M37mDS anaTanes and Hejekiah Butterworth (SfacncU ltttoet0itg ffiibratg 3tl|aca, ^tva lark BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF HENRY W. SAGE 1891 MiSlC LIBRARY ML 3I86J39T """"""" '■"•"'>' II 3 1924 021 770 171 The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021770171 Thomas K en THE STORY OF THE Hymns and Tunes BY THERON BROWN AND HEZEKIAH xBUTTERWORTH MuUae Urricolis linguae, coeUsiihus una. Ten thousand, thousand are their tongues, "But all their joys are one. AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY PARK AVENUE AND 40th STREET NEW YORK CopyniGHT, 1900 Br AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY CONTENTS. PREFACE T INTRODUCTION, ix I. HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP I 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 IQO 6. CHRISTIAN BALLADS 237 7. OLD REVIVAL HYMNS 262 8. SUNDAY SCHOOL HYMNS 293 9. PATRIOTIC HYMNS, 32 I 10. sailor's HYMNS, 353 11. HYMNS OF WAI-ES, 378 12. FIELD HYMNS, 4O9 13. HYMNS, FESTIVAL AND OCCASIONAL, 458 14. HYMNS OF HOPE AND CONSOLATION, 509 INDEXES OF t«AMES, TUNES, AND flYMNS, , . , 543 LIST OF PORTRAITS. THOMAS KEN, FroDtispicce OLIVER HOLDEN, OpP" P*6^ • 4 JOSEPH HAYDN, " 30 CHARLES WESLEY, '• 46 MARTIN LUTHER, " 62 LADY HUNTINGDON, «' g^ AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE TOPLADY, " 126 THOMAS HASTINGS, " 142 FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL, •• I 58 REGINALD HEBER, " 174 GEORGE JAMES WEBB, " lOO JOHN WESLEY, " 2o6 JOHN B. DYKES, •' 22Z ELLEN M. H. GATES, " 2J4 JAMES MONTGOMERY, «« 286 FANNY J. CROSBY, " 302 SAMUEL F. SMITH, •' 534 WILLIAM B. BRADBURY, «< 366 ISAAC WATTS, .-- 298 GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL, «« 414 PHILIP DODDRIDGE, <' aa^ LOWELL MASON, •< aj^ CARL VON WEBER, ^ " AgA. 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, com- mitting the manuscript to me in his last hours to arrange and complete. To do this proved a labor of considerable magni- tude, 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, bu^ later information had discounted some of their historic and biographical VI STORY OK THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 con- scientious 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, hasJbeen used, and passages here and there tran- scribed, 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 be- yond easy purchase and convenient use, it was im- possible to discuss the great oratorios and dramatic set-pieces, festival and occasional, and only pass- ing references are made to them or their authors. Among those who have helped me in my work special acknowledgements are due to Mr. Hubert STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. VU 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. Mer- riam 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 grate- fully 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-sing- ing "a devotional approach to God in our emo- tions," — 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 Unita- rian authors: one to God the Father, by Samuel Longfellow, one to Jesus, by Theodore Parker, and one to the Holy Spirit, by N. L. Frothing- ham. "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 X STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 re- vising, 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 "relig- ions" do not sing. There is no voice of sacred INTRODUCTION. M 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 ad- dressing them with supplication and praise. Ancient hymns have been found on the monu- mental 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 XII STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. and Solomon and all the Temple Psalms, and later where the New Testament gives us the "Gloria" of the Christmas angels, the thanks- giving 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 assem- bled singers, every voice on the same pitch, and within the compass of five notes — and so con- tinued, 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 to- wards the close of the i6th century there were no instruments allowed in religious worship. INTRODUCTION. XUI St, Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers has been called "the father of Christian hymnology." About the middle of the 4th century he regulated the ecclesias- tical 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 im- patient meddling with the slow canonical psalm- ody, 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 XIV STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. with the ears"; and Guido Arentino (1024) con- trived 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 pleas- ing 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 con- servative 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 INTRODUCTION. XV 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, pre- serving 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 sing- ing introduced* in public worship, and to know (possibly with secret pleasure, though he was a Romanist) how richly in popular assemblies, dur- ing the Protestant Reformation, the new freedom of his helpful art had multiplied the creation of spiritual hymns. 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 *But not fully established in use till about 1625. XVI STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. difference created a division of method and prac- tice even in England, and extreme Protestants virho repudiated everything artistic or ornate formed the Puritan or Genevan School. Their style is represented among our hymn-tunes by " Old Hun- dred," while the representative of the Anglican is "Tallis' Evening Hymn." The division was only temporary. The two schools were gradually recon- ciled, 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 com- positions 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 locali- ties like Scotland — ^the exclusive use of the Psalms (metrical or unmetrical) gave way to religious lyrics inspired by occasion. Clement Marot and Theo- dore Beza wrote hymns to the music of various composers, and Caesar Malan composed both hymns and their melodies. By the beginning of the i8th century the triumph of the hymn-tune and the INTRODUCTION XVll 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 coefficient of the met- rical 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 com- posed A. D. 387 by Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, pro- bably both words and music. Te Deum laudatnus, Te Dominum confitemur Te aeternutn 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* during the plague in Car- thage, when hundreds were dying every day, says, "Ah, perfect and perpetual bliss! [in heaven.] There is the glorious company of the apostles *nepi xoO dwQTOii, "Qn the Mortaliqr." I 2 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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. 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 move- ment 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 pro- HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 3 found, 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 Augus- tine, 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 dis- ciple came the response, — To Thee all the angels ciy 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 glotyl" 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. 4 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. Whatever the foundation of the story, we may at least suppose the first public singing* of the great chant to have been associated with that eventful baptism. The various anthems, sentences and motets in all Christian languages bearing the titles "Tris- agion" or "Tersanctus," and "Te Deum" are taken from portions of this royal hymn. The sub- lime 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, 18 12, and chose music for a profession in preference to an offered commission in the East Indian army. His talent ♦The "Te Deum" was first sung in English by the martyr. Bishop Ridley, at Heame Church, where he was at one time vicar. HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 5 as a composer, especially of sacred music, was marvelous, 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 can- tatas have been greatly admired, and his hymn tunes are unsurpassed for their purity and sweet- ness, 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 lo, 1879, universally mourned for his inspired work, and his amiable character. "ALL GLORY, LAUD AND HONOR. " Gloria, Laus et Honor. TTiis stately Latin hymn of the early part of the 9th century was composed in A. D. 820, by Theo- dulph. 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 6 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 ped- igree, 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, Kingi 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 HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 7 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, 18 18, 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 Mediaeval Hymns and Se- quences, Hymns for Children, Hymns of the East- ern 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 8 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. in more or less keeping with its character, notablji Melchior Teschner, whose harmony, "St. Theo- dulph," 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." Gelohet Seist du "jfesu 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 attri- butes 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 ScharfFin his Christian 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. HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 9 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 l8th century tune of "Weimar" (Evan- gelical Hymnal), by Emanuel Bach, suits the spiritual tone of the hymn, and suggests the Gre- gorian 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, 1 714. He early devoted him- self 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. 