dox. Chrysostom, who was then bishop, was not to be outdone. At the expense of the Empress Eudoxia, who was then his friend, he organized counter-processions, with hymns, silver crosses, wax tapers, and other spectacular attractions. As a natural consequence riots ensued, there was bloodshed on both sides, and, the Empress's chief eunuch being injured, public singing by Arians was suppressed by edict. Nevertheless, the custom of nocturnal hymn-singing on special occasions, though introduced in this stormy manner, was continued in the Church.

Hymns were extremely popular in the Eastern Church before they made their way to the Western communities. The Arian disputes played their part here also. St. Augustine tells us that when Justina, mother of the Emperor Valentinian, who favored these heretics, wished to remove Bishop Am. brose from his see, devout people assembled to protect him, and kept guard in the church. "Then it was first appointed that, after the manner of the Eastern churches, hymns and psalms should be sung, lest the people should grow weary and faint through sorrow, which custom has ever since been retained, and has been followed by almost all congregations in other parts of the world." Ambrose was himself a distinguished writer of Latin hymns; and tradition attributes to him the authorship of the Te Deum.

From this time onwards hymns appropriate to the canonical hours, to the ecclesiastical fasts and festivals, to commemorations of saints, and to other offices of the Church rapidly multiplied, and were collected in the various breviaries used in different dioceses and religious houses by the authority of bishops or ecclesiastical superiors.

At the time of the Reformation, when the old Latin service-books were revised, translated, and adapted to the

requirements of the English Church, little provision was made for the musical tastes of congregations. The "Veni Creator" in the Ordination services, and the creeds and canticles in the daily prayers and at Holy Communion, might be "said or sung"; but nothing was definitely ordered to replace the hymns in the old breviaries.

Luther, fond of music, and well acquainted with popular taste, had taken care to make full provision of hymns in the vulgar tongue for German Protestants; and Cranmer appears to have made some attempt to follow his example, and to introduce English hymns into the services of the Reformed Anglican Church; but before the Prayer-book took its present form a new fashion in hymnody had arisen.

Clement Marot, a servant of the French King, Francis the First, with the aid of a youth called Theodore Beza, translated the Psalms of David into French verse; and these verses, dedicated to the French King and to the ladies of France, and set to cheerful tunes, became exceedingly popular. Calvin promptly perceived that metrical translations from the words of the Bible were more conducive to the spread of Reformation doctrines than versions of Latin hymns, and seizing upon Marot's Psalter appended it to his catechism, while it was with equal promptitude interdicted by the Roman Catholic priesthood. The example set in France was followed in England. Thomas Sternhold began a translation of the Psalms, which was continued by John Hopkins, a Suffolk clergyman, who added, amongst others, the everfamous "Old Hundredth." The work was carried on by English refugees at Geneva during the Marian persecution, and brought into use in England after the accession of Queen Elizabeth. As many as six thousand persons are described as singing together from its

pages after sermons at St. Paul's Cross, with thrilling effect.

Queen Elizabeth, by an injunction issued in the first year of her reign, after allowing the use of "a modest and distinct song in all parts of the common prayer of the Church, so that the same may be as plainly understanded as if it were read without singing," proceeds to permit, "for the comforting of such that delight in music," the singing of "a hymn or suchlike song to the praise of Almighty God" at the beginning or end either of Morning or Evening Prayer, "in the best sort of melody and music that may be conveniently devised," always providing that the sense of the hymn may be "understanded and perceived." This injunction, and the insertion, a hundred years later, of the words in the rubric after the third collect at Morning and Evening Prayer, "in quires and places where they sing, here followeth the anthem," are generally considered to be the only authorities for singing metrical hymns whose words are not taken from Holy Scripture.

How far the metrical version of the Psalms by Sternhold and Hopkins was regularly authorized has often been debated. It certainly claimed such authority. I possess a copy printed in 1629 "for the Companie of Stationers," bearing on its title-page the words "Cum privilegio Regis Regali," and stating that it is

Set forth and allowed to be sung in all churches, of all the people together, before and after Morning and Evening Prayer, and also before and after sermons: and moreover in private houses for their godly solace and comfort, laying apart all ungodly songs and ballades: which tend onely to the nourishing of vice and corrupting of youth.

This copy of the Psalms and metrical versions of the Canticles is also enriched "with apt notes to sing them withall,"

and has some quaint littls hymns which are omitted in later copies of the collection. The "New Version," made by William the Third's chaplain, Dr. Brady, and the poet laureate, Nahum Tate, was published with an Order in Council dated the 3rd of December, 1696, permitting it "to be used in all churches, chapels, and congregations as shall think fit to receive the same"; and in May 1698 the Bishop of London-Dr. Compton-recommends it as "a work done with so much judgment and ingenuity" as he is persuaded "may take off that unhappy objection which has hitherto lain against the singing psalms."

