IYMNS 9 i HISTORICALLY ~) # FAMOUS Jit ■ bk gnu BBxasw .-, ■■■ ■:■: :. MM _1 ., I Mi ■ • . ■ 1 BY NICHOLAS SMITH 5 FROM THE LIBRARY OF REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, D. D. BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO THE LIBRARY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY don o £ *^ > Section Hymns Historically Famous. By Nicholas Smith. Chicago : Advance Publishing Co., $1.25. Some thirty hymns are here included which have made their history, from the Te Deum and Veni Creator to the work of Bonar and Miss Havergal, with sup- plementary chapters on " Gospel Songs " and certain lyrics by American women. Little or nothing of the matter here pre- sented is new, and most of it has been gone over again and again ; but Colonel Smith is doubtless right in supposing that even those who most love and use hymns are not in danger of knowing too much about their origin, and that such of the clergy as attempt to lecture on the subject would often be thankful to have such material brought within their reach. It is a far cry from Mr. Julian's " Dictionary of Hymnology," which cov- ers the whole ground after a fashion, to these " popular " books that nibble at a few corners of the field : perhaps it is a pity that we have nothing between the two extremes. Colonel Smith's re- searches have gone far enough to at- tain general accuracy, but Stephen the Sabaite did no more than furnish a basis or suggestion for " Art thou weary?" Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://archive.org/details/histicallOOsmit NICHOLAS SMTTH. '/ HYMNS fiistorieally ff&mocis BY COLONEL NICHOLAS AUTHOR OF . SMITH Stories of Great National Songs CHICAGO Advance Publishing Company 215 MADISON STREET 1901 Copyright 1901 Bt NICHOLAS SMITH, John A. Ulrich Printing Co., 74-76 W. Lake St.. Chicago. To Mrs. Kate Kingsley Ide whose deep interest in hymnology and wise suggestions were greatly helpful to the author in the prepara- tion of this volume. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. The author acknowledges his obligations to Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., for permission to use hymns by Whittier and Holmes; to The John Church Company, for the hymn by Spafford; and to Mr. James McGranahan, the composer, for the hymn by Dr. Cornelius. He is also indebted to The Biglow & Main Com- pany for the popular portrait of Miss Crosby; to The A. D. F. Eandolph Company for the best likeness extant of Mrs. Prentiss; to T. Fisher Unwin, the London publisher of the Life of Cowper, for the expressive face of the amiable poet; to The Macmil- lan Company, London and New York, for the profile of Keble; and to Marshall Denison Smith of Chicago, for the portraits of Toplady, Lyte, Elliott, Duffield, and Palmer. TABLE OF CONTENTS. The Te Deum Laudamus 1 Art Thou Weary? 10 Veni Creator Spiritus 15 The Dies Irae .19 A Mighty Fortress is Our God .... 30 The Great Doxology 39 The Founder of Our Hymnology .... 49 Happy Day that Fixed my Choice . . 63 Jesus, Lover of my Soul 69 A Famous Resignation Hymn 84 There is a Fountain Filled with Blood . . 89 Blest be the Tie that Binds 102 Eock of Ages 109 How Firm a Foundation . . . . . 122 Coronation 127 From Greenland's icy Mountains .... 134 Sun of my Soul, Thou Savior Dear . . . 141 Lead, kindly Light 148 Just as I Am 157 Abide With Me 167 Nearer, my God, to Thee 174 My Faith Looks up to Thee 183 The Voice from Galilee 192 Stand up for Jesus 198 One Sweetly Solemn Thought 203 It is Well with my Soul 209 A Great Consecration Hymn 214 Five Lay Hymn-Writers 220 Woman's Songs in Evangelism 234 "Moody and Sankey Songs" 257 General Index 272 ILLUSTRATIONS. Nicholas Smith (author) . . . Frontispiece Thomas Ken 44 Isaac Watts 52 Charles Wesley . 68 William Cowper 92 John Fawcett 104 Augustus M. Toplady 112 Reginald Heber 136 John Keble 144 John Henry Newman 148 Charlotte Elliott 157 Henry Francis Lyte 168 Ray Palmer 188 Horatius Bonar 196 George Duffield . 200 Phoebe Cary 208 Frances Ridley Havergal 216 James Montgomery 220 Sir John Bowring 224 John G-reenleaf Whittier 228 Oliver Wendell Holmes 232 Fanny J. Crosby 236 Elizabeth Payson Prentiss 238 Philip Paul Bliss 260 INTRODUCTION. The purpose of this volume is twofold: To in- spire a warmer love of Church song; and to make the reader better acquainted with that class of hymns which are noted for the history they have made. The special aim has been to take the more popular and useful of our familiar compositions and give a fuller and more connected story of the lives of the authors, the origin of the hymns, with incidents of interest and value illustrating their influence, tnan have yet appeared in any annotated hymnal either in America or Great Britain. Twenty-three chapters are devoted to Church hymns and gospel songs which have two common characteristics — universal popularity, and the power to make spiritual history. Many hymns are historic solely because their origin is closely related to some striking event, or associated with some hallowed experience; and the rule governing the scope of the book has been re- laxed that a few of those having particular merit, might be annotated. The chapter — Five Lay Hymn- Writers — was inserted for two important reasons: First, the position those consecrated laymen occupy in Church hymnody in all English-speaking coun- tries, is unique; and, second, the hymns selected from their writings and printed in these pages, are of great poetic beauty, and add much to the pleasure and profit of public worship. There are many favorite hymns which are perfect in form, exquisite in thought and expression, and which no doubt interpret charming Christian experiences, but not being connected with noteworthy historical facts, they could not properly find a place in this volume. Some of the most potent songs employed in re- vival efforts during the past third of a century, are treated in the chapter entitled, Woman's Songs in Evangelism. The interesting account of those hymns forcibly illustrate how worthy and prominent a place woman fills in the more modern gospel hymnody. A special feature of the book is the chapter that deals with some of the so-called Moody and Sankey songs. Like the story of beautiful Church hymns, the recital of the influence of the better class of gospel songs will never become dull reading. The history of the songs selected for mention, and the stirring incidents given to show how they have im- pressed the hearts of women and men, and inspired many to attain a higher living, will deeply interest all lovers of sacred song. I devoutly wish that this volume may be useful to the clergy in preparing lectures upon Church hymns, and in conducting praise services; and that it may prove spiritually helpful to the large and growing numbers of young men and women who, with whole-heartedness, give much time and intelli- gent thought to mission, Sunday School, and Chris- tian Endeavor work. Nicholas Smith. Hymns Historically Famous. The Te Deum Laudamus. F all the Christian songs which have come down to us from antiquity The Te Deum Laudamus is the kingliest. With the ex- ception of Bishop Ken's Doxology, no ascription of praise written in modern times, can be compared with it in the universality of its use. The Eev. Dr. William Reed Huntington, Rector of Grace Church, New York, says: "Other hymns may surpass The Te Deum in the exhibition of this or that phase of feeling, but there is none that combines as this combines, all the elements that enter into a Christian's conception of religion. The Te Deum is an orchestra in which no single instrument is lacking; first or last, every chord is struck, every note sounded. The soul listens and is satisfied; not one of her large demands has been dishonored." The sweetest singer of the Ancient Church was St. Ambrose, the good Bishop of Milan. He was born at Treves, in Gaul, in 340; and in his cradle he was marked for fame. There is a story that a swarm of bees came down upon him, and "the 2 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. amazed nurse saw them gather about his lips with- out doing him harm." Possibly, "his parents had heard of the tradition- that in the infant life of Plato/' 767 years before Ambrose was born, bees from the Hymettus Mountains in Greece — now known as Trelo Vouni, and still famous for its honey — clus- tered about his mouth and fed him; and this inci- dent in the life of the child x\mbrose, led his parents to believe that he was destined to great usefulness and high honors. Ambrose became distinguished for brain and character. He wrote some beautiful hymns with which he combated the heresy of his time, and sev- eral of them are found in modern hymnals. When Archbishop Auxentius, of Milan, died in 374, there was intense excitement as to who should succeed him. Ambrose, then Prefect, or Governor, of Upper Italy and Milan, went to the Cathedral where angry crowds had gathered, and began to plead for peace. The sweetness of his speech, for which he was famous, soon allayed the turbulence of the multitude, and the voice of a child was heard to say, "Let Am- brose be Bishop:" and instantly there came from every part of the Cathedral the response, "Amen, amen!" and Ambrose, who had never held an eccle- siastical office was, by common consent, made Bishop. Fourteen years after the birth of Ambrose a child was born at Tagaste, near Carthage, in Numidia, a country known in modern geography as Algeria. His name was Augustine, and by nature he was im- THE TE DEUM LAUDAMUS. 