[Listen] [PDF] [MusicXML]A Cameronian’s Midnight Hymn.[*]
[Listen] [PDF] [MusicXML]A Cameronian’s Midnight Hymn.[*]
She laid her hands across each other on her breast, turned in the balls of her half–closed eyes so that nothing was seen but the white, and, with her face raised upwards, and a slow rocking motion, she sung the following hymn, to a strain the most solemn that ever was heard. A scrap of this ancient melody is still preserved, and here subjoined, for without its effect the words are nothing.
O thou, who dwell’st in the heavens high,Above yon stars, and within yon sky,Where the dazzling fields never needed lightOf the sun by day, nor the moon by night!Though shining millions around thee stand,For the sake of one that’s at thy right hand,O think of them that have cost him dear,Still chained in doubt and in darkness here!Our night is dreary, and dim our day;And if thou turn’st thy face away,We are sinful, feeble, and helpless dust,And have none to look to, and none to trust.The powers of darkness are all abroad,They own no Saviour, and fear no God;And we are trembling in dumb dismay,O turn not thus thy face away!Our morning dawn is with clouds o’erspread,And our evening fall is a bloody red;And the groans are heard on the mountain swarth;There is blood in heaven, and blood on earth.A life of scorn for us thou did’st lead,And in the grave laid thy blessed head;Then think of those who undauntedlyHave laid down life and all for thee.Thou wilt not turn them forth in wrath,To walk this world of sin and death,In shadowy dim deformity?O God it may not—cannot be!Thy aid, O mighty One, we crave!Not shortened is thy arm to save.Afar from thee we now sojournReturn to us, O God, return!
O thou, who dwell’st in the heavens high,Above yon stars, and within yon sky,Where the dazzling fields never needed lightOf the sun by day, nor the moon by night!
Though shining millions around thee stand,For the sake of one that’s at thy right hand,O think of them that have cost him dear,Still chained in doubt and in darkness here!
Our night is dreary, and dim our day;And if thou turn’st thy face away,We are sinful, feeble, and helpless dust,And have none to look to, and none to trust.
The powers of darkness are all abroad,They own no Saviour, and fear no God;And we are trembling in dumb dismay,O turn not thus thy face away!
Our morning dawn is with clouds o’erspread,And our evening fall is a bloody red;And the groans are heard on the mountain swarth;There is blood in heaven, and blood on earth.
A life of scorn for us thou did’st lead,And in the grave laid thy blessed head;Then think of those who undauntedlyHave laid down life and all for thee.
Thou wilt not turn them forth in wrath,To walk this world of sin and death,In shadowy dim deformity?O God it may not—cannot be!
Thy aid, O mighty One, we crave!Not shortened is thy arm to save.Afar from thee we now sojournReturn to us, O God, return!
This air, having a great resemblance to the tone and manner in which the old Cameronians said, or rather sung their prayers,and just no more music in it, as the singer will perceive, than what renders the recitation more slow and solemn, Nanny’s hymn affected the family group in no ordinary degree; it made the hairs of their head creep, and thrilled their simple hearts, easily impressed by divine things, while their looks strongly expressed their feelings. None of them would read or recite any thing farther, but entreated Nanny to say it over again, affirming, with one voice that “it was anextrodnarthing.”
“Ah! dear, dear bairns! I dinna ken about it,” said she; “he was a good cannie lad that made it, but he mixed wi’ the scoffers, and turned to hae his doubts and his failings like mony ane, (Lord forgie us a’ for our share in them;) he seems even to have doubted o’ the Omnipresence when he penned that, which was far far wrang. I’ll rather say ye ane on that subject that he had made when in a better way o’ thinking. It is said that the Englishes sing it in their chapels.”
She then attempted one in a bolder and more regular strain, but wanting the simplicity of the former, it failed in having the same effect. As it, however, closed the transactions of that momentous night at Riskinhope, we shall with it close this long chapter.
