HYMNS OLD AND NEW

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 85, 20 October 1928, Page 21

HYMNS OLD AND NEW

"An Historical Account of tho Church Hymnary; Revised Edition." By Rev. .T. K. Kinloeh, M.A., KR.Hist. Soc. Cambridge: William Heffer and Sons. The Rev. Mr. Kinloch questions the statement in the biography of Canon Ellerton, tho great authority on church hymns, that there was scarcely a hymn that Ellerton did not know, there being at least 400,000 of them. Some of these arc included in the references made by the author of this little work on the:new edition of the collection known as the "Church Hymnary." It would surprise many who Sunday by Sunday or on other occasions join in hymn singing to know the origin of some of those hymns and, the personalities of some of their writers. To those who have the Church Hymnary, Mr. Kinloch's work will be found most enlightening, but those who have not the hymn book by them will nevertheless be interested in what the author has to say as the result of long aud patient research. nis remarks upon the ancient Latin Hymns, "Veni Creator," "Te Deurn," "Stabat Mater," "Adeste Fidelis," and "Dies Irae," are most helpful. The earliest Greek hymns were found in the Scriptures, and included "Magnificat," "Nuuc Dimittis," and "Benedictus," and the Latin hymns were derived from the Greek. "Te Deum," whose author is unknown, Mr. Kinloch, regards as the greatest of all hymns, but it loses much of its force, in his opinion, in its English version. ,He shows how in the Latin the hymn opens "Te Deum laudamus,'' and of the 27 verses of, the hymn seven begin with "Te," two with "Tibi," and five with "Tu.V . He writes: "Thee, Thee, Thee is the burden of this glorious song. It is. like the panting of an engine or beating; of a drum." German hymns not a few have found places for themselves in English collections, and this is not to be wondered at considering the influence ,of the. Reformation upon; Christianity in England and Scotland. Tho great German hymn, "Nun danket alle Gott," known in English as "Now thank we all.our God," was written by one Rinkart, a pastor who had little reason to be :thankful or glad, for! during the Thirty Years' War he was immured in a city into which thousands of fugitives poured. .Epidemics followed, and poor Riiikart, the solitary pastor, read the burial service over as many as forty to fifty ; dead , bodies daily. It was on the coming of peace that he, wrote "Nun danket.V The English hymns are a goodly sheaf, and those of Isaac Watts, Joseph Hart, Philip Dodderidge, Charles Wesley (who wrote 6500 hymns), Toplady, John Newton, Cowper, and those of many other" writers of their time are dealt with. The Anglican Church in later days, especially during the Oxford movement, enriched the English Hymnary, and there are included hymns by Keble, Milnian, Heber, Ellerton, Walsham How.. Acknowledgment is made of hymns written by women. From the 18th century, Mr.' Kinloch thinks the greatest hymns have beeu derived, but in the 19th very few were produced which deserve immortality. Of the 20th century what can be said? Mr. ICinloeh points to the Church with which during the first 25 years of the present century things have gone not well. "There has been neither great prosperity nor bitter persecution—each the fruitful mother of noble song— small attritions have worn her doivn." And yet the time must come, he feels, when the hymns for the times will be given. "When tho Church is filled once more with' life and' energy she will, .'call for new songs, and got "them. Till she is thus renewed and rein'spircd, she will work in vain." This is a work that the devQut layman no less than the cleric will rend 'with considerable interest and profit.