3 petuous and thirsted for excitement. At the age of twenty-one he went to Home, and was followed by "the tears, the prayers, and anxieties," of Monica, his mother. After a brief stay in Eome Augustine went to Milan where he heard the voice of Am- brose in sermon and song, and this event revealed to the pagan a flood of light, and his conversion, which soon followed, gave the world one of the most celebrated theologians of the Ancient Church. A charming tradition has been current for more than a thousand years that in Milan on Easter Sun- day, April twenty-fifth, 387, Ambrose led his new convert Augustine to the altar for baptism. The great heart of Ambrose swelled with triumph, and breaking forth in thanksgiving he 6ang: We praise Thee, O God; we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord. And Augustine, fresh from his baptismal vow, and touched at the same moment by the same sacred fire, responded: All the earth doth worship Thee, the Father everlasting. The legend goes on to say that these two great men chanted antiphonally that sublime hymn of praise, The Te Deum Laudamus — an anthem that became "the shrine round which the Church has hung her joys for many centuries :" 4 HYMXS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. We praise Thee, God: we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord. All the earth doth worship Thee, the Father everlasting. To Thee all angels cry aloud: the heavens and all the powers therein. To Thee, Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry; Holy, holy, holy. Lord God of Sabaoth; Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of Thy glory. The glorious company of the Apostles praise Thee. The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise Thee. The noble army of Martyrs praise Thee. The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge Tbee; The Father of an Infinite Majesty: Thine adorable, true, and only Son; Also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. Thou art the King of Glory. Christ. TTiou art the everlasting Son of the Father. When thou tookest upon Thee to deliver man. Thou didst humble Thyself to be born of a Virgin. When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death. Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Thou sittest at the right hand of God. in the glory of the Father. We believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge. We therefore orav Thee, help Thy servants whom Th<->n hast redeemed with Thy precious blood. Make them to be numbered with Thy saints in glory everlast- ing. ^ Tx>rd. save Thv ^eor»le. ard bless T le I — *': Govern them, and Kft them up for ever. Day by day we magnify Thee: And we worship Thy name ever world without end Vouchsafe. Lord, fo keep us th-> day without sin. O Lord, have meTv upon ns. have mercy noon us. O Lord, let Thy mercy be upon us. as onr trust is m Thee. Lord, in Thee have I trusted, let me never be confounded. THE TE DLLM LAUDAMl 5 This story of the origin of The Te Deum is beau- tiful^ and is of exquisite sentiment, but those best entitled to speak on the subject say that the legend must be classed "among other pleasing typical stories of the heroic age of Christendom." The time, place, and beginning of The Te Deum are uncertain. But setting aside all tradition, and taking the evidence as it stands, the hymn seems to have been composed some time between A. D. 400 and 500. It is found in the rules of St. Caesarius of Aries, France, prior to 502, and was made a part of the Sunday morning service. This is said to be the earliest notice of The Te Deum that has been discovered. The Eev. Edgar C. S. Gibson, who is good English authority, makes this statement: "When we remember that about the middle of the fifth century the monastery of St. Honoratus a: Lerins (an island in the Mediterranean off the south- eastern coast of France) was the great home of learn- ing and center of activity for the Gallican Church, one cannot but feel that it is quite possibly the very spot where The Te Deum originated." Mr. Gibson calls attention to the fact that the hymn as it comes to us contains twenty-nine verses, and of those about one-quarter are taken from the Bible. He suggests that this is one of the most remarkable features of The Te Deum, that so small a part of it is •'original." No other hymn or anthem has been used on so great a variety of historic occasions as The Te Deum; 6 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. and no other form of words has been the subject of so many musical renderings by composers of "all grades, of all ages, and of all nations." It has such a "jubilant and triumphant character that the sov- ereigns of England have been accustomed to go in state to the singing of the song after great victories; and at the conclusion of coronations it has been used from time immemorial throughout Europe." Its strains have leaped the barriers of thirteen cen- turies, having been chanted at the baptism of Clovis, at Paris in 496, and sung at the coronation of Nich- olas II. of Eussia, in 1894; and in 1897 it was the song of rejoicing at the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Frederick the Great ordered The Te Deum to be sung to splendid setting by Graun in commemoration of the battle of Prague, fought in 1744, but the music was first performed at Charlottenburg, Prussia, in 1762, at the close of the Seven Years War. This is said to be the most celebrated musical rendering of The Te Deum ever composed on the continent. The anthem has been employed by the English on numberless important occasions, but perhaps it was never sang throughout the United Kingdom in later years in nobler spirit than when rendered at the Crystal Palace to the magnificent music of Sir Arthur S. Sullivan, to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales in 1872. It is deserving of special mention that Berlioz, the famous French composer, set The Te Deum THE TE DEUM LAUD AMU S. 7 to music which was first performed in Paris, April thirtieth, 1854, to express thanksgiving for the safety of the life of "Napoleon III., after the attempt at his assassination the week before. Whether or not the spirit of the words of the anthem touched the hearts of the French people, the music was so thoroughly enjoyed by the governmental authorities that it was ordered to be sung at the opening of the great International Exposition in the following year. Flandrin, who stands with Tissot, among the very few of the noted French artists of this genera- tion who are religiously minded, has caught the spirit of this portion of The Te Deum, The glorious company of the Apostles praise Thee; The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise Thee; The noble army of martyrs praise Thee; in his decorative treatment of the frieze in one of the churches of Paris. Dr. Huntington, from whom I have already quoted, gives this description of Flandrin's work: "Beginning with St. Peter and St. Paul he leads the long column of the faithful com- pletely around the building. Kings marching on foot, confessors with the emblems of their suffering, bishops and doctors of the faith, mothers carrying their babes and leading little children by the hand, all are there making up the fulness of the blessed company of the faithful in Christ Jesus." In recording a portion of the history The Te Deum has made, an incident in the remarkable life 8 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. of Thomas Olivers is worth noting. In early life he was a shoemaker, was deeply moved by the preach- ing of Whitfield, and was a follower of the Wesleys. But it was while experiencing fightings within and fears without, that he attended the Cathedral at Bristol, and of that occasion he says: "I went to the Cathedral at six in the morning, and when I heard The Te Deum sung I felt as if I had done with earth, and was praising God before His throne. No words can set forth the joy, the rapture, the awe and reverence which I felt/ 5 The hymn brought new light to Olivers, and made it possible for him to write "The God of Abraham Praise" — one of the most majestic lyrics to be found in any Church hymnal. The universality of The Te Deum is illustrated in this interesting incident: On the first Sunday in September, 1900, solemn high mass was celebrated in the Cathedral in Peking. It was a thanksgiving service in which the people joined in expressing grat- itude that the armies of the allied powers had so promptly and successfully marched to that city "at the trumpet call of humanity." There were two special features associated with that solemn, yet inspiring occasion. On the facade and spires of the Cathedral that had suffered much from the shot and shell of the Boxers, waved in triumph the flags of America, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, and Eussia. Among the wor- shipers on that day were ministers representing THE TE DEUM LAUDAMUS. 