Chapter IV: CYSTOPHORIDA (Cystonectae, Haeckel). With a very large (6)

The fame of all these writers was eclipsed in the latter part of the same century by three of the greatest hymnographers whom Germany has produced--Paul Gerhardt (1604-1676), Johann Franck (1618-1677) and Johann Scheffler (1624-1677), the founder of the "second Silesian school," who assumed the name of "Angelus Silesius." Gerhardt is by universal consent the prince of Lutheran poets. His compositions, which may be compared, in many respects, to those of the _Christian Year_, are lyric poems, of considerable length, rather than hymns, though many hymns have been taken from them. They are, with few exceptions, subjective, and speak the language of individual experience. They occupy a middle ground between the masculine simplicity of the old Lutheran style and the highly wrought religious emotion of the later pietists, towards whom they on the whole incline. Being nearly all excellent, it is not easy to distinguish among the 123 those which are entitled to the highest praise. Two, which were written one during the war and the other after the conclusion of peace, "Zeuch ein zu deinen Thoren" ("Come to Thy temple here on earth"), and "Gottlob, nun ist erschollen" ("Thank God, it hath resounded"), are historically interesting. Of the rest, one is well known and highly appreciated in English through Wesley's translation, "Commit thou all thy ways"; and the evening and spring-tide hymns ("Now all the woods are sleeping" and "Go forth, my heart, and seek delight") show an exquisite feeling for nature; while nothing can be more tender and pathetic than "Du bist zwar mein und bleibest mein" ("Thou'rt mine, yes, still thou art mine own"), on the death of his son. Franck, who was burgomaster of Guben in Lusatia, has been considered by some second only to Gerhardt. If so, it is with a great distance between them. His approach to the later pietists is closer than that of Gerhardt. His hymns were published, under the title of _Geistliche und weltliche Gedichte_, in 1674, some of them being founded on Ambrosian and other Latin originals. Miss Winkworth gives them the praise of a condensed and polished style and fervid and impassioned thought. It was after his conversion to Roman Catholicism that Scheffler adopted the name of "Angelus Silesius," and published in 1657 his hymns, under a fantastic title, and with a still more fantastic preface. Their keynote is divine love; they are enthusiastic, intense, exuberant in their sweetness, like those of St Bernard among medieval poets. An adaptation of one of them, by Wesley, "Thee will I love, my Strength, my Tower," is familiar to English readers. Those for the first Sunday after Epiphany, for Sexagesima Sunday and for Trinity Sunday, in _Lyra Germanica_, are good examples of his excellences, with few of his defects. His hymns are generally so free from the expression, or even the indirect suggestion, of Roman Catholic doctrine, that it has been supposed they were written before his conversion, though published afterwards. The evangelical churches of Germany found no difficulty in admitting them to that prominent place in their services which they have ever since retained.

Pietists.

Towards the end of the 17th century, a new religious school arose, to which the name of "Pietists" was given, and of which Philipp Jakob Spener was esteemed the founder. He and his pupils and successors, August Hermann Francke and Anastasius Freylinghausen, all wrote hymns. Spener's hymns are not remarkable, and Francke's are not numerous. Freylinghausen was their chief singer; his rhythm is lively, his music florid; but, though his book attained extraordinary popularity, he was surpassed in solid merit by other less fertile writers of the same school. The "Auf hinauf zu deiner Freude" ("Up, yes, upward to thy gladness") of Schade may recall to an English reader a hymn by Seagrave, and more than one by Lyte; the "Malabarian hymn" (as it was called by Jacobi) of Johann Schütz, "All glory to the Sovereign Good," has been popular in England as well as Germany; and one of the most exquisite strains of pious resignation ever written is "Whate'er my God ordains is right," by Samuel Rodigast.

Neander.

Joachim Neander, a schoolmaster at Düsseldorf, and a friend of Spener and Schütz (who died before the full development of the "Pietistic" school), was the first man of eminence in the "Reformed" or Calvinistic Church who imitated Lutheran hymnody. This he did, while suffering persecution from the elders of his own church for some other religious practices, which he had also learnt from Spener's example. As a poet, he is sometimes deficient in art; but there is feeling, warmth and sweetness in many of his "Bundeslieder" or "Songs of the Covenant," and they obtained general favour, both in the Reformed and in Lutheran congregations. The Summer Hymn ("O Thou true God alone") and that on the glory of God in creation ("Lo, heaven and earth and sea and air") are instances of his best style.

Schmolke.

Dessler.

Hiller.

Arnold.

Tersteegen.

Zinzendorf.

