The Reformation in England did not, as in Germanj', grow by the spontaneous utterance of popular Christian song. That was left for the period of the great evangeli-
cal revival which crowned the last century with its bless- ings. All that had been done before was as the broad and deep foundation-work, rude and unchiselled, but strong and essential to the majestic superstructure which has risen upon it. The stream of Christian verse flowed on in its old channels until the publication of the Psalms and Hymns of Dr. Watts began a new sera in English liym- nologj'. The poet Montgomerj' says that " Dr. Watts may almost be called the inventor of hymns in our lan- guage, for he so far departed from aU precedent that few of his compositions resemble those of his forerun- ners, while he so far established a precedent to all his successors that none have departed from it otherAvise than according to the peculiar turn of mind of the writ- er, and the style of expressing Christian truth employed by the denomination to which he belonged." Dissenter as he was, his I'salms and Hymns are so catholic in their spirit that many of them have been adopted by all denominations of Protestant Christians in their Sab- bath worship. His Divine Songs for Children, and some of his Psalms, will live while the language endures. The defects of his style are obvious in many of his ht- ics, which evince haste paid negligence, faulty rhymes, and a prosing feebleness of expression. Yet he broke bravely tlu-ough the mannerisms of preceding ages, and inaugiu-ated a style of Christian hymnology which has alike enriched the evangelical poetry of the English tongue, and filled the temples and homes of the race that speaks that language with the most delightful praises of the ]Most High. His example was soon fol- lowed with success by others. But to him belongs the undisputed honor of being the great precentor of the immense chorus which he will forever lead in these glo. rious harmonies. His first hymn was given to the Church under circumstances of prophetic interest. He had complained to some oflicial in the Independent church of Southami)ton, of which his father was a dea- con, " that the hymnists of the day were sadly out of taste." " Give us something better, j'oung man," was the reply. The young man did it, and the Church was invited to closg its evening sen-ice with a new hymn, which commenced,
"Behold the glories of the Lamb Amidst His Father's throne ; Prepare new honors for His name, And songs before unknown."
From that time his ever-ready muse gave forth, in strains which are almost divine, "harmonies" for his Saviour's name, and "songs before unknown." We need only indicate a few of the first lines : " AVTicn I survey the wondrous cross," " JMy God, the spring of all my joys," " When I can read my title clear," " Come, ye" that love the Lord," " Come, let us join our cheerful songs," " He dies, the friend of sinners dies." His " Cra- dle Hymn" has taught countless mothers and children to sing of Jesus, and the angels and manger of Bethle- hem : " Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber." It w-as while looking out from his quiet chamber window at Southampton "upon the beautiful scenerj' of the harbor and river, and npon the green glades of the New Forest on its farther bank, that the idea suggested itself of the image of the heavenly Canaan," which he soon embodied in those sweetest of all his verses, " There is a land of pure delight," etc. See Watts.
Only seven years before the first edition of Watts's Hymns was given to the world, Philip Doddridge was born (1702) ; and before the death of his great predeces- sor, whose verses cheered his own dying hours in a dis- tant land, he had published most of his sweetest hymns. Some of these are imperishable, for they have become part of the spiritual liie of our Protestant Christianity. Many of them grew out of and were appended to his sermons, which he crystalUzed into such hymns as "Thine earthly Sabbaths, Lord, we love" (Heb. iv, 9), "Jesus, I love thy charming name" (1 Pet. v, 7). His Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, which was A\Titten at tlie suggestion of Dr. Watts, and has been
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translated into the leading languages of Europe, and his Famili/ Expositor oftheNeiu Testament, are monuments of his wonderful religious power and usefulness. But his hymns will be sung where his larger works are nev- er heard of, and the world will never cease to echo the strains of such songs as "Awake, my soul, stretch everj^ nerve!" "Hark, the glad sound, the Saviour's come!" " Grace, 'tis a charming sound," " Ye golden lamps of heaven, farewell !" See Doddridgk.
The most voluminous and successful of all English hymnists is the Rev. Charles Wesle.v. Over seven thou- sand psalms and hymns were written by his facile pen ; and these were merely the by-play of a tireless itiner- ant evangeUst, who, with his more celebrated brother John, himself also a hymn-writer of no mean powers, preached the Gospel in the Old and New worlds, and gave a new style to Christian song. Their history, la- bors, persecutions, and triumphs are so well known that we need only mention their sainted names. John Wes- ley was the author or translator of several excellent hymns, and a capital critic on hymnology. Of Charles AYesley's hymns a large number have taken a more than classic place in our poetic literature. The Christian Church will never cease to sing " Oh love divine, how sweet thou art !" " Jesus, lover of my soul," " Hark ! the herald angels sing," " The earth with all its fulness owns," " Come, let us join our friends above." Dr. Watts said of Charles Wesley's inimitable rendering of the wrestling of Jacob at Peniel with the angel, "That single poem, ' Wrestling Jacob,' is worth all the verses which I have ever written." Doubtless much of the power of his hymns is attributable to the circumstances which gave rise to them, and to his facility in giving them the most fresh and vivid forms of expression. On the last projecting rock on Land's End, Cornwall, he stood and wrote that memorable hymn, " Lo ! on a narrow neck of land," etc. His judgment hymn, commencing " Stand, the omnipotent decree," and two others, were written and pubhshed in 1756, just after the destruction of the city of Lisbon by an earthquake. " Glory to God, whose sover- eign grace," was written for the Kingswood colliers, whose wonderful conversion, under the preaching of White- field and the Weslej^s, was among the miracles of grace which attended their apostolic ministry. "Oh for a thousand tongues, to sing my great Redeemer's praise," commemorates his o\w\ spiritual birth, and was written in response to a German friend, the Moravian Peter Boehler, who said to him, when hesitating to confess publicly his conversion, " If you had a thousand tongues you should publish it with tliem all." Another power- ful accessory of the Wesleyan hymns was the music with which many of them were accompanied. The great composer Handel set some of them to noble tunes, the IMSS. of which are stiU preserved in the Ubrary of Cambridge University. But their greatest interest and success doubtless comes from their scriptural character, their immense range over all varieties of Christian ex- perience, and their intimate relation to the great revi- val of religion of which these remarkable men and their compeers were the leading instruments. (A striking illustration of all these features is given in the hymn— at once expositor^' and experimental — of which we have space for only part of one stanza :