OLD REVIVAL HYMNS.
The sober churches of the "Old Thirteen" states and of their successors
far into the nineteenth century, sustained evening prayer-meetings more
or less commonly, but necessity made them in most cases "cottage
meetings" appointed on Sunday and here and there in the scattered homes
of country parishes. Their intent was the same as that of "revival
meetings," since so called, though the method--and the music--were
different. The results in winning sinners, so far as they owed anything
to the hymns and hymn-tunes, were apt to be a new generation of
Christian recruits as sombre as the singing. "Lebanon" set forth the
appalling shortness of human life; "Windham" gave its depressing story
of the great majority of mankind on the "broad road," and other minor
tunes proclaimed God's sovereignty and eternal decrees; or if a psalm
had His love in it, it was likely to be sung in a similar melancholy
key. Even in his gladness the good minister, Thomas Baldwin, of the
Second Baptist Church, at Boston, North End, returning from Newport,
N.H., where he had happily harmonized a discordant church, could not
escape the strait-lace of a C minor for his thankful hymn--
From whence doth this union arise,
That hatred is conquered by love.
"The Puritans took their pleasures seriously," and this did not cease to
be true till at least two hundred years after the Pilgrims landed or
Boston was founded.
Time, that covered the ghastly faces on the old grave-stones with moss,
gradually stole away the unction of minor-tune singing.
The songs of the great revival of 1740 swept the country with positive
rather than negative music. Even Jonathan Edwards admitted the need of
better psalm-books and better psalmody.
Edwards, during his life, spent some time among the Indians as a
missionary teacher; but probably neither he nor David Brainerd ever saw
a Christian hymn composed by an Indian. The following, from the early
years of the last century, is apparently the first, certainly the only
surviving, effort of a converted but half-educated red man to utter his
thoughts in pious metre. Whoever trimmed the original words and measure
into printable shape evidently took care to preserve the broken English
of the simple convert. It is an interesting relic of the Christian
thought and sentiment of a pagan just learning to prattle prayer and
praise:
In de dark wood, no Indian nigh,
Den me look heaben, send up cry,
Upon my knees so low.
Dat God on high, in shinee place,
See me in night, with teary face,
De priest, he tell me so.
God send Him angel take me care;
Him come Heself and hear um prayer,
If Indian heart do pray.
God see me now, He know me here.
He say, poor Indian, neber fear,
Me wid you night and day.
So me lub God wid inside heart;
He fight for me, He take my part,
He save my life before.
God lub poor Indian in de wood;
So me lub God, and dat be good;
Me pray Him two times more.
When me be old, me head be gray,
Den He no lebe me, so He say:
Me wid you till you die.
Den take me up to shinee place,
See white man, red man, black man's face,
All happy 'like on high.
Few days, den God will come to me,
He knock off chains, He set me free,
Den take me up on high.
Den Indian sing His praises blest,
And lub and praise Him wid de rest,
And neber, neber cry.
The above hymn, which may be found in different forms in old New England
tracts and hymn-books, and which used to be sung in Methodist conference
and prayer-meetings in the same way that old slave-hymns and the
"Jubilee Singers" refrains are sometimes sung now, was composed by
William Apes, a converted Indian, who was born in Massachusetts, in
1798. His father was a white man, but married an Indian descended from
the family of King Philip, the Indian warrior, and the last of the
Indian chiefs. His grandmother was the king's granddaughter, as he
claimed, and was famous for her personal beauty. He caused his
autobiography and religious experience to be published. The original
hymn is quite long, and contains some singular and characteristic
expressions.
The authorship of the tune to which the words were sung has been claimed
for Samuel Cowdell, a schoolmaster of Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia,
1820, but the date of the lost tune was probably much earlier.
In the early days of New England, before the Indian missions had been
brought to an end by the sweeping away of the tribes, several fine hymns
were composed by educated Indians, and were used in the churches. The
best known is that beginning--
When shall we all meet again?
It was composed by three Indians at the planting of a memorial pine on
leaving Dartmouth College, where they had been studying. The lines
indicate an expectation of missionary life and work.
When shall we all meet again?
When shall we all meet again?
Oft shall glowing hope expire,
Oft shall wearied love retire,
Oft shall death and sorrow reign
Ere we all shall meet again.
Though in distant lands we sigh,
Parched beneath a burning sky,
Though the deep between us rolls,
Friendship shall unite our souls;
And in fancy's wide domain,
There we all shall meet again.