10 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. THE MAGNIFICAT. Magnificat anitna tnea Dominutn, £t 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 v^rorship. 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 Eng- lish tone-master, Henry Smart, author of the ora- torio of "Jacob." None, however, have equaled HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP, II 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 immor- tal "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," "Fitz- william," 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. 12 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 ap- pointed 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 appen- dix of Hymns, was licensed by WilUam and Mary and published in 1703. The hymns in the volume are all by Tate. He died in London, Aug. 12, 171 7. 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 Westminister 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 doxol- ogy is in common use, but though elevated and devotional in spirit, it cannot be universal, owing to its credal line being objectionable to non-Trini- tarian Protestants: HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. I3 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 H.) 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 HL deprived him of his bishopic, 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 aet. seventy-four, March 17, 1711 (N. S.), and was 14 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 in- spiration, 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 (i8o7-i883),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. HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. I5 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 WiUiam 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 Ma- rot'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 beginhing with this leading line — The Lord descended from abov» And bowed the heavens most high, And underneath His feet He cas* The darkness of the sky. 1 6 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 Gloucester- shire, Eng. He was Groom of the Robes to Henry Vni, and Edward VI., but is only remembered for his Psalter pubhshed 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 organ- ist 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 BilHngs 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. HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP, 17 THE TUNE. For more than three hundred and fifty years devout people have enjoyed that melody of mingled dignity and sweetness known as "TalHs' 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 col- lection 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 l8 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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. Power sovereygnes reignes, (a thing not often seene); I mean King Henry and Prince Edward's dayes, Quene Marie, and Elizabeth our quene. He maiyed 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 manl To God ful oft for mercy did he cry; Wherefore he Ijfves, 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 HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. IQ to quote entire, but is found in both the Plymouth and Methodist Hymnals. Thomas Olivers, born in Tregynon, near New- town, Montgomeryshire, Wales, 1725, was, ac- cording 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 repu- tation 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,* and there the young sinner heard the divine message that lifted him to his feet. "When that sermon began," he said, "I was one of the most abandoned and profligate young men Hving; 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 ♦Whitefield't tat was, "Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire f" Zach, 20 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 pubHshed,butthe 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 un- known, 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 hirii 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. HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 21 He knew nothing of Hebrew, and had he known it, a literal translation of the Yigdal will show hardly a similarity to his evangehcal 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. 22 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 in- spiration from the Old Testament Psalter, the text-book of all true praise-song. Sir Robert Grant was born in the county of In- verness, Scotland, in 1785, and educated at Cam- bridge. He was many years member of Parliament for Inverness and a director in the East India Company, and 1&34 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 numer- ous, 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. HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 23 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- 24 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. one became his father's assistant, and subse- quently 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 h"ps 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 per- suasion, and a confidant of many of the most dis- tinguished statesmen of his time. The celebrated John Howard was his parishoner and intimate friend. His degree of Doctor of Divinity was be- stowed 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. HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 25 "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 main- tains 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, 26 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 subse- quently became the pastor of a small church of Dissenters in Canterbury, where he died, in Jan- uary, 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 crowned 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 — HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 27 Let every kindred, every tribe On this terrestrial ball To Him all majesty ascribe. And ciawn 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 con- sidererably 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 hynin. 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 Histor- 28 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. ical 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 mel- low 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 Wor- cester 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 inverse: 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 pas- sion 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 HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 29 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-hook. 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. :^ :(c :)( !|c :)c 4: 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. WilHam Hammond was born Jan. 6, 1719, at Battle, Sussex, Eng., and educated at St. 3© STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. John's College, Cambridge. Early in his minis- terial 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 inter- pretations. 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 Miehtam Church, Surrey, and afterwards of the Temple Church, London. Re- ceived his Doctor's degree from the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1882. "CROWN HIS HEAD WITH ENDLESS BLESSING. " The writer of this hymn was William Goode, who helped to found the English Church Missionary Society, and wais for twenty years the Secretary of the " Society for the Relief of Poor Pious Clergy- HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 3 1 men." 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 aspi- ration for purer religious life by an evangeHcal 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 unat- tended, 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 18 16. 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 com- poser, 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. 32 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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. In- vited 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 in- exhaustible. 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 spirit- ual 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," HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 33 "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 God- head 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 34 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. model has been the ideal one for song worship ever since; and we can pardon the climax when Pro- fessor 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 Neu- komm. 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 pro- digious 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, 181 1. 