CHAPTER II.

Be Thou exalted, O my God,Above the heavens where angels dwell;Thy power on earth be known abroadAnd 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 remainsWhen 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 throneYe nations bow with sacred joy;Know that the Lord is God alone;He can create and He destroy.65 /41His sovereign power without our aidMade us of clay and formed us men,And when like wandering sheep we stray,He brought us to His fold again.* * * * * *We'll crowd Thy gates with thankful songs,High as the heaven our voices raise,And earth with her ten thousand tonguesShall fill Thy courts with sounding praise.TUNE—OLD HUNDRED.Martin Madan's four-page anthem, “Denmark,” has some grand strains in it, but it is a tune of florid and difficult vocalization, and is now heard only in Old Folks' Concerts.The Rev. Isaac Watts, D.D., was born at Southampton, Eng., in 1674. His father was a deacon of the Independent Church there, and though not an uncultured man himself, he is said to have had little patience with the incurable penchant of his boy for making rhymes and verses. We hear nothing of the lad's mother, but we can fancy her hand and spirit in the indulgence of his poetic tastes as well as in his religious training. The tradition handed down from Dr. Price, a colleague of Watts, relates that at the age of eighteen Isaac became so irritated at the crabbed and untuneful hymns sung at the Nonconformist meetings that he complained bitterly of them to his father. The deacon may have felt something66 /42as Dr. Wayland did when a rather “fresh” student criticised the Proverbs, and hinted that making such things could not be “much of a job,” and the Doctor remarked, “Supposeyoumake a few.” Possibly there was the same gentle sarcasm in the reply of Deacon Watts to his son, “Make some yourself, then.”Isaac was in just the mood to take his father at his word, and he retired and wrote the hymn—Behold the glories of the Lamb.There must have been a decent tune to carry it, for it pleased the worshippers greatly, when it was sung in meeting—and that was the beginning of Isaac Watts' career as a hymnist.So far as scholarship was an advantage, the young writer must have been well equipped already, for as early as the entering of his fifth year he was learning Latin, and at nine learning Greek; at eleven, French; and at thirteen, Hebrew. From the day of his first success he continued to indite hymns for the home church, until by the end of his twenty-second year he had written one hundred and ten, and in the two following years a hundred and forty-four more, besides preparing himself for the ministry. No. 7 in the edition of the first one hundred and ten, was that royal jewel of all his lyric work—When I survey the wondrous cross.Isaac Watts was ordained pastor of an Independent Church in Mark Lane, London, 1702, but67 /43repeated illness finally broke up his ministry, and he retired, an invalid, to the beautiful home of Sir Thomas Abney at Theobaldo, invited, as he supposed, to spend a week, but it was really to spend the rest of his life—thirty-six years.Numbers of his hymns are cited as having biographical or reminiscent color. The stanza in—When I can read my title clear,—which reads in the original copy,—Should earth against my soul engageAndhellish darts be hurled,Then I can smile atSatan's rageAnd 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 soulIn seas of heavenly rest,And not a wave of trouble rollAcross 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. 3:22; and another,—How vast a treasure we possess,68 /44—enforced his text, “All things are yours.” The hymn,—Not all the blood of beastsOn Jewish altars slain,—was, as some say, suggested to the writer by a visit to theabattoirin Smithfield Market. The same hymn years afterwards, discovered, we are told, in a printed paper wrapped around a shop bundle, converted a Jewess, and influenced her to a life of Christian faith and sacrifice.A young man, hardened by austere and minatory sermons, was melted, says Dr. Belcher, by simply reading,—Show pity Lord, O Lord, forgive,Let a repenting sinner live.—and became partaker of a rich religious experience.The summer scenery of Southampton, with its distant view of the Isle of Wight, was believed to have inspired the hymnist sitting at a parlor window and gazing across the river Itchen, to write the stanza—Sweet fields beyond the swelling floodStand drest in living green;So to the Jews old Canaan stoodWhile 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 marriage69 /45to Miss Elizabeth Singer, a much-admired young lady, talented, beautiful, and good. She rejected him—kindly but finally. The disappointment was bitter, and in the first shadow of it he wrote,—How vain are all things here below,How false and yet how fair.Miss Singer became the celebrated Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe, the spiritual and poetic beauty of whoseMeditationsonce 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 onLogic, anIntroduction to the Study of Astronomy and Geography, and a workOn 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 have70 /46been written May 17, 1739, for the anniversary of his own conversion:O for a thousand tongues to singMy 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 fearsAnd bids our sorrows cease;'Tis music in the sinner's ears,'Tis life and health and peace.Charles Wesley was the poet of the soul, and knew every mood. In the words of Isaac Taylor, “There is no main article of belief ... no moral sentiment peculiarly characteristic of the gospel that does not find itself ... pointedly and clearly conveyed in some stanza of Charles Wesley's poetry.” And it does not dim the lustre of Watts, considering the marvellous brightness, versatility and felicity of his greatest successor, to say of the latter, with theLondon Quarterly, that he “was, perhaps, the most gifted minstrel of the modern Church.”71 /opp 46Charles WesleyCharles WesleyHymnal73 /47Most of the hymns of this good man were hymns of experience—and this is why they are so dear to the Christian heart. The music of eternal life is in them. The happy glow of a single line in one of them—Love Divine, all loves excelling,—thrills through them all. He led a spotless life from youth to old age, and grew unceasingly in spiritual knowledge and sweetness. His piety and purity were the weapons that alike humbled his scoffing fellow scholars at Oxford, and conquered the wild colliers of Kingwood. With his brother John, through persecution and ridicule, he preached and sang that Divine Love to his countrymen and in the wilds of America, and on their return to England his quenchless melodies multiplied till they made an Evangelical literature around his name. His hymns—he wrote no less than six thousand—are a liturgy not only for the Methodist Church but for English-speaking Christendom.The voices of Wesley and Watts cannot be hidden, whatever province of Christian life and service is traversed in themes of song, and in these chapters they will be heard again and again.A Watts-and-Wesley Scholarship would grace any Theological Seminary, to encourage the study and discussion of the best lyrics of the two great Gospel bards.THE TUNES.The musical mouth-piece of “O for a thousand tongues,” nearest to its own date, is old “Azmon”74 /48by Carl Glaser (1734–1829), appearing as No. 1 in theNew Methodist Hymnal. Arranged by Lowell Mason, 1830, it is still comparatively familiar, and the flavor of devotion is in its tone and style.Henry John Gauntlett, an English lawyer and composer, wrote a tune for it in 1872, noble in its uniform step and time, but scarcely uttering the hymnist's characteristic ardor.The tune of “Dedham,” by William Gardiner, now venerable but surviving by true merit, is not unlike “Azmon” in movement and character. Though less closely associated with the hymn, as a companion melody it is not inappropriate. But whatever the range of vocalization or the dignity of swells and cadences, a slow pace of single semibreves or quarters is not suited to Wesley's hymns. They are flights.Professor William Gardiner wrote many works on musical subjects early in the last century, and composed vocal harmonies, secular and sacred. He was born in Leicester, Eng., March 5, 1770, and died there Nov. 16, 1853.There is an old-fashioned unction and vigor in the style of “Peterborough” by Rev. Ralph Harrison (1748–1810) that after all best satisfies the singer who enters heart and soul into the spirit of the hymn.Old Peterboroughwas composed in 1786.75 /49“LORD WITH GLOWING HEART I'D PRAISE THEE.”This was written in 1817 by the author of the “Star Spangled Banner,” and is a noble American hymn of which the country may well be proud, both because of its merit and for its birth in the heart of a national poet who was no less a Christian than a patriot.Francis Scott Key, lawyer, was born on the estate of his father, John Ross Key, in Frederick, Md., Aug. 1st, 1779; and died in Baltimore, Jan. 11, 1843. A bronze statue of him over his grave, and another in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, represent the nationality of his fame and the gratitude of a whole land.Though a slaveholder by inheritance, Mr. Key deplored the existence of human slavery, and not only originated a scheme of African colonization, but did all that a model master could do for the chattels on his plantation, in compliance with the Scripture command,*to lighten their burdens. He helped them in their family troubles, defended them gratuitously in the courts, and held regular Sunday-school services for them.