be easy to comprehend, that poetry and piety may be as surely united on earth, as they are in heaven before the throne, in the songs of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect. "A hymn ought to be as regular in its structure as any other poem; it should have a distinct subject, and that subject should be simple, not complicated, so that whatever skill or labour might be required in the author to develope his plan, there should be little or none required on the part of the reader to understand it. Consequently, a hymn must have a beginning, middle, and end. There should be a manifest gradation in the thoughts, and their mutual dependence should be so perceptible, that they could not be transposed without injuring the unity of the piece; every line carrying forward the connexion, and every verse adding a well-proportioned limb to a symmetrical body. The reader should know when the strain is complete, and be satisfied, as at the close of an air in music; while defects and superfluities should be felt by him as annoyances, in whatever part they might occur. The practice of many good men, in framing hymns, has been quite the contrary. They have begun apparently with the only idea in their mind at the time; another, with little relationship to the former, has been forced upon them by a refractory rhyme; a third became necessary to eke out a verse, a fourth to begin one; and so on, till, having compiled a sufficient number of stanzas of so many lines, and lines of so many syllables, the operation has been suspended; whereas it might, with equal consistency, have been continued to any imaginable length, and the tenth or ten thousandth link might have been struck out, or changed places with any other, without the slightest infraction of the chain; the whole being a series of independent verses, collocated as they came, and the burden a cento of phrases, figures, and ideas, the common property of every writer who had none of his own, and therefore found in the works of each, unimproved, if not unimpaired, from generation to generation.-Such rhapsodies may be sung from time to time, and keep alive devotion already kindled; but they leave no trace in the memory, make no impression on the heart, and fall through the mind as sounds glide through the ear, -pleasant, it may be, in their passage, but never returning to haunt the imagination in retirement, or, in the multitude of the thoughts, to refresh the soul. how contrary a character, how transcend. ently superior in value as well as in influence, are those hymns, which, once VOL. XXIV. Of heard, are remembered without effort remembered involuntarily, yet remembered with renewed and increasing delight at every revival! It may be safely affirmed, that the permanent favourites in every collection are those, which, in the requisites before-mentioned, or for some other peculiar excellence, are distinguished above the rest. This is so remarkably the case with the compositions of Watts, Wesley, and Newton, the most prolific writers of this class, that no farther illustration is needful than a recurrence to their pages, when it will be found, that the most neglected are generally inferior in literary merit to the most hackneyed ones, which are in every body's mouth, and every body's heart. "It may be added, that authors, who devote their talents to the glory of God, and the salvation of men, ought surely to take as much pains to polish and perfeet their offerings of this kind, as secular and profane poets bestow upon their works. Of these, the subjects are too often of the baser sort, and the workmanship as frequently excels the materials; while, on the other hand, the inestimable materials of hymns, the truths of the everlasting Gospel, the very thoughts of God, the very sayings of Christ, the very inspirations of the Holy Ghost, are dishonoured by the meanness of the workmanship employed upon them; wood, hay, straw, and stubble, being built upon foundations which ought only to support gold, silver, and precious stones; work that will bear the fire, and be purified by it. The faults in ordinary hymns are vulgar phrase, low words, hard words, technical terms, inverted construction, broken syntax, barbarous abbreviations, that make our beautiful English horrid even to the eye, bad rhymes or no rhymes where rhymes are expected, but above all, numbers without cadence. A line is no more metre because it contains a certain concatenation of syllables, than so many crotchets and quavers, picked at random, would constitute a bar of music. syllables in every division ought to 'ripple like a rivulet,' one producing another as its natural effect, while the rhythm of each line, falling into the general stream at its proper place, should cause the verse to flow in progressive melody, deepening and expanding like a river to the close; or, to change the figure, each stanza should be a poetical tune, played down to the last note. Such subservience of every part to the harmony of the whole is required in all other legitimate poetry, and