Winchester College

He had a great sense of beauty, which is still vivid in these lovely compositions.

Thomas Weelkes, died sixteen twenty-three, published, when he was only twenty-two years old, a set of madrigals full of imaginative and original music, and further sets when he was organist at Winchester College.

He was one of the greatest musicians of his time.

Thomas Morley, fifteen fifty-eight to sixteen oh three, a very learned musician who excelled in lighthearted music, was organist at St. Paul's Cathedral.

Introduction Part 2.

What is today the standard of the best church hymns? we have now reached an understanding as to what may rightly be called the best church hymns we have seen that while every one is at liberty to choose the hymns that are best to him only the church decides which are the best church hymns the church hymn is intended for church use and the best hymns are those which do as a matter of fact fulfil that use those in other words which have won the widest approval and use by the church we have before us a list of the thirty-two best hymns what remains is to examine the characteristics of these hymns so as to gain an answer to the question what is to-day the standard of the best church hymns of these thirty-two hymns only two are of the seventeenth century bishop kins awake my soul and with the sun and his all praise to thee my god this night of the eighteenth century dr watts leads with five when i surveyed the wondrous cross our god our help in ages past come let us join our cheerful songs jesus shall reign where'er the sun and there is a land of pure delight charles wesley follows with four jesus lover of my soul hark the herald angels sing christ the lord is risen to-day and lo he comes with clouds descending john newton with two how sweet the name of jesus sounds and glorious things of thee are spoken and these others with one each toplady rock of ages doddridge hark the glad sound the saviour comes peronet all hail the power of jesus name cooper god moves in a mysterious way williams guide me o thou great jehovah and senec children of the heavenly king of the nineteenth century light leads with two abide with me and jesus i my cross have taken and these writers have one each keble son of my soul adams nearer my god to thee heber from greenland's icy mountains montgomery hail to the lord anointed grant o worship the king marriott thou whose almighty word eliot just as i am and the anonymous recast of an older hymn jerusalem my happy home of the nineteenth century also are three versions of latin hymns neil's jerusalem the golden and brief life is here our portion and caswall's jesus the very thought of thee the first thing the reading of this list suggests is the catholicity of the church's judgment for roman anglican independent moravian wesleyan and unitarian alike are allowed to contribute to it the church's unity indeed is foreshadowed in her hymnody one is impressed also with the absence from this list of all recent hymns the latest of them was in print by eighteen fifty one at first this would seem to indicate the judgment of the church that in hymnody the old is better but the fact is rather that a hymn makes its way slowly and naturally it takes a great while for any hymn to attain a use so general and widespread and among so many branches of the church one seeking now the characteristics of these best church hymns we may begin with their lyrical quality they are adapted for setting to music and singing with the exception perhaps of watts's jesus shall reign you would choose to sing them rather than to read them we put this lyrical quality first as most naturally to be expected of a hymn but historically it was by no means the first to be insisted upon our fathers began with versions of the psalms which were anything but lyrical and the hymns which succeeded them were often hardly more singable some of these linger yet watts's go preach my gospel is as honest prose as man ever wrote and in the case of a class of hymns such as tis a point i long to know and how sad our state by nature is nothing but an inherited tradition could account for a proposal to sing any one of them gradually with the growth of musical feeling the heavy hymns are being left behind already the church has decided that only lyrics can find a place among the best hymns two we note again the literary excellence of all these hymns no less than eleven of the thirty-two are included by mr palgrave in his very exclusive treasury as literature poetry for poetry's sake and three others by mr stedman in his victorian anthology including nearer my god to thee the faultiest of them all but saved in an art sense by the beauty of its interwoven refrain one other when i survey etc matthew arnold considered the finest hymn in the language and of the remainder representing such writers as wesley watts heber montgomery cooper caswell neale and grant there is none without distinct literary merit analyzing this literary excellence we find that each one has a single theme giving unity to the hymn and a proper development of it giving life and movement to the verses the weaker and less sung verses of jesus lover of my soul being an exception these themes are poetically sound and their treatment is interesting the language is refined and beautiful the images happy with an occasional lapse as in the unfortunate stony griefs of nearer my god to thee and in all and over all that winning grace of simplicity simplicity always stands for much but in a hymn which must have the gift of a quick appeal to many differing minds simplicity stands for fundamentals literary excellence then is a marked common feature of the best hymns this means that the church