PACIFIC CHRISTIAN MESSENGER, FRIDAY, MAY 14, 1880.
Some Hymns and Hymn Writers. well-known hymn of Cowper’s begin­ shining light of an open Christian life
LILIAN LU.
ning “ God moves in a mysterious
way,” the last he wrote for the
“ Olney Hymn Book,” compiled by
himself and John Newton, and com­
posed after an attack of madness, in
which he attempted to drown himself,
and was frustrated by the driver’s
providentially losing his road. Poor
Cowper! Not until after this life did
he realize “ God is his own interpreter,
and he will make it plain.” As Mrs.
Browning has sung of him :
Coleridge says Luther did as much
for the Reformation by his hymns as
by his translation of the Bible. And
truly the hymns come second in our
hearts only to the sweet old chapters
which have taught us that “ man does
not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of 'the
mouth of God.” Can anything else,
truly, be dearer than the old, old
hymns, “learned by heart' at> a ' “ O Poets ! from a maniac's tongue was
poured the deathless singing,
mother’s knee, and associated with
O
Christians
! to your cross of hope a
every sacred history of childhood and
hopeless
hand
is clinging—
youth ? The memory of the dead
O men-! this man in brotherhood, your
jtasses into them, and all that is soft,
weary steps beguiling,
and gentle, and pure and penitent, | Groaned only when he taught you peace,
awakes in the heart at the sound of
and died while ye were smiling.”
their familiar music. The fit st lisp-
Dr. Watts’ Hymns are dear and
ings of sur infant tongues, they are familiar to every heart. Who does
the last faint murmur of our dying not know “ When I survey the
lips, and, perchance, may break forth wondrous Cross,” “ When I can read
fro"'
ransomed souls when they my title clear,” “ Am I a soldier of the
first drink in the glories of the New Cross,” etc. It is said that his
Jerusalem, the beautiful city of God.
•“Not all the blood of beasts
What heart does not grow tenderer,
On Jewish altars slain,”
aye, and stronger, and more heroic, converted a Jewess.
singing “ Rock of Ages ?” What
The familiar dox’ology, “ Praise God
language more fitly confesses our own from whom all blessings flow,” was
nothingness and His Almightiness ?
written by Thomas Ken, chaplain to
“ Nothing in my hand I bring,
Charles II., which ‘ merry monarch ”
Simply to Thy cross I cling.
he frequently and fearlessly reproved
for his vices. Macaulay says of him
Bock ot Ages, cleft for me,
“
that his moral character sustains a
Let toe hide myself in- Thee." ~J—
comparison with any in ecclesiastical
And do not our eyes grow dim as
history, and seems to approach, as
mingled with the passionate prayer of
neaj as any human infirmity permits,
those solemn words comes the memory
te the ideal of Christian perfection.”
of a vojcc that is still, of scenes of long
“ I love Thy kingdom, Lord,” claims
ago, of love that has survived the
Dr' Timothy Dwight, President of
grave, upon which hope has faded
Yale College, for its author. That
only to bloom again in immortelles ?
familiar hymn so associated with the
Toplady, a Calvinist, born in Eng­
tenderest experiences of religious life,
land, in 1740, wrote the hymn, as also
“Just as I am,” was written by Char­
the familiar one, “ When languor and
lotte Elliot, the daughter of an- Eng-
disease invade.” He died at the early
feh - minister. Her life was • fnHof-
age of* thirty-eight—not having “all
tribulation and long and wearisome
died,’ as old Horace hath it—“ non
sickness. Her physician brought the
omntie nutria# ’’—but living'in heartsj
hymn to her, one day, printed on
who gratefully cherish the author of
“ ffork ’ < .f—Ages^—Gladstone haa- leaflets, with the remark, ‘J know
this will please you ’ — Ignorant o? the
translated the hymn into Latin, and
fact that it was her own production.
how majestic do the grand old words
“ Wo speak of the realms of the
sound in that stately and sonorous
blest,” a favorite hymn in the Chris­
tong in,- !
tian Hymnbook, was written by a
"Jesus, pro me perforatus,
young
English lady just a few weeks
Condar intra tuum latus,
before her death, at the early age of
Tu per.lympham proflentum
Tu per sanguiuem tepentem,
twenty-four. She was the wife of
In peccata mi redunda
Thos. Mills, Esq., M P.
Tolle culpam aordes munda.
