§ 113. CHURCH POETRY AND MUSIC. 577
inconsistcnl with Scripture, with the doctrines of the church, with general Christian experience, or with the spirit of devotion. Every believing Christian can join in the Gloria in JSxcelsis or the Te Deum. The classic hymns, which are, indeed, comparatively few, stand above confessional differences, and resolve the discords of human opinions in heavenly harmony. They resemble in this the Psalms, from which all branches of the militant church draw daily nourishment and comfort. They exhibit the bloom of the Christian life in the Sabbath dress of beauty and holy raptnre. They resound in all pions hearts, and have, like the daily rising sun and the yearly returning spring, an indestructible freshness and power. In truth, their benign virtue increases with increasing age, hke that of healing herbs, whicli is the richer the longer they are bruised. They are true benefactors of the struggling church, ministering angels sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation. Next to the Holy Scripture, a good hymn-book is the richest fountain of edification.
Tlie book of Psalms is the oldest Christian hymn-book, inherited by the church from the ancient covenant. The appearance of the Messiah upon earth was the beginning ot Christian poetry, and was greeted by the immortal songs of Mary, of Elizabeth, of Simeon, and of the heavenly host. Eeligion and poetry are married, therefore, in the gospel. In the Epistles traces also appear of primitive Christian songs, in rhythmical quotations which are not demonstrably taken from the Old Testament.* We know from the letter of the elder Pliny to Trajan, that the Christians, in the beginning of the second century, praised Christ as their God in songs; and from a later source, that there was a multitude of such songs.*
' E. ff., Eph. V. 14, where either the Holy Spirit moving in the apostolic poesy, or (as I venture to suggest) the previously mentioned Light personified, is introduced {5ih \4yei) speaking in three strophes: "Eyeipe 6 KubevSuVf Kal wacrra eK tSjv veKpHv • Kal iin<pav(Tet ffoi 5 "KptarSi. Comp. Rev. iv. 8; 1 Tim. iii. 16; 2 Tim. iL 11; and my History of the Apoatolk Church, § 141.
» Comp. Euseb. H. E. v. 28.
578 TniRD PERIOD. A.T>. 311-500.
'• Notwithstanding this, we have no complete religicms song remaining from the period of persecution, except the song of Clement of Alexandiia to the divine Logos — which, however, cannot be called a hymn, and was probably never intended for public use — the Morning Song' and the Evening Song^ in tiio Apostolic Constitutions, especially the former, the so-called Gloria in IUxcelsis^ which, as an expansion of the doxology of the heavenly hosts, still rings in all parts of the Christian world. Xext in order comes the Te Deum^ in its original Eastern form, or the K.a^ eKciaTijv rjfiepav^ which is older than Ambrose. Tlie Ter Sanctus, and several ancient litnrgical prayers, also may be regarded as poems. For the hymn is, in fact, nothing else than a prayer in the festive garb of poetical inspiration, and the best liturgical prayers are poetical creations. Measure and rhyme are by no means essential.
Upon these fruitful biblical and primitive Christian models arose the hymnology of the ancient catholic church, which forms the first stage in the history of hymnology, and upon which the mediaeval, and then the evangelical Protestant stage, with their several epochs, follow
§ 114. The Poetvii of the Oriental Church.
Obmp. the third vohime of Daniel's Tuesatirns hymnologious (the Greek section prepared by R. Vovmhaum)\ the works of J. At. Nealk, quoted sub §113; an article on Greek Hymnoloijy in the Christian Rememirancer, for April, 1859, London ; also the liturgical works quoted § 98.
We should expect that the Greek church, which was in advance in all branches of Christian doctrine and culture, and received from ancient Greece so rich a heritage of poetry, would give the key also in church song. This is true to a very limited extent. The Gloria in cxcelsis and the I'e Deii/ii are unquestionablj the most valuable jewels of sacred ])oetry which have come down from the early church, and they are
''"Tuj/or fwdifJs, beginniag: A(!|a «V v^i'kttois ©t&j, in Const. Apost. vii. 47 (aJ 48), and in Daniel's Thesaur. hymuol. iii. p. 4.
' "Tfjivos iaiTipivus, which begins: ^ws iKapov ayias So^tjj, see Daniel, ilL 5.