Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

ART. VII.-THE METHODIST HYMN BOOK AND ITS

ASSOCIATIONS.

A NEW work has just issued from the English press, entitled "The Methodist Hymn Book and its Associations. By GEORGE J. STEVENSON. With Notes, by the late Rev. W. M. Bunting, and an Introductory Poem by Benjamin Gough. London: 1870. Pp. 429." It has a London publisher, but is also advertised in the imprint to be "sold at 66 Paternoster Row," which is an indication that the British Conference either owns the work or has an interest in it, probably obtained since the author put his book to press. The "Notes" mentioned on the title-page are few, and not at all important, being only the transient memoranda of Mr. Bunting on the margin of his Hymn Book. The name of Mr. Bunting was evidently used. merely to help the sale of the work. The preface is brief, occupying but two pages, and refers to the great blessing which Charles Wesley's hymns have been to the Church, and the frequency with which they have been triumphantly repeated by dying Christians. More than five hundred instances of this kind are given in the volume. The most of these are extracts from the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, and the rest from Methodist biographies. There are a few anecdotes from other sources. This may be considered the characteristic feature of the work, which the author hopes "may be deemed in some respects a not unworthy companion to those compositions."

The plan of the work is almost an exact imitation of Mr. Creamer's "Methodist Hymnology." The hymns in the Wesleyan Methodist Hymn Book-the first line of each--are given in consecutive order; then follows the original title; the name of the tune applied to the hymn in Mr. Wesley's "Sacred Harmony;" the author's name; the Scripture text, when there is one, on which the hymn is founded; the title of the work, and the year in which the hymn was first published; omissions and alterations of stanzas. Sometimes a short criticism or biographical sketch is given, and occasional illustrative passages from the English poets. Lastly, as stated above, follow examples of the use made of the hymns by departing saints.

The work is emphatically a compilation; there is little evi

dence of, although there are some attempts at, originality, but considerable indications of industry in gathering up whatever has been written by others about the different hymns. In this regard, perhaps, no one work, except the Wesleyan Magazine, has been in more constant requisition than the "Methodist Hymnology;" indeed, Mr. Stevenson has publicly proclaimed himself a follower and student of Mr. Creamer in this department; and yet, strange to say, out of more than fifty instances of palpable quotation, in one case only, on page 184, does he deign to acknowledge his indebtedness.

It is a natural supposition, that nothing gives an author more satisfaction than to know that his writings are read and approved; but to withhold from him the credit due to the productions of his mental industry, and especially to see them. adopted by another as his own, not only extracts the sense of pleasure, but leaves in its place a consciousness of the injustice that has been practiced upon him, and the wrong-doing of the offender. Some evidence of such conduct, we think, will appear in the following quotations from Mr. Stevenson's book.

Hymn 28: "O Love divine! what hast thou done?"

It is a sweet and touching composition. Rev. Dr. Thomas O. Summers, of America, supposes that the refrain of this hymn, "My Lord, my Love, is crucified," is taken from Ignatius, martyr in the Primitive Church. The same line is found in J. Mason's 'Songs of Praise," which appeared in 1683.-Stevenson, p. 24, from Creamer, p. 284.

66

Hymn 48: "Ah, lovely appearance of death!"

Caroline Bowles, who became the wife of Robert Southey, poet laureate, has written this passage:

"And is this death? Dread thing!

If such thy visiting,

How beautiful thou art!"-Stevenson, p. 44.

Mrs. Hemans also has a similar passage:

"And is this death? Dread thing!" etc.-Creamer, p. 423.

Here Mr. Stevenson corrects Mr. Creamer as to the authorship of the lines from Miss Bowles, but omits the courtesy of mentioning the fact, while he adopts the passage.

Hymn 53: "Give glory to Jesus, our Head."

The poet has expressed an idea in the second verse which is worthy of remark; it is:

The numbering is that of the English Hymn Book.

"Where glorified spirits, by sight,
Converse in their holy abode."

That intercourse should be carried on by sight, in the heavenly state, is certainly novel; and yet the same thought is stated in a passage by Butler in his Hudibras, which runs thus:

"Or, who, but lovers, can converse,
Like angels, by the eye discourse?
Address and compliment by vision."

Stevenson, p. 48; from Creamer, p. 441.

Hymn 103: "O that I could revere."

This striking figure of speech ["Show me the naked sword, Impending o'er my head,"] is taken from the story of Damocles, as related by Cicero of Dionysius, King of Italy, and one of his flatterers, B. C. 368, etc. The Rev. Joseph Stennett employs the same figure thus:

"Who laughs at sin, laughs at his Maker's frowns,
Laughs at the sword of vengeance o'er his head."

Stevenson, p. 79; from Creamer, p. 246.

In this instance the use made of the story of Damocles was not original with either Mr. Creamer or Mr. Stevenson, but is a quotation from a work on "Wesleyan Hymnology" by the late W. P. Burgess, to whom Mr. Creamer gives due credit. The illustrative passage from Stennett was used originally by Mr. Creamer. Hymn 117: "God is in this and every place."

