in its more essential phases is very closely akin to the highest piety of any other Christian age. He may expect, therefore, to find the nobler hymns of different eras exhibiting something of a family likeness. He may properly take it as a sign of great dearth, either in poetic talent or in religious life, where such traits as lowly reverence before the majesty of God, deep repentance in view of sin, intense joy and gratitude over the amazing facts of redemption, have not received illustration in at least a few worthy specimens of sacred song. Nevertheless, taken in a body the hymns of an age bear its seal and superscription. They show the type of Christian civilization from which they emanated. Greek, mediæ val Latin, and Protestant hymnology have each distinguishing characteristics. Greater rhetorical luxuriance belongs on the whole to the first than to the second. Both mix with their pure gold the alloy of saint-worship. Both do less justice to the interior life than does the Protestant hymnology, are less rich in hymns which fitly celebrate the divine indwelling, the transforming power of grace, the agony and unrest of conscious guilt, the rapture of communion with God. 2. GREEK HYMNS. It seems probable that such Greek hymns as came into use in the apostolic age, and the time immediately following, were in measured prose. Further on there was an attempt to utilize the measures of the classical poets. Gregory Nazianzen, the first of the Greek fathers to win poetical distinction, used these measures. Sophronius, who wrote in the seventh century, selected among classical models 1 J. M. Neale, Hymns of the Eastern Church. Anacreontics, a somewhat surprising choice for the serious themes of the Christian religion. In general, this borrowing was not successful. The Greek language was no longer the Greek of the classic era. Many new terms had been brought in to meet the new conditions. To follow the classic measures involved too great a bondage. It was necessary, therefore, to strike out a new path, or else to return toward the most primitive model of the Christian hymn. The latter alternative was the one adopted. The expedient of rhyme to which the Latins resorted was not introduced into the Greek hymns. After the beginning of the eighth century, verse proper was for the most part discarded in the Eastern Church, and the hymns were written in measured prose. The troparia, as the stanzas were called, were divided for chanting by commas disposed irrespective of the sense. The following may serve as an example. "Israel in ancient times passing on foot with, unbedewed steps the Red Gulf, of the sea, turned to flight by, the cross-typefying arms, of Moses the might of Amelek, in the wilderness." The initial stanza which supplied the model was called the hirmos. A number of troparia (from three to upwards of twenty) constituted an ode, and the complete Greek hymn or canon was understood to contain nine odes. In reality, however, eight odes made a canon.1 1 Neale says: The reason for the number nine is this: that there are nine Scriptural canticles employed at Lauds, on the model of which those in every canon are formed. The first, that of Moses after the passage of the Red Sea; the second, that of Moses in Deuteronomy (xxxiii.); the third, that of Hannah; the fourth, that of Habakkuk ; the fifth, that of Isaiah (xxvi. 9-20); the sixth, that of Jonah; the According to Neale, who has rendered excellent service in illustrating the characteristics of the eastern hymns and making some of the best of them available in the worship of the west, three eras are distinctly marked in the history of Greek hymnology: (1) "That of formation, while it was gradually throwing off the bondage of classical metres and inventing and perfecting its various styles. This ends about A. D. 726. (2) That of perfection, which nearly coincides with the period of the iconoclastic controversy, A. D. 726-820. (3) That of decadence, A. D. 820-1400, when the effeteness of an effeminate court and the dissolution of a decaying empire reduced ecclesiastical poetry by slow degrees to a stilted bombast, giving to great words little meaning, tricking out commonplaces in diction more and more gorgeous, till sense and simplicity are alike sought in vain." The marked decline in the third of these eras is manifest in the choice of themes as well as in lack of taste and inspiration in their treatment. While a large proportion of the earlier productions were on themes of universal interest, the great topics of the gospel, - a multitude of the later ones were in commemoration of martyrs from whose utter obscurity scarcely more than their names and the fact of their suffering have been preserved. This dearth in respect of quality, however, was far from being accompanied by an equal dearth in seventh, that of the Three Children; the eighth, Benedicite; the ninth, Magnificat and Benedictus. From this arrangement two consequences follow. The first, that as the second canticle is never recited except at Lent, the canons never have any second ode. The second, that there is generally some reference, either direct or indirect, in each ode to the canticle of the same number. respect of quantity. In the collection of Greek hymns, which is very extensive, greatly in excess of the Latin, the largest part was contributed by the dull est era. From this general review of the subject we may fitly proceed to notice some of the details of Greek hymnology. Referring for more extended informa tion to such works as Daniel's "Thesaurus Hymnologicus," we will mention only a few of the more important facts. We have clear intimations that the Greek Church produced a number of original hymns within the first three centuries.1 The extent, however, to which these were employed in the public services stands in question. Some of them were ill-suited to the uses of the sanctuary. Moreover, the example of heretics probably caused a measure of doubt with respect to their appropriation and inclined Catholic pastors to a preference for the Biblical hymns.2 Among the very few extant specimens of the early hymnology none is probably older than that which is attributed to Clement of Alexandria. It is little else than a chain of epithets descriptive of the offices of Christ. The following is a literal translation of the first part: 1 Euseb., Hist. Eccl. v. 28; Tertul., Ad Uxor. ii. 8; Origen, Cont. Cel. viii. 67. 2 Const. Apost. ii. 57, speaks of chanting the Psalms of David. The Council of Laodicea (can. 59) prohibited the ecclesiastical use of "private hymns." Schaff understands by these terms all extra-biblical hymns. Hefele, on the other hand, seems to favor the conclusion that the prohibition extended only to hymns which had not received the approval of the Church authorities. Bridle of untamed colts, To hymn guilelessly With innocent mouths Christ, the guide of children. O king of saints, Of the most high Father, Prince of wisdom, Support of sorrows, That rejoicest in the ages, Jesus, Saviour Of the human race, Heavenly Wing, Of the all holy flock, Fisher of men Who are saved, Catching the chaste fishes, With sweet life From the hateful wave Lying much nearer to the requirements of the sanctuary than the hymn of Clement, and destined to a much wider reception, was the morning hymn, the Gloria in Excelsis, in which the advent song of the angels is supplemented by suitable expressions of praise and prayer. Its origin was as early as the third century, perhaps still earlier. The English form of it |