why it should not be observed in that which is worthiest of all possible preeminence, it would be difficult to say; 6 C The 932 why it is so rarely found in hymns, may be accounted for from the circumstance already stated, that few accomplished poets have enriched their mother tongue with strains of this description.” After this able exposition of the principles, so to speak, on which hymns should be composed, Mr Montgomery proceeds to characterise, which he does with much discernment, some of the best of our hymn-writers. He speaks with fervour of the exemplary plain ness of speech, manly vigour of thought, and consecration of heart, in the Morn ing, Evening, and Midnight of Bishop Kenn-saying, "had he endowed three hospitals, he might have been less a benefactor to posterity." Passing by Mrs Rowe and the mystical rhymers of her age, he comes to the greatest name among hymn-writers-Dr Isaac Watts. This assertion may startle many readers, but the enthusiastic Montgomery does not fear to give him that praise; and why should he, " since it has pleased God to confer upon him, though one of the least of the poets of his country, more glory than upon the greatest either of that or any other, by making his' Divine Songs' a more abundant and universal blessing than the verses of any uninspired man that ever lived ?" "In his 'Psalms and Hymns,' (for they must be classed together,) he has embraced a compass and variety of subjects, which include and illustrate every truth of revelation, throw light upon every secret movement of the human heart, whether of sin, nature, or grace, and describe every kind of trial, temptation, conflict, doubt, fear, and grief; as well as the faith, hope, charity, the love, joy, peace, labour, and patience of the Christian, in all stages of his course on earth; together with the terrors of the Lord, the glories of the Redeemer, and the comforts of the Holy Spirit, to urge, allure, and strengthen him by the way. There is in the pages of this evangelist, a word in season for every one who needs it, in whatever circumstances he may require counsel, consolation, reproof, or instruction. We say this, without reserve, of the materials of his hymns: had their execution always been correspondent with the preciousness of these, we should have had a Christian Psalmist' in England, next (and that only in date, not in dignity) to the 'Sweet Singer of Israel.' Nor is this so bold a word as it may Dr Watts' hymns are full of the glorious Gospel of the blessed God;' his seem. themes, therefore, are much more illustrious than those of the son of Jesse,who only knew the power and glory' of Jehovah as he had seen them in the sanctuary,' which was but the shadow of the New Testament church,—as the face of Moses, holding communion with God, was brighter than the veil which he cast over it when conversing with his country. men. "Dr Watts may almost be called the inventor of hymns in our language; for he so far departed from all precedent, that few of his compositions resemble those of his forerunners,-while he so far established a precedent to all his successors, that none have departed from it, otherwise than according to the peculiar turn of mind in the writer, and the style of expressing Christian truths employed by the denomination to which he belonged. Dr Watts himself, though a conscientious dissenter, is so entirely catholic in his hymns, that it cannot be discovered from any of these, (so far as we recollect,) that he belonged to any particular sect; hence, happily for his fame, or rather, it ought to be said, happily for the Church of Christ, portions of his psalms and hymns have been adopted in most places of worship where congregational singing prevails. Every Sabbath, in every region of the earth where his native tongue is spoken, thousands and tens of thousands of voices are sending the sacrifices of prayer and praise to God, in the strains which he prepared for them a century ago; yea, every day, he being dead yet speaketh,' by the lips of posterity, in these sacred lays, some of which may not cease to be sung by the ransomed on their journey to Zion, so long as the language of Britain endures a language now spreading through all lands whither commerce, civilization, or the Gospel, are carried by merchants, colonists, and missionaries." That a poet of Mr Montgomery's power and skill should be blind to the numerous faults and defects of Dr Watts' hymns, is not to be supposed, and accordingly he speaks freely of them all, and as truly, but not more so, than he has in the above eloquent passage spoken of their merits. Next to Dr Watts, as a hymn-writer, stands, in Mr Montgomery's judg ment, the reverend Charles Wesley. Many of his hymns we committed to memory in very early life, having found them in the cottage of a poor family which we visited so often when a schoolboy, that we were as one of the humble household; we can repeat them all still, though since we ceased to be a boy, and that is a long, weary while, we never heard one of them breathed