9 many governments, and missionaries of all creeds. The climax of interest was reached when the organ and the choir broke forth in that universal ascription of praise — The Te Deum Laudamus. It seemed to thrill that body of men and women as no other composition possibly could at such a time as that. "It was the anthem of the brotherhood of man on that memorable day." The Te Deum has taken a mighty hold on the heart of Christendom. It has fulfilled a wonderful mission. After thirteen hundred years of service its strains are grander than ever. It is the sublimest anthem of Christian praise ever written. Ti II. Art Thou Weary? ^LEYEN hundred years ago, three monks, who had dedicated themselves to poverty and rigid discipline, lived at lonely Mar Saba, situated in the wildest part of Judea. One of them was John of Damascus, the last of the Greek fathers, and the author of The day of Resurrection, Earth, tell it out abroad; which is found in many hymnals of to-day. Another monk was John's foster brother, St. Cosmas, a Greek poet of large ability, and the writer of the beautiful hymn, Christ is born; tell forth His fame; Christ from heaven; His love proclaim; which is still in modern use. The younger of the three was St. Stephen — John's nephew — who at the age of ten entered Mar Saba and remained in its gloomy isolation sixty years, passing away in 794. The monastery is about ten miles from Jerusalem, and rests upon a lofty cliff, and has withstood the savage desolation of fourteen centuries. It has the appearance of a huge fortress, has massive walls and innumerable cells and passage-ways. When the Eev. James King, of England, visited Mar Saba fifteen ART THOU WE ART f 11 years ago, he found forty monks there; and in self- abnegation and severe discipline they were not different from the trio of singers of ancient times. They held seven services in twenty-four hours — five by day and two by night. In the chapel, hewn out of solid rock, were the tombs of John of Damascus and Stephen his nephew. Every morning, says Mr. King, wolves and jackals in great numbers assem- bled at the foot of the monastery cliff which is almost five hundred feet to the brook Kedron; and from this strange assemblage came a prolonged mourn- ful cry which added terror to the stern desolation of the scene. It was in such a wilderness of gloom as this that St. Stephen wrote the lovely hymn, Art thou weary, art thou languid, Art thou sore distress'd? "Come to Me," saith One, "and coming Be at rest." Hath He marks to lead me to Him, If He be my Guide? "In His feet and hands are wound-prints, And His side." Is there diadem, as Monarch, That His brow adorns? "Yea, a crown, in very surety, But of thorns." If I find Him, if I follow, What His guerdon here? "Many a sorrow, many a labor, Many a tear." 12 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. If I still hold closely to him, What hath He at last? "Sorrow vanquished, labor ended, Jordan pass'd." If I ask Him to receive me, Will He say me nay? "Not till earth, and not till heaven Pass awav." Finding, following, keeping, struggling, Is He sure to bless? "Saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs, Answer, Yes." It was through the surpassing ability of Dr. John Mason Neale of London, to render into English many of the finer ancient Greek and Latin hymns, that almost every hymnal published in this country or in Great Britain during the past twenty years, con- tains this hymn. Dr Neale was one of the ablest linguists and hymnologists of his time. He belonged to the most advanced section of the High Church party, and for years was "one of the most misunder- stood and unpopular men in England." He was a man of strange ways and of many sorrows, and was as oblivious to personal comfort as the monk whose beautiful hymn he has made immortal. Dr. Neale was translated in 1866 — in the prime of his intel- lectual greatness — at the age of forty-eight years. "Stephanos," the tune which has become wedded to Art Thou Weary? was composed by Sir Henry Williams Baker in 1868. He was a baronet, was also vicar of Monkland, and was one of the editors ART THOU WEARY? i3 of the famous Hymns Ancient and Modern. The tune is delightful in its simplicity and forms a charming companionship with the exquisite hymn of the Mar Saba monk. History testifies that Art Thou Weary? has cheered many a fainting soul. It is the product of strange times, still "it has the dew of youth upon it." There is nothing in our modern hymnology more melodious, or that touches the heart with more tenderness than this sweet lyric that came into being in the midst of the heresies of one of the darkest ages of the w^rld. William T. Stead says the strains of the song of Stephen the Sabaite, "originally raised on the stern ramparts of an outpost of Eastern Chris- tendom already threatened with submersion beneath the flood of Moslem conquest, rings with ever in- creasing volume of melodious sound through the whole wide world to-day." Mrs. Franklin Lynde Green of Connecticut — bet- ter known to the literary world as Miss Sarah Pratt McLean — published her popular book, Cape Cod Folks in 1882; and in the story she makes George Olver and Benny Cradlebow sing Art Thou Weary? as a duet while they are mending their boat just before Cradlebow's heroic death. Captain Arkell describes the singing of the duet as follows: "By and by him and George Olver struck up a song. Fve heern 'em sing it before, them two. As nigh as I calculate, it's about findin* rest in Jesus, and one a askin' questions, all fa'r and squar', to know 14 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. the way and whether it's a goin' to lead thar straight or no, and the other answerin'. And he — he was a tinkering 'way up on the foremast. George Olver and the rest of us was astern, and I'll hear to my dyin' day how his voice canie a floatin' down to us thar— chantin' -like it was — cl'ar and fearless and slow. So he asks for findin' Jesus, ef thar's any marks to foller by; and George, he answers about them bleedin' nail-prints, and the great one in His side. So then that voice conies down agin, askin' if thar's any crown, like other kings, to tell Him by; and George, he answered, straight about that crown of thorns. Then says that other voice, floatin' so strong and clear, and if he given up all and follered, what should he have? What now? So George, he sings deep o' the trial and the sorrowin'. But that other voice never shook a askin', and what if he helt to Him to the end, what then should it be — what then? George Olver answers, 'Forevermore the sor- rowing ended — Death gone over/ Then he sings out, like his mind was all made up, 'And if he undertook it, would he likely be turned away?' 'And it's like- lier,' George answered him 'that heaven and earth shall pass.' So I'll hear it to my dyin' day — his voice a floatin' clown to me from up above thar, askin' them questions that nobody could ever answer like so soon he answered 'em for himself." III. Veni Creator Spiritus. MOXG the few hymns of antiquity which have not suffered by the ravages of time is the celebrated Veni Creator Spiritus. It has been in constant use for almost ten centuries, and in the value of its service to the Church it is surpassed only by The Te Deum, and possibly the Doxology. It has been rendered into English a greater number of times than any other Latin hymn, except- ing perhaps The Dies Irae. Fifty-four English translations and paraphrases are known to have been made, and yet "the noble hymn has not been stripped of all its dignity." The version in common use was made by John Cosin, Bishop of Durham, England, in 1627, and was introduced into the Book of Common Prayer in 1662, and is as follows: Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, And lighten with celestial fire; Thou the anointing Spirit art, Who dost Thy sevenfold gifts impart: Thy blessed unction from above Is comfort, life, and fire of love. Enable with perpetual light The dullness of our blinded sight: Anoint and cheer our soiled face With the abundance of Thy grace: Keep far our foes, give peace at home; Where Thou art Guide no ill can come. 16 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. Teach us to know the Father, Son, And Thee, of Both, to be but One; That through the ages all along This may be our endless song, Praise to Thy eternal merit, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. John Dry den, the monarch of the literary world in the seventeenth century, made a paraphrase that begins, Creator Spirit, by whose aid, which was preferred by John Wesley and Augustus M. Toplady, and the former placed it in his hymnal as early as 1738. But the version that has gained the wider currency in the United States is that by Bishop Cosin. However, there are several noted translations of the hymn, and in one form or another, it is found in almost every prominent hymnal in Great Britain and America. It is not strange that so much uncertainty gathers about the origin of some of the noblest of our ancient hymns. Their journey down the ages has been long, and beset with many perils. While empires were being overturned and governments were crumbling to pieces, the names of some of the sacred singers were lost in the wreck of transitory things, but their songs have withstood the storms of time, and are now safely lodged in the heart of the Church. The world will never know who first sang the magnificent Te Deum, or the sweet Veni Sancte YEN I CREATOR SPIRITUS. 17 Spiritus, or Jerusalem, my Happy Home; and Veni Creator Spiritus, which has so deeply attracted the hearts of men, has its genesis involved in mystery. Some believe that it is the work of St. Ambrose, and often it has been attributed to Gregory the Great, to whom England is indebted for her first lesson in Christianity. There is a pretty little legend associated with this hymn which is worth re-telling. In 870, or there- about, a monk named Balbulus Notker, lived in the monastery of St. Gall, Switzerland; and one night he became sleepless, and from his dormitory could hear the constant groaning of a water-wheel whose supply was running low, and this suggested to him the idea of setting its melancholy moaning to music. Thereupon he composed the Sequence on the Holy Spirit, which he sent to Charlemagne, and the Em- peror returned the compliment by presenting Notker with the words of Veni Creator Spiritus. Lord Sel- borne, who wrote the article on Hymnology for the last edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, seems to believe that there is an air of truth in this story on account of its dramatic character, but suggests that it was not Charles the Great to whom Notker sent the Sequence, but his grandson Charles the Fat, known among German Emperors as Charles III., and with whom the monk was on terms of friendship. In 1896, the Et. Eev. Dr. Henry C. Potter, Bishop of New York, delivered an important lecture under the auspices of the Church Club of that city, on The 18 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. Hymns of the Ordinal, in which he pays a fine