been the +earlier version.] + +The influence of Sir Walter's family misfortune is evident also in the +mood out of which breathed his other trustful lines-- + + Peace, troubled soul, whose plaintive moan + Hath taught these rocks the notes of woe, + +(changed now to "hath taught _these scenes_" etc). + +Sir Walter Shirley, cousin of the Countess of Huntingdon, was born 1725, +and died in 1786. Even in his last sickness he continued to preach to +his people in his house, seated in his chair. + +Rev. James Oswald Allen was born at Gayle, Yorkshire, Eng., June 24, +1743. He left the University of Cambridge after a year's study, and +became an itinerant preacher, but seems to have been a man of unstable +religious views. After roving from one Christian denomination to another +several times, he built a Chapel, and for forty years ministered there +to a small Independent congregation. He died in Gayle, Oct. 31, 1804. + +The tune long and happily associated with "Sweet the Moments" is +"Sicily," or the "Sicilian Hymn"--from an old Latin hymn-tune, "O +Sanctissima." + + +"O FOR A CLOSER WALK WITH GOD." + +The author, William Cowper, son of a clergyman, was born at +Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire, Eng., Nov. 15, 1731, and died at Dereham, +Norfolk, April 25, 1800. Through much of his adult life he was afflicted +with a mental ailment inducing melancholia and at times partial +insanity, during which he once attempted suicide. He sought literary +occupation as an antidote to his disorder of mind, and besides a great +number of lighter pieces which diverted him and his friends, composed +"The Task," an able and delightful moral and domestic poetic treatise in +blank verse, and in the same style of verse translated Homer's _Odyssey_ +and _Iliad_. + +One of the most beloved of English poets, this suffering man was also a +true Christian, and wrote some of our sweetest and most spiritual hymns. +Most of these were composed at Olney, where he resided for a time with +John Newton, his fellow hymnist, and jointly with him issued the volume +known as the _Olney Hymns_. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Music more or less closely identified with this familiar hymn is +Gardiner's "Dedham," and also "Mear," often attributed to Aaron +Williams. Both, about equally with the hymn, are seasoned by time, but +have not worn out their harmony--or their fitness to Cowper's prayer. + +William Gardiner was born in Leicester, Eng., March 15, 1770, and died +there Nov. 11, 1853. He was a vocal composer and a "musicographer" or +writer on musical subjects. + +One Aaron Williams, to whom "Mear" has by some been credited, was of +Welsh descent, a composer of psalmody and clerk of the Scotch church in +London. He was born in 1734, and died in 1776. Another account, and the +more probable one, names a minister of Boston of still earlier date as +the author of the noble old harmony. It is found in a small New England +collection of 1726, but not in any English or Scotch collection. "Mear" +is presumably an American tune. + + +"WHAT VARIOUS HINDRANCES WE MEET." + +Another hymn of Cowper's; and no one ever suffered more deeply the +plaintive regret in the opening lines, or better wrought into poetic +expression an argument for prayer. + + What various hindrances we meet + In coming to a mercy-seat! + Yet who that knows the worth of prayer + But wishes to be often there? + + Prayer makes the darkest clouds withdraw, + Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw. + +The whole hymn is (or once was) so thoroughly learned by heart as to be +fixed in the church among its household words. Preachers to the +diffident do not forget to quote-- + + Have you no words? ah, think again; + Words flow apace when you _complain_. + + * * * * * + + Were half the breath thus vainly spent + To Heaven in supplication sent, + Our cheerful song would oftener be, + "Hear what the Lord hath done for me!" + +And there is all the lifetime of a proverb in the couplet-- + + Satan trembles when he sees + The weakest saint upon his knees. + +Tune, Lowell Mason's "Rockingham." + + +"MY GRACIOUS REDEEMER I LOVE." + +This is one of Benjamin Francis's lays of devotion. The Christian +Welshman who bore that name was a Gospel minister full of Evangelical +zeal, who preached in many places, though his pastoral home was with the +Baptist church in Shortwood, Wales. Flattering calls to London could not +tempt him away from his first and only parish, and he remained there +till his triumphant death. He was born in 1734, and died in 1799. + + My gracious Redeemer I love, + His praises aloud I'll proclaim, + And join with the armies above, + To shout His adorable name. + To gaze on His glories divine + Shall be my eternal employ; + To see them incessantly shine, + My boundless, ineffable joy. + +Tune, "Birmingham"--an English melody. Anonymous. + + +"BLEST BE THE TIE THAT BINDS." + +Perhaps the best hymn-expression of sacred brotherhood, at least it has +had, and still has the indorsement of constant use. The author, John +Fawcett, D.D., is always quoted as the example of his own words, since +he sacrificed ambition and personal interest to Christian affection. + +Born near Bradford, Yorkshire, Jan. 6, 1739, and converted under the +preaching of Whitefield, he joined the Methodists, but afterwards +became a member of the new Baptist church in Bradford. Seven years later +he was ordained over the Baptist Society at Wainsgate. In 1772 he +received a call to succeed the celebrated Dr. Gill, in London, and +accepted. But at the last moment, when his goods were packed for +removal, the clinging love of his people, weeping their farewells around +him, melted his heart. Their passionate regrets were more than either he +or his good wife could withstand. + +"I will _stay_," he said; "you may unpack my goods, and we will live for +the Lord lovingly together." + +It was out of this heart experience that the tender hymn was born. + + Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one, + Our comforts and our cares. + +Dr. Fawcett died July 25, 1817. + +Tune, "Boylston," L. Mason; or "Dennis," H.G. Nägeli. + + +"I LOVE THY KINGDOM, LORD." + +"Dr. Dwight's Hymn," as this is known _par eminence_ among many others +from his pen, is one of the imperishable lyrics of the Christian Church. +The real spirit of the hundred and twenty-second Psalm is in it, and it +is worthy of Watts in his best moments. + +Timothy Dwight was born at Northampton, Mass, May 14, 1752, and +graduated at Yale College at the age of thirteen. He wrote several +religious poems of considerable length. In 1795 he was elected President +of Yale College, and in 1800 he revised Watts' Psalms, at the request of +the General Association of Connecticut, adding a number of translations +of his own. + + I love Thy kingdom, Lord, + The house of Thine abode, + The Church our blest Redeemer saved + With His own precious blood. + + I love Thy Church, O God; + Her walls before Thee stand, + Dear as the apple of Thine eye, + And graven on Thy hand. + +Dr. Dwight died Jan. 11, 1817. + +Tune, "St. Thomas," Aaron Williams, (1734-1776.) + +Mr. Hubert P. Main, however, believes the author to be Handel. It +appeared as the second movement of a four-movement tune in Williams's +1762 collection, which contained pieces by the great masters, with his +own; but while not credited to Handel, Williams did not claim it +himself. + + +"MID SCENES OF CONFUSION." + +This hymn, common in chapel hymnbooks half a century and more ago, is +said to have been written by the Rev. David Denham, about 1826. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"Home, Sweet Home" was composed, according to the old account, by John +Howard Payne as one of the airs in his opera of "Clari, the Maid of +Milan," which was brought out in London at Drury Lane in 1823. But +Charles Mackay, the English poet, in the London Telegraph, asserts that +Sir Henry Bishop, an eminent musician, in his vain search for a Sicilian +national air, _invented_ one, and that it was the melody of "Home, sweet +Home," which he afterwards set to Howard Payne's words. Mr. Mackay had +this story from Sir Henry himself. + + Mid scenes of confusion and creature complaints + How sweet to my soul is communion with saints, + To find at the banquet of mercy there's room + And feel in the presence of Jesus at home. + Home, home, sweet, sweet home! + Prepare me, dear Savior for glory, my home. + +John Howard Payne, author at least, of the original _words_ of "Home, +Sweet Home," was born in New York City June 9, 1791. He was a singer, +and became an actor and theatrical writer. He composed the words of his +immortal song in the year 1823, when he was himself homeless and hungry +and sheltered temporarily in an attic in Paris. + +His fortunes improved at last, and he was appointed to represent his +native country as consul in Tunis, where he died, Apr. 9, 1852. + + +"O, COULD I SPEAK THE MATCHLESS WORTH." + +The writer of this hymn of worshiping ardor and exalted Christian love +was an English Baptist minister, the Rev. Samuel Medley. He was born at +Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, June 23, 1738, and at eighteen years of age +entered the Royal Navy, where, though he had been piously educated, he +became dissipated and morally reckless. Wounded in a sea fight off Cape +Lagos, and in dread of amputation he prayed penitently through nearly a +whole night, and in the morning the surprised surgeon told him his limb +could be saved. + +The voice of his awakened conscience was not wholly disregarded, though +it was not till some time after he left the navy that his vow to begin a +religious life was sincerely kept. After teaching school for four years, +he began to preach in 1766, Wartford in Hertfordshire being the first +scene of his godly labors. He died in Liverpool July 17, 1799, at the +end of a faithful ministry there of twenty-seven years. A small edition +of his hymns was published during his lifetime, in 1789. + + O could I speak the matchless worth, + O could I sound the glories forth + Which in my Saviour shine, + I'd soar and touch the heavenly strings + And vie with Gabriel while he sings, + In notes almost divine! + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"Colebrook," a plain choral; but with a noble movement, by Henry Smart, +is the English music to this fine lyric, but Dr. Mason's "Ariel" is the +American favorite. It justifies its name, for it has wings--in both full +harmony and duet--and its melody feels the glory of the hymn at every +bar. + + +"ROCK OF AGES CLEFT FOR ME." + +Augustus Montagu Toplady, author of this almost universal hymn, was born +at Farnham, Surrey, Eng., Nov. 4, 1740. Educated at Westminster School, +and Trinity College, Dublin, he took orders in the Established Church. +In his doctrinal debates with the Wesleys he was a harsh +controversialist; but his piety was sincere, and marked late in life by +exalted moods. Physically he was frail, and his fiery zeal wore out his +body. Transferred from his vicarage at Broad Hembury, Devonshire, to +Knightsbridge, London, at twenty-eight years of age, his health began to +fail before he was thirty-five, and in one of his periods of illness he +wrote-- + + When languor and disease invade + This trembling house of clay, + 'Tis sweet to look beyond my pains + And long to fly away. + +And the same homesickness for heaven appears under a different figure in +another hymn-- + + At anchor laid remote from home, + Toiling I cry, "Sweet Spirit, come! + Celestial breeze, no longer stay, + But swell my sails, and speed my way!" + +Possessed of an ardent religious nature, his spiritual frames +exemplified in a notable degree the emotional side of Calvinistic piety. +Edward Payson himself, was not more enraptured in immediate view of +death than was this young London priest and poet. Unquestioning faith +became perfect certainty. As in the bold metaphor of "Rock of Ages," the +faith finds voice in-- + + A debtor to mercy alone, + +--and other hymns in his collection of 1776, two years before the end +came. Most of this devout writing was done in his last days, and he +continued it as long as strength was left, until, on the 11th of August, +1778, he joyfully passed away. + +Somehow there was always something peculiarly heartsome and "filling" to +pious minds in the lines of Toplady in days when his minor hymns were +more in vogue than now, and they were often quoted, without any idea +whose making they were. "At anchor laid" was crooned by good old ladies +at their spinning-wheels, and godly invalids found "When languor and +disease invade" a comfort next to their Bibles. + +"Rock of Ages" is said to have been written after the author, during a +suburban walk, had been forced to shelter himself from a thunder +shower, under a cliff. This is, however, but one of several stories +about the birth-occasion of the hymn. + +It has been translated into many languages. One of the foreign +dignitaries visiting Queen Victoria at her "Golden Jubilee" was a native +of Madagascar, who surprised her by asking leave to sing, but delighted +her, when leave was given, by singing "Rock of Ages." It was a favorite +of hers--and of Prince Albert, who whispered it when he was dying. +People who were school-children when Rev. Justus Vinton came home to +Willington, Ct., with two Karen pupils, repeat to-day the "la-pa-ta, +i-oo-i-oo" caught by sound from the brown-faced boys as they sang their +native version of "Rock of Ages." + +Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, the famous Confederate Cavalry leader, mortally +wounded at Yellow Tavern, Va., and borne to a Richmond hospital, called +for his minister and requested that "Rock of Ages" be sung to him. + +The last sounds heard by the few saved from the wreck of the steamer +"London" in the Bay of Biscay, 1866, were the voices of the helpless +passengers singing "Rock of Ages" as the ship went down. + +A company of Armenian Christians sang "Rock of Ages" in their native +tongue while they were being massacred in Constantinople. + +No history of this grand hymn of faith forgets the incident of Gladstone +writing a Latin translation of it while sitting in the House of +Commons. That remarkable man was as masterly in his scholarly +recreations as in his statesmanship. The supreme Christian sentiment of +the hymn had permeated his soul till it spoke to him in a dead language +as eloquently as in the living one; and this is what he made of it: + + +_TOPLADY._ + + Rock of ages, cleft for me, + Let me hide myself in Thee; + Let the water and the blood, + From Thy riven side which flowed, + Be of sin the double cure, + Cleanse me from its guilt and power. + + Not the labor of my hands + Can fulfil Thy law's demands; + Could my zeal no respite know, + Could my tears for ever flow, + All for sin could not atone, + Thou must save, and Thou alone. + + Nothing in my hand I bring, + Simply to Thy cross I cling; + Naked, come to Thee for dress, + Helpless, look to Thee for grace: + Foul, I to the fountain fly; + Wash, me, Saviour, or I die. + + Whilst I draw this fleeting breath, + When my eyestrings break in death; + When I soar through tracts unknown, + See Thee on Thy judgment throne, + Rock of ages, cleft for me, + Let me hide myself in Thee. + + +_GLADSTONE._ + + Jesus, pro me perforatus, + Condar intra tuum latus; + Tu per lympham profluentem, + Tu per sanguinem tepentem, + In peccata mi redunda, + Tolle culpam, sordes munda! + + Coram Te nec justus forem + Quamvis tota vi laborem, + Nec si fide nunquam cesso, + Fletu stillans indefesso; + Tibi soli tantum munus-- + Salva me, Salvator Unus! + + Nil in manu mecum fero, + Sed me versus crucem gero: + Vestimenta nudus oro, + Opem debilis imploro, + Fontem Christi quæro immundus, + Nisi laves, moribundus. + + Dum hos artus vita regit, + Quando nox sepulcro legit; + Mortuos quum stare jubes, + Sedens Judex inter nubes;-- + Jesus, pro me perforatus, + Condar intra tuum latus! + +The wonderful hymn has suffered the mutations common to time and taste. + + When I soar thro' tracts unknown + +--becomes-- + + When I soar to worlds unknown, + +--getting rid of the unpoetic word, and bettering the elocution, but +missing the writer's thought (of the unknown _path_,--instead of going +to many "worlds"). The Unitarians have their version, with substitutes +for the "atonement lines." + +But the Christian lyric maintains its life and inspiration through the +vicissitudes of age and use, as all intrinsically superior things can +and will,--and as in the twentieth line,-- + + When my eyestrings break in death; + +--modernized to-- + + When my eyelids close in death, + +--the hymn will ever adapt itself to the new exigencies of common +speech, without losing its vitality and power. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +A happy inspiration of Dr. Thomas Hastings made the hymn and music +inevitably one. Almost anywhere to call for the tune of "Toplady" +(namesake of the pious poet) is as unintelligible to the multitude as +"Key" would be to designate the "Star-spangled Banner." The common +people--thanks to Dr. Hastings--have learned "Rock of Ages" by _sound_. + +Thomas Hastings was born in Washington, Ct., 1784. For eight years he +was editor of the _Western Recorder_, but he gave his life to church +music, and besides being a talented tone-poet he wrote as many as six +hundred hymns. In 1832, by invitation from twelve New York churches, he +went to that city, and did the main work of his life there, dying, in +1872, at the good old age of eighty-nine. His musical collections number +fifty-three. He wrote his famous tune in 1830. + +[Illustration: Thomas Hastings] + + +"MY SOUL BE ON THY GUARD" + +Strangely enough, this hymn, a trumpet note of Christian warning and +resolution, was written by one who himself fell into unworthy ways.[12] +But the one strong and spiritual watch-song by which he is remembered +appeals for him, and lets us know possibly, something of his own +conflicts. We can be thankful for the struggle he once made, and for the +hymn it inspired. It is a voice of caution to others. + +[Footnote 12: I have been unable to verify this statement found in Mr. +Butterworth's "Story of the Hymns."--T.B.] + +George Heath, the author, was an English minister, born in 1781; died +1822. For a time he was pastor of a Presbyterian Church at Honiton, +Devonshire, and was evidently a prolific writer, having composed a +hundred and forty-four hymns, an edition of which was printed. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +No other has been so familiarly linked with the words as Lowell Mason's +"Laban" (1830). It has dash and animation enough to reënforce the hymn, +and give it popular life, even if the hymn had less earnestness and +vigor of its own. + + Ne'er think the vict'ry won + Nor lay thine armor down: + Thy arduous work will not be done + Till thou hast gained thy crown. + + Fight on, my soul till death + Shall bring thee to thy God; + He'll take thee at thy parting breath + To His divine abode. + + +"PEOPLE OF THE LIVING GOD." + +Montgomery _felt_ every line of this hymn as he committed it to paper. +He wrote it when, after years in the "swim" of social excitements and +ambitions, where his young independence swept him on, he came back to +the little church of his boyhood. His father and mother had gone to the +West Indies as missionaries, and died there. He was forty-three years +old when, led by divine light, he sought readmission to the Moravian +"meeting" at Fulneck, and anchored happily in a haven of peace. + + People of the living God + I have sought the world around, + Paths of sin and sorrow trod, + Peace and comfort nowhere found: + + Now to you my spirit turns-- + Turns a fugitive unblest; + Brethren, where your altar burns, + Oh, receive me into rest. + +James Montgomery, son of Rev. John Montgomery, was born at Irvine, +Ayrshire, Scotland, Nov. 4, 1771, and educated at the Moravian Seminary +at Fulneck, Yorkshire, Eng. He became the editor of the _Sheffield +Iris_, and his pen was busy in non-professional as well as professional +work until old age. He died in Sheffield, April 30, 1854. + +His literary career was singularly successful; and a glance through any +complete edition of his poems will tell us why. His hymns were all +published during his lifetime, and all, as well as his longer pieces, +have the purity and polished beauty, if not the strength, of Addison's +work. Like Addison, too, he could say that he had written no line which, +dying, he would wish to blot. + +The best of Montgomery was in his hymns. These were too many to +enumerate here, and the more enduring ones too familiar to need +enumeration. The church and the world will not soon forget "The Home in +Heaven,"-- + + Forever with the Lord, + Amen, so let it be. + Life from the dead is in that word; + 'Tis immortality. + +Nor-- + + O where shall rest be found, + +--with its impressive couplet-- + + 'Tis not the whole of life to live + Nor all of death to die. + +Nor the haunting sweetness of-- + + There is a calm for those who weep. + +Nor, indeed, the hymn of Christian love just now before us. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The melody exactly suited to the gentle trochaic step of the home-song, +"People of the living God," is "Whitman," composed for it by Lowell +Mason. Few Christians, in America, we venture to say, could hear an +instrument play "Whitman" without mentally repeating Montgomery's words. + + +"TO LEAVE MY DEAR FRIENDS." + +This hymn, called "The Bower of Prayer," was dear to Christian hearts in +many homes and especially in rural chapel worship half a century ago and +earlier, and its sweet legato melody still lingers in the memories of +aged men and women. + +Elder John Osborne, a New Hampshire preacher of the "Christian" +(_Christ-ian_) denomination, is said to have composed the tune (and +possibly the words) about 1815--though apparently the music was arranged +from a flute interlude in one of Haydn's themes. The warbling notes of +the air are full of heart-feeling, and usually the best available treble +voice sang it as a solo. + + To leave my dear friends and from neighbors to part, + And go from my home, it affects not my heart + Like the thought of absenting myself for a day + From that blest retreat I have chosen to pray, + I have chosen to pray. + + The early shrill notes of the loved nightingale + That dwelt in the bower, I observed as my bell: + It called me to duty, while birds in the air + Sang anthems of praises as I went to prayer, + As I went to prayer.[13] + + How sweet were the zephyrs perfumed by the pine, + The ivy, the balsam, the wild eglantine, + But sweeter, O, sweeter superlative were + The joys that I tasted in answer to prayer, + In answer to prayer. + +[Footnote 13: The _American Vocalist_ omits this stanza as too fanciful +as well as too crude] + + +"SAVIOUR, THY DYING LOVE." + +This hymn of grateful piety was written in 1862, by Rev. S. Dryden +Phelps, D.D., of New Haven, and first published in _Pure Gold_, 1871; +afterwards in the (earlier) _Baptist Hymn and Tune Book_. + + Saviour, Thy dying love + Thou gavest me, + Nor should I aught withhold + Dear Lord, from Thee. + + * * * * * + + Give me a faithful heart, + Likeness to Thee, + That each departing day + Henceforth may see + Some work of love begun, + Some deed of kindness done, + Some wand'rer sought and won, + Something for Thee. + +The penultimate line, originally "Some sinful wanderer won," was altered +by the author himself. The hymn is found in most Baptist hymnals, and +was inserted by Mr. Sankey in _Gospel Hymns No. 1_. It has since won its +way into several revival collections and undenominational manuals. + +Rev. Sylvester Dryden Phelps, D.D., was born in Suffield, Ct., May 15, +1816, and studied at the Connecticut Literary Institution in that town. +An early call to the ministry turned his talents to the service of the +church, and his long settlement--comprising what might be called his +principal life work--was in New Haven, where he was pastor of the First +Baptist church twenty-nine years. He died there Nov. 23, 1895. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The Rev. Robert Lowry admired the hymn, and gave it a tune perfectly +suited to its metre and spirit. It has never been sung in any other. The +usual title of it is "Something for Jesus." The meaning and sentiment of +both words and music are not unlike Miss Havergal's-- + + I gave my life for thee. + + +"IN SOME WAY OR OTHER." + +This song of Christian confidence was written by Mrs. Martha A.W. Cook, +wife of the Rev. Parsons Cook, editor of the _Puritan Recorder_, Boston. + +It was published in the _American Messenger_ in 1870, and is still in +use here, as a German version of it is in Germany. The first stanza +follows, in the two languages: + + In some way or other the Lord will provide. + It may not be my way, + It may not be thy way, + And yet in His own way + The Lord will provide. + + Sei's so oder anders, der Herr wird's versehn; + Mag's nicht sein, wie ich will, + Mag's nicht sein, wie du willst, + Doch wird's sein, wie Er will: + Der Herr wird's versehn. + +In the English version the easy flow of the two last lines into one +sentence is an example of rhythmic advantage over the foreign syntax. + +Mrs. Cook was married to the well-known clergyman and editor, Parsons +Cook, (1800-1865) in Bridgeport, Ct., and survived him at his death in +Lynn, Mass. She was Miss Martha Ann Woodbridge, afterwards Mrs. Hawley, +and a widow at the time of her re-marriage as Mr. Cook's second wife. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Professor Calvin S. Harrington, of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Ct., +set music to the words as printed in _Winnowed Hymns_ (1873) and +arranged by Dr. Eben Tourjee, organizer of the great American Peace +Jubilee in Boston. In the _Gospel Hymns_ it is, however, superseded by +the more popular composition of Philip Phillips. + +Dr. Eben Tourjee, late Dean of the College of Music in Boston +University, and founder and head of the New England Conservatory, was +born in Warwick, R.I., June 1, 1834. With only an academy education he +rose by native genius, from a hard-working boyhood to be a teacher of +music and a master of its science. From a course of study in Europe he +returned and soon made his reputation as an organizer of musical schools +and sangerfests. The New England Conservatory of Music was first +established by him in Providence, but removed in 1870 to Boston, its +permanent home. His doctorate of music was conferred upon him by +Wesleyan University. Died in Boston, April 12, 1891. + +Philip Phillips, known as "the singing Pilgrim," was born in Jamestown, +Chautauqua, Co., N.Y., Aug. 13, 1834. He compiled twenty-nine +collections of sacred music for Sunday schools, gospel meetings, etc.; +also a _Methodist Hymn and Tune Book_, 1866. He composed a great number +of tunes, but wrote no hymns. Some of his books were published in +London, for he was a cosmopolitan singer, and traveled through Europe +and Australia as well as America. Died in Delaware, O., June 25, 1875. + + +"NEARER, MY GOD, TO THEE." + +Mr. William Stead, fond of noting what is often believed to be the +"providential chain of causes" in everything that happens, recalls the +fact that Benjamin Flower, editor of the _Cambridge Intelligencer_, +while in jail (1798) at the instigation of Bp. Watson for an article +defending the French Revolution, and criticising the Bishop's political +course, was visited by several sympathizing ladies, one of whom was Miss +Eliza Gould. The young lady's first acquaintance with him there in his +cell led to an attachment which eventuated in marriage. Of that marriage +Sarah Flower was born. By the theory of providential sequences Mr. Stead +makes it appear that the forgotten vindictiveness of a British prelate +"was the _causa causans_ of one of the most spiritual and aspiring hymns +in the Christian Hymnary." + +"Nearer, My God, to Thee" was on the lips of President McKinley as he +lay dying by a murderer's wicked shot. It is dear to President Roosevelt +for its memories of the battle of Las Quasimas, where the Rough Riders +sang it at the burial of their slain comrades. Bishop Marvin was saved +by it from hopeless dejection, while practically an exile during the +Civil War, by hearing it sung in the wilds of Arkansas, by an old woman +in a log hut. + +A letter from Pittsburg, Pa., to a leading Boston paper relates the name +and experience of a forger who had left the latter city and wandered +eight years a fugitive from justice. On the 5th of November, (Sunday,) +1905, he found himself in Pittsburg, and ventured into the Dixon +Theatre, where a religious service was being held, to hear the music. +The hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee" so overcame him that he went out +weeping bitterly. He walked the floor of his room all night, and in the +morning telephoned for the police, confessed his name and crime, and +surrendered himself to be taken back to the Boston authorities. + +Mrs. Sarah Flower Adams, author of the noble hymn (supposed to have been +written in 1840), was born at Harlow, Eng., Feb. 22, 1805, and died +there in 1848. At her funeral another of her hymns was sung, ending-- + + When falls the shadow, cold in death + I yet will sing with fearless breath, + As comes to me in shade or sun, + "Father, Thy will, not mine, be done." + +The attempts to _evangelize_ "Nearer, My God, to Thee" by those who +cannot forget that Mrs. Adams was a Unitarian, are to be deplored. Such +zeal is as needless as trying to sectarianize an Old Testament Psalm. +The poem is a perfect religious piece--to be sung as it stands, with +thanks that it was ever created. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +In English churches (since 1861) the hymn was and may still be sung to +"Horbury," composed by Rev. John B. Dykes, and "St. Edmund," by Sir +Arthur Sullivan. Both tunes are simple and appropriate, but such a hymn +earns and inevitably acquires a single tune-voice, so that its music +instantly names it by its words when played on instruments. Such a voice +was given it by Lowell Mason's "Bethany," (1856). (Why not "Bethel," +instead, every one who notes the imagery of the words must wonder.) +"Bethany" appealed to the popular heart, and long ago (in America) hymn +and tune became each other's property. It is even simpler than the +English tunes, and a single hearing fixes it in memory. + + +"I NEED THEE EVERY HOUR." + +Mrs. Annie Sherwood Hawks, who wrote this hymn in 1872, was born in +Hoosick, N.Y., in 1835. + +She sent the hymn (five stanzas) to Dr. Lowry, who composed its tune, +adding a chorus, to make it more effective. It first appeared in a small +collection of original songs prepared by Lowry and Doane for the +National Baptist Sunday School Association, which met at Cincinnati, O., +November, 1872, and was sung there. + + I need Thee every hour, + Most gracious Lord, + No tender voice like Thine + Can peace afford. + + CHORUS. + I need Thee, Oh, I need Thee, + Every hour I need Thee; + Oh, bless me now, my Saviour, + I come to Thee! + +One instance, at least, of a hymn made doubly impressive by its chorus +will be attested by all who have sung or heard the pleading words and +music of Mrs. Hawks' and Dr. Lowry's "I need Thee, Oh, I need Thee." + + +"I GAVE MY LIFE FOR THEE." + +This was written in her youth by Frances Ridley Havergal, and was +suggested by the motto over the head of Christ in the great picture, +"Ecce Homo," in the Art Gallery of Dusseldorf, Prussia, where she was at +school. The sight--as was the case with young Count Zinzendorf--seems to +have had much to do with the gifted girl's early religious experience, +and indeed exerted its influence on her whole life. The motto read "I +did this for thee; what doest thou for me?" and the generative effect of +the solemn picture and its question soon appeared in the hymn that +flowed from Miss Havergal's heart and pen. + + I gave my life for thee, + My precious blood I shed, + That thou might'st ransomed be + And quickened from the dead. + I gave my life for thee: + What hast thou given for me? + +Miss Frances Ridley Havergal, sometimes called "The Theodosia of the +19th century," was born at Astley, Worcestershire, Eng., Dec. 14, 1836. +Her father, Rev. William Henry Havergal, a clergyman of the Church of +England, was himself a poet and a skilled musician, and much of the +daughter's ability came to her by natural bequest as well as by +education. Born a poet, she became a fine instrumentalist, a composer +and an accomplished linguist. Her health was frail, but her life was a +devoted one, and full of good works. Her consecrated _words_ were +destined to outlast her by many generations. + +"Writing is _praying_ with me," she said. Death met her in 1879, when +still in the prime of womanhood. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The music that has made this hymn of Miss Havergal familiar in America +is named from its first line, and was composed by the lamented Philip P. +Bliss (christened Philipp Bliss[14]), a pupil of Dr. George F. Root. + +[Footnote 14: Mr. Bliss himself changed the spelling of his name, +preferring to let the third P. do duty alone, as a middle initial.] + +He was born in Rome, Pa., Jan. 9, 1838, and less than thirty-nine years +later suddenly ended his life, a victim of the awful railroad disaster +at Ashtabula O., Dec. 29, 1876, while returning from a visit to his aged +mother. His wife, Lucy Young Bliss, perished with him there, in the +swift flames that enveloped the wreck of the train. + +The name of Mr. Bliss had become almost a household word through his +numerous popular Christian melodies, which were the American beginning +of the series of _Gospel Hymns_. Many of these are still favorite +prayer-meeting tunes throughout the country and are heard in +song-service at Sunday-school and city mission meetings. + + +"JESUS KEEP ME NEAR THE CROSS." + +This hymn, one of the best and probably most enduring of Fanny J. +Crosby's sacred lyrics, was inspired by Col. 1:29. + +Frances Jane Crosby (Mrs. Van Alstyne) the blind poet and hymnist, was +born in Southeast, N.Y., March 24, 1820. She lost her eyesight at the +age of six. Twelve years of her younger life were spent in the New York +Institution for the Blind, where she became a teacher, and in 1858 was +happily married to a fellow inmate, Mr. Alexander Van Alstyne, a +musician. + +George F. Root was for a time musical instructor at the Institution, and +she began early to write words to his popular song-tunes. "Rosalie, the +Prairie Flower," and the long favorite melody, "There's Music in the +Air" are among the many to which she supplied the text and the song +name. + +She resides in Bridgeport, Ct., where she enjoys a serene and happy old +age. She has written over six thousand hymns, and possibly will add +other pearls to the cluster before she goes up to join the singing +saints. + + Jesus, keep me near the Cross, + There a precious Fountain + Free to all, a healing stream, + Flows from Calv'ry's mountain. + + CHORUS. + In the Cross, in the Cross + Be my glory ever, + Till my raptured soul shall find + Rest beyond the river. + + * * * * * + + Near the Cross! O Lamb of God, + Bring its scenes before me; + Help me walk from day to day + With its shadows o'er me. + + CHORUS. + +William Howard Doane, writer of the music to this hymn, was born in +Preston, Ct., Feb. 3, 1831. He studied at Woodstock Academy, and +subsequently acquired a musical education which earned him the degree of +Doctor of Music conferred upon him by Denison University in 1875. Having +a mechanical as well as musical gift, he patented more than seventy +inventions, and was for some years engaged with manufacturing concerns, +both as employee and manager, but his interest in song-worship and in +Sunday-school and church work never abated, and he is well known as a +trainer of choirs and composer of some of the best modern devotional +tunes. His home is in Cincinnati, O. + + +"I WOULD NOT LIVE ALWAY." + +This threnody (we may almost call it) of W.A. Muhlenberg, illustrating +one phase of Christian experience, was the outpouring of a poetic +melancholy not uncommon to young and finely strung souls. He composed it +in his twenties,--long before he became "Doctor" Muhlenberg,--and for +years afterwards tried repeatedly to alter it to a more cheerful tone. +But the poem had its mission, and it had fastened itself in the public +imagination, either by its contagious sentiment or the felicity of its +tune, and the author was obliged to accept the fame of it as it +originally stood. + +William Augustus Muhlenberg D.D. was born in Philadelphia, Sept. 16, +1796, the great-grandson of Dr. Henry M. Muhlenberg, founder of the +Lutheran church in America. In 1817 he left his ancestral communion, and +became an Episcopal priest. + +As Rector of St. James church, Lancaster, Pa., he interested himself in +the improvement of ecclesiastical hymnody, and did much good reforming +work. After a noble and very active life as promoter of religious +education and Christian union, and as a friend and benefactor of the +poor, he died April, 8, 1877, in St. Luke's Hospital, N.Y. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +This was composed by Mr. George Kingsley in 1833, and entitled +"Frederick" (dedicated to the Rev. Frederick T. Gray). Issued first as +sheet music, it became popular, and soon found a place in the hymnals. +Dr. Louis Benson says of the conditions and the fancy of the time, "The +standard of church music did not differ materially from that of parlor +music.... Several editors have attempted to put a newer tune in the +place of Mr. Kingsley's. It was in vain, simply because words and melody +both appeal to the same taste." + +[Illustration: Frances Ridley Havergal] + + +"SUN OF MY SOUL, MY SAVIOUR DEAR." + +This gem from Keble's _Christian Year_ illustrates the life and +character of its pious author, and, like all the hymns of that +celebrated collection, is an incitive to spiritual thought for the +thoughtless, as well as a language for those who stand in the Holy of +Holies. + +The Rev. John Keble was born in Caln, St. Aldwyn, April 25, 1792. He +took his degree of A.M. and was ordained and settled at Fairford, where +he began the parochial work that ceased only with his life. He died at +Bournmouth, March 29, 1866. + +His settlement at Fairford, in charge of three small curacies, satisfied +his modest ambition, though altogether they brought him only about £100 +per year. Here he preached, wrote his hymns and translations, performed +his pastoral work, and was happy. Temptation to wider fields and larger +salary never moved him. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The music to this hymn of almost unparalleled poetic and spiritual +beauty was arranged from a German Choral of Peter Ritter (1760-1846) by +William Henry Monk, Mus. Doc., born London, 1823. Dr. Monk was a +lecturer, composer, editor, and professor of vocal music at King's +College. This noble tune appears sometimes under the name "Hursley" and +supersedes an earlier one ("Halle") by Thomas Hastings. + + Sun of my soul, my Saviour dear, + It is not night if Thou be near. + O may no earth-born cloud arise + To hide Thee from Thy servants' eyes. + + * * * * * + + Abide with me from morn till eve, + For without Thee I cannot live + Abide with me when night is nigh, + For without Thee I cannot die. + +The tune "Hursley" is a choice example of polyphonal sweetness in +uniform long notes of perfect chord. + +The tune of "Canonbury," by Robert Schumann, set to Keble's hymn, "New +every morning is the love," is deservedly a favorite for flowing long +metres, but it could never replace "Hursley" with "Sun of my soul." + + +"DID CHRIST O'ER SINNERS WEEP?" + +The Rev. Benjamin Beddome wrote this tender hymn-poem while pastor of +the Baptist Congregation at Bourton-on-the-water, Gloucestershire, Eng. +He was born at Henley, Chatwickshire, Jan. 23, 1717. Settled in 1743, +he remained with the same church till his death, Sept. 3, 1795. His +hymns were not collected and published till 1818. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"Dennis," a soft and smoothly modulated harmony, is oftenest sung to the +words, and has no note out of sympathy with their deep feeling. + + Did Christ o'er sinners weep, + And shall our cheeks be dry? + Let floods of penitential grief + Burst forth from every eye. + + The Son of God in tears + Admiring angels see! + Be thou astonished, O my soul; + He shed those tears for thee. + + He wept that we might weep; + Each sin demands a tear: + In heaven alone no sin is found, + And there's no weeping there. + +The tune of "Dennis" was adapted by Lowell Mason from Johann Georg +Nägeli, a Swiss music publisher, composer and poet. He was born in +Zurich, 1768. It is told of him that his irrepressible genius once +tempted him to violate the ethics of authorship. While publishing +Beethoven's three great solo sonatas (Opus 31) he interpolated two bars +of his own, an act much commented upon in musical circles, but which +does not seem to have cost him Beethoven's friendship. Possibly, like +Murillo to the servant who meddled with his paintings, the great master +forgave the liberty, because the work was so good. + +Nägeli's compositions are mostly vocal, for school and church use, +though some are of a gay and playful nature. The best remembered of his +secular and sacred styles are his blithe aria to the song of Moore, +"Life let us cherish, while yet the taper glows" and the sweet choral +that voices Beddome's hymn. + + +"MY JESUS, I LOVE THEE." + +The real originator of the _Coronation Hymnal_, a book into whose making +went five years of prayer, was Dr. A.J. Gordon, late Pastor of the +Clarendon St. Baptist church, Boston. While the volume was slowly taking +form and plan he was wont to hum to himself, or cause to be played by +one of his family, snatches and suggestions of new airs that came to him +in connection with his own hymns, and others which seemed to have no +suitable music. The anonymous hymn, "My Jesus, I Love Thee," he found in +a London hymn-book, and though the tune to which it had been sung in +England was sent to him some time later, it did not sound sympathetic. +Dissatisfied, and with the ideal in his mind of what the feeling should +be in the melody to such a hymn, he meditated and prayed over the words +till in a moment of inspiration the beautiful air sang itself to him[15] +which with its simple concords has carried the hymn into the chapels of +every denomination. + +[Footnote 15: The fact that this sweet melody recalls to some a similar +tune sung sixty years ago reminds us again of the story of the tune +"America." It is not impossible that an unconscious _memory_ helped to +shape the air that came to Dr. Gordon's mind; though unborrowed +similarities have been inevitable in the whole history of music.] + + My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine, + For Thee all the pleasures of sin I resign; + My gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art Thou, + If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now. + + * * * * * + + I will love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death, + And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath, + And say when the death-dew lies cold on my brow, + If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now. + + In mansions of glory and endless delight + I'll ever adore Thee, unveiled to my sight, + And sing, with the glittering crown on my brow, + If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now. + +The memory of the writer returns to a day in a railway-car en route to +the great Columbian Fair in Chicago when the tired passengers were +suddenly surprised and charmed by the music of this melody. A young +Christian man and woman, husband and wife, had begun to sing "My Jesus, +I love Thee." Their voices (a tenor and soprano) were clear and sweet, +and every one of the company sat up to listen with a look of mingled +admiration and relief. Here was something, after all, to make a long +journey less tedious. They sang all the four verses and paused. There +was no clapping of hands, for a reverential hush had been cast over the +audience by the sacred music. Instead of the inevitable applause that +follows mere entertainment, a gentle but eager request for more secured +the repetition of the delightful duet. This occurred again and again, +till every one in the car--and some had never heard the tune or words +before--must have learned them by heart. Fatigue was forgotten, miles +had been reduced to furlongs in a weary trip, and a company of strangers +had been lifted to a holier plane of thought. + +Besides this melody there are four tunes by Dr. Gordon in his +collection, three of them with his own words. In all there are eleven of +his hymns. Of these the "Good morning in Glory," set to his music, is an +emotional lyric admirable in revival meetings, and the one beginning "O +Holy Ghost, Arise" is still sung, and called for affectionately as +"Gordon's Hymn." + +Rev. Adoniram Judson Gordon D.D. was born in New Hampton, N.H., April +19, 1836, and died in Boston, Feb. 2d, 1895, after a life of unsurpassed +usefulness to his fellowmen and devotion to his Divine Master. Like +Phillips Brooks he went to his grave "in all his glorious prime," and +his loss is equally lamented. He was a descendant of John Robinson of +Leyden. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +MISSIONARY HYMNS. + + +"JESUS SHALL REIGN WHERE'ER THE SUN." + +One of Watts' sublimest hymns, this Hebrew ode to the final King and His +endless dominion expands the majestic prophesy in the seventy-second +Psalm: + + Jesus shall reign where'er the sun + Does his successive journeys run, + His kingdom stretch from shore to shore + Till moons shall wax and wane no more. + +The hymn itself could almost claim to be known "where'er the sun" etc., +for Christian missionaries have sung it in every land, if not in every +language. + +One of the native kings in the South Sea Islands, who had been converted +through the ministry of English missionaries, substituted a Christian +for a pagan constitution in 1862. There were five thousand of his +subjects gathered at the ceremonial, and they joined as with one voice +in singing this hymn. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"Old Hundred" has often lent the notes of its great plain-song to the +sonorous lines, and "Duke Street," with superior melody and scarcely +inferior grandeur, has given them wings; but the choice of many for +music that articulates the life of the hymn would be the tune of +"Samson," from Handel's Oratorio so named. It appears as No. 469 in the +_Evangelical Hymnal_. + +Handel had no peer in the art or instinct of making a note speak a word. + + +"JOY TO THE WORLD! THE LORD IS COME!" + +This hymn, also by Watts, is often sung as a Christmas song; but "The +Saviour Reigns" and "He Rules the World" are bursts of prophetic triumph +always apt and stimulating in missionary meetings. + +Here, again, the great Handel lends appropriate aid, for "Antioch," the +popular tone-consort of the hymn, is an adaptation from his "Messiah." +The arrangement has been credited to Lowell Mason, but he seems to have +taken it from an English collection by Clark of Canterbury. + + +"O'ER THE GLOOMY HILLS OF DARKNESS." + +_Dros y brinian tywyl niwliog._ + +This notable hymn was written, probably about 1750, by the Rev. William +Williams, a Welsh Calvinistic Methodist, born at Cefnycoed, Jan. 7, +1717, near Llandovery. He began the study of medicine, but took deacon's +orders, and was for a time an itinerant preacher, having left the +established Church. Died at Pantycelyn, Jan. 1, 1781. + +His hymn, like the two preceding, antedates the great Missionary +Movement by many years. + + O'er the gloomy hills of darkness + Look my soul! be still, and gaze! + See the promises advancing + To a glorious Day of grace! + Blessed Jubilee, + Let thy glorious morning dawn! + + Let the dark, benighted pagan, + Let the rude barbarian see + That divine and glorious conquest + Once obtained on Calvary. + Let the Gospel + Loud resound from pole to pole. + +This song of anticipation has dropped out of the modern hymnals, but the +last stanza lingers in many memories. + + Fly abroad, thou mighty Gospel! + Win and conquer, never cease; + May thy lasting wide dominion + Multiply and still increase. + Sway Thy scepter, + Saviour, all the world around! + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Oftener than any other the music of "Zion" has been the expression of +William Williams' Missionary Hymn. It was composed by Thomas Hastings, +in Washington, Ct., 1830. + + +"HASTEN, LORD, THE GLORIOUS TIME." + + Hasten, Lord, the glorious time + When beneath Messiah's sway + Every nation, every clime + Shall the Gospel call obey. + Mightiest kings its power shall own, + Heathen tribes His name adore, + Satan and his host o'erthrown + Bound in chains shall hurt no more. + +Miss Harriet Auber, the author of this melodious hymn, was a daughter of +James Auber of London, and was born in that city, Oct. 4, 1773. After +leaving London she led a secluded life at Broxbourne and Hoddesdon, in +Hertfordshire, writing devotional poetry and sacred songs and +paraphrases. + +Her _Spirit of the Psalms_, published in 1829, was a collection of +lyrics founded on the Biblical Psalms. "Hasten Lord," etc., is from Ps. +72, known for centuries to Christendom as one of the Messianic Psalms. +Her best-known hymns have the same inspiration, as-- + + Wide, ye heavenly gates, unfold. + + Sweet is the work, O Lord. + + With joy we hail the sacred day. + +Miss Auber died in Hoddesdon, Jan. 20, 1862. She lived to witness and +sympathise with the pioneer missionary enterprise of the 19th century, +and, although she could not stand among the leaders of the battle-line +in extending the conquest of the world for Christ, she was happy in +having written a campaign hymn which they loved to sing. (It is curious +that so pains-taking a work as Julian's _Dictionary of Hymns and +Hymn-writers_ credits "With joy we hail the sacred day" to both Miss +Auber and Henry Francis Lyte. Coincidences are known where different +hymns by different authors begin with the same line; and in this case +one writer was dead before the other's works were published. Possibly +the collector may have seen a forgotten hymn of Lyte's, with that first +line.) + +The tune that best interprets this hymn in spirit and in living _music_ +is Lowell Mason's "Eltham." Its harmony is like a chime of bells. + + +"LET PARTY NAMES NO MORE." + + Let party names no more + The Christian world o'erspread; + Gentile and Jew, and bond and free, + Are one in Christ the Head. + +This hymn of Rev. Benjamin Beddome sounds like a prelude to the grand +rally of the Christian Churches a generation later for united advance +into foreign fields. It was an after-sermon hymn--like so many of Watts +and Doddridge--and spoke a good man's longing to see all sects stand +shoulder to shoulder in a common crusade. + +Tune--Boylston. + + +"WATCHMAN, TELL US OF THE NIGHT." + +The tune written to this pealing hymn of Sir John Bowring by Lowell +Mason has never been superseded. In animation and vocal splendor it +catches the author's own clear call, echoing the shout of Zion's +sentinels from city to city, and happily reproducing in movement and +phrase the great song-dialogue. Words and music together, the piece +ranks with the foremost missionary lyrics. Like the greater Mason-Heber +world-song, it has acquired no arbitrary name, appearing in Mason's own +tune-books under its first hymn-line and likewise in many others. A few +hymnals have named it "Bowring," (and why not?) and some later ones +simply "Watchman." + + 1. + Watchman, tell us of the night. + What its signs of promise are! + (Antistrophe) + Traveler, on yon mountain height. + See that glory-beaming star! + + 2 + Watchman, does its beauteous ray + Aught of hope or joy foretell? + (Antistrophe) + Trav'ler, yes; it brings the day, + Promised day of Israel. + + 3 + Watchman, tell us of the night; + Higher yet that star ascends. + (Antistrophe) + Trav'ler, blessedness and light + Peace and truth its course portends. + + 4 + Watchman, will its beams alone + Gild the spot that gave them birth? + (Antistrophe) + Trav'ler, ages are its own. + See! it bursts o'er all the earth. + + +"YE CHRISTIAN HERALDS, GO PROCLAIM." + +In some versions "Ye Christian _heroes_," etc. + +Professor David R. Breed attributes this stirring hymn to Mrs. Vokes (or +Voke) an English or Welsh lady, who is supposed to have written it +somewhere near 1780, and supports the claim by its date of publication +in _Missionary and Devotional Hymns_ at Portsea, Wales, in 1797. In this +Dr. Breed follows (he says) "the accepted tradition." On the other hand +the _Coronation Hymnal_ (1894) refers the authorship to a Baptist +minister, the Rev. Bourne Hall Draper, of Southampton (Eng.), born 1775, +and this choice has the approval of Dr. Charles Robinson. The question +occurs whether, when the hymn was published in good faith as Mrs. +Vokes', it was really the work of a then unknown youth of twenty-two. + +The probability is that the hymn owns a mother instead of a father--and +a grand hymn it is; one of the most stimulating in Missionary +song-literature. + +The stanza-- + + God shield you with a wall of fire! + With flaming zeal your breasts inspire; + Bid raging winds their fury cease, + And hush the tumult into peace, + +--has been tampered with by editors, altering the last line to "Calm the +troubled seas," etc., (for the sake of the longer vowel;) but the +substitution, "_He'll_ shield you," etc., in the first line, turns a +prayer into a mere statement. + +The hymn was--and should remain--a God-speed to men like William +Carey, who had already begun to think and preach his immortal motto, +"Attempt great things for God; expect great things of God." + + +_THE TUNE_ + +Is the "Missionary Chant," and no other. Its composer, Heinrich +Christopher Zeuner, was born in Eisleben, Saxony, Sept. 20, 1795. He +came to the United States in 1827, and was for many years organist at +Park Street Church, Boston, and for the Handel and Haydn Society. In +1854 he removed to Philadelphia where he served three years as organist +to St. Andrews Church, and Arch Street Presbyterian. He became insane in +1857, and in November of that year died by his own hand. + +He published an oratorio "The Feast of Tabernacles," and two popular +books, the _American Harp_, 1832, and _The Ancient Lyre_, 1833. His +compositions are remarkably spirited and vigorous, and his work as a +tune-maker was much in demand during his life, and is sure to continue, +in its best examples, as long as good sacred music is appreciated. + +To another beautiful missionary hymn of Mrs. Vokes, of quieter tone, but +songful and sweet, Dr. Mason wrote the tune of "Migdol." It is its +musical twin. + + Soon may the last glad song arise + Through all the millions of the skies. + That song of triumph which records + That "all the earth is now the Lord's." + + +"ON THE MOUNTAIN TOP APPEARING." + +This admired and always popular church hymn was written near the +beginning of the last century by the Rev. Thomas Kelly, born in Dublin, +1760. He was the son of the Hon. Chief Baron Thomas Kelly of that city, +a judge of the Irish Court of Common Pleas. His father designed him for +the legal profession, but after his graduation at Trinity College he +took holy orders in the Episcopal Church, and labored as a clergyman +among the scenes of his youth for more than sixty years, becoming a +Nonconformist in his later ministry. He was a sweet-souled man, who made +troops of friends, and was honored as much for his piety as for his +poetry, music, and oriental learning. + +"I expect never to die," he said, when Lord Plunkett once told him he +would reach a great age. He finished his earthly work on the 14th of +May, 1855, when he was eighty-five years old. But he still lives. His +zeal for the coming of the Kingdom of Christ prompted his best hymn. + + On the mountain-top appearing, + Lo! the sacred herald stands, + Joyful news to Zion bearing, + Zion long in hostile lands; + Mourning captive, + God himself will loose thy bands. + + Has the night been long and mournful? + Have thy friends unfaithful proved? + Have thy foes been proud and scornful, + By thy sighs and tears unmoved? + Cease thy mourning; + Zion still is well beloved. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +To presume that Kelly made both words and music together is possible, +for he was himself a composer, but no such original tune seems to +survive. In modern use Dr. Hastings' "Zion" is most frequently attached +to the hymn, and was probably written for it. + + +"YE CHRISTIAN HEROES, WAKE TO GLORY." + +This rather crude parody on the "Marseillaise Hymn" (see Chap. 9) is +printed in the _American Vocalist_, among numerous samples of early New +England psalmody of untraced authorship. It might have been sung at +primitive missionary meetings, to spur the zeal and faith of a Francis +Mason or a Harriet Newell. It expresses, at least, the new-kindled +evangelical spirit of the long-ago consecrations in American church life +that first sent the Christian ambassadors to foreign lands, and followed +them with benedictions. + +[Illustration: The Right Rev. Reginald Heber, D.D.] + + Ye Christian heroes, wake to glory: + Hark, hark! what millions bid you rise! + See heathen nations bow before you, + Behold their tears, and hear their cries. + Shall pagan priest, their errors breeding, + With darkling hosts, and flags unfurled, + Spread their delusions o'er the world, + Though Jesus on the Cross hung bleeding? + To arms! To arms! + Christ's banner fling abroad! + March on! March on! all hearts resolved + To bring the world to God. + + O, Truth of God! can man resign thee, + Once having felt thy glorious flame? + Can rolling oceans e'er prevent thee, + Or gold the Christian's spirit tame? + Too long we slight the world's undoing; + The word of God, salvation's plan, + Is yet almost unknown to man, + While millions throng the road to ruin. + To arms! to arms! + The Spirit's sword unsheath: + March on! March on! all hearts resolved, + To victory or death. + + +"HAIL TO THE LORD'S ANOINTED." + +James Montgomery (says Dr. Breed) is "distinguished as the only layman +besides Cowper among hymn-writers of the front rank in the English +language." How many millions have recited and sung his fine and +exhaustively descriptive poem,-- + + Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, + +--selections from almost any part of which are perfect definitions, and +have been standard hymns on prayer for three generations. English +Hymnology would as unwillingly part with his missionary hymns,-- + + The king of glory we proclaim. + + Hark, the song of jubilee! + +--and, noblest of all, the lyric of prophecy and praise which heads +this paragraph. + + Hail to the Lord's anointed, + King David's greater Son! + Hail, in the time appointed + His reign on earth begun. + + * * * * * + + Arabia's desert ranger + To Him shall bow the knee, + The Ethiopian stranger + His glory come to see. + + * * * * * + + Kings shall fall down before Him + And gold and incense bring; + All nations shall adore Him, + His praise all people sing. + +The hymn is really the seventy-second Psalm in metre, and as a version +it suffers nothing by comparison with that of Watts. Montgomery wrote +it as a Christmas ode. It was sung Dec. 25, 1821, at a Moravian +Convocation, but in 1822 he recited it at a great missionary meeting in +Liverpool, and Dr. Adam Clarke was so charmed with it that he inserted +it in his famous _Commentary_. In no long time afterwards it found its +way into general use. + +The spirit of his missionary parents was Montgomery's Christian legacy, +and in exalted poetical moments it stirred him as the divine afflatus +kindled the old prophets. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The music editors in some hymnals have borrowed the favorite choral +variously named "Webb" in honor of its author, and "The Morning Light is +Breaking" from the first line of its hymn. Later hymnals have chosen +Sebastian Wesley's "Aurelia" to fit the hymn, with a movement similar to +that of "Webb"; also a German B flat melody "Ellacombe," undated, with +livelier step and a ringing chime of parts. No one of these is +inappropriate. + +Samuel Sebastian Wesley, grandson of Charles Wesley the great hymnist, +was born in London, 1810. Like his father, Samuel, he became a +distinguished musician, and was organist at Exeter, Winchester and +Gloucester Cathedrals. Oxford gave him the degree of Doctor of Music. +He composed instrumental melodies besides many anthems, services, and +other sacred pieces for choir and congregational singing. Died in +Gloucester, April 19, 1876. + + +"FROM GREENLAND'S ICY MOUNTAINS." + +The familiar story of this hymn scarcely needs repeating; how one +Saturday afternoon in the year 1819, young Reginald Heber, Rector of +Hodnet, sitting with his father-in-law, Dean Shipley, and a few friends +in the Wrexham Vicarage, was suddenly asked by the Dean to "write +something to sing at the missionary meeting tomorrow," and retired to +another part of the room while the rest went on talking; how, very soon +after, he returned with three stanzas, which were hailed with delighted +approval; how he then insisted upon adding another octrain to the hymn +and came back with-- + + Waft, waft, ye winds, His story, + And you, ye waters, roll; + +--and how the great lyric was sung in Wrexham Church on Sunday morning +for the first time in its life. The story is old but always fresh. +Nothing could better have emphasized the good Dean's sermon that day in +aid of "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," +than that unexpected and glorious lyric of his poet son-in-law. + +By common consent Heber's "Missionary Hymn" is the silver trumpet among +all the rallying bugles of the church. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The union of words and music in this instance is an example of spiritual +affinity. "What God hath joined together let no man put asunder." The +story of the tune is a record of providential birth quite as interesting +as that of the hymn. In 1823, a lady in Savannah, Ga., having received +and admired a copy of Heber's lyric from England, desired to sing it or +hear it sung, but knew no music to fit the metre. She finally thought of +a young clerk in a bank close by, Lowell Mason by name, who sometimes +wrote music for recreation, and sent her son to ask him if he would make +a tune that would sing the lines. The boy returned in half an hour with +the composition that doubled Heber's fame and made his own. + +In the words of Dr. Charles Robinson, "Like the hymn it voices, it was +done at a stroke, and it will last through the ages." + + +"THE MORNING LIGHT IS BREAKING." + +Not far behind Dr. Heber's _chef-d'oeuvre_ in lyric merit is the still +more famous missionary hymn of Dr. S.F. Smith, author of "My Country, +'Tis of Thee." Another missionary hymn of his which is widely used is-- + + Yes, my native land, I love thee, + All thy scenes, I love them well. + Friends, connections, happy country, + Can I bid you all farewell? + Can I leave you + Far in heathen lands to dwell? + +Drs. Nutter and Breed speak of "The Morning Light is Breaking," and its +charm as a hymn of peace and promise, and intimate that it has "gone +farther and been more frequently sung than any other missionary hymn." +Besides the English, there are versions of it in four Latin nations, the +Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French, and oriental translations in +Chinese and several East Indian tongues and dialects, as well as one in +Swedish. It author had the rare felicity, while on a visit to his son, a +missionary in Burmah, of hearing it sung by native Christians in their +language, and of being welcomed with an ovation when they knew who he +was. + + The morning light is breaking! + The darkness disappears; + The sons of earth are waking + To penitential tears; + Each breeze that sweeps the ocean + Brings tidings from afar, + Of nations in commotion, + Prepared for Zion's war. + + Rich dews of grace come o'er us + In many a gentle shower, + And brighter scenes before us + Are opening every hour. + Each cry to heaven going + Abundant answer brings, + And heavenly gales are blowing + With peace upon their wings. + + * * * * * + + Blest river of Salvation, + Pursue thy onward way; + Flow thou to every nation, + Nor in thy richness stay. + Stay not till all the lowly + Triumphant reach their home; + Stay not till all the holy + Proclaim, "The Lord is come!" + +Samuel Francis Smith, D.D., was born in Boston in 1808, and educated in +Harvard University (1825-1829). He prepared for the ministry, and was +pastor of Baptist churches at Waterville, Me., and Newton, Mass., before +entering the service of the American Baptist Missionary union as editor +of its _Missionary Magazine_. + +He was a scholarly and graceful writer, both in verse and prose, and +besides his editorial work, he was frequently an invited participant or +guest of honor on public occasions, owing to his fame as author of the +national hymn. His pure and gentle character made him everywhere beloved +and reverenced, and to know him intimately in his happy old age was a +benediction. He died suddenly and painlessly in his seat on a railway +train, November 16, 1895 in his eighty-eighth year. + +Dr. Smith wrote twenty-six hymns now more or less in use in church +worship, and eight for Sabbath school collections. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"Millennial Dawn" is the title given it by a Boston compiler, about +1844, but since the music and hymn became "one and indivisable" it has +been named "Webb," and popularly _known_ as "Morning Light" or oftener +still by its first hymn-line, "The morning light is breaking." + +George James Webb was born near Salisbury, Wiltshire, Eng., June 24, +1803. He studied music in Salisbury and for several years played the +organ at Falmouth Church. When still a young man (1830), he came to the +United States, and settled in Boston where he was long the leading +organist and music teacher of the city. He was associate director of the +Boston Academy of Music with Lowell Mason, and joint author and editor +with him of several church-music collections. Died in Orange, N.J., Nov. +7, 1887. + +Dr. Webb's own account of the tune "Millennial Dawn" states that he +wrote it at sea while on his way to America--and to secular words and +that he had no idea who first adapted it to the hymn, nor when. + + +"IF I WERE A VOICE, A PERSUASIVE VOICE." + +This animating lyric was written by Charles Mackay. Sung by a good +vocalist, the fine solo air composed (with its organ chords) by I.B. +Woodbury, is still a feature in some missionary meetings, especially the +fourth stanza-- + + If I were a voice, an immortal voice, + I would fly the earth around: + And wherever man to his idols bowed, + I'd publish in notes both long and loud + The Gospel's joyful sound. + I would fly, I would fly, on the wings of day, + Proclaiming peace on my world-wide way, + Bidding the saddened earth rejoice-- + If I were a voice, an immortal voice, + I would fly, I would fly, + I would fly on the wings of day. + +Charles Mackay, the poet, was born in Perth, Scotland, 1814, and +educated in London and Brussels; was engaged in editorial work on the +_London Morning Chronicle_ and _Glasgow Argus_, and during the Corn Law +agitation wrote popular songs, notably "The Voice of the Crowd" and +"There's a Good Time Coming," which (like the far inferior poetry of +Ebenezer Elliot) won the lasting love of the masses for a superior man +who could be "The People's Singer and Friend." He came to the United +States in 1857 as a lecturer, and again in 1862, remaining three years +as war correspondent of the _London Times_. Glasgow University made him +LL.D. in 1847. His numerous songs and poems were collected in a London +edition. Died Dec. 24, 1889. + +Isaac Baker Woodbury was born in Beverly, Mass., 1819, and rose from the +station of a blacksmith's apprentice to be a tone-teacher in the church. +He educated himself in Europe, returned and sang his life songs, and +died in 1858 at the age of thirty-nine. + +A tune preferred by many as the finer music is the one written to the +words by Mr. Sankey, _Sacred Songs_, No. 2. + + +"SPEED AWAY! SPEED AWAY!" + +This inspiriting song of farewell to departing missionaries was written +in 1890 to Woodbury's appropriate popular melody by Fanny J. Crosby, at +the request of Ira D. Sankey. The key-word and refrain are adapted from +the original song by Woodbury (1848), but in substance and language the +three hymn-stanzas are the new and independent work of this later +writer. + + Speed away! speed away on your mission of light, + To the lands that are lying in darkness and night; + 'Tis the Master's command; go ye forth in His name, + The wonderful gospel of Jesus proclaim; + Take your lives in your hand, to the work while 'tis day, + Speed away! speed away! speed away! + + Speed away, speed away with the life-giving Word, + To the nations that know not the voice of the Lord; + Take the wings of the morning and fly o'er the wave, + In the strength of your Master the lost ones to save; + He is calling once more, not a moment's delay, + Speed away! speed away! speed away! + + Speed away, speed away with the message of rest, + To the souls by the tempter in bondage oppressed; + For the Saviour has purchased their ransom from sin, + And the banquet is ready. O gather them in; + To the rescue make haste, there's no time for delay, + Speed away! speed away! speed away! + + +"ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS!" + +Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould, the author of this rousing hymn of Christian +warfare, a rector of the Established Church of England and a writer of +note, was born at Exeter, Eng., Jan. 28, 1834. Educated at Clare +College, Cambridge, he entered the service of the church, and was +appointed Rector of East Mersea, Essex, in 1871. He was the author of +several hymns, original and translated, and introduced into England from +Flanders, numbers of carols with charming old Christmas music. The +"Christian Soldiers" hymn is one of his (original) processionals, and +the most inspiring. + + Onward, Christian soldiers, + Marching as to war, + With the cross of Jesus + Going on before. + Christ the Royal Master + Leads against the foe; + Forward into battle, + See, His banners go! + Onward, Christian soldiers, etc. + + * * * * * + + Like a mighty army + Moves the Church of God; + Brothers, we are treading + Where the saints have trod; + We are not divided, + All one body we, + One in hope, in doctrine, + One in charity. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan, Doctor of Music, who wrote the melody for +this hymn, was born in London, May 13, 1842. He gained the Mendelssohn +Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, and also at the Conservatory +of Leipsic. He was a fertile genius, and his compositions included +operettas, symphonies, overtures, anthems, hymn-tunes, an oratorio ("The +Prodigal Son"), and almost every variety of tone production, vocal and +instrumental. Queen Victoria knighted him in 1883. + +The grand rhythm of "Onward, Christian Soldiers"--hymn and tune--is +irresistible whether in band march or congregational worship. Sir Arthur +died in London, November 22, 1900. + + +"O CHURCH ARISE AND SING" + +Designed originally for children's voices, the hymn of five stanzas +beginning with this line was written by Hezekiah Butterworth, author of +the _Story of the Hymns_ (1875), _Story of the Tunes_ (1890), and many +popular books of historic interest for the young, the most widely read +of which is _Zigzag Journeys in Many Lands_. He also composed and +published many poems and hymns. He was born in Warren, R.I., Dec. 22, +1839, and for twenty-five years was connected with the _Youth's +Companion_ as regular contributor and member of its editorial staff. He +died in Warren, R.I., Sept. 5, 1905. + +The hymn "O Church, arise" was sung in Mason's tune of "Dort" until +Prof. Case wrote a melody for it, when it took the name of the +"Convention Hymn." + +Professor Charles Clinton Case, music composer and teacher, was born in +Linesville, Pa., June, 1843. Was a pupil of George F. Root and pursued +musical study in Chicago, Ill., Ashland, O., and South Bend, Ind. He was +associated with Root, McGranahan, and others in making secular and +church music books, and later with D.L. Moody in evangelical work. + +As author and compiler he has published numerous works, among them +_Church Anthems_, the _Harvest Song_ and _Case's Chorus Collection_. + + O Church! arise and sing + The triumphs of your King, + Whose reign is love; + Sing your enlarged desires, + That conquering faith inspires, + Renew your signal fires, + And forward move! + + * * * * * + + Beneath the glowing arch + The ransomed armies march, + We follow on; + Lead on, O cross of Light, + From conquering height to height, + And add new victories bright + To triumphs won! + + +"THE BANNER OF IMMANUEL!" + +This hymn, set to music and copyrighted in Buffalo as a floating waif of +verse by an unknown author, and used in Sunday-school work, first +appeared in Dr. F.N. Peloubet's _Select Songs_ (Biglow and Main, 1884) +with a tune by Rev. George Phipps. + +The hymn was written by Rev. Theron Brown, a Baptist minister, who was +pastor (1859-1870) of churches in South Framingham and Canton, Mass. He +was born in Willimantic, Ct., April 29, 1832. + +Retired from pastoral work, owing to vocal disability, he has held +contributory and editorial relations with the _Youth's Companion_ for +more than forty years, for the last twenty years a member of the office +staff. + +Between 1880 and 1890 he contributed hymns more or less regularly to the +quartet and antiphonal chorus service at the Ruggles St. Church, Boston, +the "Banner of Immanuel" being one of the number. _The Blount Family_, +_Nameless Women of the Bible_, _Life Songs_ (a volume of poems), and +several books for boys, are among his published works. + + The banner of Immanuel! beneath its glorious folds + For life or death to serve and fight we pledge our loyal souls. + No other flag such honor boasts, or bears so proud a name, + And far its red-cross signal flies as flies the lightning's flame. + + * * * * * + + Salvation by the blood of Christ! the shouts of triumph ring; + No other watchword leads the host that serves so grand a King. + Then rally, soldiers of the Cross! Keep every fold unfurled, + And by Redemption's holy sign we'll conquer all the world. + +The Rev. George Phipps, composer of the tune, "Immanuel's Banner," was +born in Franklin, Mass., Dec. 11, 1838, was graduated at Amherst +College, 1862, and at Andover Theological Seminary, 1865. Settled as +pastor of the Congregational Church in Wellesley, Mass., ten years, and +at Newton Highlands fifteen years. + +He has written many Sunday-school melodies, notably the music to "My +Saviour Keeps Me Company." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +HYMNS OF SUFFERING AND TRUST. + + +One inspiring chapter in the compensations of life is the record of +immortal verses that were sorrow-born. It tells us in the most affecting +way how affliction refines the spirit and "the agonizing throes of +thought bring forth glory." Often a broken life has produced a single +hymn. It took the long living under trial to shape the supreme +experience. + + --The anguish of the singer + Made the sweetness of the song. + +Indeed, if there had been no sorrow there would have been no song. + +[Illustration: George James Webb] + + +"MY LORD, HOW FULL OF SWEET CONTENT." + +Jeanne M.B. de la Mothe--known always as Madame Guyon--the lady who +wrote these words in exile, probably sang more "songs in the night" than +any hymn-writer outside of the Dark Ages. She was born at Montargis, +France, in 1648, and died in her seventieth year, 1771, in the ancient +city of Blois, on the Loire. + +A convent-educated girl of high family, a wife at the age of fifteen, +and a widow at twenty-eight, her early piety, ridiculed in the dazzling +but corrupt society of Louis XIV's time, blossomed through a long life +in religious ministries and flowers of sacred poetry. + +She became a mystic, and her book _Spiritual Torrents_ indicates the +impetuous ardors of her soul. It was the way Divine Love came to her. +She was the incarnation of the spiritualized Book of Canticles. An +induction to these intense subjective visions and raptures had been the +remark of a pious old Franciscan father, "Seek God in your heart, and +you will find Him." + +She began to teach as well as enjoy the new light so different from the +glitter of the traditional worship. But her "aggressive holiness" was +obnoxious to the established Church. "Quietism" was the brand set upon +her written works and the offense that was punished in her person. +Bossuet, the king of preachers, was her great adversary. The saintly +Fenelon was her friend, but he could not shield her. She was shut up +like a lunatic in prison after prison, till, after four years of dungeon +life in the Bastile, expecting every hour to be executed for heresy, she +was banished to a distant province to end her days. + +Question as we may the usefulness of her pietistic books, the visions of +her excessively exalted moods, and the passionate, almost erotic +phraseology of her _Contemplations_, Madame Guyon has held the world's +admiration for her martyr spirit, and even her love-flights of devotion +in poetry and prose do not conceal the angel that walked in the flame. + +Today, when religious persecution is unknown, we can but dimly +understand the perfect triumph of her superior soul under suffering and +the transports of her utter absorption in God that could make the stones +of her dungeon "look like jewels." When we emulate a faith like +hers--with all the weight of absolute certainty in it--we can sing her +hymn: + + My Lord, how full of sweet content + I pass my years of banishment. + Where'er I dwell, I dwell with Thee, + In heaven or earth, or on the sea. + + To me remains nor place nor time: + My country is in every clime; + I can be calm and free from care + On any shore, since God is there. + +And could a dearer _vade mecum_ enrich a Christian's outfit than these +lines treasured in memory? + + While place we seek or place we shun, + The soul finds happiness in none; + But, with a God to guide our way, + 'Tis equal joy to go or stay. + +Cowper, and also Dr. Thomas Upham, translated (from the French) the +religious poems of Madame Guyon. This hymn is Cowper's translation. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +A gentle and sympathetic melody entitled "Alsace" well represents the +temper of the words--and in name links the nationalities of writer and +composer. It is a choral arranged from a sonata of the great Ludwig von +Beethoven, born in Bonn, Germany, 1770, and died in Vienna, Mar. 1827. +Like the author of the hymn he felt the hand of affliction, becoming +totally deaf soon after his fortieth year. But, in spite of the +privation, he kept on writing sublime and exquisite strains that only +his soul could hear. His fame rests upon his oratorio, "The Mount of +Olives," the opera of "Fidelio" and his nine wonderful "Symphonies." + + +"NO CHANGE IN TIME SHALL EVER SHOCK." + +Altered to common metre from the awkward long metre of Tate and Brady, +the three or four stanzas found in earlier hymnals are part of their +version (probably Tate's) of the 31st Psalm--and it is worth calling to +mind here that there is no hymn treasury so rich in tuneful faith and +reliance upon God in trouble as the Book of Psalms. This feeling of the +Hebrew poet was never better expressed (we might say, translated) in +English than by the writer of this single verse-- + + No change of time shall ever shock + My trust, O Lord, in Thee, + For Thou hast always been my Rock, + A sure defense to me. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The sweet, tranquil choral long ago wedded to this hymn is lost from the +church collections, and its very name forgotten. In fact the hymn itself +is now seldom seen. If it ever comes back, old "Dundee" (Guillaume Franc +1500-1570) will sing for it, or some new composer may rise up to put the +spirit of the psalm into inspired notes. + + +"WHY DO WE MOURN DEPARTED FRIENDS?" + +This hymn of holy comfort, by Dr. Watts, was long associated with a +remarkable tune in C minor, "a queer medley of melody" as Lowell Mason +called it, still familiar to many old people as "China." It was composed +by Timothy Swan when he was about twenty-six years of age (1784) and +published in 1801 in the _New England Harmony_. It may have sounded +consolatory to mature mourners, singers and hearers in the days when +religious emotion habitually took a sad key, but its wild and thrilling +chords made children weep. The tune is long out of use--though, strange +to say, one of the most recent hymnals prints the hymn with a _new +minor_ tune. + + Why do we mourn departed friends, + Or shake at death's alarms? + 'Tis but the voice that Jesus sends + To call them to His arms. + + Are we not tending upward too + As fast as time can move? + Nor should we wish the hours more slow + To keep us from our Love. + + The graves of all His saints He blessed + And softened every bed: + Where should the dying members rest + But with their dying Head? + +Timothy Swan was born in Worcester, Mass., July 23, 1758, and died in +Suffield, Ct., July 23, 1842. He was a self-taught musician, his only +"course of study" lasting three weeks,--in a country singing school at +Groton. When sixteen years old he went to Northfield, Mass., and learned +the hatter's trade, and while at work began to practice making +psalm-tunes. "Montague," in two parts, was his first achievement. From +that time for thirty years, mostly spent in Suffield, Ct., he wrote and +taught music while supporting himself by his trade. Many of his tunes +were published by himself, and had a wide currency a century ago. + +Swan was a genius in his way, and it was a true comment on his work that +"his tunes were remarkable for their originality as well as +singularity--unlike any other melodies." "China," his masterpiece, will +be long kept track of as a curio, and preserved in replicates of old +psalmody to illustrate self-culture in the art of song. But the major +mode will replace the minor when tender voices on burial days sing-- + + Why do we mourn departed friends? + +Another hymn of Watts,-- + + God is the refuge of His saints + When storms of sharp distress invade, + +--sung to Lowell Mason's liquid tune of "Ward," and the priceless +stanza,-- + + Jesus can make a dying bed + Feel soft as downy pillows are, + +doubly prove the claim of the Southampton bard to a foremost place with +the song-preachers of Christian trust. + +The psalm (Amsterdam version), "God is the refuge," etc., is said to +have been sung by John Howland in the shallop of the Mayflower when an +attempt was made to effect a landing in spite of tempestuous weather. A +tradition of this had doubtless reached Mrs. Hemans when she wrote-- + + Amid the storm they sang, etc. + + +"FATHER, WHATE'ER OF EARTHLY BLISS." + +This hymn had originally ten stanzas, of which the three usually sung +are the three last. The above line is the first of the eighth stanza, +altered from-- + + And O, whate'er of earthly bliss. + +Probably for more than a century the familiar surname "Steele" attached +to this and many other hymns in the hymn-books conveyed to the general +public no hint of a mind and hand more feminine than Cowper's or +Montgomery's. Even intelligent people, who had chanced upon sundry +copies of _The Spectator_, somehow fell into the habit of putting +"Steele" and "Addison" in the same category of hymn names, and Sir +Richard Steele got a credit he never sought. But since stories of the +hymns began to be published--and made the subject of evening talks in +church conference rooms--many have learned what "Steele" in the +hymn-book means. It introduces us now to a very retiring English lady, +Miss Anna Steele, a Baptist minister's daughter. She was born in 1706, +at Broughton, Hampshire, in her father's parsonage, and in her father's +parsonage she spent her life, dying there Nov. 1778. + +She was many years a severe sufferer from bodily illness, and a lasting +grief of mind and heart was the loss of her intended husband, who was +drowned the day before their appointed wedding. It is said that this +hymn was written under the recent sorrow of that loss. + +In 1760 and 1780 volumes of her works in verse and prose were published +with her name, "Theodosia," and reprinted in 1863 as "_Hymns, Psalms, +and Poems_, by Anna Steele." The hymn "Father, whate'er," etc., is +estimated as her best, though some rank it only next to her-- + + Dear Refuge of my weary soul. + +Other more or less well-known hymns of this devout and loving writer +are,-- + + Lord, how mysterious are Thy ways, + + O Thou whose tender mercy hears, + + Thou lovely Source of true delight, + + Alas, what hourly dangers rise, + + So fades the lovely blooming flower. + +--to a stanza of which latter the world owes the tune of "Federal St." + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The true musical mate of the sweet hymn-prayer came to it probably about +the time of its hundredth birthday; but it came to stay. Lowell Mason's +"Naomi" blends with it like a symphony of nature. + + Father, whate'er of earthly bliss + Thy sovereign will denies, + Accepted at Thy throne of grace + Let this petition rise. + + Give me a calm and thankful heart + From every murmer free. + The blessings of Thy grace impart, + And make me live to Thee. + + +"GUIDE ME, O THOU GREAT JEHOVAH." + +This great hymn has a double claim on the name of Williams. We do not +have it exactly in its original form as written by Rev. William +Williams, "The Watts of Wales," familiarly known as "Williams of +Pantycelyn." His fellow countryman and contemporary, Rev. Peter +Williams, or "Williams of Carmarthen," who translated it from Welsh into +English (1771) made alterations and substitutions in the hymn with the +result that only the first stanza belongs indisputably to Williams of +Pantycelyn, the others being Peter's own or the joint production of the +two. As the former, however, is said to have approved and revised the +English translation, we may suppose the hymn retained the name of its +original author by mutual consent. + + Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah, + Pilgrim through this barren land. + I am weak, but Thou art mighty, + Hold me by Thy powerful hand; + Bread of heaven, + Feed me till I want no more. + + Open Thou the crystal Fountain + Whence the healing streams do flow, + Let the fiery cloudy pillar + Lead me all my journey through. + Strong Deliverer, + Be Thou still my Strength and Shield! + + When I tread the verge of Jordan + Bid my anxious fears subside; + Death of death, and hell's destruction, + Land me safe on Canaan's side. + Songs of praises + I will ever give to Thee. + + Musing on my habitation, + Musing on my heavenly home, + Fills my heart with holy longing; + Come, Lord Jesus, quickly come. + Vanity is all I see, + Lord, I long to be with Thee. + +The second and third stanzas have not escaped the touch of critical +editors. The line,-- + + Whence the healing streams do flow + +--becomes,-- + + Whence the healing waters flow, + +--with which alteration there is no fault to find except that it is +needless, and obliterates the ancient mark. But the third stanza, +besides losing its second line for-- + + Bid the swelling stream divide, + +--is weakened by a more needless substitution. Its original third line-- + + Death of death, and hell's destruction, + +--is exchanged for the commonplace-- + + Bear me through the swelling current. + +That is modern taste; but when modern taste meddles with a stalwart old +hymn it is sometimes more nice than wise. + +It is probable that the famous hymn was sung in America before it +obtained a European reputation. Its history is as follows: Lady +Huntingdon having read one of Williams' books with much spiritual +satisfaction, persuaded him to prepare a collection of hymns, to be +called the _Gloria in Excelsis_, for special use in Mr. Whitefield's +Orphans' House in America. In this collection appeared the original +stanzas of "Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah." In 1774, two years after +its publication in the _Gloria in Excelsis_, it was republished in +England in Mr. Whitefield's collections of hymns. + +The Rev. Peter Williams was born in the parish of Llansadurnen, +Carmarthenshire, Wales, Jan. 7, 1722, and was educated in Carmarthen +College. He was ordained in the Established Church and appointed to a +curacy, but in 1748 joined the Calvinistic Methodists. He was an +Independent of the Independents however, and preached where ever he +chose. Finally he built a chapel for himself on his paternal estate, +where he ministered during the rest of his life. Died Aug. 8, 1796. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +If "Sardius," the splendid old choral (triple time) everywhere +identified with the hymn, be not its original music, its age at least +entitles it to its high partnership. _The Sacred Lyre_ (1858) ascribes +it to Ludovic Nicholson, of Paisley, Scotland, violinist and amateur +composer, born 1770; died 1852; but this is not beyond dispute. Of +several names one more confidently referred to as its author is F.H. +Barthelemon (1741-1808). + + +"PEACE, TROUBLED SOUL" + +Is the brave faith-song of a Christian under deep but blameless +humiliation--Sir Walter Shirley[16]. + +[Footnote 16: See page 127] + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Apparently the favorite in several (not recent) hymnals for the subdued +but confident spirit of this hymn of Sir Walter Shirley is Mazzinghi's +"Palestine," appearing with various tone-signatures in different books. +The treble and alto lead in a sweet duet with slur-flights, like an +obligato to the bass and tenor. The melody needs rich and cultured +voices, and is unsuited for congregational singing. So, perhaps, is the +hymn itself. + + Peace, troubled soul, whose plaintive moan + Hath taught these rocks the notes of woe; + Cease thy complaint--suppress thy groan, + And let thy tears forget to flow; + Behold the precious balm is found, + To lull thy pain, to heal thy wound. + + Come, freely come, by sin oppressed, + Unburden here thy weighty load; + Here find thy refuge and thy rest, + And trust the mercy of thy God. + Thy God's thy Saviour--glorious word! + For ever love and praise the Lord. + +As now sung the word "scenes" is substituted for "rocks" in the second +line, eliminating the poetry. Rocks give an _echo_; and the vivid +thought in the author's mind is flattened to an unmeaning generality. + +Count Joseph Mazzinghi, son of Tommasso Mazzinghi, a Corsican musician, +was born in London, 1765. He was a boy of precocious talent. When only +ten years of age he was appointed organist of the Portuguese Chapel, and +when nineteen years old was made musical director and composer at the +King's Theatre. For many years he held the honor of Music Master to the +Princess of Wales, afterwards Queen Caroline, and his compositions were +almost numberless. Some of his songs and glees that caught the popular +fancy are still remembered in England, as "The Turnpike Gate," "The +Exile," and the rustic duet, "When a Little Farm We Keep." + +Of sacred music he composed only one mass and six hymn-tunes, of which +latter "Palestine" is one. Mazzinghi died in 1844, in his eightieth +year. + + +"BEGONE UNBELIEF, MY SAVIOUR IS NEAR." + +The Rev. John Newton, author of this hymn, was born in London, July 24, +1725. The son of a sea-captain, he became a sailor, and for several +years led a reckless life. Converted, he took holy orders and was +settled as curate of Olney, Buckinghamshire, and afterwards Rector of +St. Mary of Woolnoth, London, where he died, Dec. 21, 1807. It was +while living at Olney that he and Cowper wrote and published the _Olney +Hymns_. His defiance to doubt in these lines is the blunt utterance of a +sailor rather than the song of a poet: + + Begone, unbelief, my Saviour is near, + And for my relief will surely appear. + By prayer let me wrestle and He will perform; + With Christ in the vessel I smile at the storm. + + +_THE TUNE_ + +Old "Hanover," by William Croft (1677-1727), carries Newton's hymn +successfully, but Joseph Haydn's choral of "Lyons" is more familiar--and +better music. + +"Hanover" often accompanies Charles Wesley's lyric,-- + + Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim. + + +"HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION." + +The question of the author of this hymn is treated at length in Dr. +Louis F. Benson's _Studies of Familiar Hymns_. The utmost that need to +be said here is that two of the most thorough and indefatigable +hymn-chasers, Dr. John Julian and Rev. H.L. Hastings, working +independently of each other, found evidence fixing the authorship with +strong probability upon Robert Keene, a precentor in Dr. John Rippon's +church. Dr. Rippon was pastor of a Baptist Church in London from 1773 +to 1836, and in 1787 he published a song-manual called _A Selection of +Hymns from the Best Authors_, etc., in which "How Firm a Foundation" +appears as a new piece, with the signature "K----." + +The popularity of the hymn in America has been remarkable, and promises +to continue. Indeed, there are few more reviving or more spiritually +helpful. It is too familiar to need quotation. But one cannot suppress +the last stanza, with its powerful and affecting emphasis on the Divine +promise-- + + The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose + I will not, I will not, desert to his foes; + That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, + I'll never, no never, no never forsake. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The grand harmony of "Portuguese Hymn" has always been identified with +this song of trust. + +One opinion of the date of the music writes it "about 1780." Since the +habit of crediting it to John Reading (1677-1764) has been discontinued, +it has been in several hymnals ascribed to Marco Portogallo (Mark, the +Portuguese), a musician born in Lisbon, 1763, who became a composer of +operas in Italy, but was made Chapel-Master to the Portuguese King. In +1807, when Napoleon invaded the Peninsula and dethroned the royal house +of Braganza, Old King John VI. fled to Brazil and took Marco with him, +where he lived till 1815, but returned and died in Italy, in 1830. Such +is the story, and it is all true, only the man's name was Simao, +instead of Marco. _Grove's Dictionary_ appends to Simao's biography the +single sentence, "His brother wrote for the church." That the Brazilian +episode may have been connected with this brother's history by a +confusion of names, is imaginable, but it is not known that the +brother's name was Marco. + +On the whole, this account of the authorship of the "Portuguese +Hymn"--originally written for the old Christmas church song "Adeste +Fideles"--is late and uncertain. Heard (perhaps for the first time) in +the Portuguese Chapel, London, it was given the name which still clings +to it. If proofs of its Portuguese origin exist, they may yet be found. + +"How Firm a Foundation" was the favorite of Deborah Jackson, President +Andrew Jackson's beloved wife, and on his death-bed the warrior and +statesman called for it. It was the favorite of Gen. Robert E. Lee, and +was sung at his funeral. The American love and familiar preference for +the remarkable hymn was never more strikingly illustrated than when on +Christmas Eve, 1898, a whole corps of the United States army Northern +and Southern, encamped on the Quemados hills, near Havana, took up the +sacred tune and words-- + + "Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed." + +Lieut. Col. Curtis Guild (since Governor Guild of Massachusetts) related +the story in the Sunday School Times for Dec. 7, 1901, and Dr. Benson +quotes it in his book. + +[Illustration: John Wesley] + + +"WHILE THEE I SEEK, PROTECTING POWER." + +Miss Helen Maria Williams, who wrote this gentle hymn of confidence, in +1786, was born in the north of England in 1762. When but a girl she won +reputation by her brilliant literary talents and a mental grasp and +vigor that led her, like Gail Hamilton, "to discuss public affairs, +besides clothing bright fancies and devout thoughts in graceful verse." +Most of her life was spent in London, and in Paris, where she died, Dec. +14, 1827. + + While Thee I seek, Protecting Power + Be my vain wishes stilled, + And may this consecrated hour + With better hopes be filled: + + * * * * * + + When gladness wings my favored hour, + Thy love my thoughts shall fill, + Resigned where storms of sorrow lower + My soul shall meet Thy will. + + My lifted eye without a tear + The gathering storm shall see: + My steadfast heart shall know no fear: + My heart will rest on Thee. + + +_THE TUNES._ + +Old "Norwich," from _Day's Psalter_, and "Simpson," adapted from Louis +Spohr, are found with the hymn in several later manuals. In the memories +of older worshipers "Brattle-Street," with its melodious choral and duet +arranged from Pleyel by Lowell Mason, is inseparable from Miss +Williams' words; but modern hymnals have dropped it, probably because +too elaborate for average congregational use. + +Ignaz Joseph Pleyel was born June 1, 1757, at Ruppersthal, Lower +Austria. He was the _twenty-fourth_ child of a village schoolmaster. His +early taste and talent for music procured him friends who paid for his +education. Haydn became his master, and long afterwards spoke of him as +his best and dearest pupil. Pleyel's work--entirely instrumental--was +much admired by Mozart. + +During a few years spent in Italy, he composed the music of his +best-known opera, "Iphigenia in Aulide," and, besides the thirty-four +books of his symphonies and chamber-pieces, the results of his prolific +genius make a list too long to enumerate. Most of his life was spent in +Paris, where he founded the (present) house of Pleyel and Wolfe, piano +makers and sellers. He died in that city, Nov. 14, 1831. + + +"COME UNTO ME." + + Come unto Me, when shadows darkly gather, + When the sad heart is weary and distressed, + Seeking for comfort from your heavenly Father, + Come unto Me, and I will give you rest. + +This sweet hymn, by Mrs. Catherine Esling, is well known to many +thousands of mourners, as also is its equally sweet tune of "Henley," by +Lowell Mason. Melody and words melt together like harp and flute. + + Large are the mansions in thy Father's dwelling, + Glad are the homes that sorrows never dim, + Sweet are the harps in holy music swelling. + Soft are the tones that raise the heavenly hymn. + +Mrs. Catherine Harbison Waterman Esling was born in Philadelphia, Apr. +12, 1812. A writer for many years under her maiden name, Waterman, she +married, in 1840, Capt. George Esling, of the Merchant Marine, and lived +in Rio Janeiro till her widowhood, in 1844. + + +JOHN WESLEY'S HYMN. + + How happy is the pilgrim's lot, + How free from every anxious thought. + +These are the opening lines of "John Wesley's Hymn," so called because +his other hymns are mostly translations, and because of all his own it +is the one commonly quoted and sung. + +John Wesley, the second son in the famous Epworth family of ministers, +was a man who knew how to endure "hardness as a good soldier of Christ." +He was born June 27, 1703, and studied at Charterhouse, London, and at +Christ Church, Oxford, becoming a Fellow of Lincoln College. After +taking holy orders he went as a missionary to Georgia, U.S., in 1735, +and on his return began his remarkable work in England, preaching a more +spiritual type of religion, and awakening the whole kingdom with his +revival fervor and his brother's kindling songs. The following paragraph +from his itinerant life, gathered probably from a page of his own +journals, gives a glimpse of what the founder of the great Methodist +denomination did and suffered while carrying his Evangelical message +from place to place. + +On February 17, 1746, when days were short and weather far from +favorable, he set out on horseback from Bristol to Newcastle, a distance +between three and four hundred miles. The journey occupied ten days. +Brooks were swollen, and in some places the roads were impassable, +obliging the itinerant to go round through the fields. At Aldrige Heath, +in Staffordshire, the rain turned to snow, which the northerly wind +drove against him, and by which he was soon crusted over from head to +foot. At Leeds the mob followed him, and pelted him with whatever came +to hand. He arrived at Newcastle, February 26, "free from every anxious +thought," and "every worldly fear." + +How lightly he regarded hardship and molestation appears from his +verses-- + + Whatever molests or troubles life, + When past, as nothing we esteem, + And pain, like pleasure, is a dream. + +And that he actually enjoys the heroic freedom of a rough-rider +missionary life is hinted in his hymn-- + + Confined to neither court nor cell, + His soul disdains on earth to dwell, + He only sojourns here. + +God evidently built John Wesley fire-proof and water-proof with a view +to precisely what he was to undertake and accomplish. His frame was +vigorous, and his spirit unconquerable. Besides all this he had the +divine gift of a religious faith that could move mountains and a +confidence in his mission that became a second nature. No wonder he +could suffer, and _last_. The brave young man at thirty was the brave +old man at nearly ninety. He died in London, March 2, 1791. + + Blest with the scorn of finite good, + My soul is lightened of its load + And seeks the things above. + + There is my house and portion fair; + My treasure and my heart are there, + And my abiding home. + + For me my elder brethren stay, + And angels beckon me away. + And Jesus bids me come. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +An air found in the _Revivalist_ (1869), in sextuple time, that has the +real camp-meeting swing, preserves the style of music in which the hymn +was sung by the circuit-preachers and their congregations--ringing out +the autobiographical verses with special unction. The favorite was-- + + No foot of land do I possess, + No cottage in this wilderness; + A poor wayfaring man, + I lodge awhile in tents below, + Or gladly wander to and fro + Till I my Canaan gain. + +More modern voices sing the John Wesley hymn to the tune "Habakkuk," by +Edward Hodges. It has a lively three-four step, and finer melody than +the old. + +Edward Hodges was born in Bristol, Eng., July 20, 1796, and died there +Sept. 1876. Organist at Bristol in his youth, he was graduated at +Cambridge and in 1825 received the doctorate of music from that +University. In 1835 he went to Toronto, Canada, and two years later to +New York city, where he was many years Director of Music at Trinity +Church. Returned to Bristol in 1863. + + +"WHEN GATHERING CLOUDS AROUND I VIEW." + +One of the restful strains breathed out of illness and affliction to +relieve one soul and bless millions. It was written by Sir Robert Grant +(1785-1838). + + When gathering clouds around I view, + And days are dark, and friends are few, + On Him I lean who not in vain + Experienced every human pain. + +The lines are no less admirable for their literary beauty than for their +feeling and their faith. Unconsciously, it may be, to the writer, in +this and the following stanza are woven an epitome of the Saviour's +history. He-- + + Experienced every human pain, + --felt temptation's power, + --wept o'er Lazarus dead, + +--and the crowning assurance of Jesus' human sympathy is expressed in +the closing prayer,-- + + --when I have safely passed + Thro' every conflict but the last, + Still, still unchanging watch beside + My painful bed--for _Thou hast died_. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Of the few suitable six-line long metre part songs, the charming Russian +tone-poem of "St. Petersburg" by Dimitri Bortniansky is borrowed for the +hymn in some collections, and with excellent effect. It accords well +with the mood and tenor of the words, and deserves to stay with it as +long as the hymn holds its place. + +Dimitri Bortniansky, called "The Russian Palestrina," was born in 1752 +at Gloukoff, a village of the Ukraine. He studied music in Moscow, St. +Petersburg, Vienna, Rome and Naples. Returning to his native land, he +was made Director of Empress Catharine's church choir. He reformed and +systematized Russian church music, and wrote original scores in the +intervals of his teaching labors. His works are chiefly motets and +concertos, which show his genius for rich harmony. Died 1825. + + +"JUST AS I AM, WITHOUT ONE PLEA." + +Charlotte Elliott, of Brighton, Eng., would have been well-known through +her admired and useful hymns,-- + + My God, my Father, while I stray, + + My God, is any hour so sweet, + + With tearful eyes I look around, + +--and many others. But in "Just as I am" she made herself a voice in the +soul of every hesitating penitent. The currency of the hymn has been too +swift for its authorship and history to keep up with, but it is a +blessed law of influence that good works out-run biographies. This +master-piece of metrical gospel might be called Miss Elliott's +spiritual-birth hymn, for a reply of Dr. Cæsar Malan of Geneva was its +prompting cause. The young lady was a stranger to personal religion +when, one day, the good man, while staying at her father's house, in his +gentle way introduced the subject. She resented it, but afterwards, +stricken in spirit by his words, came to him with apologies and an +inquiry that confessed a new concern of mind. "You speak of coming to +Jesus, but how? I'm not fit to come." + +"Come just as you are," said Dr. Malan. + +The hymn tells the result. + +Like all the other hymns bound up in her _Invalid's Hymn-book_, it was +poured from out the heart of one who, as the phrase is, "never knew a +well day"--though she lived to see her eighty-second year. + +Illustrative of the way it appeals to the afflicted, a little anecdote +was told by the eloquent John B. Gough of his accidental seat-mate in a +city church service. A man of strange appearance was led by the kind +usher or sexton to the pew he occupied. Mr. Gough eyed him with strong +aversion. The man's face was mottled, his limbs and mouth twitched, and +he mumbled singular sounds. When the congregation sang he attempted to +sing, but made fearful work of it. During the organ interlude he leaned +toward Mr. Gough and asked how the next verse began. It was-- + + Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind. + +"That's it," sobbed the strange man, "I'm blind--God help me!"--and the +tears ran down his face--"and I'm wretched--and paralytic," and then he +tried hard to sing the line with the rest. + +"After that," said Mr. Gough, "the poor paralytic's singing was as +sweet to me as a Beethoven symphony." + +Charlotte Elliott was born March 18, 1789, and died in Brighton, Sept. +22, 1871. She stands in the front rank of female hymn-writers. + +The tune of "Woodworth," by William B. Bradbury, has mostly superseded +Mason's "Elliott," and is now the accepted music of this lyric of +perfect faith and pious surrender. + + Just as I am,--Thy love unknown + Hath broken every barrier down, + Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone, + O Lamb of God, I come, I come. + + +"MY HOPE IS BUILT ON NOTHING LESS." + +The Rev. Edward Mote was born in London, 1797. According to his own +testimony his parents were not God-fearing people, and he "went to a +school where no Bible was allowed;" but at the age of sixteen he +received religious impressions from a sermon of John Hyatt in Tottenham +Court Chapel, was converted two years later, studied for the ministry, +and ultimately became a faithful preacher of the gospel. Settled as +pastor of the Baptist Church in Horsham, Sussex, he remained there +twenty-six years--until his death, Nov. 13, 1874. The refrain of his +hymn came to him one Sabbath when on his way to Holborn to exchange +pulpits: + + On Christ the solid rock I stand, + All other ground is sinking sand. + +There were originally six stanzas, the first beginning: + + Nor earth, nor hell, my soul can move, + I rest upon unchanging love. + +The refrain is a fine one, and really sums up the whole hymn, keeping +constantly at the front the corner-stone of the poet's trust. + + My hope is built on nothing less + Than Jesus' blood and righteousness. + I dare not trust the sweetest frame, + But only lean on Jesus' name. + On Christ the solid Rock I stand + All other ground is sinking sand. + + When darkness veils His lovely face + I trust in His unchanging grace, + In every high and stormy gale + My anchor holds within the veil. + On Christ the solid Rock, etc. + +Wm. B. Bradbury composed the tune (1863). It is usually named "The Solid +Rock." + + +"ABIDE WITH ME! FAST FALLS THE EVENTIDE." + +The Rev. Henry Francis Lyte, author of this melodious hymn-prayer, was +born at Ednam, near Kelso, Scotland, June first, 1793. A scholar, +graduated at Trinity College, Dublin; a poet and a musician, the +hard-working curate was a man of frail physique, with a face of almost +feminine beauty, and a spirit as pure and gentle as a little child's. +The shadow of consumption was over him all his life. His memory is +chiefly associated with the district church at Lower Brixham, +Devonshire, where he became "perpetual curate" in 1823. He died at Nice, +France, Nov. 20, 1847. + +On the evening of his last Sunday preaching and communion service he +handed to one of his family the manuscript of his hymn, "Abide with me," +and the music he had composed for it. It was not till eight years later +that Henry Ward Beecher introduced it, or a part of it, to American +Congregationalists, and fourteen years after the author's death it began +to be sung as we now have it, in this country and England. + + Abide with me! Fast falls the eventide, + The darkness deepens,--Lord with me abide! + When other helpers fail, and comforts flee, + Help of the helpless, O abide with me! + + * * * * * + + Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes; + Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies; + Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee; + In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me! + + +_THE TUNE_ + +There is a pathos in the neglect and oblivion of Lyte's own tune set by +himself to his words, especially as it was in a sense the work of a +dying man who had hoped that he might not be "wholly mute and useless" +while lying in his grave, and who had prayed-- + + O Thou whose touch can lend + Life to the dead. Thy quickening grace supply, + And grant me swan-like my last breath to spend + In song that may not die! + +His prayer was answered in God's own way. Another's melody hastened his +hymn on its useful career, and revealed to the world its immortal +value. + +By the time it had won its slow recognition in England, it was probably +tuneless, and the compilers of _Hymns Ancient and Modern_ (1861) +discovering the fact just as they were finishing their work, asked Dr. +William Henry Monk, their music editor, to supply the want. "In ten +minutes," it is said, "Dr. Monk composed the sweet, pleading chant that +is wedded permanently to Lyte's swan song." + +William Henry Monk, Doctor of Music, was born in London, 1823. His +musical education was early and thorough, and at the age of twenty-six +he was organist and choir director in King's College, London. Elected +(1876) professor of the National Training School, he interested himself +actively in popular musical education, delivering lectures at various +institutions, and establishing choral services. + +His hymn-tunes are found in many song-manuals of the English Church and +in Scotland, and several have come to America. + +Dr. Monk died in 1889. + + +"COME, YE DISCONSOLATE." + +By Thomas Moore--about 1814. The poem in its original form differed +somewhat from the hymn we sing. Thomas Hastings--whose religious +experience, perhaps, made him better qualified than Thomas Moore for +spiritual expression--changed the second line,-- + + Come, at God's altar fervently kneel, + +--to-- + + Come to the mercy seat, + +--and in the second stanza replaced-- + + Hope when all others die, + +--with-- + + Hope of the penitent; + +--and for practically the whole of the last stanza-- + + Go ask the infidel what boon he brings us, + What charm for aching hearts he can reveal. + Sweet as that heavenly promise hope sings us, + "Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal," + +--Hastings substituted-- + + Here see the Bread of life, see waters flowing + Forth from the throne of God, pure from above! + Come to the feast Love, come ever knowing + Earth has no sorrow but heaven can remove. + +Dr. Hastings was not much of a poet, but he could make a _singable_ +hymn, and he knew the rhythm and accent needed in a hymn-tune. The +determination was to make an evangelical hymn of a poem "too good to +lose," and in that view perhaps the editorial liberties taken with it +were excusable. It was to Moore, however, that the real hymn-thought and +key-note first came, and the title-line and the sweet refrain are his +own--for which the Christian world has thanked him, lo these many +years. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Those who question why Dr. Hastings' interest in Moore's poem did not +cause him to make a tune for it, must conclude that it came to him with +its permanent melody ready made, and that the tune satisfied him. + +The "German Air" to which Moore tells us he wrote the words, probably +took his fancy, if it did not induce his mood. Whether Samuel Webbe's +tune now wedded to the hymn is an arrangement of the old air or wholly +his own is immaterial. One can scarcely conceive a happier yoking of +counterparts. Try singing "Come ye Disconsolate" to "Rescue the +Perishing," for example, and we shall feel the impertinence of divorcing +a hymn that has found its musical affinity. + + +"JESUS, I MY CROSS HAVE TAKEN." + +This is another well-known and characteristic hymn of Henry Francis +Lyte--originally six stanzas. We have been told that, besides his bodily +affliction, the grief of an unhappy division or difference in his church +weighed upon his spirit, and that it is alluded to in these lines-- + + Man may trouble and distress me, + 'Twill but drive me to Thy breast, + Life with trials hard may press me, + Heaven will bring me sweeter rest. + + O, 'tis not in grief to harm me + While Thy love is left to me, + O, 'tis not in joy to charm me + Were that joy unmixed with Thee. + +Tunes, "Autumn," by F.H. Barthelemon, or "Ellesdie," (formerly called +"Disciple") from Mozart--familiar in either. + + +"FROM EVERY STORMY WIND THAT BLOWS." + +This is the much-sung and deeply-cherished hymn of Christian peace that +a pious Manxman, Hugh Stowell, was inspired to write nearly a hundred +years ago. Ever since it has carried consolation to souls in both +ordinary and extraordinary trials. + +It was sung by the eight American martyrs, Revs. Albert Johnson, John E. +Freeman, David E. Campbell and their wives, and Mr. and Mrs. McMullen, +when by order of the bloody Nana Sahib the captive missionaries were +taken prisoners and put to death at Cawnpore in 1857. Two little +children, Fannie and Willie Campbell, suffered with their parents. + + From every stormy wind that blows, + From every swelling tide of woes + There is a calm, a sure retreat; + 'Tis found beneath the Mercy Seat. + + Ah, whither could we flee for aid + When tempted, desolate, dismayed, + Or how the hosts of hell defeat + Had suffering saints no Mercy Seat? + + There, there on eagle wings we soar, + And sin and sense molest no more, + And heaven comes down our souls to greet + While glory crowns the Mercy Seat. + +[Illustration: John B. Dykes] + +Rev. Hugh Stowell was born at Douglas on the Isle of Man, Dec. 3, 1799. +He was educated at Oxford and ordained to the ministry 1823, receiving +twelve years later the appointment of Canon to Chester Cathedral. + +He was a popular and effective preacher and a graceful writer. +Forty-seven hymns are credited to him, the above being the best known. +To presume it is "his best," leaves a good margin of merit for the +remainder. + +"From every stormy wind that blows" has practically but one tune. It has +been sung to Hastings "Retreat" ever since the music was made. + + +"CHILD OF SIN AND SORROW." + + Child of sin and sorrow, filled with dismay, + Wait not for tomorrow, yield thee today. + Heaven bids thee come, while yet there's room, + Child of sin and sorrow, hear and obey. + +Words and music by Thomas Hastings. + + +"LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT." + +John Henry Newman, born in London, Feb. 21, 1801--known in religious +history as Cardinal Newman--wrote this hymn when he was a young +clergyman of the Church of England. "Born within the sound of Bow +bells," says Dr. Benson, "he was an imaginative boy, and so +superstitious, that he used constantly to cross himself when going into +the dark." Intelligent students of the fine hymn will note this habit of +its author's mind--and surmise its influence on his religious musings. + +The agitations during the High Church movement, and the persuasions of +Hurrell Froude, a Romanist friend, while he was a tutor at Oxford, +gradually weakened his Protestant faith, and in his unrest he travelled +to the Mediterranean coast, crossed to Sicily, where he fell violently +ill, and after his recovery waited three weeks in Palermo for a return +boat. On his trip to Marseilles he wrote the hymn--with no thought that +it would ever be called a hymn. + +When complimented on the beautiful production after it became famous he +modestly said, "It was not the hymn but the _tune_ that has gained the +popularity. The tune is Dykes' and Dr. Dykes is a great master." + +Dr. Newman was created a Cardinal of the Church of Rome in the Catholic +Cathedral of London, 1879. Died Aug. 11, 1890. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"Lux Benigna," by Dr. Dykes, was composed in Aug. 1865, and was the tune +chosen for this hymn by a committee preparing the Appendix to _Hymns +Ancient and Modern_. Dr. Dykes' statement that the tune came into his +head while walking through the Strand in London "presents a striking +contrast with the solitary origin of the hymn itself" (Benson). + + Lead, kindly Light, amid th' encircling gloom, + Lead Thou me on. + The night is dark and I am far from home; + Lead Thou me on. + Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see + The distant scene,--one step enough for me. + + * * * * * + + So long Thy power hath bless'd me, sure it still + Will lead me on, + O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till + The night is gone, + And with the morn those angel faces smile + Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile. + + +"I HEARD THE VOICE OF JESUS SAY." + +Few if any Christian writers of his generation have possessed tuneful +gifts in greater opulence or produced more vital and lasting treasures +of spiritual verse than Horatius Bonar of Scotland. He inherited some of +his poetic faculty from his grandfather, a clergyman who wrote several +hymns, and it is told of Horatius that hymns used to "come to" him while +riding on railroad trains. He was educated in the Edinburgh University +and studied theology with Dr. Chalmers, and his life was greatly +influenced by Dr. Guthrie, whom he followed in the establishment of the +Free Church of Scotland. + +Born in 1808 in Edinburgh, he was about forty years old when he came +back from a successful pastorate at Kelso to the city of his home and +Alma Mater, and became virtually Chalmers' successor as minister of the +Chalmers Memorial Church. + +The peculiar richness of Bonar's sacred songs very early created for +them a warm welcome in the religious world, and any devout lyric or poem +with his name attached to it is sure to be read. + +Dr. Bonar died in Edinburgh, July 31, 1889. Writing of the hymn, "I +heard the voice," etc., Dr. David Breed calls it "one of the most +ingenious hymns in the language," referring to the fact that the +invitation and response exactly halve each stanza between them--song +followed by countersong. "Ingenious" seems hardly the right word for a +division so obviously natural and almost automatic. It is a simple art +beauty that a poet of culture makes by instinct. Bowring's "Watchman, +tell us of the night," is not the only other instance of similar +countersong structure, and the regularity in Thomas Scott's little hymn, +"Hasten, sinner, to be wise," is only a simpler case of the way a poem +plans itself by the compulsion of its subject. + + I heard the voice of Jesus say, + Come unto me and rest, + Lay down, thou weary one, lay down + Thy head upon My breast: + + I came to Jesus as I was, + Weary and worn and sad, + I found in Him a resting-place, + And He has made me glad. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The old melody of "Evan," long a favorite; and since known everywhere +through the currency given to it in the _Gospel Hymns_, has been in many +collections connected with the words. It is good congregational +psalmody, and not unsuited to the sentiment, taken line by line, but it +divides the stanzas into quatrains, which breaks the happy continuity. +"Evan" was made by Dr. Mason in 1850 from a song written four years +earlier by Rev. William Henry Havergal, Canon of Worcester Cathedral, +Eng. He was the father of Frances Ridley Havergal. + +The more ancient "Athens," by Felice Giardini (1716-1796), author of the +"Italian Hymn," has clung, and still clings lovingly to Bonar's hymn in +many communities. Its simplicity, and the involuntary accent of its +sextuple time, exactly reproducing the easy iambic of the verses, +inevitably made it popular, and thousands of older singers today will +have no other music with "I heard the voice of Jesus say." + +"Vox Jesu," from the andante in one of the quartets of Louis Spohr +(1784-1859), is a psalm-tune of good harmony, but too little feeling. + +An excellent tune for all the shades of expression in the hymn, is the +arrangement by Hubert P. Main from Franz Abt--in A flat, triple time. +Gentle music through the first fifteen bars, in alternate duet and +quartet, utters the Divine Voice with the true accent of the lines, and +the second portion completes the harmony in glad, full chorus--the +answer of the human heart. + +"Vox Dilecti," by Dr. Dykes, goes farther and writes the Voice in B flat +_minor_--which seems a needless substitution of divine sadness for +divine sweetness. It is a tune of striking chords, but its shift of key +to G natural (major) after the first four lines marks it rather for +trained choir performance than for assembly song. + +It is possible to make too much of a dramatic perfection or a supposed +indication of structural design in a hymn. Textual equations, such as +distinguish Dr. Bonar's beautiful stanzas, are not necessarily +technical. To emphasize them as ingenious by an ingenious tune seems, +somehow, a reflection on the spontaneity of the hymn. + +Louis Spohr was Director of the Court Theatre Orchestra in Cassel, +Prussia, in the first half of the last century. He was an eminent +composer of both vocal and instrumental music, and one of the greatest +violinists of Europe. + +Hubert Platt Main was born in Ridgefield, Ct., Aug. 17, 1839. He read +music at sight when only ten years old, and at sixteen commenced writing +hymn-tunes. Was assistant compiler with both Bradbury and Woodbury in +their various publications, and in 1868 became connected with the firm +of Biglow and Main, and has been their book-maker until the present +time. As music editor in the partnership he has superintended the +publication of more than five hundred music-books, services, etc. + + +"I LOVE TO STEAL AWHILE AWAY." + +The burdened wife and mother who wrote this hymn would, at the time, +have rated her history with "the short and simple annals of the poor." +But the poor who are "remembered for what they have done," may have a +larger place in history than many rich who did nothing. + +Phebe Hinsdale Brown, was born in Canaan, N.Y., in 1783. Her father, +George Hinsdale, who died in her early childhood, must have been a man +of good abilities and religious feeling, being the reputed composer of +the psalm-tune, "Hinsdale," found in some long-ago collections. + +Left an orphan at two years of age, Phebe "fell into the hands of a +relative who kept the county jail," and her childhood knew little but +the bitter fare and ceaseless drudgery of domestic slavery. She grew up +with a crushed spirit, and was a timid, shrinking woman as long as she +lived. She married Timothy H. Brown, a house-painter of Ellington, Ct., +and passed her days there and in Monson, Mass., where she lived some +twenty-five years. + +In her humble home in the former town her children were born, and it was +while caring for her own little family of four, and a sick sister, that +the incident occurred (August 1818), which called forth her tender hymn. +She was a devout Christian, and in pleasant weather, whenever she could +find the leisure, she would "steal away" at sunset from her burdens a +little while, to rest and commune with God. Her favorite place was a +wealthy neighbor's large and beautiful flower garden. A servant reported +her visits there to the mistress of the house, who called the "intruder" +to account. + +"If you want anything, why don't you come in?" was the rude question, +followed by a plain hint that no stealthy person was welcome. + +Wounded by the ill-natured rebuff, the sensitive woman sat down the next +evening with her baby in her lap, and half-blinded by her tears, wrote +"An Apology for my Twilight Rambles," in the verses that have made her +celebrated. + +She sent the manuscript (nine stanzas) to her captious neighbor--with +what result has never been told. + +Crude and simple as the little rhyme was, it contained a germ of lyric +beauty and life. The Rev. Dr. Charles Hyde of Ellington, who was a +neighbor of Mrs. Brown, procured a copy. He was assisting Dr. Nettleton +to compile the _Village Hymns_, and the humble bit of devotional verse +was at once judged worthy of a place in the new book. Dr. Hyde and his +daughter Emeline giving it some kind touches of rhythmic amendment, + + I love to steal awhile away + From little ones and care, + +--became,-- + + I love to steal awhile away + From _every cumb'ring_ care. + +In the last line of this stanza-- + + In gratitude and prayer + +--was changed to-- + + In humble, grateful prayer, + +--and the few other defects in syllabic smoothness or literary grace +were affectionately repaired, but the slight furbishing it received did +not alter the individuality of Mrs. Brown's work. It remained +_hers_--and took its place among the immortals of its kind, another +illustration of how little poetry it takes to make a good hymn. Only +five stanzas were printed, the others being voted redundant by both +author and editor. The second and third, as now sung, are-- + + I love in solitude to shed + The penitential tear, + And all His promises to plead + Where none but God can hear. + + I love to think on mercies past + And future good implore, + And all my cares and sorrows cast + On Him whom I adore. + +Phebe Brown died at Henry, Ill., in 1861; but she had made the church +and the world her debtor not only for her little lyric of pious trust, +but by rearing a son, the Rev. Samuel Brown, D.D., who became the +pioneer American missionary to Japan--to which Christian calling two of +her grandchildren also consecrated themselves. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Mrs. Brown's son Samuel, who, besides being a good minister, inherited +his grandfather's musical gift, composed the tune of "Monson," (named in +his mother's honor, after her late home), and it may have been the first +music set to her hymn. It was the fate of his offering, however, to lose +its filial place, and be succeeded by different melodies, though his own +still survives in a few collections, sometimes with Collyer's "O Jesus +in this solemn hour." It is good music for a hymn of _praise_ rather +than for meditative verse. Many years the hymn has been sung to +"Woodstock," an appropriate and still familiar tune by Deodatus Dutton. + +Dutton's "Woodstock" and Bradbury's "Brown," which often replaces it, +are worthy rivals of each other, and both continue in favor as fit +choral interpretations of the much-loved hymn. + +Deodatus Dutton was born Dec. 22, 1808, and educated at Brown University +and Washington College (now Trinity) Hartford Ct. While there he was a +student of music and played the organ at Dr. Matthews' church. He +studied theology in New York city, and had recently entered the ministry +when he suddenly died, Dec. 16, 1832, a moment before rising to preach a +sermon. During his brief life he had written several hymn-tunes, and +published a book of psalmody. Mrs. Sigourney wrote a poem on his death. + + +"THERE'S A WIDENESS IN GOD'S MERCY." + +Frederick William Faber, author of this favorite hymn-poem, had a +peculiar genius for putting golden thoughts into common words, and +making them sing. Probably no other sample of his work shows better than +this his art of combining literary cleverness with the most reverent +piety. Cant was a quality Faber never could put into his religious +verse. + +He was born in Yorkshire, Eng., June 28, 1814, and received his +education at Oxford. Settled as Rector of Elton, in Huntingdonshire, in +1843, he came into sympathy with the "Oxford Movement," and followed +Newman into the Romish Church. He continued his ministry as founder and +priest for the London branch of the Catholic congregation of St. Philip +Neri for fourteen years, dying Sept. 26, 1863, at the age of forty-nine. + +His godly hymns betray no credal shibboleth or doctrinal bias, but are +songs for the whole earthly church of God. + + There's a wideness in God's mercy + Like the wideness of the sea; + There's a kindness in His justice + Which is more than liberty. + There is welcome for the sinner + And more graces for the good; + There is mercy with the Saviour, + There is healing in His blood. + + There's no place where earthly sorrows + Are more felt than up in heaven; + There's no place where earthly failings + Have such kindly judgment given. + There is plentiful redemption + In the blood that has been shed, + There is joy for all the members + In the sorrows of the Head. + + For the love of God is broader + Than the measure of man's mind, + And the heart of the Eternal + Is most wonderfully kind. + If our love were but more simple + We should take Him at His word, + And our lives would be all sunshine + In the sweetness of the Lord. + +No tone of comfort has breathed itself more surely and tenderly into +grieved hearts than these tuneful and singularly expressive sentences of +Frederick Faber. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The music of S.J. Vail sung to Faber's hymn is one of that composer's +best hymn-tunes, and its melody and natural movement impress the +meaning as well as the simple beauty of the words. + +Silas Jones Vail, an American music-writer, was born Oct., 1818, and +died May 20, 1883. Another charming tune is "Wellesley," by Lizzie S. +Tourjee, daughter of the late Dr. Eben Tourjee. + + +"HE LEADETH ME! OH, BLESSED THOUGHT." + +Professor Gilmore, of Rochester University, N.Y., when a young Baptist +minister (1861) supplying a pulpit in Philadelphia "jotted down this +hymn in Deacon Watson's parlor" (as he says) and passed it to his wife, +one evening after he had made "a conference-room talk" on the 23d Psalm. + +Mrs. Gilmore, without his knowledge, sent it to the _Watchman and +Reflector_ (now the _Watchman_). + +Years after its publication in that paper, when a candidate for the +pastorate of the Second Baptist Church in Rochester, he was turning the +leaves of the vestry hymnal in use there, and saw his hymn in it. Since +that first publication in the _Devotional Hymn and Tune Book_ (1865) it +has been copied in the hymnals of various denominations, and steadily +holds its place in public favor. The refrain added by the tunemaker +emphasizes the sentiment of the lines, and undoubtedly enhances the +effect of the hymn. + +"He leadeth me" has the true hymn quality, combining all the simplicity +of spontaneous thought and feeling with perfect accent and liquid +rhythm. + + He leadeth me! Oh, blessed thought, + Oh, words with heavenly comfort fraught; + Whate'er I do, where'er I be, + Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me! + + * * * * * + + Lord, I would clasp Thy hand in mine, + Nor ever murmur nor repine-- + Content, whatever lot I see, + Since 'tis my God that leadeth me. + +Professor Joseph Henry Gilmore was born in Boston, April 29, 1834. He +was graduated at Phillips Academy, Andover, at Brown University, and at +the Newton Theological Institution, where he was afterwards Hebrew +instructor. + +After four years of pastoral service he was elected (1867) professor of +the English Language and Literature in Rochester University. He has +published _Familiar Chats on Books and Reading_, also several college +text-books on rhetoric, logic and oratory. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The little hymn of four stanzas was peculiarly fortunate in meeting the +eye of Mr. William B. Bradbury, (1863) and winning his musical sympathy +and alliance. Few composers have so exactly caught the tone and spirit +of their text as Bradbury did when he vocalized the gliding measures of +"He leadeth me." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +CHRISTIAN BALLADS. + + +Echoes of Hebrew thought, if not Hebrew psalmody, may have made their +way into the more serious pagan literature. At least in the more +enlightened pagans there has ever revealed itself more or less the +instinct of the human soul that "feels after" God. St. Paul in his +address to the Athenians made a tactful as well as scholarly point to +preface a missionary sermon when he cited a line from a poem of Aratus +(B.C. 272) familiar, doubtless, to the majority of his hearers. + +Dr. Lyman Abbot has thus translated the passage in which the line +occurs: + + Let us begin from God. Let every mortal raise + The grateful voice to tune God's endless praise, + God fills the heaven, the earth, the sea, the air; + We feel His spirit moving everywhere, + And we His offspring are.[17] He, ever good, + Daily provides for man his daily food. + To Him, the First, the Last, all homage yield,-- + Our Father wonderful, our help, our shield. + +[Footnote 17: [Greek: Tou gar kai genos esmen.]] + + +"RISE, CROWNED WITH LIGHT." + +Alexander Pope, a Roman Catholic poet, born in London 1688, died at +Twickenham 1744, was not a hymnist, but passages in his most serious and +exalted flights deserve a tuneful accompaniment. His translations of +Homer made him famous, but his ethical poems, especially his "Essay on +Man," are inexhaustible mines of quotation, many of the lines and +couplets being common as proverbs. His "Messiah," written about 1711, is +a religious anthem in which the prophecies of Holy Writ kindle all the +splendor of his verse. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The closing strain, indicated by the above line, has been divided into +stanzas of four lines suitable to a church hymn-tune. The melody +selected by the compilers of the _Plymouth Hymnal_, and of the +_Unitarian Hymn and Tune Book_ is "Savannah," an American sounding name +for what is really one of Pleyel's chorals. The music is worthy of +Pope's triumphal song. + + The seas shall waste, the skies to smoke decay, + Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away, + But fixed His Word; His saving power remains: + Thy realm shall last; thy own Messiah reigns. + + +"OH, WHY SHOULD THE SPIRIT?" + +This is a sombre poem, but its virile strength and its literary merit +have given it currency, and commended it to the taste of many people, +both weak and strong, who have the pensive temperament. Abraham Lincoln +loved it and committed it to memory in his boyhood. Philip Phillips set +it to music, and sang it--or a part of it--one day during the Civil war +at the anniversary of the Christian Sanitary Commission, when President +Lincoln, who was present, called for its repetition.