“ The familiar missionary hymn,
“ Nil in manu mecum fero,
'From Greenland’s icy mountains,”
Sed me versus crucem gero ;
was written by Bishop Heber, one
Vestimenta nudus oro,
afternoon, at an hour’s notice. His
Opera debilis imploro.
father-in-law, Dr. Shipley, told him,
Fontem Christi qusero immundus
Nisi laves moribundus.”
one Saturday afternoon (knowing his
The* ‘ Stabat Mater ” and “ Dies facility for composing) that he intend­
Ira ” were the most well-known of ed preaching a missionary sermon the
ti e seven great hymns of the early next day, and wanted a hymn for the
Church. “ Dies Tree ” wat written by occasion. He went out for a short
Thomas of Celano, and translated by while, and returned with the grand old
Sir Walter Sgott. in his “ Lay of the words which bring home the Macedon­
Last Minstrel.” He is said to have ian cry with irresistible force to every
repeated a stanza of this translation Christian heart.
“ Nearer, my God», to Thee, in itself
on his death-bed.
The “ Te Deum ” chanted every both prayer and sermon, as well as the
Sunday in the Episcopal churches is sweetest and dearest of hymns to
said to have been composed and sung myriads of hearts aspiring heaven­
by St. Ambrose, in the third century, ward and Godward, was written as a
when he baptized St. Augustine. memorial of answered prayer by Mrs.
“Jerusalem, my happy home” was Sarah Flower Adams. In her last
written in the sixteenth century, hours, with almost her last breath, she
author unknown, and the original burst into unconscious song.
“ My faith looks up to Thee,” was
hymn “O mother dear, Jerusalem”
written
by Dr. Ray Palmer, in 1830.
was a very long one cf about thirty-
"
How
firm
a Foundation,” by Thomas-
four stanzas, from whicn the familiar
Keith,
in
1787.
“ Jesus, Lover of my
version has been abbreviated. It was
Soul,
”
by
Wesley.
_
sung by martyrs marching to the stake
The
history
and
^jnission of that
to strengthen their h< leants by. visions
sweet
hymn
of
Phcebe
Cary’s, "A
high they were
of the Holy City whii
- - ■»
J sweetly solemn thought,” has been too
gaining through rack, and flame and
torture. The hymns of the Wesleys frequently told to need repetition.
We find hymns and spiritual songs
helped wonderfully to roll on the tide
of the great religious enthusiasm in the writings of almost all the poets
which swept over two continents. from Pope to Tennyson, and Mrs.
" All hail the power of Jesus’ name,” Browning; even from those from
the grand old Coronation hymn, was whom we should least expect 4ny re­
written by Edward I’erronet, a ligious expression of feeling whatever.
Methodist minister and bosom friend And hence w'e draw one of the many
of Charles Wesley. “ When all thy lessons a larger experience of human
merries, oh ! my God,” was composed hearts and human lives teaches us,
¿y Joseph Addison, after a provident­ that religion, that " devotion to some­
ial escape from a shipwreck during a thing afar,” is almost sure to exist in
storm off the coast of Genoa. And every fine nature, though it may not
almost every one has heard of the always, alas ! come to the bright and
and profession. Worship, that natural
instinct of the soul,, cropping out in
idolatry where there is no revelation,
bursts forth into sacred song even
•from the lips of those whose lives
know no sacred law. Even Tom
Moore, though sensuous and bacchan­
alian, has turned from his Anacreontic
lays to write that tenderest of con­
dolatory hymns sung for comforting at
the bier and funeral, and indeed, as
balm for all disconsolate hearts,
“ where’er they languish.” And so the
hymn, “ As down in the sunless re­
treats of the ocean,” was written by
the same man who composed “ When
the wine-cup is beaming before us.”
Pope’s “ Universal Prayer,” Coleridge’s
" Ancient Mariner,” Bums’ “ Cotter’s
Saturday Night,” and his exquisite
little poem:
“ O, gently soan your brother-man,
Still gentler sister-woman ;
Tho’ they may gang and kennin wrang,
To step aside is human,”
are all founded upon an inspiration
which could have sprung only from
the lovely spirit of the New Testa­
ment scriptures: love towards God
and towards man. The first named of
these has been called deistical, but
surely the spirit of Christ is there :
“ Teach me to feel another’s woe,
To hide the faults I see r
The mercy I to other show,
----- That mercy show to me.”- -
Is there not, here, a suggestion of the
verse, “ For charity shall cover a
multitude of sins,” and the fifth peti­
tion of the model prayer ? And Mrs.