What "that unhappy objection" may have been is not stated, but it is clear that the new version never entirely displaced the old in popular estimation. So late as 1852 copies of the Prayerbook were published with both versions appended, though others of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries exist, some with the old and some with the new version only.

A German, Charles Moritz, who travelled in England in 1782, gives an interesting account of a Sunday spent in the village of Nettlebed. Having borrowed a Prayer-book from the landlord of his inn, he studied it during breakfast, and comments as follows:

neat and decently dressed, with their hair cut short and combed on the forehead, according to the English fashion. Their bosoms were open, and the white frills of their shirts turned back on each side."

The English service, Moritz thinks, must be very fatiguing to the minister, so large a part falling to his share. Before the sermon there was a little stir, several musical instruments appeared, and the clerk said, in a loud voice: "Let us sing, to the praise and glory of God, the forty-seventh psalm." This, in the old version, which was probably heard by our traveller, begins:

Ye people all, with one accord, clap hands and eke rejoice,

Be glad and sing unto the Lord with sweet and pleasant voice.

t

The tunes, he says, “were particularly lively and cheerful, though at the same time sufficiently grave and uncommonly interesting." English church music, he declares, often affected him even to tears.

In the afternoon there was no service; the young people, however, went to church and there sang some few psalms. Others of the congregation were also present. This was conducted with so much decorum that I could hardly help considering it as actually a kind of church service.

-a guarded statement in which one may safely concur! Moritz was so delighted with this peaceful village that when the time came to depart he could hardly tear himself away.

Reference has been made to the hymns printed at the end of the old version, some of which were omitted in later editions, while others took their place. In like manner Tate and Brady published hymns and translations of the canticles in a supplement to their version sanctioned by Queen Anne; and the favorite "While shepherds watched their flocks" is said to

have been written by Tate himself. "Hark! the herald-angels," however, which appears in all the nineteenthcentury editions of this supplement, must have been added later, probably after the publication of Wesley's hymns in 1779. The publishers of these supplementary hymns seem to have arranged the order in which they should be printed, and to have made additions from time to time, without troubling themselves about official sanction of any kind. Nevertheless, custom, or a hazy recollection of Orders in Council, evidently in popular opinion extended to the supplements the ægis cast over the metrical versions, and some persons of an older generation still recollect a kind of uneasy feeling which prevailed when hymns from other collections made their way into churches. These unauthorized hymnals appear to have come into partial use seventy or eighty years ago. Bishop Heber's widow published in 1827 a collection of hymns for Church seasons, written by her husband, with the addition of several by Milman and others, and in so doing she expressed the hope that they might be generally adopted for congregational use. Others followed, and many, like myself, may remember when it was customary to sing one metrical psalm and one hymn in the course of a service.

In 1861 the first edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern appeared, and three years later the compilers were able to state that 350,000 copies had already been sold, while it was lately announced that the sales of the various editions had reached forty millions. The Hymnal Companion, first published in 1870, has also obtained wide popularity, especially in churches where the doctrinal tone of Hymns Ancient and Modern is considered too high. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge was even earlier in the field, having issued a collection of

hymns in 1852, which, in its later form of Psalms and Hymns, is still obtainable. For over thirty years, however, the Society has also published its wellknown collection called Church Hymns, of which an entirely new edition was issued in 1903.

Before considering the hymnology of the present day we may quote the opinion of the late Lord Selborne recorded in his excellent article on "Hymns" in the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Speaking of the numerous collections then issued by various religious denominations for their own congregations, and of those which, though devoid of official authority, had become popular in the English Church, he wrote:

In these more recent collections an improved standard of taste has become generally apparent. There is a larger and more liberal admission of good hymns from all sources than might have been expected from the jealousy, so often felt by churches, parties and denominations, of everything which does not bear their own mint-mark; a considerable (perhaps too large) use of translations, especially from the Latin; and an increased (though not as yet sufficient) scrupulousness about tampering with the text of other men's work.