[18] It was written +by William Knox, born 1789, son of a Scottish farmer. + +[Footnote 18: This account so nearly resembles the story of Mrs. Gates' +"Your Mission," sung to a similar audience, on a similar occasion, by +the same man, that a possible confusion by the narrators of the incident +has been suggested. But that Mr. Phillips sang twice before the +President during the war does not appear to be contradicted. To what air +he sang the above verses is uncertain.] + +The poem has fourteen stanzas, the following being the first and two +last-- + + Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud? + Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud + A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, + He passeth from life to rest in the grave. + + * * * * * + + Yea, hope and despondency, pleasure and pain, + Are mingled together like sunshine and rain; + And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge, + Still follow each other like surge upon surge. + + 'Tis the wink of an eye; 'tis the draft of a breath + From the blossom of health to the paleness of death, + From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud, + Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud? + +Philip Phillips was born in Jamestown, Chautauqua Co., N.Y., Aug. 11, +1834, and died in Delaware, O., June 25, 1895. He wrote no hymns and was +not an educated musician, but the airs of popular hymn-music came to him +and were harmonized for him by others, most frequently by his friends, +S.J. Vail and Hubert P. Main. He compiled and published thirty-one +collections for Sunday-schools and gospel meetings, besides the +_Methodist Hymn and Tune Book_, issued in 1866. + +He was a pioneer gospel singer, and his tuneful journeys through +America, England and Australia gave him the name of the "Singing +Pilgrim," the title of his song collection (1867). + + +"WHEN ISRAEL OF THE LORD BELOVED." + +The "Song of Rebecca the Jewess," in "Ivanhoe," was written by Sir +Walter Scott, author of the Waverly Novels, "Marmion," etc., born in +Edinburgh, 1771, and died at Abbotsford, 1832. The lines purport to be +the Hebrew hymn with which Rebecca closed her daily devotions while in +prison under sentence of death. + + When Israel of the Lord beloved + Out of the land of bondage came + Her fathers' God before her moved, + An awful Guide in smoke and flame. + + * * * * * + + Then rose the choral hymn of praise, + And trump and timbrel answered keen, + And Zion's daughters poured their lays. + With priest's and warrior's voice between. + + * * * * * + + By day along th' astonished lands + The cloudy Pillar glided slow, + By night Arabia's crimson'd sands + Returned the fiery Column's glow. + + * * * * * + + And O, when gathers o'er our path + In shade and storm the frequent night + Be Thou, long suffering, slow to wrath, + A burning and a shining Light! + +The "Hymn of Rebecca" has been set to music though never in common use +as a hymn. Old "Truro", by Dr. Charles Burney (1726-1814) is a grand +Scotch psalm harmony for the words, though one of the Unitarian hymnals +borrows Zeuner's sonorous choral, the "Missionary Chant." Both sound the +lyric of the Jewess in good Christian music. + + +"WE SAT DOWN AND WEPT BY THE WATERS." + +The 137th Psalm has been for centuries a favorite with poets and +poetical translators, and its pathos appealed to Lord Byron when engaged +in writing his _Hebrew Melodies_. + +Byron was born in London, 1788, and died at Missolonghi, Western Greece, +1824. + + We sat down and wept by the waters + Of Babel, and thought of the day + When the foe, in the hue of his slaughters, + Made Salem's high places his prey, + And ye, Oh her desolate daughters, + Were scattered all weeping away. + +--Written April, 1814. It was the fashion then for musical societies to +call on the popular poets for contributions, and tunes were composed for +them, though these have practically passed into oblivion. + +Byron's ringing ballad (from II Kings 19:35)-- + + Th' Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold + And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold, + +--has been so much a favorite for recitation and declamation that the +loss of its tune is never thought of. + +Another poetic rendering of the "Captivity Psalm" is worthy of notice +among the lay hymns not unworthy to supplement clerical sermons. It was +written by the Hon. Joel Barlow in 1799, and published in a pioneer +psalm-book at Northampton, Mass. It is neither a translation nor +properly a hymn but a poem built upon the words of the Jewish lament, +and really reproducing something of its plaintive beauty. Two stanzas of +it are as follows: + + Along the banks where Babel's current flows + Our captive bands in deep despondence strayed, + While Zion's fall in deep remembrance rose, + Her friends, her children mingled with the dead. + + The tuneless harps that once with joy we strung + When praise employed, or mirth inspired the lay, + In mournful silence on the willows hung, + And growing grief prolonged the tedious day. + +Like Pope, this American poet loved onomatope and imitative verse, and +the last line is a word-picture of home-sick weariness. This "psalm" +was the best piece of work in Mr. Barlow's series of attempted +improvements upon Isaac Watts--which on the whole were not very +successful. The sweet cantabile of Mason's "Melton" gave "Along the +banks" quite an extended lease of life, though it has now ceased to be +sung. + +Joel Barlow was a versatile gentleman, serving his country and +generation in almost every useful capacity, from chaplain in the +continental army to foreign ambassador. He was born in Redding, Ct., +1755, and died near Cracow, Poland, Dec. 1812. + + +"AS DOWN IN THE SUNLESS." + +Thomas Moore, the poet of glees and love-madrigals, had sober thoughts +in the intervals of his gaiety, and employed his genius in writing +religious and even devout poems, which have been spiritually helpful in +many phases of Christian experience. Among them was this and the four +following hymns, with thirty-four others, each of which he carefully +labelled with the name of a music composer, though the particular tune +is left indefinite. "The still prayer of devotion" here answers, in +rhyme and reality, the simile of the sea-flower in the unseen deep, and +the mariner's compass represents the constancy of a believer. + + As, still to the star of its worship, though clouded, + The needle points faithfully o'er the dim sea, + So, dark as I roam in this wintry world shrouded, + The hope of my spirit turns trembling to Thee. + +It is sung in _Plymouth Hymnal_ to Barnby's "St. Botolph." + + +"THE TURF SHALL BE MY FRAGRANT SHRINE" + +Is, in part, still preserved in hymn collections, and sung to the noble +tune of "Louvan," Virgil Taylor's piece. The last stanza is especially +reminiscent of the music. + + There's nothing bright above, below, + From flowers that bloom to stars that glow; + But in its light my soul can see + Some feature of Thy deity. + + +"O THOU WHO DRY'ST THE MOURNER'S TEAR" + +Is associated in the _Baptist Praise Book_ with Woodbury's "Siloam." + + +"THE BIRD LET LOOSE IN EASTERN SKIES" + +Has been sung in Mason's "Coventry," and the _Plymouth Hymnal_ assigns +it to "Spohr"--a namesake tune of Louis Spohr, while the _Unitarian Hymn +and Tune Book_ unites to it a beautiful triple-time melody from Mozart, +and bearing his name. + + +"THOU ART, O GOD, THE LIFE AND LIGHT." + +This is the best of the Irish poet's sacred songs--always excepting, +"Come, Ye Disconsolate." It is said to have been originally set to a +secular melody composed by the wife of Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan. +It is joined to the tune of "Brighton" in the Unitarian books, and +William Monk's "Matthias" voices the words for the _Plymouth Hymnal_. +The verses have the true lyrical glow, and make a real song of praise as +well a composition of more than ordinary literary beauty. + + Thou art, O God, the life and light + Of all this wondrous world we see; + Its glow by day, its smile by night + Are but reflections caught from Thee. + Where'er we turn Thy glories shine, + And all things fair and bright are Thine. + + * * * * * + + When night with wings of starry gloom + O'ershadows all the earth, and skies + Like some dark, beauteous bird, whose plume + Is sparkling with unnumbered eyes, + That sacred gloom, those fires divine, + So grand, so countless, Lord, are Thine. + + When youthful spring around us breathes, + Thy Spirit warms her fragrant sigh, + And every flower the summer wreathes + Is born beneath that kindling eye. + Where'er we turn Thy glories shine, + And all things fair and bright are Thine. + + +"MOURNFULLY, TENDERLY, BEAR ON THE DEAD." + +A tender funeral ballad by Henry S. Washburn, composed in 1846 and +entitled "The Burial of Mrs. Judson." It is rare now in sheet-music form +but the _American Vocalist_, to be found in the stores of most great +music publishers and dealers, preserves the full poem and score. + +Its occasion was the death at sea, off St. Helena, of the Baptist +missionary, Mrs. Sarah Hall Boardman Judson, and the solemn committal of +her remains to the dust on that historic island, Sept. 1, 1845. She was +on her way to America from Burmah at the time of her death, and the ship +proceeded on its homeward voyage immediately after her burial. The +touching circumstances of the gifted lady's death, and the strange +romance of her entombment where Napoleon's grave was made twenty-four +years before, inspired Mr. Washburn, who was a prominent layman of the +Baptist denomination, and interested in all its ecclesiastical and +missionary activities, and he wrote this poetic memorial of the event: + + Mournfully, tenderly, bear on the dead; + Where the warrior has lain, let the Christian be laid. + No place more befitting, O rock of the sea; + Never such treasure was hidden in thee. + + Mournfully, tenderly, solemn and slow; + Tears are bedewing the path as ye go; + Kindred and strangers are mourners today; + Gently, so gently, O bear her away. + + Mournfully, tenderly, gaze on that brow; + Beautiful is it in quietude now. + One look, and then settle the loved to her rest + The ocean beneath her, the turf on her breast. + +Mrs. Sarah Judson was the second wife of the Rev. Adoniram Judson, D.D., +the celebrated pioneer American Baptist missionary, and the mother by +her first marriage, of the late Rev. George Dana Boardman, D.D., LL.D., +of Philadelphia. + +The Hon. Henry S. Washburn was born in Providence, R.I., 1813, and +educated at Brown University. During most of his long life he resided in +Massachusetts, and occupied there many positions of honor and trust, +serving in the State Legislature both as Representative and Senator. He +was the author of many poems and lyrics of high merit, some of +which--notably "The Vacant Chair"--became popular in sheet-music and in +books of religious and educational use. He died in 1903. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"The Burial of Mrs. Judson" became favorite parlor music when Lyman +Heath composed the melody for it--of the same name. Its notes and +movement were evidently inspired by the poem, for it reproduces the +feeling of every line. The threnody was widely known and sung in the +middle years of the last century, by people, too, who had scarcely heard +of Mrs. Judson, and received in the music and words their first hint of +her history. The poem prompted the tune, but the tune was the garland of +the poem. + +Lyman Heath of Bow, N.H., was born there Aug. 24, 1804. He studied +music, and became a vocalist and vocal composer. Died July 30, 1870. + + +"TELL ME NOT IN MOURNFUL NUMBERS." + +Longfellow's "Psalm of Life" was written when he was a young man, and +for some years it carried the title he gave it, "What the Young Man's +Heart Said to the Psalmist"--a caption altogether too long to bear +currency. + +The history of the beloved poet who wrote this optimistic ballad of hope +and courage is too well known to need recounting here. He was born in +Portland, Me., in 1807, graduated at Bowdoin College, and was for more +than forty years professor of Belles Lettres in Harvard University. Died +in Cambridge, March 4, 1882. Of his longer poems the most read and +admired are his beautiful romance of "Evangeline," and his epic of +"Hiawatha," but it is hardly too much to say that for the last sixty +years, his "Psalm of Life" has been the common property of all American, +if not English school-children, and a part of their education. When he +was in London, Queen Victoria sent for him to come and see her at the +palace. He went, and just as he was seating himself in the waiting coach +after the interview, a man in working clothes appeared, hat in hand, at +the coach window. + +"Please sir, yer honor," said he, "an' are you Mr. Longfellow?" + +"I am Mr. Longfellow," said the poet. + +"An' did you write the Psalm of Life?" he asked. + +"I wrote the Psalm of Life," replied the poet. + +"An', yer honor, would you be willing to take a workingman by the hand?" + +Mr. Longfellow gave the honest Englishman a hearty handshake, "And" +(said he in telling the story) "I never in my life received a compliment +that gave me more satisfaction." + +The incident has a delightful democratic flavor--and it is perfectly +characteristic of the amiable author of the most popular poem in the +English language. The "Psalm of Life" is a wonderful example of the +power of commonplaces put into tuneful and elegant verse. + +The thought of setting the poem to music came to the compiler of one of +the Unitarian church singing books. Some will question, however, whether +the selection was the happiest that could have been made. The tune is +"Rathbun," Ithamar Conkey's melody that always recalls Sir John +Bowring's great hymn of praise. + + +"BUILD THEE MORE NOBLE MANSIONS." + +This poem by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, known among his works as "The +Chambered Nautilus," was considered by himself as his worthiest +achievement in verse, and his wish that it might live is likely to be +fulfilled. It is stately, and in character and effect a rhythmic sermon +from a text in "natural theology." The biography of one of the little +molluscan sea-navigators that continually enlarges its shell to adapt it +to its growth inspired the thoughtful lines. The third, fourth and +fifth stanzas are as follows: + + Year after year beheld the silent toil + That spread the lustrous coil; + Still, as the spiral grew, + He left the last year's dwelling for the new, + Stole with soft step the shining archway through, + Built up its idle door, + Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more. + + Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, + Child of the wand'ring sea, + Cast from her lap forlorn! + From thy dead lips a clearer note is born + Than ever Triton blew from wreathéd horn! + While on my ear it rings + Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings, + + "Build thee more noble mansions, O my soul. + As the swift seasons roll: + Leave thy low-vaulted past! + Let each new temple, nobler than the last, + Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, + Till thou at length art free, + Leaving thy outgrown shell by life's unresting sea." + +Dr. Frederic Hedge included the poem in his hymn-book but without any +singing-supplement to the words. + + +WHITTIER'S SERVICE SONG. + + It may not be our lot to wield + The sickle in the harvest field. + +If this stanza and the four following do not reveal all the strength of +John G. Whittier's spirit, they convey its serious sweetness. The +verses were loved and prized by both President Garfield and President +McKinley. On the Sunday before the latter went from his Canton, O., home +to his inauguration in Washington the poem was sung as a hymn at his +request in the services at the Methodist church where he had been a +constant worshipper. + +The second stanza is the one most generally recognized and oftenest +quoted: + + Yet where our duty's task is wrought + In unison with God's great thought, + The near and future blend in one, + And whatsoe'er is willed, is done. + +John Greenleaf Whittier, the poet of the oppressed, was born in +Haverhill, Mass., 1807, worked on a farm and on a shoe-bench, and +studied at the local academy, until, becoming of age, he went to +Hartford, Conn., and began a brief experience in editorial life. Soon +after his return to Massachusetts he was elected to the Legislature, and +after his duties ended there he left the state for Philadelphia to edit +the _Pennsylvania Freeman_. A few years later he returned again, and +established his home in Amesbury, the town with which his life and works +are always associated. + +He died in 1892 at Hampton Falls, N.H., where he had gone for his +health. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"Abends," the smooth triple-time choral joined to Whittier's poem by the +music editor of the new _Methodist Hymnal_, speaks its meaning so well +that it is scarcely worth while to look for another. Sir Herbert Stanley +Oakeley, the composer, was born at Ealing, Eng., July 22, 1830, and +educated at Rugby and Oxford. He studied music in Germany, and became a +superior organist, winning great applause by his recitals at Edinburgh +University, where he was elected Musical Professor. + +Archbishop Tait gave him the doctorate of music at Canterbury in 1871, +and he was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1876. + +Besides vocal duets, Scotch melodies and student songs, he composed many +anthems and tunes for the church--notably "Edina" ("Saviour, blessed +Saviour") and "Abends," originally written to Keble's "Sun of my Soul." + + +"THE BIRD WITH THE BROKEN PINION." + +This lay of a lost gift, with its striking lesson, might have been +copied from the wounded bird's own song, it is so natural and so +clear-toned. The opportune thought and pen of Mr. Hezekiah Butterworth +gave being to the little ballad the day he heard the late Dr. George +Lorimer preach from a text in the story of Samson's fall (Judges 16:21) +"The Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to +Gaza ... and he did grind in the prison-house." A sentence in the +course of the doctor's sermon, "The bird with a broken pinion never +soars as high again," was caught up by the listening author, and became +the refrain of his impressive song. Rev. Frank M. Lamb, the tuneful +evangelist, found it in print, and wrote a tune to it, and in his voice +and the voices of other singers the little monitor has since told its +story in revival meetings, and mission and gospel services throughout +the land. + + I walked through the woodland meadows + Where sweet the thrushes sing, + And found on a bed of mosses + A bird with a broken wing. + I healed its wound, and each morning + It sang its old sweet strain, + But the bird with a broken pinion + Never soared as high again. + + I found a young life broken + By sin's seductive art; + And, touched with a Christ-like pity, + I took him to my heart. + He lived--with a noble purpose, + And struggled not in vain; + But the life that sin had stricken + Never soared as high again. + + But the bird with a broken pinion + Kept another from the snare, + And the life that sin had stricken + Saved another from despair. + Each loss has its compensation, + There is healing for every pain + But the bird with a broken pinion + Never soars as high again. + +In the tune an extra stanza is added--as if something conventional were +needed to make the poem a hymn. But the professional tone of the +appended stanza, virtually all in its two lines-- + + Then come to the dear Redeemer, + He will cleanse you from every stain, + +--is forced into its connection. The poem told the truth, and stopped +there; and should be left to fasten its own impression. There never was +a more solemn warning uttered than in this little apologue. It promises +"compensation" and "healing," but not perfect rehabilitation. Sin will +leave its scars. Even He who "became sin for us" bore them in His +resurrection body. + +Rev. Frank M. Lamb, composer and singer of the hymn-tune, was born in +Poland, Me., 1860, and educated in the schools of Poland and Auburn. He +was licensed to preach in 1888, and ordained the same year, and has +since held pastorates in Maine, New York, and Massachusetts. + +Besides his tune, very pleasing and appropriate music has been written +to the little ballad of the broken wing by Geo. C. Stebbins. + +[Illustration: Ellen M.H. Gates] + + +UNDER THE PALMS. + +In the cantata, "Under the Palms" ("Captive Judah in Babylon")--the +joint production of George F. Root[19] and Hezekiah Butterworth, several +of the latter's songs detached themselves, with their music, from the +main work, and lingered in choral or solo service in places where the +sacred operetta was presented, both in America and England. One of these +is an effective solo in deep contralto, with a suggestion of recitative +and chant-- + + By the dark Euphrates' stream, + By the Tigris, sad and lone + I wandered, a captive maid; + And the cruel Assyrian said, + "Awake your harp's sweet tone!" + + I had heard of my fathers' glory from the lips of holy men, + And I thought of the land of my fathers; I thought of my fathers' + land then. + +Another is-- + + O church of Christ! our blest abode, + Celestial grace is thine. + Thou art the dwelling-place of God, + The gate of joy divine. + + Whene'er I come to thee in joy, + Whene'er I come in tears, + Still at the Gate called Beautiful + My risen Lord appears. + +--with the chorus-- + + Where'er for me the sun may set, + Wherever I may dwell, + My heart shall nevermore forget + Thy courts, Immanuel! + +[Footnote 19: See page 316.] + + +"IF YOU CANNOT ON THE OCEAN." + +This popular Christian ballad, entitled "Your Mission," was written one +stormy day in the winter of 1861-2 by Miss Ellen M. Huntington (Mrs. +Isaac Gates), and made her reputation as one of the few didactic poets +whose exquisite art wins a hearing for them everywhere. In a moment of +revery, while looking through the window at the falling snow, the words +came to her: + + If you cannot on the ocean + Sail among the swiftest fleet. + +She turned away and wrote the lines on her slate, following with verse +after verse till she finished the whole poem. "It wrote itself," she +says in her own account of it. + +Reading afterwards what she had written, she was surprised at her work. +The poem had a meaning and a "mission." So strong was the impression +that the devout girl fell on her knees and consecrated it to a divine +purpose. Free copies of it went to the Cooperstown, N.Y., local paper, +and to the New York _Examiner_, and appeared in both. From that time the +history and career of "Your Mission" presents a marked illustration of +"catenal influence," or transmitted suggestion. + +In the later days of the Civil War Philip Phillips, who had a +wonderfully sweet tenor voice, was invited to sing at a great meeting of +the United States Christian Commission in the Senate Chamber at +Washington, February, 1865, President Lincoln and Secretary Seward +(then president of the commission) were there, and the hall was crowded +with leading statesmen, army generals, and friends of the Union. The +song selected by Mr. Phillips was Mrs. Gates' "Your Mission": + + If you cannot on the ocean + Sail among the swiftest fleet, + Rocking on the highest billows, + Laughing at the storms you meet, + You can stand among the sailors + Anchored yet within the bay; + You can lend a hand to help them + As they launch their boats away. + +The hushed audience listened spell-bound as the sweet singer went on, +their interest growing to feverish eagerness until the climax was +reached in the fifth stanza: + + If you cannot in the conflict + Prove yourself a soldier true, + If where fire and smoke are thickest + There's no work for you to do, + When the battlefield is silent + You can go with careful tread; + You can bear away the wounded, + You can cover up the dead. + +In the storm of enthusiasm that followed, President Lincoln handed a +hastily scribbled line on a bit of paper to Chairman Seward, + +"Near the close let us have 'Your Mission' repeated." + +Mr. Phillips' great success on this occasion brought him so many calls +for his services that he gave up everything and devoted himself to his +tuneful art. "Your Mission" so gladly welcomed at Washington made him +the first gospel songster, chanting round the world the divine message +of the hymns. It was the singing by Philip Phillips that first impressed +Ira D. Sankey with the amazing power of evangelical solo song, and +helped him years later to resign his lucrative business as a revenue +officer and consecrate his own rare vocal gift to the Christian ministry +of sacred music. Heaven alone can show the birth-records of souls won to +God all along the journeys of the "Singing Pilgrims," and the rich +succession of Mr. Sankey's melodies, that can be traced back by a chain +of causes to the poem that "wrote itself" and became a hymn. And the +chain may not yet be complete. In the words of that providential poem-- + + Though they may forget the singer + They will not forget the song. + +Mrs. Ellen M.H. Gates, whose reputation as an author was made by this +beautiful and always timely poem, was born in Torrington, Ct., and is +the youngest sister of the late Collis P. Huntington. Her +hymns--included in this volume and in other publications--are much +admired and loved, both for their sweetness and elevated religious +feeling, and for their poetic quality. Among her published books of +verse are "Night," "At Noontide," and "Treasures of Kurium." Her address +is New York City. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Sidney Martin Grannis, author of the tune, was born Sept. 23, 1827, in +Geneseo, Livingston county, N.Y. Lived in Leroy, of the same state, from +1831 to 1884, when he removed to Los Angeles, Cal., where several of his +admirers presented him a cottage and grounds, which at last accounts he +still occupies. Mr. Grannis won his first reputation as a popular +musician by his song "Do They Miss Me at Home," and his "Only Waiting," +"Cling to the Union," and "People Will Talk You Know," had an equally +wide currency. As a solo singer his voice was remarkable, covering a +range of two octaves, and while travelling with members of the "Amphion +Troupe," to which he belonged, he sang at more than five thousand +concerts. His tune to "Your Mission" was composed in New Haven, Ct., in +1864. + + +"TOO LATE! TOO LATE! YE CANNOT ENTER NOW." + +"Too Late" is a thrilling fragment or side-song of Alfred Tennyson's, +representing the vain plea of the five Foolish Virgins. Its tune bears +the name of a London lady, "Miss Lindsay" (afterwards Mrs. J. +Worthington Bliss). The arrangement of air, duo and quartet is very +impressive[20]. + +[Footnote 20: _Methodist Hymnal_, No. 743.] + + "Late, late, so late! and dark the night and chill: + Late, late, so late! but we can enter still." + "Too late! too late! ye cannot enter now!" + + "No light! so late! and dark and chill the night-- + O let us in that we may find the light!" + "Too late! too late! ye cannot enter now!" + + * * * * * + + "Have we not heard the Bridegroom is so sweet? + O let us in that we may kiss his feet!" + "No, No--! too late! ye cannot enter now!" + +The words are found in "Queen Guinevere," a canto of the "Idyls of the +King." + + +"OH, GALILEE, SWEET GALILEE." + +This is the chorus of a charming poem of three stanzas that shaped +itself in the mind of Mr. Robert Morris while sitting over the ruins on +the traditional site of Capernaum by the Lake of Genneseret. + + Each cooing dove, each sighing bough, + That makes the eve so blest to me, + Has something far diviner now, + It bears me back to Galilee. + + CHORUS + Oh, Galilee, sweet Galilee, + Where Jesus loved so much to be; + Oh, Galilee, blue Galilee, + Come sing thy song again to me. + +Robert Morris, LL.D., born Aug. 31, 1818, was a scholar, and an expert +in certain scientific subjects, and wrote works on numismatics and the +"Poetry of Free Masonry." Commissioned to Palestine in 1868 on historic +and archaeological service for the United Order, he explored the scenes +of ancient Jewish and Christian life and event in the Holy Land, and +being a religious man, followed the Saviour's earthly footsteps with a +reverent zeal that left its inspiration with him while he lived. He died +in the year 1888, but his Christian ballad secured him a lasting place +in every devout memory. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The author wrote out his hymn in 1874 and sent it to his friend, the +musician, Mr. Horatio R. Palmer,[21] and the latter learned it by heart, +and carried it with him in his musings "till it floated out in the +melody you know," (to use his own words.) + +[Footnote 21: See page 311.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +OLD REVIVAL HYMNS. + + +The sober churches of the "Old Thirteen" states and of their successors +far into the nineteenth century, sustained evening prayer-meetings more +or less commonly, but necessity made them in most cases "cottage +meetings" appointed on Sunday and here and there in the scattered homes +of country parishes. Their intent was the same as that of "revival +meetings," since so called, though the method--and the music--were +different. The results in winning sinners, so far as they owed anything +to the hymns and hymn-tunes, were apt to be a new generation of +Christian recruits as sombre as the singing. "Lebanon" set forth the +appalling shortness of human life; "Windham" gave its depressing story +of the great majority of mankind on the "broad road," and other minor +tunes proclaimed God's sovereignty and eternal decrees; or if a psalm +had His love in it, it was likely to be sung in a similar melancholy +key. Even in his gladness the good minister, Thomas Baldwin, of the +Second Baptist Church, at Boston, North End, returning from Newport, +N.H., where he had happily harmonized a discordant church, could not +escape the strait-lace of a C minor for his thankful hymn-- + + From whence doth this union arise, + That hatred is conquered by love. + +"The Puritans took their pleasures seriously," and this did not cease to +be true till at least two hundred years after the Pilgrims landed or +Boston was founded. + +Time, that covered the ghastly faces on the old grave-stones with moss, +gradually stole away the unction of minor-tune singing. + +The songs of the great revival of 1740 swept the country with positive +rather than negative music. Even Jonathan Edwards admitted the need of +better psalm-books and better psalmody. + +Edwards, during his life, spent some time among the Indians as a +missionary teacher; but probably neither he nor David Brainerd ever saw +a Christian hymn composed by an Indian. The following, from the early +years of the last century, is apparently the first, certainly the only +surviving, effort of a converted but half-educated red man to utter his +thoughts in pious metre. Whoever trimmed the original words and measure +into printable shape evidently took care to preserve the broken English +of the simple convert. It is an interesting relic of the Christian +thought and sentiment of a pagan just learning to prattle prayer and +praise: + + In de dark wood, no Indian nigh, + Den me look heaben, send up cry, + Upon my knees so low. + Dat God on high, in shinee place, + See me in night, with teary face, + De priest, he tell me so. + + God send Him angel take me care; + Him come Heself and hear um prayer, + If Indian heart do pray. + God see me now, He know me here. + He say, poor Indian, neber fear, + Me wid you night and day. + + So me lub God wid inside heart; + He fight for me, He take my part, + He save my life before. + God lub poor Indian in de wood; + So me lub God, and dat be good; + Me pray Him two times more. + + When me be old, me head be gray, + Den He no lebe me, so He say: + Me wid you till you die. + Den take me up to shinee place, + See white man, red man, black man's face, + All happy 'like on high. + + Few days, den God will come to me, + He knock off chains, He set me free, + Den take me up on high. + Den Indian sing His praises blest, + And lub and praise Him wid de rest, + And neber, neber cry. + +The above hymn, which may be found in different forms in old New England +tracts and hymn-books, and which used to be sung in Methodist conference +and prayer-meetings in the same way that old slave-hymns and the +"Jubilee Singers" refrains are sometimes sung now, was composed by +William Apes, a converted Indian, who was born in Massachusetts, in +1798. His father was a white man, but married an Indian descended from +the family of King Philip, the Indian warrior, and the last of the +Indian chiefs. His grandmother was the king's granddaughter, as he +claimed, and was famous for her personal beauty. He caused his +autobiography and religious experience to be published. The original +hymn is quite long, and contains some singular and characteristic +expressions. + +The authorship of the tune to which the words were sung has been claimed +for Samuel Cowdell, a schoolmaster of Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, +1820, but the date of the lost tune was probably much earlier. + +In the early days of New England, before the Indian missions had been +brought to an end by the sweeping away of the tribes, several fine hymns +were composed by educated Indians, and were used in the churches. The +best known is that beginning-- + + When shall we all meet again? + +It was composed by three Indians at the planting of a memorial pine on +leaving Dartmouth College, where they had been studying. The lines +indicate an expectation of missionary life and work. + + When shall we all meet again? + When shall we all meet again? + Oft shall glowing hope expire, + Oft shall wearied love retire, + Oft shall death and sorrow reign + Ere we all shall meet again. + + Though in distant lands we sigh, + Parched beneath a burning sky, + Though the deep between us rolls, + Friendship shall unite our souls; + And in fancy's wide domain, + There we all shall meet again. + + When these burnished locks are gray, + Thinned by many a toil-spent day, + When around this youthful pine + Moss shall creep and ivy twine, + (Long may this loved bower remain!) + Here may we all meet again. + + When the dreams of life are fled, + When its wasted lamps are dead, + When in cold oblivion's shade + Beauty, health, and strength are laid, + Where immortal spirits reign, + There we all shall meet again. + +This parting piece was sung in religious meetings as a hymn, like the +other once so common, but later,-- + + "When shall we meet again, + Meet ne'er to sever?" + +--to a tune in B flat minor, excessively plaintive, and likely to sadden +an emotional singer or hearer to tears. The full harmony is found in the +_American Vocalist_, and the air is reprinted in the _Revivalist_ +(1868). The fact that minor music is the natural Indian tone in song +makes it probable that the melody is as ancient as the hymn--though no +date is given for either. + +Tradition says that nearly fifty years later the same three Indians were +providentially drawn to the spot where they parted, and met again, and +while they were together composed and sang another ode. Truth to tell, +however, it had only one note of gladness, and that was in the first +stanza: + + Parted many a toil-spent year, + Pledged in youth to memory dear, + Still to friendship's magnet true, + We our social joys renew; + Bound by love's unsevered chain, + Here on earth we meet again. + +The remaining three stanzas dwell principally on the ravages time has +made. The reunion ode of those stoical college classmates of a stoical +race could have been sung in the same B flat minor. + + +"AWAKED BY SINAI'S AWFUL SOUND." + +The name of the Indian, Samson Occum, who wrote this hymn (variously +spelt Ockom, Ockum, Occam, Occom) is not borne by any public +institution, but New England owes the foundation of Dartmouth College to +his hard work. Dartmouth College was originally "Moore's Indian Charity +School," organized (1750) in Lebanon, Ct., by Rev. Eleazer Wheelock and +endowed (1755) by Joshua Moore (or More). Good men and women who had at +heart the spiritual welfare of a fading race contributed to the school's +support and young Indians resorted to it from both New England and the +Middle States, but funds were insufficient, and it was foreseen that the +charity must inevitably outgrow its missionary purpose and if continued +at all must depend on a wider and more liberal patronage. + +Samson Occum was born in Mohegan, New London Co., Ct., probably in the +year 1722. Converted from paganism in 1740 (possibly under the preaching +of Whitefield, who was in this country at that time) he desired to +become a missionary to his people, and entered Eleazer Wheelock's +school. After four years study, then a young man of twenty-two, he began +to teach and preach among the Montauk Indians, and in 1759 the +Presbytery of Suffolk Co., L.I., ordained him to the ministry. A +benevolent society in Scotland, hearing of, his ability and zeal, gave +him an appointment, under its auspices, among the Oneidas in 1761, where +he labored four years. The interests of the school at Lebanon, where he +had been educated, were dear to him, and he was tireless in its cause, +procuring pupils for it, and working eloquently as its advocate with +voice and pen. In 1765 he crossed the Atlantic to solicit funds for the +Indian school, and remained four years in England and Scotland, +lecturing in its behalf, and preaching nearly four hundred sermons. As a +result he raised ten thousand pounds. The donation was put in charge of +a Board of Trustees of which Lord Dartmouth was chairman. When it was +decided to remove the school from Lebanon, Ct., the efforts of Governor +Wentworth, of New Hampshire, secured its location at Hanover in that +state. It was christened after Lord Dartmouth--and the names of Occum, +Moore and Wheelock retired into the encyclopedias. + +The Rev. Samson Occum died in 1779, while laboring among the Stockbridge +(N.Y.) Indians. Several hymns were written by this remarkable man, and +also "An Account of the Customs and Manners of the Montauks." The hymn, +"Awaked by Sinai's Awful Sound," set to the stentorian tune of "Ganges," +was a tremendous sermon in itself to old-time congregations, and is +probably as indicative of the doctrines which converted its writer as of +the contemporary belief prominent in choir and pulpit. + + Awaked by Sinai's awful sound, + My soul in bonds of guilt I found, + And knew not where to go, + Eternal truth did loud proclaim + "The sinner must be born again. + Or sink in endless woe." + + When to the law I trembling fled, + It poured its curses on my head: + I no relief could find. + This fearful truth increased my pain, + "The sinner must be born again," + And whelmed my troubled mind. + + * * * * * + + But while I thus in anguish lay, + Jesus of Nazareth passed that way; + I felt His pity move. + The sinner, once by justice slain, + Now by His grace is born again, + And sings eternal Love! + +The rugged original has been so often and so variously altered and +"toned down," that only a few unusually accurate aged memories can +recall it. The hymn began going out of use fifty years ago, and is now +seldom seen. + +The name "S. Chandler," attached to "Ganges," leaves the identity of the +composer in shadow. It is supposed he was born in 1760. The tune +appeared about 1790. + + +"WHERE NOW ARE THE HEBREW CHILDREN?" + +This quaint old unison, repeating the above three times, followed by the +answer (thrice repeated) and climaxed with-- + + Safely in the Promised Land, + +--was a favorite at ancient camp-meetings, and a good leader could keep +it going in a congregation or a happy group of vocalists, improvising a +new start-line after every stop until his memory or invention gave out. + + They went up from the fiery furnace, + They went up from the fiery furnace, + They went up from the fiery furnace, + Safely to the Promised Land. + +Sometimes it was-- + + Where now is the good Elijah? + +--and,-- + + He went up in a chariot of fire; + +--and again,-- + + Where now is the good old Daniel? + + He went up from the den of lions; + +--and so on, finally announcing-- + + By and by we'll go home for to meet him, [three times] + Safely in the Promised Land. + +The enthusiasm excited by the swinging rhythm of the tune sometimes rose +to a passionate pitch, and it was seldom used in the more controlled +religious assemblies. If any attempt was ever made to print the song[22] +the singers had little need to read the music. Like the ancient runes, +it came into being by spontaneous generation, and lived in phonetic +tradition. + +[Footnote 22: Mr. Hubert P. Main believes he once saw "The Hebrew +Children" in print in one of Horace Waters' editions of the _Sabbath +Bell_.] + +A strange, wild pæan of exultant song was one often heard from Peter +Cartwright, the muscular circuit-preacher. A remembered fragment shows +its quality: + + Then my soul mounted higher + In a chariot of fire, + And the moon it was under my feet. + +There is a tradition that he sang it over a stalwart blacksmith while +chastising him for an ungodly defiance and assault in the course of one +of his gospel journeys--and that the defeated blacksmith became his +friend and follower. + +Peter Cartwright was born in Amherst county, Va., Sept. 1, 1785, and +died near Pleasant Plains, Sangamon county, Ill., Sept., 1872. + + +"THE EDEN OF LOVE." + +This song, written early in the last century, by John J. Hicks, recalls +the name of the eccentric traveling evangelist, Lorenzo Dow, born in +Coventry, Ct., October 16, 1777; died in Washington, D.C., Feb. 2, +1834. It was the favorite hymn of his wife, the beloved Peggy Dow, and +has furnished the key-word of more than one devotional rhyme that has +uplifted the toiling souls of rural evangelists and their greenwood +congregations: + + How sweet to reflect on the joys that await me + In yon blissful region, the haven of rest, + Where glorified spirits with welcome shall greet me, + And lead me to mansions prepared for the blest. + There, dwelling in light, and with glory enshrouded, + My happiness perfect, my mind's sky unclouded, + I'll bathe in the ocean of pleasure unbounded, + And range with delight through the Eden of love. + +The words and tune were printed in _Leavitt's Christian Lyre_, 1830. + +The same strain in the same metre is continued in the hymn of Rev. Wm. +Hunter, D.D., (1842) printed in his _Minstrel of Zion_ (1845). J.W. +Dadmun's _Melodian_ (1860) copied it, retaining, apparently, the +original music, with an added refrain of invitation, "Will you go? will +you go?" + + We are bound for the land of the pure and the holy, + The home of the happy, the kingdom of love; + Ye wand'rers from God on the broad road of folly, + O say, will you go to the Eden above? + +The old hymn-tune has a brisk out-door delivery, and is full of revival +fervor and the ozone of the pines. + + +"O CANA-AN, BRIGHT CANA-AN" + +Was one of the stimulating melodies of the old-time awakenings, which +were simply airs, and were sung unisonously. "O Cana-an" (pronounced in +three syllables) was the chorus, the hymn-lines being either improvised +or picked up miscellaneously from memory, the interline, "I am bound for +the land of Cana-an," occurring between every two. John Wesley's "How +happy is the pilgrim's lot" was one of the snatched stanzas swept into +the current of the song. An example of the tune-leader's improvisations +to keep the hymn going was-- + + If you get there before I do,-- + _I am bound for the land of Cana-an!_ + Look out for me, I'm coming too-- + _I am bound for the land of Cana-an!_ + +And then hymn and tune took possession of the assembly and rolled on in +a circle with-- + + O Cana-an, bright Cana-an! + I am bound for the land of Cana-an; + O Cana-an it is my hap-py home, + I am bound for the land of Cana-an + +--till the voices came back to another starting-line and began again. +There was always a movement to the front when that tune was sung, +and--with all due abatement for superficial results in the sensation of +the moment--it is undeniable that many souls were truly born into the +kingdom of God under the sound of that rude woodland song. + +Both its words and music are credited to Rev. John Maffit, who probably +wrote the piece about 1829. + + +"A CHARGE TO KEEP I HAVE." + +This hymn of Charles Wesley was often heard at the camp grounds, from +the rows of tents in the morning while the good women prepared their +pancakes and coffee, and + + +_THE TUNE._ + +was invariably old "Kentucky," by Jeremiah Ingalls. Sung as a solo by a +sweet and spirited voice, it slightly resembled "Golden Hill," but +oftener its halting bars invited a more drawling style of execution +unworthy of a hymn that merits a tune like "St. Thomas." + +Old "Kentucky" was not field music. + + +"CHRISTIANS, IF YOUR HEARTS ARE WARM." + +Elder John Leland, born in Grafton, Mass., 1754, was not only a +strenuous personality in the Baptist denomination, but was well known +everywhere in New England, and, in fact, his preaching trip to +Washington (1801) with the "Cheshire Cheese" made his fame national. He +is spoken of as "the minister who wrote his own hymns"--a peculiarity in +which he imitated Watts and Doddridge. When some natural shrinking was +manifest in converts of his winter revivals, under his rigid rule of +immediate baptism, he wrote this hymn to fortify them: + + Christians, if your hearts are warm, + Ice and cold can do no harm; + If by Jesus you are prized + Rise, believe and be baptized. + +He found use for the hymn, too, in rallying church-members who staid +away from his meetings in bad weather. The "poetry" expressed what he +wanted to say--which, in his view, was sufficient apology for it. It was +sung in revival meetings like others that he wrote, and a few hymnbooks +now long obsolete contained it; but of Leland's hymns only one survives. +Gray-headed men and women remember being sung to sleep by their mothers +with that old-fashioned evening song to Amzi Chapin's[23] tune-- + + The day is past and gone, + The evening shades appear, + O may we all remember well + The night of death draws near; + +--and with all its solemnity and other-worldness it is dear to +recollection, and its five stanzas are lovingly hunted up in the few +hymnals where it is found. Bradbury's "Braden," (_Baptist Praise Book_, +1873,) is one of its tunes. + +[Footnote 23: Amzi Chapin has left, apparently, nothing more than the +record of his birth, March 2, 1768, and the memory of his tune. It +appeared as early as 1805.] + +Elder Leland was a remarkable revival preacher, and his prayers--as was +said of Elder Jabez Swan's fifty or sixty years later--"brought heaven +and earth together." He traveled through the Eastern States as an +evangelist, and spent a season in Virginia in the same work. In 1801 he +revisited that region on a curious errand. The farmers of Cheshire, +Mass., where Leland was then a settled pastor, conceived the plan of +sending "the biggest cheese in America" to President Jefferson, and +Leland (who was a good democrat) offered to go to Washington on an +ox-team with it, and "preach all the way"--which he actually did. + +The cheese weighed 1450 lbs. + +Elder Leland died in North Adams, Mass., Jan. 14, 1844. Another of his +hymns, which deserved to live with his "Evening Song," seemed to be +answered in the brightness of his death-bed hope: + + O when shall I see Jesus + And reign with Him above, + And from that flowing fountain + Drink everlasting love? + + +"AWAKE, MY SOUL, TO JOYFUL LAYS." + +This glad hymn of Samuel Medley is his thanksgiving song, written soon +after his conversion. In the places of rural worship no lay of +Christian praise and gratitude was ever more heartily sung than this at +the testimony meetings. + + Awake, my soul, to joyful lays, + And sing thy great Redeemer's praise; + He justly claims a song from me: + His loving-kindness, oh, how free! + Loving-kindness, loving-kindness, + His loving-kindness, oh, how free! + + +_THE TUNE,_ + +With its queer curvet in every second line, had no other name than +"Loving-Kindness," and was probably a camp-meeting melody in use for +some time before its publication. It is found in _Leavitt's Christian +Lyre_ as early as 1830. The name "William Caldwell" is all that is known +of its composer, though he is supposed to have lived in Tennessee. + + +"THE LORD INTO HIS GARDEN COMES." + +Was a common old-time piece sure to be heard at every religious rally, +and every one present, saint and sinner, had it by heart, or at least +the chorus of it-- + + Amen, amen, my soul replies, + I'm bound to meet you in the skies, + And claim my mansion there, etc. + +The anonymous[24] "Garden Hymn, as old, at least, as 1800," has nearly +passed out of reach, except by the long arm of the antiquary; but it +served its generation. + +[Footnote 24: A "Rev." Mr. Campbell, author of "The Glorious Light of +Zion," "There is a Holy City," and "There is a Land of Pleasure," has +been sometimes credited with the origin of the Garden Hymn.] + +Its vigorous tune is credited to Jeremiah Ingalls (1764-1838). + + The Lord into His garden comes; + The spices yield a rich perfume, + The lilies grow and thrive, + The lilies grow and thrive. + Refreshing showers of grace divine + From Jesus flow to every vine, + Which makes the dead revive, + Which makes the dead revive. + + +"THE CHARIOT! THE CHARIOT!" + +Henry Hart Milman, generally known as Dean Milman, was born in 1791, and +was educated at Oxford. In 1821 he was installed as university professor +of poetry at Oxford, and it was while filling this position that he +wrote this celebrated hymn, under the title of "The Last Day." It is not +only a hymn, but a poem--a sublime ode that recalls, in a different +movement, the tones of the "Dies Irae." + +Dean Milman (of St Paul's), besides his many striking poems and learned +historical works, wrote at least twelve hymns, among which are-- + + Ride on, ride on in majesty, + + O help us Lord; each hour of need + Thy heavenly succor give, + + When our heads are bowed with woe, + +--which last may have been written soon after he laid three of his +children in one grave, in the north aisle of Westminster Abbey. He +lived a laborious and useful life of seventy-seven years, dying Sept. +24, 1868. + +There were times in the old revivals when the silver clarion of the +"Chariot Hymn" must needs replace the ruder blast of Occum in old +"Ganges" and sinners unmoved by the invisible God of Horeb be made to +behold Him--in a vision of the "Last Day." + + The Chariot! the Chariot! its wheels roll in fire + When the Lord cometh down in the pomp of His ire, + Lo, self-moving, it drives on its pathway of cloud, + And the heavens with the burden of Godhead are bowed. + + * * * * * + + The Judgment! the Judgment! the thrones are all set, + Where the Lamb and the white-vested elders are met; + There all flesh is at once in the sight of the Lord, + And the doom of eternity hangs on His word. + +The name "Williams" or "J. Williams" is attached to various editions of +the trumpet-like tune, but so far no guide book gives us location, date +or sketch of the composer. + + +"COME, MY BRETHREN." + +Another of the "unstudied" revival hymns of invitation. + + Come, my brethren, let us try + For a little season + Every burden to lay by, + Come and let us reason. + + What is this that casts you down. + What is this that grieves you? + Speak and let your wants be known; + Speaking may relieve you. + +This colloquial rhyme was apt to be started by some good brother or +sister in one of the chilly pauses of a prayer-meeting. The air (there +was never anything more to it) with a range of only a fifth, slurred the +last syllable of every second line, giving the quaint effect of a bent +note, and altogether the music was as homely as the verse. Both are +anonymous. But the little chant sometimes served its purpose wonderfully +well. + + +"BRETHREN, WHILE WE SOJOURN HERE." + +This hymn was always welcome in the cottage meetings as well as in the +larger greenwood assemblies. It was written by Rev. Joseph Swain, about +1783. + + Brethren, while we sojourn here + Fight we must, but should not fear. + Foes we have, but we've a Friend, + One who loves us to the end; + Forward then with courage go; + Long we shall not dwell below, + Soon the joyful news will come, + "Child, your Father calls, 'Come home.'" + +The tune was sometimes "Pleyel's Hymn," but oftener it was sung to a +melody now generally forgotten of much the same movement but slurred in +peculiarly sweet and tender turns. The cadence of the last tune gave +the refrain line a melting effect: + + Child, your Father calls, "Come home." + +Some of the spirit of this old tune (in the few hymnals where the hymn +is now printed) is preserved in Geo. Kingsley's "Messiah" which +accompanies the words, but the modulations are wanting. + +Joseph Swain was born in Birmingham, Eng. in 1761. Bred among mechanics, +he was early apprenticed to the engraver's trade, but he was a boy of +poetic temperament and fond of writing verses. After the spiritual +change which brought a new purpose into his life, he was baptized by Dr. +Rippon and studied for the ministry. At the age of about twenty-five, he +was settled over the Baptist church in Walworth, where he remained till +his death, April 16, 1796. + +For more than a century his hymns have lived and been loved in all the +English-speaking world. Among those still in use are-- + + How sweet, how heavenly is the sight, + + Pilgrims we are to Canaan bound, + + O Thou in whose presence my soul takes delight. + + +"HAPPY DAY." + + O happy day that fixed my choice. + --_Doddridge_. + O how happy are they who the Saviour obey. + --_Charles Wesley_. + +These were voices as sure to be heard in converts' meetings as the +leader's prayer or text, the former sung inevitably to Rimbault's tune, +"Happy Day," and the latter to a "Western Melody" quite as closely akin +to Wesley's words. + +Edward Francis Rimbault, born at Soho, Eng., June 13, 1816, was at +sixteen years of age organist at the Soho Swiss Church, and became a +skilled though not a prolific composer. He once received--and +declined--the offer of an appointment as professor of music in Harvard +College. Died of a lingering illness Sept, 26, 1876. + + +"COME, HOLY SPIRIT, HEAVENLY DOVE." + --_Watts_. + +This was the immortal song-litany that fitted almost anywhere into every +service. The Presbyterians and Congregationalists sang it in Tansur's +"St. Martins," the Baptists in William Jones' "Stephens" and the +Methodists in Maxim's "Turner" (which had the most music), but the hymn +went about as well with one as with another. + +The Rev. William Jones (1726-1800) an English rector, and Abraham Maxim +of Buckfield, Me., (1773-1829) contributed quite a liberal share of the +"continental" tunes popular in the latter part of the 18th century. +Maxim was eccentric, but the tradition that an unfortunate affair of the +heart once drove him into the woods to make away with himself, but a +bird on the roof of a logger's hut, making plaintive sounds, +interrupted him, and he sat down and wrote the tune "Hallowell," on a +strip of white birch bark, is more likely legendary. The following +words, said to have inspired his minor tune, are still set to it in the +old collections: + + As on some lonely building's top + The sparrow makes her moan, + Far from the tents of joy and hope + I sit and grieve alone.[25] + +[Footnote 25: Versified by Nahum Tate from Ps. 102:7.] + +Maxim was fond of the minor mode, but his minors, like "Hallowell," "New +Durham," etc., are things of the past. His major chorals and fugues, +such as "Portland," "Buckfield," and "Turner" had in them the spirit of +healthier melody and longer life. He published at least two collections, +_The Oriental Harmony_, in 1802, and _The Northern Harmony_, in 1805. + +William Tansur (Tans-ur), author of "St. Martins" (1669-1783), was an +organist, composer, compiler, and theoretical writer. He was born at +Barnes, Surrey, Eng., (according to one account,) and died at St. +Neot's. + + +"COME, THOU FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING." + +This hymn of Rev. Robert Robinson was almost always heard in the tune of +"Nettleton," composed by John Wyeth, about 1812. The more wavy melody of +"Sicily" (or "Sicilian Hymn") sometimes carried the verses, but never +with the same sympathetic unction. The sing-song movement and accent of +old "Nettleton" made it the country favorite. + +Robert Robinson, born in Norfolk, Eng., Sept. 27, 1735, was a poor boy, +left fatherless at eight years of age, and apprenticed to a barber, but +was converted by the preaching of Whitefield and studied till he +obtained a good education, and was ordained to the Methodist ministry. +He is supposed to have written his well-known hymn in 1758. A certain +unsteadiness of mind, however, caused him to revise his religious +beliefs too often for his spiritual health or enjoyment, and after +preaching as a Methodist, a Baptist, and an Independent, he finally +became a Socinian. On a stage-coach journey, when a lady +fellow-passenger began singing "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing," to +relieve the monotony of the ride, he said to her, "Madam, I am the +unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago; and I would give a +thousand worlds, if I had them, if I could feel as I felt then." + +Robinson died June 9, 1790. + +John Wyeth was born in Cambridge, Mass., 1792, and died at Harrisburg, +Pa., 1858. He was a musician and publisher, and issued a Music Book, +_Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music_. + + +"A POOR WAYFARING MAN OF GRIEF," + +Written by James Montgomery, Dec., 1826, was a hymn of tide and headway +in George Coles' tune of "Duane St.," with a step that made every heart +beat time. The four picturesque eight-line stanzas made a practical +sermon in verse and song from Matt. 25:35, telling how-- + + A poor wayfaring man of grief + Hath often crossed me on my way, + Who sued so humbly for relief + That I could never answer nay. + I had no power to ask his name, + Whither he went or whence he came, + Yet there was something in his eye + That won my love, I knew not why; + +--and in the second and third stanzas the narrator relates how he +entertained him, and this was the sequel-- + + Then in a moment to my view + The stranger started from disguise + The token in His hand I knew; + My Saviour stood before my eyes. + +When once that song was started, every tongue took it up, (and it was +strange if every foot did not count the measure,) and the coldest +kindled with gospel warmth as the story swept on.[26] + +[Footnote 26: Montgomery's poem, "The Stranger," has seven stanzas. The +full dramatic effect of their connection could only be produced by a set +piece.] + + +"WHEN FOR ETERNAL WORLDS I STEER." + +It was no solitary experience for hearers in a house of prayer where the +famous Elder Swan held the pulpit, to feel a climactic thrill at the +sudden breaking out of the eccentric orator with this song in the very +middle of his sermon-- + + When for eternal worlds I steer, + And seas are calm and skies are clear, + And faith in lively exercise, + And distant hills of Canaan rise, + My soul for joy then claps her wings, + And loud her lovely sonnet sings, + "Vain world, adieu!" + + With cheerful hope her eyes explore + Each landmark on the distant shore, + The trees of life, the pastures green, + The golden streets, the crystal stream, + Again for joy, she claps her wings, + And loud her lovely sonnet sings, + "Vain world, adieu!" + +Elder Jabez Swan was born in Stonington, Ct., Feb. 23, 1800, and died +1884. He was a tireless worker as a pastor (long in New London, Ct.,) +and a still harder toiler in the field as an evangelist and as a helper +eagerly called for in revivals; and, through all, he was as happy as a +boy in vacation. He was unlearned in the technics of the schools, but +always eloquent and armed with ready wit; unpolished, but poetical as a +Hebrew prophet and as terrible in his treatment of sin. Scoffers and +"hoodlums" who interrupted him in his meetings never interrupted him but +once. + +[Illustration: James Montgomery] + +The more important and canonical hymnals and praise-books had no place +for "Sonnet," as the bugle-like air to this hymn was called. Rev. +Jonathan Aldrich, about 1860, harmonized it in his _Sacred Lyre_, but +this, and the few other old vestry and field manuals that contain it, +were compiled before it became the fashion to date and authenticate +hymns and tunes. In this case both are anonymous. Another (and probably +earlier) tune sung to the same words is credited to "S. Arnold," and +appears to have been composed about 1790. + + +"I'M A PILGRIM, AND I'M A STRANGER." + +This hymn still lives--and is likely to live, at least in collections +that print revival music. Mrs. Mary Stanley (Bunce) Dana, born in +Beaufort, S.C., Feb. 15, 1810, wrote it while living in a northern +state, where her husband died. By the name Dana she is known in +hymnology, though she afterwards became Mrs. Shindler. The tune +identified with the hymn, "I'm a Pilgrim," is untraced, save that it is +said to be an "Italian Air," and that its original title was "Buono +Notte" (good night). + +No other hymn better expresses the outreaching of ardent faith. Its very +repetitions emphasize and sweeten the vision of longed-for fruition. + + I can tarry, I can tarry but a night, + Do not detain me, for I am going. + + * * * * * + + There the sunbeams are ever shining, + O my longing heart, my longing heart is there. + + * * * * * + + Of that country to which I'm going, + My Redeemer, my Redeemer is the light. + There is no sorrow, nor any sighing, + Nor any sin there, nor any dying, + I'm a pilgrim, etc. + +The same devout poetess also wrote (1840) the once popular consolatory +hymn,-- + + O sing to me of heaven + When I'm about to die, + +--sung to the familiar tune by Rev. E.W. Dunbar; also to a melody +composed 1854 by Dr. William Miller. + +The line was first written-- + + When _I am called_ to die, + +--in the author's copy. The hymn (occasioned by the death of a pious +friend) was written Jan. 15, 1840. + +Mrs. Dana (Shindler) died in Texas, Feb. 8, 1883. + + +"JOYFULLY, JOYFULLY ONWARD I MOVE." + +The maker of this hymn has been confounded with the maker of its +tune--partly, perhaps, from the fact that the real composer of the tune +also wrote hymns. The author of the words was the Rev. William Hunter, +D.D., an Irish-American, and a Methodist minister. He was born near +Ballymoney, County Antrim, Ire., May, 1811, and was brought to America +when a child six years old. He received his education in the common +schools and at Madison College, Hamilton, N.Y., (now Madison +University), and was successively a pastor, editor and Hebrew professor. +Besides his work in these different callings, he wrote many helpful +hymns--in all one hundred and twenty-five--of which "Joyfully, +Joyfully," dated 1842, is the best. It began originally with the line-- + + Friends fondly cherished have passed on before, + +--and the line,-- + + Home to the land of delight I will go. + +--was written,-- + + Home to the land of bright spirits I'll go. + +Dr. Hunter died in Ohio, 1877. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Rev. Abraham Dow Merrill, the author of the music to this triumphal +death-song, was born in Salem, N.H., 1796, and died April 29, 1878. He +also was a Methodist minister, and is still everywhere remembered by the +denomination to which he belonged in New Hampshire and Vermont. He rode +over these states mingling in revival scenes many years. His picture +bears a close resemblance to that of Washington, and he was somewhat +famous for this resemblance. His work was everywhere blessed, and he +left an imperishable influence in New England. The tune, linked with Dr. +Hunter's hymn, formed the favorite melody which has been the dying song +of many who learned to sing it amid the old revival scenes: + + Death, with thy weapons of war lay me low; + Strike, king of terrors; I fear not the blow. + Jesus has broken the bars of the tomb, + Joyfully, joyfully haste to thy home. + + +"TIS THE OLD SHIP OF ZION, HALLELUJAH!" + +This may be found, vocalized with full harmony, in the _American +Vocalist_. With all the parts together (more or less) it must have made +a vociferous song-service, but the hymn was oftener sung simply in +soprano unison; and there was sound enough in the single melody to +satisfy the most zealous. + + All her passengers will land on the bright eternal shore, + O, glory hallelujah! + She has landed many thousands, and will land as many more, + O, glory hallelujah! + +Both hymn and tune have lost their creators' names, and, like many +another "voice crying in the wilderness," they have left no record of +their beginning of days. + + +"MY BROTHER, I WISH YOU WELL." + + My brother, I wish you well, + My brother, I wish you well; + When my Lord calls I trust you will + Be mentioned in the Promised Land. + +Echoes that remain to us of those fervid and affectionate, as well as +resolute and vehement, expressions of religious life as sung in the +early revivals of New England, in parts of the South, and especially in +the Middle West, are suggestive of spontaneous melody forest-born, and +as unconscious of scale, clef or tempo as the song of a bird. The above +"hand-shaking" ditty at the altar gatherings apparently took its tune +self-made, inspired in its first singer's soul by the feeling of the +moment--and the strain was so simple that the convert could join in at +once and chant-- + + When my Lord comes I trust _I shall_ + +--through all the loving rotations of the crude hymn-tune. Such +song-births of spiritual enthusiasm are beyond enumeration--and it is +useless to hunt for author or composer. Under the momentum of a +wrestling hour or a common rapture of experience, counterpoint was +unthought of, and the same notes for every voice lifted pleading and +praise in monophonic impromptu. The refrains-- + + O how I love Jesus, + + O the Lamb, the Lamb, the loving Lamb, + + I'm going home to die no more, + + Pilgrims we are to Canaan's land, + + O turn ye, O turn ye, for why will you die, + + Come to Jesus, come to Jesus, just now, + +--each at the sound of its first syllable brought its own music to every +singer's tongue, and all--male and female--were sopranos together. This +habit in singing those rude liturgies of faith and fellowship was +recognized by the editors of the _Revivalist_, and to a multitude of +them space was given only for the printed melody, and of this sometimes +only the three or four initial bars. The tunes were the church's rural +field-tones that everybody knew. + +Culture smiles at this unclassic hymnody of long ago, but its history +should disarm criticism. To wanderers its quaint music and "pedestrian" +verse were threshold call and door-way welcome into the church of the +living God. Even in the flaming days of the Second Advent following, in +1842-3, they awoke in many hardened hearts the spiritual glow that never +dies. The delusion passed away, but the grace remained. + +The church--and the world--owe a long debt to the old evangelistic +refrains that rang through the sixty years before the Civil War, some of +them flavored with tuneful piety of a remoter time. They preached +righteousness, and won souls that sermons could not reach. They opened +heaven to thousands who are now rejoicing there. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +SUNDAY-SCHOOL HYMNS. + + +_SHEPHERD OF TENDER YOUTH._ + +[Greek: Stomion pôlôn adaôn] + +We are assured by repeated references in the patristic writings that the +primitive years of the Christian Church were not only years of suffering +but years of song. That the despised and often persecuted "Nazarenes," +scattered in little colonies throughout the Roman Empire, did not forget +to mingle tones of praise and rejoicing with their prayers could readily +be believed from the much-quoted letter of a pagan lawyer, written about +as long after Jesus' death, as from now back to the death of John Quincy +Adams--the letter of Pliny the younger to the Emperor Trajan, in which +he reports the Christians at their meetings singing "hymns to Christ as +to a god." + +Those disciples who spoke Greek seem to have been especially tuneful, +and their land of poets was doubtless the cradle of Christian hymnody. +Believers taught their songs to their children, and it is as certain +that the oldest Sunday-school hymn was written somewhere in the classic +East as that the Book of Revelation was written on the Isle of Patmos. +The one above indicated was found in an appendix to the _Tutor_, a book +composed by Titus Flavius Clemens of Alexandria, a Christian philosopher +and instructor whose active life began late in the second century. It +follows a treatise on Jesus as the Great Teacher, and, though his own +words elsewhere imply a more ancient origin of the poem, it is always +called "Clement's Hymn." The line quoted above is the first of an +English version by the late Rev. Henry Martyn Dexter, D.D. It does not +profess to be a translation, but aims to transfer to our common tongue +the spirit and leading thoughts of the original. + + Shepherd of tender youth, + Guiding in love and truth + Through devious ways; + Christ, our triumphant King, + We come Thy name to sing, + Hither our children bring + To shout Thy praise. + +The last stanza of Dr. Dexter's version represents the sacred song +spirit of both the earliest and the latest Christian centuries: + + So now, and till we die + Sound we Thy praises high, + And joyful sing; + Infants, and the glad throng + Who to Thy church belong + Unite to swell the song + To Christ our King. + +While they give us the sentiment and the religious tone of the old hymn, +these verses, however, recognize the extreme difficulty of anything like +verbal fidelity in translating a Greek hymn, and in this instance there +are metaphors to avoid as being strange to modern taste. The first +stanza, literally rendered and construed, is as follows: + + Bridle of untaught foals, + Wing of unwandering birds, + Helm and Girdle of babes, + Shepherd of royal lambs! + Assemble Thy simple children + To praise holily, + To hymn guilelessly + With innocent mouths + Christ, the Guide of children. + +Figures like-- + + Catching the chaste fishes, + + Heavenly milk, etc. + +--are necessarily avoided in making good English of the lines, and the +profusion of adoring epithets in the ancient poem (no less than +twenty-one different titles of Christ) would embarrass a modern song. + +Dr. Dexter might have chosen an easier metre for his version, if (which +is improbable) he intended it to be sung, since a tune written to sixes +and fours takes naturally a more decided lyrical movement and emphasis +than the hymn reveals in his stanzas, though the second and fifth +possess much of the hymn quality and would sound well in Giardini's +"Italian Hymn." + +More nearly a translation, and more in the cantabile style, is the +version of a Scotch Presbyterian minister, Rev. Hamilton M. Macgill, +D.D., two of whose stanzas are these: + + Thyself, Lord, be the Bridle + These wayward wills to stay; + Be Thine the Wing unwand'ring, + To speed their upward way. + + * * * * * + + Let them with songs adoring + Their artless homage bring + To Christ the Lord, and crown Him + The children's Guide and King. + +The Dexter version is set to Monk's slow harmony of "St. Ambrose" in the +_Plymouth Hymnal_ (Ed. Dr. Lyman Abbott, 1894) without the writer's +name--which is curious, inasmuch as the hymn was published in the +_Congregationalist_ in 1849, in _Hedge and Huntington's_ (Unitarian) +_Hymn-book_ in 1853, in the _Hymnal of the Presbyterian Church_ in 1866, +and in Dr. Schaff's _Christ in Song_ in 1869. + +Clement died about A.D. 220. + + +Rev. Henry Martyn Dexter, D.D., for twenty-three years the editor of the +_Congregationalist_, was born in Plymouth, Mass., Aug. 13, 1821. He was +a graduate of Yale (1840) and Andover Divinity School (1844), a +well-known antiquarian writer and church historian. Died Nov. 13, 1890. + + +"HOW HAPPY IS THE CHILD WHO HEARS." + +This hymn was quite commonly heard in Sunday-schools during the +eighteen-thirties and forties, and, though retained in few modern +collections, its Sabbath echo lingers in the memory of the living +generation. It was written by Michael Bruce, born at Kinneswood, +Kinross-shire, Scotland, March 27, 1746. He was the son of a weaver, but +obtained a good education, taught school, and studied for the ministry. +He died, however, while in preparation for his expected work, July 5, +1767, at the age of twenty-one years, three months and eight days. + +Young Bruce wrote hymns, and several poems, but another person wore the +honors of his work. John Logan, who was his literary executor, +appropriated the youthful poet's Mss. verses, and the hymn above +indicated--as well as the beautiful poem, "To the Cuckoo,"[27] still a +classic in English literature,--bore the name of Logan for more than a +hundred years. In _Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology_ is told at length +the story of the inquiry and discussion which finally exposed the long +fraud upon the fame of the rising genius who sank, like Henry Kirke +White, in his morning of promise. + +[Footnote 27: + Hail, beauteous stranger of the wood, + Attendant on the Spring; + Now Heaven repairs thy rural seat, + And woods thy welcome ring.] + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Old "Balerma" was so long the musical mouth-piece of the pious +boy-schoolmaster's verses that the two became one expression, and one +could not be named without suggesting the other. + +"Balerma" (Palermo) was ages away in style and sound from the later type +of Sunday-school tunes, resembling rather one of Palestrina's chorals +than the tripping melodies that took its place; but in its day juvenile +voices enjoyed it, and it suited very well the grave but winning words. + + How happy is the child who hears + Instruction's warning voice, + And who celestial Wisdom makes + His early, only choice! + + For she hath treasures greater far + Than East and West unfold, + And her rewards more precious are + Than all their stores of gold. + + She guides the young with innocence + In pleasure's path to tread, + A crown of glory she bestows + Upon the hoary head. + +Robert Simpson, author of the old tune,[28] was a Scottish composer of +psalmody; born, about 1722, in Glasgow; and died, in Greenock, June, +1838. + +[Footnote 28: The tune was evidently reduced from the still older +"Sardius" (or "Autumn")--_Hubert P. Main_.] + + +"O DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED." + +Written about 1803, by the Rev. John A. Grenade, born in 1770; died +1806. + + O do not be discouraged, } + For Jesus is your Friend; } _bis_ + He will give you grace to conquer, + And keep you to the end. + + Fight on, ye little soldiers, } + The battle you shall win, } _bis_ + For the Saviour is your Captain, + And He has vanquished sin. + + And when the conflict's over, } + Before Him you shall stand, } _bis_ + You shall sing His praise forever + In Canaan's happy land. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The hymn was made popular thirty or more years ago in a musical +arrangement by Hubert P. Main, with a chorus,-- + + I'm glad I'm in this army, + And I'll battle for the school. + +Children took to the little song with a keen relish, and put their whole +souls--and bodies--into it. + + +"LITTLE TRAVELLERS ZIONWARD" + +Belongs to a generation long past. Its writer was an architect by +occupation, and a man whose piety equalled his industry. He was born in +London 1791, and his name was James Edmeston. He loved to compose +religious verses--so well, in fact, that he is said to have prepared a +new piece every week for Sunday morning devotions in his family and in +this way accumulated a collection which he published and called +_Cottager's Hymns_. Besides these he is credited with a hundred +Sunday-school hymns. + + Little travellers Zionward, + Each one entering into rest + In the Kingdom of your Lord, + In the mansions of the blest, + + There to welcome Jesus waits, + Gives the crown His followers win, + Lift your heads, ye golden gates, + Let the little travellers in. + +The original tune is lost--and the hymn is vanishing with it; but the +felicity of its rhyme and rhythm show how easily it adapted itself to +music. + + +"I'M BUT A STRANGER HERE." + +The simple beauty of this hymn, and the sympathetic sweetness of its +tune made children love to sing it, and it found its way into a few +Sunday-school collections, though not composed for such use. + +A young Congregational minister. Rev. Thomas Rawson Taylor, wrote it on +the approach of his early end. He was born at Osset, near Wakefield, +Yorkshire, Eng., May 9, 1807, and studied in Bradford, where his father +had taken charge of a large church, and at Manchester Academy and +Airesdale College. Sensible of a growing ailment that might shorten his +days, he hastened to the work on which his heart was set, preaching in +surrounding towns and villages while a student, and finally quitting +college to be ordained to his sacred profession. He was installed as +pastor of Howard St. Chapel, Sheffield, July, 1830, when only +twenty-three. But in less than three years his strength failed, and he +went back to Bradford, where he occasionally preached for his father, +when able to do so, during his last days. He died there March 15, 1835. +Taylor was a brave and lovely Christian--and his hymn is as sweet as his +life. + + I'm but a stranger here, + Heaven is my home; + Earth is a desert drear, + Heaven is my home. + + Dangers and sorrows stand + Round me on every hand; + Heaven is my Fatherland-- + Heaven is my home. + + What though the tempest rage, + Heaven is my home; + Short is my pilgrimage, + Heaven is my home. + + And time's wild, wintry blast + Soon will be overpast; + I shall reach home at last-- + Heaven is my home. + +In his last attempt to preach, young Taylor uttered the words, "I want +to die like a soldier, sword in hand." On the evening of the same +Sabbath day he breathed his last. His words were memorable, and +Montgomery, who loved and admired the man, made them the text of a poem, +part of which is the familiar hymn "Servant of God, well done."[29] + +[Footnote 29: See page 498] + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Sir Arthur Sullivan put the words into classic expression, but, to +American ears at least, the tune of "Oak," by Lowell Mason, is the +hymn's true sister. It was composed in 1854. + + +"DEAR JESUS, EVER AT MY SIDE." + +One of Frederick William Faber's sweet and simple lyrics. It voices that +temper and spirit in the human heart which the Saviour first looks for +and loves best. None better than Faber could feel and utter the real +artlessness of Christian love and faith. + + Dear Jesus, ever at my side, + How loving must Thou be + To leave Thy home in heaven to guard + A sinful child like me. + Thy beautiful and shining face + I see not, tho' so near; + The sweetness of Thy soft low voice + I am too deaf to hear. + + I cannot feel Thee touch my hand + With pressure light and mild, + To check me as my mother did + When I was but a child; + But I have felt Thee in my thoughts + Fighting with sin for me, + And when my heart loves God I know + The sweetness is from Thee. + +[Illustration: Fanny J. Crosby (Mrs. Van Alstyne)] + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"Audientes" by Sir Arthur Sullivan is a gentle, emotional piece, +rendering the first quatrain of each stanza in E flat unison, and the +second in C harmony. + + +"TIS RELIGION THAT CAN GIVE." + +This simple rhyme, which has been sung perhaps in every Sunday-school in +England and the United States, is from a small English book by Mary +Masters. In the preface to the work, we read, "The author of the +following poems never read a treatise of rhetoric or an art of poetry, +nor was ever taught her English grammar. Her education rose no higher +than the spelling-book or her writing-master," + + 'Tis religion that can give + Sweetest pleasure while we live; + 'Tis religion can supply + Solid comfort when we die. + After death its joys shall be + Lasting as eternity. + +Save the two sentences about herself, quoted above, there is no +biography of the writer. That she was good is taken for granted. + +The tune-sister of the little hymn is as scant of date or history as +itself. No. 422 points it out in _The Revivalist_, where the name and +initial seem to ascribe the authorship to Horace Waters.[30] + +[Footnote 30: From his _Sabbath Bell_. Horace Waters, a prominent +Baptist layman, was born in Jefferson, Lincoln Co., Me., Nov. 1, 1812, +and died in New York City, April 22, 1893. He was a piano-dealer and +publisher.] + + +"THERE IS A HAPPY LAND FAR, FAR AWAY" + +This child's hymn was written by a lover of children, Mr. Andrew Young, +head master of Niddrey St. School, Edinburgh, and subsequently English +instructor at Madras College, E.I. He was born April 23, 1807, and died +Nov. 30, 1899, and long before the end of the century which his +life-time so nearly covered his little carol had become one of the +universal hymns. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +A Hindoo air or natural chanson, that may have been hummed in a pagan +temple in the hearing of Mr. Young, was the basis of the little melody +since made familiar to millions of prattling tongues. + +Such running tone-rhythms create themselves in the instinct of the ruder +nations and tribes, and even the South African savages have their +incantations with the provincial "clicks" that mark the singers' time. +With an ear for native chirrups and trills, the author of our pretty +infant-school song succeeded in capturing one, and making a Christian +tune of it. + +The musician, Samuel Sebastian Wesley, sometime in the eighteen-forties, +tried to substitute another melody for the lines, but "There is a happy +land" needs its own birth-music. + + +"I HAVE A FATHER IN THE PROMISED LAND." + +Another cazonet for the infant class. Instead of a hymn, however, it is +only a refrain, and--like the ring-chant of the "Hebrew Children," and +even more simple--owes its only variety to the change of one word. The +third and fourth lines,-- + + My father calls me, I must go + To meet Him in the Promised Land, + +--take their cue from the first, which may sing,-- + + I have a Saviour---- + I have a mother---- + I have a brother---- + +--and so on ad libitum. But the little ones love every sound and +syllable of the lisping song, for it is plain and pleasing, and when a +pinafore school grows restless nothing will sooner charm them into quiet +than to chime its innocent unison. + +Both words and tune are nameless and storyless. + + +"I THINK WHEN I READ THAT SWEET STORY" + +While riding in a stage-coach, after a visit to a mission school for +poor children, this hymn came to the mind of Mrs. Jemima Thompson Luke, +of Islington, England. It speaks its own purpose plainly enough, to +awaken religious feeling in young hearts, and guide and sanctify the +natural childlike interest in the sweetest incident of the Saviour's +life. + + I think when I read that sweet story of old + When Jesus was here among men, + How He called little children as lambs to His fold, + I should like to have been with them then. + + I wish that His hands had been laid on my head, + And I had been placed on His knee, + And that I might have seen His kind look when He said, + "Let the little ones come unto me." + +This is not poetry, but it phrases a wish in a child's own way, to be +melodized and fixed in a child's reverent and sensitive memory. + +Mrs. Luke was born at Colebrook Terrace, near London, Aug. 19, 1813. She +was an accomplished and benevolent lady who did much for the education +and welfare of the poor. Her hymn--of five stanzas--was first sung in a +village school at Poundford Park, and was not published until 1841. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +It is interesting, not to say curious, testimony to the vital quality of +this meek production that so many composers have set it to music, or +that successive hymn-book editors have kept it, and printed it to so +many different harmonies. All the chorals that carry it have +substantially the same movement--for the spondaic accent of the long +lines is compulsory--but their offerings sing "to one clear harp in +divers tones." + +The appearance of the words in one hymnal with Sir William Davenant's +air (full scored) to Moore's love-song, "Believe me, if all those +endearing young charms," now known as the tune of "Fair Harvard," is +rather startling at first, but the adoption is quite in keeping with the +policy of Luther and Wesley. + +"St. Kevin" written to it forty years ago by John Henry Cornell, +organist of St. Paul's, New York City, is sweet and sympathetic. + +The newest church collection (1905) gives the beautiful air and harmony +of "Athens" to the hymn, and notes the music as a "Greek Melody." + +But the nameless English tune, of uncertain authorship[31] that +accompanies the words in the smaller old manuals, and which delighted +Sunday-schools for a generation, is still the favorite in the memory of +thousands, and may be the very music first written. + +[Footnote 31: Harmonized by Hubert P. Main.] + + +"WE SPEAK OF THE REALMS OF THE BLEST." + +Mrs. Elizabeth Mills, wife of the Hon. Thomas Mills, M.P., was born at +Stoke Newington, Eng., 1805. She was one of the brief voices that sing +one song and die. This hymn was the only note of her minstrelsy, and it +has outlived her by more than three-quarters of a century. She wrote it +about three weeks before her decease in Finsbury Place, London, April +21, 1839, at the age of twenty-four. + + We speak of the land of the blest, + A country so bright and so fair, + And oft are its glories confest, + But what must it be to be there! + + * * * * * + + We speak of its freedom from sin, + From sorrow, temptation and care, + From trials without and within, + But what must it be to be there! + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The hymn, like several of the Gospel hymns besides, was carried into the +Sunday-schools by its music. Mr. Stebbins' popular duet-and-chorus is +fluent and easily learned and rendered by rote; and while it captures +the ear and compels the voice of the youngest, it expresses both the +pathos and the exaltation of the words. + +George Coles Stebbins was born in East Carleton, Orleans Co., N.Y., Feb. +26, 1846. Educated at common school, and an academy in Albany, he turned +his attention to music and studied in Rochester, Chicago, and Boston. It +was in Chicago that his musical career began, while chorister at the +First Baptist Church; and while holding the same position at Clarendon +St. Church, Boston, (1874-6), he entered on a course of evangelistic +work with D.L. Moody as gospel singer and composer. He was co-editor +with Sankey and McGranahan of _Gospel Hymns_. + + +"ONLY REMEMBERED." + +This hymn, beginning originally with the lines,-- + + Up and away like the dew of the morning, + Soaring from earth to its home in the sun, + +--has been repeatedly altered since it left Dr. Bonar's hands. Besides +the change of metaphors, the first personal pronoun singular is changed +to the plural. There was strength, and a natural vivacity in-- + + So let _me_ steal away gently and lovingly, + Only remembered for what _I_ have done. + +As at present sung the first stanza reads--, + + Fading away like the stars of the morning + Losing their light in the glorious sun, + Thus would _we_ pass from the earth and its toiling + Only remembered for what _we_ have done. + +The idea voiced in the refrain is true and beautiful, and the very +euphony of its words helps to enforce its meaning and make the song +pleasant and suggestive for young and old. It has passed into popular +quotation, and become almost a proverb. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The tune (in _Gospel Hymns No. 6_) is Mr. Sankey's. + +Ira David Sankey was born in Edinburgh, Lawrence Co., Pa., Aug. 28, +1840. He united with the Methodist Church at the age of fifteen, and +became choir leader, Sunday-school superintendent and president of the +Y.M.C.A., all in his native town. Hearing Philip Phillips sing impressed +him deeply, when a young man, with the power of a gifted solo vocalist +over assembled multitudes, but he did not fully realize his own +capability till Dwight L. Moody heard his remarkable voice and +convinced him of his divine mission to be a gospel singer. + +The success of his revival tours with Mr. Moody in America and England +is history. + +Mr. Sankey has compiled at least five singing books, and has written the +_Story of the Gospel Hymns_. Until overtaken by blindness, in his later +years he frequently appeared as a lecturer on sacred music. The +manuscript of his story of the _Gospel Hymns_ was destroyed by accident, +but, undismayed by the ruin of his work, and the loss of his eye-sight, +like Sir Isaac Newton and Thomas Carlyle, he began his task again. With +the help of an amanuensis the book was restored and, in 1905, given to +the public. (See page 258.) + + +"SAVIOUR, LIKE A SHEPHERD LEAD US." + +Mrs. Dorothy Ann Thrupp, of Paddington Green, London, the author of this +hymn, was born June 20, 1799, and died, in London, Dec. 14, 1847. Her +hymns first appeared in Mrs. Herbert Mayo's _Selection of Poetry and +Hymns for the Use of Infant and Juvenile Schools_, (1838). + + We are Thine, do Thou befriend us, + Be the Guardian of our way: + Keep Thy flock, from sin defend us, + Seek us when we go astray; + Blessed Jesus, + Hear, O hear us when we pray. + +The tune everywhere accepted and loved is W.B. Bradbury's; written in +1856. + + +"YIELD NOT TO TEMPTATION" + +A much used and valued hymn, with a captivating tune and chorus for +young assemblies. Both words and music are by H.R. Palmer, composed in +1868. + + Yield not to temptation, + For yielding is sin; + Each vict'ry will help you + Some other to win. + + Fight manfully onward, + Dark passions subdue; + Look ever to Jesus, + He will carry you through. + +Horatio Richmond Palmer was born in Sherburne, N.Y., April 26. 1834, of +a musical family, and sang alto in his father's choir when only nine. He +studied music unremittingly, and taught music at fifteen. Brought up in +a Christian home, his religious life began in his youth, and he +consecrated his art to the good of man and the glory of God. + +He became well-known as a composer of sacred music, and as a +publisher--the sales of his _Song Queen_ amounting to 200,000 copies. As +a leader of musical conventions and in the Church Choral Union, his +influence in elevating the standard of song-worship has been widely +felt. + + +"THERE ARE LONELY HEARTS TO CHERISH." + +"While the days are going by" is the refrain of the song, and the line +by which it is recognized. The hymn or poem was written by George +Cooper. He was born in New York City, May 14, 1840--a writer of poems +and magazine articles,--composed "While the days are going by" in 1870. + + There are lonely hearts to cherish + While the days are going by. + There are weary souls who perish + While the days are going by. + Up! then, trusty hearts and true, + Though the day comes, night comes, too: + Oh, the good we all may do + While the days are going by! + +There are few more practical and always-timely verses than this +three-stanza poem. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +A very musical tune, with spirited chorus, (in _Gospel Hymns_) bears the +name of the refrain, and was composed by Mr. Sankey. + +A sweet and quieter harmony (uncredited) is mated with the hymn in the +old _Baptist Praise Book_ (p. 507) and this was long the fixture to the +words, in both Sunday-school and week-day school song-books. + + +"JESUS THE WATER OF LIFE WILL GIVE." + +This Sunday-school lyric is the work of Fanny J. Crosby (Mrs. Van +Alstyne). Like her other and greater hymn, "Jesus keep me near the +Cross," (noted on p. 156,) it reveals the habitual attitude of the pious +author's mind, and the simple earnestness of her own faith as well as +her desire to win others. + + Jesus the water of life will give + Freely, freely, freely; + Jesus the water of life will give + Freely to those who love Him. + + The Spirit and the Bride say "Come + Freely, freely, freely. + And he that is thirsty let him come + And drink the water of life." + +Full chorus,-- + + The Fountain of life is flowing, + Flowing, freely flowing; + The Fountain of life is flowing, + Is flowing for you and for me. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The hymn must be sung as it was _made_ to be sung, and the composer +being many years _en rapport_ with the writer, knew how to put all her +metrical rhythms into sweet sound. The tune--in Mr. Bradbury's _Fresh +Laurels_ (1867)--is one of his sympathetic interpretations, and, with +the duet sung by two of the best singers of the middle class +Sunday-school girls, is a melodious and impressive piece. + + +"WHEN HE COMETH, WHEN HE COMETH." + +The Rev. W.O. Cushing, with the beautiful thought in Malachi 3:17 +singing in his soul, composed this favorite Sunday-school hymn, which +has gone round the world. + + When He cometh, when He cometh + To make up His jewels, + All the jewels, precious jewels, + His loved and His own. + Like the stars of the morning, + His bright brow adorning + They shall shine in their beauty + Bright gems for His crown. + + He will gather, He will gather + The gems for His Kingdom, + All the pure ones, all the bright ones, + His loved and His own. + Like the stars, etc. + + Little children, little children + Who love their Redeemer, + Are the jewels, precious jewels + His loved and His own, + Like the stars, etc. + +Rev. William Orcutt Cushing of Hingham, Mass., born Dec. 31, 1823, wrote +this little hymn when a young man (1856), probably with no idea of +achieving a literary performance. But it rings; and even if it is a +"ringing of changes" on pretty syllables, that is not all. There is a +thought in it that _sings_. Its glory came to it, however, when it got +its tune--and he must have had a subconsciousness of the tune he wanted +when he made the lines for his Sunday-school. He died Oct. 19, 1902. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The composer of the music for the "Jewel Hymn"[32] was George F. Root, +then living in Reading, Mass. + +[Footnote 32: Comparison of the "Jewel Hymn" tune with the old glee of +"Johnny Schmoker" gives color to the assertion that Mr. Root caught up +and adapted a popular ditty for his Christian melody--as was so often +done in Wales, and in the Lutheran and Wesleyan reformations. He +baptized the comic fugue, and promoted it from the vaudeville stage to +the Sunday School.] + +A minister returning from Europe on an English steamer visited the +steerage, and after some friendly talk proposed a singing service--it +something could be started that "everybody" knew--for there were +hundreds of emigrants there from nearly every part of Europe. + +"It will have to be an American tune, then," said the steerage-master; +"try 'His jewels.'" + +The minister struck out at once with the melody and words,-- + + When He cometh, when He cometh, + +--and scores of the poor half-fare multitude joined voices with him. +Many probably recognized the music of the old glee, and some had heard +the sweet air played in the church-steeples at home. Other voices chimed +in, male and female, catching the air, and sometimes the words--they +were so easy and so many times repeated--and the volume of song +increased, till the singing minister stood in the midst of an +international concert, the most novel that he ever led. + +He tried other songs in similar visits during the rest of the voyage +with some success, but the "Jewel Hymn" was the favorite; and by the +time port was in sight the whole crowd of emigrants had it by heart. + +The steamer landed at Quebec, and when the trains, filled with the new +arrivals, rolled away, the song was swelling from nearly every car,-- + + When He cometh, when He cometh, + To make up His jewels. + +The composer of the tune--with all the patriotic and sacred +master-pieces standing to his credit--never reaped a richer triumph than +he shared with his poet-partner that day, when "Precious Jewels" came +back to them from over the sea. More than this, there was missionary joy +for them both that their tuneful work had done something to hallow the +homes of alien settlers with an American Christian psalm. + +George Frederick Root, Doctor of Music, was born in Sheffield, Mass., +1820, eldest of a family of eight children, and spent his youth on a +farm. His genius for music drew him to Boston, where he became a pupil +of Lowell Mason, and soon advanced so far as to teach music himself and +lead the choir in Park St. church. Afterwards he went to New York as +director of music in Dr. Deems's Church of the Strangers. In 1852, +after a year's absence and study in Europe, he returned to New York, +and founded the Normal Musical Institute. In 1860, he removed to Chicago +where he spent the remainder of his life writing and publishing music. +He died Aug. 6, 1895, in Maine. + +In the truly popular sense Dr. Root was the best-known American +composer; not excepting Stephen C. Foster. Root's "Hazel Dell," "There's +Music in the Air," and "Rosalie the Prairie Flower" were universal +tunes--(words by Fanny Crosby,)--as also his music to Henry Washburn's +"Vacant Chair." The songs in his cantata, "The Haymakers," were sung in +the shops and factories everywhere, and his war-time music, in such +melodies as "Shouting the Battle-cry of Freedom" and "Tramp, Tramp, +Tramp, the Boys are Marching" took the country by storm. + + +"SCATTER SEEDS OF KINDNESS." + +This amiable and tuneful poem, suggested by Rom. 12:10, is from the pen +of Mary Louise Riley (Mrs. Albert Smith) of New York City. She was born +in Brighton, Monroe Co., N.Y. May 27, 1843. + + Let us gather up the sunbeams + Lying all along our path; + Let us keep the wheat and roses + Casting out the thorns and chaff. + + CHORUS. + Then scatter seeds of kindness (_ter_) + For our reaping by and by. + +Silas Jones Vail, the tune-writer, for this hymn, was born Oct. 1818, +and died May 20, 1883. For years he worked at the hatter's trade, with +Beebe on Broadway, N.Y. and afterwards in an establishment of his own. +His taste and talent led him into musical connections, and from time to +time, after relinquishing his trade, he was with Horace Waters, Philip +Phillips, W.B. Bradbury, and F.J. Smith, the piano dealer. He was a +choir leader and a good composer. + + +"BY COOL SILOAM'S SHADY RILL." + +This hymn of Bp. Heber inculcates the same lesson as that in the stanzas +of Michael Bruce before noted, with added emphasis for the young on the +briefness of time and opportunity even for them. + + How fair the lily grows, + +--is answered by-- + + The lily must decay, + +--but, owing to the sweetness of the favorite melody, it was never a +saddening hymn for children. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Though George Kingsley's "Heber" has in some books done service for the +Bishop's lines, "Siloam," easy-flowing and finely harmonized, is knit +to the words as no other tune can be. It was composed by Isaac Baker +Woodbury on shipboard during a storm at sea. A stronger illustration of +tranquil thought in terrible tumult was never drawn. + +"O Galilee, Sweet Galilee," whose history has been given at the end of +chapter six, was not only often sung in Sunday-schools, but chimed (in +the cities) on steeple-bells--nor is it by any means forgotten today--on +the Sabbath and in social singing assemblies. Like "Precious Jewels," it +has been, in many places, taken up by street boys with a relish, and +often displaced the play-house ditties in the lips of little newsboys +and bootblacks during a leisure hour or a happy mood. + + +"I AM SO GLAD" + +This lively little melody is still a welcome choice to many a lady +teacher of fluttering five-year-olds, when both vocal indulgence and +good gospel are needed for the prattlers in her class. It has been as +widely sung in Scotland as in America. Mr. Philip P. Bliss, hearing one +day the words of the familiar chorus-- + + O, how I love Jesus, + +--suddenly thought to himself,-- + +"I have sung long enough of my poor love to Christ, and now I will sing +of His love for me." Under the inspiration of this thought, he wrote-- + + I am so glad that our Father in heaven + Tells of His love in the book He has given + Wonderful things in the Bible I see, + This is the dearest--that Jesus loves me. + +Both words and music are by Mr. Bliss. + +The history of modern Sunday-school hymnody--or much of it--is so nearly +identified with that of the _Gospel Hymns_ that other selections like +the last, which might be appropriate here, may be considered in a later +chapter, where that eventful series of sacred songs receives special +notice. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +PATRIOTIC HYMNS. + + +The ethnic anthologies growing out of love of country are a mingled +literature of filial and religious piety, ranging from war-like pæans to +lyric prayers. They become the cherished inheritance of a nation, and, +once fixed in the common memory and common heart, the people rarely let +them die. The "Songs of the Fathers" have perennial breath, and in every +generation-- + + The green woods of their native land + Shall whisper in the strain; + The voices of their household band + Shall sweetly speak again. + --_Felicia Hemans_. + + +ULTIMA THULE. + +American pride has often gloried in Seneca's "Vision of the West," more +than eighteen hundred years ago. + + Venient annis + Sæcula seris, quibus Oceanus + Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens + Pateat tellus, Typhisque novos + Detegat orbes, nec sit terris + Ultima Thule. + + A time will come in future ages far + When Ocean will his circling bounds unbar. + And, opening vaster to the Pilot's hand, + New worlds shall rise, where mightier kingdoms are, + Nor Thule longer be the utmost land. + +This poetic forecast, of which Washington Irving wrote "the predictions +of the ancient oracles were rarely so unequivocal," is part of the +"chorus" at the end of the second act of Seneca's "Medea," written near +the date of St. Paul's first Epistle to the Thessalonians. + +Seneca, the celebrated Roman (Stoic) philosopher, was born at or very +near the time of our Saviour's birth. There are legends of his +acquaintance with Paul, at Rome, but though he wrote able and quotable +treatises _On Consolation_, _On Providence_, _On Calmness of Soul_, and +_On the Blessed Life_, there is no direct evidence that the savor of +Christian faith ever qualified his works or his personal principles. He +was a man of grand ideas and inspirations, but he was a time server and +a flatterer of the Emperor Nero, who, nevertheless, caused his death +when he had no further use for him. + +His compulsory suicide occurred A.D. 65, the year in which St. Paul is +supposed to have suffered martyrdom. + + +"THE BREAKING WAVES DASHED HIGH." + +Sitting at the tea-table one evening, near a century ago, Mrs. Hemans +read an old account of the "Landing of the Pilgrims," and was inspired +to write this poem, which became a favorite in America--like herself, +and all her other works. + +The ballad is inaccurate in details, but presents the spirit of the +scene with true poet insight. Mr. James T. Fields, the noted Boston +publisher, visited the lady in her old age, and received an autograph +copy of the poem, which is seen in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, Mass. + + The breaking waves dashed high, on a stern and rock-bound coast, + And the woods against a stormy sky, their giant branches tossed, + And the heavy night hung dark, the hills and waters o'er, + When a band of exiles moored their bark on the wild New England + shore. + + Not as the conqueror comes, they, the true-hearted, came; + Not with the roll of stirring drums, and the trumpet that sings + of fame; + Not as the flying come, in silence and in fear,-- + _They_ shook the depths of the desert's gloom with their hymns of + lofty cheer. + + Amidst the storm they sang, and the stars heard, and the sea! + And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang to the anthem of the + free! + The ocean eagle soared from his nest by the white waves' foam, + And the rocking pines of the forest roared,--this was their welcome + home! + + There were men with hoary hair amidst that pilgrim band,-- + Why had _they_ come to wither there, away from their childhood's + land? + There was woman's fearless eye, lit by her deep love's truth; + There was manhood's brow, serenely high, and the fiery heart of + youth. + + What sought they thus afar? bright jewels of the mine? + The wealth of seas? the spoils of war?--They sought a faith's pure + shrine! + Ay, call it holy ground, the soil where first they trod; + They left unstained what there they found,--freedom to worship God! + +Felicia Dorothea Browne (Mrs. Hemans) was born in Liverpool, Eng., 1766, +and died 1845. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The original tune is not now accessible. It was composed by Mrs. Mary E. +(Browne) Arkwright, Mrs. Hemans' sister, and published in England about +1835. But the words have been sung in this country to "Silver St.," a +choral not entirely forgotten, credited to an English composer, Isaac +Smith, born, in London, about 1735, and died there in 1800. + + +"WESTWARD THE COURSE OF EMPIRE." + +Usually misquoted "Westward the _Star_ of Empire," etc. This poem of +Bishop Berkeley possesses no lyrical quality but, like the ancient +Roman's words, partakes of the prophetic spirit, and has always been +dear to the American heart by reason of the above line. It seems to +formulate the "manifest destiny" of a great colonizing race that has +already absorbed a continent, and extended its sway across the Pacific +ocean. + + Not such as Europe breeds in her decay; + Such as she bred when fresh and young, + When heavenly flame did animate her clay, + By future poets shall be sung. + + Westward the course of empire takes its way; + The four first acts already past, + The fifth shall close the drama of the day: + Time's noblest offspring is the last. + +George Berkeley was born March 12, 1684, and educated at Trinity +College, Dublin. A remarkable student, he became a remarkable man, as +priest, prelate, and philosopher. High honors awaited him at home, but +the missionary passion seized him. Inheriting a small fortune, he sailed +to the West, intending to evangelize and educate the Indians of the +"Summer Islands," but the ship lost her course, and landed him at +Newport, R.I., instead of the Bermudas. Here he was warmly welcomed, but +was disappointed in his plans and hopes of founding a native college by +the failure of friends in England to forward funds, and after a +residence of six years he returned home. He died at Cloyne, Ireland, +1753. + +The house which Bishop Berkeley built is still shown (or was until very +recently) at Newport after one hundred and seventy-eight years. He wrote +the _Principles of Human Knowledge_, the _Minute Philosopher_, and many +other works of celebrity in their time, and a scholarship in Yale bears +his name; but he is best loved in this country for his _Ode to America_. + +Pope in his list of great men ascribes-- + + To Berkeley every virtue under heaven. + + +"SOUND THE LOUD TIMBREL." + +One would scarcely guess that this bravura hymn of victory and "Come, ye +disconsolate," were written by the same person, but both are by Thomas +Moore. The song has all the vigor and vivacity of his "Harp That Once +Through Tara's Halls," without its pathos. The Irish poet chose the song +of Miriam instead of the song of Deborah doubtless because the sentiment +and strain of the first of these two great female patriots lent +themselves more musically to his lyric verse--and his poem is certainly +martial enough to convey the spirit of both. + + Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea! + Jehovah hath triumphed, His people are free! + Sing, for the pride of the tyrant is broken; + His chariots, his horsemen, all splendid and brave-- + How vain was their boasting, the Lord hath but spoken, + And chariots and horsemen are sunk in the wave. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Of all the different composers to whose music Moore's "sacred songs" +were sung--Beethoven, Mozart, Stevenson, and the rest--Avison seems to +be the only one whose name and tune have clung to the poet's words; and +we have the man and the melody sent to us, as it were, by the lyrist +himself. The tune is now rarely sung except at church festivals and +village entertainments, but the life and clamor of the scene at the Red +Sea are in it, and it is something more than a mere musical curiosity. +Its style, however, is antiquated--with its timbrel beat and its +canorous harmony and "coda fortis"--and modern choirs have little use in +religious service for the sonata written for viols and horns. + +It was Moore's splendid hymn that gave it vogue in England and Ireland, +and sent it across the sea to find itself in the house of its friends +with the psalmody of Billings and Swan. Moore was the man of all men to +take a fancy to it and make language to its string-and-trumpet concert. +He was a musician himself, and equally able to adapt a tune and to +create one. As a festival performance, replete with patriotic noise, let +Avison's old "Sound the Timbrel" live. + +Charles Avison was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1710. He studied in Italy, +wrote works on music, and composed sonatas and concertos for stringed +orchestras. For many years he was organist of St. Nicholas' Kirk in his +native town. + +The tune to "Sound the Loud Timbrel" is a chorus from one of his longer +compositions. He died in 1770. + + +"THE HARP THAT ONCE THROUGH TARA'S HALLS." + +This is the only one of Moore's patriotic "Irish Melodies" that lives +wherever sweet tones are loved and poetic feeling finds answering +hearts. The exquisite sadness of its music and its text is strangely +captivating, and its untold story beckons from its lines. + +Tara was the ancient home of the Irish kings. King Dermid, who had +apostatized from the faith of St. Patrick and his followers, in A.D., +554, violated the Christian right of sanctuary by taking an escaped +prisoner from the altar of refuge in Temple Ruadan (Tipperary) and +putting him to death. The patron priest and his clergy marched to Tara +and solemnly pronounced a curse upon the King. Not long afterwards +Dermid was assassinated, and superstition shunned the place "as a castle +under ban." The last human resident of "Tara's Hall" was the King's +bard, who lingered there, forsaken and ostracized, till he starved to +death. Years later one daring visitor found his skeleton and his broken +harp. + +Moore utilized this story of tragic pathos as a figure in his song for +"fallen Erin" lamenting her lost royalty--under a curse that had lasted +thirteen hundred years. + + The harp that once through Tara's halls + The soul of music shed, + Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls + As if that soul were fled. + + So sleeps the pride of former days, + So glory's thrill is o'er, + And hearts that once beat high for praise + Now feel that pulse no more. + +No one can read the words without "thinking" the tune. It is supposed +that Moore composed them both. + + +THE MARSEILLAISE HYMN. + + Ye sons of France, awake to glory! + Hark! hark! what millions bid you rise! + +The "Marseillaise Hymn" so long supposed to be the musical as well as +verbal composition of Roget de Lisle, an army engineer, was proved to be +only his words set to an air in the "Credo" of a German mass, which was +the work of one Holzman in 1726. De Lisle was known to be a poet and +musician as well as a soldier, and, as he is said to have played or sung +at times in the churches and convents, it is probable that he found and +copied the manuscript of Holzman's melody. His haste to rush his fiery +"Hymn" before the public in the fever of the Revolution allowed him no +time to make his own music, and he adapted the German's notes to his +words and launched the song in the streets of Strasburg. It was first +sung in Paris by a band of chanters from Marseilles, and, like the +trumpets blown around Jericho, it shattered the walls of the French +monarchy to their foundations. + +The "Marseillaise Hymn" is mentioned here for its patriotic birth and +associations. An attempt to make a religious use of it is recorded in +the Fourth Chapter. + + +ODE ON SCIENCE. + +This is a "patriotic hymn," though a queer production with a queer name, +considering its contents; and its author was no intimate of the Muses. +Liberty is supposed to be somehow the corollary of learning, or vice +versa--whichever the reader thinks. + + The morning sun shines from the East + And spreads his glories to the West. + + * * * * * + + So Science spreads her lucid ray + O'er lands that long in darkness lay; + She visits fair Columbia, + And sets her sons among the stars. + Fair Freedom, her attendant, waits, etc. + + +_THE TUNE_ + +Was the really notable part of this old-time "Ode," the favorite of +village assemblies, and the inevitable practice-piece for amateur +violinists. The author of the crude symphony was Deacon Janaziah (or +Jazariah) Summer, of Taunton, Mass., who prepared it--music and probably +words--for the semi-centennial of Simeon Dagget's Academy in 1798. The +"Ode" was subsequently published in Philadelphia, and also in Albany. It +was a song of the people, and sang itself through the country for fifty +or sixty years, always culminating in the swift crescendo chorus and +repeat-- + + The British yoke and Gallic chain + Were urged upon our necks in vain; + All haughty tyrants we disdain, + And shout "Long live America!" + +The average patriot did not mind it if "Columbi-_ay_" and "Ameri-_kay_" +were not exactly classic orthoëpy. + + +"HAIL COLUMBIA." + +This was written (1798) by Judge Joseph Hopkinson, born, in +Philadelphia, 1770, and died there, 1843. He wrote it for a friend in +that city who was a theatre singer, and wanted a song for Independence +Day. The music (to which it is still sung) was "The President's March," +by a composer named Fyles, near the end of the 18th century. + +There is nothing hymn-like in the words, which are largely a +glorification of Gen. Washington, but the tune, a concerted piece better +for band than voices, has the drum-and-anvil chorus quality suitable for +vociferous mass singing--and a zealous Salvation Army corps on field +nights could even fit a processional song to it with gospel words. + + +OLD "CHESTER." + + Let tyrants shake their iron rod, + And slavery clank her galling chains: + We'll fear them not; we trust in God; + New England's God forever reigns. + +Old "Chester," both words and tune the work of William Billings, is +another of the provincial freedom songs of the Revolutionary period, and +of the days when the Republic was young. Billings was a zealous patriot, +and (says a writer in Moore's _Cyclopedia of Music_) "one secret, no +doubt, of the vast popularity his works obtained was the patriotic ardor +they breathed. The words above quoted are an example, and 'Chester,' it +is said, was frequently heard from every fife in the New England ranks. +The spirit of the Revolution was also manifest in his 'Lamentation over +Boston,' his 'Retrospect,' his 'Independence,' his 'Columbia,' and many +other pieces." + +William Billings was born, in Boston, Oct. 7, 1746. He was a man of +little education, but his genius for music spurred him to study the +tuneful art, and enabled him to learn all that could be learned without +a master. He began to make tunes and publish them, and his first book, +the _New England Psalm-singer_ was a curiosity of youthful crudity and +confidence, but in considerable numbers it was sold, and sung--and +laughed at. He went on studying and composing, and compiled another +work, which was so much of an improvement that it got the name of +_Billings' Best_. A third singing-book followed, and finally a fourth +entitled the _Psalm Singer's Amusement_, both of which were popular in +their day. His "Majesty" has tremendous capabilities of sound, and its +movement is fully up to the requirements of Nahum Tate's verses,-- + + And on the wings of mighty winds + Came flying all abroad. + +William Billings died in 1800, and his remains lie in an unmarked grave +in the old "Granary" Burying Ground in the city of his birth. + +National feeling has taken maturer speech and finer melody, but it was +these ruder voices that set the pitch. They were sung with native pride +and affection at fireside vespers and rural feasts with the adopted +songs of Burns and Moore and Mrs. Hemans, and, like the lays of Scotland +and Provence, they breathed the flavor of the country air and soil, and +taught the generation of home-born minstrelsy that gave us the +Hutchinson family, Ossian E. Dodge, Covert with his "Sword of Bunker +Hill," and Philip Phillips, the "Singing Pilgrim." + + +THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER. + +Near the close of the last war with England, Francis Scott Key, of +Baltimore, the author of this splendid national hymn, was detained under +guard on the British flag-ship at the mouth of the Petapsco, where he +had gone under a flag of truce to procure the release of a captured +friend, Dr. William Beanes of Upper Marlboro, Md. + +The enemy's fleet was preparing to bombard Fort McHenry, and Mr. Key's +return with his friend was forbidden lest their plans should be +disclosed. Forced to stay and witness the attack on his country's flag, +he walked the deck through the whole night of the bombardment until the +break of day showed the brave standard still flying at full mast over +the fort. Relieved of his patriotic anxiety, he pencilled the exultant +lines and chorus of his song on the back of a letter, and, as soon as he +was released, carried it to the city, where within twenty-four hours it +was printed on flyers, circulated and sung in the streets to the air of +"Anacreon in Heaven"--which has been the "Star Spangled Banner" tune +ever since. + + O say, can you see by the dawn's early light + What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? + Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight + O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming, + And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air + Gave proof through the night that the flag was still there: + O say, does the star-spangled banner yet wave, + O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? + + * * * * * + + O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand, + Between their loved homes and the war's desolation; + Blessed with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land + Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation. + Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, + And this be our motto, "_In God is our trust_." + And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave, + O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. + +The original star-spangled banner that waved over Fort McHenry in sight +of the poet when he wrote the famous hymn was made and presented to the +garrison by a girl of fifteen, afterwards Mrs. Sanderson, and is +still preserved in the Sanderson family at Baltimore. + +[Illustration: Samuel F. Smith] + +The additional stanza to the "Star-Spangled Banner"-- + + When our land is illumined with Liberty's smile, etc., + +--was composed by Dr. O.W. Holmes, in 1861. + +The tune "Anacreon in Heaven" was an old English hunting air composed by +John Stafford Smith, born at Gloucester, Eng. 1750. He was composer for +Covent Garden Theater, and conductor of the Academy of Ancient Music. +Died Sep. 20, 1836. The melody was first used in America to Robert Treat +Paine's song, "Adams and Liberty." Paine, born 1778--died 1811, was the +son of Robert Treat Paine, signer of the Declaration of Independence. + + +"STAND! THE GROUND'S YOUR OWN, MY BRAVES." + +Sympathetic admiration for the air, "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled," +(or "Bruce's address," as it was commonly called), with the syllables of +Robert Burns' silvery verse, lingered long in the land after the wars +were ended. It spoke in the poem of John Pierpont, who caught its +pibroch thrill, and built the metre of "Warren's Address at the Battle +of Bunker Hill" on the model of "Scots wha hae." + + Stand! the ground's your own, my braves; + Will ye give it up to slaves? + Will ye look for greener graves? + + * * * * * + + In the God of battles trust: + Die we may, or die we must, + But O where can dust to dust + Be consigned so well, + + As where Heaven its dews shall shed, + On the martyred patriot's bed, + And the rocks shall raise their head + Of his deeds to tell? + +This poem, written about 1823, held a place many years in school-books, +and was one of the favorite school-boy declamations. Whenever sung on +patriotic occasions, the music was sure to be "Bruce's Address." That +typical Scotch tune was played on the Highland bag-pipes long before +Burns was born, and known as "Hey tuttie taite." "Heard on Fraser's +hautboy, it used to fill my eyes with tears," Burns himself once wrote. + +Rev. John Pierpont was born in Litchfield, Ct., April 6, 1785. He was +graduated at Yale, 1804, taught school, studied law, engaged in trade, +and finally took a course in theology and became a Unitarian minister, +holding the pastorate of Hollis St. Church, Boston, thirty-six years. He +travelled in the East, and wrote "Airs of Palestine." His poem, "The +Yankee Boy," has been much quoted. Died in Medford, Mass., Aug. 26, +1866. + + +"MY COUNTRY, 'TIS OF THEE." + +This simple lyric, honored so long with the name "America," and the +title "Our National Hymn," was written by Samuel Francis Smith, while a +theological student at Andover, Feb. 2, 1832. He had before him several +hymn and song tunes which Lowell Mason had received from Germany, and, +knowing young Smith to be a good linguist, had sent to him for +translation. One of the songs, of national character, struck Smith as +adaptable to home use if turned into American words, and he wrote four +stanzas of his own to fit the tune. + +Mason printed them with the music, and under his magical management the +hymn made its debut on a public occasion in Park St. Church, Boston, +July 4, 1832. Its very simplicity, with its reverent spirit and +easy-flowing language, was sure to catch the ear of the multitude and +grow into familiar use with any suitable music, but it was the foreign +tune that, under Mason's happy pilotage, winged it for the western world +and launched it on its long flight. + + My country, 'tis of thee, + Sweet land of liberty, + Of thee I sing; + Land where my fathers died, + Land of the pilgrims' pride, + From every mountain-side + Let freedom ring. + + * * * * * + + Let music swell the breeze, + And ring from all the trees + Sweet Freedom's song; + Let mortal tongues awake, + Let all that breathe partake, + Let rocks their silence break, + The sound prolong. + + Our fathers' God, to Thee, + Author of liberty, + To Thee we sing; + Long may our land be bright + With Freedom's holy light; + Protect us by Thy might, + Great God, our King. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Pages, and at least two volumes, have been written to prove the origin +of that cosmopolitan, half-Gregorian descant known here as "America," +and in England as "God Save the King." William C. Woodbridge of Boston +brought it home with him from Germany. The Germans had been singing it +for years (and are singing it now, more or less) to the words, "Heil Dir +Im Siegel Kranz," and the Swiss to "Rufst Du mein Vaterland." It was +sung in Sweden, also, and till 1833 it was in public use in Russia +commonly enough to give it a national character. Von Weber introduced it +in his "Jubel" overture, and Beethoven, in 1814, copied it in C Major +and wrote piano variations on it. It has been ascribed to Henry Purcell +(1696), to Lulli, a French composer (1670), to Dr. John Bull (1619), and +to Thomas Ravenscroft and an old Scotch carol as old as 1609. One might +fancy that the biography of the famous air resembled Melchizedek's. + +The truth appears to be that certain bars of music which might easily +happen to be similar, or even identical, when plain-song was the common +style, were produced at different times and places, and one man finally +harmonized the wandering strains into a complete tune. It is now +generally conceded that the man was Henry Carey, a popular English +composer and dramatist of the first half of the 18th century, who sang +the melody as it now is, in 1740, at a public dinner given in honor of +Admiral Vernon after his capture of Porto Bello (Brazil). This antedates +any authenticated use of the tune _ipsissima forma_ in England or +continental Europe. + +The American history of it simply is that Woodbridge gave it to Mason +and Mason gave it to Smith--and Smith gave it "My Country 'Tis of Thee." + + +"BY THE RUDE BRIDGE." + +This genuinely American poem, written by Ralph Waldo Emerson and called +usually the "Concord Hymn," was prepared for the dedication of the +Battle-monument in Concord, April 19, 1836, and sung there to the tune +of "Old Hundred." Apparently no change has been made in the original +except of a single word in the first line. + + By the rude bridge that arched the flood, + Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, + Here once the embattled farmers stood, + And fired the shot heard round the world. + + The foe long since in silence slept; + Alike the conqueror silent sleeps; + And Time the ruined bridge has swept + Down the dark stream which seaward creeps. + + On this green bank, by this soft stream, + We set today a votive stone; + That memory may their deed redeem, + When, like our sires, our sons are gone. + + Spirit, that made those heroes dare + To die, and leave their children free, + Bid Time and Nature gently spare + The shaft we raise to them and Thee. + +This does not appear in the hymnals and owns no special tune. Its niche +of honor is in the temple of anthology, but it will always be called the +"Concord Hymn"--and the fourth line of its first stanza is a perennial +quotation. + +Ralph Waldo Emerson, LL.D., the renowned American essayist and poet, was +born in Boston, 1803. He graduated at Harvard in 1821, and was ordained +to the Unitarian ministry, but turned his attention to literature, +writing and lecturing on ethical and philosophical themes, and winning +universal fame by his original and suggestive prose and verse. He died +April 27, 1882. + + +BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC. + +After a visit to the Federal camps on the Potomac in 1861, Mrs. Julia +Ward Howe returned to her lodgings in Washington, fatigued, as she says, +by her "long, cold drive," and slept soundly. Awakening at early +daybreak, she began "to twine the long lines of a hymn which promised to +suit the measure of the 'John Brown' melody." + +This hymn was written out after a fashion in the dark, by Mrs. Howe, and +she then went back to sleep. + + Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; + He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; + He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; + His truth is marching on. + + I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps, + They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; + I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps; + His day is marching on. + + I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel; + "As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;" + Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel, + Since God is marching on. + + He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; + He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat; + Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant my feet! + Our God is marching on. + + In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, + With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; + As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free. + While God is marching on. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The music of the old camp-meeting refrain,-- + + Say, brothers will you meet us? + +--or,-- + + O brother, will you meet me, + +(No. 173 in the _Revivalist_,) was written in 1855, by John William +Steffe, of Richmond, Va., for a fire company, and was afterwards +arranged by Franklin H. Lummis. The air of the "John Brown Song" was +caught from this religious melody. The old hymn-tune had the "Glory, +Hallelujah" coda, cadenced off with, "For ever, ever more." + +In 1860-61 the garrison of soldiers at work on the half-dismantled +defenses of Fort Warren in Boston Harbor, were fain to lighten labor and +mock fatigue with any species of fun suggested by circumstances or +accident, and, as for music, they sang everything they could remember or +make up. John Brown's memory and fate were fresh in the Northern mind, +and the jollity of the not very reverent army men did not exclude +frequent allusions to the rash old Harper's Ferry hero. + +A wag conjured his spirit into the camp with a witticism as to what he +was doing, and a comrade retorted, + +"Marchin' on, of course." + +A third cried, "Pooh, John Brown's underground." + +A serio-comic debate added more words, and in the midst of the banter, a +musical fellow strung a rhythmic sentence and trolled it to the +Methodist tune. "John Brown's body lies a mould'rin' in the ground" was +taken up by others who knew the air, the following line was improvised +almost instantly, and soon, to the accompaniment of pick, shovel and +crowbar,-- + + His soul goes marching on, + +--rounded the couplet with full lung power through all the repetitions, +till the inevitable "glory, glory hallelujah" had the voice of every +soldier in the fort. The song "took," and the marching chorus of the +Federal armies of the Civil War was started on its way. Mrs. Howe gave +it a poem that made its rusticity sublime, and the "Battle Hymn of the +Republic" began a career that promises to run till battle hymns cease to +be sung. + +Julia Ward was born in New York city, May 27, 1819. In 1843 she became +the wife of Samuel Gridley Howe, the far-famed philanthropist and +champion of liberty, and with him edited an anti-slavery paper, the +_Boston Commonwealth_, until the Civil War closed its mission. During +the war she was active and influential--and has never ceased to be +so--in the cause of peace and justice, and in every philanthropic +movement. Her great hymn first brought her prominently before the +public, but her many other writings would have made a literary +reputation. Her four surviving children are all eminent in the +scientific and literary world. + + +KELLER'S AMERICAN HYMN. + +Naturally the title suggests the authorship of the ode, but fate made +Keller a musician rather than a poet and hymnist, and the honors of the +fine anthem are divided. At the grand performance which created its +reputation, the hymn of Dr. O.W. Holmes was substituted for the +composer's words. This is Keller's first stanza: + + Speed our republic, O Father on high! + Lead us in pathways of justice and right, + Rulers, as well as the ruled, one and all, + Girdle with virtue the armor of might. + Hail! three times hail, to our country and flag! + Rulers, as well as the ruled, one and all, + Girdle with virtue the armor of might; + Hail! three times hail, to our country and flag! + +"Flag" was the unhappy word at the end of every one of the four stanzas. +To match a short vowel to an orotund concert note for two beats and a +"hold" was impossible. When the great Peace Jubilee of 1872, in Boston, +was projected, Dr. Holmes was applied to, and responded with a lyric +that gave each stanza the rondeau effect designed by the composer, but +replaced the flat final with a climax syllable of breadth and music: + + Angel of Peace, thou hast wandered too long! + Spread thy white wings to the sunshine of love! + Come while our voices are blended in song, + Fly to our ark like the storm-beaten dove! + Fly to our ark on the wings of the dove, + Speed o'er the far-sounding billows of song, + Crown'd with thine olive-leaf garland of love, + Angel of Peace, thou hast waited too long! + + * * * * * + + Angels of Bethlehem, answer the strain! + Hark! a new birth-song is filling the sky! + Loud as the storm-wind that tumbles the main, + Bid the full breath of the organ reply, + Let the loud tempest of voices reply, + Roll its long surge like the earth-shaking main! + Swell the vast song till it mounts to the sky! + Angels of Bethlehem, echo the strain! + +But the glory of the _tune_ was Keller's own. + +Soon after the close of the war a prize of $500 had been offered by a +committee of American gentlemen for the best "national hymn" (meaning +words and music). Mr. Keller, though a foreigner, was a naturalized +citizen and patriot and entered the lists as a competitor with the zeal +of a native and the ambition of an artist. Sometime in 1866 he finished +and copyrighted the noble anthem that bears his name, and then began the +struggle to get it before the public and test its merit. To enable him +to bring it out before the New York Academy of Music, where +(unfortunately) he determined to make his first trial, his brother +kindly lent him four hundred dollars (which he had laid by to purchase a +little home), and he borrowed two hundred more elsewhere. + +The performance proved a failure, the total receipts being only +forty-two dollars, Keller was $500 in debt, and his brother's +house-money was gone. But he refused to accept his failure as final. +Boston (where he should have begun) was introduced to his masterpiece at +every opportunity, and gradually, with the help of the city bands and a +few public concerts, a decided liking for it was worked up. It was +entered on the program of the Peace Jubilee and sung by a chorus of ten +thousand voices. The effect was magnificent. "Keller's American Hymn" +became a recognized star number in the repertoire of "best" national +tunes; and now few public occasions where patriotic music is demanded +omit it in their menu of song.[33] + +[Footnote 33: In Butterworth's "_Story of the Tunes_," under the account +of Keller's grand motet, the following sacred hymn is inserted as "often +sung to it:"-- + + Father Almighty, we bow at thy feet; + Humbly thy grace and thy goodness we own. + Answer in love when thy children entreat, + Hear our thanksgiving ascend to thy throne. + Seeking thy blessing, in worship we meet, + Trusting our souls on thy mercy alone; + Father Almighty, we bow at thy feet. + + Breathe, Holy Spirit, thy comfort divine, + Tune every voice to thy music of peace; + Hushed in our hearts, with one whisper of thine, + Pride and the tumult of passion will cease. + Joy of the watchful, who wait for thy sign, + Hope of the sinful, who long for release, + Breathe, Holy Spirit, thy comfort divine. + + God of salvation, thy glory we sing, + Honors to thee in thy temple belong; + Welcome the tribute of gladness we bring, + Loud-pealing organ and chorus of song. + While our high praises, Redeemer and King, + Blend with the notes of the angelic throng, + God of salvation, thy glory we sing. + --_Theron Brown_.] + +It is pathetic to know that the composer's one great success brought him +only a barren renown. The prize committee, on the ground that _none_ of +the competing pieces reached the high standard of excellence +contemplated, withheld the $500, and Keller's work received merely the +compliment of being judged worth presentation. The artist had his +copyright, but he remained a poor man. + +Matthias Keller was born at Ulm, Wurtemberg, March 20, 1813. In his +youth he was both a musician and a painter. Coming to this country, he +chose the calling that promised the better and quicker wages, playing in +bands and theatre orchestras, but never accumulating money. He could +make fine harmonies as well as play them, but English was not his +mother-tongue, and though he wrote a hundred and fifty songs, only one +made him well-known. When fame came to him it did not bring him wealth, +and in his latter days, crippled by partial paralysis, he went back to +his early art and earned a living by painting flowers and retouching +portraits and landscapes. He died in 1875, only three years after his +Coliseum triumph. + + +"GOD BLESS OUR NATIVE LAND." + +This familiar patriotic hymn is notable--though not entirely +singular--for having two authors. The older singing-books signed the +name of J.S. Dwight to it, until inquiring correspondence brought out +the testimony and the joint claim of Dwight and C.T. Brooks, and it +appeared that both these scholars and writers translated it from the +German. Later hymnals attach both their names to the hymn.