With the "Pietists" may be classed Benjamin Schmolke and Dessler, representatives of the "Orthodox" division of Spener's school; Philipp Friedrich Hiller, their leading poet in South Germany; Gottfried Arnold and Gerhard Tersteegen, who were practically independent of ecclesiastical organization, though connected, one with the "Orthodox" and the other with the "Reformed" churches; and Nikolaus Ludwig, Graf von Zinzendorf. Schmolke, a pastor in Silesia, called the Silesian Rist (1672-1737), was perhaps the most voluminous of all German hymn-writers. He wrote 1188 religious poems and hymns, a large proportion of which do not rise above mediocrity. His style, if less refined, is also less subjective and more simple than that of most of his contemporaries. Among his best and most attractive works, which indeed, it would be difficult to praise too highly, are the "Hosianna David's Sohn," for Palm Sunday--much resembling a shorter hymn by Jeremy Taylor; and the Ascension, Whitsuntide and Sabbath hymns--"Heavenward doth our journey tend," "Come deck our feast to-day," and "Light of light, enlighten me." Dessler was a greater poet than Schmolke. Few hymns, of the subjective kind, are better than his "I will not let Thee go, Thou Help in time of need," "O Friend of souls, how well is me," and "Now, the pearly gates unfold." Hiller (1699-1769), was a pastor in Württemberg who, falling into ill-health during the latter part of his ministry, published a _Geistliche Liederhöstlein_ in a didactic vein, with more taste than power, but (as Miss Winkworth says) in a tone of "deep, thoughtful, practical piety." They were so well adapted to the wants of his people that to this day Hiller's Casket is prized, next to their Bibles, by the peasantry of Württemberg; and the numerous emigrants from that part of Germany to America and other foreign countries generally take it with them wherever they go. Arnold, a professor at Giessen, and afterwards a pastor in Brandenburg, was a man of strong will, uncompromising character and austere views of life, intolerant and controversial towards those whose doctrine or practice he disapproved, and more indifferent to separatism and sectarianism than the "orthodox" generally thought right. His hymns, like those of Augustus M. Toplady, whom in these respects he resembled, unite with considerable strength more gentleness and breadth of sympathy than might be expected from a man of such a character. Tersteegen (1697-1769), who never formally separated himself from the "Reformed" communion, in which he was brought up, but whose sympathies were with the Moravians and with Zinzendorf, was, of all the more copious German hymn-writers after Luther, perhaps the most remarkable man. Pietist, mystic and missionary, he was also a great religious poet. His 111 hymns were published In 1731, in a volume called _Geistlicher Blumengärtlein inniger_ Seelen. They are intensely individual, meditative and subjective. Wesley's adaptations of two--"Lo! God is here; let us adore," and "Thou hidden Love of God, whose source"--are well known. Among those translated by Miss Winkworth, "O God, O Spirit, Light of all that live," and "Come, brethren, let us go," are specimens which exhibit favourably his manner and power. Miss Cox speaks of him as "a gentle heaven-inspired soul, whose hymns are the reflection of a heavenly, happy life, his mind being full of a child-like simplicity"; and his own poem on the child-character, which Miss Winkworth has appropriately connected with Innocents' day ("Dear Soul, couldst thou become a child")--one of his best compositions, exquisitely conceived and expressed--shows that this was in truth the ideal which he sought to realize. The hymns of Zinzendorf are often disfigured by excess in the application of the language and imagery of human affections to divine objects; and this blemish is also found in many later Moravian hymns. But one hymn, at least, of Zinzendorf may be mentioned with unqualified praise, as uniting the merits of force, simplicity and brevity--"Jesu, geh voran" ("Jesus, lead the way"), which is taught to most children of religious parents in Germany. Wesley's "Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness" is a translation from Zinzendorf.

Gellert.

The transition from Tersteegen and Zinzendorf to Gellert and Klopstock marks strongly the reaction against Pietism which took place towards the middle of the 18th century. The _Geistlichen Oden und Lieder_ of Christian F. Gellert were published in 1757, and are said to have been received with an enthusiasm almost like that which "greeted Luther's hymns on their first appearance." It is a proof of the moderation both of the author and of his times that they were largely used, not only by Protestant congregations, but in those German Roman Catholic churches in which vernacular services had been established through the influence of the emperor Joseph II. They became the model which was followed by most succeeding hymn-writers, and exceeded all others in popularity till the close of the century, when a new wave of thought was generated by the movement which produced the French Revolution. Since that time they have been, perhaps, too much depreciated. They are, indeed, cold and didactic, as compared with Scheffler or Tersteegen; but there is nevertheless in them a spirit of genuine practical piety; and, if not marked by genius, they are pure in taste, and often terse, vigorous and graceful.

Klopstock.

Klopstock, the author of the _Messiah_, cannot be considered great as a hymn-writer, though his "Sabbath Hymn" (of which there is a version in _Hymns from the Land of Luther_) is simple and good. Generally his hymns (ten of which are translated in Sheppard's _Foreign Sacred Lyre_) are artificial and much too elaborate.

Fouqué.

Of the "romantic" school, which came in with the French Revolution, the two leading writers are Friedrich Leopold von Hardenberg, called "Novalis," and Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, the celebrated author of _Undine_ and _Sintram_--both romance-writers, as well as poets. The genius of Novalis was early lost to the world; he died in 1801, not thirty years old. Some of his hymns are very beautiful; but even in such works as "Though all to Thee were faithless," and "If only He is mine," there is a feeling of insulation and of despondency as to good in the actual world, which was perhaps inseparable from his ecclesiastical idealism. Fouqué survived till 1843. In his hymns there is the same deep flow of feeling, richness of imagery and charm of expression which distinguishes his prose works. The two missionary hymns--"Thou, solemn Ocean, rollest to the strand," and "In our sails all soft and sweetly"--and the exquisite composition which finds its motive in the gospel narrative of blind Bartimeus, "Was du vor tausend Jahren" (finely translated both by Miss Winkworth and by Miss Cox), are among the best examples.

Spitta.

The later German hymn-writers of the 19th century belong, generally, to the revived "Pietistic" school. Some of the best, Johann Baptist von Albertini, Friedrich Adolf Krummacher, and especially Karl Johann Philipp Spitta (1801-1859) have produced works not unworthy of the fame of their nation. Mr Massie, the able translator of Spitta's _Psalter und Harfe_ (Leipzig, 1833), speaks of it as having "obtained for him in Germany a popularity only second to that of Paul Gerhardt." In Spitta's poems (for such they generally are, rather than hymns) the subjective and meditative tone is tempered, not ungracefully, with a didactic element; and they are not disfigured by exaggerated sentiment, or by a too florid and rhetorical style.

