SACRED POETS.

As early as the reign of Henry VIII., his groom of the robes, THOMAS STERNHOLD, began to versify the Psalms of David; but he had only rendered thirty-seven when he died in 1549. The version which he began was continued by various hands, and first appeared complete in 1562, at the end of the Book of Common Prayer. Among its various authors, besides Sternhold the courtier, were Hopkins, a schoolmaster; Whittingham, the Presbyterian Dean of Durham; Wisdom, the Archdeacon of Ely; Pullain, Archdeacon of Colchester; and Norton, a barrister-at-law. As might be expected in a first attempt, the early editions contained some curious couplets. For example:

"For why, their hearts were wholly bent

To him nor to his trade;

Nor yet to keep nor to perform

The covenant that was made."

"Confound them that apply,

And seek to work my shame;
And at my harm do laugh, and cry,
So, so, there goeth the game!"

"Why dost withdraw thy hand aback,
And hide it in thy lap?

O pluck it out, and be not slack
To give thy foes a rap!"

"And brought them out into the bor

ders of his holy land;

Even to the moment which he had pur- .

chased with his right hand."

Still the work was opportune, and it was warmly welcomed not only in England but in Scotland. In 1564 an edition was

DURIE'S PROCESSION.

127

printed at Edinburgh by Robert Lepreuik, accompanied by the Form of Prayers received by the Church of Scotland; and on the 26th December in that year, the General Assembly ordered 66 that every minister should have one of the Psalm Books lately printed, and should use the order contained in it." The Psalms were not only sung, but many of them soon engraved themselves on the popular memory; and it is recorded that when Mr Durie returned from exile, in 1582, he was accompanied by a triumphal procession of some thousand people, who sang along the streets, till they reached the High Church, the 124th Psalm. When the psalm was ended, the people cried out, "Now hath God delivered us from the devil, the Duke, and all his men ;" and it is said that Lennox confessed that at the sight of that procession he was more afraid than at anything he had seen in Scotland. The Psalm is one of those rendered by Dean Whittingham :

"Now Israel

Psalm crriv.

May say, and that truly,

If that the Lord

Had not our cause maintain'd,

If that the Lord

Had not our right sustain'd, When all the world

Against us furiously Made their uproars,

And said we should all die :

Then long ago

They had devour'd us all, And swallow'd quick,

For ought that we could deem;

Such was their rage,

As we might well esteem: And as the floods

With mighty force do fall, So had they now

Our lives even brought to thrall.

The raging streams

Most proud and roaring noise Had long ago

O'erwhelm'd us in the deep.
Praised be God

Which doth us safely keep
From bloody teeth,

And their most cruel voice,
Which as a prey

To eat us would rejoice.
Even as a bird

From fowler's gin or pen
Escapes away, _

Right so it fares with us;
Broke are the nets,

And we escaped thus.
God that made heaven

And earth is our help then,
His name hath saved

Us from these wicked men."

Nor was it only in Scotland that the spirit of psalmody was enkindled by the genius of Sternhold and his coadjutors. In many parts of England psalm-singing became a favourite element in the worship of the great congregation; and as late as the siege of York, in 1644, we have an animated account of the fervour with which it was conducted, from the pen of a musical enthusiast, T. Mace. During the siege, he tells us, that every Sunday the great minster was "squeezing full.” "Now here you must take notice that they had then a custom in that church, which I hear not in any other cathedral; which was, that always before the sermon, the whole congregation sang a psalm, together with the quire and the organ ; and you must also know, that there was then a most excellent, large, plump, lusty, full-speaking organ, which cost, I am credibly informed, a thousand pounds. This organ, I say, when the psalm was set before sermon, being let out into all its fulness of stops, together with the quire, began the psalm. But when that vast concording unity of the whole congregational chorus came, as I may say, thundering in, even so as it made the very ground shake under us, oh! the unutterable ravishing soul's-delight, in the which I was so transported and wrapt up in high contemplations, that there was no room left in my whole man, viz., body, soul, and spirit, for anything below divine and heavenly raptures; nor could there possibly be anything to which that very singing might be truly compared, except that glorious and miraculous quire, recorded in the Scriptures at the dedication of the temple." Sometimes, however, a cannon bullet has come in at the windows, and bounced about from pillar to pillar, even like some furious fiend or evil spirit," yet no one was ever hurt in the church.*

*See "The Psalmists of Britain," by John Holland, vol. i. p. 53,-a remarkably interesting and valuable work, in which specimens of the Psalms by one hundred and fifty English translators are given.

The best specimen of Sternhold is the passage so often

quoted from

Psalm xviii.

"The sly and subtil snares of hell

Were round about me set;
And for my life there was prepared

A deadly trapping net.

I thus beset with pain and grief,
Did pray to God for grace;

And He forthwith heard my complaint
Out of His holy place.

Such is His power, that in His wrato
He made the earth to quake,
Yea, the foundation of the mount

Of Basan for to shake.

And from his nostrils went a smoke,
When kindled was his ire;

And from his mouth went burning coals
Of hot consuming fire.

The Lord descended from above,
And bow'd the heavens high;
And underneath His feet He cast
The darkness of the sky:
On Cherubs and on Cherubims,
Full royally He rode,

And on the wings of mighty winds

Came flying all abroad.

And like a den most dark He made
His hid and secret place;

With waters black and airy clouds

Encompass'd He was.

At His bright presence did thick clouds

In haste away retire;

And in the stead thereof did come

Hailstones and coals of fire.

The fiery darts and thunderbolts
Disperse them here and there;
And with His frequent lightnings He
Doth put them in great fear."

Nor can higher honour be claimed for HOPKINS than the authorship of that “Old Hundredth," with which our Palaces of Industry are opened, our temples are dedicated, and with which our sanctuaries resound Sabbath after Sabbath, till the rooftree rings again.

The Old Hundredth.

"All people that on earth do dwell,

Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice;
Him serve with fear, His praise forth tell,
Come ye before Him and rejoice.
The Lord, ye know, is God indeed,

Without our aid He did us make;
We are His flock, He doth us feed,
And for His sheep He doth us take.

O enter then His gates with praise,
Approach with joy His courts unto;
Praise, laud, and bless His name always,
For it is seemly so to do.

For why? the Lord our God is good,

His mercy is for ever sure;

His truth at all times firmly stood,

And shall from age to age endure."

We also confess a great liking for the following version of

"O daughter, take good heed,

Psalm xlv.

Incline and give good ear; Thou must forget thy kindred all, Thy father's house most dear;

Then shall the King desire
Thy beauty more and more;
He is the Lord thy God whom thou
Must worship and adore.