rising from the bed of death," in No. 513, October 18th, 1712. His finest hymn, most full of feeling and lyric force, "When all Thy mercies, O my God," is appended to an article on "Praise to God," in No. 453, August 9th, 1712. It will thus be seen that all his hymns were published in the same year, 1712. Two of his hymns have been claimed as Andrew Marvell's by Captain Thompson, but there is no good ground for the claim.

In the period covered by this chapter, a distinct advance is observable toward hymn writing as distinguished from mere poetry. Hymns begin to assume a distinct style; they are less vehicles for thought and more for religious aspiration; they have grown simpler, both in form and substance, and more within the comprehension of simple folk. The foundations have thus been laid on which first Watts, then Wesley, and afterwards a multitude of builders will erect the great Temple of English Song.

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CHAPTER IX.

THE FOUNDATIONS OF ENGLISH HYMNODY. ISAAC WATTS is the real founder of English hymnody. What Ambrose was to the Latins; what Clement Marot was to the French; what Luther was to the Germans; that, and perhaps more, was Watts to the English. As Josiah Conder says:- "He was the first who succeeded in overcoming the prejudice which opposed the introduction of hymns into our public worship." In our hymn-singing age, it is difficult, especially for its younger members, to realise the strength and even violence of such a prejudice. So strong was it, so high did feeling run on the subject, that many a church was rent asunder by the proposal to introduce hymns; in some cases, even by the proposal to sing metrical versions of the Psalms. This was markedly the case among the Baptists. In the church of which Benjamin Keach was the pastor (the original of that to which Mr. Spurgeon now ministers), when, after prolonged discussion, it was decided to introduce singing into its worship, "a minority took refuge in a songless sanctuary." In his "Truth Soberly Defined," published in 1698, Isaac Marlow, with considerable passion, maintained that the Church should not permit the introduction of singing into her services.

This appears to have been very closely connected with the Puritan prejudice against forms of prayer. The objection that was taken against forms in prayer was easily extended to forms in song. Regarded logically, they stand or fall together. And in many instances, the objection to forms was applied to every part of

worship save the reading of Scripture, which was exempted on the ground of its Divine origin. But whilst the objection to forms of prayer remains among Nonconformists generally, that against forms of praise has long since died out; but in many quarters it died. hard. In some Churches, however, the objection lay not against singing, for the metrical Psalms were sung, but against the singing of hymns. There was a feeling that the line must be drawn somewhere, and so it was drawn at hymns. It is very difficult to discover the usages in worship of the early Nonconformists. At my request, some of the Church books of the most ancient congregations, notably that at Stepney Meeting, have been searched by the kindness of friends, but no minutes can be found bearing on the subject. Even Dr. Stoughton, who probably knows more than any living man of the usages of the churches in England since the passing of the Act of Uniformity, can throw scarcely any light on the subject. The publication of various collections of hymns by W. Barton during the years between 1654 and 1688; the large sale of Mason and Shepherd's hymns (1691); the issue of a collection of "Divine Hymns," gathered from six authors, amongst whom were J. Mason and R. Baxter, in 1694; seem to point to the probability that hymns were used, at all

H

events in some churches; but it is not decisive, since publication does not always imply adoption by the churches, and such collections may have been chiefly used for reading, or, as in the case of Matthew Henry's hymns (1695), for singing in the home. I cannot help thinking that such hymns, if used at all in public worship, could have been sung in very few churches, and that the great majority confined themselves to the singing of the metrical Psalms, in the versions of Sternhold and Hopkins, or Patrick, or Barton. If, however, Dr. Gibbons is to be relied on for accuracy, hymns must have been in use in the closing years of the 17th century, for he says: "Mr. John Morgan, a minister of very respectable character, now living at Romsey, Hants, has sent me the following information: The occasion of the Doctor's

(Watts) hymns was this, as I had the account from his worthy fellow-labourer and colleague, the Rev. Mr. Price, in whose family I dwelt above fifty years ago. The hymns which were sung at the Dissenting Meeting at Southampton [these were Barton's] were so little to the gust of Mr. Watts, that he could not forbear complaining of them to his father. The father bid him try what he could do to mend the matter. He did, and had such success in his first essay, 'Behold the glories of the Lamb,' that a second hymn was earnestly desired of him, and then a third and fourth, &c., till, in process of time, there was such a number of them as to make up a volume."" But I cannot help thinking that the church at Southampton was exceptionally liberal in its spirit; evidence for which I see in the fact that they adopted the hymns of young Watts a member of their own fellowship, and a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country-so readily,

and without, so far as we know, opposition. That this is so seems to be proved by the fact that, in many cases, nearly half a century elapsed before some churches would admit even his versions of the Psalms into their worship. It must be remembered, too, that the fundamental principle of Independency permits no act of uniformity in relation to either doctrine or worship, but leaves each church free in both respects. This makes it the more difficult to discover its usage in the matter of singing than it is with bodies closely compacted, in which to discover the usage of one is to be sure of that of all.

When Watts's hymns began to find their way into favour, the more conservative regarded them, as Romaine afterwards did, as "Watts's Whims." Whereas, in Germany, Luther's hymns were sung almost as soon as they were produced, it was thirty or forty years before those of Dr. Watts found their way into common use; and even then suspicions of heresy fastened about the churches that adopted them. It seems scarcely possible that little more than a century ago hymnsinging was scarcely known in our churches. Without it, those services must have been extremely dull; what with the long prayers and the long sermons, they must have been a great weariness to the flesh. There must surely have been a good many of the worshippers who, like Eutychus under Paul's long preaching, fell asleep. As to the hymnody of the time, Dr. Watts's lines would surely apply :

O what a wretched land is this,

That yields us no supplies.

And it was this poverty which really gave birth to our modern hymnody, for, in the deepest sense, Dr. Watts is