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 HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 35 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, Phila- delphia, 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 "Mont- gomery, "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 hymr were either too noisy or too tame. The best and 36 STORY OF THE, HYMNS AND TUNES. longest-serving is "Lanesboro," which, with its expressive duet in the middle and its soaring final strain of harmony, never fails to carry the mean- ing 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 Amer- ican 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 Mis- sionary Hymn." He had not neglected his musical studies while living in the South, and it was in Savan- nah 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. HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 37 " 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 motning 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 earHer by nearly a century than John Liphot Hatton of Liverpool (born in i8og), 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; af- terwards of St. Helens, then resident in Duke St. in the township of Windle; composed several hymn- tunes; died in 1793.* His funeral sermon was preached at the Presbyterian Chapel, St. Helens, Dec. 13." "COME, WE THAT LOVE THE LORD. " Watts entitled this hymn "Heavenly Joy on Earth." He could possibly, like Madame Guyon, ^Tradition, says he was killed hj bemg thrown from a stage-coach. 38 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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), HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 39 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 instru- ment may have influenced his work when harmo- nizing 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 him- self 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 rnade a mortifying mistake. He took the humili- ation so much to heart that he brooded over it till he died, in Rome, Jan. i8, 171 7. For revival meetings the modern tune set to "Come we that love the Lord," by Robert Lowry, should be mentioned. A shouting chorus is ap- pended to it, but it has melody and plenty of stim- ulating 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. 40 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. " BE THOU EXALTED, O MY GOD. " In this hymn the thought of Watts touches the eternal summits. Taken from the 57th and io8th 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. HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 4I His sovereign power without our aid Made us of clay and formed us men, And when hke 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, "Den- mark," 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 42 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 Doc- tor remarked, "Suppose you make a few." Possi- bly 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 Inde- pendent Church in Mark Lane, London, 1702, but HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 43 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 sup- posed, 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 bio- graphical or reminiscent color. The stanza in — When I can read my title dear, — which reads in the original copy, — Should earth against my soul engage And hellish darts be hurled. Then I can smile at Safari'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 I Cor. 3 :zz; and another,— How vast a treasure we possess. 44 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. — 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 abbatoir 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 min- atory sermons, was melted, says Dr. Belcher, by simply reading, — Show pity Lord, O Lord, forgive. Let a repenting sinner live. — and becamepartaker 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 HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 45 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. Eliza- beth 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 46 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 fehcity 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." Most of the hymns of this good man were hymns of experience — and this is why they are so dear to ■SSi HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 47 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 con- quered the wild colliers of Kingwood. With his brother John, through persecution and ridicule, he preached and sang that Divine Love to his country- men and in the wilds of America, and on their return to England his quenchless melodies multi- plied 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 Chris- tendom. 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" 48 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES, by Carl Glaser (i 734-1 829), appearing as No. I 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 semi- breves 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. HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. 49 " LORD WITH GLOWING HEART I'D PRAISE THEE." This was written in 181 7 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. II, 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,* to Ughten their burdens- He helped them in their family troubles, defended them gratuitously in the courts, and held regular Sunday-school services for them. 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. *Epb. 6: 9, Cotoes. 4: i. 50 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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, Middle- sex, March i, 1820, and educated at Magdalene College, Oxford. Graduated Bachelor of Music at Oxford, 1871. He published Laudes Domince, a Gregorian Psalter, 1843, a Book of Tunes for the Christian Tear, and is the author of much rit- ual music. " HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. " There is nothing so majestic in Protestant hym- nology as this Tersanctus of Bishop Heber. The Rt. Rev. Reginald Heber, son of a clergy- man of the same name, was bom in Malpas, HYMNS OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP 5I 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. Holyl 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; Qierubim 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 "Nicaea" attached to the tune means nothing to the popular ear and mind, and it is known every- where by the initial words of the first line. Rev. John Bacchus Dykes, Doctor of Music, was born at Kingston-upon-Hull, in 1823; and 52 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 demon- strate 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 Auto- crat 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 com- poser, was born in Barkhamstead, Conn., April 2, 1817, died 1891. CHAPTER II. SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. JOHN OF DAMASCUS. ' Avaa-zaaeux; "Hi^lpa. 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 Con- queror, 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 (S3) 54 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 cele- brate 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. :((:{; 9); :(e :tc Ht 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. SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 55 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 modem 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. "Rot- terdam" is a stately, sonorous piece and conveys the flavor of the ancient hymn. "Come ye faithful" has for its modern inter- preter Sir Arthur Sullivan, the celebrated com- poser of both secular and sacred works, but best 56 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 Mesopo- tamia (A. D. 307-373), Basil the Great, Bishop of Cappadocia (A. D. 329-379) Gregory Nazi- anzen. 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 Desciy 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 bom. SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 57 ST. STEPHEN, THE SABAITE. This pious Greek monk, (734-794,) nephew of St. John of Damascus, spent his life, from the age often, in the monastery of St. Sabas. His sweet hymn, known in Neale's translation, — Art thou weaiy, 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 (i 821-1877), Vicar of Monkland, Herefordshire. KING ROBERT II. Vent, 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 T031, 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. 58 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 belowl 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. SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 59 Melt the frozen, warm the chill. Guide the steps that go astray. Neale's Translation. THE TUNE. The metre and six-Hne 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 in- violable a case of psalmodic monogamy as " Top- lady " with " Rock of Ages." ST. FULBERT. — — — ^~— — " "Chart Cantores HierusaUm Novae." St. Fulbert's hymn is a worthy companion of Perronet's "Coronation" — ^if, indeed, it was not »> 60 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. its original prompter — as King Roberts' 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 o'f 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 H, and his intimate friend, continuing so after this Popief SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 6l (Gregory V.) excommunicated thekingformarrying a cousin, which was forbidden by the canons of the church. Fulbert was for some time head of the Theo- logical 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 life- time — 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. 