Chapter 8

 •  17 min. read  •  grade level: 10
 
POINTS OF INTEREST IN THE LANGUAGE OF HYMNS
A Popular Fallacy
In almost every hymn book Lyte's famous hymn, "Abide with me," is placed with the Evening Hymns, the only exceptions known to the writer being The English Hymnal and Church Hymns. Yet the idea that "Abide with me" is an evening hymn is entirely fallacious, and arises from a misunderstanding of the author's meaning.
It is possible that the similarity of the opening word of the hymn to the two lines in Keble's "Sun of my soul,”
Abide with me from morn till eve
and
Abide with me when night is nigh,
have led to the idea that Lyte's reference also is to the natural day. But this is quite mistaken, since it is obvious that the words of St. Luke 24:2929But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. (Luke 24:29), "Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent," are taken by him in an entirely figurative sense, and that his reference is to the approach of Life's eventide and the closing of Life's day. The third line of the first verse makes this perfectly clear,
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
which could not apply to the ordinary approach of evening; while the second verse expresses the writer's idea in unmistakable terms,
Swift to its close ebbs out Life's little day
As already related, the hymn was written on September 4, 1847, and its author died on November 20th of the same year, showing that it was his sense of the falling of his own life's eventide which inspired the hymn.
The Unknown Author
One of the best loved hymns of the Christian Church is that commencing "Jerusalem, my happy home," which, in the form we know, first appeared in 1795. The Rector of Eckington, in the days when many parishes issued their own collections of hymns, desired Mr. Joseph Bromehead to revise the Eckington Psalms and Hymns then in use, the new book containing what would seem to us the extremely meager number of forty-seven metrical psalms and thirty-seven hymns!
In this book the hymn consisted of seven stanzas, the one almost invariably omitted nowadays being,
O when, thou city of my God,
Shall I thy courts ascend,
Where congregations ne'er break up,
And Sabbaths have no end.
Probably the un-poetical character of the third line has caused the general omission of the verse.
Bromehead, however, did not compose the original hymn. In his preface to the book he says: “I should have liked to prefix the author's name to every psalm or hymn; but of some I did not know the authors, and in others I have used so much liberty of altering and inserting lines and stanzas as to leave the claim of authorship doubtful.”
This particular hymn falls under both the above heads. The original "Jerusalem, my happy home,” has only for the author's signature the initials “F. B. P." Various guesses have been made as to the person whom these initials represent, but all that one can say is that the hymn was written in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, that its author was probably a Roman Catholic, and that possibly he was a priest.
The original hymn, too, is very different from the amended version as we know it. Instead of seven verses, it had twenty-six, and some of these are so quaint as to be unsuitable for modern use. Nevertheless both the English Hymnal and the Oxford Hymn Book include one of these, viz.:
Within thy gates no thing doth come
That is not passing clean,
No spider's web, no dirt, no dust,
No filth may there be seen.
One cannot but feel that the compilers of these hymnals must have been a trifle lacking in a saving sense of humor, however attractive this verse might be to housemaids! Both books, moreover, include the following curious verses, which are given here in their original spelling and lack of any punctuation: There cinomon there sugar groes
There narde and balme abound
What tounge can tell or hart conceue
The joyes that there are found

There David standes with harpe in hand
As maister of the Queere
Tenne thousand times that man were blest
That might this musicke hear

Our Ladie singes magnificat
With tune surpassinge sweete
And all the virginns beare their parts
Sitinge aboue her feete

Te Deum doth Sant Ambrose singe
Saint Augustine dothe the like
Ould Simeon and Zacharie
Haue not their songes to seeke