6. _British Hymnody._--After the Reformation, the development of hymnody was retarded, in both parts of Great Britain, by the example and influence of Geneva. Archbishop Cranmer appears at one time to have been disposed to follow Luther's course, and to present to the people, in an English dress, some at least of the hymns of the ancient church. In a letter to King Henry VIII. (October 7, 1544), among some new "processions" which he had himself translated, into English, he mentions the Easter hymn, "Salve, festa dies, toto memorabilis aevo" ("Hail, glad day, to be joyfully kept through all generations"), of Fortunatus. In the "Primer" of 1535 (by Marshall) and the one of 1539 (by Bishop Hilsey of Rochester, published by order of the vicar-general Cromwell) there had been several rude English hymns, none of them taken from ancient sources. King Henry's "Primer" of 1545 (commanded by his injunction of the 6th of May 1545 to be used throughout his dominions) was formed on the model of the daily offices of the Breviary; and it contains English metrical translations from some of the best-known Ambrosian and other early hymns. But in the succeeding reign different views prevailed. A new direction had been given to the taste of the "Reformed" congregations in France and Switzerland by the French metrical translation of the Old Testament Psalms, which appeared about 1540. This was the joint work of Clement Marot, valet or groom of the chamber to Francis I., and Theodore Beza, then a mere youth, fresh from his studies at Orleans.

Marot's Psalms.

Marot's psalms were dedicated to the French king and the ladies of France, and, being set to popular airs, became fashionable. They were sung by Francis himself, the queen, the princesses and the courtiers, upon all sorts of secular occasions, and also, more seriously and religiously, by the citizens and the common people. They were soon perceived to be a power on the side of the Reformation. Calvin, who had settled at Geneva in the year of Marot's return to Paris, was then organizing his ecclesiastical system. He rejected the hymnody of the breviaries and missals, and fell back upon the idea, anciently held by Paul of Samosata, and condemned by the fourth council of Toledo, that whatever was sung in churches ought to be taken out of the Scriptures. Marot's Psalter, appearing thus opportunely, was introduced into his new system of worship, and appended to his catechism. On the other hand, it was interdicted by the Roman Catholic priesthood. Thus it became a badge to the one party of the "reformed" profession, and to the other of heresy.

Sternhold and Hopkins.

The example thus set produced in England the translation commonly known as the "Old Version" of the Psalms. It was begun by Thomas Sternhold, whose position in the household of Henry VIII., and afterwards of Edward VI., was similar to that of Marot with Francis I., and whose services to the former of those kings were rewarded by a substantial legacy under his will. Sternhold published versions of nineteen Psalms, with a dedication to King Edward, and died soon afterwards. A second edition appeared in 1551, with eighteen more Psalms added, of Sternhold's translating, and seven others by John Hopkins, a Suffolk clergyman. The work was continued during Queen Mary's reign by British refugees at Geneva, the chief of whom were William Whittingham, afterwards dean of Durham, who succeeded John Knox as minister of the English congregation there, and William Kethe or Keith, said by Strype to have been a Scotsman. They published at Geneva in 1556 a service-book, containing fifty-one English metrical psalms, which number was increased, in later editions, to eighty-seven. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, this Genevan Psalmody was at once brought into use in England--first (according to a letter of Bishop Jewell to Peter Martyr, dated 5th March 1560) in one London church, from which it quickly spread to others both in London and in other cities. Jewell describes the effect produced by large congregations, of as many as 6000 persons, young and old, women and children, singing it after the sermons at St Paul's Cross--adding, "Id sacrificos et diabolum aegre habet; vident enim sacras conciones hoc pacto profundius descendere in hominum animos." The first edition of the completed "Old Version" (containing forty Psalms by Sternhold, sixty-seven by Hopkins, fifteen by Whittingham, six by Kethe and the rest by Thomas Norton the dramatist, Robert Wisdom, John Marckant and Thomas Churchyard) appeared in 1562.

In the meantime, the Books of Common Prayer, of 1549, 1552 and 1559,
had been successively established as law by the acts of uniformity of
Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth. In these no provision was made for the
use of any metrical psalm or hymn on any occasion whatever, except at
the consecration of bishops and the ordination of priests, in which
offices (first added in 1552) an English version of "Veni Creator"
(the longer of the two now in use) was appointed to be "said or sung."
The canticles, "Te Deum," "Benedicite," the Nicene and Athanasian
Creeds, the "Gloria in Excelsis," and some other parts of the
communion and other special offices were also directed to be "said or
sung"; and, by general rubrics, the chanting of the whole service was
allowed.

The silence, however, of the rubrics in these books as to any other
singing was not meant to exclude the use of psalms not expressly
appointed, when they could be used without interfering with the
prescribed order of any service. It was expressly provided by King
Edward's first act of uniformity (by later acts made applicable to the
later books) that it should be lawful "for all men, as well in
churches, chapels, oratories or other places, to use openly any psalms
or prayers taken out of the Bible, at any due time, not letting or
omitting thereby the service, or any part thereof, mentioned in the
book." And Queen Elizabeth, by one of the injunctions issued in the
first year of her reign, declared her desire that the provision made,
"in divers collegiate and also some parish churches, for singing in
the church, so as to promote the laudable service of music," should
continue. After allowing the use of "a modest and distinct song in all
parts of the common prayers of the church, so that the same may be as
plainly understanded as if it were read without singing," the
injunction proceeded thus--"And yet, nevertheless, for the comforting
of such that delight in music, it may be permitted that in the
beginning or in the end of the Common Prayer, either at morning or
evening, there may be sung an hymn, or such like song to the praise of
Almighty God, in the best sort of melody and music that may be
conveniently devised, having respect that the sentence" (i.e. sense)
"of hymn may be understanded and perceived."

