PART IV ENGLISH HYMNODY

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Ken’s Immortal Evening Hymn

Thomas Ken, 1695.

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THE DAWN OF HYMNODY IN ENGLAND

Owing to the strong prejudice in the Reformed Church to hymns of “human composure,” the development of hymnody in England, as well as other countries where Calvin’s teachings were accepted, was slow. Crude paraphrases of the Psalms, based on the Genevan Psalter, appeared from the hands of various versifiers and were used generally in the churches of England and Scotland. It was not until 1637, more than a century after Luther had published his first hymn-books, that England’s first hymn-writer was born. He was Bishop Thomas Ken.

This first sweet singer in the early dawn of English hymnody holds the distinction of having written the most famous doxology of the Christian Church. It is the so-called “long meter” doxology:

His sublime evening hymn, “Glory to Thee, my God, this night,” is ranked as one of the four masterpieces of English praise. His beautiful morning hymn, “Awake, my soul, and with the sun,” is scarcely less deserving of high distinction. As originally written, both hymns closed with the famous doxology given above.

Bishop Ken looms as a heroic figure during turbulent times in English history. Left an orphan in early childhood, [210] he was brought up by his brother-in-law, the famous fisherman, Izaak Walton. Ken’s name has been found cut in one of the stone pillars at Winchester, where he went to school as a boy.

When, in 1679, the wife of William of Orange, the niece of the English monarch, asked Charles II, king of England, to send an English chaplain to the royal court at The Hague, Ken was selected for the position. However, he was so outspoken in denouncing the corrupt lives of those in authority in the Dutch capitol that he was compelled to leave the following year. Charles thereupon appointed him one of his own chaplains.

Ken continued to reveal the same spirit of boldness, however, rebuking the sins of the dissolute English monarch. On one occasion, when Charles asked the courageous pastor to give up his own dwelling temporarily in order that Nell Gwynne, a notorious character, might be housed, Ken answered promptly: “Not for the King’s kingdom.”

Instead of punishing the bold and faithful minister, Charles so admired his courage that he appointed him bishop of Bath and Wells.

Charles always referred to Ken as “the good little man” and, when it was chapel time, he would usually say: “I must go in and hear Ken tell me of my faults.”

When Charles died, and the papist James II came to the throne, Ken, together with six other bishops, was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Although he was acquitted, he was later removed from his bishopric by William III.

The last years of his life were spent in a quiet retreat, and he died in 1711 at the age of seventy-four years. He had requested that “six of the poorest men in the parish” should carry him to his grave, and this was done. It was [211] also at his request that he was buried under the east window of the chancel of Frome church, the service being held at sunrise. As his body was lowered into its last resting-place, and the first light of dawn came through the chancel window, his friends sang his immortal morning hymn:

It is said that after Bishop Ken had written this hymn, he sang it to his own accompaniment on the lute every morning as a part of his private devotion. Although he wrote many other hymns, only this one and his evening hymn have survived. The two hymns were published in a devotional book prepared for the students of Winchester College. In this work Bishop Ken urged the students to sing the hymns devoutly in their rooms every morning and evening.

The historian Macaulay paid Ken a beautiful tribute when he said that he came as near to the ideal of Christian perfection “as human weakness permits.”

It was during the life-time of Bishop Ken that Joseph Addison, the famous essayist, was publishing the “Spectator.” Addison was not only the leading literary light of his time, [212] but a devout Christian as well. From time to time he appended a poem to the charming essays which appeared in the “Spectator,” and it is from this source that we have received five hymns of rare beauty. They are the so-called “Creation” hymn, “The spacious firmament on high,” which Haydn included in his celebrated oratorio; the Traveler’s hymn, beginning with the line, “How are Thy servants blest, O Lord”; and three other hymns, almost equally well-known: “The Lord my pasture shall prepare,” “When rising from the bed of death,” and “When all Thy mercies, O my God.” The latter contains one of the most striking expressions in all the realm of hymnody:

In the essay introducing this hymn, Addison writes: “If gratitude is due from man to man, how much more from man to his Maker. The Supreme Being does not only confer upon us those bounties which proceed immediately from His hand, but even those benefits which are conveyed to us by others. Any blessing which we enjoy, by what means soever derived, is the gift of Him who is the great Author of Good and the Father of Mercies.”

The Traveler’s hymn, “How are Thy servants blessed, O Lord,” was written after Addison’s return from a perilous voyage on the Mediterranean.

In addition to his literary pursuits, Addison also occupied several important positions of state with the English government. He died on June 17, 1719, at the age of forty-seven. When he was breathing his last, he called for the [213] Earl of Warwick and exclaimed: “See in what peace a Christian can die!”

The hymns of Addison and Bishop Ken may be regarded as the heralds of a new day in the worship of the Reformed Church. While Addison was still writing his essays and verses for the “Spectator,” Isaac Watts, peer of all English hymnists, was already tuning his lyre of many strings. Psalmody was beginning to yield to hymnody.

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The Pearl of English Hymnody

Isaac Watts, 1707.

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ISAAC WATTS, FATHER OF ENGLISH HYMNODY

By universal consent the title, “Father of English Hymnody,” is bestowed upon Isaac Watts. English hymns had been written before the time of Watts, notably the beautiful classics of Ken and Addison; but it remained for the genius of Watts to break the iron rule of psalmody in the Reformed Church which had continued uninterrupted since the days of Calvin.

Watts was born in Southampton, England, July 17, 1674. His father was a “dissenter,” and twice was imprisoned for his religious views. This was during the time when Isaac was still a baby, and the mother often carried the future poet in her arms when she went to visit her husband in prison.

When Isaac grew up, a wealthy man offered to give him a university education if he would consent to become a minister in the Established Church. This he refused to do, but prepared instead for the Independent ministry.

Early in life young Watts had revealed signs of poetic genius. As a boy of seven years he had amused his parents with his rhymes. As he grew older he became impatient with the wretched paraphrases of the Psalms then in use in the Reformed churches. These views were shared generally by those who possessed a discriminating taste in poetry. “Scandalous doggerel” was the term applied by Samuel Wesley, father of the famous Wesley brothers, to the versified [216] Psalms of Sternhold and Hopkins, who had published the most popular psalm-book of the day.

When young Watts ventured to voice his displeasure over the psalm-singing in his father’s church in Southampton, one of the church officers retorted: “Give us something better, young man.” Although he was only eighteen years old at the time, he accepted the challenge and wrote his first hymn, which was sung at the following Sunday evening services. The first stanza seems prophetic of his future career:

The hymn met with such favorable reception that the youthful poet was encouraged to write others, and within the next two years he produced nearly all of the 210 hymns that constituted his famous collection, “Hymns and Spiritual Songs,” published in 1707. This was the first real hymn-book in the English language.

Twelve years later he published his “Psalms of David,” a metrical version of the Psalter, but, as he himself stated, rendered “in the language of the New Testament, and applied to the Christian state and worship.” Indeed, the Psalms were given such a distinctively Christian flavor that their Old Testament origin is often overlooked. Witness, for example, the opening lines of his rendition of the Seventy-second Psalm:

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In addition to being a preacher and a poet, Watts was an ardent student of theology and philosophy, and wrote several notable books. Always frail in health from childhood, his intense studies finally resulted in completely shattering his constitution, and he was compelled to give up his parish.

During this period of physical distress, the stricken poet was invited to become a guest for a week in the home of Sir Thomas Abney, an intimate friend and admirer. The friendship continued to grow, and inasmuch as Watts did not improve in health, he was urged to remain. He finally so endeared himself to the Abney family that they refused to let him go, and he who had come to spend a week remained for the rest of his life—thirty-six years!

The great hymnist died on November 25, 1748, and was buried at Bunhill Fields, London, near the graves of John Bunyan and Daniel Defoe. A monument to his memory was placed in Westminster Abbey, the highest honor that can be bestowed upon an Englishman.

