Triune yet One, and great Thou art and high;
Hymns fitly tell Thy honour, praise, and glory,
and eternally.
ADESTO, SANCTA TRINITAS
Authorship unknown. It first occurs in a MS. of the eleventh century in
the British Museum Library, has a place in the English Breviaries of
York, Hereford, and St. Albans, and is printed in the “Latin Hymns of
the Anglo-Saxon Church.”
I
Be present, Holy Trinity,
One glory Thou, one Deity;
Where’er creation’s bounds extend,
Thou art beginning without end.
II
The hosts of heaven Thy praise proclaim,
Adoring, tell Thy matchless fame;
Earth’s threefold fabric joins the song,
To bless Thee through the ages long.
III
And we, Thy humble servants, now
To Thee in adoration bow;
Our suppliant vows and prayers unite
With hymns that fill the realms of light.
IV
One Light, we Thee our homage pay,
We worship Thee, O triple ray;
Thou First and Last, we speak Thy fame,
And every spirit lauds Thy name.
V
Praise to the Eternal Father be;
Thou only Son, all praise to Thee;
And Holy Ghost to Thee be praise,
Great Triune God, yet One always.
_All Saints_
PUGNATE, CHRISTE MILITES
Given in editions of the Paris Breviary subsequent to 1736, along with
the hymn _Cœlestis O Jerusalem_, for the vigil of All Saints Day at
Lauds. Author not traced.
I
Christian soldiers in the conflict!
Bear the banner of the cross;
Rich reward shall crown the victor,
More than recompense for loss.
II
Not with paltry palms that wither
Shall the brow be gaily crowned,
But with light that shines eternal,
And with heavenly joy renowned.
III
Yours are mansions fair and comely—
There your souls in bliss shall rest;
Stars shall sparkle in their radiance,
On the pathway of the blest.
IV
Earthly joys are faint and fleeting,
Earthly favours quickly fade;
Heavenwards lift your eyes, expecting
There your true reward is laid.
V
God be praised who crowns the victor,
Christ be praised who saves from sin;
Equal praise to God the Spirit,
By whose aid we fight and win.
AUDI NOS, REX CHRISTE
This pilgrim or processional hymn was first published from a MS. of the
eleventh century by Du Mévil at Paris, 1847; reprinted by Neale in his
_Hymni Ecclesiæ_, in 1851, as _Cantus Peregrinatorum_.
I
Hear us, O Christ, our King;
Lord, hear the prayer we bring,
And take the ordering of our way.
_Refrain_
_Thy mercy, Lord, extend;_
_Thy mercy, Lord, extend,_
_And take the ordering of our way._
II
O Three in Unity!
Protect us all each day:
In this Thy path divine we pray.
III
Send us a faithful guide:
An angel to abide,
Whose hand shall lead us to Thy throne.
IV
Our upward path direct,
From every foe protect,
And bring us back to claim our own.
V
Thy strong right arm extend,
And with Thy left defend,
And save us from the enemy.
VI
O Thou Creator wise,
Soon may our longing eyes
The glory of Thy kingdom see.
VII
Now glory let there be,
O Father, unto Thee,
From age to age eternally.
_Communion_
EJA O DULCIS ANIMA
Author unknown. Belonging, according to Mone, to the thirteenth or
fifteenth century.
I
See, sweet soul, my sister dear,
Now the bridegroom neareth;
Haste, prepare a place for Him
Who in love appeareth.
II
Soon He comes, a gentle guest,
Comes with heart o’erflowing;
All the best that heaven affords
In His love bestowing.
III
Where His gracious presence is
There is joy unending;
Blessing with His friendship comes,
Every bliss transcending.
IV
Yea, He comes to rest awhile,
Thee with love entwining;
At thy board He’ll take His place,
By thy side reclining.
V
Up, my soul, to meet thy Spouse;
Hark! His footfall sounding;
In thy bosom He will dwell
With His love abounding.