at large has not accepted a hymn of inferior literary qualities and in view of the advance of general culture it leaves the very comfortable assurance that she never will three we note again that each of these hymns has liturgical propriety both in the subject matter and in the form they keep within the subjects proper to public devotions but within that limit they range freely through the whole sphere of worship now praise is the chief act of worship but it is by no means the only one prayer is an act of worship and the expression of our aspirations is an act of worship these hymns include both the element of praise is not quite absent from any of them perhaps but not many could be classed as technically hymns of praise this fact has its own importance just now for in the reaction from the use of sentimental and egotistical hymns that make much of ourselves and little of god and his christ quite a party has grown up which maintains that the only proper theme of a hymn is the adoration and praise of god didactics and invitation supplication and intercession they say are provided for elsewhere in the service and they would return to the definition of st augustine that hymns are the praise of god with song welcome as is the reaction the movement while in the right direction is too radical it needs to be corrected by the verdict of the church and this verdict must settle the liturgical office of a hymn a good hymn is not necessarily a form of pure praise but rather a form of worship and it may take its theme from any of the proper parts of public worship let us go now a little deeper to look for the spiritual qualities which have given these hymns so long a life so universal acceptance these seem especially to be two one of them is reverence and the other is reality for that tone of reverence pervades every one of these hymns it sounds all the way from the majestic heights of watts's our god our help in ages past which celebrates his eternity and unchangeableness to the familiar levels of kin's morning and evening hymns in which the little things of life are brought into that same august presence any one can test this quality of reverence for himself in several ways the most natural way would be to read or sing the hymn over and observe the effect upon himself how that they clothe his own mood with reverence another way more effective if one cared to try it were that of singing any of these hymns to trivial melodies in rapid time and with careless manner but the test is rather that one would not care to do that the quality of the hymn makes the performance irreverent and it is no doubt this quality of reverence which gives to a hymn its hymnic character makes it suitable for use in the church's worship whether it be directly addressed to god or whether it be in the form of praise or of prayer is not the real test of the hymn's fitness but whether it be of the quality of reverence and just here just where the best hymns are strong is where so many of the hymns which are in current evangelistic use begin to fail they fail in other things but they begin to fail at the very foundation for in the worship of god there is no other foundation laid than is already laid in reverence and a hymn may not be so gross as to be irreverent and yet it may lack reverence in conception and in expression and especially in the feelings it tends to excite in those who sing or hear it a hymn may lack reverence but a good hymn cannot lack it the best hymns are thrilled with it through and through five then there is that other of these deeper qualities which are common to all our group the quality of spiritual reality it has two sides one turned outward toward the world of things spiritual the side of truth and one turned inward toward spiritual experience the side of sincerity and only so would god be worshipped in sincerity and in truth a hymn therefore as an acceptable act of worship must be true to facts and must be sincerely spoken by the singers there are untrue hymns and an untrue hymn is no better because the misrepresentations are veiled under poetic diction addison's how are thy servants blest o lord in the altered form as used in the hymn-books and draper's ye christian heralds go proclaim as generally used in the original text are examples of untrue hymns and there are many hymns which put into the mouths of an ordinary congregation are quite insincere the hymns for instance which express a desire for immediate death or more generally which say to god things which the singers do not feel or do not believe a congregation will sing such hymns thoughtlessly if they are set to music that is seductive but certainly it is a serious responsibility to place such hymns in the order of worship there are untrue hymns and insincere hymns but the best church hymns as they are now set before us are neither they are marked by spiritual reality they express that is to say spiritual truths which are within the people's apprehension and sound spiritual feelings which are not beyond the experience of the average christian worshipper this is true of them in a very marked degree but are there no exceptions we turn instinctively to the new jerusalem hymns jerusalem the golden and jerusalem my happy home canon kingsley protested against such hymns as unreal but surely it is carrying the manly and robust type of religion pretty far to exclude aspirations after heaven from our christian it is rather the class of hymns represented by faber's o paradise that are open to such objection it is interesting to compare this recast jerusalem my happy home probably montgomery's with the earlier o mother dear jerusalem on which it is based just to see how the right feeling of the