There Magdalene hath left her mone
And cheerefullie cloth singe
With blessed Saints whose harmonie
In everie streete doth tinge.
The Altered Line
In Toplady's great hymn, "Rock of Ages," there is one line which has been much criticized and frequently amended, namely, the second line of the fourth verse:
When my eye-strings break in death,
a line which is not only harsh, but quite inaccurate. Some of the various emendations, such as
When mine eyelids close in death,
Or
When my heart-strings break in death,
Or
When mine eyes shall close in death,
are quite as unsatisfactory; heart-strings do not "break in death," nor do eyes or eyelids "close," but have to be closed after death. The best emendation of the line, therefore, is
When mine eyes are closed in death.
The Four Versions
Next to her "Just as I am, without one plea," the most widely used hymn written by Miss Charlotte Elliott is the one beginning, "My God, my Father, while I stray." It is probably the only hymn existing of which the composer published no less than four different versions! It is true that the differences between them are not very great, but it has led to some confusion as to the true text. One of her verses is frequently omitted in modern hymnals, namely:
Should grief or sickness waste away
My life in premature decay
My Father, still I'll strive to say
Thy Will be done.
Only Six Words Left
Several of our well-known hymns are from the pen of the Rev. J. H. Gurney, who wrote,” Lord, as to Thy dear Cross we flee ";" Great King of nations, hear our prayer"; and the beautiful child's hymn, "Fair waved the golden corn.”
But the most famous of his hymns, and the most widely used, namely, "We saw Thee not when Thou didst come," has a curious history. Gurney himself tells us that it was suggested by a poem in a small American volume, "which was well conceived but very imperfectly executed.”
The form in which the Misses Carus-Wilson first published a similar hymn in England, in 1834, may have been drawn from this poem, though not identical with it; it opens thus:—
We have not seen Thy footsteps tread
This wild and sinful earth of ours,
Nor heard Thy Voice restore the dead
Again to life's reviving powers;
But we believe-for all things are
The gifts of Thine Almighty care.
The American poem, however, as we shall see, must have begun differently.
Four years later, Gurney, then Curate of Lutterworth, also published an adaptation of the American poem in a Collection of Hymns for Public Worship. His first verse was as follows:
We saw Thee not when Thou didst tread
In mortal guise this sinful earth,
Nor heard Thy Voice restore the dead,
And wake them to a second birth;
But we believe that Thou didst come,
And leave for us Thy glorious home.
Quite obviously these two versions were drawn from the same unknown source.
But in 1851, Gurney, at that time Rector of St. Mary's, Marylebone, republished the hymn in the form we now use. It will be observed that the first verse (as are others) is considerably altered, and now runs: We saw Thee not when Thou didst come
To this poor world of sin and death,
Nor e'er beheld Thy cottage home
In that despised Nazareth;
But we believe Thy footsteps trod
Its streets and plains, Thou Son of God.
The fourth verse of this hymn is almost identical with one in the version published by the Misses Carus-Wilson. But the original poem is evidently lost, for in his Marylebone Hymn Book Mr. Gurney tells us, in a note on this hymn, that "nothing of the original composition remains, but the first four words, and the repeated words." All, therefore, that survives from the pen of the original author are the six words “We saw Thee not,”
and
“We believe.”
The Childless Authoress
It is not a little surprising to know that Mrs. Albert Smith, the writer of the popular hymn, "Let us gather up the sunbeams," better known by its chorus title, "Scatter needs of kindness," had no children. Yet her love for children must have been very great, for no mother could have written more tender and beautiful lines than hers, with reference to the little ones whom God has called back to Himself:
Ah! those little ice-cold fingers,
How they point our memories back