* Eph. 6:9, Coloss. 4:1.Educated at St. John's College, an active member of the Episcopal Church, he was not only a scholar but a devout and exemplary man.Lord, with glowing heart I'd praise TheeFor the bliss Thy love bestows,For the pardoning grace that saves me,And the peace that from it flows.76 /50Help, O Lord, my weak endeavor;This dull soul to rapture raise;Thou must light the flame or neverCan my love be warmed to praise.Lord, this bosom's ardent feelingVainly 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 theEvangelical Hymnal, is worthy of the hymn. Richard Redhead, the composer, organist of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Paddington, Eng., was born at Harrow, Middlesex, March 1, 1820, and educated at Magdalene College, Oxford. Graduated Bachelor of Music at Oxford, 1871. He publishedLaudes Dominæ, a Gregorian Psalter, 1843, a Book of Tunes for theChristian Year, and is the author of much ritual music.“HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, LORD GOD ALMIGHTY.”There is nothing so majestic in Protestant hymnology as this Tersanctus of Bishop Heber.The Rt. Rev. Reginald Heber, son of a clergyman of the same name, was born in Malpas,77 /51Cheshire, Eng., April 21st, 1783, and educated at Oxford. He served the church in Hodnet, Shropshire, for about twenty years, and was then appointed Bishop of Calcutta, E.I. His labors there were cut short in the prime of his life, his death occurring in 1826, at Trichinopoly on the 3d of April, his natal month.His hymns, numbering fifty-seven, were collected by his widow, and published with his poetical works in 1842.Holy! holy! holy! Lord God Almighty!Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee.Holy! holy! holy! merciful and mighty,God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity.Holy! holy! holy! all the saints adore Thee,Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;Cherubim and seraphim, falling down before Thee,Which wert, and art, and evermore shall be.THE TUNE.Grand as the hymn is, it did not come to its full grandeur of sentiment and sound in song-worship till the remarkable music of Dr. John B. Dykes was joined to it. None was ever written that in performance illustrates more admirably the solemn beauty of congregational praise. The name “Nicæa” attached to the tune means nothing to the popular ear and mind, and it is known everywhere by the initial words of the first line.Rev. John Bacchus Dykes, Doctor of Music, was born at Kingston-upon-Hull, in 1823; and78 /52graduated at Cambridge, in 1847. He became a master of tone and choral harmony, and did much to reform and elevate congregational psalmody in England. He was perhaps the first to demonstrate that hymn-tune making can be reduced to a science without impairing its spiritual purpose. Died Jan. 22, 1876.“LORD OF ALL BEING, THRONED AFAR.”This noble hymn was composed by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, born in Cambridge, Mass., 1809, and graduated at Harvard University. A physician by profession, he was known as a practitioner chiefly in literature, being a brilliant writer and long the leading poetical wit of America. He was, however, a man of deep religious feeling, and a devout attendant at King's Chapel, Unitarian, in Boston where he spent his life. He held the Harvard Professorship of Anatomy and Physiology more than fifty years, but his enduring work is in his poems, and his charming volume,The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. Died Jan. 22, 1896.THE TUNE.Holmes' hymn is sung in some churches to “Louvan,” V.C. Taylor's admirable praise tune. Other hymnals prefer with it the music of “Keble,” one of Dr. Dykes' appropriate and finished melodies.Virgil Corydon Taylor, an American vocal composer, was born in Barkhamstead, Conn., April 2, 1817, died 1891.79 /53CHAPTER II.SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES.JOHN OF DAMASCUS.Ἔρχεσθε, ὦ πιστοί,Ἀναστάσεως Ἡμέρα.John of Damascus, called also St. John of Jerusalem, a theologian and poet, was the last but one of the Christian Fathers of the Greek Church. This eminent man was named by the Arabs “Ibn Mansur,” Son (Servant?) of a Conqueror, either in honor of his father Sergius or because it was a Semitic translation of his family title. He was born in Damascus early in the 8th century, and seems to have been in favor with the Caliph, and served under him many years in some important civil capacity, until, retiring to Palestine, he entered the monastic order, and late in life was ordained a priest of the Jerusalem Church. He died in the Convent of St. Sabas near that city about A.D. 780.His lifetime appears to have been passed in80 /54comparative peace. Mohammed having died before completing the conquest of Syria, the Moslem rule before whose advance Oriental Christianity was to lose its first field of triumph had not yet asserted its persecuting power in the north. This devout monk, in his meditations at St. Sabas, dwelt much upon the birth and the resurrection of Christ, and made hymns to celebrate them. It was probably four hundred years before Bonaventura (?) wrote the Christmas “Adeste Fideles” of the Latin West that John of Damascus composed his Greek “Adeste Fideles” for a Resurrection song in Jerusalem.Come ye faithful, raise the strainOf triumphant gladness.* * * * * *'Tis the spring of souls todayChrist hath burst His prison;From the frost and gloom of deathLight 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.81 /55Our hearts be pure from evil,That we may see arightThe Lord in rays eternalOf resurrection light;And, listening to His accents,May hear, so calm and plain,His own, “All hail!” and hearing,May raise the victor-strain.Now let the heavens be joyful,Let earth her song begin,Let all the world keep triumph,All that dwell therein.In grateful exultation,Their notes let all things blend,For Christ the Lord is risen,O joy that hath no end!Both these hymns of John of Damascus were translated by John Mason Neale.THE TUNE.“The Day of Resurrection” is sung in the modern hymnals to the tune of “Rotterdam,” composed by Berthold of Tours, born in that city of the Netherlands, Dec. 17, 1838. He was educated at the conservatory in Leipsic, and later made London his permanent residence, writing both vocal and instrumental music. Died 1897. “Rotterdam” is a stately, sonorous piece and conveys the flavor of the ancient hymn.“Come ye faithful” has for its modern interpreter Sir Arthur Sullivan, the celebrated composer of both secular and sacred works, but best82 /56known in hymnody as author of the great Christian march, “Onward Christian Soldiers.”Hymns are known to have been written by the earlier Greek Fathers, Ephrem Syrus of Mesopotamia (A.D. 307–373), Basil the Great, Bishop of Cappadocia (A.D. 329–379) Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop of Constantinople (A.D. 335–390) and others, but their fragments of song which have come down to us scarcely rank them among the great witnesses—with the possible exception of the last name. An English scholar, Rev. Allen W. Chatfield, has translated the hymns extant of Gregory Nazianzen. The following stanzas give an idea of their quality. The lines are from an address to the Deity:How, Unapproached! shall mind of manDescry Thy dazzling throne,And pierce and find Thee out, and scanWhere Thou dost dwell alone?Unuttered Thou! all uttered thingsHave had their birth from Thee;The One Unknown, from Thee the springOf all we know and see.And lo! all things abide in TheeAnd through the complex whole,Thou spreadst Thine own divinity,Thyself of all the Goal.This is reverent, but rather philosophical than evangelical, and reminds us of the Hymn of Aratus, more than two centuries before Christ was born.83 /57ST. STEPHEN, THE SABAITE.This pious Greek monk, (734–794,) nephew of St. John of Damascus, spent his life, from the age of ten, in the monastery of St. Sabas. His sweet hymn, known in Neale's translation,—Art thou weary, art thou languid,Art thou sore distrest?Come to Me, saith One, and comingBe at rest,—is still in the hymnals, with the tunes of Dykes, and Sir Henry W. Baker (1821–1877), Vicar of Monkland, Herefordshire.KING ROBERT II.Veni, Sancte Spiritus.Robert the Second, surnamed “Robert the Sage” and “Robert the Devout,” succeeded Hugh Capet, his father, upon the throne of France, about the year 997. He has been called the gentlest monarch that ever sat upon a throne, and his amiability of character poorly prepared him to cope with his dangerous and wily adversaries. His last years were embittered by the opposition of his own sons, and the political agitations of the times. He died at Melun in 1031, and was buried at St. Denis.Robert possessed a reflective mind, and was fond of learning and musical art. He was both a poet and a musician. He was deeply religious, and, from unselfish motives, was much devoted to the church.84 /58Robert'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 homeShed the ray of light divine;Come, Thou Father of the poor,Come, Thou Source of all our store,Come, within our bosoms shine.Thou of Comforters the best,Thou the soul's most welcome Guest,Sweet Refreshment here below!In our labor Rest most sweet,Grateful Shadow from the heat,Solace in the midst of woe!Oh, most blessed Light Divine,Shine within these hearts of Thine,And our inmost being fill;If Thou take Thy grace away,Nothing pure in man will stay,All our good is turned to ill.Heal our wounds; our strength renewOn our dryness pour Thy dew;Wash the stains of guilt away!Bend the stubborn heart and will,85 /59Melt the frozen, warm the chill,Guide the steps that go astray.Neale's Translation.THE TUNE.The metre and six-line stanza, being uniform with those of “Rock of Ages,” have tempted some to borrow “Toplady” for this ancient hymn, but Hastings' tune would refuse to sing other words; and, besides, the alternate rhymes would mar the euphony. Not unsuitable in spirit are several existing tunes of the right measure—like “Nassau” or “St. Athanasius”—but in truth the “Veni, Sancte Spiritus” in English waits for its perfect setting. Dr. Ray Palmer's paraphrase of it in sixes-and-fours, to fit “Olivet,”—Come, Holy Ghost in love, etc.