To Isaac Watts we are indebted for some of our most sublime hymns. “When I survey the wondrous cross” has been named by Matthew Arnold as the finest hymn in the English language, and most critics concur in the judgment. Certainly it is one of the most beautiful. John Julian, the noted hymnologist, declares that it must be classified with the four hymns that stand at the head of all English hymns.

Other hymns of Watts continue to hold their grip on the Christian Church after the passing of two centuries. No Christmas service seems complete without singing his beautiful paraphrase of the ninety-eighth Psalm, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” Another hymn, “O God, our help in ages past,” based on the ninetieth Psalm, is indispensable [218] at New Year’s time. Then there is the majestic hymn of worship, “Before Jehovah’s awful throne,” as well as the appealing Lenten hymn, “Alas, and did my Saviour bleed?” And who has not been stirred by the challenge in “Am I a soldier of the cross?” Other hymns by Watts include such favorites as “There is a land of pure delight,” “Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove,” “O that the Lord would guide my ways,” “My dear Redeemer and my Lord,” “How beauteous are their feet,” “Come, sound His praise abroad,” “My soul, repeat His praise,” “O bless the Lord, my soul,” “Lord of the worlds above,” “Lord, we confess our numerous faults,” “In vain we seek for peace with God,” “Not all the blood of beasts,” “So let our lips and lives express,” “The Lord my Shepherd is,” and “When I can read my title clear.”

Although Watts never married, he deeply loved little children, and he is the author of some of the most famous nursery rhymes in the English language. The profound genius that produced “O God, our help in ages in past” also understood how to appeal to the childish mind by means of such happy little jingles as, “How doth the little busy bee” and “Let dogs delight to bark and bite,” as well as by the exquisite cradle-song:

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Seeking the Heavenly Prize

Philip Doddridge (1702-1751).

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DODDRIDGE: PREACHER, TEACHER AND HYMNIST

Philip Doddridge was one of England’s gifted evangelical preachers. Like the Wesley brothers, he came from a large family. While there were nineteen children in the Wesley family, Philip Doddridge was the last of twenty children.

The religious background of the Doddridge family was significant. Although his father was an oil merchant in London, his grandfather had been one of the Independent ministers under the Commonwealth who were ejected in 1662. Both of his parents were pious people, and Philip, who was born June 26, 1702, was brought up in a religious atmosphere.

He was such a delicate child that his life was despaired of almost from birth. His parents died while he was yet quite young, but kind friends cared for the orphan boy and sent him to school.

Because he revealed such unusual gifts as a student, the Duchess of Bedford offered to give him a university training on condition that he would become a minister of the Church of England. This, however, Philip declined to do, and he entered a nonconformist seminary instead.

At the age of twenty-one years he was ordained as pastor of the Independent congregation at Kibworth, England. Six years later he began his real life work at Northampton, where he served as the head of a theological training school and preached in the local congregation.

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To this school came young men from all parts of the British Isles and even from the continent. Most of them prepared to become ministers in the Independent Church. Doddridge himself was practically the whole faculty. Among his subjects were Hebrew, Greek, Algebra, Philosophy, Trigonometry, Logic, and theological branches.

As a hymn-writer Doddridge ranks among the foremost in England. He was a friend and admirer of Isaac Watts, whose hymns at this time had set all England singing. In some respects his lyrics resemble those of Watts. Although they do not possess the strength and majesty found in the latter’s hymns, they have more personal warmth and tenderness. Witness, for instance, the children’s hymn:

Note also the spiritual joy that is reflected in the hymn so often used at confirmation:

Something of Doddridge’s own confiding trust in God is expressed in the beautiful lines:

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Other noted hymns by Doddridge include such gems as “Hark, the glad sound, the Saviour comes,” “Great God, we sing that mighty hand,” “O Fount of good, to own Thy love,” and “Father of all, Thy care we bless.”

Doddridge wrote about four hundred hymns. Most of them were composed for use in his own congregation in connection with his sermons. None of them was published during his life-time, but manuscript copies were widely circulated among the Independent congregations in England. The fact that about one-third of his hymns are still in common use on both sides of the Atlantic bears witness of their unusual merit.

Though Doddridge struggled under the burden of feeble health, his life was filled with arduous duties. When he was only forty-eight years old it became apparent that he had fallen a victim to tubercular infection. He was advised to leave England for Lisbon, Portugal. Lacking funds for the voyage, friends in all parts of England came to his aid. The journey was undertaken, but on October 26, 1751, he died at Lisbon.

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A Hymn of the Ages

Charles Wesley, 1740.

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WESLEY, THE SWEET BARD OF METHODISM

Every great religious movement has witnessed an outburst of song. This was particularly true of the Lutheran Reformation in Germany and other lands and of the Methodist revival in England. John and Charles Wesley, like Martin Luther, understood something of the value of sacred song in impressing religious truths upon the hearts and minds of men. While John Wesley was undoubtedly a preacher of marvelous spiritual power, the real secret of the success of the Wesleyan movement more likely must be sought in the sublime hymns written by his brother Charles.

With Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley holds the foremost place in the realm of English hymnody. No less than 6,500 hymns are said to have been written by this “sweet bard of Methodism.” Naturally they are not all of the highest order, but it is surprising how many of them rise to real poetic excellence. Of the 770 hymns in the Wesleyan Hymn Book, 623 are from the pen of Charles Wesley!

Wesley did not write hymns merely as a duty, nor yet as a pastime. His soul seemed filled with music and poetry, and when his genius became touched by the divine spark of Christ’s Spirit, it burst into full flame. It has been said of Franz Schubert that “he had to write music.” The same was true of Charles Wesley. When his soul was full of song, he had to give expression to it by writing his immortal hymns. The inspiration came to him under all sorts of [226] conditions. Some of his hymns were written on horseback, others in a stage-coach or on the deck of a vessel. Even as he was lying on his deathbed, at the age of eighty years, he dictated his last hymn to his faithful and devoted wife. It begins with the words, “In age and feebleness extreme.”

Charles Wesley was the next to the youngest of nineteen children born to Rev. Samuel Wesley and his remarkable wife Susannah. The father, who was a clergyman in the Church of England, possessed more than ordinary literary gifts. He is the author of at least one hymn that has survived the passing of time, “Behold, the Saviour of mankind.” The mother presided over the rectory at Epworth, where both of the distinguished sons were born, and also looked after the education of the younger children of the large family. Concerning this very unusual mother and the spiritual influence she exerted over her children, volumes have been written.

Poverty and other tribulations descended upon the Epworth rectory like the afflictions of Job. The crowning disaster came in 1709, when the Wesley home was completely destroyed by fire. John, who was only six years old at the time, was left behind in the confusion and when the entire house was aflame he was seen to appear at a second-story window. The agonized father fell upon his knees and implored God to save his child. Immediately a neighbor mounted the shoulders of another man and managed to seize the boy just as the roof fell in. Thus was spared the child who was destined to become the leader of one of the greatest spiritual movements in the Christian Church.

While John and Charles were students at Oxford University, they became dissatisfied with the spiritual conditions existing among the students. Soon they formed an organization [227] devoted to spiritual exercises. Because of their strict rules and precise methods, they were nicknamed “the Methodists,” a name that afterwards became attached to their reform movement.

The hymns of Charles Wesley are so numerous that only a few of the more outstanding can be mentioned here. “Hark! the herald angels sing,” “Love divine, all love excelling” and “Jesus, Lover of my soul” form a triumvirate of hymns never surpassed by a single author. Add to these such hymns as “A charge to keep I have,” “Arise, my soul, arise,” “Christ, whose glory fills the sky,” “Come, Thou long-expected Jesus,” “Soldiers of Christ, arise,” “Hail the day that sees Him rise,” and “Suffering Son of Man, be near me,” and it will readily be understood why the name of Charles Wesley is graven in such large letters in the hymnody of the Christian Church.

