Sweden, and there introduces them to the original of Gustavus Adolphus' battle-hymn, composed on the field of Lützen-known better through its German translation of Altenburg (unless, as is sometimes held, this is the original), and to us through the English of Miss Winkworth 'Fear not, O little flock, the foe;' and to two hymns, not without considerable merit, one by Spegel, Archbishop of Upsala, 1714, the other by Franzén, Bishop of Hernösand, 1818. The author tells also of a 'fresh stream of song' now flowing in Sweden in a language which combines the homely strength of the German with the liquid music of the Italian.' But to proceed on our course. 6. In the rise of English hymns we find a remarkable illustration of the difference of character between the German Reformation and our own. In Germany the whole movement came from the middle and lower classes, and was only afterwards taken up by secular princes, and not at all by the hierarchy: consequently its leaders had to assuine the guidance and furtherance of it as best they could, and to make way with weapons of their own making; and one of the most obvious means of grafting their doctrines on the masses was by giving them ready formulas in hymns. In our case, on the contrary, royal and political difficulties first blew into a flame the smouldering discontent; Kings, therefore, and Chancellors, Archbishops and Bishops, were its ruling agents; the people's grievances were considered, but their support and their consent were not needed; their feelings, therefore, were checked rather than roused, and very little was done for them at first beyond giving them the prayers and lessons in English. This, instead of increasing, rather diminished the popular element in public worship, as it took away. the Latin hymns and did not replace them by others. Why they were not translated with the prayers-whether because there were no poets (Sternhold and Hopkins forgive us!), or because questions of doctrine and discipline engrossed all attention; or whether hymns were thought of no consequence, we cannot tell. This, however, is clear, that, the old channels of devotional poetry being shut off with the Latin hymns, our forefathers were left stranded, if we may so say, on the dry land of prose; and patiently they seem to have borne it. Cranmer gave up, and no one else undertook the task of translating the old hymns; and it was well left undone, if we may judge from the specimens of translations made at the period, and found in the Primers of 1545 and 1559, from the latter of which the following Morning Hymn is taken : 'Ales diei nuntius. • The bird of day Messenger Croweth, and showeth that light is near. Upon Jesus let us cry, Weeping, praying, soberly, Devout prayer ment [mixed] with weep Christ shake off our heavy sleep, It appears, then, that even if unlicensed singing was used-and some think it was—during the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., it was to a very trifling extent; and at any rate, those who might refuse to indulge their love of singing at the expense of obedience were left without hymns till the reign of Elizabeth. And even then they obtained only a metrical version of the Psalms of David, by Sternhold, Hopkins, and others, which was published in 1562, and received the permissive authorization of the Queen. The qualifications of Sternhold for the taskwhich, considering his times, were not to be despised, including as they did a knowledge of the original Hebrew-are rather surprising in a Groom of the King's Bedchamber; yet at the same time, or perhaps rather earlier, Clement Marot, holding a corresponding office in the Court of Francis I., executed a similar work in French. After this first attempt to versify the Psalms for a very long period all the energies of England's sacred poets seem to have been expended upon a succession of new versions. Archbishop Matthew Parker within ten years printed his, but it was never published. The versatile King James I.* was found at his death to have versified the whole Psalter, and his son Charles published and authorised it for use; Sir Philip Sidney and his sister the Countess of Pembroke about 1580; Francis Rouse* in 1641; William Barton* in 1654; Tate and Brady* in 1696; Dr. Fatrick in 1715; Dr. Watts in 1719; Sir Richard Blackmore* in 1721; Archdeacon Churton ( the Cleveland Psalter'); two anonymous translators-one in Oxford, the other in Cambridge--and Mr. Cayley, among living writers, and others, to the number of thirtytwo in all, fave taken in hand the task-confessed by more than one of them at the outset to be impossible-of making an en tire metrical Psalter. Besides these, the attempts, many of them very successful, to versify detached Psalms, are beyond number.