,.i!. N s ,1,1 .; n O; 
 
 H!S LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 JJOUSMAN, (3-D 
 
JOHN ELLERTON 
 
John Ellerton. 
 
JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 Being a Collection of his Writings on Hymnology 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND WORKS 
 
 HENRY HOUSMAN, B.D. 
 
 LATE DIVINITY AND HEBREW LECTURER, CHICHESTER THEOLOGICAL 
 COLLEGE J SOMETIME CURATE OF BARNES 
 
 ite of Camm lUrton Hub 0%r leading llgnut Writers 
 
 PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE 
 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE 
 
 LONDON : NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C. ; 
 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.G. 
 
 BRIGHTON: 129, NORTH STREET. 
 NEW YORK: E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO. 
 
 1896. 
 
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, 
 LONDON & BUNGAY. 
 
QV3II 
 
 TO 
 
 Jfnwn* George (JBUertoit, Jtt.JV. 
 
 RECTOR OF WARMINGHAM, CHESHIRE, 
 
 AND HIS BROTHERS AND SISTERS, 
 THESE BRIEF MEMORIALS OF ONE DEAR TO MANY, 
 
 DEAREST OF ALL TO THEM, 
 ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 
 
 062 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THIS book is the development of a very limited 
 design. The original intention was merely to re- 
 print (at the desire of many who were interested in 
 Hymnody) the papers on " Favourite Hymns and 
 their Authors," which Canon Ellerton had written 
 for the Parish Magazine, and which subsequently 
 re-appeared in the Church Monthly, prefixing to 
 them a Sketch of the Author's Life and Works. But 
 it was soon perceived that his most important con- 
 tributions to Hymnology, apart from his own 
 hymns, were those articles which he had composed 
 for the Churchman's Family Magazine, Church 
 Congresses, or for special occasions, and that the 
 work would be a far more valuable contribution to 
 the literature of the subject if these were included. 
 Then among the Canon's papers were found drafts 
 of several original hymns, translations, and poems 
 which could not be omitted. 
 
 The Sketch of the Author's Life, while it still 
 remains but a sketch, could not have attained to 
 any degree of completeness had it not included 
 much interesting matter connected with the com- 
 pilation of the chief Hymnals now in use, and thus 
 the work grew to its present size. 
 
 It is obvious that these pages could never have 
 
Vlll PREFACE 
 
 been written but for the kind co-operation of many 
 with whom the Canon had been associated, both 
 in friendship and in work. By far the greater 
 share of the labour has fallen upon his eldest son, 
 the Reverend Francis George Ellerton, who under- 
 took the heavy task of examining his father's 
 papers, and selecting from among them such as 
 threw light upon his hymnological work. Had the 
 idea of constructing a complete biography been 
 entertained there would have been no lack of 
 material. To him, therefore, both for his zeal in 
 collecting matter for this tribute to his father's 
 memory, as well as for much valuable counsel in 
 the construction of the work, my gratitude must, 
 in the first place, be gratefully expressed. 
 
 To Canon Erskine Clarke, late proprietor of the 
 Parish Magazine, and to Frederick Sherlock, Esq., 
 proprietor of the Church Monthly, my best thanks 
 are due for generously giving me permission to re- 
 publish anything from Canon Ellerton's pen which 
 had appeared in their periodicals, as well as to use 
 the original blocks for the portraits of the hymn 
 writers. 
 
 To the Right Reverend Edward Henry Bicker- 
 steth, Lord Bishop of Exeter, I am greatly in- 
 debted for the loan of a correspondence between 
 his lordship and the Canon on the subject of the 
 Hymnal Companion to the Book of Common Prayer; 
 and also to the Reverend Prebendary Godfrey 
 Thring for a similar favour with regard to the 
 Church of England Hymn-Book. 
 
 Very cordially, too, must I thank Mrs. Carey 
 Brock, not only for allowing me to see and make 
 
PREFACE IX 
 
 use of the letters which passed between her and 
 Canon Ellerton while the Children's Hymn-Book 
 was in preparation, but also for allowing me to 
 submit to her revision the chapter describing that 
 work. 
 
 To W. M. Moorsom, Esq., one of the Canon's 
 staff of lay workers at Crewe, I owe the graphic 
 picture of Mr. Ellerton's work in that place as a 
 parish priest, and for permission to print the useful 
 paper on the " Bondage of Creeds." 
 
 I have also much pleasure in acknowledging the 
 assistance I have received from the Venerable 
 Archdeacon Thornton, the Reverend Gerald 
 Blunt, and the Reverend John Julian, D.D., whose 
 monumental work, the Dictionary of Hymnology, 
 has been of infinite use in correcting dates and 
 verifying references. 
 
 Nor can I sufficiently express my obligations to 
 the Reverend James Mearns, curate of Whitchurch, 
 Reading, and assistant editor of the Dictionary of 
 Hymnology, for his kindness in correcting the 
 proofs of the first part of the book, and offering 
 many valuable suggestions. 
 
 My last, but by no means least, acknowledgment 
 of kindly co-operation must be offered to Professor 
 Henry Attwell, K.O.C., 1 one of the late Canon's 
 most intimate and most valued friends. To him I 
 am indebted not only for the loan of some of the 
 Canon's charming letters, but also for kindly 
 revising the whole of the book while passing 
 through the press. 
 
 The plan I have adopted in gathering into one 
 1 Knight of the Oaken Crown of Holland. 
 
X PREFACE 
 
 view each of the Hymnals treated of entailed of 
 necessity some repetition, but it is hoped the 
 arrangement will be found sufficiently clear and 
 satisfactory. If the work should be instrumental 
 in preserving some records of the life-work of one 
 of the Church's sweetest poets, if it should be the 
 means of making known many of his hymns which 
 else might have lain unpublished and unknown, it 
 will not have been written in vain. 
 
 H. HOUSMAN. 
 
 6V. Wilfriths, Chichester, 
 May 17, 1896. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 18261850 
 
 PAGE 
 
 BOYHOOD CAMBRIDGE ... ... ... ... 1 5 
 
 THE DEATH OF BALDUR ... ... 25 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 1850 1872 
 
 EASEBOURNE BRIGHTON CREWE GREEN ... 32 
 THE BONDAGE OF CREEDS 40 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 18721876 
 HINSTOCK ... 6 1 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 18761884 
 
 BARNES 66 
 
 CHURCH HYMNS ... ... ... ... ... 72 
 
 THE CHILDREN'S HYMN-BOOK ... 87 
 
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND HYMN-BOOK ... 92 
 
Xll CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 1884, 1885 
 
 PAGE 
 
 SWITZERLAND AND ITALY I 
 
 VEYTAUX 99 
 
 PEGLI 102 
 
 AN ITALIAN POOR-HOUSE 109 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 18851893 
 
 WHITE RODING Il6 
 
 HYMNS ANCIENT AND MODERN 130 
 
 THE LAST HYMNS 138 
 
 THE CLOSE 156 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 CRITICAL ESTIMATE OF CANON ELLERTON's HYMNS l6l 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 CONCLUSION 178 
 
 PAPERS ON HYMNS AND HYMN-BOOKS 
 
 I. ON SOME PECULIARITIES IN THE PAST HISTORY 
 
 OF ENGLISH HYMNODY ... ... ... 185 
 
 II. ON THE POSSIBILITY AND DIFFICULTIES OF 
 
 AN AUTHORIZED HYMNAL ... ... 2o6 
 
 III. ON THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH A HYMN- 
 BOOK SHOULD BE CONSTRUCTED 223 
 
 IV. PRACTICAL HINTS TO THOSE WHO USE HYMN- 
 BOOKS AT PRESENT 245 
 
 SPEECH UNSPOKEN AT THE NOTTINGHAM CHURCH 
 
 CONGRESS, 1871 260 
 
CONTENTS xiii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 HYMNS AND HYMN-SINGING 266 
 
 HYMNS AND HYMN-BOOKS 276 
 
 AN AUTHORIZED HYMNAL .., 284 
 
 MODERN THEOLOGY AS SHOWN BY MODERN 
 
 HYMNODY . 288 
 
 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 JOHN COSIN AND THOMAS KEN 301 
 
 ISAAC WATTS AND PHILIP DODDRIDGE 309 
 
 THE WESLEYS AND TOPLADY 316 
 
 WILLIAM COWPER AND JOHN NEWTON ... ... 323 
 
 REGINALD HEBER AND HENRY HART MILMAN ... 329 
 
 JAMES MONTGOMERY 337 
 
 HENRY FRANCIS LYTE 344 
 
 HYMNS OF THE OXFORD MOVEMENT. THE TRANS- 
 LATORS... ... ... ... ... .., 350 
 
 JOHN KEBLE AND JOHN HENRY NEWMAN ... 359 
 
 EDWARD CASWALL AND FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER 366 
 
 CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH AND HORATIUS BONAR 374 
 CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT AND FRANCES RIDLEY 
 
 HAVERGAL 381 
 
 HORATIUS BONAR AND HIS HYMNS 387 
 
 SOME FAMOUS HYMNS 
 
 SOME FAMOUS EASTER HYMNS 39! 
 
 SOME FAMOUS ADVENT HYMNS 397 
 
 CHILDREN'S HYMNS BY MRS. ALEXANDER ... 405 
 
 INDEX 415 
 
JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 18261850 
 BOYHOOD CAMBRIDGE 
 
 THERE are some men the records of whose lives 
 have an interest for the many, and there are others 
 whose memory will only be treasured by the few. 
 Every particular illustrating the career of one who 
 has been a ruling power in Church or State, or a 
 shining light in literature, science, or art, is justly 
 regarded as among the most precious things which 
 the present can inherit from the past or bequeath 
 to the future. But although of less common in- 
 terest, the memorials of many a life passed in 
 comparative obscurity may be very precious ; and, 
 within the orbit in which they are designed to 
 move, be as highly prized as those of earth's great 
 ones. Quiet lives may make but quiet reading, 
 lacking the excitement of stirring scenes and 
 startling actions ; still, there are times when it is 
 a relief to turn from the study of those who lived 
 in the full glare of the world's observation to the 
 simple narrative of some favourite poet who sang, 
 
I 6 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 so to speak, in the shade. In fact, the one is as 
 necessary as the other if we are to form an ade- 
 quate conception of all the minds which mould an 
 age. A work on birds, to be complete, must include 
 the nightingale as well as the eagle, or one on 
 flowers must not, while it describes the rose, despise 
 the violet. 
 
 The present sketch and the reader is begged 
 to remember that it is only a sketch, not designed 
 to be a finished portrait is an attempt to record 
 for the lovers of sacred song the outlines of a 
 very sweet singer, one whose life was quite 
 uneventful, who was heard rather than seen, but 
 some of whose hymns are as immortal as those of 
 St. Ambrose, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, or of 
 Venantius Fortunatus. The present generation 
 is rapidly giving place to a younger ; its facts 
 and personalities are fast fading into memories. 
 If the records of those who have adorned it by 
 their lives or writings are to be preserved for those 
 who shall come after us, they must be harvested at 
 once before they become dimmed by distance or 
 altogether lost ; and we believe that in every succeed- 
 ing age there will be some who will be glad to pos- 
 sess a few particulars of the life of John Ellerton, 
 pronounced by Matthew Arnold no mean author- 
 ity to be the " greatest of living hymnologists." 
 
 John, the elder son of George and Jemima Frances 
 Ellerton, was born in London on Saturday, Decem- 
 ber 1 6, 1826, and baptized in the parish church of 
 St. James, Clerkenwell, on the sixteenth of the 
 following month. He came of a Yorkshire family, 
 and Ellerton Priory, a small house in Swaledale, 
 
BOYHOOD CAMBRIDGE I/ 
 
 near Richmond, now in ruins, indicates the locality 
 from whence it derived its name. Having but one 
 brother, eleven years younger than himself, and no 
 sisters, he was practically an only child, a fact which 
 must have materially tended to foster the peculiar 
 shyness and sensitiveness of his temperament. 
 The memory of his parents was throughout his life 
 a most precious and sacred thing. " I used to 
 feel," such are his own words, " how happy my 
 father and mother were, even more than how good 
 they were ; and yet I knew even then, and know 
 still better now, that they had many sorrows and 
 anxieties. They had no personal religious doubts 
 or fears ; their delight in prayer, in hymns, in the 
 Bible, and occasionally in spiritual converse with 
 one or two friends, was most true and deep and 
 real ; there was no mistake about it. It never 
 occurred to me to connect their religion, even in 
 its severest denunciations and gloomiest fore- 
 bodings for the world, with the faintest shadow of 
 cant or unreality; and in their family and with 
 intimate friends there was plenty of merriment 
 and fun. My father especially overflowed with 
 humour, with quaint sayings and stories, all per- 
 fectly good-humoured and kindly. Often do I 
 laugh to myself, even now all alone, at some of his 
 overflowings of mirth at which there are now none 
 left to laugh." 
 
 To his mother especially the shy and sensitive 
 boy was indebted for the guiding of his opening 
 mind into those channels of thought which it never 
 afterwards forsook. She was a woman of con- 
 siderable literary ability, and among the many 
 
 B 
 
1 8 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 short stories which proceeded from her pen, Hozv 
 Little Fanny Learned to be Useful still holds its own 
 as a delightful tale for children. She was left a 
 widow in 1844, and she and her son lived on in the 
 old house at Ulverston until he went to Cambridge. 
 She then left the house for a time and went to live 
 in a smaller one at Norham-on-Tweed, which also 
 belonged to the family. It was here that John 
 Ellerton passed all his college vacations, and from 
 here one memorable summer he went with his 
 mother to the Lakes, and he often used to speak 
 of his delight in spending whole days in a boat on 
 Windermere, devouring Wordsworth and Tennyson. 
 His mother was so devoted to him that she could 
 never bear to be away from him for long, and on his 
 leaving Cambridge she followed him to his first 
 curacy at Easebourne, and afterwards to Brighton. 
 In both places she helped him much, in the schools 
 at Easebourne, and in district visiting at Brighton. 
 On his appointment to Crewe Green she accom- 
 panied him, and shared his home there till her 
 death in March 1866. 
 
 It was in London that the early boyhood of the 
 future poet was passed, and where his earliest 
 religious impressions were received. How deep 
 and lasting these impressions were may be gathered 
 from his own " Recollections of Fifty Years Ago." x 
 " On the whole," he writes, " the religious world at 
 that time was rather gloomy. The great fight 
 against slavery had been won, so completely won 
 that some of the most earnest abolitionists began 
 
 1 A paper contributed to the All- Saints Scarborough 
 Parish Magazine. 
 
BOYHOOD CAMBRIDGE IQ 
 
 to think that the great Emancipation of August 
 1834 had been rather an -extreme and hasty 
 measure. There was no great social or theological 
 battle to fight; religious people talked about 
 Edward Irving and his followers, but they too had 
 dropped out of notice a good deal by 1837. I 
 thought of him chiefly as an open-air preacher, for 
 more than once on Sunday mornings, on my way 
 to St. John's, Bedford Row, with my father, had I 
 had a vision of that marvellous face and form, in 
 his little movable wooden pulpit, sometimes in 
 pouring rain, holding an umbrella over his head 
 with one hand, as he poured forth his fervid oratory 
 to a scanty group of hearers outside the walls of 
 the great prison. But the favourite, the inexhaust- 
 ible subject of talk among serious people was 
 unfulfilled prophecy. The Irvingite movement 
 (as people would call it) had popularized Millen- 
 arian speculations among many who resisted 
 steadily all belief in the new ' Miracles ' and 
 ' Tongues.' Names now utterly forgotten of writers 
 on prophecy formed the staple reading, I am afraid, 
 for a good many of the religious folk among whom 
 I lived ; and their speculations turned chiefly on 
 the chronology of the future in what year the 
 Jews were to be restored, Popery to be destroyed, 
 and the Millennium to begin. Some great event 
 I believe the final overthrow of the 'ten king- 
 doms' of Europe, including England, and accom- 
 panied by troubles hitherto unheard of was pre- 
 dicted for 1844. Boy as I was, I entirely believed 
 in this calculation, which was pictorially set forth 
 in a great coloured chart ; so much so, that when 
 
20 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 1841 came I remember being quite shocked at my 
 father for letting some ground to a tenant on a 
 seven years' lease." 
 
 " In those days," he continues, " I was taken 
 several times to Exeter Hall to some of the great 
 religious meetings, often to those of the Church 
 Missionary Society, and always rejoiced when a 
 ' real missionary ' got up, instead of the usual 
 London clergyman with his usual platform address. 
 There were of course exceptions among them, 
 conspicuously Hugh Stowell and Hugh McNeile. 
 
 " The impression generally made on the mind of 
 a rather precocious and sensitive boy by this 
 religious atmosphere was that the world was very 
 wicked, the country going from bad to worse, and 
 no hope for anything but the great Revolution 
 which, among untold miseries, was to usher in the 
 ' Day of the Lord.' And yet within the charmed 
 circle of those who used to meet at my father's 
 house there was much, very much of peace, bright- 
 ness, and happiness such as I seldom see now." 
 
 His parents used to take their two children, John 
 and George Francis, to spend every summer with 
 an uncle, Dr. John Ellerton, who owned a small 
 property at Ulverston in Lancashire, which, upon 
 his death in 1838, passed to his brother George, 
 and the family in that year left London and settled 
 in Ulverston. John, twelve years old, now 
 began his school-life, for what instruction he had 
 hitherto received, in addition to the inestimable 
 training he had been daily experiencing at the 
 hands of his Godly parents, had been in private 
 academies. Now he was sent to King William's 
 
BOYHOOD CAMBRIDGE 21 
 
 College, Isle of Man, where he remained till the 
 death of his father in 1844. He afterwards spent 
 a year at Brathay Vicarage, Ambleside, reading 
 with the Rev. C. Hodgson ; from thence to Cam- 
 bridge, where he matriculated at Trinity College in 
 1845. The close of his boy-life was marked by 
 two events : the death of his father and of his young 
 brother, both in the same year, could not fail to 
 have a lasting impression on the mind of one so 
 sensitive as the youthful poet, and may have tended 
 to give that sub-melancholy colouring to his 
 character which continued through life. 
 
 At Cambridge he came into contact with men 
 of very different calibre from those of St. John's, 
 Bedford Row. The conversation to which he now 
 listened, or in which he bore a part, was not so 
 much upon "the little horn," or "the mark of the 
 beast," as upon those great questions concerning 
 the Church and Society which were then engrossing 
 the minds of the leaders of thought in both Uni- 
 versities. Now it was that he made the acquaintance, 
 amongst others, of Henry Bradshaw and Dr. Hort, 
 and his lifelong friendship with these eminent 
 scholars dates from this period. Now also it was that 
 he came under the influence of Frederick Denison 
 Maurice. In a letter written many years after- 
 wards he writes, looking back on his College days, 
 " I was first attracted by one or two of his pamph- 
 lets ; then I fagged on at The Kingdom of Christ \ 
 but did not get as much out of it as I ought at the 
 first time, probably because I was miserably ignor- 
 ant of theology, and only had got up stock formulae 
 of evangelicalism, which I had to produce in 
 
22 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 themes for a private tutor. But I think the books 
 that helped me most at first were Maurice's Lords 
 Prayer, Prayer Book, and The Church a Family'' 
 He goes on to say, " after three or four of his books 
 you will be accustomed to his peculiarities, the 
 strangey?tf.r/zy of deep insight, the reverent hesitation 
 and fear of misstatements which makes people call 
 him hazy ; and his worst fault in the eyes of the 
 common herd of readers is, that he refuses to tell 
 you what your opinion is to be, but will have you 
 think about a question, and generally leaves you 
 with the impression that you have been talking 
 nonsense very positively in all you have hitherto 
 said about it." And here let me state once for all 
 what I believe to have been the tone and colour of 
 his Churchmanship. No one of the three great 
 schools of religious conviction could claim John 
 Ellerton as its partisan. He always seemed to me 
 to combine in himself the distinguishing excellency 
 of each the subjective piety of the Evangelical, the 
 objective adoration of the High, the intellectual 
 freedom of the Broad. He has told me he had 
 celebrated with the Revised Liturgy of the Church 
 of Scotland with no less, perhaps greater, satisfac- 
 tion than with the humbler and less primitive ritual 
 of the Anglican Communion. Absolute reality, 
 utter sincerity, always struck me as the governing 
 spirit of his devotion. No ritual was too ornate, 
 provided it was real, founded on the traditions of 
 Catholic antiquity, and embodied the purest princi- 
 ples of worship ; but anything approaching un- 
 reality, sham, show, or mediaeval sentimentalism his 
 soul abhorred. It seemed as though his feelings 
 
BOYHOOD CAMBRIDGE 23 
 
 on this matter were founded on such passages 
 as "The Lord is Great, and cannot worthily be 
 praised ; " " O worship the Lord in the beauty 
 of holiness;" " Glory and honour are in His pre- 
 sence : " " A son honoureth his father, and a servant 
 his master : if then I be a Father where is mine 
 honour ? and if I be a Master, where is my fear ? " 
 
 The records of his college days are, at this 
 distance of time, necessarily scanty and fragment- 
 ary. One, however, who was his contemporary, 
 and continued his firm friend through life, 1 in 
 kindly answering my request for some information 
 relating to this period, writes thus : 
 
 u I wish I could give you any help in writing a 
 sketch of our dear friend John Ellerton ; but nearly 
 half a century is a long time to look back, and it 
 is all that since I first knew him at Cambridge. 
 What I most distinctly remember of him is the 
 impression he made on us all at a small literary 
 society got together chiefly by Hort and himself, 
 which we called, somewhat ambitiously, The Attic 
 Society. We met at each other's rooms, and read 
 original papers, I think on any subject we chose 
 individually. Ellerton charmed us all by his poetic 
 taste, and his contributions (sometimes original, 
 and sometimes translations from classic authors) 
 were rendered still more striking by the fine, deep, 
 emotional tone in which he read them to us. I 
 think he delayed taking his degree through deli- 
 cate health, which obliged him to go down for a 
 year, so that his intercourse with us was somewhat 
 broken. I do not think he took much interest in 
 1 The Rev. Gerald Blunt, Rector of Chelsea. 
 
24 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 the ordinary out-door life of the University, but in 
 all subjects of the highest kind he had a wide and 
 extensive knowledge, and felt the keenest attraction. 
 He was then, as ever afterwards, one of the best 
 and noblest specimens of what a fine and pure 
 Evangelical training can produce when it widened 
 out into the more excellent way of Maurician High 
 Churchism." 
 
 While an Undergraduate at Trinity he made his 
 first public essay as a poet in competing for the 
 Chancellor's Medal for an English poem on The 
 Death of Baldur. His effort gained the honourable 
 distinction of proxime accessit ; and it displays, 
 besides a considerable acquaintance with northern 
 mythology, unmistakable indications of a high 
 poetic gift. Unfortunately an attack of small-pox 
 prevented his going in for the Honour Examination, 
 and he was obliged to pass with an aegrotat degree ; 
 after taking this in 1849 ne spent a year in Scot- 
 land engaged in tutoring and reading for Holy 
 Orders. Doubtless he would gladly have passed 
 this time at one of the Theological Colleges which 
 had already begun to spring up in some dioceses. 
 At Chichester, for example, which had been founded 
 by Bishop Otter in 1839, and at this time was 
 presided over by Philip Freeman, he might have 
 received much useful guidance and assistance pre- 
 paratory to his entering the diocese as a curate. 
 For it was in Sussex that he received the title for 
 his first curacy, and in the Cathedral Church of 
 Chichester that he was ordained Deacon by Bishop 
 Gilbert on St. Matthias' Day, February 24, 1850. 
 
THE DEATH OF BALDUR, 
 
 WRITTEN FOR THE CHANCELLOR'S MEDAL, 
 1848. 
 
 Kat G IV CHJ)VKTOl(fl 
 
 ro\fia o , ou yap 
 K\aiiov TOVQ 
 
 Eurip. Alcest. 983. 
 
 Thee too in her hands irrefugable 
 
 Bonds the Power hath clutcht : 
 
 Yet endure ; for not ever shalt thou draw thee from Below 
 
 Upward, by weeping, the perished. 
 
 THE PERSONS. 
 Odin. 
 
 Frigga, his Queen. 
 Thor. v 
 
 Baldur. ^Children of Odin. 
 
 Loki, the evil principle. J 
 
 The ^Esir, or Gods, generally spoken of as sons of Odin. 
 Bragi, the Bard. 
 Freya, the Queen of Love. 
 Niord, the Sea God. 
 Hel, or Hela, the Sovereign of Niflheira the Death Kingdom, 
 
 daughter of Loki. 
 Nanna, wife of Baldur. 
 
 Forseti, the Principle of Justice, his Son and Successor. 
 Berserks, retainers of Odin. 
 
 Asgard, the dwelling of the Gods, centre of Earth. 
 Idavoll, the central spot of Asgard. 
 
26 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 THE DEATH OF BALDUR. 
 
 LIST to a Norland lay, which many a time 
 To some bluff sea-king by his Yuletide fire 
 The Skalds have sung ; which liveth yet for us 
 In the fair dreamland of that elder faith. 
 
 There came a woman to the shining gates 
 
 Of Asgard, and to golden Fensalir 
 
 The hall of Frigga. Frigga sate alone, 
 
 A wan sad smile upon her face, like that 
 
 A sungleam from a clouding sky lights up 
 
 On some dark water ; for her thoughts were far 
 
 In deeps of time to come. But she was ware 
 
 Of a low footfall, and downlooking then 
 
 Slowly the pale light died from off her brow. 
 
 She saw her kneeling at her feet a crone 
 
 Wrinkled and cripple, and bowed down with years. 
 
 Then asked of her the Queen of Gods and men 
 
 " Whence comest thou ? A messenger from where 
 
 The mighty Gods are met ? Say, knowest thou 
 
 Their pastime there ? " Answered that beldame gray, 
 
 " Mother and Queen of ^Esir, I am come 
 
 From thence, in sooth, much marveling ; for all 
 
 The Gods are gathered there, and Baldur stands 
 
 Over against them ; stones and spears at him 
 
 They cast, and o'er him glancing broadswords flash, 
 
 And arrows hurtle round about his hair 
 
 Yet lo, he standeth scatheless. I am come 
 
 To rede thee of this marvel ; for both here 
 
 In Asgard, and in all the girdling worlds 
 
 Great sorrow were it, bale for evermore, 
 
 If ill should chance to Baldur." " Fear it not," 
 
 Quoth Frigga, "all for love and gladsome sport 
 
 They smite him as thou seest : fear it not ; 
 
 I tell thee nought there is in earth or heaven 
 
 Can work him hurt ; for I have bound them all 
 
 With a great oath." " And have then all things sworn ? " 
 
 She askt, and Frigga answered, " Even so, 
 
 For evil dreams had come to him, and fear 
 
THE DEATH OF BALDUR 2? 
 
 Of some strange chance ; whereat I took an oath 
 Of all that is in earth, and sea, and sky, 
 And every world ; of water and of fire, 
 Of stones, and ores in the deep hill-caves hid, 
 Of tree, and beast, and bird, and creeping thing, 
 Yea of all deathsall sickness, poison-drink, 
 Sword-edge and spear-point ; and they sware to me 
 To harm him not. One living thing alone- 
 Men call it mistletoe it groweth east 
 Of Valhall I past by, too young methought 
 To do him hurt ; I laid thereon no ban." 
 She ceased ; and slowly crawled the muttering crone 
 Forth from the hall ; she reached the outmost gate, 
 And lo ! a change came over her ; at once 
 Snake-like, she rose from out her loathly self 
 And cast her weazen slough, and lifted up 
 Her lean face to the sun : no woman now, 
 In fulness of his wicked might he stood 
 Loki the evil one, falsehearted Loki ; 
 And lengthening out his thin lips to a smile, 
 Past forth from Fensalir toward the East. 
 
 Fair-faced, black-hearted, forth among the trees 
 
 The shadow of whose tops at sunrise falls 
 
 On Valhall gate, he passed ; thence, in his hand 
 
 Swaying the fresh-pluckt mistletoe, he came 
 
 O'er the broad meadow where in stormy sport 
 
 Were gathered gleeful all the mighty Gods. 
 
 Without the border of that ring there stood 
 
 One with broad chest and stout limbs iron-thewed ; 
 
 But dark and sorrowful the face he turned 
 
 To the sweet sunlight. Gently Loki came 
 
 Unto his side, and spake him underbreath, 
 
 "Hodur ! alone, and still ? Thy shaft belike, 
 
 Flies not so true ; or is it that thy love 
 
 Runs shallower than theirs? " He answered sad : 
 
 " I see not him they shoot at ; I am blind, 
 
 Nor wot I whence to take a shaft." " Take this," 
 
 The false one cried " come, let me lay my hand 
 
 On thine, and thou shalt bend the bow ; that all 
 
28 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 May see them lovest Baldur." Hodur bent 
 The bow, for Loki's hand was laid on his ; 
 Hurtled the shaft, and Baldur with a groan 
 Upleaping fell heartstricken, and the life 
 Welled red from his fair breast, and on his eyes 
 The dusk of death came down. 
 
 Tearless and dumb 
 
 The ALsir stood ; none stirred to touch the dead, 
 For a great fear had fallen on them, and each 
 Lookt on the other ; till when one essayed 
 To speak, a wild and mingled wail from all, 
 Of anguish and of wrath together, pealed 
 To the clear sky. And Odin in the midst, 
 Odin the Father both of Gods and men 
 Lookt on his son, and lifted up his voice 
 And wept aloud. Through worlds on worlds it sped 
 That bitter cry ; and all their dwellers heard, 
 And every heart beat thick, and every face 
 Grew pale, and all men shouted, " Woe to us, 
 For some great scathe hath chanced ! " But evil things 
 Were glad ; away along the broad sea rolled 
 The noise of weeping, and with stormy joy 
 Writhed the Great Worldsnake in its green depths coiled; 
 The fettered wolf leapt up ; and down afar 
 Wan Hela laught, and knew a nobler guest 
 Hied him to wassail in her dreary hall. 
 
 A voice of wail in Asgard ! And it came 
 
 Into the ears of Frigga, where she sat, 
 
 And woke her, as the stormburst waketh up 
 
 A sleeper by the shore. She knew the time, 
 
 The evil time, was come ; uprising slow 
 
 She came where Odin yet and all the Gods 
 
 Were gathered weeping round about the dead. 
 
 Tearful she stood, and spake, " Who is there here 
 
 Among the ALsir that would win himself 
 
 Goodwill and love from Frigga ? Let him go 
 
 Down to the gates of Hel, and speak for us, 
 
 And bid a ransom, that we may have back 
 
 The Bright One home to Asgard." Then stept forth 
 
THE DEATH OF BALDUR 29 
 
 Hermodur, Odin's page, the fleet of foot, 
 
 And kneeling took her errand on himself. 
 
 So led they thither Sleipnir, the great horse 
 
 Whom Odin rideth mortal hoof is none 
 
 May tramp like that gray steed's and to the selle 
 
 Clomb brisk Hermodur, and fared down the dale 
 
 Where Hel's road lieth. 
 
 Then beside the shore 
 
 Bare they the dead, to where his long black ship 
 Lay, keel in sand. And sorrowful there came 
 The dwellers in all worlds : came Odin first, 
 With his twin Ravens, and those Maidens stern 
 The Choosers of the Slain whose stormy joy 
 Is from the stun of foughten fields to fetch 
 Brave souls to Valhall ; Frigga by his side 
 Came, and the Queen of Love, whose fire-eyed cats 
 Bare her fleet car ; came the grim War-god Tyr, 
 And mighty Freyr in his boar-chariot ; came 
 Bragi the Wise, and holy Forseti, 
 Gerda, and Fulla with the long fair locks, 
 And Niord, the stout old Sea-king ; and the bright 
 Heimdall, Heaven's warder, who all noise of life 
 Hears, and his keen eyes look into all worlds. 
 From their drear kingdom Giants of the Rime 
 And dark Hill-ogres came ; came sunny Elves 
 Of light, and blear-eyed Dwarves, that with lean limbs 
 Crouch night and day among red heaps of ore 
 In the deep bosom of the trackless fells ; 
 And doughty Berserks, biters of the shield 
 In their strong madness, when the fight is high. 
 The pile was builded now ; and with the rest 
 Wan-faced and nigh to swooning, Nanna stood, 
 Nanna, dead Baldur's wife ; and round her all 
 Her sisters thronged with broken words of cheer, 
 And eyes of pity. Dumbly she the while 
 Beheld until they bore him to the place 
 Of burning ; then her full heart burst, and with 
 A shriek that shivered in their blood, she fell 
 Dead on dead Baldur. 
 
30 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 Side by side they laid 
 
 Those two upon the wood, and Baldur's horse 
 With all his gear they bound unto the pile. 
 Then Thor stood up, and lifted his strong hand, 
 And that Great Hammer with its lightning stroke 
 Crashed on the wood. 
 
 A pillar of tall smoke ! 
 
 And redder now and now a blaze, whose gleam 
 Flashed fitful on their sleeping foreheads calm ! 
 Seaward the slow tide ebbing drifted now 
 The bark, and freshly blew the sunset breeze 
 From off the shore, as each broad-bosomed wave 
 Lifted the black hull toward the harbour mouth 
 And caught the flush of fire. And darkness crept 
 Over the great deep like a shroud, till all 
 The host of faces on the peopled shore 
 Shone in the firelight, and its ruddier glow 
 Blurred the white stars from out the glooming heaven. 
 
 And bravely sped gray Sleipnir ; for he leapt 
 
 Over the gates of Hel, and in her hall 
 
 Hermodur stood, and all unflinching there 
 
 Looked on her deathly face, and bade her ask 
 
 A ransom. " Do the ^Esir wail their dead ? " 
 
 Quoth Loki's daughter ; " Nay, let all things weep 
 
 In every world, and I will send him back." 
 
 " Let all things weep for Baldur " : Odin gave 
 
 The word, and all around, from Idavoll 
 
 To the drear Icefells, pealed the bitter cry. 
 
 " Let all things weep for Baldur " : and behold 
 
 From all the corners of the peopled earth 
 
 Tears and great wailing like a cloud uprose. 
 
 Onward from land to land the Berserks sped 
 
 With Odin's bidding, and from land to land 
 
 The noise of weeping followed after them ; 
 
 But lo ! they found within a black hill-cleft 
 
 With tearless eyes, unmerciful, a crone 
 
 Wrinkled and cripple, and bowed down with years. 
 
THE DEATH OF BALDUR 31 
 
 Fiercely she laughed and gave them back the word, 
 " Dry are the tears I weep for Frigga's son ; 
 Hel hold her own ! " Ah, well, I ween, they wist 
 Falsehearted Loki so had answered them ! 
 Slowly, their bootless errand sped, they came 
 Back once again to Asgard ; wrathful words 
 And stormy cries their meed. But Frigga shewed 
 Her wan face in the midst, and bidding " Peace," 
 Slowly with calm lips spake the hidden weird - 
 
 " Weep on, for we have lost him ; nevermore 
 The sunshine of his smile shall lighten up 
 Asgard for us. But unto us, not him, 
 The hurt is. Not for ever must we dwell 
 In this our kingdom, but the Sons of Fire 
 Must quell us, and the Evil Ones be strong, 
 Till we and they have fallen. Then once again, 
 Scathless and bright, shall Baldur fare from Hel, 
 And here for ever under a clear sky 
 Talk of old tales, and all these baleful times, 
 As of a troublous dream long past away." 
 
 " As then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that 
 was born after the Spirit, even so it is now" 
 
CHAPTER II 
 18501872 
 
 EASEBOURNE BRIGHTON CREWE GREEN 
 
 MR. ELLERTON'S ministerial life began in the 
 little village of Easebourne, now a suburb of Mid- 
 hurst in Sussex, best known from the stately wreck 
 of Cowdray House which stands in the parish, and 
 from the oaks of immeasurable age, the wonder of 
 visitors from all parts of the world, which still sur- 
 vive in the park. In this quiet and beautiful spot 
 he spent three happy years with his mother, com- 
 bining faithful parochial work with diligent study. 
 Here he surrounded himself with his favourite 
 authors, Plato, Clough, Kingsley, and above all, 
 Maurice. Maurice's influence was, as we have 
 already seen, a powerful factor in the education 
 and development of his mind ; and if, on the one 
 hand, it convinced him of the unsatisfactory char- 
 acter of the " Evangelical " school, on the other it 
 acted as a caution against the extremes of the 
 opposite party. Perhaps at this period, and in the 
 fervour of his admiration of Maurice, he may have 
 felt strong inclination towards the school so ably 
 championed by Arnold, Stanley, Kingsley, and 
 Maurice ; but later on, as we have seen, he was 
 
 32 
 
EASEBOURNE BRIGHTON CREWE GREEN 33 
 
 content to take the middle current of Churchman- 
 ship of which Samuel Wilberforce, Richard Chenevix 
 Trench, and Edward Meyrick Goulburn were 
 among the great leaders. At this time, too, the 
 condition of the poor and the education of the 
 labouring classes greatly occupied his thoughts, 
 and though with the co-operation of his mother 
 he started a night-school at Easebourne, it was not 
 until he became a vicar, and could work with un- 
 fettered hands, that he was able to put his long 
 cherished ideas into execution. 
 
 On Trinity Sunday, 1851, John Ellerton was 
 ordained priest in Chichester Cathedral by Bishop 
 Gilbert, and two years afterwards was promoted, 
 upon the recommendation of his bishop and Arch- 
 deacon Julius Hare, to the senior curacy of St. 
 Nicholas, then the parish church of Brighton, 
 receiving at the same time the appointment of 
 Evening Lecturer at St. Peter's, now the parish 
 church. For St. Nicholas he always retained a 
 strong affection, and left his mark upon it, for it 
 was at his suggestion, made at a later time, that 
 the scheme of the windows all round the church, 
 with their couplets from Latin hymns, was carried 
 out. For the children of this parish his earliest 
 hymns were composed ; while so lately as 1882 he 
 wrote the fine hymn, " Praise our God for all the 
 wonders," for the Dedication Festival of the church. 
 When a Mission in which he took part was held 
 in Brighton in 1890, it was touching to see how 
 the poor old people flocked to see and hear him 
 once more : they had not forgotten him, though 
 it must have been nearly thirty years since he had 
 
 C 
 
34 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 left the parish ; a striking proof of how he had 
 won their hearts when ministering among them. 
 His vicar, the Rev. H. M. Wagner, was a notable 
 man in his way, but is remembered not so much 
 for his unceasing labours for the good of the vast 
 population of Brighton, as for his unhappy con- 
 troversy with Frederick Robertson, incumbent of 
 Trinity Chapel. As was natural, and in accordance 
 with the loyalty of his nature, the young curate of 
 St. Nicholas tried to regard his vicar's conduct in 
 the matter in as favourable a light as possible, and 
 in after years maintained that Mr. Wagner's line 
 of action was not unkind, but misunderstood by 
 Robertson, owing to the over-excitement of his 
 brain. 
 
 It was while curate of Brighton that John Eller- 
 ton began to try his wings as an author. His first 
 flights, though short, were successful. In conjunc- 
 tion with the Rev. George Wagner, nephew of the 
 vicar, and incumbent of St. Stephen's Church, he 
 drew up a little manual of Prayers for School- 
 masters and Teachers. Now too it was that he 
 made his first essay as a writer of hymns. For 
 the Brighton National School he compiled a small 
 hymnal entitled, Hymns for Schools and Bible 
 Classes, which, besides containing four translations 
 by Dr. Hort, introduced four original compositions 
 of his own. These were 
 
 1. "Day by day we magnify Thee." 1855. A 
 morning hymn for school children. 
 
 2. "The hours of school are over." 1 1858. 
 Companion to the foregoing ; for evening. 
 
 1 Children's Hymn-book, 580, " The hours of day are over. ' 
 
EASEBOURNE BRIGHTON CREWE GREEN 35 
 
 3. " Now returns the awful morning." l Re-written 
 1858. For Good Friday. Founded on a hymn by 
 Joseph Anstice. Largely altered for Church Hymns, 
 1870. 
 
 4. "God of the living, in Whose eyes." 1859. 
 Re-written and considerably enlarged and improved 
 in Hymns Original and Translated, where it is 
 dated July 6, 1867. This is one of the hymns 
 sung at his funeral. 
 
 Although these early hymns can hardly be ex- 
 pected to attain to the high standard of those of 
 later years, they are not deficient in those charac- 
 teristics which distinguish the author's noblest 
 compositions. They are not, what so many of our 
 mis-called hymns are, merely prayers put into 
 metrical form ; they breathe the same devout spirit 
 of thanksgiving, hope, and love, are conspicuous 
 for the same absence of self-consciousness which 
 we observe in his best ; and especially is it to be 
 noted that, with exception of the one for Good 
 Friday, they are addressed not to the Second 
 Person of the Holy Trinity, but to the First. 
 Bishop Christopher Wordsworth's canon that " the 
 songs of the Church ought to be addressed to the 
 Lord" enforced, strangely enough, by a text which 
 tells strongly against his own dictum, he always 
 dissented from emphatically " Whatsoever ye do, 
 in word or deed, do all in the Name of the Lord 
 Jesus, giving thanks to GOD AND THE FATHER by 
 Him." Miscellanies, ii. 236. 
 
 Mr. Ellerton held the senior curacy of Brighton, 
 together with his Evening Lectureship at St. 
 1 Church Hymns, 120. 
 
36 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 Peter's, till 1860, when he was presented by Lord 
 Crewe to the Vicarage of Crewe Green, Cheshire ; 
 and on May iQth in the same year he was married 
 at St. Nicholas to Charlotte Alicia, daughter of 
 William Hart, Esq., of Brighton. 1 
 
 About a mile from the busy station of Crewe, 
 famous for its extensive iron and steel works in 
 connection with the London and North- Western 
 Railway, is the village of Crewe Green. Its popu- 
 lation of between four and five hundred consists 
 partly of mechanics employed in the Company's 
 works, and partly of farmers and labourers working 
 for the most part on the estate of Lord Crewe, 
 whose fine mansion, Crewe Hall, stands in the parish. 
 
 In 1859 his lordship erected on the Green a 
 church and school-house for the benefit of his 
 numerous tenants and fellow parishioners. The 
 church, dedicated to St. Michael and All Angels, 
 is remarkable in its way as being one of the very 
 few brick churches, if not the only one, built by 
 Sir Gilbert Scott. Externally red brick is used, 
 and internally that of a lightish yellow; and the 
 building, which is adorned with a small spire, con- 
 sists of nave, chancel, and apse. Over against the 
 church, on the opposite side of the Green, stands 
 the parsonage, at that time a low, rambling house 
 of whitewashed brick, since replaced by a structure, 
 more in accordance with modern ideas. 
 
 The parish, combining many attractions, together 
 
 with difficulties peculiar to itself, difficulties arising 
 
 from the necessity of ministering at once to a 
 
 population of rustics and intelligent mechanics, 
 
 1 She died March 18, 1896. 
 
EASEBOURNE BRIGHTON CREWE GREEN 37 
 
 offered a congenial field of work to the new vicar, 
 who, on accepting the charge, had also been ap- 
 pointed domestic chaplain to Lord Crewe. The 
 charm of his preaching soon began to attract, and 
 many, including University men, and pupils in the 
 Railway works, came to spend their Sundays at 
 Crewe Green, frequently being the guests for the 
 day at the hospitable vicarage. 
 
 In addition to the usual routine of Church work, 
 Mr. Ellerton threw himself with all his accustomed 
 earnestness into every scheme calculated to raise 
 the moral and social tone of the artisans of the 
 Railway works. The following communication, for 
 which I am indebted to W. M. Moorsom, Esq., at 
 that time one of the chief officials in the Crewe 
 works, gives some idea of his great activity, an 
 activity all the more remarkable, because naturally 
 his was rather the meditative, poetic tempe'rament, 
 than that of the energetic man of business. 
 
 Mr. Moorsom writes as follows " In 1864 Mr. 
 Ellerton, then Vicar of Crewe Green, and chaplain 
 to Lord Crewe, was nominated by the Directors 
 of the London and North-Western Railway Com- 
 pany for election upon the council of the Company's 
 Mechanics' Institution at Crewe. His election 
 followed, and within a short time he became 
 Chairman of the Educational Committee. 
 
 " During his connection with the Institution, 
 which lasted until 1872, when he became rector 
 of Hinstock, the Educational Department was 
 entirely re-organized under his auspices, the 
 library re-arranged, and a new catalogue pre- 
 pared. Into this work he threw a large amount 
 
38 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 of zeal and energy, and it was in great measure 
 due to his tact and power of winning the confi- 
 dence of those with whom he worked that during 
 this period the Institution became, with one excep- 
 tion, the largest in the northern counties, and 
 probably the most successful, educationally, in 
 England. 
 
 ''But his labours were not confined to adminis- 
 tration. During several years he conducted the 
 class in English History, and for a short time the 
 Scripture History class also, with a widening of 
 the interest of the members of these classes which 
 was very marked and most encouraging to those 
 (thirty years ago a mere handful) who regarded 
 the ' education of our masters ' as a requirement 
 vital to the nation. 
 
 " The unwearied patience with which night after 
 night he would trudge into dirty, black, smoky 
 Crewe, bringing with him an air of wide-reaching 
 interests and warm sympathy for the toiling masses, 
 made a deep impression ; and he gradually won 
 his way into the hearts of large numbers of the 
 artisans, to whom such a character was somewhat 
 novel. The writer has frequently heard expressions 
 of wonder from onlookers, themselves artisans 
 ' What it could be that led Mr. Ellerton to take so 
 much trouble to teach the lads from whom he had 
 nothing to expect in return, and who were not 
 worth the expenditure of time so valuable in other 
 directions as his was known to be.' Among those 
 mechanics who were themselves inspired by the 
 same zeal, this self-devotion caused him to be 
 greatly loved and honoured with a love and honour 
 
EASEBOURNE BRIGHTON CREWE GREEN 39 
 
 which deepened and extended as the years went 
 on. There were but few capable of appropriating 
 the ideas he set before them on history, poetry, or 
 Scripture exegesis, but all could see that he was 
 working without thought of reward, and many 
 were fascinated by the beauty of such an example 
 of self-devotion. 
 
 "During these years numerous were the dis- 
 agreements which arose among the Council, leading 
 to disputes, to compose which needed a weighty 
 and judicious leader, in which capacity Mr. Ellerton 
 was pre-eminent. He possessed the faculty of 
 never perceiving a rudeness directed against him" 
 self; and after an acrimonious wrangle, in which 
 nearly every one present had been either insulted 
 or the insulter, or both, a few quiet words from 
 him would calm the tempest, and lead the Council 
 back to business." 
 
 But if it is the duty of the parish priest to 
 take the lead in all matters concerning the welfare 
 spiritual, intellectual, and temporal of his flock, it 
 is no less his duty to " banish and drive away all 
 erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's 
 word." How ably Mr. Ellerton kept this portion 
 of his ordination vow, and defended the faith 
 against the teaching of a strange preacher who 
 came to Crewe to exhort his hearers to free them- 
 selves from " the bondage of creeds," the following 
 paper will show. It is as remarkable for the 
 courtesy with which he treats his opponent as for 
 the firmness and dignity with which he holds his 
 own position, or rather that of the Church he 
 represented. 
 
40 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 THE BONDAGE OF CREEDS 
 
 THOUGHTS ON MR. G 'S ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 INHABITANTS OF CREWE. 
 
 " I HAVE been asked by a friend to say what I 
 think about an address recently printed by the 
 
 Rev. Mr. G , explanatory of his own religious 
 
 position, and offering its advantages to others. 
 
 Mr. G does not profess to address himself to 
 
 those belonging to other Churches ; and therefore 
 it may seem unfair, or at least needless, for the 
 minister of another Church to notice his address. 
 My plea for doing so is that it has been widely 
 circulated and much talked about in this neigh- 
 bourhood, and that it touches upon certain im- 
 portant questions which it is quite possible to 
 discuss, apart from those which definitely denote 
 his religious position. I have neither the right nor 
 the wish to criticize his specific teaching. I trust 
 that he may be privileged to open to the love of 
 God many a heart now closed against its influences ; 
 and to witness to the Divine Fatherhood in the 
 consciences of many who have never yet realized 
 that first and deepest of all truths. With regard 
 to other, and, as I hold, co-ordinate truths, we 
 must be content to part company until the time 
 when all shall be made clear. 
 
 " I am only concerned with the language which 
 
 Mr. G holds on the subject of Creeds. ' We 
 
 are not bound together by a Creed ; ' c Christianity 
 does not depend on a Creed ; ' ' The followers of 
 
EASEBOURNE BRIGHTON CREWE GREEN 4! 
 
 Jesus are not to be known by their belief in a 
 Creed.' Now this word Creed is a hard, ugly- 
 sounding word, and carries with it a kind of savour 
 of * damnatory clauses ' and trials for heresy. It is 
 very easy by thus reiterating it to make it appear 
 important and terrible. Yet after all it is a very 
 simple matter. A Creed means nothing more than 
 a form of words in which people express their 
 
 religious belief. It is odd that Mr. G does 
 
 not see that he himself cannot advance one step in 
 explaining himself to the world without a Creed. 
 In his very first sentence he says, ' I desire for 
 myself, and for the congregation I represent, to 
 place before you a statement of the views we hold! 
 Exactly so ; this statement of the views he and 
 his congregation hold is precisely what we mean 
 by a Creed. We could not have desired a better 
 definition of the word. In my congregation the 
 Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed are 'state- 
 ments of the views we hold.' But Mr. G goes 
 
 on to give us his Creed ' We are, in religious be- 
 lief, Unitarians.' Observe, he does not say, ' / am,' 
 but ' We arel that is, himself and his congregation. 
 'We accept Christ as our Divine Teacher, the sent 
 of God.' These are the two articles of their Creed. 
 
 "But Mr. G continues, 'We are not bound 
 
 together by a creed/ Now this must mean one of 
 two things; either that the pastor is not bound to 
 keep to the views in this ' statement,' or that the 
 members of his congregation are not bound to 
 hold them. As to the first, it seems strange to put 
 forth a statement of views with one breath, and 
 with the next to say, I don't pledge myself to 
 
42 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 these. However, as a believer in the Catholic 
 
 faith, I should rejoice to think Mr. G did not 
 
 feel himself bound by this statement. Only I 
 cannot be blind to the fact that the Unitarian 
 community is an organized body, with recognized 
 leaders, and a central congress or conference ; and 
 I question whether our friend would be able to 
 retain his present position were he to see reason to 
 modify the views he here states to us. In fact, I 
 doubt whether he is in reality less bound by his 
 creed than I am by mine. Were he to cease to be 
 an Unitarian, he would have to seek some other 
 sphere of labour ; so should I, were I to cease to 
 be ' Catholic/ in the sense in which the Athanasian 
 Creed uses the word. 
 
 " But what Mr. G doubtless means is, that 
 
 his Creed does not bind his congregation ; that a 
 man may attend his church regularly without be- 
 lieving as he does ; and since of course this is no 
 more than any one of us may say, he intends, I 
 suppose, to intimate that the full privileges of 
 Church membership, and sacramental communion, 
 are open in his Church to all, whatever their belief. 
 Although, if this be the case, it is not easy to 
 
 specify what that body is of which Mr. G says 
 
 ' We are in religious belief Unitarians ; ' yet the 
 
 general tenor of Mr. G 's address makes it 
 
 clear that this is his great point. This then is the 
 real question between us, the only question which 
 has induced me to take up my pen : is it unfair 
 to require the assent of a religious society to a 
 Creed ? Are Creeds contrary to the spirit of Christ's 
 teaching ? Are they an unreasonable bondage, a 
 
EASEBOURNE BRIGHTON CREWE GREEN 43 
 
 hindrance to free thought ? I sayspeaking for 
 myself and for my own Church distinctly No to 
 all these questions. 
 
 " i. Creeds, /.. public confessions of belief, of 
 ' statements of views/ are not in themselves an 
 unreasonable bondage, or a hindrance to free 
 thought. Of course they may be made so. Many 
 religious communities are over-burdened with tests 
 of membership. Of course, too, it is possible to 
 conceive of ' statements of views ' to which none 
 but a few fanatics could assent. But supposing 
 the views to be not unreasonable in themselves, 
 and supposing them to be entertained by the 
 Church or community at its first constitution, the 
 custom of reciting the statement of them in public 
 implies no unfairness towards new members. Each 
 one who joins the Church hears his neighbours say, 
 ' I believe ' so and so. If he feels he can unite in 
 this, surely it is well for him to be invited to say 
 what he has been brought to believe. But if he 
 cannot, what then ? He is not obliged to retire, he 
 is not constrained to remain. He may listen to 
 the public ministry, he is at full liberty to think 
 and say what he pleases about it, to speak his 
 mind freely, so long as he does not interrupt the 
 common worship. Take the Church of England 
 and its Creeds. The shortest and simplest of them 
 is put in the form of questions to candidates for 
 baptism, and to the Church members who bring 
 their infants for that purpose. But as baptism can 
 scarcely have any meaning at all for persons who 
 do not believe in the alleged facts contained in the 
 Apostles' Creed, its use at such a time is designed 
 
44 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 as an indication that baptism is sought in an in- 
 telligent and reasonable spirit. Beyond this no 
 further test is imposed upon lay members of the 
 Church of England. The only grounds upon which 
 our Prayer-book allows a priest to refuse the other 
 sacrament to members of the Church are 'open 
 and notorious ' immorality, and open, wilful enmity 
 towards a neighbour. The ministry themselves, it 
 is true, are bound by other tests of belief ; but so 
 are the ministers of every community, including, I 
 
 suspect, Mr. G J s own. And as to freedom of 
 
 thought, if that does not exist in the Church of 
 England, the world must be greatly mistaken. 
 Why, it is the constant reproach of all the 
 bigots around us, Romanist and Protestant alike, 
 that we are so provokingly lax, that we will 
 persist in tolerating, with shameless impartiality, 
 Ritualist, Rationalist, Calvinist, thinkers who in 
 no other Church on earth could find a common 
 home. 
 
 " 2. Again, a Creed is not contrary to the spirit 
 of Christianity. Mr. G - prints in capital letters 
 the assertion that Christianity does not depend 
 on a Creed. If by Christianity he means, what is 
 usually meant by the term, the body of thoughts 
 which Christ and His followers introduced among 
 mankind, all I can reply is that a Creed is the 
 expression more or less imperfect, of course of 
 that body of thought. The Christianity of each 
 man, in this sense, depends upon how much of this 
 thought he has really and practically taken in, and 
 made his own. The Creed he adopts is simply an 
 idea of this of his level of Christian thought. It 
 
EASEBOURNE BRIGHTON CREWE GREEN 45 
 
 is surely absurd to maintain that it is contrary to 
 Christianity for a man to say what Christianity 
 appears to him to be ; or for a body of men to 
 agree, so to say. 
 
 " But if Christianity means a life ' made beautiful 
 by Christian virtues/ then while it is plain that 
 there is no necessary connection between the 
 practice of virtue and the expression of belief, yet, 
 on the other hand, there is no opposition between 
 the two. The Sermon on the Mount contains, it 
 is true, no Creed ; but does it imply none ? And 
 why stop at the beginning of Christ's ministry ? 
 Did He not compel the Apostles to confess what 
 they thought of Him ? And when His life on 
 earth was at an end, and those events which are 
 enumerated in what is called the Apostles' Creed 
 had taken place, did any of them ever preach a 
 sermon without making a statement of what they 
 believed respecting these events ? 
 
 " Most cordially do I join Mr. G in proclaim- 
 ing 'the right of every man to think for himself;' 
 only I would rather call it the duty. God forbid 
 that I should dictate to any man what he is to be- 
 lieve, if that dictating implies that he is to believe it 
 because I tell him so. The first Christian teachers 
 declared that by manifestation of the truth they 
 commended themselves to every man's conscience. 
 I desire no more. But if it be truth indeed that 
 a man receives in his conscience, that truth will 
 make him free. To acknowledge it may be a bond 
 of unity, it can never be a bondage to him. Even 
 
 Mr. G 's two articles of religion separate him 
 
 from some of his fellowmen. But would he love 
 
46 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 his neighbour the better if he did not in any way 
 define his belief? I think not. Even to say, 
 ' God is your Father, Christ is sent from God,' 
 is better than to say, My friends, I am sure of 
 nothing ; I have nothing to tell you from God. 
 
 "JOHN ELLERTON." 
 
 It is not, however, with John Ellerton as a parish 
 priest but as a poet that we have mainly to do in 
 this short sketch of his life. It was at Crewe Green 
 that the foundation of his fame as a writer of hymns 
 was laid ; not that he had not exercised his wonder- 
 ful poetical talent prior to his removal into Cheshire, 
 for, as we have seen, he had already published a few 
 while curate of Brighton. The first in order of time 
 belonging to this period seems to be, " Sing Alleluia 
 forth in duteous praise," 1865, or "The Endless 
 Alleluia," first published in the Churchman's Family 
 Magazine for April 1865, and revised for the Ap- 
 pendix to Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1868. The 
 original Latin is in the Mozarabic Breviary, and 
 was used also in the Church of England before the 
 Norman Conquest. The epithet endless is thus 
 explained by the translator " Alleluia was discon- 
 tinued from Septuagesima (or from Lent) to Easter, 
 hence the contrast here between the interrupted 
 Alleluias of earth and the endless ($erenne = 
 continuous) Alleluia of heaven." J As it appeared 
 in the Appendix, the first verse ran 
 
 " Sing Alleluia forth in duteous praise, 
 O citizens of heaven ; and sweetly raise 
 
 An endless Alleluia." 
 
 1 Notes and Illustrations to Church Hymns^ No. 497. 
 
EASEBOURNE BRIGHTON CREWE GREEN 47 
 
 This was altered by the Appendix Committee to 
 
 " Sing Alleluia forth in duteous praise, 
 Ye citizens of heaven ; O sweetly raise 
 
 An endless Alleluia.' 
 
 In his letter suggesting the alterations Sir Henry 
 Baker writes, " I have little doubt of our idea of the 
 hymn being right. It ought to be sung just before 
 Lent (Septuagesima), as the Church on earth leaves 
 off for a time Alleluia. Ye citizens of heaven (she 
 exclaims), sing the unceasing Alleluia ; ye who 
 stand near the Eternal Light, go on singing still 
 henceforth hinc onwards from this time, though 
 we on earth cease awhile the endless, never-ceasing 
 Alleluia. The ' Holy City ' below will take up 
 your strain again (i. e. at Easter), and sing the 
 endless Alleluia again with you. The rest of the 
 hymn is the Church delighting (as so many hymns 
 at that season do) in the praise of and thought of 
 the Alleluia which never ceases above." 
 
 " Saviour, again to Thy dear Name we raise." 
 This, one of the author's sweetest and most favourite 
 hymns, was originally written in 1866 for a Festival 
 of Parochial Choirs at Nantwich ; he revised and 
 abridged it for the Appendix to Hymns Ancient 
 and Modern in 1868. Both forms are given in 
 Hymns Original and Translated. By its condensa- 
 tion into four verses its spirit and power are wonder- 
 fully increased, and now it ranks with Bishop Ken's 
 " Glory to Thee, my God, this night," Keble's " Sun 
 of my soul, Thou Saviour dear," and Lyte's " Abide 
 with me ; fast falls the eventide," as one of the 
 great evening hymns of the English Church. 
 
48 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 Beautiful as is Dr. Dyke's melody " Pax Dei " 
 in Hymns Ancient and Modern, Mr. Ellerton once 
 told me he himself preferred the less known tune in 
 A flat for unison singing, with its varied harmonies, 
 by Dr. Edward J. Hopkins, Organist of the Temple 
 Church. The last verse formed the third hymn at 
 his funeral. 
 
 Three very beautiful hymns were written in 
 1867 
 
 1. "Father, in Thy glorious dwelling," not in- 
 cluded, strange to say, either in Church Hymns or 
 Hymns A ncient and Modern. 
 
 2. " This is the day of light," which first appeared 
 in the Selection of Hymns Compiled for use in CJiester 
 Cathedral, 1868. 
 
 3. " Our day of praise is done," written for a 
 Choral Festival at Nantwich, and recast in 1 869 for 
 the Supplemental Hymn and Tune-Book, by the Rev. 
 R. Brown-Borthwick. 1 
 
 It was a saying of John Wesley's, that the 
 appearance of a new first-class hymn was as rare as 
 that of a comet ; but now the production one after 
 another of hymns of the highest excellence began 
 to attract the attention of lovers of sacred song ; the 
 reproach implied in Wesley's words was taken 
 away, and the Vicar of Crewe Green was soon 
 recognized as standing in the very front rank of 
 Church poets, not only as an original writer but also 
 as a translator. In 1868 four translations were 
 made 
 
 I. " On this the day when days began," from 
 Primo dierum omnium, one of the eight hymns 
 1 Notes and Illustrations, No. 42. 
 
EASEBOURNE BRIGHTON CREWE GREEN 49 
 
 which the Benedictine editors assign to St. Gregory 
 the Great l (540604). It had been translated by 
 Dr. Neale, Sir Henry W. Baker (Hymns Ancient 
 and Modern), J. Keble, and several others. 
 
 2. " Jesu most pitiful." Jesu dulcissime ; a very 
 beautiful, albeit late Latin hymn, probably not 
 earlier than 1650. This translation first appears 
 together with so many of the following in the Rev. 
 R. Brown-Borthwick's Sixteen Hymns, 1870. 
 
 3. " Welcome, happy morning ! age to age 
 shall say." 1868. Writing to his friend, the 
 Rev. Godfrey Thring, about Salve Festa Dies, the 
 original of this hymn, Mr. Ellerton says, " I am 
 rather proud of my little translation of it, be- 
 cause it has a swing about it, I think, and goes well 
 to Brown-Borthwick's tune, 2 not so stiffly as many 
 translations ; and yet I hope it is fairly accurate* 
 
 " There is an Ascension-day Salve Festa, as also 
 one for Corpus Christi, one for Pentecost, and one 
 for the Dedication of a Church ; but these are all 
 imitations of the original hymn, and all from the 
 York Processional. The hymn itself is an extract 
 from the seventh poem of the Third Book of 
 Venantius Fortunatus; its title is 'De Resurrectione 
 Domini. Ad Felicem Episcopum.' It contains one 
 hundred and twelve lines of elegiac verse. Different 
 centos were used in different books, i. e. some verses 
 were in the York book which were not in the Sarum, 
 etc. The verses I have translated are the chief part 
 of those given in Daniel, from two or three books 
 put together. Fortunatus was born about 530, and 
 
 1 Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology* 
 
 2 The second to which it is set in Church Hymns,. 
 
 D 
 
$0 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 died Bishop of Poictiers about 609. There is con- 
 siderable interest connected with this hymn from its 
 widespread use. It was early translated into 
 German by an English monk of Sarum, 1 and was 
 sung by Jerome of Prague at the stake. In 
 Latimer's sixth Sermon before Edward VI. he 
 says, ' They (the Puritans) must sing Salve festa 
 dies about the Church, that no man was the better 
 for it, but to shew their gay coats and garments.' 
 But most interesting of all is a letter from Cranmer 
 to Henry VIII. from Beakesbourne, October 7, 
 1544, about publishing an English Processional, 
 some translated, some original, by Royal authority. 
 In this letter he speaks of Salve festa dies as one 
 to be included, and says, ' As concerning the Salve 
 festa dies, the Latin note, as I think, is sober and 
 distinct enough ; wherefore I have travailed to 
 make the verses in English, and have put the Latin 
 note unto the same. Nevertheless, they that be 
 cunning in singing can make a much more solemn 
 note thereto. I made them only for a proof, to see 
 how English would do in song.' I wish we had 
 Cranmer's version, as a curiosity, for it would 
 probably be unsingable ; but it would appear from 
 this letter that this was the first Church hymn ever 
 translated from Latin directly into English. 
 Coverdale had previously translated from the 
 German several of Luther's spiritual songs, some 
 of which were free versions of Latin hymns." In a 
 
 1 Mr. Mearns tells me this is an error. The monk was a 
 Benedictine called Johannes of Salzburg. His translation 
 was made in 1366 at the request of the Archbishop of 
 Salzburg. 
 
EASEBOURNE BRIGHTON CREWE GREEN 51 
 
 postscript he adds, " The ' Latin note ' to which 
 Cranmer refers has been reprinted by Neale and 
 Helmore in Accompanying Harmonies to the 
 Hymnal Noted, 1852, No. 79, p. 249. The music 
 is from the Sarum and York processionals." 
 
 4. " Jesu, Who alone defendest." Jesu Defensor 
 omnium^ a midnight hymn in the Mozarabic 
 Breviary. 1 
 
 The fine Processional for the Restoration of a 
 Church 
 
 5. "Lift the strain of high thanksgiving," was 
 written in 1869 at the request of the late Canon 
 Cooper for the re-opening of St. Helen's Church, 
 Tarporley, Cheshire. 
 
 It seems to be in the very nature of the poetic 
 faculty, whatever particular form that faculty may 
 assume, to have, like an intermittent spring, its 
 seasons of comparative rest varied by bursts of 
 irresistible activity. Such must have been the 
 experience of Handel when, after composing the 
 Messiah in three weeks, he at once followed it up 
 with Samson, and if we knew more than we do 
 of Shakespeare, no doubt we should find that he 
 too had his seasons of special inspiration. The 
 years 1870 and 1871 were a period of marvellous 
 poetic activity with Mr. Ellerton, for in these two 
 years he produced no fewer than twenty-six hymns 
 
 1 The Mozarabic (or Muzarabic) is the old national Liturgy 
 of Spain, and though now almost wholly supplanted by the 
 Roman, which was forced upon the Spanish Church in the 
 tenth and eleventh centuries, is said to be still used in two or 
 three Churches in Toledo, and one in Salamanca. See 
 Hammond's Liturgies Eastern and Western, 
 
52 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 and translations, all good, many of the very highest 
 excellence. In 1870 we find the following ten to 
 have been composed 
 
 1. " O shining city of our God," founded on 
 i John iii. 2, " It doth not yet appear what we shall 
 be." It first appears in Rev. R. Brown-Borthwick's 
 Sixteen Hymns > and was the fifth of the six hymns 
 sung at the author's funeral. 
 
 2. The above hymn was written January 2 1st; 
 on the 25th, only four days after, and published 
 at the same time, it was followed by a hymn 
 of the tenderest beauty for Burial of the Dead, 
 scarcely if at all inferior to " Now the labourer's 
 task is o'er," 
 
 "When the day of toil is done, 
 When the race of life is run, 
 Father, grant Thy wearied one 
 
 Rest for evermore ! " 
 
 This hymn was first sung at the funeral of Mr. 
 Thomas Stubbs, chief manager of the Crewe Rail- 
 way Works, September 25, 1870. The sermon 
 which the Vicar preached on the Sunday following 
 the funeral, and afterwards published, is a touching 
 tribute to the memory of a good and faithful servant. 
 Among many memorable words which it contains 
 the following may well be repeated. Alluding to 
 the early age : at which the deceased was called 
 away, he says " The true measure of the length of 
 a life is not its years but its usefulness." Again, 
 with reference to the comparatively obscure sphere 
 of labour to which many are called " We honour 
 
 1 Thirty-five years. 
 
EASEBOURNE BRIGHTON CREWE GREEN 53 
 
 the soldier who gives his life upon the field, in 
 obedience to the call of duty ; or the sailor who 
 goes down in his sinking ship in giving or in carry- 
 ing out his orders. And surely it is just as heroic, 
 just as honourable, to be found faithful to death in 
 any other service to which a man has been called ; 
 to care more for doing our daily work well, than for 
 doing it easily ; to treat it not merely as a means of 
 getting bread, but as a task which it is a duty to 
 God to do thoroughly, and a sin against God to do 
 carelessly." 
 
 This was the second of the six hymns by the 
 poet sung at his funeral. 
 
 3. " Come forth, O Christian brothers," composed 
 for a Festival of Parochial Choirs at Chester, May 
 1870. 
 
 4. " God the Almighty, in wisdom ordaining," 
 written for a country congregation during the 
 French and German war, 1870, in imitation of 
 " God the all-terrible ! King Who ordainest," 
 attributed to Henry Fothergill Chorley. It is 
 dated August 28, 1870. 
 
 5. "O Thou in Whom Thy saints repose," for 
 the consecration of a burial ground. Written upon 
 the occasion of an addition to the parish church- 
 yard of Tarporley, Cheshire, Nov. 19. 
 
 6. " The Lord be with us as we bend." " Written 
 at the request of a friend, for use at the close of 
 service on Sunday afternoons, when (as in summer) 
 strictly Evening hymns would be unsuitable." l 
 
 7. " The day Thou gavest, Lord, is ended." 
 Contributed to a "Liturgy for Missionary Meetings," 
 
 1 Notes and Illustrations , Hymn 52. 
 
54 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 revised for Church Hymns, the first line borrowed 
 from an anonymous hymn in Church Poetry (1855). 
 
 8. " Behold us, Lord, a little space," for a mid-day 
 service in a city church. 
 
 9. " God, Creator, and Preserver," for times of scar- 
 city and bad harvest; written for The Hymnary (4.70). 
 
 10. " Sing, ye faithful, sing with gladness." The 
 full and authorized form of this noble hymn on the 
 Incarnation is found in Hymns Original and 
 Translated^ and consists of eight stanzas, with the 
 refrain " Evermore and evermore." In Church 
 Hymns (499) it is cut down to five stanzas and the 
 refrain omitted, by which it is considerably shorn of 
 its beauty and spirit. It deserves a fine tune to 
 itself. It is partly an imitation of Da puer 
 plectrum of Prudentius l (b. 348). 
 
 To compose these ten hymns, and at the same 
 time to comply with the incessant demand for 
 sermons, lectures, and addresses of all sorts, made 
 by so busy a place as Crewe, to say nothing of the 
 time spent in visiting and other parochial work, 
 shows a wonderful activity, intellectual and bodily, 
 on the part of the Vicar. He had no curate to 
 take some of the duties off his hands and leave him 
 time for quiet study; everything had to be done by 
 himself, and the united voice of the parish, expressed 
 on his resignation two years after, pronounced that 
 it was done well, thoroughly, and faithfully. 
 
 Still more prolific was the following year (1871), 
 
 1 Poeta eximius eruditissimus et sanctissimus scriptor 
 nemo divinius de rebus Christianis unquam scripsit. Such is 
 Earth's praise of Prudentius, quoted by Archbishop Trench, 
 Sacred Latin Poetry ', p. 119. 
 
EASEBOURNE BRIGHTON CREWE GREEN 55 
 
 producing twelve original hymns and four trans- 
 lations from the Latin, not of course all of equal 
 excellence, but among them some of the very best. 
 The first one, bearing date January 14, is 
 
 1. "King Messiah, long expected." A much- 
 needed hymn for the Circumcision, written for 
 Church Hymns. Hymns Ancient and Modern has 
 only two, and The Hymnary only one for this fes- 
 tival. Bishop Christopher Wordsworth, to supply 
 the want, wrote " Giver of law is God's dear Son," 
 by no means his happiest inspiration. Among these 
 " King Messiah, long expected " shines out as a star 
 of the first magnitude. 
 
 This was followed February 13 by 
 
 2. " Another day begun," for a week-day morning 
 service. 
 
 3. " We sing the glorious conquest," for the 
 Conversion of St. Paul; written Feb. 28, 1871, for 
 Church Hymns, and passed into Hymns Ancient 
 and Modern. 
 
 4. " Father ! Name of love and fear." A Confirm- 
 ation hymn, dated March 18. 
 
 5. " O Son of God, our Captain of salvation." 
 St. Barnabas. Also written for Church Hymns, 
 and incorporated into Hymns Ancient and Modern. 
 Dated April 5, 1871. 
 
 6. " O Lord of life and death, we come." A hymn 
 for time of pestilence ; remarkable for its common- 
 sense and courage in attributing pestilence to what 
 is frequently its true source bad drainage 
 
 " Forgive the foul neglect that brought 
 
 Thy chastening to our door : 
 The homes uncleansed? etc., dated October 20, 
 
56 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 7. " Thou in Whose Name the two or three." For 
 Wednesday. 
 
 8. "King of Saints, to Whom the number." A fine 
 hymn for St. Bartholomew, in the tetrameter 
 trochaic metre of fifteen syllables broken into 
 two parts, a break which Bishop Christopher 
 Wordsworth calls " a serious evil to Hymnology," 
 though why we cannot see. The very probable 
 conjecture that this saint is to be identified with 
 the Nathaniel of the fourth Gospel l is neatly ex- 
 pressed in the third verse 
 
 " Was it he, beneath the fig-tree 
 
 Seen of Thee, and guileless found ; 
 He who saw the Good he long'd for 
 
 Rise from Nazareth's barren ground ; 
 He who met his risen Master 
 
 On the shore of Galilee ; 
 He to whom the word was spoken, 
 
 ' Greater things thou yet shalt see ' ? " 
 
 " None can tell us." 
 
 This favourite hymn, written for Church Hymns^ 
 is also to be found in Hymns Ancient and Modern 
 
 (419). 
 
 9. " Mary at the Master's feet." For Catechizing ; 
 written for Church Hymns. 
 
 We now come to the loveliest and most loved of 
 all Mr. Ellerton's hymns 
 
 10. " Now the labourer's task is o'er." It has 
 been sung, and will continue to be sung, at the 
 grave-side of princes, divines, statesmen, poets, 
 artists, authors, as well as of many a Christian 
 
 1 St. John i. 45 ; xxi. 2 r 
 
EASEBOURNE BRIGHTON CREWE GREEN $? 
 
 labourer in humble life. No hymnal is now deemed 
 complete without it. 
 
 Like the Te Deum, Bishop Ken's Evening 
 Hymn, and many another composition of highest 
 excellence, this hymn contains evidences of pre- 
 existing material. This the author himself points 
 out in his Notes and Illustrations to Church Hymns. 
 " The whole hymn," he says, " especially the third, 
 fifth, and sixth verses, owes many thoughts and 
 some expressions to a beautiful poem of the Rev. 
 Gerard Moultrie's, beginning 'Brother, now thy 
 toils are o'er,' " which will be found in the People's 
 Hymnal, 380. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the popularity of 
 the hymn has been largely increased by the lovely 
 and sympathetic melody " Requiescat," by Dr. 
 Dykes, in Hymns Ancient and Modern, to which 
 it is now exclusively and inseparably united. 
 
 ii. "In the Name which earth and heaven." 
 Processional for the foundation of a Church. The 
 author observes, " A cento from this and ' Lift 
 the strain of high thanksgiving/ was compiled and 
 sung for the first time at the re-opening of the 
 nave of Chester Cathedral, January 25, 1872." 
 
 12. " Praise to our God, whose bounteous hand 
 Prepared of old our glorious land." 
 
 A hymn of national thanksgiving, first printed in 
 Rev. R. Brown- Borthwick's Select Hymns. 
 
 The four translations made this year (1871) are 
 i. "Oh come, all ye faithful, joyful and tri- 
 umphant." Translated from a cento of four stanzas 
 from the favourite Adeste fideles, laeti triumphantes. 
 
58 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 The original poem, the full text of which is 
 given in Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology, contains 
 eight stanzas, but the shortened form is the English 
 use. The author of the article on this hymn in 
 Julian's Dictionary mentions no fewer than thirty- 
 eight renderings a striking proof of its popularity 
 as a Christmas hymn. One aim of Mr. Ellerton's 
 translation appears to be to give as far as possible 
 a syllable to each note of the traditional melody, 
 and its chief peculiarity is his version of the first 
 line of the fourth stanza " Thou, Who didst deign 
 to be born for us this morning," instead of " Yea, 
 Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning," : 
 as it stands in Canon Oakeley's arrangement 
 (Hymns Ancient and Modern}. 
 