62 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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. I — Dies irae! dies ilia, 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 com- pelling 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 sub- stituted accent for quantity in verse; for the com- mon 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 pro- pagandists, created medieval Latin and made it SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 63 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. 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 prov- ince 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 con- cerning the dead."* * "Proses" were original passages introduced into ecclesiastical chants in the 64 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 ver- nacular versions — not to mention the Greek and Russian and even the Hebrew. A few stanzas fol- low, 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 : loth century. During and after the 1 ith century they were called "Sequences" (i. c. foUtnving the "Gospel" in the liturgy ),and were in metrical form, having a prayerfiil tone. "Sequentia pro defunctis" was the later title of the "Dies Irae." SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 65 Dies Irae, dies ilia 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 favilh," "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 un- known translator, to Ferdinand Hiller's tune in F minor, besides one verse to another F minor — • hymn and tune both nameless. 66 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. AH 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 Colm- worth, Eng., Nov. 20, 1826, is a clergyman of the Church of England, incumbent of a Lancaster charge to which he was appointed by Queen Alex- andra. Ferdinand Hiller, born 181 1 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 Tenny- son. Dean Stanley was born in 1815, and died July 1 8th, 1 88 1. SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 67 THOMAS A KEMPIS. Thomas h, Kempis, sub-prior of the Convent of St. Agnes, was born at Hamerkin, Holland, about the year 1380, and died at ZwoU, 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 in- vention of printing had been perfected and brought into common service, the multiplication of books was principally the work of monkish pens. Kem- pis 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 under- stand 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 68 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 com- posed a poem on "Heaven's Joys," which is some- times called "Thomas k 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. SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 69 MARTIN LUTHER. "Ein Feste Burg 1st 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 Wittenburg — 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 atthe 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 becarhe 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 affection- ate 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; 70 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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. ^ :ti ^ ^ :^ ^i 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 15 17 he composed and placarded his ninety-five Theses condemning certain practices of the Romjsh Church and three years later the Pope published a bull excom- municating him, which he burnt openly before a sympathetic multitude in Wittenberg. His life was a stormy one, and he was more than once in SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 7I 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. 1 8th, 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 Ring- waldt the stanza beginning with the above line. The imitation of the "Dies Irae" in German which was first in use was printed in Jacob King's "Gesangbuch" in 1535. Ringwaldt's hymn of the Last Day, also inspired from the ancient Latin original, appears in his Handhuchlin of 1586, but does not contain this stanza. The first line is, The awful Day will surely come," (Es ist « 72 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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. SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. J^ 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; Thfey shake before the Judge's Throne All unprepared to meet Him. Batholomew Ringwaldt, pastor of the Lutheran Church of Longfeld, Prussia, was born in 1531, and died in 1599. His hymns appear in a col- lection entitled Hymns for the Sundays and Festi- vals of the Whole Tear. 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 Ring- waldt'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 ex- tempore 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 im- 74 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. pressive with full choir and organ or the vocal volume of a congregation. In Cheetharns 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 . "0 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 estab- lished 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. Nee amo Te, ut salves me, Aut quia non amantes Te ^temo punis igne. 80ME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 75 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 amantissimel Non, ut in coelo salves me, Aut in aetemum 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 loved 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, 18 14— 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 loi.) THE TUNE. "St. Bernard" — apparently so named because originally composed to Caswall's translation of 76 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 Quietl" Few of the hymns of the Elizabethan era survive, though the Ambrosian Midnight Hymn, "Hark, 'tis the Midnight Cry," and the hymns of St. Ber- nard 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, SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 77 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. "0 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 de- voted Catholic forgets her petitions to the Virgin, and comes to Christ: O Domine Deus, Speravi in Te; O care mi Jesu, nunc libera mel In dura catena, in misera poena Desidero Te! Languendo, gemendo, et genuflectendo Adoro, imploro ut liberes mel 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. 78 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 pf 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, 4c 3|: 3fc 3f: 4c 3|: But, glory, glory dwelleth In Immanuel's Land. This hymn is biographical, but not autobio- graphical. 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 be- queathed 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 SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 79 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 Epis- tles to his Anworth flock and to the Non-conform- ists 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 H. the wrath of the pre- lates fell on him at St. Andrews, where the Pres- bytery 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 8o STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. the block had he not been stricken with his last sick- ness. When the oiEcers came to take him he said, "I am summoned before a higher Judge and Ju- dicatory, 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 gloiy, glory dwelleth In Immanuel's land. :f£ ;): il: :{::(: :|e 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. SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 8l I have borne scorn and hatred, I have borne wrong and shame, Earth's proud ones have reproached me For Christ's thrice blessed 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 Epis- tle 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 after- wards fitted it to the words, and knew whose spirit- ual 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 accus- tomed to calling "The sands of time are sink- ing," "Rutherford's Hymn." Rutherford's own 82 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 com- poser, also, of vocal and instrumental music. Mrs. Anne Ross (Cundell) Cousin, daughter of David Ross CundeIl,M.D., and widow of Rev. Will- iam Cousin of the Free church of Scotland, was born in Melrose ( ?), 1 824. She wrote many poems, most of which are beautiful meditations rather than lyrics suitable for public song. Her " Ruther- ford Hymn" was first published in the Christian Treasury, 1857. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. "Ferzage Nicht Du Hauflein Klein." The historian tells us that before the battle of Lutzen, duringthe 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, SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 83 Dread not his rage and power: What though your courage sometimes faints, His seeming triumph o'er God's saints Lasts hut 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 84 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 ex- perience who are — SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 85 "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 man- hood's strength (during the Thirty Year's 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 re- moved to a Berlin church. During his residence there he buried his wife, and four of his children, 86 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. was deposed from the ministry because his Luther- an doctrines offended the Elector Frederick, and finally retired as a simple arch-deac^an to a small parish in Lubben, where he preached, toiled, and suffered amid a rough and uncongenial people till he died, Jan. i6, 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 favor- ite, 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, Ho\^ shall I meet Thee, — and the English translation of his " O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden," turned into German by him- self 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. SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 87 THE TUNE. A plain-song by Alexander Reinagle is used by some congregations, but is not remarkably ex- pressive. 