recaster has given reality to what was hardly more than a mood of individualistic transcendentalism having poetic truth rather than congregational fitness this spiritual reality in the substance and not a mere plural form is what makes a hymn congregational which fact has its importance to us who are so often reminded that a good hymn must use the plural forms we us our and not i me mine our list contradicts the dictum many of these hymns use the singular pronouns throughout but they are still the best congregational hymns congregational because they express experiences natural and proper to the average christian and if they express them in an individual form they are all the more true to life for our spiritual experiences also are individual with this last note the answer to our question what is to-day the standard of our best church's hymns seems to be complete these are the five elements which enter into that standard first the lyrical quality second literary excellence third liturgical propriety fourth reverence fifth spiritual reality it was interesting to discover which hens are the best and if our examination of them is careful and true it is an added gain to know what it is that makes them best the verdict of the church is conclusive but it covers only the hymns old enough to have secured a full and wide trial we are left more to our own judgment in dealing with the great body of more recent hymns and from that very fact arises the advantage in determining the standard of the hymns known to be the best so that we may measure the newer candidates for favor by that same standard part two hymns one two and three of the best church hymns by louis f benson this librivox recording is in the public domain one a living and dying prayer for the holiest believer in the world rock of ages cleft for me let me hide myself in thee let the water and the blood from thy riven side which flowed be of sin the double cure cleanse me from its guilt and power not the labours of my hands can fulfil thy law's demands could my zeal no respite know could my tears for ever flow all for sin could not atone thou must save and thou alone nothing in my hand i bring simply to thy cross i cling naked come to thee for dress helpless look to thee for grace foul i to the fountain fly wash me saviour or i die while i draw this fleeting breath when my eyelids close in death when i soar to worlds unknown see thee on thy judgment throne rock of ages cleft for me let me hide myself in thee this hymn properly stands first for it has had great power over the minds of men its author was an english clergyman the rev augustus montague toplady born in seventeen forty he was a man of feeble body but of intense feelings and earnestly opposed the methodist movement in the church of england see under number three the hymn was first printed at the end of an article in the number for march seventeen seventy six of the gospel magazine of which toplady was editor he died in seventeen seventy eight two crucifixion to the world by the cross of christ galatians six fourteen when i survey the wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died my richest gain i count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride forbid it lord that i should boast save in the death of christ my god all the vain things that charm me most i sacrifice them to his blood see from his head his hands his feet sorrow and love flow mingled down did e'er such love and sorrow meet or thorns compose so rich a crown were the whole realm of nature mine that were a present far too small love so amazing so divine demands my soul my life my all a great literary critic matthew arnold thought this the finest hymn in the english language it was written by dr isaac watts a prominent independent clergyman of england born sixteen seventy four died seventeen forty eight dr watts set himself to improve the character of the hymns used in dissenting churches in seventeen o seven to nine he published a book containing three hundred and sixty-five of his hymns of which this is one and in seventeen nineteen another volume of free versions or imitations of the psalms they became very popular and for a long time no other hymns than those of dr watts were sung in a great many churches in england and this country he is often called the father of english this hymn is founded on the text in galatians referred to in its title the thought in both hymn and text is that worldliness dies in my heart when i look on the world's maker dead for me on the cross there were five verses in the hymn as dr watts published it one of which is generally omitted three in temptation jesus lover of my soul let me to thy bosom fly while the nearer waters roll while the tempest still is high hide me o my saviour hide till the storm of life is past safe into the haven guide o receive my soul at last other refuge have i none hangs my helpless soul on thee leave ah leave me not alone still support and comfort me all my trust on thee is stayed all my help from thee i bring cover my defenceless head with the shadow of thy wing wilt thou not regard my call wilt thou not accept my prayer lo i sink i faint i fall lo on thee i cast my care reach me out thy gracious hand while i of thy strength receive hoping against hope i stand dying and behold i live thou o christ art all i want more than all in thee i find raise the fallen cheer the faint heal the sick and lead the blind just and holy is thy name i am all unrighteousness false and full of sin i am thou art full of truth and grace plenteous grace with thee is found grace to cover all my sin let the healing streams abound make and keep me pure within thou of life the fountain art freely let me take of