When these burnished locks are gray,
Thinned by many a toil-spent day,
When around this youthful pine
Moss shall creep and ivy twine,
(Long may this loved bower remain!)
Here may we all meet again.
When the dreams of life are fled,
When its wasted lamps are dead,
When in cold oblivion's shade
Beauty, health, and strength are laid,
Where immortal spirits reign,
There we all shall meet again.
This parting piece was sung in religious meetings as a hymn, like the
other once so common, but later,--
"When shall we meet again,
Meet ne'er to sever?"
--to a tune in B flat minor, excessively plaintive, and likely to sadden
an emotional singer or hearer to tears. The full harmony is found in the
_American Vocalist_, and the air is reprinted in the _Revivalist_
(1868). The fact that minor music is the natural Indian tone in song
makes it probable that the melody is as ancient as the hymn--though no
date is given for either.
Tradition says that nearly fifty years later the same three Indians were
providentially drawn to the spot where they parted, and met again, and
while they were together composed and sang another ode. Truth to tell,
however, it had only one note of gladness, and that was in the first
stanza:
Parted many a toil-spent year,
Pledged in youth to memory dear,
Still to friendship's magnet true,
We our social joys renew;
Bound by love's unsevered chain,
Here on earth we meet again.
The remaining three stanzas dwell principally on the ravages time has
made. The reunion ode of those stoical college classmates of a stoical
race could have been sung in the same B flat minor.
"AWAKED BY SINAI'S AWFUL SOUND."
The name of the Indian, Samson Occum, who wrote this hymn (variously
spelt Ockom, Ockum, Occam, Occom) is not borne by any public
institution, but New England owes the foundation of Dartmouth College to
his hard work. Dartmouth College was originally "Moore's Indian Charity
School," organized (1750) in Lebanon, Ct., by Rev. Eleazer Wheelock and
endowed (1755) by Joshua Moore (or More). Good men and women who had at
heart the spiritual welfare of a fading race contributed to the school's
support and young Indians resorted to it from both New England and the
Middle States, but funds were insufficient, and it was foreseen that the
charity must inevitably outgrow its missionary purpose and if continued
at all must depend on a wider and more liberal patronage.
Samson Occum was born in Mohegan, New London Co., Ct., probably in the
year 1722. Converted from paganism in 1740 (possibly under the preaching
of Whitefield, who was in this country at that time) he desired to
become a missionary to his people, and entered Eleazer Wheelock's
school. After four years study, then a young man of twenty-two, he began
to teach and preach among the Montauk Indians, and in 1759 the
Presbytery of Suffolk Co., L.I., ordained him to the ministry. A
benevolent society in Scotland, hearing of, his ability and zeal, gave
him an appointment, under its auspices, among the Oneidas in 1761, where
he labored four years. The interests of the school at Lebanon, where he
had been educated, were dear to him, and he was tireless in its cause,
procuring pupils for it, and working eloquently as its advocate with
voice and pen. In 1765 he crossed the Atlantic to solicit funds for the
Indian school, and remained four years in England and Scotland,
lecturing in its behalf, and preaching nearly four hundred sermons. As a
result he raised ten thousand pounds. The donation was put in charge of
a Board of Trustees of which Lord Dartmouth was chairman. When it was
decided to remove the school from Lebanon, Ct., the efforts of Governor
Wentworth, of New Hampshire, secured its location at Hanover in that
state. It was christened after Lord Dartmouth--and the names of Occum,
Moore and Wheelock retired into the encyclopedias.
The Rev. Samson Occum died in 1779, while laboring among the Stockbridge
(N.Y.) Indians. Several hymns were written by this remarkable man, and
also "An Account of the Customs and Manners of the Montauks." The hymn,
"Awaked by Sinai's Awful Sound," set to the stentorian tune of "Ganges,"
was a tremendous sermon in itself to old-time congregations, and is
probably as indicative of the doctrines which converted its writer as of
the contemporary belief prominent in choir and pulpit.
Awaked by Sinai's awful sound,
My soul in bonds of guilt I found,
And knew not where to go,
Eternal truth did loud proclaim
"The sinner must be born again.
Or sink in endless woe."
When to the law I trembling fled,
It poured its curses on my head:
I no relief could find.
This fearful truth increased my pain,
"The sinner must be born again,"
And whelmed my troubled mind.
