"Amazing grace ! how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me ;" or " How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer's ear ;" or " Sometimes a light surprises
The Christian while he sings ;" or "Day of jndgraeut, day of wonders,
Hark I the trumpet's awful sound?"
See Newton, John. And the English language itself must die before Cowper's plaintive music ceases to vi- brate through believers' souls in those almost perfect hymns in which he \\Tote out and yet veiled the strange, sweet, and attractive experiences of his own religious life : '• To Jesus, the crown of my hope," " Far from the world, O Lord, I flee," "Oh! for a closer walk with God," "There is a fountain fiUed with blood," "God moves in a mysterious way." It has been well said by Dr. Clieever that " if Cowper had never given to the Church on earth but a single score of those exquisite breathings of a pious heart and creations of his own ge- nius, it had been a bequest worth a life of suifering to accomplish." See Cowper.
It was long before another bard arose to take up the lyre whicli this gentle singer laid down. A few strains come iloating through the succeeding years, such as Kobinson's " Come, thou fount of every blessing," and "Jesus, and can it ever be, a mortal man ashamed of thee !" written in 1774: by Thomas Green of Ware, then a precocious boy of only ten years ! Of female hym- nists we have at this period Mrs. Barbaidd (1743-1825) and Jane Taylor, both of whom left some sweet hymns for the sanctuan,'. The former will be best remembered by her beautiful lines on the death of a believer — " Sweet is the scene when Christians die ;" the latter by her Ifi/mnsfor Infant Minds. To them we must add Miss Hannah jMore (1744-1833), whose practical Chris- tian prose writings possess a masculine vigor and Bib- lical earnestness, and whose poetry, although not of the highest order, yet often overflows with melody and ten- der feeling. Her Christmas hymn, " Oh ! how won- drous is the story of our Kedeemer's birth," is a favora- ble specimen. Among the minor poets of this period we mention Dr. John Eyland, born in 1753, author of " In all my Lord's appointed ways," " Lord, teach a lit- tle child to pray," " Sovereign Rider of the skies," " O Lord, I would delight in thee ;" and the Rev. John Lo- gan, who died in 1788, at the age of forty, a Scottish preacher famed for his eloquence, who wrote such hymns as " Where high the heavenly temple stands," " Oh, city of the Lord, begin the universal song," " Oh God of Bethel ! by whose hand thy people still are fed," " The hoiu: of my departiu-e's come," etc. To the poet of the poor. Rev. George Crabbe, we are indebted for those de- lightful lines, " PUgrim, burdened with thy sin, come the way to Zion's gate ;" and to Rev. Samuel iMedley, a Baptist minister of Liverpool (1738-1799), for the stir- ring lyrics, "Mortals, awake! with angels join," and "Awake, my soul, in joyfid lays." The name of Henry Kirke White (1785-1808) will ever live in the splendid hymn in which he sang the story of the birth of the Redeemer and of his own conversion, " When marshal- led on the mighty plain." From his pen also flowed those characteristic hjTnns beginning "The Lord our God is full of might," "O Lord, another day is flo^\-n," "Through sorrow's night and danger's path." See Henry K.White. The coronation hymn, "All hail the power of Jesus' name," was written by the Rev.
Edward Perronet, an English dissenting clergyman, who died at Canterbury in 1792, exclaiming, " Glory to God in the height of his divinity, glory to God in the depth of his humanity, glory to God in his all-sufticien- cy, and into his hands I commend my spirit !" The grand tune which has always been associated with these Hnes was composed for them by a ]\Ir. Shrubsole, a friend of the author, and organist at the chapel of Spa Fields, London, 1784-1806. We can only allude in a sentence to the well-known occasional hymns of the great poets. Pope and Dryden,Wordsworth, Campbell, Moore, South- ey, and some of their associates.
But the Church Universal owes a greater debt to James Montgomery (1771-1854). No man since the days of Cowjier has added so manj'- admirable versions of the Psalms and noble hymns to the English language as this gifted IMoravian, whose prolific muse never ceased to lavish its treasures until, at fourscore years, he went up higher. His paraphrase of the seventy-second Psalm, commencing " Hail to the Lord's anointed," is a classic fidl of the old Hebrew fire and of the best mod- ern missionary spirit. His "Thrice holy" (Isa. vi, 3), begimimg " Hoi}', holy, holy Lord," seems to blend the voices of "saints and seraphim" in one glorious pro- phetic anthem. Of his other hymns we need only name the Hallelujah, " Hark ! the song of Jubilee ;" the Christmas choruses, "Angels from the realms of glory," and " Hark ! the herald angels sing ;" the song of heav- en, " Forever with the Lord ;" the hymn on the death of an aged minister, " Servant of God, well done," writ- ten in memory of his friend, Rev. Thomas Taylor ; and that on the decease of the Rev. John Owen, secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, " Go to the grave in all thy glorious prime." His verses, " Prayer is the soul's sincere desire," " Oh ! where shall rest be found '?" " What are these in bright array ?" are only a few of the priceless gems which he has set in the crown of our Christian praises. See Montgomery, James.