Mr. Nixon Waterman, for poems from "In Merry Mood," published by
Forbes & Co., of Chicago.
The selections from the above American authors are used by special
arrangements with the firms mentioned, who are the only authorized
publishers of their works. Many other poems used have been found in
papers or other places which gave no indication of the original source.
In spite of much effort to trace these things it is quite likely we have
failed in some cases to give due credit or obtain the usual permission;
and we hope that if such omissions, due to ignorance or inadvertence,
are noticed they will be pardoned. Many unknown writers have left behind
them some things of value, but their names have become detached from
them or perhaps never were appended. Many volumes consulted have been
long out of print.
We are glad to record our large indebtedness to the custodians of the
Boston, Cambridge, Malden, Natick, Brookline, Jamaica Plain, Somerville,
and Newton Public Libraries, the Boston Athenaeum, the Congregational
Library, the General Theological Library, and the Library of Harvard
College, for free access to their treasures.
By far the greater part of the contents are from British and other
foreign authors, such as William Wordsworth, Alfred Tennyson, Robert
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, Mrs.
S. F. Adams, Anna Letitia Barbauld, Mrs. Charles, Frances Ridley
Havergal, Anna Letitia Waring, Jean Ingelow, Adelaide Anne Procter, Mme.
Guyon, Theodore Monod, Matthew Arnold, Edwin Arnold, William
Shakespeare, John Milton, George Gordon Byron, Robert Burns, William
Cowper, George Herbert, Robert Herrick, Francis Quarles, Frederick W.
Faber, John Keble, Charles Kingsley, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison,
John Gay, Edward Young, Thomas Moore, John Newton, John Bunyan, H. Kirke
White, Horatius Bonar, James Montgomery, Charles Wesley, Richard Baxter,
Norman Macleod, George Heber, Richard Chenevix Trench, Henry Alford,
Charles Mackay, Gerald Massey, Alfred Austin, Robert Louis Stevenson,
Arthur Hugh Clough, Henry Burton, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Hartley
Coleridge, Joseph Anstice, George Macdonald, Robert Leighton, John Henry
Newman, John Sterling, Edward H. Bickersteth, Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
and many others. Of German authors there are not a few, including Johann
W. von Goethe, Johann C. F. Schiller, George A. Neumarck, Paul Gerhardt,
Benjamin Schmolke, S. C. Schoener, Scheffler, Karl Rudolf Hagenbach, S.
Rodigast, Novalis, Wolfgang C. Dessler, L. Gedicke, Martin Luther, and
Johann G. von Herder.
The number of American poets drawn upon is small compared with this
list. It is the case in all such collections. According to an analysis
of the hymns contained in the most widely used American hymnals down to
1880 the average number of hymns of purely American origin was not quite
one in seven; the proportion would be a little larger now. And the
number of Methodist poets is almost nil, in spite of the fact that the
compiler is a Methodist and the volume is issued from the official
Methodist Publishing House. But if we thought that this would be any
barrier to its wide circulation in Methodist homes we should be deeply
ashamed for our church. We are confident it will not be. For mere
denominational tenets do not at all enter into these great matters of
the soul's life. A book like this speaks loudly for the real oneness,
not only of all branches of the Christian Church, but of all religions,
in some respects. Not only do we find the various Protestant
denominations amply represented here; not only have we most inspiring
words from Roman Catholic writers like Francis Xavier, Madame Guyon,
Alexander Pope, John Henry Newman, Frederick W. Faber, and Adelaide Anne
Procter; but from Mohammedan sources, from Sufi saints of Persia, and
the Moslem devotees of Arabia, and even from Hinduism, there are
utterances of noblest truth which we cannot read without a kindling
heart. These are all brought together from the ends of the earth into a
delightful "upper chamber," where the warring discords of opinion cease
and an exceedingly precious peace prevails.
It should be said, though it is perhaps hardly necessary, that this is
by no means a book to be read at a sitting. It furnishes very
concentrated nourishment. It can be taken with largest profit only a
little at a time, according as the mood demands and circumstances
appoint. There should be very much meditation mingled with the perusal,
an attempt to penetrate the deep meaning of the lines and have them
enter into the soul for practical benefit. Some of these hymns have
great histories: they are the war cries of combatants on hard-fought
battle fields; they are living words of deep experience pressed out of
the heart by strong feeling; they are the embodiment of visions caught
on some Pisgah's glowing top. Here will be found and furnished hope for
the faint-hearted, rest for the weary, courage for the trembling, cheer
for the despondent, power for the weak, comfort for the afflicted,
guidance in times of difficulty, wise counsel for moments of perplexity,
a stimulant to faithfulness, a cure for the blues, exhilaration,
jubilation. Everything of a depressing nature has been scrupulously
ruled out. The keynote, persistently followed through all the pages, is
optimistic, bright, buoyant. Trumpet calls and bugle notes are furnished
in abundance, but no dirges or elegies. Large space, it will be seen, is
given to such topics as Heroism, True Greatness, the Care and Presence
of God, the blessings of Brotherliness, the privilege of Service, the
path of Peace, the secret of Contentment, the mission of Prayer, the joy
of Jesus, the meaning of Life, the glory of Love, the promise of Faith,
the happy aspect of old Age and Death; for these subjects come very
close home to the heart, and are illustrated in daily experience. Anyone
who feels a special need in any of these directions is confidently
recommended to turn to the proper sections and read the selections.