There is a singular coincidence deserving of notice in this as well as in another of Charles Wesley's hymns. The first two verses read thus:

"And have I measured half my days,

And half my journey run,

Nor tasted the Redeemer's grace,

Nor yet my work begun ?

"The morning of my life is past,

The noon is almost o'er;

The night of death approaches fast,
When I can work no more."

When these lines were written their author was in his fortieth year; he died aged eighty. How did he obtain the knowledge that he had measured half his days?-Stevenson, p. 86; from Creamer, p. 244.

Hymn 128: "With glorious clouds encompass'd round."

The sentiment conveved in the first verse is also contained in the first verse of Hymn 130. The line, "Whom angels dimly see," seems to have been suggested by a similar expression of Milton's: "Who sittest above these heavens,

To us invisible, or dimly seen!"

Samuel Wesley, Jun., in Hymn 561, has the following couplet: "In light unsearchable enthroned,

Whom angels dimly see!"-Stevenson, p. 89.

A hymn in the poet's most impassioned strain; although the thought in the first, and repeated in the last stanza, and perhaps the expression, belong to Milton.

Hymn 132: "Jesus, the sinner's Friend, to thee."

The strong language used in the third verse,
"Tread down thy foes, with power control
The beast and devil in my soul,"

the Wesleys and Whitefield learned from Bishop Hall and William Law. Southey, in his "Life of Wesley," relates the story of a merry-andrew who attended the preaching of Whitefield, and made a most indecent exposure of his person. Whitefield himself was for a moment confounded with such a spectacle, but recovering himself, he appealed to his audience whether he had wronged human nature in saying, with Bishop Hall, that man when left to himself is half a fiend and half a brute; or in calling him, with William Law, a motley mixture of the beast and devil.-Stevenson, p. 91; from Creamer, p. 249.

Hymn 155: "God of my life, what just return."

These stanzas, (referring to several omitted from the Hymn Book, but inserted in Mr. Creamer's work,) in sublimity of thought, and strength of expression, surpass Addison's fine hymn written under similar circumstances, which commences, "When rising from the bed of death," etc.-Stevenson, p. 102; from Creamer, p. 252.

Hymn 163: "When, gracious Lord, when shall it be."

The idea contained in the second verse, "O dark! dark! dark! I still must say," is similar to a line in Milton's Samson Agonistes, line eighty, as follows: "O dark! dark! dark! amid the blaze of noon."-Stevenson, p. 106.

The second stanza,

"A poor blind child I wander here,
If haply I may feel Thee near:
O dark! dark! dark! I still must say,
Amidst the blaze of Gospel day!"

is an imitation of Milton in Samson Agonistes, where he puts the following language in the mouth of Samson:

[blocks in formation]

Hymn 224: "I'll praise my Maker while I've breath."

The first line John Wesley has altered from "I'll praise my Maker with my breath;" and verse three in the original reads thus:

"The Lord hath eyes to give the blind,

The Lord supports the sinking mind."

The thought of the poet in the third verse seems to be borrowed from "Pope's Messiah:"

"All ye blind, behold!

He from thick films shall purge the visual ray,

And on the sightless eyeball pour the day."

-Stevenson, p. 146; from Creamer, p. 319.

Hymn 229: "God of my life, to thee."

The singular idea in the last two lines,

"Like Moses to thyself convey,

And kiss my raptured soul away!

is founded on a tradition among the Jews, that the Almighty drew the soul or spirit of Moses out of his body by a kiss. Dr. Watts, in his Lyric Poems on the death of Moses, gives the same idea thus:

"Softly his fainting head he lay

Upon his Maker's breast!

His Maker kissed his soul away,

And laid his flesh to rest."

-Stevenson, p. 150; from Creamer, p. 408.

Hymn 231: "Away with our fears! The glad morning appears." Few persons besides the Brothers Wesley could say of friends what Charles Wesley says in one of the omitted verses:

"How rich in friends, Thy providence sends,

To help my infirmity on!

What a number I see, Who could suffer for me,

And ransom my life with their own."

[ocr errors]

-Stevenson, p. 151; from Creamer, p. 408..

Hymn 262: "A thousand oracles divine."

Dr. Edward Young, in his "Night Thoughts," has the following, which exactly corresponds with the seventh verse of this fine hymn:

"They see on earth a bounty not indulged on high,
And downward look for heaven's superior praise!

-Stevenson, p. 159; from Creamer, p. 301..

Hymn 276: "Worship, and thanks, and blessing."

Men who could thus suffer and thus sing were as ready for the "lions' den," or the "fiery furnace," as for the infuriated madness of men and beasts.--Stevenson, p. 166.

Men who could suffer and thus sing would, under similar circumstances, be as ready as Daniel to be cast into "the lions"" den, or to enter, like the three Hebrew children, the "fiery furnace," even though it were heated seven times hotter than. usual. Creamer, p. 439.

FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXII.-28

« НазадПродовжити »