* But to return, in search of original hymnwriters or translators of hymns; one of Sternhold's coadjutors, John Mardley (others say Sternhold himself, in a moment of unusual inspiration'), wrote the well-known Lamentation of a Sinner,' generally printed with the Old and New Versions. The metrical Psalms, however, seem to have monopolized all the talent for hymnography during Elizabeth's reign; for in a Collection of Sacred Poetry of that time, published by the Parker Society, there are very few other pieces written for singing, and none of them calling for special notice. Bishop Cosin has given us in his Book of Devotions both translations of Latin hymns (very little better than those in the Primers) and original hymns, of which the following is a fair example:- 'Who more can crave Than God for me hath done, To free a slave That gave his only Son? Blest be that hour When He repaired my loss, I never will forget My Saviour's Cross, Whose death revives My soul. Once was I dead, Again my drooping head; And saying sing for ever, That did my soul deliver. Amen.' During the early part of the reign of Charles I. lived and wrote George Wither, and that sweet singer of the Temple, Master George Herbert, whose whole life was melody, and who sung on earth,' says his biographer, such hymns and anthems as the angels and he now sing in heaven.' Still almost every hymn of this period is excluded from modern Hymn-books by the complicated metres which were then in vogue, or by language no longer current among us. One hymn only of Herbert's is, we believe, sung now, and that only in certain localities, beyond which its use never has, and probably never will be, extended. It begins : 'Throw away Thy rod, Take the gentle path.-The Temple, 151. The nation was not yet weary of Sternhold's Psalms, and there was therefore no demand for hymns, except as aids to private meditation, and of such we find plenty; for sacred poetry flourished very especially in those times, and rather later, in the writings of George Sandys, Browne, Crashaw, Giles Fletcher, and the great Milton; and during the Protectorate, Bishop Jeremy Taylor in his retreat at Lord Carbery's, Henry Vaughan, Francis Quarles, and others, kept up the succession, but more as poets than as hymnwriters. Neither the supremacy of the Puritans, nor the return of the Stuarts, seems to have been favourable to the rise of hymnology. In the first it received a direct blow from the general overthrow of the Church, and the introduction of Scotch paraphrases and John Knox's Psalms from over the Border; and in the second it probably found too little encouragement from the dissolute spirit of the times to enable it to recover from its depression. For so completely had the Puritans silenced Church music, and crushed it out, that at the Restoration it was found necessary to bring over a choir from Paris to conduct the services in the King's Chapel.* In 1668 John Austin, a bencher of Lincoln's Inn (whose brother William also had published his Devotionis Austinianæ Flamina' in the last reign), published his well-known 'Devotions after the way of Antient Offices.' They contain, besides prayers, a great number of Psalms of his own composing, after the model of those of David, in the same musical prose; of which Dr. Orton says, that 'such noble and sublime strains of devotion are not to be met with anywhere else but in the Bible;' and placed at intervals are also metrical hymns, mostly his own, of great beauty and still greater fervour, such as might be expected from one so transported with the love of his Maker as to welcome his approaching death with the repeated exclamation, Satiabor, Satiabor, cum apparebit gloria tua;' and to meet it when it came with the cry, 'Now, heartily for heaven through Jesus Christ.' One hymn of this period which deserves more favour than compilers in general have conferred upon it is that of the celebrated Richard Baxter : 'Lord, it is not for us to care The saintly Bishop Ken was the only other Newland, Confirmation Lectures.' He adopted Crashaw's translation of the Lauda Zion.' This book was 'reformed' (for Austin was a Romanist) by Lady Hopetoun, and was afterwards edited more than once by Dean Hickes, who added several hymns of his own. whose hymns, written in this century, have | calling of the bard of Methodism. This title formed for themselves any position among belongs par excellence to Charles Wesley, but us; and. of these few are familiar with the above statement will apply to all their any besides his Morning and Evening Hymns, hymn-writers. It was this personal and subsuggested, it