The "Old Version," when published (by John Daye, for the Stationers'
Company, "cum gratia et privilegio Regiae Majestatis"), bore upon the
face of it that it was "newly set forth, and allowed to be sung of the
people in churches, before and after morning and evening prayer, as
also before and after the sermon." The question of its authority has
been at different times much debated, chiefly by Peter Heylyn and
Thomas Warton on one side (both of whom disliked and disparaged it),
and by William Beveridge, bishop of St Asaph, and the Rev. H. J. Todd
on the other. Heylyn says, it was "permitted rather than allowed,"
which seems to be a distinction without much difference. "Allowance,"
which is all that the book claimed for itself, is authorization by way
of permission, not of commandment. Its publication in that form could
hardly have been licensed, nor could it have passed into use as it did
without question, throughout the churches of England, unless it had
been "allowed" by some authority then esteemed to be sufficient.
Whether that authority was royal or ecclesiastical does not appear,
nor (considering the proviso in King Edward's act of uniformity, and
Queen Elizabeth's injunctions) is it very important. No inference can
justly be drawn from the inability of inquirers, in Heylyn's time or
since, to discover any public record bearing upon this subject, many
public documents of that period having been lost.

In this book, as published in 1562, and for many years afterwards, there were (besides the versified Psalms) eleven metrical versions of the "Te Deum," canticles, Lord's Prayer (the best of which is that of the "Benedicite"); and also "Da pacem, Domine," a hymn suitable to the times, rendered into English from Luther; two original hymns of praise, to be sung before morning and evening prayer; two penitential hymns (one of them the "humble lamentation of a sinner"); and a hymn of faith, beginning, "Lord, in Thee is all my trust." In these respects, and also in the tunes which accompanied the words (stated by Dr Charles Burney, in his _History of Music_, to be German, and not French), there was a departure from the Genevan platform. Some of these hymns, and some of the psalms also (e.g. those by Robert Wisdom, being alternative versions), were omitted at a later period; and many alterations and supposed amendments were from time to time made by unknown hands in the psalms which remained, so that the text, as now printed, is in many places different from that of 1562.

Scotch Psalms.

In Scotland, the General Assembly of the kirk caused to be printed at Edinburgh in 1564, and enjoined the use of, a book entitled _The Form of Prayers and Ministry of the Sacraments used in the English Church at Geneva, approved and received by the Church of Scotland; whereto, besides that was in the former books, are also added sundry other prayers, with the whole Psalms of David in English metre_. This contained, from the "Old Version," translations of forty Psalms by Sternhold, fifteen by Whittingham, twenty-six by Kethe and thirty-five by Hopkins. Of the remainder two were by John Pulleyn (one of the Genevan refugees, who became archdeacon of Colchester); six by Robert Pont, Knox's son-in-law, who was a minister of the kirk, and also a lord of session; and fourteen signed with the initials I. C., supposed to be John Craig; one was anonymous, eight were attributed to N., two to M. and one to T. N. respectively.

So matters continued in both churches until the Civil War. During the interval, King James I. conceived the project of himself making a new version of the Psalms, and appears to have translated thirty-one of them--the correction of which, together with the translation of the rest, he entrusted to Sir William Alexander, afterwards earl of Stirling. Sir William having completed his task, King Charles I. had it examined and approved by several archbishops and bishops of England, Scotland and Ireland, and caused it to be printed in 1631 at the Oxford University Press, as the work of King James; and, by an order under the royal sign manual, recommended its use in all churches of his dominions. In 1634 he enjoined the Privy Council of Scotland not to suffer any other psalms, "of any edition whatever," to be printed in or imported into that kingdom. In 1636 it was republished, and was attached to the famous Scottish service-book, with which the troubles began in 1637. It need hardly be added that the king did not succeed in bringing this Psalter into use in either kingdom.

When the Long Parliament undertook, in 1642, the task of altering the liturgy, its attention was at the same time directed to psalmody. It had to judge between two rival translations of the Psalms--one by Francis Rouse, a member of the House of Commons, afterwards one of Cromwell's councillors and finally provost of Eton; the other by William Barton, a clergyman of Leicester. The House of Lords favoured Barton, the House of Commons Rouse, who had made much use of the labours of Sir William Alexander. Both versions were printed by order of parliament, and were referred for consideration to the Westminster Assembly. They decided in favour of Rouse. His version, as finally amended, was published in 1646, under an order of the House of Commons dated 14th November 1645. In the following year it was recommended by the parliament to the General Assembly at Edinburgh, who appointed a committee, with large powers, to prepare a revised Psalter, recommending to their consideration not only Rouse's book but that of 1564, and two other versions (by Zachary Boyd and Sir William Mure of Rowallan), then lately executed in Scotland. The result of the labours of this committee was the "Paraphrase" of the Psalms, which, in 1649-1650, by the concurrent authority of the General Assembly and the committee of estates, was ordered to be exclusively used throughout the church of Scotland. Some use was made in the preparation of this book of the versions to which the attention of the revisers had been directed, and also of Barton's; but its basis was that of Rouse. It was received in Scotland with great favour, which it has ever since retained; and it is fairly entitled to the praise of striking a tolerable medium between the rude homeliness of the "Old," and the artificial modernism of the "New" English versions--perhaps as great a success as was possible for such an undertaking. Sir Walter Scott is said to have dissuaded any attempt to alter it, and to have pronounced it, "with all its acknowledged occasional harshness, so beautiful, that any alterations must eventually prove only so many blemishes." No further step towards any authorized hymnody was taken by the kirk of Scotland till the following century.

In England, two changes bearing on church hymnody were made upon the revision of the prayer-book after the Restoration, in 1661-1662. One was the addition, in the offices for consecrating bishops and ordaining priests, of the shorter version of "Veni Creator" ("Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire"), as an alternative form. The other, and more important, was the insertion of the rubric after the third collect, at morning and evening prayer: "In quires and places where they sing, here followeth the anthem." By this rubric synodical and parliamentary authority was given for the interruption, at that point, of the prescribed order of the service by singing an anthem, the choice of which was left to the discretion of the minister. Those actually used, under this authority, were for some time only unmetrical passages of scripture, set to music by Blow, Purcell and other composers, of the same kind with the anthems still generally sung in cathedral and collegiate churches. But the word "anthem" had no technical signification which could be an obstacle to the use under this rubric of metrical hymns.