[34] + +[Footnote 34: For a full account of this disputed hymn, and the curious +trick of memory which confused _four_ names in the question of its +authorship, see Dr. Benson's _Studies of Familiar Hymns_, pp. 179-190] + +John Sullivan Dwight, born, in Boston, May 13, 1813, was a virtuoso in +music, and an enthusiastic student of the art and science of tonal +harmony. He joined a Harvard musical club known as "The Pierian +Sodality" while a student at the University, and after his graduation +became a prolific writer on musical subjects. Six years of his life were +passed in the "Brook Farm Community." He was best known by his serial +magazine, Dwight's _Journal of Music_, which was continued from 1852 to +1881. His death occurred in 1893. + +Rev. Charles Timothy Brooks, the translator of Faust, was born, in +Salem, Mass., June 20, 1813, being only about a month younger than his +friend Dwight. Was a student at Harvard University and Divinity School +1829-1835, and was ordained to the Unitarian ministry and settled at +Newport, R.I. He resigned his charge there (1871) on account of ill +health, and occupied himself with literary work until his death, Jan. +14, 1883. + + God bless our native land! + Firm may she ever stand + Through storm and night! + When the wild tempests rave. + Ruler of wind and wave, + Do Thou our country save + By Thy great might! + + For her our prayer shall rise + To God above the skies; + On Him we wait. + Thou who art ever nigh, + Guarding with watchful eye; + To Thee aloud we cry, + God save the State! + +The tune of "Dort," by Lowell Mason, has long been the popular melody +for this hymn. Indeed the two were united by Mason himself. It is +braver music than "America," and would have carried Dr. Smith's hymn +nobly, but the borrowed tune, on the whole, better suits "My Country +'tis of thee,"--and besides, it has the advantage of a middle-register +harmony easy for a multitude of voices. + + +"THOU, TOO, SAIL ON, O SHIP OF STATE," + +The closing canto of Longfellow's "Launching of the Ship," almost +deserves a patriotic hymn-tune, though its place and use are commonly +with school recitations. + + +"GOD OF OUR FATHERS, KNOWN OF OLD." + +Rudyard Kipling, in a moment of serious reflection on the flamboyant +militarism of British sentiment during the South African War, wrote this +remarkable "Recessional," so strikingly unlike his other war-time poems. +It is to be hoped he did not suddenly repent his Christian impulse, but +with the chauvinistic cry around him, "Our Country, right or wrong!" he +seems to have felt the contrast of his prayer--and flung it into the +waste-basket. His watchful wife rescued it (the story says) and bravely +sent it to the London Times. The world owes her a debt. The hymn is not +only an anthem for Peace Societies, but a tonic for true patriotism. +When Freedom fights in self-defense, she need not force herself to +"forget" the Lord of Hosts. + + God of our fathers, known of old, + Lord of our far-flung battle-line, + Beneath whose awful hand we hold + Dominion over palm and pine; + Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, + Lest we forget, lest we forget. + + The tumult and the shouting dies, + The captains and the kings depart, + Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice, + An humble and a contrite heart. + Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, + Lest we forget, lest we forget. + + Far-called, our navies melt away, + On dune and headland sinks the fire; + Lo all our pomp of yesterday + Is one with Nineveh and Tyre. + Judge of the nations, spare us yet, + Lest we forget, lest we forget. + + If, drunk with sight of power, we loose + Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe, + Such boasting as the Gentiles use + Or lesser breeds without the law, + Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, + Lest we forget, lest we forget. + + For heathen heart that puts her trust, + In recking tube and iron shard, + All valiant dust that builds on dust + And guarding, calls not Thee to guard, + For frantic boast and foolish word + Thy mercy on thy people, Lord! + +Had Kipling cared more for his poem, and kept it longer in hand, he +might have revised a line or two that would possibly seem commonplace +to him--and corrected the grammar in the first line of the second +stanza. But of so fine a composition there is no call for finical +criticism. The "Recessional" is a product of the poet's holiest mood. +"The Spirit of the Lord came upon him"--as the old Hebrew phrase is, and +for the time he was a rapt prophet, with a backward and a forward +vision. Providence saved the hymn, and it touched and sank into the +better mind of the nation. It is already learned by heart--and +sung--wherever English is the common speech, and will be heard in +numerous translations, with the wish that there were more patriotic +hymns of the same Christian temper and strength. + +Rudyard Kipling was born in Hindostan in 1865. Even with his first +youthful experiments in the field of literature he was hailed as the +coming apostle of muscular poetry and prose. For a time he made America +his home, and it was while here that he faced death through a fearful +and protracted sickness that brought him very near to God. He has +visited many countries and described them all, and, though sometimes his +imagination drives a reckless pen, the Christian world hopes much from a +man whose genius can make the dullest souls listen. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The music set to Kipling's hymn is Stainer's "Magdalen"--(not his +"Magdalina," which is a common-metre tune)--and wonderfully fits the +words and enhances their dignity. It is a grave and earnest melody in D +flat, with two bars in unison at "Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet," +making the utterance of the prayer a deep and powerful finale. + +John Stainer, Doctor of Music, born June 6, 1840, was nine years the +chorister of St. Paul's, London, and afterwards organist to the +University of Oxford. He is a member of the various musical societies of +the Kingdom, and a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. His talent for +sacred music is rare and versatile, and he seems to have consecrated +himself as a musician and composer to the service of the church. + + * * * * * + +Every civilized nation has its patriotic hymns. In fact what makes a +nation a nation is largely the unifying influences of its common song. +Even the homeless Hebrew nation is kept together by its patriotic +Psalms. The ethnic melodies would fill a volume with their story. The +few presented in this chapter represent their range of quality and +character--defiant as the Marseillaise, thrilling as "Scots' wha hae," +joyful as "The Star-spangled Banner," breezy and bold as the "Ranz de +Vaches," or sweet as the "Switzers' Song of Home." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +SAILORS' HYMNS. + + +The oldest sailors' hymn is found in the 107th Psalm, vss. 23-30: + + They that go down to the sea in ships, + To do business in great waters, + These see the works of the Lord, + And His wonders in the deep, etc. + +Montgomery has made this metrical rendering of these verses: + + They that toil upon the deep, + And in vessels light and frail + O'er the mighty waters sweep + With the billows and the gale, + + Mark what wonders God performs + When He speaks, and, unconfined, + Rush to battle all His storms + In the chariots of the wind. + +The hymn is not in the collections, and has no tune. Addison paraphrased +the succeeding verses of the Psalm in his hymn, "How are thy servants +blessed O Lord," sung to Hugh Wilson's[35] tune of "Avon": + + When by the dreadful tempest borne + High on the broken wave, + They know Thou art not slow to hear, + Nor impotent to save. + + The storm is laid, the winds retire, + Obedient to Thy will; + The sea that roars at Thy command, + At Thy command is still. + +[Footnote 35: Hugh Wilson was a Scotch weaver of Kilmarnock, born 1764; +died 1824.] + + +"FIERCE WAS THE WILD BILLOW." + +([Greek: Zopheras trikumias]) + +The ancient writer, Anatolius, who composed this hymn has for centuries +been confounded with "St" Anatolius, patriarch of Constantinople, who +died A.D. 458. The author of the hymn lived in the seventh century, and +except that he wrote several hymns, and also poems in praise of the +martyrs, nothing or next to nothing, is known of him. The "Wild Billow" +song was the principle seaman's hymn of the early church. It is being +introduced into modern psalmody, the translation in use ranking among +the most successful of Dr. John Mason Neale's renderings from the Greek. + + Fierce was the wild billow, + Dark was the night; + Oars labored heavily, + Foam glimmered white; + Trembled the mariners; + Peril was nigh; + Then said the God of God, + "Peace! It is I!" + + Ridge of the mountain wave, + Lower thy crest! + Wall of Euroclydon, + Be thou at rest! + Sorrow can never be, + Darkness must fly, + When saith the Light of Light, + "Peace! It is I!" + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The desire to represent the antiquity of the hymn and the musical style +of Its age, and on the other hand the wish to utilize it in the +tune-manuals for Manners' Homes and Seamen's Bethels, makes a difficulty +for composers to study--and the task is still open to competition. +Considering the peculiar tone that sailors' singing instinctively +takes--and has taken doubtless from time immemorial perhaps the +plaintive melody of "Neale," by J.H. Cornell, comes as near to a vocal +success as could be hoped. The music is of middle register and less than +octave range, natural scale, minor, and the triple time lightens a +little the dirge-like harmony while the weird sea-song effect is kept. A +chorus of singing tars must create uncommon emotion, chanting this +coronach of the storm. + +John Henry Cornell was born in New York city, May 8, 1838, and was for +many years organist at St. Paul's Chapel, Trinity Church. He is the +author of numerous educational works on the theory and practice of +music. He composed the above tune in 1872. Died March 1, 1894. + + +"AVE, MARIS STELLA." + +One of the titles which the Roman Catholic world applied to the Mother +of Jesus, in the Middle Ages, was "Stella Maris," "Star of the Sea." +Columbus, being a Catholic, sang this hymn, or caused it to be sung, +every evening, it is said, during his perilous voyage to an unknown +land. The marine epithet by which the Virgin Mary is addressed is +admirable as a stroke of poetry, and the hymn--of six stanzas--is a +prayer which, though offered to her as to a divine being, was no doubt +sincere in the simple sailor hearts of 1492. + +The two following quatrains finish the voyagers' petition, and point it +with a doxology-- + + Vitam praesta puram, + Iter para tutum, + Ut videntes Jesum + Semper collaetemur. + + Sit laus Deo Patri, + Summo Christo decus, + Spiritui Sancto, + Tribus honor unus! + +A free translation is-- + + Guide us safe, unspotted + Through life's long endeavor + Till with Thee and Jesus + We rejoice forever. + + Praise to God the Father, + Son and Spirit be; + One and equal honor + To the Holy Three. + +Inasmuch as this ancient hymn did not attain the height of its +popularity and appear in all the breviaries until the 10th century, its +assumed age has been doubted, but its reputed author, Venantius +Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers, was born about 531, at Treviso, Italy, +and died about 609. Though a religious teacher, he was a man of romantic +and convivial instincts--a strange compound of priest, poet and _beau +chevalier_. Duffield calls him "the last of the classics and first of +the troubadours," and states that he was the "first of the Christian +poets to begin that worship of the Virgin Mary which rose to a passion +and sank to an idolatry." + + +_TUNES_ + +To this ancient rogation poem have been composed by Aiblinger (Johann +Caspar), Bavarian, (1779-1867,) by Proch (Heinrich), Austrian, +(1809-1878,) by Tadolini (Giovanni), Italian, (1803-1872,) and by many +others. The "Ave, Maris Stella" is in constant use in the Romish church, +and its English translation by Caswall is a favorite hymn in the _Lyra +Catholica_. + + +"AVE, SANCTISSIMA!" + +This beautiful hymn is not introduced here in order of time, but because +it seems akin to the foregoing, and born of its faith and +traditions--though it sounds rather too fine for a sailor song, on ship +or shore. Like the other, the tuneful prayer is the voice of +ultramontane piety accustomed to deify Mary, and is entitled the +"Evening Song to the Virgin." + + Ave Sanctissima! we lift our souls to Thee + Ora pro nobis! 'tis nightfall on the sea. + Watch us while shadows lie + Far o'er the waters spread; + Hear the heart's lonely sigh; + Thine, too, hath bled. + + Thou that hast looked on death, + Aid us when death is near; + Whisper of heaven to faith; + Sweet Mother, hear! + Ora pro nobis! the wave must rock our sleep; + Ora, Mater, ora! Star of the Deep! + +This was first written in four separate quatrains, "'Tis nightfall on +the sea" being part of the first instead of the second line, and "We +lift our souls," etc., was "Our souls rise to Thee," while the +apostrophe at the end read, "Thou Star of the Deep." + +The fact of the modern origin of the hymn does not make it less probable +that the earlier one of Fortunatus suggested it. It was written by Mrs. +Hemans, and occurs between the forty-third and forty-fourth stanzas of +her long poem, "The Forest Sanctuary." + +A Spanish Christian who had embraced the Protestant faith fled to +America (such is the story of the poem) to escape the cruelties of the +Inquisition, and took with him his Catholic wife and his child. During +the voyage the wife pined away and died, a martyr to her conjugal +loyalty and love. The hymn to the Virgin purports to have been her daily +evening song at sea, plaintively remembered by the broken-hearted +husband and father in his forest retreat on the American shore with his +motherless boy. + +The music was composed by a sister of Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. Hughes, who +probably arranged the lines as they now stand in the tune. + +The song, though its words appear in the _Parochial Hymn-book_, seems to +be in use rather as parlor music than as a part of the liturgy. + + +"JESUS, LOVER OF MY SOUL." + +The golden quality of this best-known and loved of Charles Wesley's +hymns is attested by two indorsements that cannot be impeached; its +perennial life, and the blessings of millions who needed it. + + Jesus, Lover of my soul + Let me to Thy bosom fly, + While the billows near me roll, + While the tempest still is high. + + Hide me, O my Saviour, hide, + Till the storm of life is past, + Safe into the haven guide, + O receive my soul at last! + +Wesley is believed to have written it when a young man, and story and +legend have been busy with the circumstances of its birth. The most +poetical account alleges that a dove chased by a hawk dashed through +his open window into his bosom, and the inspiration to write the line-- + + Let me to Thy bosom fly, + +--was the genesis of the poem. Another report has it that one day Mr. +Wesley, being pursued by infuriated persecutors at Killalee, County +Down, Ireland, took refuge in a milk-house on the homestead of the +Island Band Farm. When the mob came up the farmer's wife, Mrs. Jane +Lowrie Moore, offered them refreshments and secretly let out the +fugitive through a window to the back garden, where he concealed himself +under a hedge till his enemies went away. When they had gone he had the +hymn in his mind and partly jotted down. This tale is circumstantial, +and came through Mrs. Mary E. Hoover, Jane Moore's granddaughter, who +told it many years ago to her pastor, Dr. William Laurie of Bellefonte, +Pa. So careful a narrative deserves all the respect due to a family +tradition. Whether this or still another theory of the incidental cause +of the wonderful hymn shall have the last word may never be decided nor +is it important. + +There is "antecedent probability," at least, in the statement that +Wesley wrote the first two stanzas soon after his perilous experience in +a storm at sea during his return voyage from America to England in 1736. +In a letter dated Oct. 28 of that year, he describes the storm that +washed away a large part of the ship's cargo, strained her seams so +that the hardest pumping could not keep pace with the inrushing water, +and finally forced the captain to cut the mizzen-mast away. Young Wesley +was ill and sorely alarmed, but knew, he says, that he "abode under the +shadow of the Almighty," and finally, "in this dreadful moment," he was +able to encourage his fellow-passengers who were "in an agony of fear," +and to pray with and for them. + +It was his awful hazard and bare escape in that tempest that prompted +the following stanzas-- + + O Thou who didst prepare + The ocean's caverned cell, + And teach the gathering waters there + To meet and dwell; + Toss'd in our reeling bark + Upon this briny sea, + Thy wondrous ways, O Lord, we mark, + And sing to Thee. + + * * * * * + + Borne on the dark'ning wave, + In measured sweep we go, + Nor dread th' unfathomable grave, + Which yawns below; + For He is nigh who trod + Amid the foaming spray, + Whose billows own'd th' Incarnate God, + And died away. + +And naturally the memory of his almost shipwreck on the wild Atlantic +colored more or less the visions of his muse, and influenced the +metaphors of his verse for years. + +The popularity of "Jesus, Lover of my Soul" not only procured it, at +home, the name of "England's song of the sea," but carried it with "the +course of Empire" to the West, where it has reigned with "Rock of Ages," +for more than a hundred and fifty years, joint primate of inspired human +songs. + +Compiled incidents of its heavenly service would fill a chapter. A +venerable minister tells of the supernal comfort that lightened his +after years of sorrow from the dying bed of his wife who whispered with +her last breath, "Hide me, O my Saviour, hide." + +A childless and widowed father in Washington remembers with a more than +earthly peace, the wife and mother's last request for Wesley's hymn, and +her departure to the sound of its music to join the spirit of her babe. + +A summer visitor in Philadelphia, waiting on a hot street-corner for a +car to Fairmount Park, overheard a quavering voice singing the same hymn +and saw an emaciated hand caressing a little plant in an open +window--and carried away the picture of a fading life, and the words-- + + Other refuge have I none, + Hangs my helpless soul on Thee. + +On one of the fields of the Civil War, just after a bloody battle, the +Rev. James Rankin of the United Presbyterian Church bent over a dying +soldier. Asked if he had any special request to make, the brave fellow +replied, "Yes, sing 'Jesus, Lover of my Soul.'" + +The clergyman belonged to a church that sang only Psalms. But what a +tribute to that ubiquitous hymn that such a man knew it by heart! A +moment's hesitation and he recalled the words, and, for the first time +in his life, sang a sacred song that was not a Psalm. When he reached +the lines,-- + + Safe into the haven guide, + O receive my soul at last, + +--his hand was in the frozen grip of a dead man, whose face wore "the +light that never was on sea or land." The minister went away saying to +himself, "If this hymn is good to die by, it is good to live by." + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Of all the tone-masters who have studied and felt this matchless hymn, +and given it vocal wings--Marsh, Zundel, Bradbury, Dykes, Mason--none +has so exquisitely uttered its melting prayer, syllable by syllable, as +Joseph P. Holbrook in his "Refuge." Unfortunately for congregational +use, it is a duo and quartet score for select voices; but the four-voice +portion can be a chorus, and is often so sung. Its form excludes it from +some hymnals or places it as an optional beside a congregational tune. +But when rendered by the choir on special occasions its success in +conveying the feeling and soul of the words is complete. There is a +prayer in the swell of every semitone and the touch of every accidental, +and the sweet concord of the duet--soprano with tenor or bass--pleads +on to the end of the fourth line, where the full harmony reinforces it +like an organ with every stop in play. The tune is a rill of melody +ending in a river of song.[36] + +[Footnote 36: Holbrook has also an arrangement of Franz Abt's, "When the +Swallows Homeward Fly" written to "Jesus, Lover of my Soul," but with +Wesley's words it is far less effective than his original work. "Refuge" +is not a manufacture but an inspiration.] + +For general congregational use, Mason's "Whitman" has wedded itself to +the hymn perhaps closer than any other. It has revival associations +reaching back more than sixty years. + + +"WHEN MARSHALLED ON THE NIGHTLY PLAIN." + +Perhaps no line in all familiar hymnology more readily suggests the name +of its author than this. In the galaxy of poets Henry Kirke White was a +brief luminary whose brilliancy and whose early end have appealed to the +hearts of three generations. He was born at Nottingham, Eng., in the +year 1795. His father was a butcher, but the son, disliking the trade, +was apprenticed to a weaver at the age of fourteen. Two years later he +entered an attorney's office as copyist and student. + +The boy imbibed sceptical notions from some source, and might have +continued to scoff at religion to the last but for the experience of his +intimate friend, a youth named Almond, whose life was changed by +witnessing one day the happy death of a Christian believer. Decided to +be a Christian himself, it was some time before he mustered courage to +face White's ridicule and resentment. He simply drew away from him. When +White demanded the reason he was obliged to tell him that they two must +henceforth walk different paths. + +"Good God!" exclaimed White, "you surely think worse of me than I +deserve!" + +The separation was a severe shock to Henry, and the real grief of it +sobered his anger to reflection and remorse. The light of a better life +came to him when his heart melted--and from that time he and Almond were +fellows in faith as well as friendship. + +In his hymn the young poet tells the stormy experience of his soul, and +the vision that guided him to peace. + + When, marshalled on the nightly plain, + The glittering host bestud the sky, + One star alone of all the train + Can fix the sinner's wandering eye. + Hark, hark! to God the chorus breaks, + From every host, from every gem, + But one alone the Saviour speaks; + It is the Star of Bethlehem. + + Once on the raging seas I rode: + The storm was loud, the night was dark; + The ocean yawned, and rudely blowed + The wind that tossed my foundering bark. + Deep horror then my vitals froze, + Death-struck, I ceased the tide to stem, + When suddenly a star arose; + It was the Star of Bethlehem. + + It was my guide, my light, my all, + It bade my dark forebodings cease; + And through the storm and danger's thrall, + It led me to the port of peace. + Now, safely moored, my perils o'er, + I'll sing, first in night's diadem, + For ever and for evermore, + The Star, the Star of Bethlehem! + +Besides this delightful hymn, with its graphic sea-faring metaphors, two +others, at least, of the same boy-poet hold their place in many of the +church and chapel collections: + + The Lord our God is clothed with might, + The winds obey His will; + He speaks, and in his heavenly height + The rolling sun stands still. + +And-- + + Oft in danger, oft in woe, + Onward, Christians, onward go. + +Henry Kirke White died in the autumn of 1806, when he was scarcely +twenty years old. His "Ode to Disappointment," and the miscellaneous +flowers and fragments of his genius, make up a touching volume. The fire +of a pure, strong spirit burning through a consumptive frame is in them +all. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"When, marshalled on the mighty plain" has a choral set to it in the +_Methodist Hymnal_--credited to Thos. Harris, and entitled +"Crimea"--which divides the three stanzas into six, and breaks the +continuity of the hymn. Better sing it in its original form--long metre +double--to the dear old melody of "Bonny Doon." The voices of Scotland, +England and America are blended in it. + +[Illustration: William B. Bradbury] + +The origin of this Caledonian air, though sometimes fancifully traced to +an Irish harper and sometimes to a wandering piper of the Isle of Man, +is probably lost in antiquity. Burns, however, whose name is linked with +it, tells this whimsical story of it, though giving no date save "a good +many years ago,"--(apparently about 1753). A virtuoso, Mr. James Millar, +he writes, wishing he were able to compose a Scottish tune, was told by +a musical friend to sit down to his harpsichord and make a rhythm of +some kind _solely on the black keys_, and he would surely turn out a +Scotch tune. The musical friend, pleased at the result of his jest, +caught the string of plaintive sounds made by Millar, and fashioned it +into "Bonny Doon." + + +"LAND AHEAD!" + +The burden of this hymn was suggested by the dying words of John Adams, +one of the crew of the English ship Bounty who in 1789 mutinied, set the +captain and officers adrift, and ran the vessel to a tropical island, +where they burned her. In a few years vice and violence had decimated +the wicked crew, who had exempted themselves from all divine and human +restraint, until the last man alive was left with only native women and +half-breed children for company. His true name was Alexander Smith, but +he had changed it to John Adams. + +The situation forced the lonely Englishman to a sense of solemn +responsibility, and in bitter remorse, he sought to retrieve his wasted +life, and spend the rest of his exile in repentance and repentant works. +He found a Bible in one of the dead seamen's chests, studied it, and +organized a community on the Christian plan. A new generation grew up +around him, reverencing him as governor, teacher, preacher and judge, +and speaking his language--and he was wise enough to exercise his +authority for the common good, and never abuse it. Pitcairn's Island +became "the Paradise of the Pacific." It has not yet belied its name. +Besides its opulence of rural beauty and natural products, its +inhabitants, now the third generation from the "mutineer missionary," +are a civilized community without the vices of civilization. There is no +licentiousness, no profanity, no Sabbath-breaking, no rum or +tobacco--and _no sickness_. + +John Adams died in 1829--after an island residence of forty years. In +his extreme age, while he lay waiting for the end, he was asked how he +felt in view of the final voyage. + +"Land ahead!" murmured the old sailor--and his last words were, +"Rounding the Cape--into the harbor." + +That the veteran's death-song should be perpetuated in sacred music is +not strange. + + Land ahead! its fruits are waving + O'er the hills of fadeless green; + And the living waters laving + Shores where heavenly forms are seen. + + CHORUS. + Rocks and storms I'll fear no more, + When on that eternal shore; + Drop the anchor! furl the sail! + I am safe within the veil. + + Onward, bark! the cape I'm rounding; + See, the blessed wave their hands; + Hear the harps of God resounding + From the bright immortal bands. + +The authorship of the hymn is credited to Rev. E. Adams--whether or not +a descendent of the Island Patriarch we have no information. It was +written about 1869. + +The ringing melody that bears the words was composed by John Miller +Evans, born Nov. 30, 1825; died Jan. 1, 1892. The original air--with a +simple accompaniment--was harmonized by Hubert P. Main, and published in +_Winnowed Hymns_ in 1873. + + +"ETERNAL FATHER, STRONG TO SAVE." + +This is sung almost universally on English ships. It is said to have +been one of Sir Evelyn Wood's favorites. The late William Whiting wrote +it in 1860, and it was incorporated with some alterations in the +standard English Church collection entitled _Hymns Ancient and Modern_. +It is a translation from a Latin hymn, a triune litany addressing a +stanza each to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The whole four stanzas have +the same refrain, and the appeal to the Father, who bids-- + + --the mighty ocean deep + Its own appointed limits keep, + +--varies in the appeal to Christ, who-- + + --_walked_ upon the foaming deep. + +The third and fourth stanzas are the following: + + O Holy Spirit, Who didst brood + Upon the waters dark and rude, + And bid their angry tumult cease, + And give, for wild confusion, peace; + Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee + For those in peril on the sea. + + O Trinity of love and power, + Our brethren shield in danger's hour; + From rock and tempest, fire and foe, + Protect them wheresoe'er they go: + Thus evermore shall rise to Thee + Glad hymns of praise from land to sea. + +William Whiting was born at Kensington, London, Nov. 1, 1825. He was +Master of Winchester College Chorister's School Died in 1878. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The choral named "Melita" (in memory of St. Paul's shipwreck) was +composed by Dr. Dykes in 1861, and its strong and easy chords and +moderate note range are nobly suited to the devout hymn. + + +"THE OCEAN HATH NO DANGER." + +This charming sailors' lyric is the work of the Rev. Godfrey Thring. Its +probable date is 1862, and it appeared in Morell and Howe's collection +and in _Hymns Congregational and Others_, published in 1866, which +contained a number from his pen. Rector Thring was born at Alford, +Somersetshire, Eng., March 25, 1823, and educated at Shrewsbury School +and Baliol College, Oxford. In 1858 he succeeded his father as Rector of +Alford. + +He compiled _A Church of England Hymnbook_ in 1880. + + The ocean hath no danger + For those whose prayers are made + To Him who in a manger + A helpless Babe was laid, + Who, born to tribulation + And every human ill, + The Lord of His creation, + The wildest waves can still. + + * * * * * + + Though life itself be waning + And waves shall o'er us sweep, + The wild winds sad complaining + Shall lull us still to sleep, + For as a gentle slumber + E'en death itself shall prove + To those whom Christ doth number + As worthy of His love. + +The tune "Morlaix," given to the hymn by Dr. Dykes, is simple, but a +very sweet and appropriate harmony. + + +"FIERCE RAGED THE TEMPEST ON THE DEEP." + +This fine lyric, based on the incident in the storm on the Sea of +Galilee, is the work of the same writer and owes its tune "St. Aelred" +to the same composer. + +The melody has an impressive rallentando of dotted semibreves to the +refrain, "Peace, be still," after the more rapid notes of the three-line +stanzas. + + The wild winds hushed, the angry deep + Sank like a little child to sleep, + The sullen waters ceased to leap. + + * * * * * + + So when our life is clouded o'er + And storm-winds drift us from the shore + Say, lest we sink to rise no more, + "Peace! be still." + + +"PULL FOR THE SHORE." + +When a shipwrecked crew off a rocky coast were hurrying to the +long-boat, a sailor begged leave to run back to the ship's forecastle +and save some of his belongings. + +"No sir," shouted the Captain, "she's sinking! There's nothing to do but +to pull for the shore." Philip P. Bliss caught up the words, and wrought +them into a hymn and tune. + + Light in the darkness, sailor, day is at hand! + See o'er the foaming billows fair Haven's land; + Drear was the voyage, sailor, now almost o'er; + Safe in the life-boat, sailor, pull for the shore! + + CHORUS. + Pull for the shore, sailor, pull for the shore! + Heed not the rolling waves, but bend to the oar; + Safe in the life-boat, sailor, cling to self no more; + Leave the poor old stranded wreck and pull for the shore! + +The hymn-tune is a buoyant allegro--solo and chorus--full of hope and +courage, and both imagery and harmony appeal to the hearts of seamen. It +is popular, and has long been one of the song numbers in demand at +religious services both on sea and land. + + +"JESUS, SAVIOUR, PILOT ME." + +The Rev. Edward Hopper, D.D. wrote this hymn while pastor of Mariner's +Church at New York harbor, "The Church of the Sea and Land." He was born +in 1818, and graduated at Union Theological Seminary in 1843. + + Jesus, Saviour, pilot me + Over life's tempestuous sea, + Unknown waves before me roll, + Hiding rock and treacherous shoal; + Chart and compass come from Thee, + Jesus, Saviour, pilot me! + +Only three stanzas of this rather lengthy hymn are in common use. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Without title except "Savior, pilot me." A simple and pleasing melody +composed by John Edgar Gould, late of the firm of Gould and Fischer, +piano dealers, Phila., Pa. He was born in Bangor, Me., April 9, 1822. +Conductor of music and composer of psalm and hymn tunes and glees, he +also compiled and published no less than eight books of church, +Sunday-school, and secular songs. Died in Algiers, Africa, Feb. 13, +1875. + + +"THROW OUT THE LIFE-LINE." + +This is one of the popular refrains that need but a single hearing to +fix themselves in common memory and insure their own currency and +_eclat_. + +The Rev. E.S. Ufford, well-known as a Baptist preacher, lecturer, and +evangelist, was witnessing a drill at the life-saving station on Point +Allerton, Nantasket Beach, when the order to "throw out the life-line" +and the sight of the apparatus in action, combined with the story of a +shipwreck on the spot, left an echo in his mind till it took the form of +a song-sermon. Returning home, he pencilled the words of this rousing +hymn, and, being himself a singer and player, sat down to his instrument +to match the lines with a suitable air. It came to him almost as +spontaneously as the music of "The Ninety and Nine" came to Mr. Sankey. +In fifteen minutes the hymn-tune was made--so far as the melody went. +It was published in sheet form in 1888, and afterwards purchased by Mr. +Sankey, harmonized by Mr. Stebbins, and published in _Winnowed Songs_, +1890. Included in _Gospel Hymns_, Nov. 6, 1891. + +Ever since it has been a favorite with singing seamen, and has done +active service as one of our most stirring field-songs in revival work. + + Throw out the Life-line across the dark wave, + There is a brother whom some one should save; + Somebody's brother! oh, who, then, will dare + To throw out the Life-line, his peril to share? + + Throw out the Life-line with hand quick and strong! + Why do you tarry, why linger so long? + See! he is sinking; oh, hasten today-- + And out with the Life-boat! away, then away! + + CHORUS. + Throw out the Life-line! + Throw out the Life-line! + Some one is drifting away; + Throw out the Life-line! + Throw out the Life-line! + Some one is sinking today. + +One evening, in the midst of their hilarity at their card-tables, a +convivial club in one of the large Pennsylvania cities heard a sweet, +clear female voice singing this solo hymn, followed by a chime of +mingled voices in the chorus. A room in the building had been hired for +religious meetings, and tonight was the first of the series. A strange +coolness dampened the merriment in the club-room, as the singing went +on, and the gradual silence became a hush, till finally one member threw +down his cards and declared, "If what they're saying is right, then +we're wrong." + +Others followed his example, then another, and another. + + There is a brother whom some one should save. + +Quietly the revellers left their cards, cigars and half-emptied glasses +and went home. + +Said the ex-member who told the story years after to Mr. Ufford, "'Throw +Out the Life-line' broke up that club." + +He is today one of the responsible editors of a great city daily--and +his old club-mates are all holding positions of trust. + +A Christian man, a prosperous manufacturer in a city of Eastern +Massachusetts, dates his first religious impressions from hearing this +hymn when sung in public for the first time, twenty years ago. + +Visiting California recently, Mr. Ufford sang his hymn at a +watch-meeting and told the story of the loss of the Elsie Smith on Cape +Cod in 1902, exhibiting also the very life-line that had saved sixteen +lives from the wreck. By chance one of those sixteen was in the +audience. + +An English clergyman who was on duty at Gibraltar when an emigrant ship +went on the rocks in a storm, tells with what pathetic power and effect +"Throw out the Life-line" was sung at a special Sunday service for the +survivors. + +At one of Evan Roberts' meetings in Laughor, Wales, one speaker related +the story of a "vision," when in his room alone, and a Voice that bade +him pray, and when he knelt but could not pray, commanded him to "Throw +out the Life-line." He had scarcely uttered these words in his story +when the whole great congregation sprang to its feet and shouted the +hymn together like the sound of many waters. + +"There is more electricity in that song than in any other I ever heard," +Dr. Cuyler said to Mr. Sankey when he heard him sing it. Its electricity +has carried it nearly round the world. + +The Rev. Edward Smith Ufford was born in Newark, N.J., 1851, and +educated at Stratford Academy (Ct.) and Bates Theological Seminary, Me. +He held several pastorates in Maine and Massachusetts, but a preference +for evangelistic work led him to employ his talent for object-teaching +in illustrated religious lectures through his own and foreign lands, +singing his hymn and enforcing it with realistic representation. He is +the author and compiler of several Sunday-school and chapel +song-manuals, as _Converts' Praise_, _Life-long Songs_, _Wonderful Love_ +and _Gathered Gems_. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +HYMNS OF WALES. + + +In writing this chapter the task of identifying the _tune_, and its +author, in the case of every hymn, would have required more time and +labor than, perhaps, the importance of the facts would justify. + +Peculiar interest, however, attaches to Welsh hymns, even apart from the +airs which accompany them, and a general idea of Welsh music may be +gathered from the tone and metre of the lyrics introduced. More +particular information would necessitate printing the music itself. + +From the days of the Druids, Wales has been a land of song. From the +later but yet ancient time when the people learned the Christian faith, +it has had its Christian psalms. The "March of the White Monks of +Bangor" (7th century) is an epic of bravery and death celebrating the +advance of Christian martyrs to their bloody fate at the hands of the +Saxon savages. "Its very rhythm pictures the long procession of +white-cowled patriots bearing peaceful banners and in faith taking their +way to Chester to stimulate the valor of their countrymen." And ever +since the "Battle of the Hallelujahs"--near Chirk on the border, nine +miles from Wrexham--when the invading Danes were driven from the field +in fright by the rush of the Cymric army shouting that mighty cry, every +Christian poet in Wales has had a hallelujah in his verse. + +Through the centuries, while chased and hunted by their conquerors among +the Cambrian hills, but clinging to their independent faith, or even +when paralyzed into spiritual apathy under tribute to a foreign church, +the heavenly song still murmured in a few true hearts amidst the vain +and vicious lays of carnal mirth. It survived even when people and +priest alike seemed utterly degenerate and godless. The voice of Walter +Bute (1372) rang true for the religion of Jesus in its purity. Brave +John Oldcastle, the martyr, (1417) clung to the gospel he learned at +the foot of the cross. William Wroth, _clergyman_, saved from fiddling +at a drunken dance by a disaster that turned a house of revelry into a +house of death, confessed his sins to God and became the "Apostle of +South Wales." The young vicar, Rhys Pritchard (1579) rose from the +sunken level of his profession, rescued through an incident less tragic. +Accustomed to drink himself to inebriety at a public-house--a socially +winked-at indulgence then--he one day took his pet goat with him, and +poured liquor down the creature's throat. The refusal of the poor goat +to go there again forced the reckless priest to reflect on his own ways. +He forsook the ale-house and became a changed man. + +Among his writings--later than this--is found the following plain, blunt +statement of what continued long to be true of Welsh society, as +represented in the common use of Sunday time. + + Of all the days throughout the rolling year + There's not a day we pass so much amiss, + There's not a day wherein we all appear + So irreligious, so profaned as this. + + A day for drunkenness, a day for sport, + A day to dance, a day to lounge away, + A day for riot and excess, too short + Amongst the Welshmen is the Sabbath day. + + A day to sit, a day to chat and spend, + A day when fighting 'mongst us most prevails, + A day to do the errands of the Fiend-- + Such is the Sabbath in most parts of Wales. + +Meantime some who could read the language--and the better educated (like +the author of the above rhymes) knew English as well as Welsh--had seen +a rescued copy of _Wycliffs New Testament_, a precious publication +seized and burnt (like the bones of its translator) by hostile +ecclesiastics, and suppressed for nearly two hundred years. Walter Bute, +like Obadiah who hid the hundred prophets, may well be credited with +such secret salvage out of the general destruction. And there were +doubtless others equally alert for the same quiet service. We can +imagine how far the stealthy taste of that priceless book would help to +strengthen a better religion than the one doled out professionally to +the multitude by a Civil church; and how it kept the hallelujah alive +in silent but constant souls; and in how many cases it awoke a +conscience long hypnotized under corrupt custom, and showed a renegade +Christian how morally untuned he was. + +Daylight came slowly after the morning star, but when the dawn reddened +it was in welcome to Pritchard's and Penry's gospel song; and sunrise +hastened at the call of Caradoc, and Powell, and Erbury, and Maurice, +the holy men who followed them, some with the trumpet of Sinai and some +with the harp of Calvary. + +Cambria was being prepared for its first great revival of religion. + +There was no rich portfolio of Christian hymns such as exists to-day, +but surely there were not wanting pious words to the old chants of +Bangor and the airs of "Wild Wales." When time brought Howell Harris and +Daniel Rowland, and the great "Reformation" of the eighteenth century, +the renowned William Williams, "the Watts of Wales," appeared, and began +his tuneful work. The province soon became a land of hymns. The candles +lit and left burning here and there by Penry, Maurice, and the Owens, +blazed up to beacon-fires through all the twelve counties when Harris, +at the head of the mighty movement, carried with him the sacred songs of +Williams, kindling more lights everywhere between the Dee and the +British Channel. + +William Williams of Pantycelyn was born in 1717, at Cefncoed Farm, near +Llandovery. Three years younger than Harris, (an Oxford graduate,) and +educated only at a village school and an academy at Llwynllwyd, he was +the song protagonist of the holy campaign as the other was its champion +preacher. From first to last Williams wrote nine hundred and sixteen +hymns, some of which are still heard throughout the church militant, and +others survive in local use and affection. He died Jan. 11, 1791, at +Pantycelyn, where he had made his home after his marriage. One of the +hymns in his _Gloria_, his second publication, may well have been his +last. It was dear to him above others, and has been dear to devout souls +in many lands. + + My God, my portion and my love; + My all on earth, my all above, + My all within the tomb; + The treasures of this world below + Are but a vain, delusive show, + Thy bosom is my home. + +It was fitting that Williams should name the first collection of his +hymns (all in his native Welsh) _The Hallelujah_. Its lyrics are full of +adoration for the Redeemer, and thanksgivings for His work. + + +"ONWARD RIDE IN TRIUMPH, JESUS," + +_Marchog, Jesu, yn llwyddiannus_, + +Has been sung in Wales for a century and a half, and is still a +favorite. + + Onward ride in triumph, Jesus, + Gird thy sword upon thy thigh; + Neither earth nor Hell's own vastness + Can Thy mighty power defy. + In Thy Name such glory dwelleth + Every foe withdraws in fear, + All the wide creation trembleth + Whensoever Thou art near.[37] + +The unusual militant strain in this pæan of conquest soon disappears, +and the gentler aspects of Christ's atoning sacrifice occupy the +writer's mind and pen. + +[Footnote 37: The following shows the style of Rev. Elvet Lewis' +translation: + Blessed Jesus, march victorious + With Thy sword fixed at Thy side; + Neither death nor hell can hinder + The God-Warrior in His ride.] + + +"IN EDEN--O THE MEMORY!" + +_Yn Eden cofiaf hyny byth!_ + +The text, "He was wounded for our transgressions," is amplified in this +hymn, and the Saviour is shown bruising Himself while bruising the +serpent. + +The first stanza gives the key-note,-- + + In Eden--O the memory! + What countless gifts were lost to me! + My crown, my glory fell; + But Calvary's great victory + Restored that vanished crown to me; + On this my songs shall dwell; + +--and the multitude of Williams' succeeding "songs" that chant the same +theme shows how well he kept his promise. The following hymn in Welsh +(_Cymmer, Jesu fi fel'r ydwyf_) antedates the advice of Dr. Malan to +Charlotte Elliott, "Come just as you are"-- + + Take me as I am, O Saviour, + Better I can never be; + Thou alone canst bring me nearer, + Self but draws me far from Thee. + I can never + But within Thy wounds be saved; + +--and another (_Mi dafla maich oddi ar fy ngway_) reminds us of Bunyan's +Pilgrim in sight of the Cross: + + I'll cast my heavy burden down, + Remembering Jesus' pains; + Guilt high as towering mountain tops + Here turns to joyful strains. + + * * * * * + + He stretched His pure white hands abroad, + A crown of thorns He wore, + That so the vilest sinner might + Be cleansed forevermore; + +Williams was called "The Sweet Singer of Wales" and "The Watts of Wales" +because he was the chief poet and hymn-writer of his time, but the lady +he married, Miss Mary Francis, was _literally_ a singer, with a voice so +full and melodious that the people to whom he preached during his +itineraries, which she sometimes shared with him, were often more moved +by her sweet hymnody than by his exhortations. On one occasion the good +man, accompanied by his wife, put up at Bridgend Tavern in Llangefin, +Anglesea, and a mischievous crowd, wishing to plague the "Methodists," +planned to make night hideous in the house with a boisterous +merry-making. The fiddler, followed by a gang of roughs, pushed his way +to the parlor, and mockingly asked the two guests if they would "have a +tune." + +"Yes," replied Williams, falling in with his banter, "anything you like, +my lad; 'Nancy Jig' or anything else." + +And at a sign from her husband, as soon as the fellow began the jig, +Mrs. Williams struck in with one of the poet-minister's well-known Welsh +hymns in the same metre,-- + + _Gwaed Dy groes sy'n c' odi fyny_ + + Calvary's blood the weak exalteth + More than conquerors to be,[38] + +--and followed the player note for note, singing the sacred words in her +sweet, clear voice, till he stopped ashamed, and took himself off with +all his gang. + +[Footnote 38: A less literal but more hymn-like translation is: + Jesu's blood can raise the feeble + As a conqueror to stand; + Jesu's blood is all-prevailing + O'er the mighty of the land: + Let the breezes + Blow from Calvary on me. + +Says the author of _Sweet Singers of Wales_, "This refrain has been the +password of many powerful revivals."] + +Another hymn-- + + _O' Llefara! addfwyn Jesu_, + + Speak, O speak, thou gentle Jesus, + +--recalls the well-known verse of Newton, "How sweet the name of Jesus +sounds." Like many of Williams' hymns, it was prompted by occasion. Some +converts suffered for lack of a "clear experience" and complained to +him. They were like the disciples in the ship, "It was dark, and Jesus +had not yet come unto them." The poet-preacher immediately made this +hymn-prayer for all souls similarly tried. Edward Griffiths translates +it thus: + + Speak, I pray Thee, gentle Jesus, + O how passing sweet Thy words, + Breathing o'er my troubled spirit, + Peace which never earth affords, + All the world's distracting voices, + All th' enticing tones of ill, + At Thy accents, mild, melodious + Are subdued, and all is still. + + Tell me Thou art mine, O Saviour + Grant me an assurance clear, + Banish all my dark misgivings, + Still my doubting, calm my fear. + +Besides his Welsh hymns, published in the first and in the second and +larger editions of his _Hallelujah_, and in two or three other +collections, William Williams wrote and published two books of English +hymns,[39] the _Hosanna_ (1759) and the _Gloria_ (1772). He fills so +large a space in the hymnology and religious history of Wales that he +will necessarily reappear in other pages of this chapter. + +[Footnote 39: Possibly they were written in Welsh, and translated into +English by his friend and neighbor, Peter Williams.] + +From the days of the early religious awakenings under the 16th century +preachers, and after the ecclesiastical dynasty of Rome had been +replaced by that of the Church of England, there were periods when the +independent conscience of a few pious Welshmen rose against religious +formalism, and the credal constraints of "established" teaching--and +suffered for it. Burning heretics at the stake had ceased to be a church +practice before the 1740's, but Howell Harris, Daniel Rowlands, and the +rest of the "Methodist Fathers," with their followers, were not only +ostracised by society and haled before magistrates to be fined for +preaching, and sometimes imprisoned, but they were chased and beaten by +mobs, ducked in ponds and rivers, and pelted with mud and garbage when +they tried to speak or sing. But they kept on talking and singing. +Harris (who had joined the army in 1760) owned a commission, and once he +saved himself from the fury of a mob while preaching--with cloak over +his ordinary dress--by lifting his cape and showing the star on his +breast. No one dared molest an officer of His Britannic Majesty. But all +were not able to use St. Paul's expedient in critical moments.[40] + +[Footnote 40: Acts 22:25.] + +William Williams often found immunity in his hymns, for like Luther--and +like Charles Wesley among the Cornwall sea-robbers--he caught up the +popular glees and ballad-refrains of the street and market and his wife +sang their music to his words. It is true many of these old Welsh airs +were minors, like "Elvy" and "Babel" (a significant name in English) and +would not be classed as "glees" in any other country--always excepting +Scotland--but they had the _swing_, and their mode and style were catchy +to a Welsh multitude. In fact many of these uncopyrighted bits of +musical vernacular were appropriated by the hymnbook makers, and +christened with such titles as "Pembroke," "Arabia," "Brymgfryd," +"Cwyfan," "Thydian," and the two mentioned above. + +It was the time when Whitefield and the Wesleys were sweeping the +kingdom with their conquering eloquence, and Howell Harris (their +fellow-student at Oxford) had sided with the conservative wing of the +Gospel Reformation workers, and become a "Whitfield Methodist." The +Welsh Methodists, _ad exemplum_, marched with this Calvinistic +branch--as they do today. Each division had its Christian bard. Charles +Wesley could put regenerating power into sweet, poetic hymns, and +William Williams' lyrical preaching made the Bible a travelling pulpit. +The great "Beibl Peter Williams" with its commentaries in Welsh, since +so long reverenced and cherished in provincial families, was not +published till 1770, and for many the printed Word was far to seek.[41] +But the gospel minstrels carried the Word with them. Some of the long +hymns contained nearly a whole body of divinity. + +[Footnote 41: As an incident contributory to the formation of the +British and Foreign Bible Society, the story has been often repeated of +the little girl who wept when she missed her Catechism appointment, and +told Thomas Charles of Bala that the bad weather was the cause of it, +for she had to walk seven miles to find a Bible every time she prepared +her lessons. See page 380.] + +The Welsh learn their hymns by heart, as they do the Bible--a habit +inherited from those old days of scarcity, when memory served pious +people instead of print--so that a Welsh prayer-meeting is never +embarrassed by a lack of books. An anecdote illustrates this +characteristic readiness. In February, 1797, when Napoleon's name was a +terror to England, the French landed some troops near Fishguard, +Pembrokeshire. Mounted heralds spread the news through Wales, and in the +village of Rhydybont, Cardiganshire, the fright nearly broke up a +religious meeting; but one brave woman, Nancy Jones, stopped a panic by +singing this stanza of one of Thomas Williams' hymns,-- + + _Diuw os wyt am ddylenu'r bya_ + + If Thou wouldst end the world, O Lord, + Accomplish first Thy promised Word, + And gather home with one accord + From every part Thine own, + Send out Thy Word from pole to pole, + And with Thy blood make thousands whole, + And, _after that come down_. + +Nancy Jones would have been a useful member of the "Singing Sisters" +band, so efficient a century or more afterwards. + +The _tunes_ of the Reformation under the "Methodist Fathers" continued +far down the century to be the country airs of the nation, and +reverberations of the great spiritual movement were heard in their rude +music in the mountain-born revival led by Jack Edward Watkin in 1779 and +in the local awakenings of 1791 and 1817. Later in the 19th century new +hymns, and many of the old, found new tunes, made for their sake or +imported from England and America. + +The sanctified gift of song helped to make 1829 a year of jubilee in +South Wales, nor was the same aid wanting during the plague in 1831, +when the famous Presbyterian preacher, John Elias,[42] won nearly a +whole county to Christ. + +[Footnote 42: Those who read his biography will call him the "Seraphic +John Elias." + +His name was John Jones when he was admitted a member of the presbytery. +What followed is a commentary on the embarrassing frequency of a common +name, nowhere realized so universally as it is in Wales. + +"What is his father's name?" asked the moderator when John Jones was +announced. + +"Elias Jones," was the answer. + +"Then call the young man John Elias," said the speaker, "otherwise we +shall by and by have nobody but John Joneses." + +And "John Elias" it remained.] + +An accession of temperance hymns in Wales followed the spread of the +"Washingtonian" movement on the other side of the Atlantic in 1840, and +began a moral reformation in the county of Merioneth that resulted in a +spiritual one, and added to the churches several thousand converts, +scarcely any of whom fell away. + +The revival of 1851-2 was a local one, but was believed by many to have +been inspired by a celestial antiphony. The remarkable sounds were +either a miracle or a psychic wonder born of the intense imagination of +a sensitive race. A few pious people in a small village of +Montgomeryshire had been making special prayer for an outpouring of the +spirit, but after a week of meetings with no sign of the result hoped +for, they were returning to their homes, discouraged, when they heard +strains of sweet music in the sky. They stopped in amazement, but the +beautiful singing went on--voices as of a choir invisible, indistinct +but melodious, in the air far above the roof of the chapel they had just +left. Next day, when the astonished worshippers told the story, numbers +in the district said they had heard the same sounds. Some had gone out +at eleven o'clock to listen, and thought that angels must be singing. +Whatever the music meant, the good brethren's and sisters' little +meetings became crowded very soon after, and the longed-for out-pouring +came mightily upon the neighborhood. Hundreds from all parts flocked to +the churches, all ages joining in the prayers and hymns and testimonies, +and a harvest of glad believers followed a series of meetings "led by +the Holy Ghost." + +The sounds in the sky were never explained; but the belief that God sent +His angels to sing an answer to the anxious prayers of those pious +brethren and sisters did no one any harm. + +Whether this event in Montgomeryshire was a preparation for what took +place six or seven years later is a suggestive question only, but when +the wave of spiritual power from the great American revival of 1857-8 +reached England, its first messenger to Wales, Rev. H.R. Jones, a +Wesleyan, had only to drop the spark that "lit a prairie fire." The +reformation, chiefly under the leadership of Mr. Jones and Rev. David +Morgan, a Presbyterian, with their singing bands, was general and +lasting, hundreds of still robust and active Christians today dating +their new birth from the Pentecost of 1859 and its ingathering of eighty +thousand souls. + +A favorite hymn of that revival was the penitential cry,-- + + _O'th flaem, O Dduw! 'r wy'n dyfod_, + +--in the seven-six metre so much loved in Wales. + + Unto Thy presence coming, + O God, far off I stand: + "A sinner" is my title, + No other I demand. + + For mercy I am seeking + For mercy still shall cry; + Deny me not Thy mercy; + O grant it or I die! + + * * * * * + + I heard of old that Jesus, + Who still abides the same, + To publicans gave welcome, + And sinners deep in shame. + + Oh God! receive me with them, + Me also welcome in, + And pardon my transgression, + Forgetting all my sin. + +The author of the hymn was Thomas Williams of Glamorganshire, born 1761; +died 1844. He published a volume of hymns, _Waters of Bethesda_ in 1823. + +The Welsh minor tune of "Clwyd" may appropriately have been the music to +express the contrite prayer of the words. The living composer, John +Jones, has several tunes in the Welsh revival manual of melodies, _Ail +Attodiad_. + +The unparalleled religious movement of 1904-5 was a praying and singing +revival. The apostle and spiritual prompter of that unbroken campaign of +Christian victories--so far as any single human agency counted--was Evan +Roberts, of Laughor, a humble young worker in the mines, who had prayed +thirteen years for a mighty descent of the heavenly blessing on his +country and for a clear indication of his own mission. His convictions +naturally led him to the ministry, and he went to Newcastle Emlyn to +study. Evangelical work had been done by two societies, made up of +earnest Christians, and known as the "Forward Movement" and the +"Simultaneous Mission." Beginnings of a special season of interest as a +result of their efforts, appeared in the young people's prayer meetings +in February, 1904, at New Quay, Cardiganshire. The interest increased, +and when branch-work was organized a young praying and singing band +visited Newcastle Emlyn in the course of one of their tours, and held a +rally meeting. Evan Roberts went to the meeting and found his own +mission. He left his studies and consecrated himself, soul and body, to +revival work. In every spiritual and mental quality he was surpassingly +well-equipped. To the quick sensibility of his poetic nature he added +the inspiration of a seer and the zeal of a devotee. Like Moses, Elijah, +and Paul in Arabian solitudes, and John in the Dead Sea wilds, he had +prepared himself in silence and alone with God; and though, on occasion, +he could use effectively his gift of words, he stood distinct in a land +of matchless pulpit orators as "the silent leader." Without preaching he +dominated the mood of his meetings, and without dictating he could +change the trend of a service and shape the next song or prayer on the +intuition of a moment. In fact, judged by its results, it was God +Himself who directed the revival, only He endowed His minister with the +power of divination to watch its progress and take the stumbling-blocks +out of the way. By a kind of hallowed psychomancy, that humble man would +detect a discordant presence, and hush the voices of a congregation till +the stubborn soul felt God in the stillness, and penitently +surrendered. + +Many tones of the great awakening of 1859 heard again in 1904-5,--the +harvest season without a precedent, when men, women and children +numbering ten per cent of the whole population of a province were +gathered into the membership of the church of Christ. But there were +tones a century older heard in the devotions of that harvest-home in +Wales. A New England Christian would have felt at home, with the tuneful +assemblies at Laughor, Trencynon, Bangor, Bethesda, Wrexham, Cardiff, or +Liverpool, singing Lowell Mason's "Meribah" or the clarion melody of +Edson's "Lenox" to Wesley's-- + + Blow ye the trumpet, blow, + The gladly solemn sound; + +--or to his other well-known-- + + Arise my soul, arise, + Shake off thy guilty fears, + The bleeding Sacrifice + In thy behalf appear. + +In short, the flood tide of 1904 and 1905 brought in very little new +music and very few new hymns. "Aberystwyth" and "Tanymarian," the minor +harmonies of Joseph Party and Stephens; E.M. Price's "St. Garmon;" R.M. +Pritchard's, "Hyfrydol," and a few others, were choral favorites, but +their composers were all dead, and the congregations loved the still +older singers who had found familiar welcome at their altars and +firesides. The most cherished and oftenest chosen hymns were those of +William Williams and Ann Griffiths, of Charles Wesley, of Isaac +Watts--indeed the very tongues of fire that appeared at Jerusalem took +on the Cymric speech, and sang the burning lyrics of the poet-saints. +And in their revival joy Calvinistic Wales sang the New Testament with +more of its Johannic than of its Pauline texts. The covenant of +peace--Christ and His Cross--is the theme of all their hymns. + + +"HERE BEHOLD THE TENT OF MEETING." + +_Dyma Babell y cyfarfod._ + +This hymn, written by Ann Griffiths, is entitled "Love Eternal," and +praises the Divine plan to satisfy the Law and at the same time save the +sinner. The first stanza gives an idea of the thought: + + Here behold the tent of meeting, + In the blood a peace with heaven, + Refuge from the blood-avengers, + For the sick a Healer given. + Here the sinner nestles safely + At the very Throne divine, + And Heaven's righteous law, all holy. + Still on him shall smile and shine. + + +"HOW SWEET THE COVENANT TO REMEMBER." + +_Bydd melus gofio y cyfammod._ + +This, entitled "Mysteries of Grace," is also from the pen of Ann +Griffiths. It has the literalness noticeable in much of the Welsh +religious poetry, and there is a note of pietism in it. The two last +stanzas are these: + + He is the great Propitiation + Who with the thieves that anguish bare; + He nerved the arms of His tormentors + To drive the nails that fixed Him there. + While He discharged the sinner's ransom, + And made the Law in honor be, + Righteousness shone undimmed, resplendent, + And me the Covenant set free. + + My soul, behold Him laid so lowly, + Of peace the Fount, of Kings the Head, + The vast creation in Him moving + And He low-lying with the dead! + The Life and portion of lost sinners, + The marvel of heaven's seraphim, + To sea and land the God Incarnate + The choir of heaven cries, "Unto Him!" + +Ann Griffiths' earliest hymn will be called her sweetest. Fortunately, +too, it is more poetically translated. It was before the vivid +consciousness and intensity of her religious experience had given her +spiritual writings a more involved and mystical expression. + + My soul, behold the fitness + Of this great Son of God, + Trust Him for life eternal + And cast on Him thy load, + A man--touched with the pity + Of every human woe, + A God--to claim the kingdom + And vanquish every foe. + +This stanza, the last of her little poem on the "Eternal Fitness of +Jesus," came to her when, returning from an exciting service, filled +with thoughts of her unworthiness and of the glorious beauty of her +Saviour, she had turned down a sheltered lane to pray alone. There on +her knees in communion with God her soul felt the spirit of the sacred +song. By the time she reached home she had formed it into words. + +The first and second stanzas, written later, are these: + + Great Author of salvation + And providence for man, + Thou rulest earth and heaven + With Thy far-reaching plan. + Today or on the morrow, + Whatever woe betide, + Grant us Thy strong assistance, + Within Thy hand to hide. + + What though the winds be angry, + What though the waves be high + While wisdom is the Ruler, + The Lord of earth and sky? + What though the flood of evil + Rise stormily and dark? + No soul can sink within it; + God is Himself the ark. + +Mrs. Ann Griffiths, of Dolwar Fechan, Montgomeryshire, was born in 1776, +and died in 1805. "She remains," says Dr. Parry, her fellow-countryman, +"a romantic figure in the religious history of Wales. Her hymns leave +upon the reader an undefinable impression both of sublimity and +mysticism. Her brief life-history is most worthy of study both from a +literary and a religious point of view." + +[Illustration: Isaac Watts, D.D.] + +A suggestive chapter of her short earthly career is compressed in a +sentence by the author of "Sweet Singers of Wales:" + +"She had a Christian life of eight years and a married life of ten +months." + +She died at the age of twenty-nine. In 1904, near the centennial of her +death, amid the echoes of her own hymns, and the rising waves of the +great Refreshing over her native land, the people of Dolwar Fechan +dedicated the new "Ann Griffiths Memorial Chapel" to her name and to the +glory of God. + +Although the Welsh were not slow to adopt the revival tones of other +lands, it was the native, and what might be called the national, lyrics +of that emotional race that were sung with the richest unction and +_hwyl_ (as the Cymric word is) during the recent reformation, and that +evinced the strongest hold on the common heart. Needless to say that +with them was the world-famous song of William Williams,-- + + Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah; + + _Arglwydd ar wain truy'r anialoch_; + +--and that of Dr. Heber Evans,-- + + Keep me very near to Jesus, + Though beneath His Cross it be, + In this world of evil-doing + 'Tis the Cross that cleanseth me; + +--and also that native hymn of expectation, high and sweet, whose writer +we have been unable to identify-- + + The glory is coming! God said it on high, + When light in the evening will break from the sky; + The North and South and the East and the West, + With joy of salvation and peace will be bless'd. + + * * * * * + + O summer of holiness, hasten along! + The purpose of glory is constant and strong; + The winter will vanish, the clouds pass away; + O South wind of Heaven, breath softly today! + +Of the almost countless hymns that voiced the spirit of the great +revival, the nine following are selected because they are +representative, and all favorites--and because there is no room for a +larger number. The first line of each is given in the original Welsh: + + +"DWY ADEN COLOMEN PE CAWN." + + O had I the wings of a dove + How soon would I wander away + To gaze from Mount Nebo I'd love + On realms that are fairer than day. + My vision, not clouded nor dim, + Beyond the dark river should run; + I'd sing, with my thoughts upon Him, + The sinless, the crucified one. + +This is another of Thomas Williams' hymns. One of the tunes suitable to +its feeling and its measure was "Edom," by Thomas Evans. It was much +sung in 1859, as well as in 1904. + + +"CAELBOD YN FORSEC DAN YR IAN." + + Early to bear the yoke excels + By far the joy in sin that dwells; + The paths of wisdom still are found + In peace and solace to abound. + + The young who serve Him here below + The wrath to come shall never know; + Of such in heaven are pearls that shine + Unnumbered in the crown divine. + +Written for children and youth by Rev. Thomas Jones, of Denbigh, born +1756; died 1820,--a Calvinistic Methodist preacher, author of a +biography of Thomas Charles of Bala, and various theological works. + + +"DYMA GARIAD FEL Y MOROEDD, TOSTURIASTHAN FEL Y LLI." + + Love unfathomed as the ocean + Mercies boundless as the wave! + Lo the King of Life, the guiltless, + Dies my guilty soul to save; + Who can choose but think upon it, + Who can choose but praise and sing? + Here is love, while heaven endureth, + Nought can to oblivion bring. + +This is called "The great Welsh love-song." It was written by Rev. +William Rees, D.D., eminent as a preacher, poet, politician and +essayist. One of the greatest names of nineteenth century Wales. He died +in 1883. + +The tune, "Cwynfan Prydian," sung to this hymn is one of the old Welsh +minors that would sound almost weird to our ears, but Welsh voices can +sing with strange sweetness the Saviour's passion on which Christian +hearts of that nation love so well to dwell, and the shadow of it, with +His love shining through, creates the paradox of a joyful lament in many +of their chorals. We cannot imitate it. + + +"RHYFEDDODAU DYDD YR ADGYFODIDD." + + Unnumbered are the marvels + The Last Great Day shall see, + With earth's poor storm-tossed children + From tribulation free, + All in their shining raiment + Transfigured, bright and brave, + Like to their Lord ascending + In triumph from the grave. + +The author of this Easter hymn is unknown. + +The _most_ popular Welsh hymns would be named variously by different +witnesses according to the breadth and length of their observation. Two +of them, as a Wrexham music publisher testifies, are certainly the +following; "Heaven and Home," and "Lo, a Saviour for the Fallen." The +first of these was sung in the late revival with "stormy rapture." + + +"O FRYNAU CAERSALEM CEIR GIVELED." + + The heights of fair Salem ascended, + Each wilderness path we shall see; + Now thoughts of each difficult journey + A sweet meditation shall be. + On death, on the grave and its terrors + And storms we shall gaze from above + And freed from all cares we shall revel (?) + In transports of heavenly love. + +According to the mood of the meeting this was pitched in three sharps to +Evelyn Evans' tune of "Eirinwg" or with equal Welsh enthusiasm in the C +minor of old "Darby." + +The author of the hymn was the Rev. David Charles, of Carmarthen, born +1762; died 1834. He was a heavenly-minded man who loved to dwell on the +divine and eternal wonders of redemption. A volume of his sermons was +spoken of as "Apples of gold in pictures of silver," and the beautiful +piety of all his writings made them strings of pearls. He understood +English as well as Welsh, and enjoyed the hymns not only of William and +Thomas Williams but of Watts, Wesley, Cowper, and Newton.