—is objectionable both because the word Ghost is an archaism in Christian worship and more especially because Dr. Palmer's altered version usurps the place of his own hymn. “Olivet” with “My faith looks up to Thee” makes as inviolable a case of psalmodic monogamy as “Toplady” with “Rock of Ages.”ST. FULBERT.“Chori Cantores Hierusalem Novae.”St. Fulbert's hymn is a worthy companion of Perronet's “Coronation”—if, indeed, it was not86 /60its original prompter—as KingRobert'sgreat 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 hymnIn strains of holy joy.For Judah's Lion bursts His chains,Crushing the serpent's head;And cries aloud, through death's domainsTo wake the imprisoned dead.Devouring depths of hell their preyAt His command restore;His ransomed hosts pursue their wayWhere Jesus goes before.Triumphant in His glory now,To Him all power is given;To Him in one communion bowAll saints in earth and heaven.Bishop Fulbert, known in the Roman and in the Protestant ritualistic churches as St. Fulbert of Chartres, was a man of brilliant and versatile mind, and one of the most eminent prelates of his time. He was a contemporary of Robert II, and his intimate friend, continuing so after the Pope87 /61(Gregory V.) excommunicated the king for marrying a cousin, which was forbidden by the canons of the church.Fulbert was for some time head of the Theological College at Chartres, a cathedral town of France, anciently the capital of Celtic Gaul, and afterwards he was consecrated as Bishop of that diocese. He died about 1029.THE TUNE.The modern tone-interpreter of Fulbert's hymn bears the name “La Spezia” in some collections, and was composed by James Taylor about the time the hymn was translated into English by Robert Campbell. Research might discover the ancient tune—for the hymn is said to have been sung in the English church during Fulbert's lifetime—but the older was little likely to be the better music. “La Spezia” is a choral of enlivening but easy chords, and a tread of triumph in its musical motion that suits the march of “Judah's Lion”:His ransomed hosts pursue their wayWhere 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 compiled88 /62the excellent Hymnal of the diocese of St. Andrews, and this was his best work. The date of his death is given as Dec. 29, 1868.THOMAS OF CELANO.Dies irae! dies illa,Solvet saeclum in favilla,Teste David cum Sybilla.Day of wrath! that day of burning,All the world to ashes turning,Sung by prophets far discerning.Latin ecclesiastical poetry reached its high water mark in that awful hymn. The solitaire of its sphere and time in the novelty of its rhythmic triplets, it stood a wonder to the church and hierarchy accustomed to the slow spondees of the ancient chant. There could be such a thing as a trochaic hymn!—and majestic, too!It was a discovery that did not stale. The compelling grandeur of the poem placed it distinct and alone, and the very difficulty of staffing it for vocal and instrumental use gave it a zest, and helped to keep it unique through the ages.Latin hymnody and hymnography, appealing to the popular ear and heart, had gradually substituted accent for quantity in verse; for the common people could never be moved by a Christian song in the prosody of the classics. The religion of the cross, with the song-preaching of its propagandists, created medieval Latin and made it91 /63a 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 province of Aquila, Southern Italy—was the pupil, friend and co-laborer of St. Francis of Assisi, and wrote his memoirs. He is supposed to have died near the end of the 13th century. That he wrote the sublime judgment song there is now practically no question.The label on the discovered manuscript would suggest that the writer did not consider it either a hymn or a poem. Like the inspired prophets he had meditated—and while he was musing the fire burned. The only title he wrote over it was “Prosa de mortuis,” Prosa (or prosa oratio)—fromprorsus, “straight forward”—appears here in the truly conventional sense it was beginning to bear, but not yet as the antipode of “poetry.” The modest author, unconscious of the magnitude of his work, called it simply “Plain speech concerning the dead."** “Proses” were original passages introduced into ecclesiastical chants in the 10th century. During and after the 11th century they were called “Sequences” (i.e.followingthe “Gospel” in the liturgy), and were in metrical form, having a prayerful tone. “Sequentia pro defunctis” was the later title of the “Dies Irae.”92 /64The hymn is much too long to quote entire, but can be found inDaniel's Thesaurusin any large public library. As to the translations of it, they number hundreds—in English and German alone, and Italy, Spain and Portugal have their vernacular versions—not to mention the Greek and Russian and even the Hebrew. A few stanzas follow, with their renderings into English (always imperfect) selected almost at random:Quantus tremor est futurusQuando Judex est venturus,Cuncta stricte discussurus!Tuba mirum spargens sonumPer sepulcra regionum,Coget omnes ante thronum!O the dread, the contrite kneelingWhen the Lord, in Judgment dealing,Comes each hidden thing revealing!When the trumpet's awful toneThrough 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:93 /65Dies Irae, dies illaCrucis 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 “cumfavilla,” “withashes” 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'sHymns Ancient and Modern. It was composed about the middle of the last century. Both theEvangelicalandMethodist Hymnalshave 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. ThePlymouth Hymnalhas seventeen of the trilineal stanzas, by an unknown translator, to Ferdinand Hiller's tune in F minor, besides one verse to another F minor—hymn and tune both nameless.94 /66All the composers above named are musicians of fame. John Stainer, organist of St. Paul's Cathedral, was a Doctor of Music and Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, and celebrated for his works in sacred music, to which he mainly devoted his time. He was born June 6, 1840. He died March 31, 1901.Rev. Timothy Richard Matthews, born at Colmworth, Eng., Nov. 20, 1826, is a clergyman of the Church of England, incumbent of a Lancaster charge to which he was appointed by Queen Alexandra.Ferdinand Hiller, born 1811 at Frankfort-on-the-Main, of Hebrew parentage, was one of Germany's most eminent musicians. For many years he was Chapel Master at Cologne, and organized the Cologne Conservatory. His compositions are mostly for instrumental performance, but he wrote cantatas, motets, male choruses, and two oratorios, one on the “Destruction of Jerusalem.” Died May 10, 1855.The Very Rev. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster, was an author and scholar whom all sects of Christians delighted to honor. His writings on the New Testament and his published researches in Palestine, made him an authority in Biblical study, and his contributions to sacred literature were looked for and welcomed as eagerly as a new hymn by Bonar or a new poem by Tennyson. Dean Stanley was born in 1815, and died July 18th, 1881.95 /67THOMAS À KEMPIS.Thomas à Kempis, sub-prior of the Convent of St. Agnes, was born at Hamerkin, Holland, about the year 1380, and died at Zwoll, 1471. This pious monk belonged to an order called the “Brethren of the Common Life” founded by Gerard de Groote, and his fame rests entirely upon his one book, theImitation of Christ, which continues to be printed as a religious classic, and is unsurpassed as a manual of private devotion. His monastic life—as was true generally of the monastic life of the middle ages—was not one of useless idleness. The Brethren taught school and did mechanical work. Besides, before the invention of printing had been perfected and brought into common service, the multiplication of books was principally the work of monkish pens. Kempis spent his days copying the Bible and good books—as well as in exercises of devotion that promoted religious calm.His idea of heaven, and the idea of his order, was expressed in that clause of John's description of the City of God, Rev. 22:3, “and His servants shall serve Him.” Above all other heavenly joys that was his favorite thought. We can well understand that the pious quietude wrought in his mind and manners by his habit of life made him a saint in the eyes of the people. The frontispiece of one edition of hisImitatio Christipictures him as96 /68being 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,—