Tate and Brady.

The "New Version" of the Psalms, by Dr Nicholas Brady and the poet-laureate Nahum Tate (both Irishmen), appeared in 1696, under the sanction of an order in council of William III., "allowing and permitting" its use "in all such churches, chapels and congregations as should think fit to receive it." Dr Compton, bishop of London, recommended it to his diocese. No hymns were then appended to it; but the authors added a "supplement" in 1703, which received an exactly similar sanction from an order in council of Queen Anne. In that supplement there were several new versions of the canticles, and of the "Veni Creator"; a variation of the old "humble lamentation of a sinner"; six hymns for Christmas, Easter and Holy Communion (all versions or paraphrases of scripture), which are still usually printed at the end of the prayer-books containing the new version; and a hymn "on the divine use of music"--all accompanied by tunes. The authors also reprinted, with very good taste, the excellent version of the "Benedicite" which appeared in the book of 1562. Of the hymns in this "supplement," one ("While shepherds watched their flocks by night") greatly exceeded the rest in merit. It has been ascribed to Tate, but it has a character of simplicity unlike the rest of his works.

Old and new versions compared.

The relative merits of the "Old" and "New" versions have been very variously estimated. Competent judges have given the old the praise, which certainly cannot be accorded to the new, of fidelity to the Hebrew. In both, it must be admitted, that those parts which have poetical merit are few and far between; but a reverent taste is likely to be more offended by the frequent sacrifice, in the new, of depth of tone and accuracy of sense to a fluent commonplace correctness of versification and diction, than by any excessive homeliness in the old. In both, however, some psalms, or portions of psalms, are well enough rendered to entitle them to a permanent place in the hymn-books--especially the 8th, and parts of the 18th Psalm, by Sternhold; the 57th, 84th and 100th, by Hopkins; the 23rd, 34th and 36th, and part of the 148th, by Tate and Brady.

The judgment which a fastidious critic might be disposed to pass upon both these books may perhaps be considerably mitigated by comparing them with the works of other labourers in the same field, of whom Holland, in his interesting volumes entitled _Psalmists of Great Britain_, enumerates above 150. Some of them have been real poets--the celebrated earl of Surrey, Sir Philip Sidney and his sister the countess of Pembroke, George Sandys, George Wither, John Milton and John Keble. In their versions, as might be expected, there are occasional gleams of power and beauty, exceeding anything to be found in Sternhold and Hopkins, or Tate and Brady; but even in the best these are rare, and chiefly occur where the strict idea of translation has been most widely departed from. In all of them, as a rule, the life and spirit, which in prose versions of the psalms are so wonderfully preserved, have disappeared. The conclusion practically suggested by so many failures is that the difficulties of metrical translation, always great, are in this case insuperable; and that, while the psalms like other parts of scripture are abundantly suggestive of motive and material for hymnographers, it is by assimilation and adaptation, and not by any attempt to transform their exact sense into modern poetry, that they may be best used for this purpose.

The order in council of 1703 is the latest act of any public authority
by which an express sanction has been given to the use of psalms or
hymns in the Church of England. At the end, indeed, of many
Prayer-books, till about the middle of the 19th century, there were
commonly found, besides some of the hymns sanctioned by that order in
council, or of those contained in the book of 1562, a sacramental and
a Christmas hymn by Doddridge; a Christmas hymn (varied by Martin
Madan) from Charles Wesley; an Easter hymn of the 18th century,
beginning "Jesus Christ has risen to-day"; and abridgments Bishop
Ken's Morning and Evening Hymns. These additions first began to be
made in or about 1791, in London editions of the Prayer-book and
Psalter, at the mere will and pleasure (so far as appears) of the
printers. They had no sort of authority.

English congregational hymnody.

In the state of authority, opinion and practice disclosed by the preceding narrative may be found the true explanation of the fact that, in the country of Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare and Milton, and notwithstanding the example of Germany, no native congregational hymnody worthy of the name arose till after the commencement of the 18th century. Yet there was no want of appreciation of the power and value of congregational church music. Milton could write, before 1645:--

"There let the pealing organ blow
To the full-voiced quire below
In service high, and anthems clear,
As may with sweetness through mine ear
Dissolve me into ecstasies,
And bring all Heaven before mine eyes."

Thomas Mace, in his _Music's Monument_ (1676), thus described the effect of psalm-singing before sermons by the congregation in York Minster on Sundays, during the siege of 1644: "When that vast concording unity of the whole congregational chorus came thundering in, even so as it made the very ground shake under us, oh, the unutterable ravishing soul's delight! in the which I was so transported and wrapt up in high contemplations that there was no room left in my whole man, body, soul and spirit, for anything below divine and heavenly raptures; nor could there possibly be anything to which that very singing might be truly compared, except the right apprehension or conceiving of that glorious and miraculous quire, recorded in the scriptures at the dedication of the temple." Nor was there any want of men well qualified, and by the turn of their minds predisposed, to shine in this branch of literature. Some (like Sandys, Boyd and Barton) devoted themselves altogether to paraphrases of other scriptures as well as the psalms. Others (like George Herbert, and Francis and John Quarles) moralized, meditated, soliloquized and allegorized in verse. Without reckoning these, there were a few, even before the Restoration, who came very near to the ideal of hymnody.

Wedderburn.