from human lips, except perhaps in some dream of the olden time-some tender reverie, peopled by the phantoms of the past-from our own-as they murmured almost unconsciously the melancholy music of other years. Of these strains Mr Montgomery thus speaks "Next to Dr Watts as a hymn-writer, undoubtedly stands the Rev. Charles Wesley. He was probably the author of a greater number of compositions of this kind, with less variety of matter or manner, than any other man of genius that can be named. Excepting his Short Hymns on Passages of Scripture,' which of course make the whole tour of Bible literature, and are of very unequal merit, -Christian experience, from the deeps of affliction, through all the gradations of doubt, fear, desire, faith, hope, expectation, to the transports of perfect love, in the very beams of the beatific vision,Christian experience furnishes him with everlasting and inexhaustible themes; and it must be confessed, that he has celebrated them with an affluence of diction, and a splendour of colouring, rarely surpassed. At the same time, he has invested them with a power of truth, and endeared them both to the imagination and the affections, with a pathos which makes feeling conviction, and leaves the understanding little to do but to acquiesce in the decisions of the heart. As the Poet of Methodism, he has sung the doctrines of the Gospel, as they are expound ed among that people, dwelling especially on the personal appropriation of the words of eternal life to the sinner, or the saint, as the test of his actual state before God, and admitting nothing less than the full assurance of faith as the privilege of believers; "Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees, And says It shall be done.' Faith lends her realizing light, The clouds disperse, the shadows fly, The Invisible appears in sight, And God is seen by mortal eye.' "These are glimpses of our author's manner,-broad, indeed, and awful, but signally illustrative, like lightning out of darkness, revealing for a moment the whole hemisphere. Among C. Wesley's highest achievements may be recorded, Come, O Thou traveller unknown,' &c. page 55, in which, with consummate art, he has carried on the action of a lyrical drama; every turn in the conflict with the mysterious Being against whom he wrestles all night, being marked with precision by the varying language of the speaker, accompanied by intense, increasing interest, till the rapturous moment of discovery, when he prevails, and exclaims, 'I know Thee, Saviour, who Thou art,' &c.-The hymn, page 375, Come on, my partners in distress,' &c. anticipates the strains, and is written almost in the spirit, of the Church triumphant. Thou wretched man of sorrow,' &c. and its companion-piece, Great Author of my being,' &c. page 289-90, are composed with equal strength and fervency of feeling,-feeling congenial, yet perfectly contrasted, with that in the former instance; for here, instead of the society of saints and angels, he indulges lonely silent anguish, desiring to live and die alone' with God, as it creature-communion had ceased with him for ever.Thou God of glorious majesty!' &c. page 169, is a sublime contemplation in another vein ;-solemn, collected, unimpassioned thought, but thought occupied with that which is of everlasting import to a dying man, standing on the lapse of a moment between two eternities.'— The hymn on the Day of Judgment, Stand the omnipotent decree,' begins with a note, abrupt and awakening like the sound of the last trumpet. This is altogether one of the most daring and victorious flights of our author. Such pieces prove, that if Charles Wesley's hymns are less varied than might have been desired for general purposes, it was from choice, and predilection for certain views of the Gospel in its effects upon human minds, and not from want of diversity of gifts. It is probable that the severer taste of his brother, the Rev. John Wesley, greatly tempered the extravagance of Charles, pruned his luxuriances, and restrained his impetuosity, in those hymns of his, which form a large proportion of the Methodists' collection; the few which are understood to be John's in that book, being of a more intellectual character than what are known to be Charles's, while the latter are wonderfully improved by abridgement and compression, in comparison with the originals, as they were first given to the public. On the Four Hymns of Addison, (or, as Mr Montgomery says, attri buted to him-but why attributed? is there any doubt of their being his ?) too little praise is bestowed-for they are beautiful throughout, and in many places sublime. For the time being, the inspiration of the subject made him a poet, who, in common hours, was no poet at all-though in his own peculiar prose, he excelled all mankind. True, as Mr Montgomery says, it is to be regretted that the God of Grace as well as the God of Providence, is not more distinctly recognised in them. But he should not have been contented with merely call ing them "pleasing;" and