We also learn from this writer, who has done so much to lay open what, before his time, was to us of the West almost an unknown country, that Greek Hymnology is principally embraced in sixteen large volumes, the Pentecostarian, an Office for Easter-tide, for example, comprising "5000 closely printed quarto pages, of which at least 4000 are poetry."

" 14

Of the hymnology of the English speaking world we have every reason to be proud. Merely to run over the names of the principal religious singers of Great Britain and America is to be reminded of the hymnic wealth that our mother tongue can boast. Milton and Wither, Herbert and Ken, Watts and Newton, Wesley and Cowper, Heber and Mant, Keble and Newman, Faber and Neale, Bowring and Bonar, S. F. Smith and Sarah Flower Adams, Duffield and Ray Palmer-such are some of the names that oecur to us, and the list might be greatly prolonged.

Two eras in English history have contributed by far the larger number of the hymns now in use in the Protestant Churches of the Anglo Saxon World-those of the Methodist and Tractarian revivals, which are separated by about a century. The chief singer of the first movement was, of course, Charles Wesley, who is said to have written fully seven thousand hymns. An immense majority of these hymns have succumbed to the law of the survival of the fittest; but some, it is needless to say, will endure with the language. "Come, Thou long expected Jesus," "Jesus, Lover of my soul," "See how great a flame aspires," and others that might be named, are to be found in nearly all collections of sacred minstrelsy, and are sung in every quarter of the globe.

To the Tractarian movement we are indebted for many of the first of our hymns. Keble, Newman, and others of the Oxford Party of half a century ago, showed that the same hands that so vigorously wielded the sword of doctrinal controversy could also evoke from the psalmist's lyre the most dulcet and moving of strains. Nor is it only in the Church of England, and the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, that the impress of Tractaranism upon hymnology may 14 Hymns of the Eastern Church, Introduction. London Edit., 1876.

be seen.

As the greater regard that is now paid in all other Protestant bodies to beauty in architecture and worship is largely due to the indirect influence of the Tractarian Movement, so many of the recent singers of these bodies have been quietly, however unconsciously, wrought upon, by the Christian Year of Keble and the Lyra Apostolica of Newman and his brethren.

The hymn writers of the Universalist communion are, of course, not well known outside of it. It has never been large or popular, and, quite naturally, its hymns have not obtained a wide acceptance. But its members have no reason to be

ashamed of this department of its literature. Some of its hymns are deserving of immortality, and will doubtless be sung for generations to come. How fine is Chapin's Christmas Hymn, beginning with "Hark! hark! with harps of gold"! Edward Turner's hymn, "Come, sing a Saviour's power," is admirable, as is also that by the elder Ballou, "In God's eternity there shall a day arise."

There are other names connected with Universalist hymnology that should be mentioned, such as Hosea Ballou 2nd, J. G. Adams, Abel C. Thomas, and Mrs. Sawyer, all of which are to be found in the books of praise in use among their fellow believers. The new hymnal, now in course of preparation by the Universalist Publishing House, will doubtless contain a much fuller list of hymns by Universalist authors, and thus furnish additional evidence that this denomination has made some worthy contributions to the hymnology of Christendom.

There is much pertaining to our subject that might be properly dwelt upon at length, did space permit. The personal history of certain hymns, for instance, is as instructive as it is interesting. To know the circumstances that gave them birth invests them with new meaning and power, and brings us into closer spiritual contact with their authors. When we learn that Cowper's most greatly admired hymn beginning with God moves in a mysterious way

66

His wonders to perform."

was written just after a season of mental aberration, when he

had contemplated suicide; that Wesley's "See how great a flame aspires," composed after his labors among the colliers of Newcastle, was suggested by the spectacle nightly presented by the furnaces of that district, as they illumined the country round about with their heavenward-streaming fires; and that Newman wrote his "Lead, kindly light," while becalmed on the Mediterranean, and "aching," as he tells us, "to get home," when we learn facts like these about celebrated hymns, their influence over us increases, and we sing them, not only more understandingly, but with a warmer fervor than they ever kindled before.

