No black, no white, no bond, no free, But man! man! MAN! and God o'er all! V. God over all. I saw his hand From Babylon's doomed and damning pride; VI. He led the Jew from Egypt's brick, To rule their plunderers, Rome's proud lords; And through all woe, and war, and wrong VII. But still I saw one meek, dumb race That mocked the martyrdoms of time. Rise dark toward heaven amid the storm, VIII. Crash fell the thunderbolt! The glare IX. One dead in every house! O, land, O, statesmen, clad with trust divine! Read! read! O, read this awful signThe slave! Ay, brother of our blood, Offspring, heir, image once of God! Soul, flesh, like his who died to saveIt is the slave! It is the slave! X. But hark! Rejoice! rejoice! REJOICE! Let booming guns the joy proclaim! ΧΙ. "Amen!" "The promise must be kept." XII. The war-cloud lifts-the future smiles God stays at once the avenging stroke; XIII. Once more I see-it is no dream- WHEN all the blandishments of life are gone, The coward sneaks to death, the brave live on. AN HOUR AMONG HYMN-BOOKS. BY REV. F. M. BIRD. Behind me and at my right rise two goodly bookcases. One contains merely originals, or what we call sources-that is, the hymns, poems, or works of any given author, entire or in part, published either by himself or by some competent person after his death. It is to these that we must go to verify the authorship or text of any particular hymn, also to see how many and what sort of hymns each author wrote, and whether there be any good ones which have not been noticed and used. Thus the use of possessing and examining these books is twofold. Most of the hymns we have in use in our modern collections do not stand as their authors wrote them, but are more or less altered, or abridged, or both. Some of the changes are great improvements, some are shocking mutilations, many are slight verbal variations, which affect the sense or the expression, not much, but somewhat, for good or evil. But if we want to come directly into communion with an author without the intervention of editors and interpreters, if we wish to hear just what he means and says and how he says it, we must go to his own original book. I remember an instance in which the lie is literally given to an author, and what is worse is put into his own mouth. Many collections contain-the Methodist Episcopal does notpart of Tate and Brady's 130th Psalm, beginning, ENGLISH hymnology is assuming the conse- I propose introducing the readers of the Repository, or such of them as feel any curiosity that way, to my friend's library. I think they can pass an hour with pleasure and profit among his old books. I know I have spent weeks there and never regretted them. Nor need the ladies fear such black contamination as is apt to punish fingers which meddle with old books. The hymn-books are old indeed, and time-stained, but not dusty; we use them too much and keep them too carefully for that. And how neatly they are labeled, and patched, and covered, and rebacked, and bound! Now, hymn-books are not often bound splendidly, nor printed on the finest paper, nor got up generally in the publisher's best style; but a more respectable set of old volumes you will not often see than I show you to-day. "My soul with patience waits "My soul doth with impatience wait," etc. "Thou Peter art, but I'm thy Lord, I build my Church, and not on thee." But I am wandering from my subject. The other chief advantage of having the original volumes at our elbow is, that we can thereby see how much a man did and how well he did it. When we know that an author has done some good things we are apt to wonder if there are not more. And there generally are. By no means all the best hymns of any writer of note, besides Watts and Addison, are in use. Our standard collections usually contain in about equal proportions the best and most ordinary hymns in the language-not the worst, but the most negative, commonplace, indifferent. Mediocrity and merit seem to be equally sought; and, doubtless, this is with a benevolent desire to be all things to all men, for are there not in every congregation two classesthose who have taste, who know and enjoy a good thing when they see it, and those who are not thus appreciative or gifted? And can not the more favored class be satisfied with the good hymns while the poor people are edified by the others? The study of these originals is very interesting and suggestive. A law ought to be passed requiring every compiler to possess them, and severely punishing any body who presumes to make a new hymn-book-as is always done simply out of other collections. Such a person is as bad as the commentator who works merely with reference to King James's version, not understanding the Greek and Hebrew. The hymn-book is next to the Bible, and the good men from whom its contents came had a sort of secondary inspiration, enabling them to write their good hymns. The inspiration sometimes failed, and then they wrote poorly. To be sure a number wrote who had no mission to do it, and no inspiration at all. Others put forth volumes, in which, buried under a mountain of rubbish, lies a single pearl. And in yet others one has to wade through two, three, six hundred pages of useless marsh to discover and explore half a dozen green islands that bear flowers of beauty and precious fruits. No where are there more ocean gems and desert flowers than in English hymnology-a vast, unknown land, which a few venturesome travelers, like Livingstone, Du Chaillu, Speke, and Grant in Africa, must visit, examine, and describe for the whole human race. Now for a few of our curiosities. We begin with the oldest. Here is an