* * * * *
But while I thus in anguish lay,
Jesus of Nazareth passed that way;
I felt His pity move.
The sinner, once by justice slain,
Now by His grace is born again,
And sings eternal Love!
The rugged original has been so often and so variously altered and
"toned down," that only a few unusually accurate aged memories can
recall it. The hymn began going out of use fifty years ago, and is now
seldom seen.
The name "S. Chandler," attached to "Ganges," leaves the identity of the
composer in shadow. It is supposed he was born in 1760. The tune
appeared about 1790.
"WHERE NOW ARE THE HEBREW CHILDREN?"
This quaint old unison, repeating the above three times, followed by the
answer (thrice repeated) and climaxed with--
Safely in the Promised Land,
--was a favorite at ancient camp-meetings, and a good leader could keep
it going in a congregation or a happy group of vocalists, improvising a
new start-line after every stop until his memory or invention gave out.
They went up from the fiery furnace,
They went up from the fiery furnace,
They went up from the fiery furnace,
Safely to the Promised Land.
Sometimes it was--
Where now is the good Elijah?
--and,--
He went up in a chariot of fire;
--and again,--
Where now is the good old Daniel?
He went up from the den of lions;
--and so on, finally announcing--
By and by we'll go home for to meet him, [three times]
Safely in the Promised Land.
The enthusiasm excited by the swinging rhythm of the tune sometimes rose
to a passionate pitch, and it was seldom used in the more controlled
religious assemblies. If any attempt was ever made to print the song[22]
the singers had little need to read the music. Like the ancient runes,
it came into being by spontaneous generation, and lived in phonetic
tradition.
[Footnote 22: Mr. Hubert P. Main believes he once saw "The Hebrew
Children" in print in one of Horace Waters' editions of the _Sabbath
Bell_.]
A strange, wild pæan of exultant song was one often heard from Peter
Cartwright, the muscular circuit-preacher. A remembered fragment shows
its quality:
Then my soul mounted higher
In a chariot of fire,
And the moon it was under my feet.
There is a tradition that he sang it over a stalwart blacksmith while
chastising him for an ungodly defiance and assault in the course of one
of his gospel journeys--and that the defeated blacksmith became his
friend and follower.
Peter Cartwright was born in Amherst county, Va., Sept. 1, 1785, and
died near Pleasant Plains, Sangamon county, Ill., Sept., 1872.
"THE EDEN OF LOVE."
This song, written early in the last century, by John J. Hicks, recalls
the name of the eccentric traveling evangelist, Lorenzo Dow, born in
Coventry, Ct., October 16, 1777; died in Washington, D.C., Feb. 2,
1834. It was the favorite hymn of his wife, the beloved Peggy Dow, and
has furnished the key-word of more than one devotional rhyme that has
uplifted the toiling souls of rural evangelists and their greenwood
congregations:
How sweet to reflect on the joys that await me
In yon blissful region, the haven of rest,
Where glorified spirits with welcome shall greet me,
And lead me to mansions prepared for the blest.
There, dwelling in light, and with glory enshrouded,
My happiness perfect, my mind's sky unclouded,
I'll bathe in the ocean of pleasure unbounded,
And range with delight through the Eden of love.
The words and tune were printed in _Leavitt's Christian Lyre_, 1830.
The same strain in the same metre is continued in the hymn of Rev. Wm.
Hunter, D.D., (1842) printed in his _Minstrel of Zion_ (1845). J.W.
Dadmun's _Melodian_ (1860) copied it, retaining, apparently, the
original music, with an added refrain of invitation, "Will you go? will
you go?"
We are bound for the land of the pure and the holy,
The home of the happy, the kingdom of love;
Ye wand'rers from God on the broad road of folly,
O say, will you go to the Eden above?
The old hymn-tune has a brisk out-door delivery, and is full of revival
fervor and the ozone of the pines.
"O CANA-AN, BRIGHT CANA-AN"
Was one of the stimulating melodies of the old-time awakenings, which
were simply airs, and were sung unisonously. "O Cana-an" (pronounced in
three syllables) was the chorus, the hymn-lines being either improvised
or picked up miscellaneously from memory, the interline, "I am bound for
the land of Cana-an," occurring between every two. John Wesley's "How
happy is the pilgrim's lot" was one of the snatched stanzas swept into
the current of the song. An example of the tune-leader's improvisations
to keep the hymn going was--
If you get there before I do,--
_I am bound for the land of Cana-an!_
Look out for me, I'm coming too--
_I am bound for the land of Cana-an!_
And then hymn and tune took possession of the assembly and rolled on in
a circle with--
O Cana-an, bright Cana-an!