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 elo- cution 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 be- came 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 cooperation of his wife, her- self a skilled musician, he extended his work to Vien- na 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." 88 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. Gerhardt's Hymn (ten quatrains) is rarely printed entire, and where six are printed only four are usually sung. Different collections choose por- tions 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, bom 1707, died 1 79 1, 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 White- field and the Wesleys she was a punctual and sympathetic helper. Uniting with the Calvinistic Methodists, she nevertheless stood aloof from none SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 89 who preached a personal Christ, and whose watch- words were the salvation of souls and the purifica- tion 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 myFather." 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-depreci- ation 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 QO STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 9 1 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 com- posed 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, memor- able 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 92 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 won- derful 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 ? SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 93 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* (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 ap- pears with the alteration — Jesus, Thy robe of righteousness My beauty is, my glorious dress. THE TUNE. "Malvern," and "Uxbridge" a pure Gregorian, both by Lowell Mason, are common expressions of the hymn — the latter, perhaps, generally pre- ferred, being less plaintive and speaking with a surer and more restful emphasis. *Boin in Edinkuigh 1813. 94 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. ROBERT SEAGRAVE. "Rise, My Soul, and Stretch Thy Wings." This hymn was written early in the 1 8th century, by the Rev. Robert Seagrave, born at Twyford, Leicestershire, Eng., Nov. 22, 1693. Educated at Cambridge, he took holy orders in the Estab- Hshed Church, but espoused the cause of the great evangeHstic 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 ap- pointed 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 : Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings; Thy better portion trace; SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 95 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 bom of God Pants to view His glorious face, Upward tends to His abode To rest in His embrace. He >|c 4: * >): !|c 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: 96 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. "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, West- minster. "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 SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. 97 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 Gloiy." In this hymn we see, sitting humbly at the feet of the great author of our religion, a man who im- pressed himself perhaps more than any other save Napoleon Bonaparte upon his own generation, and who was the wonder of Europe for his im- mense 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* continental languages and dialects. He served in consular appointments at seven different capitals, carried important reform measures in Parliament, was Minister Plenipoten- tiary to China and Governor of Hong Kong, and concluded a commercial treaty with Siam, where every previous commissioner had failed. But in ^^Exaggerated in some accounts to fony. 98 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 Ed- mund Sears, Christ was "all we know of God." 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. SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES. QQ 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 con- nected with the choir of the Calvary church. New York City, and sang the oratorio solos. His tune of "Rathbun" was composed in 1847, and pub- lished in Greatorex's collection in 1851. He died in Elizabeth, N. J., April 30, 1867. CHAPTER III. HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVO- TION 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 in- spired the second crusade. His fine poem of feeling, in fifty Latin stanzas, has been a source of pious song in several languages: (100) HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. 101 Jesu, dulcis memoria Dans vera cordi gaudia, Sed super nnel 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. i The Rev. Edward Caswall was born in Hamp- shire, 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 minis- try of the Church of England joined Henry New- man'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 102 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. supply of appropriate common-metre tunes. Barn- by'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 as- sociate 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 West- phalia. 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 Rhur, and be- came 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 HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. IO3 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 F 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? 104 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. THE TUNE. Dr. Dykes' "Rivaulx" is a sober choral that articulates the hymn-writer's sentiment with sin- cerity and with considerable earnestness, but breathes too faintly the interrogative and ex- postulary 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 " Fed- eral 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; HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. IC^ — 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, v^as educated in music at Helmstadt, and came to I06 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. England in 1725 as a band musician and composer to Covent Garden Theater. His best-known sec- ular piece is the music written to Flenry 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 seri- ous 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 HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. 10/ choir leader, and William's love of music was in- herited. 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 bom in London, 17 10, 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 io8 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. writing operas for his sister, Susanna (a singer who afterwards became the famous tragic actress, Mrs. Gibber). Ame'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 hal- lelujahs, it is said, with his last bieath. " 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? % 4: :): * :): Hi 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 alithorship under the vague phrase "A Western Melody." It was caught evidently from a forest bird* that flutes its clear solo i n the sunsets of May and June. There ♦Tlie ■wood tbrusb. HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. IO9 can be no mistaking the imitation — ^the same com- pass, 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. "Thacher," (set to the same hymn,) faintly re- calls 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 17 10) containing five stanzas. The second line — On which the Prince of Gloiy died, — ^read originally — Where the young Prince of Glory died. no STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 ? HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. Ill 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 cho- ral in Barnby's Hymnary (No. 1 70), and a score ofothers, 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 elocu- tion, 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 ly ^6, 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. :|s 4< ^|! 