 With regard to the authorship and date of this 
 hymn all is uncertainty. Mr. Ellerton's note is 
 " Doubtless not older than the fifteenth century, 
 and not originally written for liturgical use ; " 
 while the writer in Julian's Dictionary says, " Pro- 
 bably it is a hymn of the seventeenth or eighteenth 
 century, and of French or German authorship." 
 If, however, the late Vincent Novello erred not in 
 attributing the traditional melody to John Reading, 
 organist of Winchester Cathedral, 1675 i68i, 2 the 
 hymn may not be later than the seventeenth century. 
 But whensoever or by whomsoever composed the 
 hymn has taken an assured place as emphatically 
 the Christmas Hymn of the Western Church. 
 
 2. "Giver of the perfect gift," Summi largitor 
 praemii, an anonymous Lenten hymn of the ninth 
 
 1 In The Hymnary this last line reads " Born of Virgin 
 Mother," 2 Julian's Dictionary, p. 20, 
 
EASEBOURNE BRIGHTON CREWE GREEN 59 
 
 or tenth (?) century. The Hymns Ancient and 
 Modern rendering, by J. W. Hewett, "O Thou 
 Who dost to man accord," is perhaps better 
 known. 
 
 3. " We sing of Christ's eternal gifts," Aeterna 
 Christi munera, Apostolorum gloriam^ an adaptation 
 for apostles as distinct from martyrs, of the cele- 
 brated Ambrosian hymn, Aeterna Christi munera, 
 Et martyrum victorias. Whether this hymn be 
 St. Ambrose's, to whom the Benedictine editors 
 ascribe it, or not, it is certainly not later than the 
 fifth century. 1 The rendering in Church Hymns 
 is partly that of Dr. Neale, 2 and partly Mr. 
 Ellerton's. The Hymns Ancient and Modern 
 translation is by Dr. Neale. 
 
 4. " To the Name that speaks salvation." Trans- 
 lated from Gloriosi Salvatoris, an anonymous 
 Latin hymn of German origin, possibly of the 
 fifteenth century. There are several translations ; 
 that in Hymns Ancient and Modern is an altered 
 version of Dr. Neale's ; Mr. Ellerton's is adopted 
 in Church Hymns. 
 
 The amazing fertility of Mr. Ellerton's poetic 
 genius during these two years has seldom if ever 
 been surpassed by any sacred writer. Of all 
 species of composition the hymn is one which 
 cannot be hurried, cannot be produced to order 
 like a catalogue or a sermon ; it is the sudden and 
 often unpremeditated inspiration which sweeps 
 
 1 Trench, Sacred Latin Poetry, p. 210. St. Ambrose was. 
 Bishop of Milan, 374 397. 
 
 2 Not of J. D. Chambers, as stated by Mr. Ellerton in his 
 Notes and Illustrations. Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology. 
 
60 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 down upon the singer, it may be at some unexpected 
 moment, never more accurately expressed than by 
 the Psalmist 
 
 " My heart was hot within me ; 
 And while I was thus musing a fire kindled : 
 And at the last I spake with my tongue," l 
 
 1 Ps. xxxix. 4. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 18721876 
 
 HINSTOCK 
 
 ON the main road between the two Shropshire 
 towns of Market Drayton and Newport, the latter 
 on the borders of Staffordshire, lies the village of 
 Hinstock. It nestles among the low smooth hills 
 of the new red sandstone, a fact at once betrayed 
 by the little church as it raises its square tower 
 among the surrounding trees. The building itself, 
 which stands hard by the rectory, on a little raised 
 mound entirely surrounded by the road, possesses 
 no architectural pretensions. 1 Like many churches 
 in Shropshire, it is dedicated to St. Oswald, " that 
 most Christian King of the Northumbrians/ 5 as 
 Bede calls him, who was slain by Penda, king of 
 the Mercians, in the battle of Maserfeld, 2 on August 
 5, 642. The church has to some extent been 
 beautified by a later rector, but in 1872 it was a 
 very plain modern structure with absolutely no 
 chancel. The rectory was a modern red-brick 
 
 1 It was always a matter of regret with Mr. Ellerton that 
 none of his churches, until he came to White Roding, had 
 any architectural interest. 
 
 2 Considered by some to be the former name of Oswestry, 
 before it was re-named after Oswald. 
 
 61 
 
62 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 house, with a lawn extending to the churchyard, 
 a grand old yew-tree standing in the boundary line, 
 as if to guard against any encroachment of the one 
 upon the other. 
 
 A parish so utterly secluded and cut off from 
 the ordinary channels of intercourse with the great 
 centres of life and intellectual activity might afford 
 a fitting sphere of work for a clergyman who would 
 find congenial occupation and relaxation in rural 
 intercourses and pursuits ; but for a man who had 
 achieved renown as a sacred poet, for a preacher 
 and scholar of no ordinary calibre, for one who 
 loved and adorned the society of thinkers and 
 workers to put such a man, in the very prime of 
 life and power, into a parish like this was to consign 
 him to a living grave. 
 
 Yet notwithstanding the many drawbacks and 
 disadvantages arising from the difficulty of access 
 to public libraries, it was here that the greater part 
 of his Magnum opus, the Notes and Illustrations 
 to Church Hymns, published in the folio edition 
 of that work, was written. It was here too that he 
 composed the article " Hymns " in the Dictionary 
 of Christian Antiquities, a piece of writing which, 
 as he told me, cost him many a journey to Cam- 
 bridge. In fact, his work at Hinstock was not so 
 much the composition of hymns as assisting in the 
 compilation of hymnals, and the improving of 
 congregational singing. 
 
 The first of these was, however, by no means 
 dropped. Between the years 1872 and 1876 several 
 original hymns and one translation appeared 
 
 i. " Thou Who once for us uplifted." Written 
 
HINSTOCK 63 
 
 for Canon Cooper, then rector of Tarporley, a 
 small town between Crewe and Chester, as a 
 dedication hymn for the Chapel of Ease of St. 
 John and the Holy Cross, Cote Brook, a hamlet 
 in the parish. It was sung at the laying of the 
 corner-stone, September 13, 1873. 
 
 The hymn as it now appears in Hymns Original 
 and Translated, p. 43, differs somewhat from its 
 early form. The second verse, beginning " In Thy 
 Name, O Lord, we lay it," does not appear, and 
 the third, which owed its special significance to the 
 occasion, is omitted 
 
 " By Thy Cross, that day of sorrow, 
 Stood Thy loved Apostle John, 
 Till he heard the Cry that witnessed 
 
 All Thy mighty labours done ; 
 Till he saw the cruel spear-point 
 Pierce the Breast he leaned upon." 
 
 This is the only hymn bearing the date of 1873. 
 
 2. " Thou Who sentest Thine Apostles." 1874. 
 
 3. "Throned upon the awful Tree." 1875. The 
 grandest of his original compositions. 
 
 4. " Once more Thy Cross before our view." 
 1875. For the evening of Good Friday. 
 
 5. "O Father, all creating." January 29, 1876. 
 A wedding hymn, written at the request of the 
 Duke of Westminster, for the marriage of his 
 daughter, the Lady Elizabeth Harriet Grosvenor, to 
 the Marquis of Ormonde, Feb. 2, 1876. 
 
 6. " Speak Thou to me, O Lord." Entitled " The 
 Voice of God." 1876. 
 
 Two years after his coming to Hinstock, Mr. 
 Ellerton accepted, at the request of Bishop Selwyn, 
 
64 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 the post of Diocesan Inspector for Salop-in-Lich- 
 field. The duties of such an appointment were in 
 every way congenial to his love for children. It 
 was for them that at Brighton his earliest hymns 
 were composed, and his first book was published. 
 
 It was about this time too that, in conjunction 
 with his friend Canon Walsham How, Mr. Ellerton 
 compiled Children's Hymns and School Prayers^ 
 the forerunner of the more important Children's 
 Hymn-Book. This very useful little work consists 
 of School Prayers, Occasional Prayers, and a form 
 for Children's Service, the last being drawn up 
 by Canon How. The hymns (including four 
 appropriate Litanies) are one hundred and fifty- 
 three in number, of which eight are by Mr. Ellerton. 
 Seven had appeared before, but one was now pub- 
 lished for the first time, namely, the very spirited 
 and melodious 
 
 "Again the morn of gladness, 
 The morn of light, is "here." 
 
 With the beautiful refrain 
 
 " Glory be to Jesus, 
 
 Let all His children say ; 
 He rose again, He rose again 
 On this glad day ! " 
 
 though it deserves a tune to itself instead of bor- 
 rowing Wir Pflilgen from " We plough the fields and 
 scatter," to which it is set in the Children s Hymn- 
 Book? It was written in 1874, at the request of his 
 
 1 Published by S. P. C. K. 
 
 ' 2 A hymn and the tune composed for it, provided that 
 each be worthy of the other, so unite them that to separate 
 them and make the tune do double duty is a species of di- 
 
HINSTOCK 65 
 
 friend, the Rev. D. Trinder, Vicar of Teddington, 
 as a processional for Sunday School children on 
 their way to church. 
 
 The translation referred to is "All my heart to 
 Thee I give "(June 3, 1874), from the anonymous 
 Latin hymn Cor meum Tibi dedo. This, however, is 
 for private and devotional use rather than for public 
 worship, a distinction which Mr. Ellerton was al- 
 ways careful to observe. 1 It has been set to music 
 as a sacred song by Dr. John Naylor, organist of 
 York Minster. 
 
 Happily Mr. Ellerton's residence at Hinstock 
 did not last long, only five years, for in 1876, owing, 
 I understand, to the thoughtful kindness of his 
 friend Canon (afterwards Bishop) Lightfoot, he was 
 presented by the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's 
 to the suburban rectory of Barnes, Surrey. 
 
 vorce which we instinctively resent. We feel that the sub- 
 stituted hymn is clad in a garment not made for it, which 
 fits it badly, and which can only be worn gracefully by its 
 rightful owner. 
 
 1 It is interesting, however, to observe how some hymns, 
 written solely for personal and devotional use, have found 
 their way into public worship, e.g. " Abide with me ; fast falls 
 the eventide." " This hymn, written by Mr. Lyte in his last 
 illness, was not intended for use by a congregation, or as an 
 Evening Hymn. The references throughout are to the close, 
 not of the day, but of life." (MS. note by J. E.) 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 1876 1884 
 
 BARNES 
 
 Church Hymns Children's Hymn-Book Church of England 
 Hymn-Book London Mission Hymn-Book 
 
 THE parish of Barnes, large, populous, and im- 
 portant, offered a noble field for ministerial work, 
 and into this the new rector threw himself with 
 unreserved devotion, giving all his powers of mind 
 and body to the welfare of those whom he had 
 been called to serve. A very different congregation 
 now listened to him from what he had been 
 accustomed to address in Cheshire, a congregation 
 which had been taught to look for teaching of the 
 highest order from a pulpit long occupied by the 
 eloquent Henry Melvill, and after him by the 
 scholarly Medd. As these pages are designed to 
 be but a sketch of Mr. Ellerton's life, and by no 
 means a full biography, I say but little of his 
 ministerial work at Barnes, where I had the privi- 
 lege of being associated with him as his curate, 
 and dwell rather upon the literary side of his in- 
 dustry. Suffice it to say, that every detail of 
 parochial work was thoroughly mastered. In one 
 part of the parish a room was opened for special 
 
 66 
 
BARNES 67 
 
 services for the poor ; in another an iron church, 
 since replaced by a permanent and handsome 
 structure, was erected. Whether it was the choir, 
 the schools, district visitors, or confirmation classes, 
 upon each in its turn he concentrated his whole 
 mind, spending and being spent in his Master's 
 service, until his strength broke down under the 
 burden, and he was compelled to resign it to an- 
 other. Perhaps it was only the few who could 
 appreciate his rare gifts of oratory, his elegant 
 scholarship ; but all loved him, all, that is, whose 
 hearts were capable of responding to the reality of 
 his sympathy, and the warmth of his loving heart. 
 One 1 who knew him well wrote, on the occasion of 
 his death " that he was a man of deep learning 
 and of varied and extended reading, no educated 
 listener could fail to discover, although his sermons 
 were remarkably free from parade of erudition or 
 excess of ornament. But it was not his mastery of 
 English, his many-sided culture, and his transparent 
 sincerity that gave to his sermons the attractive- 
 ness to which we refer. It was rather that rare and 
 indefinable something which radiates from poetic 
 natures, and makes other hearts burn within them." 
 One of the results of Mr. Ellerton's coming to 
 the neighbourhood of London, was a more intimate 
 and personal share in the affairs of the Society for 
 Promoting Christian Knowledge, for which he had 
 already done such good work. He was a member 
 of the Tract Committee from 1878 until the time 
 of his death. One of his colleagues, the present 
 Archdeacon of Middlesex, writes, " On the Tract 
 1 Professor Henry Attwell, K.O.C. 
 
68 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 Committee he was our authority in matters of 
 poetry and music ; and was looked up to by all 
 as a sound theologian." His great work for the 
 Committee was his editing the Manual of Parochial 
 Work, and subsequently revising it for the second 
 edition. " A great deal of the Manual (as you are 
 well aware) is from his pen. All who had the 
 pleasure of working with him remember with 
 affection his gentle and quiet manner, and the 
 touches of humour which he not unfrequently 
 threw into his observations." 1 
 
 In connection with this Society Mr. Ellerton 
 also wrote a series of Tracts ; two for Ash- 
 Wednesday, one for Lent, Good Friday, Easter, 
 Ascension Day, and Whit Sunday. 
 
 In addition to the vast amount of hymnological 
 work accomplished at Barnes in connection with 
 Church Hymns with Notes and Illustrations, the 
 Children's Hymn-Book, and the London Mission 
 Hymn-Book^ Mr. Ellerton composed the following 
 hymns : 
 
 1. "Thy Voice it is that calls us, bounteous 
 Lord." August 21, 1877. Written for Early 
 Communion at a meeting of Clergy; the idea taken 
 from St. John xxi. 12, "Jesus saith unto them, 
 Come and break your fast." 2 
 
 2. "This day the Lord's disciples met." For 
 Whit-Sunday, written for the Childreris Hymn- Book. 
 
 3. " In the Name which holy angels." September 
 1878. A hymn which he very kindly wrote at my 
 
 1 Letter to the Author. 
 
 2 R.V. giving the true translation of apian'/ <ra re, which the 
 A.V. " come and dine " obscures. 
 
BARNES 69 
 
 request for the opening of the temporary iron 
 church of St. Michael and All Angels, in the district 
 of Westfields, Barnes. 
 
 4. " Oh how fair that morning broke." March 
 13, 1880. Septuagesima ; written for the Children's 
 Hymn-Book. 
 
 5. " Before the day draws near its ending." April 
 22, 1880. After service, Sundays or Festivals. 
 
 6. " O Thou Whose bounty fills the earth." For 
 a Children's Flower Service. As it is dated 
 Chelsea, June 6, 1880, it was no doubt written 
 at Chelsea Rectory when on a visit to his friend, 
 the Rev. Gerald Blunt, the author of the favourite 
 Flower Service hymn, " Here, Lord, we offer Thee 
 all that is fairest," Hymns Ancient and Modern, 
 598. These hymns of the two old friends stand 
 together in the Children s Hymn-Book. 
 
 7. "Hail to the Lord Who comes." October 
 6, 1880. Presentation of Christ in the Temple ; 
 written for the Rev. Godfrey Thring. 
 
 8. " Praise our God, Whose open Hand." Written 
 for a bad harvest, and printed in the Guardian, 
 August 1 88 1. 
 
 The Rev. F. G. Ellerton writes to me, " Numerous 
 letters and telegrams at once showered on my 
 father asking permission to use it, or announcing 
 the fact of having done so, requesting copies, or 
 bidding him order some for them, etc., etc. I 
 have no less than twenty-seven of them." 
 
 9. " Break Thou to us, O Lord, 
 
 The Bread of Life to-day ; 
 And through Thy written Word 
 Thy very self display." 1 88 1 . 
 
70 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 10. " O Thou Who givest food to all." August 
 30, 1882. Harvest Thanksgiving. Stated in 
 Hymns Original and Translated to have been 
 written for the Church of England Temperance 
 Society, but it is not in their hymn-book ; per- 
 haps the boldness which did not fear to assert that 
 both Corn and Wine are God's "high gifts," in 
 accordance with the whole teaching and tenor of 
 Holy Scripture, condemned it in the eyes of the 
 Society. 
 
 11. "Thou Who wearied by the well." September 
 23, 1882. For the opening of a Workman's Coffee 
 Tavern. 
 
 12. "Within Thy Temple, Lord, of old." Written 
 for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Dedication of 
 Christ Church, Coventry. This Jubilee was held 
 in August 1882. 
 
 13. "Praise our God for all the wonders." 
 December 1882. Composed for the Dedication 
 Festival of St. Nicholas Church, Brighton. A fine 
 historical Processional similar in conception to the 
 St. Martin's hymn. 1 
 
 Among the minor hymnological works, but 
 nevertheless a very important one, which Mr. 
 Ellerton completed at Barnes must be included 
 the London Mission Hymn-Book. In 1884 the 
 General London Mission was held, and it was 
 thought desirable to prepare a hymn-book for it. 
 Mr. Ellerton, being selected as one of the editors, 
 consulted with other hymnologists of eminence, 
 especially Canon Walsham How, and Bishop 
 E. H. Bickersteth ; but the weight of the burden 
 
 1 P- 143- 
 
BARNES /I 
 
 was mainly borne by himself. The book was 
 published by the Society for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge in July, and contained, inclusive of the 
 Appendix, 211 hymns, to which were added the 
 Venite, Te Deum laudamus, Magnificat, Nunc 
 dimittis, and Psalms li. and cxxx. It was for 
 this book that Mr. Ellerton wrote his spirited 
 Processional " Onward, brothers, onward ! march 
 with one accord." 
 
CHURCH HYMNS 
 
 SINCE it was at Barnes that Church Hymns with 
 Notes and Illustrations, and the Children's Hymn- 
 Book^ two out of the three 1 of Mr. Ellerton's 
 most important hymnological labours, were com- 
 pleted and published, this seems the most fitting 
 place to introduce some account of these works. 
 
 Even before leaving Crewe Green the foundations 
 of his fame as a sacred poet were laid, but by the 
 time he was promoted to Barnes his influence had 
 impressed itself indelibly on the hymnody of the 
 Church. His hymns were now known far and wide, 
 their catholicity and comprehensiveness gaining for 
 many of them acceptance in other Christian con- 
 gregations both at home and abroad. 
 
 When or under what circumstances he first 
 began to make hymns his special study it is im- 
 possible to say. In 1879 he speaks of his "more 
 than twenty years devotion to hymnology," and it 
 was in 1859, when curate of the parish church of 
 Brighton, that he compiled Hymns for Schools and 
 Bible Classes. In 1863 we find Dr. Kennedy, 
 
 1 The third, the complete edition of Hymns Ancient and 
 Modern, was published in 1889, when Mr. Ellerton was 
 Rector of White Roding. 
 
 72 
 
CHURCH HYMNS 73 
 
 Head-master of Shrewsbury School, then prepar- 
 ing his Hymnologia Christiana, appealing to him 
 as an authority on the subject. With him the first 
 object in life was ever to make full proof of his 
 ministry ; to feed the flock of God over which he 
 had been appointed ; to preach the Word ; to be 
 instant in season, out of season ; to reprove, rebuke, 
 exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. He 
 was priest first, and only after that a poet. His 
 first thought and aim was absolute self-dedication 
 to his Master's service, and next to devote what 
 spare time he found to hymnology, to promote 
 God's honour by perfecting, so far as in him lay, 
 the service of song in the house of the Lord. 
 
 To estimate at its true value the part which Mr. 
 Ellerton took in that great awakening of Church 
 music which accompanied the revival of Church- 
 manship, begun by the Wesleys, carried on by the 
 leaders of the old Evangelical School, and strength- 
 ened by the Oxford movement, we must compare 
 what it was some forty or thirty years ago with 
 what it is at the present day. With regard to 
 hymn-books, their number was well nigh countless. 
 They had sprung up like mushrooms in an autumn 
 meadow. Between 1820 and 1850 Dr. Julian 
 enumerates at least seventy-eight as having ap- 
 peared, differing vastly in their degrees of merit. 
 In fact, as to the clergy in this matter every man 
 did that which was right in his own eyes. Many 
 who could afford it compiled collections for their 
 own congregations, so that it was difficult to find 
 two churches in a town using the same book. The 
 singing too was equally deplorable. The hymns, 
 
74 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 given out by the clerk, were generally restricted to 
 four verses, and it was considered the correct thing 
 for the organist to play an interlude between each 
 verse. Such Churches as did not adopt or compile 
 a book of hymns for their own use commonly used 
 Tate and Brady's metrical version, or rather per- 
 version, of the Psalms. 1 
 
 Among the many attempts to put forth a book 
 which should more or less tend to put a stop to 
 the general confusion, the S. P. C. K. published a 
 small collection in 1852. Three years afterwards 
 (1855) it was issued in an enlarged form as Psalms 
 and Hymns, to which, in 1863, an Appendix was 
 added. But a new star had already risen, not par- 
 ticularly brilliant at its first appearance, still bright 
 enough to attract the gaze of many, and draw forth 
 the question Is this the long-expected Hymnal for 
 which we have been waiting, and which is destined 
 to become the accepted hymn-book of the Anglican 
 Church ? This was Hymns A ncient and Modern, 
 published in 1 86 1, followed by an Appendix in 1868. 
 
 It would seem that Mr. Ellerton was by no 
 means satisfied with either of these collections, for 
 in 1869 he had thoughts of issuing, in conjunction 
 with a few friends, a Hymnal independent of 
 both, and a prospectus was drawn up and sent to 
 London friends. But the energy displayed by the 
 S. P. C. K. led him to reconsider his project. That 
 Society, perceiving there was room for improve- 
 ment in their Hymnal of 1863, proposed to add a 
 
 1 As St. Jerome calls the numerous and unauthorized Latin 
 translations 01 the New Testament in his day not versiones 
 but eversiones. 
 
CHURCH HYMNS 75 
 
 comprehensive Appendix, but the proposal eventu- 
 ally resulted in the compilation of a new book 
 under the title of Church Hymns. In reference to 
 the proposed Appendix, Mr. Berdmore Compton, 
 then on the Tract Committee, and editor of the 
 Appendix of 1863, wrote as follows to Mr. Ellerton: 
 " The Tract Committee have now completed their 
 selection from those hymns which I have brought 
 before them. They decided not to revise the exist- 
 ing book for the present, but to add a Supplement 
 containing indeed a few restorations of hymns, 
 which I thought absolutely necessary, they having 
 been miserably curtailed in the present work. But 
 the Supplement will mainly consist of new hymns, 
 and will be large, probably about 220 in number." 
 He then asks permission to include " Sing Alleluia 
 forth in duteous praise," and " Saviour, again to 
 Thy dear Name we raise," and for help with regard 
 to discovering the authorship of other hymns. 
 
 In consequence of this move on the part of the 
 Society, Mr. Ellerton abandoned his design of a 
 separate work, and wrote to Mr. Berdmore Compton 
 the following letter, valuable as setting forth the 
 principles upon which, in the writer's opinion, a 
 Hymnal should be compiled, principles which he 
 himself applied to the various hymnals for which 
 his advice or co-operation was sought : 
 
 " Creive Green Parsonage, Creive, 
 
 "JulyZ, 1868. 
 "DEAR SIR, 
 
 " If I can be of any use to you in your 
 task of improving the present S. P. C. K. Hymnal, I 
 
76 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 shall have much pleasure in assisting so good a 
 work. 
 
 "The system upon which you propose to act 
 appears to me to be a very sound one ; my only 
 fear is lest alterations, which ought to be extensive 
 ones in order to make the book as good as it is 
 possible to make it, may be productive of serious 
 inconvenience to the congregations which already 
 use the Hymnal. I am strongly of opinion that, 
 notwithstanding this, the effort you propose to 
 make ought to be made ; but still I fear that this 
 objection may weigh very strongly with some 
 members of the Tract Committee, and may hinder 
 the free development of your plan. 
 
 "The existing Hymnal has the advantage of 
 representing more than one school of English 
 devotional theology, and the hymns which it con- 
 tains are (in the later edition) presented in a less 
 corrupt text than usual. It contains of course 
 also many hymns of sterling worth and beauty; 
 still a very careful examination of it last winter led 
 me to the conclusion that it has some great defects. 
 
 " i. The area from which its sources are drawn 
 is, I think, far too narrow. In its first form there 
 were, I believe, no ancient hymns except the Veni 
 Creator; now there are a certain number of Gallican 
 ones, but very few representing the richest period 
 of Latin hymnody, and no Greek ones at all. I 
 feel sure that an examination of the best mediaeval 
 hymns will convince you that there is no real reason 
 for their exclusion, any more than for that of the 
 contemporary collects which fill so large a space in 
 our Prayer-book. That which is unsuitable for 
 
CHURCH HYMNS 77 
 
 the use of a Reformed Church ought of course, 
 however fine the hymn, to be most rigidly excluded. 
 I would not wish to see Vexilla Regis or Pange 
 lingua admitted ; x but there are many of our older 
 hymns full of true congregational spirit, of sim- 
 plicity, devotion, and depth, which would adorn 
 any collection, and ought not to be left as the 
 heritage of one particular school in the Church. 
 This can, I think, be easily shown by a reference 
 to such a book as Daniel's Thesaurus Hymnologicus , 
 which I mention chiefly because Dr. Daniel is a 
 most sincere Protestant. It would be worth the 
 while of the Tract Committee to consider whether 
 they might not secure good translations of some of 
 these, and purchase the copyright of existing 
 translations of others. 
 
 "This leads me to refer to another case, the 
 absence of many popular hymns by living authors. 
 Surely these would not refuse permission to the 
 Society to print hymns of theirs, but I should most 
 respectfully suggest to the Committee whether it 
 would not be worth while, even as a money specu- 
 
 1 This seems rather hard upon two of the very finest hymns 
 of the Latin Church. Only certain parts are unsuitable for 
 Anglican use. Vexilla Regis is represented in Church 
 Hymns by Bishop Walsham How's " free imitation," " The 
 Royal Banner is unfurled," and in Hymns Ancient and 
 Modern by % Dr. Neale's " The Royal Banners forward go." 
 Pange lingua is also admitted into the former book as 
 "Sing, my tongue, the Saviour's glory," by Rev. F. Pott, and 
 into the latter as " Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle," by 
 Dr. Neale, the eighth verse of which might well have been 
 omitted, savouring as it does too strongly of mediaeval 
 sentimentalism. H. H. 
 
78 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 lation, to lay out a certain sum in the purchase of 
 the copyright of others. 
 
 " Again, the great position of the S. P. C. K. gives 
 it a matchless opportunity for investigating and 
 using foreign hymnody. Germany is of course a 
 very wide field, and the value for congregational 
 use of German hymns is just now rather over-rated 
 than under-rated, but still many, little known, might 
 I think be found of service to us among especially 
 the older German books. And the hymns of Den- 
 mark 1 and the Chants Chretiens of Protestant 
 France are almost or quite unknown to us here. 
 Could not the Committee further communicate 
 with the American Committee of Convention, who 
 are at this moment engaged in preparing a new 
 Hymnal for the Protestant Episcopal Church in 
 the United States ? I believe much matter worth 
 examining might be obtained from that quarter. 
 
 " 2. The character of too many of the hymns in 
 the Society's present book is certainly a rather 
 dull and colourless mediocrity. And as I am 
 writing to you freely and confidentially, I hope you 
 will forgive my making one remark. Of course I 
 feel that the position of the S. P. C. K. in relation 
 to existing divisions within the Church is a very 
 difficult one, and requires the utmost wisdom and 
 firmness in those who conduct it. But for a Society 
 which seeks to be a Church and not a sectarian 
 Society, there is always the danger of ignoring 
 
 1 " Through the night of doubt and sorrow." Mr. Ellerton 
 revised the Rev. S. Baring-Gould's translation of this favourite 
 hymn from the Danish, and it was first sung in Crewe Green 
 Chureh. H. H, 
 
CHURCH HYMNS 79 
 
 truths out of the very fear of overstating them. 
 It is easy to try to steer a safe course by omitting 
 what will offend one or other school in the Church, 
 but often the result is to leave a mere dull residuum 
 of that which is certainly common to both, but 
 which satisfies the faith of neither. Surely if each 
 side (within due limits) were represented 'in a Hymnal, 
 as it is in our Prayer-book, the object of wide and 
 common use would be attained in a nobler and 
 more effectual way, e.g. in the section on Holy 
 Communion I would retain the old evangelical 
 hymns of Watts and Doddridge which are justly 
 dear to thousands ; I would insert such hymns as 
 " Thee we adore, O blessed Saviour, Thee," and 
 one or two more which give that side of the 
 doctrine which the Catechism and Communion 
 Service express ; and I would exclude such hymns 
 as 119 and 122, which really satisfy neither school, 
 and are simply vague. Forgive me if I have 
 gone beyond the range to which I ought to have 
 restricted myself. 
 
 "3. The number of hymns which ought to be 
 excluded because too private for public worship is 
 much less, I think, in the S. P. C. K. collection than 
 in many others. The rule I would suggest is this : 
 where a hymn expresses faith or feeling such as is, 
 or ought to be, common to the whole or the greater 
 part of the congregation, the mere occurrence of 
 the singular number is no reason for excluding it. 
 No one would banish * Rock of Ages/ or ' Sun of my 
 Soul'; on the other hand, such a hymn as Cowper's 
 4 Oh for a closer walk with God J belongs to a par- 
 ticular state of mind, and ought not to be put into 
 
80 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 the lips of a whole congregation. It is therefore 
 out of place in a Hymnal for congregational use. 
 
 " 4. Another point of some importance seems to 
 me to be the preponderance, at least, of hymns which 
 are acts of worship direct utterances of praise to 
 God. I would not exclude all others ; but there are 
 in most Hymnals far too many sets of verses which 
 are nothing more than religious meditations or 
 paraphrases of texts, etc. In the Middle Ages this 
 sort of verse was only allowed at one particular 
 part of the service, viz. at the Prose or Sequence 
 before the Gospel. Now if, without attempting to 
 fix an arbitrary rule of this kind, the hymns under 
 each head could be so grouped as to put first those 
 of direct worship, and next such of a freer type as 
 might be admitted (and that sparingly) into a gen- 
 eral collection, I think the effect would be to guide 
 the clergy better in selecting hymns, and to improve 
 thereby the devotional character of our singing. 
 
 " I will close this long letter with a few sugges- 
 tions as they occur to me : 
 
 "a. Metrical Psalms are now so generally acknow- 
 ledged to be a mistake, and the chanting Psalms so 
 common, that I should like to abolish the title 
 Psalms and Hymns, and to throw the selection 
 from the Psalter into the general body of Hymns, 
 which contains already a large number of para- 
 phrases of Psalms, as indeed every good English 
 hymnal must necessarily do. But probably this is 
 scarcely practicable. 1 
 
 1 It is interesting thus to see a new thought feeling its 
 way towards the light. What J. E. deemed scarcely practic- 
 able not thirty years ago is now generally adopted. H. H. 
 
CHURCH HYMNS 8l 
 
 " ft. The section of ' General Hymns ' ought to 
 be much enlarged. It should also be furnished with 
 a very copious and complete Index of Subjects. I 
 should like to see that on ' Holy Communion ' 
 enlarged also, something on the plan of Mr. Jellicoe's 
 Songs of the Church (you will not understand me as 
 recommending the hymns he has selected) by a 
 selection of Eucharistic hymns varying according 
 to the seasons and greater Festivals. 
 
 "Something of this too would be good for 
 morning and evening hymns ; and we want a few 
 for noon and afternoon to meet the increased 
 division and multiplication of services. 
 
 "y. May I say something about your Tune-Book ? 
 This of course would have to be revised simultane- 
 ously with the Hymnal. I have never yet met with 
 a congregation that uses it freely, and with pleasure. 
 It is grievously dull, the tunes often sadly unfitted 
 to the hymns (e.g. how can 97 and 268 go to the 
 same tune ? and that a Sunday School song, 
 originally written, as the composer's son himself 
 told me, for ' Twinkle, twinkle, little star ' !), and the 
 whole book quite unworthy of the hymnal. I 
 think a little effort might give the Society a Tune- 
 Book of a far higher character. But again I fear I 
 am travelling out of my province. 
 
 " I will only add one suggestion. Many clergy- 
 men (and laymen) would like to see an annotated 
 edition of the Hymnal, with something of the 
 history of the hymns and the names of the authors. 
 I think this would sell well. Will you suggest it ? 
 " Believe me, dear sir, yours faithfully, 
 
 "JOHN ELLERTON." 
 F 
 
82 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 Apparently, however, plans widened as the work 
 went on, and eventually Mr. Ellerton, Canon 
 (now Bishop) Walsham How, and Mr. Berdmore 
 Compton became the editors of a new work which 
 was published in 1871, under the title of Church 
 Hymns. The musical editorship was first under- 
 taken by Mr. (now Sir Arthur) Sullivan, and 
 afterwards by Mr. J. W. Elliott, then organist 
 to Rev. R. Brown-Borthwick, Vicar of All Saints, 
 Scarborough. 
 
 The labour, however, great as it was, in sifting 
 and examining the existing stores of hymnody for 
 this book, was accompanied by the far more ardu- 
 ous task of carrying out the scheme suggested in 
 the foregoing letter, and preparing an Introduction 
 which should contain an account of every hymn in 
 the collection, its authorship and history, a work 
 which Mr. Ellerton tells us in his Preface, " occupied 
 pleasantly such leisure time as could be given to it 
 during nine years of a busy life." 
 
 At all to realize the enormous labour which the 
 work must have entailed, let the reader take the 
 notes on one or two of the hymns, and he will at 
 once see the wide acquaintance with the subject 
 and the patient research among the stores, in many 
 languages, of ancient and modern Hymnology, and 
 the labour of verifying of authorities which it 
 reveals. Take as a specimen the very first Bishop 
 Ken's morning hymn, " Awake, my soul, and with 
 the sun." First comes a sketch of the career of the 
 saintly Bishop, his birth, fellowship, consecration, 
 deprivation, death, with places and dates. Then the 
 first appearance of the hymn, its textual variations, 
 
CHURCH HYMNS 83 
 
 and its claim to originality discussed. Or take one 
 of the Latin hymns, Pange lingua gloriosi proe- 
 lium certaniinis, for instance. Here we have first 
 the translation by the Rev. Francis Pott, and 
 subsequent variations ; then as it appears in the 
 Roman Missal ; next, its authorship and the correc- 
 tion of Bingham's error in ascribing it to Claudi- 
 anus Mamertus ; and lastly, a very interesting sketch 
 of the life of its true author, Venantius Fortunatus. 
 
 Think of labour such as this spread over nearly 
 six hundred hymns, the later portion of it written 
 amid the falling shadows of advancing life, at a 
 time when the over-work of a large suburban 
 parish was pressing heavily upon him and under- 
 mining his health, at a time too of acute domestic 
 bereavement, and we shall gain some idea of what 
 it must have cost him to produce this standard 
 work of hymnological research which, as Notes 
 and Illustrations to the Hymns?- forms the intro- 
 ductory portion of the magnificent folio edition of 
 Church Hymns issued in 1881. 
 
 For this Hymnal eleven original hymns were 
 composed, and nine translations. 
 
 1. " Another day begun." Feb. 13, 1871. 
 
 2. " Behold us, Lord, a little space." p. 54. 
 
 3. " In the Name which earth and heaven." p. 57. 
 
 4. " King Messiah, long expected." p. 55. 
 
 5. "King of Saints, to Whom the number." p. 56. 
 
 6. " Mary at the Master's feet." p. 56. 
 
 7. " Now returns the awful morning." For Good 
 
 1 It was afterwards proposed to publish these Notes in a 
 small volume separate from the Hymnal, which would largely 
 have increased its usefulness. 
 
84 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 Friday. Stated in Notes and Illustrations to have 
 been re-written in 1858 for a class of school-children 
 from a hymn by Joseph Anstice, 1 and largely 
 altered for Church Hymns. Verses 3 and 4, repre- 
 senting respectively Professor Anstice's third and 
 second verses, are all that is left of the original, and 
 these are much varied, so the hymn may be placed 
 among Mr. Ellerton's original compositions. 
 
 8. "O Lord of life and death, we come." p. 55. 
 
 9. " O Son of God, our Captain of salvation." 
 
 P- 55- 
 
 10. " Thou in Whose Name the two or three." 
 p. 56. 
 
 11. "We sing the glorious conquest." p. 55. 
 
 TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 12. "Bride of Christ, whose glorious warfare." 
 Sponsa Christi quae per orbem. Considered by Mr. 
 Mearns " one of the finest of the more recent French 
 Sequences." 2 The author is Jean Baptiste de 
 Contes, who became Dean of Paris in 1647. 
 
 This fine All Saints' Day hymn appears in a 
 shorter form in Cliurch Hymns. It was re-cast -in 
 1887 with considerable variations and improve- 
 ments for the complete edition of Hymns Ancient 
 and Modern, 1889, where the original title " Bride 
 of Christ," etc., is restored. 
 
 1 He became Professor of Classical Literature at King's 
 College, London, at the age of 22, and died at Torquay in 
 1836, aged 28. (Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology.} 
 
 2 Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 1081. See p. 134. 
 
CHURCH HYMNS 8$ 
 
 13. "From east to west, from shore to shore." 
 A solis ortus cardine. By Coelius Sedulius (dr. 
 450), a poet of whom next to nothing is known, 
 save what can be gathered from two letters. This 
 translation is made from a fragment of a long 
 alphabetical poem, another cento from which be- 
 gins "How vain the cruel Herod's fear" (Hymns 
 Ancient and Modern, 75). 
 
 14. " Giver of the perfect gift." Summi largitor 
 praemii. Attributed, but without sufficient evidence, 
 to St. Gregory the Great. 
 
 15. "Joy! because the circling year." Beata 
 nobis gaudia. Ascribed, but like the last upon in- 
 sufficient evidence, to St. Hilary of Poitiers. In 
 the Mozarabic Breviary it is a Whit-Sunday hymn. 
 Dr. Hort was associated with Mr. Ellerton in this 
 translation. 1870. 
 
 1 6. " Morn of morns, the best and first." Die 
 dierum omnium. Based partly on the translation 
 by the Rev. Isaac Williams. The original Latin 
 is by Charles Coffin, Rector of the University of 
 Paris (1718). Most of his hymns appeared in the 
 Paris Breviary of 1736; this one is for Lauds on 
 Sundays from Candlemas to Septuagesima (Julian, 
 and Notes and Illustrations). 
 
 17. " O Strength and Stay, upholding all crea- 
 tion." Rerum Deus tenax vigor. The original has 
 been attributed to St. Ambrose, but it is not one of 
 the twelve accounted his by the Benedictine editors. 
 Among the translators of this hymn are found the 
 names of many of our greatest hymnologists, but 
 this version soars high above them all, the second 
 stanza being inexpressibly lovely 
 
86 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 " Grant to life's day a calm unclouded ending, 
 
 An eve untouch'd by shadows of decay, 
 The brightness of a holy death-bed blending 
 With dawning glories of the eternal day." 
 
 The third verse is original. This was the closing 
 hymn sung at Mr. Ellerton's funeral. 1870. 
 
 18. "Oh come, all ye faithful." 1871. Adeste 
 fideles, laeti triumphantes ; the famous Christmas 
 
 hymn of the Western Church, p. 57- Like Vent 
 Creator Spiritus and many another great hymn, 
 the authorship is lost. 
 
 There is little to choose between this version and 
 what might almost be called the authorized one by 
 Canon Oakley in Hymns Ancient and Modern. 
 The metre is more regular, and consequently there 
 are fewer slurs in the singing. 
 
 19. "On this the day when days began." 1868. 
 Primo dierum omnium. For early morning, on 
 Sunday, p. 48. 
 
 20. "To the Name that speaks salvation." 1871. 
 "Tho Name of Jesus" (Aug. 17). This Com- 
 memoration was removed at the Reformation from 
 the Second Sunday after the Epiphany to Aug. 7. 1 
 p. 59. 
 
 In addition to these twenty hymns and trans- 
 lations written for this Hymnal, it contains six 
 previously composed, but published now for the 
 first time in a collection, and thirteen previously 
 published thirty-nine in all, no small contribution 
 from one individual pen. 
 
 1 Blunt's Annotated Prayer-book. 
 
THE CHILDREN'S HYMN-BOOK 
 
 IN 1877 an intimation reached Mr. Ellerton, 
 through a friend, that Mrs. Carey Brock, to whom 
 the acting editorship of the new Children s Hymn- 
 Book had been entrusted, was anxious to consult 
 him with regard to its compilation. He immedi- 
 ately wrote to that lady, not only placing at her 
 service any of his own hymns, but also offering 
 any help he could give in the preparation of this 
 important work. 
 
 This branch of hymnody was by no means new 
 to him. Even when curate of Brighton he had 
 compiled his Hymns for Schools and Bible Classes ', 
 and while at Hinstock had joined Canon Walsham 
 How in editing for the Society for Promoting 
 Christian Knowledge their Children s Hymns, con- 
 tributing to it seven hymns of his own. 
 
 It need hardly be said that this offer of assist- 
 ance was as gratefully accepted as it was generously 
 made. He had offered to take the subordinate 
 part of examining such hymns as might be sub- 
 mitted to him and offering suggestions, but the 
 proprietors knew his value too well not to covet 
 for the book his co-operation, as one of the revisers 
 in conjunction with Bishops Walsham How and 
 
 87 
 
88 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 Oxenden. In reply to this request he writes 
 " When you did me the favour to write to me about 
 your very important and interesting work, and I 
 expressed my willingness, to help, I did not think 
 of your naming me as one of the publicly avowed 
 revisers, and I should perhaps have shrunk both 
 from the honour and the responsibility of the task. 
 All I thought was, that as I happen to have a 
 pretty large collection of children's hymns, and 
 some little experience, I might have been able to 
 add to your materials, and to suggest gaps for 
 filling up. However, I will not draw back now, as 
 you are pleased to wish me to occupy so difficult 
 a post." 
 
 One of the first things to decide in the compila- 
 tion of the work was what age of childhood was to 
 be provided for by it, and on this point Mr. Eller- 
 ton's opinion was quite clear. " I am quite of your 
 mind," he writes to Mrs. Carey Brock, " that we do 
 not want it to be a book of baby hymns, still less 
 of hymns written down for 'infant minds' by 
 people who are well-meaning, but do not under- 
 stand children. By all means have a large infusion 
 of strong and vigorous hymns such as are generally 
 used in church ; so long as the sentiments they con- 
 vey are such as children can be expected to appreciate. 
 If you do not make that limitation what is the 
 raison d'etre of a children's book as distinguished 
 on the one hand from an infant book, and on the 
 other from an adult book? " In another letter he 
 says " I think that you will be obliged to fix a 
 limit, say, the usual age for Confirmation, and 
 determine not to have a hymn that is above the 
 
THE CHILDREN'S HYMN-BOOK 89 
 
 comprehension or beyond the spiritual experience 
 (which is far more important) of the average Con- 
 firmation candidate. I know, of course, that many 
 young people, especially -well-educated girls, enjoy 
 at thirteen or fourteen such hymns as ' Lead, 
 kindly Light,' or ' Abide with me,' or * Lord of 
 our life, and God of our salvation,' but the question 
 is rather, Are these hymns good to be put before 
 the average child, even at fourteen ? Well-educated 
 (I mean spiritually well-educated) girls can get the 
 books in which these hymns are to be found. But 
 to me it is simple misery to hear a noisy Sunday 
 School singing * Abide with me' I don't mean 
 a class of upper girls ; I know there are many 
 exceptions. So there are with adults. I knew a 
 costermonger's wife who was sustained through a 
 terrible operation by repeating to herself over and 
 over again Novalis' * wondrous hymn, ' What had 
 I been if Thou wert not ; ' but it does not follow 
 that I should put the hymn in a book for the 
 poor." 
 
 As the report of the forthcoming book spread 
 many persons volunteered their effusions, which 
 Mr. Ellerton characterized as " some of them valu- 
 able in themselves, but unreal for children ; others, 
 and these the worst, written for children by people 
 who desire that children should undergo certain 
 religious experiences, easily simulated, but most 
 perilous to the simplicity and honesty of their 
 relations with God." " I think," he writes, " many 
 
 1 This was the nom deplume of G. F. Philipp von Harden- 
 berg, d. 1801. The translation is by Miss Winkworth 
 (James Mearns, Diet, of Hymnology). 
 
90 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 a hymn not meant for children would not be at all 
 out of place in your book. The only difficulty 
 about these is that you must suppose children will 
 use the hymn-book ordinarily and in the church 
 they attend, and so become familiar with many 
 hymns they will love all their lives ; and you want 
 the space for hymns which deal especially with the 
 thoughts and ways of young people, and give them 
 the spiritual help to realize and to love Divine 
 things, which at their time of life, and with the 
 temptations of opening life, they really need." 
 
 At last, in 1881, after years of thought and 
 labour and prayer, the book was published. The 
 Preface, written by Mr. Ellerton himself, embodies 
 many expressions we have already met with in his 
 letters. In it he writes as follows: "The object 
 of this collection is to provide a hymnal for the 
 young, in which, whilst a high standard of excel- 
 lence and a healthy religious tone are preserved, 
 every hymn shall be, as regards the sentiments 
 conveyed and the expressions used, within their 
 possible experience, and, as far as may be, within 
 their comprehension. In adhering to this rule, the 
 compilers have necessarily been obliged to exclude 
 from their pages many hymns which, however 
 valuable and beautiful in themselves, it would be 
 impossible for children to use without a simulation 
 of religious experience dangerous to the simplicity 
 and truthfulness of their relations with God. At 
 the same time, they have not forgotten the necessity 
 of making children familiar in childhood with such 
 hymns as they can love and value all their lives." 
 
 Such labour, such learning, such research, so 
 
THE CHILDREN S HYMN-BOOK QI 
 
 much prayerful thought bestowed by Mr. Ellerton 
 and his fellow revisers upon The Children's Hymn- 
 Book have been abundantly rewarded. The work 
 was immediately recognized as supplying a want 
 long felt in the Church. The latest and highest 
 authority on the subject, Julian's Dictionary of 
 Hyntnology^ says it " has at once taken the leading 
 place among Church books, and contains not only 
 the best hymns hitherto published, but new hymns, 
 some of which are of equal value." 
 
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND HYMN- 
 BOOK 
 
 IN addition to the laborious and difficult task of 
 acting as reviser, we might almost say editor, of the 
 foregoing important hymnals, Church Hymns, and 
 the Children's Hymn-Book, Mr. Ellerton's opinion 
 and advice were much sought by the compilers 
 of other books. At this time the Rev. Prebendary 
 Godfrey Thring was preparing for publication his 
 Church of England Hymn-Book, and many were 
 the letters which passed between the two poets 
 with regard to it. It is true that Mr. Ellerton had 
 no hand in the construction of the work, for, as 
 Mr. Thring tells me, the whole book was entirely 
 thought out and finished before he saw it, he seeing 
 only the proof copy just before it was published, 
 and too late to make any alteration in it. As 
 specimens of the correspondence between the two 
 friends, the two subjoined letters are interesting, 
 the one showing the high value which Mr. Thring 
 placed upon his friend's criticisms, the other con- 
 taining the writer's estimate of some well-known 
 hymns, and of one of his own. 
 
 92 
 
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND HYMN-BOOK 93 
 
 " Hornblotton Rectory ', 
 " Castle Gary, Somerset. 
 " Oct. 17, 1879. 
 
 "Mv DEAR MR. ELLERTON, 
 
 " Oh dear ! I am inclined to say. I wish I 
 could have shown you the proof-sheets before the 
 work had gone so far, for some of your remarks 
 are very valuable, and you cannot think how I 
 appreciate your kindness in taking all the trouble 
 you have done, and even now I shall be able to do 
 something towards repairing some of the omissions. 
 But unfortunately Skeffington sent out his circular 
 stating ' This day/ etc., so that, as he says, he is 
 receiving daily orders for specimen copies and 
 cannot supply them, and is urging me on to publish 
 at once, and this is impossible, for even now, with 
 all the revisions that it has been through, there are 
 heaps of blunders, and in my state of health I am 
 overburdened. This morning I have difficulty in 
 gathering my thoughts. The book, however, is 
 gone so far that I cannot put in or omit hymns 
 now without incurring too great an expense, unless 
 I can manage to get them into the same space. I 
 will go through some of your chief criticisms as 
 well as I can. 
 
 " First morning hymns. I see I have marked 
 some of the hymns you mention, and am very sorry 
 that I did not put in 6 (Wesley's), ' Forth in Thy 
 Name.' I hardly know how I came to omit this ; 
 only for the last three or four years I have had to 
 move about in search of health, and at one time I 
 found that I had mislaid or lost several selected 
 hymns, and I always feared lest I might have lost 
 
94 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 some of importance, and I rather think this must 
 have been one of them. The other two (3 and 5) 
 I might have had, but I have a large selection, and 
 I do not think have lost much here. 815, Kennedy's 
 Hymnologia^ I have referred to, and find that I have 
 cut out some hymn, and with it all but the first verse 
 of the above; but that I do not think much of, if the 
 rest of the hymn is not of a higher standard. 
 
 " 24. It is too late now to revert to ' Towards 
 the eve.' You are right, though, the other reads 
 better. I fear I did not compare this with Chandler ; 
 I could only get a copy lent me for a time. 
 
 " 26. You are quite right about * wishing ' being 
 the consequence, not the cause. Perhaps you are 
 rather hard in some of your other remarks on the 
 poetic mind ! Still I had perhaps better have 
 omitted the hymn altogether ; but again, too late. 
 
 "42. I cannot recollect having shortened this 
 hymn. I fancy you must have sent me this in 
 MS., otherwise I do not know how I got it ; but 
 how came it to be altered in Church Hymns ? I 
 hope I have the proper text, for it is better than 
 that in Church Hymns. I have made a note of 
 your alterations ; it is a beautiful hymn, one of if 
 not your best. 
 
 " * Alleluia ! fairest morning,' Ch. Hymns 38. A 
 good hymn, but I fear it is too late, and I have, 
 I think, a very good and sufficient selection for 
 Sundays. I should, however, have inserted it had 
 I known it sooner. You do not state who it is by. 1 
 
 1 It is a translation from Hymns from the Land of Luther. 
 The original is by Jonathan Kfause (Diet, of Hymnology, 
 P- 633). 
 
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND HYMN-BOOK 95 
 
 It is not, however, of sufficient consequence to pay 
 a large sum to admit it now. 
 
 " 85. * Gird thee at the martyr's shrine.' You 
 are rather hard upon this. I don't think that we 
 need be quite as realistic as your sarcastic remarks 
 would imply. 
 
 "88. Litanies are difficult matters. I thought 
 myself fortunate in getting one on each of the 
 most desirable subjects that were not rubbish. If 
 people require more there are plenty of penny 
 books, such as Pollock's (his is the best), and none 
 others that I have seen come up to the literary 
 standard which I fixed in my own mind . . . .* 
 Only those who, like myself, have tried, can have 
 any idea of the labour of such an undertaking. I 
 hope you will appreciate the Indexes, for those are 
 a work of themselves. 
 
 " Ever very truly yours, 
 
 "GODFREY THRING." 
 
 " The Rectory, Barnes, 
 "Feb. 10, 1881. 
 
 " MY DEAR THRING, 
 
 " My conduct to you has been perfectly 
 disgraceful, and no apology can cover it. But I 
 have been very busy with my two bantlings, Church 
 Hymns and the Children s Hymn-Book, which are 
 both just ripe for publication, and will be out, I 
 suspect, simultaneously. 
 
 " Well, now to your letters. You were quite 
 right to abuse my Purification Hymn ; I know it 
 is very bad. Don't be angry with me for not doing 
 1 Part of this letter is lost. 
 
96 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 an Easter Eucharistic Hymn ; I always use (and 
 rejoice in) ' At the Lamb's high feast we sing ; ' but 
 even without that I could not add a mediocre one 
 to the stock of really fine Easter hymns we possess. 
 Don't you like the rough force too of Luther's 
 ' Christ Jesus lay in Death's strong bands ' ? I do 
 think that is so full of Easter life and joy and 
 strength ! 
 
 " I don't know anything about F. S. Pierpont 1 
 (so spelt, I think) except as a contributor to Orby 
 Shipley's Lyra EucJwristica, and a layman. If 
 you have Lyra Euckaristica, and intend to use * For 
 the beauty of the earth/ look at it as it is there. 
 The text in Church Hymns is very corrupt. But 
 I added nothing ; Compton, I think, sent us the 
 hymn. Unluckily I have not got the enlarged 
 edition of Lyra Eucharistica, and it is not in the 
 first. 
 
 " I don't think C. Wesley's hymn you enclose is 
 one of the very best, it seems to me rather heavy, 
 and lacking in vitality an unusual fault with his 
 earlier hymns. But very likely I may be prejudiced 
 by my liking for some of his other Eucharistic 
 hymns. 
 
 " The doxology to ' Angels from the realms of 
 glory' we took from Chope's Book of Carols ; I 
 thought it was a good finish to the hymn. 
 
 " I like rather the ' Alleluia dulce carmen ' coming 
 before Septuagesima. For though, of course, the 
 change does not really come till Lent, there always 
 has been a subordinate change at Septuagesima. 
 
 1 F. S. Pierpoint, author of the favourite hymn, " For the 
 beauty of the earth," Children's Hymn-Book, 256. 
 
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND HYMN-BOOK Q/ 
 
 The Christmas cycle of festivals comes to an end 
 with Purification, and of Sundays with the last 
 after Epiphany. Then the days are reckoned 
 backwards from Easter. Septuagesima is a new 
 start, and in places where they change altar-cloths 
 I suppose the Lenten colours always begin at 
 Septuagesima ; and it seems to me the hymns 
 ought to be arranged on a similar cycle. Historic- 
 ally, too, the hymn is a memorial of the fact that 
 'Alleluia' was discontinued when Septuagesima 
 began ; the substitute being ' Praise ye,' etc. A 
 curious thing, by the way, that the Hebrew words 
 should have to our fathers a festal ring about them 
 which the vernacular translation did not have. But 
 I suppose it was the association with the triumphal 
 songs of Revelation. 
 
 " I am so very sorry to hear of your watery 
 calamities. We have been comparatively unscathed, 
 not quite, but nearly so. Kind remembrances 
 to all. 
 
 " Ever yours sincerely, 
 
 "JOHN ELLERTON." 
 
 The Church of England Hymn-Book, adapted to 
 the Daily Services of the Church throughout the 
 Year, was published in 1882. Dr. Julian speaks 
 of it in terms of the highest commendation, higher 
 indeed than of any of its competitors ; and had not 
 Hymns Ancient and Modern been before it in the 
 field, and already taken deep root, it is more than 
 possible that Mr. Thring's book would have become 
 the leading Hymnal in the Church of England. 
 
 It has been seen, then, that between 1876 and 
 
 G 
 
98 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 1884, that is, the eight years of his residence at 
 Barnes, Mr. Ellerton completed Church Hymns, 
 with its Notes and Illustrations ; the Childreris 
 Hymn-Book ; to say nothing of the assistance he 
 rendered to other hymnals, especially the Hymnal 
 Companion and Hymns Ancient and Modern. When 
 it is remembered that all this, and much more, was 
 done, not in the quiet leisure of some cathedral 
 close, or even of a country living, but amid the 
 incessant calls and interruptions of a populous 
 suburban parish, where the writer of these lines 
 was his only curate, entailing long night vigils, for 
 the day gave him but scant time for literary work, 
 it is no marvel that at last he broke down under 
 the burden. A severe attack of pleurisy in the 
 cold spring of 1884 completely prostrated him, and 
 for a time the issue was very doubtful. By God's 
 mercy, however, he rose from his bed of danger, 
 but he knew that he could no longer work as he 
 had worked. He resigned the Rectory of Barnes, 
 and leaving England in the autumn, sought rest 
 and health first at Veytaux, near Chillon, over- 
 looking the lake of Geneva, finally accepting the 
 winter chaplaincy of Pegli. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 1884, 1885 
 
 SWITZERLAND AND ITALY 
 
 Veytaux Pegli An Italian Poor-House 
 
 IN the autumn of 1884 Mr. Ellerton left England 
 to seek rest and recreation in Switzerland. His 
 first stay was at Veytaux at the extreme eastern 
 end of the Lake of Geneva, near Montreux, to the 
 winter chaplaincy of which he had been appointed 
 by the S. P. G. There, amid lovely scenery, and 
 health-restoring breezes from mountain and lake, 
 he soon recovered much of his former strength and 
 cheerfulness. With the burden of Barnes off his 
 shoulders, and feeling that his many years of un- 
 remitting labours in hymnology were bearing good 
 fruit in ChurcJi Hymns and the Children's Hymn- 
 Book, both of which had been successfully launched, 
 he felt that he had earned his holiday, and was 
 determined to enjoy it thoroughly. 
 
 His first impressions of Veytaux may be gathered 
 from the following extract from a letter to one of 
 his sons at home : " As for the walks, they are 
 endless, and ever fresh in deliciousness. Each day 
 reveals some new vision of mountain glory, and the 
 
 99 
 
100 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 very road into Montreux is never twice alike. More- 
 over, there are charming groups of picturesque 
 chalets, fountains, wood, and rock at every turn ; but 
 to say that is only to say that this is Switzerland. 
 There is, too, a novelty about all manners and 
 customs that is always amusing. The people are 
 neither bureau-ridden nor priest-ridden, nor drilled 
 into obedience ; there is a curious * Fais-ce-que-vonl- 
 dras ' way of doing among them, and yet a great deal 
 of accuracy and regularity in all business matters, 
 which 1 suppose finds its parallel in America, but 
 which is new to me : e.g. Chillon is the 'Wands- 
 worth Gaol ' of the canton ; but being also a ' Tower 
 of London/ and a great show place, people walk in 
 and out from morning till night, and especially on 
 Sundays, when all nationalities lounge into the 
 prison chapel when service is going on. One of 
 the * prisoners of Chillon,' probably a Swiss Mr. 
 Sykes, objected to attending church in consequence 
 of not liking his ' uniform ' to be noticed by 
 strangers ; whereupon the Governor considerately 
 lent him a Sunday suit ! " 
 
 The following charming letter will also be read 
 with interest ; it is Veytaux seen through a poet's 
 eyes : 
 
 " Veytaux, Oct. 28, 1884. 
 
 " MY DEAR 
 
 ". ... As to the place itself, it is inde- 
 scribable. How can I give you an impression of 
 these hills of the Chablais, St. Francis de Sales' old 
 diocese the 'Alps of Savoy' as they have been 
 called, which confront me every time I lift my 
 eyes from the paper ; and which, whether glowing 
 
SWITZERLAND AND ITALY IOI 
 
 in the morning sun, or veiled and wreathed with folds 
 of soft white cloud, or gleaming in the moonlight, or 
 dark and stern with their tempest-scarred precipices 
 and streaks and sheets of snow, are ever changing, 
 ever beautiful, ever fresh to us ? How can I tell you 
 of the view up the lake, with colours indescribable 
 the grey old castle rising sheer out of the bluest of 
 water, with little white waves washing its walls 
 the wooded hills, in such hues of scarlet, purple, 
 crimson, and gold as no paint-brush could draw 
 the stern pine-clad ridge behind the Rhone 
 valley opening up at the head of the lake, with the 
 central distance filled with the most beautiful of all 
 the mountains, the seven-topped ' mystery/ wonder- 
 ful ' Dent du Midi ' ? How can I draw to you the 
 strange contrast as we turn to the right, and look 
 westward down the lake, of vineyard and white 
 villas, and spires, and chalets hanging on the green 
 hill-side, sunny smiling land edging the great lake 
 far into the dim distance, where we just catch the 
 long grey ridge of the Jura the barrier that parts 
 us from the north, and home, and all familiar 
 things ? Or how can I tell you of the hundreds of 
 bits of beauty which every walk opens out, quaint 
 villages with their chalets hanging one above 
 another, women nursing their babies in the carved 
 wooden balconies, or carrying them strapped to a 
 pillow in the glory of their Sunday best the road- 
 side fountains with their tiny troughs of ever- 
 running and deliciously clear water, with two or 
 three old cronies gossiping and washing their linen 
 around them ; the old church on a magnificent 
 rock, which goes sheer down from the churchyard 
 
102 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 wall ; its churchyard planted beautifully, and with 
 seats commanding oh ! such a view ; the roses and 
 fuchsias and scarlet salvias still in full bloom, in the 
 many gardens which hang on the hill-side. No, it 
 is only heaping words together that mean nothing. 
 I don't think I can make any one fancy it. 
 
 " I send you the French hymn l which I have 
 copied out from the hymn-book used in the 
 Swiss National Church of this canton. It is by 
 Vinet, the greatest man by far of modern French 
 and Swiss Protestantism, whose words, you may 
 remember, are the striking motto of Maurice's 
 Theological Essays. It was a great comfort to 
 me when I found it on my arrival here, very 
 depressed and weary, hardly able to find comfort 
 even from Nature, in the glory which she wears 
 
 here. K has heard from C , who seems to 
 
 be full of the influence of that wonderful Rome. 
 Shall I ever see it ? I don't know. Even St. Paul 
 wanted to ' see Rome.' " 
 
 From Veytaux he was summoned, evidently 
 much against his will, to take the winter chaplaincy 
 at Pegli, near Genoa. The following characteristic 
 letter to his friend, Professor Henry Attwell of 
 Barnes, shows that although he would rather have 
 stayed at Veytaux, he was quite disposed to make 
 the best of and enjoy to the utmost his new 
 surroundings. To be on Italian ground was a new 
 experience to him, and with his mind so full as it 
 was of power to appreciate everything that was 
 
 1 Beginning, " Pourquoi reprendre, O Pere tendre, 
 Les biens dont Tu nvas cowonne ? " 
 
SWITZERLAND AND ITALY IO3 
 
 beautiful in nature and art, and every historical 
 association, it is no wonder that when once settled, 
 lie enjoyed the change thoroughly. 
 
 " Casa Puppo, Pegli, Genova, Italia, 
 
 "Jan. 21, 1885. 
 
 "Mv DEAR PROFESSOR, 
 
 "The snowstorm which has blocked 
 Mont Cenis has not only kept our children from 
 joining us, but has kept us for some days separate 
 from all English letters and papers. Last night, 
 however, a telegram reached us from Veytaux, and 
 I hope that this letter will make its way to you in 
 a day or two without unusual delay. Let it bring 
 you not only all good wishes for 1885, but most 
 cordial thanks to you for your most welcome New 
 Year's letter, and for the valued MS. from Max 
 Miiller, which has caused you so much kind trouble ; 
 and of which more anon. 
 
 "You will be glad to hear that we are safely 
 lodged on a c piano ' in a respectable Italian house, 
 not exactly in sight of the Mediterranean, at least 
 not on its shore, but in full southern sunshine, and 
 with many elements of interest and enjoyment. 
 We have pretty views both of the sea and the 
 Apennines from the Piano above. The S. P. G. 
 Secretary summoned me hither in rather a head- 
 long way from Veytaux, and at first there was 
 everything to make the contrast emphatically 
 disagreeable. We came from those ever-delightful 
 mountains to the suburbs of a busy Italian city, 1 
 from chalets picturesque in spite of themselves, 
 1 i.e. Genoa,, 
 
IO4 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 where every shed and every fountain was a picture, 
 to rows of hideously-painted and colour-washed 
 tall houses ; from a very happy and congenial 
 group of English exiles, whom Christmas had 
 drawn together into a very pleasant intimacy, to a 
 huge barrack of a German hotel, built for some 
 hundred and twenty, and holding only the odd 
 twenty, among whom we were literally the only 
 English I had almost said the only English- 
 speaking people, but for some pleasant Dutch folk 
 who took to us rather than the Germans, and talked 
 English to us ; from a large congregation in church 
 and cheerful services to a little empty church 
 of our own. But all that is over ; and the 
 gloomy weather, which made us feel as if the 
 Sea of all history met us with a scowl, has given 
 place to sunshine, which, despite the ' tramontana,' 
 makes us feel that we are south of the Alps. And 
 as all our strange surroundings become by degrees 
 familiar, we feel that it is quite possible we may 
 grow so to like them as to be quite sorry when we 
 have to leave. Genoa itself is irresistible in its 
 attractions ; the talk about its dazzling beauty may 
 be rather * tall, 1 and its palazzi may represent a 
 good deal of tasteless luxury ; but still there they 
 are, these streets of marble buildings, all teeming 
 to this hour with busy life ; for the great names 
 of past Genoese history are still to-day the names 
 of men who build factories, launch ships, speculate 
 on companies, and amass wealth to an extent 
 which rivals what one hears of American million- 
 aires. And really if Jay Gould lived in a house built 
 for his family in Queen Elizabeth's days, hung with 
 
SWITZERLAND AND ITALY IO5 
 
 portraits by Van Dyck of seventeenth century 
 Goulds, one might inconsistently perhaps, but ex- 
 cusably think his money-making a little more re- 
 spectable. But anyhow Italy at least this Northern 
 Italy is all alive. People who have known it for 
 thirty years say the change is simply marvellous. 
 The beggary, the rags, the bare feet, the lazy 
 lounging, the filth of which one has heard I rub 
 my eyes and ask where they are ? On an average 
 one meets two beggars a day ; everybody has 
 good boots and stockings ; there are handsome 
 State schools close to this, filled with children 
 schools where at stated hours the clergy are allowed 
 to teach. Our lodgings are delightfully clean 
 ' heating ' quite superfluous ! the cookery better 
 than at Veytaux, and I don't think that six francs 
 per head a day, which includes two bottles of 
 excellent wine, is extortionate. Of course there 
 are drawbacks ; the villas of the rich, and the big 
 barracks of houses in which the working people 
 live are more hideous than can be conceived ; the 
 universal practice of hanging out of window all day 
 every shred of clothing not on the person is whole- 
 some, but not even picturesque ; and of course one's 
 nose is occasionally as much annoyed as one's 
 eyes. And Pegli is not exactly a Paradise, though 
 my church is overshadowed by a palm instead of a 
 yew-tree, and oranges hang from the trees in every 
 cottage garden in golden glory. I hope we shall be 
 very happy when we are all together again, till we are 
 released from duty here,and perhaps enabled to take 
 one peep at Florence before coming north again. 
 " I was saddened and shocked at the instant of 
 
IO6 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 leaving Veytaux by the news of Bishop Jackson's 
 sudden death, for all my personal recollections of 
 him are most happy. Inconspicuous as a public 
 man, he yet won the deep respect of men like 
 Tait and Lightfoot, indeed something like enthu- 
 siastic affection from the latter, and in his home 
 circle, and among his neighbours, he always 
 seemed a most perfect Christian gentleman. I 
 wish the Premier well over his hard task of selecting 
 his successor ; perhaps by this time it is all over. 
 
 " I have very much enjoyed the extracts from 
 Max Miiller which you have been good enough to 
 copy for me. The tribute to Stanley is touching 
 and interesting, and I am sure describes what he 
 was from Max Mtiller's point of view. The earlier 
 letter is also most interesting. All such papers 
 help one to understand and to love many who are 
 far off from us now in thought, but who will doubt- 
 less one day come from East and West and sit 
 down at the Eternal Feast of the Kingdom of 
 God, while some of us children of the Kingdom 
 find ourselves in darkness after all. If I fail to see 
 that Max Miiller realizes the absolute uniqueness 
 of our Lord, a uniqueness which I think myself 
 nothing but the Catholic hypothesis accounts for, 
 yet I feel he has grasped some of the leading 
 ideas of Christ's teaching as to the Father and 
 Himself, with a force all the more striking because 
 he approaches the question from his own special 
 point of view, that of the historian of religious 
 ideas. And he is right about the perpetual danger 
 of orthodox people lapsing into Tritheism, as well 
 as about the unreality and baseness of much 
 
SWITZERLAND AND ITALY 
 
 orthodox devotional language addressed to Christ, 
 language which paves the way for parallel addresses 
 to Mary, such as In te salus nostra est, which is 
 under a crowned Madonna not many yards from 
 this house. This comes of forgetting the teaching 
 of Christ's own prayer. 
 
 " With love to Mrs. Attwell and all your circle, 
 " Believe me ever, my dear Professor, 
 " Affectionately yours, 
 
 "JOHN ELLERTON. 
 
 " Scraps from London papers always most 
 welcome above all in this land." 
 
 The following beautiful poem not a hymn in 
 the strict sense of the word included in his Hymns 
 Original and Translated, is inserted here as show- 
 ing how his heart overflowed with love and gratitude 
 to his Heavenly Master for the rest and peace he 
 was enjoying. 
 
 HYMN OF THE WORKER ON A HOLIDAY. 
 
 Here in this peaceful time and place of rest, 
 
 I lift my thoughts, dear Master, unto Thee ; 
 
 Seeking in calm repose upon Thy breast 
 
 Some gracious pledge that Thou art come with me. 
 
 Thou too hast known the thronging of the crowd, 
 The ' many coming ' as the hours went by, 
 The weary head in deep exhaustion bowed, 
 The broken sleep, the sudden midnight cry. 
 
 All these were Thine, O Bearer of our woes ; 
 No rest for Thee our suffering manhood gave ; 
 Through Thy three years no leisure for repose, 
 Till that last Sabbath in Thy garden-grave ! 
 
IOS JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 Yet Thy compassion knows my feebler frame, 
 Mine is the rest my Master would not take ; 
 And if my work indeed be in Thy Name, 
 These quiet hours are hallowed for Thy sake. 
 
 Thou art with me ; as when Thy Twelve returned 
 And poured their tale of labours at Thy Feet, 
 Thy pitying Eye their weariness discerned, 
 Thy Love provided them some still retreat. 
 
 With Thee they climbed the gorge whence Jordan falls, 
 Saw Hermon's snowpeaks glow with dawn's red fire, 
 And watched, beneath the heathen's broken walls, 
 The blue sea whitening on the shores of Tyre. 
 
 Thou lovedst Thy fair land ; the solitudes 
 Of her grey hills, fit home for musings high ; 
 Spring with her glowing flowers and nestling broods, 
 The moonlit garden and the sunset sky. 
 
 Nor these alone ; for Thou didst condescend 
 The joys of human fellowship to share, 
 The simple welcome of some village friend, 
 Mary's deep gladness, Martha's loving care. 
 
 In toil, in leisure, I may learn of Thee ; 
 Keep Thee beside me in my mountain walk, 
 Set to Thy Name the music of the sea, 
 And open all my heart in voiceless talk. 
 
 So when Thy call shall bid me to return 
 With strength renewed, to labour in my place, 
 My lips shall overflow, my heart shall burn 
 With new revealings of Thy boundless grace. 
 
 PegU, Feb. 1885. 
 
 While in the neighbourhood of Genoa Mr. 
 Ellerton often paid visits to that city. He knew 
 that in the Poor-house there was to be seen Michael 
 Angelo's incomparable Pieta, and thus he describes 
 it : 
 
SWITZERLAND AND ITALY 1 09 
 
 "AN ITALIAN POOR-HOUSE 
 
 " High on the hillside above the city of Genoa, 
 
 surrounded by broad roads and wealthy private 
 
 houses, stands a stately building, which might be a 
 
 Royal Palace. Its stairs, its pavements, its long 
 
 pillared corridors, are of white marble ; from the 
 
 broad terrace in front you look down upon the 
 
 great harbour crowded with vessels of all countries, 
 
 upon the lighthouses, the churches, and busy 
 
 streets of the famous ' City of Palaces/ and then 
 
 the encircling arms of blue mountains clasping the 
 
 bluer sea. Over the door is a shield with that cross 
 
 of St. George which it is said England borrowed 
 
 from Genoa in the old crusading days. On a 
 
 marble tablet a long Latin inscription tells, in 
 
 rather pompous language, what levelling of rock and 
 
 filling up of valley and diverting the channel of the 
 
 mountain stream were undergone at the expense of 
 
 the citizens before this splendid building could 
 
 be raised, and of the vast sums it cost to make it 
 
 what we see it. Inside, the halls and passages and 
 
 landings are filled with statues and busts of the 
 
 greatest and wealthiest of Genoese merchant princes 
 
 and prelates. Yet no king or duke or noble ever 
 
 inhabited it. These men are commemorated here 
 
 because they were benefactors to the poor. This 
 
 marble palace is the proud city's home for her 
 
 paupers. In England we should call it a workhouse; 
 
 in Italy they call it by a kindlier name, the ' Alb ergo 
 
 del Poveri! that is, the Hostelry or Inn of the Poor. 
 
110 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 " I enter with the friend who has undertaken to 
 show me over the building ; he tells me the strange 
 story of its erection. 
 
 " Some two hundred years ago there was a great 
 famine in the city of Genoa. Multitudes died, and 
 whole families begged their bread starving in the 
 streets. The compassion of the city was aroused ; 
 it was determined to provide a home for the poor, 
 where for ever after they should be lodged, fed, and 
 clothed. Large sums were contributed, and the 
 site was cleared after the fashion described in the 
 inscription. When all was ready to begin the 
 building, another grievous calamity befell Genoa 
 a terrible pestilence. People died faster than ground 
 could be provided to bury them. There was no 
 available space outside the walls but this which 
 was already set apart for the Home of the Poor. 
 This ground then became the last resting-place of 
 the plague-stricken. Nine thousand corpses were 
 buried upon the hill-side. Years passed on, and 
 at last it was thought safe to resume the work ; and 
 over the resting-place of the dead arose, after long 
 delay, the marble Palace of the Poor. 
 
 " It is a great square with a cross intersecting it. 
 One side is set apart for men, and the other for 
 women. It is planned for 1800 inmates, and about 
 1 200 are now inhabiting it. They are admitted upon 
 the recommendation of some respectable person, 
 about this no difficulty is made ; and once admitted, 
 they are provided for till death, from the funds of 
 the Institution. There is little comfort, according 
 to our English notions ; and in winter the cold is 
 intense, for Genoa is scourged by bitter north winds 
 
SWITZERLAND AND ITALY III 
 
 from the mountains, and no provision is made for 
 warming the vast passages and stairs. In summer 
 it must be pleasant enough ; and the old men and 
 women sun themselves, as Italians love to do, in 
 the many balconies on which their windows open, 
 and look out upon the gardens, and the city, and 
 the mountains, and the sea. 
 
 " In the centre of the whole building is the chapel. 
 Thither my friend led me, saying, * There is one 
 thing only which you must look at here ; keep your 
 mind undistracted for that.' So we stopped before 
 an altar, behind which, let into the wall, is a circle 
 of marble about two feet across. Before this we 
 stood long, hushed and awe-struck. Two heads 
 only, that of the dead Saviour and the mourning 
 Mother bending over Him, as she supports Him on 
 her arm. Her face is very quiet, there is no 
 theatrical display of grief; she is not meant to 
 attract you by her beauty, though a beauty beyond 
 description seems to pass from the face to your 
 heart as you look. The Christ lies dead ; the damp 
 of death seems almost to stand upon His brow, but 
 all pain and agony are passed out of it. It seems 
 as if the mother's face had grown calm by long 
 gazing into His. The sword has pierced her soul, 
 but already the wound has begun to heal. It is 
 not yet Hope, but it is perfect Peace even in the 
 deepest depth of her darkness. The accompanying 
 illustration, from a photograph taken from the 
 original, may help to illustrate my description it 
 can do no more. 
 