“Jesus, Lover of my soul” is generally recognized as the finest hymn of Wesley. This is all the more remarkable since it was one of the earliest written by him. It was first published in 1740 in a collection of 139 hymns known as “Hymns and Sacred Poems, by John and Charles Wesley.” This was at the beginning of the Wesleyan movement, which soon began to spread like fire all over England.

There are several stories extant as to the origin of the hymn. The most trustworthy of these tells how the author was deeply perplexed by spiritual difficulties one day, when he noticed through his open study window a little song bird pursued by a hungry hawk. Presently the bird fluttered exhausted through the window and straight into the arms of Wesley, where it found a safe refuge. Pondering on this unusual incident, the thought came to Wesley that, in like [228] manner, the soul of man must flee to Christ in doubts and fears. Then he took up his pen and wrote:

The reference to the “tempest” and the “storm of life” may have been prompted by the memory of an earlier experience, when he and his brother John were on their way to the colony of Georgia on a missionary journey. It was in the year 1735 the brothers formed a friendship with a band of Moravians who were sailing on the same ship for America. During the crossing a terrible tempest was encountered and for a while it was feared the ship would sink. While all of the other passengers were filled with terror, the Wesleys were impressed by the calmness and courage of the Moravians, who sang hymns in the midst of the raging storm.

Seeking for a reason for their spiritual fortitude, the brothers found that the Moravians seemed to possess a positive certainty of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. The Wesleys also made the sad discovery that they themselves did not really possess this assurance, but had been trying to work out their salvation by methods of their own. John Wesley later made the confession that he and his brother had gone to Georgia to convert the people there, whereas they themselves had need to be converted!

Upon their return to London the brothers fell in with other Moravians, and through them they became familiar with Luther’s teachings. Charles came to a saving faith in Christ during a severe illness, and a week later his brother had a similar spiritual experience. It was on May 24, 1738, that John Wesley attended a meeting in Aldersgate [229] Street, where some one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. Then for the first time light dawned on his soul, and he found peace with God through Christ.

Soon afterwards John Wesley left for Halle, Germany, the seat of the Pietist movement, in order to become more familiar with the teachings of Luther and the evangelical methods of the Pietists. At Halle he also became deeply imbued with missionary zeal. Upon his return to England he launched, with John Whitefield, the greatest spiritual movement his country had ever known. Revivals flamed everywhere. No buildings were large enough to house the crowds that gathered to hear the evangelists, and, because the English clergy were hostile to the movement, most of the meetings were held in the open air.

Charles at first aided in preaching, but eventually devoted his time mainly to hymns. It is estimated that John Wesley held no less than forty thousand preaching services, and traveled nearly a quarter of a million miles. It was he who said, “The world is my parish.” John wrote some original hymns, but his translations of German hymns are more important. We are indebted to him for the English versions of Paul Gerhardt’s “Commit thou all thy griefs,” Tersteegen’s “Thou hidden love of God whose height,” Freylinghausen’s “O Jesus, Source of calm repose,” Zinzendorf’s “Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness,” and Scheffler’s “Thee will I love, My Strength, my Tower.”

Charles Wesley died March 29, 1788, after fifty years of service to the Church. The day before he was taken ill, he preached in City Road chapel, London. The hymn before the sermon was Watts’ “I’ll praise my Maker, while I’ve breath.” The following evening, although very sick, he amazed his friends by singing the entire hymn with a [230] strong voice. On the night of his death he tried several times to repeat the hymn, but could only say, “I’ll praise—I’ll praise—,” and with the praise of his Maker on his lips, he went home to God. John Wesley survived his brother three years, entering his eternal rest on March 2, 1791. The text of his last sermon was, “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found.”

Whether Charles Wesley or Isaac Watts should be accorded first place among English hymnists has been a subject of much dispute. The fact is that each occupies a unique position, and the one complements the other. While Watts dwells on the awful majesty and glory of God in sublime phrases, Wesley touches the very hem of Christ’s garment in loving adoration and praise. Dr. Breed compares the two in the following striking manner:

“Watts is more reverential; Wesley more loving. Watts is stronger; Wesley sweeter. Watts appeals profoundly to the intellect; Wesley takes hold of the heart. Watts will continue to sing for the Pauls and Peters of the Church; Wesley for the Thomases and the Johns. Where both are so great it would be idle to attempt to settle their priority. Let us only be grateful that God in His gracious providence has given both to the Church to voice the praises of various classes.”

Henry Ward Beecher uttered one of the most beautiful of all tributes to “Jesus, Lover of my soul” when he said: “I would rather have written that hymn of Wesley’s than to have the fame of all the kings that ever sat on the earth. It is more glorious. It has more power in it. I would rather be the author of that hymn than to hold the wealth of the richest man in New York. He will die. He is dead, and does not know it.... But that hymn will go singing [231] until the last trump brings forth the angel band; and then, I think, it will mount up on some lip to the very presence of God.”

George Duffield, author of “Stand up, stand up for Jesus,” called Wesley’s lyric “the hymn of the ages.”

No one will ever know how much help and consolation it has brought to souls in affliction. Allan Sutherland tells of the following pathetic incident:

“On an intensely warm day, as I stood on the corner of a sun-baked street in Philadelphia, waiting for a car to take me to the cool retreats of Fairmount Park, I heard a low, quavering voice singing, with inexpressible sweetness, ‘Jesus, Lover of my soul.’ Looking up to an open window whence the sound came, I saw on the sill a half-withered plant—a pathetic oasis of green in a desert of brick and mortar—and resting tenderly and caressingly upon it was an emaciated hand. I could not see the person to whom the voice and hand belonged, but that was unnecessary—the story was all too clearly revealed: I knew that within that close, uncomfortable room a human soul was struggling with the great problem of life and death, and was slowly but surely reaching its solution; I knew that in spite of her lowly surroundings her life was going out serenely and triumphantly. I shall never forget the grave, pathetic pleading in the frail young voice as these words were borne to me on the oppressive air:

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Another Hymn of the Ages

August Toplady, 1776.

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A GREAT HYMN THAT GREW OUT OF A QUARREL

Although Isaac Watts’ beautiful hymn, “When I survey the wondrous cross,” is regarded by most critics as the finest hymn in the English language, Toplady’s “Rock of Ages” holds the distinction of being the most popular. Perhaps no hymn ever written has so gripped the hearts of Christians of all communions as this noble hymn.

A British magazine once invited its readers to submit a list of the hundred English hymns that stood highest in their esteem. A total of 3,500 persons responded, and “Rock of Ages” was named first by 3,215.

We have tried the same experiment with a group of Bible students, and “Rock of Ages” easily headed the list.

Augustus Montague Toplady, the writer of this hymn, was born on November 4, 1740, at Farnham, England. His father, a major in the English army, was killed the following year at the siege of Carthagena. The widowed mother later removed to Ireland, where her son was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. It was during this period of his life that Augustus, then sixteen years of age, chanced to attend an evangelistic service held in a barn. The preacher was an unlettered layman, but his message so gripped the heart of the lad that he determined then and there to give his heart to God. Of this experience Toplady afterward wrote:

“Strange that I who had so long sat under the means of grace in England should be brought right unto God in [234] an obscure part of Ireland, amidst a handful of people met together in a barn, and by the ministry of one who could hardly spell his own name. Surely it was the Lord’s doing and is marvelous.”

Toplady was ordained at the age of twenty-two as a minister of the Church of England. He was frail of body, and after some years he was stricken with consumption. It was while fighting the ravages of this disease that he wrote his famous hymn, two years before his death.

