Part 1 — Chapter V THE CONTENT OF THE HYMN

The hymn is not an independent entity, sufficient unto itself, whose whole purpose is to be beautiful and to give pleasure to those responsive to its charm. The hymn has a definite message, is big with purpose.

It is related to its writer in satisfying the urge for expression of ideas that will give him power over the thoughts and feelings of others, or of emotions that demand to be voiced forth in the mystic expressiveness of rhythm and rhyme.

It is related to God as the original source of its impulse and as the recipient of its response in love and praise.

It is related to the church in the aid it affords to its collective life and to the reader or singer whose spirituality is to be inspired, developed, and expressed.

It is the content expressing these several relations and purposes that separates the hymn from purely literary ideals and criticisms.

I. ITS RELATION TO GOD

Thanksgiving.

The first impulse is a recognition of the blessings and privileges that God bestows upon his creatures in general and upon the writer and the singer in particular. There is consciousness of self in this expression of gratitude. The soul still has its feet upon the ground.

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There is nothing unworthy in this recognition of self as the recipient of God’s favor, for the soul honors God in its realization of its dependence on him and in its clear vision of the source of its blessedness. Indeed, God asks it as his due.

Prayer for Future Blessing.

The cynic who declares that gratitude is usually tinctured with the hope of favors to come may not properly represent the soul as it gives thanks to God, but there is a kinship between thanksgiving and prayer that makes it easy and logical to pass from the one to the other. The memory of benefits received inevitably suggests needs yet to be supplied.

In its relation to God the hymn may well be a vehicle for the prayer that envisages the spiritual lack that God alone can supply, and vitalizes the recognition with a desirous urgency that must characterize true prayer.

Here again we find not only divine authority, but encouragement and assurance. Whether the hymn is an individual or a collective prayer matters not. The individual need is also a need common to all petitioners, and the prayer by a congregation is still the individual prayer of its units, only intensified objectively toward God and subjectively toward the singers by its mass expression. This intensification is multiplied not arithmetically but geometrically.

Adoration.

The hymn of adoration lifts the soul into a higher plane, into a contemplation of the glory and majesty of the infinite perfections of its God in which self is forgotten and a consciousness of the infinitude of divine beauty, nobility, and spiritual elevation remains to thrill the soul. It rises on wings of selfless delight and rejoicing in God into a very ecstasy that only song can express.

Whether the soul stands on some high peak of earth and surveys the billowing world that stretches far and wide with its beetling cliffs and rocky headlands, its forests and fields, its meadows and orchards, filled with the overwhelming mystery of life and force obeying implicitly the laws formulated 78 only in inherent nature; or gazes into the great vault of the sky, with the silent majesty of circling stars and developing universes, it will find the anonymous hymn of more than a century ago voicing its deepest awe, its noblest joy:

When the soul on some mountaintop of inner experience and vision glimpses something of the sublimity of the divine character, its justice, its truth, its purity, its invincible power and will guided by infinite knowledge and wisdom, its boundless mercy and forgiving grace flowing from the eternal Source of its all-embracing love, again it can adopt as its very own the solemn notes of Tersteegen, echoed in English by John Wesley:

This is the highest office of the hymn and should be made its largest use; in no other way can the minds and hearts of Christian worshipers be filled and thrilled with a consciousness of an indwelling God as by hymns of praise, fully comprehended and sung with unflawed sincerity.

The Hymn of Communion.

Beyond the hymn of exultant praise is the hymn of communion with God, where the soul expresses its joy, not simply in the objective glories of the divine nature, but in actual communion, companionship, and conscious unity with God in desire, ideals, and purposes. The soul thinks the thoughts of God, delights in what God approves, walks in his ways with spontaneous gladness, and lives in absolute harmony with his will, not mechanically under a stress of duty, but by urge of the deepest depths of 79 the soul. Objective praise may pull out all the stops of the soul’s enthusiasm and the high imaginings of the spirit, but the hymn of communion may express itself in tenderness and sweetness, in upwelling love and quiet affection. It often is a personal rather than a collective hymn.

II. RELATION TO THE SINGER

The Hymn of Emotion.

Given a definite emotion based on realization of some religious truth, man will urgently call for some expression of it, directly by speaking or writing, or by means of some provided method.[1] Christians are stimulated by being impressed by the experiences of others. There is a blessed contagion in these expressions of the profound experiences of the saints of God as found in the hymnbooks of all our churches. One feels the accelerated spiritual heartbeat as one reads (or, better yet, sings) Watts’ emotional cry as he stands before the cross of Christ:

Who can fail to follow him in his final consecration,

Medley’s hymn, “Oh, could I speak the matchless worth,” in not a single phrase directly addresses the Deity. It is a purely subjective expression of delight in the Lord Jesus Christ; and yet how impressive, how delightful, how eminently worthy of the feelings of any great congregation, is this hymn of Christian joy.