tribute to Veni Creator Spiritus. While admitting that no more interesting page can be found in Christian history than that on which the story of this hymn is written, the Bishop expresses himself unable to settle in his own mind the question of authorship. There are two points, however, on which most writers think alike — first, that it is a great hymn; and second, that the earliest instance on record as to its use is A. D., 898. For a thousand years Veni Creator Spiritus has been used in public worship, and on such inspiring occasions as the coronation of Kin^s and Queens, the consecration of Bishops, the ordination of priests, the convening of synods, and the opening of Con- ferences. The late Dr. Hemenway of the Garrett Biblical Institute, believed that no hymn has had a more honorable recognition in the service of both Protestant and Catholic divisions of the Church than Veni Creator Spiritus. After the Eeformation Veni Creator Spiritus was one of the first of the ancient hymns to be translated into English and German. It is the only metrical hymn of the many in use in the Church of England before the Reformation, which, sanctioned by the authorities of both Church and State, has found a place in the venerable Liturgy of that Church. IV. The Dies Irae. r l\ WENTY-FIVE hundred and thirty years ago, Zephaniah, one of the Minor Proph- ets, uttered a prophetic description of the "Great Day of the Lord." It was an awful picture of the impending doom of Judah, a foretelling of the fall of Nineveh, and the destruction of Jerusalem. It is supposed that the fifteenth and sixteenth verses of the first chapter of that prophecy inspired the greatest judgment hymn of the ages — a hymn that has allured and eluded more translators than any other poetical composition in any language. In the closing part of the twelfth century, pos- sibly about 1185, a monk named Thomas was born in the town of Celano, now found in the province of Aquila, in Central Italy, and to him is ascribed the authorship of The Dies Irae, the most solemn and dramatic song of the Middle Ages. Thomas of Celano, as he is universally known, was a member of the Franciscans, an order founded by St. Francis of Assisi, whose biography he wrote at the request of Pope Gregory IX. Francis was a man of remark- able personality, and Protestants as well as Catholics speak of him as one of the most beautiful figures in the history of the Ancient Church. Thomas calls him the most perfect realization of the Christian 20 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. ideal that either he or his century could conceive of. Many noble hymns have come down to us from medieval times, but "beyond them all, before them all, and above them all," stands The Dies Irae. It is the acknowledged masterpiece of Latin Church poetry, and the most solemn and awe inspiring com- position in the whole range of hymnology. Guericke, that master in German Protestant theology, says the hymn is "unearthly in its pathos and magnificent in its diction, and makes the inmost soul tremble with its triple hammerstrokes of triple rhyme/ 1 There is so much sublimity and force in its thought, and impressive solemnity in its verse, that literary men and secular poets, as well as men in full sym- pathy with its feelings, hold it in supreme admira- tion. And while this terrible judgment hymn may have been the natural voice of the times that gave it birth, no part of it is too harsh or dissonant to the cultured minds and the enlightened Christian sentiment of the first year of the twentieth century. The grasp that The Dies Irae has upon the thoughts and feelings of men of many nations and varying creeds, is illustrated in the fact that no other hymn has so largely commanded the attention of linguists. Every rank and profession, representing many countries, languages, and creeds, is found among its translators — editors and professors, lawyers and physicians, poets and novelists, statesmen and historians, men of war and masters in science, minis- ters and priests, and cardinals and bishops. THE DIES IRAE. 21 Among the translations, or perhaps what is better, the paraphrases of The Uies Irae, which have become celebrated, that by Sir Walter Scott is the most admired. He introduces it with marvelous effect in his Lay of the Last Minstrel, at the requiem in Melrose Abbey: Then mass was sung, and prayers were said, And solemn requiem for the dead, And bells tolled out their mighty peal, For the departed spirit's weal; And ever in the office close The hymn of intercession rose; And far the echoing aisles prolong The awful burden of the song — 'Dies irae, dies ilia, Solvet saeclum in favilla;' While the pealing organ rung; Were it meet with sacred strain To close ray lay, so light and vain, Thus the holy fathers sung: That day of wrath, that dreadful day, When heaven and earth shall pass away, What power shall be the sinner's stay? How shall he meet that dreadful day? When, shriveling like a parched scroll, The flaming heavens together roll; When louder yet, and yet more dread, Swells the high trump that wakes the dead! Oh! on that day, that wrathful day, When man to judgment wakes from clay, Be Thou the trembling sinner's stay, Though heaven and earth shall pass away! Other versions may surpass Scott's in exactitude of translation, but none of them equals his in poetic 22 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. feeling, simplicity, or devotion; and for this reason his hymn of three stanzas has a permanent place in English hymnody. William E. Gladstone, in a speech delivered at Hawarden in 1866, said: "I know nothing more sublime in the writings of Sir Walter Scott — certainly I know nothing so sublime in any portion of the sacred poets of modern times, I mean of the present century — as the Hymn for the Dead, extending only to twelve lines, which he embodies in the Lay of the Last Minstrel." In Great Britain the full version of The Dies Irae by W. J. Irons is most commonly accepted because it is thought to represent more vividly the spirit of the original. There is an incident of unusual interest connected with his translation of the hymn. In 1848 Paris was in a state of revolution. Among the many deeds of bloodshed committed during that terrible time was the shooting of Archbishop Affre who fell on the barricade of Place de la Bastile on the twenty-fifth of June, while exercising his good offices to allay the murderous passion of the insur- gents. Lest a public burial of the Archbishop might create an excitement that would burst into fury, the body was taken quietly to the grave ten days after the assassination, and as soon as the state of public mind would permit, his funeral rites were held in Notre Dame. In sadness and impressiveness the service was the most remarkable ever witnessed in Paris. The heart of the Archbishop was exposed in a glass case in the choir, and an indescribable THE DIES IRAE. 23 degree of solemnity was added to the occasion by the singing of The Dies Irae by a large body of priests. Dr. Irons was in Notre Dame throughout the requiem service and was so deeply moved by the grand rendering of the Judgment Hymn that he determined to make an English translation of it, which was accomplished before he left Paris and while the wonderful scene at the Cathedral was fresh in his mind. His version was first intended for private use, but in 1849 it was published with the music used in the Notre Dame service. The United States and Germany lead all other countries in the number of translations of The Dies Irae. In 1841 there were only two versions known in America, and both were anonymous; but since that time the number has reached fully one hundred. The Eev. Samuel Willoughby Duffield says the Ger- man versions number about ninety, and Dr. John Julian, a good English authority, credits Great Brit- ain with ninety-three. The American translations which have attained the greater popularity are those made by Dr. Abraham Coles, of New Jersey; Mr. Edward Slosson of the New York bar; and Major- General John Adams Dix. Coles was a physician, and a linguist of rare ability, and in the course of his remarkable life he made seventeen different render- ings of The Dies Irae, and two of his stanzas have gained currency by Mrs. Stowe's use of them in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Mr. Franklin Johnson of Cambridge, Massachusetts, devoted the spare hours of fifteen 24 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. years to the making of his translation of the hymn, and then it did not reach his ideal. The Latin verse of the Franciscan monk appears simple and easy at first glance, "but there is a mystery in its lines that baffles the skill of many translators. The American version which perhaps has received the warmest commendation of men of letters in England and Germany as well as in the United States, is that by General Dix, of which the following is the full text: Day of vengeance, without morrow! Earth shall end in flame and sorrow, As from saint and seer we borrow. Ah! what terror is impending, When the Judge is seen descending, And each secret veil is rending! To the throne, the trumpet sounding, Through the sepulchres resounding, Summons all, with voice astounding. Death and Nature, mazed, are quaking, When, the grave's long slumber breaking, Man to judgment is awaking. On the written Volume's pages, Life is shown in all its stages — Judgment-record of past ages! Sits the Judge, the raised arraigning, Darkest mysteries explaining, Nothing unavenged remaining. What shall I then say, unfriended, By no advocate attended, When the just are scarce defended. THE DIES IRAE. 25 King of Majesty tremendous, By Thy saving grace defend us; Fount of pity, safety send us! Holy Jesus! meek, forbearing, For my sins the death-crown wearing, Save me, in that day, despairing. Worn and weary, Thou hast sought me; By Thy cross and passion bought me; — Spare the hope Thy labors brought me. Righteous Judge of retribution, Give, oh, give me absolution Eire the day of dissolution. As a guilty culprit groaning, Flushed my face, my errors owning, Hear, God, my spirit's moaning! Thou to Mary gav'st remission, Heard'st the dying thief's petition, Bad'st me hope in my contrition. In my prayers no grace discerning, Yet on me Thy favor turning, Save my soul from endless burning! Give me, when Thy sheep confiding Thou art from the goats dividing, On Thy right a place abiding! When the wicked are confounded, And by bitter flames surrounded, Be my joyful pardon sounded! Prostrate all my guilt discerning, Heart as though to ashes turning; Save, oh, save me from the burning! 