Where cross the crowded ways of life, We hear thy voice, O Son of man! In haunts of wretchedness and need, On shadowed thresholds dark with fears, From tender childhood's helplessness, The cup of water given for thee Still holds the freshness of thy grace; O Master, from the mountain-side, Till sons of men shall learn thy love There is a growing interest in hymn-singing and in the hymn itself as poetry. There are still tawdry hymns with silly music printed by the car-load and taught to children who will grow up rather ashamed that they know them. But the good hymns of faith still go on. There are doubtless hymns of integrity and power being written now. Glancing through the indexes of authors in recent hymn-books, one finds such names as Canon Ainger, Felix Adler, the Duke of Argyll, Robert Bridges, G. K. Chesterton, Henry Sloane Coffin, Havelock Ellis, Rudyard Kipling, Henry Van Dyke, and Israel Zangwill. From the hymns written to-day, there may be gathered some lasting world-hymns. A CHAPTER IX THE IMPORT OF THE HYMN-BOOK S mankind's most ancient and most beloved kind of poetry, the hymn is characterized by depth of thought, by patent serviceableness, and by lasting beauty. Any kind of art, any form of expression whatever, to be perenially fresh and dear to men must be at once profound, relevant, and comely. The constant returning of generation after generation to the hymnal as to Jacob's well attests the depth and soundness and beauty of it. The hymnbook is a lasting popular Outline of Life, a lyric handbook of philosophy, ethics, and spiritual beauty. The hymn-book contains a system of philosophy; short and simple as these lyrics are, they have given to innumerable minds a satisfying answer to the question of the source, the nature, and the end of all things. They assert that the origin and support of all life is eternal God, infinitely knowing, just, and kind. The hymn-book teaches a system of ethics; it asserts that man can know, and ought to do, the will of God. The hymn-book teaches a system of esthetics; it asserts that life finds its perfect bloom of beauty and its crown of happiness only in accord with the nature and will of God. The wise and the prudent may make pause at the hymn's simple and audaciously confident assertions as to the great mysteries that baffle all the faculties of reason; yet the more wise and prudent hold that poets and prophets can, by the power of chastened imagination, faith, inspiration, go surely beyond the common faculties of reason, experiencing, as Wordsworth says, a blessed mood In which the burden of the mystery, Is lightened; and they "see into the soul of things." The hymn-book bases its system upon manifold and powerful authority. The hymns, being the thought of strong and deeply experienced souls, kindled into song, claim (1) the regal authority of Poetry. Having a sweeping acceptance by all sorts and conditions of men of religion, they claim (2) the authority of democratic election. Being the choric voice of organized religion speaking out of its ages of experience and out of its present life, they claim the authority of (3) the church catholic. Being, much of it, paraphrase of the Psalms and all of it in accord with the Bible, the hymnal claims (4) the authority of the Holy Scriptures. Further, says Charles Wesley's hymn, A thousand oracles divine Their common beams unite. The hymns, then, speak of the origin of all things in terms of certain knowledge. A hymn by John Sterling published in 1840 begins with these lines: O Source divine, and Life of all, A hymn by Oliver Wendell Holmes speaks in simple words of the great mystery: Lord of all being, throned afar, Yet to each loving heart how near! The Hebrew psalm, turned into English numbers by Isaac Watts, thus asserts the eternity of allruling Deity: Before the hills in order stood, To endless years the same. Another hymn by Watts asserts the eternal supremacy of God-the primary hymnal theme: Thy throne eternal ages stood, Eternity with all its years |