On hymn writing as an art, we are prompted to say a few words. That it is an art, and one not so easily acquired as some think, no person, after a little reflection, will deny. A hymn is sui generis, as distinct a composition in its way as is a sonnet. Many so-called hymns are only such in name. Something more than religious feeling and an observance of the laws of metre is necessary, if a genuine hymn is to be given to the world. There must be poetic thought and poetic expression, light and warmth, directness and conciseness, perfect sympathy of sentiment and movement, melody and felicity of rhyme. Few hymns written to order are good, for the reason that, to be what they should be, they must be the spontaneous product of certain favoring moods of mind and soul which do not come at the bidding of the most gifted and consecrated of singers. A practice much to be deplored is that of adapting to the uses of public praises poems, or lines from poems, that were never intended to serve as hymns. Such selections do not, as a rule, willingly lend themselves to the purposes to which they are devoted, as witness Tennyson's admirable and often-quoted lines in introduction to In Memoriam. "Strong Son of God, immortal Love," etc., and Whittier's "Eternal Goodness," which, however fine and helpful in themselves, are not, in the true sense, hymns, and should not be compelled to serve in that capacity.

But we must draw our observations on this most fruitful subject to a close. It is a subject that amply rewards the stu

dent, and one that is of large importance in these days, when increasing attention is paid to music and song. A congregation that does not possess a good hymnal, and that does not lay much emphasis on praise, is greatly to be pitied. This every denomination of Christians is beginning to keenly realize, and the result is a cultivation of divine minstrelsy that is most encouraging.

The future of Christian hymnody is bright. We cannot excel many of the great hymns of the past and present, but we can add to to the stock that we possess, and hand down to our children a larger inheritance of the kind than we received from our fathers. Of one thing we may be sure-as long as the Christian Faith endures it will command the services of song. The Gospel began its work singing; it has gone on its way through the centuries singing; it sings to-day, and as sweetly and joyously as ever; through all the ages ahead it will flood the world with its inspiring lays; and when its mission has been accomplished, and a redeemed humanity is gathered home to God, then will be heard the mightiest strain of laud and adoration that ever ascended to the Majesty on high, the chorus of which will be that which ravished the Revelator's

ear,

BLESSING, AND HONOR, AND GLORY, AND POWER, BE UNTO HIM THAT SITTETH UPON THE THRONE, AND UNTO THE LAMB

FOR EVER AND EVER.

Charles Follen Lee.

ARTICLE XXIV.

Robert Burns and the Theology of his Day.

JOHN STUART BLACKIE, in his recent life of Robert Burns, speaking of those divine messengers who are sent to lead men back from the artificial and conventional to nature and reality, says, "Of these messengers, the most wide in his range and the most generally accepted, is the poet; for while the legislator is often cramped in his efficiency with the hardness of the materials with which he has to deal, and the prophet too often has his influence confined and bound by the very forms of a church which owes its existence perhaps to his Catholicity; the great poet, in his honest utterances, is hampered by no forces external to his own genius."

In performing their mission in the world it is often necessary for poets, as well as for other great souls, to come in conflict even with the religion of their day. This they surely must do if men are living by traditions and not by immediate communication with God. The sturdy faith of one generation, a faith wrought out and perfected by struggle in great crises, may become for the next generation a form of bondage. Men must live in each age, not by the message sent to their fathers, but by the perpetual inspiration that comes from above. It is to teach them this lesson that mighty spirits are sent, from time to time, into the world; and of all these teachers the poet is most effective.

Emerson has well said of Burns, "Not Latimer, not Luther, struck more telling blows against false theology than did this brave singer." And Nicol, in his sketch of Burns in the Britannica says, "As regards the poet's attitude toward some phases of Calvinism prevalent during his life, it is to be remarked that from the days of Dunbar till now, there has been a continual antagonism between Scotch verse and the more rigid forms of Scotch theology." Dr. Craik declares that "The generous feelings of Burns sprang out of the ironbound Calvinism of the land like flowing water from Horeb's