The hymn first appeared in the March issue of the Gospel Magazine, of which Toplady was editor, in the year 1776. It was appended to a curious article in which the author attempted to show by mathematical computation how dreadful is the sum total of sins committed by a man during a lifetime, and how impossible it is for a sinner to redeem himself from this debt of guilt. But Christ, who is the sinner’s refuge, has paid the entire debt. It was this glorious thought that inspired him to sing:

For some years John Wesley, the great founder of Methodism, and Toplady had been engaged in a theological dispute. Toplady was a confirmed Calvinist and was intolerant of Wesley’s Arminian views. Both men were intemperate in their language and hurled unseemly and sometimes bitter invectives at each other. Wesley characterized Toplady as a “chimney-sweep” and “a lively coxcomb.” Toplady retorted by calling Wesley “Pope John” and declaring that his forehead was “petrified” and “impervious to a blush.” There are reasons for believing that the article in the Gospel Magazine by Toplady to which we have alluded [235] was for the purpose of refuting Wesley’s teachings, and that “Rock of Ages” was written at the conclusion of the article as an effective way of clinching the argument.

In our day, when we find “Rock of Ages” on one page of our hymnals and Charles Wesley’s “Jesus, Lover of my soul,” on the next, it is hard to understand the uncharitable spirit that existed between these servants of Christ. Perhaps, had they really understood each other, they were more in accord than they suspected.

Nevertheless, God is able to use the most imperfect of human instruments for His praise, and surely “Rock of Ages” has been the means of bringing multitudes to God through Christ. Its strength lies undoubtedly in the clear and simple manner in which it sets forth the glorious truth that we are saved by grace alone, through the merits of Christ. Even a child can understand the meaning of the words,

Or these,

In this comforting and triumphant faith Toplady himself passed into glory in his thirty-eighth year. A few hours before his death he exclaimed: “My heart beats every day stronger and stronger for glory. Sickness is no affliction, pain no curse, death itself no dissolution.” His last words were: “My prayers are all converted into praises.”

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During his illness some friends had expressed the hope that he might soon be restored. Toplady shook his head.

“No mortal man can live,” he said, “after the glories which God has manifested to my soul.”

At another time he told how he “enjoyed a heaven already in his soul,” and that his spiritual experiences were so exalted that he could ask for nothing except a continuation of them.

Before his death Toplady had requested that he be buried beneath the gallery over against the pulpit of Totenham Court Chapel. Strangely enough, this building was intimately associated with the early history of Methodism. It was built by Whitefield, and here also Wesley preached Whitefield’s funeral sermon. Perhaps it was Toplady’s way of expressing the hope that all the bitterness and rancor attending his controversy with Wesley might be buried with him.

“Rock of Ages” has been translated into almost every known language, and to all peoples it seems to bring the same wondrous appeal. An old Chinese woman was trying to do something of “merit” in the eyes of her heathen gods by digging a well twenty-five feet deep and fifteen in diameter. She was converted to Christianity, and when she was eighty years old, she held out the crippled hands with which she had labored all her life and sang: “Nothing in my hands I bring.”

A missionary to India once sought the aid of a Hindu to translate the hymn into one of the numerous dialects of India. The result was not so happy. The opening words were:

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This is a fair example of the difference between poetry and prose. The translator was faithful to the idea, but how common-place and unfortunate are his expressions when compared with the language of the original!

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The Coronation Hymn

Edward Perronet, 1779.

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THE BIRD OF A SINGLE SONG

Some men gain fame through a long life of work and achievement; others through a single notable deed. The latter is true in a very remarkable sense of Edward Perronet, author of the Church’s great coronation hymn, “All hail the power of Jesus’ Name.”

“Perronet, bird of a single song, but O how sweet!” is the charming tribute of Bishop Fess in referring to this inspired hymn and its author.

Although Perronet was a man of more than ordinary ability, his name probably would have been lost to posterity had he not written the coronation hymn. An associate of the Wesleys for many years, Perronet also wrote three volumes of sacred poems, some of unusual merit. All of them, however, have been practically forgotten except his one immortal hymn. So long as there are Christians on earth, it will continue to be sung, and after that—in heaven!

Perronet came from a distinguished line of French Protestants who had found refuge in England during times of religious persecution in their homeland. His father, Rev. Vincent Perronet, was vicar of Shoreham. Both father and son, though ardent supporters of the Established Church, became intensely interested in the great evangelical revival under Whitefield and the Wesleys. At one time young Perronet traveled with John Wesley. Much opposition had been stirred up against the Wesleyan movement, and in some places the preachers were threatened by mobs. Concerning [240] these experiences, Wesley makes the following notation in his diary:

“From Rockdale we went to Bolton, and soon found that the Rockdale lions were lambs in comparison with those of Bolton. Edward Perronet was thrown down and rolled in mud and mire. Stones were hurled and windows broken.”

On another occasion it is recorded that Wesley wanted to hear Perronet preach. The author of our hymn, however, seems to have been somewhat reluctant about preaching in the presence of the great reformer. Wesley, nevertheless, without consulting Perronet, announced in church that the young man would occupy the pulpit on the following morning. Perronet said nothing, but on the morrow he mounted the pulpit and explained that he had not consented to preach. “However,” he added, “I shall deliver the best sermon that has ever been preached on earth,” whereupon he read the Sermon on the Mount from beginning to end, adding not a word of comment!

“All hail the power of Jesus’ Name” has been translated into almost every language where Christianity is known, and wherever it is sung it seems to grip human hearts. One of the most remarkable stories of the power of this hymn is related by Rev. E. P. Scott, a missionary to India. Having learned of a distant savage tribe in the interior to whom the gospel had not yet been preached, this missionary, despite the warnings of his friends, packed his baggage and, taking his violin, set out on his perilous venture. After traveling several days, he suddenly came upon a large party of the savages who surrounded him and pointed their spears at him.

Believing death to be near, the missionary nevertheless [241] took out his violin and with a prayer to God began to sing “All hail the power of Jesus’ Name!” He closed his eyes as he sang, expecting every moment to be pierced through with the threatening spears. When he reached the stanza, “Let every kindred, every tribe,” he opened his eyes. What was his surprise to see every spear lowered, and many of the savages moved to tears!

He remained for two years and a half, preaching the story of redemption and leading many of the natives to Jesus. When he was about to return to America on furlough, they pleaded, “O missionary, come back to us again!” He did so, and finally passed away in the midst of these people who had learned to love the man who had brought them the gospel of Christ.

It is interesting to know that, while the people of both England and America prize this hymn very highly, they sing it to different melodies. The tune used in America is called “Coronation” and was composed by a carpenter of Charlestown, Mass., by the name of Oliver Holden. This man was very fond of music and spent his spare time in playing a little organ on which he composed his tunes. The organ may still be seen in Boston.

Thus an English minister and an American carpenter have united in giving the world an immortal hymn.

Perronet died January 2, 1792. His last words were:

Two other hymn-writers who, like Perronet, were associated with the Wesleyan movement may be mentioned [242] in this connection. They were John Cennick and William Williams. Like Perronet, too, each was the author of one great hymn, and through that hymn their names have been preserved to posterity.

Cennick, who was of Bohemian ancestry, first met John Wesley in 1739. Of that meeting Wesley has the following notation in his diary: “On Friday, March 1739, I came to Reading, where I found a young man who had in some measure known the powers of the world to come. I spent the evening with him and a few of his serious friends, and it pleased God much to strengthen and comfort them.”

For a while Cennick assisted Wesley as a lay preacher, but in 1741 he forsook the Methodist movement on account of Wesley’s “free grace” doctrines and organized a society of his own along Calvinistic lines. Later he joined himself to John Whitefield as an evangelist, but finally he went over to the Moravians, in which communion he labored abundantly until his death in 1755 at the early age of thirty-seven years.

To Cennick we are indebted for the majestic hymn on the theme of Christ’s second coming, “Lo! He comes, with clouds descending.” James King, in his “Anglican Hymnology,” gives this hymn third place among the hymns of the Anglican Church, it being excelled in his estimation only by Bishop Ken’s “All praise to Thee, my God, this night” and Wesley’s “Hark! the herald angels sing.” Cennick has also bequeathed to the Church the lovely hymn, “Children of the heavenly King.” Though he wrote and published many more hymns, they are mostly of an inferior order.