Be Thou exalted, O my God,Above the heavens where angels dwell;Thy power on earth be known abroadAnd land to land Thy wonders tell.

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 remainsWhen lower worlds dissolve and die.

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.

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.

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 throneYe nations bow with sacred joy;Know that the Lord is God alone;He can create and He destroy.65 /41His sovereign power without our aidMade us of clay and formed us men,And when like wandering sheep we stray,He brought us to His fold again.* * * * * *We'll crowd Thy gates with thankful songs,High as the heaven our voices raise,And earth with her ten thousand tonguesShall fill Thy courts with sounding praise.

Before Jehovah's awful throneYe nations bow with sacred joy;Know that the Lord is God alone;He can create and He destroy.

Before Jehovah's awful throne

Ye nations bow with sacred joy;

Know that the Lord is God alone;

He can create and He destroy.

His sovereign power without our aidMade us of clay and formed us men,And when like wandering sheep we stray,He brought us to His fold again.

His sovereign power without our aid

Made us of clay and formed us men,

And when like wandering sheep we stray,

He brought us to His fold again.

* * * * * *

We'll crowd Thy gates with thankful songs,High as the heaven our voices raise,And earth with her ten thousand tonguesShall fill Thy courts with sounding praise.

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.

Martin Madan's four-page anthem, “Denmark,” has some grand strains in it, but it is a tune of florid and difficult vocalization, and is now heard only in Old Folks' Concerts.

The Rev. Isaac Watts, D.D., was born at Southampton, Eng., in 1674. His father was a deacon of the Independent Church there, and though not an uncultured man himself, he is said to have had little patience with the incurable penchant of his boy for making rhymes and verses. We hear nothing of the lad's mother, but we can fancy her hand and spirit in the indulgence of his poetic tastes as well as in his religious training. The tradition handed down from Dr. Price, a colleague of Watts, relates that at the age of eighteen Isaac became so irritated at the crabbed and untuneful hymns sung at the Nonconformist meetings that he complained bitterly of them to his father. The deacon may have felt something66 /42as Dr. Wayland did when a rather “fresh” student criticised the Proverbs, and hinted that making such things could not be “much of a job,” and the Doctor remarked, “Supposeyoumake a few.” Possibly there was the same gentle sarcasm in the reply of Deacon Watts to his son, “Make some yourself, then.”

Isaac was in just the mood to take his father at his word, and he retired and wrote the hymn—

Behold the glories of the Lamb.

There must have been a decent tune to carry it, for it pleased the worshippers greatly, when it was sung in meeting—and that was the beginning of Isaac Watts' career as a hymnist.

So far as scholarship was an advantage, the young writer must have been well equipped already, for as early as the entering of his fifth year he was learning Latin, and at nine learning Greek; at eleven, French; and at thirteen, Hebrew. From the day of his first success he continued to indite hymns for the home church, until by the end of his twenty-second year he had written one hundred and ten, and in the two following years a hundred and forty-four more, besides preparing himself for the ministry. No. 7 in the edition of the first one hundred and ten, was that royal jewel of all his lyric work—

When I survey the wondrous cross.

Isaac Watts was ordained pastor of an Independent Church in Mark Lane, London, 1702, but67 /43repeated illness finally broke up his ministry, and he retired, an invalid, to the beautiful home of Sir Thomas Abney at Theobaldo, invited, as he supposed, to spend a week, but it was really to spend the rest of his life—thirty-six years.