Dweller in heaven and ruler below!Fain would I know thee, yet tremble to know!How can a mortal deem, how may it be,That being can not be, but present with thee?Is it true that thou saw’st me ere I saw the morn?Is it true that thou knew’st me before I was born?That nature must live in the light of thine eye?This knowledge for me is too great and too high!That fly I to noon–day, or fly I to night,To shroud me in darkness, or bathe me in light,The light and the darkness to thee are the same,And still in thy presence of wonder I am?Should I with the dove to the desert repair;Or dwell with the eagle in clough of the air;In the desart afar, on the mountain’s wild brink,From the eye of Omnipotence still must I shrink?Or mount I on wings of the morning awayTo caves of the ocean unseen by the day,And hide in these uttermost parts of the sea,Even there to be living and moving in thee?Nay, scale I the cloud in the heavens to dwell;Or make I my bed in the shadows of hell;Can science expound, or humanity frame,That still thou art present, and all are the same?Yes, present for ever! Almighty—aloneGreat Spirit of nature, unbounded, unknown!What mind can embody thy presence divine?I know not my own being! how can I thine?Then humbly and low in the dust let me bend,And adore what on earth I can ne’er comprehend;The mountains may melt, and the elements flee,Yet an universe still be rejoicing in thee!
Dweller in heaven and ruler below!Fain would I know thee, yet tremble to know!How can a mortal deem, how may it be,That being can not be, but present with thee?Is it true that thou saw’st me ere I saw the morn?Is it true that thou knew’st me before I was born?That nature must live in the light of thine eye?This knowledge for me is too great and too high!
That fly I to noon–day, or fly I to night,To shroud me in darkness, or bathe me in light,The light and the darkness to thee are the same,And still in thy presence of wonder I am?Should I with the dove to the desert repair;Or dwell with the eagle in clough of the air;In the desart afar, on the mountain’s wild brink,From the eye of Omnipotence still must I shrink?
Or mount I on wings of the morning awayTo caves of the ocean unseen by the day,And hide in these uttermost parts of the sea,Even there to be living and moving in thee?Nay, scale I the cloud in the heavens to dwell;Or make I my bed in the shadows of hell;Can science expound, or humanity frame,That still thou art present, and all are the same?
Yes, present for ever! Almighty—aloneGreat Spirit of nature, unbounded, unknown!What mind can embody thy presence divine?I know not my own being! how can I thine?Then humbly and low in the dust let me bend,And adore what on earth I can ne’er comprehend;The mountains may melt, and the elements flee,Yet an universe still be rejoicing in thee!
END OF VOLUME FIRST.
Edinburgh:Printed by James Ballantyne & Co.
FOOTNOTESThis curious protest is still extant, and shows the true spirit of the old Covenanters or Cameronians, as they have since been called, better than any work remaining. It is called in the title page, “An informatory Vindication of a poor, wasted, misrepresented Remnant of the suffering Anti–popish, Anti–prelatic, Anti–erastian, Anti–sectarian, true Presbyterian Church of Christ in Scotland.” It is dated at Leadhills in 1687, and is the conjoint work of Mr James Renwick, and Mr Alexander Shiels, author ofThe Hind let loose. The following is an extract from it, p. 107:—“And in like manner we do hereby disclaim all unwarrantable practices committed by any few persons reputed to be of us, whereby the Lord hath been offended, his cause wronged, and we all made to endure the scourge of tongues; for which things we have desired to make conscience of mourning before the Lord, both in public and private. As the unwarrantable manner of killing that curate at the Corsephairn, though he was a man of death both by the laws of God and man, and the fact not materially murder; it being gone about contrary to our declaration, common or competent consent, (the conclusion and deed being known only to three or four persons) in a rash and not a Christian manner, and also other offences being committed at the time; which miscarriages have proven a mean to stop and retard lawful, laudable, and warrantable proceeding, both as to matter and manner.”Theseother offences committed at the time, unquestionably refer to the slaughter of the Highland soldiers; about which, there was great stir and numerous conjectures in the country; although, owing to the revolution that immediately followed, the perpetrators were never taken, nor the cause tried in a court of justice, nor indeed was the incident ever generally known.[1]One of the women baptized in the Linn of Riskinhope by Renwick that year, has several children yet alive, not very aged people.[2]
This curious protest is still extant, and shows the true spirit of the old Covenanters or Cameronians, as they have since been called, better than any work remaining. It is called in the title page, “An informatory Vindication of a poor, wasted, misrepresented Remnant of the suffering Anti–popish, Anti–prelatic, Anti–erastian, Anti–sectarian, true Presbyterian Church of Christ in Scotland.” It is dated at Leadhills in 1687, and is the conjoint work of Mr James Renwick, and Mr Alexander Shiels, author ofThe Hind let loose. The following is an extract from it, p. 107:—
“And in like manner we do hereby disclaim all unwarrantable practices committed by any few persons reputed to be of us, whereby the Lord hath been offended, his cause wronged, and we all made to endure the scourge of tongues; for which things we have desired to make conscience of mourning before the Lord, both in public and private. As the unwarrantable manner of killing that curate at the Corsephairn, though he was a man of death both by the laws of God and man, and the fact not materially murder; it being gone about contrary to our declaration, common or competent consent, (the conclusion and deed being known only to three or four persons) in a rash and not a Christian manner, and also other offences being committed at the time; which miscarriages have proven a mean to stop and retard lawful, laudable, and warrantable proceeding, both as to matter and manner.”
