admit allusions which clearly lead us to the services and sacrifices of the Temple-dwell on circumstances in the life of David, in which it is difficult to trace any resemblance whatever to the Messiah, of whom he is, in other places, the type we make an unreasonable demand upon the piety and intelligence of the general congregation, if we expect them immediately to translate all this into a Christian and evangelic meaning. Is it not a melancholy reflection,' observes Bishop Horne, at the close of a long life, that, after reciting them (the psalms) at proper seasons, through the greatest part of it, no more should be known of their true meaning and application, than when the psalter was first taken in hand in school?' This most amiable prelate, in his Commentary on the Psalms, attempted to make the spiritual sense easy and comprehensible to the simplest understanding; but, granting that his principle of interpretation were universally admitted, the fact that such a commentary was necessary, would show that the spiritual sense is perpetually so remote, that, excepting in particular passages, it would not occur to the less-instructed Christian, especially, as we said before, in the hurry and excitement of vocal exertion. Sing ye praises not merely with the heart, but with the understanding also,' is a golden rule, and we would have our psalmody distinctly and universally intelligible. Each selected passage, likewise, which should consist of the number of verses usually sung, should be a whole within itself, and the capricious mutilation of the organist or parish clerk forbidden or discouraged. In many of the selected psalms, the verses are strung together, without the slightest connexion. Mr. Montgomery has some very sensible remarks on the construction of a hymn, which will equally apply, if practicable, to the subject before us :- A hymn must have a beginning, middle, and end. There should be a manifest gradation in the thoughts; and their mutual dependence should be so perceptible, that they could not be transposed without injuring the unity of the piece; every line carrying forward the connection, and every verse adding a well-proportioned limb to a symmetrical body. The reader should know when the strain is complete, and be satisfied, as at the close of the air in music; while defects and superfluities should be felt by him as annoyances, in whatever part they might occur.' language of the New Testament, may plead in favour of Addison's celebrated paraphrase on the 23d psalm; nor should we be so hypercritical as to except against the detail into which the metaphor is carried. Those verses of the 24th psalm, “ Lift up your heads, oh ye gates!' which proclaimed the entrance of the ark into the Tempie, suggest naturally and immediately the ascension of the Redeemer to the right hand of the Father; and the gates of Heaven' is become a conventional expression of Christianity; this passage, therefore, is unobjectionable, and indeed peculiarly appropriate to that great festival of the Church, or the following Sunday. D 2 All All those psalms, therefore, must be avoided, where there are any of those rapid and daring transitions, in which Hebrew poetry so much delights, where an apostrophe is suddenly made, of which the design is not immediately apparent, or where the person of the speaker is suddenly changed. The 2nd, though a prophetic psalm, on this account strikes us as remarkably inappropriate; for the poet suddenly pauses, and the Almighty himself is supposed to speak, and address the future Messiah; and in the next verse, ,the Messiah himself is introduced upon the scene, to bear his part in the sublime colloquy. In short, the compiler, we are persuaded, ought to have studied the principles of Hebrew poetry, and the genius and object of each particular poem, far more carefully than has been the case with most of those who have formed our selections. There is a more important question, on which opinions are much divided; the propriety of introducing prayer and supplication into that part of our service which is peculiarly set apart for the praise and glory of God; and with this question we shall pass at once to the second part of our subject, the hymnology of the Christian church. As far as we can ascertain, the hymns of the primitive assemblies were confined to the glorification of their God and Saviour. Gregory of Nyssa defines a hymn a thanksgiving offered to God for the blessings we enjoy. uvos ἐστὶν ἡ ἐπὶ τοῖς ὑπάρχουσιν ἡμῖν ἀγαθοῖς ἀνατιθεμένη τῷ Θεῷ Evonuía. In psalm 11. Nothing, indeed, could be more simple Ευφημία. than the earliest hymns, which consisted of the doxology, Glory be to the Father,' &c.; the Angelic Hymn, Glory be to God on high,' &c.; the Cherubic Hymn, from Rev. iv., 12, 'Holy, Holy, Holy, &c.; and the Hymn of Victory, uvos envíos,' Rev. xv., 3. The cherubic hymn was, probably, that to which Pliny Bishop Heber's amplification of this Doxology is very spirited, nor would it be difficult, we conceive, to arrange it for public service. 1 Holy, holy, holy! all the saints adore thee, Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea; Only thou art holy; there is none beside thee, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty! All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth, and sky, and sea, God in three persons, blessed Trinity.' alludes, alludes, where he says that the Christians were accustomed to sing a hymn to Christ, as God. The alleluia, was the constant prelude or burthen to their singing, One Christian poet declares this in a line which is a singular example of overdrawing a metaphor: £ #Lit frg frt!,[DtJ" Alleluia novis balat ovile choris,'-Paulin., Ep. ad Sev. 12, Another, with better taste, though not very classical Latin, asserts that it was the boat-song of the Christian sailors on the Saone :'Curvorum hinc chorus helciariorum, 1 ut fing end, han f 916 . Responsantibus Alleluia ripis, Ad Christum levat amnicum celeusma.'