To the hasty words and actions
Strewn along our backward track I
How those little hands remind us,
As in snowy grace they lie,
Not to scatter thorns, but roses
For our reaping by-and-by.
Fiction and Fact
There is probably no hymn, concerning the origin of which so many various stories have been told, as Charles Wesley's famous "Jesu, Lover of my soul." One version ascribes the idea of the hymn to a bird flying from a hawk and taking refuge in Wesley's bosom as he sat at an open window; another to a sea-bird doing the same during a great storm at sea; a third to Wesley's own deliverance from the peril of a hurricane encountered when he was on a voyage; a fourth to his hiding under a hedge in Ireland from a band of enemies, writing the hymn while his pursuers searched for him in vain.
The first of these stories is very attractive, and is probably the most frequently repeated, but truthfulness compels one to say frankly that there is not the least foundation for the historical accuracy of any of them, they have almost certainly been suggested by the hymn itself instead of the hymn arising from them!
All that can be said with certainty is that the hymn was written very soon after the great spiritual change which the author experienced in 1738 and within a few months of the date given as that of the founding of Methodism in 1739.
The chief interest of the hymn's history lies in the strong criticism directed to two phrases in the first verse: the description of our Lord as "Lover of my soul," and the line "While the nearer waters roll.”
With regard to the first, the word "Lover" has been objected to as a title which was undignified when applied to the Divine Being, and various substitutes have been printed, such as
Jesu, Refuge of my soul,
or
Jesu, Savior of my soul,
or
Father, Refuge of my soul.
None of these are anything like so tender and beautiful as Wesley's original line, and it is difficult to see any objection to it, since St. Paul's words "The Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20), R.V.), are surely sufficient warrant for the expression, while the actual phrase occurs in the Apocrypha: "Thou sparest all; for they are Thine, O Lord, Thou Lover of souls" (Wisdom of Solomon 11: 26). Most modern hymn books have rightly, therefore, retained Wesley's phrase.
More reasonable, perhaps, was the other criticism of his description of the rolling of " the nearer waters "; it was argued that if the waters rolled at all they would all do so, and not just the waves in the immediate neighborhood, and so we have another series of substituted lines:
While the billows near me roll,
or
While the raging billows roll,
or
While the threatening waters roll,
or
While the waves around me roll, etc.
Nevertheless, Wesley knew better than his critics. For it is quite within a sailor's experience that a sudden squall may strike a vessel, and lash the waters around it into fury, while in the far distance there is comparative calm; and it is still truer in spiritual experience for a soul to be tempest-tossed by inward passions and temptations, while another knows only calm and peace.
So the first verse of Wesley's beautiful hymn is still sung by most people as he wrote it, although in all more than twenty different changes have been made in the first four lines at various times.
A Much Altered Hymn
In a reading book published for use in the Boston Primary Schools, U.S.A., in 1845, appeared for the first time the beautiful children's hymn, beginning—
Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean
And the beauteous land.
The authoress of this delightful hymn, which consisted of five verses, was Mrs. Julia A. Carney, a teacher in one of the Boston schools, which, oddly enough, was held in the vestry of Hollis Street Church, in that city!
Three years later a Dr. Brewer calmly appropriated the first verse of Mrs. Carney's hymn, added four other verses of no merit or interest whatever, and published the whole in another school reading book. Here are the commonplace verses which Dr. Brewer substituted for Mrs. Carney's beautiful lines.
Straw by straw the sparrow
Builds its cozy nest;
Leaf by leaf the forest
Stands in verdure drest.