edition of Sternhold and Hopkins, in black letter, London, 1603. Here is the way good J. H. rendered Psalm 74, verse 11: "Why dost withdrawe thy hand abacke, O, plucke it out and be not slacke The next is a greater rarity—a small volume, heavily bound and magnificently gilt-"The Psalms of King David, Translated by King James. Cum Privilegio Regiæ Majestatis." This is on a gorgeous title-page, where David and James stand upright, each in his robes and crown, receiving, each in one hand, the volume of Psalms, which is being handed down from heaven. The evident idea is, that these two are par nobile fratrum, equal as kings, saints, poets. Posterity hardly sees it in that light, though the version has received some praise. On the last page I read, Oxford, Printed by William Turner, Printer to the famous University. MDCXXXI." We pass by a number of sacred poets, who wrote a very few pieces that may be or have been called hymns; chief among them are Crashaw, Sandys, Baxter, Quarles, and Herbert. That excellent hymn of the last, "Teach me, my God and king, owes its present dress to John Wesley, who published it and many others, modernized and altered from Herbert, in "Hymns and Sacred Poems," 1739. This piece is in many collections, and should be in the Methodist Episcopal. Hymn-making, as a business, commenced shortly before the advent of Dr. Watts. In 1688 appeared a bulky 18mo-"Six Centuries of Select Hymns and Spiritual Songs, collected out of the Holy Bible; together with a Catechism, the Canticles, and a Catalogue of Virtuous Women. By William Barton, A. M., late minister of St. Martin's, in Leicester." The worthy Barton was what is now called a machine-poet, and a favorable specimen of that class. Very different is the claim of good John Mason, rector of Water Stratford, who died 1694. There lies before me, most villainously printed, the third edition-1691-of his "Spiritual Songs, or Songs of Praise to Almighty God upon Several Occasions." And they are songs of praise indeed, brimful of piety and poetry, warm, simple, earnest, quaint, thoroughly personal, but no less lyrical, full of strange fancies and solid thoughts, instructive, edifying, delightful. Here are the first lines in the book: "How shall I sing that majestie Which angels do admire? Let dust in dust and silence lie, Ten thousand times ten thousand sound Thy praise, but who am I?" A very few hymns of this excellent poet remain in modern books, and a number more ought to be introduced there. No. 611, Methodist Episcopal, is altered and abridged from one of his, containing seven verses. Here is an old book which contains something interesting to Methodists: "Reformed Devotions in Meditations, Hymns, and Petitions for every Day in the Week and every Holiday in the Year. By Theophilus Dorrington, Rector of Wittesham, in Kent. Seventh edition, 1708. On page 165, hymn 14, I read: "Dear Jesu, when, when shall it be That I no more shall break with thee? Here I repent, and sin again; The Wesleyan publications began in 1738, and continued for half a century; but as they are minutely described in Mr. Creamer's Methodist Hymnology-New York, 1848-a work which every Methodist who at all appreciates the unrivaled treasures of Wesleyan poetry ought to possess, I go into no enumeration of them here. They comprise eleven volumes of over one hundred pages each, over twenty original tracts of eight to one hundred pages, and about ten different selections from the others. The whole number of published poems by Charles Wesley is over 4,200, five times as many as have been put forth by any one other English hymn-writer, unless we except one Thomas Row, an obscure scribbler of fifty years ago, who is said to have been guilty of a thousand "copies of verses." Which, O, too often wounds my heart!" Comparing this with hymn 856, Methodist Episcopal, you find its first and second verses identical with these, except a few alterations. The third verse of 856 is by Charles Wesley. While I am on this point let me say that hymn 292—“Of Him who did salvation bring”likewise ascribed to C. Wesley, is taken from a long poem in Arndt's True Christianity, translated from the Latin by Anthony William Boehm, London, 1720. It is headed, "A Hymn of St. Bernard to the Holy Jesus;" has forty-portant and interesting of these was John Cenone verses of four lines each, each line comprising ten syllables. Here is the original of verse 3: The example of Watts and Wesley called forth a goodly array of sacred versifiers, a few of whom had considerable talent, others a little, and many none at all. Among the most im nick, known as having been Wesley's teacher at Kingswood, and afterward going over to Calvinism. He was a man of honest intentions and ardent piety, though perhaps weak and 15. "That sin might lose its shame, he blushed in misguided. Mr. Wesley published in the Amer blood, And closed his eyes that we might see his God; It was probably modified to its present shape by John Wesley. Charles has hymns enough of his own, and does not need the work of others ascribed to him. " Dr. Watts's poems are no curiosity. Of his Psalms and Hymns" hundreds of editionsliterally-have been printed, and of his Hora Lyricæ, dozens. Besides these, his sermons, miscellanies, etc., contain over forty hymns. ican Magazine for 1779 a letter from him, dated June 25, 1751, in which Cennick expresses these noble sentiments: "As long as people in many things think differently all must be allowed their Christian liberty; and, though souls may remove from you to us, or from us to you, without becoming better, or with simple and upright views to please our Savior alone, and to do his will, I can see no harm in it. I really love the servants and witnesses of Jesus our dear Savior in all the world, and am sorry if I ever feel such a thought, as if I had rather souls should be blest under our ministry Here is something of interest: "Hymns and than through others." Before me are two Spiritual Songs, in Three Books: I. On Various thick volumes containing five separate publicaSubjects. II. Adapted to the Lord's Sup- tions from his pen: 'Sacred Hymns for the per. III. In Particular Measures. By Simon children of God in the Days of their PilgrimBrowne." 