The Story of the Hymns and Tunes Part 66

The sequel showed that he had been too hasty. The hymn would not leave him. After hearing it night and day in his mind till he began to realize what it meant, he went to Mr. Moody and told him he was "a vile sinner" and wanted to know how he could "come" to Christ. The divine invitation was explained, and the convicted man underwent a vital change. His converted opinion of the hymn was quite as remarkably different. He declared it was "the sweetest one in the book." (_Story of the Gospel Hymns_.)

"ALMOST PERSUADED."

The Rev. Mr. Brundage tells the origin of this hymn. In a sermon preached by him many years ago, the closing words were:

"He who is almost persuaded is almost saved, but to be almost saved is to be entirely lost." Mr. Bliss, being in the audience, was impressed with the thought, and immediately set about the composition of what proved one of his most popular songs, deriving his inspiration from the sermon of his friend, Mr. Brundage. _Memoir of Bliss_.

Almost persuaded now to believe, Almost persuaded Christ to receive; Seems now some soul to say "Go Spirit, go thy way, Some more convenient day On Thee I'll call."

Almost persuaded--the harvest is past!

Both hymn and tune are by Mr. Bliss--and the omission of a chorus is in proper taste. This revival piece brings the eloquence of sense and sound to bear upon the conscience in one monitory pleading. Incidents in this country and in England related in Mr. Sankey's book, ill.u.s.trate its power. It has a convicting and converting history.

"MY AIN COUNTREE."

This hymn was written by Miss Mary Augusta Lee one Sabbath day in 1860 at Bowmount, Croton Falls, N.Y., and first published in the _New York Observer_, Dec, 1861. The auth.o.r.ess had been reading the story of John Macduff who, with his wife, left Scotland for the United States, and acc.u.mulated property by toil and thrift in the great West. In her leisure after the necessity for hard work was past, the Scotch woman grew homesick and pined for her "ain countree." Her husband, at her request, came east and settled with her in sight of the Atlantic where she could see the waters that washed the Scotland sh.o.r.e. But she still pined, and finally to save her life, John Macduff took her back to the heather hills of the mother-land, where she soon recovered her health and spirits.

I am far from my hame an' I'm weary aften whiles For the langed-for hame-bringing an' my Father's welcome smiles.

I'll ne'er be fu' content until mine eyes do see The s.h.i.+nin' gates o' heaven an' mine ain countree.

The airt' is flecked wi' flowers mony-tinted, frish an' gay, The birdies warble blithely, for my Father made them sae, But these sights an' these soun's will naething be to me When I hear the angels singin' in my ain countree.

Miss Lee was born in Croton Falls in 1838, and was of Scotch descent, and cared for by her grandfather and a Scotch nurse, her mother dying in her infancy. In 1870 she became the wife of a Mr. Demarest, and her married life was spent in Pa.s.saic, N.J., until their removal to Pasadena, Cal., in hope of restoring her failing health. She died at Los Angeles, Jan. 8, 1888.

_THE TUNE_

Is an air written in 1864 in the Scottish style by Mrs. Ione T. Hanna, wife of a banker in Denver, Colo., and harmonized for choral use by Hubert P. Main in 1873. Its plaintive sweetness suits the words which probably inspired it. The tone and metre of the hymn were natural to the young author's inheritance; a memory of her grandfather's home-land melodies, with which he once crooned "little Mary" to sleep.

Sung as a closing hymn, "My ain countree" sends the wors.h.i.+pper away with a tender, unworldly thought that lingers.

Mrs. Demarest wrote an additional stanza in 1881 at the request of Mr.

Main.

Some really good gospel hymns and tunes among those omitted in this chapter will cry out against the choice that pa.s.sed them by. Others are of the more ephemeral sort, the phenomena (and the demand) of a generation. Carols of pious joy with inordinate repet.i.tion, choruses that surprise old lyrics with modern thrills, ballads of ringing sound and slender verse, are the spray of tuneful emotion that sparkles on every revival high-tide, but rarely leaves floodmarks that time will not erase. Religious songs of the demonstrative, not to say sensational, kind spring impromptu from the conditions of their time--and give place to others equally spontaneous when the next spiritual wave sweeps by.