Numbers of his hymns are cited as having biographical or reminiscent color. The stanza in—

When I can read my title clear,

—which reads in the original copy,—

Should earth against my soul engageAndhellish darts be hurled,Then I can smile atSatan's rageAnd face a frowning world,

Should earth against my soul engage

Andhellish darts be hurled,

Then I can smile atSatan'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 soulIn seas of heavenly rest,And not a wave of trouble rollAcross my peaceful breast.

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. 3:22; and another,—

How vast a treasure we possess,

—enforced his text, “All things are yours.” The hymn,—

Not all the blood of beastsOn Jewish altars slain,

Not all the blood of beasts

On Jewish altars slain,

—was, as some say, suggested to the writer by a visit to theabattoirin Smithfield Market. The same hymn years afterwards, discovered, we are told, in a printed paper wrapped around a shop bundle, converted a Jewess, and influenced her to a life of Christian faith and sacrifice.

A young man, hardened by austere and minatory sermons, was melted, says Dr. Belcher, by simply reading,—

Show pity Lord, O Lord, forgive,Let a repenting sinner live.

Show pity Lord, O Lord, forgive,

Let a repenting sinner live.

—and became partaker of a rich religious experience.

The summer scenery of Southampton, with its distant view of the Isle of Wight, was believed to have inspired the hymnist sitting at a parlor window and gazing across the river Itchen, to write the stanza—

Sweet fields beyond the swelling floodStand drest in living green;So to the Jews old Canaan stoodWhile Jordan rolled between.

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 marriage69 /45to 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.

How vain are all things here below,

How false and yet how fair.

Miss Singer became the celebrated Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe, the spiritual and poetic beauty of whoseMeditationsonce 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 onLogic, anIntroduction to the Study of Astronomy and Geography, and a workOn the Improvement of the Mind; and died in 1748, at the age of seventy-four.

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 have70 /46been written May 17, 1739, for the anniversary of his own conversion:

O for a thousand tongues to singMy great Redeemer's praise,The glories of my God and King,And triumphs of His grace.

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 fearsAnd bids our sorrows cease;'Tis music in the sinner's ears,'Tis life and health and peace.

Jesus! the name that calms our fears

And bids our sorrows cease;

'Tis music in the sinner's ears,

'Tis life and health and peace.

Charles Wesley was the poet of the soul, and knew every mood. In the words of Isaac Taylor, “There is no main article of belief ... no moral sentiment peculiarly characteristic of the gospel that does not find itself ... pointedly and clearly conveyed in some stanza of Charles Wesley's poetry.” And it does not dim the lustre of Watts, considering the marvellous brightness, versatility and felicity of his greatest successor, to say of the latter, with theLondon Quarterly, that he “was, perhaps, the most gifted minstrel of the modern Church.”

Charles WesleyCharles WesleyHymnal

Most of the hymns of this good man were hymns of experience—and this is why they are so dear to the Christian heart. The music of eternal life is in them. The happy glow of a single line in one of them—

Love Divine, all loves excelling,

—thrills through them all. He led a spotless life from youth to old age, and grew unceasingly in spiritual knowledge and sweetness. His piety and purity were the weapons that alike humbled his scoffing fellow scholars at Oxford, and conquered the wild colliers of Kingwood. With his brother John, through persecution and ridicule, he preached and sang that Divine Love to his countrymen and in the wilds of America, and on their return to England his quenchless melodies multiplied till they made an Evangelical literature around his name. His hymns—he wrote no less than six thousand—are a liturgy not only for the Methodist Church but for English-speaking Christendom.

The voices of Wesley and Watts cannot be hidden, whatever province of Christian life and service is traversed in themes of song, and in these chapters they will be heard again and again.

A Watts-and-Wesley Scholarship would grace any Theological Seminary, to encourage the study and discussion of the best lyrics of the two great Gospel bards.

The musical mouth-piece of “O for a thousand tongues,” nearest to its own date, is old “Azmon”74 /48by Carl Glaser (1734–1829), appearing as No. 1 in theNew Methodist Hymnal. Arranged by Lowell Mason, 1830, it is still comparatively familiar, and the flavor of devotion is in its tone and style.

Henry John Gauntlett, an English lawyer and composer, wrote a tune for it in 1872, noble in its uniform step and time, but scarcely uttering the hymnist's characteristic ardor.

The tune of “Dedham,” by William Gardiner, now venerable but surviving by true merit, is not unlike “Azmon” in movement and character. Though less closely associated with the hymn, as a companion melody it is not inappropriate. But whatever the range of vocalization or the dignity of swells and cadences, a slow pace of single semibreves or quarters is not suited to Wesley's hymns. They are flights.

Professor William Gardiner wrote many works on musical subjects early in the last century, and composed vocal harmonies, secular and sacred. He was born in Leicester, Eng., March 5, 1770, and died there Nov. 16, 1853.

There is an old-fashioned unction and vigor in the style of “Peterborough” by Rev. Ralph Harrison (1748–1810) that after all best satisfies the singer who enters heart and soul into the spirit of the hymn.Old Peterboroughwas composed in 1786.

This was written in 1817 by the author of the “Star Spangled Banner,” and is a noble American hymn of which the country may well be proud, both because of its merit and for its birth in the heart of a national poet who was no less a Christian than a patriot.

Francis Scott Key, lawyer, was born on the estate of his father, John Ross Key, in Frederick, Md., Aug. 1st, 1779; and died in Baltimore, Jan. 11, 1843. A bronze statue of him over his grave, and another in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, represent the nationality of his fame and the gratitude of a whole land.

Though a slaveholder by inheritance, Mr. Key deplored the existence of human slavery, and not only originated a scheme of African colonization, but did all that a model master could do for the chattels on his plantation, in compliance with the Scripture command,*to lighten their burdens. He helped them in their family troubles, defended them gratuitously in the courts, and held regular Sunday-school services for them.

* Eph. 6:9, Coloss. 4:1.

Educated at St. John's College, an active member of the Episcopal Church, he was not only a scholar but a devout and exemplary man.

Lord, with glowing heart I'd praise TheeFor the bliss Thy love bestows,For the pardoning grace that saves me,And the peace that from it flows.76 /50Help, O Lord, my weak endeavor;This dull soul to rapture raise;Thou must light the flame or neverCan my love be warmed to praise.Lord, this bosom's ardent feelingVainly 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.

Lord, with glowing heart I'd praise TheeFor the bliss Thy love bestows,For the pardoning grace that saves me,And the peace that from it flows.

Lord, with glowing heart I'd praise Thee

For the bliss Thy love bestows,

For the pardoning grace that saves me,

And the peace that from it flows.

Help, O Lord, my weak endeavor;This dull soul to rapture raise;Thou must light the flame or neverCan my love be warmed to praise.

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 feelingVainly would my life express;Low before Thy footstool kneeling,Deign Thy suppliant's prayer to bless.

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.

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.

“St. Chad,” a choral in D, with a four-bar unison, in theEvangelical Hymnal, is worthy of the hymn. Richard Redhead, the composer, organist of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Paddington, Eng., was born at Harrow, Middlesex, March 1, 1820, and educated at Magdalene College, Oxford. Graduated Bachelor of Music at Oxford, 1871. He publishedLaudes Dominæ, a Gregorian Psalter, 1843, a Book of Tunes for theChristian Year, and is the author of much ritual music.