The hymn of emotion, therefore, supplies the soul’s demand, for it satisfies the instinct for expression. It clarifies the intellectual basis of the emotion and in so doing intensifies it. 80 The collective singing and mass expression of a common emotion intensify it still further and fit it more fully to affect the will and the character, and so give permanence to the influence of the truth underlying the feeling. Where at the beginning the truth is but dimly perceived and passively accepted, the resulting shallow feeling will be deepened. In this way the hymn becomes a very generator of desirable religious emotion.

The Hymn of Inspiration.

It follows that the hymn may be a means of stimulating interest and enthusiasm in connection with a topic or proposed course of action, and may become the hymn of inspiration. Any line of thought or method of presentation appealing to any emotion or impulse that creates courage, hopefulness, confidence, assurance of success, will be pertinent and desirable. The intenser element of direct exhortation may be added, making a hortative hymn of one of mere inspiration.

The Hymn of Personal Experience.

The hymn of personal experience differs from that of emotional expression in being more subjective, more analytical of the effect produced on the mind by the apprehension of the religious truth. The latter is based on the realization of some objective truth or doctrine, while the hymn of personal experience emphasizes the inner experience in prayer, in specific exercise of faith, in a reaction of the soul to some accomplished task, or to a season of communion with God. The hymn of the blind poet, George Matheson, which has been so widely used,

is distinctly a hymn of Christian experience; while Isaac Watts gives poignant expression to the emotions of the Christian, as he contemplates the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, borne to atone for his sins,

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The hymn of personal experience has been rather heatedly objected to by critics like Bishop Wordsworth. In some cases these “I and My” hymns have been rewritten to meet the objection.

These critics who find their own “ego” offended by the apparent emphasis of the hymn writer’s “ego” forget some rather important factors in the situation.

1. It would have been rather presumptuous on the part of the writer to speak for the collective “We” and “Us” who presumably were to sing his verses.

2. As a spontaneous expression of personal experience, the hymn had to be individualistic. Not often, if ever, are particular religious experiences common to a body of believers at a given moment.

3. The high peaks of religious experience which are most valuable as furnishing ideals and stimulus to the members of a singing congregation can be reached only by individuals, not by a mass of people. To restrict the expression of religious experience to that common to all Christians, would be to omit the most inspiring and helpful hymns, and keep our song service at a dead level of inferior value.

4. It must not be forgotten that it is not the congregation that sings; it is its individual units! The congregation is an abstraction, a merely mental conception. The singing of each member is fundamentally as purely individual as if he were absolutely alone! Hence the “I and My” hymn is entirely fitting. Each sings what is, or ought to be, his own individual experience. Indeed, he makes his best contribution to the collective effect if he is intensely individualistic in his singing.

5. In all ages this individualistic participation in mass singing has been natural and spontaneous. The children of Israel 82 sang an individualistic “I and My” hymn in rejoicing over the army of Pharaoh. The psalms are largely “I and My” hymns of praise, of prayer, and of confession. David sings, “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.”

It is too much to expect that every singer shall apprehend the full import of the words he sings; to accuse him of insincerity and hypocrisy if he fails to rise to their level, or if he takes them on his lips thoughtlessly, is uncharitable. In most cases the fault lies with the leader of the service who does not bring out the meaning and does not prepare the minds and hearts of the singers for the hymn about to be sung.

It is, therefore, not a question of the first person singular, but of the kind of personal experience that finds a voice. Is it artificial or genuine? Is it morbid or wholesome? Is it depressing or stimulating to the spiritual life? Is it an experience to which all have attained or may attain, in terms all can accept, or is it morbid, fanatical, extravagant?

No congregation should be expected to sing offhand with Faber,

or

There are other limits that need to be considered. A hymn may properly be the vehicle for a confession of sin or of spiritual unworthiness; but it should not take exaggerated forms of expression that only a few could honestly adopt. The same is somewhat true of hymns of consecration. Some hymns are title deeds to gifts to Jesus Christ so comprehensive that few could sincerely subscribe to them. All these hymns, though they may have been spontaneous outbursts from the hearts of the writers, will seem unreal and forced to the singer, 83 and will only aggravate the mechanical unreality and the unwitting insincerity that vitiate the average service of song.

The Hymn of Meditation.

The hymn of meditation is less emotional than that of personal experience or feeling. It is quiet in rhetorical style and gentle in mood. Its purpose is not didactic, although it often superficially seems to be so. It is occupied with doctrinal truth only in an inferential way. It contemplates all religious truth, whether doctrinal or ethical, in an objective, impersonal way and notes its implications and corollaries. It is, therefore, emotionally negative, blending with the other elements of the service rather than controlling them.