I am bound for the land of Cana-an;
O Cana-an it is my hap-py home,
I am bound for the land of Cana-an
--till the voices came back to another starting-line and began again.
There was always a movement to the front when that tune was sung,
and--with all due abatement for superficial results in the sensation of
the moment--it is undeniable that many souls were truly born into the
kingdom of God under the sound of that rude woodland song.
Both its words and music are credited to Rev. John Maffit, who probably
wrote the piece about 1829.
"A CHARGE TO KEEP I HAVE."
This hymn of Charles Wesley was often heard at the camp grounds, from
the rows of tents in the morning while the good women prepared their
pancakes and coffee, and
_THE TUNE._
was invariably old "Kentucky," by Jeremiah Ingalls. Sung as a solo by a
sweet and spirited voice, it slightly resembled "Golden Hill," but
oftener its halting bars invited a more drawling style of execution
unworthy of a hymn that merits a tune like "St. Thomas."
Old "Kentucky" was not field music.
"CHRISTIANS, IF YOUR HEARTS ARE WARM."
Elder John Leland, born in Grafton, Mass., 1754, was not only a
strenuous personality in the Baptist denomination, but was well known
everywhere in New England, and, in fact, his preaching trip to
Washington (1801) with the "Cheshire Cheese" made his fame national. He
is spoken of as "the minister who wrote his own hymns"--a peculiarity in
which he imitated Watts and Doddridge. When some natural shrinking was
manifest in converts of his winter revivals, under his rigid rule of
immediate baptism, he wrote this hymn to fortify them:
Christians, if your hearts are warm,
Ice and cold can do no harm;
If by Jesus you are prized
Rise, believe and be baptized.
He found use for the hymn, too, in rallying church-members who staid
away from his meetings in bad weather. The "poetry" expressed what he
wanted to say--which, in his view, was sufficient apology for it. It was
sung in revival meetings like others that he wrote, and a few hymnbooks
now long obsolete contained it; but of Leland's hymns only one survives.
Gray-headed men and women remember being sung to sleep by their mothers
with that old-fashioned evening song to Amzi Chapin's[23] tune--
The day is past and gone,
The evening shades appear,
O may we all remember well
The night of death draws near;
--and with all its solemnity and other-worldness it is dear to
recollection, and its five stanzas are lovingly hunted up in the few
hymnals where it is found. Bradbury's "Braden," (_Baptist Praise Book_,
1873,) is one of its tunes.
[Footnote 23: Amzi Chapin has left, apparently, nothing more than the
record of his birth, March 2, 1768, and the memory of his tune. It
appeared as early as 1805.]
Elder Leland was a remarkable revival preacher, and his prayers--as was
said of Elder Jabez Swan's fifty or sixty years later--"brought heaven
and earth together." He traveled through the Eastern States as an
evangelist, and spent a season in Virginia in the same work. In 1801 he
revisited that region on a curious errand. The farmers of Cheshire,
Mass., where Leland was then a settled pastor, conceived the plan of
sending "the biggest cheese in America" to President Jefferson, and
Leland (who was a good democrat) offered to go to Washington on an
ox-team with it, and "preach all the way"--which he actually did.
The cheese weighed 1450 lbs.
Elder Leland died in North Adams, Mass., Jan. 14, 1844. Another of his
hymns, which deserved to live with his "Evening Song," seemed to be
answered in the brightness of his death-bed hope:
O when shall I see Jesus
And reign with Him above,
And from that flowing fountain
Drink everlasting love?
"AWAKE, MY SOUL, TO JOYFUL LAYS."
This glad hymn of Samuel Medley is his thanksgiving song, written soon
after his conversion. In the places of rural worship no lay of
Christian praise and gratitude was ever more heartily sung than this at
the testimony meetings.
Awake, my soul, to joyful lays,
And sing thy great Redeemer's praise;
He justly claims a song from me:
His loving-kindness, oh, how free!
Loving-kindness, loving-kindness,
His loving-kindness, oh, how free!
_THE TUNE,_
With its queer curvet in every second line, had no other name than
"Loving-Kindness," and was probably a camp-meeting melody in use for
some time before its publication. It is found in _Leavitt's Christian
Lyre_ as early as 1830. The name "William Caldwell" is all that is known
of its composer, though he is supposed to have lived in Tennessee.
"THE LORD INTO HIS GARDEN COMES."
Was a common old-time piece sure to be heard at every religious rally,
and every one present, saint and sinner, had it by heart, or at least
the chorus of it--
Amen, amen, my soul replies,
I'm bound to meet you in the skies,
And claim my mansion there, etc.
The anonymous[24] "Garden Hymn, as old, at least, as 1800," has nearly
passed out of reach, except by the long arm of the antiquary; but it
served its generation.
[Footnote 24: A "Rev." Mr. Campbell, author of "The Glorious Light of
Zion," "There is a Holy City," and "There is a Land of Pleasure," has
been sometimes credited with the origin of the Garden Hymn.]
Its vigorous tune is credited to Jeremiah Ingalls (1764-1838).
The Lord into His garden comes;
The spices yield a rich perfume,
The lilies grow and thrive,
The lilies grow and thrive.
Refreshing showers of grace divine
From Jesus flow to every vine,
Which makes the dead revive,
Which makes the dead revive.
"THE CHARIOT! THE CHARIOT!"
Henry Hart Milman, generally known as Dean Milman, was born in 1791, and
was educated at Oxford. In 1821 he was installed as university professor
of poetry at Oxford, and it was while filling this position that he
wrote this celebrated hymn, under the title of "The Last Day." It is not
only a hymn, but a poem--a sublime ode that recalls, in a different
movement, the tones of the "Dies Irae."
Dean Milman (of St Paul's), besides his many striking poems and learned
historical works, wrote at least twelve hymns, among which are--
Ride on, ride on in majesty,
O help us Lord; each hour of need
Thy heavenly succor give,
When our heads are bowed with woe,
--which last may have been written soon after he laid three of his
children in one grave, in the north aisle of Westminster Abbey. He
lived a laborious and useful life of seventy-seven years, dying Sept.
24, 1868.
There were times in the old revivals when the silver clarion of the
"Chariot Hymn" must needs replace the ruder blast of Occum in old
"Ganges" and sinners unmoved by the invisible God of Horeb be made to
behold Him--in a vision of the "Last Day."
The Chariot! the Chariot! its wheels roll in fire
When the Lord cometh down in the pomp of His ire,
Lo, self-moving, it drives on its pathway of cloud,
And the heavens with the burden of Godhead are bowed.
* * * * *
The Judgment! the Judgment! the thrones are all set,
Where the Lamb and the white-vested elders are met;
There all flesh is at once in the sight of the Lord,
And the doom of eternity hangs on His word.
The name "Williams" or "J. Williams" is attached to various editions of
the trumpet-like tune, but so far no guide book gives us location, date
or sketch of the composer.
"COME, MY BRETHREN."
Another of the "unstudied" revival hymns of invitation.
Come, my brethren, let us try
For a little season
Every burden to lay by,
Come and let us reason.
What is this that casts you down.
What is this that grieves you?
Speak and let your wants be known;
Speaking may relieve you.
This colloquial rhyme was apt to be started by some good brother or
sister in one of the chilly pauses of a prayer-meeting. The air (there
was never anything more to it) with a range of only a fifth, slurred the
last syllable of every second line, giving the quaint effect of a bent
note, and altogether the music was as homely as the verse. Both are
anonymous. But the little chant sometimes served its purpose wonderfully
well.
"BRETHREN, WHILE WE SOJOURN HERE."
This hymn was always welcome in the cottage meetings as well as in the
larger greenwood assemblies. It was written by Rev. Joseph Swain, about
1783.
Brethren, while we sojourn here
Fight we must, but should not fear.
Foes we have, but we've a Friend,
One who loves us to the end;
Forward then with courage go;
Long we shall not dwell below,
Soon the joyful news will come,
"Child, your Father calls, 'Come home.'"
The tune was sometimes "Pleyel's Hymn," but oftener it was sung to a
melody now generally forgotten of much the same movement but slurred in
peculiarly sweet and tender turns. The cadence of the last tune gave
the refrain line a melting effect:
Child, your Father calls, "Come home."
Some of the spirit of this old tune (in the few hymnals where the hymn
is now printed) is preserved in Geo. Kingsley's "Messiah" which
accompanies the words, but the modulations are wanting.