This liberal admission of hymns not bearing exclusive mintmarks is still striking in the hymnals of divers religious bodies, as is shown by a somewhat close examination of the following eight representative books: The new edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern; the latest edition of the Hymnal Companion to the Book of Common Prayer; the Church Hymns of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; the Methodist Hymn-book, issued last June by a committee of the English Wesleyan Conference in conjunction with other Methodist bodies in England and Australasia; the Con

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gregational Church Hymnal; the Church Hymnary, authorized for use by the Church of Scotland and allied Presbyterian bodies in Scotland, land, and the Colonies; the Church Hymnal, authorized by the General Synod of the Church of Ireland; and the authorized Hymnal of the Episcopal Church of America.

No fewer than sixty-seven hymns have been found in all eight books, three more in seven books, but not in the Scotch Hymnary. "There is a fountain" is omitted from Church Hymns. No translation of "Dies Iræ" appears in the Congregational collection, but the hymn is included, either in Walter Scott's or in Irons' version, in all the others; while two favorite hymns, Heber's "Brightest and best" and Dr. Sears' "It came upon the midmight clear," are excluded only from Hymns Ancient and Modern. Had time permitted, further search would have doubtless proved that many more hymns are common to the majority of these hymnals, if not to all; but it is not unreasonable to take these seventyfour (all of which are included in the Irish, American, and Wesleyan collections) as fairly representing the preference of the English-speaking peoples, and they are certainly varied in origin and sentiment.

Six are by Charles Wesley, five by Bishop Heber, four by Dr. Watts; Cowper, Bonar, and H. Lyte are each responsible for three, and two apiece come from Bishop Ken, Charlotte Elliot, Mrs. Alexander, the Rev. S. J. Stone, and C. Dix. One hymn, "Through the night of doubt and sorrow," is translated from the Danish; another, "Guide me, O Thou great Redeemer," was written in Welsh by the Rev. W. Williams, and turned into English by the author with the help of P. Williams; while eight are translations from old Greek and Latin hymns. "Dies Ira" has already been

noted: the other seven (included in all eight collections) are "Art thou weary?" and "The day is past and over," from the Greek; "All glory, laud, and honor," "Jerusalem the golden," and "Jesu, the very thought" from the Latin (these five being chiefly translated by the Rev. J. M. Neale), and the well-known Latin hymns "Adeste fideles" and "Veni Creator," the latter said by tradition to have been written by Charlemagne.

The remaining thirty favorites are original English hymns by various authors of the last three centuries, from R. Baxter, born in 1615, who wrote "Lord, it belongs not to my care," to the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, the present Rector of Lew Trenchard, who has stirred so many hearts with his "Onward, Christian soldiers." Though it must be noted that the compilers of these different hymnals have not always hesitated to "tamper with the text," or else to select from several current versions the one best suited to their particular shades of theology, we may still rejoice that so many great thoughts expressed in melodious words have found favor in shrines thus diverse, and that the lines of Lowell have been once more justified:

Moravian hymn and Roman chant
In one devotion blend,

To speak the soul's eternal want
Of Him, the inmost friend;

One prayer soars cleansed with martyr fire,

One choked with sinner's tears, In heaven both meet in one desire, And God one music hears.

The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge was peculiarly fortunate in the composition of the committee which served for six years in preparing the new edition of Church Hymns. Among those who from time to time assisted in this arduous task the names of Dr. Bright, Dr. Walsham How, Dr. Julian, and Mr. Palgrave are in them

selves a guarantee of the high stand.ard, devotional and poetical, maintained in the volume. Exceptionally good isthe selection of children's hymns; and the committee throughout their work. seem to have borne in mind the memorandum of Dr. Bright quoted in the preface: "I do not think that the original texts ought to be deemed sacrosanct, but the alteration ought to be done with a very careful hand, and. only under conditions which make it practically necessary."

The Wesleyan or Methodist Hymnbook has a very interesting ancestry. We are told in the preface to the present volume that John Wesley's first compilation was printed in Georgia in 1737, and was followed by several others in which various changes were effected. In 1779 Wesley wrote his famous preface for the hymn-book published in London, which was intended! for general use amongst his congrega-tions, and of this book the present revised version claims to be the "linear descendant." It is an exhaustive collection, containing no fewer than 981 hymns, for the most part well adapted to the ends which Wesley desired to attain by Poetry "as the haudmaid of Piety"; these are raising or quickening the spirit of devotion, confirming faith, enlivening hope, kindling and increasing love to God and man. Here and there are lines which sound ratherstrange to modern ears; but these are no doubt preserved as a tribute to old associations.

The Congregational Hymn-book contains most of the well-known hymns of the Church Universal, but it strikes occasionally an original note, as in a hymn intended to be sung "Before a Parliamentary Election," which peti

tions:

The heat of party strife abate,

And teach us how to choose Good men and wise to guide the State, The evil to refuse.