There is nothing so majestic in Protestant hymnology as this Tersanctus of Bishop Heber.

The Rt. Rev. Reginald Heber, son of a clergyman of the same name, was born in Malpas,77 /51Cheshire, Eng., April 21st, 1783, and educated at Oxford. He served the church in Hodnet, Shropshire, for about twenty years, and was then appointed Bishop of Calcutta, E.I. His labors there were cut short in the prime of his life, his death occurring in 1826, at Trichinopoly on the 3d of April, his natal month.

His hymns, numbering fifty-seven, were collected by his widow, and published with his poetical works in 1842.

Holy! holy! holy! Lord God Almighty!Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee.Holy! holy! holy! merciful and mighty,God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity.Holy! holy! holy! all the saints adore Thee,Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;Cherubim and seraphim, falling down before Thee,Which wert, and art, and evermore shall be.

Holy! holy! holy! Lord God Almighty!Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee.Holy! holy! holy! merciful and mighty,God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity.

Holy! holy! holy! Lord God Almighty!

Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee.

Holy! holy! holy! merciful and mighty,

God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity.

Holy! holy! holy! all the saints adore Thee,Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;Cherubim and seraphim, falling down before Thee,Which wert, and art, and evermore shall be.

Holy! holy! holy! all the saints adore Thee,

Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;

Cherubim and seraphim, falling down before Thee,

Which wert, and art, and evermore shall be.

Grand as the hymn is, it did not come to its full grandeur of sentiment and sound in song-worship till the remarkable music of Dr. John B. Dykes was joined to it. None was ever written that in performance illustrates more admirably the solemn beauty of congregational praise. The name “Nicæa” attached to the tune means nothing to the popular ear and mind, and it is known everywhere by the initial words of the first line.

Rev. John Bacchus Dykes, Doctor of Music, was born at Kingston-upon-Hull, in 1823; and78 /52graduated at Cambridge, in 1847. He became a master of tone and choral harmony, and did much to reform and elevate congregational psalmody in England. He was perhaps the first to demonstrate that hymn-tune making can be reduced to a science without impairing its spiritual purpose. Died Jan. 22, 1876.

This noble hymn was composed by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, born in Cambridge, Mass., 1809, and graduated at Harvard University. A physician by profession, he was known as a practitioner chiefly in literature, being a brilliant writer and long the leading poetical wit of America. He was, however, a man of deep religious feeling, and a devout attendant at King's Chapel, Unitarian, in Boston where he spent his life. He held the Harvard Professorship of Anatomy and Physiology more than fifty years, but his enduring work is in his poems, and his charming volume,The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. Died Jan. 22, 1896.

Holmes' hymn is sung in some churches to “Louvan,” V.C. Taylor's admirable praise tune. Other hymnals prefer with it the music of “Keble,” one of Dr. Dykes' appropriate and finished melodies.

Virgil Corydon Taylor, an American vocal composer, was born in Barkhamstead, Conn., April 2, 1817, died 1891.

John of Damascus, called also St. John of Jerusalem, a theologian and poet, was the last but one of the Christian Fathers of the Greek Church. This eminent man was named by the Arabs “Ibn Mansur,” Son (Servant?) of a Conqueror, either in honor of his father Sergius or because it was a Semitic translation of his family title. He was born in Damascus early in the 8th century, and seems to have been in favor with the Caliph, and served under him many years in some important civil capacity, until, retiring to Palestine, he entered the monastic order, and late in life was ordained a priest of the Jerusalem Church. He died in the Convent of St. Sabas near that city about A.D. 780.

His lifetime appears to have been passed in80 /54comparative peace. Mohammed having died before completing the conquest of Syria, the Moslem rule before whose advance Oriental Christianity was to lose its first field of triumph had not yet asserted its persecuting power in the north. This devout monk, in his meditations at St. Sabas, dwelt much upon the birth and the resurrection of Christ, and made hymns to celebrate them. It was probably four hundred years before Bonaventura (?) wrote the Christmas “Adeste Fideles” of the Latin West that John of Damascus composed his Greek “Adeste Fideles” for a Resurrection song in Jerusalem.

Come ye faithful, raise the strainOf triumphant gladness.* * * * * *'Tis the spring of souls todayChrist hath burst His prison;From the frost and gloom of deathLight and life have risen.

Come ye faithful, raise the strainOf triumphant gladness.

Come ye faithful, raise the strain

Of triumphant gladness.

* * * * * *

'Tis the spring of souls todayChrist hath burst His prison;From the frost and gloom of deathLight and life have risen.

'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.81 /55Our hearts be pure from evil,That we may see arightThe Lord in rays eternalOf 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!

The day of resurrection,

Earth, tell its joys abroad:

The Passover of gladness,

The Passover of God.

From death to life eternal,

From earth unto the sky,

Our Christ hath brought us over,

With hymns of victory.

Our hearts be pure from evil,That we may see arightThe Lord in rays eternalOf resurrection light;And, listening to His accents,May hear, so calm and plain,His own, “All hail!” and hearing,May raise the victor-strain.

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!

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 Day of Resurrection” is sung in the modern hymnals to the tune of “Rotterdam,” composed by Berthold of Tours, born in that city of the Netherlands, Dec. 17, 1838. He was educated at the conservatory in Leipsic, and later made London his permanent residence, writing both vocal and instrumental music. Died 1897. “Rotterdam” is a stately, sonorous piece and conveys the flavor of the ancient hymn.

“Come ye faithful” has for its modern interpreter Sir Arthur Sullivan, the celebrated composer of both secular and sacred works, but best82 /56known in hymnody as author of the great Christian march, “Onward Christian Soldiers.”

Hymns are known to have been written by the earlier Greek Fathers, Ephrem Syrus of Mesopotamia (A.D. 307–373), Basil the Great, Bishop of Cappadocia (A.D. 329–379) Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop of Constantinople (A.D. 335–390) and others, but their fragments of song which have come down to us scarcely rank them among the great witnesses—with the possible exception of the last name. An English scholar, Rev. Allen W. Chatfield, has translated the hymns extant of Gregory Nazianzen. The following stanzas give an idea of their quality. The lines are from an address to the Deity:

How, Unapproached! shall mind of manDescry Thy dazzling throne,And pierce and find Thee out, and scanWhere Thou dost dwell alone?Unuttered Thou! all uttered thingsHave had their birth from Thee;The One Unknown, from Thee the springOf all we know and see.And lo! all things abide in TheeAnd through the complex whole,Thou spreadst Thine own divinity,Thyself of all the Goal.

How, Unapproached! shall mind of manDescry Thy dazzling throne,And pierce and find Thee out, and scanWhere Thou dost dwell alone?

How, Unapproached! shall mind of man

Descry Thy dazzling throne,

And pierce and find Thee out, and scan

Where Thou dost dwell alone?

Unuttered Thou! all uttered thingsHave had their birth from Thee;The One Unknown, from Thee the springOf all we know and see.