Joseph Swain was born in Birmingham, Eng. in 1761. Bred among mechanics,
he was early apprenticed to the engraver's trade, but he was a boy of
poetic temperament and fond of writing verses. After the spiritual
change which brought a new purpose into his life, he was baptized by Dr.
Rippon and studied for the ministry. At the age of about twenty-five, he
was settled over the Baptist church in Walworth, where he remained till
his death, April 16, 1796.
For more than a century his hymns have lived and been loved in all the
English-speaking world. Among those still in use are--
How sweet, how heavenly is the sight,
Pilgrims we are to Canaan bound,
O Thou in whose presence my soul takes delight.
"HAPPY DAY."
O happy day that fixed my choice.
--_Doddridge_.
O how happy are they who the Saviour obey.
--_Charles Wesley_.
These were voices as sure to be heard in converts' meetings as the
leader's prayer or text, the former sung inevitably to Rimbault's tune,
"Happy Day," and the latter to a "Western Melody" quite as closely akin
to Wesley's words.
Edward Francis Rimbault, born at Soho, Eng., June 13, 1816, was at
sixteen years of age organist at the Soho Swiss Church, and became a
skilled though not a prolific composer. He once received--and
declined--the offer of an appointment as professor of music in Harvard
College. Died of a lingering illness Sept, 26, 1876.
"COME, HOLY SPIRIT, HEAVENLY DOVE."
--_Watts_.
This was the immortal song-litany that fitted almost anywhere into every
service. The Presbyterians and Congregationalists sang it in Tansur's
"St. Martins," the Baptists in William Jones' "Stephens" and the
Methodists in Maxim's "Turner" (which had the most music), but the hymn
went about as well with one as with another.
The Rev. William Jones (1726-1800) an English rector, and Abraham Maxim
of Buckfield, Me., (1773-1829) contributed quite a liberal share of the
"continental" tunes popular in the latter part of the 18th century.
Maxim was eccentric, but the tradition that an unfortunate affair of the
heart once drove him into the woods to make away with himself, but a
bird on the roof of a logger's hut, making plaintive sounds,
interrupted him, and he sat down and wrote the tune "Hallowell," on a
strip of white birch bark, is more likely legendary. The following
words, said to have inspired his minor tune, are still set to it in the
old collections:
As on some lonely building's top
The sparrow makes her moan,
Far from the tents of joy and hope
I sit and grieve alone.[25]
[Footnote 25: Versified by Nahum Tate from Ps. 102:7.]
Maxim was fond of the minor mode, but his minors, like "Hallowell," "New
Durham," etc., are things of the past. His major chorals and fugues,
such as "Portland," "Buckfield," and "Turner" had in them the spirit of
healthier melody and longer life. He published at least two collections,
_The Oriental Harmony_, in 1802, and _The Northern Harmony_, in 1805.
William Tansur (Tans-ur), author of "St. Martins" (1669-1783), was an
organist, composer, compiler, and theoretical writer. He was born at
Barnes, Surrey, Eng., (according to one account,) and died at St.
Neot's.
"COME, THOU FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING."
This hymn of Rev. Robert Robinson was almost always heard in the tune of
"Nettleton," composed by John Wyeth, about 1812. The more wavy melody of
"Sicily" (or "Sicilian Hymn") sometimes carried the verses, but never
with the same sympathetic unction. The sing-song movement and accent of
old "Nettleton" made it the country favorite.
Robert Robinson, born in Norfolk, Eng., Sept. 27, 1735, was a poor boy,
left fatherless at eight years of age, and apprenticed to a barber, but
was converted by the preaching of Whitefield and studied till he
obtained a good education, and was ordained to the Methodist ministry.
He is supposed to have written his well-known hymn in 1758. A certain
unsteadiness of mind, however, caused him to revise his religious
beliefs too often for his spiritual health or enjoyment, and after
preaching as a Methodist, a Baptist, and an Independent, he finally
became a Socinian. On a stage-coach journey, when a lady
fellow-passenger began singing "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing," to
relieve the monotony of the ride, he said to her, "Madam, I am the
unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago; and I would give a
thousand worlds, if I had them, if I could feel as I felt then."
Robinson died June 9, 1790.
John Wyeth was born in Cambridge, Mass., 1792, and died at Harrisburg,
Pa., 1858. He was a musician and publisher, and issued a Music Book,
_Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music_.