26 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. Day of weeping, when from ashes Man shall rise 'mid lightning flashes, Guilty, trembling with contrition, Save him, Father, from perdition! This translation was made at Fort Monroe in 1863 while the general was in command of the Department of Virginia. His well known version of the famous Stabat Mater was made while minister to France in 1869. In speaking of his Dies Irae, he says: "It is the fruit of leisure moments gained from the hard service of the camp, 'on Confederate soil, but within Union entrenchments. If in the ages of paganism the strings of the Lesbian lyre might be, not unworthily, swept by hands inured to arms, a soldier in a Christian age may not less worthily find relief from the asperities of war in themes more congenial with the higher dispensation which he is, by the Providence of God, permitted to share." Mr. George Ticknor, of high literary fame, whose life was peculiarly rich in that class of associations and interests which properly belong to our best liter- ature, wrote General Dix from Boston, in February, 1864, as follows: "It was not without a feeling of embarrassment that I asked my friend Mr. Curtis, to obtain for me a copy of your privately printed marvelous trans- lation of The Dies Irae. Nor is it without a similar feeling that I now ask you to accept from me a copy of the life of my friend Prescott, which I published a few weeks since. You will, therefore, TEE DIES IRAE. 27 allow me to beg of you not to look on it as an attempt to make an exchange with you; for if such were my purpose, I should feel obliged to pray Jupiter that he would make you willing to take copper for gold as in the memorable case of Diomedes and Glaucu3." The Dies Irae is inseparably "associated in the history of music with Mozart's Requiem, the master- piece of that extraordinary genius, which is itself like a wondrous trumpet spreading wondrous sounds." Gretchen, the heroine in Goethe's Faust, is a character of charming innocency and affection. The author introduces The Dies Irae in the Cathe- dral scene at the end of the first act, making her "faint with dismay and horror as she hears it sung, and from that moment of salutary pain she becomes another woman." it is said that Dr. Samuel John- son was so profoundly moved by the solemn grand- eur of the hymn that he could not restrain the flow of tears whenever he read the tenth stanza — Worn and weary, Thou hast sought me; By Thy cross and passion bought me; Spare the hope Thy labors brought me. Lockhart, the son-in-law and biographer of Sir "Walter Scott, says when the great novelist lay dying he would frequently repeat a portion of his own version of The Dies Irae — Be Thou the trembling sinner's stay, Though heaven and earth shall pass away. Andreas Justinus Kerner, the noted German 28 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. poet, has given in his Wahnsinnige Bruder (The Four Crazed Brothers) a striking illustration of the overwhelming power of The Dies Irae upon minds hardened in sin, "but suddenly awakened to reflec- tion by its thunders of the Day of Judgment." Carlyle tells us that the celebrated German tragedian, Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner, who was three times married and three times divorced, and in later life became a Koman Catholic priest, quotes the eighth stanza of the hymn in his last testament as his reason for not having written either a defense or an accusation of his strange life: "With trembling I reflect that I myself shall first learn in its whole terrible compass what I properly was, when these lines shall be read by men; that is to say, a point of time which for me will be no time; in a condition in which all experience will for me be too late — King of Majesty tremendous, By Thy saving grace defend us; Fount of pity, safety send us." The grandeur of The Dies Irae has made an abid- ing impression on the heart of Christendom; and the use of translations or paraphrases of the hymn is universal in all English-speaking lands. The render- ings by John Newton, Dean Stanley, Charles Wesley, and Sir Walter Scott, are perhaps the most suitable for public worship, and one or more of them will be found in every prominent hymnal of the present day. THE DIES IRAE. 29 It is small wonder that The Dies Irae has fastened itself on the thoughts of the brightest minds of the modern world. One common end awaits a common humanity. However diversified our paths they con- verge toward that common center — the judgment seat of Christ. The story of the hymn tells us that the masters in our best literature, and the greatest intel lects in the world, are not insensible of the impressive declaration of Scripture: "It is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment." V. A Mighty Fortress is Our God. HERE are two hymns which stand alone as having changed the course of two great Nations — Ein feste Burg, the triumphant war-cry of the German Reformation; and The Mar- seillaise, the blood-stirring song of the French Revo- lution. In the mightiness of their influence these hymns have never been equaled. The Reformation marks the beginning of the richest hymnology in the world. The German love for music antedated Luther's time, but the Church being then dominated by Rome, hymn-singing in the vernacular was discouraged, and hence hymns filled an exceedingly small place in public worship. This was the state of Church-song in Germany when Luther was born in Eisleben, in 1483. While in childhood the poor miner's son sang from door to door in his native village, and then, and always, his soul was overflowing with music. He was as pious as he was musical, and it was no wonder that in time he took himself to a monastery, and became a self-tormented monk. His rule of life while there is expressed in his own sentence: "If ever a monk got to heaven by monkery, I was determined to get there." But the day soon came when Luther craved emancipation from the horrible darkness in which A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD. 31 he lived, and from the terrible slavery to Pharisaism in which he was placed. He was thirty-four years old when he nailed to the Church door at Wittenberg, the ninety-five theses on the doctrine of indulgences; and three years later the climax of his courage was reached when he publicly burned the Papal bull of excommunication. After Luther gave the German people a transla- tion of the Bible, he abolished the monotonous chants of medieval times, and substituted German hymns for Latin hymns and sequences. One day in writing to his friend and fellow-laborer, Georg Spalatin, Luther said: "It is my intention, after the example of the fathers, to make German psalms for the people; that is to say, spiritual songs, whereby the Word of God may be kept alive among them by singing. We seek, therefore, everywhere for poets. Now as you are such a master of the German tongue, and are so mighty and eloquent therein, I entreat you to join hands with us in this work, and to turn one of the Psalms into a hymn according to the pattern (i. e. an attempt of my own), that I send you. But I desire that all new-fangled words from the Court should be left out; that the words may be quite plain and common, such as common people may understand, yet pure, and skillfully handled; and next, that the meaning should be given clearly and graciously, according to the sense of the Psalm it- self." Luther was a fine singer and a skilled composer; 32 HYMtfS HISrORICALL? FAMOtiS. and possessing a magnetic enthusiasm in urging con- gregational singing, he gave a marvelous impulse to the business of hymn-writing and the joy of hymn- singing. One year before Luther's death, Spangen- berg said: "It is true and will remain true, that among all master-singers from the days of the Apos- tles until now, Luther is and always will be the best and most accomplished; in whose hymns and songs one does not find a vain or needless word." The first hymn-book of the Reformation, which in reality was the first of all printed hymn-books, was published at Wittenberg in 1524, seven years after Luther nailed the theses to the door of the Church in that city. It contained eight hymns with tunes, and four of them were by Luther. Ein feste Burg was not in the collection, but followed in the course of five or six years. The translation of the hymn usually found in the hymnals of American Churches, was made by Br. Frederic Henry Hedge, for many years professor of German literature and Ecclesiastical history at Harvard University. His version appeared in 1853, while he was pastor of a Unitarian Church at Providence, Ehode Island, and is as follows: A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing: Our Helper He, amid the flood Of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe Doth seek to work us woe; His craft and power are great, And, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not His equal. A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD. 33 Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing; Were not the right man on our side, The man of God's own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He; Lord Sabaoth is His name, From age to age the same, And He must win the battle. And though this world, with devils filled, Should threaten to undo us; We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us. The Prince of darkness grim — We tremble not for him; His rage we can endure, For lo! his doom is sure, One little word shall fell him. That word above all earthly powers- No thanks to them — abideth; The Spirit and the gifts are ours Through Him who with us sideth. Let goods and kindred go, This mortal life also: The body they may kill: God's truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever. I append a translation by Thomas Carlyle, made in 1831, which English critics regard as more faith- ful and forceful than any other version in the English language. He considers Ein feste Burg the world's most powerful hymn, and though it "may jar upon English ears, there is something in it like the sound of Alpine avalanches, or the first murmur of earth- quakes :" 34 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. A sure stronghold our God is He. A trusty shield and weapon; Our help He'll be, and set us free From every ill can happen. That old malicious foe Intends us deadly woe; Armed with might from hell And deepest craft as well, On earth is not his fellow. Through our own force we nothing can, Straight were we lost forever; But for us fights the proper man By God sent to deliver. Ask ye who this may be? Christ Jesus named is He; Of Sabaoth the Lord; Sole God to be adored; 'Tis He must win the battle. And weTe the world with devils filled, All eager to devour us, Our souls to fear should little yield, They cannot overpower us. Their dreaded prince no more Can harm us as of yore; Look grim as e'er he may, Doomed is his ancient sway; A word can overthrow him. God's word for all their craft and force One moment will not linger; But spite of hell shall have its course, 'Tis written by His finger. And though they take our life, Goods, honor, children, wife; Yet is there profit small: These things shall vanish all: The city of God remaineth. A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD. 35 Historians of the [Reformation do not agree as to the occasion that produced Ein feste Burg. Leonard Woolsey Bacon, in his Hymns of Luther, published in 1883, in commemoration of the four hundredth anniversary of the reformer's birth-day, says the hymn first appeared in 1529, probably for the Diet of Spires, at which time the German princes "made their formal Protest against the revocation of their liberties, and thus gained the name of Protestants." William T. Stead says Ein feste Burg was "the spiritual and national tonic of Germany, and was administered in those "dolorous times as doctors would administer quinine to sojourners in fever- haunted marshes." Everybody sang it, children on the streets, men and women in the fields, great congregations in Churches, and soldiers in battle. It was an inspiration to Luther himself in times of unusual peril. When darkness came over the Eeformation which seemed to forebode the loss of all that had been gained, he would turn to his com- panion, Melancthon, and say, "Come, Philip, let us sing the Forty-sixth Psalm," meaning Ein feste Burg, his own characteristic version. "Only the idea of the Stronghold is taken from the Scrip- ture, the rest is Luther's own, made in Germany, and not only so, but one of the most potent influ- ences that have contributed to the making of Ger- many." The influences of the hymn did not pass away 36 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. with Luther. It has never failed to be "a potent spell over German hearts." When Melancthon and his co-workers, Jonas and Crueiger, were banished from Wittenberg in ,1547, the year after Luther's death, they took refuge in Weimar, and on entering the city their hearts were gladdened and their cour- age strengthened by hearing a little girl singing in a sweet voice on the street, Ein feste Burg. Almost a century later, when Gustavus Adolphus, in that awful battle near Leipsic, stood between the Eefor- mation and its loss, he called upon his army before the struggle began, to take up this song and sing it in the face of the enemy. It was sung in the face of the enemy, and in the triumph of the battle it was sung again. On the gray, misty morning in November, 1632, Adolphus and Wallenstein, both hitherto uncon- quered, met with their great armies on the plain of Lutzen. On that bloody field which Adolphus was to water with his own life, he ordered his trumpeters to blow Ein feste Burg. In the supreme moment of that conflict he fell covered with mortal wounds. The battle was hot and bloody, and went on for hours, but before the close of day, the army that made the Forty-sixth Psalm its battle-cry, saw the dead King "victor of the field on which with his life he had purchased the religious liberties of Northern Europe." On this same battle-field of Lutzen, thousands assembled on the fifteenth of September, 1882, to A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD. 37 commemorate the jubilee of Gustavus Adolphus Society, and Ein feste Burg was sung by the vast ooncourse. Everybody knew the words and music by heart. German lungs are strong; German purpose is vigorous. "With the roll of a mighty stream the compact and lusty unison filled the air, and moved the hearts of the great gatherings with its rugged, homely strength." In CasselFs History of the Franco-Prussian War is an account of the singing of Kinkart's Now Thank we all Our God, and Ein feste Burg, on the night following the battle of Sedan. The German army was on the march for Paris, and at night a portion of the troops were lodged in the parish Church of Augecourt. The men w r ere overcome by excite- ment, and were literally worn out by the strain of the terrible battle and the heaviness of the march, and sleep seemed impossible. Finally, unknown fingers touched the organ, softly at first, then with greater force came the familiar tune to Now Thank we all Our God, and every voice joined in the grand old hymn. Then the organist began Ein feste Burg, the singing of which had nerved the soldiers to such deeds of courage at Sedan; and the officers and men united their voices in a magnificent out- burst of song. The effect was remarkable. The dreadful casualties of battle and the fatigue of hard marching were forgotten, and with hearts full of gratitude the men spent the remainder of the night in peaceful slumber. 38 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. The touching confidence with which Luther asked in his letter to Spalatin for poets, showed that he possessed the spirit of prophecy. Hymns came to him from all parts of the German Nation. And since that time German hymns have multiplied to a degree unparalleled in the history of sacred song. Dr. Philip Schaff says: "To the rich treasury of German hymns, men and women of all ranks and conditions, from theologians and princes down to common laborers, have made contributions, laying them on the altar of devotion, until the number of German hymns has exceeded one hundred thou- sand. Of this number about ten thousand have been published in various hymnals, and at least one thou- sand are classical and immortal." VI. The Great Doxology N all the range of human compositions there cannot be found a nobler ascription of praise than the four lines which form Bishop Ken's Doxology: Praise God from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Xo product of the heart and brain of man has echoed around the globe so often as this simple stanza; and no other lines, whether poetry or prose — except- ing only the prayer which Jesus taught His disciples — are so frequently used by English-speaking Chris- tians. Thomas Ken was one of the most illustrious Bishops England ever produced. He was born at Little Berkhampstead, in 1637. His mother having died during his childhood, he was placed under the guardianship of his brother-in-law, the devout Izaak Walton, distinguished in history as the most eminent angler of his time. Ken was educated at Westmin- ster, and at New College, Oxford. In 1679, when Princess Mary, wife of William of Orange of Hol- land, and daughter of James, the King's brother, asked for an English Chaplain at the Hague, Ken 40 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. was appointed by Charles II. The Chaplain was a man of heroic integrity and fearless honesty, and in a dispute with William on a point of morality con- nected with the coiirt, Ken quit the Hague in 1680, and on his return to England was appointed one of the Chaplains to the King. It was in 1683, when Charles visited Winches- ter, the residence of the Chaplain, that he requested Ken to give up his house for the accommodation of the notorious Nell Gwynne. The Chaplain had no more fear of Kings than of the humblest inhabi- tant of Winchester, and he peremptorily declined to grant Charles's request. As bad as the King was he had honor enough to commend Ken's hon- esty of purpose, and when the bishopric of Bath and Wells became vacant the following year, Charles inquired: "Where is the little man who wouldn't give poor Nell a lodging? Give it to him." Twelve days after Ken was consecrated Bishop, Charles died — February sixth, 1685. The good lit- tle Bishop was never allured by the glitter of the court of Kings, and in 1688 he offended James II. by refusing to read the Koyal Declaration of Indul- gence, and with six others of the Episcopal bench he was committed to the Tower, but shortly after- wards was acquitted. On the accession of William III., Ken was deprived of his office in 1691, and after an eventful life., through which he bore many troubles, he died in 1711. His name survives chiefly from his morning and evening hymns. He prepared THE GREAT DOXOLOGY. 