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 TheeAnd through the complex whole,Thou spreadst Thine own divinity,Thyself of all the Goal.

And lo! all things abide in Thee

And through the complex whole,

Thou spreadst Thine own divinity,

Thyself of all the Goal.

This is reverent, but rather philosophical than evangelical, and reminds us of the Hymn of Aratus, more than two centuries before Christ was born.

This pious Greek monk, (734–794,) nephew of St. John of Damascus, spent his life, from the age of ten, in the monastery of St. Sabas. His sweet hymn, known in Neale's translation,—

Art thou weary, art thou languid,Art thou sore distrest?Come to Me, saith One, and comingBe at rest,

Art thou weary, art thou languid,

Art thou sore distrest?

Come to Me, saith One, and coming

Be at rest,

—is still in the hymnals, with the tunes of Dykes, and Sir Henry W. Baker (1821–1877), Vicar of Monkland, Herefordshire.

Robert the Second, surnamed “Robert the Sage” and “Robert the Devout,” succeeded Hugh Capet, his father, upon the throne of France, about the year 997. He has been called the gentlest monarch that ever sat upon a throne, and his amiability of character poorly prepared him to cope with his dangerous and wily adversaries. His last years were embittered by the opposition of his own sons, and the political agitations of the times. He died at Melun in 1031, and was buried at St. Denis.

Robert possessed a reflective mind, and was fond of learning and musical art. He was both a poet and a musician. He was deeply religious, and, from unselfish motives, was much devoted to the church.

Robert's hymn, “Veni, Sancte Spiritus,” is given below. He himself was a chorister; and there was no kingly service that he seemed to love so well. We are told that it was his custom to go to the church of St. Denis, and in his royal robes, with his crown upon his head, to direct the choir at matins and vespers, and join in the singing. Few kings have left a better legacy to the Christian church than his own hymn, which, after nearly a thousand years, is still an influence in the world:

Come, Thou Holy Spirit, come,And from Thine eternal homeShed the ray of light divine;Come, Thou Father of the poor,Come, Thou Source of all our store,Come, within our bosoms shine.Thou of Comforters the best,Thou the soul's most welcome Guest,Sweet Refreshment here below!In our labor Rest most sweet,Grateful Shadow from the heat,Solace in the midst of woe!Oh, most blessed Light Divine,Shine within these hearts of Thine,And our inmost being fill;If Thou take Thy grace away,Nothing pure in man will stay,All our good is turned to ill.Heal our wounds; our strength renewOn our dryness pour Thy dew;Wash the stains of guilt away!Bend the stubborn heart and will,85 /59Melt the frozen, warm the chill,Guide the steps that go astray.Neale's Translation.

Come, Thou Holy Spirit, come,And from Thine eternal homeShed the ray of light divine;Come, Thou Father of the poor,Come, Thou Source of all our store,Come, within our bosoms shine.

Come, Thou Holy Spirit, come,

And from Thine eternal home

Shed the ray of light divine;

Come, Thou Father of the poor,

Come, Thou Source of all our store,

Come, within our bosoms shine.

Thou of Comforters the best,Thou the soul's most welcome Guest,Sweet Refreshment here below!In our labor Rest most sweet,Grateful Shadow from the heat,Solace in the midst of woe!

Thou of Comforters the best,

Thou the soul's most welcome Guest,

Sweet Refreshment here below!

In our labor Rest most sweet,

Grateful Shadow from the heat,

Solace in the midst of woe!

Oh, most blessed Light Divine,Shine within these hearts of Thine,And our inmost being fill;If Thou take Thy grace away,Nothing pure in man will stay,All our good is turned to ill.

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 renewOn our dryness pour Thy dew;Wash the stains of guilt away!Bend the stubborn heart and will,85 /59Melt the frozen, warm the chill,Guide the steps that go astray.

Heal our wounds; our strength renew

On our dryness pour Thy dew;

Wash the stains of guilt away!

Bend the stubborn heart and will,

Melt the frozen, warm the chill,

Guide the steps that go astray.

Neale's Translation.

The metre and six-line stanza, being uniform with those of “Rock of Ages,” have tempted some to borrow “Toplady” for this ancient hymn, but Hastings' tune would refuse to sing other words; and, besides, the alternate rhymes would mar the euphony. Not unsuitable in spirit are several existing tunes of the right measure—like “Nassau” or “St. Athanasius”—but in truth the “Veni, Sancte Spiritus” in English waits for its perfect setting. Dr. Ray Palmer's paraphrase of it in sixes-and-fours, to fit “Olivet,”—

Come, Holy Ghost in love, etc.

—is objectionable both because the word Ghost is an archaism in Christian worship and more especially because Dr. Palmer's altered version usurps the place of his own hymn. “Olivet” with “My faith looks up to Thee” makes as inviolable a case of psalmodic monogamy as “Toplady” with “Rock of Ages.”

St. Fulbert's hymn is a worthy companion of Perronet's “Coronation”—if, indeed, it was not86 /60its original prompter—as KingRobert'sgreat 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 hymnIn strains of holy joy.For Judah's Lion bursts His chains,Crushing the serpent's head;And cries aloud, through death's domainsTo wake the imprisoned dead.Devouring depths of hell their preyAt His command restore;His ransomed hosts pursue their wayWhere Jesus goes before.Triumphant in His glory now,To Him all power is given;To Him in one communion bowAll saints in earth and heaven.

Ye choirs of New Jerusalem,Your sweetest notes employ,The Paschal victory to hymnIn strains of holy joy.

Ye choirs of New Jerusalem,

Your sweetest notes employ,

The Paschal victory to hymn

In strains of holy joy.

For Judah's Lion bursts His chains,Crushing the serpent's head;And cries aloud, through death's domainsTo wake the imprisoned dead.

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 preyAt His command restore;His ransomed hosts pursue their wayWhere Jesus goes before.

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 bowAll saints in earth and heaven.

Triumphant in His glory now,

To Him all power is given;

To Him in one communion bow

All saints in earth and heaven.

Bishop Fulbert, known in the Roman and in the Protestant ritualistic churches as St. Fulbert of Chartres, was a man of brilliant and versatile mind, and one of the most eminent prelates of his time. He was a contemporary of Robert II, and his intimate friend, continuing so after the Pope87 /61(Gregory V.) excommunicated the king for marrying a cousin, which was forbidden by the canons of the church.

Fulbert was for some time head of the Theological College at Chartres, a cathedral town of France, anciently the capital of Celtic Gaul, and afterwards he was consecrated as Bishop of that diocese. He died about 1029.

The modern tone-interpreter of Fulbert's hymn bears the name “La Spezia” in some collections, and was composed by James Taylor about the time the hymn was translated into English by Robert Campbell. Research might discover the ancient tune—for the hymn is said to have been sung in the English church during Fulbert's lifetime—but the older was little likely to be the better music. “La Spezia” is a choral of enlivening but easy chords, and a tread of triumph in its musical motion that suits the march of “Judah's Lion”:

His ransomed hosts pursue their wayWhere Jesus goes before.

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 compiled88 /62the 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.

