"My soul for help on God relies,
From him alone my safety flows,"
is also of their composition.
The first edition of these psalms was printed in 1696, and bore this
title, "The Book of Psalms, a new version in metre fitted to the tunes used
in Churches. By N. Tate and N. Brady." It was dedicated to King William,
and though its use was permitted in English churches, it never supplanted
Sternhold and Hopkins' Version. In New England Tate and Brady's Psalms
became more universally popular,--not, however, without fierce opposing
struggles from the older church-members at giving up the venerated "Bay
Psalm-Book."
Another version of Psalms which is occasionally found in New England is
known as "Patrick's Version." The title is "The Psalms of David in Metre
Fitted to the Tunes used in Parish Churches by John Patrick, D.D. Precentor
to the Charter House London." A curious feature of this octavo edition of
1701, which I have, is, "An Explication of Some Words of less Common
Use For the Benefit of the Common People." Here are a few of the
"explications:"--
"Celebrate--Make renown'd.
Climes--Countries differing in length of days.
Detracting--Lessening one's credit.
Fluid--Yielding.
Infest--Annoy.
Theam--Matter of Discourse.
Uncessant--Never ceasing.
Stupemlious--Astonishing."
Baxter said of Patrick, "His holy affection and harmony hath so far
reconciled the Nonconformists that diverse of them use his Psalms in
their congregation." I doubt if the version were used in New England
Nonconformist congregations. Some of his verses read thus:--
"Lord hear the pray'rs and mournfull cries
Of mine afflicted estate,
And with thy Comforts chear my soul,
Before it is too late.
"My days consume away like Smoak
Mine anguish is so great,
My bones are not unlike a hearth
Parched & dry with heat.
"Such is my grief I little else
Can do but sigh and groan.
So wasted is my flesh I'm left
Nothing but skin and bone.
"Like th' Owl and Pelican that dwell
In desarts out of sight,
I sadly do bemoan myself,
In solitude delight.
"The wakeful bird that on Housetops
Sits without company
And spends the night in mournful cries
Leads such a life as I.
"The Ashes I rowl in when I eat
Are tasted with my bread,
And with my Drink are mixed the tears
I plentifully shed."
A version of the Psalms which seems to have demanded and deserved more
attention than it received was written by Cotton Mather. He was doomed to
disappointment in seeing his version adopted by the New England churches
just as his ambitions and hopes were disappointed in many other ways. This
book was published in 1718. It was called "Psalterium Americanum. A Book
of Psalms in a translation exactly conformed unto the Original; but all
in blank verse. Fitted unto the tunes commonly used in the Church." By a
curious arrangement of brackets and the use of two kinds of print these
psalms could be divided into two separate metres and could be sung to
tunes of either long or short metre. After each psalm were introduced
explanations written in Mather's characteristic manner,--a manner both
scholarly and bombastic. I have read the "Psalterium Americanum" with care,
and am impressed with its elegance, finish, and dignity. It is so popular,
however, even now-a-days, to jibe at poor Cotton Mather, that his Psalter
does not escape the thrusts of laughing critics. Mr. Glass, the English
critic, holds up these lines as "one of the rich things:"--
"As the Hart makes a panting cry
For cooling streams of water,
So my soul makes a panting cry
For thee--O Mighty God."
I have read these lines over and over again, and fail to see anything very
ludicrous in them, though they might be slightly altered to advantage.
Still they may be very absurd and laughable from an English point of view.
So superior was Cotton Mather's version to the miserable verses given in
"The Bay Psalm-Book" that one wonders it was not eagerly accepted by the
New England churches. Doubtless they preferred rhyme--even the atrocious
rhyme of "The Bay Psalm Book." And the fact that the "Psalterium
Americanum" contained no musical notes or directions also militated against
its use.
Other American clergymen prepared metrical versions of the psalms that were
much loved and loudly sung by the respective congregations of the writers.
The work of those worthy, painstaking saints we will neither quote nor
criticise,--saying only of each reverend versifier, "Truly, I would
the gods had made thee poetical." Rev. John Barnard, who preached for
fifty-four years in Marblehead, published at the age of seventy years a
psalm-book for his people. Though it appeared in 1752, a time when "The Bay
Psalm Book" was being shoved out of the New England churches, Barnard's
Version of the Psalms was never used outside of Marblehead. Rev. Abijah
Davis published another book of psalms in which he copied whole pages from
Watts without a word of thanks or of due credit, which was apparently
neither Christian, clerical nor manly behavior.
Watts's monosyllabic Hymns, which were not universally used in America
until after the Revolution, are too well known and are still too frequently
seen to need more than mention. Within the last century a flood of new
books of psalms of varying merit and existence has poured out upon the New
England churches, and filled the church libraries and church, pews, the
second-hand book shops, the missionary boxes, and the paper-mills.