Drop by drop is iron
Worn in time away;
Perseverance, patience,
Ever win their way.

Letter after letter
Words and books are made;
Little and by little
Mountains level laid.

Every finished labor
Once did but begin;
Try, and go on trying,
That's the way to win.
Mrs. Carney's original hymn, however, was republished, fortunately, in the American Juvenile Magazine, whence it was copied into a book of Hymns and Songs, published in Manchester in 1855, and so became known to English children.
Twenty-one years later Bishop Bickersteth made the hymn still more beautiful and complete by adding this verse:
Little ones in glory,
Swell the angel's song,
Make us meet, dear Savior,
For their holy throng.
Still later, Prebendary Thring expanded this last verse into three stanzas.
Before or After Sunset?
Few hymns are more widely known or more loved than Canon H. Twills'
At even, ere the sun was set,
The sick, O Lord, around Thee lay;
It has been included in almost every known hymn book both in England and in the United States. A most interesting criticism has, however, been directed against its very first line.
The Jews, of course, reckoned each day from sunset to sunset, and it is clear from St. Mark's account (verse 21) that the day closed by that particular sunset was the Sabbath. But on the Sabbath no Jew would dream of performing any such work as carrying the sick from one place to another, and therefore it is urged that Canon Twells was in error in writing At even, ere the sun was set, as it would still be the Sabbath day.
The records of the three evangelists are not perfectly conclusive, as though St. Matthew says, "When even was come," and St. Mark, "At even, when the sun did set"-which appear to justify the criticism-St. Luke says, "When the sun was setting," a phrase which would seem to support Canon Twells' words.
Three emendations, therefore, have been made of the disputed phrase, namely:
At even, ere the sun did set,
At even, when the sun was set,
At even, when the sun did set.
Is it possible that the sunset was reckoned to begin as the rim of the sun first touched the horizon? If so, this would solve the difficulty. But in any case, it would seem that the third of the above changes is the best, as simply repeating the very words of Scripture.
A very beautiful verse in the hymn, the fourth, has been widely omitted, probably on account of the length of the hymn, but in one or two more recent hymnals it has been deservedly reinstated It runs thus: And some are pressed with worldly care,
And some are tried with sinful doubt;
And some such grievous passions tear,
That only Thou cant cast them out.
The Abiding Influence of the Prayer Meeting
It is now over 150 years ago since the Rev. John Newton and his people at Olney gathered week by week in their prayer meeting on Tuesday evenings, but the influence of that meeting has permeated the whole Christian Church, and will never cease to exert its power for good. For to his custom of writing a new hymn every week for this parochial gathering, the Church of God owes some of her most glorious lyrics.
For this meeting were written, and there were sung for the first time, such world-wide favorites as "Hark, my soul, it is the Lord"; "Come, my soul, thy suit prepare"; "There is a fountain filled with blood"; "Approach, my soul, the Mercy-seat"; "Glorious things of thee are spoken" (deemed by many to be Newton's finest hymn, and one of the best in the English language); and "How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds.”
This latter hymn has always presented one great difficulty, viz.: the titles of our Lord as given in the first line of the fifth verse:
Jesus, my Shepherd, Husband, Friend.
It is argued, and not without reason, that in this form the line is unsuited for use by a general congregation, as our Lord cannot be said to be the "Husband" of men. In different hymnals, therefore, there appear various attempts to overcome this difficulty, and we have the following modifications of the line:
Jesus, our Leader, Shepherd, Friend;
Jesus, my Shepherd, Surety, Friend;
Jesus, our Shepherd, Brother, Friend;
Jesus, my Shepherd, Guardian, Friend;
Jesus, my Savior, Shepherd, Friend!
although some books still retain the original line.
How marvelous it is that from this weekly gathering, in the obscure little town of Olney, should have gone forth a stream of sacred melody that has enriched the whole world for all time. What an illustration of the truth of the old words "A little one shall become a thousand... I the Lord will hasten it in his time" (Isa. 60:2222A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time. (Isaiah 60:22)).
The Mystery of the Last Lines
Beautiful as are the closing lines of Newman's great hymn, "Lead, kindly Light," there has been a great variety of opinion as to what he really meant when he wrote,
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.
Some have believed them to refer to the "angel faces" of Faith, Hope, and Assurance, which, shining bright in the earlier years of spiritual experience, in later days became dim and distant.
Others see here a reference to those angels whom God sends forth to minister to the heirs of salvation.
Others, again, consider that the lines refer to the reunion of the Christian with those dear to him on earth who have previously passed away; while, yet again, others read into the words the description of the awakening of the soul at the end of life, when the business and cares and pleasures of this world are losing their hold, and the beauties of the other life begin to dawn. Which of these is the true view?
Newman himself was asked this question in the year 1880, and his reply should, of course, be conclusive. But all he said was that at the end of the fifty years since the lines were written he could not himself remember what he really meant! So we shall never know!