Williams, a Welshman by birth, has also left a hymn that has gone singing down through the centuries. It is the [243] rugged and stirring hymn that sets forth in such striking imagery the experiences of the Israelites in the wilderness, “Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah.”

Williams, who earned the title of the “Watts of Wales,” wrote the hymn originally in Welsh. Of him it has been said that “He did for Wales what Wesley and Watts did for England, or what Luther did for Germany.” His first hymn-book, “Hallelujah,” was published in 1744, when he was only twenty-seven years old.

The Welsh hymnist originally intended to enter the medical profession, but, after passing through a spiritual crisis, he was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England. Because of his free methods of evangelism, he was denied full ordination, and later identified himself with the Wesleyan revival. Like Cennick and Perronet, however, he soon forsook the Wesleys, and now we find him a Calvinistic Methodist, having adopted Wales as his parish. He was a powerful preacher and an unusual singer, and for forty-five years he carried on a blessed work until, on January 11, 1791, he passed through “the swelling current” and was landed “safe on Canaan’s side.”

[244]

In Praise of the Word of God

Anne Steele, 1760.

[245]

ENGLAND’S FIRST WOMAN HYMNIST

While Isaac Watts was working on his immortal version of “Psalms of David,” a baby girl was born to a Baptist minister at Broughton, fifteen miles away. The baby was Anne Steele, destined to become England’s first woman hymn-writer. This was in 1716.

Her father, who was a merchant as well as a minister, served the church at Broughton for sixty years, the greater part without pay. The mother died when Anne was only a babe of three years. From childhood the future hymnist was delicate in health, and in 1735 she suffered a hip injury which made her practically an invalid for life.

The hardest blow, however, came in 1737, when her lover, Robert Elscourt, was drowned on the day before he and Anne were to have been married. The grief-stricken young woman with heroic faith nevertheless rose above her afflictions and found solace in sacred song. It is believed that her first hymn, a poem of beautiful resignation, was written at this time:

[246]

That the Lord heard her prayer may be attested by the fact that she became the greatest hymn-writer the Baptist Church has produced. Throughout her life she remained unmarried, living with her father and writing noble hymns. In 1760 her first poems appeared in print under the pen name of “Theodosia.” Her father at this time makes the following notation in his diary: “This day Nanny sent part of her composition to London to be printed. I entreat a gracious God, who enabled and stirred her up to such a work, to direct it and bless it for the good of many. I pray God to make it useful, and keep her humble.” The book proved immensely popular, and the author devoted the profits from its sale to charity.

Miss Steele is the author of 144 hymns and 34 paraphrases of the Psalms. That many of them breathe a spirit of melancholy sadness is not to be wondered at, when we consider the circumstances under which they were written. Although they do not rise to great poetic heights, their language is so artless and simple they seem to sing their way into the heart of the worshiper. When Trinity Episcopal Church of Boston, in 1808, printed its own hymn-book of 151 hymns, fifty-nine of them, or more than one-third, were selected from Miss Steele’s compositions. The fact that so many of them are still found in the hymnals of today is another testimony of their worth.

Among the more famous hymns from her pen are: “Father of Mercies, in Thy Word,” “How helpless guilty nature lies,” “Dear Refuge of my weary soul,” “O Thou [247] whose tender mercy hears,” “Thou only Sovereign of my heart,” and “Thou lovely source of true delight.”

England’s pioneer woman hymnist fell asleep in November, 1788, her last words being, “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” Her epitaph reads:

The decades during which Miss Steele lived and wrought were remarkable for the number of hymn-writers of her own communion who flourished in England. In addition to Miss Steele, the Baptist Church produced such hymnists as Samuel Medley, Samuel Stennett and John Fawcett. Benjamin Beddome also was a prolific writer of this period, but his hymns are not of a high order.

Medley lived a dissipated life in the navy until he was severely wounded in battle in 1759. The reading of a sermon led to his conversion, and he later became pastor of a Baptist congregation in Liverpool. His most famous hymns are “O could I speak the matchless worth” and “Awake, my soul, to joyful lays.” Stennett in 1757 succeeded his father as pastor of a Baptist church in London, where he gained fame as a preacher. His best hymns are “Majestic sweetness sits enthroned” and “’Tis finished, so the Saviour cried.” Fawcett was minister of an humble Baptist congregation in Wainsgate when, in 1772, he received a call to a large London church. He preached his farewell sermon and had loaded his household goods on wagons, when the tears of his parishioners constrained him to remain. A few days later he wrote the tender lyric, “Blest be the tie that binds.” Among his other hymns are “How precious is the Book divine” and “Lord, dismiss us with Thy blessing.”

[248]

The Name above All Names

John Newton, 1779.

[249]

A SLAVE-TRADER WHO WROTE CHRISTIAN LYRICS

In one of England’s famous old churches there is a tablet marking the last resting-place of one of its rectors, and on the tablet this epitaph:

“John Newton, clerk, once an Infidel and Libertine, a servant of slavers in Africa, was, by the rich Mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the Faith he had long labored to destroy.”

This inscription, written by Newton himself before his death, tells the strange story of the life of the man who wrote “How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds,” and scores of other beautiful hymns.

Newton was born in London, July 24, 1725. His father was a sea captain. His mother, a deeply pious woman, though frail in health, found her greatest joy in teaching her boy Scripture passages and hymns. When he was only four years old he was able to read the Catechism.

The faithful mother often expressed the hope to her son that he might become a minister. However, when the lad was only seven years of age, the mother died, and he was left to shift largely for himself. On his 11th birthday he joined his father at sea, and made five voyages to the Mediterranean. Through the influence of evil companions and the reading of infidel literature, he began to live a godless and abandoned life.

Being pressed into the navy when a war seemed imminent, [250] young Newton deserted. He was captured, however, and flogged at the mast, after which he was degraded.

At this point his life teems with reckless adventures and strange escapes. Falling into the hands of an unscrupulous slave-dealer in Africa, he himself was reduced practically to the abject condition of a slave. In his misery he gave himself up to nameless sins. The memory of his mother, however, and the religious truths which she had implanted in his soul as a child gave his conscience no peace.

The reading of “The Imitation of Christ,” by Thomas à Kempis, also exerted a profound influence over him, and a terrifying experience in a storm at sea, together with his deliverance from a malignant fever in Africa, served to bring the prodigal as a penitent to the throne of mercy.

After six years as the captain of a slaveship, during which time Newton passed through many severe struggles in trying to find peace with God through the observance of a strict moral life, he met on his last voyage a pious captain who helped to bring him to a truer and deeper faith in Christ.

For nine years at Liverpool he was closely associated with Whitefield and the Wesleys, studying the Scriptures in Hebrew and Greek, and occasionally preaching at religious gatherings of the dissenters. In 1764 he was ordained as curate of Olney, where he formed the famous friendship with the poet William Cowper that gave to the world so many beautiful hymns.

It was at Newton’s suggestion that the two undertook to write a hymn-book. The famous collection known as “The Olney Hymns,” was the result of this endeavor. Of the 349 hymns in this book, Cowper is credited with sixty-six, while Newton wrote the remainder. “How sweet the Name [251] of Jesus sounds” appeared for the first time in this collection. It is a hymn of surpassing tenderness, and ranks among the finest in the English language.

Other notable hymns, by Newton are: “Come, my soul, thy suit prepare,” “Approach, my soul, the mercy-seat,” “While with ceaseless course the sun,” “One there is above all others,” “For a season called to part,” “Safely through another week,” “On what has now been sown,” “May the grace of Christ our Saviour,” “Though troubles assail us, and dangers affright,” “Day of judgment, day of wonders,” and “Glorious things of thee are spoken.”

Newton’s life came to a close in London in 1807, after he had served for twenty-eight years as rector of St. Mary Woolnoth. Among his converts were numbered Claudius Buchanan, missionary to the East Indies, and Thomas Scott, the Bible commentator. In 1805, when his eyesight began to fail and he could no longer read his text, his friends advised him to cease preaching. His answer was: “What! shall the old African blasphemer stop while he can speak?”

