HYMNS

ADAPTED TO

THE CHURCH SERVICES

THROUGHOUT

THE CHRISTIAN YEAR:

With a Selection of Metrical Psalms.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & co.

MDCCCLX.

147.0.176.

[XXXXXXXXXXI

WHEN THEY HAD SUNG AN HYMN, THEY WENT OUT INTO THE MOUNT OF OLIVES.

FROM THE PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION (1850):

REVISED AND ABRIDGED.

WITH the "Psalms" and Canticles of the Hebrew
Scriptures, the Church, from the earliest times,
obedient to the apostolic precept, associated "Spiritual
Songs and Hymns" distinctively evangelieal. The
Psalter itself, which formed the great staple and
storehouse of praise, was 66
transfigured into a
Christian import by the use of the Gloria Patri."
The Gloria in excelsis supplied a morning, the
Gladdening Light (preserved by St. Basil) an evening
devotion.* The "spiritual songs "of St. Luke could
not be forgotten in the primitive worship:
Thou hast an ear for Angels' songs,

A breath the Gospel trump to fill;
And taught by thee the Church prolongs
Her hymns of high thanksgiving still.†

Of Gallican

Last of its class arose the Te Deum. origin, its authorship is unknown. God has hidden the grave of Moses: "his record is on high.'

The non-metrical series of devout effusions, constructed on the Hebrew type, and marked only by cadence or rhythm, terminates here. The Hymn, strictly so called, dates from St. Ambrose and St. Gregory. These great fathers had many followers, whose hymns survive though their names have perished. The fabulous ascription, of the Veni Creator to Charlemagne only shows in what obscurity the enquiry is shrouded. "Of such as found out musical tunes, and recited verses in writing, men

Preface to Hymni Ecclesiae e. Brev. Paris. Oxford, 1838. The Gladdening Light (No 16 in this collection) is the most ancient post-apostolic hymn of the Christian Church. + Christian Year: St. Luke.

famous in their generations, some there are which have left a name behind them, and some have no memorial." The Rhyming Medieval Hymns form a class by themselves. Of these the Lauda Sion (No. 181) recalls Thomas Aquinas, and the spirit of St. Bernard breathes in the Jesu dulcis memoria (No. 106). But most of this class are also nameless; nor can it now be known to what genius is due the thrilling solemnity of the Dies irae, or the profound though erring pathos of the Stabat Mater (Ños. 29 and 90.)*

The revival of letters and of a classical taste gave birth to a new group of hymns more ornate than those of the Ambrosian family, but still-despite the criticism Accessit latinitas, recessit pietas-imbued with much of the ancient reverential spirit. These are the work of Gallican authors, and are embedded

*The Dies irae, though adapted (Missal. Rom.) to the Mass for the Dead, is more strictly an Advent Hymn. "Le Dies irae semble avoir été composé plutôt pour le premier Dimanche de l'Avent. En effet cette Prose roule en entier sur le jugement dernier, excepté l'invocation Pie Jesus, qui y a été trés manifestement ajoutée, lorsqu'on l'adopta pour les morts."-Liturgie Catholique, Art Prose, Paris, 1844.

"L'engouement de la Renaissance pour l'art païen du siècle d'Auguste s'emparait de tous les esprits, et les siècles suivants devaient être témoins, en France, de plusieurs tentatives de ce genre. Le Saint Pape Pié V. avait conserveé dans le Bréviaire reformé par ses ordres les anciennes Hymnes, mais le Pape Urbain VIII., qui réussait dans ce genre de compositions, goûtait médiocrement le style de ces Hymnes, conservées par son dixieme predecesLes Hymnes furent retouchées, mais il ne fut pas aussi facile de les faire admettre. La France conserva les anciennes. Il se fit en cette circonstance une scission qui, croyons nous, contribua beaucoup a l'emancipation liturgique dont le dix-septième siècle donna le signal." Lit. Cath, Art. Hymne.

seur.

in the Parisian Breviary. The hymns Nil laudibus nostris and Supreme Motor cordium (Nos. 5, 62) are among the best of this class.

The Latin hymns can only pass into general use through the medium of translations; and the absence of these, as well as the original impulse of devout feeling craving poetical expression has led, in England and Germany, to the formation of Vernacular Hymnologies. In these, it must be owned, the dross bears an enormous proportion to the ore. Diction alternately jejune and inflated, false fervours, spurious sentiment, irreverent familiarity of tone, largely deface, in special, many English hymns. Even where these blemishes are avoided, a coldly elegant propriety of phrase is often-times all that is reached. In this case the composition is a hymn only in name. The true hymn, though calm, is fervid: it expatiates in a loftier region than that of mere correctness: it is the free triumphant utterance of a soul that rejoices while it adores.

Sit laus plena, sit sonora,
Sit jucunda, sit decora,
Mentis jubilatio.

The attempting too much is perhaps the secret of the occasional failure of even our best hymn-writers. They have been too prolific by far. The growth of a genuine hymnology is that of the oak, not of the mushroom. To produce even one hymn truly worthy of the name is no light or every-day achievement. Not without meaning is Thomas Aquinas painted, in a church at Bologna, as inditing the Lauda Sion from the dictation of Angels.* So true is it that psalms and hymns, "as being praises and thanksgivings, are the language, the ordinary converse, as it may be called, of Saints and Angels in Heaven.

*Mores Catholici, Book V. Chap. 3.

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