Very much that is here may easily and suitably be committed to memory,
that thus it may the more permanently penetrate into the inmost depth of
being. It may be used with most telling effect in sermons to give point
and pungency to the thought of the preacher. Alike in popular discourse
and public testimony or in private meditation these gems of sentiment
and thought will come into play with great advantage. The benefit which
may be derived from them can scarcely be overestimated. President Eliot,
of Harvard University, has said: "There are bits of poetry in my mind
learned in infancy that have stood by me in keeping me true to my ideas
of duty and life. Rather than lose these I would have missed all the
sermons I have ever heard." Many another can say substantially the same,
can trace his best deeds very largely to the influence of some little
stanza or couplet early stored away in his memory and coming ever
freshly to mind in after years as the embodiment of truest wisdom.
We cannot guarantee in all cases the absolute correctness of the forms
of the poems given, though much pains have been taken to ensure
accuracy; but authors themselves make changes in their productions at
different times in different editions. Nor have we always been able to
trace the poem to its source. Slips and errors of various kinds can
hardly be avoided in such matters. Even so competent an editor as John
G. Whittier, in his "Songs of Three Centuries," ascribes "Love divine,
all love excelling" to that bitter Calvinist, Augustus M. Toplady,
giving it as the sole specimen of his verse; when it was really written
by the ardent Arminian, Charles Wesley, with whom Toplady was on
anything but friendly terms. If Whittier could make a blunder of this
magnitude we may be pardoned if possibly a keen-eyed critic spies
something in our book almost as grossly incorrect. In some cases we have
been obliged to change the titles of poems so as to avoid reduplication
in our index, or to adapt them the better to the small extract taken
from the much longer form in the original. In a few cases we have made
(indicated) alterations in poems to fit them more fully to the purpose
of the book.
The volume will be found not only a readable one, we think, but also an
uncommonly useful one for presentation by those who would do good and
give gratification to their serious-minded friends with a taste for
religious poetry and a love for wandering in the "holy land of song." He
who would put before another the essential elements of religion would do
better to give him such a book as this than a treatise on theology. He
who would himself get a clear idea of what the religious life really is
will do better to pore over these pages than to dip into some
philosophical discussion. Here the best life is expressed rather than
analyzed, exhibited rather than explained. Mrs. Browning has well said,
"Plant a poet's word deep enough in any man's breast, looking presently
for offshoots, and you have done more for the man than if you dressed
him in a broadcloth coat and warmed his Sunday pottage at your fire." We
who, by preparing or circulating such volumes, aid the poets in finding
a larger circle to whom to give their message, may claim a part of the
blessing which comes to those who in any way aid humanity. George
Herbert has said,
"A verse may find him who a sermon flies,
And turn delight into a sacrifice."
He himself most excellently illustrated the sentiment by bequeathing to
the world many beautiful verses that are sermons of the most picturesque
sort.
One definition of poetry is "a record of the best thoughts and best
moments of the best and happiest minds." This in itself would almost be
sufficient to establish the connection between poetry and religion. It
is certain that the two have very close and vital relations. Dr.
Washington Gladden has admirably remarked, "Poetry is indebted to
religion for its largest and loftiest inspirations, and religion is
indebted to poetry for its subtlest and most luminous interpretations."
No doubt a man may be truly, deeply religious who has little or no
development on the aesthetic side, to whom poetry makes no special
appeal. But it is certain that he whose soul is deaf to the "concord of
sweet sounds" misses a mighty aid in the spiritual life. For a hymn is a
wing by which the spirit soars above earthly cares and trials into a
purer air and a clearer sunshine. Nothing can better scatter the devils
of melancholy and gloom or doubt and fear. When praise and prayer, trust
and love, faith and hope, and similar sentiments, have passed into and
through some poet's passionate soul, until he has become so charged with
them that he has been able to fix them in a form of expression where
beauty is united to strength, where concentration and ornamentation are
alike secured, then the deepest needs of great numbers are fully met.
What was vague and dim is brought into light. What was only half
conceived, and so but half felt, is made to grip the soul with power.
Poetry is of the very highest value for the inspiration and guidance of
life, for calling out the emotions and opening up spiritual visions. It
carries truths not only into the understanding, but into the heart,
where they are likely to have the most direct effect on conduct.
In the language of Robert Southey, I commit these pages to the Christian
public, with a sincere belief that much benefit will result to all who
shall read them:
"Go forth, little book, from this my solitude;
I cast thee on the waters,--go thy ways;
And if, as I believe, thy vein be good,
The world will find thee after many days.
Be it with thee according to thy worth;
Go, little book! in faith I send thee forth."
JAMES MUDGE.
Malden, Mass.