Dies irae! dies illa,Solvet saeclum in favilla,Teste David cum Sybilla.Day of wrath! that day of burning,All the world to ashes turning,Sung by prophets far discerning.

Dies irae! dies illa,Solvet saeclum in favilla,Teste David cum Sybilla.

Dies irae! dies illa,

Solvet saeclum in favilla,

Teste David cum Sybilla.

Day of wrath! that day of burning,All the world to ashes turning,Sung by prophets far discerning.

Day of wrath! that day of burning,

All the world to ashes turning,

Sung by prophets far discerning.

Latin ecclesiastical poetry reached its high water mark in that awful hymn. The solitaire of its sphere and time in the novelty of its rhythmic triplets, it stood a wonder to the church and hierarchy accustomed to the slow spondees of the ancient chant. There could be such a thing as a trochaic hymn!—and majestic, too!

It was a discovery that did not stale. The compelling grandeur of the poem placed it distinct and alone, and the very difficulty of staffing it for vocal and instrumental use gave it a zest, and helped to keep it unique through the ages.

Latin hymnody and hymnography, appealing to the popular ear and heart, had gradually substituted accent for quantity in verse; for the common people could never be moved by a Christian song in the prosody of the classics. The religion of the cross, with the song-preaching of its propagandists, created medieval Latin and made it91 /63a 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 province of Aquila, Southern Italy—was the pupil, friend and co-laborer of St. Francis of Assisi, and wrote his memoirs. He is supposed to have died near the end of the 13th century. That he wrote the sublime judgment song there is now practically no question.

The label on the discovered manuscript would suggest that the writer did not consider it either a hymn or a poem. Like the inspired prophets he had meditated—and while he was musing the fire burned. The only title he wrote over it was “Prosa de mortuis,” Prosa (or prosa oratio)—fromprorsus, “straight forward”—appears here in the truly conventional sense it was beginning to bear, but not yet as the antipode of “poetry.” The modest author, unconscious of the magnitude of his work, called it simply “Plain speech concerning the dead."*

* “Proses” were original passages introduced into ecclesiastical chants in the 10th century. During and after the 11th century they were called “Sequences” (i.e.followingthe “Gospel” in the liturgy), and were in metrical form, having a prayerful tone. “Sequentia pro defunctis” was the later title of the “Dies Irae.”

The hymn is much too long to quote entire, but can be found inDaniel's Thesaurusin any large public library. As to the translations of it, they number hundreds—in English and German alone, and Italy, Spain and Portugal have their vernacular versions—not to mention the Greek and Russian and even the Hebrew. A few stanzas follow, with their renderings into English (always imperfect) selected almost at random:

Quantus tremor est futurusQuando Judex est venturus,Cuncta stricte discussurus!Tuba mirum spargens sonumPer sepulcra regionum,Coget omnes ante thronum!O the dread, the contrite kneelingWhen the Lord, in Judgment dealing,Comes each hidden thing revealing!When the trumpet's awful toneThrough the realms sepulchral blown,Summons all before the Throne!

Quantus tremor est futurusQuando Judex est venturus,Cuncta stricte discussurus!

Quantus tremor est futurus

Quando Judex est venturus,

Cuncta stricte discussurus!

Tuba mirum spargens sonumPer sepulcra regionum,Coget omnes ante thronum!

Tuba mirum spargens sonum

Per sepulcra regionum,

Coget omnes ante thronum!

O the dread, the contrite kneelingWhen the Lord, in Judgment dealing,Comes each hidden thing revealing!

O the dread, the contrite kneeling

When the Lord, in Judgment dealing,

Comes each hidden thing revealing!

When the trumpet's awful toneThrough the realms sepulchral blown,Summons all before the Throne!

When the trumpet's awful tone

Through the realms sepulchral blown,

Summons all before the Throne!

The solemn strength and vibration of these tremendous trilineals suffers no general injury by the variant readings—and there are a good many. As a sample, the first stanza was changed by some canonical redactor to get rid of the heathen word Sybilla, and the second line was made the third:

Dies Irae, dies illaCrucis expandens vexilla,Solvet saeclum in favilla.Day of wrath! that day foretold,With the cross-flag wide unrolled,Shall the world in fire enfold!

Dies Irae, dies illaCrucis expandens vexilla,Solvet saeclum in favilla.

Dies Irae, dies illa

Crucis expandens vexilla,

Solvet saeclum in favilla.

Day of wrath! that day foretold,With the cross-flag wide unrolled,Shall the world in fire enfold!

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 “cumfavilla,” “withashes” instead of “in ashes”; and “Teste Petro” is substituted for “Teste David.”

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'sHymns Ancient and Modern. It was composed about the middle of the last century. Both theEvangelicalandMethodist Hymnalshave 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. ThePlymouth Hymnalhas seventeen of the trilineal stanzas, by an unknown translator, to Ferdinand Hiller's tune in F minor, besides one verse to another F minor—hymn and tune both nameless.

All the composers above named are musicians of fame. John Stainer, organist of St. Paul's Cathedral, was a Doctor of Music and Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, and celebrated for his works in sacred music, to which he mainly devoted his time. He was born June 6, 1840. He died March 31, 1901.

Rev. Timothy Richard Matthews, born at Colmworth, Eng., Nov. 20, 1826, is a clergyman of the Church of England, incumbent of a Lancaster charge to which he was appointed by Queen Alexandra.

Ferdinand Hiller, born 1811 at Frankfort-on-the-Main, of Hebrew parentage, was one of Germany's most eminent musicians. For many years he was Chapel Master at Cologne, and organized the Cologne Conservatory. His compositions are mostly for instrumental performance, but he wrote cantatas, motets, male choruses, and two oratorios, one on the “Destruction of Jerusalem.” Died May 10, 1855.

The Very Rev. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster, was an author and scholar whom all sects of Christians delighted to honor. His writings on the New Testament and his published researches in Palestine, made him an authority in Biblical study, and his contributions to sacred literature were looked for and welcomed as eagerly as a new hymn by Bonar or a new poem by Tennyson. Dean Stanley was born in 1815, and died July 18th, 1881.

Thomas à Kempis, sub-prior of the Convent of St. Agnes, was born at Hamerkin, Holland, about the year 1380, and died at Zwoll, 1471. This pious monk belonged to an order called the “Brethren of the Common Life” founded by Gerard de Groote, and his fame rests entirely upon his one book, theImitation of Christ, which continues to be printed as a religious classic, and is unsurpassed as a manual of private devotion. His monastic life—as was true generally of the monastic life of the middle ages—was not one of useless idleness. The Brethren taught school and did mechanical work. Besides, before the invention of printing had been perfected and brought into common service, the multiplication of books was principally the work of monkish pens. Kempis spent his days copying the Bible and good books—as well as in exercises of devotion that promoted religious calm.

His idea of heaven, and the idea of his order, was expressed in that clause of John's description of the City of God, Rev. 22:3, “and His servants shall serve Him.” Above all other heavenly joys that was his favorite thought. We can well understand that the pious quietude wrought in his mind and manners by his habit of life made him a saint in the eyes of the people. The frontispiece of one edition of hisImitatio Christipictures him as96 /68being 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,—

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