VI
Hold Him fast in fond embrace;
Say thou’lt leave Him never,
Till the blessing of His love
Rest on thee for ever.
O ESCA VIATORUM
Ascribed by some to Thomas Aquinas, but believed by latest and best
authorities to have been composed by some unknown German Jesuit of the
seventeenth century. It has not been traced further back than the Mainz
_Gesang-Buch_ of 1661, where it is styled “Hymn on the true Bread of
Heaven.”
I
O Food for pilgrims pining!
O Bread for angels shining!
O Manna fresh from heaven!
In bountiful completeness,
O may Thy heavenly sweetness
To hungering hearts be given.
II
O Font of love surprising,
From Jesu’s heart uprising!
A pure refreshing flow;
Nought else our thirst allayeth—
For this the pilgrim prayeth—
This draught of love bestow.
III
Thy face we come revering,
O Jesus, now appearing
In sacramental rite.
O when in heaven, before it
Unveiled, may we adore it,
Our faith absorbed in sight.
JESU, DULCEDO CORDIUM
In the Paris Breviary of 1736, this is the hymn for Lauds for the
festival of the Transfiguration. It is composed of six stanzas of the
Gospel Rhythm of St. Bernard, beginning, _Jesu, dulcis memoria_, the
fourth stanza of which begins, _Jesu, dulcedo Cordium_.
I
Jesu, delight of every heart,
Thou font of life, Thou source of light,
Earth can no joy so real impart,
No soul can form a hope so bright.
II
Abide with us, O Lord, we pray,
And cause Thy heavenly light to glow;
Drive from our minds the clouds away,
And let the world Thy sweetness know.
III
When Thou dost seek the humble heart,
Thy heavenly truth is freely given;
Then vanities of earth depart,
Then glows the fervent love of heaven.
IV
O Jesus, of Thy wondrous grace,
Make us Thy boundless love to know;
And when we see Thee face to face,
To us Thy matchless glory show.
V
They know how sweet the Lord can be,
Who deeply drink His love divine;
How blest, who find their all in Thee,
Nor thirst for other joys than Thine.
VI
O Thou the spring whence pity flows!
Light from the Fatherland to cheer!
To us Thy glorious light disclose,
Nor let dark clouds afflict us here.
VERBUM SUPERNUM PRODIENS
By St. Thomas of Aquino, the Angelical Doctor. Born about 1225-1227;
educated in the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino, and at the
University of Naples. Having resolved to become a Dominican friar, St.
Thomas, after much opposition from his family, took the vows of
obedience, celibacy, and poverty at Naples, in 1243. The remainder of
his life was spent in the service of the Church at Paris, Cologne,
Rome, Naples, Bologna. When on his way to attend the Second Council of
Lyons, he died in the Benedictine abbey of Fossa Nuova, in the diocese
of Terracina, in 1274. This hymn was written about 1263 for the office
for use on Corpus Christi. It is found in the Roman, Mozarabic, York,
Sarum, Aberdeen, Paris, and other Breviaries, its primary use being at
Lauds in Corpus Christi.
I
The Word, proceeding from above,
Yet still at God’s right hand in heaven,
Came to His work impelled by love,
And soon life’s day declined to even.
II
A traitor in His chosen band
Betrays his Lord to death and grave;
But ere He died, with His own hand
Himself as food to man He gave.
III
In double form the gift was made;
He gave them of His flesh and blood,
That so the feast His love purveyed,
Might prove for man sufficient food.
IV
By birth a friend in Him we find;
As food He fills the festal board;
In death the ransom of our kind;
In heaven He is our great reward.
V
O Saving Sacrifice! that made
The gates of heaven stand open wide,
Be Thou our strength, come to our aid,
When foes would crush on every side.
VI
To Thee, Good Shepherd, who for meat
Dost give Thy flesh to feed Thine own,
To Father, and to Paraclete,
Be praise through ages yet unknown.