[43] + +[Footnote 43: The following verses were written by him in English: + Spirit of grace and love divine, + Help me to sing that Christ is mine; + And while the theme my tongue employs + Fill Thou my soul with living joys. + + Jesus is mine--surpassing thought! + Well may I set the world at nought; + Jesus is mine, O can it be + That Jesus lived and died for me?] + + +"DYMA GEIDWAD I R COLLEDIG." + + Lo! a Saviour for the fallen, + Healer of the sick and sore, + One whose love the vilest sinners + Seeks to pardon and restore. + Praise Him, praise Him + Who has loved us evermore! + +The little now known of the Rev. Morgan Rhys, author of this hymn, is +that he was a schoolmaster and preacher, and that he was a contemporary +and friend of William Williams. Several of his hymns remain in use of +which the oftenest sung is one cited above, and "_O agor fy llygaid i +weled_:" + + I open my eyes to this vision, + The deeps of Thy purpose and word; + The law of Thy lips is to thousands + Of gold and of silver preferred; + When earth is consumed, and its treasure, + God's words will unchanging remain, + And to know the God-man is my Saviour + Is life everlasting to gain. + +"Lo! a Saviour for the Fallen" finds an appropriate voice in W.M. +Robert's tune of "Nesta," and also, like many others of the same +measure, in the much-used minors "Llanietyn," "Catharine," and "Bryn +Calfaria." + + +"O SANCTEIDDIA F'ENAID ARGLWYDD." + + Sanctify, O Lord, my spirit, + Every power and passion sway, + Bid Thy holy law within me + Dwell, my wearied soul to stay; + Let me never + Rove beyond Thy narrow way. + +This one more hymn of William Williams is from his "Song of a Cleansed +Heart" and is amply provided with tunes, popular ones like "Tyddyn +Llwyn," "Y Delyn Aur," or "Capel-Y-Ddol" lending their deep minors to +its lines with a thrilling effect realized, perhaps, only in the land of +Taliessin and the Druids. + +The singular history and inspiring cause of one old Welsh hymn which +after various mutilations and vicissitudes survives as the key-note of a +valued song of trust, seems to illustrate the Providence that will never +let a good thing be lost. It is related of the Rev. David Williams, of +Llandilo, an obscure but not entirely forgotten preacher, that he had a +termagant wife, and one stormy night, when her bickerings became +intolerable, he went out in the rain and standing by the river composed +in his mind these lines of tender faith: + + In the waves and mighty waters + No one will support my head + But my Saviour, my Beloved, + Who was stricken in my stead. + In the cold and mortal river + He would hold my head above; + I shall through the waves go singing + For one look of Him I love. + +Apparently the sentiment and substantially the expression of this humble +hymn became the burden of more than one Christian lay. Altered and +blended with a modern gospel hymn, it was sung at the crowded meetings +of 1904 to Robert Lowry's air of "Jesus Only," and often rendered very +impressively as a solo by a sweet female voice. + + In the deep and mighty waters + There is none to hold my head + But my loving Bridegroom, Jesus, + Who upon the cross hath bled. + + If I've Jesus, Jesus only + Then my sky will have a gem + He's the Sun of brightest splendor, + He's the Star of Bethlehem. + + He's the Friend in Death's dark river, + He will lift me o'er the waves, + I will sing in the deep waters + If I only see His face. + If I've Jesus, Jesus only, etc. + +A few of the revival tunes have living authors and are of recent date; +and the minor harmony of "Ebenezer" (marked "Ton Y Botel"), which was +copied in this country by the New York _Examiner_, with its hymn, is +apparently a contemporary piece. It was first sung at Bethany Chapel, +Cardiff, Jan, 8, 1905, the hymn bearing the name of Rev. W.E. Winks. + + Send Thy Spirit, I beseech Thee, + Gracious Lord, send while I pray; + Send the Comforter to teach me, + Guide me, help me in Thy way. + Sinful, wretched, I have wandered + Far from Thee in darkest night, + Precious time and talents squandered, + Lead, O lead me into light. + + Thou hast heard me; light is breaking-- + Light I never saw before. + Now, my soul with joy awaking, + Gropes in fearful gloom no more: + O the bliss! my soul, declare it; + Say what God hath done for thee; + Tell it out, let others share it-- + Christ's salvation, full and free. + +One cannot help noticing the fondness of the Welsh for the 7-6, 8-7, and +8-7-4 metres. These are favorites since they lend themselves so +naturally to the rhythms of their national music--though their newest +hymnals by no means exclude exotic lyrics and melodies. Even "O mother +dear, Jerusalem," one of the echoes of Bernard of Cluny's great hymn, is +cherished in their tongue (_O, Frynian Caerselem_) among the favorites +of song. Old "Truro" by Dr. Burney appears among their tunes, Mason's +"Ernan," "Lowell" and "Shawmut," I.B. Woodbury's "Nearer Home" (to Phebe +Cary's hymn), and even George Hews' gently-flowing "Holley." Most of +these tunes retain their own hymns, but in Welsh translation. To find +our Daniel Read's old "Windham" there is no surprise. The minor mode--a +song-instinct of the Welsh, if not of the whole Celtic family of +nations, is their rural inheritance. It is in the wind of their +mountains and the semitones of their streams; and their nature can make +it a gladness as the Anglo-Saxon cannot. So far from being a gloomy +people, their capacity for joy in spiritual life is phenomenal. In +psalmody their emotions mount on wings, and they find ecstacy in solemn +sounds. + +"A temporary excitement" is the verdict of skepticism on the Reformation +wave that for a twelvemonth swept over Wales with its ringing symphonies +of hymn and tune. But such excitements are the May-blossom seasons of +God's eternal husbandry. They pass because human vigor cannot last at +flood-tide, but in spiritual economy they will always have their place, +"If the blossoms had not come and gone there would be no fruit." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +FIELD HYMNS. + + +Hymns of the hortatory and persuasive tone are sufficiently numerous to +make an "embarrassment of riches" in a compiler's hands. Not a few songs +of invitation and awakening are either quoted or mentioned in the +chapter on "Old Revival Hymns," and many appear among those in the last +chapter, (on the _Hymns of Wales_;) but the _working_ songs of Christian +hymnology deserve a special space _as_ such. + + +"COME HITHER ALL YE WEARY SOULS," + +Sung to "Federal St.," is one of the older soul-winning calls from the +great hymn-treasury of Dr. Watts; and another note of the same sacred +bard,-- + + Life is the time to serve the Lord, + +--is always coupled with the venerable tune of "Wells."[44] Aged +Christians are still remembered who were wont to repeat or sing with +quavering voices the second stanza,-- + + The living know that they must die, + But all the dead forgotten lie; + Their memory and their sense are gone, + Alike unknowing and unknown. + +And likewise from the fourth stanza,-- + + There are no acts of pardon passed + In the cold grave to which we haste. + +[Footnote 44: One of Israel Holroyd's tunes. He was born in England, +about 1690, and was both a composer and publisher of psalmody. His chief +collection is dated 1746.] + + +"AND WILL THE JUDGE DESCEND?" + +Is one of Doddridge's monitory hymns, once sung to J.C. Woodman's tune +of "State St." with the voice of both the Old and New Testaments in the +last verse: + + Ye sinners, seek His grace + Whose wrath ye cannot bear; + Fly to the shelter of His Cross, + And find Salvation there. + +Jonathan Call Woodman was born in Newburyport, Mass., July 12, 1813, +and was a teacher, composer, and compiler. Was organist of St. George's +Chapel, in Flushing, L.I., and in 1858 published _The Musical Casket_. +Died January, 1894. He wrote "State St." for William B. Bradbury, in +August, 1844. + + +"HASTEN SINNER, TO BE WISE" + +Is one of the few unforgotten hymns of Thomas Scott, every second line +repeating the solemn caution,-- + + Stay not for tomorrow's sun, + +--and every line enforcing its exhortation with a new word, "To be +wise," "to implore," "to return," and "to be blest" were natural +cumulatives that summoned and wooed the sinner careless and astray. It +is a finished piece of work, but it owes its longevity less to its +structural form than to its spirit. For generations it has been sung to +"Pleyel's Hymn." + +The Rev. Thomas Scott (not Rev. Thomas Scott the Commentator) was born +in Norwich, Eng., in 1705, and died at Hupton, in Norfolk, 1776. He was +a Dissenting minister, pastor for twenty-one years--until disabled by +feeble health--at Lowestoft in Suffolk. He was the author of-- + + Angels roll the rock away. + + +"MUST JESUS BEAR THE CROSS ALONE?" + +This emotional and appealing hymn still holds its own in the hearts of +millions, though probably two hundred years old. It was written by a +clergyman of the Church of England, the Rev. Thomas Shepherd, Vicar of +Tilbrook, born in 1665. Joining the Nonconformists in 1694, he settled +first in Castle Hill, Nottingham, and afterward in Bocking, Essex, where +he remained until his death, January, 1739. He published a selection of +his sermons, and _Penitential Cries_, a book of sacred lyrics, some of +which still appear in collections. + +The startling question in the above line is answered with emphasis in +the third of the stanza,-- + + _No_! There's a cross for every one, + And there's a cross for _me_, + +--and this is followed by the song of resolve and triumph,-- + + The consecrated cross I'll bear, + Till death shall set me free. + And then go home my crown to wear, + For there's a crown for me. + + * * * * * + + O precious cross! O glorious crown! + O Resurrection Day! + Ye angels from the stars flash down + And bear my soul away! + +The hymn is a personal New Testament. No one who analyzes it and feels +its Christian vitality will wonder why it has lived so long. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +For half a century George N. Allen, composer of "Maitland," the music +inseparable from the hymn, was credited with the authorship of the words +also, but his vocal aid to the heart-stirring poem earned him sufficient +praise. The tune did not meet the hymn till the latter was so old that +the real author was mostly forgotten, for Allen wrote the music in 1849; +but if the fine stanzas needed any renewing it was his tune that made +them new. Since it was published nobody has wanted another. + +George Nelson Allen was born in Mansfield, Mass., Sept. 7, 1812, and +lived at Oberlin, O. It was there that he composed "Maitland," and +compiled the _Social and Sabbath Hymn-book_--besides songs for the +_Western Bell_, published by Oliver Ditson and Co. He died in +Cincinnati, Dec. 9, 1877. + + +"AWAKE MY SOUL, STRETCH EVERY NERVE!" + +This most popular of Dr. Doddridge's hymns is also the richest one of +all in lyrical and spiritual life. It is a stadium song that sounds the +starting-note for every young Christian at the outset of his career, and +the slogan for every faint Christian on the way. + + A _heavenly_ race demands thy zeal, + And an immortal crown. + +Like the "Coronation" hymn, it transports the devout singer till he +feels only the momentum of the words and forgets whether it is common or +hallelujah metre that carries him along. + + A cloud of witnesses around + Hold thee in full survey; + Forget the steps already trod, + And onward urge thy way! + + 'Tis God's all-animating voice + That calls thee from on high, + 'Tis His own hand presents the prize + To thine aspiring eye. + +In all persuasive hymnology there is no more kindling lyric that this. +As a field-hymn it is indispensable. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Whenever and by whomsoever the brave processional known as "Christmas" +was picked from among the great Handel's Songs and mated with +Doddridge's lines, the act gave both hymn and tune new reason to endure, +and all posterity rejoices in the blend. Old "Christmas" was originally +one of the melodies in the great Composer's Opera of "Ciroe" (Cyrus) +1738. It was written to Latin words (_Non vi piacque_) and afterwards +adapted to an English versification of Job 29:15, "I was eyes to the +blind." + +Handel himself became blind at the age of sixty eight (1753). + + +"THERE IS A GREEN HILL FAR AWAY." + +Written in 1848 by Miss Cecil Frances Humphreys, an Irish lady, daughter +of Major John Humphreys of Dublin. She was born in that city in 1823. +Her best known name is Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander, her husband being +the Rt. Rev. William Alexander, Bishop of Derry. Among her works are +_Hymns for Little Children_, _Narrative Hymns_, _Hymns Descriptive and +Devotional_, and _Moral Songs_. Died 1895. + +"There is a _green_ hill" is poetic license, but the hymn is sweet and +sympathetic, and almost childlike in its simplicity. + + There is a green hill far away + Without the city wall, + Where our dear Lord was crucified + Who died to save us all. + + We may not know, we cannot tell + What pains He had to bear; + But we believe it was for us + He hung and suffered there. + +[Illustration: George Frederick Handel] + + +_THE TUNES._ + +There is no room here to describe them all. Airs and chorals by Berthold +Tours, Pinsuti, John Henry Cornell, Richard Storrs Willis, George C. +Stebbins and Hubert P. Main have been adapted to the words--one or two +evidently composed for them. It is a hymn that attracts +tune-makers--literally so commonplace and yet so quiet and tender, with +such a theme and such natural melody of line--but most of the scores +indicated are choir music rather than congregational. Mr. Stebbins' +composition comes nearest to being the favorite, if one judges by the +extent and frequency of its use. It can be either partly or wholly +choral; and the third stanza makes the refrain-- + + O dearly, dearly has He loved + And we must love Him too, + And trust in His redeeming blood, + And try His works to do. + + +"REJOICE AND BE GLAD!" + +This musical shout of joy, written by Dr. Horatius Bonar, scarcely needs +a new song helper, as did Bishop Heber's famous hymn--not because it is +better than Heber's but because It was wedded at once to a tune worthy +of it. + + Rejoice and be glad! for our King is on high; + He pleadeth for us on His throne in the sky. + Rejoice and be glad! for He cometh again; + He cometh in glory, the Lamb that was slain + Hallelujah! Amen. + +The hymn was composed in 1874. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The author of the "English Melody" (as ascribed in _Gospel Hymns_) is +said to have been John Jenkins Husband, born in Plymouth, Eng., about +1760. He was clerk at Surrey Chapel and composed several anthems. Came +to the United States In 1809. Settled in Philadelphia, where he taught +music and was clerk of St. Paul's P.E. Church. Died there in 1825. + +His tune, exactly suited to the hymn, is a true Christian pæan. It has +few equals as a rouser to a sluggish prayer-meeting--whether sung to +Bonar's words or those of Rev. William Paton Mackay (1866)-- + + We praise Thee, O God, for the Son of Thy love, + +--with the refrain of similar spirit in both hymns-- + + Hallelujah! Thine the glory, Hallelujah! Amen, + Hallelujah! Thine the glory; revive us again; + +--or,-- + + Sound His praises! tell the story of Him who was slain! + Sound His praises! tell with gladness, "He liveth again." + +Husband's tune is supposed to have been written very early in the last +century. Another tune composed by him near the same date to the words-- + + "We are on our journey home + To the New Jerusalem," + +--is equally musical and animating, and with a vocal range that brings +out the full strength of choir and congregation. + + +"COME, SINNER, COME." + +A singular case of the same tune originating in the brain of both author +and composer is presented in the history of this hymn of Rev. William +Ellsworth Witter, D.D., born in La Grange, N.Y., Dec. 9, 1854. He wrote +the hymn in the autumn of 1878, while teaching a district school near +his home. The first line-- + + While Jesus whispers to you, + +--came to him during a brief turn of outdoor work by the roadside and +presently grew to twenty-four lines. Soon after, Prof. Horatio Palmer, +knowing Witter to be a verse writer, invited him to contribute a hymn to +a book he had in preparation, and this hymn was sent. Dr. Palmer set it +to music, it soon entered into several collections, and Mr. Sankey sang +it in England at the Moody meetings. + +Dr. Witter gives this curious testimony, + +"While I cannot sing myself, though very fond of music, the hymn sang +itself to me by the roadside _in almost the exact tune given to it by +Professor Palmer_." Which proves that Professor Palmer had the feeling +of the hymn--and that the maker of a true hymn has at least a +sub-consciousness of its right tune, though he may be neither a musician +nor a poet. + + While Jesus whispers to you, + Come, sinner, come! + While we are praying for you, + Come, sinner, come! + Now is the time to own Him, + Come, sinner, come! + Now is the time to know Him, + Come, sinner, come! + + +"ONE MORE DAY'S WORK FOR JESUS." + +The writer of this hymn was Miss Anna Warner, one of the well-known +"Wetherell Sisters," joint authors of _The Wide World_, _Queechy_, and a +numerous succession of healthful romances very popular in the middle and +later years of the last century. Her own pen name is "Amy Lothrop," +under which she has published many religious poems, hymns and other +varieties of literary work. She was born in 1820, at Martlaer, West +Point, N.Y., where she still resides. + + One more day's work for Jesus, + One less of life for me: + But heaven is nearer, + And Christ is dearer + Than yesterday to me. + His love and light + Fill all my soul tonight. + + REFRAIN:-- + One more day's work for Jesus, (_ter_) + One less of life for me. + +The hymn has five stanzas all expressing the gentle fervor of an active +piety loving service: + + +_THE TUNE_ + +was composed by the Rev. Robert Lowry, and first published in _Bright +Jewels_. + + +THE GOSPEL HYMNS. + +These popular religious songs have been criticised as "degenerate +psalmody" but those who so style them do not seem to consider the need +that made them. + +The great majority of mankind can only be reached by missionary methods, +and in these art and culture do not play a conspicuous part. The +multitude could be supplied with technical preaching and technical music +for their religious wants, but they would not rise to the bait, whereas +nothing so soon kindles their better emotions or so surely appeals to +their better nature as even the humblest sympathetic hymn sung to a +simple and stirring tune. If the music is unclassical and the hymn crude +there is no critical audience to be offended. + +The artless, almost colloquial, words "of a happily rhymed camp-meeting +lyric and the wood-notes wild" of a new melody meet a situation. Moral +and spiritual lapse makes it necessary at times for religion to put on +again her primitive raiment, and be "a voice crying in the wilderness." + +Between the slums and the boulevards live the masses that shape the +generations, and make the state. They are wage-earners who never hear +the great composers nor have time to form fine musical and literary +tastes. The spiritual influences that really reach them are of a very +direct and simple kind; and for the good of the church--and the +nation--it is important that at least this elementary education in the +school of Christ should be supplied them. + +It is the popular hymn tunes that speed a reformation. So say history +and experience. Once in two hundred years a great revival movement may +produce a Charles Wesley, but the humbler singers carry the divine fire +that quickens religious life in the years between. + +All this is not saying that the gospel hymns, as a whole, are or ever +professed to be suitable for the stated service of the sanctuary. Their +very style and movement show exactly what they were made for--to win the +hearing of the multitude, and put the music of God's praise and Jesus' +love into the mouths and hearts of thousands who had been strangers to +both. They are the modern lay songs that go with the modern lay sermons. +They give voice to the spirit and sentiment of the conference, prayer +and inquiry meetings, the Epworth League and Christian Endeavor +meetings, the temperance and other reform meetings, and of the +mass-meetings in the cities or the seaside camps. + +During their evangelistic mission in England and Scotland in 1873, +Dwight L. Moody and Ira D. Sankey used the hymnbook of Philip Phillips, +a compilation entitled _Hallowed Songs_, some of them his own. To these +Mr. Sankey added others of his own composing from time to time which +were so enthusiastically received that he published them in a pamphlet. +This, with the simultaneous publication in America of the revival +melodies of Philip P. Bliss, was the beginning of that series of popular +hymn-and-tune books, which finally numbered six volumes. Sankey's +_Sacred Songs and Solos_ combined with Bliss's _Gospel Songs_ were the +foundation of the _Gospel Hymns_. + +Subjectively their utterances are indicative of ardent piety and +unquestioning faith, and on the other hand their direct and intimate +appeal and dramatic address are calculated to affect a throng as if each +individual in it was the person meant by the words. The refrain or +chorus feature is notable in nearly all. + +A selection of between thirty and forty of the most characteristic is +here given. + + +"HALLELUJAH! 'TIS DONE." + +This is named from its chorus. The song is one of the spontaneous +thanksgivings in revival meetings that break out at the announcement of +a new conversion. + + 'Tis the promise of God full salvation to give + Unto him who on Jesus His Son will believe, + Hallelujah! 'tis done; I believe on the Son; + I am saved by the blood of the crucified One. + + Though the pathway be lonely and dangerous too, + Surely Jesus is able to carry me through-- + Hallelujah! etc. + +The words and music are both by P.P. Bliss. + + +THE NINETY AND NINE. + +The hymn was written by Mrs. Elizabeth Cecilia Clephane at Melrose, +Scotland, early in 1868. She was born in Edinburgh, June 10, 1830, and +died of consumption, Feb. 19, 1869. The little poem was seen by Mr. +Sankey in the _Christian Age_, and thinking it might be useful, he cut +it out. At an impressive moment in one of the great meetings in +Edinburgh, Mr. Moody said to him in a quiet aside, "Sing something." +Precisely what was wanted for the hour and theme, and for the thought in +the general mind, was in Mr. Sankey's vest pocket. But how could it be +sung without a tune? With a silent prayer for help, the musician took +out the slip containing Mrs. Clephane's poem, laid it on the little +reed-organ and began playing, and singing. He had to read the +unfamiliar words and at the same time make up the music. The tune +came--and grew as he went along till he finished the first verse. He +remembered it well enough to repeat it with the second, and after that +it was easy to finish the hymn. A new melody was born--in the presence +of more than a thousand pairs of eyes and ears. It was a feat of +invention, of memory, of concentration--and such was the elocution of +the trained soloist that not a word was lost. He had a tearful audience +at the close to reward him; but we can easily credit his testimony, + +"It was the most intense moment of my life." + +In a touching interview afterwards, a sister of Mrs. Clephane told Mr. +Sankey the authoress had not lived to see her hymn in print and to know +of its blessed mission. + +The first six lines give the situation of the lost sheep in the parable +of that name-- + + There were ninety and nine that safely lay + In the shelter of the fold; + But one was out on the hills away, + Far off from the gates of gold. + Away on the mountains wild and bare, + Away from the tender Shepherd's care. + +And, after describing the Shepherd's arduous search, the joy at his +return is sketched and spiritualized in the concluding stanza-- + + But all through the mountains, thunder-riven, + And up from the rocky steeps + There arose a cry to the gate of heaven, + "Rejoice! I have found my sheep." + And the angels echoed around the Throne, + "Rejoice! for the Lord brings back His own." + + +"HOLD THE FORT!" + +This is named also from its chorus. The historic foundation of the hymn +was the flag-signal waved to Gen. G.M. Corse by Gen. Sherman's order +from Kenesaw Mountain to Altoona during the "March through Georgia," in +October, 1863. The flag is still in the possession of A.D. Frankenberry, +one of the Federal Signal-Corps whose message to the besieged General +said, "Hold the fort! We are coming!" A visit to the scene of the +incident inspired P.P. Bliss to write both the words and the music. + + Ho! my comrades, see the signal + Waving in the sky! + Reinforcements now appearing, + Victory is nigh. + "Hold the fort, for I am coming!" + Jesus signals still; + Wave the answer back to heaven, + "By Thy grace we will!" + +The popularity of the song (it has been translated into several +languages), made it the author's chief memento in many localities. On +his monument in Rome, Pennsylvania, is inscribed "P.P. Bliss--author of +'Hold the Fort.'" + + +"RESCUE THE PERISHING." + +Few hymns, ancient or modern, have been more useful, or more variously +used, than this little sermon in song from Luke 14:23, by the blind +poet, Fanny J. Crosby, (Mrs. Van Alstyne). It is sung not only in the +church prayer-meetings with its spiritual meaning and application, but +in Salvation Army camps and marches, in mission-school devotions, in +social settlement services, in King's Daughters and Sons of Temperance +Meetings, and in the rallies of every reform organization that seeks the +lost and fallen. + + Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, + Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; + Weep o'er the erring ones, lift up the fallen, + Tell them of Jesus, the Mighty to Save. + + * * * * * + + Down in the human heart crushed by the Tempter, + Feelings lie buried that grace can restore. + Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness, + Chords that were broken will vibrate once more. + +The tune is by W.H. Doane, Mus.D., composed in 1870. + + +"WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS." + +The author was a pious gentleman of Dublin, Ireland, who came to Canada +when he was twenty-five. His name was Joseph Scriven, born in Dublin, +1820, and graduated at Trinity College. The accidental death by drowning +of his intended bride on the eve of their wedding day, led him to +consecrate his life and fortune to the service of Christ. He died in +Canada, Oct. 10, 1886, (Sankey's _Story of the Gospel Hymns_, pp. +245-6.) + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The music was composed by Charles Crozat Converse, LL.D., musician, +lawyer, and writer. He was born in Warren, Mass., 1832; a descendant of +Edward Converse, the friend of Gov. Winthrop and founder of Woburn, +Mass. He pursued musical and other studies in Leipsic and Berlin. His +compositions are numerous including concert overtures, symphonies and +many sacred and secular pieces. Residence at Highwood, Bergen Co., N.J. + +The hymn is one of the most helpful of the Gospel Collections, and the +words and music have strengthened many a weak and failing soul to "try +again." + + Have we trials and temptations? + Is there trouble anywhere? + We should never be discouraged: + Take it to the Lord in prayer. + + +"I HEAR THE SAVIOUR SAY." + +This is classed with the _Gospel Hymns_, but it was a much-used and +much-loved revival hymn--especially in the Methodist churches--several +years before Mr. Moody's great evangelical movement. It was written by +Mrs. Elvina M. Hall (since Mrs. Myers) who was born in Alexandria, Va., +in 1818. She composed it in the spring of 1865, while sitting in the +choir of the M.E. Church, Baltimore, and the first draft was pencilled +on a fly-leaf of a singing book, _The New Lute of Zion_. + + I hear the Saviour say, + Thy strength indeed is small; + Child of weakness, watch and pray, + Find in me thine all in all. + +The music of the chorus helped to fix its words in the common mind, and +some idea of the Atonement acceptable, apparently, to both Arminians and +Calvinists; for Sunday-school children in the families of both, hummed +the tune or sang the refrain when alone-- + + Jesus paid it all, + All to Him I owe, + Sin had left a crimson stain; + He washed it white as snow. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +John Thomas Grape, who wrote the music, was born in Baltimore, Md., May +6, 1833. His modest estimate of his work appears in his remark that he +"dabbled" in music for his own amusement. Few composers have amused +themselves with better results. + + +"TELL ME THE OLD, OLD STORY." + +Miss Kate Hankey, born about 1846, the daughter of an English banker, +is the author of this very devout and tender Christian poem, written +apparently in the eighteen-sixties. At least it is said that her little +volume, _Heart to Heart_, was published in 1865 or 1866, and this volume +contains "Tell me the Old, Old Story," and its answer. + +We have been told that Miss Hankey was recovering from a serious +illness, and employed her days of convalescence in composing this song +of devotion, beginning it in January and finishing it in the following +November. + +The poem is very long--a thesaurus of evangelical thoughts, attitudes, +and moods of faith--and also a magazine of hymns. Four quatrains of it, +or two eight-line stanzas, are the usual length of a hymnal selection, +and editors can pick and choose anywhere among its expressive verses. + + Tell me the old, old story + Of unseen things above, + Of Jesus and His glory, + Of Jesus and His love. + + Tell me the story simply + As to a little child, + For I am weak and weary, + And helpless and defiled. + + * * * * * + + Tell me the story simply + That I may take it in-- + That wonderful Redemption, + God's remedy for sin. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Dr. W.H. Doane was present at the International Conference of the +Y.M.C.A. at Montreal in 1867, and heard the poem read--with tears and in +a broken voice--by the veteran Major-General Russell. It impressed him +so much that he borrowed and copied it, and subsequently set it to music +during a vacation in the White Mountains. + +The poem of fifty stanzas was entitled "The Story Wanted;" the sequel or +answer to it, by Miss Hankey, was named "The Story Told." This second +hymn, of the same metre but different accent, was supplied with a tune +by William Gustavus Fischer. + + I love to tell the story + Of unseen things above, + Of Jesus and His glory, + Of Jesus and His love. + + * * * * * + + I love to tell the story + Because I know its true; + It satisfies my longings + As nothing else can do. + + CHORUS. + I love to tell the story; + 'Twill be my theme in glory; + To tell the old, old story + Of Jesus and his love. + +William Gustavus Fischer was born in Baltimore, Md., Oct. 14, 1835. He +was a piano-dealer in the firm (formerly) of Gould and Fischer. His +melody to the above hymn was written in 1869, and was harmonized the +next year by Hubert P. Main. + + +THE PRODIGAL CHILD. + +This is not only an impressive hymn as sung in sympathetic music, but a +touching poem. + + Come home! come home! + You are weary at heart, + For the way has been dark + And so lonely and wild-- + O prodigal child, + Come home! + + Come home! Come home! + For we watch and we wait, + And we stand at the gate + While the shadows are piled; + O prodigal child, + Come home! + +The author is Mrs. Ellen M.H. Gates, known to the English speaking world +by her famous poem, "Your Mission." + + +_THE TUNE_ + +To "The Prodigal Child" was composed by Dr. Doane in 1869 and no hymn +ever had a fitter singing ally. All a mother's yearning is in the +refrain and cadence. + + Come home! Oh, come home! + + +"LET THE LOWER LIGHTS BE BURNING!" + +An illustration, recited in Mr. Moody's graphic fashion in one of his +discourses, suggested this hymn to P.P. Bliss. + +"A stormy night on Lake Erie, and the sky pitch dark." + +'Pilot, are you sure this is Cleveland? There's only one light.' + +'Quite sure, Cap'n.' + +'Where are the lower lights?' + +'Gone out, sir.' + +'Can you run in?' + +'_We've got to_, Cap'n--or die.' + +"The brave old pilot did his best, but, alas, he missed the channel. The +boat was wrecked, with a loss of many lives. The lower lights had gone +out. + +"Brethren, the Master will take care of the great Lighthouse. It is our +work to keep the lower lights burning!" + + Brightly beams our Father's mercy + From His lighthouse evermore; + But to us He gives the keeping + Of the lights along the shore. + + CHORUS. + Let the lower lights be burning! + Send a gleam across the wave; + Some poor fainting, struggling seaman + You may rescue, you may save. + +Both words and music--composed in 1871--are by Mr. Bliss. There are +wakening chords in the tune--and especially the chorus--when the +counterpoint is well vocalized; and the effect is more pronounced the +greater the symphony of voices. Congregations find a zest in every note. +"Hold the Fort" can be sung in the street. "Let the Lower Lights be +Burning" is at home between echoing walls. + +The use of the song in "Bethel" meetings classes it with sailors' hymns. + + +"SWEET HOUR OF PRAYER." + +Included with the _Gospel Hymns_, but of older date. Rev. William W. +Walford, a blind English minister, was the author, and it was probably +written about the year 1842. It was recited to Rev. Thomas Salmon, +Congregational pastor at Coleshill, Eng., who took it down and brought +it to New York, where it was published in the New York _Observer_. + +Little is known of Mr. Walford save that in his blindness, besides +preaching occasionally, he employed his mechanical skill in making small +useful articles of bone and ivory. + +The tune was composed by W.B. Bradbury in 1859, and first appeared with +the hymn in _Cottage Melodies_. + + Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer + That calls me from a world of care, + And bids me at my Father's throne + Make all my wants and wishes known. + In seasons of distress and grief + My soul has often found relief, + And oft escaped the tempter's snare + By thy return, sweet hour of prayer. + + +"O BLISS OF THE PURIFIED! BLISS OF THE FREE!" + +Rev. Francis Bottome, D.D., born in Belper, Derbyshire, Eng., May 26, +1823, removed to the United States in 1850, and entered the Methodist +ministry. A man of sterling character and exemplary piety. He received +the degree of Doctor of Divinity at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. Was +assistant compiler of several singing books, and wrote original hymns. +The above, entitled "O sing of His mighty love" was composed by him in +1869. The last stanza reads,-- + + O Jesus the Crucified! Thee will I sing, + My blessed Redeemer, my God and my King! + My soul, filled with rapture shall shout o'er the grave + And triumph in death in the Mighty to save. + + CHORUS. + O sing of His mighty love (_ter_) + Mighty to save! + +Dr. Bottome returned to England, and died at Tavistock June 29, 1894. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Bradbury's "Songs of the Beautiful" (in _Fresh Laurels_). The hymn was +set to this chorus in 1871. + + +"WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE?" + +Very popular in England. Mr. Sankey in his _Story of the Gospel Hymns_ +relates at length the experience of Rev. W.O. Lattimore, pastor of a +large church in Evanston, Ill., who was saved to Christian manhood and +usefulness by this hymn. It has suffered some alterations, but its +original composition was Mrs. Emily Oakey's work. The Parables of the +Sower and of the Tares may have been in her mind when she wrote the +lines in 1850, but more probably it was the text in Gal. 6:7-- + + Sowing the seed by the daylight fair, + Sowing the seed by the noonday glare, + Sowing the seed by the fading light, + Sowing the seed in the solemn night. + O, what shall the harvest be? + +Lattimore, the man whose history was so strangely linked with this hymn, +entered the army in 1861, a youth of eighteen with no vices, but when +promoted to first lieutenant he learned to drink in the officers' mess. +The habit so contracted grew upon him till when the war was over, though +he married and tried to lead a sober life, he fell a victim to his +appetite, and became a physical wreck. One day in the winter of 1876 he +found himself in a half-drunken condition, in the gallery of Moody's +Tabernacle, Chicago. Discovering presently that he had made a mistake, +he rose to go out, but Mr. Sankey's voice chained him. He sat down and +heard the whole of the thrilling hymn from beginning to end. Then he +stumbled out with the words ringing in his ears. + + Sowing the seed of a lingering pain, + Sowing the seed of a maddened brain, + Sowing the seed of a tarnished name, + Sowing the seed of Eternal shame. + O, what shall the harvest be? + +In the saloon, where he went to drown the awakenings of remorse, those +words stood in blazing letters on every bottle and glass. The voice of +God in that terrible song of conviction forced him back to the +Tabernacle, with his drink untasted. He went into the inquiry meeting +where he found friends, and was led to Christ. His wife and child, from +whom he had long been exiled, were sent for and work was found for him +to do. A natural eloquence made him an attractive and efficient helper +in the meetings, and he was finally persuaded to study for the ministry. +His faithful pastorate of twenty years in Evanston ended with his death +in 1899. + +Mrs. Emily Sullivan Oakey was an author and linguist by profession, and +though in her life of nearly fifty-four years she "never enjoyed a day +of good health," she earned a grateful memory. Born in Albany, N.Y., +Oct. 8, 1829, she was educated at the Albany Female Academy, and fitted +herself for the position of teacher of languages and English literature +in the same school, which she honored by her service while she lived. +Her contributions to the daily press and to magazine literature were +numerous, but she is best known by her remarkable hymn. Her death +occurred on the 11th of May, 1883. + + +_THE TUNE_, + +By P.P. Bliss, is one of that composer's tonal successes. The march of +the verses with their recurrent words is so automatic that it would +inevitably suggest to him the solo and its organ-chords; and the chorus +with its sustained soprano note dominating the running concert adds the +last emphasis to the solemn repetition. The song with its warning cry +owes no little of its power to this choral appendix-- + + Gathered in time or eternity, + Sure, ah sure will the harvest be. + + +"O THINK OF THE HOME OVER THERE." + +A hymn of Rev. D.W.C. Huntington, suggested by Ps. 55:6. It was a +favorite from the first. + +Rev. DeWitt Clinton Huntington was born at Townshend, Vt., Apr. 27, +1830. He graduated at the Syracuse University, and received the degrees +of D.D. and LL.D. from Genesee College. Preacher, instructor and +author--Removed to Lincoln, Nebraska. + + O think of the home over there, + By the side of the river of light, + Where the saints all immortal and fair + Are robed in their garments of white. + Over there, (_rep_) + + O think of the friends over there, + Who before us the journey have trod, + Of the songs that they breathe on the air, + In their home in the palace of God. + Over there. (_rep_) + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The melody was composed by Tullius Clinton O'Kane, born in Delaware, O., +March 10, 1830, a hymnist and musician. It is a flowing tune, with sweet +chords, and something of the fugue feature in the chorus as an +accessory. The voices of a multitude in full concord make a building +tremble with it. + + +"WHEN JESUS COMES." + + Down life's dark vale we wander + Till Jesus comes; + We watch and wait and wonder + Till Jesus comes. + +Both words and music are by Mr. Bliss. A relative of his family, J.S. +Ellsworth, says the song was written in Peoria, Illinois, in 1872, and +was suggested by a conversation on the second coming of Christ, a +subject very near his heart. The thought lingered in his mind, and as he +came down from his room, soon after, the verses and notes came to him +simultaneously on the stairs. Singing them over, he seized pencil and +paper, and in a few minutes fixed hymn and tune in the familiar harmony +so well known. + + No more heart-pangs nor sadness + When Jesus comes; + All peace and joy and gladness + When Jesus comes. + +The choral abounds in repetition, and is half refrain, but among all +Gospel Hymns remarkable for their tone-delivery this is unsurpassed in +the swing of its rhythm. + + All joy his loved ones bringing + When Jesus comes. + All praise thro' heaven ringing + When Jesus comes. + All beauty bright and vernal + When Jesus comes. + All glory grand, eternal + When Jesus comes. + + +"TO THE WORK, TO THE WORK." + +One of Fanny Crosby's most animating hymns--with Dr. W.H. Doane's full +part harmony to re-enforce its musical accent. Mr. Sankey says, "I sang +it for the first time in the home of Mr. and Mrs. J.B. Cornell at Long +Branch. The servants gathered from all parts of the house while I was +singing, and looked into the parlor where I was seated. When I was +through one of them said, 'That is the finest hymn I have heard for a +long time,' I felt that this was a test case, and if the hymn had such +power over those servants it would be useful in reaching other people as +well; so I published it in the _Gospel Hymns_ in 1875, where it became +one of the best work-songs for our meetings that we had." (_Story of +the Gospel Hymns_.) + +The hymn, written in 1870, was first published in 1871 in "_Pure +Gold_"--a book that had a sale of one million two hundred thousand +copies. + + To the work! to the work! there is labor for all, + For the Kingdom of darkness and error shall fall, + And the name of Jehovah exalted shall be, + In the loud-swelling chorus, "Salvation is free!" + + CHORUS. + Toiling on, toiling on, toiling on, toiling on! (_rep_) + Let us hope and trust, let us watch and pray, + And labor till the Master comes. + + +"O WHERE ARE THE REAPERS?" + +Matt. 13:30 is the text of this lyric from the pen of Eben E. Rexford. + + Go out in the by-ways, and search them all, + The wheat may be there though the weeds are tall; + Then search in the highway, and pass none by, + But gather them all for the home on high. + + CHORUS. + Where are the reapers? O who will come, + And share in the glory of the harvest home? + O who will help us to garner in + The sheaves of good from the fields of sin? + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Hymn and tune are alike. The melody and harmony by Dr. George F. Root +have all the eager trip and tread of so many of the gospel hymns, and +of so much of his music, and the lines respond at every step. Any other +composer could not have escaped the compulsion of the final spondees, +and much less the author of "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp," and all the best +martial song-tunes of the great war. In this case neither words nor +notes can say to the other, "We have piped unto you and ye have not +danced," but a little caution will guard too enthusiastic singing +against falling into the drum-rhythm, and travestying a sacred piece. + +Eben Eugene Rexford was born in Johnsburg, N.Y., July 16, 1841, and has +been a writer since he was fourteen years old. He is the author of +several popular songs, as "Silver Threads Among the Gold," "Only a Pansy +Blossom" etc., and many essays and treatises on flowers, of which he is +passionately fond. + + +"IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL." + +Horatio Gates Spafford, the writer of this hymn, was a lawyer, a native +of New York state, born Oct. 30, 1828. While connected with an +institution in Chicago, as professor of medical jurisprudence, he lost a +great part of his fortune by the great fire in that city. This disaster +was followed by the loss of his children on the steamer, Ville de Havre, +Nov. 22, 1873. He seems to have been a devout Christian, for he wrote +his hymn of submissive faith towards the end of the same year-- + + When peace like a river attendeth my way, + When sorrows like sea-billows roll-- + Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, + "It is well, it is well with my soul." + +A friend of Spafford who knew his history read this hymn while repining +under an inferior affliction of his own. "If he can feel like that after +suffering what he has suffered," he said, "I will cease my complaints." + +It may not have been the weight of Mr. Spafford's sorrows wearing him +down, but one would infer some mental disturbance in the man seven or +eight years later. "In 1881" [writes Mr. Hubert P. Main] "he went to +Jerusalem under the hallucination that he was a second Messiah--and died +there on the seventh anniversary of his landing in Palestine, Sept. 5, +1888." The aberrations of an over-wrought mind are beckonings to God's +compassion. When reason wanders He takes the soul of His helpless child +into his own keeping--and "it is well." + +The tune to Spafford's hymn is by P.P. Bliss; a gentle, gliding melody +that suits the mood of the words. + + +"WAITING AND WATCHING FOR ME." + +Written by Mrs. Marianne Farningham Hearn, born in Kent, Eng., Dec. 17, +1834. The hymn was first published in the fall of 1864 in the _London +Church World_. Its unrhythmical first line-- + + When mysterious whispers are floating about, + +--was replaced by the one now familiar-- + + When my final farewell to the world I have said, + And gladly lain down to my rest, + When softly the watchers shall say, "He is dead," + And fold my pale hands on my breast, + And when with my glorified vision at last + The walls of that City I see, + Will any one there at the Beautiful Gate + Be waiting and watching for me? + +Mrs. Hearn--a member of the Baptist denomination--has long been the +editor of the (English) _Sunday School Times_, but her literary work has +been more largely in connection with the _Christian World_ newspaper of +which she has been a staff-member since its foundation. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The long lines, not easily manageable for congregational singing, are +wisely set by Mr. Bliss to duet music. There is a weighty thought in the +hymn for every Christian, and experience has shown that a pair of good +singers can make it very affecting, but the only use of the repeat, by +way of a chorus, seems to be to give the miscellaneous voices a brief +chance to sing. + + +"HE WILL HIDE ME." + +(Isa. 49:2.) + +Miss Mary Elizabeth Servoss, the author of this trustful hymn, was born +in Schenectady, N.Y., Aug. 22, 1849. When a very young girl her +admiration of Fanny Crosby's writings, and the great and good service +they were doing in the world, inspired her with a longing to resemble +her. Though her burden was as real, it was not like the other's, and her +opportunities for religious meditation and literary work were fewer than +those of the elder lady, but the limited number of hymns she has written +have much of the spirit and beauty of their model. + +Providence decreed for her a life of domestic care and patient waiting. +For eighteen years she was the constant attendant of a disabled +grandmother, and long afterwards love and duty made her the home nurse +during her mother's protracted illness and the last sickness of her +father, until both parents passed away. + +From her present home in Edeson, Ill., some utterances of her chastened +spirit have found their way to the public, and been a gospel of +blessing. Besides "He Will Hide Me" other hymns of Miss Servoss are +"Portals of Light," "He Careth," "Patiently Enduring," and "Gates of +Praise," the last being the best known. + + When the storms of life are raging. + Tempests wild on sea and land, + I will seek a place of refuge + In the shadow of God's hand. + + CHORUS. + He will hide me, He will hide me, + Where no harm can e'er betide me, + He will hide me, safely hide me + In the shadow of His hand. + + * * * * * + + So while here the cross I'm bearing, + Meeting storms and billows wild, + Jesus for my soul is caring, + Naught can harm His Father's child. + He will hide me, etc. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +An animating choral in nine-eight tempo, with a swinging movement and +fugue chorus, is rather florid for the hymn, but undeniably musical. Mr. +James McGranahan was the composer. He was born in Adamsville, Pa., July +4, 1840. His education was acquired mostly at the public schools, and +both in general knowledge and in musical accomplishments it may be said +of him that he is "self-made." + +Music was born in him, and at the age of nineteen, with some valuable +help from men like Bassini, Webb, Root and Zerrahn, he had studied to so +good purpose that he taught music classes himself. This talent, joined +to the gift of a very sweet tenor voice, made him the natural successor +of the lamented Bliss, and, with Major D.W. Whittle, he entered on a +career of gospel work, making between 1881 and 1885 two successful tours +of England, Scotland and Ireland, and through the chief American +cities. + +Among his publications are the _Male Chorus Book_, _Songs of the Gospel_ +and the _Gospel Male Choir_. + +Resides at Kinsman, O. + + +"REVIVE THY WORK, O LORD." + +(Heb. 3:2.) + +The supposed date of the hymn is 1860; the author, Albert Midlane. He +was born at Newport on the Isle of Wight, Jan. 23, 1825 a business man, +but, being a Sunday-school teacher, he was prompted to write verses for +children. The habit grew upon him till he became a frequent and +acceptable hymn-writer, both for juvenile and for general use. English +collections have at least three hundred credited to him. + + Revive Thy work, O Lord, + Thy mighty arm make bare, + Speak with the voice that wakes the dead, + And make Thy people hear. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Music and words together make a song-litany alive with all the old +psalm-tune unction and the new vigor; and both were upon Mr. McGranahan +when he wrote the choral. It is one of his successes. + + Revive thy work, O Lord, + Exalt Thy precious name, + And by the Holy Ghost our love + For Thee and Thine inflame. + + REFRAIN. + Revive Thy work, O Lord, + And give refreshing showers; + The glory shall be all Thine own, + The blessing shall be ours. + + +"WHERE IS MY WANDERING BOY TO-NIGHT?" + +This remarkable composition--words and music by Rev. Robert Lowry--has a +record among sacred songs like that of "The Prodigal Son" among +parables. + +A widowed lady of culture, about forty years of age, who was an +accomplished vocalist, had ceased to sing, though her sweet voice was +still in its prime. The cause was her sorrow for her runaway boy. She +had not heard from him for five years. While spending a week with +friends in a city distant from home, her hidden talent was betrayed by +the friends to the pastor of their church, where a revival was in +progress, and persuasion that seemed to put a duty upon her finally +procured her consent to sing a solo. + +The church was crowded. With a force and feeling that can easily be +guessed she sang "Where Is My Boy Tonight?" and finished the first +stanza. She began the second,-- + + Once he was pure as morning dew, + As he knelt at his mother's knee, + No face was so bright, no heart more true, + And none were so sweet as he; + +--and as the congregation caught up the refrain,-- + + O where is my boy tonight? + O where is my boy tonight? + My heart overflows, for I love him he knows, + O where is my boy tonight? + +--a young man who had been sitting in a back seat made his way up the +aisle and sobbed, "Mother, I'm here!" The embrace of that mother and her +long-lost boy turned the service into a general hallelujah. At the +inquiry meeting that night there were many souls at the Mercy Seat who +never knelt there before--and the young wanderer was one. + +[Illustration: Philip Doddridge, D.D.] + +Mr. Sankey, when in California with Mr. Moody, sang this hymn in one of +the meetings and told the story of a mother in the far east who had +commissioned him to search for her missing son. By a happy providence +the son was in the house--and the story and the song sent him home +repentant. + +At another time Mr. Sankey sang the same hymn from the steps of a +snow-bound train, and a man between whose father and himself had been +trouble and a separation, was touched, and returned to be reconciled +after an absence of twenty years. + +At one evening service in Stanberry, Mo., the singing of the hymn by the +leader of the choir led to the conversion of one boy who was present, +and whose parents were that night praying for him in an eastern state, +and inspired such earnest prayer in the hearts of two other runaway +boys' parents that the same answer followed. + +There would not be room in a dozen pages to record all the similar +saving incidents connected with the singing of "Where Is My Wandering +Boy?" The rhetoric of love is strong in every note and syllable of the +solo, and the tender chorus of voices swells the song to heaven like an +antiphonal prayer. + +Strange to say, Dr. Lowry set lightly by his hymns and tunes, and +deprecated much mention of them though he could not deny their success. +An active Christian since seventeen years of age, through his early +pulpit service, his six years' professorship, and the long pastorate in +Plainfield, N.J., closed by his death, he considered preaching to be his +supreme function as it certainly was his first love. Music was to him "a +side-issue," an "efflorescence," and writing a hymn ranked far below +making and delivering a sermon. "I felt a sort of meanness when I began +to be known as a composer," he said. And yet he was the author of a hymn +and tune which "has done more to bring back wandering boys than any +other" ever written.[45] + +[Footnote 45: "Where Is My Boy Tonight" was composed for a book of +temperance hymns, _The Fountain of Song_, 1877.] + + +"ETERNITY." + +This is the title and refrain of both Mrs. Ellen M.H. Gates' impressive +poem and its tune. + + O the clanging bells of Time! + Night and day they never cease; + We are weaned with their chime, + For they do not bring us peace. + And we hush our hearts to hear, + And we strain our eyes to see + If thy shores are drawing near + Eternity! Eternity! + +Skill was needed to vocalize this great word, but the ear of Mr. Bliss +for musical prosody did not fail to make it effective. After the +beautiful harmony through the seven lines, the choral reverently softens +under the rallentando of the closing bars, and dwelling on the +awe-inspiring syllables, solemnly dies away. + + +TRIUMPH BY AND BY. + +This rally-song of the Christian arena is wonderfully stirring, +especially in great meetings, for it sings best in full choral volume. + + The prize is set before us, + To win His words implore us, + The eye of God is o'er us + From on high. + His loving tones are falling + While sin is dark, appalling, + 'Tis Jesus gently calling; + He is nigh! + + CHORUS. + By and by we shall meet Him, + By and by we shall greet Him, + And with Jesus reign in glory, + By and by! + + We'll follow where He leadeth, + We'll pasture where He feedeth, + We'll yield to Him who pleadeth + From on high. + Then nought from Him shall sever, + Our hope shall brighten ever + And faith shall fail us never; + He is nigh. + + CHORUS-- By and by, etc. + +Dr. Christopher Ruby Blackall, the author of the hymn, was born in +Albany, N.Y., Sept. 18, 1830. He was a surgeon in the Civil War, and in +medical practice fifteen years, but afterwards became connected with the +American Baptist Publication Society as manager of one of its branches. +He has written several Sunday-school songs set to music by W.H. Doane. + + +_THE TUNE_, + +By Horatio R. Palmer is exactly what the hymn demands. The range +scarcely exceeds an octave, but with the words "From on high," the +stroke of the soprano on upper D carries the feeling to unseen summits, +and verifies the title of the song. From that note, through melody and +chorus the "Triumph by and by" rings clear. + + +"NOT HALF HAS EVER BEEN TOLD" + +This is emotional, but every word and note is uplifting, and creates the +mood for religious impressions. The writer, Rev. John Bush Atchison, was +born at Wilson, N.Y., Feb. 18, 1840, and died July 15, 1882. + + I have read of a beautiful city + Far away in the kingdom of God, + I have read how its walls are of jasper, + How its streets are all golden and broad; + In the midst of the street is Life's River + Clear as crystal and pure to behold, + But not half of that city's bright glory + To mortals has ever been told. + +The chorus (twice sung)-- + + Not half has been told, + +--concludes with repeat of the two last lines of this first stanza. + +Mr. Atchison was a Methodist clergyman who composed several good hymns. +"Behold the Stone is Rolled Away," "O Crown of Rejoicing," and "Fully +Persuaded," indicate samples of his work more or less well-known. "Not +Half Has Ever Been Told" was written in 1875. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Dr. Otis F. Presbry, the composer, was a young farmer of York, +Livingston Co., N.Y., born there the 20th of December, 1820. Choice of a +professional life led him to Berkshire Medical College, where he +graduated in 1847. In after years his natural love of musical studies +induced him to give his time to compiling and publishing religious +tunes, with hymns more especially for Sunday-schools. + +He became a composer and wrote the melody to Atchison's words in 1877, +which was arranged by a blind musician of Washington, D.C., J.W. +Bischoff by name, with whom he had formed a partnership. The solo is +long--would better, perhaps, have been four-line instead of eight--but +well sung, it is a flight of melody that holds an assembly, and touches +hearts. + +Dr. Presbry's best known book was _Gospel Bells_ (1883), the joint +production of himself, Bischoff, and Rev. J.E. Rankin. He died Aug. 20, +1901. + + +"COME." + +One of the most characteristic (both words and music) of the _Gospel +Hymns_--"Mrs. James Gibson Johnson" is the name attached to it as its +author, though we have been unable to trace and verify her claim. + + O, word of words the sweetest, + O, words in which there lie + All promise, all fulfillment, + And end of mystery; + Lamenting or rejoicing, + With doubt or terror nigh, + I hear the "Come" of Jesus, + And to His cross I fly. + + CHORUS. + Come, come-- + Weary, heavy-laden, come, O come to me. + + +_THE TUNE_, + +Composed by James McGranahan, delivers the whole stanza in soprano or +tenor solo, when the alto, joining the treble, leads off the refrain in +duet, the male voices striking alternate notes until the full harmony in +the last three bars. The style and movement of the chorus are somewhat +suggestive of a popular glee, but the music of the duet is flexible and +sweet, and the bass and tenor progress with it not in the +ride-and-tie-fashion but marking time with the title-syllable. + +The contrast between the spiritual and the intellectual effect of the +hymn and its wakeful tune is illustrated by a case in Baltimore. While +Moody and Sankey were doing their gospel work in that city, a man, who, +it seems, had brought a copy of the _Gospel Hymns_, walked out of one of +the meetings after hearing this hymn-tune, and on reaching home, tore +out the leaves that contained the song and threw them into the fire, +saying he had "never heard such twaddle" in all his life. + +The sequel showed that he had been too hasty. The hymn would not leave +him. After hearing it night and day in his mind till he began to +realize what it meant, he went to Mr. Moody and told him he was "a vile +sinner" and wanted to know how he could "come" to Christ. The divine +invitation was explained, and the convicted man underwent a vital +change. His converted opinion of the hymn was quite as remarkably +different. He declared it was "the sweetest one in the book." (_Story of +the Gospel Hymns_.) + + +"ALMOST PERSUADED." + +The Rev. Mr. Brundage tells the origin of this hymn. In a sermon +preached by him many years ago, the closing words were: + +"He who is almost persuaded is almost saved, but to be almost saved is +to be entirely lost." Mr. Bliss, being in the audience, was impressed +with the thought, and immediately set about the composition of what +proved one of his most popular songs, deriving his inspiration from the +sermon of his friend, Mr. Brundage. _Memoir of Bliss_. + + Almost persuaded now to believe, + Almost persuaded Christ to receive; + Seems now some soul to say + "Go Spirit, go thy way, + Some more convenient day + On Thee I'll call." + + * * * * * + + Almost persuaded--the harvest is past! + +Both hymn and tune are by Mr. Bliss--and the omission of a chorus is in +proper taste. This revival piece brings the eloquence of sense and +sound to bear upon the conscience in one monitory pleading. Incidents in +this country and in England related in Mr. Sankey's book, illustrate its +power. It has a convicting and converting history. + + +"MY AIN COUNTREE." + +This hymn was written by Miss Mary Augusta Lee one Sabbath day in 1860 +at Bowmount, Croton Falls, N.Y., and first published in the _New York +Observer_, Dec, 1861. The authoress had been reading the story of John +Macduff who, with his wife, left Scotland for the United States, and +accumulated property by toil and thrift in the great West. In her +leisure after the necessity for hard work was past, the Scotch woman +grew homesick and pined for her "ain countree." Her husband, at her +request, came east and settled with her in sight of the Atlantic where +she could see the waters that washed the Scotland shore. But she still +pined, and finally to save her life, John Macduff took her back to the +heather hills of the mother-land, where she soon recovered her health +and spirits. + + I am far from my hame an' I'm weary aften whiles + For the langed-for hame-bringing an' my Father's welcome smiles. + I'll ne'er be fu' content until mine eyes do see + The shinin' gates o' heaven an' mine ain countree. + + The airt' is flecked wi' flowers mony-tinted, frish an' gay, + The birdies warble blithely, for my Father made them sae, + But these sights an' these soun's will naething be to me + When I hear the angels singin' in my ain countree. + +Miss Lee was born in Croton Falls in 1838, and was of Scotch descent, +and cared for by her grandfather and a Scotch nurse, her mother dying in +her infancy. In 1870 she became the wife of a Mr. Demarest, and her +married life was spent in Passaic, N.J., until their removal to +Pasadena, Cal., in hope of restoring her failing health. She died at Los +Angeles, Jan. 8, 1888. + + +_THE TUNE_ + +Is an air written in 1864 in the Scottish style by Mrs. Ione T. Hanna, +wife of a banker in Denver, Colo., and harmonized for choral use by +Hubert P. Main in 1873. Its plaintive sweetness suits the words which +probably inspired it. The tone and metre of the hymn were natural to the +young author's inheritance; a memory of her grandfather's home-land +melodies, with which he once crooned "little Mary" to sleep. + +Sung as a closing hymn, "My ain countree" sends the worshipper away with +a tender, unworldly thought that lingers. + +Mrs. Demarest wrote an additional stanza in 1881 at the request of Mr. +Main. + +Some really good gospel hymns and tunes among those omitted in this +chapter will cry out against the choice that passed them by. Others are +of the more ephemeral sort, the phenomena (and the demand) of a +generation. Carols of pious joy with inordinate repetition, choruses +that surprise old lyrics with modern thrills, ballads of ringing sound +and slender verse, are the spray of tuneful emotion that sparkles on +every revival high-tide, but rarely leaves floodmarks that time will not +erase. Religious songs of the demonstrative, not to say sensational, +kind spring impromptu from the conditions of their time--and give place +to others equally spontaneous when the next spiritual wave sweeps by. +Their value lingers in the impulse their novelty gave to the life of +sanctuary worship, and in the Christian characters their emotional power +helped into being. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +HYMNS, FESTIVAL AND OCCASIONAL. + + +_CHRISTMAS._ + + +"ADESTE FIDELES." + +This hymn is of doubtful authorship, by some assigned to as late a date +as 1680, and by others to the 13th century as one of the Latin poems of +St. Bonaventura, Bishop of Albano, who was born at Bagnarea in Tuscany, +A.D. 1221. He was a learned man, a Franciscan friar, one of the greatest +teachers and writers of his church, and finally a cardinal. Certainly +Roman Catholic in its origin, whoever was its author, it is a Christian +hymn qualified in every way to be sung by the universal church. + + Adeste, fideles + Laeti triumphantes, + Venite, venite in Bethlehem; + Natum videte Regem angelorum. + + CHORUS. + Venite, adoremus, + Venite, adoremus! + Venite, adoremus Dominum. + +This has been translated by Rev. Frederick Oakeley (1808-1880) and by +Rev. Edward Caswall (1814-1878) the version of the former being the one +in more general use. The ancient hymn is much abridged in the hymnals, +and even the translations have been altered and modernized in the three +or four stanzas commonly sung. Caswall's version renders the first line +"Come hither, ye faithful," literally construing the Latin words. + +The following is substantially Oakeley's English of the "Adeste, +fideles." + + O come all ye faithful + Joyful and triumphant, + To Bethlehem hasten now with glad accord; + Come and behold Him, + Born the King of Angels. + + CHORUS. + O come, let us adore Him, + O come, let us adore Him, + O come, let us adore Him, + Christ, the Lord. + + Sing choirs of angels, + Sing in exultation + Through Heaven's high arches be your praises poured; + Now to our God be + Glory in the highest! + O come, let us adore Him! + + Yea, Lord, we bless Thee, + Born for our salvation + Jesus, forever be Thy name adored! + Word of the Father + Now in flesh appearing; + O come, let us adore Him! + +The hymn with its primitive music as chanted in the ancient churches, +was known as "The Midnight Mass," and was the processional song of the +religious orders on their way to the sanctuaries where they gathered in +preparation for the Christmas morning service. The modern tune--or +rather the tune in modern use--is the one everywhere familiar as the +"Portuguese Hymn." (See page 205.) + + +MILTON'S HYMN TO THE NATIVITY. + + It was the winter wild + While the Heavenly Child + All meanly wrapped in the rude manger lies. + Nature in awe of Him + Had doffed her gaudy trim + With her great Master so to sympathize. + + * * * * * + + No war nor battle sound + Was heard the world around. + The idle spear and shield were high uphung. + The hooked chariot stood + Unstained with hostile blood, + The trumpets spake not to the armed throng, + And Kings sat still with awful eye + As if they knew their Sovereign Lord was by. + +This exalted song--the work of a boy of scarcely twenty-one--is a Greek +ode in form, of two hundred and sixteen lines in twenty-seven strophes. +Some of its figures and fancies are more to the taste of the seventeenth +century than to ours, but it is full of poetic and Christian +sublimities, and its high periods will be heard in the Christmas hymnody +of coming centuries, though it is not the fashion to sing it now. + +John Milton, son and grandson of John Miltons, was born in Breadstreet, +London, Dec. 9, 1608, fitted for the University in St. Paul's school, +and studied seven years at Cambridge. His parents intended him for the +church, but he chose literature as a profession, travelled and made +distinguished friendships in Italy, Switzerland and France, and when +little past his majority was before the public as a poet, author of the +Ode to the Nativity, of a Masque, and of many songs and elegies. In +later years he entered political life under the stress of his Puritan +sympathies, and served under Cromwell and his successor as Latin +Secretary of State through the time of the Commonwealth. While in public +duty he became blind, but in his retirement composed "Paradise Lost and +Paradise Regained." Died in 1676. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +In the old "Carmina Sacra" a noble choral (without name except "No war +nor battle sound") well interprets portions of the 4th and 5th stanzas +of the great hymn, but replaces the line-- + + "The idle spear and shield were high uphung." + +--with the more modern and less figurative-- + + "No hostile chiefs to furious combat ran." + +Three stanzas are also added, by the Rev. H.O. Dwight, missionary to +Constantinople. The substituted line, which is also, perhaps, the +composition of Mr. Dwight, rhymes with-- + + "His reign of peace upon the earth began," + +--and as it is not un-Miltonic, few singers have ever known that it was +not Milton's own. + +Dr. John Knowles Paine, Professor of Music at Harvard University, and +author of the Oratorio of "St. Peter," composed a cantata to the great +Christmas Ode of Milton, probably about 1868. + +Professor Paine died Apr. 25, 1906. + +It is worth noting that John Milton senior, the great poet's father, was +a skilled musician and a composer of psalmody. The old tunes "York" and +"Norwich," in Ravenscroft's collection and copied from it in many early +New England singing-books, are supposed to be his. + +The Miltons were an old Oxfordshire Catholic family, and John, the +poet's father, was disinherited for turning Protestant, but he prospered +in business, and earned the comfort of a country gentleman. He died, +very aged, in May, 1646, and his son addressed a Latin poem ("Ad +Patrem") to his memory. + + +"HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING." + +This hymn of Charles Wesley, dating about 1730, was evidently written +with the "Adeste Fideles" in mind, some of the stanzas, in fact, being +almost like translations of it. The form of the two first lines was +originally-- + + Hark! how all the welkin rings, + "Glory to the King of Kings!" + +--but was altered thirty years later by Rev. Martin Madan (1726-1790) +to-- + + Hark! the herald angels sing + Glory to the new-born King! + +Other changes by the same hand modified the three following stanzas, and +a fifth stanza was added by John Wesley-- + + Hail the heavenly Prince of Peace! + Hail the Sun of Righteousness! + Light and life to all He brings, + Ris'n with healing in His wings. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"Mendelssohn" is the favorite musical interpreter of the hymn. It is a +noble and spirited choral from Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's cantata, +"Gott ist Licht." + + +"JOY TO THE WORLD, THE LORD IS COME!" + +This inspirational lyric of Dr. Watts never grows old. It was written in +1719. + + Joy to the world! the Saviour reigns! + Let men their songs employ + While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains + Repeat the sounding joy. + +Dr. Edward Hodges (1796-1867) wrote an excellent psalm-tune to it which +is still in occasional use, but the music united to the hymn in the +popular heart is "Antioch," an adaptation from Handel's Messiah. This +companionship holds unbroken from hymnal to hymnal and has done so for +sixty or seventy years; and, in spite of its fugue, the tune--apparently +by some magic of its own--contrives to enlist the entire voice of a +congregation, the bass falling in on the third beat as if by intuition. +The truth is, the tune has become the habit of the hymn, and to the +thousands who have it by heart, as they do in every village where there +is a singing school, "Antioch" is "Joy to the World," and "Joy to the +World" is "Antioch." + + +"HARK! WHAT MEAN THOSE HOLY VOICES?" + +This fine hymn, so many years appearing with the simple sign "Cawood" or +"J. Cawood" printed under it, still holds its place by universal +welcome. + + Hark! what mean those holy voices + Sweetly sounding through the skies? + Lo th' angelic host rejoices; + Heavenly hallelujahs rise. + + Hear them tell the wondrous story, + Hear them chant in hymns of joy, + Glory in the highest, glory, + Glory be to God on high! + +The Rev. John Cawood, a farmer's son, was born at Matlock, Derbyshire, +Eng., March 18, 1775, graduated at Oxford, 1801, and was appointed +perpetual curate of St. Anne's in Bendly, Worcestershire. Died Nov. 7, +1852. He is said to have written seventeen hymns, but was too modest to +publish any. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Dr. Dykes' "Oswald," and Henry Smart's "Bethany" are worthy expressions +of the feeling in Cawood's hymn. In America, Mason's "Amaland," with +fugue in the second and third lines, has long been a favorite. + + +"WHILE SHEPHERDS WATCHED THEIR FLOCKS." + +This was written by Nahum Tate (1652-1715), and after two hundred years +the church remembers and sings the song. Six generations have grown up +with their childhood memory of its pictorial verses illustrating St. +Luke's Christmas story. + + While shepherds watched their flocks by night, + All seated on the ground, + The angel of the Lord came down + And glory shone around. + + "Fear not" said he, for mighty dread + Had seized their troubled mind, + "Glad tidings of great joy I bring + To you and all mankind." + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Modern hymnals have substituted "Christmas" and other more or less +spirited tunes for Read's "Sherburne," which was the first musical +translation of the hymn to American ears. But, to show the traditional +hold that the New England fugue melody maintains on the people, many +collections print it as alternate tune. Some modifications have been +made in it, but its survival is a tribute to its real merit. + +Daniel Read, the creator of "Sherburne," "Windham," "Russia," +"Stafford," "Lisbon," and many other tunes characteristic of a bygone +school of psalmody, was born in Rehoboth, Mass., Nov. 2, 1757. He +published _The American Singing Book_, 1785, _Columbian Harmony_, 1793, +and several other collections. Died in New Haven, Ct., 1836. + + +"IT CAME UPON THE MIDNIGHT CLEAR." + +Rev. Edmund Hamilton Sears, author of this beautiful hymn-poem, was born +at Sandisfield, Berkshire Co., Mass., April 6, 1810, and educated at +Union College and Harvard University. He became pastor of the Unitarian +Church in Wayland, Mass., 1838. Died in the adjoining town of Weston, +Jan. 14, 1876. The hymn first appeared in the _Christian Register_ in +1857. + + It came upon the midnight clear, + That glorious song of old, + From angels bending near the earth + To touch their harps of gold. + + "Peace to the earth, good will to men + From Heaven's all-gracious King." + The world in solemn stillness lay, + To hear the angels sing. + + Still through the cloven skies they come + With peaceful wings unfurled + And still their heavenly music floats + O'er all the weary world. + + Above its sad and lonely plains + They bend on hovering wing, + And ever o'er its Babel sounds + The blessed angels sing. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +No more sympathetic music has been written to these lines than "Carol," +the tune composed by Richard Storrs Willis, a brother of Nathaniel +Parker Willis the poet, and son of Deacon Nathaniel Willis, the founder +of the _Youth's Companion_. He was born Feb, 10, 1819, graduated at Yale +in 1841, and followed literature as a profession. He was also a musician +and composer. For many years he edited the _N.Y. Musical World_, and, +besides contributing frequently to current literature, published _Church +Chorals and Choir Studies_, _Our Church Music_ and several other volumes +on musical subjects. Died in Detroit, May 7, 1900. + +The much-loved and constantly used advent psalm of Mr. Sears,-- + + Calm on the listening ear of night + Come heaven's melodious strains + Where wild Judea stretches far + Her silver-mantled plains, + +--was set to music by John Edgar Gould, and the smooth choral with its +sweet chords is a remarkable example of blended voice and verse. + + +"O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM!" + +Phillips Brooks, the eloquent bishop of Massachusetts, loved to write +simple and tender poems for the children of his church and diocese. They +all reveal his loving heart and the beauty of his consecrated +imagination. This one, the best of his _Christmas Songs_, was slow in +coming to public notice, but finally found its place in hymn-tune +collections. + + O little town of Bethlehem, + How still we see thee lie! + Above thy deep and dreamless sleep + The silent stars go by; + Yet in thy dark streets shineth + The everlasting light; + The hopes and fears of all the years + Are met in thee tonight. + + For Christ is born of Mary, + And gathered all above, + While mortals sleep, the angels keep + Their watch of wondering love. + O morning stars, together + Proclaim the holy birth! + And praises sing to God the King + And peace to men on earth. + + How silently, how silently, + The wondrous gift is given! + So God imparts to human hearts + The blessings of His heaven. + No ear may hear His coming, + But in this world of sin, + Where meek souls will receive Him still + The dear Christ enters in. + +Phillips Brooks, late bishop of the diocese of Massachusetts, was born +in Boston, Dec. 13, 1835; died Jan. 23, 1893. He was graduated at +Harvard in 1855, and at the Episcopal Divinity School of Alexandria, +Va., 1859. The first ten years of his ministry were spent in +Pennsylvania, after which he became rector of Trinity Church, Boston, +and was elected bishop in 1891. He was an inspiring teacher and +preacher, an eloquent pulpit orator, and a man of deep and rich +religious life. + +The hymn was written in 1868, and it was, no doubt, the ripened thought +of his never-forgotten visit to the "little town of Bethlehem" two years +before. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"Bethlehem" is the appropriate name of a tune written by J. Barnby, and +adapted to the words, but it is the hymn's first melody (named "St. +Louis" by the compiler who first printed it in the _Church Porch_ from +original leaflets) that has the credit of carrying it to popularity. + +The composer was Mr. Redner, organist of the Church of the Holy Trinity, +Philadelphia, of which Rector Brooks was then in charge. Lewis Henry +Redner, born 1831, was not only near the age of his friend and pastor +but as much devoted to the interests of the Sunday-school, for whose use +the hymn was written, and he had promised to write a score to which it +could be sung on the coming Sabbath. Waking in the middle of the night, +after a busy Saturday that sent him to bed with his brain "in a whirl," +he heard "an angel strain," and immediately rose and pricked the notes +of the melody. The tune had come to him just in time to be sung. A much +admired tune has also been written to this hymn by Hubert P. Main. + + + +_PALM SUNDAY_. + + +FAURE'S "PALM BRANCHES." + + _Sur nos chemins les rameaux et les fleurs + Sont repandos--_ + + O'er all the way green palms and blossoms gay + Are strewn to-day in festive preparation, + Where Jesus comes to wipe our tears away. + E'en now the throng to welcome Him prepare; + Join all and sing.-- + +Jean Baptiste Faure, author of the words and music, was born at Moulins, +France, Jan. 15, 1830. As a boy he was gifted with a beautiful voice, +and crowds used to gather wherever he sang in the streets of Paris. +Little is known of his parentage, and apparently the sweet voice of the +wandering lad was his only fortune. He found wealthy friends who sent +him to the _Conservatoire_, but when his voice matured it ceased to +serve him as a singer. He went on with his study of instrumental music, +but mourned for his lost vocal triumphs, and his longing became a +subject of prayer. He promised God that if his power to sing were given +back to him he would use it for charity and the good of mankind. By +degrees he recovered his voice, and became known as a great baritone. As +professional singer and composer at the Paris _Grand Opera_, he had been +employed largely in dramatic work, but his "Ode to Charity" is one of +his enduring and celebrated pieces, and his songs written for benevolent +and religious services have found their way into all Christian lands. + +His "Palm-Branches" has come to be a _sine qua non_ on its calendar +Sunday wherever church worship is planned with any regard to the Feasts +of the Christian year. + + + +_EASTER._ + + +Perhaps the most notable feature in the early hymnology of the Oriental +Church was its Resurrection songs. Being hymns of joy, they called forth +all the ceremony and spectacle of ecclesiastical pomp. Among them--and +the most ancient one of those preserved--is the hymn of John of +Damascus, quoted in the second chapter (p. 54). This was the +proclamation-song in the watch-assemblies, when exactly on the midnight +moment at the shout of "Christos egerthe!" ([Greek: Christos êgerthê].) +"Christ is risen!" thousands of torches were lit, bells and trumpets +pealed, and (in the later centuries) salvos of cannon shook the air. + +Another favorite hymn of the Eastern Church was the "_Salve, Beate +Mane_," "Welcome, Happy Morning," of Fortunatus. (Chap. 10, p. 357.) This +poem furnished cantos for Easter hymns of the Middle Ages. Jerome of +Prague sang stanzas of it on his way to the stake. + +An anonymous hymn, "_Poneluctum, Magdelena_," in medieval Latin rhyme, +is addressed to Mary Magdelene weeping at the empty sepulchre. The +following are the 3d and 4th stanzas, with a translation by Prof. C.S. +Harrington of Wesleyan University: + + Gaude, plaude, Magdalena! + Tumba Christus exiit! + Tristis est peracta scena, + Victor mortis rediit; + Quem deflebas morientem, + Nunc arride resurgentem! + Alleluia! + + Tolle vultum, Magdalena! + Redivivum aspice; + Vide frons quam sit amoena, + Quinque plagas inspice; + Fulgent, sic ut margaritæ, + Ornamenta novæ vitæ. + Alleluia! + + * * * * * + + Magdalena, shout for gladness! + Christ has left the gloomy grave; + Finished is the scene of sadness; + Death destroyed, He comes to save; + Whom with grief thou sawest dying, + Greet with smiles, the tomb defying. + Hallelujah! + + Lift thine eyes, O Magdalena! + Lo! thy Lord before thee stands; + See! how fair the thorn-crowned forehead; + Mark His feet, His side, His hands; + Glow His wounds with pearly whiteness! + Hallowing life with heavenly brightness! + Hallelujah! + +The hymnaries of the Christian Church for seventeen hundred years are so +rich in Easter hallelujahs and hosannas that to introduce them all would +swell a chapter to the size of an encyclopedia--and even to make a +selection is a responsible task. + +Simple mention must suffice of Luther's-- + + In the bonds of death He lay; + +--of Watts'-- + + He dies, the Friend of sinners dies; + +--of John Wesley's-- + + Our Lord has gone up on high; + +--of C.F. Gellert's-- + + Christ is risen! Christ is risen! + He hath burst His bonds in twain; + +--omitting hundreds which have been helpful in psalmody, and are, +perhaps, still in choir or congregational use. + + +"CHRIST THE LORD IS RISEN TODAY" + +Begins a hymn of Charles Wesley's and is also the first line of a hymn +prepared for Sunday-school use by Mrs. Storrs, wife of the late Dr. +Richard Salter Storrs of Brooklyn, N.Y. + +Wesley's hymn is sung--with or without the hallelujah interludes--to +"Telemann's Chant," (Zeuner), to an air of Mendelssohn, and to John +Stainer's "Paschale Gaudium." Like the old New England "Easter Anthem" +it appears to have been suggested by an anonymous translation of some +more ancient (Latin) antiphony. + + Jesus Christ is risen to day, + Hallelujah! + Our triumphant holy day, + Hallelujah! + + * * * * * + + Who endured the cross and grave. + Hallelujah! + Sinners to redeem and save, + Hallelujah! + + +AN ANTHEM FOR EASTER. + +This work of an amateur genius, with its rustic harmonies, suited the +taste of colonial times, and no doubt the devout church-goers of that +day found sincere worship and thanksgiving in its flamboyant music. "An +Anthem for Easter," in A major by William Billings (1785) occupied +several pages in the early collections of psalmody and "the sounding +joy" was in it. Organs were scarce, but beyond the viols of the village +choirs it needed no instrumental accessories. The language is borrowed +from the New Testament and _Young's Night Thoughts_. + + The Lord is risen indeed! + Hallelujah! + The Lord is risen indeed! + Hallelujah! + +Following this triumphant overture, a recitative bass solo repeats I +Cor. 15:20, and the chorus takes it up with crowning hallelujahs. +Different parts, _per fugam_, inquire from clef to clef-- + + And did He rise? + And did He rise?-- + Hear [the answer], O ye nations! + Hear it, O ye dead! + +Then duet, trio and chorus sing it, successively-- + + He rose! He rose! He rose! + He burst the bars of death, + And triumphed o'er the grave! + +The succeeding thirty-four bars--duet and chorus--take home the sacred +gladness to the heart of humanity-- + + Then, then _I_ rose, + + * * * * * + + And seized eternal youth, + Man all immortal, hail! + Heaven's all the glory, man's the boundless bliss. + + +"YES, THE REDEEMER ROSE." + +In the six-eight syllable verse once known as "hallelujah +metre"--written by Dr. Doddridge to be sung after a sermon on the text +in 1st Corinthians noted in the above anthem-- + + Yes, the Redeemer rose, + The Saviour left the dead, + And o'er our hellish foes + High raised His conquering head. + In wild dismay the guards around + Fall to the ground and sink away. + +Lewis Edson's "Lenox" (1782) is an old favorite among its musical +interpreters. + + +"O SHORT WAS HIS SLUMBER." + +This hymn for the song-service of the Ruggles St. Church, Boston, was +written by Rev. Theron Brown. + + O short was His slumber; He woke from the dust; + The Saviour death's chain could not hold; + And short, since He rose, is the sleep of the just; + They shall wake, and His glory behold. + + * * * * * + + Dear grave in the garden; hope smiled at its door + Where love's brightest triumph was told; + Christ lives! and His life will His people restore! + They shall wake, and His glory behold. + +The music is Bliss' tune to Spafford's "When Peace Like a River." + +Another by the same writer, sung by the same church chorus, is-- + + He rose! O morn of wonder! + They saw His light go down + Whose hate had crushed Him under, + A King without a crown. + No plume, no garland wore He, + Despised death's Victor lay, + And wrapped in night His glory, + That claimed a grander day. + + * * * * * + + He rose! He burst immortal + From death's dark realm alone, + And left its heavenward portal + Swung wide for all his own. + Nor need one terror seize us + To face earth's final pain, + For they who follow Jesus, + But die to live again. + +The composer's name is lost, the tune being left nameless when printed. +The impression is that it was a secular melody. A very suitable tune for +the hymn is Geo. J. Webb's "Millennial Dawn" ("the Morning Light is +breaking.") + + + +_THANKSGIVING._ + + +"DIE FELDER WIR PFLÜGEN UND STREUEN." + + We plow the fields and scatter + The good seed on the land, + But it is fed and watered + By God's Almighty hand, + He sends the snow in winter, + The warmth to swell the grain, + The breezes, and the sunshine + And soft, refreshing rain, + All, all good gifts around us + Are sent from heaven above + Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord + For all His love! + +Matthias Claudius, who wrote the German original of this little poem, +was a native of Reinfeld, Holstein, born 1770 and died 1815. He wrote +lyrics, humorous, pathetic and religious, some of which are still +current in Germany. + +The translator of the verses is Miss Jane Montgomery Campbell, whose +identity has not been traced. Hers is evidently one of the retiring +names brought to light by one unpretending achievement. English readers +owe to her the above modest and devout hymn, which was first published +here in Rev. C.S. Bere's _Garland of Songs with Tunes_, 1861. + +Little is known of Arthur Cottman, composer to Miss Campbell's words. He +was born in 1842, and died in 1879. + +[Illustration: Lowell Mason] + + +"WITH SONGS AND HONORS SOUNDING LOUD." + +Stanzas of this enduring hymn of Watts' have been as often recited as +sung. + + He sends His showers of blessing down + To cheer the plains below; + He makes the grass the mountains crown, + And corn in valleys grow. + + +_THE TUNE_, + +One of the chorals--if not the best--to claim partnership with this +sacred classic, is John Cole's "Geneva," distinguished among the few +fugue tunes which the singing world refuses to dismiss. There is a +growing grandeur in the opening solo and its following duet as they +climb the first tetra-chord, when the full harmony suddenly reveals the +majesty of the music. The little parenthetic duo at the eighth bar +breaks the roll of the song for one breath, and the concord of voices +closes in again like a diapason. One thinks of a bird-note making a +waterfall listen. + + +"HARVEST HOME." + + Let us sing of the sheaves, when the summer is done, + And the garners are stored with the gifts of the sun. + Shouting home from the fields like the voice of the sea, + Let us join with the reapers in glad jubilee,-- + + _Refrain._ + Harvest home! (_double rep._) + Let us chant His praise who has crowned our days + With bounty of the harvest home. + + Who hath ripened the fruits into golden and red? + Who hath grown in the valleys our treasures of bread, + That the owner might heap, and the stranger might glean + For the days when the cold of the winter is keen? + Harvest home! + Let us chant, etc. + + For the smile of the sunshine, again and again, + For the dew on the garden, the showers on the plain, + For the year, with its hope and its promise that end, + Crowned with plenty and peace, let thanksgiving ascend, + Harvest home! + Let us chant, etc. + + We shall gather a harvest of glory, we know, + From the furrows of life where in patience we sow. + Buried love in the field of the heart never dies, + And its seed scattered here will be sheaves in the skies, + Harvest home! + Let us chant, etc. + +Thanksgiving Hymn. Boston, 1890. Theron Brown. + +Tune "To the Work, To the Work." W.H. Doane. + + +"THE GOD OF HARVEST PRAISE." + +Written by James Montgomery in 1840, and published in the _Evangelical +Magazine_ as the Harvest Hymn for that year. + + The God of harvest praise; + In loud thanksgiving raise + Heart, hand and voice. + The valleys smile and sing, + Forests and mountains sing, + The plains their tribute bring, + The streams rejoice. + + * * * * * + + The God of harvest praise; + Hearts, hands and voices raise + With sweet accord; + From field to garner throng, + Bearing your sheaves along, + And in your harvest song + Bless ye the Lord. + +Tune, "Dort"--Lowell Mason. + + + +_MORNING._ + + +"STILL, STILL WITH THEE." + +These stanzas of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, with their poetic beauty +and grateful religious spirit, have furnished an orison worthy of a +place in all the hymn books. In feeling and in faith the hymn is a matin +song for the world, supplying words and thoughts to any and every heart +that worships. + + Still, still with Thee, when purple morning breaketh, + When the bird waketh and the shadows flee; + Fairer than morning, lovelier than daylight, + Dawns the sweet consciousness, I am with Thee. + + Alone with Thee, amid the mystic shadows + The solemn hush of nature newly born; + Alone with Thee, in breathless adoration, + In the calm dew and freshness of the morn. + + * * * * * + + When sinks the soul, subdued by toil, to slumber, + Its closing eyes look up to Thee in prayer, + Sweet the repose beneath Thy wings o'ershadowing, + But sweeter still to wake and find Thee there. + + +_THE TUNES._ + +Barnby's "Windsor," and "Stowe" by Charles H. Morse (1893)--both written +to the words. + +Mendelssohn's "Consolation" is a classic interpretation of the hymn, and +finely impressive when skillfully sung, but simpler--and sweeter to the +popular ear--is Mason's "Henley," written to Mrs. Eslings'-- + + "Come unto me when shadows darkly gather." + + + +_EVENING HYMNS._ + +John Keble's beautiful meditation-- + + Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear; + +John Leland's-- + + The day is past and gone; + +and Phebe Brown's-- + + I love to steal awhile away; + +--have already been noticed. Bishop Doane's gentle and spiritual lines +express nearly everything that a worshipping soul would include in a +moment of evening thought. The first and last stanzas are the ones most +commonly sung. + + Softly now the light of day + Fades upon my sight away: + Free from care, from labor free, + Lord I would commune with Thee. + + * * * * * + + Soon for me the light of day + Shall forever pass away; + Then, from sin and sorrow free, + Take me, Lord, to dwell with Thee. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Both Kozeluck and J.E. Gould, besides Louis M. Gottschalk and Dr. Henry +John Gauntlett, have tried their skill in fitting music to this hymn, +but only Gottschalk and Kozeluck approach the mood into which its quiet +words charm a pious and reflective mind. Possibly its frequent +association with "Holley," composed by George Hews, may influence a +hearer's judgement of other melodies but there is something in that tune +that makes it cling to the hymn as if by instinctive kinship. + +Others may have as much or more artistic music but "Holley" in its soft +modulations seems to breathe the spirit of every word. + +It was this tune to which a stranger recently heard a group of +mill-girls singing Bishop Doane's verses. The lady, a well-known +Christian worker, visited a certain factory, and the superintendent, +after showing her through the building, opened a door into a long +work-room, where the singing of the girls delighted and surprised her. +It was sunset, and their hymn was-- + + Softly now the light of day. + +Several of the girls were Sunday-school teachers, who had encouraged +others to sing at that hour, and it had become a habit. + +"Has it made a difference?" the lady inquired. + +"There is seldom any quarrelling or coarse joking among them now," said +the superintendent with a smile. + +Dr. S.F. Smith's hymn of much the same tone and tenor-- + + Softly fades the twilight ray + Of the holy Sabbath day, + +--is commonly sung to the tune of "Holley." + +George Hews, an American composer and piano-maker, was born in +Massachusetts 1800, and died July 6, 1873. No intelligence of him or his +work or former locality is at hand, beyond this brief note in Baptie, +"He is believed to have followed his trade in Boston, and written music +for some of Mason's earlier books." + + +_DEDICATION._ + + +"CHRIST IS OUR CORNER-STONE." + +This reproduces in Chandler's translation a song-service in an ancient +Latin liturgy (_angulare fundamentum_). + + Christ is our Corner-Stone; + On Him alone we build, + With His true saints alone + The courts of heaven are filled, + On His great love + Our hopes we place + Of present grace + And joys above. + + O then with hymns of praise + These hallowed courts shall ring; + Our voices we will raise + The Three-in-One to sing. + And thus proclaim + In joyful song + But loud and long + That glorious Name. + +The Rev. John Chandler was born at Witley, Surrey, Eng. June 16, 1806. +He took his A.M. degree at Oxford, and entered the ministry of the +Church of England, was Vicar of Witley many years, and became well-known +for his translations of hymns of the primitive church. Died at Putney, +July 1, 1876. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Sebastian Wesley's "Harewood" is plainer and of less compass, but +Zundel's "Brooklyn" is more than its rival, both in melody and vivacity. + + +"OH LORD OF HOSTS WHOSE GLORY FILLS THE BOUNDS OF THE ETERNAL HILLS." + +A hymn of Dr. John Mason Neale-- + + Endue the creatures with Thy grace + That shall adorn Thy dwelling-place + The beauty of the oak and pine, + The gold and silver, make them Thine. + + The heads that guide endue with skill, + The hands that work preserve from ill, + That we who these foundations lay + May raise the top-stone in its day. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"Welton," by Rev. Caesar Malan--author of "Hendon," once familiar to +American singers. + +Henri Abraham Cæsar Malan was born at Geneva, Switzerland, 1787, and +educated at Geneva College. Ordained to the ministry of the State +church, (Reformed,) he was dismissed for preaching against its formalism +and spiritual apathy; but he built a chapel of his own, and became a +leader with D'Aubigne, Monod, and others in reviving the purity of the +Evangelical faith and laboring for the conversion of souls. + +Malan wrote many hymns, and published a large collection, the "_Chants +de Sion_," for the Evangelical Society and the French Reformed Church. +He composed the music of his own hymns. Died at Vandosurre, 1864. + + +"DAUGHTER OF ZION, FROM THE DUST." + +Cases may occur where an _exhortation_ hymn earns a place with +dedication hymns. + +The charred fragment of a hymn-book leaf hangs in a frame on the +auditorium wall of the "New England Church," Chicago. The former edifice +of that church, all the homes of its resident members, and all their +business offices except one, were destroyed in the great fire. In the +ruins of their sanctuary the only scrap of paper found on which there +was a legible word was this bit of a hymn-book leaf with the two first +stanzas of Montgomery's hymn, + + Daughter of Zion, from the dust, + Exalt thy fallen head; + Again in thy Redeemer trust, + He calls thee from the dead. + + Awake, awake! put on thy strength, + Thy beautiful array; + The day of freedom dawns at length, + The Lord's appointed day. + +The third verse was not long in coming to every mind-- + + Rebuild thy walls! thy bounds enlarge! + +--and even without that added word the impoverished congregation +evidently enough had received a message from heaven. They took heart of +grace, overcame all difficulties, and in good time replaced their ruined +Sabbath-home with the noble house in which they worship today.[46] + +[Footnote 46: The story is told by Rev. William E. Barton D.D. of Oak +Park, Ill.] + +If the "New England Church" of Chicago did not sing this hymn at the +dedication of their new temple it was for some other reason than lack of +gratitude--not to say reverence. + + +_THE SABBATH_. + + +The very essence of all song-worship pitched on this key-note is the +ringing hymn of Watts-- + + Sweet is the day of sacred rest, + No mortal cares disturb my breast, etc. + +--but it has vanished from the hymnals with its tune. Is it because +profane people or thoughtless youth made a travesty of the two next +lines-- + + O may my heart in tune be found + Like David's harp of solemn sound? + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Old "Portland" by Abraham Maxim, a fugue tune in F major of the canon +style, expressed all the joy that a choir could put into music, though +with more sound than skill. The choral is a relic among relics now, but +it is a favorite one. + +"Sweet is the Light of Sabbath Eve" by Edmeston; Stennett's "Another Six +Days' Work is Done," sung to "Spohr," the joint tune of Louis Spohr and +J.E. Gould; and Doddridge's "Thine Earthly Sabbath, Lord, We Love" +retain a feeble hold among some congregations. And Hayward's "Welcome +Delightful Morn," to the impossible tune of "Lischer," survived +unaccountably long in spite of its handicap. But special Sabbath hymns +are out of fashion, those classed under that title taking an incidental +place under the general head of "Worship." + + +_COMMUNION._ + + +"BREAD OF HEAVEN, ON THEE WE FEED." + +This hymn of Josiah Conder, copying the physical metaphors of the 6th of +John, is still occasionally used at the Lord's Supper. + + Vine of Heaven, Thy blood supplies + This blest cup of sacrifice, + Lord, Thy wounds our healing give, + To Thy Cross we look and live. + +The hymn is notable for the felicity with which it combines imagery and +reality. Figure and fact are always in sight of each other. + +Josiah Conder was born in London, September 17, 1789. He edited the +_Eclectic Review_, and was the author of numerous prose works on +historic and religious subjects. Rev. Garrett Horder says that more of +his hymns are in common use now than those of any other except Watts and +Doddridge. More _in proportion to the relative number_ may be nearer the +truth. In his lifetime Conder wrote about sixty hymns. He died Dec. 27, +1855. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The tune "Corsica" sometimes sung to the words, though written by the +famous Von Gluck, shows no sign of the genius of its author. Born at +Weissenwang, near New Markt, Prussia, July 2, 1714, he spent his life in +the service of operatic art, and is called "the father of the lyric +drama," but he paid little attention to sacred music. Queen Marie +Antoinette was for a while his pupil. Died Nov. 25, 1787. + +"Wilmot," (from Von Weber) one of Mason's popular hymn-tune +arrangements, is a melody with which the hymn is well acquainted. It has +a fireside rhythm which old and young of the same circles take up +naturally in song. + + +"HERE, O MY LORD, I SEE THEE FACE TO FACE." + +Written in October, 1855, by Dr. Horatius Bonar. James Bonar, brother of +the poet-preacher, just after the communion for that month, asked him to +furnish a hymn for the communion record. It was the church custom to +print a memorandum of each service at the Lord's table, with an +appropriate hymn attached, and an original one would be thrice welcome. +Horatius in a day or two sent this hymn: + + Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face, + Here would I touch and handle things unseen + Here grasp with firmer hand th' eternal grace + And all my weariness upon Thee lean. + + * * * * * + + Too soon we rise; the symbols disappear; + The feast, though not the love, is past and gone; + The bread and wine remove, but Thou art here + Nearer than ever--still my Shield and Sun. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"Morecambe" is an anonymous composition printed with the words by the +_Plymouth Hymnal_ editors. "Berlin" by Mendelssohn is better. The metre +of Bonar's hymn is unusual, and melodies to fit it are not numerous, but +for a meditative service it is worth a tune of its own. + + +"O THOU MY SOUL, FORGET NO MORE." + +The author of this hymn found in the Baptist hymnals, and often sung at +the sacramental seasons of that denomination, was the first Hindoo +convert to Christianity. + +Krishna Pal, a native carpenter, in consequence of an accident, came +under the care of Mr. Thomas, a missionary who had been a surgeon in the +East Indies and was now an associate worker with William Carey. Mr. +Thomas set the man's broken arm, and talked of Jesus to him and the +surrounding crowd with so much tact and loving kindness that Krishna Pal +was touched. He became a pupil of the missionaries; embraced Christ, and +influenced his wife and daughter and his brother to accept his new +faith. + +He alone, however, dared the bitter persecution of his caste, and +presented himself for church-membership. He and Carey's son were +baptized in the Ganges by Dr. Carey, Dec. 28, 1800, in the presence of +the English Governor and an immense concourse of people representing +four or five different religions. + +Krishna Pal wrote several hymns. The one here noted was translated from +the Bengalee by Dr. Marshman. + + O thou, my soul, forget no more + The Friend who all thy sorrows bore; + Let every idol be forgot; + But, O my soul, forget him not. + + Renounce thy works and ways, with grief, + And fly to this divine relief; + Nor Him forget, who left His throne, + And for thy life gave up His own. + + Eternal truth and mercy shine + In Him, and He Himself is thine: + And canst thou then, with sin beset, + Such charms, such matchless charms forget? + + Oh, no; till life itself depart, + His name shall cheer and warm my heart; + And lisping this, from earth I'll rise, + And join the chorus of the skies. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +There is no scarcity of good long-metre tunes to suit the sentiment of +this hymn. More commonly in the Baptist manuals its vocal mate is +Bradbury's "Rolland" or the sweet and serious Scotch melody of "Ward," +arranged by Mason. Best of all is "Hursley," the beautiful Ritter-Monk +choral set to "Sun of My Soul." + + +_NEW YEAR._ + + +Two representative hymns of this class are John Newton's-- + + While with ceaseless course the sun, + +--and Charles Wesley's-- + + Come let us anew our journey pursue; + +the one a voice at the next year's threshold, the other a song at the +open door. + + While with ceaseless course the sun + Hasted thro' the former year + Many souls their race have run + Nevermore to meet us here. + + * * * * * + + As the winged arrow flies + Speedily the mark to find, + As the lightening from the skies + Darts and leaves no trace behind, + Swiftly thus our fleeting days + Bear we down life's rapid stream, + Upward, Lord, our spirits raise; + All below is but a dream. + +A grave occasion, whether unexpected or periodical, will force +reflection, and so will a grave truth; and when both present themselves +at once, the truth needs only commonplace statement. If the statement is +in rhyme and measure more attention is secured. Add a _tune_ to it, and +the most frivolous will take notice. Newton's hymn sung on the last +evening of the year has its opportunity--and never fails to produce a +solemn effect; but it is to the immortal music given to it in Samuel +Webbe's "Benevento" that it owes its unique and permanent place. Dykes' +"St. Edmund" may be sung in England, but in America it will never +replace Webbe's simple and wonderfully impressive choral. + +Charles Wesley's hymn is the antipode of Newton's in metre and movement. + + Come, let us anew our journey pursue, + Roll round with the year + And never stand still till the Master appear. + His adorable will let us gladly fulfil + And our talents improve + By the patience of hope and the labor of love. + + Our life is a dream, our time as a stream + Glides swiftly away, + And the fugitive moment refuses to stay. + The arrow is flown, the moment is gone, + The millennial year, + Rushes on to our view, and eternity's near. + +[Illustration: Carl von Weber] + +One could scarcely imagine a greater contrast than between this hymn and +Newton's. In spite of its eccentric metre one cannot dismiss it as +rhythmical jingle, for it is really a sermon shaped into a popular +canticle, and the surmise is not a difficult one that he had in mind a +secular air that was familiar to the crowd. But the hymn is not one of +Wesley's _poems_. Compilers who object to its lilting measure omit it +from their books, but it holds its place in public use, for it carries +weighty thoughts in swift sentences. + + O that each in the Day of His coming may say, + "I have fought my way through, + I have finished the work Thou didst give me to do." + O that each from the Lord may receive the glad word, + "Well and faithfully done, + Enter into my joy, and sit down on my throne." + +For a hundred and fifty years this has been sung in the Methodist +watch-meetings, and it will be long before it ceases to be sung--and +reprinted in Methodist, and some Baptist hymnals. + +The tune of "Lucas," named after James Lucas, its composer, is the +favorite vehicle of song for the "Watch-hymn." Like the tune to "O How +Happy Are They," it has the movement of the words and the emphasis of +their meaning. + +No knowledge of James Lucas is at hand except that he lived in England, +where one brief reference gives his birth-date as 1762 and "about 1805" +as the birth-date of the tune. + + +"GREAT GOD, WE SING THAT MIGHTY HAND." + +The admirable hymn of Dr. Doddridge may be noted in this division with +its equally admirable tune of "Melancthon," one of the old Lutheran +chorals of Germany. + + Great God, we sing that mighty hand + By which supported still we stand. + The opening year Thy mercy shows; + Thy mercy crown it till its close! + + By day, by night, at home, abroad, + Still we are guarded by our God. + +As this last couplet stood--and ought now to stand--pious parents +teaching the hymn to their children heard them repeat-- + + By day, by night, at home, abroad, + _We are surrounded still with God_. + +Many are now living whose first impressive sense of the Divine +Omnipresence came with that line. + + +_PARTING._ + + +"GOD BE WITH YOU TILL WE MEET AGAIN." + +A lyric of benediction, born, apparently, at the divine moment for the +need of the great "Society of Christian Endeavor," and now adopted into +the Christian song-service of all lands. The author, Rev. Jeremiah Eames +Rankin, D.D., LL.D., was born in Thornton, N.H., Jan. 2, 1828. He was +graduated at Middlebury College, Vt., in 1848, and labored as a +Congregational pastor more than thirty years. For thirteen years he was +President of Howard University, Washington, D.C. Besides the "Parting +Hymn" he wrote _The Auld Scotch Mither_, _Ingleside Rhymes_, _Hymns pro +Patria_, and various practical works and religious essays. Died 1904. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +As in a thousand other partnerships of hymnist and musician, Dr. Rankin +was fortunate in his composer. The tune is a symphony of hearts--subdued +at first, but breaking into a chorus strong with the uplift of hope. It +is a farewell with a spiritual thrill in it. + +Its author, William Gould Tomer, was born in Finesville, Warren Co., +N.J., October 5, 1832; died in Phillipsburg, N.J., Sept. 26, 1896. He +was a soldier in the Civil War and a writer of good ability as well as a +composer. For some time he was editor of the _High Bridge Gazette_, and +music with him was an avocation rather than a profession. He wrote the +melody to Dr. Rankin's hymn in 1880, Prof. J.W. Bischoff supplying the +harmony, and the tune was first published in _Gospel Bells_ the same +year. + + +_FUNERALS._ + + +The style of singing at funerals, as well as the character of the hymns, +has greatly changed--if, indeed, music continues to be a part of the +service, as frequently, in ordinary cases, it is not. "China" with its +comforting words--and terrifying chords--is forever obsolete, and not +only that, but Dr. Muhlenberg's, "I Would Not Live Alway," with its +sadly sentimental tune of "Frederick," has passed out of common use. +Anna Steele's "So Fades the Lovely, Blooming Flower," on the death of a +child, is occasionally heard, and now and then Dr. S.F. Smith's, +"Sister, Thou Wast Mild and Lovely," (with its gentle air of "Mt. +Vernon,") on the death of a young lady. Standard hymns like Watts', +"Unveil Thy Bosom, Faithful Tomb," to the slow, tender melody of the +"Dead March," (from Handel's oratorio of "Saul") and Montgomery's +"Servant of God, Well Done," to "Olmutz," or Woodbury's "Forever with +the Lord," still retain their prestige, the music of the former being +played on steeple-chimes on some burial occasions in cities, during the +procession-- + + Nor pain nor grief nor anxious fear + Invade thy bounds; no mortal woes + Can reach the peaceful sleeper here + While angels watch the soft repose. + +The latter hymn (Montgomery's) is biographical--as described on page +301-- + + Servant of God, well done; + Rest from thy loved employ; + The battle fought, the victory won, + Enter thy Master's joy. + +Only five stanzas of this long poem are now in use. + +The exquisite elegy of Montgomery, entitled "The Grave,"-- + + There is a calm for those who weep, + A rest for weary mortals found + They softly lie and sweetly sleep + Low in the ground. + +--is by no means discontinued on funeral occasions, nor Margaret +Mackay's beloved hymn,-- + + Asleep in Jesus, blessed sleep, + +--melodized in Bradbury's "Rest." + +Mrs. Margaret Mackay was born in 1801, the daughter of Capt. Robert +Mackay of Hedgefield, Inverness, and wife of a major of the same name. +She was the author of several prose works and _Lays of Leisure Hours_, +containing seventy-two original hymns and poems, of which "Asleep in +Jesus" is one. She died in 1887. + + +"MY JESUS, AS THOU WILT." + +(_Mein Jesu, wie du willst._) + +This sweet hymn for mourners, known to us here in Jane Borthwick's +translation, was written by Benjamin Schmolke (or Schmolk) late in the +17th century. He was born at Brauchitzchdorf, in Silesia, Dec. 21, 1672, +and received his education at the Labau Gymnasium and Leipsic +University. A sermon preached while a youth, for his father, a Lutheran +pastor, showed such remarkable promise that a wealthy man paid the +expenses of his education for the ministry. He was ordained and settled +as pastor of the Free Church at Schweidnitz, Silesia, in which charge he +continued from 1701 till his death. + +Schmolke was the most popular hymn-writer of his time, author of some +nine hundred church pieces, besides many for special occasions. Withal +he was a man of exalted piety and a pastor of rare wisdom and influence. + +His death, of paralysis, occurred on the anniversary of his wedding, +Feb. 12, 1737. + + My Jesus, as Thou wilt, + Oh may Thy will be mine! + Into Thy hand of love + I would my all resign. + Thro' sorrow or thro' joy + Conduct me as Thine own, + And help me still to say, + My Lord, Thy will be done. + +The last line is the refrain of the hymn of four eight-line stanzas. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"Sussex," by Joseph Barnby, a plain-song with a fine harmony, is good +congregational music for the hymn. + +But "Jewett," one of Carl Maria Von Weber's exquisite flights of song, +is like no other in its intimate interpretation of the prayerful words. +We hear Luther's "bird in the heart" singing softly in every inflection +of the tender melody as it glides on. The tune, arranged by Joseph +Holbrook, is from an opera--the overture to Weber's Der Freischutz--but +one feels that the gentle musician when he wrote it must have caught an +inspiration of divine trust and peace. The wish among the last words he +uttered when dying in London of slow disease was, "Let me go back to my +own (home), and then God's will be done." That wish and the sentiment of +Schmolke's hymn belong to each other, for they end in the same way. + + My Jesus, as Thou wilt: + All shall be well for me; + Each changing future scene + I gladly trust with Thee. + Straight to my home above + I travel calmly on, + And sing in life or death + My Lord, Thy will be done. + + +"I CANNOT ALWAYS TRACE THE WAY." + +In later years, when funeral music is desired, the employment of a male +quartette has become a favorite custom. Of the selections sung in this +manner few are more suitable or more generally welcomed than the tender +and trustful hymn of Sir John Bowring, rendered sometimes in Dr. Dykes' +"Almsgiving," but better in the less-known but more flexible tune +composed by Howard M. Dow-- + + I cannot always trace the way + Where Thou, Almighty One, dost move, + But I can always, always say + That God is love. + + When fear her chilling mantle flings + O'er earth, my soul to heaven above + As to her native home upsprings, + For God is love. + + When mystery clouds my darkened path, + I'll check my dread, my doubts reprove; + In this my soul sweet comfort hath + That God is love. + + Yes, God is love. A thought like this + Can every gloomy thought remove, + And turn all tears, all woes to bliss + For God is love. + +The first line of the hymn was originally, "'Tis seldom I can trace the +way." + +Howard M. Dow has been many years a resident of Boston, and organist of +the Grand Lodge of Freemasons at the Tremont St. (Masonic) Temple. + + +_WEDDING._ + + +Time was when hymns were sung at weddings, though in America the +practice was never universal. Marriage, among Protestants, is not one of +the sacraments, and no masses are chanted for it by ecclesiastical +ordinance. The question of music at private marriages depends on +convenience, vocal or instrumental equipment, and the general drift of +the occasion. At public weddings the organ's duty is the "Wedding +March." + +To revive a fashion of singing at home marriages would be considered an +oddity--and, where civil marriages are legal, a superfluity--but in the +religious ceremony, just after the prayer that follows the completion of +the nuptial formula, it will occur to some that a hymn would "tide over" +a proverbially awkward moment. Even good, quaint old John Berridge's +lines would happily relieve the embarrassment--besides reminding the +more thoughtless that a wedding is not a mere piece of social fun-- + + Since Jesus truly did appear + To grace a marriage feast + O Lord, we ask Thy presence here + To make a wedding guest. + + Upon the bridal pair look down + Who now have plighted hands; + Their union with Thy favor crown + And bless the nuptial bands + + * * * * * + + In purest love these souls unite + That they with Christian care + May make domestic burdens light + By taking each a share. + +Tune, "Lanesboro," Mason. + +A wedding hymn of more poetic beauty is the one written by Miss Dorothy +Bloomfield (now Mrs. Gurney), born 1858, for her sister's marriage in +1883. + + O perfect Love, all human thought transcending, + Lowly we kneel in prayer before Thy throne + That their's may be a love which knows no ending + Whom Thou forevermore dost join in one. + + O perfect Life, be Thou their first assurance + Of tender charity and steadfast faith, + Of patient hope and quiet, brave endurance, + With childlike trust that fears nor pain nor death. + + Grant them the joy which brightens earthly sorrow, + Grant them the peace which calms all earthly strife, + And to their day the glorious unknown morrow + That dawns upon eternal love and life. + +Tune by Joseph Barnby, "O Perfect Love." + + +_FRUITION DAY._ + + +"LO! HE COMES WITH CLOUDS DESCENDING." + +Thomas Olivers begins one of his hymns with this line. The hymn is a +Judgment-day lyric of rude strength and once in current use, but now +rarely printed. The "Lo He Comes," here specially noted, is the +production of John Cennick, the Moravian. + + Lo! He comes with clouds descending + Once for favored sinners slain, + Thousand thousand saints attending + Swell the triumph of His train. + Hallelujah! + God appears on earth to reign. + + * * * * * + + Yea, amen; let all adore Thee + High on Thy eternal throne. + Saviour, take the power and glory, + Claim the kingdom for thine own; + O come quickly; + Hallelujah! Come, Lord, come. + + +_THE TUNES._ + +Various composers have written music to this universal hymn, but none +has given it a choral that it can claim as peculiarly its own. "Brest," +Lowell Mason's plain-song, has a limited range, and runs low on the +staff, but its solemn chords are musical and commanding. As much can be +said of the tunes of Dr. Dykes and Samuel Webbe, which have more +variety. Those who feel that the hymn calls for a more ornate melody +will prefer Madan's "Helmsley." + + +"LO! WHAT A GLORIOUS SIGHT APPEARS." + +The great Southampton bard who wrote "Sweet fields beyond the swelling +flood" was quick to kindle at every reminder of Fruition Day. + + Lo! what a glorious sight appears + To our believing eyes! + The earth and seas are passed away, + And the old rolling skies. + From the third heaven, where God resides, + That holy, happy place, + The New Jerusalem comes down, + Adorned with shining grace. + +This hymn of Watts' sings one of his most exalted visions. It has been +dear for two hundred years to every Christian soul throbbing with +millennial thoughts and wishful of the day when-- + + The God of glory down to men + Removes His best abode, + +--and when-- + + His own kind hand shall wipe the tears + From every weeping eye, + And pains and groans, and griefs and fears, + And death itself shall die, + +--and the yearning cry of the last stanza, when the vision fades, has +been the household ? [A] of myriads of burdened and sorrowing saints-- + + How long, dear Saviour, O how long + Shall this bright hour delay? + Fly swifter round ye wheels of Time, + And bring the welcome day! + +[Footnote A: Transcriber's note--This question mark is in the original. +It is possibly a compositor's query which the author missed when +correcting the proofs. The missing text could be "word".] + + +_THE TUNES._ + +By right of long appropriation both "Northfield" and "New Jerusalem" own +a near relationship to these glorious verses. Ingalls, one of the +constellation of early Puritan psalmodists, to which Billings and Swan +belonged, evidently loved the hymn, and composed his "New Jerusalem" to +the verse, "From the third heaven," and his "Northfield" to "How long, +dear Saviour." The former is now sung only as a reminiscence of the +music of the past, at church festivals, charity fairs and +entertainments of similar design, but the action and hearty joy in it +always evoke sympathetic applause. "Northfield" is still in occasional +use, and it is a jewel of melody, however irretrievably out of fashion. +Its union to that immortal stanza, if no other reason, seems likely to +insure its permanent place in the lists of sacred song. + +John Cole's "Annapolis," still found in a few hymnals with these words, +is a little too late to be called a contemporary piece, but there are +some reminders of Ingalls' "New Jerusalem" in its style and vigor, and +it really partakes the flavor of the old New England church music. + +Jeremiah Ingalls was born in Andover, Mass., March 1, 1764. A natural +fondness for music increased with his years, but opportunities to +educate it were few and far between, and he seemed like to become no +more than a fairly good bass-viol player in the village choir. But his +determination carried him higher, and in time his self-taught talent +qualified him for a singing-school master, and for many years he +travelled through Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, training the +raw vocal material in the country towns, and organizing choirs. + +Between his thirtieth and fortieth years, he composed a number of tunes, +and, in 1804 published a two hundred page collection of his own and +others' music, which he called the _Christian Harmony_. + +His home was for some time in Newberry, Vt., but he subsequently lived +at Rochester and at Hancock in the same state. + +Among the traditions of him is this anecdote of the origin of his famous +tune "Northfield," which may indicate something of his temper and +religious habit. During his travels as a singing-school teacher he +stopped at a tavern in the town of Northfield and ordered his dinner. It +was very slow in coming, but the inevitable "how long?" that formulated +itself in his hungry thoughts, instead of sharpening into profane +complaint, fell into the rhythm of Watts' sacred line--and the tune came +with it. To call it "Northfield" was natural enough; the place where its +melody first beguiled him from his bodily wants to a dream of the final +Fruition Day. + +Ingalls died in Hancock, Vt., April 6, 1828. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +HYMNS OF HOPE AND CONSOLATION. + + +"JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN." + +_Urbs Sion Aurea._ + +"The Seven Great Hymns" of the Latin Church are: + + Laus Patriae Coelestis,--(Praise of the Heavenly Country). + Veni, Sancte Spiritus,--(Come, Holy Spirit) + Veni, Creator Spiritus,--(Come, Creator Spirit) + Dies Irae,--(The Day of Wrath) + Stabat Mater,--(The Mother Stood By) + Mater Speciosa,--(The Fair Mother.) + Vexilla Regis.--(The Banner of the King.) + +Chief of these is the first named, though that is but part of a +religious poem of three thousand lines, which the author, Bernard of +Cluny, named "De Contemptu Mundi" (Concerning Disdain of the World.) + +Bernard was of English parentage, though born at Morlaix, a seaport town +in the north of France. The exact date of his birth is unknown, though +it was probably about A.D. 1100. He is called Bernard of Cluny because +he lived and wrote at that place, a French town on the Grone where he +was abbot of a famous monastery, and also to distinguish him from +Bernard of Clairvaux. + +His great poem is rarely spoken of as a whole, but in three portions, as +if each were a complete work. The first is the long exordium, exhausting +the pessimistic title (contempt of the world), and passing on to the +second, where begins the real "Laus Patriae Coelestis." This being cut +in two, making a third portion, has enriched the Christian world with +two of its best hymns, "For Thee, O Dear, Dear Country," and "Jerusalem +the Golden." + +Bernard wrote the medieval or church Latin in its prime of literary +refinement, and its accent is so obvious and its rhythm so musical that +even one ignorant of the language could pronounce it, and catch its +rhymes. The "Contemptu Mundi" begins with these two lines, in a +hexameter impossible to copy in translation: + + Hora novissima; tempora pessima sunt; Vigilemus! + Ecce minaciter imminet Arbiter, Ille Supremus! + + 'Tis the last hour; the times are at their worst; + Watch; lo the Judge Supreme stands threat'ning nigh! + +Or, as Dr. Neale paraphrases and softens it,-- + + The World is very evil, + The times are waxing late, + Be sober and keep vigil, + The Judge is at the gate, + +--and, after the poet's long, dark diorama of the world's wicked +condition, follows the "Praise of the Heavenly Fatherland," when a +tender glory dawns upon the scene till it breaks into sunrise with the +vision of the Golden City. All that an opulent and devout imagination +can picture of the beauty and bounty of heaven, and all that faith can +construct from the glimpses in the Revelation of its glory and happiness +is poured forth in the lavish poetry of the inspired monk of Cluny-- + + Urbs Sion aurea, patria lactea, cive decora, + Omne cor obruis, omnibus obstruis, et cor et ora. + Nescio, nescio quae jubilatio lux tibi qualis, + Quam socialia gaudia, gloria quam specialis. + + Jerusalem, the golden; + With milk and honey blest; + Beneath thy contemplation + Sink heart and voice opprest. + I know not, O I know not + What joys await us there, + With radiancy of glory, + With bliss beyond compare. + + They stand, those halls of Zion, + All jubilant with song,[47] + And bright with many an angel; + And all the martyr throng. + The Prince is ever in them, + The daylight is serene; + The pastures of the blessed + Are decked in glorious sheen. + + * * * * * + + O sweet and blessed country, + The home of God's elect! + O sweet and blessed country, + That eager hearts expect! + Jesu, in mercy bring us + To that dear land of rest, + Who art, with God the Father, + And Spirit, ever blest. + +[Footnote 47: In first editions, "_conjubilant_ with song."] + +Dr. John Mason Neale, the translator, was obliged to condense Bernard's +exuberant verse, and he has done so with unsurpassable grace and melody. +He made his translation while "inhibited" from his priestly functions in +the Church of England for his high ritualistic views and practice, and +so poor that he wrote stories for children to earn his living. His +poverty added to the wealth of Christendom. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The music of "Jerusalem the Golden" used in most churches is the +composition of Alexander Ewing, a paymaster in the English army. He was +born in Aberdeen, Scotland, Jan. 3d, 1830, and educated there at +Marischal College. The tune bears his name, and this honor, and its +general favor with the public, are so much testimony to its merit. It is +a stately harmony in D major with sonorous and impressive chords. Ewing +died in 1895. + + +"WHY SHOULD WE START AND FEAR TO DIE?" + +Probably it is an embarrassment of riches and despair of space that have +crowded this hymn--perhaps the sweetest that Watts ever wrote--out of +some of our church singing-books. It is pleasant to find it in the new +_Methodist Hymnal_, though with an indifferent tune. + +Christians of today should surely sing the last two stanzas with the +same exalted joy and hope that made them sacred to pious generations +past and gone-- + + O if my Lord would come and meet, + My soul would stretch her wings in haste. + Fly fearless through death's iron gate, + Nor feel the terrors as she passed. + Jesus can make a dying bed + Feel soft as downy pillows are, + While on His breast I lean my head + And breathe my life out sweetly there. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The plain-music of William Boyd's "Pentecost," (with modulations in the +tenor), creates a new accent for the familiar lines. Preferable in every +sense are Bradbury's tender "Zephyr" or "Rest." + +No coming generation will ever feel the pious gladness of Amariah Hall's +"All Saints New" in E flat major as it stirred the Christian choirs of +seventy five years ago. Fitted to this heart-felt lyric of Watts, it +opened with the words-- + + O if my Lord would come and meet, + +in full harmony and four-four time, continuing to the end of the stanza. +The melody, with its slurred syllables and beautiful modulations was +almost blithe in its brightness, while the strong musical bass and the +striking chords of the "counter," chastened it and held the anthem to +its due solemnity of tone and expression. Then the fugue took up-- + + Jesus can make a dying bed, + +--bass, treble and tenor adding voice after voice in the manner of the +old "canon" song, and the full harmony again carried the words, with +loving repetitions, to the final bar. The music closed with a minor +concord that was strangely effective and sweet. + +Amariah Hall was born in Raynham, Mass., April 28, 1785, and died there +Feb. 8, 1827. He "farmed it," manufactured straw-bonnets, kept tavern +and taught singing-school. Music was only an avocation with him, but he +was an artist in his way, and among his compositions are found in some +ancient Tune books his "Morning Glory," "Canaan," "Falmouth," +"Restoration," "Massachusetts," "Raynham," "Crucifixion," "Harmony," +"Devotion," "Zion," and "Hosanna." + +"All Saints New" was his masterpiece. + + +"WHEN I CAN READ MY TITLE CLEAR." + +No sacred song has been more profanely parodied by the thoughtless, or +more travestied, (if we may use so strong a word), in popular religious +airs, than this golden hymn which has made Isaac Watts a benefactor to +every prisoner of hope. Not to mention the fancy figures and refrains +of camp-meeting music, which have cheapened it, neither John Cole's +"Annapolis" nor Arne's "Arlington" nor a dozen others that have borrowed +these speaking lines, can wear out their association with "Auld lang +Syne." The hymn has permeated the tune, and, without forgetting its own +words, the Scotch melody preforms both a social and religious mission. +Some arrangements of it make it needlessly repetitious, but its pathos +will always best vocalize the hymn, especially the first and last +stanzas-- + + When I can read my title clear + To mansions in the skies + I'll bid farewell to every fear + And wipe my weeping eyes. + + * * * * * + + There shall I bathe my weary soul + In seas of heavenly rest, + And not a wave of trouble roll + Across my peaceful breast. + + +"VITAL SPARK OF HEAVENLY FLAME." + +This paraphrase, by Alexander Pope, of the Emperor Adrian's death-bed +address to his soul-- + + Animula, vagula, blandula, + Hospes, comesque corporis, + +--transfers the poetry and constructs a hymnic theme. + +An old hymn writer by the name of Flatman wrote a Pindaric, somewhat +similar to "Adrian's Address," as follows: + + When on my sick-bed I languish, + Full of sorrow, full of anguish, + Fainting, gasping, trembling, crying, + Panting, groaning, speechless, dying; + Methinks I hear some gentle spirit say, + "Be not fearful, come away." + +Pope combined these two poems with the words of Divine inspiration, "O +death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" and made a +pagan philosopher's question the text for a triumphant Christian anthem +of hope. + + Vital spark of heavenly flame, + Quit, oh quit this mortal frame. + Trembling, hoping, ling'ring, flying, + Oh the pain, the bliss of dying! + Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife, + And let me languish into life. + + Hark! they whisper: angels say, + "Sister spirit, come away!" + What is this absorbs me quite, + Steals my senses, shuts my sight, + Drowns my spirit, draws my breath, + Tell me, my soul, can this be death? + + The world recedes: it disappears: + Heaven opens on my eyes; my ears + With sounds seraphic ring. + Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! + O grave where is thy victory? + O death, where is thy sting? + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The old anthem, "The Dying Christian," or "The Dying Christian to his +Soul," which first made this lyric familiar in America as a musical +piece, will never be sung again except at antique entertainments, but it +had an importance in its day. + +Beginning in quadruple time on four flats minor, it renders the first +stanza in flowing concords largo affettuoso, and a single bass fugue, +Then suddenly shifting to one flat, major, duple time, it executes the +second stanza, "Hark! they whisper" ... "What is this, etc.," in +alternate pianissimo and forte phrases; and finally, changing to triple +time, sings the third triumphant stanza, andante, through staccato and +fortissimo. The shout in the last adagio, on the four final bars, "O +Death! O Death!" softening with "where is thy sting?" is quite in the +style of old orchestral magnificence. + +Since "The Dying Christian" ceased to appear in church music, the poem, +for some reason, seems not to have been recognized as a hymn. It is, +however, a Christian poem, and a true lyric of hope and consolation, +whatever the character of the author or however pagan the original that +suggested it. + +The most that is now known of Edward Harwood, the composer of the +anthem, is that he was an English musician and psalmodist, born near +Blackburn, Lancaster Co., 1707, and died about 1787. + + +"YOUR HARPS, YE TREMBLING SAINTS." + +This hymn of Toplady,--unlike "A Debtor to Mercy Alone," and "Inspirer +and Hearer of Prayer," both now little used,--stirs no controversial +feeling by a single line of his aggressive Calvinism. It is simply a +song of Christian gratitude and joy. + + Your harps, ye trembling saints + Down from the willows take; + Loud to the praise of Love Divine + Bid every string awake. + + Though in a foreign land, + We are not far from home, + And nearer to our house above + We every moment come. + + * * * * * + + Blest is the man, O God, + That stays himself on Thee, + Who waits for Thy salvation, Lord, + Shall Thy salvation see. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +"Olmutz" was arranged by Lowell Mason from a Gregorian chant. He set it +himself to Toplady's hymn, and it seems the natural music for it. The +words are also sometimes written and sung to Jonathan Woodman's "State +St." + +Jonathan Call Woodman was born in Newburyport, Mass., July 12, 1813. He +was the organist of St. George's Chapel, Flushing L.I. and a teacher, +composer and compiler. His _Musical Casket_ was not issued until Dec. +1858, but he wrote the tune of "State St." in August, 1844. It was a +contribution to Bradbury's _Psalmodist_, which was published the same +year. + + +"YE GOLDEN LAMPS OF HEAVEN, FAREWELL." + +Dr. Doddridge's "farewell" is not a note of regret. Unlike Bernard, he +appreciates this world while he anticipates the better one, but his +contemplation climbs from God's footstool to His throne. His thought is +in the last two lines of the second stanza, where he takes leave of the +sun-- + + My soul that springs beyond thy sphere + No more demands thine aid. + +But his fancy will find a function for the "golden lamps" even in the +glory that swallows up their light-- + + Ye stars are but the shining dust + Of my divine abode, + The pavement of those heavenly courts + Where I shall dwell with God. + + The Father of eternal light + Shall there His beams display, + Nor shall one moment's darkness mix + With that unvaried day. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The hymn has been assigned to "Mt. Auburn," a composition of George +Kingsley, but a far better interpretation--if not best of all--is H.K. +Oliver's tune of "Merton," (1847,) older, but written purposely for the +words. + + +"TRIUMPHANT ZION, LIFT THY HEAD." + +This fine and stimulating lyric is Doddridge in another tone. Instead of +singing hope to the individual, he sounds a note of encouragement to +the church. + + Put all thy beauteous garments on, + And let thy excellence be known; + Decked in the robes of righteousness, + The world thy glories shall confess. + + * * * * * + + God from on high has heard thy prayer; + His hand thy ruins shall repair, + Nor will thy watchful Monarch cease + To guard thee in eternal peace. + +The tune, "Anvern," is one of Mason's charming melodies, full of vigor +and cheerful life, and everything can be said of it that is said of the +hymn. Duffield compares the hymn and tune to a ring and its jewel. + +It is one of the inevitable freaks of taste that puts so choice a strain +of psalmody out of fashion. Many younger pieces in the church manuals +could be better spared. + + +"SHRINKING FROM THE COLD HAND OF DEATH." + +This is a hymn of contrast, the dark of recoiling nature making the +background of the rainbow. Written by Charles Wesley, it has passed +among his forgotten or mostly forgotten productions but is notable for +the frequent use of its 3rd stanza by his brother John. John Wesley, in +his old age, did not so much shrink from death as from the thought of +its too slow approach. His almost constant prayer was, "Lord, let me not +live to be useless." "At every place," says Belcher, "after giving to +his societies what he desired them to consider his last advice, he +invariably concluded with the stanza beginning-- + + "'Oh that, without a lingering groan, + I may the welcome word receive. + My body with my charge lay down, + And cease at once to work and live.'" + +The anticipation of death itself by both the great evangelists ended +like the ending of the hymn-- + + No anxious doubt, no guilty gloom + Shall daunt whom Jesus' presence cheers; + My Light, my Life, my God is come, + And glory in His face appears. + + +"FOREVER WITH THE LORD." + +Montgomery had the Ambrosian gift of spiritual song-writing. Whatever +may be thought of his more ambitious descriptive or heroic pages of +verse, and his long narrative poems, his lyrics and cabinet pieces are +gems. The poetry in some exquisite stanzas of his "Grave" is a dream of +peace: + + There is a calm for those who weep, + A rest for weary mortals found; + They softly lie and sweetly sleep + Low in the ground. + + The storms that wreck the winter's sky + No more disturb their deep repose + Than summer evening's latest sigh + That shuts the rose. + +But in the poem, "At Home in Heaven," which we are considering--with its +divine text in I Thess. 4:17--the Sheffield bard rises to the heights of +vision. He wrote it when he was an old man. The contemplation so +absorbed him that he could not quit his theme till he had composed +twenty-two quatrains. Only four or five--or at most only seven of +them--are now in general use. Like his "Prayer is the Soul's Sincere +Desire," they have the pith of devotional thought in them, but are less +subjective and analytical. + + Forever 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. + + I hear at morn and even, + At noon and midnight hour, + The choral harmonies of heaven + Earth's Babel tongues o'erpower. + +The last line has been changed to read-- + + Seraphic music pour, + +--and finally the hymnals have dropped the verse and substituted others. +The new line is an improvement in melody but not in rhyme, and, +besides, it robs the stanza of its leading thought--heaven and earth +offsetting each other, and heavenly music drowning earthly noise--a +thought that is missed even in the rich cantos of "Jerusalem the +Golden." + + +_THE TUNES._ + +Nearly the whole school of good short metre tunes, from "St. Thomas" to +"Boylston" have offered their notes to Montgomery's "At Home in Heaven," +but the two most commonly recognized as its property are "Mornington," +named from Lord Mornington, its author, and I.B. Woodbury's familiar +harmony, "Forever with the Lord." + +Garret Colley Wellesley, Earl of Mornington, and ancestor of the Duke of +Wellington, was born in Dagan, Ireland, July 19, 1735. Remarkable for +musical talent when a child, he became a skilled violinist, organ-player +and composer in boyhood, with little aid beyond his solitary study and +practice. When scarcely twenty-one, the University of Dublin conferred +on him the degree of Doctor of Music, and a professorship. He excelled +as a composer of glees, but wrote also tunes and anthems for the church, +some of which are still extant in the choir books of the Dublin +Cathedral Died March 22, 1781. + + +"HARK! HARK, MY SOUL!" + +The Methodist Reformation, while it had found no practical sympathy +within the established church, left a deep sense of its reason and +purpose in the minds of the more devout Episcopalians, and this feeling, +instead of taking form in popular revival methods, prompted them to +deeper sincerity and more spiritual fervor in their traditional rites of +worship. Many of the next generation inherited this pious +ecclesiasticism, and carried their loyalty to the old Christian culture +to the extreme of devotion till they saw in the sacraments the highest +good of the soul. It was Keble's "Christian Year" and his "Assize +Sermon" that began the Tractarian movement at Oxford which brought to +the front himself and such men as Henry Newman and Frederick William +Faber. + +The hymns and sacred poems of these sacramentarian Christians would +certify to their earnest piety, even if their lives were unknown. + +Faber's hymn "Hark, Hark My Soul," is welcomed and loved by every +Christian sect for its religious spirit and its lyric beauty. + + Hark! hark, my soul! angelic songs are swelling + O'er earth's green fields and ocean's wave-beat shore; + How sweet the truth those blessed strains are telling + Of that new life where sin shall be no more. + + REFRAIN + Angels of Jesus, angels of light + Singing to welcome the pilgrims of the night. + + Onward we go, for still we hear them singing + "Come, weary souls, for Jesus bids you come," + And through the dark, its echoes sweetly ringing, + The music of the gospel leads us home. + Angels of Jesus. + + Far, far away, like bells at evening pealing, + The voice of Jesus sounds o'er land and sea, + And laden souls, by thousands meekly stealing, + Kind Shepherd, turn their weary steps to Thee. + Angels of Jesus. + + +_THE TUNES._ + +John B. Dykes and Henry Smart--both masters of hymn-tune +construction--have set this hymn to music. "Vox Angelica" in B flat, the +work of the former, is a noble composition for choir or congregation, +but "Pilgrim," the other's interpretation, though not dissimilar in +movement and vocal range, has, perhaps, the more sympathetic melody. It +is, at least, the favorite in many localities. Some books print the two +on adjacent pages as optionals. + +Another much-loved hymn of Faber's is-- + + O Paradise, O Paradise! + Who doth not crave for rest? + Who would not see the happy land + Where they that loved are blest? + + REFRAIN + Where loyal hearts and true + Stand ever in the light, + All rapture through and through + In God's most holy sight. + + O Paradise, O Paradise, + The world is growing old; + Who would not be at rest and free + Where love is never cold. + + Where loyal hearts and true. + + O Paradise, O Paradise, + I greatly long to see + The special place my dearest Lord, + In love prepares for me. + + Where loyal hearts and true. + +This aspiration, from the ardent soul of the poet has been interpreted +in song by the same two musicians, and by Joseph Barnby--all with the +title "Paradise." Their similarity of style and near equality of merit +have compelled compilers to print at least two of them side by side for +the singers' choice. A certain pathos in the strains of Barnby's +composition gives it a peculiar charm to many, and in America it is +probably the oftenest sung to the words. + +Dr. David Breed, speaking of Faber's "unusual" imagination, says, "He +got more out of language than any other poet of the English tongue, and +used words--even simple words--so that they rendered him a service which +no other poet ever secured from them." The above hymns are +characteristic to a degree, but the telling simplicity of his +style--almost quaint at times--is more marked in "There's a Wideness in +God's Mercy," given on p. 234. + +[Illustration: Horatius Bonar, D.D.] + + +"BEYOND THE SMILING AND THE WEEPING." + +This song of hope--one of the most strangely tuneful and rune-like of +Dr. Bonar's hymn-poems--is less frequently sung owing to the peculiarity +of its stanza form. But it scarcely needs a staff of notes-- + + Beyond the smiling and the weeping + I shall be soon; + Beyond the waking and the sleeping, + Beyond the sowing and the reaping + I shall be soon. + + REFRAIN + Love, rest and home! + Sweet hope! + Lord, tarry not, but come. + + * * * * * + + Beyond the parting and the meeting + I shall be soon; + Beyond the farewell and the greeting, + Beyond the pulses' fever-beating + I shall be soon. + Love, rest and home! + + Beyond the frost-chain and the fever + I shall be soon; + Beyond the rock-waste and the river + Beyond the ever and the never + I shall be soon. + Love, rest and home! + +The wild contrasts and reverses of earthly vicissitude are spoken and +felt here in the sequence of words. Perpetual black-and-white through +time; then the settled life and untreacherous peace of eternity. +Everywhere in the song the note of heavenly hope interrupts the wail of +disappointment, and the chorus returns to transport the soul from the +land of emotional whirlwinds to unbroken rest. + + +_THE TUNES._ + +Mr. Bradbury wrote an admirable tune to this hymn, though the one since +composed by Mr. Stebbins has in some localities superseded it in popular +favor. Skill in following the accent and unequal rhythms produces a +melodious tone-poem, and completes the impression of Bonar's singular +but sweet lyric of hope which suggests a chant-choral rather than a +regular polyphonic harmony. W.A. Tarbutton and the young composer, Karl +Harrington, have set the hymn to music, but the success of their work +awaits the public test. + + +"WE SHALL MEET BEYOND THE RIVER." + +The words were written by Rev. John Atkinson, D.D., in January, 1867, +soon after the death of his mother. He had been engaged in revival work +and one night in his study, "that song, in substance, seemed," he says, +"to sing itself into my heart." He said to himself, "I would better +write it down, or I shall lose it." + +"There," he adds, "in the silence of my study, and not far from +midnight, I wrote the hymn." + + We shall meet beyond the river + By and by, by and by; + And the darkness will be over + By and by, by and by. + + With the toilsome journey done, + And the glorious battle won. + We shall shine forth as the sun + By and by, by and by. + +The Rev. John Atkinson was born in Deerfield, N.J. Sept. 6, 1835. A +clergyman of the Methodist denomination, he is well-known as one of its +writers. The _Centennial History of American Methodism_ is his work, and +besides the above hymn, he has written and published _The Garden of +Sorrows_, and _The Living Way_. He died Dec. 8, 1897. + +The tune to "We Shall Meet," by Hubert P. Main, composed in 1867, +exactly translates the emotional hymn into music. S.J. Vail also wrote +music to the words. The hymn, originally six eight-line stanzas, was +condensed at his request to its present length and form by Fanny Crosby. + + +"ONE SWEETLY SOLEMN THOUGHT." + +Phebe Cary, the author of this happy poem, was the younger of the two +Cary sisters, Alice and Phebe, names pleasantly remembered in American +literature. The praise of one reflects the praise of the other when we +are told that Phebe possessed a loving and trustful soul, and her life +was an honor to true womanhood and a blessing to the poor. She had to +struggle with hardship and poverty in her early years: "I have cried in +the street because I was poor," she said in her prosperous years, "and +the poor always seem nearer to me than the rich." + +When reputation came to her as a writer, she removed from her little +country home near Cincinnati, O., where she was born, in 1824, and +settled in New York City with her sister. She died at Newport, N.Y., +July 31, 1871, and her hymn was sung at her funeral. Her remains rest in +Greenwood Cemetery. + +"One Sweetly Solemn Thought," was written in 1852, during a visit to one +of her friends. She wrote (to her friend's inquiry) years afterwards +that it first saw the light "in your own house ... in the little back +third-story bedroom, one Sunday after coming from church." It was a +heart experience noted down without literary care or artistic effort, +and in its original form was in too irregular measure to be sung. She +set little value upon it as a poem, but when shown hesitatingly to +inquiring compilers, its intrinsic worth was seen, and various revisions +of it were made. The following is one of the best versions--stanzas one, +two and three:-- + + One sweetly solemn thought + Comes to me o'er and o'er, + I am nearer home to-day, + Than I ever have been before. + + Nearer my Father's house, + Where the many mansions be, + Nearer the great white throne, + Nearer the crystal sea. + + Nearer the bound of life, + Where we lay our burdens down, + Nearer leaving the cross + Nearer gaining the crown. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +The old revival tune of "Dunbar," with its chorus, "There'll be no more +sorrow there," has been sung to the hymn, but the tone-lyric of Philip +Phillips, "Nearer Home," has made the words its own, and the public are +more familiar with it than with any other. It was this air that a young +man in a drinking house in Macao, near Hong-Kong, began humming +thoughtlessly while his companion was shuffling the cards for a new +game. Both were Americans, the man with the cards more than twenty years +the elder. Noticing the tune, he threw down the pack. Every word of the +hymn had come back to him with the echo of the music. + +"Harry, where did you learn that hymn?" + +"What hymn?" + +"Why the one you have been singing." + +The young man said he did not know what he had been singing. But when +the older one repeated some of the lines, he said they were learned in +the Sunday-school. + +"Come, Harry," said the older one, "here's what I've won from you. As +for me, as God sees me, I have played my last game, and drank my last +bottle. I have misled you, Harry, and I am sorry for it. Give me your +hand, my boy, and say that, for old America's sake, if for no other, +you will quit this infernal business." + +Col. Russel H. Conwell, of Boston, (now Rev. Dr. Conwell of +Philadelphia) who was then visiting China, and was an eye-witness of the +scene, says that the reformation was a permanent one for both. + + +"I WILL SING YOU A SONG OF THAT BEAUTIFUL LAND." + +One day, in the year 1865, Mrs. Ellen M.H. Gates received a letter from +Philip Phillips noting the passage in the _Pilgrim's Progress_ which +describes the joyful music of heaven when Christian and Hopeful enter on +its shining shore beyond the river of death, and asking her to write a +hymn in the spirit of the extract, as one of the numbers in his _Singing +Pilgrim_. Mrs. Gates complied--and the sequel of the hymn she wrote is +part of the modern song-history of the church. Mr. Phillips has related +how, when he received it, he sat down with his little boy on his knee, +read again the passage in Bunyan, then the poem again, and, turning to +his organ, pencil in hand, pricked the notes of the melody. "The 'Home +of the Soul,'" he says, "seems to have had God's blessing from the +beginning, and has been a comfort to many a bereaved soul. Like many +loved hymns, it has had a peculiar history, for its simple melody has +flowed from the lips of High Churchmen, and has sought to make itself +heard above the din of Salvation Army cymbals and drums. It has been +sung in prisons and in jailyards, while the poor convict was waiting to +be launched into eternity, and on hundreds of funeral occasions. One man +writes me that he has led the singing of it at one hundred and twenty +funerals. It was sung at my dear boy's funeral, who sat on my knee when +I wrote it. It is my prayer that God may continue its solace and +comfort. I have books containing the song now printed in seven different +languages." + +A writer in the _Golden Rule_ (now the _Christian Endeavor World_) calls +attention to an incident on a night railroad train narrated in the late +Benjamin F. Taylor's _World on Wheels_, in which "this hymn appears as a +sort of Traveller's Psalm." Among the motley collection of passengers, +some talkative, some sleepy, some homesick and cross, all tired, sat two +plain women who, "would make capital country aunts.... If they were +mothers at all they were good ones." Suddenly in a dull silence, near +twelve o'clock, a voice, sweet and flexible, struck up a tune. The +singer was one of those women. "She sang on, one after another the good +Methodist and Baptist melodies of long ago," and the growing interest of +the passengers became chained attention when she began-- + + "I will sing you a song of that beautiful land, + The far-away home of the soul, + Where no storms can beat on the glittering strand, + While the years of eternity roll. + + O, that home of the soul, in my visions and dreams, + Its bright jasper walls I can see; + Till I fancy but thinly the veil intervenes + Between the fair city and me." + +"The car was a wakeful hush long before she had ended; it was as if a +beautiful spirit were floating through the air. None that heard will +ever forget. Philip Phillips can never bring that 'home of the soul' any +nearer to anybody. And never, I think, was quite so sweet a voice lifted +in a storm of a November night on the rolling plains of Iowa." + +In an autograph copy of her hymn, sent to the editor, Mrs. Gates changes +"harps" to "palms." Is it an improvement? "Palms" is a word of two +meanings. + + O how sweet it will be in that beautiful land, + So free from all sorrow and pain, + With songs on our lips and with harps in our hands + To meet one another again. + + +"THERE'S A LAND THAT IS FAIRER THAN DAY." + +This belongs rather with "Christian Ballads" than with genuine hymns, +but the song has had and still has an uplifting mission among the lowly +whom literary perfection and musical nicety could not touch--and the +first two lines, at least, are good hymn-writing. Few of the best sacred +lyrics have been sung with purer sentiment and more affectionate fervor +than "The Sweet By-and-By." To any company keyed to sympathy by time, +place, and condition, the feeling of the song brings unshed tears. + +As nearly as can be ascertained it was in the year 1867 that a man about +forty-eight years old, named Webster, entered the office of Dr. Bennett +in Elkhorn. Wis., wearing a melancholy look, and was rallied +good-naturedly by the doctor for being so blue--Webster and Bennett were +friends, and the doctor was familiar with the other's frequent fits of +gloom. + +The two men had been working in a sort of partnership, Webster being a +musician and Bennett a ready verse-writer, and together they had created +and published a number of sheet-music songs. When Webster was in a fit +of melancholy, it was the doctor's habit to give him a "dose" of new +verses and cure him by putting him to work. Today the treatment turned +out to be historic. + +"What's the matter now," was the doctor's greeting when his "patient" +came with the tell-tale face. + +"O, nothing," said Webster. "It'll be all right by and by." + +"Why not make a song of the sweet by and by?" rejoined the doctor, +cheerfully. + +"I don't know," said Webster, after thinking a second or two. "If you'll +make the words, I'll write the music." + +The doctor went to his desk, and in a short time produced three stanzas +and a chorus to which his friend soon set the notes of a lilting air, +brightening up with enthusiasm as he wrote. Seizing his violin, which +he had with him, he played the melody, and in a few minutes more he had +filled in the counterpoint and made a complete hymn-tune. By that time +two other friends, who could sing, had come in and the quartette tested +the music on the spot. Here different accounts divide widely as to the +immediate sequel of the new-born song. + +A Western paper in telling its story a year or two ago, stated that +Webster took the "Sweet By and By" (in sheet-music form), with a batch +of other pieces, to Chicago, and that it was the only song of the lot +that Root and Cady would not buy; and finally, after he had tried in +vain to sell it, Lyon and Healy took it "out of pity," and paid him +twenty dollars. They sold eight or ten copies (the story continued) and +stowed it away with dead goods, and it was not till apparently a long +time after, when a Sunday-school hymn-book reprinted it, and began to +sell rapidly on its account, that the "Sweet By and By" started on its +career round the world. + +This seems circumstantial enough, and the author of the hymn in his own +story of it might have chosen to omit some early particulars, but, +untrustworthy as the chronology of mere memory is, he would hardly +record immediate popularity of a song that lay in obscurity for years. +Dr. Bennett's words are, "I think it was used in public shortly after +[its production], for within two weeks children on the street were +singing it." + +The explanation may be partly the different method and order of the +statements, partly lapses of memory (after thirty years) and partly in +collateral facts. The Sunday-school hymn-book was evidently _The Signet +Ring_, which Bennett and Webster were at work upon and into which first +went the "Sweet By and By"--whatever efforts may have been made to +dispose of it elsewhere or whatever copyright arrangement could have +warranted Mr. Healy in purchasing a song already printed. The _Signet +Ring_ did not begin to profit by the song until the next year, after a +copy of it appeared in the publishers' circulars, and started a demand; +so that the _immediate_ popularity implied in Doctor Bennett's account +was limited to the children of Elkhorn village. + +The piece had its run, but with no exceptional result as to its hold on +the public, until in 1873 Ira D. Sankey took it up as one of his working +hymns. Modified from its first form in the "_Signet Ring_" with +pianoforte accompaniment and chorus, it appeared that year in _Winnowed +Hymns_ as arranged by Hubert P. Main, and it has so been sung ever +since. + +Sanford Filmore Bennett, born in 1836, appears to have been a native of +the West, or, at least, removed there when a young man. In 1861 he +settled in Elkhorn to practice his profession. Died Oct., 1898. + +Joseph Philbrick Webster was born in Manchester, N.H. March 22, 1819. He +was an active member of the Handel and Haydn Society, and various other +musical associations. Removed to Madison, Ind. 1851, Racine, Wis. 1856, +and Elkhorn, Wis., 1857, where he died Jan. 18, 1875. His _Signet Ring_ +was published in 1868. + + There's a land that is fairer than day, + And by faith I can see it afar + For the Father waits over the way + To prepare us a dwelling-place there. + + CHORUS + In the sweet by and by + We shall meet on that beautiful shore. + + We shall sing on that beautiful shore + The melodious songs of the blest, + And our spirits shall sorrow no more, + Nor sigh for the blessing of rest. + In the sweet by and by, etc. + + +"SUNSET AND EVENING STAR." + +Was it only a poet's imagination that made Alfred Tennyson approach +perhaps nearest of all great Protestants to a sense of the real +"Presence," every time he took the Holy Communion at the altar? Whatever +the feeling was, it characterized all his maturer life, so far as its +spiritual side was known. His remark to a niece expressed it, while +walking with her one day on the seashore, "God is with us now, on this +down, just as truly as Jesus was with his two disciples on the way to +Emmaus." + +Such a man's faith would make no room for dying terrors. + + Sunset and evening star, + And one clear call for me, + And may there be no moaning of the bar + When I put out to sea, + + But such a tide as, moving, seems asleep, + Too full for sound and foam, + When that which drew from out the boundless deep + Turns again home. + + Twilight and evening bell, + And after that the dark, + And may there be no sadness of farewell + When I embark. + + For though from out our bourne of time and place + The flood may bear me far, + I hope to see my Pilot face to face + When I have crossed the bar. + +Tennyson lived three years after penning this sublime prayer. But it was +his swan-song. Born at Somersby, Lincolnshire, Aug. 63 1809, dying at +Farringford, Oct. 6, 1892, he filled out the measure of a good old age. +And his prayer was answered, for his death was serene and dreadless. His +unseen Pilot guided him gently "across the bar"--and then _he saw Him_. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Joseph Barnby's "Crossing the Bar" has supplied a noble choral to this +poem. It will go far to make it an accepted tone in church worship, +among the more lyrical strains of verse that sing hope and euthanasia. + + +"SAFE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS." + +If Tennyson had the mistaken feeling (as Dr. Benson intimates) "that +hymns were expected to be commonplace," it was owing both to his mental +breeding and his mental stature. Genius in a colossal frame cannot +otherwise than walk in strides. What is technically a hymn he never +wrote, but it is significant that as he neared the Shoreless Sea, and +looked into the Infinite, his sense of the Divine presence instilled +something of the hymn spirit into his last verses. + +Between Alfred Tennyson singing trustfully of his Pilot and Fanny Crosby +singing "Safe in the Arms of Jesus," is only the width of the choir. The +organ tone and the flute-note breathe the same song. The stately poem +and the sweet one, the masculine and the feminine, both have wings, but +while the one is lifted in anthem and solemn chant in the great +sanctuaries, the other is echoing Isaiah's tender text[48] in prayer +meeting and Sunday-school and murmuring it at the humble firesides like +a mother's lullaby. + +[Footnote 48: Isa. 40:11.] + + Safe in the arms of Jesus, + Safe on His gentle breast, + There by His love o'ershaded + Sweetly my soul shall rest. + Hark! 'tis the voice of angels + Borne in a song to me + Over the fields of glory, + Over the jasper sea. + + REFRAIN + Safe in the arms of Jesus (1st four lines rep.). + + Safe in the arms of Jesus, + Safe from corroding care, + Safe from the world's temptations, + Sin cannot harm me there. + Free from the blight of sorrow, + Free from my doubts and fears, + Only a few more trials, + Only a few more tears. + + Safe in the arms of Jesus. + + Jesus, my heart's dear refuge + Jesus has died for me; + Firm on the Rock of Ages + Ever my trust shall be, + Here let me with patience, + Wait till the night is o'er, + Wait till I see the morning + Break on the Golden Shore. + + Safe in the arms of Jesus. + + --Composed 1868. + + +_THE TUNE._ + +Those who have characterized the _Gospel Hymns_ as "sensational" have +always been obliged to except this modest lyric of Christian peace and +its sweet and natural musical supplement by Dr. W.H. Doane. No hurried +and high-pitched chorus disturbs the quiet beauty of the hymn, a simple +_da capo_ being its only refrain. "Safe in the Arms of Jesus" sang +itself into public favor with the pulses of hymn and tune beating +together. + + + + + INDEX OF NAMES. + + ABBOT, Lyman, 237, 326 + ABT, Franz, 228, 364 + ADAMS, E., 369 + ADAMS, John, 368 + ADAMS, John Quincy, 293 + ADAMS, Sarah F., 152 + ADDISON, Joseph, 113, 114, 353 + ADRIAN, (Emperor), 515 + AIBLINGER, Johan Caspar, 357 + ALDRICH, Jonathan, 287 + ALEXANDER, Mrs. C.F., 414 + ALLEN, George N., 412 + ALLEN, J.O., 129 + ALMOND, ----, 364, 365 + ALTENBURG, Johan M., 84 + AMBROSE, xiii, 1, 2, 3 + ANATOLIUS, 354 + APES, William, 265 + ARATUS, 237 + ARNE, Thomas A., 107, 108 + ARNOLD, Matthew, 109 + ARNOLD, S., 287 + ATCHISON, John B., 451 + ATKINSON, John, 528, 529 + AUBER, Harriet, 168, 169 + AUGUSTINE, ix, 2, 3 + AVISON, Charles, 327 + + BACH, Emanuel, 9 + BACH, Sebastian, 9, 71 + BAILEY, Thomas H., 112 + BAKER, Sir Henry, 57 + BALDWIN, Thomas, 262 + BARLOW, Joel, 242, 243 + BARNBY, Joseph, 102, 111, 469, 500, + 504, 526, 539 + BARNES, Albert, 35 + BARTHELEMON, F.H., 202, 222 + BASIL THE GREAT, 56 + BASSINI, ----, 444 + BEANES, William, 333 + BEDDOME, Benjamin, 160, 169 + BEECHER, Henry Ward, 218 + BEETHOVEN, Ludwig Von, 5, 193, 327, 338 + BELCHER, Dr., 44 + BENNETT, Sanford F., 535-537 + BENSON, Louis F., 204, 206 + BENTHAM, Jeremy, 97 + BERKELEY, Bp. George, 324-326 + BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX, 100 + BERNARD OF CLUNY, 407, 510, 511, 519 + BERRIDGE, John, 122, 123, 503 + BERTHOLD OF TOURS, 55 + BEZA, Theodore, xvi + BIGLOW AND MAIN, 229 + BILLINGS, William, 16, 327, 332, 333, 475 + BISHOP, Sir Henry, 135 + BLACKALL, C.R., 450 + BLISS, Mrs. J. Worthington, 259 + BLISS, Philip P., 155, 156, 319, 372, + 421, 422, 424, 431, + 436, 437, 442, 444, 454 + BLOOMFIELD, Dorothy, 503 + BOARDMAN, George Dana, 247 + BOHLER, Peter, 46 + BONAPARTE, Napoleon, 97, 389 + BONAR, Horatius, 225, 226, 228, + 309, 490, 415, 527 + BONAR, James, 490 + BONAVENTURA, 54, 458 + BORTHWICK, Jane, 103, 499 + BORTNIANSKY, Dimitri, 213 + BOTTOME, Francis, 433 + BOURDALOUE, 13 + BOURGEOIS, Louis, 15 + BOWRING, Sir John, 97, 98, 170, 501 + BOYD, William, 513 + BRADBURY, William B., 106, 107, 215, + 217, 235, 311, 312, + 363, 410, 513, 528 + BRADY, Nicholas, 12, 14, 193 + BRAINERD, David, 263 + BREED, David R., 171, 176, 180, 226, 526 + BROOKS, Charles T., 348 + BROOKS, Bp. Phillips, x, 164, 169 + BROWN, John, 342 + BROWN, Phebe H., 229-232, 482 + BROWN, Samuel, 232 + BROWN, Theron, 188, 476, 480 + BROWN, Timothy H., 229 + BRUCE, Michael, 297 + BRUNDAGE, ----, 454 + BULL, John, 338 + BURGMÜLLER, F., 425 + BURNEY, Charles, 241, 407 + BURNS, Robert, 333, 336, 367 + BUTE, Walter, 379, 380 + BUTTERWORTH, Hezekiah, v, vi, 186, + 187, 252, 254 + + CALDWELL, William, 277 + CAMPBELL, David E., 222 + CAMPBELL, Jane M., 478 + CAMPBELL, Robert, 61 + CARADOC, ----, 381 + CAREY, Henry, 339 + CAREY, William, 172, 491, 492 + CAROLINE, (Queen), 203 + CARY, Phebe, 407, 529, 530 + CARTWRIGHT, Peter, 271, 272 + CASE, Charles C., 187 + CASWALL, Edward, 75, 101, 459 + CAWOOD, John, 414, 465 + CELANO, Thomas di., 62, 63 + CENNICK, John, 124, 126, 504 + CHALMERS, Thomas, 225, 226 + CHANDLER, John, 485 + CHANDLER, S., 270 + CHAPIN, Amzi, 275 + CHARLEMAGNE, 5 + CHARLES, David, 403 + CHARLES, Thomas, 401 + CIBBER, Mrs., 108 + CLARK, Jeremiah, 9 + CLARKE, Adam, 177 + CLAUDIUS, Matthias, 478 + CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, 294, 296 + CLEPHANE, Elizabeth C., 423 + CLICHTOVIUS, 5 + COLE, John, 115, 479, 507, 515 + COLES, George, 126, 127, 285 + COLLYER, William B., 72, 73 + COLUMBUS, Christopher, 356 + CONDER, Josiah, 489 + CONKEY, Ithamar, 99, 249 + CONVERSE, Charles Crozat, 426 + CONWELL, Russell H., 532 + COOK, Martha A.W., 148, 149 + COOK, Parsons, 148, 149 + COOPER, George, 312 + CORELLI, Arcangelo, 39 + CORNELL, J.B., 438 + CORNELL, John Henry, 96, 355, 415 + CORSE, Gen. G.M., 424 + COUSIN, Anne R., 78, 82 + COVERT, 333 + COWDELL, Samuel, 265 + COWPER, William, x, 129, 131, + 176, 192, 403 + CROFT, William, 204 + CROSBY, Fanny J., 156, 184, 312, + 425, 438, 546 + CUYLER, Theodore L., 377 + CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE, 1 + + DADMUN, J.W., 272 + DAGGET, Simeon, 330 + DANA, Mary S.B., 287, 288 + DARTMOUTH, Lord, 269 + DAVENANT, Sir William, 306 + DE GROOTE, Gerard, 67 + DE LA MOTHE, Jeanne M.B., 190, 191 + DE LISLE, Roget, 329 + DENHAM, David, 134 + DERMID, (King), 328 + DEXTER, Henry M., 294, 296 + DITSON, Oliver, vii, 413 + DIXON, William, 36 + DOANE, Bp. George W., 482, 483 + DOANE, William H., 157, 425, 429, 430, + 438, 450, 480, 541 + DODDRIDGE, Philip, 116, 117, 169, 410, + 413, 476, 488, 495, 519 + DODGE, Ossian E., 333 + DOUGLAS, George, vii + DOW, Howard M., 502 + DOW, Lorenzo, 272 + DOW, Peggy, 272 + DRAPER, Bourne H., 171 + DUNBAR, E.W., 288 + D'URHAN, Christian, 82 + DUTTON, Deodatus, 232 + DWIGHT, H.O., 462 + DWIGHT, John S., 347, 348 + DWIGHT, Timothy, 29, 133, 134 + DYKES, John B., 51, 57, 65, 104, + 152, 224, 228, 363, + 370, 372, 465, 525 + EDMESTON, James, 299, 488 + EDSON, Lewis, 395, 476 + EDWARDS, Jonathan, 263 + ELIAS, John, 390 + ELIZABETH, (Queen), 17 + ELLIOTT, Charlotte, 214, 215 + ELLIOT, Ebenezer, 183 + ELLSWORTH, J.S., 437 + EMERSON, Ralph Waldo, 339, 340 + EPHREM, Syrus, 56 + ERBURY, ----, 381 + ESLING, Catherine, 208, 209, 482 + EVANS, Evelyn, 407 + EVANS, Heber, 399 + EVANS, John Miller, 369 + EVANS, Thomas, 401 + EWING, Alexander, 512 + + FABER, Frederick W., 233, 234, 302, 524 + FAURE, Jean Baptiste, 470 + FAWCETT, John, 132, 133 + FINDLATER, Mrs., 103 + FISCHER, William Gustavus, 429 + FLATMAN, ----, 515 + FORTUNATUS, Venantius, 357, 472 + FOSTER, Paul, vii + FRANC, Guillaume, 194 + FRANCIS, Benjamin, 132 + FRANKENBERRY, A.D., 424 + FREDERICK, (King), 94 + FREEMAN, John E., 222 + FROTHINGHAM, N.L., ix + FULBERT, Bp., 59-61 + + GARDINER, William, 48, 130 + GATES, Bernard, 96 + GATES, Ellen M.H., vii, 256, 258, + 430, 449, 532, 534 + GAUNTLETT, Henry I., 48, 483 + GELLERT, C.F., 473 + GEORGE I, (King), 11 + GERHARDT, Paul, 84, 85, 87, 88, 93 + GIARDINI, Felice, 227 + GILMORE, Joseph Henry, 235, 236 + GLADSTONE, William E., 139, 140 + GLASER, Carl, 48 + GLENELG, Lord, 22 + GOODE, William, 14, 31 + GORDON, A.J., 162, 164 + GORDON, Mrs. A.J., vii + GOTTSCHALK, Louis, 483 + GOUGH, John B., 215 + GOULD, Eliza, 151 + GOULD, John Edgar, 374, 468, 488 + GOULD, Sabine Baring, 185 + GRANNIS, Sidney M., 259 + GRAPE, John T., 429 + GRANT, Sir Robert, 21, 22, 212 + GREGORY NAZIANZEN, 56 + GREGORY THE GREAT, (Pope), xiii, xiv, 8, 10 + GRENADE, John, 298 + GRIFFITHS, Ann, 396-399 + GRIFFITHS, Edward, 386 + GRIGGS, ----, 102 + GROOTE, Gerald de, 67 + GUIDO, Arentino, xiv + GUILD, Curtis, 206 + GURNEY, Mrs., 503 + GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, (King), 82-84 + GUYON, Madame, 190, 192 + + HAGUE, John R., vii + HALL, Amasiah, 513, 514 + HALL, Elvina M., 426 + HAMMOND, William, 29 + HANDEL, George Frederick, 11, 31, 134, + 166, 414 + HANKEY, Kate, 427, 429 + HANNA, Ione T., 456 + HARRINGTON, C.S., 149 + HARRINGTON, Karl, 528 + HARRIS, Howell, 381, 387, 388 + HARRIS, Thomas, 366 + HARRISON, Ralph, 48 + HART, Joseph, 119, 121 + HAREWOOD, Edward, 517 + HASTINGS, H.L., 204 + HASTINGS, Thomas, 25, 59, 142, 160, + 168, 174, 219-221, 223 + HATFIELD, C.F., 14 + HATTON, John, 37 + HATTON, John Liphot, 37 + HAVERGAL, Frances Ridley, 154, 155 + HAVERGAL, William Henry, 227 + HAWKES, Annie S., 153 + HAWKES, Robert, 14 + HAYDN, Joseph, 32 + HAYWARD, Thomas, 488 + HEARN, Marianne Farningham, 441, 442 + HEATH, George, 143 + HEATH, Lyman, 247 + HEBER, Bp. Reginald, 4, 50, 51, + 178, 179, 318 + HEDGE, Frederick H., 71 + HEMANS, Felicia, 196, 359, 323, 324, 333 + HENRY vii, (King), 18 + HEWS, George, 407, 483, 484 + HICKS, John J., 272 + HILARY, Bp., xiii + HILLER, Ferdinand, 65, 66 + HINSDALE, George, 229 + HODGES, Edward, 212, 464 + HOLBROOK, Joseph P., 360, 364, 501 + HOLDEN, Oliver, 27, 28 + HOLMES, O.W., 52, 249, 344 + HOLROYD, Israel, 409 + HOLZMAN, ----, 329 + HOPKINS, Edward, 30, 112 + HOPKINS, John, 15 + HOPKINSON, Joseph, 331 + HOPPER, Edward, 373 + HORDER, Garrett, 489 + HOWARD, John, 24 + HOWE, Julia Ward, 340, 343 + HUCBALD, xiii + HUFFER, Francis, 95 + HUGHES AND SON, vii + HUGHES, Mrs., 359 + HUMPHREYS, Cecil Frances, 414 + HUNTER, William, 272, 288, 289 + HUNTINGDON, (Lady) Selina, 25, 88, 89, + 119, 128, 201 + HUNTINGTON, DeWitt C., 436 + HUSBAND, John Jenkins, 416 + HYATT, John, 216 + HYDE, Charles, 230 + + INGALLS, Jeremiah, 121, 274, 278, 507 + IRVING, Washington, 322 + ISAAC, Heinrich, 91, 112 + + JACKSON, Andrew, 206 + JACKSON, Deborah, 206 + JEROME OF PRAGUE, 472 + JOHN OF DAMASCUS, 53, 54, 57 + JOHNSON, Albert, 222 + JOHNSON, Mrs. James G., 452 + JONES, H.R., 392 + JONES, John, 393 + JONES, Nancy, 389, 390 + JONES, Thomas, 401 + JUDAH, Daniel Ben, 20 + JUDSON, Sarah B., 246 + JULIAN, John, 204 + + KEBLE, John, 159, 252, 482 + KEENE, Robert, 204 + KELLER, Matthias, 343, 345, 347 + KELLY, Thomas, 173, 174 + KEMPIS, Thomas à, 67 + KEN, Bp., 13, 14 + KEY, Francis Scott, 49, 333 + KEY, John R., 49 + KING, Jacob, 71 + KING ROBERT II, 11, 57, 58, 60 + KINGSLEY, George, 34, 102, 158, + 281, 318, 519 + KIPLING, Rudyard, 349-351 + KOZELUCK, ----, 483 + KRISHNA PAL, 491 + + LAMB, Frank M., 253, 254 + LATTIMORE, W.O., 434 + LEE, Mary Augusta, 455, 456 + LEE, Gen. Robert E., 206 + LELAND, John, 224, 276, 482 + LINCOLN, Abraham, 239, 256 + LINDSAY, Miss, 259 + LOGAN, John, 279 + LONGFELLOW, Henry W., 248, 249 + LONGFELLOW, Samuel, ix + LORIMER, George, 252 + LOUIS, (King), 5, 191 + LOWRY, J.C., 118 + LOWRY, Robert, 39, 148, 153, + 406, 419, 446, 448 + LOYOLA, Ignatius, 74 + LUCAS, James, 495 + LUDWIG, Duke, 121 + LUKE, Jemima T., 305, 306 + LULLI, ----, 338 + LUMMIS, Franklin H., 342 + LUTHER, Martin, xvi, 8, 69-71, 388 + LYON, Meyer, 20 + LYTE, Henry Francis, 217, 221 + + MACGILL, Hamilton M., 296 + MACKAY, Charles, 135 + MACKAY, Margaret, 499 + MACKAY, William Paton, 416 + MADAN, Martin, 29, 30, 41, 463, 505 + MAFFIT, John, 274 + MAIN, Hubert P., vi, vii, 115, 134, + 228, 240, 299, 307, + 369, 415, 430, 470, 537 + MALAN, Cæsar, xvi, 214, 384, 436 + MARCO, (?), Portugalis, 205, 206 + MAROT, Clement, xvi + MARSH, ----, 363 + MARVIN, Bp., 151 + MARY, (Queen), 12, 18 + MARY, (Princess), 12, 18 + MARY, (Virgin), 356, 358 + MARY STUART, (Queen), 77 + MASON, Francis, 175 + MASON, Lowell, 36, 91, 93, 105, + 106, 111, 118, 131, 133, 146, + 170, 173, 179, 196, 302, 337, + 339, 348, 363, 581, 526 + MASTERS, Mary, 303 + MAURICE, ----, 381 + MAXIM, Abraham, 282, 283, 488 + MAYO, Mrs. Herbert, 310 + MAZZINGHI, Joseph, 202, 203 + McGRANAHAN, James, 308, 444, 452 + McKEEVER, F.G., vii + McKINLEY, William, 151, 251 + McMULLEN, Mr. and Mrs., 222 + MEEK, William T., vii + MEDLEY, Samuel, 136, 276 + MELANCTHON, Philip, 69 + MENDELSSOHN, Felix, 463, 482, 491 + MERRIAM, Edmund F., vii + MERRILL, Abraham, D., 269 + MIDLANE, Albert, 445 + MILLER, James, 367 + MILMAN, Henry Hart, 278 + MILLS, Elizabeth, 307 + MILTON, John, 461, 462 + MOHAMMED, 5 + MONK, William H., 160, 219, 245 + MONTGOMERY, James, 21, 144, 145, + 176, 177, 285, 353, + 480, 487, 499, 521 + MOODY, Dwight L., 308, 310, 421, 426, 431 + MOORE, (More), Joshua, 267, 269 + MOORE, Thomas, 112, 219, 243, 325-328, 333 + MORGAN, David, 392 + MORNINGTON, Garret, + Colley Wellesley, Earl of 523 + MORRIS, Robert, 260 + MORSE, Charles H., 482 + MOTE, Edward, 216 + MOZART, Johan Wolfgang, 222, 244, 327 + MUHLENBERG, Henry M., 158, 498 + MUHLENBERG, W.A., 157, 158 + MURILLO, Bartolomeo, 162 + + NÄGELI, Johan G., 161, 162 + NAPOLEON, 97, 389 + NARES, James, 95 + NEALE, John M., 6, 7, 55, 57, 354, 512 + NERO, (Emperor), 322 + NEWELL, Harriet, 175 + NEWMAN, John Henry, 223, 224, 524 + NEWTON, John, 130, 203, 204, 286, + 386, 403, 493 + NICHOLSON, Ludovic, 201 + NOVELLO, Vincent, 73, 74 + NUTTER, Dr., 180 + + OAKELEY, Frederick, 459 + OAKELEY, Sir. Herbert S., 252 + OAKEY, Emily, 434, 435 + OCCUM, Samson, 267-269, 279 + O'KANE, Tullius C., 437 + OLDCASTLE, John, 379 + OLIVER, Henry K., 104, 105 + OLIVERS, Thomas, 19, 20, 22, 504 + OSBORNE, John, 146 + + PAINE, John K., 462 + PAINE, Robert T., 335 + PALESTRINA, xiv-xvi + PALMER, Horatio R., 261, 311, 417, 450 + PALMER, Ray, 59 + PARKER, Theodore, ix + PARRY; Joseph, 395, 398 + PATRICK, St., 328 + PAYNE John Howard, 135 + PELOUBET, F.N., 188 + PENRY, ----, 381 + PERRONET, Edward, 25, 27, 31, 59 + PHELPS, A.S., vii + PHELPS, S.D., 147 + PHELPS, W.L., vii + PHILIP, "King", 265 + PHILLIPS, Philip, 149, 150, 239, + 256, 267, 309, 333, + 421, 531, 532, 534 + PHIPPS, George, 188, 189 + PIERPONT, John, 335, 336 + PINSUTI, 415 + PLEYEL, Ignace, 126, 208 + PLINY, 293 + POPE, Alexander, 238, 326, 515, 516 + POWELL, John, 381 + PRESBRY, Otis F., 451, 452 + PRICE, Dr., 41 + PRICE, E.M., 395 + PRITCHARD, Rhys M., 379, 396 + PROCH, Heinrich, 357 + PURCELL, Henry, 338 + + RALEIGH, Sir Walter, 76 + RANKIN, James, 362 + RANKIN, Jeremiah E., 496 + RAVENSCROFT, Thomas, 338 + READ, Daniel, 407, 466 + READING, John, 205 + REDHEAD, Richard, 50 + REDNER, Louis H., 469 + REES, William, 402 + REINAGLE, Alexander R., 87 + REXFORD, Eben E., 439, 440 + RHYE, Morgan, 404 + RICHARDSON, John, 76 + RIDLEY, Bp., 4 + RILEY, Mary Louise, 317 + RIMBAULT, Edward F., 282 + RINGWALDT, Bartholomew, 71, 73 + RIPPON, John, 27, 204, 281 + RITTER, Peter, 160 + ROBERT II, (King), 57, 58, 60 + ROBERTS, Evan, 377, 393, 394 + ROBERTS, W.M., 404 + ROBINSON, Charles, 171, 179 + ROBINSON, Robert, 283, 284 + ROMAINE, William, 31 + ROOSEVELT, Theodore, 151 + ROOT, George F., 155, 156,254, + 315, 317, 439, 444 + ROUSSEAU, J.J., 112, 113 + ROWE, Elizabeth, 45 + ROWLANDS, Daniel, 381, 387 + RUTHERFORD, Samuel, 78, 79, 81 + + SALMON, Thomas, 432 + SANDERSON, Mrs., 335 + SANKEY, Ira D., 184, 258, 308-311, + 374, 375, 417, 421-423, + 434, 438, 447, 537 + SCHMOLKE, Benjamin, 499 + SCHUMANN, Robert, 87 + SCOTT, Thomas, 226, 411 + SCOTT, Sir Walter, 240 + SCRIVEN, Joseph, 425 + SEAGRAVE, Robert, 94 + SEARS, Edmund H., 466 + SENECA, 320, 322 + SERVOSS, Mary Elizabeth, 442, 443 + SEWARD, William H., 257 + SHEPHERD, Thomas, 411 + SHERIDAN, Mrs. Richard Brinsley, 244 + SHIPLEY, Dean, 178 + SHIRLEY, Sir Walter, 127, 128, 202 + SIMAO, Portugalis, 206 + SIMPSON, Robert, 298 + SINGER, Elizabeth, 45 + SMART, Henry, 4, 5, 10, 137, 465, 525 + SMITH, Mrs. Albert, 317 + SMITH, Alexander, 368 + SMITH, Goldwin, x + SMITH, Isaac, 324 + SMITH, John Stafford, 335 + SMITH, Samuel Francis, 180-182, 337, 339 + SPAFFORD, Horatio G., 440, 441 + SPOHR, L., 126, 207, 227, 228, 244, 488 + STAINER, John, 65, 66, 352, 474 + STANLEY, (Dean), Arthur P., 65, 66, 148 + STEAD, William, 150, 151 + STEBBINS, George C., 254, 308, 375, + 415, 528 + STEELE, Anna, 197 + STEFFE, John W., 342 + ST. FULBERT, 59-61 + STENNETT, Joseph, 23, 488 + STENNETT, Samuel, 23, 24 + STEPHENS, ----, 395 + STEPHEN, (St.), the Sabaite, 57 + STERNHOLD, Thomas, 15, 16 + STEVENSON, ----, 317 + STOKES, Walter, 84 + STORES, Richard S., 35, 474 + STORRS, Mrs. R.S., 474 + STOWE, Harriet Beecher, 481 + STOWELL, Hugh, 222, 223 + STUART, Charles M., 34 + SUMNER, Janaziah, 330 + SWAIN, Joseph, 28, 281 + SWAN, Jabez, 286 + SWAN, Timothy, 194, 195, 327, 506 + + TADOLINI, Giovanni, 357 + TAIT, Abp., 252 + TALLIS, Thomas, xv, 17, 18 + TANSUR, William, 282, 283 + TARBUTTON, W.A., 528 + TATE, Nahum, 12, 14, 193, 283 + TAYLOR, Benjamin F., 533 + TAYLOR, James, 61 + TAYLOR, Thomas R., 300, 301 + TAYLOR, V.C., 52, 244 + TENNYSON, Alfred, 259, 538-540 + TERSTEEGEN, Gerhard, 102 + TESCHNER, Melchior, 8 + THEODULPH, Bp., 5, 6, 7 + THOMAS à KEMPIS, 67 + THOMAS DI CELANO, 62, 63 + THRING, Godfrey, 371 + THRUPP, Dorothy A., 310 + TOMER, William G., 497 + TOPLADY, A.M., 137, 138, 517, 18 + TOURJEE, Eben, 149, 150, 235 + TOURJEE, Lizzie S., 235 + TOURS, Berthold, 415 + TRAJAN, (Emperor), 293 + TYLER, Mrs. Fanny, 28 + + UFFORD, E.S., 374, 376, 377 + UPHAM, Thomas, 192 + URHAN, Christian, 82 + + VAIL, Silas J., 8, 234, 235 + VAN ALSTYNE, Mrs., 156, 184, 312, 425, 438 + VERNON, (Admiral), 339 + VICTORIA, (Queen), 139, 248, 252 + VOKES, Mrs., 171, 173 + VOLTAIRE, 43 + VON GLUCK, 490 + VON WEBER, C.M., 121, 338, 490, 500 + + WADE, ----, 102 + WALFORD, William W., 432 + WALTHER, Johan, xvi + WARNER, Anna, 418 + WASHBURN, Henry S., 245, 247 + WATERS, Horace, 303 + WATKIN, Jack E., 390 + WATSON, Bp., 151 + WATSON, Richard, 120 + WATTS, Isaac, 14, 29, 33, 35, 37, + 40, 41-45, 47, 60, 105, 107-109, + 133, 134, 165, 166, 167, + 243, 396, 403, 463, 506, 513 + WAYLAND, Francis, 42 + WEBB, George J., 182, 444 + WEBBE, Samuel, 116, 505 + WEBSTER, Joseph P., 535-537 + WELLS, G.C., 111 + WENTWORTH, (Gov.), 269 + WESLEY, Charles, 14, 26, 45, 47, 94, + 111, 118, 204, 274, 359-361, 388, + 396, 403, 420, 463, 474, 493, 520 + WESLEY, John, 14, 209, 211, 273, 520 + WESLEY, Samuel, 45, 178 + WESLEY, Samuel Sebastian, 45, 177, 178, + 304, 485 + WHEELOCK, Eleazer, 267, 269 + WHITE, Henry Kirke, 297, 364-366 + WHITEFIELD, George, 19, 31, 88, + 124, 132, 201 + WHITING, William, 369, 370 + WHITTIER, John G., 250, 251 + WHITTLE, D.W., 444 + WILLIAM, (King), 12, 13 + WILLIAMS, Aaron, 130, 134 + WILLIAMS, David, 405 + WILLIAMS, Helen M., 125, 126, 206 + WILLIAMS, Peter, 199, 201, 387, 389 + WILLIAMS, Thomas, 393, 401, 403 + WILLIAMS, William, 166-168, 199, 381-386, + 388, 396, 399, 405 + WILLIS, Richard Storrs, 415, 467 + WILLIS, Nathaniel, 467 + WILLIS, N.P., 467 + WILSON, Hugh, 353 + WINKS, W.E., 406 + WINKWORTH, Catherine, 84 + WOODBRIDGE, William C., 338, 339 + WOODBURY, Isaac B., 111, 183, 244, + 319, 407 + WOODMAN, J.C., 410, 415 + WOOD, Sir Evelyn, 368 + WROTH, William, 379 + WYETH, John, 283, 284 + + XAVIER, Francis, 74 + + YOUNG, Andrew, 304 + + ZERRAHN, Carl, 444 + ZEUNER, Heinrich, 172, 241 + ZINZENDORF, (Count), 91, 92 + ZUNDEL, John, 363, 485 + + + + + INDEX OF TUNES. + + ABENDS, 252 + ABERYSTWYTH, 395 + ABIDE WITH ME, 219 + AELRED, 372 + AIN, 38, 39 + ALMOST PERSUADED, 454 + ALSACE, 193 + ALL SAINTS, NEW, 513 + AMALAND, 465 + AMERICA, 336-339 + AMES, 34 + AMSTERDAM, 95, 96 + ANACREON IN HEAVEN, 334 + ANNAPOLIS, 507, 515 + ANTHEM FOR EASTER, 474 + ANTIOCH, 166, 464 + ANTIPHONALS, xiii + ANVERN, 520 + ARABIA, 388 + ARIEL, 137 + ARLINGTON, 107, 118, 515 + ATHENS, 227, 307 + AUDIENTES, 303 + AULD LANG SYNE, 515 + AURELIA, 177 + AUTUMN, (Sardius), 222 + AZMON, 47, 48 + + BABEL, 388 + BALERMA, 297, 298 + BATTLE HYMN ETC., 341-343 + BELMONT, 116 + BENEVENTO, 494 + BERLIN, 491 + BETHANY, 153, 465 + BEYOND THE SMILING AND THE WEEPING, 528 + BIRMINGHAM, 132 + BONNY DOON, 367 + BOSWORTH, 105 + BOWER OF PRAYER, THE, 147 + BOWRING, 170 + BOYLSTON, 133, 169, 523 + BRADEN, 276 + BRATTLE STREET, 126, 207 + BREST, 505 + BRIGHT CANAAN, 273, 274 + BRIGHTON, 245 + BROKEN PINION, THE, 254 + BROOKLYN, 485 + BROWN, 232 + BRUCE'S ADDRESS, 335, 336 + BRYMGFRYD, 388 + BUCKFIELD, 283 + BURIAL OF MRS. JUDSON, 247 + + CALM ON THE LISTENING EAR, (EPIPHANY), 468 + CANAAN, 514 + CANONS, 11 + CAPEL Y DDOL, 405 + CAROL, 467 + CATHARINE, 404 + CHESTER, 331, 332 + CHINA, 194 + CHRISTMAS, 414, 466 + CLWYD, 393 + COLEBROOK, 137 + COLUMBIA, 332 + COME, 453 + COME, MY BRETHREN, 280 + COME, YE DISCONSOLATE, 221 + COME, YE FAITHFUL, 55 + CONSOLATION, 482 + CONVENTION HYMN, 187 + CORONATION, 27, 59 + CORSICA, 490 + COUNTERPOINT, xv + CREATION, 40 + CRIMEA, 366 + CROSSING THE BAR, 539 + CRUCIFIXION, 514 + CWYFAN, 388 + CWYNFAN PRYDIAN, 402 + + DARBY, 403 + DEAD MARCH IN "SAUL", 498 + DEDHAM, 48, 130 + DENMARK, 41 + DENNIS, 133, 161 + DEVONSHIRE, 105 + DEVOTION, 514 + DIES IRAE, 65 + DORT, 187, 348, 481 + DUNBAR, 531 + DUNDEE, 194 + DUKE STREET, 37, 166 + + EASTER ANTHEM, 474 + EBENEZER, 406 + EDEN OF LOVE, 272, 273 + EDINA, 252 + EDOM, 401 + EIN FESTE BURG, 71 + EIRINWG, 403 + ELLACOMBE, 177 + ELLIOTT, 215 + ELVY, 388 + EMMONS, 125 + EPIPHANY (CALM ON THE LISTENING), 468 + ERNAN, 407 + ETERNITY, 449 + EUCHARIST, 111 + EVAN, 227 + EVENING SONG TO THE VIRGIN, 359 + EXCELSIUS, 96 + + FAIR HARVARD, 307 + FALMOUTH, 514 + FEDERAL STREET, 104, 105 + FITZWILLIAM, 4 + FOREVER WITH THE LORD, 498 + FREDERICK, 158, 498 + FROM GREENLAND'S ICY, 179 + + GANGES, 119, 269, 270 + GARDEN HYMN, THE, 277, 278 + GENEVA, 115 + GOLDEN HILL, 108, 274 + GOD BE WITH YOU, 497 + GOOD MORNING IN GLORY, 164 + GOTT IST LICHT, 463 + GREENVILLE, 112, 121 + GRIGGS, 102 + + HABAKKUK, 212 + HAIL COLUMBIA, 331 + HALLELUJAH! 'TIS DONE! 422 + HALLOWELL, 283 + HAMBURG, 111 + HANOVER, 204 + HAPPY DAY, 282 + HAPPY LAND, 304 + HAREWOOD, 485 + HARMONY, 514 + HARMONY GROVE, 105 + HARVEST HOME, 479 + HAYDN, 31 + HEBER, 102, 318 + HE LEADETH ME, 236 + HELMSLEY, 505 + HENDON, 486 + HE WILL HIDE ME, 444 + HOLD THE FORT, 424, 432 + HOLLEY, 407, 483, 484 + HOLY CROSS, 102 + HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, 51 + HOLY TRINITY, 102 + HOME OF THE SOUL, THE, 532, 533 + HOME, SWEET HOME, 135 + HORBURY, 152 + HOSANNA, 512 + HUDSON, 105 + HURSLEY, 160, 493 + HYFRYDOL, 375 + + I'M GLAD I'M IN THIS ARMY, 299 + IMMANUEL'S BANNER, 188 + INDEPENDENCE, 332 + INNSBRUCK, 91 + IT IS WELL, 440 + (See Index of Hymns) + + JAZER, 118 + JEWETT, 500 + JOYFULLY, JOYFULLY, 289, 290 + (See Index of Hymns) + + KEBLE, 52 + KELLER'S AMERICAN HYMN, 433-445 + KENT, 105 + KENTUCKY, 274 + + LABAN, 143 + LAMENT OVER BOSTON, 332 + LAND AHEAD, 369 + LANESBORO, 36, 503 + LA SPEZIA, 61 + LENOX, 395, 476 + LEONI, 20 + LET THE LOWER LIGHTS, 434 + LISBON, 466 + LISCHER, 488 + LLANIETYN, 404 + LOUVAN, 52, 244 + LOVING-KINDNESS, 277 + LOWELL, 407 + LUCAS, 494 + LUTHER'S HYMN, 73 + LUX BENIGNA, 224 + + MAGDALEN, 351 + MAGNIFICAT, xi, xii, 10 + MAITLAND, 412 + MAJESTY, 16 + MALVERN, 93 + MANOAH, 116 + MARSEILLAISE, 174, 329, 352 + MASSACHUSETTS, 514 + MATTHIAS, 245 + MEAR, 130 + MELANCTHON, 496 + MELITA, 370 + MILTON, 243 + MENDELSSOHN, 463 + MERIBAH, 90, 91, 119, 395 + MERTON, 105, 519 + MESSIAH, 281 + MIDNIGHT MASS, 460 + MIGDOL, 173 + MILLENNIAL DAWN, 177, 182, 477 + MISSIONARY CHANT, 172, 291 + MONSON, 232 + MONTGOMERY, 35 + MORECAMBE, 491 + MORLAIX, 372 + MORNING, 105 + MORNING GLORY, 504 + MORNINGTON, 523 + MOZART, 244 + MT. AUBURN, 519 + MT. VERNON, 498 + MY AIN COUNTREE, 456 + MY BROTHER I WISH YOU WELL, 91 + MY JESUS, I LOVE THEE, 162, 163 + + NANCY JIG, 385 + NAOMI, 198 + NEALE, 355 + NEARER HOME, 407, 531 + NESTA, 404 + NETTLETON, 112, 283, 284 + NEW DURHAM, 283 + NEW JERUSALEM, 506, 507 + NICÆA, 51 + NORTHFIELD, 506-508 + NORWICH, 207, 462 + NOT HALF HAS EVER BEEN TOLD, 451 + NOTTINGHAM, 16 + NO WAR NOR BATTLE SOUND, 461 + + OAK, 302 + ODE ON SCIENCE, 330 + O DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED, 299 + OLD HUNDRED, xvi, 15, 41, 166, 339 + OLMUTZ, 518 + OLD SHIP OF ZION, 290 + ONE MORE DAY'S WORK, ETC., 418 + ONLY REMEMBERED, 309 + ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS, 56, 186 + O, PERFECT LOVE, 504 + ORTONVILLE, 25 + OVER THERE, 436 + + PALESTINE, 202 + PALM BRANCHES, 470 + PARADISE, 526 + PART-SONG, xv + PASCHALE GAUDIUM, 474 + PENTECOST, 513 + PETERBOROUGH, 48 + PILGRIM, 25 + PISGAH, 118 + PLAIN-SONG, xii, 10 + PLEYEL'S HYMN, 280, 411 + POLYPHONIC, xv + PORTLAND, 283, 488 + PORTUGUESE HYMN, 205, 206, 460 + PRECIOUS JEWELS, 315, 316 + PRESIDENT'S MARCH, 331 + + RANZ DE VACHES, 352 + RATHBUN, 99, 249 + RAVENDALE, 84 + RAYNHAM, 514 + REFUGE, 363 + REJOICE AND BE GLAD, 415 + RESCUE THE PERISHING, 425 + REST, 499, 513 + RESTORATION, 514 + RETREAT, 223 + RETROSPECT, 332 + REVIVE THY WORK, 445 + RHINE, 125 + RIVAULX, 104 + ROLLAND, 106, 493 + ROCKINGHAM, 131 + ROTTERDAM, 55 + RUSSIA, 466 + RUTHERFORD, 82 + + SAFE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS, 541 + SALEM, 123 + SALISBURY PLAIN, 105 + SAMSON, 166 + SARDIUS, (AUTUMN), 201 + SAVANNAH, 238 + SAVIOUR, LIKE A SHEPHERD, 310, 311 + SAVIOUR, PILOT ME, 374 + SCALE, THE, xiii, xiv + SCATTER SEEDS OF KINDNESS, 318 + SCHUMANN, 87 + SCOTS WHA HAE, 336 + SEQUENCES, (FOOT NOTE [7]), 8 + SHAWMUT, 407 + SHERBURNE, 466 + SICILY, 129, 283 + SILOAM, 244, 318, 319 + SILVER STREET, 324 + SIMPSON, 126 + SOMETHING FOR JESUS, 148 + SONGS OF THE BEAUTIFUL, 483 + SONNET, 287 + SOUND THE LOUD TIMBREL, 327 + SPEED AWAY, 184 + SPOHR, 244 + STAFFORD, 466 + STAR-SPANGLED BANNER, THE, 49, 333-335 + STATE STREET, 410, 515 + ST. AMBROSE, 296 + ST. ANSELM, (we plow the fields), 478 + ST. ATHANASIUS, 59 + ST. BERNARD, 75 + ST. BOTOLPH, 244 + ST. CHAD, 50 + ST. EDMUND, 152 + ST. GARMON, 395 + ST. KEVIN, 307 + ST. LOUIS, 469 + ST. MAGNUS, 16 + ST. PETERSBURG, 213 + ST. PHILIP, 30 + ST. THOMAS, 38, 134, 523 + STEPHENS, 282 + STOWE, 482 + SUSSEX, 500 + SWEET BY AND BY, 534-537 + SWEET GALILEE, 261, 319 + SWEET HOUR OF PRAYER, 432 + SWITZER'S SONG OF HOME, 352 + + TALLIS' EVENING HYMN, xvi, 16,17 + TE DEUM, 1-4 + TELEMANN'S CHANT, 474 + THACHER, 109 + THE BOWER OF PRAYER, 147 + THE BROKEN PINION, 254 + THE CHARIOT, 279 + THE DYING CHRISTIAN, 516, 517 + THE EDEN OF LOVE, 272, 273 + THE GARDEN HYMN, 277, 278 + THE HARP THAT ONCE, 328 + THE HEBREW CHILDREN, 271 + THE HOME OF THE SOUL, 532, 533 + THE LAND OF THE BLEST, 308 + THE MORNING LIGHT IS BREAKING, 177, + 182, 477 + THE NINETY AND NINE, 422 + THE OLD, OLD STORY, 429 + THE PRODIGAL CHILD, 430 + THE SOLID ROCK, 317 + THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER, 333 + THERE IS A GREEN HILL, 414 + THROW OUT THE LIFE-LINE, 374 + THYDIAN, 388 + TO THE WORK, 438, 480 + TOPLADY, 59, 142 + TRENCYNON, 395 + TRIUMPH BY AND BY, 450 + TRURO, 241, 407 + TURNER, 282 + + UXBRIDGE, 93 + + VOX ANGELICA, 525 + VOX DILECTI, 238 + VOX JESU, 227 + + WAITING AND WATCHING, 443 + WALNUT GROVE, 105 + WARD, 196, 493 + WARE, 34 + WATCHMAN, 170 + WEBB, 177, 182 + WEIMAR, 9 + WELLS, 409 + WELLESLEY, 235 + WELTON, 486 + WE SHALL MEET, 529 + WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE 425 + WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE, 435, 436 + WHEN JESUS COMES, 437 + WHEN PEACE LIKE A, 477 + WHEN SHALL WE ALL MEET, 266 + WHEN THE SWALLOWS HOMEWARD FLY, 364 + WHERE ARE THE REAPERS, 429 + WHERE IS MY WANDERING BOY, 446 + WHILE THE DAYS ARE GOING, 312 + WHITMAN, 146, 364 + WILMOT, 121, 490 + WINDHAM, 407, 466 + WINDSOR, 482 + WOODSTOCK, 232 + WOODWORTH, 215 + + Y DELYN AUR, 405 + YORK, 462 + YOUR MISSION, 259 + + ZEPHYR, 513 + ZION, (T. Hastings), 168, 174 + ZION, (A. Hall), 514 + + + + + INDEX OF HYMNS. + + A CHARGE TO KEEP I HAVE, 274 + ABIDE WITH ME, FAST FALLS, 217 + ADAMS AND LIBERTY, 335 + ADESTE, FIDELES, 458 + ALAS, WHAT HOURLY DANGERS RISE, 198 + ALL GLORY, LAUD AND HONOR, 5 + ALL HAIL THE POWER OF JESUS' NAME, 25-27 + ALL PRAISE TO THEE, ETERNAL LORD, 8 + ALMOST PERSUADED, 454 + ALONG THE BANKS WHERE BABEL'S CURRENT, 242, 243 + A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD, 69 + AND IS THIS LIFE PROLONGED TO YOU, 43 + AND WILL THE JUDGE DESCEND, 410 + ANGEL OF PEACE, THOU HAS WAITED, 344 + ANGELS ROLL THE ROCK AWAY, 411 + ANOTHER SIX DAYS' WORK IS DONE 23, 488 + A POOR WAYFARING MAN OF GRIEF, 285 + ARISE, MY SOUL, ARISE, 395 + ART THOU WEARY, ART THOU LANGUID, 57 + AS DOWN IN THE SUNLESS RETREATS, 243 + ASLEEP IN JESUS, BLESSED SLEEP, 499 + AT ANCHOR LAID REMOTE FROM HOME, 138 + AVE, MARIS STELLA, 356 + AVE, SANCTISSIMA, 357 + AWAKE AND SING THE SONG, 29 + AWAKE MY SOUL, STRETCH EVERY NERVE, 413 + AWAKE, MY SOUL, TO JOYFUL LAYS, 276, 277 + AWAKED BY SINAI'S AWFUL SOUND, 267 + + BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC, 340, 343 + BEFORE JEHOVAH'S AWFUL THRONE, 40, 41 + BEGONE UNBELIEF, MY SAVIOUR IS NEAR, 203 + BEHOLD THE GLORIES OF THE LAMB, 42 + BEHOLD, THE STONE IS ROLLED AWAY, 451 + BE THOU EXALTED, O MY GOD, 40 + BE THOU, O GOD, EXALTED HIGH, 111 + BEYOND THE SMILING AND THE WEEPING, 527 + BLEST BE THE TIE THAT BINDS, 132 + BLOW YE THE TRUMPET, BLOW, 395 + BREAD OF HEAVEN, ON THEE WE FEED, 489 + BRETHREN, WHILE WE SOJOURN HERE, 280 + BRIGHTLY BEAMS THE FATHER'S MERCY, 431 + BUILD THEE MORE STATELY MANSIONS, 249 + BY COOL SILOAM'S SHADY RILL, 318 + BY THE RUDE BRIDGE THAT ARCHED THE FLOOD, 339 + CALVARY'S BLOOD THE WEAK EXALTETH, 385 + CHILD OF SIN AND SORROW, 223 + CHRISTIANS, IF YOUR HEARTS ARE WARM, 274, 275 + CHRIST IS OUR CORNER STONE, 485 + CHRIST IS RISEN! CHRIST IS RISEN! 473 + CHRIST THE LORD IS RISEN TODAY, 474 + COME HITHER, ALL YE WEARY SOULS, 409 + COME HITHER, YE FAITHFUL, 459 + COME, HOLY GHOST, IN LOVE, 59 + COME, HOLY SPIRIT, HEAVENLY DOVE, 282 + COME HOME, COME HOME, 430 + COME, LET US ANEW, 494 + COME, MY BRETHREN, LET US TRY, 279 + COME, SINNER, COME, 417 + COME, THOU FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING, 283, 284 + COME, THOU HOLY SPIRIT, COME, 58 + COME TO JESUS JUST NOW, 291 + COME UNTO ME WHEN SHADOWS, 208, 209 + COME, WE THAT LOVE THE LORD, 37, 38 + COME, YE DISCONSOLATE, 219, 220, 326 + COME, YE FAITHFUL, RAISE THE STRAIN, 54 + COME, YE SINNERS, POOR AND NEEDY, 119 + COMMIT THOU ALL THY GRIEFS, 84-85 + CROWN HIS HEAD WITH ENDLESS BLESSING, 30 + + DAUGHTER OF ZION, FROM THE DUST, 486, 489 + DAY OF WRATH: THAT DAY OF BURNING, 62-64 + DEAR JESUS, EVER AT MY SIDE, 302 + DEAR REFUGE OF MY WEARY SOUL, 196 + DID CHRIST O'ER SINNERS WEEP, 160, 161 + DIE FELDER WIR PFLÜGEN, 478 + DIES IRAE, DIES ILLA, 62-64 + + EARLY, MY GOD, WITHOUT DELAY, 35 + EARLY TO BEAR THE YOKE EXCELS, 401 + EIN FESTE BURG IST UNSER GOTT, 69 + ETERNAL FATHER, STRONG TO SAVE, 369 + + FADING AWAY LIKE THE STARS, 309 + FATHER, WHATEVER OF EARTHLY BLISS, 196 + FEAR NOT, O LITTLE FLOCK, THE FOE, 82 + FIERCE RAGED THE TEMPEST, 372 + FIERCE WAS THE WILD BILLOW, 354 + FOREVER WITH THE LORD, 521 + FROM EVERY STORMY WIND, 222 + FROM GREENLAND'S ICY MOUNTAINS, 178, 179 + FROM WHENCE DOTH THIS UNION ARISE, 263 + FULLY PERSUADED, 451 + + GAUDE, PLAUDE, MAGDALENA, 472 + GIVE ME MY SCALLOP-SHELL OF QUIET, 76 + GIVE TO THE WINDS THY FEARS, 88 + GLORIA, xii + GLORY TO THEE, MY GOD, THIS NIGHT, xvi, 16 + GOD BE WITH YOU TILL WE MEET, 496 + GOD BLESS OUR NATIVE LAND, 347, 348 + GOD CALLING YET? 102, 103 + GOD IS THE REFUGE OF HIS SAINTS, 196 + GOD OF OUR FATHERS, KNOWN OF OLD, 349, 350 + GOD'S FURNACE DOTH IN ZION STAND, 89 + GREAT AUTHOR OF SALVATION, 398 + GREAT GOD, WE SING THAT MIGHTY HAND, 496 + GREAT GOD, WHAT DO I SEE AND HEAR! 71 + GUIDE ME, O THOU GREAT JEHOVAH, 198, 399 + + HAIL COLUMBIA, HAPPY LAND, 331 + HAIL TO THE LORD'S ANOINTED, 175 + HALLELUJAH! 'TIS DONE! 422 + HARK! HARK, MY SOUL! 524 + HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING, 463 + HARK! WHAT MEAN THOSE HOLY VOICES, 464 + HASTEN, LORD, THE GLORIOUS TIME, 168 + HASTEN, SINNER, TO BE WISE, 410 + HE DIES! THE FRIEND OF SINNERS, 473 + HE LEADETH ME, 235, 236 + HERE AT THY TABLE, LORD, WE MEET, 24 + HERE BEHOLD THE TENT OF MEETING, 396 + HERE, O MY GOD, I SEE THEE, 490 + HE ROSE! O MORN OF WONDER! 477 + HIGH THE ANGEL CHOIRS ARE RAISING, 68 + HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, LORD GOD, 50, 51 + HO, MY COMRADES, SEE THE SIGNAL, 424 + HORA NOVISSIMA, 510 + HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION, 204, 206 + HOW HAPPY IS THE CHILD WHO HEARS, 297 + HOW HAPPY IS THE PILGRIM'S LOT, 207 + HOW SWEETLY FLOWED THE GOSPEL SOUND, 98 + HOW SWEET, HOW HEAVENLY IS THE SIGHT, 281 + HOW SWEET THE COVENANT TO REMEMBER, 396 + HOW, UNAPPROACHED! SHALL MIND OF MAN, 56 + HOW VAIN ARE ALL THINGS HERE BELOW, 45 + HOW VAST A TREASURE WE POSSESS, 43 + + I AM FAR FRAE MY HAME, 445 + I AM SO GLAD THAT OUR FATHER, 319 + I CANNOT ALWAYS TRACE THE WAY, 502 + IF I WERE A VOICE, 181 + IF THOU WOULDST END THE WORLD, 389 + IF YOU CANNOT ON THE OCEAN, 256-258 + I GAVE MY LIFE FOR THEE, 154 + I HAVE A FATHER, 305 + I HAVE READ OF A BEAUTIFUL CITY, 451 + I HEAR THE SAVIOUR SAY, 426 + I HEARD THE VOICE OF JESUS SAY, 225-227 + I'LL CAST MY HEAVY BURDEN DOWN, 384 + I LOVE THY KINGDOM, LORD, 133 + I LOVE TO STEAL AWHILE AWAY, 229, 231 + I LOVE TO TELL THE STORY, 429 + I'M A PILGRIM, 278, 288 + I'M BUT A STRANGER HERE, 300, 301 + I'M GOING HOME, 291 + I'M NOT ASHAMED, 107 + IN DE DARK WOOD, 264 + IN EDEN, O THE MEMORY!, 383 + I NEED THEE EVERY HOUR, 153 + IN SOME WAY OR OTHER, 148, 149 + IN THE BONDS OF DEATH HE LAY, 473 + IN THE CROSS OF CHRIST I GLORY, 97 + IN THE DEEP AND MIGHTY WATERS, 406 + IN THE WAVES AND MIGHTY WATERS, 405 + I OPEN MY EYES TO THIS VISION, 404 + IS THIS THE KIND RETURN? 108 + IT CAME UPON THE MIDNIGHT CLEAR, 466 + I THINK WHEN I READ THAT SWEET, 305 + IT MAY NOT BE OUR LOT TO YIELD, 250 + IT WAS THE WINTER WILD, 460 + I WALKED IN THE WOODLAND MEADOWS, 251, 252 + I WILL SING YOU A SONG OF THAT, 532 + + JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN, 509, 511 + JESU, DULCIS MEMORIA, 100 + JESUS' BLOOD CAN RAISE THE FEEBLE, 385 + JESUS, I LOVE THY CHARMING NAME, 116 + JESUS, I MY CROSS HAVE TAKEN, 221 + JESUS, KEEP ME NEAR THE CROSS, 156, 157 + JESUS, LOVER OF MY SOUL, 359, 364 + JESUS MY ALL TO HEAVEN IS GONE, 126 + JESUS, SAVIOUR, PILOT ME, 373 + JESUS SHALL REIGN WHERE'ER THE SUN, 165 + JESUS, THE VERY THOUGHT OF THEE, 100 + JESUS THE WATER OF LIFE WILL GIVE, 312 + JESUS, THY BLOOD AND RIGHTEOUSNESS, 91 + JOHN WESLEY'S HYMN, 209 + JOYFULLY, JOYFULLY ONWARD, 288-290 + JOY TO THE WORLD! THE LORD IS COME, 166, 463 + + KEEP ME VERY NEAR TO JESUS, 400 + KELLER'S AMERICAN HYMN, 343, 345 + + LAND AHEAD! THE FRUITS ARE WAVING, 367 + LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT, 223 + LET PARTY NAMES NO MORE, 169 + LET TYRANTS SHAKE THEIR IRON ROD, 331 + LET US GATHER UP THE SUNBEAMS, 317 + LET US SING OF THE SHEAVES, 479 + LIFE IS THE TIME TO SERVE THE LORD, 409 + LITTLE TRAVELLERS ZIONWARD, 299 + LO! A SAVIOUR FOR THE FALLEN, 404 + LO! HE COMES, WITH CLOUDS DESCENDING, 504 + LO! ON A NARROW NECK OF LAND, 118 + LO! WHAT A GLORIOUS SIGHT APPEARS, 505 + LORD, HOW MYSTERIOUS ARE THY WAYS, 198 + LORD OF ALL BEING, THRONED AFAR, 52 + LORD, WITH GLOWING HEART I'D PRAISE, 49, 50 + LOVE DIVINE, ALL LOVES EXCELLING, 47, 111 + LOVE UNFATHOMED AS THE OCEAN, 401 + + MAGDALENA, SHOUT FOR GLADNESS, 473 + MAGNIFICAT ANIMA MEA, xii, 10 + MAJESTIC SWEETNESS SITS ENTHRONED, 23 + MARSEILLAISE HYMN, 174, 329, 352 + MEIN JESU, WIE DU WILLST, 499 + MID SCENES OF CONFUSION, 134 + MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE, 341 + MOURNFULLY, TENDERLY BEAR ON THE DEAD, 245, 246 + MUST JESUS BEAR THE CROSS ALONE, 411 + MY BROTHER, I WISH YOU WELL, 290 + MY COUNTRY 'TIS OF THEE, 336-338 + MY GOD, HOW ENDLESS IS THY LOVE, 105, 106 + MY GOD, I LOVE THEE, NOT BECAUSE, 75 + MY GOD, IS ANY HOUR SO SWEET, 214 + MY GOD, MY FATHER, WHILE I STRAY, 214 + MY GOD, MY PORTION AND MY LOVE, 382 + MY GRACIOUS REDEEMER, I LOVE, 132 + MY HOPE IS BUILT ON NOTHING LESS, 216, 217 + MY JESUS, AS THOU WILT, 499, 500 + MY JESUS, I LOVE THEE, 162, 163 + MY LORD AND MY GOD, I HAVE TRUSTED, 77 + MY LORD, HOW FULL OF SWEET CONTENT, 190, 192 + MY SAVIOUR KEEPS ME COMPANY, 189 + MY SOUL, BEHOLD THE FITNESS, 397 + + NEARER, MY GOD, TO THEE, 150-152 + NO CHANGE OF TIME SHALL EVER SHOCK, 193 + NOT ALL THE BLOOD OF BEASTS, 44 + NOW TO THE LORD A NOBLE SONG, 33 + + O BLISS OF THE PURIFIED, 433 + O CANAAN, BRIGHT CANAAN, 273 + O CHURCH, ARISE AND SING, 186 + O COME, ALL YE FAITHFUL, 459 + O COULD I SPEAK THE MATCHLESS WORTH, 136 + O CROWN OF REJOICING, 451 + ODE ON SCIENCE, 330 + O DEUS, EGO AMO TE, 74 + O DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED, 298 + O'ER ALL THE WAY GREEN PALMS, 470 + O'ER THE GLOOMY HILLS OF DARKNESS, 166 + O FOR A CLOSER WALK WITH GOD, 129 + O FOR A THOUSAND TONGUES TO SING, 45, 46 + OFT IN DANGER, OFT IN WOE, 366 + O GALILEE SWEET GALILEE, 260, 319 + O HAD I THE WINGS OF A DOVE, 400 + O HAPPY DAY THAT FIXED MY CHOICE, 281 + O HAPPY SAINTS THAT DWELL IN LIGHT, 122 + O HELP US, LORD; EACH HOUR OF NEED, 278 + O HOW HAPPY ARE THEY, 281 + O HOW I LOVE JESUS, 291 + O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM, 468 + O LORD OF HOSTS, WHOSE GLORY FILLS, 485 + ONE MORE DAY'S WORK FOR JESUS, 418 + ONE SWEETLY SOLEMN THOUGHT, 529 + ON JORDAN'S STORMY BANKS, 24 + ONLY REMEMBERED, 308 + ON THE MOUNTAIN TOP APPEARING, 173 + ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS, 185, 186 + ONWARD RIDE IN TRIUMPH, JESUS, 382 + O PARADISE! O PARADISE! 525 + O PERFECT LOVE, 504 + O SACRED HEAD, NOW WOUNDED, 86 + O SING TO ME OF HEAVEN, 288 + O THE CLANGING BELLS OF TIME, 449 + O THE LAMB, THE LOVING LAMB, 271 + O THINK OF THE HOME OVER THERE, 463 + O THOU IN WHOSE PRESENCE MY SOUL, 281 + O THOU, MY SOUL, FORGET NO MORE, 492 + O THOU WHO DIDST PREPARE, 361 + O THOU WHO DRY'ST THE MOURNER'S TEAR, 244 + O THOU WHOSE TENDER MERCY HEARS, 198 + O TURN YE, O TURN YE, FOR WHY, 291 + OUR LORD HAS GONE UP ON HIGH, 473 + O WHEN SHALL I SEE JESUS, 276 + O WHERE SHALL REST BE FOUND, 145 + O WHY SHOULD THE SPIRIT OF MORTAL, 238 + O WORSHIP THE KING ALL GLORIOUS ABOVE, 22 + + PARTED MANY A TOIL-SPENT YEAR, 267 + PATIENTLY ENDURING, 443 + PEACE, TROUBLED SOUL, WHOSE PLAINTIVE, 202 + PEOPLE OF THE LIVING GOD, 144 + PILGRIMS WE ARE TO ZION BOUND, 281 + PORTALS OF LIGHT, 443 + PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS, 13 + PULL FOR THE SHORE, 372 + + REJOICE AND BE GLAD, 415 + RESCUE THE PERISHING, 425 + REVIVE THY WORK, O LORD, 445 + RISE, CROWNED WITH LIGHT, 238 + RISE, MY SOUL, AND STRETCH THY WINGS, 94 + ROCK OF AGES, CLEFT FOR ME, 137 + + SAFE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS, 540 + SANCTIFY, O LORD, MY SPIRIT, 405 + SAVIOUR, LIKE A SHEPHERD LEAD US, 310 + SAVIOUR, THY DYING LOVE, 147 + SCATTER SEEDS OF KINDNESS, 317 + SCOTS WHA HAE WI WALLACE BLED, 335, 352 + SEE GENTLE PATIENCE SMILE ON PAIN, 104 + SEND THY SPIRIT, I BESEECH THEE, 406 + SERVANT OF GOD, WELL DONE, 498 + SHEPHERD OF TENDER YOUTH, 293-296 + SHOW PITY, LORD, O LORD FORGIVE, 44 + SHRINKING FROM THE COLD HAND OF DEATH, 520 + SINCE JESUS TRULY DID APPEAR, 503 + SISTER, THOU WAST MILD AND LOVELY, 498 + SO FADES THE LOVELY, BLOOMING FLOWER, 104, 198, 498 + SOFTLY FADES THE TWILIGHT RAY, 484 + SOFTLY NOW THE LIGHT OF DAY, 483 + SOON MAY THE LAST GLAD SONG ARISE, 173 + SOUND THE LOUD TIMBREL, 326, 327 + SPEAK, O SPEAK, THOU GENTLE JESUS, 386 + SPEED AWAY, SPEED AWAY, 184 + SPIRIT OF GRACE AND LOVE DIVINE, 403 + STAND! THE GROUND'S YOUR OWN, 335 + STAR-SPANGLED BANNER, 49, 333-335 + STILL, STILL WITH THEE, 481 + SUN OF MY SOUL, MY SAVIOUR DEAR, 159 + SUNSET AND EVENING STAR, 535 + SUR NOS CHEMINS LES RAMEAUX, 470 + SWEET HOUR OF PRAYER, 432 + SWEET IS THE DAY OF SACRED REST, 488 + SWEET IS THE LIGHT OF SABBATH EVE, 488 + SWEET IS WORK, MY GOD, MY KING, 37 + SWEET IS THE WORK, O LORD, 168 + SWEET THE MOMENTS, RICH IN BLESSING, 127 + + TAKE ME AS I AM, O SAVIOUR, 384 + TE DEUM LAUDAMUS, 1 + TELL ME NOT IN MOURNFUL NUMBERS, 248 + TELL ME THE OLD, OLD STORY, 427 + THE BANNER OF IMMANUEL, 188, 189 + THE BIRD LET LOOSE IN EASTERN SKIES, 244 + THE BREAKING WAVES DASHED HIGH, 323 + THE CHARIOT! THE CHARIOT! 278 + THE DAY IS PAST AND GONE, 275 + THE DAY OF RESURRECTION, 54, 55 + THE EDEN OF LOVE, 272 + THE GLORY IS COMING, GOD SAID IT, 400 + THE GOD OF ABRAHAM PRAISE, 18 + THE GOD OF HARVEST PRAISE, 481 + THE HARP THAT ONCE THRO TARA'S HALL, 326, 328 + THE HEIGHTS OF FAIR SALEM ASCENDED, 403 + THE LORD DESCENDED FROM ABOVE, 15 + THE LORD INTO HIS GARDEN COMES, 277 + THE LORD IS RISEN INDEED, 475 + THE LORD OUR GOD IS CLOTHED WITH MIGHT, 366 + THE MORNING LIGHT IS BREAKING, 179, 180 + THE OCEAN HATH NO DANGER, 371 + THE PRIZE IS SET BEFORE US, 449 + THE SANDS OF TIME ARE SINKING, 78 + THE TURF SHALL BE MY FRAGRANT SHRINE, 244 + THE WORLD IS VERY EVIL, 510 + THERE ARE LONELY HEARTS TO CHERISH, 312 + THERE IS A CALM FOR THOSE WHO WEEP, 499, 521 + THERE IS A GREEN HILL FAR AWAY, 414 + THERE IS A HAPPY LAND, 304 + THERE'S A LAND THAT IS FAIRER THAN DAY, 532 + THERE'S A WIDENESS IN GOD'S MERCY, 233, 234 + THERE WERE NINETY AND NINE, 422 + THEY THAT DWELL UPON THE DEEP, 353 + THINE EARTHLY SABBATHS, LORD, WE LOVE, 488 + THOU ART, O GOD, THE LIFE AND LIGHT, 244 + THOU DEAR REDEEMER, DYING LAMB, 124 + THOU LOVELY SOURCE OF TRUE DELIGHT, 198 + THROW OUT THE LIFE-LINE, 374-377 + 'TIS FINISHED! SO THE SAVIOUR CRIED, 24 + 'TIS RELIGION THAT CAN GIVE, 303 + TO CHRIST THE LORD LET EVERY TONGUE, 25 + TO GOD THE FATHER, GOD THE SON, 14 + TO LEAVE MY DEAR FRIENDS, AND FROM NEIGHBORS, 146 + TO THE WORK, TO THE WORK! 438 + TOO LATE! TOO LATE! 259 + TRIUMPHANT ZION, LIFT THY HEAD, 510 + + ULTIMA THULE, 320 + UNDER THE PALMS, 254 + UNNUMBERED ARE THE MARVELS, 402 + UNTO THY PRESENCE COMING, 392 + UNVEIL THY BOSOM FAITHFUL TOMB, 44, 498 + UP AND AWAY LIKE THE DEW, 308 + URBS SION AUREA, 509, 511 + VENI, SANCTE SPIRITUS, 57, 58 + VERZAGE NICHT, DU HAUFLEIN KLEIN, 82 + VITAL SPARK OF HEAVENLY FLAME, 515 + + WATCHMAN, TELL US OF THE NIGHT, 170 + WE ARE ON OUR JOURNEY HOME, 417 + WELCOME, DELIGHTFUL MORN, 488 + WE PLOW THE FIELDS AND SCATTER, 478 + WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD, FOR THE SON, 416 + WE SAT DOWN AND WEPT BY THE WATERS, 241 + WE SHALL MEET BEYOND THE RIVER, 528 + WE SPEAK OF THE LAND OF THE BLEST, 307 + WESTWARD THE COURSE OF EMPIRE, 324 + WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS, 425 + WHAT SHALL A DYING SINNER DO, 43 + WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE, 434 + WHAT VARIOUS HINDRANCES WE MEET, 131 + WHEN ALL THY MERCIES, O MY GOD, 113 + WHEN FOR ETERNAL WORLDS I STEER, 286 + WHEN HE COMETH, WHEN HE COMETH, 314 + WHEN I CAN READ MY TITLE CLEAR, 43, 514 + WHEN GATHERING CLOUDS AROUND I VIEW, 212 + WHEN ISRAEL OF THE LORD BELOVED, 240 + WHEN I SURVEY THE WONDROUS CROSS, 42, 109 + WHEN LANGUOR AND DISEASE INVADE, 137 + WHEN MARSHALLED ON THE NIGHTLY PLAIN, 364 + WHEN MY FINAL FAREWELL TO THE WORLD, 441, 442 + WHEN OUR HEADS ARE BOWED WITH WOE, 278 + WHEN PEACE LIKE A RIVER, 440 + WHEN SHALL WE ALL MEET AGAIN, 265, 266 + WHEN TWO OR THREE WITH SWEET ACCORD, 24 + WHERE IS MY WANDERING BOY TO-NIGHT? 446 + WHERE NOW ARE THE HEBREW CHILDREN? 270 + WHILE JESUS WHISPERS TO YOU, 418 + WHILE SHEPHERDS WATCHED THEIR FLOCKS, 465 + WHILE THEE I SEEK, PROTECTING POWER, 125, 207 + WHILE WITH CEASELESS COURSE THE SUN, 493 + WHY SHOULD WE START AND FEAR TO DIE, 512 + WIDE, YE HEAVENLY GATES UNFOLD, 168 + WITH JOY WE HAIL THE SACRED DAY, 168 + WITH SONGS AND HONORS SOUNDING LOUD, 479 + WITH TEARFUL EYES I LOOK AROUND, 214 + + YE CHOIRS OF NEW JERUSALEM, 59, 60 + YE CHRISTIAN HERALDS, GO PROCLAIM, 171, 172 + YE CHRISTIAN HEROES, WAKE TO GLORY, 174 + YE GOLDEN LAMPS OF HEAVEN, FAREWELL, 519 + YE SERVANTS OF GOD, YOUR MASTER PROCLAIM, 204 + YES, MY NATIVE LAND, I LOVE THEE, 180 + YES, THE REDEEMER ROSE, 476 + YOUR HARPS; YE TREMBLING SAINTS, 517 + + + + * * * * * + + + +Transcriber's note: + + Obvious spelling/typographical and punctuation errors + have been corrected after careful comparison with other + occurences within the text and consultation of external + sources. 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