 " The history of this piece of sculpture is unknown, 
 except that it belonged to a great Cardinal long 
 
112 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 ago, and that at his death his family gave it to the 
 Home of the Poor. It is often said to be by the 
 great Michael Angelo, but no one really knows. 
 The Italians have had a careful copy made of it, and 
 placed in the new Museum of Michael Angelo's 
 works at Florence. In England I am afraid the 
 original would have been sold for the benefit of the 
 Hospital Funds, and the copy left in the chapel. 
 But it is not so here. And surely of all the gifts 
 that in her proud and ostentatious munificence this 
 city of palaces has lavished upon her poor, one of 
 the kindest and tenderest was this, the setting up 
 where these old men and women creep in daily to 
 pray to God, this precious memorial of the sorrow 
 which none other sorrow was like, which has purified, 
 hallowed, and transformed all other, to turn it at 
 last into joy." l 
 
 In April Mr. Ellerton and his family left Pegli, 
 but before turning homeward he seized the oppor- 
 tunity of visiting Florence. The impressions which 
 that city itself a poem made upon his poetic 
 mind are best gathered from his own words in the 
 following letter : 
 
 To A FRIEND IN VENICE. 
 
 "Florence^ April -22., 1885. 
 
 " MY DEAR 
 
 * * * * Yes, it is nice to think 
 
 that you and I clasp hands in Italy, and hear the 
 
 same soft language, and see the same dark faces, 
 
 full of pathos or mischief, or anything but stolid 
 
 1 Dawn of Day, Oct. 1885. 
 
SWITZERLAND AND ITALY 113 
 
 content or dull weariness ; and see great buildings 
 and famous pictures, and are living through the 
 Past of great historic cities, under this cloudless 
 sky and this bright moonlight. And as I saw 
 sunset on Fiesole and on Giotto's Tower, and the 
 lovely Campanile, where the old 'Vacca' of the 
 Palazzo Vecchio still hangs, so you saw it perhaps 
 on St. George of the Seaweed, or on the doves of 
 St. Mark, and the long fretwork of the Ducal 
 Palace. How shall we match the two Queens 
 against one another Arno against Adria ! But I 
 won't give up my Lady of the Flowers even for 
 your Queen of the Sea ! Never was so fair a gem 
 in so beautiful a setting. You will be able to tell 
 how impossible it is to describe, when one is simply 
 overwhelmed with all one sees. To sit in the awful 
 Baptistery where Dante was baptized, and look up 
 at the great mosaics of Christ enthroned, and the 
 dead rising to judgment, as his baby eyes saw 
 them ; to see sunrise and sunset and moonlight on 
 Giotto's Tower such a wonder of colour as nothing 
 can paint ; to go from church to church covered 
 with those great mosaics which take hours to 
 appreciate one had rather say days ; to see with 
 one's own eyes the places sacred to such immortal 
 memories ; to stand in the Loggia dei Lanzi and 
 think of that awful Palm Sunday, and that still 
 more awful June day in the great square below ; 
 to people with one multitude the vast area of the 
 empty Duomo where the Prophet l so often spoke ; 
 to stand by the graves of Pico and Galileo, and 
 Antonino, and Michael Angelo no ! there can be 
 
 1 Savonarola. 
 
 H 
 
114 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 no place like Florence. And then there are the 
 Galleries, of which we have as yet seen only three 
 or four rooms of one, and that contains more 
 precious things than I ever saw before. I really 
 don't know where to begin. I think, however, 
 some distinct impressions are coming upon me. 
 
 " First, of the wonderful greatness of Giotto. He 
 is as saintly as Fra Angelico, and far more human. 
 Oh that you could see his fresco in Santa Croce of the 
 spirit of St. John rising up to join the Blessed One 
 so many years parted from him. The friends and 
 disciples are looking into the open grave, in quiet, 
 peaceful sorrow, knowing all is well, but feeling 
 that the last of the Apostles is gone, and the first 
 age of the Church is over. But one looks up in 
 faith, and this is -what he sees : the old man's form 
 is being drawn upward, with such a look of peace 
 and joy and love upon his face, which says, 'At 
 last I am to be with Him and see Him again.' 
 And from heaven He stretches down in very 
 human love, holding out both hands to welcome 
 John, as one would welcome a dear friend or brother 
 coming home from abroad. And behind Him are 
 the other ten James's young face looking over 
 His shoulder Peter almost inclined to press 
 forward even before his Master, but keeping back, 
 only thrusting his arms out saying, ' Dear John, I 
 must have the next embrace ' ; it brings happy 
 tears to one's eyes. Scarcely less lovely are the 
 two I have just seen at S. M. Novella, the Joachim 
 and Anna, and the Birth of Mary the sweet, 
 placid baby face, and the nurse and servants 
 wondering at the little thing ; and the old Mother 
 
SWITZERLAND AND ITALY 11$ 
 
 lying pale and with half-shut eyes, but so happy 
 and thankful, with her cheek on her hand. Cimabue's 
 Madonna is very hard to see, but it is indeed 
 worthy to make the street where it was painted the 
 Borgo Allegro. 
 
 " We are working very slowly, but as thoroughly 
 as we can ; resting for two or three hours at mid- 
 day, and only walking or strolling in the evening, 
 for the mornings are tiring. We are putting off 
 San Marco till Sunday, finding each of the greater 
 churches more than enough for a day, and there is 
 so much ! S. M. Novella alone would fill volumes of 
 lovely photographs, were it possible to photograph 
 all, and Santa Croce another. Except the great 
 statues and a few Titians, we have as yet seen no 
 art that is not Florentine. What a place ! 
 
 "Well, I must stop now, for we must go for our 
 drive. Tell me all about Carpaccio's Sta. Ursula, 
 the Paradise, and the Scuola di San Rocco 
 especially'.' 
 
 In May 1885 the party returned to England, and 
 shortly after his arrival Mr. Ellerton, vastly reno- 
 vated in mind and body by his delightful visit 
 to the continent, was presented by Sir Spencer 
 Maryon Wilson, Bart, to the Rectory of White 
 Roding, Essex. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 18851893 
 
 WHITE ROBING 
 Hymns Ancient and Modern The Last Hymns The Close 
 
 SHORTLY after his return from the continent Mr. 
 Ellerton was presented to the Rectory of White 
 Roding, one of the nine villages to which the 
 Roding gives its name 1 as it winds between the 
 hills and flats of Essex to join the Thames near 
 Barking. This piece of preferment he owed to the 
 kind mediation of his old friend and fellow-worker, 
 Bishop Walsham How, who represented to Sir 
 Spencer Maryon Wilson, the patron, that "the best 
 living hymn-writer," as he himself calls him, was at 
 that time without a benefice. 
 
 White Roding is a scattered parish lying on a 
 bleak Essex hill, amid scenery totally devoid of 
 any special interest, and being five miles from 
 Sawbridgeworth, on the Great Eastern Railway, 
 the nearest station, was inconveniently situated for 
 a literary man. The rectory is a substantial old 
 
 1 Roding-Abbess, Roding Aythorpe, Roding-Beauchamp, 
 Roding-Berners, High Roding, Leaden Roding, Margaret 
 Roding, and White Roding, with its hamlet Morrell Roding. 
 116 
 
WHITE RODING 117 
 
 house, with a large garden surrounded on three 
 sides by a moat, and the church stands close by, its 
 little spire forming a landmark for many a desolate 
 mile. But the new rector rejoiced in the place as 
 affording a welcome retreat after the toil and turmoil 
 of populous Barnes. The demands of the parish 
 on his time were not excessive, leaving him leisure 
 to devote his pen more freely than before to the 
 service of the Church. 
 
 In a very charming and characteristic letter to 
 his friend, Professor Attwell of Barnes, he thus 
 describes his new home : 
 
 " The Rectory, White Roothin^, Dunmoiv, 
 "July 1$, 1885. 
 
 " MY DEAR PROFESSOR, 
 
 " I have deprived myself of a pleasure 
 in neglecting so long to write to you, for your last 
 letter was provocative of a reply, and I hope this 
 will bring me before long another in return. 
 
 " I am rapidly discovering the pleasure of return- 
 ing to my old vocation of a country parson ; and 
 certainly this delightful summer weather presents 
 the life to us all on its brightest side. It is very 
 pleasant to have what I have always longed to 
 have an old church with some historical interest 
 about it, and thoroughly English looking ; and I 
 never see its shingled spire peeping through the 
 elms and limes, or its grey tower with a foreground 
 of corn-fields and a background of dark trees, with- 
 out a fresh pleasure in thinking of it as something 
 full of true English beauty and charm, of which 
 one can never tire. We delight also in our green 
 
Il8 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 and very unconventional garden, just one of those 
 which arose before people knew how to separate 
 use from beauty, or to fancy they could be separated ; 
 so that you scarcely know where your roses end and 
 your cabbages begin. The greater part of the 
 house is I should think seventeenth century, one or 
 two rooms perhaps older, with a very ugly but com- 
 fortable addition made some thirty-five years ago 
 by an old rector a great Evangelical and Calvinist 
 light in his day, the Rev. Henry Budd, of whose 
 (successive) wives, nightcap, sermons, tithe-taking, 
 and perambulations of the parish there are many 
 stories. Evidently a very worthy, pious, simple- 
 minded old man, with a propensity for writing 
 somewhat Johnsonian epitaphs upon his wives, 
 curates, and parishioners. In 1877 my excellent 
 predecessor, Jacob North, a scholarly, liberal-minded, 
 genial man, and a very admirable clergyman, came 
 with his wife and family. He soon lost his sight ; 
 but his mind directed everything, and his children 
 were the saving of the parish. Their personal 
 influence upon old and young, and their indefatig- 
 able energy in both work and play, were the 
 greatest blessing to the place. 
 
 " We like our neighbours very much I 
 
 need scarcely say they are all very shy of my 
 alleged politics, but I think I am beginning to 
 reassure them. Our Conservative candidate is a 
 more than respectable member of the party, Sir 
 H. Selwin Ibbetson, a very typical good squire, 
 church restorer, master of hounds, and a most 
 kindly and considerate landlord to his poorest 
 cottagers just the man one would look to see 
 
WHITE ROBING 119 
 
 among these quiet old-world villages and comfort- 
 able farm-houses. It requires an effort to call to 
 mind that the men who seek to represent us in 
 Essex are not typical embodiments of the principles 
 at stake. In fact, I never felt more independent of 
 party sympathies, I think, than now. 
 
 " I have been rather too busy with housing books 
 to have time to read them of late. My old friend 
 Dr. Hort came here for two nights at the close of 
 term, and brought with him Harnack's pamphlet 
 about the now famous Faioum fragment, the fac- 
 simile of which he showed me, as well as some 
 interesting photographs of the * Didache.' He is 
 strongly of opinion that Bickell's fragment, if it 
 is indeed third century, is a fragment not of 
 a ' Gospel ' properly so-called, but either of a 
 collection of Logia, or sayings of our Lord, or else 
 a treatise in which the writer certainly cites the 
 narrative, from memory, in a purposely abridged 
 form. He relies a good deal on the substitution 
 of the ordinary words for ' cock ' and * crow ' for the 
 less usual indeed almost unique ones employed 
 by the Synoptists ; just what a man would do 
 who was writing from memory, and had to mention 
 the conversation. He was very much edified by 
 the Times describing Harnack as a ' fervid Roman 
 Catholic.' Bickell is, I believe, a convert to Rome, 
 but Harnack, though I believe rather ' fervid ' as 
 a critic, is a very decided Protestant indeed. 
 
 " I have just read rapidly about half the first vol. 
 of Croker's Correspondence a case in which the 
 typical Georgian office-jobber does, I fear, show 
 through all the whitewash still. But it raises one's 
 
120 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 impression of Croker's shrewdness and ability. I 
 hope you will get the book, if only for a deliciously 
 witty letter from Peel about Babbage's calculating 
 machine. Pattison and Mozley I have not yet 
 seen, being not yet en rapport with Mudie again, 
 but only with an old-fashioned so-called ' Clerical ' 
 Book Club, which gives one but barren fare." 
 
 Again, in a letter to the writer of these lines, 
 he says, " I have said nothing of the house, which 
 is an odd, rambling old place, with, however, an 
 excellent drawing-room and dining-room, and a 
 quaint little den for myself where I am writing, of 
 course with a cat on the chair beside me, and with 
 the door open on a sunny lawn. The garden is 
 most delightful, and quite took me by surprise. 
 It is very rough and old-fashioned, but I hope we 
 shall make a Trapabfio-os l of it by a fair amount of 
 Adam and Eve's work. As my predecessor good 
 and holy man as he was lost his sight, and his 
 wife and daughters were absorbed in curate's work, 
 the house and garden have suffered a good deal of 
 late, but I hope we shall be able to get them in 
 a tidy state without neglecting the parish." 
 
 To his great delight he found the church pro- 
 vided with a very good organ. The choir was 
 mixed, and it was a pretty sight to see the village 
 maidens in their white choir dresses in the front 
 row, with the boys and men in surplices behind. 
 
 By this time 1885 his hymn-work was practi- 
 cally done. Church Hymns had been completed 
 in 1 88 1, and the Children's Hymn-Book the same 
 year. All the hymns on which his fame mainly 
 1 Paradise. 
 
WHITE RODING 121 
 
 rests had now been written, and henceforward his 
 work was chiefly correspondence with other editors, 
 and the occasional writing of a hymn. The com- 
 pilers of Hymns A ncient and Modern had frequently 
 consulted him, but it was not until the preparation 
 of the " Complete Edition " was in hand that he 
 became one of the Committee. His leisure was 
 now devoted mainly to prose, and it was at White 
 Rod ing that he wrote The Great Indwelling, or 
 Thoughts on the Relation of Holy Communion to 
 the Spiritual Life, a work small in volume but 
 full of deepest insight into the mystery on which 
 it meditates. It contains too the graceful little 
 poems on * The old in their relation to the young,' 
 4 Down the lane at evening time! and a sonnet on 
 ' The evening service of Man,' beginning 
 
 " I would not linger idly by the strand 
 Of that dim water which I soon shall pass." 
 
 It was here too that he composed The Twilight 
 of Life, his De Senectute, as he playfully called 
 it, " full of helpful and cheering thoughts on the 
 special conditions, trials, encouragements, and 
 blessings of advancing life, and rich in bright and 
 beautiful teaching founded on Holy Scripture and 
 reason on the hope of reunion with our beloved 
 ones in the world above." 1 The book, published 
 by Cassells, is considerately printed in large 
 type. He also about this time made his translation 
 of Thomas a Kempis's Imitation of Christ. But 
 the largest and most important work at White 
 Roding was his editing the Manual of Parochial 
 
 1 Obituary notice in The Christian Age, June 28, 1893. 
 
122 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 Work, a series of articles "by writers who have 
 special knowledge or experience in the subjects of 
 which they treat." 1 Of the twenty-nine chapters 
 or sections which the book contains, six, and part 
 of a seventh, are from his own pen. It was pub- 
 lished in 1888, and has had, we believe, a large sale. 
 Occasionally Canon Ellerton would allow his 
 muse to lead him into other fields than those 
 devoted to hymns. He could when he chose write 
 very elegant sonnets, two of which are given here. 
 The earliest is written in a volume of Keble's ser- 
 mons given to his wife ; the other is a New Year's 
 greeting to his friends from White Roding. 
 
 C. A. E. FEB. 18, 1875. 
 TAKE, dearest, this, thy Lenten thoughts to guide, 
 
 The precious words of Hursley's well-loved saint : 
 
 Not here the Poet, weaving garlands quaint 
 Of verse devout, for every holy tide ; 
 Not here the Champion, on his Master's side, 
 
 Skilful to ply his Logic's keen-edged sword, 
 
 Stern to avenge the honour of his Lord ; 
 Not here the Scholar, gathering far and wide 
 
 The classic lore which once he held so dear : 
 This is the Pastor, yearning o'er his flock, 
 To call them to the shadow of the Rock. 
 
 Still from his rest those accents calm and clear 
 Tell of the Narrow Way which led him there, 
 The Cross borne for us, and the Cross we bear. 
 
 "We wish you Good Luck in the Name of the Lord." Psalm cxxix. 3. 
 
 O FRIENDS, from under skies of ashen grey 
 What tokens can we send you o'er the snow, 
 While not a flower as yet has leave to blow, 
 
 And early we shut out the short dark day ? 
 
 1 Preface. 
 
WHITE ROBING 123 
 
 Yet thoughts are free through curtained panes to go 
 And find you out and bring you unawares 
 Memories of brighter days, and silent prayers, 
 With power, methinks, to set your heart aglow. 
 Fain would we send you, ere the year expire, 
 Some word that tells you of our hearts' desire . 
 Hark ! from their tower the midnight bells proclaim 
 In changing tones the One Unchanging Name: 
 Then in that Name, O friends, both far and near, 
 Good luck we wish you in the new-born year. 
 
 So far back as 1870, while Mr. Ellerton was at 
 Crewe Green, he had been applied to by the Rev. 
 E. H. Bickersteth, now Bishop of Exeter, for per- 
 mission to insert his hymn, " Saviour, again," in 
 the first edition of the Hymnal Companion. His 
 letter in reply is well worth preserving, as it 
 shows his opinion on the frequently discussed 
 question respecting the guarding of hymns by 
 copyright. 
 
 " Crewe Green, Creive, 
 "Jan. 31, 1870. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 " You are most welcome to use the hymn 
 you mention. The new S. P. C. K. Appendix has 
 the longer form of it, but I shortened and revised 
 it for Sir Henry Baker, and I think the shorter 
 form is the better, but you can choose either. 
 
 " Thank you much for your own hymns. Some 
 of them I know well, others are new to me. 
 
 " I entirely sympathize in your feeling about 
 hymns as a gift to the Church of Christ. If one 
 is counted worthy to contribute to His praise in 
 the congregation, one ought to feel very thankful, 
 and very humble. So any of my hymns which are 
 
124 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 in my own power I always give freely, but a few 
 have been written for friends and at their request, 
 and these I cannot dispose of. I am also busy 
 with two friends in compiling a book, and of course 
 those of my writing or translating which are done 
 for that book are joint property. However, I am 
 glad to say that the hymn you approve of is free 
 to any who ask for it. 
 
 " I am, my dear sir, 
 
 " Yours very faithfully, 
 "JOHN ELLERTON. 
 
 The success which attended the first and second 
 editions of the Hymnal Companion led in 1889 to 
 the preparation of a third, and again we find the 
 right reverend compiler applying to Mr. Ellerton 
 for permission to make a still larger use of his 
 hymns than before. The following is the answer 
 which the Bishop received : 
 
 " The Rectory, White Roding, Dunmow, 
 "Aprils, 1889. 
 
 " MY DEAR LORD BISHOP, 
 
 " I thank you very much for the kind way 
 in which you have put your request for more of 
 my hymns. Your judgment respecting them is a 
 great solace to me, for I know that your Lordship 
 can enter into the feelings with which some of 
 them were written ; and that you know how often 
 one's own hymns rise up in condemnation of one's 
 coldness and faithlessness. So that there are times 
 when it does really cheer one for a Father in God 
 to say, ' I think God helped you to write that, and 
 
WHITE ROBING 125 
 
 I think He has made it a blessing to one and 
 another.' 
 
 " I need hardly say how gladly I would place at 
 your Lordship's disposal any of my hymns which 
 you think useful. I never have made any of them 
 copyright, so that the Hymns A ncient and Modern 
 compilers will have no reason to complain of your 
 selecting from the Appendix the two you mention 
 in addition to the others. The text in the supple- 
 ment to Hymns Ancient and Modern contains a few 
 variations which I shall be glad if your Lordship 
 will look upon as my latest revision of them. That 
 for teachers originally began, 
 
 ' Break Thou to us, O Lord, 
 The Bread of Life to-day,' 
 
 but I think that is an inappropriate use of our 
 Lord's metaphor, which is never applied to teaching, 
 so that I have altered it. 1 
 
 " I am writing to Skeffington to ask him to send 
 your Lordship my little volume of collected hymns, 
 which I hope you will do me the kindness to 
 accept, in return for much enjoyment of yours. I 
 am most grateful for those you have been so good 
 as to send me. I read with delight in the Church 
 Missionary Intelligencer your translation of Xavier's 
 
 1 The revised version runs 
 
 " Shine Thou upon us, Lord, 
 True Light of men to-day." 
 
 Hymns Ancient and Modern, 580. 
 
 The original, however, is preserved in the Collected Hymns, 
 p.* 64. 
 
126 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 hymn, 1 but the hymn for Holy Communion, and 
 that for the House of Mercy, are both of them quite 
 new to me, and you will pardon my saying how 
 very beautiful I feel them to be. 
 
 " I am so glad that * Peace, perfect peace ' and 
 its tune are in the Hymns Ancient and Modern 
 supplement. Beyond all your hymns I think it 
 has brought blessing to many, and I know how it 
 has helped the faith of some of God's sorely-tried 
 children. Our Essex poor folk love it dearly." 
 
 " The Rectory p , White Roding, Dunmow y 
 "Nov. 14, 1889. 
 
 " MY DEAR LORD, 
 
 " I can only to-day just acknowledge the 
 receipt of your Lordship's very kind letter. If I 
 can be of any service in looking over the proofs 
 you send me, it will be a great pleasure to do so. 
 I feel thankful for the opportunity of being still 
 of some little use now that God has given me in 
 my declining years a quiet sphere of work that 
 leaves me some leisure. 
 
 "I am so glad to see your translation of O 
 quanta qualia. I had two days ago a MS. trans- 
 lation sent me by Mr. Pott ; but I like Neale's 
 metre, and the lovely French tune ; and I shall 
 like to examine your version in detail. 
 
 " As to your Lordship's other request, I scarcely 
 know what to say. If the power seems given to 
 
 1 " O Deus ego amo Te, 
 
 Nee amo Te ut salves me." 
 
 The Bishop's version begins, " O God, I love Thee ; not 
 that my poor love," and is included in the last edition of the 
 Hymnal Companion. 
 
WHITE ROD1NG 127 
 
 me to make anything of so great a subject which 
 can be at all useful, I shall be very thankful ; but 
 I do not know whether I shall be able. I will keep 
 it standing in mind during the next week or two. 
 
 "Do you know Vinet's marvellous hymn Sous 
 ton voile d'ignominie ? It is in the S.P.C.K. Channel 
 Island book of French hymns, as well as in the 
 Chants Chretiens, and in the book used generally 
 in the Canton de Vaud. I want to try my hand 
 at it for a hymn for Good Friday. 1 May I send 
 it you to criticize if I seem to succeed ? It is, 
 I think, a very great hymn in its own way, as a 
 meditation on the Love of the Atonement. 
 " Believe me, my dear Lord, 
 
 " Very sincerely yours, 
 
 "JOHN ELLERTON." 
 
 How highly the Bishop valued the assistance of 
 Canon Ellerton, the late Sir Henry W. Baker, and 
 of Dr. Walsham How, Bishop of Wakefield, may 
 be gathered from his graceful acknowledgment of 
 their services in his Introduction to the Hymnal 
 Companion, where he says 
 
 " Nothing could exceed the true brotherly kind- 
 ness, for I can express it by no other word, with 
 which they have met my requests and helped my 
 work." 
 
 Feeling that his work as a hymn-writer was 
 now practically done, he collected all that he had 
 composed and translated into a volume entitled 
 Hymns Original and Translated^ a copy of which, 
 as we have seen in his letter of April 24, he pre- 
 1 The translation is given p. 1 50. 
 
128 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 sented to his fellow labourer and brother poet, 
 Bishop E. H. Bickersteth. It contains seventy-six 
 pieces, including the longer and shorter versions 
 of " Saviour, again." Of them, eight were written 
 in his Essex rectory, namely 
 
 1. "O Father, bless the children." For Holy 
 Baptism ; scarcely so much a hymn in the full 
 Augustinian sense of the word as a very beautiful 
 invocation addressed to the Three Persons of the 
 Holy Trinity on behalf of the baptized. 
 
 2. "O Jerusalem the blissful, Home of gladness 
 yet untold." For the restoration of a church, trans- 
 lated from O Beata Hiemsalem, a Mozarabic 
 Breviary hymn at least as old as the eleventh 
 century. 
 
 3. " Praise to the Heavenly Wisdom." For the 
 Festival of St. Matthias. These three hymns were 
 written for, and first appeared in, the " complete 
 edition" of Hymns Ancient and Modern. The 
 other hymns belonging to this latest period were 
 the following, none of which are, so far as we 
 know, incorporated into any hymnal. 
 
 4. " Thrice Holy, Thrice Almighty Lord." For 
 Trinity Sunday, translated from the French 
 Breviary hymn Ter sancte, ter potens Dens, by 
 Claude de Santeiiil (d. 1684). Of the version in 
 Church Hymns, the translation of the first three 
 verses is by Chandler, and that of the last two 
 by Mr. Ellerton ; showing that though the version 
 in the collected hymns is dated June I, 1886, he 
 must have made a translation at some earlier period. 
 
 5. " English children, lift your voices." A most 
 loyal children's hymn, for Queen Victoria's Jubilee, 
 
WHITE ROBING 129 
 
 1887, written for Skeffington's collection of Jubilee 
 hymns. 
 
 6. "Again Thou meetest in Thy way." For the 
 Sunday after a funeral. 
 
 7. " Spirit of God, Whose glory." A fine hymn 
 for the opening of a parish room, written for the 
 dedication of the Charles Lamb Memorial Build- 
 ings, Easter Monday, April 2, 1888. 
 
 We may include here a hymn the date of which 
 is lost 
 
 8. "This is the hour when in full brightness 
 glowing." For sext in Passion-tide, translated 
 from Charles Coffin's Paris Breviary hymn Jam 
 solis excelsum jubar. A version beginning " Behold 
 the radiant sun on high," by J. D. Chambers, is 
 in the Hymnary. 
 
 The hymns written subsequent to the publica- 
 tion of Hymns Original and Translated (1888), 
 now collected for the first time, are given in full 
 in another place. 1 
 
 It now only remains to give some account of 
 Mr. Ellerton's connection with Hymns Ancient 
 and Modern, the last service he rendered to the 
 hymnody of the Church of England. 
 
 1 See p. 138. 
 
HYMNS ANCIENT AND MODERN 1 
 
 THE first edition of this world-renowned book 
 was published in 1861. The idea of reducing the 
 chaotic state of English hymnody which up to that 
 time had prevailed into something like order by 
 the compilation of one book of commanding merit 
 originated with the Rev. F. H. Murray, Rector of 
 Chislehurst, in Kent. The carrying out of the 
 idea was committed to the late Rev. Sir Henry 
 W. Baker, who associated with himself some 
 twenty clergymen, including the editors of many 
 existing hymnals, who agreed to give up their 
 several books in order, as far as might be, to 
 promote the use of one. 
 
 Small as the book was in its first edition, it at 
 once gained the confidence of the Church. The 
 lines upon which it was constructed were widely 
 recognized as the right lines. Although only con- 
 
 1 Much of the information here given is taken from a 
 paper by the Rev. W. Pulling, Chairman of the H. A. M. 
 Committee, read 3t the Swansea Church Congress, 1879, 
 from a communication addressed to me by the Rev. G. 
 Cosby White, the present chairman, and from the papers 
 of Mr. Ellerton himself, kindly lent me by his son, the Rev. 
 F. G. Ellerton. 
 
 130 
 
HYMNS ANCIENT AND MODERN 131 
 
 taining 273 hymns, 132 were translations from the 
 Latin, 10 from the German, 119 English hymns 
 already well known and loved, and 12 were 
 original. 1 Thus the hymnody of the Western 
 Church was to a considerable extent represented. 
 It contained, moreover, the vital principle of growth. 
 So favourably was it received that the necessity 
 of an Appendix soon became apparent. This was 
 added in 1868, when 113 more hymns of sterling 
 merit were published, including two of Mr. Eller- 
 ton's original compositions, 2 and his translation of 
 the Alleluia perenne. In April 1872 the sub- 
 committee reported that "they had carefully 
 digested a large number of answers to two sets 
 of questions circulated as widely as possible ; have 
 considered all new matter hitherto proposed to 
 them, and hope that they may be able after their 
 next meeting to print the first rough draft of the 
 revised book." 
 
 The final outcome of this and subsequent meet- 
 ings was the publication of the Revised Edition of 
 1875. It contained 473 hymns, of which the fol- 
 lowing ten, in addition to the three which were in 
 the first Appendix, were either composed or trans- 
 lated by Mr. Ellerton. 
 
 1. "Joy! because the circling year." From the 
 Latin. 
 
 2. " King of Saints ! to Whom the number." 
 
 3. " Lift the strain of high thanksgiving." 
 
 4. " Now the labourer's task is o'er." 
 
 5. " O Son of God, our Captain of salvation.'* 
 
 1 Julian. 
 
 2 " Saviour, again," and " This is the day of light." 
 
132 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 6. " O Strength and Stay upholding all Creation." 
 From the Latin. 
 
 7. " Our day of praise is done." 
 
 8. " Thou Who sentest Thine Apostles." 
 
 9. " Throned upon the awful Tree." 
 
 10. " We sing the glorious conquest." 
 
 But although he had been from time to time 
 consulted by the compilers, Mr. Ellerton's formal 
 connection with Hymns Ancient and Modern dates 
 from 1885. In the spring of that year he was 
 invited to a Conference of Priests and Laymen to 
 consider the further enlargement of the book, it 
 having been represented to the compilers "that 
 an impression exists that it is desirable to supple- 
 ment their book from the large stores of new 
 hymns which have been given to the Church 
 since the publication of the Revised Edition in 
 
 1875." 
 
 The result of this Conference will be seen 
 in the following letter from the Rev. William 
 Pulling, then Chairman of the Committee of 
 Compilers. 
 
 " Eastnor Rectory, Ledbury, 
 "July 1885. 
 
 " DEAR MR. ELLERTON, 
 
 " I have the pleasure of communicating 
 to you the resolution passed at a meeting of 
 H. A. M. on Wednesday last. 
 
 "That having considered the Report of the 
 Meeting held May 20, at the Army and Navy 
 Hotel, we resolve, in compliance with the almost 
 unanimous opinion expressed alike by those pre- 
 sent at that meeting, and by those invited but 
 
HYMNS ANCIENT AND MODERN 133 
 
 unable to attend, that some additions be made to 
 H. A. M. 
 
 "We are very grateful to you for the kind 
 assistance which you afforded us towards coming 
 to a decision upon the important question discussed 
 at that Conference. And we shall be glad of your 
 further kind help in the steps which we are initi- 
 ating to carry our Resolution into effect" 
 
 A further Meeting was held in October, to which 
 Mr. Ellerton was invited as consultee. The 
 subjects discussed were 
 
 1. Hymns for the seasons not proper for the 
 Festival itself, especially Easter. 
 
 2. Hymns addressed to the praise of God the 
 Father. 
 
 3. Hymns for Holy Baptism ; Holy Eucharist. 
 
 4. General Hymns. 
 
 5. Hymns suitable for instructions and Mission 
 Services on Sunday evenings. 
 
 6. Hymns suitable for use on Sundays. 
 
 So highly were Mr. Ellerton's services esteemed 
 by the compilers, that in the next year the Chair- 
 man, now the Rev. G. Cosby White, wrote to him 
 in the following complimentary terms 
 
 " San Gemignano^ 
 
 " Wednesday, May 19, 1886. 
 
 "Mv DEAR MR. ELLERTON, 
 
 "You have been so kind in giving your 
 valuable assistance in collecting materials for the 
 Supplement of Hymns Ancient and Modern^ that 
 we are emboldened to ask a further favour. Would 
 you be so kind as to help us in arriving at a final 
 
134 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 decision as to the admission or rejection of the 
 hymns which have been suggested : to strengthen, 
 in fact, as an Assessor our ' Final Court of Appeal/ 
 and if so, would you kindly meet us on the after- 
 noon of Tuesday, June 8, at Arundel House, pre- 
 paratory to a General Meeting of the Consultees 
 on the following day ? " 
 
 His eldest son, the Rev. F. G. Ellerton, in a 
 letter to me referring to this period, says 
 
 "From this time he was very much engaged 
 until the publication of the book in 1889, both 
 with the general work of selecting and judging, 
 and also in translating hymns from the Latin. 
 He re-cast two of his own, ' From east to west,' 
 and c Bride of Christ,' l which had appeared in 
 Church Hymns, and was for a long time occupied 
 over a rendering of O Beata Hierusalem, with sug- 
 gestions from the Rev. Jackson Mason : these two 
 last hymns he was very fond of. So too he in 
 turn contributed suggestions to the translations of 
 others. The translations were a feature of the 
 Supplement, and he much enjoyed his old work 
 of translating, and his Daniel's Thesaurus was 
 often consulted, and he asked me, and you too 
 no doubt, for suggestions. It is no doubt a ques- 
 tion whether the translations are popular, but 
 1 Bride of Christ ' always seems to me very fine." 
 
 The following letter to the Rev. G. Cosby White, 
 
 accompanying two translations from the Latin, is 
 
 interesting. As the version of Puer Natus never 
 
 seems to have been published it is given on p. 148. 
 
 1 See p. 84. 
 
HYMNS ANCIENT AND MODERN 135 
 
 " The Rectory, White Roding, 
 
 "July 22, 1887. 
 
 "Mv DEAR WHITE, 
 
 "I send you (i) Piier Natus, with cor- 
 rections by Jackson Mason. I rather prefer in 
 v. 2, 
 
 ''Here in a manger He doth lie.' 1 
 
 {Hie jacet in praesepio.) 
 
 But J. M.'s second line is better than mine. His 
 verse about Bos et asinus is also a great improve- 
 ment. Please substitute it for mine. I do not 
 quite like 
 
 ' He comes, yet of our blood in truth. 3 
 
 But if you prefer it let it be so. It is good to get 
 in sanguine. I also prefer J. M.'s Doxology, 2 which 
 is nearly what was on my first draft. 
 
 "2. Sponsa Christi (H. A. M. 618). 
 
 "J. M. has seen my suggested alterations, and 
 approves of them all. The only one of importance 
 is 
 
 ' Blessed Virgin Mother,' 
 for 
 
 ' Mother Ever- Virgin.' 
 
 Do you not think that (apart from our own in- 
 dividual sympathies) the use of the first phrase 
 rather than the second will tend to a more 
 harmonious and general acceptance of the hymn ? 
 
 1 J. M. suggested 
 
 " He in a manger-bed doth lie, 
 Who holds unbounded sovereignty." 
 
 2 " Praise we the Holy Three in One, 
 
 And thank our God for His dear Son." 
 
136 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 I should be so sorry to see the question raised and 
 discussed among those who otherwise would gladly 
 and thankfully receive the book. But having said 
 this to you, I shall say no more. To myself 
 personally the phrase would be no stumbling- 
 block. The holy Mother of our Lord is to me for 
 all time the ' Blessed Virgin Mary.' " 
 
 The complete edition of Hymns Ancient and 
 Modern, that is, the edition of 1875 with a Supple- 
 ment, was published in 1889. Of the 165 hymns 
 of which the Supplement is composed, no less 
 than 13 are by Mr. Ellerton, namely 
 
 1. " Behold us, Lord, a little space." 
 
 2. " Bride of Christ, whose glorious warfare." 
 From the Latin. 
 
 3. " From east to west, from shore to shore." 
 From the Latin. 
 
 4. " God of the living, in Whose eyes." 
 
 5. " Hail to the Lord Who comes." 
 
 6. " O Father all creating." 
 
 7. " O Father, bless the children." 
 
 8. " O Jerusalem the blissful, Home of gladness 
 yet untold." From the Latin. 
 
 9. " Oh how fair that morning broke." 
 
 10. "Praise to the Heavenly Wisdom." 
 
 11. "Shine Thou upon us, Lord." 
 
 12. "The day Thou gavest, Lord, is ended." 
 
 13. " Welcome, happy morning! age to age shall 
 say." From the Latin. Making the whole number 
 of his contributions to the book twenty-six. 
 
 " It would be scarcely possible," in the words 
 of Mr. White, the Chairman of the Committee, 
 
HYMNS ANCIENT AND MODERN 137 
 
 " to exaggerate the value of the assistance which 
 was rendered by Mr. Ellerton in the production 
 of the complete edition." 
 
 Early in 1892 the body of proprietors of Hymns 
 Ancient and Modern invited him to associate him- 
 self with them still more closely in view of the 
 intervention of Convocation, foreshadowed by the 
 appointment of a Committee. He accepted the 
 invitation, but it came too late ; he was never able 
 to attend any of the meetings, and his loss was 
 felt by the compilers to be irreparable. 
 
THE LAST HYMNS 
 
 As none of Canon Ellerton's, composed subse- 
 quent to the publication of Hymns Original and 
 Translated (i%%%\ have been incorporated, so far as 
 I know, into any hymnal, they are here given. They 
 are of unequal merit, some indeed were written 
 when the author had already felt the first touch 
 of that hand which was commissioned to take him 
 from us. With the exception of the last they lack 
 the fire, the ring of his best compositions ; still 
 they are all full of holy and beautiful thoughts. 
 
 The hymns for the Conversion of St. Paul, First 
 Day of Lent, Ascension Day, and St. Matthew, 
 and the Sunday Hymn for Little Children, first 
 appeared in the Church Monthly Magazine, and 
 I am indebted to the editor, Frederick Sherlock, 
 Esq., for permission to gather them into this 
 volume. 
 
 i. Ascended Lord, Thy Churctis Head, is worthy 
 of a place in any hymnal. Perhaps the omission 
 of the second and third verses would render it 
 more suitable for congregational singing ; while 
 the second line of the third verse would certainly 
 be improved by A Son of Man being altered to 
 
 138 
 
THE LAST HYMNS 139 
 
 The Son of Man, inasmuch as in the original the 
 definite article is used. 1 
 
 2. What were Thy forty days ? is not, and does 
 not profess to be, in any sense of the word a 
 hymn ; but it is a very beautiful Lenten medita- 
 tion, one that should find a place in any future 
 collection of devotional poetry. 
 
 3. 'Tis come, the day of exultation ! One of the 
 best of this series. It might well end, however, 
 with the sixth verse, which forms a suitable 
 concluding doxology. 
 
 4. To-day ive sing to Christ our King. In no 
 point is our national hymnody weaker than in 
 historical hymns, hymns which connect the present 
 age of the English Church with the old heroes of 
 the faith, whose names are preserved, apparently 
 only to be ignored, in our Calendar. We greatly 
 want hymns recording the deeds of what are called 
 the " Black-letter Saints," e.g. St. Hugh of Lincoln, 
 St. Richard of Chichester, St. Hilary, etc. This 
 hymn, and the Brighton processional, Praise our 
 God for all the wonders, are 'models for such 
 compositions. 
 
 6. O Holy Spirit, Whom our Master sent. In a 
 letter dated January 2, 1890, the Bishop of Exeter 
 writes to Mr. Ellerton, " In your most kind letter 
 of November 14, you were good enough to say you 
 would attempt to write a hymn on charity (i Cor. 
 xiii.) for me ; and I have not seldom breathed 
 a prayer that God would give you one for His 
 Church." This is the hymn composed in com- 
 pliance with the Bishop's request. 
 
 1 rov vibv TOV dvQpwnov, Acts vii. 56. 
 
140 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 6. "Follow Me!" the Master spake. A very 
 valuable addition to the series of Saints' Days 
 hymns, and one that is sure to find its way into 
 future hymnals. 
 
 7. A Sunday Hymn for Little Children, dated 
 August 24, 1891. 
 
 8. Say, Watchman, what of the night ? Mr. 
 Ellerton's last published hymn. The old fire and 
 vigour seems to have returned, and this noble 
 Advent song will rank with the compositions 01 
 his best days. 
 
 iCONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 ASCENDED Lord, Thy Church's Head, 
 Thou First-Begotten from the dead, 
 Thy life is hid in depths of light, 
 Beyond the world of sense and sight. 
 
 Though now withdrawn behind the veil, 
 Thy Pastoral love can never fail ; 
 And Thou, Great Shepherd of the sheep, 
 By night and day Thy watch dost keep. 
 
 Thy dying Martyr saw Thee stand, 
 A Son of Man, at God's right Hand ; 
 Thy blinding glory barred the path, 
 And stayed the persecutor's wrath. 
 
 Oh, day of blessings for our race ! 
 Oh, mystery of electing grace ! 
 When that Divine and loving call 
 Subdued the stubborn heart of Saul ! 
 
 Thy word the fiery spirit broke ; 
 The strong will bowed to bear Thy yoke ; 
 He rose, the bondman of his Lord, 
 To preach the Name he once abhorred. 
 
THE LAST HYMNS 141 
 
 Light of the Gentiles ! Praise to Thee, 
 For this Thy last Epiphany ! 
 From this great hour the Dayspring shone 
 On lands unnamed, on tribes unknown. 
 
 Victorious Love ! pursue Thy road, 
 Till all the earth shall see her God ; 
 And many a foeman yet shall be 
 A chosen vessel unto Thee ! 
 
 August 13, 1890. 
 
 2 THE FIRST DAY OF LENT. 
 
 WHAT were Thy Forty Days ? 
 No calm retreat within the holy place ; 
 No friend to speak one strengthening, soothing word ; 
 No comfort of a silent, pitying face ; 
 No voice with Thine in soft responding heard ; 
 Long hours of thoughts unuttered and unknown ; 
 Day after day, the wilderness, alone ! 
 
 What are my Lenten days ? 
 The open portals of Thy house of prayer, 
 With friends and brethren kneeling at my side ; 
 A low-breathed psalm of mercy in the air ; 
 A pastoral voice to warn, or cheer, or guide ; 
 The Bread of Heaven itself, bestowed to win 
 Fresh strength for battling with my secret sin. 
 
 What were Thy Forty Days ? 
 The lonely vigil and the bitter fast, 
 Chastening that Flesh which knew no taint of ill ; 
 The nights and days in high communion passed ; 
 The self-surrender to the Father's will ; 
 And, most of all, the conflict stern and dread, 
 Which bruised for us the ancient tempter's head. 
 
 What are my Lenten days ? 
 An hour's retirement from the world's full round ; 
 A few light pleasures for a while foregone ; 
 A little pausing here on holy ground, 
 
142 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 My God to seek, my sins to think upon ; 
 
 A few faint sighs o'er evil thought and deed ; 
 
 A few resolves a holier life to lead. 
 
 Yet make my Lent like Thine ! 
 No strength have I to climb that lonely height, 
 Like Thee to wrestle, and like Thee prevail ; 
 Yet grant me, in Thy guiding Spirit's might, 
 To follow Thee, though flesh and heart should fail, 
 Alone with Thee to foil the tempter's skill, 
 And learn at length to do my Father's will. 
 
 3 ASCENSION DAY. 
 
 come, the day of exultation ! 
 The day for which the ages yearned ; 
 When Christ, the Hope of all creation, 
 The Mighty God, to heaven returned. 
 
 God is gone up on high ascending, 
 His rightful throne once more to fill, 
 
 And all the realms of bliss unending 
 Are ringing with His welcome still. 
 
 On that great battlefield victorious, 
 Where Satan fell, He took His prey ; 
 
 A deathless body, risen and glorious, 
 Before His Father to display. 
 
 From yonder cloud our King Immortal 
 Speaks hope to each believing soul : 
 
 His touch unbars the long-closed portal, 
 The gates of Eden backward roll. 
 
 O joy, all other joys exceeding ! 
 
 The Virgin-Born, our Very Own, 
 Past all the shame, the Cross, the bleeding, 
 
 Ascends at last His Father s Throne. 
 
THE LAST HYMNS 143 
 
 Then to our Champion of Salvation 
 
 All thanks and praises let us pay ; 
 Who, Firstfruits of His ransomed nation, 
 
 Hath borne our flesh on high to-day. 
 
 For on this day of days 'tis given 
 
 To men to share in angels' mirth, 
 They joy that He is come to heaven, 
 
 And we that He forsook not earth. 
 
 Lord, give us grace, as Thou hast bidden, 
 
 In works of love to wait for Thee ; 
 Our life with Thine in God be hidden, 
 
 That where Thou art we yet may be. 
 
 4 TRANSLATION OF ST. MARTIN. 1 (July 4.) 
 
 TO-DAY we sing to Christ our King 
 
 His valiant soldiers' praise ;' 
 The men who bore from shore to shore 
 
 The Faith in ancient days ; 
 Of Martin's work for God we tell, 
 
 Through patient years sustained, 
 Till thousands heard the Gospel word, 
 
 And life eternal gained. 
 
 When first to these lone woods and fields 
 
 Our conquering fathers came, 
 They gave their new-built house of prayer 
 
 Saint Martin's honoured name ; 
 Because from him their sires had learned 
 
 The tale of Jesus' love, 
 And so from idol forms had turned 
 
 To worship God above. 
 
 1 The Patron Saint of White Roding church ; this hymn was written for 
 the Parish Festival, 1891. St. Martin is commemorated twice in the 
 Prayer-book Calendar ; his death on November li (he died November 8, 
 397), and the translation of his remains on July 4. He died and was 
 buried at Cande, a monastery at the extremity of his diocese, but in 473 
 his relics were removed to a basilica dedicated in his honour near Tours. 
 In England alone there are one hundred and sixty churches dedicated 
 to St Martin. 
 
144 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 Eight hundred years have passed away 
 
 Since this old church was new ; 
 And still to-day the Creeds we say 
 
 Which Martin taught for true. 
 Then speed Thy Word, O conquering Lord, 
 
 From rise to set of sun, 
 Till land and sea shall bow to Thee, 
 
 And praise the Three in One ! 
 
 5 WHITSUNTIDE. 1 
 
 O HOLY SPIRIT, Whom our Master sent 
 
 Rich with all treasures, from the throne above, 
 
 We pray Thee for Thy gift most excellent, 
 Thy greatest, Thine unfailing gift of love. 
 
 'Tis not for us with one commanding word 
 To heal the sick, or chase the hosts of hell ; 
 
 In tongues unknown to make Thy mysteries heard, 
 Or things of God with lips inspired to tell. 
 
 Those signs are past ; the written word is ours ; 
 
 And Satan trembles at the might of prayer : 
 The shield of Faith can quell the evil powers, 
 
 And Hope's bright helmet save us from despair. 
 
 These yet abide ; but we would covet still 
 One gift, exalted faith and hope above : 
 
 Grant us the new commandment to fulfil, 
 And even as Jesus loved us, so to love. 
 
 Grant us to follow His long-suffering path, 
 Joying in truth, yet helping them that fall ; 
 
 To think no evil, give no place to wrath, 
 But bear, believe, endure, and hope for all. 
 
 So when at length we know as we are known, 
 
 And all the shadows are for ever past, 
 He Who is Love may find in us His own, 
 
 And all in Him be perfect love at last. 
 
 March 24, 1890 
 
 1 Kindly communicated by the Lord Bishop of Exeter. 
 
THE LAST HYMNS 145 
 
 6 ST. MATTHEW. 
 
 "He gave some . . . Evangelists." 
 
 " FOLLOW Me ! " the Master spake, 
 As He passed beside the lake ; 
 This the fisher brothers heard, 
 Left their all at Jesus' word. 
 
 " Follow Me ! " and Matthew, too, 
 That constraining summons knew ; 
 Cast away his hopes of gain, 
 Chose the labour, want, and pain. 
 
 Oh, the blest exchange he made, 
 With the Master's pound to trade ! 
 Priceless wealth of souls to lay 
 At His feet on that Great Day ! 
 
 Following on where Jesus led, 
 Gathering up the words He said, 
 Watching every gracious deed 
 So the world might hear and read. 
 
 Earliest of the Chosen Four, 
 He, from out his treasure-store, 
 Bringing forth things new and old, 
 Tidings of the Kingdom told. 
 
 On the Blessed Mount He saw 
 Given the new and holier Law. 
 On the shore he stood and learned 
 Mysteries by the few discerned. 
 
 So he spake of things he knew, 
 Type and prophecy come true ; 
 Words of life, and signs of power, 
 Warnings of the Judgment hour : 
 
 Spake of Jesus' Cross and pain, 
 How His grave was watched in vain ; 
 How on Easter morning He 
 Led His flock to Galilee. 
 
 K 
 
146 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 There the Risen Lord once more 
 Stood beside them on the shore, 
 Bade His Church her charge fulfil, 
 Told her He is with us still. 
 
 Praise to Thee, O Lord the Christ, 
 For Thy first Evangelist ! 
 Praise for all which Thou dost give, 
 Word of God, by Whom we live ! 
 
 March 21, 1890. 
 
 7 A SUNDAY HYMN FOR LITTLE CHILDREN. 
 
 IT was early in the morning 
 
 The first bright Sunday morning 
 That the dear Lord Jesus rose from the grave in which He lay; 
 
 And in the morning quiet, 
 
 The holy Angels by it, 
 Sat waiting for the Maries to come along the way. 
 
 The Maries came in sadness, 
 
 But the Angels brought them gladness 
 
 When they said, " The Lord is risen ; He will never die 
 
 again." 
 
 And soon He came to meet them, 
 With loving words to greet them 
 
 Oh, that Sunday put an end to their sorrow and their pain ! 
 
 Now the Angels who sit keeping 
 
 Their watch while we lie sleeping 
 Are glad to see us wake when the Sunday morn is here ; 
 
 For they know their Lord rejoices 
 
 To listen to their voices, 
 And the praises of the children to Him are always dear. 
 
 Then let us take our places 
 
 With gladness on our faces 
 With hearts and voices ready our Sunday hymns to sing ; 
 
 For it is coming one day, 
 
 The best and brightest Sunday, 
 When all His children rise again to meet their glorious King ! 
 
THE LAST HYMNS 147 
 
 8 "SAY, WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?" 
 
 " SAY, watchman, what of the night ? 
 
 Is it shrouded in darkness still? 
 Are there no pale streaks of the dawning light 
 
 O'er the crest of the Eastern hill ? " 
 " Yea, the stars are glittering clear ; 
 
 Nor yet does the East turn grey ; 
 But the night is waning, the dawn is near, 
 
 The dawn of a cloudless day." 
 
 " But, watchman, what of the night 
 
 The night of our sorrow and pain 
 Will the darkened life never more grow bright, 
 
 Nor the joy return again ? " 
 u Yea, sorrow and pain for awhile, 
 
 Are the burden upon you laid ; 
 But soon on your tears shall the sunrise smile, 
 
 With the brightness that ne'er shall fade." 
 
 " But, watchman, what of the night 
 
 Of evil, and wrong, and woe ? 
 For dark is the time, and fierce is the fight, 
 
 And unyielding is the foe." 
 " Yea, the battle is sore and long, 
 
 Through the night of the troubled years. 
 But the Advent morn brings the Victor song, 
 
 And joy when the Christ appears." 
 
 The following Translations and Hymns were 
 found by the Rev. F. G. Ellerton among his father's 
 papers. None of them, so far as I know, have 
 hitherto appeared in print Some, especially the 
 Puer Natus and Sous ton voile d'ignominie, have 
 evidently a future before them. Although all are 
 in the Canon's handwriting, Nos. 6 and 7 are 
 believed to be by Dr. Monsell, No. 8 by Emma 
 Toke, and No. 10 by Joseph Anstice. 
 
148 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 i PUER NATUS IN BETHLEHEM. 
 
 A CHILD is born in Bethlehem, 
 
 And gladness fills Jerusalem. Alleluia ! 
 
 Here in a manger He doth lie, 
 
 Who reigns for evermore on high. Alleluia ! 
 
 His crib the ox and ass have known, 
 
 And in this Child, their Lord they own. Alleluia ! 
 
 From Saba comes a train of kings, 
 
 Gold, frankincense, and myrrh it brings. Alleluia ! 
 
 Each kneels in turn upon the floor 
 
 The new-born Sovereign to adore Alleluia ! 
 
 Born of a Virgin undefiled ; 
 
 No earthly father calls Him child. Alleluia ! 
 
 Untainted by the serpent's tooth, 
 
 Yet one with us in very truth. Alleluia ! 
 
 Like unto us in flesh is He, 
 
 But unlike us from sin is free ; Alleluia ! 
 
 That so in man He may restore 
 
 God's likeness and His own once more. Alleluia ! 
 
 In gladness for this wondrous Birth, 
 
 Bless we the Lord of Heaven and earth. Alleluia ! 
 
 [Glory to Thee, this happy morn, 
 
 O Jesu Lord, the Virgin-born ! Alleluia ! ] 
 
 To Thee, most Blessed Trinity, 
 
 All thanks, all praise, all worship be. Alleluia ! Amen. 
 
 , 2 TIBI CHRISTE SPLENDOR PATRIS. 
 
 (IMITATED) 
 
 Lo, the Angel squadrons muster ; lo, the armies of the sky ! 
 Round the sapphire Throne they gather, worshipping the 
 
 Lord most high ; 
 Holy, Holy, Holy Sovereign King, Almighty God, they cry. 
 
THE LAST HYMNS 149 
 
 Saviour Christ, the Father's glory, life and strength of loving 
 
 souls, 
 
 While the tide of adoration round Thy Feet in music rolls, 
 While the anthem of the blessed Thy beloved Name extols. 
 
 With the choir of mighty angels we our lowly hymns would 
 
 raise ; 
 Here with psalm and song responsive swell the torrent of 
 
 their praise ; 
 Till at last with them united on Thine unveiled Face we gaze. 
 
 Thou art worthy, Thou hast conquered ; grant us, Lord, to 
 
 conquer too, 
 Though our foes are strong and crafty, and our forces scant 
 
 and few ; 
 Lord of armies, Thou wilt aid us ; faithful is Thy Name and 
 
 true. 
 
 3 HOLY COMMUNION BEFORE A JOURNEY. 
 
 (O ESCA VIATORUM.) 
 " O taste and see how gracious the Lord is." 
 
 O MEAT for travellers on their road, 
 O Angel's Bread on men bestowed, 
 
 O Manna, Heavenly food ! 
 Fill Thou our hearts that faint for Thee, 
 Forbid us not to taste and see 
 
 That Thou, O Lord, art good . 
 
 O Fount of Love, which long ago 
 From one pure Source began to flow 
 
 The SAVIOUR'S wounded Side ; 
 Refresh the thirsting in their need ; 
 For Thee we crave, in Thee indeed 
 
 Our soul is satisfied. 
 
 O JESU LORD, Whose Face Divine 
 
 Here through the veils of Bread and Wine 
 
 Believing we adore, 
 Grant us in Thine eternity 
 With open eyes to gaze on Thee, 
 
 And love Thee evermore . 
 
ISO JOHN ELLERTOX 
 
 4 SOUS TON VOILE D'IGNOMINIE. 
 
 O SACRED HEAD, beneath Thy veil of shame, 
 Beneath Thy crown of pain I know Thy Name ; 
 Through the dim cloud of blood mine eye can trace 
 The quenchless majesty of that marred Face ! 
 
 Oh, never in the realm of light till now 
 Did light so heavenly shine upon Thy Brow ; 
 Never in Beauty's home, Thy Beauty's ray 
 Beamed with such glow as here on Golgotha. 
 
 Ye who adore the Father in the Son, 
 Where life and worship are for ever one, 
 Say, did He ever seem so fair to see, 
 Angels, as here upon the atoning Tree ? 
 
 His death hath crowned the honour which was His 
 From everlasting in the land of bliss ; 
 And with the humbling of the Son of Man, 
 The glory of the Son of God began. 
 
 The Father's voice proclaimed it I am Love ; 
 And Jesus, stooping from His home above, 
 Bore the glad news to earth, to every one 
 Lo ! I am Love ; I am the Father's Son . 
 
 Yes, He is Love ; the God we see, we know ; 
 The God in whom God blesses man below, 
 Where is the Throne of Love, but where we find 
 Brother and Victim in our God combined ? 
 
 Love is the highest ; Love the joy of heaven ; 
 Love the true Crown to our Emmanuel given ; 
 Poor dreams of power away ! henceforth for me 
 There is no greatness but in charity. 
 
 My reason worships Thee, O Love Divine, 
 Come, fill and change this empty heart of mine ; 
 Come, that my soul Thy Light and joy may share 
 And carry Eden with her everywhere. 
 
THE LAST HYMNS 1.5 1 
 
 Mine eyes on Thine, Divinest Brother, fix ! 
 My life with Thine vouchsafe to intermix ! 
 Pour into mine Thy heart, and so destroy 
 All longing in my soul for other joy ! 
 
 JOHN ELLERTON 
 (From Chants Chrttiens). 
 
 [I have translated the whole of the verses, but it 
 obviously requires much curtailment] 
 
 5 NEW YEAR'S EVE. 
 "Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end." 
 
 THE years pass on . We name them good or bad : 
 This brought us hope and love and bright success ; 
 That other left us empty, dark and sad ; 
 Now both are past, the joy, the bitterness : 
 Glory to Thee for both, from Whom ihey came ; 
 Thou art the same ! 
 
 The years bring change . The fires of youth grow old : 
 We half forget the names we once revered, 
 Smile at the hatreds and the loves of old, 
 And dwell in peace among the things we feared. 
 Glory to Thee, the One Unchanging Name : 
 Thou art the same ! 
 
 The years bring doubt : we count them up and see 
 Our wisdom all at fault, our forecasts vain ; 
 Nothing that hath been tells us what shall be, 
 No past experience makes the future plain. 
 Thee only can we trust ; we know Thy Name ; 
 Thou art the same ! 
 
 Not with high hopes, yet not with weak despair, 
 We cross the threshold of another year ; 
 Silent we enter in, we know not where : 
 All that we know is only, Thou art here ; 
 Because Thy years, O Master, Guide, and Friend, 
 Shall have no end ! 
 
 1889. 
 
152 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 6- AD VENT. 
 
 LORD, to Thy holy temple 
 
 Return, return again ; 
 Come back and fill with glory 
 
 The ways and hearts of men ! 
 Not now a lowly Infant, 
 
 Unnoticed and unknown ; 
 But in the royal splendour 
 
 Of Thine eternal throne ! 
 
 Come back and fill Thy temple, 
 
 Built up of human hearts, 
 With that abiding Presence 
 
 Which never more departs ! 
 Thy Spirit send before Thee, 
 
 Till, by His life restored, 
 Thy people all adore Thee, 
 
 Their only King and Lord ! 
 
 7 ADVENT (SECOND SUNDAY). 
 
 BLESSED Lord, Who till the morning 
 
 Of Thine Advent shall appear, 
 Words of hope hast left and warning, 
 
 Souls to strengthen, guide, and cheer ; 
 Left them written for our learning, 
 
 Pointing out the one true way, 
 Lest our hearts with all their yearning 
 
 After home, should go astray. 
 
 Grant us in the sacred story 
 
 Of the deeds which Thou hast done, 
 Grace to catch those gleams of glory 
 
 Which on saints and martyrs shone ; 
 Grant us faithful hearts to linger 
 
 O'er the steps which Thou hast trod, 
 Where Thy Cross with silent finger 
 
 Points the upward way to God. 
 
THE LAST HYMNS 153 
 
 Fill us, as we read the pages 
 
 Traced by holy men of old, 
 * With the hope which through the ages 
 
 Did our fathers' hearts uphold ; 
 Still to be, by wisdom learning, 
 
 Kept in patience by Thy word, 
 Faith still bright, and love still burning, 
 
 Servants, ready for their Lord. 
 
 8-LENT. 
 
 O LORD, Thou knowest all the snares 
 
 That round our pathway be ; 
 Thou knowest how both joys and cares 
 
 Come between us and Thee. 
 
 Thou know'st that our infirmity 
 
 In Thee alone is strong : 
 To Thee for help and strength we fly ; 
 
 Oh, let us not go wrong ! 
 
 Oh, bear us up, protect us now 
 
 In dark temptation's hour ; 
 For Thou wast born of woman, Thou 
 
 Hast felt temptation's power. 
 
 All sinless, Thou canst feel for those 
 
 Who strive and suffer long ; 
 Then still 'midst all our cares and woes 
 
 Oh let us not go wrong ! 
 
 9 "PRAISE WAITETH FOR THEE, O GOD, 
 IN ZION." 
 
 IN gladness to Thy House, O Lord, 
 
 Thy children come to-day, 
 To bless Thy Name with one accord, 
 
 And with one mouth to pray. 
 
 High praise in Zion waits for Thee, 
 Where that New Song unknown 
 
 Is borne across the glassy sea 
 From saints before the Throne 
 
154 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 For Thee our lowlier worship waits, 
 
 Whene'er with duteous feet 
 We stand within Thine earthly gates, 
 
 Thy glorious Name to greet. 
 
 For if Thy grace our hearts inspire 
 
 With faith and love and fear, 
 The simplest hymn of village choir 
 
 To Thee we know is dear. 
 
 Then help us, Lord, while here we live 
 
 To offer Thee our best j 
 Do Thou our ignorance forgive, 
 
 And perfect all the rest. 
 
 Praise to the Father's Name is meet ; 
 
 Praise to His only Son ; 
 Praise to the Blessed Paraclete, 
 
 The Three for ever One. 
 
 October 9, 1891. 
 
 10 O LORD, THY PRESENCE IS REVEALED. 
 
 O LORD, Thy Presence is revealed 
 
 By mountain and by flood, 
 By woodland, and by quiet field, 
 
 And homes where dwell the good. 
 
 Yet Thou art with each faithful heart 
 
 That pure would still remain, 
 And do its firm yet gentle part 
 
 Amidst the bad and vain. 
 
 Dear Lord, through this world's troubled way 
 Thy children's footsteps guide ; 
 
 And lead them onward day by day, 
 Unspotted at Thy side. 
 
 Be ours to do Thy work of love 
 
 All erring souls to win ; 
 Amid a sinful world to move, 
 
 Yet give no smile to sin. 
 
THE LAST HYMNS 155 
 
 II. 
 
 For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his 
 house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, 
 and commanded the porter to watch." St. Mark xiii. 34. 
 
 WHEN to the far-off country 
 
 The Master took His way, 
 This charge He gave His servants : 
 
 " Take heed, and watch, and pray : 
 Lo, here your tasks appointed 
 
 Until I come again ; 
 And ever let the watchman 
 
 Look forth across the plain." 
 
 Great is His house, and many 
 
 The guests within the hall, 
 Because from street and highway 
 
 He bade us welcome all ; 
 The servants' tasks are heavy, 
 
 They ply them might and main ; 
 And through the gate the watchman 
 
 Looks forth across the plain. 
 
 Long doth the Master tarry ; 
 
 And murmuring voices cry, 
 " Vain all our care and labour, 
 
 His coming draws not nigh : " 
 And slothful dreamers prattle 
 
 Of pleasure and of gain ; 
 Yet still the faithful watchman 
 
 Looks forth across the plain. 
 
 Soon shall he mark, some midnight, 
 
 The longed-for sign of fire, 
 Or hail in redness dawning 
 
 The morn of his desire ; 
 The day when home in triumph 
 
 The Master comes again, 
 And He shall haste to open 
 
 The Gate towards the plain. 
 
 June 23, 1891. 
 
THE CLOSE 
 
 THE publication of the " Complete Edition " of 
 Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1889 may be said 
 to mark the close of Mr. Ellerton's hymnological 
 labours. One little thing indeed he undertook for 
 the S. P. C. K., but this was an amusement rather 
 than work: he thought that The Children 's Almanac, 
 published annually by that Society, might be made 
 more interesting by interweaving a Calendar of 
 Nature, after the manner of that in White's Set- 
 borne, with the chronology of the months, at the 
 same time introducing a short notice of a few 
 well-known birds. These last papers he asked the 
 writer of these lines to prepare for him. The 
 Almanac was ready for 1891, but did not appear 
 till the following year. Thus his last work was, as 
 his first had been, for children. 
 
 And now the time drew near when he must rest 
 from his labours. On the morning of December 1 1, 
 1891, the first of the three warnings which paralysis 
 usually gives reached him. Further work was 
 impossible, and appointing a trustworthy priest to 
 continue to feed his flock at White Roding, he 
 withdrew to Torquay. For a time he seemed to 
 rally, and still talked cheerfully to his friends, and 
 took a great interest in Dr. Julian's magnificent 
 Dictionary of Hymnology, which had just been 
 
 156 
 
THE CLOSE 157 
 
 published. On May 5, 1892,, the second summons 
 was received at Torquay, which crippled him still 
 more seriously, and he immediately began to make 
 arrangements for resigning White Roding, now 
 that all hope of ever returning to his beloved work 
 as a parish priest was taken away. 
 
 And now it was, as he was lying disabled, wait- 
 ing his Master's call, that he was nominated to a 
 prebendal stall in St. Albans Cathedral Church. 
 But the promotion came too late ; the installation 
 never took place. One cannot contemplate with- 
 out pain, that he whose one ambition it was to 
 have a church possessing historical interest, an 
 ambition which was never attained until he came 
 to White Roding, and then only very partially, 
 should never have experienced the satisfaction of 
 sitting in his own stall in that glorious abbey, and 
 feeling himself one of its incorporate body cujus 
 a singulis in solidum pars tenetur. 
 
 It appears to be the custom of St. Albans 
 Cathedral for the Prebendaries to receive the title 
 of " Canon," which in some other foundations is 
 restricted to the Residentiaries, so for the last year 
 of his life he received the empty and honorary 
 address of " Canon " Ellerton. 
 
 White Roding Rectory was bidden farewell to 
 in the following October, the stricken poet returning 
 to Torquay, where, however, he had the burden of 
 feeling that he was still Rector, of which he was not 
 relieved until March, after he had taken to his bed. 
 
 He was able to attend the services at St. John's 
 Church up to the Feast of the Epiphany, January 
 6, 1893, after which he grew rapidly worse. His 
 
158 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 mind became overclouded, and as he lay peaceful 
 and happy there came back to his memory in end- 
 less succession fragments of the hymns he so dearly 
 loved. Gradually he grew weaker, and ever less 
 conscious day by day, until on June 15 those 
 around him witnessed the realization of his own 
 words 
 
 " The brightness of a holy deathbed blending 
 With dawning glories of the eternal day." 
 
 Those who had the privilege of following him 
 to his grave, a sunny spot in the cemetery of 
 Torquay, on Tuesday, June 20, attended a funeral 
 service such as can but very seldom have been 
 witnessed before. He was buried amid his own 
 hymns. At the burial of many a departed Church 
 poet his own hymns have been sung, but when 
 John Ellerton was carried to his bed of hope all 
 the hymns, six in number, were from his own pen. 
 
 The clergy and choir met the body at the porch, 
 and proceeded up the church chanting the proces- 
 sional sentences. The coffin, covered with flowers, 
 was placed in the chancel, and Psalm xc. was sung. 
 The Lesson was read by one of the poet's oldest 
 friends and companions in hymnology, the Rev. 
 R. Brown-Borthwick ; after which was sung, " God 
 of the living, in Whose eyes." Then followed the 
 celebration of Holy Communion, fully choral with 
 Merbecke's music, the Vicar, the Rev. Basil R. 
 Airy, being the celebrant. The Introit was 
 
 " Rest eternal grant to them, O Lord, and let 
 light perpetual shine upon them. 
 
 " Thou, O God, art praised in Sion, and unto 
 Thee shall the vow be performed in Jerusalem. 
 
THE CLOSE 159 
 
 " Thou that hearest the prayer, unto Thee shall 
 all flesh come. 
 
 " Rest eternal," etc. 
 
 As a sequence was sung that hymn of tenderest 
 beauty, " When the day of toil is done." And 
 during Communion the last verse of " Saviour, 
 again to Thy dear Name we raise " (Hymns 
 Ancient and Modern, 31) 
 
 " Grant us Thy peace throughout our earthly life, 
 Our balm in sorrow, and our stay in strife ; 
 Then, when Thy voice shall bid our conflict cease, 
 Call us, O Lord, to Thine eternal peace." 
 
 After the last prayer " Now the labourer's task 
 is o'er." 
 
 The coffin was then borne from the chancel 
 during the chanting of Nunc dimittis, and thus 
 the poet passed out of the church. The six 
 pall-bearers were representatives of the chief 
 works to which Canon Ellerton had devoted 
 so much of his life : Hymns Ancient and Modern 
 by the Rev. C. W. Bond, in the absence of the 
 Chairman of the Committee, the Rev. G. Cosby 
 White ; Church Hymns by the Rev. R. Brown- 
 Borthwick; The Children's Hymn- Book by the Rev. 
 Herbert Harvey, deputed by Bishop Walsham 
 How, who was unable to attend ; The Hymnal 
 Companion by the Rev. C. E. Storrs, in the place 
 of Bishop E. H. Bickersteth, who was unavoidably 
 absent ; Colonel Acton represented the Society for 
 Promoting Christian Knowledge, and Mr. W. M. 
 Moorsom the parishioners of Crewe Green. The 
 procession neared the grave singing, " O shining 
 city of our God." 
 
160 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 The Vicar committed the body to the ground, 
 the choir singing the verse " I heard a voice from 
 heaven," etc., while after the concluding prayer 
 the choir broke out into the loveliest of all the 
 departed poet's translations, " O Strength and 
 Stay, upholding all creation." 
 
 Thus amid the singing of his own hymns was 
 the beloved poet laid in his honoured grave " Not 
 dead but living unto Thee." Over no one, be it 
 king or conqueror, prelate or statesman, could it 
 be said with greater truth than over the priest and 
 poet now left to sleep in his Father's gracious 
 keeping, that " his body is buried in peace ; but 
 his name liveth for evermore." 1 For as the Church 
 of to-day counts among her choicest treasures the 
 hymns she received from her ancient singers, from 
 Ambrose, Venantius Fortunatus, Adam of St. 
 Victor, the two Bernards, and many others, so 
 will the Church of after ages, until the coming of 
 her long-absent, long-expected Lord, preserve and 
 treasure those which have been given her by John 
 Ellerton. 
 
 1 Ecclesiasticus xliv. 14. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 CRITICAL ESTIMATE OF CANON ELLERTON'S HYMNS 
 
 IF a critical estimate of the value of any hymn- 
 writer's productions is to carry weight, it must first 
 of all be clearly stated what those principles and 
 canons of criticism are upon which such an estimate 
 is based. Mere personal preference is absolutely 
 worthless ; in fact, the greater the respect and 
 affection felt for any particular author, the greater 
 becomes the difficulty of regarding his composi- 
 tions with a calm and unbiased eye. 
 
 Before then presuming to offer any opinion upon 
 Canon Ellerton's hymns, we must bring forth the 
 standard by which we would measure them, and 
 then see how far they come up to or fall short 
 of it. 
 
 i. Now if we are going to speak of hymns, we 
 must begin by defining what we mean by the word 
 "hymn." The definition was given long ago by 
 St. Augustine. Commenting upon the supple- 
 mental verse of Psalm Ixxii., he says, " Hymni 
 laudes sunt Dei cum cantico, Hymni cantus sunt 
 continentes laudes Dei. Si sit laus et non sit Dei y 
 non est hymnus. Si sit laus et laus Dei et non 
 cantetur, non est hymnus* Oportet ergo ut si sit 
 hymnus, habeat haec tria, et laudeni, et Dei, et 
 
 161 L 
 
1 62 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 canticum" 1 This often-quoted definition may be 
 enlarged and paraphrased, but its central principle 
 remains unchanged. We may enlarge it by saying 
 that a hymn is praise to God grounded upon His 
 revelation of Himself in creation and redemption, 
 upon His dealings with mankind collectively or 
 individually, or upon His promises. The essential 
 element of a hymn, its primary object, is praise ; 
 the hymns of heaven are pure praise, 2 adoration, 
 thanksgiving. 3 So also the highest hymns of 
 the Church, " Benedicite," "Magnificat," "Nunc 
 Dimittis," "Gloria Patri/' "Te Deum laudamus," 
 " Gloria in Excelsis." 
 
 But when we assent to the principle that a 
 hymn to be a hymn indeed must be a song of 
 praise, we must not restrict the term praise to any 
 narrow limit. There is a subjective as well as 
 an objective praise. A hymn may contain the 
 element of praise without mentioning the word. 
 For example, no one will deny that " Sun of my 
 soul " is a hymn, and a most beautiful hymn too, 
 but there is not in it a single word of direct, 
 objective praise ; but who does not feel that in its 
 simple clinging to the Saviour, and commending 
 all to His love and compassion, there is an infinite 
 amount of indirect, subjective praise ? There are 
 multitudes of so-called hymns which are merely 
 
 1 " Hymns are praises to God sung ; hymns are songs 
 containing praise to God. If, therefore, there be praise but 
 not to God it is no hymn. If it be praise, and even praise 
 to God, yet not sung, it is no hymn. A hymn, therefore, if it 
 be a hymn, must have these three things praise, praise to 
 God, and praise to God sung." 
 
 2 Enarr. in Ps. Ixxii. 3 Isaiah vi. 3 ; Rev. iv. Si 
 
CRITICAL ESTIMATE OF ELLERTON'S HYMNS 163 
 
 metrical prayers, but these are for the most part 
 weeded out from collections designed for congre- 
 gational use. In fact, we may assert without fear 
 of contradiction, that where the element of self 
 prevails, the element of praise departs, and where 
 self is lost sight of there praise is supreme, although 
 it may be underlying the words and not on the 
 surface. There is no finer example of indirect 
 praise in any language than " Now the labourer's 
 task is o'er." 
 
 Hence it follows that we cannot condemn or 
 reject a hymn because it contains the personal 
 pronoun in the singular number, or where would 
 be " My soul doth magnify the Lord " ; " For mine 
 eyes have seen Thy Salvation " ? The individual 
 experience of one may be, and often is, the general 
 experience of others, and when this is the case let 
 the others take the language of the one and make 
 it their own. 
 
 2. Again, a hymn is a song of praise and thanks- 
 giving offered to God the Father through the 
 Son, according to St. Paul's precept " giving thanks 
 to God and the Father by Him." Of course 
 no one will venture to affirm that hymns, like 
 prayers, may not be addressed to the other Persons 
 of the Holy Trinity ; the " Te Deum " itself, al- 
 though a hymn of praise to the blessed Three in 
 One, seems in its opening verses to address itself 
 to the Second Person, " Te Deum laudamus," not 
 "we praise Thee, O God," but "we praise Thee, 
 the God," or "we praise Thee as God." "That 
 hymns were addressed to Christ as God as early 
 as the first and second centuries, is not only sug- 
 
1 64 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 gested by the well-known passage of Pliny's letter 
 to Trajan (x. 96), but asserted apparently by St. 
 Hippolitus, who speaks of Psalms and Odes of the 
 brethren 'written by faithful men from the begin- 
 ning, which hymn Christ the Word of God calling 
 Him God/" 1 In fact, the new song of the re- 
 deemed, united afterwards to the full chorus of 
 heaven, is addressed to the Redeemer "Worthy 
 is the Lamb that was slain." The same holy 
 instinct of the Church which constrained her to 
 offer prayers to the Son, 2 compelled her also to 
 direct to Him her praises ; still it should be borne 
 in mind, that it is her normal principle to offer 
 both to the Father by, through, in the Name of, 
 the Son. 
 