Their value lingers in the impulse their novelty gave to the life of sanctuary wors.h.i.+p, and in the Christian characters their emotional power helped into being.

CHAPTER XIII.

HYMNS, FESTIVAL AND OCCASIONAL.

_CHRISTMAS._

"ADESTE FIDELES."

This hymn is of doubtful authors.h.i.+p, by some a.s.signed to as late a date as 1680, and by others to the 13th century as one of the Latin poems of St. Bonaventura, Bishop of Albano, who was born at Bagnarea in Tuscany, A.D. 1221. He was a learned man, a Franciscan friar, one of the greatest teachers and writers of his church, and finally a cardinal. Certainly Roman Catholic in its origin, whoever was its author, it is a Christian hymn qualified in every way to be sung by the universal church.

Adeste, fideles Laeti triumphantes, Venite, venite in Bethlehem; Natum videte Regem angelorum.

CHORUS.

Venite, adoremus, Venite, adoremus!

Venite, adoremus Dominum.

This has been translated by Rev. Frederick Oakeley (1808-1880) and by Rev. Edward Caswall (1814-1878) the version of the former being the one in more general use. The ancient hymn is much abridged in the hymnals, and even the translations have been altered and modernized in the three or four stanzas commonly sung. Caswall's version renders the first line "Come hither, ye faithful," literally construing the Latin words.

The following is substantially Oakeley's English of the "Adeste, fideles."

O come all ye faithful Joyful and triumphant, To Bethlehem hasten now with glad accord; Come and behold Him, Born the King of Angels.

CHORUS.

O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord.

Sing choirs of angels, Sing in exultation Through Heaven's high arches be your praises poured; Now to our G.o.d be Glory in the highest!

O come, let us adore Him!

Yea, Lord, we bless Thee, Born for our salvation Jesus, forever be Thy name adored!

Word of the Father Now in flesh appearing; O come, let us adore Him!

The hymn with its primitive music as chanted in the ancient churches, was known as "The Midnight Ma.s.s," and was the processional song of the religious orders on their way to the sanctuaries where they gathered in preparation for the Christmas morning service. The modern tune--or rather the tune in modern use--is the one everywhere familiar as the "Portuguese Hymn." (See page 205.)

MILTON'S HYMN TO THE NATIVITY.

It was the winter wild While the Heavenly Child All meanly wrapped in the rude manger lies.

Nature in awe of Him Had doffed her gaudy trim With her great Master so to sympathize.

No war nor battle sound Was heard the world around.

The idle spear and s.h.i.+eld were high uphung.

The hooked chariot stood Unstained with hostile blood, The trumpets spake not to the armed throng, And Kings sat still with awful eye As if they knew their Sovereign Lord was by.

This exalted song--the work of a boy of scarcely twenty-one--is a Greek ode in form, of two hundred and sixteen lines in twenty-seven strophes.

Some of its figures and fancies are more to the taste of the seventeenth century than to ours, but it is full of poetic and Christian sublimities, and its high periods will be heard in the Christmas hymnody of coming centuries, though it is not the fas.h.i.+on to sing it now.

John Milton, son and grandson of John Miltons, was born in Breadstreet, London, Dec. 9, 1608, fitted for the University in St. Paul's school, and studied seven years at Cambridge. His parents intended him for the church, but he chose literature as a profession, travelled and made distinguished friends.h.i.+ps in Italy, Switzerland and France, and when little past his majority was before the public as a poet, author of the Ode to the Nativity, of a Masque, and of many songs and elegies. In later years he entered political life under the stress of his Puritan sympathies, and served under Cromwell and his successor as Latin Secretary of State through the time of the Commonwealth. While in public duty he became blind, but in his retirement composed "Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained." Died in 1676.

_THE TUNE._