41 a Manual of Prayer for the students at Winchester College in 1674, and in one edition of the work, possibly that of 1681, he placed his three hymns: Awake my Soul and with the Sun; All Praise to Thee my God this Xight; My God, now I from Sleep Awake. Each of these hymns closed with the stanza that has become the famous Doxology. This incomparable Doxology has taken hold of the Christian world as no other metrical lines have. I think it was Theodore Parker, the widely known Unitarian minister, who said that these four lines by Bishop Ken had done more to familiarize the English-speaking peoples of the earth with the doc- trine of the Trinity than all the theological books ever written. The history made by this Doxology is considerable and important, but on account of limited space only a few illustrations can be given. During the cotton famine in England caused by the Civil War in the United States, the suffering, particularly in Lancashire, was pitiable in the extreme. But in all the weary months of waiting for the coming of better days the conduct of the operatives won the admiration of the world. The saying that "hope is the poor man's bread/' was true in this instance. In gathering for worship on Sundays, in assembling for praise services in mid- week, and in many impoverished homes, the people could still sing with strong hearts and clear voices, Praise God from whom all blessings flow. 42 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. And the story is told that when the first load of cotton reached one town it was drawn from the railway station to the mill by the operatives. As the procession moved through the streets the scene was as joyous and imposing as a triumphal march. Praise and gladness had taken possession of the people, and hundreds of voices swelled in the heart- cheering strains of the Doxology. Chaplain McCabe, now one of the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is credited with a story of how the Doxology saved the prisoners in Libby, at Bichmond, from absolute despair. Day after day they saw comrades pass away and "their numbers increased by fresh, living recruits for the grave." One night about ten o'clock, they heard the tramp of coming feet that soon stopped before the prison door. In the company was a young Baptist minister whose heart almost fainted as he looked on the cold walls and thought of the suffering within. Tired and half sick he sat down and put his face in his hands and wept. Just then a lone voice of deep, sweet pathos, sang from an upper window, Praise God from whom all blessings flow. and instantly a dozen voices were heard on the sec- ond line; and before the last line was reached the prison was all alive with song, and lonesomeness and despair were dispelled for the night by this splendid verse of praise. In 1898 Professor Elisha Gray, the noted inven- THE GREAT DOXOLOGY. 43 tor and electrician, (died January twenty-second, 1901), contributed a series of articles to the Chicago Times-Herald in which he had something to say about music and musicians. In one of the chapters he gives the following illustration of the stirring effect of the singing of Old Hundred: "I remember an incident in my own experience that ever since has seemed to me to have been the most thrilling moment of my life. On the ninth of July, 1881, I sailed from New York for Glasgow on the steamer Circassia. All who are old enough will remember that only a few days before that time not only our country but the whole civilized world was shocked by the shooting of President Garfield at the hands of an assassin. At the time the steamer sailed his life hung, as it were, in a balance, no one knowing at what moment the scales would turn or which way. One beautifully clear morning, after we had been out some eight or nine days, we found ourselves sailing in smooth water, close to land on the north shore of Ireland. All eyes were looking wistfully toward the shore, as if trying to solve the problem, through some sign that might be visible, that would relieve the tension of our long suspense, when, lo! a boat with two men was seen coming off from the signal station, and steering directly for our ship. When they came within hailing distance one of the men stood up and shouted the words, 'Garfield all right/ "Silence reigned for a moment, while such a wave 44 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. of profound emotion swept and surged through that throng as rarely stirs the souls of men. For one supreme moment national boundaries were obliter- ated and all were brothers with a common feeling of sympathy centered upon the stricken President of the greatest republic on earth. One moment of silence more eloquent than the most impassioned speech, and then the multitude found its voice, and such cheers as went up from the deck of that steamer! Then the Doxology, Traise God from whom all blessings flow/ burst spontaneously from the lips of the throng; and such music! Hundreds of times had I heard this same Doxology, but this was the first time I had felt its real meaning. It was the first time I had ever really heard it sung under- standingly, and it has had a new meaning to me ever since. In all probability this was the only occasion of a life-time when I shall, except in mem- ory, hear such an impressive rendering of the Old Doxology, familiar, in a way, to all Christendom, but how few have really heard it!" It has been said that no words have been in- vented that will convey the sensation of a profound emotion so well as the language of music. The Charleston (South Carolina) News and Courier once published a happy illustration of this fact. In the early part of March, 1893, a company of Chicago ladies and gentlemen visited Charleston, and in their rounds of sight-seeing they paid a visit to the his- toric St. Michael's Church, in which generations of THOMAS KEN. THE GHEAT BOXOLOG?. 45 good people have worshiped. Within a few feet of the high pulpit, from which Sunday after Sun- day for more than one hundred years, "the law and the gospel have been proclaimed, is a pew in which George Washington and Lafayette and Eobert E. Lee, and other great men who have illumined the pages of history, have in their time and according to their opportunity, reverently joined in the services of the Church, and from the common level of a common humanity, asked God's favor and his bless- ing upon this country." One afternoon the Chicago company took seats in this self-same pew, and under the inspiration of the scene and the occasion, sang as it had never been sung before, the Doxology of the Church universal, Praise God from whom all blessings flow. The News and Courier said the effect was electrical and beyond description. "We did not know the singers, we only heard the song. It was like a burst of the sunshine which often-times, in this Southern clime of ours, comes to light up with glory inde- scribable, the close of wintry days. It was more — the Doxology was a benediction upon the work of the most memorable and eventful day in the history of Charleston for the last quarter of a century." One of the most impressive scenes ever witnessed at the close of a session of Congress was that of March fourth, 1899. It was about the hour of mid- night, and the Fifty-fifth Congress, which had been 46 HYMN 8 HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. "one of extraordinary duties and responsibilities" had just finished its business. The spectacle attend- ing a closing session is seldom dignified but in this case there was a happy exception in the conduct of the members. A few members of the House of Eepresentatives began to sing, My Country, 'tis of Thee; and in a flash every one in the great hall was on his feet. The Star Spangled Banner soon followed, but this was hardly finished when the Southern members started Dixie; and in a few moments later in the general hand-shaking, Auld Lang Syne became a fit accompaniment. A floor correspondent of The Independent said this demon- stration lasted about half an hour, "when some- thing was needed as a fitting termination to this hilarity, and to soothe and give dignity and calm to these geysers of sentiment. It was found in Old Hundred. When its notes broke on the air the voices above and below joined in a clear, reverent, and sincere Doxology. What mattered it that Cath- olics and Protestants, Methodists and Calvinists, Trinitarians and Unitarians, were all in the choir? They were singing with their hearts as well as their voices. Is there any other national legislative body where such a closing hour could be celebrated?" The Doxology is truly a wonderful verse. It has been the "death-song of martyrs and the pean of victorious armies. In times innumerable it has been sung when planning great undertakings and reaping the rewards of successful enterprises." It was the TEE GREAT DOXOLOGY. 