_Death and Judgment_
GRAVI ME TERRORE PULSAS
By Peter Damiani. Born at Ravenna about 988; became a “religious” of
the order of the Monks of the Holy Cross of Fontavellano, of which
community he subsequently became the Superior, founding in his day five
monasteries under the same rule; was induced by Pope Stephen IX. to
accept the position of Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia, an office he was
allowed to resign by Pope Alexander II. in 1062. In retirement he lived
a life of great asceticism and self-mortification. On his return
journey from Ravenna, whither he had gone as Papal legate on a mission
of inquiry and reform, he died of fever at Faenza, in the monastery of
Our Lady, 1072.
I
Terror grim the soul oppresses
When the day of death is near;
Sighs the heart, the reins are sundered,
Quakes each part with anxious fear;
While the mind the woe detaileth
Of the conflict to appear.
II
Spectacle all woe inspiring
Who its terror can pourtray?
See, the course of life is ended,
And the sickening flesh gives way,
For the wrestling soul in triumph
Breaks the bands that bid her stay.
III
Sense decays, and fails expression;
Dark the world to melting eye;
And the troubled breast in anguish,
Gasping, breathes her burdened sigh;
Grace of form and glow of beauty,
From the withering body die.
IV
Thoughts, and words, and deeds forgotten,
Crowd around in grim array;
And unwilling eyes behold them,
Be they closed or turned away;
In the heart they seem to rankle,
Turn he wheresoe’er he may.
V
Vain the vow of new obedience—
Time for vowing is no more;
Vain the sorrow of repentance,
For the day of grace is o’er;
Conscience now the tortured sinner
Gnaws with pangs unfelt before.
VI
Draughts of sweet deluding pleasure
Give the bitter dregs at last;
Come, unending pain and anguish,
With the short-lived rapture past;
Then, what once appeared so worthy,
Is aside as worthless cast.
VII
Then, O Christ, Thou King victorious,
Come with succour in my plight;
When the soul is freed from bondage,
In its hour of darkest night;
Come, O Christ, Thy help extending,
Free me from the accuser’s might.
VIII
Headlong may the Prince of Darkness
With the hosts infernal fall!
Thou, the Shepherd of Salvation,
Bid me follow at Thy call,
To the land where fulness dwelleth,
And those eyes shall see it all.
APPROPINQUAT ENIM DIES IN QUA JUSTES ERIT QUIES
A cento taken from the hymn, _Heu! Heu! mala mundi vita_, published by
Du Mévil in 1847, from a MS. of the twelfth century, in the National
Library at Paris. The poem from which the cento is taken consists of
nearly four hundred lines, and the cento begins at line 325.
I
Lo, the day, the day approacheth
When the just shall rest in peace,
When the patient souls shall triumph,
And the vile from troubling cease.
II
Day of life, who can abide it?
Day of light, unseen before;
Death, the fell destroyer, dieth,
Night and darkness are no more.
III
See He comes whom ages longed for—
Long expected King of kings—
Now He tarries not, and with Him
All His great salvation brings.
IV
O how blessed! O how joyful!
O what sweetness it shall be!
When the eyes of those who loved Him
Shall their Lord and Master see.
V
Jesus then with sweet affection,
And in tones of tenderest love,
Shall invite His faithful people
To the joys prepared above.
VI
“Ye who held My truth unsullied,
Faithful stood in world of sin,
Suffered for the name ye honoured,
See the joys ye sought to win.
VII
“See the heavenly kingdom promised,
Long reserved, but now revealed;
Now behold it, now possess it,
Now the princely sceptre wield.”
VIII
O how sweet our earthly losses,
In the midst of gain like this!
O how vain the world’s possessions,
At the cost of so much bliss!
IX
O how blessèd then the mourners,
Who for Christ earth’s sorrow bore,
By a scornful world neglected!