thee spring thou up within my heart rise to all eternity of all the hymns in the english language this no doubt is loved the best it was written in seventeen forty by the rev charles wesley born seventeen o seven died seventeen eighty eight he was a clergyman of the church of england and took an active part in the methodist movement in which his brother john was the leader and out of which all the methodist churches have grown the wesleys put great faith in the power of hymns to teach religious truths to the people and to reach their hearts charles wesley wrote more than six thousand hymns some were printed in hymn books to be sung at the methodist meetings and some in tracts to be read and committed to memory at home he was among the greatest of all hymn writers and many of his hymns are sung in all branches of the church note verse one line three nearer waters in a wide expanse of waters a distant part may be lashed into fury by a passing storm whilst around a given ship there is perfect calm or the nearer waters may be affected while the distant waters are sleeping in the silent air in life as in nature storms are local and men cry for help not against distant dangers but out of their immediate troubles their life is amid the nearer waters of temptations and to them the lover of souls is indispensable j julian end of part one hymns four five and six of the best church hymns by louis f benson this librivox recording is in the public domain four an evening hymn all praise to thee my god this night for all the blessings of the light keep me o keep me king of kings beneath thine own almighty wings forgive me lord for thy dear son the ill that i this day have done that with the world myself and thee i ere i sleep at peace may be teach me to live that i may dread the grave as little as my bed to die that this vile body may rise glorious at the awful day o may my soul on thee repose and with sweet sleep mine eyelids close sleep that may me more vigorous make to serve my god when i awake when in the night i sleepless lie my soul with heavenly thoughts supply let no ill dreams disturb my rest no powers of darkness me molest oh when shall i in endless day forever chase dark sleep away and hymns with the supernal choir incessant sing and never tire this hymn as also number seven was written more than two centuries ago by thomas ken he was born in sixteen thirty seven was educated at winchester college and oxford and became a clergyman we do not know just when he wrote the hymns but he printed them in a little book of prayers he made for the scholars at winchester kin was a good man in a bad time his holy life shines like a good deed in a naughty world he was made bishop of bath and wells by king charles the second who respected him because he was brave but his life was filled with troubles until he died in seventeen eleven his morning and evening hymns still live in millions of hearts there are twelve verses in all in this hymn v lo we have left all and followed thee jesus i my cross have taken all to leave and follow thee destitute despised forsaken thou from hence my all shall be perish every fond ambition all i've sought or hoped or known yet how rich is my condition god and heaven are still my own man may trouble and distress me twill but drive me to thy breast life with trials hard may press me heaven will bring me sweeter rest oh tis not in grief to harm me while thy love is left to me oh twere not in joy to charm me were that joy unmixed with thee take my soul thy full salvation rise o'er sin and fear and care joy to find in every station something still to do or bear think what spirit dwells within thee what a father's smile is thine what a saviour died to win thee child of heaven shouldst thou repine haste then on from grace to glory armed by faith and winged by prayer heaven's eternal days before thee god's own hand shall guide thee there soon shall close thy earthly mission swift shall pass thy pilgrim days hope shall change to glad fruition faith to sight and prayer to praise this hymn was printed as early as eighteen twenty four in six verses but it was many years before even the name of the author was known he was the rev henry francis light curate of an english parish made up mostly of fishermen and sailors and himself a victim of consumption but now every one knows and honours his name for he wrote not only this beautiful hymn of consecration but many others and best of all abide with me fast falls the eventide see under number nine six evening st luke twenty four twenty nine son of my soul thou saviour dear it is not night if thou be near o may no earth-born cloud arise to hide thee from thy servant's eyes when the soft dews of kindly sleep my wearied eyelids gently steep be my last thought how sweet to rest forever on my saviour's breast abide with me from morn till eve for without thee i cannot live abide with me when night is nigh for without thee i dare not die if some poor wandering child of thine have spurned to-day the voice divine now lord the gracious work begin let him no more lie down in sin watch by the sick enrich the poor with blessings from thy boundless store be every mourner's sleep to-night like infants slumbers pure and light come near and bless us when we wake ere through the world our way we take till in the ocean of thy love we lose ourselves in heaven above In 1827, the Reverend John Keeble, an English clergyman and a true poet, published a book of his verses.

He called it The Christian Year because it had a poem for each Sunday in the year and for all other days and times for which his church appointed services.

Our beautiful and familiar hymn is taken from the second poem in that book called Evening.