 3. Again, hymns of praise offered to Him Who 
 is the God of Truth, must be true to those who 
 sing them. Nothing can excuse false sentiment 
 in a hymn. To hear a whole congregation pro- 
 fessing before God feelings which only the most 
 saintly can truly know, and they perhaps but very 
 feebly; or still worse, to listen to them making 
 "passionate entreaties for death, that there may 
 be an immediate attainment of glory," is inex- 
 pressibly shocking ; it is standing before God with 
 a lie in their right hand. 3 
 
 4. Another essential necessity in a hymn is 
 a soundness of doctrine. The particular point in 
 
 1 Julian, Dictionary of Hynmology, Art. "Te Deum," 
 p. 1125. 
 
 2 Three of the Collects are thus addressed Third Sunday 
 in Advent, St. Stephen, First Sunday in Lent* 
 
 3 Isaiah xliv. 20, 
 
CRITICAL ESTIMATE OF ELLERTON'S HYMNS 165 
 
 which many fail is the utter ignoring of the inter- 
 mediate state. Their teaching is that at death 
 the godly go straight to heaven and the ungodly 
 straight to hell. This mistake is very serious, for 
 it not only is a practical denial of the words of 
 the Saviour to the penitent malefactor, "To-day 
 shalt thou be with me in Paradise," but it obscures 
 the Scriptural doctrine of the Judgment of the last 
 great day. 1 
 
 5. A good hymn should be congregational. It 
 is by no means a bar to its reception into a Hymnal 
 that it is written in the singular number. We have 
 the warrant of many Psalms for this ; but the 
 Psalms express, whether in the singular or plural, 
 feelings which are, or should be, common to a 
 congregation of Christians ; and if a hymn embodies 
 the same, it is not sufficient cause for its banish- 
 ment from congregational use that it is in the 
 singular number. At the same time this is a 
 hymnic licence which should not be indulged in 
 too freely. There is a wide difference between 
 hymns suitable for public and those for private use. 
 A hymn may be eminently beautiful and perfect 
 as a composition yet totally unsuitable for con- 
 gregational purposes. How many so-called hymns 
 are simply metrical prayers. If all compositions 
 which embody private and personal Christian ex- 
 
 1 As an example see the opening verse of a popular hymn 
 by the Rev. Samuel Grossman (d. 1683) 
 " Jerusalem on high 
 
 My song and city is, 
 My home whene'er I die, 
 The centre of my bliss." 
 
1 66 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 perience, together with all metrical prayers, were 
 gathered out of our best Hymnals, and incorporated 
 elsewhere, there would be room in the former for 
 many a fine hymn now lying under sentence of 
 banishment. 
 
 Praise, addressed chiefly, though by no means 
 exclusively, to our Father in heaven ; truthfulness, 
 soundness of doctrine, forgetfulness of self, these 
 are some of the points by which we judge of the 
 excellence of a hymn. Now if we judge Mr. 
 Ellerton's hymns by these standards we shall find 
 that they will well bear the test. It is true that 
 his hymns are never pitched in the highest key of 
 adoration and praise; there is none of them that 
 attempt such a seraphic flight as Heber's " Holy, 
 Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty," but the element 
 of praise is powerfully felt in many. With what a 
 noble outburst of praise does one of his evening 
 hymns open 
 
 " Father, in Thy glorious dwelling, 
 All Thy works Thy praise are telling, 
 
 Resting neither day nor night ; 
 With the hymns of Thy creation 
 Let our evening adoration 
 
 Rise accepted in Thy sight." 
 
 Most of the Latin hymns he selected for transla- 
 tion are jubilant with praise, notably the "Alleluia 
 perenne." 
 
 It is impossible to study the volume entitled 
 Hymns Original and Translated without being 
 struck with the frequency with which the hymns 
 it contains are addressed to the First Person of 
 the Holy Trinity. There are many exceptions ; 
 
CRITICAL ESTIMATE OF ELLERTON'S HYMNS 1 67 
 
 necessarily those on the Passion, including the 
 magnificent " Throned upon the awful Tree," the 
 Christmas hymns, and several of those for the other 
 Festivals and Saints' Days, and the lovely hymn 
 for Sunday evening, " Saviour, again to Thy dear 
 Name we raise." Otherwise his finest hymns are 
 addressed to the Father, e. g. " Father, in Thy 
 glorious dwelling," "God of the living in Whose 
 eyes," " Lift the strain of high thanksgiving," the 
 translation "O Strength and Stay upholding all 
 creation," and especially the two exquisite funeral 
 hymns, "When the day of toil is done," and 
 "Now the labourer's task is o'er." 
 
 It is almost superfluous to say that all Mr. 
 Ellerton's hymns are as conspicuous for soundness 
 of doctrine as they are for truthfulness. They are 
 eminently sober and reverent ; contain no fulsome 
 and familiar addresses to the Divine Being such 
 as spoil so many of the hymns of the last century, 
 no exaggerated sentiment. Indeed, the intense 
 devoutness and reverence of their author made 
 this impossible. A spirit of deepest reverence runs 
 through them all, and no writer was ever more 
 careful not to put into the lips of a congregation 
 words which, as Christians, they could not make 
 their own. 
 
 Hence it is that Mr. Ellerton's hymns arc 
 eminently congregational. A well-known writer 1 
 has said, "What makes Mr. Ellerton's hymns 
 especially valuable over and above their high 
 poetic merit is their congregational character. A 
 too common fault of modern hymns is that they 
 1 Henry Attwell, K.O.C, 
 
1 68 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 are suited to private devotion rather than to public 
 worship, or that they assume in those for whose 
 use they are destined a degree of spiritual experi- 
 ence which is impossible in the young, and very 
 rare in the average adult worshipper. And not 
 only so ; their diction is often marred by peculi- 
 arities of structure and by obscure metaphors that 
 render them unfit for mixed congregations. Mr. 
 Ellerton's hymns are not chargeable with either 
 of these defects. Whether their tone is sad or 
 jubilant, they appeal to the faith and feelings of 
 young and old alike, while they are couched in 
 language of such simple grace as will ensure them 
 a lasting place in hymnal literature." 
 
 Not all Mr. Ellerton's hymns have as yet been 
 incorporated into the great Hymnals ; some per- 
 haps never will be, for they vary much in quality. 
 Some, however, the Church, having once counted 
 them among her jewels of praise, will keep and 
 guard to the end. " This is the day of light " will 
 for many a year stand side by side with " Jam 
 lucis orto sidere," and Bishop Ken's " Awake, my 
 soul." " Saviour, again to Thy dear Name we 
 raise," has already taken such deep root wherever 
 throughout Christendom English hymns are sung 
 that its immortality is secured. The older hymns 
 which saw little or nothing beyond the physical 
 agony of the Cross, must allow that the profoundly 
 pathetic "Throned upon the awful Tree" stands 
 higher than they among the hymns on the Passion, 
 far higher than the Stabat mater dolorosa, which 
 makes the central figure of Calvary to be, not the 
 Son of God bearing the sin of the world, but the 
 
CRITICAL ESTIMATE OF ELLERTON'S HYMNS 169 
 
 Blessed Virgin Mother. When we remember that 
 before Mr. Ellerton began to write, the Church of 
 England did not possess one really fine funeral 
 hymn, for the Dies Ira is rather a meditation on 
 the Day of Judgment ; when the stock hymn for 
 such an occasion was " Oft as the bell with solemn 
 toll," we cannot but thank God Who put it into 
 the heart of His servant to write " Now the 
 labourer's task is o'er," a hymn which brings 
 almost daily, wherever graveside tears are falling, 
 peace and comfort and assurance of hope. 
 
 As Canon Ellerton's reputation spread he was 
 continually receiving requests from all parts of the 
 world for permission to use his hymns, an act of 
 courtesy which was not strictly necessary, since, as 
 we have seen in his letter to Bishop E. H. Bicker- 
 steth, he absolutely refused to protect them by 
 copyright, regarding himself not so much their 
 author, as the channel through which God had 
 given them to the Church. 
 
 As the following letter appears to concern the 
 Authorized Hymnal of the American Church, it is 
 of sufficient importance to quote in part. 
 
 "Boston, U.S.A. 
 
 "February 24, 1892. 
 " REV. AND DEAR SlR, 
 
 " At the last meeting of the Commission 
 appointed by the General Convention of the 
 American Episcopal Church for the revision of 
 the new Hymnal, I was appointed to obtain of 
 authors whose hymns it is proposed to include in 
 the collection the permission for their publication. 
 
I/O JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 " I therefore take the liberty to ask your per- 
 mission for the publication in the new Hymnal 
 of the hymns beginning 
 
 " God of the living. 
 
 " Hail to the Lord Who comes. 
 
 " In the Name which earth and heaven. 
 
 " King of Saints, to Whom the number. 
 
 " Lift the strain of high thanksgiving. 
 
 " Now the labourer's task is o'er. 
 
 " O Son of God, our Captain of salvation. 
 
 " O Thou in Whom Thy saints repose. 
 
 " Our day of praise is done. 
 
 " Praise to the Heavenly Wisdom. 
 
 " Saviour, again to Thy dear Name we raise. 
 
 " Sing, ye faithful, sing with gladness. 
 
 " Thou Who sentest Thine Apostles. 
 
 " We sing the glorious conquest." 
 
 The letter contains a long postscript, asking for 
 the addresses of seventeen lady hymnists, and how 
 to obtain leave to use their hymns. 
 
 In the Hymnal as published the first of the 
 above was omitted, and the following were added 
 
 " O Father, bless the children." 
 
 " Shine Thou upon us, Lord." 
 
 " Sing Alleluia forth in duteous praise." 
 
 " This is the day of light." 
 
 " Welcome, happy morning." 1 
 
 It is remarkable that the list does not include 
 several which we on this side of the Atlantic count 
 among the best, e. g. 
 
 " Father, in Thy glorious dwelling." 
 
 1 Note by Rev. J. M earns. 
 
CRITICAL ESTIMATE OF ELLERTON'S HYMNS I? I 
 
 " From east to west, from shore to shore." 
 " O Strength and Stay, upholding all creation." 
 And above all 
 " Throned upon the awful Tree." 
 
 The following characteristic letter from another 
 American applicant is worth inserting, as showing 
 the estimation in which Mr. Ellerton was held by 
 Transatlantic hymnologists. 
 
 " Iowa City, 
 
 , 1878. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 " I have a semi-professional occasion for 
 troubling you with a letter. In addition to ordinary 
 parish labours, I have for many years exercised an 
 obscure and unprofitable trade, which, from the 
 help you gave in compiling the C. K. S. collec- 
 tion, may obtain some sympathy or commiseration 
 from you. In these Western wilds I am supposed 
 to be something of an authority upon hymn- 
 matters, and I plead guilty to the eccentricity of 
 owning by far the largest Cisatlantic library of 
 that sort some 2300 vols. Pursuing these devious 
 paths, I have been gladdened by the late and rapid 
 rising of your star, which I hail as one of high 
 magnitude. You are doubtless aware that some 
 of your hymns are known and loved in America. 
 Our present Church Hymnal contains but four 
 of them, but these are among your best. ' Saviour, 
 again to Thy dear Name we raise/ is a great 
 favourite. ' This is the day of light ' is the best 
 
1/2 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 of Sunday hymns, far beyond all others except 
 Bishop Wordsworth's, 1 and as much above Watts's 
 famous ' Welcome, sweet day of rest,' as a cultivated 
 Churchman of to-day is different from the average 
 Nonconformist of one hundred and seventy years 
 ago. 
 
 " * Our day of praise is done ' I esteem very 
 highly : it is perhaps too delicate and subtle to 
 be extensively popular. The other is ' Sing Alle- 
 luia forth.' I wish our not-too-well-posted com- 
 pilers had admitted more. * Welcome, happy 
 morning/ goes into the new Methodist collection 
 which will presently appear. The Report, just 
 printed, of their Committee gives it twelve lines, 
 chiefly from your note in Borthwick's collection. 
 I must thank you especially for ' O shining city 
 of our God.' I know nobody else, except Pal- 
 grave, who has done that kind as well ; and 
 surely in the hymnody of the future, pure Robert- 
 sonian strains like this must displace the coarse- 
 ness of what Mr. Martineau calls 'the Messianic 
 mythology.' 
 
 "All I know about you comes from a dissenting 
 book, Stevenson's Hymns for Church and Home, 
 1873. He says you were 'born in London, 1826. 
 Rector of Hinstock, Salop. Hymns appeared in 
 Nantwich Choral Festival Book, 1866 ; ditto, 1867; 
 Chester Cathedral Hymn-book, 1867; Brown- 
 Borthwick's Select Hymns, 1871 ; S. P. C.K. Church 
 Hymns, 1872.' With the two latter I am familiar, 
 the others I never saw. I found you first in the 
 Appendix to Hymns Ancient and Modern; you 
 1 " O Day of rest and gladness." 
 
CRITICAL ESTIMATE OF ELLERTON'S HYMNS 173 
 
 did not begin in time to get into Josiah Miller. 1 
 I have no English books since the revised Hymns 
 Ancient and Modern, 1874, and don't know what 
 you may have done in the last five years. 
 
 " May I beg for any information you choose to 
 give about yourself, and specially of your hymns 
 in other collections than those mentioned ? I do 
 not ask from idle curiosity. I have made it a sort 
 of duty to be informed on these matters, and to 
 use what I acquire. 
 
 " Two hymn-papers I would send you if I 
 thought you would care for them ; one in the last 
 number of our Church Review^ and another soon 
 to appear in a new magazine, Sunday Afternoon. 
 And just now I am writing some lectures on 
 English Hymnody, to be read under the auspices 
 of Bishop Perry, in some sort of connection with 
 a little Church College he is trying to revive at 
 Davenport on the Mississippi. In these I wish to 
 do justice to you. 
 
 " If I can make any return for the favours I am, 
 perhaps immodestly, asking, I beg you will com- 
 mand me. If you are a collector as well as a writer 
 of hymns, my duplicates are very much at your 
 service. They are always more or less numerous, 
 though mostly trashy. We have no hymnic origin- 
 ality, and very little hymnic knowledge over here. 
 
 " With thanks and congratulations, I am, 
 " Faithfully yours, 
 
 " FREDERIC M. BIRD/' 
 
 1 The second edition of Miller's Singers and Songs of the 
 Church was published in 1869. At least fourteen of Mr. 
 Ellerton's hymns had appeared before that date. 
 
174 J HN 
 
 Among the dozens of letters found among 
 Canon Ellerton's papers from unknown corre- 
 spondents, many from places which are positively 
 trying to ordinary geographical knowledge, the 
 following is selected as being typical of its kind. 1 
 There is something quite pathetic in the thought 
 of this ardent student pursuing under so many 
 disadvantages in his northern solitude his favourite 
 subject. 
 
 " The Parsonage^ Burravoe, Ye!/, Shetland, 
 " September 7, 1894. 
 
 "REV. SIR, 
 
 " Please forgive me taking the liberty of 
 writing to you, but for many years I have been 
 very anxious to know if you have published any 
 collection of hymns, or any work on hymnology, 
 and as I do not know to whom I should apply, I 
 have thought it better to write directly to your- 
 self. 
 
 " For several years hymns and hymnology have 
 had a great attraction for me, but living so far 
 out of the world as I do, I have not had the 
 chance of adding much to my knowledge of so 
 delightful a subject. 
 
 " It is superfluous of me to speak of the beauty 
 of your hymns in Hymns Ancient and Modern, 
 especially Nos. 12, 30, 31, 37, 118, 401, 406, and 
 413 ; and I cannot tell you how glad I was to see 
 so many by you in the new Supplement. I have 
 Mr. Thring's Hymnal, which contains several beau- 
 tiful ones by you. I have been told that there are 
 
 1 Showing that Hymns Original and Translated, published 
 in 1888, had not reached the island of Yell by 1892. 
 
CRITICAL ESTIMATE OF ELLERTON'S HYMNS 175 
 
 some by you in Church Hymns (S. P. C. K.), but 
 unfortunately my copy of that splendid collection 
 does not have the names of the authors. I have 
 heard that it is probable that Church Hymns may 
 be enlarged. 
 
 " I read with great interest your sketches of 
 Hymn Writers in the Parish Magazine last year. 
 I there saw for the first time the portraits of J. M. 
 Neale and Isaac Williams. Might you not re- 
 publish these sketches, 1 and add some more of 
 other hymn writers, in book form with portraits ? 
 I am sure there would be a great demand for the 
 work. I also read some years ago your able 
 article in the Church Monthly on 'Some famous 
 Easter Hymns,' and I was especially interested in 
 1 Jesus Christ is risen to-day.' 2 
 
 "Again requesting to be forgiven for troubling 
 you so much, and hoping that at your convenience 
 you will favour me with a reply, and tell me about 
 your hymn and hymnological publications, 
 
 " I am, Reverend Sir, 
 
 "Yours very respectfully, 
 
 "THOMAS MATHEWSON." 
 
 Another enthusiastic admirer, writing from Chi- 
 cago, begs for " one of your hymns in your hand- 
 writing and over your signature"; adding, "If I 
 were to suggest my preference, it would be for 
 your hymn beginning, ' Saviour, again to Thy dear 
 Name we raise.' " 
 
 It is no slight testimony to the affection with 
 which Mr. Ellerton's hymns were regarded that 
 1 See p. 301* - See p. 391. 
 
176 JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 some should be translated into Latin. The follow- 
 ing elegant version of " The day Thou gavest, 
 Lord, is ended," is rendered still more valuable 
 by the complimentary letter which accompanied 
 
 it. 
 
 " Malvern House, St. Albans, 
 
 " August 9, 1892. 
 "MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 " I have interested myself when laid by 
 for a month through ill-health with a study of 
 English hymns, and I venture to send you one 
 of your own in a Latin dress. If it interests you 
 for a few moments I shall be paying back some 
 of the pleasure with which I have read and re-read 
 the beautiful lines of the original. 
 
 " I must beg you, if you find time to look at 
 my parody, to remember that the central thought 
 of the hymn is unclassical, and consequently hard 
 to make intelligible in Latin. 
 " Believe me, 
 
 " Yours very faithfully, 
 
 " HARRY W. SMITH. 
 "CANON ELLERTON." 
 
 "THE DAY THOU GAVEST, LORD, IS ENDED.' 
 
 " Jam, Deus, accepit lux a Te praebita finem, 
 
 Processit jussu nox tenebrosa Tuo. 
 Te matutino grati celebravimus ore, 
 
 Inque Tua solem condere laude juvat. 
 Nos somnum petimus : terrarum hie maximus orbis 
 
 Volvitur interea persequiturque diem : 
 Nunc hie nunc illic Ecclesia sancta perenni 
 
 Pervigilat, laudes attribuitque, vice. 
 
CRITICAL ESTIMATE OF ELLERTON'S HYMNS 1 
 
 Jam rapit hie Aurora diem, mox suscitat illic, 
 
 Et cunctos sensim mobile lumen adit ; 
 Consequitur cum luce chorus laudesque piorum, 
 
 Atque ubicunque dies panditur, hymnus adest. 
 Oui nobis abiens requiem tulit, excitat idem 
 
 Hesperios surgens sol, oriturque novus. 
 Hora ut mutatur, vocum mutabilis ordo 
 
 Laudem auscultanti dat sine fine Deo. 
 Media succubuit : periit Romana potestas : 
 
 Christe, Tuus nullo limite crescit honos. 
 Regnabis, donee nullo non hoste subacto 
 
 Ouidquid fecisti, pareat omne Tibi." 
 
 H. W. S, 
 
 M 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 IN the foregoing pages we have endeavoured to 
 give a sketch of Canon Ellerton's literary work, 
 in which hymnody of course holds the most con- 
 spicuous place. From the days of his curacy at 
 Brighton to the last fatal attack which told him 
 that " the labourer's task was o'er," his devotion to 
 this one object was unceasing. He was the chief 
 compiler and editor of the two important hymn- 
 books, Church Hymns and the Children s Hymn 
 Book) and joint compiler of the last edition of that 
 great hymnal which, above all others, is dearest to 
 the heart of the English Church, Hymns Ancient 
 and Modern. He edited or assisted in editing 
 Hymns for Schools and Bible Classes, the Temper- 
 ance Hymn-Book, the London Mission Hymn-Book. 
 His advice was sought in the compiling the last 
 edition of the admirable Hymnal Companion to the 
 Book of Common Prayer ; in fact, it is no exagger- 
 ation to say, that his hand may be traced and his 
 voice heard in every hymn-book of importance 
 published during the last thirty years ; while no 
 less than eighty-six hymns, original or translated, 
 proceeded from his ow r n pen. 
 
 We have seen, too, that his prose works were 
 both numerous and valuable ; and if we were to 
 
 178 
 
CONCLUSION 179 
 
 add to these the mass of sermons he wrote during 
 his ministerial life, we must own that few ever 
 dedicated the talents committed to them more 
 unreservedly, more faithfully to the Master's service 
 than John Ellerton. 
 
 It is a comparatively easy thing to speak of a 
 man's work, for indeed that speaks for itself; but 
 to speak of the man himself, to endeavour to make 
 others see what he was to those who knew him, 
 this is a far harder task. John Ellerton was the 
 truest and sincerest of friends, and his friendship 
 is a golden memory to those who were privileged 
 to share it. He was the most delightful of com- 
 panions, and no one could be long in his company 
 without being struck with the vast range of his 
 information ; it seemed impossible to bring forward 
 a subject in which he felt no interest, or on which 
 he had not bestowed some thought and study. 
 With the entomologist he was as much at home 
 with the Tineae and Tortrices as with the Sphinxes 
 and Fritillaries; with the geologist he would delight 
 in a collection of fossils, and in their silent forms 
 his poetic imagination would see the creatures 
 which lived and enjoyed their lives in bygone ages. 
 He was a zealous antiquary, and the ruins of an 
 abbey or a collection of coins would elicit from 
 him remarks which showed the largeness of his 
 acquaintance with history ; in fact, he thoroughly 
 came up to that well-known standard of an educated 
 man to know something of everything, and every- 
 thing of something, and this last " something " was 
 hymns. Hymns were his joy and delight. It was 
 impossible to mention a hymn, whatever its origin 
 
l8o JOHN ELLERTON 
 
 Greek, Latin, English, French, German, or Danish 
 but at once he told you its author and history. 
 When lying half-unconscious on his death-bed, 
 hymn after hymn flowed from his lips in a never- 
 ending stream. But his poems, as we have seen, 
 were not all hymns. " He could write," says one 
 who knew him, " charming sonnets, all of which 
 proved his command over English, his admiration 
 for the beautiful in Art and in Nature, purity of 
 thought, and tender sympathy combined with 
 manliness." But the most remarkable trait of his 
 character was his intense lovingness always mak- 
 ing the best of and doing his best for others, never 
 thinking of himself. All good men loved him, and 
 his friends generally spoke, indeed speak of him 
 still, as " dear Ellerton." 
 
 What he was in his own family, how thoroughly 
 he entered into the amusements and recreation of 
 his children, showing his love for and sympathy 
 with young people, it is not for these pages to 
 unveil. What he was in his parish would be best 
 understood by hearing him spoken of by those 
 among whom he ministered ; all who so remember 
 him love to speak of his tender sympathy with 
 them in all their troubles and trials, identifying 
 himself with them alike in their joys and in their 
 sorrows. It has already been mentioned how, 
 when he held a Mission in Brighton in 1890, the 
 old people who remembered him thirty years before 
 flocked to see his beloved face, to hear his kindly 
 voice, once more. In the pulpit calm, thoughtful, 
 scholarly he had few equals ; while his reading 
 had a peculiar charm, and the pathos he threw 
 
CONCLUSION l8l 
 
 into such passages as the last chapter of Ecclesiastes, 
 or David's lament over Saul and Jonathan, will 
 never be forgotten by those who heard him. As a 
 missioner too and during his seven years at White 
 Roding he conducted many Missions and Quiet 
 Days, notably one to the Chichester Theological 
 College in 1889 his devotional addresses were 
 deeply impressive. 
 
 Yes, dear Ellerton, would that I could offer a 
 worthier tribute to thy memory than these poor 
 words, in which thy pure and holy life is so feebly 
 sketched. To have been thy friend and fellow- 
 worker is indeed a privilege on which it will ever 
 be a delight to look back ; the thought that we 
 may meet again, if indeed I should be accounted 
 worthy to rest where thou art resting, gives renewed 
 energy to press forward to that home where, as 
 thou didst sing, there is peace, and light, and joy, 
 and love, and life for evermore. To thee, whose 
 chiefest joy it was to put words of praise and 
 thanksgiving, resignation and peace, into the lips 
 of God's children here, as midst temptations and 
 sorrows they journey onward towards the golden 
 gates of the city where they would be ; surely in that 
 day, when the multitude of the Redeemed which 
 no man can number shall mingle their voices with 
 those of cherubim and seraphim in the great seven- 
 fold ascription of salvation to Him who sitteth 
 upon the throne and unto the Lamb, to thee 
 will be given a place of high honour in that 
 celestial company, where the joy which thou hadst 
 on earth in the voice-of praise and thanksgiving 
 shall be fulfilled. 
 
PAPERS ON 
 HYMNS AND HYMN-BOOKS 
 
CHURCH CONGRESS AND OTHER 
 PAPERS 
 
 MAINLY ON THE SUBJECT OF AN AUTHORIZED HYMNAL. 
 
 The first four of the following papers are among the earliest 
 of Canon Ellerton's contributions to Hymnology. They 
 appeared in the Churchmarfs Family Magazine^ a 
 periodical since defunct, in 1864. The first is intro- 
 ductory to the second, tracing the history of English 
 Hymnody down to the publication of Hymns Ancient 
 and Modern. The second discusses the question whether 
 one Authorized Hymnal would be of advantage to the 
 Church or otherwise, and the answer is distinctly in the 
 negative. The third discusses fully the canons of criticism 
 by which a hymn should be judged. The fourth contains 
 practical suggestions concerning congregational singing 
 and the choice of hymns and the tunes, although the 
 excellent hymnals now in use render some of the remarks 
 somewhat obsolete. 
 
 Of the date or occasion of the concluding paper, " Modern 
 Theology as shown by Modern Hymnody," found among 
 the Canon's MSS., I can learn nothing ; but as a just 
 and thoughtful review of Nonconformist hymns it is well 
 worth preserving. 
 
PAST HISTORY OF ENGLISH HYMNODY 185 
 
 NO. I 
 
 ON SOME PECULIARITIES IN THE PAST HISTORY 
 OF ENGLISH HYMNODY 
 
 THERE is scarcely any event in the history of 
 our Church worship during the past sixty years 
 so great and so remarkable as the substitution of 
 Hymns for metrical Psalms. It is great, because 
 it involves a change in the whole character of our 
 Common Praise as important as that which the 
 adoption of a new Office for morning and evening 
 service would make in that of our Common Prayer. 
 It is remarkable, because we English Church people 
 hate all innovation, especially unauthorized innova- 
 tion, and this is entirely unauthorized ; because we 
 hold fast to the traditions of our Reformation, and 
 this is wholly contrary to its traditions ; because 
 we like in such matters to be led by our rulers in 
 Church and State, and they have been the last, 
 instead of the first, to sanction this. It came to 
 us from an unwelcome source from the Dissenters, 
 eminently from the Methodists ; it was first adopted 
 by those of the clergy who sympathized most with 
 them ; for many long years it was that dreaded 
 thing, a " party badge " ; but it held its ground 
 until wise men of all parties began to recognize its 
 value. First as supplementary to the New Version, 
 and then as replacing it, hymns found their way 
 into hitherto inaccessible quarters ; and the revolu- 
 tion is at last complete. 
 
 I regard this movement with unmixed thankful- 
 
1 86 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 ness ; and I would fain hope my readers do so too. 
 Besides the greatest benefit of all, that our service 
 of praise is so much more distinctively and speci- 
 ally Christian than before, as being based upon the 
 truths we confess in our Creeds, there are two 
 other advantages, scarcely less important, which 
 have resulted from it. This substitution of Hymnals 
 for a metrical Psalter is valuable, not as a disuse 
 of the Psalms, but as a restoration of them to their 
 right use. I believe that we shall now more than 
 ever learn the true value of our really authorized 
 Psalter, that matchless fragment of our lost 
 " Bishops' Bible," not as an edifying lectionary, but 
 as an exhaustless treasury of praise ; and that its 
 use in song will not be limited to " Choral Services " 
 and large churches, but will become in course of 
 time a regular part of the Sunday worship of nearly 
 every village congregation. And if, by the means 
 of good and simple chants, we learn thus to use 
 our Psalms, we shall, I hope, in due time, get to 
 use them less rigidly. Foreign ritualists (Protestant 
 as well as Roman) smile at our clumsy English 
 way of cutting up our Psalter into sixty equal bits, 
 and binding ourselves down under heavy penalties 
 to sing or say precisely the same words upon the 
 same day of the month, whether it be in Advent 
 or Easter whether it be a service of supplication 
 or of thanksgiving, a "Lent Lecture," a School 
 Feast, a day of local or national mourning, or a 
 Harvest Festival, an Episcopal Visitation, or a 
 gathering of choirs. But the rule has something 
 to say for itself; of this, as of many of our peculiar 
 usages, we can give a good practical account. If, 
 
PAST HISTORY OF ENGLISH HYMNODY 1 8? 
 
 however, the " custom which has become a rule " 
 permits us to sing hymns selected for the occasion 
 at "special services," may we not hope that selections 
 of specially suitable Psalms will ere long follow? 
 
 But there is yet another reason why we may 
 rejoice in this great change. Our Prayer-book has 
 been hitherto our great link with the worship of 
 the Past. Through it we are heirs of the best 
 devotions of Christ's Church, from the time of the 
 Apostles to the day in which the last revision was 
 made. But there, as a matter of necessity, the 
 golden chain has stopped. I do not think we can 
 add any more links of the same shape. Even if 
 we need additional services, it is hard to conceive 
 of modern forms which we could endure to hear 
 within the same walls as the old. But the work 
 which our prayers began, our hymns must now 
 supplement and continue. One whole storehouse 
 of ancient devotion, of which the key was lost with 
 the Latin Offices, is unlocked anew. Cranmer 
 could render their prayers so felicitously that our 
 versions are better than the originals. The dross 
 was purged away, and the metal moulded into 
 forms more beautiful than ever. But the gift of 
 translating their hymns was denied him ; melodious 
 English verse was then unknown. 1 On the other 
 
 1 Cranmer's version of Venantius's processional Easter 
 hymn " Salve Festa Dies " (a great favourite with our fathers; 
 see Larimer's contemptuous reference to it, Serm. xii. 207), 
 attempted " for a proof to see how English would do in a 
 song," was sent to Henry VIII. in 1544 (apparently), with 
 other " Processions, to be used on festival days." But he 
 evidently mistrusted himself; and he worked against the 
 
1 88 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 hand, while the English Church now has none who 
 could adapt mediaeval prayers like Cranmer, she 
 has already produced, within the last twenty years, 
 most admirable versions of nearly every great 
 mediaeval hymn ; versions constructed if not with 
 the skill, at least exactly upon the principle on 
 which our collects were adapted from the Leonine, 
 Gelasian, and Gregorian sacramentaries, of silently 
 dropping or modifying the word or phrase here 
 and there inconsistent with the Reformed doctrine, 
 while that which is a witness for our real unity of 
 faith is carefully preserved. 1 While we thus have 
 
 grain, and at Henry's express desire. Cranmer's Works, vol. 
 ii. p. 412, ed. Parker Society. This hymn has now been 
 translated by Mr. Neale, Hymnal Noted, 79. See p. 50. 
 
 1 See on this point the interesting essay on "Ancient 
 Collects in the Prayer-book," appended to Mr. Bright's 
 Ancient Collects. As examples of hymns treated in the 
 same spirit with great success, I may notice St. Thomas 
 Aquinas's "Adoro Te Devote" (in Hymns Ancient and 
 Modern, 206), and Venantius's " Vexilla Regis J ' (in the 
 Church Hymnal, published by Bell and Daldy, No. 71). I 
 need not remark that there is no dishonesty in this adaptation 
 of ancient hymns ; the object is not to show what Aquinas 
 or Venantius really wrote (which any one who wishes to find 
 out may easily ascertain), but to present the leading ideas of 
 their hymns in such a form as it may be fit for a Reformed 
 Church to offer to God. But the extent to which it is either 
 fair or wise to depart from the actual text of a hymn, whether 
 in translating or merely transcribing it, is a question which 
 I must reserve for further discussion. Venantius's hymn 
 was written for a procession carrying a relic of the " True 
 Cross." It is translated very literally, but with great vigour, 
 in Hymnal Noted, 22. Those who have the right clue to its 
 comprehension will see that, as it there stands, it is quite 
 
PAST HISTORY OF ENGLISH HYMNODY 189 
 
 fresh ties to bind us to the ancient Church, we 
 can now at length avail ourselves of the spiritual 
 development of the Universal Church since the 
 Reformation. Whatever hindrances there may be 
 to external communion with foreign Churches, we 
 are surely drawing near to our brethren in a most 
 real and blessed way, when we thus draw near to 
 God with the words of their wisest and holiest 
 men. The same may be said of those who have 
 separated from our own communion. The voice 
 of Christian life among them has chiefly found 
 expression in sacred song ; and when we take the 
 best of their hymns into our own service books, 
 we take that which is most precious and most 
 lasting in their religious utterances. And lastly, 
 the living and growing Church of our own day 
 pours her spiritual life into her hymn-books. Long 
 did that fresh stream chafe and beat against the 
 rigid barrier of an imagined authority, which kept 
 out from our churches all but the two " allowed " 
 versions of the Psalms. Some small leakage 
 indeed there was ; one or two hymns found their 
 way in. Even Tate and Brady could not keep 
 
 inconsistent with the spirit of our services ; to those who 
 have not this clue, it must appear simply unmeaning. Again } 
 there is a far more famous hymn of Aquinas's, the " Pange 
 lingua gloriosi Corporis Mysterium," which has now been 
 translated and revised many times, but will never be tuned 
 to harmonize with our own Communion Office ; and it would 
 be strange if it could, seeing that it was written by the most 
 acute theologian of his day to express precisely that very 
 form (the Paschasian) of Eucharistic doctrine which our 
 Church has deliberately repudiated, 
 
HYMNOLOGY 
 
 Ken out of our churches. And when, by a bold 
 stroke, it is said, of some pious University printer, 1 
 one or two of Wesley's and Doddridge's hymns 
 (" Hark ! the herald angels sing," " High let us 
 swell our tuneful notes," " My God, and is Thy 
 table spread ") were appended to an edition of the 
 New Version, they were tacitly accepted as covered 
 by the authority which was supposed to sanction 
 the Psalter. Now however, that, not by State enact- 
 ments, Order in Council, or vote of Convocation, 
 but by the quiet yet irresistible influence of the 
 good sense and Christian feeling of her congrega- 
 tions, the Church stands committed to the use of 
 hymns, the warmth and power of her worship is 
 felt to be enormously increased. It is cheering to 
 hear of a foreign observer like M. Taine (Histoire 
 de la Literature Anglaise) speaking with respect 
 and astonishment of English hymns, and the 
 enthusiasm with which we sing them. What 
 Frenchman's heart would have warmed to us over 
 the New Version ? 
 
 As an illustration of the spiritual wealth we 
 have acquired by breaking through our old tradi- 
 tions, let us, before proceeding farther, compare 
 the materials for our thanksgivings at this Easter 
 season forty or fifty years ago, in an " orthodox " 
 church, with those which are to be found now, in 
 three or four of the best of our hymnals. The 
 Easter Anthems, the Proper Psalms, the Eucharistic 
 Preface, are still the same. But for metrical 
 hymnody, that which, as Sir F. Ouseley has well 
 
 1 Oxford Essay 's, 1858. Hymns and Hymn Writers ; by 
 Rev, C. B. Pearson, 
 
PAST HISTORY OF ENGLISH HYMNODY IQI 
 
 shown, 1 is especially the part of the whole congre- 
 gation in the service of praise, we had our one 
 quaint and well-known " Jesus Christ is risen to- 
 day," and two very prosaic paraphrases of the 
 anthems already sung. But what is the case now ? 
 The Latin Church may be represented by two of 
 its very noblest hymns, "Aurora Lucis" and "Ad 
 ccenam Agni " (Hymns Ancient and Modern, 126 
 and 127), as well as by the "Victimae Paschali," 
 which the Lutheran Church has always retained 
 (Hymns Ancient and Modern, 131), and by several 
 others of less interest ; the Eastern Churches by 
 (let us say) Mr. Neale's two hymns from St. John 
 of Damascus "Tis the day of resurrection " and 
 " Come, ye faithful, raise the strain ; " the ancient 
 Bohemian Church by " Christus ist erstanden " 
 (Hymns Ancient and Modern, 136); the Reforma- 
 tion by Luther's " Christ lag in Todesbanden " 
 (Mercer, 104) ; later Lutheranism by several ex- 
 cellent hymns, conspicuous among them Gellert's 
 "Jesus lebt" (Hymns Ancient and Modern, 140). 
 Wesley supplies us with one of his best hymns, 
 " Christ the Lord is risen to-day ; " Watts with 
 " Hosanna to the Prince of Light ; " Kelly with 
 " Come, see the place where Jesus lay ; " Mont- 
 gomery with " Songs of praise the angels sang ; " 
 and, of course, very many more might be enumer- 
 ated. Is it possible to over-estimate the influence 
 of such a change upon the next generation of 
 Churchmen ? 
 
 The result of this general acceptance of hymns 
 by worshippers of every school in our Church is, 
 1 Churchman 1 s Family Magazine, July 1864. 
 
192 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 of course, that just at present her Hymnody is in 
 a state which may be well termed chaotic. No 
 one has authorized the use of any hymn-book 
 whatever, though most of our Bishops have now 
 recommended, or at least approved, some one or 
 more ; the field is open to unrestricted competi- 
 tion, or at least restricted only by the law of 
 copyright ; each clergyman may compile a fresh 
 Hymn-book for his own congregation, if he have 
 time, money, and patience ; the five or six best- 
 known selections, especially those which are printed 
 as Chorale books with music, have each its follow- 
 ing of enthusiastic supporters. Thousands are 
 now interested in the subject of hymns, where but 
 hundreds a few years ago knew of any but the two 
 or three above mentioned, which had strayed, no 
 one knew how, between the covers of the "New 
 Version " ; the bolder spirits are searching high 
 and low, from the Oratory to the Camp Meeting, 
 for fresh materials ; while the more cautious are 
 eagerly imploring, with English love of law, the 
 authorities in Church and State to give the National 
 Church her one Common Hymn-book, to be bound 
 up with her Common Prayer-book, and so to put 
 a stop to the confusion. 
 
 I purpose, in the following papers, to consider 
 how this movement may be best turned to account 
 for the glory of God and the edification of His 
 Church ; whether it is possible or expedient that 
 our Church should have one general hymn-book ; 
 what are the sources available for such a book, and 
 the principles on which it ought to be compiled ; 
 and what may in the meantime be done by indi- 
 
PAST HISTORY OF ENGLISH HYMNODY 193 
 
 vidual Churchmen, and especially by the clergy, 
 towards directing and consolidating the improve- 
 ment in our service of praise. 
 
 But before entering on this investigation, I must 
 call the attention of my readers to some peculi- 
 arities in the past history of English Hymns. 
 
 I said at the outset of my paper that the use of 
 hymns in our public worship, as distinguished from 
 metrical Psalms, was wholly contrary to the tradi- 
 tions of our Reformation. And this brings me to 
 the first peculiarity in the history of our Hymnody, 
 its comparatively recent growth. 
 
 Now I am quite aware that the statement I 
 have just made as to our Reformers is very likely 
 to be questioned. There is no doubt that, at the 
 beginning of the Reformation, the feeling was in 
 favour of continuing the use of the ancient hymns, 
 and that with this view attempts were made to 
 translate them into English. In Henry VIII.'s 
 Primer of 1545, eight of the Ambrosian hymns for 
 the Canonical Hours, translated probably by the 
 king himself, were inserted in their proper places, 
 with the other offices for the Hours. These were 
 reprinted, Mr. Clay tells us, 1 several times down 
 to 1552. But in 1553, when Genevan influence 
 had become powerful over our Reformers, a new 
 Primer was put forth, from which these hymns 
 disappeared. They were revived in two or three 
 Primers published early in Elizabeth's reign, but 
 not, it would seem, later than 1575. And these, 
 of course, were not for church singing, but for use 
 
 1 Private Prayers put forth by Atithority during the Reign 
 of Queen Elizabeth. Ed. Parker Society. Preface, p. 10. 
 
 N 
 
194 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 in private devotion. The only metrical hymn 
 authorized for use in church was the Veni Creator 
 in the Ordinal of 1549, retained, with a good many 
 alterations, to our own day. It is interesting, by 
 the way, to compare this with the shorter Long 
 Metre version, inserted in the Ordinal at the last 
 revision, 1661 a remarkable improvement upon 
 the diffuse and prosaic Edwardian hymn, both in 
 vigour and accuracy ; if to these we add the versions 
 usually appended to Tate and Brady's Psalter, and 
 finally Mr. Caswall's version 1 (Lyra Catholica, p. 
 103), we shall have a very fair specimen of the 
 
 1 As the Lyra Catholica is now a scarce book, I subjoin 
 the most literal of Mr. Caswall's versions 
 
 " Come, O Creator, Spirit blest ! 
 And in our souls take up Thy rest ; 
 Come with Thy grace and heavenly aid, 
 To fill the hearts which Thou hast made. 
 
 Great Paraclete ! to Thee we cry : 
 O highest gift of God most high ! 
 O fount of life ! O fire of love ! 
 And sweet Anointing from above ! 
 
 Thou in Thy sevenfold gifts art known ; 
 Thee Finger of God's hand we own ; 
 The promise of the Father Thou ! 
 Who dost the tongue with power endow. 
 
 Kindle our senses from above, 
 And make our hearts o'erflow with love ; 
 With patience firm, and virtue high, 
 The weakness of our flesh supply. 
 
 Far from us drive the foe we dread, 
 And grant us Thy true peace instead ; 
 So shall we not, with Thee for guide, 
 Turn from the path of life aside. 
 
PAST HISTORY OF ENGLISH HYMNODY 195 
 
 powers of the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, 
 and nineteenth centuries respectively, in translating 
 an ancient hymn. 
 
 The taste for metrical psalmody sprang up rapidly 
 among us in the sixteenth century. But the 
 question to be decided was, whether the words to 
 be sung should be strictly versified Psalms, as 
 those of Marot and Beza, or hymns, as those of 
 Luther, sometimes translated Catholic hymns, 
 sometimes paraphrases of Psalms or other portions 
 of Scripture, or rather free imitations of them, 
 sometimes purely original hymns. Germany had 
 already the old hymns of the Bohemian brethren, 
 and a few others. They became the nucleus of 
 her subsequent collections. Luther encouraged, 
 by every possible means, the multiplication and 
 use of good hymns ; and the Evangelical Churches 
 became pre-eminently the hymn-singing Churches. 
 In imitation of Luther, Coverdale published Goostly 
 Psalmes and Spirituall Songes, many of them 
 translations from Luther, some of them from Latin 
 hymns, some versified Psalms, and a few original. 
 These were published with music, purposely for 
 social and domestic use ; but they were at once 
 forbidden by Henry VIII. in 1539. On the other 
 
 Oh, may Thy grace on us bestow, 
 
 The Father and the Son to know, 
 
 And Thee through endless times confess'd 
 
 Of Both th' eternal Spirit blest. 
 
 All glory, while the ages run, 
 
 Be to the Father, and the Son 
 
 Who rose from death ; the same to Thee, 
 
 O Holy Ghost, eternally." 
 
1 96 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 hand, Sternhold, Henry's Groom of the Robes, 
 began, in evident imitation of Marot, his version 
 of the Psalms, thirty-seven of which were published 
 in the year of his death, 1549, ten years after 
 Coverdale's hymn-book. Psalm-singing became 
 popular ; suppressed under Mary, it revived at 
 once under Elizabeth. In March 1560 Jewel 
 writes to Peter Martyr : " As soon as they had 
 once commenced singing in public, in only one 
 little church in London, immediately not only the 
 churches in the neighbourhood, but even the towns 
 far distant, began to vie with each other in the 
 same practice. You may now sometimes see at 
 Paul's Cross, after the service, six thousand persons, 
 old and young, of both sexes, all singing together 
 and praising God." 1 This popular movement 
 soon gave rise to a warm controversy ; one party 
 advocated part-singing, the re-introduction of 
 organs, and, in the larger churches, what we now 
 call Choral service. The others were zealous for 
 metrical tunes only, sung in unison, and unac- 
 companied, as Jewel describes. 2 It would seem 
 that Queen Elizabeth's well-known Injunction, 
 permitting " that at the beginning of common 
 prayer, either at morning or evening service, there 
 may be sung an hymn, or such like song, to the 
 
 1 Zurich Letters, i. p. 71. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 164. Cartwright, in 1573, in his Defence of 
 the Admonition, shows us that the Puritan demand was 
 specifically for "no other singing than is used in the 
 Reformed Churches (/. e. the Calvinistic), which is, the sing- 
 ing of two psalms, one in the beginning, and another in the 
 ending, in a plain tune." 
 
PAST HISTORY OF ENGLISH HYMNODY 197 
 
 praise of Almighty God," was really a concession 
 to the advocates of metrical as against chanted 
 psalms. The mention of a "hymn" must not 
 mislead us ; the two names were as yet among the 
 people used interchangeably. No new translations 
 from the Latin service books would now have 
 been tolerated by those who were fresh from the 
 days when these service books had been forced 
 upon the people by the terrors of the stake ; and 
 the many who still clung to the old faith clung 
 also to the old language, and did not want that 
 new Protestant thing, congregational singing. Thus 
 it came to pass that, even if our people would 
 have sung hymns, there were scarcely any for them 
 to sing. I say, scarcely any, for we have a few 
 real hyrnns of this age. A few were appended to 
 the Psalter of 1562, our Old Version. Among 
 these we find metrical versions of all the canticles 
 (a proof of the popular dislike of chanting them, 
 stupidly misunderstood by Tate and Brady, who 
 proceeded to versify them anew in the eighteenth 
 century) as well as of the Lord's Prayer, the 
 Apostles' and Athanasian Creeds, and the Ten 
 Commandments. We have also Mardley's " Humble 
 Suit of a Sinner," and the better known " Lamenta- 
 tion of a Sinner ; " another " Lamentation " ; the 
 Veni Creator of 1549; a really beautiful " Prayer 
 to the Holy Ghost, to be sung before the sermon," 
 and a long " Thanksgiving at the receiving of the 
 Lord's Supper." In some editions was inserted a 
 translation, by Robert Wisdome, of Luther's " Song 
 against Pope and Turk," beginning " Preserve us, 
 Lord, by Thy dear Word." To the Accession 
 
198 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 Service, issued by authority in 1578, were added 
 three hymns, the best of which, " As for Thy gifts 
 we render praise," has been lately admitted by Dr. 
 Kennedy into his Hyumologia Christiana ; another 
 is an acrostic on " God save the Queene," " to the 
 tune of the 25th Psalm " ! A few more might be 
 mentioned, but they are exceptions which prove 
 the rule. No hymns were furnished for the great 
 Church festivals, or for the course of Church 
 seasons ; none appeared with that power which 
 seems to belong to almost every really great hymn, 
 of provoking imitations and sequels. The sacred 
 poets of Elizabeth's reign vied with one another 
 in versifying Psalms, and the rising school of com- 
 posers in setting those Psalms to music. In short, 
 the Church of England followed the lead of the 
 Calvinist rather than of the Lutheran Churches. 
 This is the true explanation of the reproach some- 
 times cast upon us, that we are two centuries 
 behind Germany in hymns. 1 It is vain now to 
 speculate on what might have been ; how Sidney, 
 and Sandys, and, above all, Milton, might have 
 given us immortal hymns instead of very dis- 
 appointing versions ; how Drummond might have 
 continued his good work of putting the songs of 
 St. Ambrose and St. Gregory into an English 
 dress ; how Herbert might have served yet better 
 the Church he loved so well, had he been able to 
 offer some contributions to her worship ; how Ken 
 might have become the Angelus of England, could 
 he have foreseen that his holy words would have 
 
 1 See an interesting paper by the Rev. W. F. Stevenson 
 in Good Words for 1863, p. 538. 
 
PAST HISTORY OF ENGLISH HYMNODY 199 
 
 been auxiliaries, not to the bedside devotions of a 
 few scholars only, but to the congregational singing 
 of thousands. But the opportunities were lost. 
 Those two great centuries, the sixteenth and seven- 
 teenth, so rich and fruitful for the Church and the 
 nation in all else, the ages of our noblest Christian 
 poetry, of our best theology, of our profoundest 
 learning, of our highest pulpit eloquence ; ages of 
 conflict and suffering for the faith and the order 
 of the Church ; ages abounding in ardent, loyal, 
 devout men ; ages in which religious questions 
 were the most deeply felt and most passionately 
 discussed of all questions ; yet have contributed 
 nothing, or next to nothing, to the permanent store 
 of the Church's songs. 1 While, on the other hand, 
 the true Hymnody of England begins in the much- 
 abused eighteenth century, the age whose poetry, 
 as Hare says, was prose, as the prose of the seven- 
 teenth had been poetry ; the age of scepticism in 
 religion, frivolity in taste, laxity in morals ; the 
 age of evidences, not of convictions ; of toleration, 
 not of enthusiasm ; an age which sentimentalists 
 think a dead level of dulness ; when the devout 
 Churchman had become a tiresome formalist, and 
 the brave and earnest Puritan a prudent and 
 prosperous Dissenter. Then it was that, from the 
 
 1 From a tolerably extensive knowledge of English hymns, 
 I have been led to the conviction that, of the many thousands 
 now in use, not above a hundred at most are of an earlier 
 date than 1700 ; and I doubt whether half of these were 
 written for public worship. Of course I leave out of count 
 translations, and the curious Welsh hymns of Rees Pritchard 
 and others. 
 
2OO HYMNOLOGY 
 
 pleasant arbour of Sir Thomas Abney's suburban 
 villa, his invalid guest, the gentle Nonconformist 
 minister, sent forth at intervals the first really 
 congregational hymns which had appeared since 
 the reign of Elizabeth. The Church, for the most 
 part idle and corrupt, through the earlier years of 
 that melancholy half-century, took small heed of 
 what the little Doctor wrote, and what the decorous 
 tea-tables of Stoke Newington admired ; but to 
 the Dissenters the work of Isaac Watts was a 
 greater boon even than they thought, and the 
 Church in due time came to recognize its value. 
 He was, if I may so speak, the founder of a school 
 of hymnists, of which Doddridge is the most 
 illustrious member. I have never myself felt much 
 affection for this school ; I have little sympathy 
 with Watts's theology ; and his verse seems to me 
 sadly encumbered with the artificial conceits and 
 tinsel ornaments, now grievously tarnished, of his 
 age. Yet there is in many of their hymns a power 
 of faith and love which still lives and glows. Even 
 in our own Church, some of them, we may venture 
 to say, will never be forgotten or superseded. 
 
 The new fashion, it is to be observed, was strictly 
 Nonconformist. I do not know how soon our 
 Church adopted it, though I am acquainted with 
 a parish church in which Watts's Psalms and 
 Hymns were sung more than a hundred years ago, 
 and are in use to this day. Among the few devout 
 and ascetic Churchmen the observance of the 
 Canonical Hours, which the Nonjurors had revived, 
 and which perhaps had never wholly been laid 
 aside since the days of Cosin, had led to the 
 
PAST HISTORY OF ENGLISH HYMNODY 2OI 
 
 private use of the hymns of Austin and Ken. It 
 is probable, also, that the custom of introducing 
 special anthems on the occasion of charity sermons 
 and the like, may have early led to the adoption 
 of an occasional hymn or ode to be performed by 
 the singers. But this was not congregational 
 worship ; and even among the Dissenters the 
 hymn was still subsidiary to the metrical Psalm. 
 Doddridge's hymns were written each with refer- 
 ence to one of his sermons, and intended to be 
 sung before or after it ; a fashion which John 
 Newton afterwards introduced for a time at 
 Olney. 
 
 But a greater movement was at hand. In 1738 
 John Wesley returned home from America, and 
 he and his brother Charles began to found their 
 Societies. As is well known, they were for a time 
 intimately associated with the United Brethren, 
 and this connection had an important effect both 
 upon the form which the Wesleyan discipline 
 assumed, and upon the means by which its 
 devotional fervour was sustained. For the first 
 time, men bred up in the English Church, and 
 men bred up in the Lutheran Churches, learned to 
 understand and value one another ; and though 
 too soon their friendship came to an end, yet to 
 that brief intimacy, more than to any other single 
 cause, the Church of England owes the revival of 
 her hymnody. From the Moravians the Wesleys 
 borrowed not only the text of many good German 
 hymns, but the precedent for their abundant and 
 continual use ; and one of the two brothers, at 
 least, was nobly inspired by their example. Charles 
 
2O2 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 Wesley, living and dying an English clergyman, 
 loving to the last the Church from which he at 
 least had never dreamed of separating, produced, 
 during the fifty years which followed, a store of 
 hymns from among which we may select not a few 
 that will bear comparison with those of any age 
 and any country. He is the true founder of our 
 second great school of hymnists, more fervent, 
 thoughtful, and subjective than the first ; a school 
 which includes not only his own immediate co- 
 adjutors and even his rivals, but many an honoured 
 name besides, both within and without our Church, 
 from Cowper to Montgomery. 1 
 
 The third school belongs to our own day, and 
 is the result of the influence of Ancient, as the 
 second was of German hymns. I forbear to speak 
 of it here, because I am not now writing the history 
 of English hymnody, but merely commenting upon 
 a few of its peculiarities. The fact of its recent 
 origin is of importance to us, in our estimate of 
 the stage we have now reached in our hymns, and 
 in our investigation of the possibility or desirability 
 of an authorized Hymnal. 
 
 But connected with this late maturity there is 
 another feature in our Hymnody worth notice, its 
 peculiarly personal and subjective character. Com- 
 pare an Ambrosian morning hymn with one of 
 Watts's or Charles Wesley's. Ken's is indeed 
 
 1 Toplady, the doctrinal antagonist of the Wesleys, yet 
 really, as a devotional poet, belongs to Charles Wesley's 
 school The hymns of the one have been frequently attributed 
 to the other. There is a distinct school of Calvinistic 
 hymnists, but it is of little importance. 
 
PAST HISTORY OF ENGLISH HYMNODY 2O3 
 
 written for private devotion, but Watts's "My 
 God, how endless is Thy love," and Wesley's 
 " Christ, Whose glory fills the skies," were each of 
 them included by its author in an avowedly 
 congregational collection. " Jam Lucis " (Hymns 
 Ancient and Modern, i) is childlike in its simplicity 
 of feeling, for it belongs to the childhood of the 
 Church. Not merely the plural number, but the 
 generality of its expressions, shows that it was 
 written with a view to being sung by many 
 worshippers, who had indeed a sense of common 
 wants and trials, dangers and sins, but had not 
 yet learned to estimate the individuality of each 
 separate soul, its difference from its kind, its 
 personal responsibility to God. The very allusion 
 to that which is so private a matter for each one, 
 as the habit of abstinence in food, shows that there 
 had not yet dawned upon the Church the thought 
 of how differently each one is constituted from his 
 neighbours, physically as well as spiritually, and 
 of how little avail general rules and prescriptions 
 can be in that inner world of consciousness which 
 is the battle-field of the carnal and spiritual will. 
 But the spirit of self-dedication and dependence 
 which animates Watts's hymn, and the yet deeper 
 cries of the dark and cheerless heart for the light 
 and warmth of communion with its Lord, which 
 breathe through Wesley's, though they belong 
 essentially to all true worship, yet could scarcely 
 have found utterance in congregational worship, 
 till the time was come when the direct responsi- 
 bility to God of the individual conscience, and its 
 true dignity as the means by which His Word 
 
2O4 IIVMNOLOGY 
 
 acts upon the human will, were recognized and 
 acknowledged by all. 
 
 How strongly this subjective character is marked 
 in the later German hymns which are now be- 
 coming so common among us, a cursory glance at 
 any collection of them will show. But in some of 
 our English hymns of the second school notably 
 in some of Cowper's written under deep religious 
 depression it assumes a form which makes it 
 necessary, I am convinced, that they should be 
 excluded from the worship of the congregation, 
 and reserved to guide and elevate the individual 
 in moments of private meditation and prayer. 
 Because a hymn may be in itself true and beautiful, 
 it is not therefore of necessity fit for use in Church ; 
 and cannot be made so, as some compilers seem to 
 think, merely by the substitution of the plural for 
 the singular in its personal pronouns. To this 
 point, however, I shall have to recur hereafter ; for 
 it is one of the most important and one of the 
 most difficult questions connected with our future 
 hymnody, what place this later element must find 
 for itself; how we can best combine hymns ancient 
 and modern and thoughts ancient and modern, in 
 our united worship. On the one hand, we cannot 
 but feel, after long dwelling among the pathetic 
 and introspective hymns of later times, a craving 
 for the simpler and calmer language of the Ancient 
 Church ; for hymns which draw our minds outward 
 and upward, which make the Trinity and the 
 Incarnation, rather than the Atonement, their 
 central thought ; which tell of the source, rather 
 than the process of sanctification. We cannot do 
 
TAST HISTORY OF ENGLISH HYMNODY 20$ 
 
 without the bracing and refreshing influence of 
 the ancient hymn. And on the other hand we 
 cannot ignore the growth of the Church out of 
 her childhood, the actual presence among us of 
 thoughts unknown to the ancient worshippers ; 
 and therefore no mere collection of ancient hymns, 
 be their translations as spirited as Neale's and 
 as melodious as Chandler's, will satisfy the Church 
 now. Experimental religion, as the last generation 
 called it, must be represented in our worship. 
 But surely no part of our task requires such sound 
 judgment, such refined taste and feeling, such 
 clear spiritual insight, such a combination of 
 wisdom and charity, of honesty and reverence, in 
 him who would undertake it, as the adjustment 
 of these conflicting claims. He must indeed be 
 a scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, 
 who shall be able thus to bring out of the Church's 
 treasury things new and old, and to blend them 
 in due proportion for the service of his brethren ; 
 who shall recognize the actual point of her spiritual 
 history at which the Church of our day has arrived, 
 and discern her true voice among all the artificial 
 tones she is made to utter ; who shall know when 
 language the most venerable must be rejected, 
 because it has ceased to find any response in the 
 Christian consciousness of our people ; and when 
 language the most attractive must also be rejected, 
 because it cannot by any possibility express their 
 actual feelings ; and so its very beauty would only 
 make it the more dangerous, in that it would 
 tempt men to come before the God of Truth with 
 superficial emotions and unreal words. 
 
206 IIYMNOLOGY 
 
 No. II 
 
 ON THE POSSIBILITY AND DIFFICULTIES OF AN 
 AUTHORIZED HYMNAL 
 
 MY last paper was written with the view of bring- 
 ing before my readers two things the reason why 
 the Church of England has never yet had an 
 authorized Hymnal, and the peculiar character of 
 the materials for such a purpose at present in our 
 hands. I now proceed to an inquiry naturally 
 suggested by my first point, namely, Ought we to 
 take steps to obtain such an addition to our formu- 
 laries ? What are the reasons for and against our 
 doing so ? 
 
 The first argument that occurs, I suppose, to 
 everybody, is that, as a matter of practical con- 
 venience, one authorized Hymnal, for use in all our 
 churches, is much to be desired. The multiplica- 
 tion of such compilations, in an age when travelling 
 has increased to an unprecedented extent, has 
 become a very great annoyance. How few of my 
 readers, among the many who this summer or 
 autumn, let us say, are worshipping as strangers in 
 some church at a distance from home, will be able 
 to make use of the hymn-books to which they are 
 accustomed ? Nowhere is the confusion worse con- 
 founded than in our fashionable watering-places. 
 One such is in my thoughts now, with its fifteen 
 churches, all crowded during the season ; in those 
 fifteen churches, a few years ago, twelve different 
 collections were in use, and a thirteenth in pre- 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF AN AUTHORIZED HYMNAL 2O? 
 
 paration ; six or seven of these being peculiar to 
 the congregation in which they were used. Such 
 diversity as this is a real hindrance to common 
 worship ; it seals many a tongue which would 
 readily take part in the service of praise ; it 
 obtrudes upon the stranger the sense of separation 
 and distance, where all ought to tell of unity. 
 And if it is hard upon the stranger, it is no 
 less hard upon those who are even more to be 
 considered, the poor of the congregation. For the 
 immense number of hymn-books in existence 
 necessarily limits the circulation of each, and 
 thereby raises its price. Some books are sold for 
 half-a-crown which contain less matter than is 
 furnished in others more widely used for threepence. 
 And what is yet more provoking, the two collections 
 are probably very nearly alike. In hymn-books 
 put forth by clergy of similar views, the same 
 hymns will, as a matter of course, constitute the 
 great bulk of each volume. For most compilers go 
 over the beaten track ; their libraries are seldom 
 rich in originals ; they are the copyists of copyists, 
 and wield in the service of the Church the scissors 
 not the pen. Generally speaking, new hymns of 
 real value find their way into collections made by a 
 considerable body of compilers, covering a large 
 area, and procurable therefore at a small cost. A 
 hymnal which was used in every congregation of 
 our Church would command such a sale that, even 
 if bulky, it could be offered at a rate which would 
 bring it within the reach of the poorest. 
 
 An authorized Hymnal, moreover, would secure 
 us uniformity in the wording of our hymns. The 
 
208 IIYMNOLOGY 
 
 worst result of the great number of collections in 
 existence is the unsettled state of the text of many 
 of our most valuable hymns. Each private com- 
 pilation, though it may not produce any new hymns 
 of more than tolerable merit, yet is sure to present 
 us with a rich crop of various readings in old ones. 
 Any one who is accustomed to the use of different 
 books knows the distracting effects of these per- 
 petually-recurring changes ; and, I may add, any 
 one who is accustomed to one particular form of a 
 hymn is not only disturbed, but in some measure 
 indignant at each innovation. It seems to be 
 precisely the case in which the judicious interposition 
 of authority would do good. Let the best form of 
 each hymn be carefully selected, its use in this form 
 be sanctioned, the authorized volume find accept- 
 ance, and in a few years other readings will silently 
 disappear, even from unauthorized collections, and 
 finally be forgotten. 
 
 Let me, however, so far anticipate the subject of 
 my next paper as to say here, once for all, that by 
 the best form I do not mean necessarily the original 
 form of a hymn. There is much confusion of thought 
 upon this point. A hymn-book a book for con- 
 gregational use has one only object ; and every- 
 thing in it ought to be made subservient to that 
 one object. It is the material for Common Praise. 
 It is not a "treasury " of religious poetry ; it is not 
 a collection of the opinions of four or five hundred 
 men and women upon religious subjects put into 
 metre ; if real poetry is to be found there, the 
 reason is only that, cceteris paribus, poetic language 
 is better adapted for song than prosaic. Now it is 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF AN AUTHORIZED HYMNAL 2OQ 
 
 plain that a composition may have in it, as it leaves 
 its author's hands, the elements of a valuable hymn ; 
 while yet it may need to pass through other hands, 
 perhaps through many, before it reaches its best 
 shape. The author may have intended it only for 
 private use, or only to express his own passing 
 thoughts ; his work may be deformed by the effects 
 of imperfect education, of a dull ear for rhythm, of 
 narrow religious prejudices, of a vulgar or rhetorical 
 style ; and yet a wise and devout Hymnologist 
 will at once detect in it the true metal, which, 
 properly purified, will, it may be, circulate in the 
 Church to the end of time. Ought we to reject 
 this because it is blemished ? ought we to carry 
 our veneration of relics so far as to admit it, 
 blemishes and all, into a Church Hymnal, because 
 we love and revere the memory of the author ? 
 Why should Prudentius's Holy Innocents still play 
 with their palms and crowns through a dozen 
 different versions, because that ecclesiastical Delia 
 Cruscan was silly enough to think the notion a 
 pretty one ? Why should Dr. Watts's angels clap 
 their wings and sweep their strings in our churches ? 
 Why should the noble last verse of " Rock of Ages " 
 be disfigured by a physiological blunder, pardon- 
 able in a Devonshire vicar a hundred years ago, but 
 in our ears only ridiculous ? 1 Why should a well- 
 meaning compiler, like the excellent Rector of Bath, 
 have taken so much pains to restore to the 545 
 hymns in his book all the little bald and rugged 
 patches which the kindly hand of time, or the taste 
 
 1 " When mine eye-strings break in death." It is fair to 
 say that this is not restored by Mr. Kemble. 
 
 O 
 
210 IIYMNOLOGY 
 
 of more judicious editors, had concealed? 1 Why 
 should Mr. Neale, in preparing Vexilla {Hymnal 
 Noted, 22) for English congregations if, indeed, 
 English congregations must needs sing Vexilla 
 
 1 Mr. Kemble's Hymn-book is so extensively used, and its 
 claims upon the attention of the Church are so confidently 
 put forward, that I cannot refrain from directing attention 
 to another mistake, of an opposite kind, in its construction. 
 Here is a most conscientious and painstaking man, who lays 
 down for himself a rule, wise in itself, but not without many 
 exceptions, only to adhere to it where he ought to have de- 
 parted from it, and to depart from it where be ought to have 
 adhered to it. He has restored many turns of expression 
 which were better forgotten ; but he has exceeded most 
 editors in the liberty he has taken of abridgment. The 
 fatal scissors have not indeed been employed in the appro- 
 priation of the fruit of his neighbour's toils, but they have 
 made sad havoc of his own. I will give one example. Pro- 
 fessor Carlyle wrote a hymn for the beginning of Divine 
 Service, expressing, in devotional language, the part which 
 each of the three great Christian graces Faith, Hope, and 
 Charity fulfils in public worship. Mr. Kemble professes 
 to give us this hymn (442, " Lord, when we bend before Thy 
 throne ") in the very words of the author. But, alas, he 
 leaves us but the beginning and end of the hymn, and " Love " 
 has entirely disappeared from it ! It is true other compilers 
 have done the same thing ; but then they make no profession 
 of giving us hymns as the authors wrote tJiem, There is, 
 indeed, one conceivable explanation of this strange curtail- 
 ment. Mr. Kemble proposes we should sing this hymn to 
 " St. Matthew's.'' Now a suburban organist, who thinks that 
 a tune is nothing unless it is drawled "to bring out the 
 harmony," and garnished with proper preludes and inter- 
 ludes, takes a long while to get through a somewhat heavy 
 D.C.M. tune in "triple time." Possibly Mr. Kemble thought 
 that two verses in this style would exhaust the patience of 
 any congregation ; and perhaps he was right. But it was 
 cruel to cut his picture to fit his frame. 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF AN AUTHORIZED HYMNAL 21 1 
 
 first reproduce with " Chinese exactness" a mere 
 mistake in a reading of the Psalms, and then ap- 
 pend a note to warn us that it is a mistake ? Let 
 us, indeed, take all due care of 'the text of our 
 hymns. Let us do for them what Bunsen has done 
 for those of his own country, or Daniel and Mone 
 for Ancient and Mediaeval Hymns. Let us have 
 an English " Thesaurus" to contain, in chronological 
 order, all but the greatest writers ; and of these let 
 us have good uniform editions. Gladly would I see 
 reprinted all those hymn-books of Charles Wesley's, 
 of which few persons but Mr. Sedgwick l know even 
 the names ; and gladly would I welcome the publi- 
 cation by the Wesleyan body of his Psalter, and 
 those hundreds of his hymns which, we are told, 
 still lie in manuscript. But this will be quarrying, 
 not building. When we have got our " Thesaurus," 
 we shall still have to construct our National 
 Hymnal, and not altogether without the sound of 
 axe and hammer. 
 
 I hesitate to say, as some do, that an authorized 
 Hymnal would supply a want in our Church 
 system ; for the want is already supplied by 
 voluntary efforts. There are surely but few 
 churches now, and those chiefly village ones, 
 where some Hymn-book is not used, either as a 
 supplement to, or a substitute for, metrical Psalms. 
 Still there are, no doubt, some congregations by 
 which hymns would be sung for the first time, 
 when they enter under the sanction and patronage 
 of our rulers in Church and State. The authoriz- 
 ation of a Hymnal would be the coup de grace to 
 1 See p. 276. 
 
212 HVMNOLOGY 
 
 Tate and Brady. But the real meaning of those 
 who look to it for the satisfaction of an acknow- 
 ledged want, is that the whole material of the 
 devotions of her children would thus be supplied 
 by the Church as a Church, speaking through her 
 legitimate channels, and none of it left to the 
 selection of the individual clergyman. It is fair to 
 suppose that a work so important would be under- 
 taken, if at all, with such care as to ensure the pro- 
 duction of a better hymn-book than any now in 
 existence ; that from its very nature it would be 
 the most comprehensive of hymn-books ; that its 
 merits would secure it ready acceptance ; that thus 
 it would become permanent, and take its place at 
 last in the affections of our people, as a part of the 
 Common Prayer-book to which it was appended. 
 Congregations would not then, as now, be disturbed 
 by each new pastor I had almost said, each new 
 curate bringing with him his favourite Hymnal ; 
 the familiar lesson-book of the child would become 
 the solace of the aged man ; the tunes sung at the 
 old church of his boyhood would be linked with 
 words to which the worker, the sufferer, the wan- 
 derer in after life might recur with unspeakable 
 affection ; and the Hymn-book of the English 
 Church might be a bond of union no less powerful 
 than her Prayer-book for her scattered children, an 
 instrument effectual beyond all other to maintain 
 her hold upon her people, and to promote her ex- 
 tension. Nevertheless, this argument will, I admit, 
 only carry weight with those who wish to abridge 
 rather than extend, the discretion now allowed to 
 each clergyman in the conduct of Divine Service. 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF AN AUTHORIZED HYMNAL 213 
 
 Yet even those who demand for him the utmost 
 possible liberty may be reminded that it is the 
 voice of the congregation, not of its pastor, which 
 would be controlled by prescribed forms of praise ; 
 that the choice denied to him would be merely the 
 choice, made once for all, of a book, not the con- 
 tinual selecting of portions ; and that it would be 
 practicable, and even, I hope to show, desirable, 
 where circumstances might seem to require it, con- 
 siderably ro relax even this slight restriction. 
 
 But great as would be these and the like advan- 
 tages arising from the adoption of an authorized 
 Hymnal, the difficulties in the way of such an 
 undertaking appear to me truly formidable ; and it 
 is the consideration of these difficulties which has 
 been my chief inducement to the discussion of the 
 subject in these pages. It is not enough to specu- 
 late on the beauty and pleasantness of a National 
 Hymn-book as excellent as our Prayer-book, as 
 much venerated and beloved, combining the dignity 
 of the Ancient, the holy associations of the German, 
 the popularity of the Methodist Hymnody ; we 
 must ask ourselves calmly whether it is possible for 
 us to get this, or anything like this ? whether we 
 can get anything at all without great danger? and 
 whether, when we have what we have asked for, 
 we shall like it, and welcome it, as much as we 
 fancy ? 
 
 The first question that arises is as to the body 
 from which an authorized Hymnal ought to proceed. 
 To place a Hymnal on exactly the same footing 
 as our Prayer-book, it ought, of course, after having 
 been prepared, to receive the approval of the Con- 
 
214 IIYMNOLOGY 
 
 vocations of both Provinces, of both Houses of 
 Parliament, and of the Crown. A special'Act would 
 be required, repealing so much of the Act of Uni- 
 formity as bears upon the subject. Further, if the 
 Hymnal is to be literally of equal authority with the 
 Prayer-book, its use must be compulsory, under 
 penalties similar to those which enforce the use of 
 the Prayer-book ; and it must be specified in the 
 declaration of unfeigned assent and consent required 
 of every incumbent at institution. No one, I 
 suppose, dreams that all this is either possible or 
 desirable. That Parliament should sanction the 
 imposition of new formularies of any sort upon the 
 Church is highly improbable ; that it should im- 
 pose upon it a vast body of hymns gathered from 
 all sources, to be forthwith adopted to the exclusion 
 of many hundreds of rival collections, in which 
 great numbers of persons have considerable pecuni- 
 ary interest, and to the use of one or other of which 
 thousands of Church people of all ranks are warmly 
 attached, is simply incredible. Were it possible to 
 pass such an Act, the agitation of the whole Church 
 would ensure its speedy repeal. All that we can 
 ask, then, in the way of authorization, must be 
 simply an Order in Council, permitting the use of 
 one particular collection, in the same way as that 
 which allowed Tate and Brady's Psalter ; or at the 
 utmost, giving the sort of authority for its use which 
 sanctions the use of the Accession Service. This 
 might be done upon an address to the Crown from 
 Parliament, which, though not probable, it is at least 
 possible might be voted, if it were known before- 
 hand that the measure would be generally acceptable 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF AN AUTHORIZED HYMNAL 215 
 
 to the Church. But this could only be if the 
 Hymnal had been prepared by a body of compilers 
 which commanded general confidence; if it had 
 been sufficiently long before the Church to invite 
 and profit by free criticism ; and if it had been to 
 some extent tested by actual experience. An 
 Order in Council allowing such a book would 
 doubtless be, to a considerable extent, at once 
 acted upon. It is probable that the authorized 
 Hymnal would be adopted by the Cathedrals, by 
 the Universities, by many Colleges and schools, by 
 the Royal Chapels, and by a large number of the 
 churches of our towns and cities. Vested interests 
 would not be hastily and alarmingly interfered 
 with. If the Hymnal were really good, it would 
 gradually make its way. But how much depends 
 upon its compilers ! To whom shall we look ? 
 
 The subject has been mooted in Convocation 
 once or twice ; an address from the Lower House 
 to the Upper has been suggested, praying the 
 appointment of a Committee to compile a Hymnal. 
 But of whom is such a Committee to consist ? Not 
 surely exclusively of the members of one or both 
 Houses of the Convocation of the Province of 
 Canterbury. Such a work is too great to be under- 
 taken by any body, however venerable, so limited 
 in numbers, representing but one province of the 
 United Church, and composed of members not 
 necessarily very conversant with this subject, and 
 already largely occupied with other business. It 
 is to be questioned whether the result of the labours 
 of a Committee of Convocation would be likely to 
 be a better Hymnal than some which the Church 
 
2l6 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 already possesses. It must be obvious indeed, that 
 such a task as the preparation of an Authorized 
 Church Hymnal ought to be entrusted, as was the 
 preparation of the Authorized Version of the 
 Bible, to a body of men specially chosen for the 
 task from the whole Church upon the one ground 
 of fitness for this peculiar duty ; and, moreover, 
 left at liberty to avail themselves of the services of 
 any persons, of any nation, and in any religious 
 communion, whom they may think competent to 
 render them assistance. It is only thus that there 
 can be any hope of collecting all the materials 
 available for the purpose, for procuring the best 
 judgments upon their selection and arrangements, 
 and of producing a result which shall disarm 
 hostility, overcome prejudices, and enlist the hearty 
 sympathies of the Church at large. That the book, 
 when prepared, ought to be admitted to the Con- 
 vocation of each Province for approval, before being 
 allowed by the Queen in Council, I do not question. 
 But I confess it appears to me that our efforts ought 
 in the first place to be directed to the obtaining a 
 Royal Commission of clergy and laity for the 
 purpose of preparing it ; and that the wisest course 
 would be for Convocation to petition the Crown to 
 that effect. 
 