They shall reign for evermore.
X
Now no terror grim shall haunt them—
Tears and sorrows are no more;
Grinding want shall ne’er afflict them,
Crippled age nor weakness sore.
XI
Peace eternal there abideth,
Hearts with festive gladness bound;
There is youth with perfect vigour,
And with bloom unfading crowned.
XII
O just Judge! in boundless mercy
Call me heavenward by-and-by,
For my soul is faint with longing,
And I wait with tearful eye.
_Heaven_
JERUSALEM LUMINOSA VERÆ PACIS VISIO
The second in a group of three hymns, of all which the author is quite
unknown. First published by Mone from a fifteenth century MS., at
Karlsruhe. This hymn has for title in the original, _De Gloriâ Cœlestis
Jerusalem quoad dotes Glorificati Corporis_—“Of the Glory of the
Heavenly Jerusalem, so far as concerns the endowments of the Glorified
Body,” and was a favourite at dedications and other festivals. All the
three of the series will be found, with English renderings, in Dr.
Neale’s “Hymns, chiefly Mediæval, on the Joys and Glories of Paradise.”
I
O city girt with glory!
Thou scene of quiet rest,
Where dwells the King Eternal—
O beautiful and blest!
Thy streets are filled with glorious song,
The praises of a myriad throng.
II
With stones of polished beauty
Is reared thy structure fair;
And gems, and gold, and crystal
Are sparkling everywhere;
With pearls thy gates are glittering gay,
And golden is thy bright highway.
III
For ever and in sweetness
Are Alleluias given;
Unending is the feast day,
The royal feast of heaven;
Whate’er within thy walls is stored,
Is pure and holy to the Lord.
IV
No clouds with sombre curtain
Thy glorious brightness screen;
There shines the Sun Eternal,
And aye at noonday seen;
There is no night to give repose,
For no one toil or trouble knows.
V
The vernal glow of springtime
Is bright and lasting there,
The wealth of summer’s richness
Is scattered everywhere;
And that fair realm can never know
The autumn’s blast or winter’s snow.
VI
The notes that fall in sweetness,
Where birds in woodland sing;
The sounds of softest music,
That winds in summer bring,
Are wafted o’er that city bright,
In strains of unalloyed delight.
VII
There youth adorned with vigour
Ne’er into age declines;
No aged fears the mortal,
Nor for the past repines;
For past and future are unknown:
The present reigns in heaven alone.
VIII
No fleshly law can triumph,
And over reason ride;
With bodies pure and stainless
The spirit shall abide;
And power of flesh, and power of will,
Shall both one common law fulfil.
IX
O bright the heavenly glory,
This fragile frame shall wear,
When health, and strength, and freedom
Shall crown with beauty rare;
And pleasure’s draughts no sorrow know,
But everlasting joys bestow.
X
Now gladly bear the burden;
With zeal thy task maintain,
And gifts shall crown thy labour,
And all thy loss be gain,
When decked with splendour thou shalt be,
Where glory dwells eternally.
URBS BEATA HIERUSALEM, Part I
The author of this fine old rugged hymn is unknown. It is conjectured
to be of sixth- or seventh-century date. It passed into many mediæval
Breviaries, sometimes entire, but often divided into two parts. It was
largely used for the dedication of churches.
Part I.
I
O vision bright of heavenly peace,
Jerusalem on high,
With living stones Thy walls are built,
All beauteous to the eye;
A high-born bride, the angels stand
Around Thee, an attendant band.
II
From heaven she cometh down prepared
Her nuptial hour to grace;
With jewels decked she shall be led
To see her Bridegroom’s face.
O fair her streets, her bulwarks fair,
For purest gold is everywhere.
III
Her gates, adorned with glowing pearl,
Stand open day and night,
And hither come the faithful souls,
And enter in His right,
For whom they bore the cruel shame,
That earth has linked to His dear name.