is thought, by the memory of jective side of the Gospel which they strove the Jam lucis orto sidere of St. Ambrose, to bring into prominence by their hymns; which, as a Winchester boy, he had been ac- and this is curiously illustrated by Mr. Burcustomed to sing in the college, and to which gess, though unconsciously, in his Wesleyan his hynns certainly bear some affinity in Hymnology,' where he expresses his gratitude character. to the writers, for that he has often been instructed and admonished, reproved and stimulated, comforted and animated, while singing these songs of Zion.' He measures a hymn by the same standard as he would a sermon, by its effects upon the feelings of the congregation; he does not look for-so does not miss-the 'Dei' of S. Augustine's canon; it appears to be but a secondary part of the Methodist notion of a hymn, that it is a channel of praise from man to God. One consequence of this reflective character in these hymns is, that a large majority of them are written in the singular number, a thing consistent enough with this self-inspection by each person, but not with the united song of a congregation looking Godward; it is a sure mark of the late date of a hymn, being a point in which the moderns 'a moribus Ecclesiæ antiquioris quam maxime abhorrent.* Even within the period of the Wesleyan movement this deteriorating tendency to personal hymns is visible; for in the earlier publications of John and Charles, especially in the 'Sacramental Hymns' (which, by the way, are so 'high' in their doctrine that their followers now repudiate them), the hymns are much more congregational. For the first fifty years after the Revolution the cold and worldly spirit which prevailed was calculated to stunt rather than assist the growth of original Church poetry. The old version of the Psalms, however, was beginning to loose its hold, and King William's chaplain and poet-laureate, after a sharp struggle, obtained the mastery for their 'New Version.' But still the Church produced scarcely anything original; the Court' approved of Tate and Brady,' and the Church was content: with the exception of Addison's well-known When all thy mercies, O my God,' nothing occurs to us as having appeared at this time. Not so with the Nonconformists: hitherto they had patiently shared with Church-people the infliction, by prescription, of the old Psalms; but Tate and Brady had dispelled the charm; and Isaac Watts, as we have already said, unfettered by any feelings of respect for Court-influence, struck the note of freedom at once with his Psalms and Hymns, which Bishop Compton and Dr. Johnson could condescend to praise, but not to adopt. The prolific yield of hymns which followed this first opening, and increased tenfold with the Wesleyan revival, has been already spoken of in its bearing upon collections now in use in the Church; but there are some features in the rise and character of these hymns worthy of further remark. The multitude not only of hymns but of writers was marvellous. Independent of the labours of those unwearied Sisyphi who persisted one after another in the impossible task of versifying the Psalter, the number of original writers who put into the treasury of sacred rhyme, some their mites, but more their shekels, if not 'talents,' from the time when the Wesleys first moved in 1739, to the time of their deaths, about fifty years afterwards, cannot be less, and is probably much more, than two hundred. Of course, the gold is scarce; but there are some exceedingly fine contributions to be picked out; and, considering the very narrow range of thought, which Mr. Montgomery attributes to a predilection for certain views of the Gospel,' their want of variety is not surprising. The high calling of Methodism,' writes one of their eulogists, is experimental religion. To depict experimental religion was the high In spite of these drawbacks English hymnology owes much to Wesleyanism, and not a little to other denominations. To Dr. Watts we are indebted for that famous hymn, the language of which unhappily is as open to criticism as its spirit is above it-When I survey the wondrous cross; and to another Calvinist, though a Churchman, Augustus Toplady, for the most deservedly popular hymn; perhaps the very favourite-very beautiful it is.' For such is Dr. Pusey's encomium, quoted by Mr. Pearson, upon the hymn 'Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee,' &c. Dr. Doddridge, Cowper and Newton, and other voluminous writers of different denominations, must not be forgotten, though their * Hymni Ecclesiæ,' p. 243. It has been contested in favour of hymns in the first person that many of the Psalms of