illustrates the meditation which is partly the communing of the soul
with itself, and partly (perhaps in this case only in the second
verse) a direct address to God. Yet each is a true hymn. The ideal
exercise of the Christian hymn-writer is the practice of the presence
of God.
Not only, then, are the subjects of sacred song infinitely varied, but
the forms it may assume are many. In the poet, as well as in the
prophet, God speaks ‘in divers manners.’ This is seen in St. Paul’s
twice repeated classification, ‘psalms, hymns, spiritual songs,’ and
by the directions he gives for the use of song in the Church.
In the Epistle to the Ephesians he writes:
And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with
the Spirit; speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the
Lord; giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.
In the Epistle to the Colossians:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching
and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God. And whatsoever ye
do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God the Father through Him.
_Psalms_ are, no doubt, primarily, if not exclusively, those of the
Old Testament, which would naturally form the basis of the hymn-book
of the Christian Church. It would have been the worst ingratitude, the
most crass stupidity, if such a treasure actually in their hands and
in their hearts had not been adopted in the services of the first
Christian worshippers, even though it must soon have been felt that
some psalms were as little in harmony with the spirit of the new
dispensation as the law which Christ Himself enlarged and enlightened.
_Hymns_ ‘would more appropriately designate those hymns of praise
which were composed by the Christians themselves.’[10] Of these, as we
shall note in the next chapter, some fragments remain, and they are
specially characteristic of Christian worship. ‘It was of the essence
of the Greek ὕµνος (hymn) that it should be ... addressed to a god or
hero, that is, a deified man.’[11] Christianity inherited the Hebrew
psalm, it adopted and consecrated the Greek hymn.
_Ode_, or song, is a more general term, qualified and limited by the
epithet ‘spiritual,’ and may be regarded as justifying our use of many
modern hymns which a severe or narrow taste would reject. Bishop
Beveridge understood it to include ‘all sorts of songs upon any
spiritual subject.’
Probably the three terms were not very rigidly distinguished, though
they are convenient for describing various classes of devotional
poetry. In the title of Ps. lxxv. the LXX. gives the three words:
‘among hymns, a psalm for Asaph, an ode concerning the Assyrian.’[12]
The variety of form which the songs of the Christian temple may assume
is seen to be of the utmost value when we consider how large a part
the ministry of song has in Christian life and worship. Although
Jehovah is ‘exalted above all blessing and praise,’[13] yet does He
sit ‘enthroned upon the praises of Israel.’[14] ‘Praise waiteth for
God in Zion.’ The ancient summons to worship is—
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
c. 4.
The walls of the city of God are called Salvation, and her gates
Praise.[15] The mystic Jerusalem is the true ‘city of praise.’[16] The
one offering of the Christian temple is its perpetual eucharist,[17]
‘the sacrifice of praise.’[18] The high praises of God are in the
mouth of His saints because His love is shed abroad in their hearts,
and they ‘cannot from His praise forbear.’
Jerusalem makes melody
For simple joy of heart,
An organ of full compass she,
One tuned through every part;
While not to day or night belong
Her matins and her evensong,
The one thanksgiving of her song.[19]
Whatever the form of the song, its music is for the ear of God, its
melody is that of the heart.
In the Christian Church, as in the Jewish Temple, we may call
instrumental music to our aid, and count its offering not unacceptable
to God.
Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet:
Praise Him with the psaltery and harp.
Praise Him with the timbrel and dance:
Praise Him with stringed instruments and the pipe.
Praise Him upon the loud cymbals:
Praise Him upon the high-sounding cymbals.
Yet all this pomp and circumstance of worship are but sounding brass
and clanging cymbal unless there be the accompaniment of ‘grace in the
heart.’
Praise Him every tuneful string;
All the reach of heavenly art,
All the powers of music bring,
The music of the heart.[20]
Praise needs ‘a thousand tongues,’ and even so would find ‘eternity
too short’ for its service.
Though St. Paul associates praise—thanksgiving—with singing in both
the passages referred to, it is instructive to note how clearly he
asserts the teaching function of the songs of the Church: ‘Speaking
one to another,’ ‘teaching and admonishing one another.’ Bishop
Christopher Wordsworth said, as I think, truly:
Christian poetry ought to be a medium for the conveyance of
Christian doctrine.... A Church which forgoes the use of hymns in
her office of teaching neglects one of the most efficacious
instruments for correcting error, and for disseminating truth, as
well as for ministering comfort and edification.[21]
An entirely opposite view is often taken, especially by Dissenting
writers. Mr. Horder even regards the definite assertion of the
doctrine of the Trinity in Heber’s greatest hymn as ‘its only
fault.’[22] Dr. Martineau argued that to eliminate from a hymn its
distinctive doctrinal teaching, and to ‘translate’ it into broader
theological language, was ‘simply to remove an obstruction,’ and to
introduce the author ‘to the veneration of thousands, to whom
otherwise he must appear as a repulsive stranger.’[23] The general
question of alterations in the text of hymns may be considered later.
At the moment I need only point out that the apostolic ideal of a hymn
includes both ethical and doctrinal teaching. John Wesley prided
himself upon having given in his hymn-book ‘a little body of
experimental and practical divinity.’
The same principle may be applied to hymns of invitation, of which
there are so many in the Methodist collection, and of which Faber’s
‘Souls of men, why will ye scatter?’ is the best modern example. An
off-hand criticism may condemn hymns addressed to our own souls, to
‘souls of men,’ to ‘neighbours and friends,’ to ‘sinners poor and
wretched;’ but they have ample warrant both in precept and precedent.
God sent His singers upon earth
With songs of sadness and of mirth,
That they might touch the hearts of men,
And bring them back to heaven again.[24]
The Christian poet is a teacher and an evangelist.
Passing from the form to the character of the hymn, there are certain
great principles concerning which there will, I imagine, be little
difference of opinion. The first essential in every hymn is surely
that it be not unworthy of use in the service of God, who is of purer
eyes than to behold iniquity, and is to be worshipped in the beauty of
holiness. There must be—
1. _Sincerity._—Fitness for divine service depends not upon beauty of
form or expression, but upon sincerity of thought.
The fineness which a hymn or psalm affords,
Is when the soul unto the lines accords.[25]
‘The garment of praise’ is the white robe of the pure in heart, and,
lacking this, the stately anthem has less of heaven’s music than the
discordant voices of the village choir.