for our sake-though it is perhaps rather too much to expect-we hope he will reconsider that lukewarm epithet, and apply another to compositions that, in many moods of many men, do assuredly thrill the heart and elevate the spirit. In the opinion of our amiable poet and critic and in ours-all that can be imagined deficient in Addison's Hymns, will be found to constitute the glory of Doddridge's. "They shine in the beauty of holiness;" these offsprings of his mind are arrayed "in fine linen;" and like the saints, they are lovely and acceptable, not for their human merit, (for in poetry they are frequently deficient,) but for that fervent, unaffected love to God, his service and his people, which distinguishes them all." "The following four lines," our essayist adds, "present the touchstone of Christian profession, experience, and practice;" and we have heard them sung-sometimesoften--not without tears: "Hast thou a lamb in all thy flock, I fear thy name to plead ?" The Hymns of the revered Augustus Toplady form a striking contrast with the mild and humane tone of Doddridge's. There is, we are told, and be lieve, a peculiarly ethereal spirit in some of them, in which, whether mourning or rejoicing, praying or praising, the writer seems absorbed in the full tri umph of Faith ;" and whether in the body or out of the body, caught up into the third heaven," and beholding unutterable things. He evidently kindled his poetic torch at that of his contemporary, Charles Wesley; and though inferior in breadth and volume of flame, yet the light which it sheds is not less vivid and sparkling, while it may be said to be more delicate to the eye, and refreshing to the spirits, than that prodigality of radi ance cast alike on every thing it touched. The last hymn-writer whom Mr Montgomery mentions by name, is the Rev. B. Beddome, a baptist minister. His compositions, it is remarked, are calculated to be far more useful than attractive; though, on closer acquaintance, they become very agreeable as well as impressive, for the most part being brief and pithy. A single idea, always important, often striking, and sometimes ingeniously brought out, not with a mere point at the end, but with the terseness and simplicity of a Greek Epigram, constitutes the basis of each piece. Many of these were composed as explanatory applications of the texts, or main topics of his sermons; and they might supply frequent hints both to ministers and people, who were disposed to turn them to profit in the same manner. His name, continues Mr Montgomery, would deserve to be held in everlasting remembrance, if he had left no other memorial of the excellent spirit which was in him, than the following few humble verses. Exhortation against Sectarian spirit. "Among the saints on earth, "Thus will the church below Amongst anonymous hymns, Mr Montgomery particularly directs our attention to one which he calls" a noble ode," by an unlettered man, as one that of itself amply refutes the slander (by whom, pray, uttered?) that hymns are necessarily the least intellectual or poetical species of literature. There is not, he avers, in our language, "a lyric of more majestic style-more elevated thought or more glorious imagery; its structure, indeed, is unattractive, and en account of the short lines, occa sionally uncouth; but like a stately pile of architecture, severe and simple in design, it strikes less on the first view, than after deliberate examination, when its proportions become more graceful, its dimensions expand, and the mind itself grows greater in contemplating it.' 5 I shall on eagle's wings up-borne To heaven ascend : I shall behold his face, I shall his power adore, And sing the wonders of his grace For evermore. PART SECOND. "Though nature's strength decay, And earth and hell withstand, To Canaan's bounds I urge my way, At his command: The watery deep I pass, With Jesus in my view; And through the howling wilderness, My way pursue. 6 "The goodly land I see, With peace and plenty bless'd; And endless rest; 7 8 9 10 11 12 There dwells the Lord our King, "He keeps his own secure, Arrays in garments white and pure, With streams of sacred bliss, "Before the Three in One, And tell the wonders he hath done, The listening spheres attend, And sing, in songs which never end, And Holy, Holy, Holy,' cry, 'Almighty King! Who was, and is the same, And evermore shall be ; Jehovah-Father-Great I Am ! We worship Thee.' "Before the Saviour's face The ransom'd nations bow; O'erwhelm'd at his Almighty grace, For ever new: He shews his prints of love, And sound through all the world above, The slaughter'd Lamb. "The whole triumphant host Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Hail, Abraham's God and mine We have been borrowing, it will be seen, largely from Mr Montgomery. But as we meet with him but seldom-and as the two little works which have chiefly suggested our article, and from which some of its pages have been framed, may not have fallen -may never fall-in the way of many thousands of our readers-we con |