Death has for me no fears; its bitter pains
Shall never from my King my heart divide:
Faithful to Him till death my will remains;
I nothing fear, with Jesus at my side.
Jesus, my Lord! my only hope and shield;
No powers of ill before Thee can abide;
I trust in Thee upon the battlefield;
I nothing fear, with Jesus at my side![205]
Here our study must perforce break off, for the limits assigned to my
lecture have been already exceeded. Several important subjects must be
omitted. American hymns take a comparatively inconspicuous place in
our Church hymnals, but have a large space in collections of songs for
mission services and undenominational gatherings.
Translations from the Greek, Latin, and German furnish many of our
finest and most popular hymns. In regard to modern hymn-books, the
German are the older, and indeed many of the Latin hymns are actually
of a later date than those of Luther and even Paul Gerhardt. John
Wesley’s intercourse with the Moravians introduced him to the German
hymns, and his translations are almost as important a feature in our
hymn-books as Charles Wesley’s original compositions. Miss Winkworth’s
_Lyra Germanica_ is one of the great devotional works of the
nineteenth century.
The Oxford Movement drew attention to the hymns of the Greek and Roman
Churches, and _Hymns Ancient and Modern_ popularized many hymns
suitable to the worship of all the Churches. Bishop Mant, Isaac
Williams, Edward Caswall, and Dr. Neale led the way in translating
these hymns into English verse, and they quickly secured a large place
in hymn-books. Not only have they great historic interest, but they
give us some of the sublimest and the sweetest of our hymns of
penitence and praise, ranging from the solemn tones of the ‘Dies irae’
to the lovely lyrics of Bernard of Clairvaux, ‘Jesu, the very thought
of Thee.’ No survey of the hymn-book of the modern Church can be
complete without reference to them, but I am compelled to pass them by
with only this brief mention.