The Story of the Hymns and Tunes Part 7

--was, as some say, suggested to the writer by a visit to the abattoir in Smithfield Market. The same hymn years afterwards, discovered, we are told, in a printed paper wrapped around a shop bundle, converted a Jewess, and influenced her to a life of Christian faith and sacrifice.

A young man, hardened by austere and minatory sermons, was melted, says Dr. Belcher, by simply reading,--

Show pity Lord, O Lord, forgive, Let a repenting sinner live.

--and became partaker of a rich religious experience.

The summer scenery of Southampton, with its distant view of the Isle of Wight, was believed to have inspired the hymnist sitting at a parlor window and gazing across the river Itchen, to write the stanza--

Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood Stand drest in living green; So to the Jews old Canaan stood While Jordan rolled between.

The hymn, "Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb," was personal, addressed by Watts "to Lucius on the death of Seneca."

A severe heart-trial was the occasion of another hymn. When a young man he proposed marriage to Miss Elizabeth Singer, a much-admired young lady, talented, beautiful, and good. She rejected him--kindly but finally. The disappointment was bitter, and in the first shadow of it he wrote,--

How vain are all things here below, How false and yet how fair.

Miss Singer became the celebrated Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe, the spiritual and poetic beauty of whose _Meditations_ once made a devotional text-book for pious souls. Of Dr. Watts and his offer of his hand and heart, she always said, "I loved the jewel, but I did not admire the casket." The poet suitor was undersized, in habitually delicate health--and not handsome.

But the good minister and scholar found n.o.ble employment to keep his mind from preying upon itself and shortening his days. During his long though afflicted leisure he versified the Psalms, wrote a treatise on _Logic_, an _Introduction to the Study of Astronomy and Geography_, and a work _On the Improvement of the Mind_; and died in 1748, at the age of seventy-four.

"O FOR A THOUSAND TONGUES TO SING."

Charles Wesley, the author of this hymn, took up the harp of Watts when the older poet laid it down. He was born at Epworth, Eng., in 1708, the third son of Rev. Samuel Wesley, and died in London, March 29, 1788. The hymn is believed to have been written May 17, 1739, for the anniversary of his own conversion:

O for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer's praise, The glories of my G.o.d and King, And triumphs of His grace.

The remark of a fervent Christian friend, Peter Bohler, "Had I a thousand tongues I would praise Christ Jesus with them all," struck an answering chord in Wesley's heart, and he embalmed the wish in his fluent verse. The third stanza (printed as second in some hymnals), has made language for pardoned souls for at least four generations:

Jesus! the name that calms our fears And bids our sorrows cease; 'Tis music in the sinner's ears, 'Tis life and health and peace.

Charles Wesley was the poet of the soul, and knew every mood. In the words of Isaac Taylor, "There is no main article of belief ... no moral sentiment peculiarly characteristic of the gospel that does not find itself ... pointedly and clearly conveyed in some stanza of Charles Wesley's poetry." And it does not dim the l.u.s.tre of Watts, considering the marvellous brightness, versatility and felicity of his greatest successor, to say of the latter, with the _London Quarterly_, that he "was, perhaps, the most gifted minstrel of the modern Church."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Charles Wesley]

Most of the hymns of this good man were hymns of experience--and this is why they are so dear to the Christian heart. The music of eternal life is in them. The happy glow of a single line in one of them--

Love Divine, all loves excelling,

--thrills through them all. He led a spotless life from youth to old age, and grew unceasingly in spiritual knowledge and sweetness. His piety and purity were the weapons that alike humbled his scoffing fellow scholars at Oxford, and conquered the wild colliers of Kingwood. With his brother John, through persecution and ridicule, he preached and sang that Divine Love to his countrymen and in the wilds of America, and on their return to England his quenchless melodies multiplied till they made an Evangelical literature around his name. His hymns--he wrote no less than six thousand--are a liturgy not only for the Methodist Church but for English-speaking Christendom.

The voices of Wesley and Watts cannot be hidden, whatever province of Christian life and service is traversed in themes of song, and in these chapters they will be heard again and again.

A Watts-and-Wesley Scholars.h.i.+p would grace any Theological Seminary, to encourage the study and discussion of the best lyrics of the two great Gospel bards.

