From an inspection of the foregoing list, many interesting particulars will appear. The Morning and Evening Hymns of BISHOP KEN and MR. KEBLE have been accepted by the whole Church. DR. WATTS has given to the worship of every congregation just three Hymns: his grand version of the Ninetieth Psalm, his meditation on the "wondrous Cross," and his paraphrase of the Angels' Song to the Lamb that was slain. Wherever the birth and resurrection of Christ are celebrated, CHARLES WESLEY leads the strain, and is equally at home when he calls Christ's soldiers to arise, or casts himself living and dying on Jesus, the Lover of the soul. BISHOP HEBER has left as a heritage to every Church his sublime invocation of the thrice holy Lord, his inspiriting missionary Hymn, and his grand muster-roll of Christ's army. AUGUSTUS TOPLADY appears in the choir with his immortal Hymn, "Rock of Ages." DR. DODDRIDGE celebrates the First Advent of the Lord, and in solemn tones bids us prepare for the Second. JAMES MONTGOMERY contributes his noble version of the Seventy-second Psalm, originally the conclusion of a missionary speech by the poet at Liverpool; while in his Hymn on Heaven, he reaches perhaps the very highest strain to which the Christian minstrel can aspire. Among the more ancient English Hymns, thus universally accepted, the first place will be given by common consent to that out-pouring of wistful hope by some unknown bard of the seventeenth century, “Jerusalem, my happy home," while the rugged pilgrim song of WILLIAMS, "Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah" comes near to it in popularity. The "Jerusalem" Hymn is happily associated with the unmatched translations of DR. NEALE from the devout and tender meditations of BERNARD of Cluny; while the same translator has made many another medieval Hymn a cherished treasure of the modern Churches. Nor is the poetic sisterhood unrepresented in this goodly fellowship of sacred bards. For penitent souls of every communion MISS ELLIOTT has provided fitting utterance, by her "Just as I am;" while MRS. ALEXANDER, to whom many of the best Hymns in our generation are due, has given expression to the feeling of every longing Christian heart in the strain which lifts the soul from the dawn with its roseate hues to the daybreak of Eternity. To enumerate other names appearing in the list, for the most part in connection with one or two Hymns at most, would be needless. Many belong to our own. generation, showing that the lyric genius still lives in the Church; while yet, if universal consent is to be taken as a test, it would scem that it is hardly given to any author to produce more than a very few Hymns of the highest excellence. This, in fact, constitutes the difficulty of selection; for while the Hymns of the first class are those on which all are agreed, we find, on a level but little lower, many thousands among which discrimination is difficult, and where every Editor's choice will necessarily vary. To illustrate this point still further, we add two lists, the former comprising the Hymns common to all the Church of England collections previously enumerated, but absent from one or more of the others; the latter containing those in which the Nonconformist compilations all agree, but which are omitted from some of the Church Hymnals. In a very few instances it will be seen that ecclesiastical bias has dictated the choice or the omission; but in most cases this influence cannot have operated, and we may fairly rank the two lists, one of fifty-seven Hymns, the other of eighty-seven, as containing the Hymns which the Churches have agreed to adopt as of the second class. In fact, there are many readers who will be inclined to place some of the following Hymns at least on a level with many of those in the preceding list. II. HYMNS COMMON TO THE FOUR CHURCH HYMNALS. All glory, praise, and honour, to Thee, Redeemer, King ... ... Neale (tr.) Neale (tr.) Keble. Conder. |