Perhaps as typical an instance as can be cited is Bishop Bickersteth’s

Charles Wesley’s meditation on the Christian’s duties, “A charge to keep I have,” is another hymn of this class. Faber’s “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy” (“Was there ever kinder shepherd”) is also in the meditative mood.

The Hymn of Exhortation.

At first blush it may seem a little absurd that the members of a congregation should sing at each other such a hymn as “Stand up, stand up for Jesus” or “Work, for the night is coming.” But this is an artificial and not a genuine objection. The instinct of the human race is toward the singing of just such hortatory songs as these. The Marseillaise Hymn, which was one of the strongest influences leading to the French Revolution, is simply an exhortation, but it swept the French people off their feet and helped prepare the way for the great transformation of the social structure of the nation. The Church has gone on producing and singing these hortatory hymns throughout all generations from the time of David until now, because the impulse is native to the human heart.

The Didactic Hymn.

The hymn may be used to teach truth 84 as well as to express emotion. If we are to accept Paul’s statements regarding the use of song in the churches in his early day, the didactic hymn is the oldest form of the Christian hymn. “Teaching and admonishing one another” is his phrase in Colossians 3:16. Indeed, we can go back to Moses for authority for it, for the ninetieth Psalm is largely didactic. In the Psalms we find more instruction than worship. There is really no reason why an assembly should not sing truth, as well as recite it, as it does in the Apostles’ or in the Nicene Creed.

The didactic value of the hymn is too great that we should refuse its help in laying a foundation of doctrine in the hearts of the people of God. Never was it more necessary than now. It is significant of John Wesley’s appreciation of its didactic value that in his announcement of his hymnal of 1780, The Large Hymn Book, he refers to his grouping of the hymns under subjects, making the hymnal “a little body of experimental and practical divinity.”

Many of our most frequently used hymns are unfeignedly didactic. Bishop Wordsworth’s “O day of rest and gladness” is a resume of the arguments for the validity of the Christian Sabbath. “The Church’s one foundation” is one of a series of hymns by Samuel J. Stone expounding the Apostles’ Creed. Heber’s hymn, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty” is suffused with poetical feeling, but is none the less a didactic hymn emphasizing the doctrine of the Trinity.

At the same time, this religious truth must have a poetic element. It is the great value of a hymn as a teaching method that it puts heart and feeling into the doctrine it expresses, and so gives it reality and appeal. Despite Dr. Austin Phelps’ rejection of Montgomery’s “Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire” as “without the wings of song,” the Church at large has been singing it for a century. Even if the last stanza were omitted, it would still be a good hymn, because the doctrine of prayer is clothed in such beautiful and inspiring language that it is 85 eminently fitted for the expression of a congregation in song.

The Doctrinal Hymn.

The doctrinal hymn is simply a limited form of the didactic hymn in that it is devoted to the promulgation of the leading Christian doctrines, while the general didactic hymn may be used to inculcate any truth or duty, whether of a fundamental character or not.

The use of the hymn to teach the doctrines of the Church has numerous advantages. It is clear and succinct, not obscuring the truth with philosophical or metaphysical subtleties. It is dogmatic and not argumentative. It has the mnemonic advantage of rhythm and rhyme and is easily remembered. It has the inspiration of collective singing. Above all it is vivid and poetical, emotionalizing and vitalizing what in the philosopher’s hands becomes abstract and dry.

America’s most distinguished hymnologist clearly differentiates the doctrinal theologian and the doctrinal hymn writer: “The theologian and the hymn writer traverse day by day the same country, the Kingdom of our Lord. They walk the same paths; they see the same objects; but in their methods of observation and in their reports of what they see, they differ. So far as theology is a science, the theologian deals simply with the topography of the country: he explores, he measures, he expounds. So far as hymn-writing is an art, the writer deals not with topography, but with the landscape: he sees, he feels, he sings. The difference in method is made inevitable by the variance of temperament of the two men, the diversity of gifts. But both methods are as valid as inevitable. Neither man is sufficient in himself as an observer or a reporter. It is the topography and the landscape together that make the country what it is. It is didactics and poetry together that can approach the reality of the spiritual Kingdom.”[2]

It follows that the doctrinal hymn is not simply reluctantly admissible, it is actually peremptorily necessary if the doctrines of the Christian faith are to be impressed upon each rising generation. This function of the hymn is all the more important 86 because of the decline of doctrinal preaching. It is the “substance of doctrine” the hymns supply rather than the rigid philosophical shell which the creeds and the catechism offer. It is this shell that is “dry,” not the realities it too often hides.