David are so written; this Article in the Quarterly,' July, 1828.j. was satisfactorily answered by the writer of the Oxford Essays,' 1828. From the Wesleyans themselves, as represented in their 'poetical Bible,' as their collection has been called, compilers for the Church have drawn freely; no church in England probably has not resounded with the hymn of the Welsh blacksmith, Thomas Olivers, and its popular, but questionable, tune 'Lo! He comes with clouds descending.' number is too great for us to notice them | ded in time with the remarkable Church individually. movement at Oxford, identified with the Tracts for the Times.' As was the case with the Wesleyan revival in the last century, so with this Church revival, it gave an unusual impulse to hymnology, leading to the conclusion that there is a peculiar aptitude in hymns on the one hand for giving expression to the religious feelings of the writer, and on the other for the propagation of those feelings among others. Again, the Oxford movement was to a great extent a counter-movement, not in the sense of an opposition, but a reaction, or rather readjustment; therefore, whereas the Wesleyans, who sought new paths for themselves, sought also new hymns of a new character, the Church party, who aimed at recovering the old paths that had been lost, were naturally led to take up the ancient hymns. The Wesleyan, again, with a predilection for the experimental side of Christianity, found the spiritual food most congenial to him in the ecstatic raptures of the Methodist hymns; the Churchman, on the contrary, restoring, perhaps unconsciously, the balance, by leaning more to the objective expression of truth, welcomed the calm narrative songs of primitive and mediæval times. Olivers also wrote the fine lyric stanzas 'be- nonsense! 'They brought His chariot from above To bear Him to His throne, Clapped their triumphant wings, and cried, "The glorious work is done." It is not meant by this that the productions of modern Church hymn-writers are exclusively translations; far from it: the nomes of Keble, Neale, Moultrie, Monsell, Alford, Archer Gurney, J. H. Gurney, are of themselves sufficient to vindicate the claim of the Church in these days to originality; but this may be said truly, that the study of the ancient models has had a marked influence on these modern hymns. But we must now proceeds In the beginning of the present century the impetus of the Methodist revival had expended itself; there was a lull, and then another stirring of the waters, but this time chiefly within the church of England, by Bishop Heber, Dean Our own space and our readers' patience Milman, Sir Robert Grant, Lyte, and Bishop would fail us if we attempted to push out Mant. But to the last-named prelate we owe now into the Atlantic, and follow our emia change which has gone far to revolutionize grant hymn-writers in the New World, or our hymnology, though in a good direction. even to dive into the recesses of the Scotch Here and there along the course we have and Welsh glens; yet there they are to be been following since the Reformation we found. The late venerable Bishop Doane, of might have found isolated attempts to trans- New Jersey; the Rev. A. C. Coxe, of Baltimore; late some choice Latin hymn; Crashaw, and Mr. Bullock, of Nova Scotia, are all Drummond, Dryden, and Hickes had each claimants on our gratitude, for their hymns contributed one or two; but Bishop Mant are found in several of our collections. From went a step further, and, taking the Roman the Welsh Methodist, W. Williams, we have Breviary, translated, with few exceptions, all (a translation by him of his own Welsh that it contained. This leading was followed original) the well-known missionary hymn, with such zeal by Mr. Williams (who did the 'O'er the gloomy hills of darkness,' and same by the Paris Breviary), by Mr. Cope-Shepherd of Thine Israel, guide us.' From land, Mr. Chandler, Dr. Pusey, Mr. Caswall, Mr. Wackerbarth, Mr. Blew, Dr. Neale, and many more, that there have been produced almost as many Anglo-Latin as new and original English hymns during the last thirty Scotland we have Logan's O God of Abraham, by whose hand,' and several others; and the Kirk is largely supplied with her vigorous paraphrases. Our travels are over. We have spied out, not, we think, the nakedness, but the richness, of the lands. We have seen the works of the Anakim of sacred song; we have brought | time may set to it her seal, and hand it down home of the grapes and pomegranates, not as to posterity, a xua sis dsi to future generathieves, but as having a right in them. Cut tions, and a lasting monument of the present. off though we be geographically