-Sid, Apoll, 2, ep. 10. The Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis were likewise sung in the earliest ages; nor does there appear to have been any scruple as to the reception of human compositions into the service of the church; of this, Bingham produces abundant evidence. Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical History, mentions more than once hymns composed by private individuals; (see lib. ii. 17, and v. 28, and vii. 24.) and many of the Fathers, especially Ambrose and Hilary, in the western church, composed hymns for the edification of their flocks, which were received into the public liturgies. As then, our liturgy is chiefly formed of prayers, selected with consummate judgment, from those in use in the earliest periods transmitted through the church of Rome, but almost all the common property of the church for centuries before the peculiar dogmas of the Vatican were heard of-can we hope to derive equal assistance from the poetical treasures of early Christianity? We fear not; for, were they of the highest order, the difficulty of translation would be as great as in the case of the psalms. The spirit of poetry always evaporates in the transfusion from one vessel to another; and in devotional poetry, at least that adapted to public worship, much of the beauty must depend on the grace and felicity with which the common thoughts and feelings of the community are expressed. Yet the ancient hymns of the church are not merely venerable on account of their age; their poetic merit is by no means of an humble order. We doubt not that we shall offend those purists in Latinity who admit no prose which is not Ciceronian, no verse later than Virgil, if we profess to discover an indescribable charm in the Hebraized Latin of the Vulgate, and great lyric force and animation in some of the early Christian poetry. Of the early Greek hymns we know little; there are some anapastic verses, in no very good taste, appended to the works of Clement of Alexandria; and one or two hymns, apparently not metrical, nor of great value, at the end of Smith's Account of the Greek church. It It appears, too, that the gall of controversy infused itself early into the poetic department of the Greek church; the Arians used to perambulate Constantinople, singing hymns expressive of their peculiar doctrines. The zeal of St. Chrysostom took fire; he organized a band of orthodox choristers, for whom he composed verses calculated to counteract the progress of heresy, which had thus formed a dangerous alliance with sacred song. Had these poems been less polemical, we should have regretted them the more; we fear, indeed, that on either side the stanzas would have harmonized ill with the burthen of the angelic hymn, Peace on earth, and good-will towards men.' St. Ambrose and Hilary, as we before observed, were among the earliest writers of Latin hymns. That most noble composition, the Te Deum, by the general consent of the learned, is no longer ascribed to the former, and appears to have been written by some unknown member of the church of Gaul; but the simplicity of the following lines, from the Evening Hymn of St. Ambrose, appears to us singularly pleasing. Deus Creator omnium Diem decoro lumine, 6 Part of the Morning Hymn of Hilary may be quoted, as a companion to the above : Lucis largitor splendide, Angusto fulget lumine. In the hymns which are appropriated to the different periods of the day, the song is often, in Spenser's phrase, moralized with peculiar effect, as in that for noon. And Ad horam nonam,' Labente jam solis rotâ, Inclinat in noctem dies; Tu Christe qui mundum novâ, Sic vita supremam cito The poetical opportunities afforded by the days consecrated to the saints and martyrs were not neglected. We do not know the author of the following, on the day of All Saints. Cœlo Cœlo quos eadem gloria consecrat, Jam vos pascit amor nudaque veritas, Altis secum habitans in penetralibus, Pronis turba senum cernua frontibus, Gentes innumeræ, conspicuæ stolas But if we have already almost lost caste among classical critics of the old school, we fear that we shall excite their horror still more, by proclaiming how highly we admire the sublimity, we use no humbler term, of a hymn, composed in uncouth Latin and barbarous Leonine rhyme. Spirit of Dr. Parr, repose in peace! We, however, shelter ourselves behind the authority of a writer, whom, in point of taste, we are inclined to consider the representative of the old school of classical English poetry, that of Gray and Mason-Mr. Matthias. This distinguished scholar, who, in the decline of a life devoted to the most elegant literary pursuits, is basking in the delicious climate, and inhaling the airs and poetry of his beloved Italy, has put forth an unpretending tract, entitled Excerpta ex Hymnis Antiquis,' in which he has anticipated some of our selections. The effect of the hymn to which we allude we must give in his own rich and nervous Latin: Loci profecto religione commotus, quotiescunque principem illam (Apostolorum principe, et pleno Apostolorum consessu omni ex parte dignissimam) intravi Ecclesiam, vespera ingravescente, cereis aurata per laquearia noctem vincentibus, dum per ampliora spatia vocem totus volutabat chorus, quanto tremore perculsus, quantâ potius voluptate perfusus, obstupui! Cum autem chordis gravioribus et cantu pleniore sanctissimum intonuit melos, cum diem iræ, et sæculum in favillâ solutum, et tubam mirum per sepulchra spargentem sonum, (morte et naturâ stupentibus,) et mundum judicanti Deo responsurum, totus ille concinuit et concelebravit chorus, gaudia quædam, terras nec spectantia nec redolentia, |