Lord, come away,
Why dost Thou stay?
Thy road is ready: and Thy paths, made strait,
With longing expectation wait
The consecration of Thy beauteous feet.
Ride on triumphantly; behold we lay
Our lusts and proud wills in Thy way.
Hosanna! welcome to our hearts. Lord, here
Thou hast a temple too, and full as dear
As that of Sion; and as full of sin;
Nothing but thieves and robbers dwell therein,
Enter, and chase them forth, and cleanse the floor;
Crucify them, that they may never more
Profane that holy place,
Where Thou hast chose to set Thy face.
And then if our stiff tongues shall be
Mute in the praises of Thy Deity,
The stones out of the temple wall
Shall cry aloud, and call
Hosanna! and Thy glorious footsteps greet.
. . . . .
Draw nigh to Thy Jerusalem, O Lord,
Thy faithful people cry with one accord:
Ride on triumphantly! Behold we lay
Our passions, lusts, and proud wills in Thy way!
Thy road is ready; and Thy paths, made straight,
With longing expectation seem to wait
The consecration of Thy beauteous feet,
And silently Thy promised advent greet!
Hosanna! Welcome to our hearts! for here
Thou hast a temple too, as Sion dear;
Yes, dear as Sion, and as full of sin:
Nothing but thieves and robbers dwell therein.
Enter and chase them forth, and cleanse the floor!
O’erthrow them all, that they may never more
Profane, with traffic vile, that holy place,
Where Thou hast chosen, Lord, to set Thy face.
And then, if our stiff tongues shall faithlessly
Be mute in praises of Thy Deity,
The very temple stones shall loud repeat
Hosanna! and Thy glorious footsteps greet!
Near the end of the seventeenth century the New Version of the Psalms
appeared, under royal and episcopal sanction, and began at once to
supplant the Old Version. The authors were both Irishmen. Nahum Tate
(1652-1715) was a very minor poet, who became Laureate in 1690.
Nicholas Brady (1659-1726) was, like Charles Wesley, a scholar of
Westminster and student of Christ Church. He entered the Church in
Ireland, but in later life held various livings in England, being at
one time Vicar of Stratford-on-Avon. The New Version was published in
1696.
Many attempts had been made to depose the Old Version from its supreme
position as the hymn-book of the English Church, and some by men of
much greater gifts than Sternhold, Hopkins, or any of their fellows.
But the innate conservatism of Englishmen, and especially of English
Churchmen, gave the Old Version a long life. Moreover, no version was
sufficiently superior to it to win wide approval until Tate and Brady
produced the New Version and secured royal ‘permission’ for its use in
churches. Without this ‘permission’ it would probably never have
dislodged the Old Version, though it owes something to intrinsic
merit. Compared with the great hymn-writers of the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, Tate and Brady are, as a rule, dull,
pretentious, diffuse; but as compared with their predecessors and the
vast majority of their successors, their version deserves more
consideration than it usually receives. Even in our own day there are
more of their psalms in our best hymn-books than there are of Keble’s.
It is unfortunate that neither of the authors was a man for whom it is
possible to feel any great regard, or in whom one can take an
interest.