4= * * G>me Almighty to deliver. Let us all Thy life receive, 112 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. Suddenly return, and never, Nevermore Thy temples leave. * He 111 iti H: ^ 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 (i777-i839)"Isle of Beauty, fare thee well" (named from Thomas Moore's song), to Edward Hopkins' " St. Joseph," and to a multi- tude 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 mis- guided 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 HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. II3 angels") he created a harmony dear to the church he despised, and softened the hearts of the Chris- tian world towards an evil teacher who was in- spired, like Balaam, to utter one sacred strain. Rousseau was born in Geneva, 17 12, 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 1 701, 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 114 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. Before my infant heart conceived From whom those comforts flowed. When in the slippeiy 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 bom in Milston Rectory, May i, 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 UL 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 171 7 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,— HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. II5 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 congrega- tional 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 Addi- son'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 regi- Il6 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. mental 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 har- monic 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 re- paired to a London teacher and began the study of music and languages. Surmounting great diffi- culties, 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, 18 16. " JESUS, I LOVE THY CHARMING NAME. " When Dr. Doddridge, the author of this hymn, during his useful ministry, had finished the prep- aration of a pulpit discourse that strongly im- pressed him, he was accustomed, while his heart was yet glowing with the sentiment that had in- HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION, II7 spired him, to put the principal thoughts into metre, and use the hymn thus written at the con- clusion 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. :|c * !|c Hi :|c « 1 11 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 or- dained to the Non-conformist ministry. He was pastor of the Congregational church at North- ampton, from 1729 until his death, acting mean- while 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. Il8 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. THE TUNE. The hymn has been sometimes sung to "Pis- gah," an old revival piece by J. C. Lowry (1820) once much heard in camp-meetings, but it is a pe- destrian tune with too many quavers, and a head- long tempo. Bradbury's "Jazer," in three-four time, is a melody with modulations, though more sympa- thetic, but it is hard to divorce the hymn from its long-time consort, old "Arlington." It has the ac- cent of its sincerity, and the breath of its devotion. " LP, ON A NARROW NECK OF LAND. " This hymn of Charles Wesley is always desig- nated 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." Lol 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, HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. IIQ 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 Hberally educated, he was in his young manhood very religious, but he went so far astray as to indulge in evil practices, and I20 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. even published writings, both original and trans- lated, 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 expe- rience 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 ex- perience 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. HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. 121 The whole hymn — ten stanzas — is not sung now as one, but two, the second division begin- ning with the Hne — 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 18 13 Chapel- Master at Prague, from which place he went to Dresden in 18 17 as Musik-Director. Von Weber's Korner songs won the hearts of all Germany, and his immortal "Der Freischutz" 122 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. (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 poet- ical and flowing hymn seems to have been for- gotten in the making up of most modern church hymnals. Hymns on heaven and heavenly joys abound in embarrassing numbers, but it is dif- ficult to understand why this beautiful lyric should be universally neglected. It was written probably about 1 760, 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 sorrow, 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 substi- tuted words and shifted lines, though not gen- erally to the serious detriment of its meaning and music. HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. 123 The Rev. John Berridge — friend of the Wesleys, Whitefield, and Lady Humingdon — ^was an ec- centric but very worthy and spiritual minister, born the son of a farmer, in Kingston, Nottinghamshire, Eng., Mar. i, 1716. He studied at Cambridge, and was ordained curate of Stapleford and subse- quently located as vicar of Everton, 1 775. He died Jan. 22, 1793- He loved to preach, and he was de- termined that his tombstone should preach after his voice was still. His epitaph, composed by him- self, 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, 17 16. "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 Psal- modist. 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 mod- ulations that give a soft dactylic accent to the meas- ure and a wavy current to the lines: 124 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 Read- ing, Derbyshire, Eng., Dec. 12, 1718, and died in London, July 4, 1755. HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. 1 25 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 Burgmiiller, a young German musician, born in 1804. He was a remark- able 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 bril- liant woman, better known in literary society for her political verses and essays than by her hymns ; but the hymn here noted bears sufEcient wit< ness to her deep religious feeling: 126 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 Eng- land, 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 re- vival tune, sometimes called " Duane Street," long- meter 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. ,-"^^1^^ / -3***^'-*^ ^4 ^1 e 1 %:i^^ ^^ ^ r ^SM» '■^g L ''/<- ^^SNBnu. i i^ ^ ^■Rd^K^D^^ jS S^^L // ^Jg ^^^^of^^'^ ^^^L <-■ J^^^ ^^^^^l V ^^^Hk ^4L ^^ ^^^^-\i )^^^L sS, w^ ^^^^s^^k ^^'^^^^^^ vf 1* ^ \ "■' * -^ ^^^H?'*'' iB 4. ""■' tI ^^^^ ■ ' \ c Augustus Montague "Top lady HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. I27 Jesus my all to heaven is gone, He whom 1 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 I, 1858. He was editor of the N. T. Chris- tian 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 discipHne 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 IzS STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. disgrace and lorig 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 blessed is the station Low before His cross to lie, While I. see Divine Compassion Beaming in His gracious eye.* 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. "''Floating in His languid eye" seems to have been the earlier version. HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. I29 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 clergy- man, was born at Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire, Eng., Nov. 15, 1 73 1, 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. 130 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 com- poser 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. HYMNS or CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. I3I "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 ex- pression an argument for prayer. What various hindrances we meet In coming to a mercy-seat I 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. * * * :lf * * 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 mel" And there is all the lifetime of a proverb in the conplet — Satan trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees. Tune, Lowell Mason's "Rockingham." 132 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. " MY GRACIOUS REDEEMER I LOVE. " This is one of Benjamin Francis's lays of de- votion. 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, 1 739, and converted under the preaching of Whitefield, HYTVINS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. I33 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 with- stand. "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, 18 17. Tune, "Boylston," L. Mason; or "Dennis," H. G. Nageli. "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. 134 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 num- ber 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, 181 7. 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 1 826. HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. I35 THE TUNE. "Home, Sweet Home" was composed, accord- ing 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 com- posed 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 ap- pointed to represent his native country as consul in Tunis, where he died, Apr. 9, 1852. 136 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. " 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 oflF Cape Lagos, and in dread of am- putation 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 1 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! HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. I37 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 West- minister 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 Hem- bury, 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 — 138 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. At anchor laid remote from home, ToiHng I cry, "Sweet Spirit, cornel 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 con- tinued it as long as strength was left, until, on the nth 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 thundei HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. I39 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-00" 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 pas- sengers 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 trans- 140 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. lation 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: TOPLADT. 