When he was nearly eighty years old it was necessary for a helper to stand in the pulpit to help him read his manuscript sermons. One Sunday Newton had twice read the words, “Jesus Christ is precious.” “You have already said that twice,” whispered his helper; “go on.” “John,” said Newton, turning to his assistant in the pulpit, “I said that twice, and I am going to say it again.” Then the rafters rang as the old preacher shouted, “Jesus Christ is precious!” Newton’s whole life may be said to be summed up in the words of one of his appealing hymns:

[252]

A Hymn on God’s Providence

William Cowper, 1774.

[253]

AN AFFLICTED POET WHO GLORIFIED GOD

Paul once wrote to the Corinthians: “God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong.”

In a very special sense this truth was exemplified in the life of the poet William Cowper. If God ever made use of a frail instrument through which to glorify Himself, He did it in this man. Feeble in health from childhood, with a sensitive, high-strung mind that ever was on the point of breaking, he still worked and wrought in such a way that his sad and feverish life certainly was not lived in vain.

Cowper was born at Great Berkhamstead, England, in 1731. His father was an English clergyman. His mother died when the child was only six years old. Even as a youth, he was distressed by frequent mental attacks. He once wrote pathetically: “The meshes of that fine network, the brain, are composed of such mere spinner’s threads in me that when a long thought finds its way into them it buzzes, and twangs, and bustles about at such a rate as seems to threaten the whole contexture.”

In the previous sketch we related how the famous friendship between the poet and John Newton led to the joint publication of “The Olney Hymns.” Newton’s idea in suggesting this project was not merely “to perpetuate the remembrance of an intimate and endeared friendship,” as he states in the preface of the noted collection, but also to occupy [254] Cowper’s mind, which already had given signs of approaching madness.

In 1773, two years after the two friends had begun “The Olney Hymns,” Cowper passed through a mental crisis that almost ended in tragedy. Obsessed with the idea that it was the divine will that he should offer up his life by drowning himself in the Ouse river, the afflicted poet ordered a post chaise, and instructed the driver to proceed to a certain spot near Olney, where he planned to leap into the river. When he reached the place, Cowper was diverted from his purpose when he found a man seated at the exact place where he had intended to end his life. Returning home, he is said to have thrown himself on his knife, but the blade broke. His next attempt was to hang himself, but the rope parted.

After his recovery from this dreadful experience, he was so impressed by the realization of God’s overruling providence that he was led to write the hymn, “God moves in a mysterious way.” It is regarded by many critics as the finest hymn ever written on the theme of God’s providence. James T. Fields declares that to be the author of such a hymn is an achievement that “angels themselves might envy.”

That God had a purpose in sparing the life of the sorely tried man is made clear when we learn that Cowper lived for twenty-seven years after passing through this crisis. Although he continued to experience some distressing periods, it was during these years that he wrote some of his most beautiful hymns. Among these are “O for a closer walk with God,” “Sometimes a light surprises,” “Jesus, where’er Thy people meet,” “In holy contemplation,” and “There is a fountain filled with blood.”

The latter hymn has often been criticized because of its strong figurative language. The expression, “a fountain [255] filled with blood,” has proved so offensive to modern taste that many hymn-books have omitted this touching hymn. Dr. Ray Palmer, writer of “My faith looks up to Thee,” opposed these views vigorously. He once wrote:

“Such criticism seems to us superficial. It takes the words as if they were intended to be a literal prosaic statement. It forgets that what they express is not only poetry, but the poetry of intense and impassioned feeling, which naturally embodies itself in the boldest metaphors. The inner sense of the soul, when its deepest affections are moved, infallibly takes these metaphors in their true significance, while a cold critic of the letter misses that significance entirely. He merely demonstrates his own lack of the spiritual sympathies of which, for fervent Christian hearts, the hymn referred to is an admirable expression.”

Certainly it is a hymn that has spread blessings in its path, and countless are the stories of how it has broken down the resistance of hardened human hearts. One of these tells how a Belfast minister once visited a mill where two hundred girls were employed, many of them from his own congregation. One girl, when she saw her pastor entering, began to sing “There is a fountain filled with blood.” Other girls took up the lines, and soon the glorious song was ringing above the noise of all the looms. The manager, who was an unbeliever, was so moved that he seized his hat and ran from the building. Later he confessed to the minister, “I never was so hard put to it in all my life. It nearly broke me down.”

Cowper also wrote a number of secular poems that achieved great fame. “The Task,” has been called “one of the wisest books ever written, and one of the most charming.” [256] Another poem, “John Gilpin,” is a very happy and mirthful narrative.

Although Cowper’s mother died in his early childhood, he never forgot her. When he was fifty-six years old, a cousin sent him a miniature of his mother. In acknowledging the gift, he wrote: “I had rather possess my mother’s picture than the richest jewel in the British crown; for I loved her with an affection that her death, fifty years since, has not in the least abated.”

Cowper died in 1800. Three years before his death, he lost his lifelong comforter and friend, Mrs. Morley Unwin, who had cared for him with the solicitude of a mother. The sorrow was almost too great for his feeble nature, and he again sank into deepest gloom. At times he thought God had forsaken him. Only at intervals was he able to resume his literary work. His last poem was “The Castaway,” written March 20, 1799. Through all his spiritual and mental depression, however, he was ever submissive to the will of God. But the time of release for this chastened child of God was at hand.

Bishop Moule tells the story of his departure thus: “About half an hour before his death, his face, which had been wearing a sad and hopeless expression, suddenly lighted up with a look of wonder and inexpressible delight. It was as if he saw his Saviour, and as if he realized the blessed fact, ‘I am not shut out of Heaven after all!’ This look of holy surprise and of joyful adoration remained until he had passed away, and even as he lay in his coffin the expression was still there. One who saw him after death wrote that ‘with the composure and calmness of the face, there mingled also a holy surprise.’”

[257]

Mrs. Browning, in her poem entitled “Cowper’s Grave,” concludes with these lines:

It is a noble tribute to the deathless work of an afflicted man, and reminds us that Cowper is still singing his wondrous theme of “redeeming love,” although his

[258]

A Hymn of Gracious Invitation

Thomas Moore (1179-1852).

[259]

AN IRISH POET AND HIS HYMNS

There are probably few Protestants who, when they have sung “Come, ye disconsolate, where’er ye languish,” have been conscious of the fact that it was written by a Roman Catholic. There is indeed no place where the “communion of saints” becomes so apparent as in the hymn-books of Christendom. The authors of our great hymns have come from practically every Christian communion, proving that in every church group there are souls who are living in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Thomas Moore, the author of the hymn mentioned above, is probably better known for his ballads and other poems than for his hymns. Lovers of English lyric poetry will always remember him as the writer of “The last rose of summer,” “Believe me, if all those endearing young charms,” “The harp that once through Tara’s halls,” “Oft in the stilly night,” and a number of other ballads that have lived through the years and have made the name of Thomas Moore famous.

Moore, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, May 28, 1779, was a man of curious make-up. True to his Celtic nature, he possessed a fiery temper that often brought him into embarrassing situations.

Jeffrey, the famous critic, once aroused Moore’s ire by saying unkind things about his poetry. Moore resented this and promptly challenged Jeffrey to a duel. The authorities interfered before any blood was shed. It was then discovered [260] that one of the pistols contained no bullet, whereupon the two men became fast friends.

Moore was one of the few men who ever made a financial success of the business of writing poetry. For “Lalla Rookh” he received $15,000 before a single copy had been sold.

Moore’s hymns, thirty-two in number, first appeared in his volume of “Sacred Songs,” published in 1816. Most of these hymns were written to popular airs of various nations. They have attained greater popularity in America than in Great Britain. One of the most famous of his hymns is “Sound the loud timbrel o’er Egypt’s dark sea.”

