be found as really in touch with our present thought as with that of the age in which they first saw the light. We can rejoice in the "Pilgrim's Progress," though most of the sermons of that period would send us quickly to sleep. And we can sing the Te Deum with as much fervour as the devoted followers of Ambrose did in his church at Milan centuries ago. Dr. Neale, with a poet's instinct, drew from the storehouses of the Ancient Church some of her living hymns, and they are among the greatest favourites of this nineteenth century, whilst a mass of hymns of later times, which lack the poetic life, remain in our hymnals unsung, and even unread. We must let the dead bury their dead, for we cannot galvanise them into life, no matter how powerful be the battery we may employ. And when they are buried, our hymn-books will be among our most highly-prized treasures, and best aids to devotion. Editors and editorial committees want more courage. A very competent editor of a well-known Hymnal once told me, when I criticised his work, "My committee would include many hymns I wanted left out, and would not put in many I greatly desired to include." The result is that the book is not nearly so good as it would have been if the editor had been allowed to have his way. Congregations are often in advance of their leaders, and show far greater readiness to appreciate really good hymns than those leaders suppose. Worshippers are tired of the didactic hymns they are often called upon to sing, whilst many of them stand with closed lips when hymns expressive of long-since discarded conceptions of the Gospel are announced in the church. Their quickened consciences revolt against doctrines which cast a darkening shadow over the fair face of truth, and they stand with closed lips when they should be singing the praise of the Great Father. They have learnt that He is better than the best they can conceive of, and they demand hymns which will enable them, like the Psalmist of the olden time, to cry, "So will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy; yea, upon the harp will I praise Thee, O God, my God." And when within the pages of our hymnals none but such hymns are included, the worship of the church will, more than in the past, lead us up to "those shining table-lands to which our God is Sun and Moon." 510 WORKS OF REFERENCE. ARTICLES ON HYMNS IN Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, edited by Dr. W. DANIEL. Thesaurus Hymnologicus. 5 vols. MONE. Hymni Latini Medii Aevi. Leipsic, 1855-6. Freiburg, 1853. Kirchengesangs Stuttgart, 1856. Wratislaw, 1841. BIRAGHI. Inni Sinceri e Carmi di Sant' Ambrogio. Milan, 1862. MILLER, JOSIAH. Singers and Songs of the Church. 1869. CHARLES, ELIZABETH. The Voice of Christian Life in Song (3rd edition). 1872. CREAMER, D. Methodist Hymnology. 1848. PUTNAM, A. P. Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith. Boston, 1875. DUFFIELD, S. W. English Hymns: Their Authors and History (3rd edition). New York, 1888. WINKWORTH, C. Christian Singers of Germany. London, 1869. KÜBLER, THEODORE. Historical Notes to the Lyra GerLondon, 1865. manica. MACDONALD, GEORGE. England's Antiphon. London, N. D. CHRISTOPHERS, S. W. Hymn-Writers and their Hymns. The New Methodist Hymn-Book, and its Writers. 1873. BIGG, L. C. English Hymnology. KING, JAMES. Anglican Hymnology. Cambridge, 1886, London, 1885. London, 1870. London, 1868. ROGERS, CHARLES. Lyra Britannica (2nd edition). ODENHEIMER, W. H. and BIRD, F. W. Songs of the Spirit. HOOD, E. P. New York, 1874. Isaac Watts: His Life and Writings. GLASS, H. A. The Story of the Psalters. London, 1888. KER, JOHN. The Psalms in History and Biography. Edinburgh, 1886. WRANGHAM, D. S. The Liturgical Poetry of Adam of St. Victor. London, 1881. CURWEN, J. S. Biographical Notes to The Child's Own Hymn Book. JULIAN, JOHN. A Dictionary of Hymnology (to be pub lished at an early date). TRENCH, R. C. Sacred Latin Poetry. THE NOTES IN The Irish Church Hymn Book. London, 1864. The Book of Praise, edited by Lord Selborne (5th Church Hymns, annotated by J. Ellerton. The Presbyterian Hymnal, edited by James Thin. 1888. Hymnale Ecclesiæ Sarisburiensis, edited by W. Stubbs, C. Marriott, and A. C. Wilson. Littlemore, 1850. THE INDEX OF AUTHORS IN W. T. Brooke's edition of Giles Victory and Triumph." The Church of England Hymn Book, Thring. Fletcher's "Christ's Congregational Hymns, edited by W. Primitive Methodist Hymnal. London, 1888. edited by Godfrey London, 1882. Garrett Horder. London, 1884. |