The Homiletical Hymn.

The homiletical hymn is a homily, as its name implies—a sermonette. The term refers to its form, not to its content, for that is usually doctrinal and always didactic. It is sermonic because it proceeds from point to point, leading the way to a practical application. This form of hymn makes up the great body of the older hymnody, because it was written by sermonizers who applied homiletical methods to their hymns.

Take Doddridge’s hymn, “Ye servants of the Lord”: the first stanza makes the general appeal for service; the second emphasizes the need of readiness for that service; the third, attention to the Lord’s commands; the fourth exclaims over the joy and the reward of service; the fifth, the honors that Christ shall heap on his servant. That makes a fine outline for a sermon!

The homiletical hymn was often dry because the sermon was dry. They were both too frequently “proses” in a sense different from the medieval use of the word.

The Hymn of Propaganda.

The hymn of propaganda calls for consideration. It is a didactic hymn, of course, but its purpose is not to express the fundamental doctrines of the faith, but to urge some subordinate article of it out of all proportion to its intrinsic importance, or to win adherents for some new religious ideas. There are hymns of Perfectionism, of Holiness, of Unity, of Premillenialism, of Second Adventism, of Christian Science, of phases of Theosophy, that fall within this category.

The spiritual value of some of these is not to be underrated, but each hymn must be judged on its own merits. The danger of exaggeration is the chief point calling for circumspection. 87 Hymns of propaganda criticizing or antagonizing the Christian Church must be rejected.

Hymns of the Social Gospel.

A few years ago, when the sociological aspect of Christianity won wide attention, it was seriously proposed to rewrite the whole hymnbook and inject the “Social Gospel.” A few desirable hymns on Brotherhood were written which fill out a previously somewhat neglected rubric. Brotherhood is not a discovery of the twentieth century, but has been an integral part of Christianity from the beginning and was never so fully exemplified as at that period.

In so far as the “Social Gospel” is simply the application of the gospel of Christ to old wrongs that yet need to be righted, like slavery, and war, and alcoholism, or to new social complexes in our modern economic life where there is injustice, or where there is need of help for body, mind, or soul, hymns may prove desirable helps. They will, however, be written spontaneously, not as propaganda, and will be used freely in so far as there is practical and emotional justification for them. The onward progress of the Kingdom in these unfinished tasks will most likely depend on the stimulation of the great motives that have given victory in the past. It is the appeal to these motives that gives vitality to such a hymn as “Where cross the crowded ways of life,” by Frank Mason North.

Special Hymns.

It is a little difficult to supply hymns for subordinate topics which do not stir the spiritual pulses, and hence the poorest hymns in our hymnbooks are found in these divisions. The doctrines of Human Depravity, Regeneration, Sanctification, the State of the Impenitent Dead, do not lend themselves to attractive hymnic expression.

These hymns have no wings; they are unemotional and without appeal to the imagination. Yet the selectors of hymns who have a purely homiletical point of view demand that a hymnal shall supply appropriate lyrics to fit subjects and occasions that have no lyrical possibilities. If the demands of symmetrical completeness in a hymnal, or of close fitness of 88 theme in a service, must be met, then one must be content with prosaic verses lacking in poetic charm or emotional inspiration.

The Great Hymnic Themes.

There are certain doctrines, certain experiences, that appeal so strongly to Christian hearts that the impulse to write and sing about them far exceeds that growing out of less general, less striking themes. There may be a great difference in the favorite themes of different persons, under different circumstances, in different generations. The Latin medieval hymnists greatly stressed the suffering Christ; Watts sang of the majesty and glory of God and of his reign in the moral and spiritual world, and his hymns are found largely in the purely worshipful rubrics of our hymnals; Charles Wesley wrote in the midst of a great revival, and his hymns emphasize the plan of salvation and voice the personal experiences of the saved. In our own day the ideas of service, of public welfare, of works of philanthropy and mercy, and of social justice find expression.

The supreme theme, of course, is Christ. Whatever phases of Christian doctrine or experience may seem to absorb the mind of any generation, still the songs cluster about the person of Jesus Christ. As Dr. Austin Phelps eloquently insists, “here the rapture of holy song culminates on earth, as it does in heaven. Here every grace of religious character, and every experience of a devout life, has found freedom to express itself in hymns of worship. Where can another such body of sacred poetry be found in any language, as that which comprises the Christology of the songs of the Church?”

This hymnody is all the more appealing in that it sings a living and not a dead Christ, a present personality, near and dear, and not merely a historical character. The singer does not strain his power of thought and elevation of expression to hymn adequately the perfections of an infinite God, but spontaneously rejoices in a Friend who “sticketh closer than a brother”!

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