Like most men of poetic bent, Moore was a poor financier and business man. At one time he accepted a government position in the revenue service at Bermuda. He did not enjoy his tasks, and so he placed his duties in the hands of a deputy, while he went on a tour of America. The deputy, however, absconded with the proceeds of a ship’s cargo, whereupon Moore found himself liable for the loss of $30,000.

“Come, ye disconsolate” was so changed by Thomas Hastings, the great American hymnist, that it almost became a new hymn. The second line of the first stanza, as Moore originally wrote it, was:

The second line of the second stanza was also changed by Dr. Hastings, the original version by Moore being:

The third line of the second stanza was greatly improved by the American critic. Moore’s line read:

[261]

But the greatest change was made in the third stanza. This was practically rewritten by Dr. Hastings. Moore’s third stanza departs very radically and abruptly from true hymn style. It originally read:

The last three years of Moore’s life were very unhappy. A nervous affliction rendered him practically helpless. His death occurred on February 26, 1852, at the age of seventy-three years.

[262]

A Beautiful Lyric on Prayer

James Montgomery, 1818

[263]

THE HYMN LEGACY OF AN ENGLISH EDITOR

Shortly before James Montgomery died, a friend asked him, “Which of your poems will live?” He answered, “None, sir; nothing, except perhaps a few of my hymns.”

Montgomery was right. Although he wrote a number of pretentious poems, they have been forgotten. But his hymns live on. A perusal of almost any evangelical hymn-book will probably reveal more hymns by this gifted and consecrated man than by any other author, excepting only Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley.

What a rich legacy was bequeathed to the Christian Church by the man who wrote “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed,” “Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,” “Angels, from the realms of glory,” “In the hour of trial,” “Who are these in bright array?” “According to Thy gracious Word,” “Come to Calvary’s holy mountain,” “Forever with the Lord,” “The Lord is my shepherd, no want shall I know,” “Jerusalem, my happy home,” and “Go to dark Gethsemane!” Montgomery wrote about four hundred hymns in all, and nearly one-fourth of these are still in common use.

Montgomery began writing hymns as a little boy. He was born at Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, November 4, 1771. His father was a Moravian minister, and it had been determined that the son James should also be trained for the same calling. Accordingly he was sent to the Moravian seminary at Fulneck, Yorkshire, England. The parents, however, [264] were sent to the West Indies as missionaries, and their death there made it necessary for James to discontinue his schooling.

For a while he worked as a clerk in a store, but this was entirely distasteful to one who possessed the literary gifts of Montgomery. At the age of nineteen we find him in London with a few of his poems in manuscript form, trying to find a publisher who would print them. In this he was unsuccessful, and two years later we follow him to Sheffield, where he became associated with Robert Gales, editor of the Sheffield Register.

Gales was a radical, and, because he displeased the authorities by some of his articles, he found it convenient in 1794 to leave England for America. Montgomery, then only twenty-three years old, took over the publication of the paper and changed its name to the Sheffield Iris. Montgomery, however, proved as indiscreet as Gales had been, and during the first two years of his editorship he was twice imprisoned by the government, the first time for publishing a poem in commemoration of “The Fall of Bastille,” and the second time for his account of a riot at Sheffield.

In 1797 he published a volume of poems called “Prison Amusements,” so named from the fact that some of them had been written during his imprisonment. In later years the British government granted him a pension of $1,000 per year in recognition of his achievements and perhaps by way of making amends for the indignity offered him by his two imprisonments.

In Montgomery’s hymns we may hear for the first time the missionary note in English hymnody, reflecting the newly-awakened zeal for the evangelization of the world which had gripped the English people. The Baptist Missionary Society had been organized in 1792; Carey had gone [265] to India as its great apostle; and in 1799 the English Church Missionary Society had been formed.

In the fervor aroused for foreign missions in England we may discern a continuation of the impulses which went forth from the Pietistic movement at Halle, Germany, nearly a century earlier, when Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Henry Plütschau were sent from that cradle of the modern missionary movement as the first missionaries to India. We may also see something of the influences emanating from the great Moravian missionary center at Herrnhut. John Wesley visited both these places before he began his great revival in England, and became deeply imbued with zeal for missions.

Moravian contact with England had resulted in the formation of many Moravian societies, and it was one of these that had sent Montgomery’s parents as missionaries to the West Indies. It was not without reason, therefore, that Montgomery became the first English hymnist to sound the missionary trumpet. He could never forget that his parents had given their lives in bringing the gospel to the wretched blacks of the West Indies. His father’s grave was at Barbadoes and his mother was sleeping on the island of Tobago. And for the same reason, Montgomery was a bitter opponent of slavery.

The first missionary note is heard in Montgomery’s great Advent hymn, “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed,” written in 1821. One of the stanzas not usually found in hymn-books reads:

Two other missionary hymns are “Lift up your heads, ye gates of brass” and “Hark! the song of jubilee.” The latter sweeps along in triumphant measures:

Although “Jerusalem, my happy home!” ranks highest among the hymns of Montgomery, judged by the standard of popular favor, his hymn on prayer and “Forever with the Lord” have aroused the most enthusiasm on the part of literary critics. Julian says of the latter that “it is full of lyric fire and deep feeling,” and Dr. Theodore Cuyler declares that it contains four lines that are as fine as anything in hymnody. This beautiful verse reads:

Montgomery’s last words were words of prayer. After his usual evening devotion on April 30, 1854, he went to sleep, a sleep from which he never woke on earth. And so [267] was fulfilled in his own experience the beautiful thought contained in his glorious hymn on prayer:

[268]

A Sublime Hymn of Adoration

Reginald Heber, 1826.

[269]

HEBER, MISSIONARY BISHOP AND HYMNIST

In the glorious hymns of Reginald Heber, missionary bishop to India, we find not only the noblest expression of the missionary fervor which in his day was stirring the Church, but also the purest poetry in English hymnody. Christians of all ages will gratefully remember the name of the man who wrote the most stirring of all missionary hymns, “From Greenland’s icy mountains,” as well as that sublime hymn of adoration, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!”

The latter was regarded by Alfred Tennyson as the world’s greatest hymn.

Born April 21, 1783, at Malpas, Cheshire, England, Heber was educated at Oxford, where he formed the friendship of Sir Walter Scott. His gift for writing poetry revealed itself in this period of his life, when he won a prize for a remarkable poem on Palestine. It is said that Heber, who was only seventeen years old at the time, read the poem to Scott at the breakfast table, and that the latter suggested one of the most striking lines.

Following the award of the prize, for which young Heber had been earnestly striving, his parents found him on his knees in grateful prayer.

For sixteen years Heber served in the obscure parish of Hodnet as a minister of the Church of England. It was during this period that all of his hymns were written. He was also engaged in other literary activities that brought [270] him some fame. All this while, however, he nourished a secret longing to go to India. It is said that he would work out imaginary journeys on the map, while he hoped that some day he might become bishop of Calcutta.

His missionary fervor at this time is also reflected in the famous hymn, “From Greenland’s icy mountains,” written in 1819. The allusions to “India’s coral strand” and “Ceylon’s isle” are an indication of the longings that were running through his mind.

His earnest prayer was answered in 1822, when at the age of forty years he was called to the episcopate as bishop of Calcutta. After three years of arduous work in India, the life of the gifted bishop was cut short. During this period he ordained the first native pastor of the Episcopal Church—Christian David.

A man of rare refinement and noble Christian personality, Heber was greatly beloved by all who knew him. “One of the best of English gentlemen,” was the tribute accorded him by Thackeray. It was not until after his death, however, that he leaped into fame through his hymns.

The story of how “From Greenland’s icy mountains” was written reveals something of the poetic genius of Heber. It seems that he was visiting with his father-in-law, Dr. Shipley, vicar and dean of Wrexham, on the Saturday before Whitsunday, 1819. The dean, who was planning to preach a missionary sermon the following morning, asked young Heber to write a missionary hymn that could be sung at the service. The latter immediately withdrew from the circle of friends to another part of the room. After a while the dean asked, “What have you written?” Heber replied by reading the first three stanzas of the hymn. The dean expressed satisfaction, but the poet replied, “No, no, [271] the sense is not complete.” And so he added the fourth verse—“Waft, waft, ye winds, His story”—and the greatest missionary hymn of the ages had been born.