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 1 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. HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. 14! GLADSTONE. Jesus, pro me perforatus, Condar intra tuutn latus; Tu per lympham profluentem, Tu per sanguinem tepentem. In peccata mi redunda, ToUe culpam, sordes mundal Coram Te nee Justus forem Quamvis tota vi laborem, Nee si fide nunquam cesso, Fletu stillans indefesso; Tibi soli tantum munus — Salva me, Salvator UnusI Nil in manu mecum fero, Sed me versus crucem gero: Vestimenta nudus oro, Opem debilis imploro, Fontem Christi quaero 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 I42 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. (of the unknown path, — instead of going to many "worlds"). The Unitarians have their version, with substitutes for the "atonement Hnes." 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., 1 784. For eight years he was editor of the West- ern 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 in- vitation from twelve New York churches, he went Thomas Hastings HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DfiVOTION. I43 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. "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.* 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. George Heath, the author, was an English min- ister, born in 1781; died 1822. For a time he was pastor of a Presbyterian Church at Honiton, De- vonshire, and was evidently a prolific writer, hav- ing 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 reenforce the hymn, and give it popular life, even if the hymn had less earnestness and vigor of its own. *I have been unable to verify this statement found in Mr. Butterworth't "Story of the Hynms."— T. B. 144 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. Ne'er think the vic'try 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 Mont- gomery, was born at Irvine, Ayeshire, Scotland, HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. I45 Nov. 4, 1771, and educated at the Moravian Seminary at Fulneck, Yorkshire, Eng. He be- came the editor of the Sheffield Iris, and his pen was busy in non-professional as well as pro- fessional 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 enumera- tion. 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. 146 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 preach- er of the "Christian" (Christ-tan) denomination, is said to have composed the tune (and possibly the words) about 18 15 — though apparently the music was arranged from a ilute 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. HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. I47 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.* 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. "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. if if Ht if if * 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 hne, originally "Some sinful wanderer won," was altered by the author him- ^"The American Vocalist omits this stanza as too fanciful as well as too crude 148 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. self. The hymn is found in most Baptist hymnals, and was inserted by Mr. Sankey in Gospel Hymns No. I. 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 ver- HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. I49 sion of it is in Germany. The first stanza fol- lows, 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, (i 800-1 865) 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) ^"*^ 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. 150 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 War- wick, R. I., June I, 1834. With only an acad- emy 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 Bos- ton, April 12, 1 89 1. Philip Phillips, known as "the singing Pilgrim," was born in Jamestown, Chautauqua, Co., N. Y., Aug. 13, 1834. He compiled twenty-nine col- lections of sacred music for Sunday schools, gospel meetings, etc.; ^{so a. Methodist Hymn and Tune Book, 1866. He composed a great number of tunes, but wrote no hymns. Some of his books were pubUshed in London, for he was a cosmo- politan 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 HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. 151 causes" in everything that happens, recalls the fact that Benjamin Flower, editor of the Cam- bridge 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 sympa- thizing 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 event- uated 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 mur- derer's wicked shot. It is dear to President Roose- velt 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, J52 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. I53 acquires a single tune-voice, so that its music in- stantly names it by its words when played on in- struments. 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., Novem- ber, 1872, and was sung there. I need Thee eveiy 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! 154 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. One instance, at least, of a hymn made doublji 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 HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. 1 55 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 accom- plished 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 woman- hood. fHE 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 PhiHp P. Bliss (christened Philipp Bliss*), a pupil of Dr. George F. Root. 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 'I'Mr. Bliss himself changed the spelling of his name, preferring to let the third F. do duty alone, as a middle initial. 156 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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. J^sus, keep me near the Ctoss, There a precious Fountain HYMNS OP CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. I57 Free to all, a healing stream. Flows from Calv'ty's mountain. Chorus. In the Cross, in the Cross Be my glory ever, Till my raptured soul shall find Rest beyond the river. 4c ^ 4: :): :|c 4c 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 subse- quently 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 employe 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 ex- 158 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. perlence, was the outpouring of a poetic melancholy not uncommon to young and finely strung souls. He composed it in his twenties, — long before he be- came "Doctor" Muhlenberg, — and for years after- wards 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 bom in Philadelphia, Sept. 16, 1796, the great-grandson of Dr. Henry M. Muhlenberg, founder of the Luth- eran church in America. In 18 17 he left his an- cestral communion, and became an Episcopal priest. As Rector of St. James church, Lancaster, Pa., he interested himself in the improvement of eccle- siastical hymnody, and did much good reforming work. After a noble and very active life as pro- moter 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 con- Frances Ridley Havergal HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. 159 ditions 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." " SUN OF MY SOUL, MY SAVIOUR DEAR." This gem from Keble's Christian Tear 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 Cain, St. Ald- wyn, 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 himonly about;^ioo 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 l6o STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. German Choral of Peter Ritter (i 760-1846) 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 vyithout 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 po- lyphonal sweetness in uniform long notes of perfect chord. The tune of "Canonbury," by Robert Schu- mann, set to Keble's hymn, "New every morn- ing is the love," is deservedly a favorite for flow- ing 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 Congre- gation at Bourton-on-the-water, Gloucestershire, Eng. He was born at Henley, Chatwickshire, Jan. HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. l6l 23, 1 71 7. Settled in 1743, he remained with the same church till his death, Sept. 3, 1795. His hymns were not collected and published till 181 8. THE TUNE.. "Dennis," a soft and smoothly modulated har- mony, 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 seel 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 Nageli, a Swiss music publisher, composer and poet. He was born in Zurich, 1768. It is told of him that his irrepres- sible 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 l62' STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. Murillo to the servant who meddled with his paint- ings, the great master forgave the liberty, because the work was so good. Nageli's compositions are mostly vocal, for school and church use, though some are of a gay and play- ful 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 Jiim 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 sym- pathetic. 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 m a moment of inspiration the beautiful air sang itself to him* which with its simple concords ^he fact that this sweet .melody recalls to some a similar tune smig iizty years ago reminds us again of the stoiy of the tune "America." It il HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION. 163 has carried the hymn into the chapels of every de- nomination. 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. It; :tc He * * :)! 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 lis- ten with a look of mingled admiration and relief. Here was something, after all, to make a long jour- ney less tedious. They sang all the four verses and paused. There was no clapping of hands, for a rev- erential hush had been cast over the audience by not impossible that an unconscious mimory helped to shape the air that came to Dr. Gordon's mind; though unborrowed similarities have been inevitable in the whole history of music 164 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. the sacred music. Instead of the inevitable ap- plause 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 hoher 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 aiFectionately 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 lan- guage. 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 ceremo- nial, and they joined as with one voice in singing this hymn. 066) 1 66 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 COMEl " 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, bom at Cefnycoed, Jan. MISSIONARY HYMNS. 167 7, 1 71 7, near Llandover. 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. II, 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 gazel 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 I Win and conquer, never cease; May thy lasting wide dominion Multiply and still increase. Sway Thy scepter, Saviour, all the world around I THE TUNE. Oftener than any other the music of "Zion" has been the expression of William Williams' l68 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 Brox- bourne and Hoddesdon, in Hertfordshire, writing devotional poetry and sacred songs and para- phrases. 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 Messi- anic 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. MISSIONARY HYMNS. 169 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. Coinci- dences are known where different hymns by differ- ent 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. 170 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. " WATCHMAN, TELL US OF THE NIGHT. " The tune written to this pealing hymn of ,Sil 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." I. Watchman, tell us of the night. What its signs of promise are I (Antistrophe) Trav'ler, on yon mountain height, See that gloiy-beaming starl 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) MISSIONARY HYMNS. 17I 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." I — -'■-.■-■ '. ■-! ■ ■■_L.--- ._. ■ In some versions "Ye Christian heroes," etc. Professor David R. Breed attributes this stirring hymn to Mrs. Yokes (or Yoke) an EngUsh 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 Devo- tional 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 South- ampton (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. Yokes', 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 — 172 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. God shield you with a wall of fire! With flaming zeal your breasts inspire; Bid raging winds their fuiy 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, "Hell 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 bom 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 Tab- ernacles," and two popular books, the American Harpy 1832, and The Ancient Lyre, 1833. His compositions are remarkably spirited and vig- orous, and his work as a tune-maker was much MISSIONARY HYMNS. 1 73 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. Yokes, 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, 174 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 "Marsellaise 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 missionairy meetings, to spur the zeal and faith of a Francis ^ '^-. The Right Rev. Reginald Heber, D.D. MISSIONARY HYMNS. I75 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. Ye Christian heroes, wake to gloiy: Hark, hark! what millions bid you risel 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 "dis- tinguished as the only layman besides Cowper 176 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. among hymn-writers of the front rank in the English language." How many millions have recited and sung his fine and exhaustively de- scriptive 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 Hym- nology 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 MISSIONARY HYMNS. I77 comparison with that of Watts. Montgomery wrote it as a Christmas ode. It was sung Dec. 25, 1 82 1, 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 Com- mentary. In no long time afterwards it found its way into general use. The spirit of his missionary parents was Mont- gomery'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 bor- rowed 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 sim- ilar 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, 1 8 10. Like his father, Samuel, he became a distinguished musician, and was organist at Exeter, Winchester and Gloucester Cathedrals. Oxfoi?d gave kim tfee degi«e of Dottor cf Music 178 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. He composed instrumental melodies besides many anthems, services, and other sacred pieces for choir and congregational singing. Died in Glou- cester, April 19, 1876. " FROM GREENLAND'S ICY MOUNTAINS." The familiar story of this hymn scarcely needs repeating; how one Saturday afternoon in the year 18 19, 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 stoiy. 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. MISSIONARY HYMNS. 1 79 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, ^ l^^y i" Savannah, Ga., having received and admired a copy of Heber's lyric from England, desired to sing it or hear it sung, but kriew 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 — l8o STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 fehcity, while on a visit to his son, a missionary in Burmah, of hearing it sung by native Christians in their lan- guage, 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. MISSIONARY HYMNS. l8l Each cry to heaven going Abundant answer brings. And heavenly gales are blowing With peace upon their wings. ^ SIC Sp SfC 3|C SfE 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 Uni- versity ( 1 825-1 829) . He prepared for the ministry, and was pastor of Baptist churches at Waterville, Me., and Nevnon, 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 everjnvhere beloved and reverenced, and to know him intimately in his happy old age was a benediction. He died sud- denly 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 1 82 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. less in use in church worship, and eight for Sab- bath school collections. THE TUNE. " Millennial Dawn " is the title given it by a Bos- ton compiler, about 1844, but since the music and hymn became "one and indivisable" it has been named "Webb," and popularly known as "Morn- ing 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 " Millen- nial 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 L B. Woodbury, is still a feature in some missionary meetings, especially the fourth stanza — MISSIONARY HYMNS. 183 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 last- ing 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 numer- ous 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 black- smith's apprentice to be a tone-teacher in the church. He educated himself in Europe, returned 184 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 AWAYl 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 lan- guage 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 awayl 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. MISSIONARY HYMNS, 185 And the banquet is ready. O gather them in; To the rescue make haste, there's no time for delay. Speed awayl 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 trans- lated, 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. :}; :): :Je He 3ii 4: Like a mighty army Moves the Church of God; Brothers, we are treading Where the saints have trod; l86 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 Men- delssohn Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, and also at the Conservatory of Leipsic. He was a fertile genius, and his compositions in- cluded 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, 1 900. "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 oft he 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 MISSIONARY HYMNS. 187 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 "Con- vention Hymn." Professor Charles Clinton Case, music composer and teacher, was born in Linesville, Pa., June 6, 1843. Was a pupil of George F. Root and pursued musical study in Chicago, 111., 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 numer- ous works, among them Church Anthems, the Har- vest Song and Case's Chorus Collection. O Church I 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! ;|< itt « 4: t 4> Beneath the glowing arch The ransomed armies march. We follow on; l88 STORY OF THE HYMNS AND TUNES. 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 anti- phonal 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 sev- eral 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^ pl