IV
All precious stones and shapely all,
By sore affliction made;
Each in its place the Heavenly King
With His own hand has laid—
Such was the plan, that with the Elect
The walls of Zion should be decked.
Part II.
I
Most firm the sure foundation stands,
And strong the corner-stone,
To bear the walls that proudly rise,
And bind them into one;
And Zion all her trust will lay
Upon the strength of Christ alway.
II
Within that city, God beloved,
Flow streams of praise along;
And towers and bulwarks echo forth
The gladness of the song;
’Tis praise to God continually,
The Three in One, the One in Three.
III
Within Thine earthly temple, Lord,
We meet to seek Thy face;
O in Thy loving kindness, hear,
Diffuse Thy heavenly grace;
Grant, as Thy people humbly bow,
Thine ample benediction now.
IV
Be found of all who seek Thee here,
And every need supply—
The joys of heaven that cheer the soul,
When streams of earth are dry;
And in the greatness of Thy love,
Hereafter, open heaven above.
INDEX OF FIRST LINES
PAGE
A
Alleluia! Alleluia! 87
Alleluia, hymn of sweetness 93
B
Be present, Holy Trinity 119
Broken are the bands that bound us 100
Burst are the iron gates of death 91
C
Christ, the light that shines eternal 32
Christian soldiers in the conflict 123
Come, Thou Creator Spirit blest 109
D
Dark night has drawn her curtain round 34
E
Emmanuel, come! we call for Thee 45
Eternal King, enthroned on high 97
F
For us the cruel cross He bare 82
From the Father’s throne descending 27
G
Gone are the shades of night 23
H
Hail, thou blessed cross, all hail! 78
Hear us, O Christ, our King 125
Holy Spirit, come with power 111
J
Jesu, delight of every heart 133
K
King of heaven, our nature wearing 65
L
Let us tune our hearts and voices 49
Lo, the day, the day approacheth 143
M
Maker of the world, we pray 22
My heart goes forth in love to Thee 20
N
Now daylight floods the morning sky 15
Now let us tune our hearts to sing 63
Now sinks the fiery orb of day 38
Now sinks the glowing orb of day 25
O
O Christ, who art ascended now 104
O Christ, who in that hour of dread 81
O city girt with glory 149
O day, the chief of days, whose light 3
O Food for pilgrims pining 131
O God, I love Thee, not alone 11
O Holy Father, gracious Thou and tender 118
O Holy Spirit, font of love 114
O Jesus, when I think of Thee 17
O Light that from the light wast born 5
O spotless King, who shared its gloom 83
O Thou Eternal One in Three 7
O Thou Eternal One in Three 117
O vision bright of heavenly peace 153
O ye who seek the Lord, come nigh 57
S
See in the east the morn arise 36
See, sweet soul, my sister dear 129
See the royal banners 69
Shout praises, ye heavens 89
T
Tell, my tongue, the glorious conflict 72
Terror grim the soul oppresses 139
The din of battle now is dead 87
The Word, proceeding from above 135
Thirty years by God appointed 75
Thou, blest Creator of the light 13
Thou our Redeemer art, O Christ 61
Thou who hast led our steps this day 30
Thy blessed passion, Christ, be ours 82
Thy works, O God, Thy name extol 9
To-day the lingering clouds are riven 102
To Thee, O Christ, our prayers shall rise 41
V
Veiled was the glory of Thy face 80
W
When evening shades around us close 43
Wherefore in the lowly stall 54
Z
Zion is glad this glorious morn 52
_Printed by_ Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
_Edinburgh and London_
Transcriber’s Notes
--Silently corrected several minor typographical errors.
--Moved Footnotes to the end of the file (and added Footnotes to Table
of Contents).
--Retained original copyright information (this text is public domain
in the country of publication.)
--Generated an original cover image, released for unrestricted use with
this eBook.
End of Project Gutenberg's Hymns of the Early Church, by John Brownlie