ture to change the hymns in his collection, he says: "I desire they would not attempt to mend them: for they really are not able. None of them is able, to mend either the sense or the verse. Therefore I must beg of them, one of these two favours,—either to let them stand just as they are, and to take them for better for worse; or to add the true reading in the margin, or at the bottom of the page, that we may no longer be accountable either for the nonsense or for the doggerel of other men.' Xavier, Francis, b. 1506, d. 1552. He was born of a noble family in Spain. He was one of the earliest and most devoted followers of Ignatius Loyola. He became a Jesuit missionary and went to India. In this capacity he passed to Ceylon, Malacca, and Japan; and died at the age of forty-six, within sight of China, for which he was bound, seeking a fresh field of missionary labour. An estimate of his missionary influence has been formed in a biography of Xavier, by the late Rev. Henry Venn, than whom no one, was better qualified to do justice to the subject. The result of Mr Venn's survey of the life and labours of this earnest and self-sacrificing Romish missionary, amounts to this,—that while it is impossible to explain his life, without a cordial admission of his unselfish, and heroic faith and devotion, yet his subjection to popish doctrine, and to Jesuit discipline, led him to present an utterly distorted Christianity to the heathen; so that the myriads who were counted as his converts were, with few exceptions, it is to be feared, destitute of the knowledge, the faith, and the life, by which a Christian is distinguished from a pagan. The twin hymns of Xavier (Nos. 77 and 78) in our selection, are not meritorious specimens of Latinity, or of Medieval metre, but are interesting on higher grounds. They have been sometimes rendered into English in a tone of exaggerated disinterestedness and self-annihilation, which is not only out of accord with Scripture, but is not in harmony with Xavier himself. The two hymns in question are an effusion, not of his Jesuitism, but of his Christianity. How sad that a system, so oppugnant to the gospel, should derive its very designation from that name 'which is above every name.' *It is worth notice that hymn 77 would be much improved if its first stanza were replaced by stanza first of No. 78. HYMN I 2 90 93 Ambrose, b. 340, d. 397, 4, 49, 89, 94, 95, 97, 99 62, 65, 66 Gregory of Naz., b. 330, d. 389 or 390, 13, 87, 88 SIXTH, 36, 37, 41, 51 Robert II. of France, succeeded 997, ELEVENTH, Damiani, b. 1002, d. 1072, TWELFTH, The Redeemer's Resurrection, Anon., THIRTEENTH, Thomas of Celano, 53 64 35 Advent Hymn, Anon., Christ's Love in Dying, Buchanan, 1506-1582, Easter Morning Hymn, Anon., Nicholas Heermann, d. 1561, . SEVENTEENTH, Robert Boyd, 1578-1627, George Neumark, 1621-1681, EIGHTEENTH, Isaac Watts, 1674-1784, 71 96 45 Doddridge, 1702-1751 (published 1755), . Charles Wesley, 1708-1788, Newton, 1725-1807 Paris Breviary, Reprint 1735, NINETEENTH Heber, 1783-1826, 14, 59, 72 68 Kelly, 1769-1855, . 44 I FIDEI CHRISTIANAE CARMINA. ὝΜΝΟΣ ΕΩΘΙΝΟΣ. ΔΟΞΑ ἐν ὑψίστοις Θεῷ, Εὐλογοῦμέν σε, Προσκυνοῦμέν σε, Δοξολογοῦμέν σε, Εὐχαριστοῦμέν σοι, Διὰ τὴν μεγάλην σου δόξαν, Κύριε ἱιὲ μονογενές, Ιησού Χριστέ, Καὶ ἅγιον πνεῦμα, ̔Ο ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, Ὁ ὑιὸς τοῦ πατρὸς, Ὁ αἴρων τὰς ἁμαρτίας τοῦ κόσμου, |