"A POOR WAYFARING MAN OF GRIEF,"
Written by James Montgomery, Dec., 1826, was a hymn of tide and headway
in George Coles' tune of "Duane St.," with a step that made every heart
beat time. The four picturesque eight-line stanzas made a practical
sermon in verse and song from Matt. 25:35, telling how--
A poor wayfaring man of grief
Hath often crossed me on my way,
Who sued so humbly for relief
That I could never answer nay.
I had no power to ask his name,
Whither he went or whence he came,
Yet there was something in his eye
That won my love, I knew not why;
--and in the second and third stanzas the narrator relates how he
entertained him, and this was the sequel--
Then in a moment to my view
The stranger started from disguise
The token in His hand I knew;
My Saviour stood before my eyes.
When once that song was started, every tongue took it up, (and it was
strange if every foot did not count the measure,) and the coldest
kindled with gospel warmth as the story swept on.[26]
[Footnote 26: Montgomery's poem, "The Stranger," has seven stanzas. The
full dramatic effect of their connection could only be produced by a set
piece.]
"WHEN FOR ETERNAL WORLDS I STEER."
It was no solitary experience for hearers in a house of prayer where the
famous Elder Swan held the pulpit, to feel a climactic thrill at the
sudden breaking out of the eccentric orator with this song in the very
middle of his sermon--
When for eternal worlds I steer,
And seas are calm and skies are clear,
And faith in lively exercise,
And distant hills of Canaan rise,
My soul for joy then claps her wings,
And loud her lovely sonnet sings,
"Vain world, adieu!"
With cheerful hope her eyes explore
Each landmark on the distant shore,
The trees of life, the pastures green,
The golden streets, the crystal stream,
Again for joy, she claps her wings,
And loud her lovely sonnet sings,
"Vain world, adieu!"
Elder Jabez Swan was born in Stonington, Ct., Feb. 23, 1800, and died
1884. He was a tireless worker as a pastor (long in New London, Ct.,)
and a still harder toiler in the field as an evangelist and as a helper
eagerly called for in revivals; and, through all, he was as happy as a
boy in vacation. He was unlearned in the technics of the schools, but
always eloquent and armed with ready wit; unpolished, but poetical as a
Hebrew prophet and as terrible in his treatment of sin. Scoffers and
"hoodlums" who interrupted him in his meetings never interrupted him but
once.
[Illustration: James Montgomery]
The more important and canonical hymnals and praise-books had no place
for "Sonnet," as the bugle-like air to this hymn was called. Rev.
Jonathan Aldrich, about 1860, harmonized it in his _Sacred Lyre_, but
this, and the few other old vestry and field manuals that contain it,
were compiled before it became the fashion to date and authenticate
hymns and tunes. In this case both are anonymous. Another (and probably
earlier) tune sung to the same words is credited to "S. Arnold," and
appears to have been composed about 1790.
"I'M A PILGRIM, AND I'M A STRANGER."
This hymn still lives--and is likely to live, at least in collections
that print revival music. Mrs. Mary Stanley (Bunce) Dana, born in
Beaufort, S.C., Feb. 15, 1810, wrote it while living in a northern
state, where her husband died. By the name Dana she is known in
hymnology, though she afterwards became Mrs. Shindler. The tune
identified with the hymn, "I'm a Pilgrim," is untraced, save that it is
said to be an "Italian Air," and that its original title was "Buono
Notte" (good night).
No other hymn better expresses the outreaching of ardent faith. Its very
repetitions emphasize and sweeten the vision of longed-for fruition.
I can tarry, I can tarry but a night,
Do not detain me, for I am going.
* * * * *
There the sunbeams are ever shining,
O my longing heart, my longing heart is there.
* * * * *
Of that country to which I'm going,
My Redeemer, my Redeemer is the light.
There is no sorrow, nor any sighing,
Nor any sin there, nor any dying,
I'm a pilgrim, etc.
The same devout poetess also wrote (1840) the once popular consolatory
hymn,--
O sing to me of heaven
When I'm about to die,
--sung to the familiar tune by Rev. E.W. Dunbar; also to a melody
composed 1854 by Dr. William Miller.
The line was first written--
When _I am called_ to die,
--in the author's copy. The hymn (occasioned by the death of a pious
friend) was written Jan. 15, 1840.
Mrs. Dana (Shindler) died in Texas, Feb. 8, 1883.
"JOYFULLY, JOYFULLY ONWARD I MOVE."