 But suppose these preliminaries adjusted ; sup- 
 pose a Commission appointed, so largely constituted 
 as to represent fairly every school of religious 
 thought within the Church, and so judiciously as 
 to command general confidence in their piety, 
 learning, moderation, and good taste ; still the 
 difficulties would be but beginning. The task of 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF AN AUTHORIZED HYMNAL 2 1/ 
 
 the Commissioners is to provide for the Church a 
 Hymnal which shall obtain from hundreds of con- 
 gregations, each using its own favourite collection, 
 at least the sort of suffrage which the Athenian 
 general of old is said to have gained from his 
 colleagues. Each hymnist must at any rate acknow- 
 ledge that the new book is only second to his own 
 in merit. And those who bear in mind how long 
 the Prayer-book was unpopular how long the 
 Genevan Bible maintained its footing against 
 King James's in general esteem, will not be very 
 confident as to the likelihood of even this amount 
 of success. Such persons will think of the many 
 popular hymns which must be called to the bar of 
 the Commission, tried, and condemned ; of the 
 still more numerous ones, which will be nearly up 
 to the mark of approval, and yet, perhaps, on a 
 final revision be rejected, from the dire necessity of 
 compression ; of the strange new faces that will 
 surely take the place of familiar old ones, ancient 
 and mediaeval hymns finding their way for the first 
 time into ears that were accustomed but to Watts, 
 Newton, and Wesley, or vice versa ; of the certainty 
 that the very comprehensiveness of the new book 
 will make it disagreeable to those who are familiar 
 only with one type of hymn ; its very Catholicity 
 be mistaken by too many for a cold and unspiritual 
 neutrality. It must, indeed, be a sanguine temper 
 that has not many misgivings as to the success of 
 an undertaking which cannot fail to provoke 
 abundant criticism, which must of very necessity 
 wound many deeply-cherished prejudices, break in 
 upon many hallowed associations, and claim to 
 
218 IIVMNOLOGY 
 
 disturb, even though with the view of reforming, 
 the devotional language of thousands. 1 
 
 But an authorized Hymnal would have to make 
 its way, not only against a strong current of pre- 
 possession, but one still stronger of pecuniary in- 
 terest. The manufacture and sale of hymn-books 
 is now a department of British industry with which 
 a prudent Minister may well deem it unadvisable 
 for a Royal Commission to interfere. In any case, 
 the law of copyright, the dread of which has chilled 
 the ardour of so many a hymnologist, who fondly 
 hoped he could gather into one collection every 
 good and popular hymn of the day, will confront 
 in all its terrors the compilers of a hymnal which 
 aspired to supersede all others. What are they to 
 do? Are they to help themselves freely, and then 
 ask for an Act of Indemnity ? Are they to try the 
 question of copyright in the Law Courts ? Are 
 they to go round to each publisher in turn, solicit- 
 ing, in the name of the Church of England, per- 
 mission to make use of his property, in the hope of 
 being able to combine the contributions thus begged 
 from door to door in a volume, which, if successful, 
 is to make all that property worthless ? Will 
 
 1 I have not questioned the probability of the Commis- 
 sioners being able to agree among themselves. Yet there is 
 no species of composition with regard to which the judgment 
 of a devout man is more likely to be warped by early associ- 
 ations and prejudices than a hymn. Who shall ensure our 
 compilers against the catastrophe which is said to have 
 befallen the clergy of one of our university towns, who resolved 
 some years ago to unite in the compilation of a hymnal for use 
 in all its churches, but differed over one single hymn, quar- 
 relled, and separated, re infectd ? 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF AN AUTHORIZED HYMNAL 219 
 
 Parliament give them power to purchase all the 
 copyrights they require ? Or must they be content 
 to construct their hymnal out of materials which are 
 accessible to every one ; in other words, to forego 
 almost all the rich accumulations of the last thirty 
 years ; to pass over nearly every good translation 
 from ancient or from German sources, and, with 
 such exceptions as the liberality of authors may 
 furnish, the whole hymnody of the Church of our 
 own day? What prospect would so meagre a 
 selection have of fulfilling the requisite conditions 
 of success ? And if it be replied that the State can 
 surely do what private individuals or associations 
 have done with considerable success, let the reader 
 remember that the permission hitherto very gener- 
 ously accorded to compilers whose competition was 
 scarcely dangerous, is hardly likely to be extended 
 to a book which, under the patronage of the Crown, 
 is to come before the public with such high claims 
 to universal adoption. 1 
 
 But there is another difficulty to be encountered. 
 The advantages of uniformity in our books of Prayer 
 and Praise are many and obvious, but uniformity 
 has its disadvantages too. Admirably as our 
 offices of prayer are suited to the habitual devotions 
 of the " faithful/'' they are deficient, we all know, in 
 the power of adaptability to irregular, occasional 
 services, to unforeseen exigencies, to congregations 
 
 1 No one can complain of publishers for protecting their 
 own property, though the idea of property in a hymn designed 
 for the public glorifying of God would surely have been 
 thought an unseemly one in any days but those of pro- 
 prietary chapels. 
 
220 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 of a type differing from the ordinary one. Hitherto 
 this deficiency has been the less felt, because the 
 free use of hymns has in a great measure supplied 
 the requisite elasticity ; and of course no one would 
 now think of making a Church Hymnal as rigid in 
 its structure as the Prayer-book, or as the Hymn- 
 aries of the Ancient Church. Yet, considering how 
 varied is the character of our Church's work, it 
 seems hard to conceive of one sole book which 
 shall be fit for all times and places of her 
 worship. 
 
 The Wesleyans have indeed their one book ; but 
 then their congregations are chiefly of one class, 
 accustomed to one very definite type of worship 
 and ministry. But can we indeed produce a 
 Hymnal suited alike to the Court, the Cathedral, 
 the University, and the village Church; to Belgravia 
 and Bethnal Green ; to the mission vessel in the 
 Channel, the Staffordshire pitmen's open-air services, 
 the Londoner and the rustic ; to Yorkshire, Sussex, 
 Lancashire, Cornwall, Wales ; nay, if we hope to 
 see it co-extensive with our Prayer-book, we must 
 add, to Ireland and the Colonies ? The Ancient 
 Church, with all its love of uniformity, never 
 ventured upon such a scheme. It is only modern 
 Ultramontanism that seeks to impose upon all con- 
 gregations and all lands the one inflexible Roman 
 Breviary. 
 
 Of old, each diocese, even each great religious 
 house, had its own collection of hymns, and in 
 France, at least, much liberty in this respect is still 
 allowed ; and though it suits our English notions 
 of propriety that " all the realm shall have but one 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF AN AUTHORIZED HYMNAL 221 
 
 Use," yet the experience of three centuries has 
 taught us, I think, that this eminently Tudor rule 
 had better not be pressed too far. Some amount 
 of diversity then must be tolerated in our Hymnals, 
 not merely for the present, until uniformity can 
 be attained, but permanently. 
 
 There are various ways in which this might be 
 provided for. The best would probably be the 
 permitting each Bishop, if he shall think fit, to 
 allow the use, in his own diocese, of a local supple- 
 ment to the National Hymnal, containing such 
 additions to its contents as he and his clergy may 
 judge suited to their'circumstances. This would be 
 better than a distinct book for each diocese or 
 neighbourhood. A few exceptional cases, such as 
 prisons, or penitentiaries, or public schools, or 
 sailors' churches, might be left to provide their own 
 hymnals ; and possibly a small book for " mission " 
 and other irregular services might be desirable. 
 This would be better than encumbering the general 
 collection with hymns only useful in a few cases, or 
 peculiar to certain localities. 
 
 Lastly, there is one more difficulty, the thought of 
 which has deterred many among us from desiring 
 an authorized Hymnal ; the difficulty of providing 
 for the future development of our Hymnody. Noble 
 as it is, it is yet far from complete, and is in full 
 growth at this day ; fostered mainly by its free and 
 unrestricted use in all our churches. So long as the 
 present state of things continues, and the Church 
 demands fresh hymns, fresh hymns will be produced; 
 most of them, no doubt, feeble and ephemeral, but 
 here and there one of great and permanent value. 
 
222 ilYMNOLOGY 
 
 But if an authorized Hymnal is to settle finally and 
 unalterably the Hymnody of our Church, the fount 
 of inspiration will be choked up ; and our third 
 school of hymnists, the only one which belongs 
 specifically to the English Church as such, will come 
 to an untimely end. And there are yet many 
 deficiencies to be supplied. We have no hymn of 
 first-rate excellence for the New Year, for a Baptism, 
 or (saving the prose version of Notker's, incorpor- 
 ated in our Burial Office, " In the midst of life ") 
 for a Funeral. 1 Can we then yet venture to gather 
 our stores together, and virtually forbid, or at least 
 discountenance, any subsequent addition to them ? 
 May we not fear lest, in a generation or two, our 
 National Hymnal appear almost as inadequate to 
 the spiritual life of our people as that of the 
 American Church ; that melancholy compilation 
 of dull respectability, which now, neither old nor 
 new, resembles nothing so much as the compo- 
 Gothic of a suburban chapel-of-ease of five-and- 
 thirty years ago ? Some provision then must be 
 made for a periodical recasting, for the admission 
 from time to time of new matter, if our Church's 
 service of song is truly to be the utterance of her 
 inner life, the witness and the helper of her growth. 
 Our uniformity must be organized development, 
 not lifeless inflexibility. Like the inspired Hymnal 
 of the Old Testament Church, ever growing from 
 
 1 Even Hymns Ancient and Modern can find no fitter 
 vehicle for the faith and resignation of mourners than the 
 terrible " Dies Iras " ; certainly one of the greatest of hymns, 
 but, pathetic as it is, ill suited to the calm and unexciting 
 language of our English Burial Service. 
 
PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-BOOK CONSTRUCTION 22$ 
 
 the Tabernacle to the Second Temple, speaking to 
 successive generations of Egypt, of Horeb, of Sion, 
 of Babylon, receiving the voice of Psalmist and 
 Prophet from Moses to Ezra ; even so must our 
 Church be free to sing from age to age the eternal 
 Song of Moses and the Lamb ; even so must our 
 Hymnal carry on in its pages the unfolding history 
 of God's dealings with us ; and be to our children's 
 children, " far on in summers which we shall not 
 see," the heir-loom of a fruitful Past. 
 
 No. Ill 
 
 ON THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH A HYMN-BOOK 
 SHOULD BE CONSTRUCTED 
 
 THE great task before every one who desires 
 to see the Church of England furnished with a 
 National Hymnal worthy of her, is to do all in 
 his power to prepare the minds of his fellow- 
 Churchmen for its reception. For it is doubtful 
 whether even yet our people are ripe for it ; 
 whether the Church would really welcome a 
 Hymnal of the very best character. This is a 
 doubt which must often suggest itself to the 
 thoughtful hymnologist when he sees how vague 
 are the notions of Churchmen in general as to 
 what constitutes a hymn, and wherein its merits 
 consist. Few people take pains to judge of a 
 hymn. Lovers of Church music too often treat it 
 
224 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 as the mere libretto of a tune ; if it has an easy 
 refrain, or a lilting rhythm, if it "goes well to 
 music," they are satisfied. If I were to send my 
 copy of Hymns Ancient and Modern round to all 
 the parsonages within the district embraced by our 
 Association, with a request that my friends would 
 mark for me their favourite hymns, I know very 
 well where the stars and crosses would cluster 
 thickest; not round the best, but round those 
 which Mr. Monk and Mr. Dykes and Mr. Jenner 
 have adorned with new and pretty melodies. I 
 myself think there is no better hymn-book in print 
 at present than this ; but yet I can see with sorrow 
 that its great popularity (apart from that of its 
 music) depends upon its weakest rather than its 
 strongest features. Let my readers put me to the 
 test ; let them take a copy of the book without the 
 music, and try to dissociate words from tunes ; 
 then let them fairly compare some of the unnoticed 
 and unpraised hymns such ancient ones as 45, 
 "Creator of the starry height"; or 95, "O Christ, 
 Who art the Light and Day"; or 173, "O Love, how 
 deep! how broad! how high!"; or 273, "O Lord, 
 howjoyful'tis to see"; or 431," Disposer Supreme"; 
 or such modern ones as those of Heber (241), Keble 
 (143), or Anstice (276) not the best, or the best 
 known, of their respective authors ; with a corre- 
 sponding number of the universally popular verses 
 in the volume, with the sensuousness, the effemin- 
 acy, or the empty jingle of such hymns as " Oh, 
 come and mourn with me awhile" (114), "Jesu, 
 meek and lowly" (188), or "Nearer, my God, to 
 Thee " (277). And even when hymns are estimated 
 
PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-BOOK CONSTRUCTION 225 
 
 independently of tunes, too often the ear catches 
 at some pretty turn of words, or some favourite 
 phrase, without regard to its true value, or its fit- 
 ness for the service of the sanctuary. In short, the 
 majority of readers, learners, buyers, and singers 
 of sacred lyrics do not know what a hymn is, or 
 when it is really good, still less whether, supposing 
 it good, it is suitable for congregational use. I 
 shall therefore in this paper endeavour to lay down 
 a few principles of criticism, and in the next try to 
 teach my readers to apply them. 
 
 What then is a hymn ? Now I will not supply 
 any answer of my own to this question ; I will go 
 back to the age in which the metrical hymnody, of 
 the Western Churches at least, began. I will take 
 my definition of a hymn from one of the greatest 
 theologians, the friend and disciple of the great- 
 est of Christian hymnists one, therefore, whose 
 judgment on such a matter few will call in question. 
 St. Augustine, commenting on the words, "The 
 hymns (Authorized Version, ' prayers ') of David 
 the son of Jesse are ended," asks, as his manner is, 
 what a hymn means, and answers, " Hymns are 
 'the praises of God with song'; hymns are songs 
 containing the praise of God. If there be praise, 
 and it be not God's praise, it is not a hymn. If 
 there be praise, and that God's praise, and it be 
 not sung, it is not a hymn. To constitute a hymn, 
 then, it is necessary that there be these three things 
 praise, the praise of God, and song'' 1 
 
 Certainly this definition is sufficiently clear and 
 precise ; but is it too narrow ? Has not the 
 
 1 Aug., Enarr. in Ps. Ixxii. See also p. 161. 
 
 P 
 
226 ilVMNOLOGY 
 
 practice of the whole Church, as well as in many 
 cases the authority of particular Churches, sanc- 
 tioned the use in public worship of very many 
 compositions which fulfil none of Augustine's re- 
 quirements but the last ? And in so doing, has 
 not the Church the Divine precedent of the Psalter 
 to fall back upon ? Now, first, as to this precedent, 
 let it be observed that the Book of Psalms is much 
 more than a hymnal. It is a manual of private as 
 well as public devotion ; it is a prophetical book ; 
 it is an inspired record of the spiritual experiences 
 of saints under the Old Covenant ; it embraces 
 compositions corresponding (so far as the utter- 
 ances of the Divine Word can correspond with the 
 merely human) with the historical ballads or 
 patriotic songs of other nations. Therefore in 
 structure it is not to be compared with any collec- 
 tion of hymns formed expressly for congregational 
 use. There is absolutely no evidence whatever 
 that the whole Psalter, as we have it, was so used 
 by the Jewish Church. Had this been understood 
 at the time of the Reformation, the absurdity of 
 attempting to versify it from end to end for the 
 congregation would have been seen, and the 
 Church would not have groaned for three centuries 
 beneath the incubus of successive Metrical Versions. 
 But it is to be observed, that wherever we have 
 distinct evidence, or even reasonable probability 
 of the use of any Psalm in the Temple services 
 there we shall find Augustine's three essentials of 
 a hymn. Such are the Dedication Psalms of the 
 Tabernacle of David (xcvi., cv., cvi.), that of his 
 house (xxx.), those (probably) of the Second 
 
PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-BOOlv CONSTRUCTION 22? 
 
 Temple (cxliv., cxlv., cxlvi.), 1 the Processional 
 Hymn of the Ark (Ixviii.), the Paschal Hallel 
 (cxiii. cxviii.), a portion of which was probably 
 the " hymn " of the Upper Chamber, and others 
 which might be named. v And further, even if the 
 devotional public use of all the Psalms, penitential 
 as well as laudatory, by the Jewish Church, could 
 be proved, it must be remembered that the Psalter 
 was its Prayer-book as well as its Hymnal, and 
 was not used, as ours, to supply merely the jubilant 
 half of public worship. I have already spoken of 
 the use of chanted psalms in our service, a practice 
 concerning which we may take many hints from 
 ancient service-books. But I am far from denying 
 the great value of metrical paraphrases of the 
 Psalms, judiciously selected, and properly adapted 
 to the needs of the Christian Church. Who would 
 willingly give up " All people that on earth do 
 dwell " ? Who does not love to recall some of the 
 happier even of Tate and Brady's verses ? of which 
 I rejoice to see a few interspersed among Hymns 
 Ancient and Modern ; not, of course, classed separ- 
 ately, as if they were something else than hymns 
 a mistake into which many of our compilers still 
 fall. Indeed, some of our best hymns are adapt- 
 ations from the Psalter. Several of Watts's so- 
 called " Psalms " are better than any in his other 
 volume ; Lyte's Spirit of the Psalms has enriched 
 the Church with a few hymns of great beauty, and 
 
 1 It is but fair to say, that Hengstenberg includes Pss. 
 cxxxvii. to cxlvi. in the cycle of " Dedication Psalms," some 
 of them being old and some new. Still, though not all 
 Psalms of praise, these are all addressed to God. 
 
228 1IVMNOLOGY 
 
 there are many isolated instances which might be 
 named. So in Germany, the finest of some of 
 Luther's Spiritual Songs are free adaptations from 
 the Psalter, among them the noblest of all, " Ein 
 feste Burg," a version of Ps. xlvi. Such a use of 
 the Divine pattern of devotion is surely more real, 
 more intelligent, and therefore more truly reverent, 
 than any feeble attempt to turn its mere words 
 into metre, and to pour into old bottles the new 
 wine of Christian thanksgiving. 
 
 But yet undoubtedly the Christian Church in all 
 times and nations has sung hymns which are not 
 strictly acts of praise to God. It is obviously 
 impossible and undesirable to keep closely to the 
 letter of Augustine's definition. The Church has 
 her penitential days and seasons, her times of trial 
 and chastening, her longings for her absent Lord ; 
 and she has a mother's true sympathy with all the 
 varied sorrows and wants of her children. Her 
 very music, then, cannot be all alike; her Hymnody 
 must find a place for the low tones of the fast-day 
 and the house of mourning, no less than for the 
 glad songs of the " night wherein an holy solemnity 
 is kept." A Hymnal which was all praise would 
 never be human enough to find a place in the 
 hearts of the worshippers. And indeed there is 
 a sense in which the lowliest cry of a broken heart 
 is praise, for God is glorified by it. 
 
 Every feeling, then, which enters into any act of 
 true worship, may fitly find expression in a hymn. 
 But here we must fix our limit. Hymns may 
 express adoration, thanksgiving, commemoration 
 of God's mercies; they may be prayers, penitential, 
 
PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-BOOK CONSTRUCTION 22Q 
 
 supplicatory, intercessory ; they may be devout 
 aspirations after God ; but in any case they must 
 be forms of worship. It is not enough that they 
 suggest devotion, they must be capable of expressing 
 it. The observance of this rule would clear the 
 ground at once of much irrelevant matter with 
 which the Hymn-books of every Church and sect 
 are at present encumbered. The whole multitude 
 of didactic and hortatory verses, the addresses to 
 sinners and saints, the paraphrases of Scripture 
 prophecies, promises, and warnings, the descriptions 
 of heaven and hell, the elaborate elucidations of the 
 anatomy and pathology of the soul; all these, what- 
 ever be their value in the chamber, the study, or 
 the pulpit, ought utterly and for ever to be banished 
 from the choir. But simple as this principle is, that 
 a hymn is a form of worshipping God, it is violated 
 afresh in almost every Hymnal that is published. 
 Hymns addressed to saints departed, for instance, 
 though of course abundant in the unreformed times 
 and Churches, should have no place among our- 
 selves. Yet these have been restored to some 
 collections (Hymnal Noted \ 15, 16; Hymns Ancient 
 and Modern, 65, 43 2). 1 This, however, if mis- 
 
 1 The Reformation, effecting as it did a complete revolu- 
 tion in the teaching of the Churches which accepted it, with 
 regard to the saints, has of course closed to us all, or nearly 
 all, the sources from which we might have been inclined to 
 draw our Saints'-day hymns. But, in truth, few mediaeval 
 hymns to the Saints have much merit as compositions to 
 counterbalance that which is wrong or defective in their 
 theology. The best appear to me to be two Gallican ones, 
 translated by Mr. Isaac Williams (Hymns Ancient and 
 Modern, 414 and 431 the latter a difficult but very noble 
 
230 IIYMNOLOGY 
 
 directed devotion, is still devotion, not mere pro- 
 fane rhetoric. But what are we to say of Bishop 
 Heber offering to the Church as an Epiphany 
 hymn an imaginary address of the Magi to the 
 Star of Bethlehem ? What of the compilers of the 
 Hymnal Noted, proposing to us to address our- 
 selves to the devil (53), or to the wood and iron of 
 the Cross (24)? Babies are the objects of a good 
 deal of domestic idolatry, but why should a vener- 
 able Church Society invite a whole congregation 
 to sing to a baby in church (S. P. C. K. Hymn-book, 
 new ed., 227) ? To match this baptismal " hymn," 
 Dr. Kennedy has a wedding " hymn " to a bride- 
 groom (Hymnologia Christiana], successively as 
 "lover" and "husband," and Mr. Blew a funeral 
 
 hymn), the " Exultet orbis gaudiis" (Church Hymnal, 176), 
 and the famous hymn attributed to St. Ambrose, for Apostles' 
 days,"yterna Christi munera" (Hymns Ancient and Modern, 
 430). So that our Saints'-day hymns have yet to be written. 
 Canon (Bishop) Wordsworth has some valuable remarks 
 upon this subject in the Preface to his Holy Year, pp. xviii, 
 xix, but his efforts to supply the deficiency on which he 
 comments do not seem to me very successful. We have, 
 however, some few English Saints'-day hymns of great 
 excellence. Heber's two on St. Peter and St. John, and 
 Mr. Keble's on St. John (written for the Salisbury Hymnal), 
 it seems almost impertinent to praise. They exactly fulfil 
 the idea which these Festivals in our Church are intended to 
 express commemorating the Saint to the glory of his Lord. 
 Some of Bishop Mant's are valuable. The hymn for St. 
 Matthew's day (I suppose by Mr. Anstice) in the Child's 
 Christian Year, and one by Mr. Thrupp, on the Brethren of 
 our Lord, St. Simon and St. Jude (assuming the truth of his 
 theory), are both very beautiful, but rather too elaborate and 
 meditative for Festival hymns. 
 
PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-BOOK CONSTRUCTION 231 
 
 "hymn" to the earth. The American Church 
 sings Pope's Ode to a departing soul (191), and 
 one of her funeral hymns is a remonstrance with 
 a " joyous youth " ( 1 26). Mr. Kemble prints stanzas 
 to "angels," "mortals," "sinners," and (in one case) 
 missionaries ; to a " believer," an " afflicted saint," 
 and to the Bible. Even Canon (Bishop) Words- 
 worth, reverent and careful as he is, falls into the 
 mistake of apostrophizing Sunday, instead of prais- 
 ing the Lord of the Sabbath (Holy Year, i), and (if 
 I read him aright) exhorts St. Bartholomew not to 
 " repine," because none on earth can tell the story 
 of his life (100). 
 
 But is every hymn to be condemned which is 
 not directly addressed to God ? This would 
 obviously be too narrow a rule. The spirit rather 
 than the form of the hymn is the test of its devo- 
 tional character. Hymns inviting to the praise of 
 God, on the model of Psalms xcv. and c., form a 
 large class, containing many eminently fitted for 
 public worship. Another important class com- 
 prises hymns which " rehearse the righteous acts of 
 the Lord," which celebrate the Incarnation, the 
 Epiphany, Passion, Resurrection, or Ascension. 
 Such are most of our good hymns for the Christian 
 seasons. These two elements are \magnificently 
 combined in the " Adeste Fideles," the noblest of 
 Christmas hymns, which, now that we are familiar 
 with it in its English dress, as we have long been 
 with John Reading's beautiful tune for it, bids fair 
 to become the most popular also. To this class 
 belong hymns which are confessions of faith. Such 
 was formerly what is now called the " Creed of St. 
 
232 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 Athanasius." In fact, all our creeds are hymns, to 
 be " sung or said." Canon (Bishop) Wordsworth 
 insists strongly on the value of hymns as vehicles 
 for doctrinal teaching. "A Church," he says, 
 "which foregoes the use of hymns in her office 
 of teaching, neglects one of the most efficacious 
 instruments for correcting error, and for dissemin- 
 ating truth, as well as for ministering comfort and 
 edification, especially to the poor." This is most 
 true ; but it is important to notice that the doc- 
 trinal element must always be kept in due subor- 
 dination to be devotional ; the type of the hymn 
 must be a creed, not an article of religion ; a con- 
 fession before God, not a definition to men. Hence 
 those doctrinal hymns are always the best which, 
 if not addressed to God, pass, ere they close, into a 
 direct utterance of prayer or praise. 
 
 I will illustrate my meaning by an example. 
 Let the reader compare the two following hymns. 
 They are both doctrinal ; the subject of both is 
 Faith ; the views expressed in both as to the source 
 and work of faith are identical. The difference is 
 in the mode of treatment. 
 
 " Mistaken souls ! that dream of heaven, 
 
 And make their empty boast 
 
 Of inward joys, and sins forgiven, 
 
 While they are slaves to lust ! 
 
 Vain are our fancies, airy flights, 
 
 If faith be cold and dead ; 
 None but a living power unites 
 
 To Christ, the living Head. 
 
 'Tis faith that changes all the heart, 
 Tis faith that works by love ; 
 
PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-BOOK CONSTRUCTION 233 
 
 That bids all sinful joys depart, 
 And lifts the thoughts above. 
 
 'Tis faith that conquers earth and hell 
 
 By a celestial power ; 
 This is the grace that shall prevail 
 
 In the decisive hour." 
 
 This is from Dr. Watts (i. 140). There are three 
 more verses, which, as Watts himself bracketed 
 them, I omit. They do not alter the character of 
 the hymn. Compare it with the following : 
 
 " God of our salvation, Lord, 
 
 Of wondrous power and love, 
 May faith, salvation's holy seed, 
 Be sent us from above ! 
 
 'Tis faith that gives us strength to fight, 
 
 That we our foes may quell ; 
 And with the shield of faith we quench 
 
 The fiery darts of hell. 
 
 By faith we make our prayers to Thee 
 
 In that most holy Name, 
 On which, for mercy and for peace, 
 
 Hope rests her steadfast claim. 
 
 For that Name's sake assist us, Lord, 
 
 To run our heavenward race ; 
 And oh ! may no unholy life 
 
 Our holy faith disgrace. 
 
 To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
 
 Be praise and glory given ; 
 Who pour into the hearts of men 
 
 True light and heat from heaven." 
 
 This is the Hymn for Vespers on Thursdays 
 from the Parisian Breviary ', translated by Mr. 
 
234 HVMNOLOGV 
 
 Chandler. I do not know the date or the author, 1 
 but most of these Gallican hymns are of a com- 
 paratively late period ; some of them written by 
 men, such as Coffin and Le Tourneaux, who were 
 actually contemporary with Watts, although the 
 hymns are all classed together by Chandler as " of 
 the Primitive Church." This is not a particularly 
 good specimen of Mr. Chandler's volume ; I chose 
 it simply because of its subject. Watts's first verse 
 is in very bad taste, but on the whole his hymn is 
 homely, lucid, nervous English ; it grasps at a 
 great truth, and states it clearly. But Watts 
 simply turns this truth over in his mind, and 
 reflects upon it. He has sat down to make a 
 judicious protest against two opposite errors, and 
 he does it. But it is not a hymn ; there is not a 
 particle of devotion in it. To use it in church 
 would be like reading a tract in place of the 
 Liturgy. It is the prevalence of compositions like 
 this which gives to so many hymn-books of thirty 
 years ago that air of cold and wearisome wordiness 
 which pervades them, as contrasted with more 
 recent collections. The Gallican, on the other 
 hand, is less clear about faith than one could wish, 
 but he has read his Psalter and his Augustine. 
 What he knows he feels. He does not think about 
 convincing men, but about glorifying God. He 
 cannot meditate upon faith without praying for it. 
 He promotes devotion while he teaches doctrine. 
 He gives us a true hymn, not very lucid or vigorous, 
 but simple and real. 
 
 Another class of hymns, embracing many of the 
 1 Charles Coffin, b. 1676, d. I749--H. H. 
 
PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-BOOK CONSTRUCTION 235 
 
 most popular, consists of meditations upon the 
 glories of heaven, and aspirations after them. As 
 to the admissibility of such hymns into church, I 
 am far more doubtful than most hymnologists 
 seem inclined to be. They have, indeed, abundant 
 precedents in their favour, but those chiefly of a 
 bad period ; they are liable to be tainted by some 
 of the worst vices of modern hymns softness and 
 sentimentalism ; they afford a dangerous opening 
 to unreality and sensuousness. Still there are 
 some genuine hymns of this class, of undeniable 
 beauty and power, the best being the least detailed, 
 such as the exquisite " O quanta qualia " (Hymns 
 Ancient and Modern, 235), or the well-known 
 " Jerusalem, my happy home." But "Jerusalem " 
 hymns might well have a paper to themselves. 1 
 
 Once more, from among the immense multitude 
 of modern hymns which deal with the relations of 
 the individual soul to God, some, as I intimated in 
 my first paper, must keep the place they have won 
 for themselves in our public worship. Not merely 
 are they necessary in order to make a hymnal 
 
 1 The beautiful rhythm of Bernard of Morlaix, with the 
 latter part of which Mr. (Dr.) Neale has made us all familiar, 
 has doubtless done much of late years to bring the 
 "Jerusalem" hymn once more into fashion, so thoroughly do 
 its plaintiveness, its softness, and its lusciousness, harmonize 
 with the habits of our day, and the peculiarities of modern 
 thought. But in its very popularity lies its danger. It is as 
 wrong to build castles with the imagery of the Apocalypse as 
 to denounce opponents in the language of the prophets. 
 Both the one and the other have been done by many true 
 saints and heroes ; both are mischievous habits, nevertheless. 
 Yet we recoil from the fanatical, while we tolerate the senti- 
 mental use of Holy Scripture. 
 
236 TTYMNOLOGY 
 
 acceptable to all, but they represent a condition of 
 thought which has become, under the influence of 
 Protestant theology, more or less common to all 
 worshippers who have any sort of true religious 
 enlightenment. To admit them into a national 
 hymnal now is therefore simply obedience to the 
 law, that forms of common worship must express 
 such thoughts and feelings as are, or ought to be, 
 common to all worshippers. This law I take to be 
 the true guide in the compilation of a national 
 hymnal, and the true test of what ought to be 
 admitted into it. Such a rule is wanted. No one 
 doubts that Heber's " Holy, holy, holy," is emi- 
 nently congregational ; no one now, I suppose, 
 would include Cowper's "Far from the world, O 
 Lord, I flee," in a congregational collection. 
 Somewhere between these two extremes lies the 
 boundary line of a Church Hymnal. It may never 
 be possible to draw that line very clearly ; because 
 a hymn of first-rate excellence, though belonging 
 to a class not generally adapted to public worship, 
 must not be lightly rejected, and will sometimes 
 compel us, as it were, to admit it. Such a hymn as 
 Charles Wesley's "Jesu, lover of my soul," seems 
 to me absolutely to stand upon the line. It is a 
 hymn for times of sorrow of purely inward and 
 personal sorrow, being originally entitled " In 
 Temptation." It was not included by the Wesleys 
 in their general collection, but placed there by the 
 Conference, after the author's death, among hymns 
 for "mourners convinced of sin." I should think 
 that all who have really felt its wonderful power 
 and reality would wish to see it in a Church 
 
PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-BOOK CONSTRUCTION 237 
 
 Hymnal ; yet most clergymen, I suppose, would 
 hesitate before selecting it as the vehicle of the 
 ordinary worship of a mixed congregation. There 
 is less difficulty about "Rock of Ages," because, 
 though a strictly personal hymn, it expresses 
 the very fundamental principles of Christian life, 
 and is, as its author entitled it, " A Prayer, Living 
 and Dying." A third famous hymn, Cowper's 
 " Oh, for a closer walk with God ! " must, I think, 
 be rejected altogether from a public hymnal : true 
 and beautiful as it is, it belongs not merely to a 
 secret, but to an exceptional condition of heart ; it 
 is plainly impossible that it could be real for a 
 whole congregation at once, even on the hypothesis 
 that the whole congregation were living and faith- 
 ful Christians. Only a few at any one time would 
 be in the spiritual state indicated in the hymn, and 
 therefore, while to these few its value would be 
 great, to the majority it would be unmeaning, and 
 thus unfit to offer to God. If this seem to any 
 reader hard measure to deal out to compositions 
 so widely and so justly revered, let me ask him to 
 reflect whether the truest use of such a hymn as 
 this of Cowper's is not in private devotion, and to 
 remember that to withdraw such hymns from 
 public worship is by no means to slight them, but 
 only to appropriate them to their right purpose, 
 and to provide for their fulfilling it in the best way. 
 So much for the subjects which should occupy a 
 Church Hymnal. But there are other considera- 
 tions still which must determine the acceptance or 
 rejection of hymns. I will not speak of doctrine ; 
 it is of course to be assumed that the Hymnal of 
 
238 HYMNOLOGV 
 
 the Church must harmonize with her other formu- 
 laries ; and if the spirit of each hymn be truly 
 devotional, the traces of the school of thought from 
 which it has been derived, though conspicuous, will 
 not be offensively prominent. When we are really 
 turning to God, we are all looking one way. Such 
 a volume as Sir Roundell Palmer's Book of Praise 
 shows us, as he well points out, the essential unity 
 which underlies all truly spiritual utterances of 
 devotion, and it shows us too that hymns of all 
 ages and countries may be blended in one volume 
 without being watered down by timid variations 
 into colourless and insipid neutrality. Much, how- 
 ever, depends upon the moral and intellectual 
 character, so to speak, of hymns. Supposing many 
 alike admissible, which are we to prefer? Let me 
 point out a few particulars in which the excellence 
 of a hymn may be said to consist. 
 
 I. A hymn must be sincere. Professing to be a 
 form of worship, it must be what it professes 
 throughout. Covert controversial allusions (too 
 common in the eighteenth-century hymns), or any 
 other evidences of spiritual pride or vanity, are in- 
 tolerable. So are theatrical displays of emotion, 
 such as disgrace many hymns, both Roman and 
 Protestant, on our Lord's sufferings. The thoughts 
 with which a devout and intelligent believer in our 
 own day dwells upon the Passion can never clothe 
 themselves in the sensuous language of Faber and 
 Caswall ; they " lie too deep for tears." In our 
 Prayer-book there are no overstrained expressions 
 either of sorrow or of joy ; no invitations to one 
 another to weep, or prayers for " a fount of tears ": 
 
PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-BOOK CONSTRUCTION 239 
 
 why should such things be found in our Hymnal ? l 
 Yet many have been awakened to spiritual life by 
 the Prayer-book ; and none who have used it faith- 
 fully have failed to feel the power of its deep 
 reality. The fanatic may think it cold and formal, 
 but it is only as the coldness of health when touched 
 by the hand of fever. 
 
 2. A hymn must be vigorous ! Not affected or 
 overstrained in tone, it must yet be animated ; not 
 too reflective and diffuse ; speaking in words which, 
 though calm, are forcible. I place this, the most 
 important intellectual characteristic of a hymn, 
 next to its most important moral characteristic ; 
 and the two are nearly connected. Nothing 
 weakens a hymn so much as want of truthfulness ; 
 
 1 A volume might be written upon the changes in the out- 
 ward forms of emotion, which climate, race, and civilization 
 bring with them ; changes which are in nothing more con- 
 spicuous than in the greater calmness of our sorrow as 
 compared with that of our fathers. Uncontrollable grief 
 brought no suspicion of weakness upon the saint or hero of 
 the Middle Ages ; nor does it now upon the Oriental. 
 Tears were true signs of repentance then ; there was nothing 
 forced or unnatural in inviting people literally to weep at the 
 foot of the Cross. But we have learned now better the 
 Divine philosophy of our Lord's warning not to disfigure our 
 faces when we fast. The sorrow which overflows at the eyes 
 and the lips quickly evaporates, and is already half sensuous ; 
 the sorrow which abides within is fruitful and permanent. 
 Besides, too, the penitence of a redeemed man has already 
 begun to be turned into joy. Hence it is that a true English 
 churchman feels the hysterical hymns of the Oratory merely 
 painful and loathsome. I grieve that the editors of Hymns 
 Ancient and Modern should have admitted one or two, which 
 forcibly remind me of a certain saying of Mr. Ruskin's about 
 Swiss crucifixes. 
 
240 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 unreal emotion runs into inflated and overstrained 
 language, or into tame and spiritless imitation. 
 Numbers of Dissenting hymns are weak dilutions 
 of Watts ; Wesley's " Lo, He comes," gave birth to 
 a whole volume of Advent hymns in the same 
 metre ; just as in our own day the Christian 
 Year has been the model for many a set of verses, 
 like it on nothing but its metres and its Anglicanism. 
 The permanence of a hymn depends more upon its 
 vigour than upon any other quality. The hymns 
 that can be called really great the representative 
 hymns of the Church are few in number; they 
 are most diverse in character ; but this they have 
 in common, that they had power to embody in 
 themselves the characteristics of the time which 
 gave them birth. The whole faith of the Primitive 
 Church shines out from the Te Deuni ; the whole 
 piety of the Middle Ages is in Dies Irce and Stabat 
 Mater ; the whole power of the Reformation rings 
 through " Ein feste Burg." So Ken's three hymns, 
 the dying words of seventeenth-century Churchman- 
 ship, precisely represent its spirit ; as " Rock of 
 Ages " does the Evangelicalism of the succeeding 
 century. Now some of these hymns are very full, 
 and some very brief; they differ most widely in 
 merit ; but they have one thing in common vigour 
 and therefore they live and speak on to human 
 hearts. 
 
 3. A hymn should be simple. Hymns are not 
 for the few, but for the many, not chiefly to be read 
 and pondered over, but chiefly to be sung. And 
 the hymns of a National Hymnal, especially, are 
 meant for all classes in the nation. 
 
PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-BOOK CONSTRUCTION 241 
 
 While then they should not be vulgar or puerile, 
 they should be easy to understand ; the language 
 plain, the thoughts not too far-fetched. Some of 
 Dr. Neale's translations are faulty in this respect, 
 Thus in the O quanta qualia before mentioned, a 
 hymn I long to see in every collection, we have 
 such lines as " Wish and fulfilment can severed be 
 ne'er," and " There dawns no Sabbath no Sabbath 
 is o'er"; and in others of his best hymns, " God the 
 Trinal? " Conjubilant with song," " Laud and 
 honour," and other perfectly needless Latinisms. 
 Other translators, however, particularly Mr. Wil- 
 liams and Mr. Blew, are nearly or quite as guilty. 
 Indeed, the volume of the last-named editor has 
 almost the effect of being written in the days of 
 " Euphues," and might have been conned by Don 
 Armado and Sir Percie Shafton. Even in Hymns 
 Ancient and Modern there are too many verses 
 that, as a friend complained to me not long ago, 
 " begin with the verb and end with the nominative 
 case." Complexity of metaphor and imagery is 
 yet more fatal to success. Perhaps if I were to 
 name a model of simplicity, I might fix upon our 
 old Easter hymn, " Jesus Christ is risen to-day," 
 as appended to the Prayer-book. Every word 
 might be understood by a child ; yet how well 
 does it commemorate the one great fact of the 
 Resurrection, in language homely indeed, but 
 perfectly sincere and adequate. 
 
 4. This leads me further to add A hymn should 
 be brief. I protested last month against the cur- 
 tailment of hymns ; and whenever a hymn, like 
 the one I then cited, is framed on a definite plan, 
 
 Q 
 
242 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 it must suffer from abridgment. I am bound to 
 say, however, that a very long hymn, which, like 
 some of Paul Gerhardt's, flows on till it has out- 
 grown its strength, from lack of purpose and con- 
 centration on the part of the author, is also a great 
 evil. Many of the German hymns in Mr. Mercer's 
 book, though curtailed, are still too long for our 
 congregations to use. The Mediaeval Church, I 
 need not say, constantly abridged long hymns ; and 
 with proper precaution, we may improve some of 
 our own by this process. The verses which have 
 disappeared from Charles Wesley's Christmas 
 Hymn, which any one may now see in the Book of 
 Praise (34), are better away. Another fine hymn of 
 his, " Soldiers of Christ, arise," has gained by com- 
 pression, though it is frequently too closely pruned. 
 Indeed, Charles Wesley did not scruple to abridge 
 his own hymns in preparing the present Wesleyan 
 Hymn-book. Watts too bracketed in his own 
 hymns such verses as he thought might be con- 
 veniently omitted ; and in general, where the object 
 of curtailment is to increase the clearness and 
 vigour of a hymn, it may be safely attempted. 1 
 Eight four-line stanzas, or thirty-two lines, may be 
 taken as a limit which it is not desirable a hymn 
 should exceed. Even this implies quick singing, 
 which, though generally to be encouraged, is not of 
 course applicable to every hymn and tune. 
 
 5. Lastly to go back to Augustine we are to 
 remember that a hymn is cum cantico, it is to be 
 sung ; and therefore it must be adapted to music. 
 
 1 The compressed version of the writer's " Saviour, again," 
 is a good example of this. H. H. 
 
PRINCIPLES OF HYMN-BOOK CONSTRUCTION 243 
 
 The metre, therefore, ought not to be too complex, 
 or greatly varied. The rhythm ought not to be 
 rugged, nor the diction bald and prosaic. We 
 cannot always expect real poetry, even in a good 
 hymn ; but we have a right to expect words that 
 lend themselves well to the simple and solemn 
 music which alone is fit for congregational worship. 
 Moreover, certain metres are adapted to certain 
 subjects. The stately march of our Long Metre 
 suits well the dignity of the Ambrosian hymn; but 
 it is not so well fitted for jubilant words. For 
 these by far the best metre would be some form of 
 Trochaic, particularly 8-7, with four, six, or eight 
 lines to the verse. Again, a lengthy hymn in 
 Short Metre, or a penitential hymn in what is called 
 I48th, would be almost intolerable. 
 
 These hints by no means exhaust the subject ; 
 but they may serve to show my readers that there 
 are principles of criticism other than mere liking, 
 or partisanship, or fashion, by which we may judge 
 of our hymns; principles too, I hope, easy to 
 understand and to apply. I cannot, however, bring 
 this paper to a close without one caution. The 
 Church of the present day may find herself com- 
 pelled, by the force of circumstances, to sit in 
 judgment upon the Hymnody of the past ; but let 
 not her tribunal be the seat of the scorner. Surely 
 the days are past when it was a sign of good 
 Churchmanship to ridicule the extravagances of the 
 Methodist, or the vulgarities of the Dissenter. I 
 think I have been able to select instances of the 
 faults I have pointed out from hymnists of every 
 school. But it is a thankless task merely to point 
 
244 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 out faults. The Hymnody of our land ought to 
 be criticized in a spirit of reverence, of humility, 
 and of brotherly kindness. Now that the Church 
 is girding herself once more to her long-neglected 
 work, it ill becomes her to sneer at the half- 
 educated men who evangelized England while her 
 clergy were amusing themselves. We are entering 
 into their spiritual labours, in laying our hands 
 upon their Hymnody for our own purposes. We 
 shall find bad taste, vulgarity, rudeness enough. 
 We may smile at Watts bidding us " drop a tear or 
 two," at Newton " hoping to die shouting," at 
 Wesley protesting that " no sight upon earth is so 
 fair " as a corpse ; but for a century and a half we 
 went on singing what we call Psalms, which made 
 the Almighty talk to the " conscious moon," and 
 proclaim that birds were "more happy far than" 
 ourselves. And that long-despised Hymnody has 
 done what Tate and Brady never could do ; it has 
 awakened, nourished, and sustained the spiritual 
 life of tens of thousands, in every rank of society, 
 in every corner of the earth, under every possible 
 circumstance of trial. Let us handle it modestly, 
 patiently, wisely ; seeking for light and guidance 
 in its use from Him who resisteth the proud, but 
 giveth grace unto the humble ; grace to separate 
 the good from the evil, to discern the treasure in 
 the earthen vessel 
 
 " To pierce the veil on Moses' face, 
 Although his speech be slow." 
 
PRACTICAL HINTS 245 
 
 No. IV 
 
 PRACTICAL HINTS TO THOSE WHO USE HYMN- 
 BOOKS AT PRESENT 
 
 I SHALL throw my concluding observations 
 into a form somewhat different to that which the 
 previous papers on this subject have assumed. For 
 in venturing to give a few practical hints as to the 
 use of hymns, I can no longer address myself to 
 such a mere abstraction as the " reader." I must 
 suppose myself in communication with some of the 
 many friends, between whom and myself a common 
 interest in the training or directing of our Parochial 
 Choirs has become a bond of union. 
 
 It is, I need scarcely say, the congregational use 
 of hymns of which these papers have professed to 
 treat ; and to those in whose hands the direction 
 of our congregational singing is placed I now speak. 
 Happily for the Church, that direction, at least in 
 our rural parishes, is most frequently the task, if 
 not of the clergyman, at any rate of some member 
 of his family, some friend or associate upon whose 
 taste and direction he can rely, and with whom he 
 can at any time communicate frankly, without fear 
 of giving offence. In large parishes the choir is 
 often of sufficient importance to be under the 
 direction of a paid trainer or leader, who ought, if 
 possible, to be an intelligent and well-educated 
 Churchman. And yet in such cases the need of a 
 strict organization, of definite rules, and of a distinct 
 understanding that the clergyman is really respons- 
 
246 IIYMNOLOGY 
 
 ible for what is sung, is even more urgent than in 
 a smaller choir. If the singing is an act of worship, 
 and so a means of grace, the minister of the con- 
 gregation is necessarily the one only right person 
 to see that it is really and effectually what it ought 
 to be. 
 
 I have only to do with metrical hymns and their 
 use ; let me ask my friends, then, by whom are 
 these to be used ? Of course, the answer, in theory, 
 is, by the congregation. Your object, then, is to get 
 your hymns sung by your congregation. 
 
 Now a congregation consists of four divisions : 
 First, those who can and do sing ; secondly, those 
 who can and don't; thirdly, those who can't and 
 do ; and fourthly, those who can't and dont. All 
 four of these divisions must be affected by the 
 singing. The first, whether nominally members 
 of the choir or no, are the natural leaders of the 
 service of song, and through them you must influ- 
 ence the rest ; the second must be encouraged and 
 cultivated till they pass into the first ; the third 
 must be kindly borne with and tolerated, till they 
 are drowned by the first two ; while the last will 
 assuredly feel and enjoy the power of true congre- 
 gational worship ; they too will make melody in 
 their hearts, though God has seen fit to deny them 
 the privilege of doing so with their lips, and among 
 them you will often find your chief encouragement, 
 your warmest sympathy, and perhaps your most 
 substantial help. But do not, I beseech you, fall 
 into the vulgar error of thinking that you can pro- 
 mote congregational singing by depreciating your 
 choir, or that it will come right of itself in some 
 
PRACTICAL HINTS 247 
 
 inexplicable way, without care or attention on your 
 part. A congregation can no more sing without 
 leaders than a regiment can march without officers. 
 Do not think that the singing among Dissenters, 
 which is often spoken of as being eminently con- 
 gregational, is purely spontaneous. Any one who 
 is acquainted with the organization of a meeting- 
 house knows what pains are generally taken with 
 the singers, what tempting overtures, on special 
 occasions, are made to members of neighbouring 
 choirs, what importance is attached to the classes 
 for practice within the congregation. And thus, 
 though the hymns may be in wretched taste, the 
 music vulgar and florid, and actually far more 
 difficult than really good Church music, the result 
 is congregational singing, because of the pains taken 
 with the matter. There is not the slightest reason 
 why your congregation should not sing much 
 better music quite as heartily, not for display, but 
 for worship. If you dread a merely sensuous 
 service, if you are anxious that the singing, as well 
 as the prayers, should reflect that spirituality which 
 belongs to all true communion with God, still, 
 believe me, you will never promote spirituality by 
 letting things alone. For what is the result ? If 
 you have no choir, you either have no singing, or 
 singing led by one or two untrained voices, children, 
 or teachers. Perhaps a few of the bolder members 
 of the congregation will join in, but they have 
 never practised together; they cannot keep to- 
 gether, except at a pace of wearisome slowness ; 
 they are chilled by the silence of many around 
 them ; and generally the singing becomes the most 
 
248 HYMNOLOGV 
 
 tedious and unprofitable part of the whole service ; 
 and you yourself will be left to wonder why, after 
 you have preached to them again and again upon 
 the subject, your people will not sing as warmly 
 and heartily as the Dissenters. And yet there is a 
 worse case ; the case in which singing is sure to 
 become truly sensuous and profane ; when a parish 
 has a choir which is left to its own devices, with no 
 judicious hand to control it, and no pastoral sym- 
 pathy to encourage it. Then it is that music is 
 selected purposely and avowedly to display the 
 skill of the performers ; that chants and tunes are 
 changed perpetually, lest the congregation should 
 learn them ; that the words are so entirely sub- 
 ordinated to the music as to render the singers 
 indifferent to the most glaring absurdities ; and, 
 finally, that all idea of Church singing as an act of 
 worship dies out of the minds of those engaged in 
 it. The sooner such a choir is abolished the better 
 for the glory of God and the welfare of the con- 
 gregation. But if a choir be well organized, well 
 trained, and directed by those who have right views 
 as to its true object and functions, and if the music 
 selected be such as congregations generally can be 
 expected to sing, and the words such as they ought 
 to sing, then I maintain that there is no help to 
 congregational singing so powerful as such a choir ; 
 and that under its leading the very finest congre- 
 gational singing may be expected to develop 
 itself. It may seem invidious to cite one particular 
 congregation in illustration of a statement which is 
 now happily being verified in hundreds ; but I 
 cannot help remarking that any one who worships 
 
PRACTICAL HINTS 249 
 
 on Sunday evening in the parish church of Leeds 
 will be speedily convinced that the grandest and 
 most hearty congregational singing of metrical 
 tunes is perfectly compatible with the existence of 
 a very powerful and skilful choir, and even of music 
 which errs on the side of elaboration rather than of 
 simplicity. 
 
 The fact is, that congregational singing depends 
 much upon the selection of the words and tunes of 
 the metrical Hymnody, and upon the manner in 
 which these are sung. Therefore my first advice 
 to a friend who wishes to make his congregation 
 sing is, Be careful as to what you make them sing ; 
 and my second, Take some pains to teach them 
 and to help them to sing. 
 
 And first, as to the selection of words. Look to 
 your hymn-book ; criticize it, ask yourself, not 
 whether you like everything it contains, but whether 
 it is a real help to public worship ; whether the 
 hymns are hymns indeed, and whether, upon the 
 whole, they are good hymns. If not, you will 
 never have congregational singing till some change 
 be made. You may not think it wise to abolish 
 the book ; it may be quite good enough to be 
 retained, yet deficient in many of the requirements 
 of a hymn-book. In that case you had better try 
 to add to it. If you can print a supplement of. 
 your own, and present it to your congregation, you 
 will often conciliate those who would be disturbed 
 by the suppression of the book to which they are 
 accustomed. In that case you may choose freely 
 from existing books, so long as you do not sell a 
 single copy of your compilation. But if you dis- 
 
250 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 trust yourself, or dread the expense of this process, 
 or if you have no hymn-book which you wish to 
 retain, you had better fix upon some hymnal 
 already in existence. And here comes in another 
 consideration. If your congregation be large, and 
 tolerably well educated, containing many persons 
 who are likely to sing from notes, it is convenient 
 to select a hymnal which may be obtained in the 
 form of a Choral-book ; i. e. with the tunes in short 
 score, on the same page as the words. This is a 
 direct encouragement to congregations to sing, and 
 to those skilled in music to take their own part, 
 when hymns are sung in harmony. In this form 
 you may procure the Chorale Book for England 
 (too expensive, however, and consisting exclusively 
 of translations from the German), Mercer's Church 
 Psalter and Hymn-book (in which German and 
 Wesleyan hymns predominate), the new Hymnal 
 of the Christian Knowledge Society, Chope's 
 Congregational Hymn-Book^ Morrell and Hows' 
 Psalms and Hymns, Hymns Ancient and Modern, 
 and a few others. The last is also published 
 in the Tonic Sol-fa notation. The words of 
 each of these, of course, can be had separately 
 without the music. The disadvantage of using 
 Choral-books is, that the congregation is tied to 
 a certain set of tunes, and these not always the 
 best adapted to the words, but only the best which 
 the law of copyright, and the judgment of the 
 editor combined, enabled him to set to them. In 
 country churches, and wherever the congregation 
 sing by ear rather than by eye, it is much better 
 that the director of the choir should keep himself 
 
PRACTICAL HINTS 251 
 
 free to use tunes selected from every source within 
 his reach, so as to adapt to each hymn the melody 
 best fitted for it. 
 
 But another and a much-neglected part of the 
 duty of the director of a choir, is the selection week 
 by week of the hymns to be sung. Let me urge 
 upon you to consider how important a task this is ; 
 how closely connected with God's glory is the 
 choosing the form of words in which His Church is 
 to show forth His praise ; how largely the spiritual 
 life and health of a congregation may be fostered 
 by care or checked by negligence in this particular. 
 How can a conscientious clergyman ever delegate 
 this task to any one whom he cannot thoroughly 
 trust? How can he be content with permitting 
 his people to sing words which he would not ven- 
 ture himself to utter as an act of personal worship ? 
 How can he ever suffer it to be supposed that the 
 hymn exists for the sake of the tune, by allowing 
 an objectionable hymn to be even occasionally 
 used for the sake of the music to which it has been 
 set ? The reform of our hymnody is, after all, very 
 much in the hands of the clergy. If you will be 
 firm in your resolve that hymns which ought not to 
 be sung shall never be sung by your congregation ; 
 if you will keep your own marked copy of your 
 hymn-book, and determine to suppress every bad 
 hymn, and to give preference to the best and most 
 vigorous, familiarizing your people with them by 
 frequent use, you will do your part towards creating 
 a taste for good hymns, which will soon show itself 
 in the general improvement of existing collections, 
 and be the best possible foundation for a National 
 
252 IIVMNOLOGY 
 
 Hymnal worthy of our Prayer-book in time to 
 come. 
 
 But, alas ! it is surprising how thoughtless and 
 unmeaning is the use of even the good hymns we 
 have. Take, for instance, Bishop Ken's Morning 
 Hymn, and consider how ingeniously our choirs 
 generally contrive to spoil it. Look at it as it 
 stands in the Winchester Manual, or in the Book 
 of Praise (246), or in its earlier form, if you can 
 obtain it, in the Laymaris Life of Ken. The 
 hymn consists of fourteen verses. It begins with 
 meditation, wholly private and personal, and rises 
 gradually into devotion. First the speaker ad- 
 dresses himself; secondly the angels; thirdly God. 
 The first eight verses are mere preparation ; the 
 true worship begins at the ninth. This devotional 
 part, though uttered in the first person, is, in its 
 simple, universal character, perfectly fitted for con- 
 gregational use, with the exception of two stanzas 
 which are a little tainted with the extravagance 
 and artificiality of the age. And now, how do we 
 generally employ it ? First, we seldom use the 
 devotional part at all, except the final doxology, 
 but perversely select the preparatory verses ad- 
 dressed to the soul, that is to say, exactly the 
 part which is unfit for public use, and make that 
 an act of public worship. Secondly, we take the 
 words which refer to first waking, and to sunrise, 
 and transfer them from the scholar's bedside to the 
 forenoon service of the congregation, when the sun 
 has been for hours high in heaven. In Ireland, I 
 am told, where "Morning Prayer" usually begins 
 at mid-day, this absurdity is still more glaring. 
 
PRACTICAL HINTS 253 
 
 Thirdly, we sing this hymn on Sunday, and yet 
 avoid those verses which are applicable to every 
 day alike, and use those which specially refer to 
 the " daily stage of duty " which a devout Church- 
 man does not willingly " run " upon the Day of 
 Rest. And yet we flatter ourselves that the Church 
 of England, beyond other Churches, sings with the 
 understanding as well as with the spirit ! 
 
 But this is only one out of well-nigh innumerable 
 instances of thoughtlessness which grievously im- 
 pair the solemn beauty of our noble ritual. How 
 often we hear hymns which speak of the daylight 
 being past sung in the full blaze of a summer after- 
 noon ; or penitential hymns on festivals ? I have 
 heard the fifty-first Psalm sung on Whit Sunday. I 
 know a church in which very great attention is 
 paid to ritual correctness, where at the Sunday 
 afternoon catechizings it is customary for the 
 children to sing a hymn, composed I have no doubt 
 originally for an orphan asylum, in which they are 
 made to lament that their fathers and mothers are 
 all dead ! But it is a needless and a thankless task 
 to multiply instances. 
 
 Next to the hymn comes the tune. I will not 
 be tempted to wander from the subject of these 
 papers into any remarks upon the character of our 
 metrical tunes. I have at present only to do with 
 a tune as interpreting a hymn. I would then warn 
 my friends who are directors of choirs, not merely 
 to be satisfied with the excellence of a tune as a 
 composition, but to be very careful in noting 
 whether it is really adapted to the words to which 
 they purpose to sing it. And let them not say 
 
254 HVMNOLOGY 
 
 Cela va sans dire. Our very best compilers of 
 Choral-books often make serious mistakes in this 
 respect, hence the necessity of studying the charac- 
 ter as well as the metre and accentuation of each 
 tune. Let me give one or two hints drawn from 
 experience. 
 
 1. Lay down as a general rule, that each hymn 
 should have one tune to it. The converse of course 
 does not follow, that each tune should be sung to 
 one hymn, and no more. But try patiently and 
 carefully to match each hymn with the tune fittest 
 for it, and keep to that. There is only one excep- 
 tion to this rule : when you use the same hymn 
 through the year on any particular occasion e.g. 
 Morning or Evening, Baptism, or Holy Com- 
 munion and desire to vary the expression of it in 
 accordance with the season ; then you may adopt 
 the mediaeval practice of having a penitential and 
 a jubilant melody for it, in addition to the ordinary 
 or " ferial " one. But it is better to change the 
 hymn than the tune if you can do so. 
 
 2. In adapting tunes to words, consider the 
 meaning and the metre. For the first, it is well to 
 know something of the history of the hymn. An 
 ancient tune will often best fit an ancient hymn ; 
 a German tune a Lutheran, Moravian, or Wesleyan 
 hymn. Each Church season too has its distinctive 
 character, which ought to be reflected in its music. 
 The tune of an Advent hymn ought not to fit a 
 Lent hymn, nor ought that of a Christmas hymn 
 to be used for an Easter hymn. But a Christmas 
 tune will often suit a School Festival, or an Easter 
 tune a Harvest hymn, admirably. And as to 
 
PRACTICAL HINTS 255 
 
 metre, it is not enough to fit note to syllable, and 
 accent to accent, accurately. The place of the 
 rhymes should be noticed, especially in Long 
 Metre and " Sevens " hymns. Some tunes are 
 composed for verses of which the couplets rhyme 
 (as in Ken's hymns) ; others for verses of which 
 the rhymes are alternate (as in the Hundredth 
 Psalm). And if a tune of the first kind is used for 
 a hymn of the second, there will be a sense of un- 
 fitness felt, which will often make it difficult for a 
 congregation, they scarcely know why, to take it 
 up. Thus, besides the " Old Hundredth," " Ware- 
 ham " and " Angels " ought never to be sung to 
 rhyming couplets. Hymns which require to be 
 sung slowly are the only ones which, as a general 
 rule, should be sung in " triple time." It is better 
 to make this restriction than to change into " com- 
 mon time" a tune originally written with three 
 beats in a bar. 
 
 3. No general rule can be laid down as to the 
 pace at which hymns should be sung. There are 
 some good remarks on this subject in the preface 
 to Hymns Ancient and Modern. But each hymn 
 has its own proper speed, depending upon its 
 character. By repeated experiments you will 
 discover this in each case ; and you may take the 
 opportunity of testing your own judgment by that 
 of some good and carefully regulated choir. Having 
 got the true speed of any hymn, mark in your book 
 the number of seconds which one verse should 
 occupy (as is done in the excellent little collection 
 of " Metrical Tunes " originally published in the 
 Parish Choir), and never allow your singers to 
 
256 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 fall behind the standard rate. But remember, that 
 rate may very probably differ, not for each tune 
 only, but for each hymn. Generally, however, all 
 ill-trained choirs sing metrical tunes far too slowly, 
 and chant too fast. 
 
 Need I add to these hints one more ? Give your 
 congregation every opportunity of learning to sing 
 the hymns you select. Encourage classes for 
 practice. Circulate the music you use among those 
 who will play and sing it at home. Do all you can 
 to break down the notion that the choir are to sing 
 instead of the people. This, indeed, is one of the 
 many good reasons for the choir being an unpaid 
 body, that it is thereby more closely identified with 
 the congregation, and less likely to be looked upon 
 as a corps of officials delegated to do that which 
 the general body of worshippers are unwilling or 
 unable to do. I am speaking, of course, of ordin- 
 ary congregations, not of those whose circum- 
 stances permit them, in addition to their own part 
 in [the service of song, to decorate the house of 
 God, through the means of a first-rate choir, with 
 a more difficult and elaborate offering of praise. 
 But much mischief is still done by the attempts 
 of village choirs to imitate those of large town 
 churches and cathedrals. This, however, is an evil 
 which I trust the progress of Church Choral 
 Associations in our rural districts will do much to 
 remedy. A judicious choir-master, passing from 
 parish to parish, will teach better than any book 
 what the service of song in a village church ought 
 to be ; and the periodical gatherings of country 
 choirs in some central church will show how noble 
 
PRACTICAL HINTS 257 
 
 and beautiful, in its own place, such a service may 
 be made. 
 
 My subject has led me to dwell largely upon the 
 use of hymns by the congregation. But before I 
 close these papers, let me plead once more for their 
 more systematic use by the individual Christian 
 their use, I mean, not simply like that of the 
 Christian Year, or other religious poetry, but as 
 definite forms of worship, of private prayer and 
 praise. In the ancient Church, the distinction 
 between private and public devotion was so much 
 less marked than is now possible, that the same 
 hymns sufficed for both. The same " Hours" 
 might be said in the Minster and in the Hermitage. 
 But wherever said, praise formed a part of the 
 daily office, and that praise was expressed in 
 metrical language. Each canonical hour, each day 
 of the week, each season, each festival, had its own 
 hymn. I do not ask for so unnatural a thing as a 
 return to this rigid system, or even to the modifi- 
 cations of it which have been again and again 
 attempted in our Church in the " Primer " of the 
 Reformation, in the devotions of Cosin and Taylor, 
 by the devout Nonjurors, or by like-minded men 
 in our own day. There are, doubtless, some who 
 can follow such a system with profit ; but with 
 most of us it is a mere impossibility. Yet this one 
 lesson I think all might learn from such manuals 
 of devotion the power of hymns as forms of 
 worship. And when we consider the vast hymnody 
 we already possess, really true and beautiful, the 
 result of a great and powerful movement within or 
 around our Church, we can scarcely help feeling 
 
 R 
 
258 11YMNOLOGV 
 
 that we are neglecting a great gift from God, if 
 we simply reject all which we cannot use in public. 
 
 The hymns of the great Evangelical school will 
 doubtless be its best and noblest monument to the 
 end of time. If those which will become enshrined 
 in our Church Hymnal are found to be fewer in 
 number than some among us hitherto have thought, 
 yet, on the other hand, no period of our Church's 
 history has brought to bear upon the sorrows and 
 conflicts of the individual soul a larger experience 
 or a truer sympathy. While, then, the Pre-Reform- 
 ation ages will always be those which most 
 influence our forms of common worship, the worship 
 of the individual must needs bear most vividly the 
 impress of Protestant theology. The one manifests 
 what all are to God, the other what God is to each. 
 I trust to see the day when each idea shall find 
 its full realization in our worship ; when, side by 
 side with the simple, calm, comprehensive, object- 
 ive Hymnal of the Common Prayer-book, we 
 shall have a Hymnal for the hour when the door 
 is shut, and the heart is unveiled to the Father. 
 For the two can never be one. 
 
 There are thoughts which it is dangerous to our 
 strength and sincerity of character to utter before 
 man ; there are burdens upon the spirit, and per- 
 plexities of the conscience, to which we have now 
 found that no words of common worship can bring 
 relief. There are joys with which a stranger does 
 not intermeddle. The soul has its Lent, its Easter, 
 its Pentecost. Private devotion requires its own 
 especial embodiment ; and all who have tried it 
 will own that no form of private devotion (and 
 
PRACTICAL HINTS 259 
 
 forms of some sort must be found) is to be com- 
 pared to a really good hymn, for its expressiveness, 
 its suggestiveness, its soothing or elevating power, 
 the facility with which it comes to mind, its 
 perpetual and friendly presence to the memory, its 
 witness to a thousand hallowed and peaceful as- 
 sociations, its calming and consoling influence in 
 pain or weariness, in weakness, in death itself. It 
 is not surely a thought to be lightly passed over, it 
 is not without a lesson of deep significance for us 
 all, that our Divine Master sustained His spirit 
 upon His awful deathbed, not with any new utter- 
 ances of devotion, not with aspirations coming fresh 
 from the lips of Him who spake as never man 
 spake, but with the familiar words of His Church's 
 Psalmody, the broken fragments of the Hymnal of 
 His Childhood. 1 
 
 1 Psalms xxii. I ; xxxi. 5. 
 
SPEECH UNSPOKEN AT THE NOTTING- 
 HAM CHURCH CONGRESS, 1871 
 
 THE arguments in favour of an authorized hymnal 
 are very plain and obvious. It is a thankless task 
 to speak of objections and difficulties, even though 
 an objection may resolve itself into a groundless 
 apprehension, and a difficulty may exist only to be 
 overcome. 
 
 The very first question that meets us when we 
 speak of an authorized hymnal must be, What does 
 " authorized " mean ? From what source is the 
 authority derived, and how is it to be exercised ? 
 We may be willing, as loyal Churchmen, to be 
 bound by the judgment of the Convocations of the 
 two Provinces, and to accept for ourselves a hymnal 
 prepared under their auspices ; yet I think we can 
 scarcely hope that such an authority is weighty 
 enough to command the universal adoption by the 
 Church of such a book. If "authorized" means 
 authorized by the same sanctions as the Book of 
 Common Prayer, we are landed at once in the midst 
 of difficult and thorny controversies ; and the 
 events which have occurred in connection with the 
 far easier task of revising our Table of Lessons 
 may well lead us to despair of a successful issue. 
 260 
 
SPEECH- UNSPOKEN, CHURCH CONGRESS, iS/I 261 
 
 Then what must the book be? Is it to be 
 denuded of all that might offend any school of 
 thought in the Church ? Then we shall have a 
 merely vapid and colourless book, and round it 
 there will grow an accretion of highly-coloured 
 supplements ; uniformity will be no nearer; and 
 the object sought will be defeated. Or is the book 
 to be comprehensive, so as fairly to represent, on 
 all disputed points, the devotional side of each 
 party in our Church ? Alas, the hymns which 
 some will regard as absolutely indispensable are 
 just those which will prove a grievous scandal and 
 stumbling-block to others. Fierce battles will be 
 fought over its construction, and it will come into 
 the world only to meet on all sides the serried ranks 
 of men prepared at all risks to refuse acceptance 
 to it. 
 
 But another point. The time is ill-suited for the 
 task of constructing a permanent Church hymnal. 
 There are three sources 
 
 1. The Evangelical hymns of the eighteenth 
 century, and of the first thirty years of this 
 century. 
 
 2. Translations Ancient and Mediaeval, as well 
 as foreign Protestant, a mine only very partially 
 explored. 
 
 3. The living growing hymnody of our own 
 and sister Churches. It has burst into an almost 
 tropical luxuriance under the glow of revived 
 Church life tropical often in its beauty and sweet- 
 ness, sometimes in its rankness and unwholesome- 
 ness. And here I come to the main point. Is this 
 rich growth to be arrested frost-bound J had 
 
262 IIYMNOLOGY 
 
 almost said by the spell of authority ? Can it 
 be so ? A uniform book cannot arrest the free 
 development of our hymns it would be disastrous 
 if it could. Will all the fervid spirits who almost 
 chafe under the restrictions of our form of prayer, 
 who are repelled by the majestic calmness of our 
 Morning and Evening Offices, and prefer to kneel 
 through our Communion Service, using devotions 
 more suited to their temper of mind than our 
 Liturgy can furnish or those who call (and not 
 unreasonably) for new forms of prayer adapted to 
 the varying needs of a growing and widespread 
 Church will these be content to place upon their 
 necks the yoke of an authorized hymnal ? I don't 
 think we have any right to ask them ; and I fear 
 if we attempt it we shall either totally fail, or 
 achieve a success which is worse than a defeat 
 There is danger in a move in the direction of 
 restriction just at the moment of a cry for 
 elasticity. 
 
 Then again, a uniform hymnal implies a uniform, 
 or nearly uniform, level of Christian life in the 
 Church. But is it so ? Can it be that the same 
 hymn-book is equally fit for a neglected country 
 parish, and for a devout and highly-educated 
 suburban congregation ; for a Mission Church in 
 some poor district, and for the College Chapel or 
 the Cathedral Choir; for Cornwall and for Lanca- 
 shire ; for London and for Wales ? Other sects 
 are indeed, it may be said, provided each with its 
 own hymnal ; but with these, just because they are 
 sects, there must needs be a more uniform level 
 of religion than in a great and national Church ; 
 
SPEECH UNSPOKEN, CHURCH CONGRESS, l8/I 263 
 
 uniformity and comprehensiveness cannot consist. 
 Far better surely to let the various shades of 
 theological opinion in our own communion find 
 each its fitting devotional expression in hymns, so 
 long as we can keep our Prayer-book the one 
 common heritage, and the one uniting bond of 
 them all. 
 
 But though I think one national hymnal is 
 
 neither possible nor desirable, yet there is every 
 
 reason why we should set this before us as an ideal 
 
 towards which we are to work for the future, and 
 
 which in some calmer and happier day our 
 
 children may yet attain. And I must say a word 
 
 before I sit down as to what we of this generation 
 
 can do to purify and elevate our hymnody. Now 
 
 we must all confess that in the new development 
 
 of our hymnody God of His goodness has given us 
 
 an instrument of great power to do our work with ; 
 
 and I do hope the time may soon come when we 
 
 shall be, not merely tacitly but avowedly, permitted 
 
 to make the fullest and freest use possible of this 
 
 instrument to quicken and express our devotion, 
 
 our penitence, our watchfulness, our thankfulness ; 
 
 when no one shall deem it a badge of party to 
 
 enter into His gates with thanksgiving in our joyous 
 
 processionals, to fall low on our knees before His 
 
 footstool in our metrical litanies, or to worship Him 
 
 in the beauty of holiness in our Eucharistic songs. 
 
 From all the hymns of the past we may learn some 
 
 lesson for the present as to their varied use from 
 
 the Ambrosians their help in promoting daily and 
 
 hourly communion with God ; from mediaeval 
 
 hymns their power in interpreting the mysteries of 
 
264 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 our faith ; from Germany their hymns of Christian 
 experience ; from the Wesleyans their evangelistic 
 power. But in our very affluence and freedom there 
 is a special danger. And I do desire to take the 
 occasion of the first free discussion on hymns which 
 a Church Congress has held to appeal most earnestly 
 to my brother clergy and choir-masters to stand out 
 like men against the ever-increasing flood of unreal 
 and sensuous hymns. I know all that is to be said for 
 these : they are so popular the children like them 
 their music is so pretty they make our services 
 so hearty. But what is the popularity of an hour, 
 if it is purchased by the sacrifice of sincerity ? If 
 we are to maintain God's truth our words to God 
 must be true. If we are to win back for Christ the 
 pith and manhood of England we must ourselves 
 be manly. Those who grind among the iron facts 
 of life cannot and will not be fed upon the loveliest 
 dreams. You want to train our children to perfect 
 their Saviour's praise. Ah ! but when the saintly 
 prisoner of Orleans x gathered the little ones round 
 the window of his cell to teach them their Palm 
 Sunday Hosannas, he did not tell them that 
 banners brightly gleaming would point their path 
 to heaven, but that the praises of their hearts were 
 the palms and flowers that Jesus would accept, and 
 that He Himself would be their Guide into the 
 heavenly Jerusalem. 
 
 You want to draw the weary and heavy-laden to 
 the foot of the Cross yes ; but when the Italian 
 Knight 2 rose up broken-hearted but consecrated 
 
 1 St. Theodulph, Bishop of Orleans, cir. 820. 
 
 2 Jacobus de Benedictus, cent. 13. 
 
SPEECH UNSPOKEN, CHURCH CONGRESS, 1871 265 
 
 from the grave of his blighted life and buried love, 
 to take refuge in the thought of the more awful 
 sorrow of her who stood beside that Cross, his 
 immortal Stabat Mater does not linger upon all 
 the merely physical details of the death of deaths, 
 but goes straight to the heart of the transcendent 
 mystery of love and sorrow. You want to nerve 
 the Lord's champions to fight their battle against 
 the banded powers of evil ; but " the solitary monk 
 that shook the world " 1 did not go forward to meet 
 the devils whom he believed to be opposing him 
 with the challenge of a surpliced train and organ 
 swell, but in the power of Him Who is a sure strong- 
 hold in the day of trouble, and Who knoweth them 
 that trust Him. 2 
 
 1 R. Montgomery, " Luther." 2 Nahum i. 7. 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-SINGING 
 
 Paper read before the Church Congress, held at Stoke-upon- 
 Trent, Friday evening, October 8, 1875. 
 
 THE branch of this subject with which I am 
 now about to deal is the present condition and 
 future prospects of congregational hymnody in 
 the Church of England. 
 
 All of us, probably, are aware that the present 
 condition of our hymnody is one of rapid some 
 would say of too luxuriant growth. That growth 
 is not restricted to our own Church or nation. 
 The old distinction between Lutheran and Calvin- 
 istic communions, that the one were singers of 
 hymns, the others of metrical psalms, bids fair 
 to be entirely abolished before the present century 
 comes to a close. Among French Protestant 
 congregations Chants Chretiens in one form or 
 another (some of them translations of English 
 hymns) have all but superseded the psalms of 
 Marot and Beza, just as among ourselves Tate and 
 Brady have fallen into disuse. Even the old 
 Scotch Psalms are slowly giving way before the 
 newer rivals, and each of the chief Presbyterian 
 communions in England and Scotland has its own 
 modern hymn-book in use or in progress. Among 
 266 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-SINGING 267 
 
 ourselves the revolution is now virtually com- 
 pleted. Two results have followed. The first, the 
 vast impulse given to the multiplication of hymns ; 
 their free and abundant employment among us, 
 their interpolation at various points of our regular 
 services, their value in the various special services 
 which have arisen among us children's services, 
 missions, choir-gatherings, and the like, their evan- 
 gelistic use, on which I do not now dwell all this 
 has enormously augmented their power and their 
 popularity, and has, of course, tended to multiply 
 their number. Then while the twenty-five years 
 from 1835 to 1860 will be marked by future hymn- 
 ologists as the age of translations, the time when 
 Latin, and to a less extent German hymnody was 
 made available for congregational use among us, 
 the fifteen years which have since elapsed have 
 been years of almost unexampled fertility in the 
 production of original English hymns. Doubtless 
 many of these will ere long be disused and for- 
 gotten. But it is to be noticed that these new 
 hymns are not mere additions to our stock. They 
 are displacing the older ones to a great extent. 
 While the best of the early Evangelical and 
 Wesleyan hymns are, I am convinced, valued by 
 Church people far more than they ever were, it 
 is worth while remarking how few of them appear 
 likely to remain in use. I may take as represent- 
 atives of modern Church hymn-books three of 
 those which now command the largest sale, Hymns 
 Ancient and Modern, Mr. 1 Bickersteth's Hymnal 
 Companion to the Book of Common Prayer, and the 
 1 Now Bishop. 
 
