1. A brief preliminary inquiry into what constitutes a true hymn,
suited for use in Christian worship.
2. A very brief review of the relation of the Hebrew Psalter to the
Christian Hymnal, and a passing glance at the hymns of the New
Testament and of the early Church.
3. A more detailed survey of the rise and development of modern
English hymns and their use in the Church since the Reformation.
Such a study, however unskilfully guided, cannot, I hope, be
altogether without interest or edification, since it brings the
student into fellowship with the sweetest and the saintliest souls,
and bids him join in spirit the choir invisible who praise God day and
night in His temple.
I regret that the limits assigned to my lecture make it impossible to
refer to translations from the Greek, Latin, German, and other
languages. These form a most valuable and an increasing portion of all
modern hymnals. They furnish abundant material for a separate volume.
I
A True Hymn
When my revered father, more than thirty years ago, delivered the
fourth Fernley Lecture, he laid this down as the first scriptural
Church principle—‘The Church is not a thing of rigid definition.’ I
may adapt that phrase to my own subject, and say, _A hymn is not a
thing of rigid definition_.
Commenting on the note which closes the second book of Psalms, ‘The
prayers [LXX. _hymns_] of David the son of Jesse are ended,’ St.
Augustine gives this definition:
Hymns are praises of God with singing, hymns are songs containing
praises of God. If there be praise, and not praise of God, it is not
a hymn. If there be praise, and praise of God, and it is not sung,
it is not a hymn. It is necessary, therefore, if it be a hymn, that
it have these three things: both praise, and praise of God, and that
it be sung.
In commenting on Ps. cxlviii. he repeats this rule in almost the same
words. The definition commends itself at once as excellent, and in
regard to a large number of hymns adequate; but even when the widest
sense is given to the words it is much too narrow and would exclude
many of the truest hymns. Indeed, it is impossible to deny the title
to innumerable compositions which do not fulfil these conditions. Many
a verse of which it may be said, This is not a hymn, demonstrates its
right by the fact that it is hymned by the Church from age to age.
St. Augustine’s third canon may be accepted without hesitation. A poem
that cannot be sung may speak in the sublimest accents of devotion,
yet it is of necessity unsuited to the service of the Christian choir.
Spenser’s ‘Hymn of Heavenly Love’ is a glorious example of this form
of praise. Indeed, there are some stanzas which a skilful hand might
make available for use in the congregation.
O blessèd Well of Love, O Flower of Grace,
O glorious Morning Star, O Lamp of Light!
Most lively image of Thy Father’s face,
Eternal King of Glory, Lord of Might,
Meek Lamb of God, before all worlds behight,[6]
How can we Thee requite for all this good?
Or what can prize that Thy most precious blood?
Yet nought Thou ask’st in lieu of all this love,
But love of us for guerdon of Thy pain:
Ay me! What can us less than that behove?
Had He requirèd life of us again,
Had it been wrong to ask His own with gain?
He gave us life, He it restorèd lost;
Then life were least, that us so little cost.
But He our life hath left unto us free,
Free that was thrall, and blessèd that was banned;
Nor ought demands but that we loving be,
As He Himself hath loved us afore-hand;
And bound thereto with an eternal band,
Him first to love that us so dearly bought,
And next our brethren to His image wrought.
Many of Herbert’s and of Miss Rossetti’s poems are of the same type.
We would give much to add them to our hymnals, but they would be out
of place there. They belong to the manual of devotion.
That the primary idea of a hymn is praise may also be granted, but
even so ‘praise’ must be given an extensive connotation, that it may
include whatever directly or indirectly glorifies God. St. Paul’s
exhortations show how much more than the offering of adoration is
included in the province of Christian song. Our hymn-book, like the
Hebrew Psalter, must have not only its songs of high thanksgiving, its
sacrifice of praise, but also its prayer of the penitent as he poureth
out his soul unto God, its sin-offering as well as its thank-offering,
its intercessions and meditations, its instructions and exhortations,
its lighter songs and melodies. ‘Every feeling which enters into any
act of true worship may fitly find expression in a hymn.’[7]
Dr. Johnson declared that sacred poetry must always be poor because
‘the topics of devotion are few, and being few are universally known;
but few as they are can be made no more.’ To this criticism Keble
replied in his essay on Sacred Poetry—
How can the topics of devotion be few, when we are taught to make
every part of life, every scene in nature, an occasion—in other
words, a topic—of devotion? It might as well be said that connubial
love is an unfit subject for poetry, as being incapable of novelty,
because, after all, it is only ringing the changes upon one simple
affection, which every one understands. The novelty there consists,
not in the original topic, but in continually bringing ordinary
things, by happy strokes of natural ingenuity, into new associations
with the ruling passion.
There’s not a bonnie flower that springs
By fountain, shaw, or green;
There’s not a bonnie bird that sings
But minds me of my Jean.
Why need we fear to extend this most beautiful and natural sentiment
to ‘the intercourse between the human soul and its Maker’?[8]
If, on its subjective side, sacred poetry has a wide range of topics,
how manifold and how magnificent are the themes presented by the
historic facts upon which faith rests, and by the great truths of the
gospel! In Johnson’s day no one understood how large a realm belonged
to the Christian singer, but we have no cause to complain of sameness
or dullness in the songs of the Christian choir.
St. Augustine’s second canon need not be regarded as implying that
every hymn must be formally addressed to God. The very hymns (the
psalms) upon which he was commenting abundantly justify our use of
hymns which are rather uttered in the divine presence than actually
spoken to God. The 103rd Psalm is as truly a hymn of praise, and that
of God, as the 104th. After the same self-exhortation, ‘Bless the
Lord, O my soul,’ the one continues in the form of a devout
meditation, in which the consciousness that God hears is never for a
moment absent; while the other at once addresses ‘the Majesty on
high.’
O Lord my God, Thou art very great;
Thou art clothed with honour and majesty.