Browning’s poems might be called
“ hymns out of church,” the “ heart’s
sweet scripture,” filled with offerings
of loftiest devotion, for the Lord whfun
she served. Listen to this sonnet­
hymn, and let us sing it in our
prayers, when they silently ascend
from the heart in our hours of weari
ness and faintness:
“ Speak lqy to me, my Savior, I qw and
sweet,
From oat the hallelujahs—sweet and low,
Lest I should fear, and fall, and miss
Thee so,
Who art not missed by any that entreat—
Speak to me as to Mary» at Thy feet.
And if no precious gems my hands bestow,
Let my tears fall like amber while I go
In search of Thy divinest voice, complete
In humanest affection.”
And again, what sound Christian
philosophy and faith, the experience
and the hope worked by Tribulation,
does she. evince when she writes :
“ I think we are too ready with com­
plaint
In this fair world of God's. Had we no
hope,
Indeed, beyond the zenith and the slope ,
Of yon grey bank of sky, we might be faint
To muse upon eternity’s constraint
Bound our aspirant souls. But since the
scope
Must widen early, is it well to droop
For a few days, consumed In loss and
taint?
O, pusillanimous Heart, be comforted t"
And again :
*' O, brothers, let us leave* the shame and
sin
Of taking vainly, in a plaintive mood,
The holy name of Grief ! holy, herein,
That by the grief of One, came all our
good.”
Being dead, she yet speaketh—and
may we not be of those who, “ having
ears, hear not, neither understand,”
but may we use the divine voice of
poetry as an inspiration to holy
living and peaceful dying. There are
serene hights, even in this life, where
we may find, not only “ repose,” but
peace; mounts of transfiguration,
whereon visions of him whom our
souls love shall be revealed. unto us.
By climbing oft, we shall attain. Who
shall faint or grow weary, looking up­
ward ?—Standard.
—The skeptical world is fond of
affirming the decay and predicting
the overthrow of Christianity. Mean­
while the current of actual events
sets strongly the other way. For
example, the permanent Method’st
Church Extension Fund now amounts
to 9342,000, with enough pledged to
make it $500,000. The Christian
Advocate says this means at least two
churches every week forever.
Unexpected Things.
things in such a muss, but one thing-
he
expects, deserves, and receives, is a
An eaay md before the Social and Literary
Society of the Christian Church, Salem, Oregon.
curtain lecture of unusual length when
he returns in the evening.
Could we always calculate with
The young woman whose sole am­
certainty upon just what the future
bition is good looks, fine array, and
held in store for us, then we would merely showy accomplishments, who
never have to repent a mistake made;
sits with folded hands, waiting for
we could avoid all that is unpleasant,
these to bring a wealthy lover to her
and even the weakest of us could ac­
feet, finds as the years speed by, that
complish jvonders of goodness, for
men of wealth and sense—and they
there are but few who- deliberately
must haVb pretty good sense to ac­
lead aimless, purposeless lives; all
cumulate wealth—or if accumulated
have some standard of excellence, even
for them by other heads and hands,
if completely failing to attain it. Most
they must have sense to keep it—
persons try once but it is not every
such men seek for more than a fleeting
one who would, figuratively speaking,
show when seeking a wife. The ex­
“ walk through floods and - flames ” to
quisite dandy who struts about town,
t
accomplish their object, for we often
turning neither hand nor brain to use-
‘
find even though we have a “ castiron”
ful account because “ dad’s ” rich, and
determination, “ There’s many a slip
moves with the select, will realize
twixt the cup and the lip,” while the
contrary to his expectations, fools are
“ Best laid plans of mice and men,
ignored, while, it takes industry,
aft gang agleeJ.
honor,
and honesty to win after all.
Triumph does not always await the
The
real,
tangible, seldom reaches the
resolute and daring, for sometimes
standard
of the ideal, for the unex­
great results are achieved by the
pected
intervenes
and changes not.
weak and fearing. While the most
only
our
purposes
but our desires.
important events, either for good or
Love
comes
in
an
unlooked
for mo­
evil which hajve occurred in our in­
ment,
and
the
loved
and
accepted,
dividual histories or the history of our
nation, can be charged to the unex­ rarely resembles the ideal, yet we may
pected things, which changed the cur­ not realize this for when we love the
rent of thought and motive. This ideal changes. Often the unexpected
truth is foffflil home to us after each betters our „condition, but we fail to
political campaign, for nine times out appreciate and grasp the good, because
—------- ——
of ten the politician who wireworks, it is unheralded: —v
In
the
calm
heat
of
a
summer
day a
plots and plans most finds, when de­
sudden
tempest
arises,
seeming
to
feated, to bis cost, h'e has not made
quench
the
brightness
of
the
sunshine,
due allowance for the simple unex­
and while we hear the dismal howling
pected.
