CHAPTER II THE "ACCOMMODATED" PSALM BOOKS IN early days there was scant incentive to the writing of hymns. On both sides of the sea the fathers looked upon the Psalms as ample for the divine praises, and save in rare instances hymns of "human composure" were under a strict ban. But gradually sentiment changed. In 1696 a new version of the Psalms appeared in England, by Nahum Tate, Poet-Laureate, and Dr. Nicholas Brady, Chaplain to the King. It marked a notable advance over any of its predecessors, and was welcomed by some of the New England churches. During those same years several small hymn collections made a timid appearance. They were of minor value in themselves, but they helped to usher in something of immense import ance. The year 1707, forever memorable in the annals of English hymnology, gave to the world the famous little book, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, by Isaac Watts. Twelve years later, the same writer published The Psalms of David Imitated. Here, with commendable daring, he broke away from a slavish adherence to the exact verbiage of the Scripture, and gave a free translation of the Psalms, as he said, "in the language of the New Testament, and apply'd to the Christian state and worship." The influence of these two small books on Protestant worship in England, and later, in America, for one hundred and fifty years, can scarcely be overstated. Neither book won immediate favor on this side. Our American forbears were far from the ancestral home, and somewhat provincial, and they were in such mortal fear of anything that remotely savored of heresy that they were extremely conservative, loath to part with the old, slow to welcome the new. In preparing his System of Praise, Watts had had America especially in mind. He entitled one of the Psalms, the 107th, "A Psalm for New England." But while a few copies of the Psalms and Hymns found their way across the sea, no one ventured an American reprint till 1729, when Benjamin Franklin brought out an edition of the Psalms on his Philadelphia press. Financially, however, it was a failure, as there was scarcely any demand for the book. The Hymns were not reprinted till 1739, a whole generation after their introduction into England. It was the Great Awakening under Jonathan Edwards, beginning in 1734, and intensified at the time of Whitefield's first visit to New England, in 1740, that made the people thoroughly dissatisfied with the dull, life less mode of singing which had so long been in vogue. Then the door was gradually opened to Watts, and once introduced, his System of Praise grew into immense favor. The American Revolution, however, brought unlooked-for difficulties. In his very free rendering into English, Dr. Watts had taken divers liberties with the Psalms, adapting them not only to the use of Christians, but to Christians in Britain, making sundry and very pointed references to the British sovereign and his kingdom. Such references, of course, could not be tolerated in America after the colonies gained their independence. It therefore became necessary to "accommodate" Watts' version to the changed situation. Various individuals in different places tried their hand at the task of revision, but their versions had scarcely more than local sanction. In Connecticut the churches took united action, which led to the issuing of two authorized revisions, which were widely adopted, and the second of which, especially, exerted a lasting influence on American hymnody. Joel Barlow was instructed by the General Association of Congregational Churches of Connecticut to make the needed alterations. He was an interesting person, this "ingenious Mr. Joel Barlow of Connecticut," as he was called. Born in 1755, he graduated from Yale at the age of twenty-three, at the head of his class. He had planned to at once begin the study of law, but the Revolution was in progress, his own brothers were in the army, and already, on more than one occasion, he had run away from his books to shoulder a gun. Hearing that there was great need of chaplains, he took a short course in theology, received a license to preach, and served as chaplain till the close of the war, when he resumed his law studies and settled in Hartford. While with the army he may not have been conspicuous in religious work, but he was a poet, as American poets went in those days, and he helped to keep up the spirits of the soldiers by writing patriotic songs and addresses. First and last he had composed a number of poems which were highly regarded, and after his return to private life it was not unnatural that he should be asked to make the desired alterations in Watts' Psalms. His revised edition appeared in 1785 and met with partial favor. He provided Psalmversions of his own where Watts had none. Several of them passed into later hymnals and were in common use down to recent times. Here is Barlow's rendering of the 108th Psalm: "Awake, my soul, to sound his praise, Join all my powers the song to raise, |