1720. This is the man who is men- age," 1741; ditto, parts I and II, 1742; and tioned in the Books of Mental Philosophy as "" 'Sacred Hymns for the Use of Religious the victim of a most singular monomania. He Societies," parts I and II, 1743, and part III, thought the thinking power had been annihila- 1744. Their contents exhibit every variety of ted in him, and that he had no longer a soul. merit, from genuine poetry to mere doggerel; This idea he expressed pathetically in the dedi- but Cennick, taken all in all, is by no means a cation of one of his books to Queen Anne. He contemptible writer. No one ever drank in was a highly-respectable dissenting minister, more of Charles Wesley's spirit, though Toplady save on every other subject, and, as Toplady more nearly reproduced his style. But Censaid, "instead of having no soul, spoke, wrote, nick was not a mere imitator; there was some and acted as if he had two." His hymns are original poetry in his soul. He had much of solid, readable, and, in some instances, excellent. the simplicity and tenderness which make Hymn 401, Methodist Episcopal, is his, but is Burns so charming, with a Christian humility far from being one of his best. and faith that were all his own. His verses are often touching, sometimes even elegant, and usually full of experimental meaning and Gospel strength. Witness those two immortal lyrics, "Children of the heavenly King," and "Jesus, my all, to heaven is gone," which in the originals contain, the one twelve, the other eight verses. Here is something that none of my readers have seen before, on Christ stilling the storm: "If thou be in this heart of mine, No tempest will I fear; Nor hell, nor death, though both combine, In every storm I'll cry to thee, And thou shalt say, Be still; A present calm mine eyes shall see O, let my anchor be thy love, On thee my rock made sure, Nor winds nor storms shall me remove, O, enter, Lord, my little ark, And safely reach her shore." Cennick's hymns have never been reprinted, while Joseph Hart's, which are much of the same sort, have passed through numerous editions. He was a stiff Calvinist, and much of the book is taken up with unconditional election, unavoidable perseverance, and such like. For instance: "Brethren, would you know your stay? Nay, before Jehovah laid The foundations of the earth, Of our hope to persevere," etc. If we Arminians had no more Scriptural "ground" and "stay" than that it would be a pity. But Hart, in spite of his predestination, seems to have been a liberal catholic Christian, enough so certainly to write several very valuable hymns. Come, ye sinners, poor and needy," is any thing but Calvinistic; and that less known but noble poem on Gethsemane, beginning in the original, "Jesus, while he dwelt below," and in some collections, "Many woes had Christ endured," is not marred by any suggestion of the creed that limits the uses of Christ's agony to an arbitrarily chosen few. Dr. Summers has observed on Maria de Henry's hymn in the old Methodist Episcopal book-"Thou soft-flowing Kedron, by thy sil ver stream"-that Kedron is one of the sewers of Jerusalem, and is, when it runs at all, a dark and filthy current. Joseph Hart, perhaps by accident, represents the matter correctly: "Gloomy garden, on thy beds, Washed by Kedron's waters foul, And elsewhere: "O, Kedron, gloomy brook, how foul If the poet was acquainted with the historic fact mentioned by Dr. Summers he made a fine use of it. These are but a few specimens of my friend's originals. Here are the single volumes of Doddridge, Montgomery, Kelly, Beddome, Fawcett, Medley, and many lesser lights. Here are the three volumes, full calf, with a fancy frontispiece, quite gorgeously engraved, to each-London, 1780 of excellent Anne Steele, called, by an English fashion and an American blunder, Mrs. Steele, for the good woman's affections were disappointed on earth at an early age, and she transferred them all to heaven. Here is that precious treasure of homely and experimental piety, the Olney hymns, which, let overdelicate critics say what they will, has edified hundreds of thousands, and will, with its beloved and revered authors, be "had in everlasting remembrance." Good John NewtonI love the man, Calvinist as he was, for if ever there was a simple, honest, humble, liberal, genuine, loving, and working Christian he was one says in the Preface that the book was "intended as a monument to perpetuate the memory of an intimate and endeared friendship." Seldom have two nobler samples, in diverse ways, of human character and divine grace been thus allied than Cowper and Newton. I lately found in the Evangelical Magazine for 1824-sixteen years after his death-a scarce piece of Newton's, which is so characteristic, so full of quiet but deep humility and gratitude, and refers so touchingly to the wonderful mercies of Providence and grace displayed in his earlier life, that I must transcribe it: TO MRS. HANNAH MORE. BY THE REV. J. NEWTON. Written in her album at Cowslip Green, when asked to insert With those who shone and those who shine |