First in time is the Scottish poet John Wedderburn, who translated several of Luther's hymns, and in his _Compendious Book of Godly and Spiritual Songs_ added others of his own (or his brothers') composition. Some of these poems, published before 1560, are of uncommon excellence, uniting ease and melody of rhythm, and structural skill, with grace of expression, and simplicity, warmth and reality of religious feeling. Those entitled "Give me thy heart," "Go, heart," and "Leave me not," which will be found in a collection of 1860 called _Sacred Songs of Scotland_, require little, beyond the change of some archaisms of language, to adapt them for church or domestic use at the present day.

Dickson.

Next come the two hymns of "The new Jerusalem," by an English Roman Catholic priest signing himself F. B. P. (supposed to be "Francis Baker, Presbyter"), and by another Scottish poet, David Dickson, of which the history is given by Dr Bonar in his edition of Dickson's work. This (Dickson's), which begins "O mother dear, Jerusalem," and has long been popular in Scotland, is a variation and amplification by the addition of a large number of new stanzas of the English original, beginning "Jerusalem, my happy home," written in Queen Elizabeth's time, and printed (as appears by a copy in the British Museum) about 1616, when Dickson was still young. Both have an easy natural flow, and a simple happy rendering of the beautiful scriptural imagery upon the subject, with a spirit of primitive devotion uncorrupted by medieval peculiarities. The English hymn of which some stanzas are now often sung in churches is the true parent of the several shorter forms,--all of more than common merit,--which, in modern hymn-books, begin with the same first line, but afterwards deviate from the original. Kindred to these is the very fine and faithful translation, by Dickson's contemporary Drummond of Hawthornden of the ancient "Urbs beata Hierusalem" ("Jerusalem, that place divine"). Other ancient hymns (two of Thomas Aquinas, and the "Dies Irae") were also well translated, in 1646, by Richard Crashaw, after he had become a Roman Catholic and had been deprived by the parliament of his fellowship at Cambridge.

Wither.

Conspicuous among the sacred poets of the first two Stuart reigns in England was George Wither. His _Hymnes and Songs of the Church_ appeared in 1622-1623, under a patent of King James I., by which they were declared "worthy and profitable to be inserted, in convenient manner and due place, into every English Psalm-book to metre." His _Hallelujah_ (in which some of the former _Hymnes and Songs_ were repeated) followed in 1641. Some of the _Hymnes and Songs_ were set to music by Orlando Gibbons, and those in both books were written to be sung, though there is no evidence that the author contemplated the use of any of them in churches. They included hymns for every day in the week (founded, as those contributed nearly a century afterwards by Charles Coffin to the Parisian Breviary also were, upon the successive works of the days of creation); hymns for all the church seasons and festivals, including saints' days; hymns for various public occasions; and hymns of prayer, meditation and instruction, for all sorts and conditions of men, under a great variety of circumstances--being at once a "Christian Year" and a manual of practical piety. Many of them rise to a very high point of excellence,--particularly the "general invitation to praise God" ("Come, O come, in pious lays"), with which _Hallelujah_ opens; the thanksgivings for peace and for victory, the Coronation Hymn, a Christmas, an Epiphany, and an Easter Hymn, and one for St Bartholomew's day (Hymns 1, 74, 75, and 84 in part i., and 26, 29, 36 and 54 in part ii. of _Hallelujah_).

Cosin.

John Cosin, afterwards bishop of Durham, published in 1627 a volume of "Private Devotions," for the canonical hours and other occasions. In this there are seven or eight hymns of considerable merit,--among them a very good version of the Ambrosian "Jam lucis orto sidere," and the shorter version of the "Veni Creator," which was introduced after the Restoration into the consecration and ordination services of the Church of England.

Milton.

The hymns of Milton (on the Nativity, Passion, Circumcision and "at a Solemn Music"), written about 1629, in his early manhood, were probably not intended for singing; but they are odes full of characteristic beauty and power.

Jeremy Taylor.

During the Commonwealth, in 1654, Jeremy Taylor published at the end of his _Golden Grove_, twenty-one hymns, described by himself as "celebrating the mysteries and chief festivals of the year, according to the manner of the ancient church, fitted to the fancy and devotion of the younger and pious persons, apt for memory, and to be joined, to their other prayers." Of these, his accomplished editor, Bishop Heber, justly says:--

"They are in themselves, and on their own account, very interesting
compositions. Their metre, indeed, which is that species of spurious
Pindaric which was fashionable with his contemporaries, is an
obstacle, and must always have been one, to their introduction into
public or private psalmody; and the mixture of that alloy of conceits
and quibbles which was an equally frequent and still greater
defilement of some of the finest poetry of the 17th century will
materially diminish their effect as devotional or descriptive odes.
Yet, with all these faults, they are powerful, affecting, and often
harmonious; there are many passages of which Cowley need not have been
ashamed, and some which remind us, not disadvantageously, of the
corresponding productions of Milton."

He mentions particularly the advent hymn ("Lord, come away"), part of the hymn "On heaven," and (as "more regular in metre, and in words more applicable to public devotion") the "Prayer for Charity" ("Full of mercy, full of love").

Restoration period.