47 song of the Old and the New World when the metal nerve was laid beneath the waters of the sea binding together two great continents. When peace was sealed at Appomattox the Doxology rolled "like the voice of mighty thunder" from State to State and from ocean to ocean. Whenever the spirit of spon- taneous praise takes hold of large public assemblies, the Doxology is usually the song by which expres- sion of gratitude is made. Probably the Doxology was never sung on a more impressive and historic occasion than at Peking, on the fourteenth of August, 1900. The civilized world was held in awful suspense during the fifty-six days the various legations and the missionaries withstood the millions of Chinese. When the allied forces entered the city the heart-felt rejoicing of the men, women and children, who had faced a living death for nearly two months, cannot be described. Rockets blazed in the air, cannon smashed the yellow roofs of the Forbidden City, and soldiers and civilians made the welkin ring with cheers; but the most thrilling and soul-inspiring incident connected with the celebration of their deliverance, was the assemb- ling of the missionaries about the Bell tower and singing, Praise God from whom all blessings flow. The tune Old Hundred which is universally used in singing the Doxology, is supposed to be the work of William Franck, a German composer, born in 1520, 48 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. and died in 1570. He was one of the fifty musi- cians who composed the tunes for the French version of the Psalter, printed in 1545. But some historians of the tune are of the ppinion that it was composed by Louis Bourgeois for the German Psalter of which he was editor in 1551-52. In England the tune was set to the One Hundredth Psalm, from which it became known as The Hundredth; but in 1696, when Tate and Brady published their New Version, the word Old was used to show that the tune was the one in use in the previous Psalter, edited by Stern- hold and Hopkins. Old Hundred is solemn in its strains and mag- nificent in its harmony, and the tie that binds it to the Great Doxology the onward sweep of time can- not dissever. VII. The Founder of Our Hymnology. URING the first sixteen hundred years of the Christian era there were scarcely any metrical songs in which the people could unite in singing. The few such hymns which may have been written in England before the time of Isaac Watts, were not in common use, "partly because of the apathy of the clergy and the indiffer- ence of the people;" but chiefly because "they were wanting in animating force and spiritual power." From 15G1 to 1696, the only singing heard in the Church was from the old version of the Psalms by Sternhold and Hopkins, and even the singing of the metrical Psalms was monopolized by the choir — a condition that seemed to preclude any demand "to create a supply of hymns." In our day we can hardly imagine how weari- some it was to the flesh to listen to the monotonous psalm-singing of the Puritan fathers. In Alice Morse Earle's delightful book, The Sabbath in Puritan New England, is an incident that serves to show the condition of Church hymnody in the early part of the eighteenth century. It is told of the Rev. Dr. West, who preached at Dartmouth in 1726, that he forgot one Sabbath morning to bring his sermon to meeting. He gave out a Psalm, 50 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. walked a quarter of a mile to his home, got his ser- mon, and was back in his pulpit before the Psalm was finished. In 1675 a young mother, carrying an infant, was frequently seen walking to and fro in front of an old jail at Southampton, England. Many times a day she could be seen kolding it up at arm's length before the jail window that a prisoner might see the face of the child. The child was Isaac Watts, and the prisoner w r as its father. The parents were emi- nently pious, and in the reign of Charles II., Mr. Watts twice suffered imprisonment on account of his religious convictions. In precocity, Isaac Watts was one of the wonders of his time. The story of his life says that he began the study of Latin at the age of four, Greek at nine, French at ten, and Hebrew at thirteen. He was so assiduous in his studies that his constitution was permanently injured. When sixteen years old he was so bright in scholarship and lovable in disposi- tion that Dr. Speed, and others of Southampton, offered to give him a free education in a university, which, if accepted, meant an eventual ordination in the Established Church. But the little Dissenter, with a courage and purpose which indicated the soul-standard of the coming man, declared that he would not forsake the denomination to which his parents belonged, for the highest honors the univer- sity could confer upon him; and is it not rational to presume that this decision made it possible for THJ FOUNDER OF OUR HYMNOLOGY. 51 Isaac Watts to become the founder of our Christian hymnology? Returning from Church one Sunday morning when in his eighteenth year, he complained to his father that the hymns were intolerably dull. His ear for melody had suffered after the fashion of a person who has his sensitive nerves shocked by the sound of a file sharpening a saw. He had the good sense to tell his father that he thought he could write better hymns himself. Deacon Watts was wise, as all deacons ought to be. and having some poetical taste himself, and placing large confidence in the boy's judgment, he urged him to try his hand; and on the following Sunday morning the congregation at the Independent Church at Southampton, was invited to join in singing an original hymn by Isaac Watts, Behold the Glories of the Lamb. It is worth while to say that this hymn, written in such peculiar circumstances, has had an extensive use in Great Britain for one hundred and fifty years, and is still found in some American hymnals. From the date of this incident began the signal triumphs of Watts in hymn-writing. With one exception, that of Charles Wesley, the world has seen nothing that compares with his contributions to the songs of the Church. He wrote nearly seven hundred hymns. He wrote some of his noblest hymns at a time when there existed a deep prejudice against the use of songs in Church worship. Dr. W. Garrett Horder says in The Hymn Lover, that 52 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. so strong was this prejudice, and so high did feeling run against new hymns, that many a Church in England was rent asunder by the proposal to intro- duce them in Sunday services; and the original Church of which the late Charles H. Spurgeon was pastor, was almost hopelessly divided because a ma- jority of the members voted to use Christian songs in the sanctuary. The wall of prejudice that Watts faced in offer- ing his hymns to the Churches was so invincible that it required many years to overcome it. He published his Hymns and Spiritual Songs in 1707, which was the first effort made by any hymn-writer to super- sede the Psalter. But his finest hymns so full of exalted praise, were called "Watts's whims/' and it was some twenty or thirty years before his best hymns found their way into common use. But when adopted they became an extraordinary power, and for a whole century Watts ruled the Independ- ent Churches as no other hymn-writer has since his day. His hymns still have a strong hold upon the universal religious mind, and in Calvinistic Churches between one hundred and one hundred and fifty of his hymns are in use. Many of them have been patched and rent by profane hymn- menders, but somebody has said that there is enough of Watts left in them to remind one of the saying of Horace: "You may know the remains of a poet even when he is torn to pieces." Dr. Watts passed two-thirds of his life of seven- ISAAC WATTS. THE i UNDER OF OUR HYMNOLOGY. 53 ty-four years in ill-health. He was a very small man, and like St. Paul, "in bodily presence was weak." In early manhood he proposed marriage with Miss Elizabeth Singer, afterwards the distin- guished Mrs. Eowe; but she declined the proposal with the remark that while she "loved the jewel, she could not admire the casket that contained it." This sore reflection on his personal appearance greatly mortified him, and in the gloom of disap- pointment he wrote the hymn beginning with these weird lines: How vain are all things here below! How false, and yet how fair! Each pleasure hath its poison too, And every sweet a snare. Though earth seemed for the time to withhold its smiles, at length heaven brightened, and in retire- ment — in the years untouched by sorrow and unvexed by storm — Watts wrote many of his finest songs of praise. Watts was one of the great preachers of his time, but after reaching his thirty-eighth year it was only occasionally that he was heard in the pulpit. In 1702 he was ordained pastor of the Independent congregation in Mark Lane, London. Ten years later he was attacked by a violent fever from which he never fully recovered. It was in 1712 while at Mark Lane that his noble Christian spirit, his charm as a conversationalist, and his genuine qualities of heart and mind, won the love of Sir Thomas Abney, 54 HYMNS HISTORICALLY FAMOUS. formerly Lord Mayor of London and Member of Parliament. Sir Thomas invited the poet-preacher to spend one week with him at his beautiful country seat at Theobald, in Hertfordshire. The invitation was accepted, but by the command of the host, and after his death in 1722, at the request of the widow, the visit covered the greater portion of Watts's remaining life — thirty-six years. His death occurred in November, 1748. He was buried at Bunhill Fields, a Puritan cemetery near Finsbury Square, London. His remains lie near those of John Bun- yan and Daniel Defoe. A beautiful and tender tribute to Dr. Watts for his nobility of character and the rich legacy he bequeathed to the universal Church, was the erec- tion of a handsome monument at Southampton in 1861, for which Christians of all denominations made generous contributions. But perhaps the most enduring of all the Watts memorials is that placed among the immortal British poets in Westminster Abbey, which, it is said, "commands a larger respect than the busts of kings/' It is not a matter to create surprise that Watts wrote too much to insure excellence in all his com- positions. "He rose high in some and sank low in many," but the good among his productions are perpetual treasures. On his lyre with its many chords he strikes his highest note in his crucifixion hymn which is universally conceded to be the finest on that theme in our own or any other language: THE FOUNDER OF OUR HYMNOLOOT. 55 When I survey the won