_THE TUNES._

The musical mouth-piece of "O for a thousand tongues," nearest to its own date, is old "Azmon" by Carl Glaser (1734-1829), appearing as No. 1 in the _New Methodist Hymnal_. Arranged by Lowell Mason, 1830, it is still comparatively familiar, and the flavor of devotion is in its tone and style.

Henry John Gauntlett, an English lawyer and composer, wrote a tune for it in 1872, n.o.ble in its uniform step and time, but scarcely uttering the hymnist's characteristic ardor.

The tune of "Dedham," by William Gardiner, now venerable but surviving by true merit, is not unlike "Azmon" in movement and character. Though less closely a.s.sociated with the hymn, as a companion melody it is not inappropriate. But whatever the range of vocalization or the dignity of swells and cadences, a slow pace of single semibreves or quarters is not suited to Wesley's hymns. They are flights.

Professor William Gardiner wrote many works on musical subjects early in the last century, and composed vocal harmonies, secular and sacred. He was born in Leicester, Eng., March 5, 1770, and died there Nov. 16, 1853.

There is an old-fas.h.i.+oned unction and vigor in the style of "Peterborough" by Rev. Ralph Harrison (1748-1810) that after all best satisfies the singer who enters heart and soul into the spirit of the hymn. _Old Peterborough_ was composed in 1786.

"LORD WITH GLOWING HEART I'D PRAISE THEE."

This was written in 1817 by the author of the "Star Spangled Banner,"

and is a n.o.ble American hymn of which the country may well be proud, both because of its merit and for its birth in the heart of a national poet who was no less a Christian than a patriot.

Francis Scott Key, lawyer, was born on the estate of his father, John Ross Key, in Frederick, Md., Aug. 1st, 1779; and died in Baltimore, Jan.

11, 1843. A bronze statue of him over his grave, and another in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, represent the nationality of his fame and the grat.i.tude of a whole land.

Though a slaveholder by inheritance, Mr. Key deplored the existence of human slavery, and not only originated a scheme of African colonization, but did all that a model master could do for the chattels on his plantation, in compliance with the Scripture command,[6] to lighten their burdens. He helped them in their family troubles, defended them gratuitously in the courts, and held regular Sunday-school services for them.

[Footnote 6: Eph. 6:9, Coloss. 4:1.]

Educated at St. John's College, an active member of the Episcopal Church, he was not only a scholar but a devout and exemplary man.

Lord, with glowing heart I'd praise Thee For the bliss Thy love bestows, For the pardoning grace that saves me, And the peace that from it flows.

Help, O Lord, my weak endeavor; This dull soul to rapture raise; Thou must light the flame or never Can my love be warmed to praise.

Lord, this bosom's ardent feeling Vainly would my life express; Low before Thy footstool kneeling, Deign Thy suppliant's prayer to bless.

Let Thy grace, my soul's chief treasure, Love's pure flame within me raise, And, since words can never measure, Let my life show forth Thy praise.

_THE TUNE._

"St. Chad," a choral in D, with a four-bar unison, in the _Evangelical Hymnal_, is worthy of the hymn. Richard Redhead, the composer, organist of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Paddington, Eng., was born at Harrow, Middles.e.x, March 1, 1820, and educated at Magdalene College, Oxford. Graduated Bachelor of Music at Oxford, 1871. He published _Laudes Dominae_, a Gregorian Psalter, 1843, a Book of Tunes for the _Christian Year_, and is the author of much ritual music.

"HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, LORD G.o.d ALMIGHTY."

There is nothing so majestic in Protestant hymnology as this Tersanctus of Bishop Heber.

The Rt. Rev. Reginald Heber, son of a clergyman of the same name, was born in Malpas, Ches.h.i.+re, Eng., April 21st, 1783, and educated at Oxford. He served the church in Hodnet, Shrops.h.i.+re, for about twenty years, and was then appointed Bishop of Calcutta, E.I. His labors there were cut short in the prime of his life, his death occurring in 1826, at Trichinopoly on the 3d of April, his natal month.

His hymns, numbering fifty-seven, were collected by his widow, and published with his poetical works in 1842.

Holy! holy! holy! Lord G.o.d Almighty!

Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee.