The revival strengthened the Shakers, the Baptists and the Methodists, but the Presbyterians lost ground in the consequent schism. In 1803 there were thirty-one presbyteries, three hundred and twenty-two ministers, fortyeight probationers; in 1804 there were twenty-seven presbyteries, one hundred and thirty ministers and thirty-three probationers. Lacking enough ordained ministers, the Church had to license lay preachers, some of whom insisted upon reservations denying the predestinarian tenets. Three of these men,-Finis Ewing, Samuel King and Samuel McAdow, all powerful revivalists,—finally stepped out and formed the independent Cumberland Presbytery that was more Methodist than Presbyterian. In the border country the Baptists gained ten thousand members and the Methodists another ten thousand. But the Methodists profited most of all. They took over as their own the sounder, saner type of camp meeting that developed and used it throughout the Union with a resultant increase of forty thousand communicants. Bishop Asbury expected to see five hundred camp meetings in a single year. The revival that ushered in the nineteenth century was a long time in subsiding and its effects were felt permanently in the establishment of the Sunday school and foreign missions, as well as the camp meeting that kept religion abreast of the migration westward. In New England it accomplished the transition from State aid to the selfsupport of the Church which took on fresh life and vigor. And it implanted the humanitarian feeling and force that were to energize the movement for the abolition of slavery and spiritualize the material advance of the nation. T CHAPTER IX SINGING A NEW SONG Awake, my soul, stretch ev'ry nerve, A heav'nly race demands thy zeal And an immortal crown! PHILIP DODDKIDGE. OWARD the rounding out of its first century as a transcendent force upon this continent, now rising, now waning only to return with renewed power, the religious revival was borne more and more on the wings of song, first the hymns inspired by liberated spirituality across the sea and then, in the camp meetings of the frontier, the anthems that burst spontaneously from the hearts of the American people. The story of evangelical music is interwoven with all the annals of the revival and yet it stands by itself as something above and beyond preachers and preaching. For the hymn was the prayer of the penitent and the hallelujah of the redeemed. And to others it was the metrical version of an experience to be shared, the dynamic source of evangelistic persuasion. A sense of personal participation and the universal responsiveness of the human race to natural rhythm, the very core of the group spirit, are inherent in revival singing. Lacking such a background, pulpit eloquence is like ΙΙΟ a giant tree without soil in which to take root. It creates receptiveness and it reinforces the appeal. From the beginning the revival made its own music and ever since, adapting itself to changing moods, it has drawn the breath of its life from generations singing themselves into salva tion. Previous to 1736, the Church of England had no hymn book, though the Psalmody, arranged by Tate and Brady, was familiar and so were Jeremy Taylor's "Golden Grove" and George Herbert's "Temple." The dissenting churches, in particular the Puritans of New England, were also employing the Psalmody. But congregational singing had not yet come to life. Still there were hymns already written and waiting to be sung as a new song. Almost before the Methodist movement was known, Philip Doddridge (1702-1751), the gentle English scholar and minister, gave to the modern Church as the legacy of his short life "Oh Happy Day, When Jesus Washed My Sins Away." Then the trumpet tones of the lofty hymns of Isaac Watts (1674-1748) heralded the Awakening. George Whitefield in his last hours on earth was reading these hymns of the Stoke Newington pastor-poet and they went out in the first Methodist hymnal to vitalize the reborn faith of John Wesley. It was Watts who wrote "When I survey the wondrous Cross on which the Prince of Glory died," "Joy to the world the Lord is Come," and "Kingdoms and thrones to God belong." And also his were "When I can read my title clear to mansions in the skies," "There is a land of pure delight where saints immortal reign," "O God, our help in ages past" and "Am I a soldier of the Cross?" With these words for nigh on to two centuries sainted men and women have sung faith into their lives. Watts opened up the gates of sacred song. With him and after him came Augustus Toplady (1740–1788) and his "Rock of Ages"; Samuel Stennett (1727-1795) and his "Majestic sweetness sits enthroned upon my Savior's brow" and "On Jordan's stormy banks I stand”; Thomas Shepherd and his "Must Jesus bear his Cross alone?"; William Cowper (1731-1800) and his "There is a fountain filled with blood"; Timothy Dwight (17521817) and his "I love thy Kingdom, Lord," and John Keble (1792-1866) and his "Sun of my soul, Thou Savior dear." Some of these harpists of Zion were of the Awakening and some were apart from it, taking their inspiration perhaps from quieter streams. Watts himself was an old man when he finally gave his blessing to Whitefield. But their hymns were cloistered till the revival took hold of them and put them on the lips of the multitude. Even then, with all their beauty, there were not enough. The hymn expressive of the pleading and yearning, of the yielding and triumphing, was yet to come. And the Wesleys out of their own regenerative experience gave that hymn to the world. The Wesleyan hymns kindled and replenished the fervor of the great spiritual revival that was more than Methodist. All the preaching of evangelistic creeds ever since has depended more than anything else upon the obbligato of such song for its effectiveness. These hymns reflected the change of religious atmosphere,-a heightening of emotion, a new note, a new manner of expression. They exalted the atonement; they glowed with the fire of the "free gospel"; they caught the ear of "all that passeth by"; they struck home. Many of the six thousand five hundred hymns written by Charles Wesley were revelations of his brother's experience. Both Charles and John tried to translate their adventure in faith into verse and this autobiographical element contributed to the emotional power of their hymns. Their conception of instantaneous release through conversion was individualized. Every singer felt that the call was indeed to "Even Me." And the hymns themselves mirrored the unrest, agony, groping and struggle of the soul; the grace, hope, light and peace held out by faith; the sympathy and guidance toward the goal; the bursting of the bonds and the rejoicing in redemption. No one sang to himself alone. That first evangel melody was created for hundreds and thousands to join with their voices and their hearts. All became one voice and one heart. As the rhythmic lines swelled in the unison, the spirit touched every one. Belief was instilled. The impulse to consecration was infused. The response was inevitable. The revival inspired the hymns and then the hymns inspired the revival. Moreover, there is no doubt that the Wesleys came to a clearer understanding of their tenets by embodying them in verse. John had a deep sense of the importance of the hymns, a keen personal joy in hymn singing and a rare skill in applying it to worship. Charles had facility and felicity in composition and was the foremost singer of the new song. Their first hymnal, "Hymns and Sacred Poems," published in 1742, included the earlier hymns of praise by Watts, Doddridge and the others, but in the ascendant were those hymns of experience which launched Methodism into its perpetual revival, established the permanent lines of evangelical hymnody and exercised an influence on the general extension of hymn singing exceeding the bounds of Methodism. John Wesley began the hymn writing with translations |