from the rest of mankind, and separated, too, as to external communion, from the Churches of the Old World, still, we repeat, we must never surrender our claim as true Catholics to the common store of Christendom. Like Tennyson's Ulysses, we return home to our Ithaca to feel 'I am a part of all that I have met.' But with special reference to the practical purpose with which we set out-what is the conclusion to be drawn from all this as to the feasibility of some regulation and amendment of our present condition? Assuming that it must be brought about by the preparation of an approved and authorized hymn-book, there is little doubt that good as well as bad has come of past delay, if it is only that it has given us time and opportunity to look round us. But it is not less certain-as this hasty and superficial sketch will have shown-that our knowledge of the subject is yet far from ripe; even the materials that now lie within reach are rough and unfit, without much more revision and rearrangement, to be worked up satisfactorily. But let the English Church appreciate her position in this matter-a position such as no Church ever held be, ore for undertaking this work; let her lay the whole world under tribute; let her rejoice in being able to take as she will of the soft utterances of Asia, and the deep teaching of the Greek odes, the terse diction and subdued fire of the Latins, and the bold energy of the Germans, and to weld them together with the fervent raptures of those at home who have wandered from her fold, and the chastened devotion of her more dutiful children. It is a great work; it is a great opportunity; we cannot but long for its accomplishment; yet we dread a failure. There is just so much already at hand as to tempt us into action; there is just that amount of half-preparedness to make us act in haste, and repent at leisure. There is a proverb-and we would write it over this subject-Wait a little, and make an end the sooner. It is unbecoming the dignity and high character of our Church to be ever making and unmaking her formulas;-let her bishops and doctors then begin, if they will, at once, but with the determination to spare neither labour nor time, even if years pass away before they can with confidence lay before us a Hymnarium' worthy of our history and our language; thoroughly consonant with the tone and teaching of our Prayer-book; and such that the Church of our ART. III.-1. Papers relating to Administrative and Financial Reforms in Turkey. 1858-61. 2. The Turkish Empire in its relations with Christianity. By R. R. Madden. 2 Vols. London, 1862. IN this nether world of ours it often happens that what is most talked of is least known. We like to have the sources of wonder well-stirred within us. Life, in a physical point of view, is excitement. Emotions of wonder, by exciting our curiosity, quicken the consciousness of existence, and nothing is more productive of wonder than ignorance and mystery. Was ever country, for instance, more talked of, and written about, than Turkey? Yet in some respects, and those not the least important, Japan and New Zealand are better known to us than the Sultan's Empire. Geographically, we have a fair notion of its outline by sea and by land. Historically, we are not without the means of learning by what succession of events, and by what inspiration, the Turks acquired so immense an extent of dominion. Commercially, we are acquainted with the principal products of Turkey and with those foreign articles which enter most into the consumption of its inhabitants. We possess even a general idea of the religious tenets and national usages which give more or less a peculiar form and colour to that complicated texture of races, creeds, languages, and costumes, which is pictured on our mind's eye as often as we think of the Levant. But when some passing occurrence, some political movement, forces our attention into a closer examination of the actual state of Turkey-of the relations, for instance, in which the Sultan and his people, the several classes of society, the Government and foreign Powers stand, respectively, towards each other-we find it no easy matter to obtain a clear insight into these various departments of so extensive and complicated a subject. Have we occasion to appreciate with correctness the causes of weakness, disturbance, and decay, which operate so powerfully on the Ottoman Empire, or the character and extent of those undeveloped resources on which the advocates of Turkish regeneration rest their hopes, we are sadly at a loss for information sufficient to enlighten our minds and enable us to fix our opinion on solid and practical grounds. |