The epoch of the Restoration produced in 1664 Samuel Crossman's _Young Man's Calling_, with a few "Divine Meditations" in verse attached to it; in 1668 John Austin's _Devotions in the ancient way of offices, with psalms, hymns and prayers for every day in the week and every holyday in the year_; and in 1681 Richard Baxter's _Poetical Fragments_. In these books there are altogether seven or eight hymns, the whole or parts of which are extremely good: Crossman's "New Jerusalem" ("Sweet place, sweet place alone"), one of the best of that class, and "My life's a shade, my days"; Austin's "Hark, my soul, how everything," "Fain would my thoughts fly up to Thee," "Lord, now the time returns," "Wake all my hopes, lift up your eyes"; and Baxter's "My whole, though broken heart, O Lord," and "Ye holy angels bright." Austin's _Offices_ (he was a Roman Catholic) seem to have attracted much attention. Theophilus Dorrington, in 1686, published variations of them under the title of _Reformed_ _Devotions_; George Hickes, the non-juror, wrote one of his numerous recommendatory prefaces to S. Hopton's edition; and the Wesleys, in their earliest hymn-book, adopted hymns from them, with little alteration. These writers were followed by John Mason in 1683, and Thomas Shepherd in 1692,--the former, a country clergyman, much esteemed by Baxter and other Nonconformists; the latter himself a Nonconformist, who finally emigrated to America. Between these two men there was a close alliance, Shepherd's _Penitential Cries_ being published as an addition to the _Spiritual Songs_ of Mason. Their hymns came into early use in several Nonconformist congregations; but, with the exception of one by Mason ("There is a stream which issues forth"), they are not suitable for public singing. In those of Mason there is often a very fine vein of poetry; and later authors have, by extracts or centoes from different parts of his works (where they were not disfigured by his general quaintness), constructed several hymns of more than average excellence.

Three other eminent names of the 17th century remain to be mentioned, John Dryden, Bishop Ken and Bishop Simon Patrick; with which may be associated that of Addison, though he wrote in the 18th century.

Dryden, Ken.

Patrick

Addison.

Dryden's translation of "Veni Creator" a cold and laboured performance, is to be met with in many hymn-books. Abridgments of Ken's morning and evening hymns are in all. These, with the midnight hymn, which is not inferior to them, first appeared In 1697, appended to the third edition of the author's _Manual of Prayers for Winchester Scholars_. Between these and a large number of other hymns (on the attributes of God, and for the festivals of the church) published by Bishop Ken after 1703 the contrast is remarkable. The universal acceptance of the morning and evening hymns is due to their transparent simplicity, warm but not overstrained devotion, and extremely popular style. Those afterwards published have no such qualities. They are mystical, florid, stiff, didactic and seldom poetical, and deserve the neglect into which they have fallen. Bishop Patrick's hymns were chiefly translations from the Latin, most of them from Prudentius. The best is a version of "Alleluia dulce carmen." Of the five attributed to Addison, not more than three are adapted to public singing; one ("The spacious firmament on high") is a very perfect and finished composition, taking rank among the best hymns in the English language.[3]

From the preface to Simon Browne's hymns, published in 1720, we learn that down to the time of Dr Watts the only hymns known to be "in common use, either in private families or in Christian assemblies," were those of Barton, Mason and Shepherd, together with "an attempt to turn some of George Herbert's poems into common metre," and a few sacramental hymns by authors now forgotten, named Joseph Boyse (1660-1728) and Joseph Stennett. Of the 1410 authors of original British hymns enumerated in Daniel Sedgwick's catalogue, published in 1863, 1213 are of later date than 1707; and, if any correct enumeration could be made of the total number of hymns of all kinds published in Great Britain before and after that date, the proportion subsequent to 1707 would be very much larger.

The English Independents, as represented by Dr Isaac Watts, have a just claim to be considered the real founders of modern English hymnody. Watts was the first to understand the nature of the want, and, by the publication of his _Hymns_ in 1707-1709, and _Psalms_ (not translations, but hymns founded on psalms) in 1709, he led the way in providing for it. His immediate followers were Simon Browne and Philip Doddridge. Later in the 18th century, Joseph Hart, Thomas Gibbons, Miss Anne Steele, Samuel Medley, Samuel Stennett, John Ryland, Benjamin Beddome and Joseph Swain succeeded to them.

Watts.

Among these writers, most of whom produced some hymns of merit, and several are extremely voluminous, Isaac Watts and Philip Doddridge are pre-eminent. It has been the fashion with some to disparage Watts, as if he had never risen above the level of his _Hymns for Little Children_. No doubt his taste is often faulty, and his style very unequal, but, looking to the good, and disregarding the large quantity of inferior matter, it is probable that more hymns which approach to a very high standard of excellence, and are at the same time suitable for congregational use, may be found in his works than in those of any other English writer. Such are "When I survey the wondrous cross," "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun" (and also another adaptation of the same 72nd Psalm), "Before Jehovah's awful throne" (first line of which, however, is not his, but Wesley's), "Joy to the world, the Lord is come," "My soul, repeat His praise," "Why do we mourn departing friends," "There is a land of pure delight," "Our God, our help in ages past," "Up to the hills I lift mine eyes," and many more. It is true that in some of these cases dross is found in the original poems mixed with gold; but the process of separation, by selection without change, is not difficult. As long as pure nervous English, unaffected fervour, strong simplicity and liquid yet manly sweetness are admitted to be characteristics of a good hymn, works such as these must command admiration.

Doddridge.

Doddridge is, generally, much more laboured and artificial; but his place also as a hymn-writer ought to be determined, not by his failures, but by his successes, of which the number is not inconsiderable. In his better works he is distinguished by a graceful and pointed, sometimes even a noble style. His "Hark, the glad sound, the Saviour comes" (which is, indeed, his masterpiece), is as sweet, vigorous and perfect a composition as can anywhere be found. Two other hymns, "How gentle God's commands," and that which, in a form slightly varied, became the "O God of Bethel, by whose hand," of the Scottish "Paraphrases," well represent his softer manner.

Of the other followers in the school of Watts, Miss Anne Steele (1717-1778) is the most popular and perhaps the best. Her hymn beginning "Far from these narrow scenes of night" deserves high praise, even by the side of other good performances on the same subject.