Theseother offences committed at the time, unquestionably refer to the slaughter of the Highland soldiers; about which, there was great stir and numerous conjectures in the country; although, owing to the revolution that immediately followed, the perpetrators were never taken, nor the cause tried in a court of justice, nor indeed was the incident ever generally known.
One of the women baptized in the Linn of Riskinhope by Renwick that year, has several children yet alive, not very aged people.
Transcriber’s NotesThere is one page of music in the book; the html version of this file has links to a midi file ([Listen]); the musical notation ([PDF]); and and a MusicXML file ([XML]), which can be viewed in most browsers, text editors, and music notation applications.The book has no chapter VII and two chapters XII.A duplicate heading before chapter one (“THE BROWNIE OF BODSBECK”) has been removed.The following are inconsistently used in the text:Quave Brae and Quave-Braemeantime and mean timeday-light and daylighteye-brow and eyebrowmoon-light and moonlightway-laid and waylaidM’Leadle and MacLeadleTallo-Lins and Tallo-Linnscleuch-brae and Cleuch-braeClark and ClerkClavers and ClaverhouseObvious punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected as follows:p. 30 “Several witnessess” changed to “Several witnesses”p. 43 “‘Now, billies, says I, ye” changed to “‘Now, billies,’ says I, ‘ye”p. 43 “gar ye speak.” changed to “gar ye speak.’”p. 44 “shabbles o’ swords!”” changed to “shabbles o’ swords!’”p. 44 “light o’the truth” changed to “light o’ the truth”p. 56 (note) “Christ in Scotland_. It is dated” changed to “Christ in Scotland_.” It is dated”p. 131 “proffers proved alike in vain” changed to “proffers proved alike in vain.”p. 145 “the everlasting Covenant,” changed to “the everlasting Covenant,’”p. 160 “night-time, beats a,’” changed to “night-time, beats a’,”p. 161 “cried Maron,”—“Dear” changed to “cried Maron,—“Dear”p. 211 “power to make a handle o” changed to “power to make a handle o’”p. 217 “appresion” changed to “apprehension”p. 243 “head the creature, man,’” changed to “head the creature, man,””p. 275 “to be eiry for him.”” changed to “to be eiry for him.”Some possible errors have been left unchanged:p. 189 “had for sometime been hopping down”p. 196 “further precedure soon”The transcribed text of the song is as follows:A Cameronian’s Midnight Hymn.O thou who dwell’st in the heavens high,Above yon Stars and within yon Sky,Where the dazzling fields never needed light,Of the Sun by day nor the Moon by night,Where the dazzling fields never needed light,Of the Sun by day nor the Moon by night.[*]
There is one page of music in the book; the html version of this file has links to a midi file ([Listen]); the musical notation ([PDF]); and and a MusicXML file ([XML]), which can be viewed in most browsers, text editors, and music notation applications.
The book has no chapter VII and two chapters XII.
A duplicate heading before chapter one (“THE BROWNIE OF BODSBECK”) has been removed.
The following are inconsistently used in the text:
Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected as follows:
Some possible errors have been left unchanged:
The transcribed text of the song is as follows:A Cameronian’s Midnight Hymn.O thou who dwell’st in the heavens high,Above yon Stars and within yon Sky,Where the dazzling fields never needed light,Of the Sun by day nor the Moon by night,Where the dazzling fields never needed light,Of the Sun by day nor the Moon by night.[*]
The transcribed text of the song is as follows:
A Cameronian’s Midnight Hymn.O thou who dwell’st in the heavens high,Above yon Stars and within yon Sky,Where the dazzling fields never needed light,Of the Sun by day nor the Moon by night,Where the dazzling fields never needed light,Of the Sun by day nor the Moon by night.
O thou who dwell’st in the heavens high,Above yon Stars and within yon Sky,Where the dazzling fields never needed light,Of the Sun by day nor the Moon by night,Where the dazzling fields never needed light,Of the Sun by day nor the Moon by night.