The maker of this hymn has been confounded with the maker of its
tune--partly, perhaps, from the fact that the real composer of the tune
also wrote hymns. The author of the words was the Rev. William Hunter,
D.D., an Irish-American, and a Methodist minister. He was born near
Ballymoney, County Antrim, Ire., May, 1811, and was brought to America
when a child six years old. He received his education in the common
schools and at Madison College, Hamilton, N.Y., (now Madison
University), and was successively a pastor, editor and Hebrew professor.
Besides his work in these different callings, he wrote many helpful
hymns--in all one hundred and twenty-five--of which "Joyfully,
Joyfully," dated 1842, is the best. It began originally with the line--
Friends fondly cherished have passed on before,
--and the line,--
Home to the land of delight I will go.
--was written,--
Home to the land of bright spirits I'll go.
Dr. Hunter died in Ohio, 1877.
_THE TUNE._
Rev. Abraham Dow Merrill, the author of the music to this triumphal
death-song, was born in Salem, N.H., 1796, and died April 29, 1878. He
also was a Methodist minister, and is still everywhere remembered by the
denomination to which he belonged in New Hampshire and Vermont. He rode
over these states mingling in revival scenes many years. His picture
bears a close resemblance to that of Washington, and he was somewhat
famous for this resemblance. His work was everywhere blessed, and he
left an imperishable influence in New England. The tune, linked with Dr.
Hunter's hymn, formed the favorite melody which has been the dying song
of many who learned to sing it amid the old revival scenes:
Death, with thy weapons of war lay me low;
Strike, king of terrors; I fear not the blow.
Jesus has broken the bars of the tomb,
Joyfully, joyfully haste to thy home.
"TIS THE OLD SHIP OF ZION, HALLELUJAH!"
This may be found, vocalized with full harmony, in the _American
Vocalist_. With all the parts together (more or less) it must have made
a vociferous song-service, but the hymn was oftener sung simply in
soprano unison; and there was sound enough in the single melody to
satisfy the most zealous.
All her passengers will land on the bright eternal shore,
O, glory hallelujah!
She has landed many thousands, and will land as many more,
O, glory hallelujah!
Both hymn and tune have lost their creators' names, and, like many
another "voice crying in the wilderness," they have left no record of
their beginning of days.
"MY BROTHER, I WISH YOU WELL."
My brother, I wish you well,
My brother, I wish you well;
When my Lord calls I trust you will
Be mentioned in the Promised Land.
Echoes that remain to us of those fervid and affectionate, as well as
resolute and vehement, expressions of religious life as sung in the
early revivals of New England, in parts of the South, and especially in
the Middle West, are suggestive of spontaneous melody forest-born, and
as unconscious of scale, clef or tempo as the song of a bird. The above
"hand-shaking" ditty at the altar gatherings apparently took its tune
self-made, inspired in its first singer's soul by the feeling of the
moment--and the strain was so simple that the convert could join in at
once and chant--
When my Lord comes I trust _I shall_
--through all the loving rotations of the crude hymn-tune. Such
song-births of spiritual enthusiasm are beyond enumeration--and it is
useless to hunt for author or composer. Under the momentum of a
wrestling hour or a common rapture of experience, counterpoint was
unthought of, and the same notes for every voice lifted pleading and
praise in monophonic impromptu. The refrains--
O how I love Jesus,
O the Lamb, the Lamb, the loving Lamb,
I'm going home to die no more,
Pilgrims we are to Canaan's land,
O turn ye, O turn ye, for why will you die,
Come to Jesus, come to Jesus, just now,
--each at the sound of its first syllable brought its own music to every
singer's tongue, and all--male and female--were sopranos together. This
habit in singing those rude liturgies of faith and fellowship was
recognized by the editors of the _Revivalist_, and to a multitude of
them space was given only for the printed melody, and of this sometimes
only the three or four initial bars. The tunes were the church's rural
field-tones that everybody knew.
Culture smiles at this unclassic hymnody of long ago, but its history
should disarm criticism. To wanderers its quaint music and "pedestrian"
verse were threshold call and door-way welcome into the church of the
living God. Even in the flaming days of the Second Advent following, in
1842-3, they awoke in many hardened hearts the spiritual glow that never
dies. The delusion passed away, but the grace remained.
The church--and the world--owe a long debt to the old evangelistic
refrains that rang through the sixty years before the Civil War, some of
them flavored with tuneful piety of a remoter time. They preached
righteousness, and won souls that sermons could not reach. They opened
heaven to thousands who are now rejoicing there.