The influence of Watts was felt in Scotland, and among the first whom it reached there was Ralph Erskine. This seems to have been after the publication of Erskine's _Gospel Sonnets_, which appeared in 1732, five years before he joined his brother Ebenezer in the Secession Church. The _Gospel Sonnets_ became, as some have said, a "people's classic"; but there is in them very little which belongs to the category of hymnody. More than nineteen-twentieths of this very curious book are occupied with what are, in fact, theological treatises and catechisms, mystical meditations on Christ as a bridegroom or husband, and spiritual enigmas, paradoxes, and antithetical conceits, versified, it is true, but of a quality of which such lines as--

"Faith's certain by fiducial arts,
Sense by its evidential facts,"

may be taken as a sample. The grains of poetry scattered through this large mass of Calvinistic divinity are very few; yet in one short passage of seven stanzas ("O send me down a draught of love"), the fire burns with a brightness so remarkable as to justify a strong feeling of regret that the gift which this writer evidently had in him was not more often cultivated. Another passage, not so well sustained, but of considerable beauty (part of the last piece under the title "The believer's soliloquy"), became afterwards, in the hands of John Berridge, the foundation of a very striking hymn ("O happy saints, who walk in light").

After his secession, Ralph Erskine published two paraphrases of the "Song of Solomon," and a number of other "Scripture songs," paraphrased, in like manner, from the Old and New Testaments. In these the influence of Watts became very apparent, not only by a change in the writer's general style, but by the direct appropriation of no small quantity of matter from Dr Watts's hymns, with variations which were not always improvements. His paraphrases of I Cor. i. 24; Gal. vi. 14; Heb. vi. 17-19; Rev. v. 11, 12, vii. 10-17, and xii. 7-12 are little else than Watts transformed. One of these (Rev. vii. 10-17) is interesting as a variation and improvement, intermediate between the original and the form which it ultimately assumed as the 66th "Paraphrase" of the Church of Scotland, of Watts's "What happy men or angels these," and "These glorious minds, how bright they shine." No one can compare it with its ultimate product, "How bright these glorious spirits shine," without perceiving that William Cameron followed Erskine, and only added finish and grace to his work,--both excelling Watts, in this instance, in simplicity as well as in conciseness.

Scottish paraphrases.

Of the contributions to the authorized "Paraphrases" (with the settlement of which committees of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland were occupied from 1745, or earlier, till 1781), the most noteworthy, besides the two already mentioned, were those of John Morrison and those claimed for Michael Bruce. The obligations of these "Paraphrases" to English hymnody, already traced in some instances (to which may be added the adoption from Addison of three out of the five "hymns" appended to them), are perceptible in the vividness and force with which these writers, while adhering with a severe simplicity to the sense of the passages of Scripture which they undertook to render, fulfilled the conception of a good original hymn. Morrison's "The race that long in darkness pined" and "Come, let us to the Lord our God," and Bruce's "Where high the heavenly temple stands" (if this was really his), are well entitled to that praise. The advocates of Bruce in the controversy, not yet closed, as to the poems said to have been entrusted by him to John Logan, and published by Logan in his own name, also claim for him the credit of having varied the paraphrase "Behold, the mountain of the Lord," from its original form, as printed by the committee of the General Assembly in 1745, by some excellent touches.

Methodist hymns.

Attention must now be directed to the hymns produced by the "Methodist" movement, which began about 1738, and which afterwards became divided, between those esteemed Arminian, under John Wesley, those who adhered to the Moravians, when the original alliance between that body and the founders of Methodism was dissolved, and the Calvinists, of whom Whitfield was the leader, and Selina, countess of Huntingdon, the patroness. Each of these sections had its own hymn-writers, some of whom did, and others did not, secede from the Church of England. The Wesleyans had Charles Wesley, Robert Seagrave and Thomas Olivers; the Moravians, John Cennick, with whom, perhaps, may be classed John Byrom, who imbibed the mystical ideas of some of the German schools; the Calvinists, Augustus Montague Toplady, John Berridge, William Williams, Martin Madan, Thomas Haweis, Rowland Hill, John Newton and William Cowper.

Charles Wesley.

Among all these writers, the palm undoubtedly belongs to Charles Wesley. In the first volume of hymns published by the two brothers are several good translations from the German, believed to be by John Wesley, who, although he translated and adapted, is not supposed to have written any original hymns; and the influence of German hymnody, particularly of the works of Paul Gerhardt, Scheffler, Tersteegen and Zinzendorf, may be traced in a large proportion of Charles Wesley's works. He is more subjective and meditative than Watts and his school; there is a didactic turn, even in his most objective pieces, as, for example, in his Christmas and Easter hymns; most of his works are supplicatory, and his faults are connected with the same habit of mind. He is apt to repeat the same thoughts, and to lose force by redundancy--he runs sometimes even to a tedious length; his hymns are not always symmetrically constructed, or well balanced and finished off. But he has great truth, depth and variety of feeling; his diction is manly and always to the point; never florid, though sometimes passionate and not free from exaggeration; often vivid and picturesque. Of his spirited style there are few better examples than "O for a thousand tongues to sing," "Blow ye the trumpet, blow," "Rejoice, the Lord is King" and "Come, let us join our friends above"; of his more tender vein, "Happy soul, thy days are ended"; and of his fervid contemplative style (without going beyond hymns fit for general use), "O Thou who earnest from above," "Forth in Thy name, O Lord, I go" and "Eternal beam of light divine." With those whose taste is for hymns in which warm religious feelings are warmly and demonstratively expressed, "Jesus, lover of my soul," is as popular as any of these.

Olivers.

Of the other Wesleyan hymn-writers, Olivers, originally a Welsh shoemaker and afterwards a preacher, is the most remarkable. He is the author of only two works, both odes, in a stately metre, and from their length unfit for congregational singing, but one of them, "The God of Abraham praise," an ode of singular power and beauty.

Cennick, Hammond, Byrom.