268 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 new Church Hymns of the S.P.C.K. Out of Watts' 
 720 hymns, five are in Hymns Ancient and Modern, 
 eleven in Church Hymns, while but twenty-eight 
 survive even in Mr. Bickersteth's. Of the 348 
 Olney Hymns Mr. Bickersteth preserves twenty- 
 one, Hymns Ancient and Modern but four, Churcli 
 Hymns but six. Notwithstanding the strong 
 reaction in favour of Charles Wesley's hymns, 
 Hymns Ancient and Modern gives us out of the 
 twelve great volumes but thirteen hymns, Church 
 Hymns twenty-three, and Mr. Bickersteth's thirty- 
 six. Of the other hymn-writers of the eighteenth 
 century, about ten of Doddridge's, two or three of 
 Toplady's, and a few single ones by other writers, 
 are the most that will be found in the books 
 mentioned. Later authors, such as Bishop Heber 
 and James Montgomery, are of course men largely 
 represented. These statistics will show that it is 
 not mere addition, but displacement, which is 
 occurring. I do not mention this with unmixed 
 satisfaction. In the "struggle for life" of hymns 
 it is not always the fittest which survive. Happily, 
 in their case, disuse is not always death. It may 
 be that the calmer wisdom of a future generation 
 will in some cases reverse the hasty judgment 
 of our own day, and restore to our children some 
 of those words which animated the praise, enshrined 
 the experience, and cheered the dying hours of 
 saintly men and women whose names still dwell 
 among the hallowed recollections of our own 
 childhood. 
 
 Next this increased use of hymns has of 
 course brought with it a great change in our 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-SINGING 269 
 
 hymn-books. But we must not conclude from 
 this that the number of hymn-books published 
 has increased in the same proportion. Local 
 selections, so common in the early years of this 
 century, have almost disappeared. One after 
 another large and important hymn-books for 
 general use have arisen ; each of these has killed 
 off many small competitors, and the number in 
 future seems likely to be diminished rather than 
 increased. Such local books as now appear are 
 mostly mere supplements to one of these. Already 
 a clergyman seeking to introduce a new hymn- 
 book into his congregation is likely to make his 
 choice not, as till lately, from among some twenty 
 or thirty, but from among seven or eight at the 
 most. 
 
 In turning to the FUTURE, it is natural to ask 
 if the tendency of the Church of our own time is 
 thus to the widespread use of a few large hymn- 
 books ? is it possible or desirable to go a step 
 further, and concentrate into one national book the 
 few that seem likely to distance all competitors ? 
 Or is it to be desired that at least a certain 
 number of hymns which are common to all these 
 books should be authorized, and congregations be 
 left at liberty to add to these according to the 
 taste of those who are responsible for their hymn- 
 ody ? Each of these questions I feel bound to 
 answer with an emphatic " No." 
 
 I do not think we are ripe for the interference, 
 to such an extent, with the free development of 
 our hymnody. A comprehensive hymn-book must 
 do one of two things : either it must contain, 
 
2/0 1IYMNOLOGY 
 
 hymns the language of which would be so repel- 
 lent to the views of many congregations that they 
 would bitterly resent its being imposed upon them 
 by authority ; or it must omit and alter to such 
 an extent, that congregations which use existing 
 books would be no less disturbed by the loss of 
 teaching to which they are attached. We may 
 deplore our present divisions; we may hope and 
 pray that they may be healed ; but for all that we 
 ought to deprecate such an attempt at ignoring 
 them as would severely test an obedience which 
 is not too readily rendered even now, and would 
 turn our very songs of praise into watchwords of 
 theological strife. 
 
 And as to the selection of certain hymns common 
 to all, I doubt whether it is known how few in 
 number they are. The great and excellent col- 
 lections of hymns which the last few years have 
 produced are separated from each other by strongly 
 marked lines. Each covers its own ground, each 
 has its own distinctive character. Thus, to refer 
 again to the three books I have ventured to take 
 as representatives, the revised Hymns Ancient and 
 Modern contains 473 hymns, Church Hymns 592, 
 the Hymnal Companion 400 ; yet out of this large 
 number of 1465 hymns, there are but 129 common 
 to all three books; and of these 129 the text 
 occasionally differs in particulars which the editors 
 of each would probably consider virtually affecting 
 the value of the hymn. It might be convenient 
 to represent these by consecutive numbers common 
 to all three books ; but I cannot think that very 
 much would be gained by authorizing so small 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-SINGING 27! 
 
 a fragment of our immense hymnody. It has 
 been urged indeed that an authorized hymn-book 
 would benefit us by fixing the standard text 
 of the hymns we use, especially if the rule were 
 made of restoring every hymn to the exact form 
 in which it was originally written. On any other 
 principle, indeed, uniformity in the wording is 
 under present circumstances as hopeless as unan- 
 imity in the selection of hymns. And yet I own I 
 can scarcely imagine an editor of a hymn-book 
 who has carefully investigated the original text 
 of hymns, seriously desiring to print every hymn 
 exactly as it was written. Many of our old friends 
 it would be absolutely painful to recognize in their 
 resuscitated dress. How many of Faber's, for 
 example, could be included as he wrote them in 
 a National Church hymn-book ? Hard things are 
 often said by living writers as to the mutilation of 
 their hymns by compilers. May it be permitted 
 for one whose own hymns have not escaped this 
 unpleasant process to say a word on the other 
 side ? That any one who presumes to lay his 
 offering of a song of praise upon the altar, not for 
 his own, but for God's glory, cannot be too thankful 
 for the devout, thoughtful, and scholarly criticism 
 of those whose object it is to make his work less 
 unworthy of its sacred purpose. A Church hymn- 
 book is not a statue gallery erected that men may 
 pass through it and admire the skill of each artist ; 
 it is a temple for the worship of the Most High, 
 in which every stone, rough-hewn or cunningly 
 carved, is fitted to its place and subordinated to the 
 one Spirit which informs and consecrates the whole. 
 
2/2 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 Must we then be content to give up all prospect 
 of a national Book of Common Praise to match 
 our Book of Common Prayer ? If what I have 
 said seems to discourage such an expectation, let 
 us remember that Colonial Churches, or Noncon- 
 formist bodies among ourselves, are too small and 
 too homogeneous to be any true precedent for the 
 great and complex Mother Church at home. The 
 true precedent, I fear, would be that of modern 
 Ultramontanism, which seeks to impose upon 
 every country and diocese alike its own inflexible 
 Ro*man Breviary, and in so doing is destroying 
 a multitude of hymns and sequences far better 
 than its own. 
 
 Some appeal to authority, indeed, all will allow. 
 There are frequent public occasions upon which 
 many would welcome the authorization by our 
 bishops of special hymns as well as of special 
 psalms and lessons. There creep into churches 
 now and then hymns which I venture to think 
 ought to be formally prohibited. Above all, the 
 change of a hymn-book is a matter so important 
 and interesting to a congregation, so deeply affect- 
 ing its life and unity, that it seems only reasonable 
 to require that the sanction of the Bishop should 
 be sought and obtained in all cases by the clergy- 
 man who proposes to make the change. 
 
 But the true hope for unity in our songs of 
 praise lies, I am convinced, in a very different 
 region from that of law and prescription. It is 
 not pressure from without, but the impulse of new 
 life from within, which alone can draw us nearer. 
 Our hymnody must be the expression of that life, 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-SINGING 273 
 
 or it is unreal and worthless. As in each con- 
 gregation, in each soul, spiritual life becomes 
 deeper and fuller, those hymns will be loved and 
 valued, and those alone, which have in them that 
 true inspiration. And those hymns, whether 
 ancient or modern, whether English or foreign, 
 whether Catholic or Protestant in their origin, will 
 be welcomed and used ; not all at once, perhaps, 
 not without hesitation and questioning ; but if 
 slowly, yet surely and permanently. Look at our 
 greatest hymns ; it is not authority and custom 
 that have made them dear to every congregation ; 
 it is not always literary excellence ; it is not even 
 in every case theological accuracy ; it is a true 
 correspondence with thoughts and aspirations that 
 filled the heart of the Church. The whole life of 
 the Patristic Church is in the Te Deum ; the whole 
 awfulness and pathos of the Middle Ages is in the 
 Dies Irce ; the whole gospel of Evangelicalism is 
 in Rock of Ages. And whenever a hymn arises 
 which thus says what we want to say, it must make 
 its way, and be heard, and live. When growth in 
 spiritual life shall have brought with it unity of 
 spirit, then our songs will be uttered with one 
 accord. Who would substitute for that unity the 
 uniformity of compulsion, of indifference, or of 
 compromise ? 
 
 My conclusion then is, that the future of our 
 Church hymnody can be but the reflection of our 
 own future. What our congregations are, what 
 the Church is, that our hymns will be ; true and 
 strong in faith and love, or false and weak, empty 
 and lifeless. And that, therefore, the way to im- 
 
 S 
 
2/4 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 prove our hymnody, the way to guide it, the way 
 to restrain it, is primarily, and above all, the 
 discipline of our own hearts. This will give us 
 self-restraint in our choice of hymns, it will save 
 us from being carried away by mere fashion and 
 caprice ; from being slaves to the latest novelty, 
 the lilting chorus, and the taking tune. But 
 especially I would plead with my brother parish- 
 priests, upon whose choice depends what their 
 congregations week by week, and day by day, 
 shall thus utter before God, to feel the greatness 
 of their responsibility, and to grudge no time or 
 pains in the selection of the words they put into 
 the lips of their people. 
 
 Let me urge them to remember how this work 
 of selection, well done, may not merely form the 
 taste, but elevate the religious tone of our con- 
 gregations. Is it then a task to be hurried over in 
 two minutes, while the choir are waiting to begin 
 practice ? Is it a matter to be left to a young 
 school-master, or a group of young ladies ? Is our 
 chief care to be that the tunes are pretty and 
 popular, and the words something that will "go 
 with a swing " ? Are we thus to sanction the trash 
 which, alas, will find its way even into good hymn- 
 books : artificial bursts of enthusiasm sentimental 
 complaints of weariness, or sorrow, or even longing 
 for death 1 feeble and confused dilutions of the 
 
 1 In ridicule of this species of cant, I have heard J. E. 
 delight in telling the following story : Old Betty was a 
 bed-ridden parishioner, who was for ever calling for death 
 to release her from her infirmities and take her to glory. 
 Whereupon her neighbours resolved to put her to the test, 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-SINGING 2/5 
 
 imagery of the Apocalypse exaggerations and 
 affectations doing duty for precision in doctrine 
 and sincerity in feeling ? Ought we not rather 
 to pray and to strive that the hymns we invite 
 . our congregations to sing may be scriptural, not 
 merely in their phraseology, but in their inmost 
 spirit, reverent not in form only but in meaning, 
 definite with the certainty of faith, calm with the 
 consciousness of God's presence, lowly with the 
 reality of penitence, joyful with the sincerity of 
 thankfulness ; that so, whether we prepare to enter 
 into His gates with the thanksgiving of our glad 
 processionals, or to speak good of His Name in 
 the quiet hymn of the daily office, or to -fall low on 
 our knees before His footstool in the Litany of 
 Penitence, we may be emboldened to say for 
 ourselves and for our people, " Thou shalt open our 
 lips, O Lord, and our mouth shall shew forth Thy 
 praise." 
 
 and as she was lying alone, one of them knocked three 
 solemn knocks at the door of her cottage. " Who's there ? " 
 with the answer " I am Death, come for old Betty to take 
 her to glory." " Oh no, no, no ! " shrieked the old crone, 
 " she isn't here, it is next door" H. H. 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-BOOKS 
 
 Paper read before the Church Congress held at Swansea, 
 Wednesday evening, October 8, 1 879. 
 
 I READ my paper this evening under a solemn 
 feeling in consequence of the death of Miss Frances 
 Havergal, who has passed away from us since she 
 accepted the invitation of the Committee to prepare 
 a paper on this subject for this Congress. The 
 hymns of this lady will long live in the heart of 
 the Church. 
 
 When I was invited to read a paper before this 
 Congress on Hymns and Hymn-books, my first 
 question was, What branch of so wide a subject am 
 I expected to handle ? and it was suggested to 
 me in reply to give some sort of outline of what an 
 authorized Church hymn-book, if ever we attain it, 
 ought to be. 
 
 Let me begin by reminding you of our materials. 
 They are such as no age of the Church ever before 
 possessed. First, for the home-grown hymns. 
 Within the last few months there has passed away 
 an old man, Daniel Sedgwick l by name, who kept a 
 
 1 An interesting sketch of his life and work by William T. 
 Brooke, who calls him " the father of English Hymnology," 
 will be found in Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 1036. 
 276 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-BOOKS 277 
 
 tiny shop in one of the darkest nooks of the city of 
 London, ironically designated Sun Street. This 
 good man lived, ate, drank, wrote, and, for aught 
 I know, slept in the midst of piles on piles of 
 hymn-books. His kindly welcome and amazing 
 knowledge were at the service of any one who was 
 interested enough in the study to explore his strange 
 domain. He could reckon up at least 1400 authors 
 who within the last 1 50 years had written volumes 
 of English hymns, all of whom he has duly 
 catalogued. We may divide these roughly into 
 four great schools, three of them existing side by 
 side, each of them represented by existing books, 
 and all four happily blended, though in differing 
 proportions, in our best hymn-books the early 
 Nonconformist, from Watts and Doddridge to 
 Conder, Kelly, and Montgomery ; the Wesleyan, 
 of which modern revival hymns are an offshoot ; 
 the Calvinistic-Evangelical ; and the Anglican 
 and Anglo-Catholic of our own time. Each 
 of these four schools must necessarily be repre- 
 sented in any hymn-book which is to be a true 
 help to the devotions of the whole English 
 Church. But we have also, and we need also, 
 hymns from other sources. I am not going to 
 insult the understanding of my hearers by assum- 
 ing that any one here entertains the strange notion 
 that while the Collects we have translated from the 
 ancient service-books are an inestimable treasure 
 of devotion, the hymns which lie beside them in 
 the same quarry are unfit for our use. What I 
 claim for Latin hymns in general is what I claim 
 for Latin prayers : that many are of exceeding 
 
278 HVMNOLOGY 
 
 value ; that the oldest are generally the best ; that 
 the Church of England may well deal with them as 
 she dealt with the Collects transferring many 
 whole, leaving a certain number alone, boldly 
 altering and adapting others to suit her own 
 requirements. An admirable example of the last 
 mode of treatment is the Bishop of Ely's translation 
 of Adoro Te Devote, if only the text be left as the 
 Bishop wrote it ; retaining as it does the spirit of 
 humble and believing reverence which pervades 
 the hymn, without any phrases which might clash 
 with our authorized definitions of doctrine. Pre- 
 mising this, I may observe that now all the great 
 Latin hymns have been repeatedly translated, some 
 of them by successive revisions, as well as it is 
 possible to render them. Many have taken root 
 among us ; some are as familiar as their kindred 
 Collects, and are sung by all denominations in 
 England and Scotland just as heartily and uncon- 
 sciously as if they were home-born. We may 
 almost say the same of the few imitations of Greek 
 hymns which Dr. Neale and others have given us. 
 Few would imagine Mr. Chatfield's touching hymn, 
 " Lord Jesus, think on me," to be the work of the 
 fifth-century African squire-bishop, 1 of whom 
 Charles Kingsley has given us so graphic a portrait 
 in Hypatia. The rich store of German hymnody 
 has been opened to us mainly by one who has 
 been taken to her rest since the last Congress, 
 Catherine Winkworth. But few of these hymns 
 are fitted for congregational use ; yet these few are 
 of great and permanent value. I think, too, that 
 
 1 Synesius, Bishop of Ptolemais : he died in 430. H. H. 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-BOOKS 2/9 
 
 we may gain something from the hymns of Pro- 
 testant France ; and to one who may be surprised 
 at this, I would recommend the study of the 
 beautiful little hymnal published by the Society 
 for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge for use 
 in the Channel Islands. Nor must we forget that 
 the Church Congress is welcomed this week among 
 fellow-countrymen who have a hymnody of their 
 own, dating further back than ours. I, as a Saxon 
 stranger, know of the hymns of Rhys Prichard only 
 through wretched translations from which all the 
 poetry has evaporated ; yet even so I can well 
 understand how the " Welshman's Candle " of the 
 early seventeenth century, with its manly piety, its 
 practical good sense, and its firm hold upon the 
 great truths of our faith, expressed in the plainest 
 and homeliest language, must have been a true 
 light from God to many and many a lonely home. 
 And our kind hosts have shown us this week how 
 they love, and how they can sing, the hymnody of 
 William Williams, represented in our hymnals, I 
 believe, only by the well-known hymn, " Guide me, 
 O Thou Great Jehovah." 
 
 I pass on to consider the far more difficult 
 question, how to use our materials ? 
 
 We are all agreed that a Book of Common Praise 
 ought to follow the lines of our Book of Common 
 Prayer, and yet, in some sense, to fill up and 
 supplement the Prayer-book. The question is, In 
 what sense ? Not, surely, by any inconsistency or 
 even development of doctrine. Whatever the 
 limits of comprehension may be as regards indi- 
 viduals, or even as regards particular congregations, 
 
280 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 a book which shall appear as an addition to the 
 existing formularies of the Church of England 
 must not differ from these any more widely than 
 they differ from one another. But if it be the case 
 that the different elements of which our Prayer-book 
 consists bring out different sides of the same truth, 
 and set forth the faith from varying points of view, 
 then this amount of comprehensiveness we may 
 fairly claim for an authorized hymn-book. To 
 secure this, it must not be the work of one school, 
 or of a very small body of divines. No existing 
 book ought to become the authorized book. I am 
 glad to support this view by the opinion of one 
 whose loss we are still lamenting, who presided 
 over the compilation of our most popular and 
 widely-used hymn-book. The late Sir Henry 
 Baker, heartily as he rejoiced in the wonderful 
 success of Hymns Ancient and Modern, always 
 expressed his conviction that it could never become 
 more than one of two or three hymnals which 
 should ultimately divide our congregations among 
 them. He felt that it was the product but of one 
 school in the Church of England, though a school 
 into which he himself infused a large spirit of 
 comprehensiveness. 
 
 We must further remember, that if ever the day 
 comes that our Church possesses an authorized 
 hymn-book, it will be quite as much used out of 
 church as in it ; it will grow to be used in the 
 family and in private devotion, by the poor, the 
 sick, the aged, the lonely, the mourner, just as 
 much as the Prayer-book, or even more. It is vain, 
 then, to fancy we can keep out private and what 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-BOOKS 281 
 
 are called subjective hymns. Some such, wisely 
 selected, there must be ; as subjective as the 42nd 
 Psalm, or the 5ist, or the iO3rd. There are those 
 who gravely tell us that hymns in the singular 
 number are unfit for public worship, and so would 
 shut out " Rock of Ages " and " Sun of my soul " 
 why not also the " Miserere " and the " Nunc 
 Dimittis " ? 
 
 Again, when an authorized selection is made, 
 something must still be left to individual liberty. 
 I have on a former occasion given my reasons for 
 believing that the number of hymns which would 
 be accepted freely by all congregations alike is 
 comparatively small judging from our most 
 popular hymn-books, not more than about 150. 
 These would be placed in a class by themselves. 
 Others might be allowed by the Ordinary, at least 
 tacitly, if not formally ; and perhaps from time to 
 time additions made to the hymns authorized ; for 
 it would indeed be a grievous mistake to apply an 
 arbitrary rule of finality to the only part of our 
 public worship which retains the elasticity which 
 our changing circumstances demand. 
 
 It is possible, then, to conceive of a hymn-book 
 compiled by some Committee or Commission such 
 as might command general confidence ; receiving 
 the recommendations of the Bishops, and perhaps, 
 after the precedent of the New Version of Psalms, 
 that of Her Majesty in Council ; and so, without 
 the dangerous course of an amended Act of 
 Uniformity, making its way by degrees into our 
 congregations. Were this wisely done, we should 
 not all at once, but we may hope gradually, lose 
 
282 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 many foolish, unsound, and exaggerated hymns, 
 which now pass muster in better company than 
 they deserve, often for the sake of their popular 
 tunes. We should lose the abominable habit of 
 ticketing clergy and churches by the hymn-book 
 they use, and finding party catch-words in the very 
 language of our praise. We should feel a little 
 more formal, a little less free ; but we should be 
 drawn into closer fellowship with one another, and 
 find ourselves relieved from some of the hindrances 
 to our fellowship with God. But if I am asked 
 whether these results are likely to be attained, I see 
 but little to encourage me in predicting them. An 
 authorized hymn-book means willing submission to 
 authority, cheerful toleration of divergencies. These 
 are not exactly our strong points just now. And 
 there is one other consideration, which I cannot do 
 more than indicate. I very much doubt whether 
 the tone of our popular devotion, as indicated by 
 the style not merely of hymns, but of other 
 devotional manuals, at present most in demand, is 
 one which it would be wise to stereotype in an 
 authorized hymnal. A Bishop of our own Church 
 recently remarked in addressing some clergy, that 
 it had occurred to him to spend a whole Sunday 
 in a large and influential London church. In that 
 congregation during the day he had heard eleven 
 hymns sung ; but in only one verse of the whole 
 eleven hymns was there any allusion to God the 
 Father, and in that verse He was glorified not as 
 the Reconciled Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 but merely as the Maker of this world, and the 
 Giver of its good things. Not till we return to a 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-BOOKS 283 
 
 higher and more really Catholic ideal of worship 
 can we afford to bind our devotion by any closer 
 bond of authority ; and not till the God of patience 
 and consolation grants us to be more like-minded 
 one towards another, can we hope with one mind 
 and one mouth to glorify Him. 
 
AN AUTHORIZED HYMNAL 
 
 FRAGMENT OF A LETTER TO ? 
 
 SIR, 
 
 My answer to the question, When are we 
 to have an Authorized Hymnal, is a very simple 
 one not during the existing state of things in the 
 Church of England, I most earnestly trust. 
 
 The advantages of one general hymn-book are 
 obvious 
 
 I. Convenience to travellers. 2. Cheapness. 
 3. Exclusion of undesirable hymns. 4. The appear- 
 ance of unity, with hope of approximation to the 
 reality. 
 
 Besides this, many people are influenced by the 
 desire to be like " the nations around." Other 
 Churches and denominations have their one hymn- 
 book, why not we ? 
 
 Thirty years ago there was a good deal to be 
 said for convenience and cheapness, for that was 
 the age of local " selections," sold at a high price, 
 and generally hard for a chance visitor to procure. 
 But now that three or four large and carefully com- 
 piled books have really all but starved out the 
 multitude of inferior ones, there is very little 
 difficulty about finding a hymn if one does worship 
 
 284 
 
AN AUTHORIZED HYMNAL 285 
 
 in a strange church ; especially now that our people 
 are sufficiently well-trained in the ethics of worship, 
 to wish to see a stranger supplied with a book and 
 using it. 
 
 Again, since each of your correspondent's four 
 typical books can be had for a penny, not much 
 need be said about the expensiveness of a variety 
 of hymn-books. If our clergy would adopt the 
 practice in use in such churches as Nantwich, 
 where the clergy mean that everybody shall sing, 
 and instead of giving out " Hymn 300," give out 
 the first line, afterwards stating the number, then 
 even strangers with books of their own would (with 
 few exceptions) be able to find the hymn the 
 congregation is about to sing. 1 
 
 But I should like those who want an authorized 
 hymn-book to ask themselves a few questions as to 
 what it is they desire. Authorized by whom ? By 
 a joint Committee of both Houses of Convocation 
 say some. Well, that committee could draw up a 
 book, but the authorization must come either from 
 the State, which is neither possible nor desirable, 
 and which would provoke tremendous resistance ; 
 or from the Bishops, which could only mean that 
 the Bishop of each diocese, if he thought fit, could 
 recommend the book to his clergy : would this 
 avail ? Has it been successful in the one diocese in 
 which it has been tried with every possible advan- 
 tage, and an excellent collection, the diocese of 
 Sarum ? Would people who now use the Hymnal 
 
 1 Mr. Ellerton was strongly opposed to the recent practice 
 of giving out the Scripture text prefixed to a hymn, instead of 
 the first line. H. H. 
 
286 IIYMNOLOGY 
 
 Companion, or Hymns Ancient and Modern, and like 
 the book they use, give it up because the Bishop 
 suggested a new one ? It needs no deep knowledge 
 of human nature of clerical nature choir nature 
 church-going-ladies' nature, to answer such a 
 question. 
 
 But the Americans have done it ? Yes, when 
 the American Church was a very small and 
 homogeneous body. Now they have enlarged their 
 book, and picked out all our best tunes from 
 H. A. M. and elsewhere, having no law of copy- 
 right to deter them ; yet still I doubt whether 
 their own very dull hymn-book will long satisfy 
 the young American Church. So with the Presby- 
 terian Churches, the Wesleyans, Congregationalists, 
 etc. All these are bodies much more uniform in 
 views, much less comprehensive than the Church 
 of England. We are so large a body, compounded 
 of so many elements, that we must have more 
 freedom than they. Surely they are ill readers of 
 the signs of the times who wish to destroy the last 
 remnant of elasticity in our Church Services for the 
 sake of uniformity. We are complaining of the 
 want of adaptability in our services ; we are asking 
 for additional offices, for greater freedom in the 
 selection of forms of prayer. And yet this is the 
 moment that people choose for asking us to put a 
 fresh yoke on our necks, and submit to be restricted 
 to a new measure of centralization ! And this 
 while our hymnody is daily growing, and we are all 
 recognizing the need of all the freedom we can get 
 in employing its treasures for the various uses to 
 which our great task calls us. 
 
AN AUTHORIZED HYMNAL 287 
 
 And there is a fallacy which I must notice in 
 the argument that so many hymns are used by all 
 congregations in common, as to make it easy to 
 authorize them all. People forget the variations of 
 the text, and the adaptations of doctrinal statements 
 to the prevailing colour of the hymn-book. The 
 Dissenters sing Aquinas's hymns, but not what 
 Aquinas himself wrote. Unitarians sing a great 
 many Evangelical hymns ; but invocations to Christ 
 are omitted. But people say, Why not revert to 
 the original text ? I reply, Because you cannot. 
 Those who use the Hymnal Companion, for instance, 
 cannot sing Faber's hymns as Faber wrote them ; 
 but Mr. Bickersteth has made a very good and 
 legitimate selection from them. People who talk 
 loosely about the evil of altering hymns are for the 
 most part people who do not know how the original 
 text reads. 
 
 I long for unity in worship as much as any one ; 
 but I do not think unity can be forced on us from 
 without. The . 
 
MODERN THEOLOGY AS SHOWN BY 
 MODERN HYMNODY 
 
 I HAVE been asked to put down a few thoughts 
 on a subject which is worth the study of Church 
 people, especially of all who are interested in the 
 question of the future relations of the English 
 Church with the religious bodies which surround 
 her. 
 
 Mr. Bayne, himself a Nonconformist, called 
 attention some three years ago, in an able paper in 
 the Contemporary Review^ to the phenomenon of the 
 widespread existence of a religious sentiment in 
 England which is wholly inorganic entirely vague 
 and loose, not adhering to any form whatever of 
 doctrine, government, discipline, or method, in 
 worship and fellowship. Such a state of things 
 obviously cannot be measured by any of the 
 ordinary standards of doctrine or of discipline it 
 owns none. But there is one form in which re- 
 ligious sentiment impresses itself and that of 
 course is hymnody. Moreover, it may be said of 
 nearly every religious body in the country, that it 
 has been more or less affected by the Catholic 
 revival in the English Church so far at least as to 
 be thrown into a state of fermentation and con- 
 
 2^8 
 
MODERN THEOLOGY 289 
 
 troversy. Still more deeply have the Nonconform- 
 ist bodies been leavened by the Liberal or Free- 
 thought movement, so that their divergence from 
 their old standards is in many cases avowed, in 
 many more not the less real for being unavowed. 
 
 Now if we want to study and to gauge this state 
 of things, we have a convenient test ready to our 
 hands in modern Nonconformist Hymnody. We 
 all know what is the case among ourselves. Our 
 Hymnody is the only region in which our forms of 
 prayer and praise are elastic enough to reflect the 
 changes in the theology of the Church, or rather in 
 the grasp which the Church of our day has upon 
 her fixed standards of faith. 
 
 Thus, early in the century, the adhesion of the 
 High Churchmen of that period to Metrical Psalms 
 represented faithfully their prudent, narrow, Angli- 
 can conservatism ; the Evangelical hymn-books, 
 almost identical with those of Dissenters, show us 
 that spiritual energy and life was almost confined 
 to that section of the English Church which was 
 most nearly allied to Calvinistic Nonconformity. 
 Again, the rise of the Catholic movement has been 
 signalized by those distinct developments of Church 
 Hymnody. At first it was patristic and scholarly ; 
 that was the age of translations of Ambrosian 
 Hymns, and of such Gallican ones as are least 
 Roman in character of Mant, and Chandler, and 
 Isaac Williams. Then rose the idea of the un- 
 broken continuity of our own rites with the Pre- 
 Reformation period in English and the Hymnal 
 'Noted, and all the other translations of the Sarum 
 Breviary hymns, embodied this idea. We were to 
 
 T 
 
2QO HYMNOLOGY 
 
 have in every office its own prescribed hymn, 
 unchangeable, and set to its own traditional melody, 
 however severe and unlovely. These Purists 
 passed away. The younger generation of Catholics 
 began to acknowledge the beauty and goodness of 
 many of the popular Evangelical hymns ; and 
 meanwhile such leaders of the secession to Rome 
 as Faber and Caswall wrote fresh hymns avowedly 
 to catch people's taste, which were readily almost 
 too greedily picked up by their old friends in the 
 Church they had deserted. This state of things is 
 well represented by the first edition of H. A. M. 
 (1861), and its enormous popularity shows how 
 well-timed the concession was. But H. A. M. 
 itself called into being a school of English hymn- 
 writers ; and its second form has shown us that the 
 English Church, while ready to borrow freely good 
 hymns of sound theology from all sources, ancient, 
 mediaeval, modern, foreign and English, Catholic 
 and Protestant, has yet abundant spiritual life of 
 its own, and is now capable to a large extent of 
 meeting from within its own resources the devotional 
 aspirations of its children. Our Dissenting friends 
 meanwhile have by no means stood still ; and it is 
 important to notice the changes in the aspect of 
 their hymnody, because while so large a minority 
 of the population are still under Nonconformist 
 influence, it must ever be of the deepest interest to 
 English theologians to inquire how they are taught 
 to worship God and to think of God. 
 
 A few words must be said as to the sources of 
 Nonconformist hymnody. We all know it began 
 with Dr. Watts. Till his time the meeting-houses 
 
MODERN THEOLOGY 29 I 
 
 and the churches alike sang metrical Psalms, with 
 of course a few exceptions, which I need not 
 enumerate. Watts, Doddridge, Browne, Beddome, 
 etc., form the first school of Dissenting hymnodists. 
 Watts was fond of Latin sacred poetry, and I often 
 think he must have been familiar with Santeuil 
 and Coffin. His school are especially the singers 
 of the Atonement. His Calvinism is of a very 
 faint and mild form. His theory of sacramental 
 grace is a good deal like Antoine Horneck a sort 
 of modified " Virtualism," by no means so pro- 
 nounced as Wesley's, but readily lending itself to 
 Anglican theology ; hence Doddridge's u My God, 
 and is Thy table spread," has never been disused 
 among us, though we have revived so much Catholic 
 teaching about Holy Communion. Of course the 
 level of poetry in this school is wretchedly low ; 
 otherwise doubtless more of their hymns would 
 have been revived, for its theology, ever chiefly by 
 defect, except indeed upon the one most important 
 point one entire misconception of the Fatherhood 
 of God, and its work in man's redemption. Yet 
 another point I would notice. Hymns of direct 
 adoration and worship, almost wholly wanting in 
 late Nonconformist hymnody, are here conspicuous. 
 In the last New Congregational and Baptist books, 
 where hymns of adoration are separated from the 
 res*t, and classified by themselves, it will be found 
 that such as are not Primitive Roman or Anglican 
 are almost wholly taken from the school of Watts. 
 This school is the parent of the Congregational 
 and Baptist hymn-books with an exception to be 
 presently noticed. Josiah Conder, the great Con- 
 
292 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 gregational hymn-writer of the first half of this 
 century, who wrote the Eucharistic hymn, " Bread 
 of Heaven, on Thee we feed," compiled the present 
 Congregational Hymn-Book^ and did not depart 
 from Watts's traditional theory ; he only modified 
 and softened it down. Modern Congregationalism, 
 however, is rapidly dropping, under Broad Church 
 influence, all that was left of Calvinism to Watts, 
 and the revision of the Congregational Hymn-Book 
 is a most curiously eclectic production. Almost any 
 hymn which has become popular among us is 
 welcomed, in the hope, of course, of rivalling the 
 hymnodic movement among ourselves ; and ap- 
 parently all sense of incongruity of doctrine is lost, 
 though hymns are freely mutilated when expressions 
 too plain-spoken occur. Thus Faber's "Dear 
 Angel, ever at my side," is altered to apply to our 
 Blessed Lord, apparently without a notion of the 
 wild heresy which is taught by such a use of it. 
 Dr. Allen has even adopted St. Thomas Aquinas' s 
 Penge lingua, and that with scarcely any altera- 
 tion, apparently without any conception of that 
 which it was meant to set forth. 
 
 The new Baptist Hymnal has only just reached 
 me. It is the production of the more Liberal 
 Baptists, and though less wildly selected than the 
 Congregational, it is, so far as I have had time to 
 look into it, open to the same remarks. 
 
 The second great school in historical order the 
 first by far in importance is the Wesleyan. Much 
 depends on our understanding its history. John 
 Wesley was all his life long very ready to take up 
 new ideas, and his will largely influenced his con- 
 
MODERN THEOLOGY 293 
 
 victions. The groundwork of his theology was the 
 decent, formal, narrow Anglicanism of the Restora- 
 tion ; but he was never thoroughly trained in 
 theology, though an eager devourer of theological 
 books. Probably his mother's influence gave a 
 strong prominence to the emotional in his religion, 
 which was increased by his acquaintance, through 
 
 iw, with seventeenth century Protestant mysticism. 
 Then he fell very readily under Moravian influence, 
 and gradually shaped for himself his especial 
 theories of Conversion and Assurance. All this was 
 reflected in his brother's hymnody for Charles was 
 led on by John to a great extent, until John finally 
 threw off his family Anglicanism in a fit of self-will 
 and despondency ; but this Charles never approved, 
 and showed on his death-bed his disapprobation. 
 
 Wesleyans of the present day are often disposed 
 to depreciate the hymns which rebuke most strongly 
 their departure from their founder's principles, by 
 drawing a line at some imaginary point at which 
 he changed his views. But every hymn in the 
 Wesleyan book I may say every hymn in the 
 thirteen volumes of their works was written sub- 
 sequently to the two dates which John and Charles 
 Wesley respectively claimed as those of their 
 conversion ; and the only important modification 
 which they ever made in the theology of their 
 hymns was in the striking out all reference to 
 human perfectibility on earth ; a theory which 
 Wesley at one time had adopted, and which some 
 of his followers, especially in America, have taken 
 up, but which he afterwards emphatically repudiated 
 and strongly condemned. 
 
294 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 The famous little book of Hymns on the Lord's 
 Supper is chiefly a recast in verse of portions of a 
 treatise by Dr. Brevint, a French Protestant, but a 
 man who held very strongly the theory of a 
 Memorial Sacrifice, coupled with what has since 
 been called the " Virtual " Presence ; and thus it 
 accords very well with the views in which doubt- 
 less the Wesleys had been trained from childhood. 
 These views the brothers never repudiated, nor is 
 there any sign of their having modified them. In 
 the compilation from their hymns made by John 
 Wesley, which till last year was the standard 
 Wesleyan hymn-book in England, he inserted 
 several of them, and doubtless would have inserted 
 more, but that he was so strongly averse to his 
 preachers assuming the priestly office ; so that he 
 leaves out most of those hymns which absolutely 
 imply a present celebration. 
 
 I have not had an opportunity as yet of seeing 
 the present Wesleyan book, just published ; but it 
 has not, I believe, parted with any of the Com- 
 munion Hymns which Wesley himself inserted in 
 the older book. Its existence is, however, a sig- 
 nificant token that the Wesleyans, ever so conserv- 
 ative of their Founder's views, are, like all other 
 Nonconformist bodies now, in a state of flux, and 
 likely to undergo yet further changes. 
 
 The special feature of real Wesleyanism was 
 that it was a " Revival." And it has been the 
 type which has been again and again followed in 
 subsequent attempts made by other religious bodies 
 to influence large masses of men through their 
 emotions by systematic and organized efforts. 
 
MODERN THEOLOGY 295 
 
 A " Mission " in an English parish now, though 
 its form is of course borrowed from Rome, has 
 certain elements in it which are undoubtedly of 
 Wesleyan origin ; and it may almost be said that 
 the Roman and the Wesleyan type prevail pretty 
 much in proportion to the dogmatic standard of 
 the parish priest, or of the Missioner whom he has 
 invited to conduct the Mission. Outside of the 
 English Church the Wesleyan type in England 
 and America is still the normal one. A certain 
 class of Wesleyan hymns have therefore of late 
 been brought into very prominent use ; and these 
 have, so to speak, created a whole literature of 
 Revival Hymns, which form a curious index to the 
 theology of large masses of earnest and well-mean- 
 ing people among us. With them conversion is 
 everything about what follows they have really 
 nothing to say. Almost inevitably, therefore, their 
 hymnody has a taint of Antinomian teaching ; or 
 perhaps I should say lends itself readily to 
 Antinomian theories of Christian sanctification. 
 This is the great danger before so much of that 
 loose and inorganic religious sentiment which is 
 perpetually being stirred up by revival preaching, 
 and the so-called " Evangelistic " services, which 
 are so universal and so popular now. Another 
 danger, not less great and deadly, is visible in the 
 fact that not merely does all Church teaching, all 
 Sacramental teaching, absolutely disappear, but 
 the Sacraments themselves pass out of sight ; grace 
 itself is utterly misunderstood, the nature of our 
 union with our Lord, the whole work of God the 
 Holy Ghost utterly misconceived ; not only is the 
 
296 HYMNOLOGY 
 
 individual everything, but the consciousness of the 
 individual is everything. No one can take up a 
 modern revival hymn-book without seeing what I 
 mean. I lately saw the MS. of a new one prepared 
 by professing Church people for the use of a con- 
 gregation gathered from heathenism under a Bishop 
 of our own Church, and ministered to by an Arch- 
 deacon. In this book all Church services are 
 entirely ignored even Christmas and Easter, the 
 Sacraments, are not once mentioned, the work of 
 the Holy Spirit is reduced to making people certain 
 that they are the objects of the love of Christ; 
 even penitence is very slightly and almost apolo- 
 getically dealt with. The only people who can 
 gain by such teaching are of course the Plymouth 
 Brethren and their congeners ; and of course 
 Revivalism is largely recruiting their ranks. 
 
 The one definite theological standing-ground 
 left for English Dissent is the Calvinistic. The 
 great Calvinist theory which saturated Puritan 
 England and Scotland, which slept through three- 
 fourths of a century, till it blazed out afresh in 
 George Whitfield and the early Evangelicals of our 
 Church, has now entirely died out of the Church of 
 England, and from nearly all the existing Dissent- 
 ing bodies save one. Among the Baptists Calvinism 
 retains its hold mainly through the wonderful 
 energy and ability of one man, Mr. Spurgeon. 
 His hymn-book, Our Hymn-Book, is the confession 
 of faith of a strong, clear, definite Calvinism ; but 
 a Calvinism adapted to modern controversies, and 
 opposing a well-defined system of belief to the 
 vague and gelatinous hesitancies of modern Pro- 
 
MODERN THEOLOGY 297 
 
 testant Nonconformity ; let me add, too, opposing 
 to our system a system more logically complete in 
 its very narrowness, and in many ways skilfully 
 adapted to the hard, practical, self-asserting temper 
 of the English middle class. How long will it 
 survive him is a different question. But some 
 form of Christian Stoicism will doubtless always 
 be a factor in the theology of the northern and 
 western nations. 
 
 I only draw one moral from these rough notes. 
 It is this. The study of Nonconformist hymn- 
 books does not encourage me in any hopes of what 
 is sometimes called Home Reunion. A solid body 
 may absorb a fluid, or may be dissolved in a fluid, 
 but there is no other way of uniting them. 
 Catholic theology is solid Protestant theology in 
 England at last is becoming more and more fluid, 
 not to say gaseous. Organic union, if we thought 
 it right, seems to me simply impossible. If Non- 
 conformists unite with us, it can be but by one 
 way by individual absorption, by conversion to 
 the full Catholic faith. 
 
FAVOURITE HYMNS 
 
 AND 
 
 THEIR AUTHORS 
 
THE following series of articles on modern Hymn- 
 writers was written in the autumn of 1892, at the re- 
 quest of Canon Erskine Clarke for the Parish Magazine. 
 They afterwards re-appeared in the Church Monthly -, and 
 it is by the kind permission of Canon Clarke and of Mr. 
 Frederick Sherlock, the Editor of the latter periodical, 
 that they are inserted here. For the experienced hymn- 
 ologist they may have but little value, as they are 
 entirely elementary and popular, being merely designed 
 to interest the general reader in those sacred poets to 
 whom we owe some of our most favourite hymns. 
 
 The portraits which were engraved for the above-named 
 Magazines are also reproduced by the kind permission 
 of the above-named Editors. 
 
 The references throughout have been verified, and in 
 many places corrected, on the authority of Dr. Julian's 
 Dictionary of Hymnology. 
 
JOHN COSIN AND THOMAS KEN 
 
 IT is not too much to say that almost all who 
 are attached to the services and the work of our 
 Church take interest in her hymns. Not that by 
 this pronoun I mean to claim for the English 
 Church more than is her due. Very many of our 
 best-loved hymns have been adopted into our 
 books from those of other denominations. Non- 
 conformists were before Church people in hymn- 
 singing, mainly because our forefathers stuck 
 loyally for many a long year to the " Old Version " 
 or " New Version " of the Psalms. These were 
 " allowed " by Royal authority ; and I am old 
 enough to remember when it was scarcely thought 
 " orthodox " to sing anything else in church. The 
 fact is, Psalms in metre are a relic of the Reform- 
 ation, and of that particular school of reformers 
 of which John Calvin was the master spirit, and 
 which largely coloured the thoughts of the English 
 Protestants of the sixteenth century. Their very 
 reverence for the letter of the Bible made them 
 think it hardly excusable to use in worship what 
 they regarded as uninspired forms. Men might 
 pray extempore, but they must sing Holy Scripture. 
 It was not till the eighteenth century that hymn- 
 301 
 
3O2 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 books and hymn-singing in worship began in 
 England. It was not till within the memory of 
 some now living that they became really general 
 in the Church of England. And now, it has been 
 calculated by Mr. Julian, the compiler of the great 
 Dictionary of English Hymnology^ which has been 
 many years in preparation, that there were some 
 years ago no fewer than seventeen thousand English 
 hymns in use somewhere. Yet out of these the really 
 good hymns will always be but few. Different 
 experiments have been tried to discover which of 
 our hymns are the best loved and the most fre- 
 quently used. In giving a few sketches of the 
 writers of our best-known hymns, I cannot of course 
 restrict myself to writers of our own Church ; yet 
 I do not believe that there is one in my brief list 
 whose hymns are not now loved and welcomed 
 among all our congregations. 
 
 The first two names on my list, however, are the 
 names of English Bishops, men who wrought and 
 suffered in defence of the Church of their baptism 
 against enemies from opposite quarters. The first 
 hymn I shall mention is one of the four hymns 
 other than Scriptural, authorized for use, as distin- 
 guished from being merely permitted, in the Book 
 of Common Prayer. These are the Te Deum, the 
 Gloria in Excelsis, the Media vita ('In the midst 
 of life we are in death,' said or sung in the Burial 
 Service), and the Vent Creator. The first three 
 are what we should call prose hymns, or canticles ; 
 the Veni Creator is, in the Latin, in what we 
 call "long metre," only not in rhyme. All four 
 hymns are from the Latin, but the Gloria in 
 
JOHN COSIN 303 
 
 Excelsis and part of the Te Deum were originally 
 in Greek. 
 
 If you look at the Ordination Service you will 
 see there are two versions of the hymn called 
 Veni Creator one in common metre, another, 
 much shorter, in long metre, ' Come, Holy Ghost, 
 our souls inspire/ which is the one we know best, 
 and use most frequently. This was put into our 
 Prayer-book in the year 1662, and its writer, or 
 rather translator, was John Cosin, at that time 
 Bishop of Durham. 
 
 John Cosin was born in I594 1 at Norwich, where 
 his father was in business. He was brought up at 
 Caius College, Cambridge, and distinguished him- 
 self by his learning. The higher clergy of the 
 Church of England in the time of James I. and 
 Charles I. were many of them great and ripe 
 scholars, so much so that they were sometimes 
 said to be " the wonder of the world " for learning. 
 Among these John Cosin took a high place. 
 When the Puritan controversy broke out he was 
 Archdeacon of the East Riding ; Charles I. made 
 him Dean of Peterborough. In the year 1627 he 
 compiled a very simple and beautiful book of 
 prayers for his Yorkshire flock, with devotions for 
 the hours of nine, twelve, and three such as were 
 in common use before the Reformation, and in 
 a reformed shape reprinted by order of both 
 Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. But this innocent 
 book gave great offence to the Puritans, who were 
 never tired of making grim jokes about Cozen 's 
 Cozening Devotions, as they called it. For this 
 
 i ?i S9 6(H.H.). 
 
304 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 book John Cosin translated the Veni Creator, not 
 intending it to be sung in Church, but said privately 
 every morning at nine o'clock, in commemoration 
 of the hour when God the Holy Ghost came down 
 upon the Church. Poor Cosin, however, suffered 
 from his Puritan foes. When the monarchy was 
 suppressed he lost all his preferments, and had 
 to live abroad, acting as chaplain to the English 
 members of Queen Henrietta Maria's household in 
 Paris. At the Restoration he came back again, 
 was made first Dean, and then Bishop of Durham, 
 and died in 1672, at the age of seventy-eight. He 
 was one of the revisers of the Prayer-book in 
 1 66 1 -2, and thus it came to pass that his version 
 of the Veni Creator was inserted in the Ordination 
 Service a small compensation to the good old man 
 for the cruel attacks to which he had been subject. 
 
 The Veni Creator itself dates back at least to 
 the ninth century. By some it is ascribed to the 
 Emperor Charlemagne, which is scarcely possible ; 
 by others to one of his sons. It has been used at 
 ordinations all over Europe for nearly nine hundred 
 years. Cosin's version, though the best known, is 
 not the most accurate, and is slightly abridged. 
 The older one, which dates back to Archbishop 
 Cranmer's time, has the opposite fault of being 
 unnecessarily lengthened. There is a good version 
 in Hymns A. & M., No. 347, and another by Bishop 
 Bickersteth in the Hymnal Companion (1890), No. 
 252, besides various others. But none of these 
 come near to Cosin's in majestic simplicity of 
 devotion. 
 
 Far better known even than the Veni Creator, 
 
THOMAS KEN 305 
 
 known wherever the English tongue is spoken, are 
 the Morning and Evening hymns of Thomas Ken 
 " the Morning and Evening hymns," as we love to 
 call them. These are not translations, but of home 
 growth ; and they keep green the memory of one 
 
 Bishop Cosin. 
 
 of the holiest and truest sons of the Church of 
 England. Thomas Ken was born about forty years 
 later than Cosin probably in 1637, but the date 
 is uncertain at Berkhampstead, in Hertfordshire ; 
 but his home was in London, where his father was 
 an attorney. He lost his mother when four years 
 
 u 
 
306 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 old, and his father when he was fourteen. But his 
 excellent eldest sister, Anne, was more than a mother 
 to him, and his boyhood, after he lost his parents, 
 was spent in her married home, under the care of 
 herself and her good husband, Izaak Walton, well 
 known for his Compleat Angler ; and his volume of 
 " Lives " of several of the great Churchmen of the 
 time. " Meek Walton," as the Christian Year well 
 calls him, fished in the Lea and sold hosiery in 
 Fleet Street during the troubled years of the 
 conflict between King and Parliament, and his 
 shop became a kind of house of call for many of 
 the good Churchmen of the day, whose acquaintance 
 was useful in after life to the boy Ken. In due 
 time Ken entered at Winchester, where his name 
 is still shown, carved schoolboy-fashion in the 
 stonework of the cloisters of the venerable College. 
 From Winchester he passed to Oxford first to 
 Hart Hall (now Hertford College) and then to 
 New College. Oxford was at that time under 
 Puritan rule ; but though Ken always did justice 
 to the religiousness of some of the devouter 
 Puritans, he never fell in with their views. By the 
 time of the Restoration he was already well known 
 as a scholar, and yet more as a man of earnest 
 piety. For two happy, peaceful years he lived as 
 Rector of Little Easton, in Essex, and chaplain to 
 Lord Maynard and his saintly wife. Then honours 
 which he did not seek came upon him. He first 
 became Chaplain to the Bishop of Winchester, 
 Prebendary of the Cathedral, and Fellow of the 
 College his own old school. For love of that 
 school he published, in 1674, his beautiful Manual 
 
THOMAS KEN 307 
 
 of Prayers for the use of Winchester scholars. It 
 is believed that he had already written the " Three 
 Hymns," for Morning, Evening, Midnight, but they 
 were not added to the Manual till 1695. They 
 were altered (perhaps more than once) by Ken 
 
 Bishop Ken. 
 
 himself before his death ; and this accounts for the 
 different readings (such as " All praise " for "Glory ") 
 which appear in different books. For, audaciously 
 as hymns are altered, Ken's have been generally 
 respected, though of course much shortened. It 
 need scarcely be said that they were not originally 
 
308 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 meant for singing in church, but to be learnt and 
 repeated by the Winchester boys at their bedsides. 
 Tallis's well-known tune, which we sing to ' Glory 
 to Thee/ is much older than Ken's time. Thomas 
 Tallis was organist to Elizabeth's Chapel Royal, 
 and died in 1585. 
 
 There is no space to tell at any length the story 
 of Ken's eventful life. It was his lot to " stand 
 before kings," and to prove his faithfulness through 
 evil report and good report. He was chaplain to 
 Princess Mary at the Hague, and was never liked 
 by her husband, afterwards William III., whose 
 anger he incurred by plain speaking about the 
 immorality of his Court. Charles II. he treated no 
 less faithfully ; and Charles did not resent his 
 honesty, but made him Bishop of Bath and Wells 
 in 1685. He did not long enjoy that perilous 
 honour. He was one of the famous Seven Bishops 
 who resisted James II.'s Romanizing schemes in 
 1688, and were sent to the Tower. But he could 
 not take the oath to William after he had taken it 
 to James, and in April, 1691, he was driven from 
 his See. He was thenceforward homeless, but God 
 raised up friends for him, and though often in great 
 poverty, yet his needs were always supplied, he 
 spent much of his time at Longleat, a splendid 
 house in Wiltshire, the seat of Lord Weymouth ; 
 and here, after much suffering, he closed his holy 
 life, March 19, 1711. His tomb, with its iron 
 crosier, is still to be seen. He was laid to rest at 
 sunrise on March 21, carried to his grave by 
 "twelve poor men." 
 
ISAAC WATTS AND PHILIP 
 DODDRIDGE 
 
 IT is curious that the Puritan tradition of singing 
 metrical psalms and nothing else in public worship 
 should have been first broken through by one who 
 was himself a descendant, both in blood and in 
 spirit, of the Puritans. Various hymn-writers arose 
 during the seventeenth century, some of whose 
 hymns have been lately revived among us as 
 John Mason, Samuel Grossman, and, far greater 
 than both, Richard Baxter. Others, once esteemed, 
 are now forgotten. George Wither had even ob- 
 tained James I/s permission to have his hymns 
 printed for fifty years at the end of the Prayer- 
 book ; but not more than one or two of his are 
 now found in any hymn-books. The real pioneer 
 of modern English hymn-singing was Isaac Watts. 
 This good man's grandfather was a sturdy Inde- 
 pendent of the Cromwellian age. Some say that 
 he had been one of Oliver's troopers, but it is 
 known that he sailed with Blake, and perished at 
 sea. His son fell upon the times which followed 
 the Restoration, when hard measure was dealt out 
 to Nonconformists. " He suffered for Noncon- 
 formity " that is, he was more than once im- 
 309 
 
310 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 prisoned. In 1683 his son writes, " My father 
 persecuted and imprisoned for Nonconformity six 
 months. After that, forced to leave his family and 
 live privately for two years." 
 
 Isaac was the eldest of nine children. The 
 home of the family was Southampton, where the 
 father, when not in prison, kept a private school. 
 It is pleasant to know that young Isaac was taught 
 by the Rector of All Saints', Southampton, a Mr. 
 Pinhorne, and that this worthy clergyman took a 
 great interest in the clever little fellow, and exerted 
 himself to raise a sum of money for his maintenance 
 at one of the Universities. But the Church just 
 then was doubtless looked upon as a " hard step- 
 dame " by the son of an often imprisoned Dissenter, 
 and to none but Churchmen could Oxford or 
 Cambridge open its portals. We may regret, but 
 we can scarcely wonder, that at sixteen young 
 Isaac " declared his resolution to cast in his lot 
 with the Dissenters." He was sent to an academy 
 kept by a Mr. Rowe oddly enough, among his 
 fellow-pupils was one who came to be an Irish 
 archbishop and he "joined Mr. Rowe's Church," 
 i. e. became a communicant there, two years later. 
 He was only three years at the academy perhaps 
 because his father could not keep him there and 
 then spent two years at home, 1694 to 1696. 
 These were memorable years in the history of 
 English hymn-singing. We do not know what 
 was sung at tfre Southampton chapel perhaps 
 Sternhold's psalms. At any rate, young Watts 
 complained of the sad doggerel which was in vogue. 
 He was asked or, it may be, challenged by his 
 
ISAAC WATTS 311 
 
 father, who was one of the deacons, to attempt 
 something better. His first attempt was a para- 
 phrase of Rev. v., * Behold the glories of the Lamb ; ' 
 and it was indeed " something better " than that 
 congregation had yet sung. So he went on, and 
 
 Isaac Watts. 
 
 hymn after hymn followed. In 1706 he published 
 a small volume of sacred verse, called Horce Lyricce, 
 and one year afterwards (July 1707) a volume of 
 hymns. 
 
 Meanwhile, after being two years at Stoke New- 
 ington as a private tutor, he had been ordained as 
 
312 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 the Independent minister of a congregation in 
 Berry Street in 1702. By this time toleration was 
 established, and Dissenters were winning their way 
 to wealth and honour. A certain Sir Thomas 
 Abney, who was Lord Mayor in 1700, now occu- 
 pied King James's old hunting lodge at Theobalds 
 in Hertfordshire. He opened his house to Watts, 
 who lived under the Abneys' hospitable roof for 
 six-and-thirty years, in feeble health, but yet 
 preaching and writing diligently, and gradually 
 growing in fame and honour. His personal in- 
 come never exceeded, it is said, ioo/. a-year, not- 
 withstanding the great popularity of his works, 
 but a third of this was spent systematically in 
 charity. His wants were doubtless well supplied 
 by his good host, and after Sir Thomas's death 
 by his widow and daughters. He lived to see his 
 Logic adopted as a text-book in the very Univer- 
 sity from which his Nonconformity had once ex- 
 cluded him ; to be honoured and loved by Church- 
 men like Bishop Wilson of Sodor and Man, and 
 to receive the degree of D.D. from the Universities 
 of Edinburgh and Aberdeen. His holy and useful 
 life came to a peaceful close at Lady Abney's 
 house at Stoke Newington at the age of seventy- 
 four, on November 25, 1748. His last resting-place 
 is in the memorable graveyard of Bunhill Fields, 
 where lies John Bunyan. 
 
 Watts's hymns are of very varying merit. But 
 it is not the volume of Hymns by which his 
 influence on the Church is so marked, as that 
 other which he published in 1719, The Psalms of 
 David imitated in the language of the New Testa- 
 
ISAAC WATTS 313 
 
 ment, and applied to tJie Christian State and 
 Worship. The right of Christians to adapt the 
 Psalter thus was fiercely contested in Watts's own 
 day ; and no doubt his " adaptations " were many 
 of them forced and far-fetched ; but the principle 
 has been long established, and to it we owe many 
 of our best hymns, notably those of Henry Lyte, 
 Sir Robert Grant, and Sir H. W. Baker. Perhaps 
 the finest of Watts's Psalms are ' Before Jehovah's 
 awful throne' (slightly altered by John Wesley), 
 ' O God, our help in ages past,' and ' Jesus shall 
 reign where'er the sun.' Among the hymns, 
 ' When I survey the wondrous Cross,' stands higher, 
 I think, than any other of Watts's. Next to it 
 comes the beautiful * There is a land of pure de- 
 light' (said, strangely enough, to have been sug- 
 gested by the view across Southampton Water). 
 Watts is remarkable in another way, as the first 
 writer of children's hymns. But his " Divine and 
 Moral Songs " are now being fast forgotten. Their 
 theology is harsh and narrow, and their versification 
 dull and not attractive to children. 
 
 The popularity of Watts's hymns as a whole was 
 not only maintained, but increased till nearly the 
 middle of the present century ; and even now, not 
 the Congregational hymn-book alone, but countless 
 other collections, are largely indebted to him. He 
 has had many imitators few of them who copied 
 his excellences, many his defects. If the ancient 
 hymnists may be called singers of the Incarnation, 
 the Wesleyans of the spiritual life, and modern 
 Church poets of the Kingdom of God, then Watts 
 and his school may be classified as especially 
 
314 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 singers of the Atonement. ' The glories of the 
 Lamb ' are the theme not only of his earliest 
 hymn, but of hundreds of those which follow. It 
 is impossible to enumerate all the writers of this 
 school, which in later times may be considered as 
 
 Philip Doddridge. 
 
 continued by James Montgomery, and Thomas 
 Kelly, who has been called a " fervid Irish Watts." 
 Philip Doddridge, Watts's closest follower and 
 personal friend, was born June 26, 1702. Like 
 Watts, he was offered the means of education at 
 either University, and, like Watts, he declined the 
 
THILir DODDRIDGE 315 
 
 offer on religious grounds. He became at first 
 an Independent, but afterwards a Presbyterian 
 minister, and after some vicissitudes of fortune he 
 settled at Northampton, where he had both a chapel 
 and also an academy for the training of Dissenting 
 ministers. His hymns were chiefly written to be 
 sung after his sermons. None of them were col- 
 lected till after his death, on October 26, 175 1. His 
 best-known hymns are ' Hark, the glad sound ! the 
 Saviour comes/ ' High let us swell our tuneful 
 notes/ and ' My God, and is Thy table spread ? ' 
 It has been truly said that none of them are so 
 good as Watts's best, and none so bad as Watts's 
 worst. He had better taste upon the whole than 
 Watts, and less fervour. His Rise and Progress 
 of Religion in the Soul occupied in the estimation 
 of the devout Evangelicals of the early part of 
 the century very much the place which Goulburn's 
 Thoughts on Personal Religion has done among 
 devout Anglicans of our own time. But it was 
 never in true harmony with Church doctrine, and 
 the Dissenters as well as the Church have in great 
 measure lost touch with it. His hold of funda- 
 mental doctrine was never very firm, and many of 
 his pupils and followers drifted into Unitarianism. 
 
THE WESLEYS AND TOPLADY 
 
 ON October 14, 1735, a little party embarked at 
 Gravesend for the new colony of Georgia. The 
 head and founder of the colony was Mr. (afterwards 
 General) Oglethorpe, an excellent man and devout 
 Churchman, who earnestly desired to supply the 
 new colony from the first with Church privileges. 
 The clergyman selected and sent out by S. P. G. 
 was % Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, already 
 known as the master-spirit of a new religious 
 movement in his University, now known to all 
 time as John Wesley. With him, acting as Mr. 
 Oglethorpe's private secretary, was his younger 
 brother, Charles, a Westminster student of Christ 
 Church, Oxford, and an ardent sympathizer with 
 his brother John. John was at this time thirty- 
 two years old, having been born June 17, 1703. 
 Charles was five years younger, and not yet in 
 Holy Orders. 
 
 The voyage then begun is memorable, not only 
 for its influence on the career of the great founder 
 of Methodism, and so upon the whole subsequent 
 history of religion in England and America, but 
 in particular as a turning-point in the history of 
 English hymnody, which is our present subject. 
 316 
 
'THE WESLEYS AND TOPLADY 317 
 
 For on board the same vessel was a party of 
 twenty-six Germans, members of the community 
 called the " United Brethren," or Moravians, with 
 whom the Wesleys and their two companions, 
 Ingham and Delamotte, soon became friendly. 
 John Wesley's impressible nature was especially 
 touched by the bright faith and humble, cheerful 
 piety of these good people, who sang their beloved 
 Lutheran hymns day by day through the most 
 tempestuous weather. It was the first time that 
 Anglicans and Lutherans, singers of psalms and 
 singers of hymns, had worshipped and travelled 
 together in familiar intercourse ; and one of the 
 results of their fellowship undoubtedly was the 
 large extent to which hymn-singing entered into 
 the devotions of the future Methodist Societies. 
 
 Neither of the brothers stayed long in America. 
 Charles returned to England in 1736, John two 
 years later. Then it was that their great systematic 
 Evangelistic work was brought into full action, 
 and the " Societies " were rapidly formed all over 
 the country. Simultaneously with this began the 
 long series of their hymn-books. The earliest 
 was a Collection of Psalms and Hymns by John 
 Wesley, in 1738, largely taken from Watts and 
 George Herbert, but also containing some trans- 
 lations of German hymns by Wesley himself. In 
 J739 appeared Hymns and Sacred Poems, which 
 were enlarged in 1740 and 1742, and supplemented 
 by two additional volumes in 1749. It was in this 
 book that Charles Wesley's great powers as a 
 hymn-writer first showed themselves. The 1739 
 edition contains his five great festival hymns, 
 
3l8 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 beginning with that for Christmas, ' Hark how all 
 the welkin rings ! ' afterwards unadvisedly altered 
 by some one else to ' Hark, the herald angels sing ! ' 
 and followed by those for Epiphany, Easter, and 
 Ascension, with a less-known and inferior one for 
 Whit-sunday. The next year appeared c Christ, 
 Whose glory fills the skies ; ' ' Jesu, lover of my 
 soul ; ' ' Depth of mercy ; ' with others less known 
 but not less striking. For a time the two brothers 
 published their verse jointly, and it is not always 
 easy to distinguish their work ; but all the trans- 
 lations of German hymns are believed to be by 
 John ; and those mentioned above, with many 
 others, have the unmistakable character of Charles's 
 acknowledged hymns. In 1745 appeared the 
 remarkable volume of Hymns on the Lord's 
 Supper, with the names of both brothers on the 
 title-page; but the hymns are said by Mr. Miller 
 to be all Charles's. The magnificent ' Ye servants 
 of God, your Master proclaim ' (unhappily excluded 
 from Hymns Ancient and Modern}, was written in 
 1774, among Hymns for a time of trouble during 
 the savage persecution of the Methodists. The 
 Hymns of Intercession for all Mankind, published 
 in 1758, contains that which is perhaps the most 
 widely known, though not the best of the Wesleyan 
 hymns ' Lo ! He comes, with clouds descending.' 
 But this is a recast by Charles Wesley of one 
 published by John Cennick, one of the early 
 preachers, in a Dublin hymn-book, some years 
 earlier. Cennick's hymn is poor stuff compared 
 to that into which Wesley recast it, putting into it 
 at once fire and tunefulness. 
 
THE WESLEYS AND TOPLADY 319 
 
 The separate hymn-books of the Wesleys are 
 nearly forty in number, varying from four or five 
 special hymns, to the Hymns and Select Passages 
 of Scripture, which number 2145. Besides this, 
 Charles Wesley left behind him a version of the 
 Psalms, nearly complete, and many MS. hymns. 
 The edition published by the Conference in 1869 
 comprises thirteen large volumes. No English 
 hymn-writer approaches him in copiousness. Of 
 course, in so vast a collection there must be many 
 repetitions, and many pieces that we no longer 
 remember or care for; but yet it is only doing 
 justice to these famous men to say that the depth 
 of spirituality, the reverent tone, and the clear 
 grasp of truth which as a whole the hymns exhibit 
 is truly marvellous. 
 
 As time went on, the hymn-writing passed 
 almost entirely from the hands of John Wesley 
 into those of the younger brother. In the selection 
 which the brothers left behind them for use 
 throughout the Wesleyan congregations, Mr. Kirk 
 estimates that out of 771 hymns by various authors 
 .626 are by Charles, and only 33 by John Wesley. 
 The best of these last are his translations from the 
 German, the two first being, ' Lo ! God is here, let 
 us adore/ and * Thou hidden love of God/ both by 
 the saintly mystic, Gerhard Tersteegen. 
 
 Charles Wesley, after his marriage in 1749, gave 
 up, to a great extent, itinerant preaching, and 
 ministered chiefly in Bristol and in London. The 
 brothers were closely united in affection to the 
 last ; but as time went on, Charles shrunk from 
 some of his brother's ecclesiastical irregularities, 
 
320 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 and clung more closely than ever to the Church of 
 England. He died on March 29, 1788, and it is 
 said that by his own request the pall was borne at 
 his funeral, at St. Pancras Church, by six clergy- 
 men. John Wesley lived till 1791. 
 
 As might be expected, Wesleyan hymn-writing 
 was by no means confined to the two brothers. 
 Many fine hymns were written by their fellow- 
 labourers and sympathizers. Thus, 'All hail the 
 power of Jesus' Name,' is by Edward Perronet ; 
 1 The God of Abraham praise,' by Thomas Olivers ; 
 ' Hail, Thou once despised Jesus/ by Henry Bake- 
 well ; * Children of the Heavenly King,' by John 
 Cennick ; * Sweet the moments, rich in blessing,' is 
 a recast from James Allen, by the Hon. Walter 
 Shirley. Each of these was connected more or 
 less with the Wesleys, though Allen was a follower 
 of Ingham, who had seceded from them, and 
 Shirley was the leading spirit of the Countess of 
 Huntingdon's " Connection," which was opposed 
 to Wesley. 
 
 Many of these good men, it must be owned, 
 were bitter controversialists, and the - Calvinist 
 controversy, as time went on, divided those who in 
 all essential matters were of one heart and one 
 soul. But the hymn which of all English hymns is 
 perhaps best known and loved, which is sung in 
 all languages, which has been faltered by thousands 
 of dying lips, which is for almost every one con- 
 n?cted with some dear memory, came from a pen 
 which was never weary of pouring contempt and 
 scorn upon the Wesleys and all that they taught. 
 That Bishop Bonner should have written the 
 
THE WESLEYS AND TOPLADY 321 
 
 Homily on Charity is scarcely more wonderful than 
 that * Rock of Ages ' should have been the work 
 of Augustus Montague Toplady. 
 
 Yet, happily, Toplady's libels on the Wesleys 
 have been long forgotten, and we need only think 
 of him as a self-denying, warm-hearted Christian 
 and a zealous evangelist. He was the son of an 
 officer who was killed while his child was a baby. 
 From his Irish mother he inherited his warmth of 
 temperament, and perhaps his pugnacity. Born 
 in 1740, and first seriously impressed at fifteen, he 
 became in his eighteenth year an earnest Christian, 
 and an extreme, uncompromising Calvinist. In 
 1762 he was ordained, and after being for a short 
 time at Blagdon, in the Mendips, the scene of 
 Hannah More's religious work at a later date, he 
 became in 1768 Vicar of Broad Hembury, near 
 Exeter. But already the seeds of consumption 
 were in his feeble frame, and he resigned his 
 benefice and went to London to die. Yet he 
 made a gallant fight against death, writing and 
 preaching almost to the last. On his arrival in 
 London he became editor of the Gospel Magazine^ 
 the only religious periodical in England, which, after 
 a hundred and fifteen years, still survives under its 
 old name. In that magazine for March, 1776, he 
 inserted ' Rock of Ages, cleft for me/ with the title 
 (itself a glance at Wesleyan notions of perfecti- 
 bility), ' A Living and Dying Prayer for the Holiest 
 Believer in the World.' This great hymn, by a 
 strange irony of fate, has been attributed to Charles 
 Wesley, just as Wesley's * Christ, whose glory fills 
 the skies,' has on the other hand been printed 
 
 x 
 
322 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 among Toplady's works. Indeed, either hymn 
 might have been written by either man. Toplady 
 has written many other hymns, among others a 
 beautiful evening hymn from which a selection, 
 * Inspirer and Hearer of prayer,' is dear to many 
 who use Bishop Bickersteth's Hymnal Companion. 
 Almost simultaneously with 'Rock of Ages/ he 
 wrote and gave to Lady Huntingdon another 
 which, barring one or two blemishes, I venture to 
 think scarcely surpassed as a dying man's last 
 utterance by * Abide with me ' itself the wonderful 
 and heavenly-minded ' When languor and disease 
 invade.' The light of God must have been already 
 upon the face of one who could thus write. He 
 died in 1778. Charles Wesley and he both rest 
 under the roar and dust of the London streets ; 
 but both are together now "where beyond these 
 voices there is peace." 
 
WILLIAM COWPER AND JOHN 
 NEWTON 
 
 THE last quarter of the eighteenth century 
 brought a new and powerful tributary to the ever- 
 broadening stream of English hymnody a tribu- 
 tary remarkable in several ways. It was the 
 unaided work of two members of the Church of 
 England, a clergyman and a layman, living in a 
 small country town, unconnected with either the 
 Wesleyan or the rival Calvinist organization ; and 
 it brought to the work of hymn-writing the cultiva- 
 tion and taste of an educated man of letters on the 
 one hand, and the spiritual fervour on the other of 
 a man whose religious history was very remarkable, 
 and whose character was singularly powerful. Its 
 great success, therefore, is not wonderful. There 
 is no other book of hymns, the work of two men 
 only, from which so large a proportion of material 
 has passed into the Church's permanent store of 
 sacred song. In the Hundred Best Hymns of 
 the Religious Tract Society, the number selected 
 from the 347 Olney Hymns is exactly the same 
 as that from the thousands of hymns of the 
 two Wesleys and the 750 psalms and hymns of 
 Isaac Watts. 
 
 323 
 
324 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 Each of the two writers, as I have hinted, brought 
 his own special qualifications to his task. William 
 Cowper's bright, pure, and genial life was over- 
 clouded by the heaviest of all trials. He was born 
 November 26, 1731, at the now-demolished par- 
 sonage of Berkhamsted, where his father, a son of 
 the famous judge, Spencer Cowper, was rector. 
 At six years old he lost his mother. My readers 
 are all familiar with his infinitely pathetic lines on 
 her picture. He was educated at Westminster, 
 which he left at eighteen to live with an uncle, and 
 read for the bar. In 1748 he entered the Middle 
 Temple, and was called six years later. Till 1763 
 he lived the usual life of a literary young Templar, 
 not troubling himself much about briefs, but 
 writing, like Pendennis, for the magazines, and 
 making love to his beautiful cousin Theodora. 
 But in that year came the crisis of his life. He 
 had been promised a clerkship in the House of 
 Lords, which would have placed him in easy cir- 
 cumstances for life. But the right of appointment 
 was disputed, and Cowper was told he would have 
 to contest it. The shock unnerved him, and 
 brought on an attack of insanity. All hope of 
 his marriage was over ; he found himself poor 
 for life, and in despair he attempted suicide. In 
 December 1763 he was placed in a private asylum, 
 kept by an excellent man, a Doctor Cotton, from 
 whence he emerged temporarily restored to reason 
 and with a heart subdued and surrendered to God. 
 He became a boarder in the family of a Mr. Unwin, 
 at Huntingdon, and on his death removed to 
 Olney, in Buckinghamshire, to be tended and 
 
WILLIAM COWPER AND JOHN NEWTON 325 
 
 watched over for thirty years by his widow, Mary 
 Unwin. At Olney he fell in with the singular man 
 who held the curacy of the parish, John Newton, 
 and the two became very intimate friends. 
 
 John Newton's early life might form the ground- 
 work of a story by Defoe, but that it transcends 
 all fiction. He was born in London in 1725. His 
 mother was a pious Dissenter, his father a sea- 
 captain, a stern, silent man, who had been educated 
 in a Jesuit college in Spain. After only two years' 
 schooling, the captain took his boy at eleven years 
 of age on board his ship, and at eighteen John 
 Newton was seized by a press-gang, and sent on 
 board a man-of-war at the Nore. His father was 
 able to make interest, and he was made a midship- 
 man. But he had now become utterly reckless, 
 attempted to desert, and was brought back, and 
 once more sent before the mast. At Madeira he 
 managed to get himself exchanged into a merchant 
 vessel, landed at Sierra Leone, and took service 
 with a planter, who treated him with savage cruelty. 
 In 1747 he contrived to escape, and, after strange 
 vicissitudes, became first the mate, and then the 
 captain of a slave ship. Hitherto he had lived a 
 life of profaneness and dissipation, he had lost all 
 faith and all hope ; but one good influence only 
 remained his boy-love for his cousin, Mary 
 Catlett. He had first met her in Kent when he 
 was eighteen and she fourteen, and through all the 
 terrible years which followed his heart was true to 
 her, and in his worst outbursts of vice he was ever 
 " faithful to his future wife." In 1748, on a voyage 
 home from the Brazilian coast, he was awakened 
 
326 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 to a sense of sin by reading the Imitation of Christ^ 
 and his impressions were deepened by a provi- 
 dential deliverance from foundering at sea almost 
 immediately afterwards. At last, in 1750, he was 
 married to his early and only love. For six years 
 longer he followed his profession, the long hours of 
 the voyages giving him ample time to study the 
 Bible and the classics, and he began to think 
 seriously of giving up the sea and seeking ordina- 
 tion. But Georgian Bishops were perhaps par- 
 donably shy of a man with such strange antece- 
 dents. From Archbishop Gilbert he received " the 
 softest refusal imaginable." He was tempted to 
 become a dissenting minister, but his Mary, always 
 his good angel, kept him steadfast to the Church. 
 At last Lord Dartmouth (Cowper's " one who 
 wears a coronet and prays "), in whose gift was the 
 living of Olney, made the absentee Rector keep a 
 curate, and persuaded Bishop Green of Lincoln to 
 ordain John Newton and license him to Olney. 
 The strange pair, the rough and homely sailor and 
 the gentle, heart-broken Templar, settled down 
 together to work as clergyman and lay helper in 
 the long-neglected town. They worked hard and 
 earnestly too hard, probably, for Cowper's brain 
 and nerves ; and one fruit of their work was the 
 hymns, which, from time to time, were written as 
 occasion served. Thus Cowper wrote ' Jesus, 
 where'er Thy people meet/ for the opening of 
 what we should now call a Mission Room. Other 
 hymns were written by Newton for his annual 
 sermon to young people on New-year's Day. At 
 last they determined to collect and print their 
 
WILLIAM COWPER AND JOHN NEWTON 327 
 
 hymns, arranging them in three books, the first on 
 select passages of Holy Scripture, the second 
 miscellaneous and occasional, the third on the 
 spiritual life. The progress of the work was inter- 
 rupted by a second attack of Cowper's insanity in 
 1773. The last hymn he wrote was the wonderful 
 < God moves in a mysterious way/ composed 
 during a country walk just as he felt his brain 
 giving way, and the " clouds " he " so much 
 dreaded " returning over his spirit. For three 
 years he kept silence, but he recovered his 
 reason at length, and his charming poems were 
 written and published at intervals during the rest 
 of his life, which was cheered by the constant 
 attentions of Mrs. Unwin, and by the pleasant 
 society of friends he had made in the neighbour- 
 hood. His cousin, Lady Hesketh, Theodora's 
 sister, sought him out, and though his lost love 
 never wrote to him, yet the two combined in many 
 ways to make his declining years easier. He 
 never, however, wrote a hymn or any devotional 
 verse again, and after a third attack of insanity in 
 1787, never spoke on religious subjects. He died 
 April 25, 1800, still under the delusion, shadowed 
 forth in his last poem, that he was a " Castaway." 
 
