near the close of last century by E. Perronet, a minister of Lady Huntingdon's Connection, but was subsequently much revised by Dr. Rippon and others. The form most commonly used is as follows: LL hail the power of Jesu's name! Bring forth the royal diadem, Let high-born seraphs tune the lyre, Before His face who tunes their choir, Crown Him, ye martyrs of your Who from his altar call; God, Ye seed of Israel's chosen race, Sinners! whose love can ne'er forget Let every kindred, every tribe, To Him all majesty ascribe, O that with yonder sacred throng TUNE" MILES LANE." 3 THE SCOTCH TE DEUM. THE Scotch Church for nearly three hundred years refused to have anything to do with human hymns, papistical Te Deums, and the like. But in the metrical version of the Hundredth Psalm, the men of North Britain found a practical substitute which stood them in good stead as a vehicle for the expression of their usually repressed emotions. It was written by W. Kethe in 1560-61, to fit the tune in the Genevan Psalter now known as the Old Hundredth. It is one of the few Psalms to which Shakespeare makes reference in his plays. A' LL people that on earth do dwell, Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice: Him serve with mirth, His praise forth tell; Come ye before Him and rejoice. Know ye, the Lord is God indeed; Without our aid He did us make; For why? the Lord our God is good, His truth at all times firmly stood, And shall from age to age endure. TUNE "OLD HUNDREDTH." Longfellow refers to the New England settlers "Singing the Hundredth Psalm, that grand old Puritan anthem." "The The Rev. James Campbell, of Dublin, says: magnificent version of the Hundredth, set to Luther's majestic tune, has wedded Lutherans and Calvinists to eternity, and girdled the earth with sweet and stately praise." 4-THE GERMAN TE DEUM. RINKART'S hymn, "Nun Danket alle Gott," comes second only to Luther's "Ein' feste Burg." The latter is a hymn of combat and of resolution to battle to the end, the former an outburst of gratitude. It is a paraphrase of two verses of Ecclesiasticus, and in verse 3 of one verse of the Gloria Patri. It has been used since 1648 as the German Te Deum at all national festivals of war and of peace. It was sung by the army of Frederick the Great after the Prussians had won the Battle of Leuthen, and it was constantly sung in the last Franco-Prussian War. It was also sung at the ceremony that marked the completion of Cologne Cathedral and at the laying of the foundation-stone of the new Reichstag. Mendelssohn introduces "Nun Danket" into his "Hymn of Praise." The following translation is by Catherine Winkworth :: TOW thank we all our God, NoWith heart, and hands, and voices, Who wondrous things hath done, O And blessed peace to cheer us; And keep us in his grace, And guide us when perplex'd, In this world and the next. All praise and thanks to God The Son, and Him who reigns Whom earth and Heav'n adore, And shall be evermore. Amen. TUNE-"WITTEMBURG," SOMETIMES CALLED DANKET." 5- THE DOXOLOGY. "NUN PROBABLY no other verse is so often sung by Christians of all denominations as this brief outburst of praise and gratitude; and yet the glad devotion expressed in any of the numerous adaptations never fails to kindle an audience. Originally written as the closing stanzas of Awake my soul, and with the sun," the author, Bishop Ken (1637-1711), derived so much benefit from the use of it in his morning devotions that he added it to his now equally famous evening hymn, Glory to Thee, my God, this night." It was the habit of this saintly sufferer to accompany his ever cheerful voice with the lute which penetrated beyond his prison walls; and the oft-repeated song of praise, which was soon taken up by his religious sympathisers listening without, has gone on singing itself into the hearts of Christians until the fragment has very nearly approached the hymn universal. During revivals it is sometimes the custom to sing it after every conversion. Once at Sheffield, England, under Billy Dawson, they sang it thirty-five times in one evening. It is frequently the last articulate sound that is heard from the lips of the dying, and it is not less frequently the expression of intense gratitude of the living in the moments when life throbs and swells most exultantly in the breast. PRAISE God from Whom all blessings flow! Praise Him, all creatures here below! Praise Him above, ye heavenly host! 6-HEBER'S TRINITY-SUNDAY HYMN. THE Head Master of Harrow, after mentioning the three hymns which had helped him most, said: "I put them in what may be called an order of merit as follows: 1. 'Hark, my soul, it is the Lord.' 2. 'O God, our help in ages past.' 3. 'Rock of Ages, cleft for me.' Perhaps you will let me add that Bishop Heber's Trinity-Sunday Hymn, 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,' though it cannot be said to have given me most help, yet is in my judgment the finest hymn ever written, considering the abstract difficult nature of its theme, its perfect spirituality, and the devotion and purity of its language. The late Poet Laureate once told me he thought so too." H Early the morning our song shall rise to JOLY, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty! Thee; Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty! God in Three Persons, blessèd Trinity! Holy, holy, holy all the saints adore Thee, Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea, Cherubim and Seraphim falling down before Thee, Which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be. |