Many persons at the beginning of of the wind, and nature’s face is
the new year form good resolves, and clouded and tearful, we almost dispair
knowing wherein they have failed be • of ever again beholding sunbeams.
fore, they feel “ forewarned and fore­ But suddenly the sun bursts forth,
armed,” but unexpected things sweep and (we, who at best—with all of
over the heart, carrying away good science and philosophy to yield us
resolutions like the flood which sweeps knowledge, are but creatures of im­
pulse, forget the storm and bask in
all before its' force and fury.
In a lath periodical were these lines, the sunlight.
The fragrant apple blossoms, in
“ An unanswered letter, an appoint­
front
of Fanny’s window, whisper to
ment broken, a train missed, may for
nil ,
t-hd color of our each other> «« they are gently fanned- —
whole existance.” How true it is that by the airy zephyr, we will be rosy
these | little unexpected hindrances cheeked apples some day, but Fanny
may make our mar our lives. . Many leans her pretty head out of the
an unexpected delay has caused a life­ window,and her white hand ruthlessly
time of happiness or misery. 'Many breaks them off, as she says, “ How
an unexpected letter has changed a lovely and sweet they are, I need
day of gloom into a day of rejoicing, these to wear to-night.” But the
or has brought into a happy life a poor little blossoms are reconciled to
neverending sorrow. An unexpected this unexpected turn of affairs, when
arrival either brings pleasure or dis­ placed in Fanny’s glossy curls.
1 he tree with its thick evergreen
appointment.
foliage,
and wide-spreading branches,
An act of kindness, by one we least
says,
“
See
.’ behold me .' in my strength
expected it of, will give more real
pleasure than the looked for kindness and beauty, note the benefit I am, 1
of our best (friends. A rebuff where shade frgm the scorching sun, and
we expected sympathy, hurts worse shelter from the driving storm but
than the malice of our enemies. And the woodman noting its fine propor­
ah ! what destiny for weal or woe oft tions, hews it down, and chops,
hangs upon an unexpected answer ? planes, saws, an«l polishes it, and men
We may strive for years with patient beholding, say the tree is destroyed,
study to understand some important all this but destines it for the grand
truth, and often the unexpected events furniture of a parlor in the king’»
of one short hour vAill reveal it, and palace.
Oh ' could we but accept the unex­
overthrow the settled convictions of a
lifetime.
The unexpected oftenest pected, believing it best, even though
happens, and either falls with crush­ we do not understand the mysteries of
ing weight, or lifts from us heavy God’s why and wherefore. For he
burdens, and proclaims to the world alone can and doe# take into con­
sideration the influence of unexpected
our real character.
We may gain wisdom by experience, things. Ah' the unexpected things
yet each day, finds us coping with un­ they are what change our lives, thwart
expected things. There is no human our plans, and mould us after all.
mind so deep that it can comprehend
H ildegarde .
and compute the sorrow and joy that
From the drift of newspaper
the unexpected brings.
sentiment,
it would appear that the
The young man who calls upon his
only
hope
of
this country rests in the
lady love with the intention of an
name
of
one
of
half a dozen men, the
avowal of his affections, confidently
expecting a favorable answer, and record of none of whom is above re­
finds her swinging on the gate in the proach, The plain truth is, we can­
moonlight, talking soft nonsense to number men by the thousand who are-
another, and contemplates suicide on able to administer the affairs of this
t
account of it, evidently has not made country honestly and well, and that in-
more than can be said of some of the
due allowance for the unexpected.
Plain
The woman who has just finished a more prominent candidates.
rectitude
and
moral
firmness
are
the
large washing, and barely has time to
brilliancy
and
dash
and
astuteness-
set a scrap dinner, and has not found
the time, to tidy herself, her house, or that are the chief claims of some, are
her children, is scarcely equal to meet­ the great reasons why they should re­
ing her husband with a smile, as he ceive a call to privacy.— Ex.
walks in with unexpected company,
A does of Yankee Cough Syrup taken at
while he, poor man, forgetting it was
bed-time will insure you a good night'»
Monday, scarcely expects to find rest from oonghing.