 The Olney Hymns were published in 1779. 
 Those written by Cowper are marked by the initial 
 C. They are, as might be expected, more tuneful 
 and more tender than Newton's. ' Oh for a closer 
 walk with God ! ' ' Hark, my soul ! it is the Lord,' 
 * There is a fountain filled with Blood/ * Heal us, 
 Emmanuel/ ' God moves in a mysterious way/ are 
 among the best known of his ; and each one has 
 
328 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 its own spiritual beauty and power to waken the 
 echoes of the heart. John Newton's have a strength 
 and vitality of their own ; his most popular is per- 
 haps the lovely ' How sweet the Name of Jesus 
 sounds ! ' a reminiscence, but by no means, as it 
 has been called, a version, of St. Bernard's famous 
 rhythm. Next to this is the fine hymn founded on 
 Psalm Ixxxvii., ' Glorious things of thee are 
 spoken.' Several others will occur to my readers, 
 probably as being heard at home rather than sung 
 in church. 
 
 Newton and Cowper saw little of one another 
 after the hymns were printed. In 17/9 John 
 Thornton, the large-hearted philanthropist, father 
 of a noble succession of generous, religious men, 
 who had allowed John Newton ioo/. a-year for 
 chanties during his tenure of the Olney curacy, 
 presented him to a city living, St. Mary Woolnoth, 
 the twin towers of which are so conspicuous at the 
 entrance of Lombard Street. Here he preached 
 and worked till the close of his life. He published 
 many books, but was most of all employed as a 
 spiritual director, and had a great influence in 
 giving to the early Evangelical school its robust 
 and practical piety. In 1790 his beloved " Mary" 
 was taken from him ; but, broken-hearted though 
 he was, he worked on cheerfully and bravely till 
 he joined her in 1807, seven years after his former 
 colleague had passed through the clouds for ever. 
 
REGINALD HEBER AND HENRY HART 
 MILMAN 
 
 THROUGHOUT the closing years of the last 
 century, and for the first ten years of the nine- 
 teenth, the many hymns which were written, 
 whether by Churchmen or Nonconformists, were 
 entirely disconnected with the formularies of the 
 Church of England. Even in the Olney hymns 
 none of the great festivals not even Christmas 
 and Easter were provided for ; a few hymns 
 by Wesley and Doddridge, with Nahum Tate's 
 paraphrases, appended to the New Version of 
 Psalms, were all that Churchmen could find to 
 sing in connection with the most jubilant services 
 of the Christian year. But in the month of 
 October 1811 there appeared the first four of a 
 series of hymns, intended to supply this defect, 
 the first instalment of a small but very remarkable 
 contribution to hymnody, based avowedly on the 
 lines of the Book of Common Prayer. These 
 hymns were sent to a magazine called the Christian 
 Observer, at that time edited by Zachary Macaulay, 
 the father of Lord Macaulay, which had been 
 established, and flourished for many years, as the 
 organ of the Evangelical School in the Church of 
 
 329 
 
330 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 England, which it represented with great ability, 
 moderation, and earnestness. The hymns, of 
 which only six more were published at that time, 
 bore the initials D. R., being the final letters of a 
 name which ever will be memorable in the Church 
 of England, the name of Reginald Heber. 
 
 Reginald Heber represents the highest Christian 
 culture in England of the beginning of the century. 
 He was of a good Yorkshire family, and his father, 
 a former fellow and tutor of Brasenose, had in- 
 herited from his mother a good estate in Shrop- 
 shire, including the Rectory of Hodnet. He held 
 this with the Rectory of Malpas, in Cheshire,' 
 when his son Reginald was born, April 21, 1783. 
 The room in which the future poet-bishop was 
 born is still preserved in the beautiful old " Higher 
 Rectory," and the font in which he was baptized is 
 pointed out in St. Chad's Church, Shrewsbury, to 
 which it was transferred from Malpas many years 
 ago. The living of Malpas has the distinction of 
 being held by two rectors, and of possessing an 
 upper and lower house of residence. The former 
 of these, Heber's home in childhood, is an ideal 
 country rectory, with its beautiful " Parson's walk " 
 overlooking the wide valley of the Dee and the 
 picturesque range of the Vale of Clwyd mountains. 
 Reginald was the eldest son of his father's second 
 marriage. His half brother, Richard Heber, be- 
 came noted as the greatest book collector in the 
 world, and is said to have left behind him nearly 
 5 00,000 volumes, gathered in eight great collections 
 in London, Paris, Rome, and various towns on the 
 Continent. 
 
REGINALD HEBER 
 
 331 
 
 Reginald, after being educated at the neighbour- 
 ing Grammar School of Whitchurch, was sent in 
 
 Reginald Ileber, 
 Bishop of Calcutta. 
 
 1800 to his father's College of Brasenose. It may 
 almost be said that he took Oxford by storm. 
 Never did a young man make distinguished 
 
332 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 friends more rapidly ; and he never lost a friend 
 save by death. All who knew him loved him. 
 In 1803, m tne second year of his undergraduate- 
 ship, he won the prize for English verse (not the 
 " Newdigate ") by his famous poem of Palestine. 
 Walter Scott sat in his rooms and criticized it ; 
 but Scott was a family friend, and had dedicated a 
 canto of Marmion to Heber's brother. Southey, 
 the two Hares, J. J. Blunt, Henry Milman, all 
 were among his admirers. His prize poem was 
 recited before an immense audience in the Theatre 
 at the Duke of Wellington's installation as 
 Chancellor. In 1805 he was elected Fellow of 
 All Souls. After two years of continental travel 
 with John Thornton he came back to England, 
 was ordained, and instituted at once to the family 
 living of Hodnet, on the edge of the great park 
 at Hawkstone. The same year, 1807, saw his 
 marriage to Amelia Shipley, daughter of the Dean 
 of St. Asaph. 
 
 Of his happy life at Hodnet a most fascinating 
 picture has been drawn in a well-known book of 
 recent times, Memorials of a Quiet Life. Perhaps 
 the only " bitter drop " in his cup arose from the 
 eccentric religionism of his neighbour, the famous 
 Rowland Hill, younger son of the great baronet of 
 Hawkstone, a man full of loving earnestness, but 
 born to set at defiance all rules and conventions of 
 Church order and discipline. But Heber's heart 
 was large enough to endure what his judgment 
 disapproved. 
 
 It was while at Hodnet that Heber began hymn- 
 writing. Why he did not continue the course he 
 
REGINALD HEBER 333 
 
 began in 1811 we do not know ; but the project of 
 a Church hymn-book was never absent from his 
 mind thenceforth to the end. His great diligence 
 as a parish priest still left him time for various 
 literary activities. He joined with Southey and 
 J. J. Blunt in writing for the Quarterly Review ; 
 he edited the works of Jeremy Taylor, prefacing 
 them with a delightful life ; he was made Bamp- 
 ton Lecturer in 1815 ; and in 1822 Preacher of 
 Lincoln's Inn. He had previously been made 
 Prebendary of St. Asaph, of which his father-in- 
 law was Dean. Staying with Dean Shipley at his 
 vicarage at Wrexham, he wrote for Whit-sunday, 
 1819, the famous hymn, 'From Greenland's icy 
 mountains,' to be sung before a sermon for S. P. G. 
 Heber's appointment as Preacher of Lincoln's 
 Inn marked him out clearly as one who might one 
 day be appointed to a bishopric. But the call 
 which came to him at the close of that year 1822 
 was an unexpected one to himself and his friends. 
 It was to succeed Bishop Middleton in the see of 
 Calcutta. It was a tremendous charge ; for at that 
 time there was no other Bishop of the English 
 Church in the eastern hemisphere. Not only all 
 India with Ceylon, but even Australia, was sup- 
 posed to be under his jurisdiction. To some of 
 his friends it seemed like a call to martyrdom ; all 
 felt that it meant heroic sacrifice. He accepted it 
 as what it was God's will. Gradually his faith 
 had been growing clearer, his saintliness deeper, 
 though his bright wit and keen enjoyment of life 
 were unchanged. From the hill above Hodnet he 
 gazed upon the quaint, beloved tower with many 
 
334 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 tears, and then turned his back upon it for ever. 
 He won all hearts in India as he had done in 
 England. He completed a long and laborious 
 visitation tour in 1825. Then in the spring of 
 1826 he began a second. He reached Trichi- 
 nopoly on Saturday, April i. On the Sunday and 
 Monday his day was rilled up with confirmations, 
 preachings, and all the exhausting work which a 
 colonial Bishop finds ready to his hands wherever 
 he goes. At last on the Monday afternoon he 
 was able to take some rest. It proved to be 
 eternal rest. He was found dead in a warm bath 
 that evening, having apparently fainted. 
 
 In 1827 his widow published all that was com- 
 plete of the Hymns adapted to the weekly Church 
 Service of the Year, containing various additions 
 to the tentative volume which Heber himself had 
 published in 1812. The hymns were evidently 
 meant to be gathered from various sources Jeremy 
 Taylor, Drummond of Hawthornden, Dryden, 
 Addison, Charles Wesley, Cowper, are all laid 
 under contribution. But his principal coadjutor 
 was Henry Hart Milman, the son of a London 
 physician, whose career had in some respects been 
 a curious parallel to Heber's own. He came up 
 to Brasenose from Eton about ten years after 
 Heber ; like Heber, he rose into fame by a striking 
 prize poem, the " Apollo Belvidere ; " like him, he 
 became Bampton Lecturer. But he soon developed 
 into the eminent historian whom we all remember, 
 and died, beloved and honoured, as Dean of St. 
 Pauls, 1868. 
 
 Heber's finest hymn is undoubtedly that for 
 
HENRY HART MILMAN 335 
 
 Trinity Sunday, 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord God 
 Almighty/ As a hymn of direct adoration it 
 
 Henry Hart Milman, 
 Dean of St Pauls. 
 
 stands in the front rank of English hymns. One 
 speaks with more hesitation of two others, 'The 
 Son of God goes forth to war/ and ' Brightest and 
 
336 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 best of the sons of the morning,' both of them 
 open to serious criticism, especially the latter, with 
 its somewhat sentimental prettiness. But Heber 
 is so tuneful, that we too often overlook his 
 deficiencies. I cannot help owning that I think 
 some of his less-known hymns among his best, 
 such as his very first, ' Hosanna to the Living Lord/ 
 { Lord of mercy and of might/ * Creator of the 
 rolling flood/ the two very beautiful Holy Com- 
 munion hymns, ' Forth from the dark and stormy 
 sky/ and ' Bread of the world in mercy broken/ 
 and the Miltonic hymn for Michaelmas/ O Captain 
 of God's host' (except for its curious confusion 
 between our Lord and St. Michael). 
 
 Of Milman's hymns the most popular are ' Ride 
 on, ride on in majesty/ and ' When our heads are 
 bowed with woe/ the latter singularly beautiful. 
 * O help us, Lord, each hour of need ' is an ex- 
 cellent hymn on the Syrophenician woman (the 
 hymns were originally meant to explain the Gospel 
 for the day), but the special verses referring to her 
 are too often omitted. 
 
JAMES MONTGOMERY 
 
 IT was the fashion thirty or forty years ago to 
 speak of James Montgomery as the Cowper of the 
 nineteenth century. Each was a literary man ; 
 each published several volumes of poems ; each 
 had a vein of melancholy. But Montgomery's was 
 only quiet and sentimental melancholy ; his poems 
 are nearly forgotten, and even in this day of re- 
 prints no one will resuscitate the "Wanderer in 
 Switzerland," or the " Pelican Island." Comparisons 
 of this kind do injustice to the weaker man. Good 
 James Montgomery was not a genius ; but he was 
 a hard-working literary man, a devout and simple- 
 minded Christian, a tasteful versifier, and a man 
 who did very great services to English hymnody. 
 He was our first hynmologist ; the first Englishman 
 who collected and criticized hymns, and who made 
 people that had lost all recollection of ancient 
 models understand something of what a hymn 
 meant, and what it ought to be. 
 
 His gentle, useful life ought not to be forgotten. 
 His father was a Moravian minister in the little 
 town of Irvine, in Ayrshire, known to us of the 
 present day by its delightful poet-preacher, William 
 Robertson. There James was born, November 4, 
 337 Y 
 
338 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 1771. While quite a child he was sent to school 
 at Fulneck, the Moravian settlement, then recently 
 founded in Yorkshire, on the high ground above 
 the Aire valley, between Leeds and Bradford. 
 Here, no doubt, he was trained in the " Children's 
 House," under kindly and firm, but strict discipline. 
 His father and mother, meanwhile, were sent by 
 the Society as missionaries to the West Indies ; 
 there they both died, and little James never saw 
 them again. When the time came for him to leave 
 Fulneck, he felt no inclination for the Moravian 
 ministry, for which he had been designed, but 
 settled down as a small shopkeeper in the Calder 
 Valley, at Mirfield, between Huddersfield and 
 Dewsbury. In the intervals of business he " cul- 
 tivated the muse," and, hardy Scotchman that he 
 was, trudged up to town with a wallet full of 
 verses, which, alas ! the hard-hearted publishers 
 refused. 
 
 From Mirfield he removed to Wath, near Shef- 
 field, and in 1792 to Sheffield itself, his home till 
 death. Two years after this the work of his life 
 opened out for him. He was assistant in the shop 
 of -a Mr. Gales, printer, bookseller, ami auctioneer. 
 Mr. Gales was the editor and proprietor of a paper 
 then called the Sheffield Register^ an organ of very 
 pronounced opposition politics, on which the 
 Government of the day looked with small favour. 
 Poor Mr. Gales was threatened with prosecution 
 for some article a little too strong in its reflections 
 on the Ministry ; he went into hiding, and his 
 assistant James, at the age of twenty-three, took 
 his place in the editorial chair. His time was 
 
TAMES MONTGOMERY 
 
 339 
 
 come. He changed the name of the paper from 
 the Sheffield Register to the SJieffield Iris (not per- 
 haps without thinking of the bow of hope which he 
 saw in the clouded sky of his party), and made the 
 paper a really powerful organ of Yorkshire liberal- 
 ism in things political and ecclesiastical. He was 
 
 James Montgomery. 
 
 twice prosecuted (once for an ode on the Bastille 
 in his "Poets' Corner"), and each time condemned 
 to a short term of imprisonment. But his paper 
 grew and throve and became a power. It was 
 always honestly and well conducted, with a high 
 tone of morality. And, hard-worked as he was, 
 
340 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 Montgomery beguiled his time with many volumes 
 of verse, which found at last not only publishers 
 but readers, and kindly or unkindly reviewers. 
 The Whigs of the Edinburgh condescended to 
 laugh at him ; so the Tory Blackwood cried him 
 up, Dissenter and Liberal though he was. Pro- 
 fessor Wilson praised the " Pelican Island " (which 
 nobody would now guess to mean Australia), and 
 even Byron called his " Missionary " " very pretty." 
 
 Up to the mature age of forty-three, Montgomery, 
 though always a thoughtful and religiously disposed 
 man, had not attached himself to any denomination. 
 He was for years perplexed by doubts and diffi- 
 culties in the way of believing. But at length the 
 sky cleared for him. His father had been a disciple 
 of Cennick, the friend of the Wesleys, and it is said 
 that a volume of Cennick's sermons was made the 
 means of a change in James's faith. He now 
 became a member of the Wesleyan Society for a 
 time, and began to take great interest in sacred 
 poetry and hymns. 
 
 In 1817 there came to St. Paul's Church, Shef- 
 field, an Evangelical clergyman from Staffordshire, 
 the Rev. Thomas Cotterill, who brought with him 
 a hymn-book which he had compiled for his former 
 congregation, and which he proceeded to enlarge 
 and adapt for his new charge. But orthodox 
 Sheffield rose in arms, and dragged Mr. Cotterill 
 and his book into the Consistory Court at York. 
 Archbishop Vernon Harcourt undertook to mediate, 
 and the Wesleyan editor of the Iris joined himself 
 with Mr. Cotterill in the preparation of a hymnal 
 which the Archbishop not only criticized and 
 
JAMES MONTGOMERY 341 
 
 revised but actually supplemented with hymns of 
 his own selecting ; a curious contrast to his brother 
 Primate's discouragement of Heber. Montgomery 
 confessed that he and Mr. Cotterill " clipped, inter- 
 lined, and remodelled hymns of all sorts." Mean- 
 while, hymns were beginning to flow freely from 
 Montgomery's facile pen. In 1822 he printed a 
 version of some fifty-six of the Psalms, called Songs 
 of Z ion, and in 1825 a far more important work, 
 the Christian Psalmist. This was the first really 
 critical selection of English hymns, and the intro- 
 ductory essay is a valuable and interesting histori- 
 cal notice of the work which our hymn-writers had 
 by that time done. Montgomery showed a very 
 clear notion of what our hymns should be, and of 
 the leading defects and vices of existing hymns. 
 He added to the volume a certain number of his 
 own, written at various times. Among these was 
 * Angels from the realms of glory,' written for 
 Cotterill's book, and the remarkable one, * Prayer 
 is the soul's sincere desire,' written for Mr. Bicker- 
 steth. The fine paraphrase of the /2nd Psalm, 
 ' Hail to the Lord's Anointed,' was written a little 
 earlier, at Christmas 1821, and is said to have 
 been repeated by Montgomery at the close of a 
 speech for the Wesleyan Missionary Society at 
 Liverpool. 
 
 From that time forward, Montgomery's pen was 
 very frequently employed upon hymns for special 
 occasions, school anniversaries, charity sermons, 
 stone-layings, and openings of various kinds. He 
 wrote many fugitive pieces also, some of which 
 were collected in the Poefs Portfolio^ 1835, where 
 
342 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR' AUTHORS 
 
 there appeared a hymn which of late years has 
 become remarkably popular, ' For ever with the 
 Lord/ not, in my judgment, one of his best. In 
 1853 he collected all his own hymns, amounting to 
 355, in one volume. 
 
 For many years before his death Montgomery 
 had become a communicant of the Church of Eng- 
 land, worshipping regularly at St. George's Church, 
 Sheffield, to the incumbent of which, Mr. Mercer, 
 a zealous hymnologist and compiler, like himself, 
 he was warmly attached. His house, the Mount, 
 at Sheffield, was often visited by admiring strangers. 
 He never married. He fell asleep at the age of 
 eighty-two, April 30, 1854. 
 
 James Montgomery can scarcely perhaps be 
 spoken of as the author of any famous hymn. 
 Some have even denied him (very unjustly) the 
 true hymnic power. His hymns often disappoint 
 one, and perhaps no hymn-writer has suffered more 
 from being over-praised. But on the other hand 
 he is always reverent and sincere ; his rhythm 
 never jars upon the ear, and some of his more 
 directly devotional hymns are really noble. Besides 
 those already specified, I may mention as instances 
 of true and elevating acts of worship, ' O Spirit of 
 the Living God,' ' Pour down Thy Spirit from on 
 high,' and ' Lord, teach us how to pray aright.' 
 To have written but these three would be to have 
 earned a true place among the singers of the 
 Universal Church. 
 
 I cannot leave Montgomery without referring to 
 his friend and contemporary, Josiah Conder, born 
 eighteen years later, and dying a year after Mont- 
 
JAMES MONTGOMERY 343 
 
 gomery. Conder was a bookseller's son in the 
 city ; like Montgomery, he edited for many years 
 a Liberal and Dissenting newspaper ; like him, 
 outside of the political arena, he was a gentle and 
 saintly man. He was among those deputed to 
 compile the New Congregational Hym n-book when 
 the Independents had outgrown Watts, and the 
 lion's share of the work fell to him; He has written 
 many good hymns, but to us Church people he will 
 always be known by his lovely hymn for Holy 
 Communion, ' Bread of Heaven, on Thee we feed,' 
 a hymn which might have been written by Bona- 
 ventura ; and a remarkable instance of the power 
 which deep and true devotion and living faith have 
 to lift a man above the level of his traditional or 
 intellectual belief, and open to his inward eye the 
 mysteries of the Kingdom of God. 
 
HENRY FRANCIS LYTE 
 
 OF all the multitudinous hymns of the last fifty 
 years, in which the Church of England has been 
 so fruitful, I think it may be said without hesi- 
 tation that the most widely diffused and most 
 generally loved is ' Abide with me.' In Mr. King's 
 Anglican Hymnology it stands fifth in the first rank 
 of hymns, immediately next to * Rock of Ages.' 
 In the Hundred Best Hymns of the Religious 
 Tract Society (the result of a large plebiscite of 
 subscribers to the Sunday at Home} it actually 
 stands second only to ' Rock of Ages.' Mr. King's 
 classification is based on a comparison of hymn- 
 books, a rough but somewhat misleading test. At 
 any rate there can be no doubt that this great 
 hymn has already taken its place among the 
 choicest devotional treasures of the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 The life of its author was a singularly quiet and 
 uneventful one. Henry Francis Lyte, the son of 
 an officer of a good Somersetshire family, was 
 born on the Border, at or near Kelso, June i, 
 1793. He lost his father while a mere child, and 
 spent his youth in Ireland, first at school near 
 Enniskillen, and then at Trinity College, Dublin, 
 344 
 
HENRY FRANCIS LYTE 345 
 
 which he entered in 1809, winning a scholarship 
 and three prize poems. His contemporary (ma- 
 triculated in the same year) was the gifted Charles 
 Wolfe, the author of the famous verses on "The 
 Burial of Sir John Moore," and it would be in- 
 teresting to know if two men so much alike in 
 their tastes and sympathies ever became friends. 
 
 Lyte's friends wished him to adopt the medical 
 profession, but he determined upon taking Holy 
 Orders. He was appointed in 1815 1 to a curacy in 
 the county of Wexford, but soon resigned it, and 
 for a while took pupils. Then came the great 
 spiritual change of his life. A clerical neighbour 
 was taken ill, and sent for Henry Lyte to visit 
 him. On his sick-bed he had been awakened to 
 a deeper interest in things eternal, and a clearer 
 view of the leading truths of the Gospel than 
 before. The two friends read and prayed and 
 communed much together, and Henry Lyte's own 
 eyes were opened to the realization of the truths 
 which were now the support and comfort of his 
 dying friend. Soon Lyte was left with the care 
 of the widow and family of his friend, and the 
 arrangement of their concerns upon his hands. 
 This trust involved him in long-continued anxiety, 
 and probably contributed, with the mental and 
 spiritual conflicts through which he had passed, to 
 leave behind permanent delicacy of health. He 
 was unable for a time to take any clerical work, 
 but at length accepted a lectureship at Marazion, 
 in Cornwall, where he was happily married to the 
 
 1 If this is correct, and Dr. Julian corroborates it, he could 
 only have been twenty-two when ordained Deacon. H. H, 
 
346 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 daughter of a clergyman who had some property 
 in the north of Ireland. 
 
 He lived for a time at Lymington, in Hampshire, 
 and afterwards at Dittisham, on the Dart ; but 
 finally settled down about the year 1823 to that 
 which became the work of his life the charge of 
 a new church built specially for the fisher folk of 
 Lower Brixham, under the red cliffs of Berry 
 Head, the southern horn of Torbay. For more 
 than twenty years he led the life of a faithful and 
 diligent parish priest among his poor people, by 
 whom he was greatly beloved. But he was always 
 a student, gradually collecting an excellent library, 
 both of Patristic and Anglican theology, never 
 losing his hold on the deep Evangelical convictions 
 of his early manhood, but growing yearly in the 
 perception of those aspects of the truth which our 
 great earlier divines set before it. His recreation 
 was poetry. In 1826 he published a small volume 
 of Tales in Verse on the Lord's Prayer, and in 
 1835 a collection of miscellaneous poems. But 
 his great desire was to carry out more happily 
 than Watts had done the adaptation of the ideas 
 of the Psalter to the services of the Christian 
 Church. His Spirit of the Psalms appeared in 
 1834. He did not know that this scheme and his 
 very title had already, about five years previously, 
 been anticipated by a lady, Miss Harriet Auber. 
 Miss Auber's little book contains some good 
 versions of psalms, but is known now only by her 
 very beautiful hymn on the Holy Spirit, 'Our 
 Blest Redeemer/ which she added with a few 
 others to her Psalter, She was the daughter of 
 
HENRY FRANCIS LYTE 347 
 
 the Rector of Tring, and died unmarried, advanced 
 in years, but " full of good works/' after a happy 
 and useful life, at Broxbourne, in Hertfordshire, in 
 1862. 
 
 Lyte's Spirit of the Psalms is a better book on 
 the whole than its earlier namesake. He is often 
 very happy in seizing the leading idea of a psalm, 
 and embodying it in a few verses, such as ( Far 
 from my heavenly home ' (137), ' Oh that the Lord's 
 salvation ' (14), and ' God of mercy, God of grace ' 
 (67). But his happiest versions are certainly those 
 of the 84th Psalm, ' Pleasant are Thy courts above, 5 
 and the iO3rd, * Praise, my soul, the King of 
 Heaven/ both which are glorious additions to our 
 Church hymnology. The book, however, is full of 
 interest. It is, unhappily, now very scarce. There 
 are some good experiments in the emendation of 
 Tate and Brady, and there is one curious attempt 
 to turn Ps. xxi. into a sort of * God save the King/ 
 which is said to have been very popular with his 
 fishermen, for whom he made the Accession an 
 annual parish festival, perhaps mindful of the 
 historic associations of Brixham Quay. Among 
 other things he wrote for his people some popular 
 sea-songs. 
 
 But Lyte's strength, never great, gave way 
 gradually under his manifold exertions. The in- 
 terference of the Plymouth Brethren in his parish 
 caused him much uneasiness, and made him regret 
 his neglect of more definite Church teaching among 
 them. His schools, too (he had 800 children in his 
 Sunday School), were a great tax upon him. He 
 tried a winter in Rome and South Italy in 1844-5, 
 
348 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 but returned home no better. All through 1847 
 he was sinking lower. He was persuaded again to 
 winter abroad, and prepared to leave home with 
 the conviction that he should return no more. He 
 had not preached for some time, but in his desire 
 to leave with his people one last testimony to the 
 faith in which he was to die, he preached once 
 more, September 4, 1847, an earnest appeal to 
 them on Holy Communion, which he then cele- 
 brated for the last time. That evening he put 
 into the hands of a friend the MS. of ' Abide with 
 me.' That week he left England and travelled by 
 slow stages to Nice, where he died, November 20, 
 
 1847. 
 
 ' Abide with me' was thus his dying song. It is 
 often abridged in the hymn-books, but the whole 
 hymn of eight verses is given in Church Hymns 
 (S. P. C. K.) with the correct reading of the last 
 verse, ' Hold then Thy cross.' It is often, with 
 curious dulness of perception, printed among 
 evening hymns, simply because of the words ' fast 
 falls the eventide.' Some people feel it too intense 
 and subjective for public worship ; to many it is 
 associated with the laying to rest of those dear to 
 them it was sung at the funeral of Frederick 
 Maurice, and doubtless Mr. Brown Borthwick is 
 quite right in speaking of it as " not for congre- 
 gational use, but for the quiet and meditative 
 devotions of Christians of advanced spiritual 
 experience." Nevertheless, especially as wedded 
 to Dr. W. H. Monk's beautiful tune, ' Eventide,' 
 it is so dear to our congregations that we can 
 scarcely wish its public use ever to be discontinued. 
 
HENRY FRANCIS LYTE 349 
 
 And surely the Nunc Dimittis is a precedent for 
 the public use of an act of private devotion which 
 may well be applied to a hymn breathing so much 
 of its spirit. 
 
 I may close this paper with a short notice of 
 another " favourite hymn " and its author. Sir 
 Robert Grant was the son of an East India Director. 
 He was educated at Cambridge, but led a busy life 
 as a barrister and Member of Parliament for many 
 years, during which he and his brother Charles 
 were well-known worshippers every Sunday among 
 the congregation assembled 'in the once famous 
 chapel of St. John's, Bedford Row, under Daniel 
 Wilson and Baptist Noel. Each brother rose to 
 eminence. Charles became Lord Glenelg and 
 Colonial Secretary ; Robert, a Privy Councillor in 
 1831, was appointed in 1834 Governor of Bombay. 
 He died in India in 1838. Two of his hymns, 
 'When gathering clouds around I view/ and the 
 better known Litany, ' Saviour, when in dust to 
 Thee/ were published, like Heber's, in the Christian 
 Observer. These, with a few more, were reprinted 
 after his death by Lord Glenelg. Among them is 
 the fine version of Psalm civ., ' O worship the King, 
 all glorious above/ This, and the beautiful " Litany 
 Hymn," are sure to keep their places. The latter, 
 I think, will outlast most of the " Metrical Litanies " 
 which have followed in its wake. 
 
THE HYMNS OF THE OXFORD MOVE- 
 MENT. THE TRANSLATORS 
 
 IN dealing with English hymnody we have now 
 arrived at a period which involved a wide and 
 far-reaching change in its character a change by 
 no means confined to the Church of England, but 
 showing itself in the worship of every denomin- 
 ation I had almost said, of every English-speaking 
 congregation throughout the world. The Oxford 
 movement has, indeed, brought as distinct a new 
 departure in hymnody as the Wesleyan move- 
 ment did. The number of English hymns has 
 enormously increased ; their character has been 
 largely altered ; their use has been extended to 
 every congregation ; and, what is best of all, there 
 has arisen a spirit of Christian fellowship in 
 hymn-singing which is a great help to Christian 
 unity. In every denomination hymns from all 
 sources ancient and modern, Catholic and Pro- 
 testant, Church and Dissenting stand side by 
 side in the hymn-book, and are sung with delight 
 and heartiness by the congregation ; and nothing 
 has done so much as this to draw closer together 
 the divided members of Christ's body, and to 
 kindle fresh hopes of a future, if distant, unity. 
 
THE HYMNS OF THE OXFORD MOVEMENT 351 
 
 This new development in hymnody is due, no 
 doubt, to various causes, but it is mainly due to 
 the general introduction of hymns into the services 
 of the Church of England. Sixty years ago it 
 was orthodox to sing the " new version " of Psalms : 
 now there is probably not one church left in 
 London, and few, if any, in all England, where 
 this version is exclusively used. The great Latin 
 and Greek hymns have been translated ; clergy 
 and congregations who would never have used the 
 hymns of the Wesleys, Watts, and Cowper, first 
 accepted these ancient hymns, and then by degrees 
 discovered the beauty and fitness of English ones 
 which they had formerly overlooked, and thus 
 " things new and old " were brought out of the 
 Church's treasury, and each found its appropriate 
 value. 
 
 The earliest translations of ancient hymns (ex- 
 cept the Veni Creator] were probably those of 
 William Drummond, of Hawthornden, in the 
 beginning of the seventeenth century, one of 
 which Heber included in his collection. A few 
 others appeared from time to time, such as 
 Dryden's Veni Creator ; and William Hammond, 
 one of the early Calvinistic Methodists, translated 
 a good many Breviary hymns. None of these, 
 however, seem to have been used in churches; 
 but in 1837 appeared two collections of "Ancient" 
 hymns, which were as the first drops of a new 
 shower. Richard Mant, Bishop of Down and 
 Connor, a former Fellow of Oriel and Bampton 
 Lecturer, an orthodox Churchman of the old 
 school, and a rather voluminous versifier, published 
 
352 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 in that year his Ancient Hymns from the Roman 
 Breviary^ versions not very literal, and somewhat 
 verbose and stilted, but yet the first introduction 
 to many English readers of the work of St. 
 Ambrose and St. Gregory. Some of his hymns 
 keep their place still. 
 
 In that same year, 1837, there came forward a 
 much more important volume, John Chandler's 
 Hymns of the Primitive Church. Mr. Chandler 
 had not long left Corpus John Keble's college 
 and had entered upon his lifelong home in the 
 beautiful parish of Witley, near Godalming. His 
 preface is a very interesting revelation of the 
 change going on in the minds of Churchmen. He 
 was afraid of modern hymns as unchurchlike and 
 unauthorized ; yet he felt Tate and Brady in- 
 sufficient for Christian worship. So he bought a 
 Parisian Breviary and one or two Latin hymn- 
 books, and set to work to translate, avowedly for 
 congregational use. The " Parisian Breviary" hymns 
 were written in France, but in the Latin language, 
 in the seventeenth and early years of the eighteenth 
 centuries. The excellence of his translations is 
 shown by the number which still keep their place 
 in Hymns Ancient and Modern and other Church 
 books. They have been repeatedly revised and 
 improved since his time, and, moreover, the seven- 
 teenth-century French hymns have lost their 
 popularity to a great extent now that we have the 
 really primitive and mediaeval hymns translated ; 
 but Chandler's was a pioneer book, and it was 
 conceived in a spirit of true and simple devotion. 
 
 Chandler's attention had been called to these 
 
THE HYMNS OF THE OXFORD MOVEMENT 353 
 
 French hymns of the seventeenth century by some 
 very scholarly translations of them which appeared 
 from time to time in the British Magazine. These 
 
 Isaac Williams. 
 
 were collected in one volume, two years after his 
 own, in 1839; they were the work of Isaac 
 Williams, a man who impressed his friends and 
 
354 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 companions with the mark of sanctity more than 
 any of his contemporaries, except John Keble. 
 He was the son of a London barrister, educated at 
 Harrow, and sent up to Trinity College, Oxford, 
 where he won a Fellowship in 1832. For a time 
 he was John Henry Newman's curate at St. Mary's. 
 He was associated with Newman, Pusey, and 
 Froude in the Tracts for the Times^ and many of 
 his verses appear side by side with Newman's and 
 Keble's in the Lyra Apostolica. In 1842 he took 
 the living of Bisley, in Gloucestershire, but in- 
 creasing ill-health soon compelled him to resign it, 
 and for twenty years longer, till he was called to 
 rest in 1865, his gentle and holy life was passed in 
 almost constant suffering, though he was occasion- 
 ally able to help his brother-in-law, in whose parish 
 Stinchcombe he lived. Isaac Williams wrote 
 many volumes of verse, dear to devout souls in 
 the generation now passing away. From one'-of 
 them, The Baptistery, is taken the solemn peni- 
 tential hymn, ' Lord, in this Thy mercy's day.' 
 He translated, besides the Parisian hymns, those 
 of St. Ambrose and Synesius ; but none of them 
 were intended for congregational use, and only 
 one or two are fitted to be sung in church. The 
 metres are often artificial, and Williams had not a 
 musical ear. One, indeed, stands out conspicuously 
 from the rest as a singularly happy inspiration, the 
 noble translation of Jean Baptiste Santeuil's hymn 
 for Apostles' Days ' Disposer Supreme and Judge 
 of the earth,' an instance in which the version 
 surpasses the original in dignity and beauty. 
 Translations of Latin hymns now became ex- 
 
THE HYMNS OF THE OXFORD MOVEMENT 355 
 
 ceedingly common. Some will be mentioned 
 later ; but the rest of the present article must be 
 devoted to a notice of the greatest of all trans- 
 lators, and one of the most remarkable of modern 
 hymn-writers John Mason Neale. 
 
 Dr. Neale was the son of a clergyman, Cornelius 
 Neale, who had been Senior Wrangler. He was 
 born in 1818, and early lost his father; but his 
 mother, the daughter of an accomplished and 
 literary physician, Dr. Mason Good, was able to 
 direct his great abilities. He was sent to Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, where he took his degree in 
 1840. He threw himself early in life into the 
 Church controversies of the day, and he knew how 
 to strike hard at an abuse, and to uphold with 
 lightly-carried learning a truth which he thought 
 had been overlooked. But he was far more than a 
 brilliant pamphleteer and an enthusiastic ecclesi- 
 ologist his reading was simply enormous. One 
 winter, when driven by ill-health to Madeira, he 
 spent days in the library of the Cathedral at 
 Funchal. His great work, the History of the 
 Eastern Church, was left unfinished, but neither 
 this, nor his commentaries and sermons, nor even 
 perhaps the great Sisterhood which he founded at 
 East Grinstead, will keep his memory green so 
 long as his hymns. 
 
 He was appointed in 1846 Warden of Sackville 
 College, East Grinstead, a small ancient almshouse, 
 and this gave him leisure for study and work of 
 many kinds. He ransacked all Europe for hymns ; 
 he wrote with equal facility in Latin or Greek as 
 in English, and sometimes he amused himself by 
 
356* FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 mystifying his College friends by " ancient " Church 
 songs of his own production ! His earliest im- 
 portant hymnic work was done for the Ecclesio- 
 logical Society, for which he assisted in preparing 
 the Hymnal Noted, a translation of Latin hymns, 
 chiefly from the Sarum use. Of this work Neale 
 did the lion's share, and he soon showed his ex- 
 traordinary vigour and felicity as a translator. 
 His early versions are indeed somewhat stiff and 
 over-literal in places ; but as time went on he 
 wielded his weapon with far greater facility and 
 power. Only once was he surpassed in this 
 volume, by William Josiah Irons, the Vicar of 
 Brompton, whose translation of the greatest of 
 all mediaeval hymns, 'Day of wrath, O day of 
 mourning,' is a truly wonderful achievement, for he 
 has solved a difficulty which has baffled almost 
 every one who has attempted it. 
 
 In the first part of the Hymnal Noted appeared 
 among others Neale's beautiful version of St. 
 Bernard's hymn, ' Jesu, the very thought is sweet/ 
 and the well-known * All glory, laud, and honour.' 
 In the second part, five years later, which was 
 entirely the work of Neale and Mr. Benjamin 
 Webb, appeared the lovely hymns, ' Oh, what the 
 joy and the glory must be,' * Of the Father's love 
 begotten,' ' Light's abode, celestial Salem,' and 
 others now well known. Meanwhile Neale had 
 gathered his own translations into a little volume 
 called Mediceval Hymns and Sequences, among 
 which appeared in 1851 the translation of a 
 portion of the rhythm of Bernard de Morlaix, 
 from which were taken 'Brief life is here our 
 
THE HYMNS OF THE OXFORD MOVEMENT 357 
 
 portion,' 'For thee, O dear, dear country,' and 
 'Jerusalem the Golden.' In 1858 he translated 
 and published the rest of the " Rhythm," excluding 
 
 John Mason Neale. 
 
 the satire with which it begins. But the translations 
 from which the largest number of popular hymns 
 have been selected are the Hymns of the Eastern 
 
358 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 Church (1862 and 1866). Neale was the first to 
 draw attention to the vast stores of Greek hymnody, 
 from which he selected such specimens as ' The 
 day is past and over,' ' Art thou weary,' ' The Day 
 of Resurrection/ ' O, happy band of pilgrims ! ' and 
 many others now familiar to us all. Some of 
 these are nearly, if not quite, original hymns of 
 his own, and contain, it is said, but little trace of 
 their Greek parentage. Neale's own hymns were 
 some of them very good, and he sang on to the 
 last, publishing a little volume on his dying bed. 
 His Hymns for Children have not the merit of his 
 many tales and legends ; for no one could tell a 
 martyr story like him, and he wrote many children's 
 books. His learning in hymnology was unrivalled, 
 and he may be said almost to have created the 
 science of Liturgiology. As life went on, his 
 hymns, like his sermons, advanced in beauty and 
 spirituality, and the old polemic, who had made 
 many foes in his time, but had won much love and 
 had done great work for the Church, departed on 
 August 6, 1866, in childlike faith and humility. 
 
JOHN KEBLE AND JOHN HENRY 
 
 NEWMAN 
 
 A STORY is told of William Wilberforce that one 
 day in his old age he and his four gifted sons were 
 planning a holiday together. It was agreed that 
 each of the five should bring to the meeting-place 
 fixed upon some new book which might be read 
 aloud to the rest of the party. When they met 
 together it was found that each of the five had 
 brought the same book. It was the Christian Year. 
 
 This is a slight illustration of the deep impression 
 which the book produced, almost at its first pub- 
 lication, upon the religious mind of England. It 
 appeared in June 1827, having been for some years 
 in preparation. It was rather a sleepy age for 
 English religion. The first group of evangelical 
 leaders had most of them passed away, or were 
 rapidly passing ; there was no great controversy 
 pending. The separation, too, between Church 
 and Dissent was growing wider, and the apprecia- 
 tion of the Prayer-book and of Church order was 
 growing keen and strong among many clergy, who, 
 had they lived earlier, would have made light of 
 the irregularities of Wesleyan and Calvinistic 
 Methodism. A book of lofty and beautiful verse, 
 
 359 
 
360 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 which glowed with love for the Church and her 
 services, and which penetrated so deeply into the 
 spiritual life and power of our Prayer-book, was, 
 therefore, a gift from God which fell upon soil 
 ready to receive it ; and it is no wonder that its 
 influence in the Church of England was vast and 
 abiding. Ten years before the author's death more 
 than a hundred thousand copies had been sold, and 
 in the nine months after his death alone more than 
 eleven thousand copies. 
 
 John Keble was born on St. Mark's Day, April 
 25, 1792, at Fairford, in Gloucestershire. His 
 father, himself a John Keble, was Vicar of Coin St. 
 Alwins, a small parish about three miles from 
 Fairford ; a devout old scholar, one of those who 
 kept up the tradition, well-nigh lost at that time, 
 of the Ken type of Churchmen. He had himself 
 been Fellow of Corpus College, Oxford ; he 
 educated his two sons at home, never sending 
 them to school, and took his eldest son, John, up 
 to Oxford in his fifteenth year to try for a scholar- 
 ship in his own old College. The home-bred youth 
 carried all before him, took a double first in 1811 
 (which, it is said, no one but Sir Robert Peel had 
 yet done), and that same year, while only eighteen, 
 was elected Fellow of Oriel, at that moment the 
 most distinguished College, intellectually, in Oxford. 
 Next year he won both the University Essay 
 Prizes, and while only just twenty-one was made 
 one of the University Examiners. None of these 
 honours, however, impaired the simplicity of his 
 meek and humble piety. His humility and his 
 sanctity deepened year by year. 
 
JOHN KEBLE 361 
 
 His first curacy was in the parish which will 
 ever be associated with his memory, Hursley, in 
 Hants ; but on the death of a beloved sister he 
 moved to Fairford to cheer the declining years of 
 his aged father, whose parish he served as Curate. 
 In 1831 he was made Professor of Poetry in 
 Oxford, and four years afterwards the death of his 
 father set him free to accept the living of Hursley, 
 which was now offered him for the second time. 
 In 1835 he married, and settled there. He was 
 already known half over the world as the Christian 
 poet of his time. The holy and beautiful life 
 which he and his wife lived together has been well 
 drawn for us by loving hands in Sir J. T. 
 Coleridge's memoir and in Miss Yonge's Musings 
 on the Christian Year. My space will only suffice 
 for the mention of his poetical work. In 1839 he 
 published a metrical version of the Psalms, a book 
 which has never been used for public worship, and 
 which was very unduly depreciated on its appear- 
 ance, for, as a guide to the true understanding of 
 the Psalter, it is, as might be expected, of the 
 greatest value. His contributions to the Lyra 
 Apostolica will be noticed presently. 
 
 In 1846 appeared the exquisite Lyra Innocentium, 
 a lovely study of child life from the pen of a child- 
 less man, coloured by the developed teaching of 
 the movement of which he was so important a 
 part, but now and again attaining to heights of 
 spiritual insight even beyond those of the Christian 
 Year. It need scarcely be said that neither of these 
 books was ever designed for congregational use ; 
 but many of the Christian Year verses had found 
 
362 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 their way into our hymn-books by this time, and 
 in 1856 Keble gave assistance to his friend Earl 
 Nelson in the compilation of a hymnal for the 
 Diocese of Salisbury, of which the first edition, 
 called the Salisbury Hymn-book^ appeared in 1857. 
 The new and larger edition has the somewhat mis- 
 leading title of the Sarum Hymnal. For this book 
 Keble wrote four original hymns, of which the 
 best-known is his marriage-hymn, ' The voice that 
 breathed o'er Eden.' He also translated a con- 
 siderable number of Latin hymns, and recast some 
 older English ones. As a translator, however, he 
 does not attain the vigour and spirit of Neale, 
 though it need hardly be - said that he is most 
 accurate and scholarly. He also made his own 
 selections from the "Morning" and "Evening" 
 verses in the Christian Year, known to all the 
 world as * New every morning is the love/ and 
 'Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear.' But he 
 selected for the former the verse, ' Oh, timely 
 happy, timely wise/ and made the latter begin 
 with * When the soft dews of kindly sleep.' The 
 beautiful Septuagesima poem, * There is a book 
 who runs may read/ was also inserted in the Salis- 
 bury book, as well as one or two others. At an 
 earlier period he had written the little-known but 
 charming Hymns for Emigrants (1854), and four 
 hymns for the Child's Christian Year. Before his 
 death he had corrected for the press the ninety- 
 sixth* edition of the Christian Year. He fell 
 asleep at Bournemouth, early in the morning of 
 March 29, 1866, followed in six weeks' time by the 
 companion of all his joys and sorrows and labours. 
 
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN 363 
 
 In the days of controversy and reproach through 
 which he passed, John Keble was ever loyal and 
 faithful to the Church of his baptism. It was 
 otherwise with that great man whose name will 
 ever be associated with his and Dr. Pusey's in con- 
 nection with the Oxford movement. But the loss 
 
 John Henry Newman. 
 
 to the world of Cardinal Newman is too recent for 
 me to speak much of his life. My concern here is 
 with John Henry Newman as a writer of hymns. 
 As I have not dwelt on Keble's other literary 
 and theological work, so I must be silent about 
 Newman's, 
 
364 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 John Henry Newman, the son of a London 
 banker, was born in London, February 21, 1801. 
 From school at Ealing he went up to Trinity Col- 
 lege, Oxford. He has told us himself with what 
 awe he looked at Keble when he was pointed out 
 to him in the streets of Oxford shortly after his 
 entrance. In 1822 he became Fellow of Oriel, and 
 in 1828 Incumbent of St. Mary's, Oxford, which is 
 in the gift of his College. There it was that he 
 began those marvellous sermons which produced 
 so profound an effect on the younger men of his 
 University, as they have since on many others. 
 After writing the Arians of the Fourth Century he 
 took a voyage in the winter of 1832, accompanied 
 by Richard Hurrell Froude, a pupil of Keble's. 
 By this time the foundations of the " Movement of 
 1833," as it is sometimes called, had been laid. Its 
 history has now come to us from various sources 
 from Newman's own pen, and last, though not 
 least, from the interesting volume of him whom -we 
 have recently lost, Dean Church. I am only con- 
 cerned here with its bearing on hymnody. All 
 through his foreign tour Newman was writing 
 verses, pouring out his thoughts upon the Church 
 and its faith, and the " work " before him. He was 
 becalmed off Sardinia for some days on his way 
 home from Sicily in June, 1833, and many of his 
 finest poems are the fruit of those days ; among 
 them, 'Lead, kindly Light,' written June 16, 1833. 
 This was included with many others, beginning 
 with 1829, in a volume called Lyra Apostolica. 
 Most of them, if not all, appeared in the British 
 Magazine,\>\& they were collected in 1836. The 
 
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN 365 
 
 writers were designated by letters of the Greek 
 alphabet. They were John Bowden, Hurrell 
 Froude, Keble, Newman, Robert Wilberforce, and 
 Isaac Williams. Williams's are the most numerous, 
 Keble's, and above all Newman's, the most import- 
 ant. It seems almost accidental that ' Lead, kindly 
 Light/ beautiful and significant as it is, should have 
 been the one which has found its way into all 
 hymn-books. Two or three others of Newman's 
 are, in my judgment, quite equal to it, especially 
 ' Lord, in this dust Thy sovereign voice,' written in 
 1829. Only one of Keble's poems in the volume 
 has reached our hymn-books, his fine translation 
 of the old Alexandrian 'Candlelight hymn,' ' Hail, 
 gladdening Light ! ' It is Keble's best translation. 
 Newman in after years translated several ancient 
 hymns, especially those for the Hours, some of 
 which (with alterations) appear in Hymns Ancient 
 and Modern. Newman was received into the 
 Church of Rome in 1845. His wonderful poem 
 on the Intermediate State, the " Dream of Geron- 
 tius," was written in January 1865. From it has 
 been taken one of the choruses, 'Praise to the 
 Holiest in the height,' a truly magnificent hymn 
 on the Fall and Redemption of Man. The great 
 Cardinal passed away August 11, 1889. 
 
EDWARD CASWALL AND FREDERICK 
 WILLIAM FABER 
 
 THE ten years which followed 1840 were especially 
 the years of secession to the Church of Rome, on 
 the part chiefly of the extreme 'wing of the Oxford 
 movement. The seceders were mostly young and 
 ardent men, some of them, like Ward and Oakeley, 
 of brilliant attainments. But, with the exception 
 of John Henry Newman (and one living name, 
 which will occur to all, but which belongs to a 
 secession of somewhat later date), it can scarcely 
 be said that they contributed much to the strength 
 of the Church of their adoption. On the other 
 hand, those who remained faithful to the Church 
 of their baptism have lived to see her all the stronger 
 and richer for the loss of some who were not in 
 true harmony with her. Still, it is undeniable that 
 those who joined the Church of Rome brought 
 with them an energy of service and a fervour of 
 devotion which showed itself in art and letters as 
 well as in theology. It was to be expected, then, 
 that the innovators would influence, among other 
 things, hymnology. Following the precedents set 
 in France, Italy, and Germany, they broke through 
 the circle of Latin Breviary hymns, and appealed 
 
 366 
 
EDWARD CASWALL 367 
 
 boldly to popular taste in a new Anglo-Roman 
 hymnody. The characteristic names of this 
 movement were Edward Caswall, and, above all, 
 Frederick William Faber. 
 
 Edward Caswall was one of the younger sons of 
 
 Edward Caswall. 
 
 a Hampshire vicar. He was born at his father's 
 parsonage, at Yateley, Hants, in July 1814. He 
 went up to Brasenose in 1832, and took his degree 
 in 1836. He held for a time a small incumbency 
 near Salisbury, married, resigned his living in 1846, 
 and was received into the Church of Rome in 1850. 
 
368 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 He had lost his wife the previous year, and now 
 (1850) he became an Oratorian at Birmingham, 
 under Dr. Newman, with whom he remained in 
 close alliance and friendship till his death in 
 1878. 
 
 The best of Caswall's hymns are his translations ; 
 and these were chiefly made just before his 
 secession. Most of them appeared in his Lyra 
 Catholica in 1849. They are less careful and 
 accurate than Neale's, but there is great spirit and 
 facility in many of them, and they go well to 
 modern tunes. Thus his translation of St. Bernard's 
 famous hymn, 'Jesu, the very thought of Thee/ 
 though really inferior to Neale's (who, however, 
 only translated a few verses), is sung five or six 
 times as often. 'The sun is sinking fast' and 
 * Glory be to Jesus ' are later translations. The 
 best known probably of his original hymns, ' Days 
 and moments quickly flying,' has, I think, become 
 popular mainly through Dr. Dykes' fine tune. 
 The strange Calvinist refrain, 'As the tree falls,' 
 added from another hymn of Caswall's, has in the 
 later edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern been 
 wisely superseded. His translation of St. Francis 
 Xavier's hymn, ( My God, I love Thee,' does not 
 do justice to the original ; but as the only form in 
 which this most striking hymn is known to most 
 English readers, it has gained a wide popularity. 
 
 Henry Collins, whose faith failed him during the 
 troubles which marked the early days of his work 
 in Charles Lowder's mission to the East End, has 
 left behind him two striking hymns, ' Jesus, meek 
 and lowly,' and ' Jesu, my Lord, my God, my all.' 
 
FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER 369 
 
 To Frederick Oakeley we owe the popular version of 
 Adeste fideles, ' O come, all ye faithful/ inserted in 
 Hymns Ancient and Modern. 
 
 But the most interesting figure, and the most 
 influential as a hymn-writer of all the converts to 
 Rome, is undoubtedly Frederick William Faber. 
 He was born at Calverley Vicarage, in the Aire 
 Valley, between Leeds and Bradford, being the 
 grandson of the vicar. In his infancy his family re- 
 moved to Bishop Auckland, on his father, a layman, 
 being made secretary to Bishop Barrington, of 
 Durham. His first school was at Auckland ; he was 
 afterwards sent successively to Kirkby Stephen, 
 Shrewsbury, and Harrow. From Harrow he went 
 up to Balliol, matriculating in 1832. He soon made 
 his mark, being made scholar of University College 
 in 1834, and winning the Newdigate in 1836 for 
 a poem on the " Knights of St. John." In 1837 he 
 was chosen fellow of his college, and won the 
 Johnson Theological Scholarship. The long vaca- 
 tion of that year was memorable to him. He spent 
 it with pupils at Ambleside, and there made the 
 acquaintance of Wordsworth. The exquisite poem, 
 " To a Lake Party," was his farewell to his pupils 
 when term time came. In the August of this year 
 he was ordained deacon at Ripon, and came back 
 to help the Vicar of Ambleside. He was much 
 there during the next two years, living as private 
 tutor at Green Bank, Ambleside, taking long walks 
 with Wordsworth, writing much poetry, and preach- 
 ing occasionally sermons which deeply impressed 
 those who heard them, and copies of which are still 
 tenderly cherished by the few who possess them. 
 
 A A 
 
3/0 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 In 1839 Wordsworth came up to Oxford to receive 
 an honorary degree at Commemoration, and was 
 the guest of Faber, who introduced him to John 
 Keble. Keble's Latin oration in the theatre con- 
 tained a noble eulogy of the great poet, who was 
 deeply gratified by his reception. 
 
 In 1841 Faber was for some months in France 
 and Italy, and published the following year his 
 Sights and Thoughts in Foreign Countries , a suf- 
 ficiently startling book in its undisguised sympathy 
 with the Church of Rome. He soon left Ambleside, 
 and accepted in 1843 tne Rectory of Elton, in 
 Huntingdonshire ; and three years afterwards, 
 November 16, 1845, he was received into the 
 Church of Rome. He had previously written a 
 life of St. Wilfrid of York, for Newman's series of 
 Lives of the English Saints, and, on his change of 
 religion, he at first attempted to found a new com- 
 munity of " Brothers of the will of God," of which 
 St. Wilfrid was supposed to be the Patron Saint. 
 But in 1848 he joined the Oratorians at Oscott 
 under Newman, and the next year removed to the 
 London branch of the community, with whom he 
 continued, at the now well-known " Brompton 
 Oratory," till his death on September 26, 1863. 
 
 Faber published many devotional works after his 
 secession, with which we are not here concerned. But 
 they have the same characteristics as his hymns. 
 They are full of noble passages, and often show 
 deep insight into the secrets of the human heart ; 
 but they are curiously wanting in the sense of 
 proportion, their emotionalism is at times all but 
 hysterical. The extravagances of popular Con- 
 
FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER 3/1 
 
 tinental Romanism, which are generally kept in the 
 background by sober English Roman Catholics, are 
 just what Faber delights to display and to insist 
 upon. Those who know Faber's hymns only 
 through a carefully prepared selection, and have 
 
 Frederick William Faber. 
 
 learned to admire and delight in the series on 
 prayer, those on the Holy Trinity, and the Spiritual 
 Life, and a few more, had better not desire to see 
 the complete collection. His first hymns were a 
 few written for the Oratory in 1848, added to in 
 1849 and 1852 with the title, "Jesus and Mary," 
 
3/2 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 followed by the Oratory Hymn-book in 1854. They 
 were avowedly written to compete with Dissenting 
 and other Protestant hymns ; and many of them 
 (such as ' O Paradise ' and ' Hark, hark, my soul J ) 
 introduced the " refrain " which modern Revivalist 
 hymnody has since made popular. In 1862 he 
 published a complete collection of his hymns 
 divided into seven parts. He limited their number 
 to 150, as being the number of the Psalms. 
 
 Roman as they are, nearly all English-speaking 
 congregations have accepted Faber's hymns, of 
 course with prudent omissions and alterations. 
 Grave critics have rebelled against them, but all in 
 vain. It is useless to say that ' O Paradise ' con- 
 tains weak and effeminate lines ; the people assent 
 and sing on, and after all one is glad that some of 
 them learn for the first time that there is such a 
 place as Paradise. We inquire in vain into the 
 meaning of the ' Pilgrims of the Night ; ' congrega- 
 tions are carried away by the rhythm and the 
 musical ring of the lines. Happily there are better 
 things than these in Faber. ' I was wandering and 
 weary ;' ' O come to the merciful Saviour ; ' ' Souls 
 of men ;' ' We came to Thee, sweet Saviour ; ' and 
 others, are most telling in mission services. ' Sweet 
 Saviour, bless us ere we go ' (duly altered) ranks 
 among our favourite evening hymns ; while as to the 
 spiritual value of some of the more chastened and 
 sober hymns on God the Father and the Spiritual 
 Life, the ' Gifts of God/ the ' Eternal Years/ the 
 ' Shore of Eternity,' the series on prayer, and most 
 of those on Death, these are treasures of Christian 
 thought and spiritual comfort which can never die. 
 
FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER 373 
 
 In reading them one can understand the attraction 
 which the warm-hearted, lofty-minded, emotional 
 young poet must have had for his mighty master 
 at Rydal ; and one can but regret all the more 
 deeply the alloy of foolishness and superstition 
 which in after time mingled with the gold of his 
 devout and elevated thoughts. 
 
CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH AND 
 HORATIUS BONAR 
 
 As these papers draw to a close, the press of 
 names worthy of note in modern English hymnody 
 becomes embarrassing. I feel almost sure that at 
 every turn some reader will think me strangely blind 
 to the merits of some favourite hymn or author, 
 simply because I am obliged here to select repre- 
 sentative names. I ought not to pass unnoticed 
 such men as John Samuel Monsell, whose warm 
 and loving devoutness so often is counter-balanced 
 by his incorrectness ; Henry Alford, Dean of 
 Canterbury, whose harvest hymn, ' Come, ye 
 thankful people, come,' is the best of our " In- 
 gathering " songs ; or one yet more recently lost, 
 but whom English hymn-singers will never forget 
 Henry Williams Baker. But I must confine 
 myself to two names, one from the heart of our 
 English Church, one from among our Presbyterian 
 brothers across the Tweed. 
 
 Christopher \Vordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln, is 
 one of whom we certainly do not first think as a 
 writer of hymns, but as a great scholar, a diligent 
 and careful expositor, an accurate theologian and 
 controversialist, a great and wise ruler in the 
 
 374 
 
CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH 
 
 375 
 
 Church, and a most holy, humble, loving, self- 
 denying man. And the man is reflected in his 
 verse. To read one of his best hymns is like 
 
 Christopher Wordsworth. 
 
 looking into a plain face, without one striking 
 feature, but with an irresistible charm of honesty, 
 intelligence, and affection. Take, for instance, his 
 Offertory Hymn, 'O Lord of heaven, and earth, 
 
376 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 and sea.' It is not in the least poetical ; it is full 
 of halting verses and prosaic lines. And yet it is 
 such true praise, so genuine, so comprehensive, so 
 heartfelt, that we forget its homeliness. 
 
 The good Bishop was the son of another Chris- 
 topher Wordsworth, Master of Trinity College, 
 Cambridge, and brother of the great poet. He 
 was born October 30, 1807, was trained at Win- 
 chester, took a brilliant degree at Cambridge in 
 1830, and was made Fellow of Trinity almost 
 immediately. From 1836 to 1844 he was Head 
 Master of Harrow. In that year he was appointed 
 Canon of Westminster, and while holding that 
 office he began to write his Holy Year, which was 
 published as a collection for Church use in Lent, 
 1862. Of its 200 hymns the first 117 were his 
 own. He prefaced it with a really remarkable 
 critical essay on hymns, full of learning and 
 wisdom, but with scarcely one single note of 
 sympathy with existing English hymnody. He 
 added a few more hymns subsequently, but, having 
 laid down his canons and made his protest, he left 
 the book to become a literary curiosity. He was 
 cheered, however, by the warmth with which the 
 few tuneful hymns it contained soon began to be 
 received ; and these few have been stored up in 
 the permanent treasury of the Church of England. 
 Dr. Wordsworth was appointed to the see of 
 Lincoln in November 1868, and administered it 
 in a way which won the reverence and love of all 
 good men till he entered into rest in 1885. We 
 pass into a very different atmosphere. 
 
 Horatius Bonar was one of a group of men who 
 
HORATIUS BONAR 
 
 377 
 
 were called in God's Providence to carry out a 
 remarkable revival of spiritual life in the heart 
 of Scottish Presbyterianism. His father, James 
 
 Horatius Bonar. 
 
 Bonar, was an Edinburgh solicitor, and a great 
 philologist. A " holy ancestry " and " godly parent- 
 age" were among the gifts for which he blessed 
 
3/8 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 God in his memorial hymn. He was " a child of 
 the city," born in Edinburgh December 19, 1808. 
 His father was a strict religious man, but " it was 
 at their mother's knee that he and his brothers 
 learnt their first and perhaps most abiding lessons 
 in the faith/' He was educated at the University 
 of Edinburgh, and in due time licensed as a 
 preacher. He and his friends early began mission 
 work in the courts and alleys of Edinburgh and 
 Leith. Leith was the special scene of " Horace's " 
 work. He preached in a mission hall there, and 
 began writing hymns for those whom he gathered 
 in. His first was, ' I was a wandering sheep ; ' his 
 second, ' I lay my sins on Jesus ; ' his third, ' A 
 few more years shall roll.' 
 
 In November 1837 he was called to be minister 
 of the " North Parish," in the beautiful old border- 
 town of Kelso, and there, by the swift-rushing 
 Tweed, and amidst the green woods of Floors, he 
 poured out his gift of song from a full heart, while 
 for nearly thirty years he worked and prayed with 
 loving energy. He and his two brothers organized 
 a kind of order of " Border Evangelists " to carry 
 on mission work among the dales. He was in 
 touch with all that was most living and earnest in 
 the Church of his fathers. He took a keen interest 
 in the controversies which ended in 1843 m tne 
 memorable Disruption. He and his brothers, and 
 most of their personal friends, followed Chalmers 
 and Candlish in the great exodus from St. Andrew's 
 Church, which Jeffrey watched with amazement. 
 They became the founders of the " Free Church of 
 Scotland." Most of them had to give up home 
 
IIORATIUS BONAR 379 
 
 and parish. Horatius Bonar, however, was enabled 
 to retain possession of his church in Kelso, where, 
 as he himself said, he had found " plenty of work, 
 plenty of workmen, and plenty of sympathy." At 
 length, in 1866, he returned to his native Edinburgh 
 to become the minister of a new church, built as a 
 memorial to Dr. Chalmers, in Grange, one of the 
 suburbs of the city. He often visited London, 
 taking part in the annual conference at Mildmay 
 Park. He died July 31, 1889, at the good old age 
 of eighty-one. 
 
 His own favourites among his hymns were the 
 beautiful one for the dedication of a church, * When 
 the weary seeking rest ; ' and that pearl of hymns, 
 ' I heard the voice of Jesus say,' which Bishop 
 Fraser of Manchester ranked above every other 
 in the language. But Bonar's seven volumes 
 contain many a less known gem of Christian 
 " faith and hope," and there is no more striking 
 testimony to his power as a " sweet singer," than 
 the very remarkable change which, during his 
 lifetime, passed over the whole of Scotland in the 
 matter of hymnody. Forty years ago, every 
 Presbyterian congregation, of whatever denomin- 
 ation, clung to the old Scottish national Psalms 
 and Paraphrases with a tenacity which seemed as 
 if it could never be shaken. The Psalms were 
 endeared to high and low, rich and poor, through- 
 out the land. No doubt they are still sung in all 
 their quaintness and force in many a country 
 congregation ; but from the towns they have 
 almost wholly disappeared. Each of the great 
 Presbyterian bodies, the Established Church, the 
 
380 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 Free, the United Presbyterians, and the English 
 Presbyterians, has its own authorized hymn-book, 
 compiled by its own members ; and the use of 
 hymns in congregations has become practically 
 universal. Many regret the old ; some, like the 
 gifted Robertson of Irvine, thought the new 
 comparatively weak and poor, though he himself 
 largely contributed to swell the tide of change, 
 but there can be no doubt that Scottish devotion 
 has gained much in breadth, colour, and heartiness ; 
 and it is scarcely too much to say that this great 
 change is, in large measure, due to the silent 
 leavening of the taste of religious Scotland by the 
 hymns of Horatius Bonar. I do not know, indeed, 
 whether he took any part at all in compiling any 
 of the new hymn-books ; I do not know whether 
 he personally approved of the beautiful and spiritual 
 volume which his own denomination has compiled ; 
 but I do say that the " new wine " of the Hymns 
 of Faith and Hope has enriched the blood of all 
 religious Scotland, and made it impossible for her 
 to rest content with the merely veiled and indirect 
 praise of her Risen and Ascended Lord which was 
 all that her old Psalmody allowed her. Her heart 
 grew hot within her, and at last she spake with her 
 tongue, in new and freer accents of praise. The 
 change is significant of much which is beyond the 
 province of these articles ; much which may need 
 anxious watching and prayer. But may it not be 
 significant, too, of a growing unity among some 
 hearts long saddened ? may it not be one of the faint 
 and far " preludings " of that " burst of song " which 
 shall usher in the day for which we wait and hope ? 
 
CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT AND FRANCES 
 RIDLEY HAVERGAL 
 
 WE must not close these notices of our hymn 
 writers without a reference to the share of Christian 
 women in the work of supplying the materials for 
 sacred song. 
 
 We need not dwell upon the hymns written by 
 Christian women in the last century and the earlier 
 years of this. But Anne Steele, Anna Barbauld, 
 Sarah Adams, and Alice Flowerdew (surely pre- 
 destined by her very name to write a harvest 
 hymn ! ) are still represented in our best collections. 
 Of Harriet Auber we have already spoken. Anne 
 and Jane Taylor of Ongar will always rank among 
 the pioneers of children's hymnody. Their hymns 
 have been too much overlooked of late years. 
 Jemima Luke will be remembered by the * Sweet 
 Story of Old.' Anne Mozley, the gifted sister of 
 Cardinal Newman, has left us a lovely children's 
 litany, < By Thy birth, O Lord of all.' 
 
 But of all the " daughters of the Magnificat" 
 those who have made the most profound impres- 
 sion on our own time are the two whose names 
 appear at the head of this article. 
 
 Charlotte Elliott was the sister of two well-known 
 381 
 
382 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 clergymen, Henry Venn Elliott, of St. Mary's, 
 Brighton, and Edward B. Elliott, whose book on 
 the Revelation, Horce Apocalypticce, was once ex- 
 ceedingly popular, though, like many commentaries 
 which looked into futurity, it has been in great 
 measure obliterated now by the stern logic of 
 events. Charlotte was born in 1789. A severe 
 illness in 1821 left her a confirmed invalid. The 
 following year she formed a friendship which was 
 to leave a permanent influence both on her writings 
 and her life ; she was introduced to Cesar Malan, 
 of Geneva, one of the leaders of what was then the 
 new Evangelical movement among the Reformed 
 Churches of France and Switzerland, and one of 
 the most prolific of modern French hymn-writers. 
 
 This excellent man had many English friends 
 and much sympathy with our Church ; he trans- 
 lated into French more than one of our best-known 
 hymns. A small volume was printed privately in 
 1834 (afterwards published), called the Invalid's 
 Hymn-book. To this Miss Elliott contributed an 
 appendix containing twenty-three hymns of her 
 own, among them the first draft of one by which 
 she has since become known to hundreds of thou- 
 sands, * My God, my Father, while I stray.' This 
 hymn she recast two or three times, altering among 
 other lines the first. Two years later, 1836, she 
 published Hours of Sorrow Cheered and Comforted, 
 containing the greatest of all her hymns, * Just as I 
 am.' This hymn is said to have been translated 
 into more languages than any other ; it is perhaps 
 even more popular on the Continent of Europe 
 than with ourselves ; but it certainly takes rank 
 
CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT 383 
 
 with ' Rock of Ages ' and ' Abide with me/ as 
 among the hymns which have left the deepest 
 impression upon the English religious mind, in its 
 earnest and true expression, without any qualifying 
 
 Charlotte Elliott. 
 
 or compromising phrases, of entire consecration to 
 our Lord, and absolute trust in Him. Another 
 admirable hymn of Miss Elliott's, ' Christian, seek 
 not yet repose/ appears as the Wednesday morn- 
 ing hymn in a beautiful little volume of hers, 
 
384 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 Hymns for a Week. To have written three such 
 hymns as these entitles her indeed to take a front 
 rank among the Christian singers of the world. 
 Miss Elliott died at Brighton, September 22, 1871. 
 The gift of sacred song, it may be mentioned, has 
 not departed from a younger generation of the 
 family to which she belonged. 
 
 Frances Ridley Havergal virtually belongs to 
 our own generation, for she was only forty-two 
 when she was called home in 1 879. She was, as it 
 were, born in an atmosphere of hymns. She was 
 the daughter of one hymn-writer, William Henry 
 Havergal, and was baptized by another, John 
 Cawood, of Bewdley. Her father held a country 
 rectory in Worcestershire, and removed thence in 
 1845 to the city of Worcester, where he became 
 incumbent of St. Nicholas, and became known both 
 as a composer of hymn-tunes and as a critic with a 
 special knowledge of the history of our Metrical 
 Psalmody. Frances was his .youngest child; her 
 second name, Ridley, was derived from her saintly 
 godfather, W. H. Ridley, vicar of Hambleden, 
 Berks, whose well-known little books on Confirm- 
 ation and Holy Communion are probably the 
 very best ever written on these subjects for the 
 country poor. The "record of Frances Havergal's 
 holy life has been compiled, largely from her own 
 reminiscences and letters, by her sister Maria, who 
 has since followed her. There are, so to speak, no 
 events in it. She lost her mother in childhood. 
 She published two volumes of verse Under the 
 Surface, and The Ministry of Song and many 
 other booklets and leaflets. She was constantly 
 
FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL 385 
 
 writing hymns. She was joint editor of a collection 
 called Songs of Grace and Glory, but it took no 
 permanent hold on the Church. But her real life 
 was a life of personal, spiritual influence upon 
 others. She lived habitually in an atmosphere of 
 
 Frances Ridley Havergal. 
 
 perfect love and entire consecration to God, of 
 which one reads with awe ; but her high ideal was 
 consistent with the warmest human affection for a 
 large circle of friends, and with the most perfect, 
 unaffected, child-like simplicity and sincerity. It is 
 
 B B 
 
386 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 too soon to estimate which of her numerous hymns 
 will live on to another generation, yet there are 
 some which we are sure must be remembered. 
 Many of them cover the same ground ; consecra- 
 tion of the life to God is their most frequent sub- 
 ject, as in the most solemn 'Take my life.' 
 Another, of peculiar power and reality written as 
 a motto beneath a German print of the Crucifixion, 
 begins in its original form, ' I gave My life for thee.' 
 So little did she esteem it that she threw it into 
 the fire in turning out an old desk. She consented, 
 however, to recast it for the S, P. C. K., and in its 
 present form, ' Thy life was given for me/ it has 
 already become dear to thousands who know per- 
 haps little of her other hymns. Her hymns for 
 workers, too, such as, ' Lord, speak to me that I 
 may speak,' and 'Jesus, Master, Whom I serve,' 
 are the reflection of a life which to the last was 
 spent in " service." Her beautiful Ascension hymn 
 for children, ' Golden harps are sounding,' written 
 for one of her father's tunes, embodies the leading 
 thought which dominated her life. Christ was her 
 King, she loved to call Him so ; loving, loyal 
 service for Him in every way was the law of her 
 life. 
 
HORATIUS BONAR AND HIS HYMNS 
 
 CHRISTIAN congregations, wherever the English 
 tongue is spoken, felt, on receiving the announce- 
 ment that Horatius Bonar had entered into rest, 
 at the ripe age of eighty-one, that the Church 
 militant had been bereaved of one of her sweetest 
 singers. With how many of the most sacred times 
 of our lives have his words been associated ! As I 
 write, a scene in a village churchyard many years 
 ago rises before my eyes. It was the funeral of a 
 poor lad, one of my own flock, who had been 
 drowned while bathing on his way to work on an 
 autumn morning. His remains had been reverently 
 and lovingly tended by the members of a little 
 community whose house was on the bank of the 
 river half-a-mile off. He was laid to rest just at 
 sunset, with, of course, a large gathering of his 
 mates and neighbours. And as the words of the 
 Burial Office died away, and the last gleam of 
 parting day tinged with pale gold the line of low 
 wooded hills behind the church tower, the brothers 
 and their choir began the hymn, 'A few more 
 years shall roll.' How the words came home to 
 every heart in their solemn reality 
 
 " A few more suns shall set 
 
 O'er these dark hills of time, 
 And we shall be where suns are not 
 A far serener clime." 
 387 
 
388 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 How often since has that solemn hymn closed our 
 services on New Year's Eve, each time with a fresh 
 impression of its deep reality! And this is the 
 quality of all Bonar's verse. It is sometimes trite 
 and commonplace. It is sometimes unpoetical. 
 He often repeats himself. His range of vision is 
 limited. His views are those of a plain Scotch 
 Calvinistic Evangelical and a Millenarian. But he 
 is a believer. He speaks of that which he knows ; 
 ,of Him whom he loves, and whom, God be praised, 
 he now sees at last, for whose coming he looked 
 and waited. And, therefore, his hymns have in 
 them the power which belongs to one to whom to 
 live was Christ. They are, indeed, what he called 
 them, ' Hymns of Faith and Hope.' 
 