The story of the tune to which the hymn is sung is equally interesting. A Christian woman in Savannah, Georgia, had come into possession of a copy of Heber’s words. The meter was unusual, and she was unable to find music to fit the words. Learning of a young bank clerk who was said to be gifted as a composer, she sent the poem to him. Within a half hour it was returned to her with the beautiful tune, “Missionary Hymn,” to which it is now universally sung. The young bank clerk was none other than Lowell Mason, who afterwards achieved fame as one of America’s greatest hymn-tune composers. The marvel is that both words and music were written almost in a moment—by real inspiration, it would seem.

Bishop Heber’s hymns are characterized chiefly by their lyrical quality. They are unusually rich in imagery. This may be seen particularly in his beautiful Epiphany hymn, “Brightest and best of the sons of the morning.” In some respects the hymns of Heber resemble the later lyrics of Henry Francis Lyte, writer of “Abide with me, fast falls the eventide.” They ring, however, with a much more joyous note than the hymns of Lyte, in which are always heard strains of sadness.

We have already referred to Tennyson’s estimate of Heber’s hymn to the Holy Trinity. It should be observed that this great hymn is one of pure adoration. There is nothing of the element of confession, petition or thanksgiving in it, but only worship. Its exalted language is Scriptural throughout, indeed it is the Word of the Most High. It is doubtful if there is a nobler hymn of its kind in all the realm [272] of hymnody. The tune to which it is always sung, “Nicaea,” was written by the great English composer, Rev. John B. Dykes, and is comparable to the hymn itself in majesty.

Other fine hymns by Heber include “The Son of God goes forth to war,” “God that madest earth and heaven,” “O Thou, whose infant feet were found,” “When through the torn sail,” “Bread of the world in mercy broken,” and “By cool Siloam’s shady rill.”

Altogether Heber wrote fifty-seven hymns, all of which were published in a single collection after his death. It is said that every one of them is still in use, a rare tribute to the genius of this consecrated writer.

Heber’s life was closely paralleled in many respects by another great hymn-writer who lived in the same period. His name was Sir Robert Grant. He was born two years later than the gifted missionary bishop and, like Heber, died in India. Although he did not enter the service of the Church but engaged in secular pursuits, he was a deeply spiritual man and his hymns bear testimony of an earnest, confiding faith in Christ. Between his hymns and those of Heber there is a striking similarity. The language is chaste and exalted. The rhythm is faultless. The lines are chiseled as perfectly as a cameo. The imagery is almost startling in its grandeur. Take, for example, a stanza from his magnificent hymn, “O worship the King”:

There is something beautifully tender in that other hymn of Grant’s in which he reveals childlike trust in Christ:

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Nor would we forget his other famous hymn, “Saviour, when in dust to Thee,” based on the Litany. When we learn that the man who wrote these hymns was never engaged in religious pursuits, but that his whole life was crowded with arduous tasks and great responsibilities in filling high government positions, we have reason to marvel.

Sir Robert Grant was born in the county of Inverness, Scotland, in 1785. His father was a member of Parliament and a director of the East India Company. The son also was trained for political life, and, after graduating from Cambridge University in 1806, he began the practice of law. In 1826 he was elected to Parliament, five years later became privy counselor, and in 1834 he was named governor of Bombay. He died at Dapoorie, in western India, in 1838.

While a member of Parliament, Sir Robert introduced a bill to remove the restrictions imposed upon the Jews. The historian Macaulay made his maiden speech in Parliament in support of this measure.

Brief mention should also be made here of another of Bishop Heber’s contemporaries who gained undying fame by a great hymn. He was John Marriott, a minister of the Church of England, whose missionary hymn, “Thou, whose almighty word,” is ranked among the finest in the English language. Marriott was born in 1780, three years before Heber’s birth, and he died in 1825, a year before the death of the famous missionary bishop.

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A Hymn That Wins Souls

Charlotte Elliott, 1836.

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AN INVALID WHO BLESSED THE WORLD

“Just as I am” will doubtlessly be sung to the end of time, and as often as Christians sing it they will praise God and bless the memory of the woman who wrote it—Charlotte Elliott.

This hymn will have a greater value, too, when we know something of the pain and effort that it cost the writer to produce it. Miss Elliott was one of those afflicted souls who scarcely know what surcease from suffering is. Though she lived to be eighty-two years old, she was never well, and often endured seasons of great physical distress. She could well understand the sacrifice made by one who

Of her own afflictions she once wrote: “He knows, and He alone, what it is, day after day, hour after hour, to fight against bodily feelings of almost overpowering weakness, languor and exhaustion, to resolve not to yield to slothfulness, depression and instability, such as the body causes me to long to indulge, but to rise every morning determined to take for my motto: ‘If a man will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.’”

But God seemed to have had a purpose in placing a heavy cross upon her. Her very afflictions made her think of other sufferers like herself and made her the better fitted for the work that He had prepared for her—the ministry of comfort and consolation. How beautifully she resigned herself to the will of God may be seen in her words: “God sees, [276] God guides, God guards me. His grace surrounds me, and His voice continually bids me to be happy and holy in His service, just where I am.”

“Just as I am” was written in 1836, and appeared for the first time in the second edition of “The Invalid’s Hymn Book,” which was published that year and to which Miss Elliott had contributed 115 pieces.

The great American evangelist, Dwight L. Moody, once said that this hymn had probably touched more hearts and brought more souls to Christ than any other ever written. Miss Elliott’s own brother, who was a minister in the Church of England, himself wrote:

“In the course of a long ministry, I hope to have been permitted to see some fruit of my labors; but I feel far more has been done by a single hymn of my sister’s.”

It is said that after the death of Miss Elliott, more than a thousand letters were found among her papers, in which the writers expressed their gratitude to her for the help the hymn had brought them.

The secret power of this marvelous hymn must be found in its true evangelical spirit. It sets forth in very simple but gripping words the all-important truth that we are not saved through any merit or worthiness in ourselves, but by the sovereign grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. It also pictures the utter helplessness and wretchedness of the human soul, and its inability to rise above its own sins; but very lovingly it invites the soul to come to Him “whose blood can cleanse each spot.”

The hymn was born out of the author’s personal spiritual experiences. Though a daughter of the Church, brought up in a pious home, it seems that Miss Elliott had never found true peace with God. Like so many other seeking souls in [277] all ages, she felt that men must do something themselves to win salvation, instead of coming to Christ as helpless sinners and finding complete redemption in Him.

When Dr. Caesar Malan, the noted Swiss preacher of Geneva, came to visit the Elliott home in Brighton, England, in 1822, he soon discovered the cause of her spiritual perplexity, and became a real evangelical guide and counsellor. “You have nothing of merit to bring to God,” he told her. “You must come just as you are, a sinner, to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.”

Throughout the remainder of her life, Miss Elliott celebrated every year the day on which her friend had led her to Christ, for she considered it to be her spiritual birthday. Although it was fourteen years later that she wrote her immortal hymn, it is apparent that she never forgot the words of Dr. Malan, for they form the very core and essence of it. The inspiration for the hymn came one day when the frail invalid had been left alone at the home of her brother. She was lying on a couch and pondering on the words spoken by Dr. Malan many years before, when suddenly the whole glorious truth of salvation as the free gift of God flashed upon her soul. Then came the heavenly gift. Rising from her couch, she wrote:

Miss Elliott was the author of some 150 hymns. Perhaps her finest, aside from her great masterpiece, is “My God, my Father, while I stray.” By common consent, Miss Elliott is given first place among English women hymn-writers.

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The Sun That Ne’er Goes Down