 Bonar was one of a remarkable group of 
 young Scotchmen to whom it was given fifty years 
 ago to rekindle the dying fire of spiritual life in 
 the respectable but dull and lifeless Established 
 Church. Foremost among them was the saintly 
 and eloquent Robert Murray McCheyne, also a 
 hymn-writer, whose words I have found this week, 
 as I have often done before, to give peace and 
 comfort by a sick bed ; the two brothers Burns, 
 Andrew and Islay, the former a mission-preacher 
 to be compared in power only to Whitefield 
 himself; the latter, the scholar of the group, 
 McCheyne's successor, afterwards for many years 
 Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Glasgow, 
 a man of rare learning, deep piety, and most 
 large-hearted charity; John Milne of Perth, and 
 " Horace's " brother, Andrew Bonar of Collace, 
 whose commentary on Leviticus is still a most 
 valuable and interesting exposition of the symbol- 
 
HORATIUS BONAR AND HIS HYMNS 389 
 
 ism of the Mosaic ritual, and whose Life of 
 McCheyne has inspired the zeal of many a young 
 minister to tread in his steps. Every one of these 
 was a remarkable man. Every one had to endure 
 the ridicule, opposition, and misinterpretation 
 which is the lot of all reformers, and which doubt- 
 less, like all reformers, they did something to 
 provoke. Every one, except McCheyne (who did 
 not live to see it), " went out " from St. Andrew's 
 Church with Chalmers and Candlish on the memor- 
 able "Disruption Day" in 1843 \ an d every one, I 
 believe, took part in the formation of the Free 
 Church of Scotland. Horatius Bonar, who had 
 been minister of what is oddly called in Scotland a 
 "quoad sacra" Church (that is, an ecclesiastical 
 district) in Kelso, soon found himself the minister 
 of a new church there, formed doubtless in great 
 measure of the members of his old congregation. 
 There, amid the green braes and haughs, by the 
 side of the swift-rushing Tweed, or in the woods of 
 Floors,'or under the shadow of the grey Abbey tower, 
 many of his most touching verses were written, and 
 many of his happiest years passed. But, as he said of 
 himself, in one of his most striking poems, he knew 
 and loved and clung to the City. And his latter 
 years were spent in Edinburgh. Nor was he un- 
 known in London, where his venerable form might 
 often be seen sometimes presiding at the meetings 
 of the " Mildmay Conference " in June, especially 
 when some subject connected with prophecy or 
 eschatology was discussed. 
 
 I have always thought his first volume of hymns 
 contained the choicest the first crush of the grape. 
 The very earliest, 'Divine Order,' John Keble's 
 
390 FAVOURITE HYMNS AND THEIR AUTHORS 
 
 great favourite is perhaps his most perfect poem. 
 But among others in this volume are the great 
 Advent hymns, ' Come, Lord, and tarry not,' ' A 
 few more years shall roll/ ' The Church has waited 
 long,' and 'Far down the ages now/ It contains 
 also ' I was a wandering sheep/ ' I lay my sins 
 on Jesus/ ' Calm me, my God, and keep me calm/ 
 ' Thy way, not mine, O Lord/ ' Go, labour on/ and, 
 loveliest of all, ' I heard the voice of Jesus say.' 
 The second series contains that very noble, but 
 less known hymn, ( O love of God, how strong and 
 true/ also ' O Everlasting Light/ and the rapturous 
 ' Heaven at last/ often attributed to Faber. The 
 third contains the lovely hymn for the dedication 
 of a church, ' When the weary, seeking rest/ which 
 Sir John Stainer has recently wedded to music not 
 unworthy of it. 
 
 These titles alone will show both the range and 
 the limitations of Bonar's gift of song. As he grew 
 in years, he drew more inspiration from the Church 
 songs of the past, some of which he has successfully 
 translated ; and yet more from his knowledge of 
 Bible lands, their scenery and their associations. 
 But from first to last there is a unity about his 
 work. He never imitated, never affected to be 
 what he was not. He is always the Presbyterian, 
 Bible loving, uncompromising, unmistakable in his 
 principles, his views, his very prejudices. But he 
 is, more and more, the holy singer, inspired by the 
 Spirit of Christ, steeped in love to Christ, at one 
 with all, of all Churches, who love and own the 
 same Lord, " both theirs and ours." Let us bless 
 God for one more departed in His faith and fear. 
 
SOME FAMOUS HYMNS 
 
 SOME FAMOUS EASTER HYMNS 
 
 As the greatest and oldest of Christian festivals, 
 Easter has, as might have been expected, wakened 
 the voice of Christian song in many lands and in 
 every age of the Church. Hence it is that there 
 have been an unusual number of Easter hymns 
 which from time to time have acquired popularity, 
 and that although some of these are now forgotten, 
 there are not a few which, in the hymnals compiled 
 of late years in England (such as Hymns Ancient 
 and Modern, Church Hymns, and the Hymnal 
 Companion of Bishop Bickersteth), have recovered 
 their ancient place in the affections of Church 
 people, and bid fair to be welcomed for generations 
 to come. It may interest my readers to hear of a 
 few of these more famous Easter hymns of the 
 Church. 
 
 The vast collections of hymns of the Greek- 
 speaking Churches, of which all but a few are 
 unknown to English readers, have yielded two 
 Easter hymns to our modern collections, viz. ' The 
 Day of Resurrection' (H. A. M.; C. H. ; H. Q, 
 and * Come, ye faithful, raise the strain ' (H. A. M. ; 
 
392 SOME FAMOUS HYMNS 
 
 C. H.). Both these are translated by Dr. Neale 
 (in his Hymns of the Eastern ChurcJi}^ and both 
 are by the same author, St. John of Damascus, 
 a Christian poet and philosopher of the eighth 
 century, who ended his days in the monastery of 
 Mar Saba, near the Dead Sea ; and who is, as all 
 have agreed, the greatest of Greek hymn-writers. 
 Of St. John's two hymns it is especially the first 
 which may claim notice as one of the famous 
 hymns of the world, the series (for Easter morning) 
 to which it belongs being called the " Golden 
 Canon," and sung throughout the Greek Churches 
 as the opening hymn for Easter-day. A " Canon " 
 in the Greek service-books is the name applied to 
 a series of hymns, sung in a certain invariable 
 order, and governed by fixed rules, during Matins 
 on certain days. The second of our Greek hymns, 
 also by St. John of Damascus, is part of a 
 " Canon " for Low Sunday, or, as the Greeks call 
 it, St. Thomas's Sunday. 
 
 It need hardly be said that these Greek hymns 
 were quite unknown to our own fathers ; nor is it 
 likely that more than a few versions, turned into 
 metre, or fragments from among them, will find 
 their way into our hymn-books. We are far more 
 at home in the West with the hymns of the Latin- 
 speaking Churches, the true progenitors of our 
 own, as the Latin services are (on the whole) of 
 our Book of Common Prayer. The old English 
 rule for some centuries was that no hymns were 
 sung in the Offices for the Hours on Easter-day 
 itself. But the great service for the day opened 
 (after the singing of * Christ being raised from the 
 
SOME FAMOUS EASTER HYMNS 393 
 
 dead,' etc.) with the splendid processional of 
 Fortunatus, ' Salve Festa dies/ probably for many 
 centuries the most popular Easter hymn in the 
 world. It was translated by Cranmer, and his 
 design was to print it after the Litany, as a special 
 hymn for Easter ; but his translation is now lost. 
 It has become known in late years through more 
 than one translation, ' Welcome, happy morning ' 
 (H. A. M., C. H., and H. Q, and has recently 
 acquired new popularity, in London especially, 
 through Mr. Baden Powell's fine tune to a version 
 (I believe by Mr. Chambers 1 ), ' Hail, festal day, for 
 evermore adored.' The original is probably the 
 finest processional hymn in the world. There are 
 in the York Processional imitations of it for 
 Ascension, and for a Church Dedication. Each 
 day in Easter week had its own " sequence " hymn 
 in the Sarum Missal ; the best known of these is 
 the ' Victimse Paschali,' of which a free version is 
 in H. A. M. 131. This was long sung by the 
 Lutherans, and in some German hymn-books is 
 still printed in the original Latin. Of the other 
 Latin Easter hymns, the most famous were the 
 following : ( Ad ccenam Agni,' of which H. A. M. 
 has two versions, 127 and 128 ; the former a fine 
 one, by Mr. Campbell, also in C. H., translated 
 from the modern Roman version of this hymn ; 
 the latter reproducing nearly all its original quaint- 
 ness. It was originally a hymn to be sung by the 
 newly baptized in their white dresses, on the first 
 Sunday after Easter. 'Aurora lucis rutilat/ a 
 very fine hymn in three parts, is in H, A. M. 126, 
 1 Signed " W. A." in Lyra Euchai istica (Julian). 
 
394 SOME FAMOUS HYMNS 
 
 and a version of the first part, by Dr. Hort, in 
 C. H. 130. Both these hymns are, at latest, of 
 the sixth century; they are sometimes called St. 
 Ambrose's, and, at any rate, belong to his school. 
 The hymn for the eves of Sundays in Easter, * Ye 
 choirs of new Jerusalem* (H. A. M. 125), is attri- 
 buted to a French bishop, St. Fulbert of Chartres, 
 of the eleventh century. ' The strife is o'er ' (' Finita 
 jam sunt praelia ') is referred by Dr. Neale to the 
 thirteenth century. It is in H. A. M. y C. H., and 
 H. C. 
 
 The Reformation, as every one knows, divided 
 the Reformed Communions into psalm-singing and 
 hymn-singing bodies. Till early in the present 
 century no hymns were sung in our churches, and 
 at Easter it was the fashion to use the very tame 
 and prosaic paraphrases of the Easter Anthems, 
 which had found their way to the end of the New 
 Version of Psalms. There was, however, one 
 singular and important exception, the familiar 
 ' Jesus Christ is risen to-day Alleluia ! ' Its 
 origin was for a long time unknown ; and it is still 
 impossible to discover under what circumstances it 
 attained its unique position. The original is an 
 Easter carol of the fourteenth century still ex- 
 isting at Munich, apparently written in imitation 
 of the famous Christmas carol ' Puer natus in 
 Bethlehem/ 1 A translation of a portion of this in 
 three verses appeared in English in a book of 
 sacred melodies called Lyra Davidica, in 1708. 
 From this translation our present first verse is 
 1 See, however, Diet, of Hymnology, p. 596 ii., where the 
 original is given as Surrexit Christ us hodie. H. H. 
 
SOME FAMOUS EASTER HYMNS 395 
 
 taken. The second and third verses, however, 
 were replaced in 1749 (in Arnold's Compleat 
 P sahnodist) by the two with which we are all 
 familiar, which, though in no sense a translation of 
 the old carol, breathe the same spirit, and have 
 made the whole into a good hymn. The tune, 
 commonly attributed to Dr. Worgan (but published 
 before his birth), was thought by Sir John Goss to 
 be by the celebrated Henry Carey; possibly he 
 also translated the words. 
 
 Germany, the land of vernacular hymns, pro- 
 duced many Easter hymns. The grandest of all 
 these was Luther's own, far less known in England 
 than it deserves ; it was the first German hymn 
 ever translated into English (by Myles Coverdale, 
 the reforming Bishop of Exeter, under Henry 
 VIII.). About thirty years ago a fine version by 
 the late Mr. Massie was inserted in Mercer's 
 Hymn-book, with the chorale to which it is usually 
 sung ; an abbreviated version of the hymn (' Christ 
 Jesus lay in death's strong bonds') is in Church 
 Hymns, 129. There is a still earlier hymn, a recast 
 of an old Bohemian hymn (' Christus ist erstan- 
 den'), which, through Miss Winkworth's version, 
 ' Christ the Lord is risen again ' (H. A. M. and 
 C. H.) is happily now well known and loved. One 
 other German Easter hymn may be mentioned, 
 the lovely 'Jesus lives ' (H. A. M. ; C. H. ; H. Q, 
 of Christian Gellert, the saintly old Professor at 
 Leipsic (d. 1769), the teacher of Lessing and 
 Goethe. 
 
 The most famous Easter hymn of purely English 
 origin is probably Charles Wesley's ' Christ the 
 
396 SOME FAMOUS HYMNS 
 
 Lord is risen to-day' (C. H. and H. C. 210), one 
 of the same set with his better-known Christmas 
 and Ascension hymns. It is a pity it has not 
 found a place beside these in Hymns Ancient 
 and Modern, as well as the little-known but very 
 striking Epiphany hymn in the same series. They 
 appeared in 1739. It is too soon to say whether 
 any later hymns will grow to be famous. But 
 there are one or two, such as Bishop Wordsworth's 
 florid but stately 'Alleluia! Alleluia! hearts to 
 heaven and voices raise' (H. A. M. and C. //".), 
 and Mr. Chatterton Dix's 'Alleluia ! sing to Jesus' 
 (H. A. M. and C. H.\ which bid fair to take root 
 among us ; to which I feel strongly disposed to 
 add one by Mrs. Cousin in a Scotch book, ' To 
 Thee, and to Thy Christ, O God/ Mr. Baring 
 Gould's touching ' On the Resurrection morning ' 
 (H. A. M. and C. #.), and ' O Voice of the Beloved ' 
 (for Easter Monday), by the late Vicar of Settle, 
 Mr. Jackson Mason, a "sweet singer" too early 
 lost to the Church, all of them likely to become 
 better known and loved ere long. 
 
 The list ought not to close without the mention 
 of one hymn, which though not formally an Easter 
 hymn, is so full of Easter teaching and spirit as to 
 form a noble close to the services of the " Day 
 of Days," namely, c Jerusalem luminosa,' ' Light's 
 abode, celestial Salem' (H. A.M. 232), a selection 
 by Dr. Neale from a long hymn for the dedication 
 or restoration of a church. It is of the fifteenth 
 century, and is found in a hymn-book at Carlsriihe. 
 How wonderfully these unknown singers of the 
 past live on in their inspiring strains ! 
 
SOME FAMOUS ADVENT HYMNS 
 
 ADVENT is not one of the earliest of the Church 
 Seasons. Although in many Churches, especially 
 those in France, a penitential season, of length 
 variously prescribed, was observed as a preparation 
 for Christmas early in the sixth century, it was 
 not until the close of that century, that the four 
 Sundays in Advent became, with their due collects 
 and gospels, a part of the recognized order of the 
 Roman Church under St. Gregory the Great ; nor 
 did their use become general for nearly a century 
 and a half longer. But hymns on the subject of 
 our Lord's Advent are found earlier than the 
 formal observance of the season ; though, as might 
 be expected, they are mainly hymns of preparation 
 for Christmas, and celebrate the first coming of 
 our Lord. 
 
 The typical primitive Advent Hymn is St. 
 
 Ambrose's ' Veni Redemptor gentium,' one of the 
 
 most stately and solemn of his hymns. A fine 
 
 translation of it, by the late Mr. Morgan, was 
 
 inserted in the enlarged edition of H. A. M., 
 
 where it is No. 55. 1 The allusions to the manger 
 
 show that it was intended for use on Christmas 
 
 Eve or Day, and it was doubtless originally a 
 
 1 ' O come, Redeemer of mankind, appear.' 
 
 397 
 
SOME FAMOUS HYMNS 
 
 hymn for vespers at Christmas ; but it is essentially 
 an Advent hymn, and was thus used more com- 
 monly in the middle ages, celebrating our Lord's 
 two-fold coming and the Church's expectation of 
 both. This hymn was very widely used ; it was 
 translated by Luther, and a version of it in 
 German, by Franke, has become popular in the 
 Lutheran Churches. Franke's is a fine translation, 
 and as its language is better adapted for modern 
 use than the plain-spoken phraseology of the 
 Latin, it was made the basis of Professor Hort's 
 admirable version of the hymn in C. H. 70. A 
 little later, probably, comes another hymn from 
 Milan, 'Conditor alme siderum ' (H. A. M. 45, 
 C. H. 65). This, too, was universally employed 
 through the middle ages, and has found its way 
 through more than one translation into German 
 books. Its popularity in England has been, 
 unfortunately I think, overshadowed by that of 
 another hymn of the same date, ' Vox clara ecce 
 intonat,' known to us chiefly through Mr. Caswall's 
 very spirited and melodious version of it, ' Hark ! a 
 thrilling voice is sounding ' (H. A. M. 47, C. H. 
 67). A third hymn, equally popular in the middle 
 ages, 'Verbum Supernum prodiens,' also of the 
 Ambrosian school, is less known to us, but it 
 appears as No. 46 in H. A. M. It was the Morn- 
 ing Hymn for every day in Advent. All three 
 hymns were revised (and as usual nearly spoiled) 
 by the compilers of the Roman breviary in the 
 sixteenth century. The seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries brought a large crop of Latin Advent 
 hymns, of the same type, into the various French 
 
SOME FAMOUS ADVENT HYMNS 399 
 
 breviaries, from which thirty or forty years ago 
 several passed into our English hymn-books. The 
 best of them is Charles Coffin's * On Jordan's 
 bank' (H. A. M. 50, C. H. 71), both translations 
 being revisions of Mr. Chandler's. Of our English 
 hymns on the First Advent, the one to which I 
 would give the palm is undoubtedly Doddridge's 
 noble ' Hark, the glad sound ! the Saviour comes,' 
 written December 28, 1735, probably (as was his 
 custom) to be sung after a sermon on St. Luke iv. 
 17-19. This is in nearly all English hymn-books. 
 The Bishop of Exeter has rescued from oblivion, 
 for the Hymnal Companion, another good hymn of 
 a similar type, by Dr. Watts : ' Joy to the world ! 
 the Lord is come ' ; but it is, in my judgment, 
 inferior to Doddridge's. 
 
 Bishop Jeremy Taylor's Golden Grove (written 
 about 1654) contained a series of irregular odes, 
 which he called " Festival Hymns." They were 
 meant for private use. From one of these, for 
 Advent, ' Lord, come away,' Earl Nelson con- 
 structed a really fine hymn for the Salisbury 
 Hymn Book, which was inserted in C. H. 66. It 
 has, however, failed to attain the popularity which 
 I think it deserves. Bishop Heber had previously 
 failed in another attempt at adapting the same 
 hymn. It is on the Gospel for the First Sunday 
 in Advent. Lord Nelson's hymn begins, ' Draw 
 nigh to Thy Jerusalem, O Lord.' 
 
 I must not leave this part of my subject without 
 a reference to an interesting early usage in Advent, 
 which has left its mark on our hymns, I mean the 
 practice of singing a special short anthem or 
 
400 SOME FAMOUS HYMNS 
 
 antiphon at Evensong on each of the eight days 
 before Christmas Eve, beginning with December 
 1 6. The words in the calendar against that day, 
 "O Sapientia," may have puzzled some readers. 
 They are meant to indicate the use of the first of 
 these short hymns, " O Wisdom that earnest forth 
 out of the mouth of the Most High, mightily and 
 sweetly ordering all things, come and teach us the 
 way of understanding." It is founded on a passage 
 (viii. i) in the apocryphal Book of Wisdom. The 
 other six antiphons are all of them invocations to 
 our Lord under some one of His Old Testament 
 names, attributes, or symbols, and were supposed 
 to represent the longing of the faithful in old days 
 for His appearing. In the twelfth century (ac- 
 cording to Dr. Neale) they were collected into a 
 metrical hymn : 'Veni, veni, Emmanuel' ; and five 
 of them now form an admirable hymn for the last 
 fortnight of Advent (H. A. M. 49), and all seven 
 in C. H. 74, so arranged that one verse may, if 
 desired, be sung on each of the appropriate days. 
 But the H. A. M. form, with its lovely mediaeval 
 melody, is the most popular. 
 
 In the middle ages, especially in the sorrows 
 and troubles of Europe in the eleventh century, 
 the thought of our Lord's second coming to judg- 
 ment came more and more prominently before the 
 minds of believers. A notion had sprung up that 
 the end of the thousandth year of the Christian 
 era would witness the consummation of all things ; 
 and the awe and terror of coming judgment lasted 
 on for a long time afterwards. Peter Damiani's 
 awful hymn, 'Gravi me terrore pulsas,' which its 
 
SOME FAMOUS ADVENT HYMNS 40! 
 
 translator, Dr. Neale, calls the " Dies Irae of the 
 individual life" (Neale, Med. //"., p. 52), was a 
 symptom of the feeling of his day (1002-72). A 
 century later we have the * Hora novissima ' of 
 Bernard of Cluny (' The world is very evil,' H. A. 
 M. 226), though the later stanzas, ' Jerusalem the 
 Golden,' have taken a far greater hold upon our 
 own less serious century. And then, standing out 
 in unparalleled grandeur above every other " Judg- 
 ment " hymn, old and new, there appears before us 
 the unapproachable ' Dies Irae,' probably written 
 by Thomas of Celano, the friend and biographer 
 of St. Francis of Assisi, about the middle of the 
 thirteenth century. There is no need to quote 
 here the judgment of critics, who all agree in 
 doing homage to the majesty of the ' Dies Irae/ 
 The best proof of its power lies in the fact that it 
 has more or less influenced almost everything that 
 has since been written on the subject of the last 
 judgment. The hymn has been many times 
 translated into various European languages. Of 
 late years Dean Alford and Archbishop Trench 
 have been among its translators into English ; but 
 the best version for singing is the very remark- 
 able one by the late Dr, Irons, which appears in 
 H. A. M., in C. H. y and in the Hymnal Companion, 
 and which Dr. Dykes's noble setting has made still 
 more impressive. The fine paraphrase of a part 
 of the hymn by Sir Walter Scott, in the Lay of 
 the Last Minstrel, * That day of wrath, that 
 dreadful day/ is also to be found in H. A. M. 
 and in Bishop Bickersteth's book. 
 
 Numberless have been the hymns either sug- 
 
 c c 
 
402 SOME FAMOUS HYMNS 
 
 gested by the ' Dies Irae/ or at least influenced 
 by its train of thought. Among the best known 
 is 'Great God, what do I see and hear?' a 
 hymn universally, but quite erroneously, known as 
 Luther's, since he had nothing to do with either 
 the words or the music. The tune was a chorale 
 by Klug, written after Luther's death. The hymn, 
 all but the first verse, is by the late Dr. Collyer, 
 a Congregationalist minister. It may be fairly 
 said that the hymn is one which has been popu- 
 larized by its tune, and I own I should much like 
 to see it some day superseded by Mrs. Leeson's far 
 more hopeful and beautiful hymn in the same 
 metre, ' Stand we prepared to see and hear' (C. H. 
 505), which strikes the true keynote of preparation 
 for the coming of the Lord. But I fear I shall 
 not carry my readers with me. 
 
 The Wesleyan hymnody, as might be expected, 
 dealt largely with the expectations of the Second 
 Advent, and to it we owe the most famous of 
 English " Judgment " hymns that which most 
 readers would recognize as the Advent hymn if 
 none other were named ; I mean, of course, ' Lo ! 
 He comes.' This hymn, as we know it, is a curious 
 refutation of the popular theory that a hymn 
 ought always to appear exactly as its author wrote 
 it. The original writer, John Cennick, one of 
 Wesley's best preachers (though he afterwards left 
 the Wesleyans), is well known as the author of 
 ' Children of the heavenly King.' Cennick's 
 Judgment hymn appeared in 1752, and six years 
 afterwards it was recast by a man of genius, 
 Charles Wesley, and became what it is now. My 
 
SOME FAMOUS ADVENT HYMNS 403 
 
 readers may like to see what they would have had 
 to sing if Charles Wesley had left the hymn as its 
 author wrote it. Happily he saw its capabilities 
 
 " Lo ! He cometh, countless trumpets 
 
 Bow before the bloody sign ; 
 Midst the thousand saints and angels 
 See the glorified shine ! 
 
 Hallelujah ! 
 Welcome, welcome, bleeding Lamb ! 
 
 Now His merit, by the harpers 
 Through the eternal deep resounds ; 
 
 Now resplendent shines [sic] His nail-prints, 
 Every eye shall see His wounds ; 
 
 They who pierced Him 
 Shall at His appearance wail." 
 
 There are four more stanzas, which it is needless 
 to give ; one of them, ' Now redemption, long 
 expected/ is still found in some versions of the 
 hymn. But it is to Wesley, not to Cennick, that 
 we really owe the words which touch so many 
 hearts in the dusk of the solemn Advent afternoon. 
 
 We must not forget, among English Advent 
 hymns, Wesley's striking " Watch-night " hymn, 
 ' Thou Judge of quick and dead/ nor Doddridge's 
 ' Ye servants of the Lord ' ; John Newton's ' Day 
 of Judgment ' seems to me only a weaker ' Lo ! 
 He comes/ These three are all in the Hymnal 
 Companion, and the first two in H. A. M. 
 
 The " Second Advent " hymns hitherto men- 
 tioned all bring into prominence the * Dies Irse ' 
 side of the Last Day, and, except Mrs. Leeson's, 
 scarcely touch upon that aspect of it presented by 
 our Master's exhortation to His faithful disciples : 
 
404 SOME FAMOUS HYMNS 
 
 "Look up, and lift up your heads, for your re* 
 demption dravveth nigh/' Of late years, however, 
 this element of believing and hopeful expectation 
 has been largely awakened in the Christian Church, 
 and has found its expression already in her songs. 
 Such hymns as Mr. Hensley's ' Thy kingdom 
 come/ Mr. Tuttiett's noble ' O quickly come,' and 
 Miss Havergal's beautiful and jubilant 'Thou art 
 coming, O my Saviour' (all in H. A. M.), are 
 indeed treasures for which we must be thankful to 
 the Divine Spirit who is breathing new life into the 
 waiting Church. But the great singer of Advent 
 expectations is he who so recently has passed 
 within the veil, Horatius Bonar. Such hymns as 
 ' Come, Lord, and tarry not,' * The Church has 
 waited long,' ' Far down the ages now * (all in 
 C. H., and the last also in the new appendix to 
 H. A. M.), may well help to rekindle in many 
 hearts that " looking for the blessed hope and 
 glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ," which was the especial characteristic of 
 the Church of the first days, and for lack of which 
 she has been, till of late, shorn of so much of her 
 strength, and chilled in the energy of her love. 
 
CHILDREN'S HYMNS BY MRS. 
 ALEXANDER 
 
 THE present century has done much for the 
 religious life of children within the Church. In 
 nothing is this more manifest than in the provision 
 made for their devotions. Hymns for children as 
 children were all but unknown before the Reform- 
 ation. The famous " Shepherd " hymn of Clement 
 of Alexandria is not really a hymn at all, nor is 
 it fitted or intended for use by a child. The yet 
 more famous 'All glory, laud, and honour' (at- 
 tributed, on doubtful authority, to Theodulf of 
 Orleans) was written, no doubt, to be sung by 
 chorister boys, but merely as an adjunct to the 
 Palm Sunday Offices ; and the hymns which 
 Savonarola taught the boys at Florence were the 
 product of a noble but merely local and temporary 
 revival. A " children's hymn-book" in the middle 
 ages meant a collection of the usual Office Hymns 
 and Sequences, with notes and helps to construing 
 a school-book for the choristers' schools. One 
 such is preserved in a Cheshire church, with a 
 grim frontispiece representing three little boys 
 seated on a low bench before a stern ecclesiastic, 
 who wields a formidable birch-rod ; a curious 
 405 
 
406 SOME FAMOUS HYMNS 
 
 illustration of the method then accepted of " teach- 
 ing a child to be good." The Reformation brought 
 at least the possibility of a change, though it was 
 long before the change came. There is, indeed, 
 no manual of Christian teaching in any country to 
 be compared to our Church Catechism ; but how 
 much " accommodation " and exposition it needs 
 to ma^e it a child's book ! Luther, indeed, under- 
 stood children's religion, as his Christmas hymn 
 for his boy Hans shows us ; and we have occasional 
 glimpses, from time to time, of light upon children's 
 spiritual needs ; Herrick's lovely ' Grace ' is one 
 such ; but still there was wanting a real sympathy 
 with the beginnings of child-like religion. Ken's 
 ' Good Philotheus ' is no child, but a sixth-form 
 boy. 
 
 We come to Isaac Watts as the pioneer in the 
 attempt to provide children with hymns and 
 prayers of their own. Watts, though a valetu- 
 dinarian old bachelor, was a kindly little man, 
 really fond of children, and his Divine and Moral 
 Songs were a labour of love. There is much to 
 commend in his work. With all the quaintness, 
 there is in his Moral Songs a " sanctified common- 
 sense " which is excellent ; and he now and then 
 rises into real poetry, as in the * Cradle Hymn/ 
 which Tennyson has singled out for praise. In 
 the Divine Songs there are fine thoughts here and 
 there thoughts of a devout and God-fearing mind. 
 But Watts never rose beyond the theology of his 
 environment ; and that theology was singularly 
 ill-adapted to call out the elements of a child's 
 religion. He never, to begin with, grasped the 
 
CHILDREN'S HYMNS BY MRS. ALEXANDER 407 
 
 idea of a child's covenant relation with its Father 
 in heaven. His children were not even prodigal 
 sons ; they had never yet been in the Father's 
 House at all. He writes a hymn for believers 
 who practise infant baptism, and gives those who 
 don't a hint to leave out certain verses. For 
 Infant Baptism was to him a devout and graceful, 
 but purely optional form just as one might pre- 
 pare a book for " believers who practise " chanting 
 the Psalms. He is, of course, like all his school, 
 happily inconsistent ; he loves children so much 
 that he believes in his Master's love for them ; but 
 he does not believe that a Christian child belongs 
 to Christ in any special sense at all. Contrast St. 
 Matthew xviii. 10, with such words as 
 
 " Can such a wretch as I 
 Escape this cursed end ? 
 
 * * * * 
 Then will I read and pray, 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Lest I should be cut off to-day, 
 And sent to eternal death." 
 
 Or consider the difference of the conception of the 
 character of God as revealed by Christ in the 
 words, " It is not the will of your Father which is 
 in heaven that one of these little ones should 
 perish," with that embodied in the monstrous 
 lines 
 
 " What if the Lord grow wroth, and swear, 
 While I refuse to read and pray, 
 That He'll refuse to lend an ear 
 To all my groans another day ? 
 
408 SOME FAMOUS HYMNS 
 
 What if His dreadful anger burn 
 
 While I refuse His offered grace, 
 
 And all His love to anger turn, 
 
 And strike me dead upon the place ? 
 
 'Tis dangerous to provoke a God ! 
 
 His power and vengeance none can tell : 
 
 One stroke of His Almighty rod 
 
 Shall send young sinners quick to hell " 
 
 and so forth. The contrast between this and the 
 ' Cradle Song ' shows the difference between a 
 good man writing from his own heart and from 
 the necessity of being consistent with the traditional 
 theology of his school. 
 
 Charles Wesley, who thought that Watts had 
 " succeeded admirably well " in letting himself 
 down to children, himself wrote, he tells us, on the 
 other plan of lifting them up to us. But except 
 the fine ( Captain of our Salvation,' for the Kings- 
 wood pupils, there is nothing worth noting in the 
 first part of his hymns for children, certainly 
 nothing so good as Watts's best. His Hymns for 
 the Youngest contain, however, some really beauti- 
 ful little hymns, the first being ' Gentle Jesus, 
 meek and mild/ It is true he sometimes "lets 
 himself down" so much, that some of his lines 
 are absolutely silly ; and sometimes, in trying to 
 lift up the children, loses hold of the little hands. 
 Nor does his theology, on the whole, differ much 
 from Watts's. The repentance, faith, hopes, and 
 terrors of the little ones are still cast in the mould 
 of their elders. The foundation text of a child's 
 religion is still read backwards " Except the little 
 children be converted, and become like you." 
 
 The establishment of Sunday Schools doubtless 
 
CHILDREN'S HYMNS BY MRS. ALEXANDER 409 
 
 brought a new demand for children's hymns ; and 
 soon a far truer note was struck by the Taylors of 
 Ongar. The authoresses of the Hymns for Infant 
 Minds and Hymns for Sunday Schools found out 
 at last how to put into really childlike words 
 the root-truths of every child's faith. Dissenters 
 though they were, and (I believe) Baptists, the 
 groundwork of all true Church teaching is in such 
 hymns as ' Great God, and wilt Thou condescend,' 
 ' Lord, I would own Thy tender care/ ' Lo, at noon 
 'tis sudden night ' (a really sublime hymn on the 
 Passion), ' Jesus Christ, my Lord and Saviour.' 
 c Jesus, Who dwelt above the sky,' though the most 
 popular of all, has grave defects of taste and 
 doctrine. And more might be enumerated. But 
 now "all can grow the flower" from the seed 
 which the Taylors sowed; and the luxuriance of 
 Nonconformist child-hymnody is such that it 
 would be invidious to select names. But it is to 
 be noted that the best of these are those that have 
 shaken themselves most free from the dominant 
 theology of Watts's day, and dwell mainly upon 
 the Fatherhood of God, the love of the Good 
 Shepherd, and the personal relation of the child 
 to Him. Such are those of Mr. Midlane (' There's 
 a Friend for little children '), Mrs. Luke (' I think 
 when I read that sweet story of old '), and Mrs. 
 Duncan (' Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me '). 
 
 And now as the spirit of hymnody began to 
 awake within the English Church, and one singer 
 after another arose to translate the words of the 
 past, or to add new treasures to the ever-growing 
 store of Church hymns, there arose a new demand 
 
410 SOME FAMOUS HYMNS 
 
 for definite Church teaching in the songs put into 
 the lips of our little ones, and the Church of 
 England began to produce children's hymns of her 
 own, conceived in the spirit of her Prayer Book 
 and Catechism. Isaac Williams's Hymns on the 
 Catechism, though rather hard and formal, were a 
 step in the right direction ; then came the suc- 
 cessive parts of Neale's Hymns for Children, many 
 of them devout and instructive, but not inspired ; 
 Mrs. Leeson's Hymns and Scenes of Childhood ; 
 and a most excellent and useful, though rather 
 unchildlike book, The Child's Christian Year, to 
 which Keble contributed, and in which appeared 
 many of Anstice's hymns, and some by Cardinal 
 Newman's sister, Mrs. Mozley. But none of these 
 were all we wanted for our little ones. At last, in 
 1848, amidst the storms of political revolution and 
 social agitation, when a new tide of thought was 
 flowing full and strong into English religious life, 
 in the year which saw Tennyson's splendid 
 maturity in the ' Princess/ and Charles Kingsley's 
 brilliant dawning in the ' Saint's Tragedy/ there 
 came quietly and unnoticed into the Church, from 
 the far north of Ireland, a little book signed by no 
 name but the three modest initials, "C. F. H."; a 
 book which will live upon the lips of generations 
 of children yet unborn, even of many who will 
 perhaps never care to read the two other great 
 poems ; and will put into the mouth of thousands 
 of " babes and sucklings " the first notes of that 
 praise which God will perfect on high. 
 
 Miss Humphreys, as she then was, had already 
 published one or two graceful volumes of verse for 
 
CHILDREN'S HYMNS BY MRS. ALEXANDER 411 
 
 young people, and two years before had brought 
 out, with a Preface by Dr. Hook, a little book of 
 Verses for Holy Seasons , dedicated to John Keble. 
 These are arranged according to the Sundays and 
 Holy Days of the Christian Year. They scarcely 
 give promise of what was to come ; but there is 
 much beauty in them here and there. One 
 specially lovely poem on the healing of the deaf 
 stammerer has, I believe, been reprinted in her 
 Moral Songs. But the " Verses " were not hymns. 
 
 It is superfluous to praise the Hymns for 
 Little Children, which must have sold by the 
 million. Its true praise is in the thousands of 
 little lips which daily utter such strains as, ' Now 
 the dreary night is done,' ' All things bright and 
 beautiful,' ' Once in royal David's city/ * Do no 
 sinful action,' * There is a green hill far away,' 
 and many another. It was an excellent plan to 
 make the hymns follow the order of the Church 
 Catechism, upon which they are so good a 
 commentary. 
 
 The Hymns for Little Children were followed 
 by the scarcely less beautiful, but less known 
 Narrative Hymns on the Gospels ; and these again 
 by the Verses on Subjects in the Old Testament, 
 containing, among others, the noble poem on the 
 ' Burial of Moses,' which the late Lord Houghton 
 no mean critic pronounced to be the finest 
 sacred lyric in the language. Before these were 
 given to the world, Miss Humphreys had married 
 Mr. Alexander, one of the two Irish deans who 
 took the Church of England by storm at the York 
 Church Congress, and who have now been long 
 
412 SOME FAMOUS HYMNS 
 
 recognized as the two most eloquent preachers on 
 the bench of Bishops. 1 Mrs. Alexander's hymns, 
 however, as is well known, are by no means all 
 written for the little ones. Some of these best 
 known and loved first appeared in the S.P.C.K. 
 Psalms and Hymns, 1850, edited by the late Mr. 
 Fosbery of Reading. Among these were 'Jesus 
 calls us ; o'er the tumult/ ' The roseate hues of 
 early dawn,' * The golden gates are lifted up.' 
 The beautiful 'When wounded sore the stricken 
 soul ' is a little later. This hymn is understood to 
 be her husband's favourite. 
 
 Mrs. Alexander edited for Messrs. Macmillan 
 a charming little Sunday Book of Poetry for the 
 Young, one of the " Golden Treasury " series ; less 
 known than it deserves. She is frequently asked 
 to write hymns for special occasions. Some of 
 the Hymns for Saints' Days in Hymns Ancient 
 and Modern are hers, including a beautiful one for 
 St. Peter's Day, ' Forsaken once, and thrice denied.' 
 Some of these, however, are less adapted for 
 singing than her earlier hymns. She has also 
 written a pretty collection of Moral Songs, and 
 one or two allegories and tales ; among them a 
 rendering into verse of the lovely legend of Saint 
 Francesca of Rome, called ' The Legend of the 
 Golden Prayers.' 
 
 Many years ago two ladies in a country house 
 were watching all night in terrible anxiety by the 
 bedside of the child of one of them, who had been 
 struck down by a dread accident. As night slowly 
 passed into dawn hope seemed to die out of their 
 1 She died after this paper was written. 
 
CHILDREN'S HYMNS BY MRS. ALEXANDER 413 
 
 hearts. Suddenly from the adjoining nursery rose 
 the clear, fresh voice of the sufferer's little brother, 
 saying, as he sat up in bed 
 
 " Now the dreary night is done, 
 Comes again the glorious sun." 
 
 The tones came like a message of hope to the two 
 weary watchers ; and the hope new kindled found 
 fulfilment ere long. 
 
GENERAL INDEX 
 
 ADAMS, Sarah, 381 
 
 Advent, and Advent Hymns, 397 
 
 Alexander, Mrs., 410 
 
 Alford, Dean, 374 
 
 Allen, James, 320 
 
 American Hymn- Book, 169, 222, 
 
 231, 286 
 
 Attwell, Professor, 102, 117, 167 
 Auber, Harriet, 346, 381 
 Augustine's definition of a Hymn, 
 
 161, 225 
 Authorized Hymnal, 206, 260, 284 
 
 Baker, Sir Henry W., 47, 280, 374 
 
 ' Baldur, death of,' 25 
 
 Barbauld, Anna, 381 
 
 Barnes, 66 
 
 Baxter, Richard, 309 
 
 Bickersteth, Bishop E. H., 70, 123, 
 
 139, 399 
 
 Bird, F. M., letter from, 171 
 Blunt, Rev. Gerald, 23, 69 
 Bonar, Horatius, 376, 387 
 Bonar, Andrew, 388 
 ' Bondage of Creeds,' 40 
 ' Book of Praise,' 238 
 Brock, Mrs. Carey, 87 
 ' Burial of Moses,' 41 1 
 Burns, the brothers, 388 
 
 ' Canon ' in Greek service books, 
 
 392 
 
 Caswall, Rev. Edward, 367 
 Cennick, John, 318, 340, 402 
 Centuries, i6th, I7th, poor in 
 
 hymnody, 199 
 
 Chandler, Rev. John, 352 
 Child's Christian Year, The, 410 
 'Children's Almanac,' 156 
 Children's Hymns, 405 
 'Children's Hymn-Book,' The, 64, 
 
 87, 95, 98 
 ' Children's Hymns and School 
 
 Prayers,' 64 
 Chillon, loo 
 
 Choral Associations, value of, 256 
 ' Christian Observer,' The, 329 
 'Christian Year,' The, 240, 359 
 'Church of England Hymn-Book,' 
 
 The, 92 
 Church of England Temperance 
 
 Hymn-Book, 70 
 ' Church Hymns,' 72, 95, 98 
 Collins, Henry, 368 
 Compton, Rev. Berdmore, 74, 82 
 Conder, Josiah, 342 
 Copyright of hymns, 123 
 Cosin, Bishop, 303 
 Cotterill, Rev. Thomas, 340 
 Coverdale's collection of hymns, 
 
 195 
 
 Cowper, William, 237, 324 
 
 Cradle Hymn, Watts's, 406 
 
 Cranmer, Archbishop, 187 
 
 Creeds are hymns, 232 
 
 Crewe Green, 36 
 
 Critical estimate of Canon Ellerton's 
 
 hymns, 161 
 Grossman, Samuel, 309 
 
 Denmark, hymns of, 78 
 
 ' Dictionary of Hymnology,' 156 
 
416 
 
 GENERAL INDEX 
 
 Doddridge, Philip, 200, 314 
 * Dream of Gerontius,' 365 
 Drummond, William, 351 
 
 Elizabeth, Injunction of, 196 
 Ellerton, John, birth and baptism, 
 16 ; his descent and parents, 16 ; 
 at Norham-on-Tweed, 18 ; death 
 of his father and mother, 18 ; 
 early boyhood in London, 18 ; 
 unfulfilled prophecy, 19 ; at 
 Ulverston, 20 ; goes to King 
 William's College, 20 ; at Bra- 
 thay, 21 ; matriculates at Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, 21 ; Cam- 
 bridge Society, Henry Bradshaw, 
 Dr. Hort, 21 ; influence of Mau- 
 rice's works on his mind, 21 ; tone 
 of his Churchmanship, 22 ; Col- 
 lege life, Rev. G. Blunt's recol- 
 lections of him, 23 ; competes for 
 the Chancellor's medal, 24 ; or- 
 dained Deacon, 24 ; curate life 
 at Easebourne, 32 ; ordained 
 Priest, and appointed Senior 
 Curate of Brighton, and evening 
 Lecturer at St. Peter's, 33 } Fred^ 
 erick Robertson, 34 ; appointed 
 Vicar of Crewe Green, 36 ; mar- 
 ries, 36 ; activity as a Parish 
 Priest, 37 ; ' Bondage of Creeds,' 
 40; the Endless Alleluia, explan- 
 ation of the term "endless" by 
 Sir H. Baker, 46 ; hymns written 
 at Crewe Green, 46 60; ap- 
 pointed Diocesan Inspector, 63 ; 
 presented to the Rectory of 
 Barnes, 65 ; disabled by illness, 
 98 ; resigns Barnes, 98 ; retires 
 to Switzerland, 98 ; Chaplain at 
 Pegli, 1 02 ; appointed Rector of 
 White Roding, 115 ; publishes 
 ' Hymns Original and Trans- 
 lated,' 127 ; stricken with pa- 
 ralysis, 156 ; withdraws to Tor- 
 quay, 157 ; resigns White Roding, 
 157 ; nominated Canon of St. 
 Albans, 157; death, 158; funeral, 
 158 
 Elliott, Charlotte, 381 
 
 English hymnody, recent growth of, 
 192 ; begins in i8th century, 199 ; 
 its subjective character, 202 ; past 
 history of, 185 
 
 Faber, Rev. F. W., 369 
 Faioum fragment, The, 119 
 Florence, 112 
 Flowerdew, Alice, 381 
 Free Church of Scotland, its 
 founders, 378, 389 
 
 Gales, Mr., 338 
 
 German hymns, the older, 78, 278 ; 
 
 the later, 204 
 
 Grant, Charles Lord Glenelg, 349 
 Grant, Sir Robert, 349 
 Greek hymns, 392 
 
 Hammond, William, 351 
 
 Havergal, Frances Ridley, 276, 384 
 
 Heber, Bishop Reginald, 230, 330 
 
 Heber, Richard, 330 
 
 Henry VIII. Primer, 193 
 
 Hinstock, 61 
 
 ' Holy Year,' The, 376 
 
 Hort, Dr., 119 
 
 How, Bishop Walshanl, 64, 70, 
 82, 87, 116 
 
 Hymn, Augustine's definition of a, 
 161, 225 
 
 Hymn, original form of, not neces- 
 sarily the best, 208 
 
 ' Hymnal Companion,' 98, 124, 270 
 
 Hymn-book, principles on which it 
 should be constructed, 223 ; how 
 to use, 245 
 
 'Hymnologia Christiana,' Dr. Ken- 
 nedy's, 72, 94, 198 
 
 ' Hymns and Scenes of Childhood,' 
 410 
 
 'Hymns Ancient and Modern,' 74, 
 98, 130, 224, 280 
 
 ' Hymns of Faith and Hope,' 380 
 
 'Hymns for Children,' Dr. Neale's, 
 358, 410 
 Hymns for Little Children,' 411 
 
 ' Hymns for Schools and Bible 
 Classes,' 34, 72 
 
 ' Hymns on the Catechism,' 410 
 
GENERAL INDEX 
 
 417 
 
 1 Hymns Original and Translated,' 
 127 
 
 ' Hymns,' Art. in 'Diet, of Christian 
 Antiquities,' 62 
 
 Hymns for Saints' Days, 229 w. ; 
 care in selecting for singing, 25 1 ; 
 giving out in church, 285 ; 'Jeru- 
 salem,' 235; 'Judgment,' 402; 
 limits to length of, 242 ; modern 
 compared with ancient, 204 ; of 
 the Oxford Movement, 350 ; 
 private use of, 257 ; sentimental 
 and sensuous, 238, 239 ., 264 ; 
 speed in singing, 255 ; when un- 
 fitted for congregational use, 204 
 
 Hymn-singing of former days, 73 
 
 'Indwelling, The Great,' 121 
 Irons, Dr. W. J., 356 
 Irvine, Edward, 19 
 
 Jackson, Bishop, 105 
 Jewel, Bishop, letter to Peter Mar- 
 tyr, 196 * 
 
 Keble, Rev. John, 360 
 Kemble, Rev. Charles, 231 
 Ken, Bishop, 305 
 Kennedy, Dr., 72, 198 
 
 Leeds, singing in the parish church, 
 
 249 
 
 Litanies, metrical, 95 
 ' London Mission Hymn-Book,' 70 
 Luke, Jemima, 381 
 ' Lyra Catholica,' 368 
 ' Lyra Eucharistica, ' 96 
 Lyte, Rev. H. F., 344 
 
 Macaulay, Zachary, 329 
 
 McCheyne, Rev. R. M., 388 
 
 Maian, Cesar, 382 
 
 Mant, Bishop, 351 
 
 ' Manual of Parochial Work,' 68 
 
 Martin, St., 143 n. 
 
 Mason, Jackson, 396 
 
 Mason, John, 309 
 
 Matthewson, Rev. Thomas, letter 
 
 from, 174 
 ' Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences,' 
 
 356 
 
 ' Memorials of a Quiet Life,' 332 
 Mercer, Rev. W., 342 
 Milman, Dean, 334 
 Monsell, Rev. J. S., 374 
 Montgomery, James. 337 
 Moorson, W. M., 37 
 Mozarabic Liturgy, 51 
 Mozley, Anne, 381 
 
 'Narrative Hymns on the Gospels,' 
 
 411 
 
 Neale, Dr. J. M., 355 
 Nelson, Earl, 362, 399 
 Newman, Cardinal, 363 
 Newton, John, 201, 325 
 ' Notes and Illustrations to Church 
 
 Hymns,' 62, 68, 81 
 Novalis, 89 
 
 Oakeley, Frederick, 369 
 Olney Hymns, 323, 327, 329 
 Ouseley, Rev. Sir Frederick, 190 
 Oxenden, Bishop, 88 
 
 Parisian Breviary, 352 
 'Poor-House, an Italian,' 109 
 Pope's Ode, 231 
 'Prayers for School-masters and 
 
 Teachers,' 34 
 Psalms, Book of, 226 ; Metrical, a 
 
 mistake, 80 
 
 Rhys Prichard, Welsh Hymns, 279 
 Robertson, Rev. F. W., 34 
 Robertson of Irvine, 380 
 
 S. P. C. K., 67, 77 
 
 Salisbury Hymn-book, 362 
 
 Sedgwick, Daniel, 211, 276 
 
 Shirley, Hon. W., 320 
 
 Steele, Anne, 381 
 
 Sternhold, Thomas, his Version of 
 
 the Psalms, 196 
 Stubbs, Thomas, funeral of, 52 
 Synesius, Bishop, 278 
 
 Taine, M., 190 
 
 Tate and Brady, 197 
 
 Taylor, Bishop Jeremy, ' Golden 
 
 Grove,' 399 
 
 Taylor, the Sisters, 381, 409 
 DD 
 
4i8 
 
 GENERAL INDEX 
 
 Thomas of Celano, 401 
 Thornton, Archdeacon, 67 
 Thring, Prebendary Godfrey, 92 
 Toplady, Augustus M., 202, 321 
 Tracts for S. P. C. K.,68 
 'Twilight of Life,' 121 
 
 ' Verses for Holy Seasons,' 411 
 
 ' Verses on Subjects in the Old 
 
 Testament,' 411 
 Veytaux, 99 
 
 Walton, Izaak, 306 
 
 Watts, Dr., 200, 234, 309, 406 
 
 Webb, Benjamin, 356 
 
 ' Welshman's Candle,' The, 279 
 
 Wesleys, The^ 201, 316 
 
 White Roding, 116 
 
 Wilberforce, W., anecdote of, 359 
 
 Williams, Rev. Isaac, 353 
 
 Williams, William, 279 
 
 Winkworth, Miss Catherine, 278 
 
 Wordsworth, Bishop Christopher, 
 56, 230 ., 231, 374; on the 
 doctrinal teaching of hymns, 
 232 
 
LIST OF CANON ELLERTON'S 
 HYMNS, TRANSLATIONS, AND POEMS 
 
 A CHILD is born in Bethlehem 148 
 
 Again the morn of gladness ... ... ... ... ... 64 
 
 Again Thou meetest in Thy way ... ... ... ... 129 
 
 All my heart to Thee I give ... ... ... ... ... 65 
 
 Another day begun ... ... ... ... ... ... 55 
 
 Ascended Lord, Thy Church's Head 138,140 
 
 Before the day draws near its ending ... ... ... 69 
 
 Behold us, Lord, a little space ... ... ... 54^83 
 
 Break Thou to us, O Lord ... ... ... ... 69, 125 
 
 Bride of Christ, whose glorious warfare ... ... 84, 134 
 
 Church of Christ, &c. See Bride of Christ, &c. 
 
 Come forth, O Christian brothers ... ... ... ... 53 
 
 Day by day we magnify Thee ... ... ... ... 34 
 
 Down the lane at evening time ... ... ... ... 121 
 
 English children, lift your voices ... ... ... ... 128 
 
 Father, in Thy glorious dwelling ... ... ... 48, 166 
 
 Father! Name of love and fear ! ... ... ... ... 55 
 
 "Follow Me!" the Master spake 140, 145 
 
 From east to west, from shore to shore ... ... 85, 134 
 
 Giver of the perfect gift ! 58,85 
 
 Glory in the highest ! let our Church bells ring (<&&</ 1804) 
 
 God, Creator and Preserver ! ... ... ... ... 54 
 
 God of the living, in Whose eyes ... ... ... ... 35 
 
 God the Almighty, in wisdom ordaining ... ... ... 53 
 
 Hail to the Lord Who comes ... ... ... ... 69 
 
 Here in this peaceful time and place of rest ... ... 107 
 
420 LIST OF CANON ELLERTON'S 
 
 PAGE 
 
 In gladness to Thy House, O Lord ... ... ... 153 
 
 I would not linger idly by the strand ... ... ... 121 
 
 In the Name which earth and Heaven 57,83 
 
 In the Name which holy angels ... ... ... ... 68 
 
 It was early in the morning ... ... ... ... ... 146 
 
 Jesu most pitiful ... ... ... ... ... ... 49 
 
 Jesu, Who alone defendest ... ... ... ... ... 51 
 
 Joy ! because the circling year ... ... ... ... 85 
 
 King Messiah, long expected ... ... ... 55, 83 
 
 King of Saints, to Whom the number ... ... 56, 83 
 
 Lift the strain of high thanksgiving ... ... ... 51 
 
 Lo, the angel squadrons muster ; lo, the armies of the sky 148 
 
 Mary at the Master's feet 56,83 
 
 Morn of morns, the best and first ... ... ... ... 85 
 
 Now the labourer's task is o'er ... ... ... ... 56 
 
 Now returns the awful morning 35> 83 
 
 O Father, all creating ... 63 
 
 O Father, bless the children 128 
 
 O friends, from under skies of ashen grey ... ... ... 122 
 
 Oh come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant ... 57, 86 
 
 Oh how fair that morning broke ... ... ... ... 69 
 
 O Holy Spirit, Whom our Master sent ... ... 139, 144 
 
 O Jerusalem the blissful, Home of gladness yet untold 128, 134 
 
 O Lord of life and death, we come ... ... ... 55, 84 
 
 O Meat for travellers on their road ... ... ... ... 149 
 
 Once more Thy Cross before our view ... ... ... 63 
 
 On this the day when clays began ... ... ... 48,86 
 
 Onward, brothers, onward ! march with one accord ... 71 
 
 O Sacred Head, beneath Thy veil of shame ... ... 150 
 
 O shining city of our God ... ... ... ... ... 52 
 
 O Son of God, our Captain of salvation ... ... 55, 84 
 
 O Strength and Stay, upholding all creation ... 85, 160 
 
 O Thou in Whom Thy saints repose ... ... ... 53 
 
 O Thou Who gi vest food to all ... ... ... ... 70 
 
 O Thou Whose bounty fills the earth 69 
 
 Our day of praise is done ... ... ... ... ... 48 
 
 Praise our God for all the wonders ... ... ... 33> 7 
 
 Praise our God, Whose open Hand ... ... ... 69 
 
 Praise to our God, Whose bounteous Hand ... ... 57 
 
 Praise to the Heavenly Wisdom 128 
 
 Saviour, again to Thy dear Name we raise ... 47, 159 
 
 Say, watchman, what of the night ? ... ... 140,147 
 
 Shine Thou upon us, Lord. (See Break Thou to us, 
 
 O Lord) 125 . 
 
HYMNS, TRANSLATIONS, AND POEMS 421 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sing Alleluia forth in duteous praise ... ... ... 46 
 
 Sing, ye faithful, sing with gladness ... ... ... 54 
 
 Speak Thou to me, O Lord 63 
 
 Spirit of God, Whose glory 129 
 
 Take, dearest, this, thy Lenten thoughts to guide ... 122 
 
 The day Thou gavest, Lord, is ended ... ... ... 53 
 
 The hours of school are over ... ... ... ... 34 
 
 The Lord be with us as we bend ... ... ... ... 53 
 
 The years pass on. We name them good or bad ... ... 151 
 
 This day the Lord's disciples met ... ... ... ... 68 
 
 This is the day of Light ... ... ... ... ... 48 
 
 This is the hour when in full brightness glowing ... ... 129 
 
 Thou in Whose Name the two or three ... ... ... 84 
 
 Thou Who once for us uplifted ... ... ... ... 62 
 
 Thou Who sentest Thine Apostles 63 
 
 Thou Who, wearied by the well 70 
 
 Thrice Holy, Thrice Almighty Lord ... ... ... 128 
 
 Throned upon the awful Tree ... ... ... ... 63 
 
 Thy Voice it is that calls us, bounteous Lord ... ... 68 
 
 'Tis come, the day of exultation ... ... ... 139,142 
 
 To-day we sing to Christ our King ... ... ... 139,143 
 
 To the Name that speaks salvation ... ... ... 59, 86 
 
 " Welcome, happy morning ! " age to age shall say ... 49 
 
 We sing of Christ's eternal gifts ... ... ... ... 59 
 
 We sing the glorious conquest ... ... ... 55, 84 
 
 What were Thy Forty Days ? ... ... ... 139, 141 
 
 When the day of toil is done ... ... ... ... 52 
 
 When to the far-off country 155 
 
 Within Thy Temple, Lord, of old 70 
 
OTHER HYMNS MENTIONED 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ABIDE with me 65 ., 89, 348 
 
 Ad ccenam Agni ... ... ... ... ... 191, 393 
 
 Adeste fideles ... ... ... ... ... ... 231,369 
 
 Adoro Te devote 79, 188 ., 278 
 
 Sterna Christi munera ... ... ... ... 230 n. 
 
 A few more years ... ... ... ... ... 378,390 
 
 Alleluia dulce carmen ... ... ... ... ... 96 
 
 Alleluia ! fairest morning ... ... ... ... ... 94 
 
 Alleluia! hearts to heaven ... ... ... ... ... 396 
 
 Alleluia! sing to Jesus ... .. ... ... ... 396 
 
 All glory, laud, and honour ... ... ... ... 356, 405 
 
 All hail the power of Jesus' Name ... ... ... ... 320 
 
 All people that on earth do dwell ... ... ... ... 227 
 
 All things bright and beautiful ... ... ... ... 411 
 
 Angels, from the realms of glory ... ... ... ... 341 
 
 Art thou weary ... ... ... ... ... ... 358 
 
 As for Thy gifts 198 
 
 At the Lamb's High Feast ... ... ... ... 96, 191 
 
 Aurora lucis ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 191 
 
 Awake, my soul ... ... ... ... ... ... 252 
 
 Before Jehovah's awful throne ... ... ... ... 313 
 
 Bread of heaven, on Thee we feed ... ... ... ... 343 
 
 Bread of the world, in mercy broken ... ... ... 336 
 
 Brief life is here our portion ... ... ... ... ... 356 
 
 Brightest and best ... ... ... ... 335 
 
 By Thy birth, O Lord of all 381 
 
 Calm me, my God ... ... ... ... ... ... 390 
 
 Captain of our salvation ... ... ... 408 
 
 Children of the Heavenly King 320,402 
 
 Christ lag in Todesbanden (Christ Jesus lay) ... 96, 191, 395 
 
 Christ the Lord is risen again ... ... ... ... 395 
 
 Christ the Lord is risen to-day 191, 395 
 
 Christ, Whose glory fills the skies 203,318 
 
OTHER HYMNS MENTIONED 423 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Christus ist erstanden ... ... ... ... 191, 395 
 
 Christian ! seek not yet repose ... ... ... ... 383 
 
 Come, Lord, and tarry not 390,404 
 
 Come, see the place where Jesus lay ... ... ... 191 
 
 Come, ye faithful, raise the strain 391 
 
 Come, ye thankful people, come ... ... ... ... 374 
 
 Conditor alme siderum ... ... ... ... ... 398 
 
 Creator of the rolling flood 336 
 
 Dayof Judgment 403 
 
 Days and moments quickly flying 368 
 
 Depth of Mercy 318 
 
 Dies Irse 240, 356, 401 
 
 Disposer Supreme 354 
 
 Draw nigh to Thy Jerusalem 399 
 
 Ein feste Burg ... ... ... ... ... 228, 240 
 
 Exultet orbis gaudiis ... ... ... ... ... 230 n. 
 
 Far down the ages now ... ... ... ... 390,404 
 
 Far from my heavenly home ... ... ... ... 347 
 
 Far from the world, O Lord, I flee 236 
 
 Finita jam sunt praelia ... ... ... ... ... 394 
 
 For ever with the Lord ... ... ... ... ... 342 
 
 Forsaken once, and thrice denied 412 
 
 For thee, O dear, dear country 357 
 
 Forth from the dark and stormy sky ... ... ... 336 
 
 Forth in Thy Name 93 
 
 From Greenland's icy mountains 333 
 
 Gentle Jesus 408 
 
 Gird thee at the martyr's shrine ... ... ... ... 95 
 
 Glorious things of Thee are spoken 328 
 
 Glory be to Jesus 368 
 
 Glory to Thee, my God, this night 307 
 
 God of mercy, God of grace : 347 
 
 God moves in a mysterious way ... ... ... ... 327 
 
 Go, labour on ... ... ... ... ... ... 390 
 
 Golden harps are sounding ... ... ... ... ... 386 
 
 Gravi me terrore pulsas ... ... ... ... ... 400 
 
 Great God, and wilt Thou condescend 409 
 
 Great God, what do I see and hear ... ... ... ... 402 
 
 Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah 279 
 
 Hail, festal day 393 
 
 Hail, 'gladdening Light 3 6 5 
 
 Hail, Thou once despised Jesus ... ... ... ... 320 
 
 Hail to the Lord's Anointed 34 1 
 
 Hark ! a thrilling (vox clara. ecce intonat} ... ... ... 398 
 
 Hark! hark, my soul ... ... ... ... ... 37 2 
 
424 OTHER HYMNS MENTIONED 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Hark, my soul ! it is the Lord 327 
 
 Hark, the glad sound ... ... ... ... 315,399 
 
 Hark! the herald-angels sing ... ... ... 190,318 
 
 Heal us, Emmanuel ... ... ... ... ... ... 327 
 
 Heaven at last ... M . ... ... ... ... 390 
 
 High let us swell our tuneful notes 315 
 
 Holy, Holy, Holy 236, 335 
 
 Hora novissima ... ... ... ... ... ... 401 
 
 Hosanna to the Living Lord ... ... ... ... 336 
 
 Hosanna to the Prince of Light ... ... ... ... 191 
 
 How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds 328 
 
 I heard the voice of Jesus say 379, 390 
 
 I lay my sins on Jesus ... ... ... ... 378,390 
 
 I think when I read ... ... ... ... ... ... 409 
 
 I was a wandering sheep ... ... ... ... 378,390 
 
 I was wandering and weary ... ... ... ... ... 372 
 
 Inspirer and Hearer of prayer 322 
 
 Jam lucis ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 203 
 
 Jerusalem, my happy home ... ... ... ... ... 235 
 
 Jerusalem the golden ... ... ... 235 ., 357, 401 
 
 Jesu, Lover of my soul ... ... ... ... 236,318 
 
 Jesu, meek and lowly ... ... ... ... 224,368 
 
 Jesu, my Lord ... ... ... ... ... ... 368 
 
 Jesu, the very thought of Thee ... ... ... ... 368 
 
 Jesu, the very thought is sweet ... ... ... ... 356 
 
 Jesus calls us ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 412 
 
 Jesus Christ is risen to-day ... ... ... 191,241,394 
 
 Jesus Christ, my Lord and Saviour ... ... ... ... 409 
 
 Jesus lives (Jesus lebt} ... ... ... ... ... 395 
 
 Jesus, Master, Whom I serve ... ... ... ... 386 
 
 Jesus, tender Shepherd ... ... ... ... ... 409 
 
 Jesus shall reign ... ... ... ... ... ... 313 
 
 Jesus, Who dwelt above the sky ... ... ... ... 409 
 
 Joy to the world ... ... ... ... ... ... 399 
 
 Lead, kindly Light 89, _ 
 
 Light's abode, celestial Salem 356, 3<; 
 
 Lo, at noon 'tis sudden night ... ... ... ... 409 
 
 Lo! God is here 319 
 
 Lo! He comes 240,318,402 
 
 Lord, come away ... ... ... ... ... ... 399 
 
 Lord, I would own Thy tender care ... ... ... 409 
 
 Lord, in this dust Thy sovereign voice ... ... ... 365 
 
 Lord, in this Thy mercy's day ... ... ... ... 354 
 
 Lord Jesus, think on me 278 
 
 Lord of mercy and of might ... ... ... ... ... 336 
 
 Lord of our life ... ... ... ... ... ... 89 
 
 Lord, speak to me that I may speak ... ... ... 386 
 
OTHER HYMNS MENTIONED 425 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Lord, teach us how to pray aright ... ... ... ... 342 
 
 Media vita in morte sumus ... ... ... ... ... 302 
 
 Mistaken souls ! that dream of heaven ... ... ... 232 
 
 My God, and is Thy table spread 190,315 
 
 My God, how endless is Thy love ... ... ... ... 203 
 
 My God, I love Thee 368 
 
 My God, my Father, while I stray ... ... ... ... 382 
 
 Nearer, my God, to Thee 224 
 
 New every morning is the love ... ... ... ... 362 
 
 Now the dreary night is done ... ... ... 411,413 
 
 O Beata Hierusalem ... ... ... ... ... ... 134 
 
 O Captain of God's host 336 
 
 O come, all ye faithful (Adeste fideles] 231, 369 
 
 O come, Redeemer ( Veni Redemptor gentitmi) ... ... 397 
 
 O come to the merciful Saviour ... ... ... ... 372 
 
 O Everlasting Light ... ... ... ... ... ... 390 
 
 O God, I love Thee 126 . 
 
 O God of our salvation, Lord ... ... ... ... 233 
 
 O God, our help in ages past ... ... ... ... 313 
 
 O happy band of pilgrims ... ... ... ... ... 358 
 
 O help us, Lord, each hour of need 336 
 
 O Lord of heaven, and earth, and sea ... ... ... 375 
 
 O love of God, how strong and true ... ... ... 390 
 
 O Paradise 372 
 
 O quanta qualia (Oh, what the joy] ... ... 126, 235, 241, 356 
 
 O quickly come 404 
 
 O Sapientia ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 400 
 
 O Spirit of the Living God ... ... ... ... ... 342 
 
 O voice of the Beloved ... ... ... ... ... 396 
 
 O worship the King 349 
 
 Oh, come and mourn with me awhile ... ... ... 224 
 
 Oh for a closer walk with God ... ... 79> 237, 327 
 
 Once in royal David's city ... ... ... ... ... 411 
 
 On Jordan's bank ... ... ... ... ... ... 399 
 
 On the Resurrection morning ... ... ... ... 396 
 
 Pange lingua ... ... ... ... ... ... 76, 83 
 
 Peace, perfect peace 126 
 
 Pilgrims of the night ... ... ... ... ... ... 372 
 
 Pleasant are Thy courts above ... ... ... ... 347 
 
 Pour down Thy Spirit from on high ... ... ... 342 
 
 Praise, my soul, the King of heaven ... ... ... 347 
 
 Praise to the Holiest in the height ... 365 
 
 Prayer is the soul's sincere desire ... ... ... ... 341 
 
 Preserve us, Lord, by Thy dear Word 197 
 
 Ride on, ride on in majesty ... ... ... ... ... 336 
 
426 OTHER HYMNS MENTIONED 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Rock of ages 79, 209, 237, 240, 273, 281, 321, 344 
 
 Salve festa dies 49, 187 n., 393 
 
 Saviour, when in dust to Thee 349 
 
 Soldiers of Christ, arise ... ... ... ... ... 242 
 
 Songs of praise the angels sang ... ... ... ... 191 
 
 Souls of men ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 372 
 
 Sous ton voile d'ignominie ... ... ... ... ... 127 
 
 Stabat mater ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 240 
 
 Stand we prepared ... ... ... ... ... ... 402 
 
 Sun of my soul ... ... ... ... ...79,281,362 
 
 Sweet Saviour, bless us ... ... ... ... ... 372 
 
 Sweet the moments ... ... ... ... ... ... 320 
 
 Take my life 386 
 
 Te Deum 240,273 
 
 That day of wrath 401 
 
 The Church has waited long... ... ... ... 390,404 
 
 The day is past and over 358 
 
 The day of Resurrection 358,391 
 
 The God of Abraham praise... ... ... ... ... 320 
 
 The golden gates are lifted up 412 
 
 The roseate hues of early dawn ... ... ... ... 412 
 
 The Son of God goes forth to war 335 
 
 The strife is o'er (Finita jam] ... ... ... ... 394 
 
 The sun is sinking fast ... ... ... ... ... 368 
 
 The voice that breathed o'er Eden 362 
 
 There is a book who runs may read ... ... ... 362 
 
 There is a fountain filled with Blood 327 
 
 There's a Friend for little children 409 
 
 There is a green hill far away ... ... ... ... 411 
 
 There is a land of pure delight 313 
 
 Thou art coming, O my Saviour ... ... ... ... 404 
 
 Thou Judge of quick and dead 403 
 
 Thou hidden love of God 319 
 
 Thy kingdom come ... ... ... ... 404 
 
 Thy way, not mine, O Lord 390 
 
 To Thee, and to Thy Christ, O God 396 
 
 Through the night of doubt and sorrow ... ... . . . 78 n. 
 
 Thy life was given for me ... ... ... 386 
 
 'Tis the day of Resurrection 191 
 
 Towards the eve ... ... ... ... 94 
 
 Veni Creator 194,304,351 
 
 Veni Redemptor gentium ... ... ... ... ... 397 
 
 Veni, veni, Emmanuel 400 
 
 Verbum Supernum prodiens ... ... ... ... 39& 
 
 Vexilla Regis prodeunt 76, 188 ., 210 
 
 Victims Paschali 
 
 Vox clara ecce intonat 
 
 191. 393 
 
OTHER HYMNS MENTIONED 427 
 
 We came to Thee, sweet Saviour ... ... ... ... 372 
 
 Welcome, happy morning ... ... ... ... ... 393 
 
 What had I been if Thou wert not 89 
 
 When gathering clouds ... ... ... ... ... 349 
 
 When I survey the wondrous Cross ... ... ... 313 
 
 When languor and disease invade ... ... ... ... 322 
 
 When our heads are bowed with woe ... ... ... 336 
 
 When the weary, seeking rest ... ... ... ... 379 
 
 When wounded sore the stricken soul ... ... ... 412 
 
 Ye choirs of new Jerusalem ... ... ... ... ... 394 
 
 Ye servants of God 318 
 
 Ye servants of the Lord 403 
 
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, 
 LONDON & BUNGAY. 
 
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 LANE. Vol. I. From the Earliest Times to the Dawn of the 
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 Church History in Scotland, Sketches of. By the late Rev. JULIUS 
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 CUTTS, D.D. A new and revised edition. Crown 8vo. Cloth 
 boards. 33. 6d. [The leading events in the Church of England 
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 showing the Church questions that have arisen, and yet remain 
 as our inheritance ; for Churchmen in general.] 
 
 Church History, Turning Points of General. By the Rev. E. L. 
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 Churchman's Life of Wesley (The). By R. DENNY URLIN, Esq. 
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 Dictionary (A), of the Church of England. By the Rev. E. L. CUTTS, 
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 Great English Churchmen; or, Famous Names in English Church 
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 Grosseteste, Eobert, Bishop of Lincoln, The Life and Times of. By 
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 ["Grosseteste chiefly as a reformer in a corrupt period of the 
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 History of the English Church, in Short Biographical Sketches. By 
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 Lessons from Early English Church History. By the Right Rev. 
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 The Story in Outline of the Church of England. By the Rev. Canon 
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 The Villa of Claudius. A Tale of the Roman-British Church. By 
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 York- By the Rev. Canon ORNSBY, M.A. With Map. Fcap. 8vo. 
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 Buddhism. Being a Sketch of the Life and Teachings of Gautama, the 
 
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 M.A. 43. 
 
 THE FATHERS FOR ENGLISH READERS. 
 
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 Saint Athanasius: his Life and Times. By the Rev. R. WHELER 
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 Saint Augustine. By the Rev. EDWARD L. CUTTS, D.D. 
 
 Saint Basil the Great. By the Rev. R. T. SMITH, B.D. 
 
 Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, A.D. 10911153. By the Rev. 
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 Saint Hilary of Poitiers and Saint Martin of Tours. By the Rev. 
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 Saint Jerome. By the Rev. EDWARD L. CUTTS, D.D. 
 
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 Synesius of Cyrene, Philosopher and Bishop. By ALICE GARDNER. 
 
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 Black and White. Mission Stories. By H. A. FORDE. 
 Charlemagne. By the Rev. E. L. CUTTS, D.D. With Map. 
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 By the Rev. E. L. CUTTS, D.D. 
 Great English Churchmen ; or, Famous Names in 
 
 ENGLISH CHURCH HISTORY AND LITERATURE. By the late W. 
 
 H. D. ADAMS. 
 
 John Hus. The Commencement of the Resistance to Papal 
 
 Authority on the Part of the Inferior Clergy. By the Rev. A. H. 
 
 WRATISLAW. 
 Judaea and her Rulers, from Nebuchadnezzar to Vespasian. 
 
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 Mazarin. By the late GUSTAVE MASSON. 
 Military Religious Orders of the Middle Ages : the 
 
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 By the Rev. F. C. WOODHOUSE, M.A. 
 Mitslav; or, the Conversion of Pomerania. By the late 
 
 Right Rev. R. MILMAN, D.D. With Map. 
 Narcissus : a Tale of Early Christian Times. By the Right Rev. 
 
 W. BOYD CARPENTER, Bishop of Ripon. 
 Richelieu. By the late GUSTAVE MASSON. 
 Sketches of the Women of Christendom. Dedicated to 
 
 the Women of India. By the late MRS. RUNDLE CHARLES, 
 
 author of "The Chronicles of the Schonberg-Cotta Family." 
 The Church in Roman Gaul. By the Rev. R. TRAVERS 
 
 SMITH. With Map. 
 The Churchman's Life of Wesley. By R. DENNY URLIN, 
 
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 The House of God the Home of Man. By the Rev. 
 
 Canon JELF. 
 The Inner Life, as Revealed in the Correspondence of Celebrated 
 
 Christians. Edited by the late Rev. T. ERSKINE, 
 The Life of the Soul in the World : its Nature, Needs* 
 
 Dangers, Sorrows, Aids, and Joys. By the Rev. F. C. WOOD- 
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 M.A. With Map. 
 
 Thoughts and Characters; being Selections from the Writings of 
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 Common Prayer Book and Church Hymns. Bound in 
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 Common Prayer Book and Church Hymns, with Tunes. 
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 COMMENTARY ON THE BIBLE. 
 
 Old Testament. Vol. L, containing the Pentateuch. By Various 
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 Old Testament. Vol. II., containing the Historical Books. Joshua 
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i o Publications of the Society for 
 
 THE HEATHEN WORLD AND ST. PAUL 
 
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 the Apostle of the Gentiles. 
 
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 Saint Paul in Greece. By the Rev. G. S. DAVIES, M.A., 
 
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 Saint Paul in Damascus and Arabia. By the Rev. GEORGE 
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 Saint Paul in Asia Minor and at the Syrian Antioch. 
 By the late Rev. E. H. PLUMPTRE, D.D. With Map. 
 
 Saint Paul at Rome. By the late Very Rev. Charles MERIVALE, 
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 ANCIENT HISTORY FROM THE MONUMENTS. 
 
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 Sinai, from the Fourth Egyptian Dynasty to the Present Day. B/ 
 the late HENRY S. PALMER. With Map. A New Edition, 
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 Babylonia (the History of). By the late GEORGE SMITH. Edited 
 and brought up to date by the Rev. Professor SAYCE. 
 
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Promoting Christian Knowledge. H 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY RAMBLES. 
 
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 Ftap. Svo. with numerous Woodcuts. Cloth Boards. 2s. &/. each. 
 In Search of Minerals. By the late D. T. ANSTED, M.A. 
 Lakes and Rivers. By C. O. GROOM NAPIER, F.G.S. 
 Lane and Field. By the late Rev. J. G. WOOD, M.A. 
 Mountain an&iftloor. By J. E. TAYLOR, Esq., F.L.S. 
 Ponds and Ditches. By M. C. COOKE, M.A., LL.D. 
 Sea-Shore (The). By Professor P. MARTIN DUNCAN. 
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 Woodlands (The). By M. C. COOKE, M.A., LL.D. 
 
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 Electricity. By the late FLEEMING JENKIN, F.R.S. 
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 A Six Months' Friend. By HELEN SHIPTON, author of "Chris- 
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 British Citizen (The) : his Rights and Privileges. A short History by 
 the late J. THOROLD ROGERS, M.P. 
 
 Factors in Life. Three Lectures on Health Food Education. By 
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 Guild of Good Life (The). A Narrative of Domestic Health 
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 Household Health. A Sequel to "The Guild of Good Life.' 
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 Hops and Hop-Pickers. By the Rev. J. Y. STRATTON. With 
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 Life and Work among the Navvies. By the Rev. D. W. 
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 The Cottage Next Door. By HELEN SHIPTON. With several 
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 Thrift and Independence. A Word for Working Men. By 
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