And raise in death our triumph higher, And sing with all the heavenly choir, The revival of Methodism might have been expected to be a revival of singing, on the general grounds of analogy, as it was a revival of religion. But the revival would not have spread so far or lasted so long if that which was sung had been of inferior quality. But the Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs with which God provided us through the Wesleys were well adapted to sustain the revival in permanence. They laid a deep foundation in catholic doctrine, and embodied saving truth in almost every verse. They exhibited Christ in all His offices; and celebrated His praise in every department and aspect of the work of redemption. They invoked the Holy Spirit as the ever-present Teacher, Guide, and Life of the Church. They unfolded and applied the promises, they illustrated the precepts, they allegorised the histories, and paraphrased the prayers of Scripture. They eschewed matters of small moment, and dealt with abiding and everlasting realities. And they did all this in a style worthy of their subjects-grave, perspicuous, manly. The Wesleys learned the happy art of being deep without obscurity, tender without feebleness, and bold without irreverence. Their devotional language does not suggest painful associations, or encourage unbecoming familiarities with the Most High. All states of mind, and almost all exercises of mind are portrayed in their pages, so that they may be as helpful in private as in the assembly. And all truth being presented not in an abstract form, but in combination with experience, instruction and edification go hand in hand, and the formulary of devotion becomes a vade mecum of instruction. The advantage of this method in the case of the unlettered is inestimable, but it is not confined to them, for quickened affections lead to quickened perceptions, and firmer retention of truth in all classes of society. So we have sung on, we and our fathers, for a hundred and forty years. But suppose we had been confined to Watts and Doddridge, to Tate and Brady, or, to go farther back, to Patrick and Barton, or, farther back still, to Sternhold and Hopkins, where would Methodism have been? We may imagine-no, I think we hardly could imagineits existing and spreading: where should we be? I think we should hardly know ourselves, without its hymns. God might have converted the Wesleys and made them powerful preachers, without enduing them with the gifts of song and music. There have been myriads of believers who lived and died without "Jesu, lover of my soul," or "Now I have found the ground wherein;" but what should we have done without them? and what should we do now without them? What should we do at night without "Safe in Thy arms I lay me down"? What should we do at the class without " Help us to help each other, Lord"? What should we do at the sick bed without "Come on, my partners in distress"? What at funerals, without "Come, let us join our friends above," and the rest? And how shall we sufficiently praise the Giver of all good for these invaluable helps in the way to heaven? Let us, then, hold fast to them, and not allow them to be superseded by inferior compositions. Let us cultivate good taste by the study of good models, and teach our children and people everywhere to do so. Good theology, good poetry, good sense, and good taste are no hindrances to religion, as the experience of one hundred and forty years has shown. Nor are poor poetry, doggerel hymns, and wretched music at all conducive to the spread of the Gospel. Surely the future is not to be so much worse than the past, that those things which have been so great a help are now to be regarded as a hindrance. REV. JAMES M. BUCKLEY, D. D. (M. E. Church): If I had been assigned an essay, I should read; being invited to make an address, I shall speak, though I shall lose the privilege of presenting many pages of manuscript to the Publishing Committee to read, enjoyed by some of my predecessors. We are told in the New Testament that after our Divine Lord established the Holy Communion, the disciples sang a hymn and went out into the Mount of Olives. The record omits the hymn; tradition does not tell us what it was; fancy finds no place for its flights. If we had that hymn the whole Church would be liturgical, for it would be sung at every communion service. But we not only know that our Methodist fathers sang, but we know what they sang. The best description of Methodist hymnology is Wesley's preface to the Hymn-book. A recent writer has spoken disparagingly of that preface, calling it a singularly egotistical production. Had he remembered that Mr. Wesley's hymns had been mutilated, and the mutilation charged upon Wesley, he would have seen some reason for it on the occasion of a formal publication of the hymn-book. In the introduction Wesley says, "They contain all the important truths of our most holy religion, whether speculative or practical;" that "this book is, in effect, a little body of experimental and practical divinity;" that "in these hymns there is no doggerel; no botches; nothing put in to patch up the rhyme; no feeble expletives. Here is nothing turgid or bombast;" that "here are no cant expressions; that there is the spirit of poetry "such as cannot be acquired by art and labour, but must be the gift of nature." Also, "that which is of infinitely more moment than the spirit of poetry," namely, "the spirit of piety;" and closes with the simple majesty of an apostle as follows: "When Poetry thus keeps its place as the handmaid of Piety, it shall attain, not a poor, perishable wreath, but a crown that fadeth not away." I hold that these observations, from the point of view suggested, are abundantly justified. There have been poets in all ages-poets of nature, poets of humanity, and poets of religion. Poets of religion must sing of nature, for "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork." They must sing of humanity, for religion from its very derivation implies a man bound to God. And the Christian poet must sing of the stupendous facts of revelation. These are generally blended, but we find that some religious poets are rather poets of nature, others poets of humanity, and others poets of spiritual religion. The circumstances under which Methodism arose determined the predominancy of the practical and experimental over the doctrinal, or rather over the purely natural, (for they were forced into doctrinal discus sions which, however, always presented them from the standpoint of Christian experience), which was characteristic of the entire hymnology. Now, a critical analysis of Methodist hymnology shows, in the first place, that it was deeply emotional. Many of the hymns, as illustrated before us this afternoon, seem to have been written in tears, sometimes of love, and at other times of joy or sorrow. Neither Jeremiah nor David had more pathos than Charles Wesley, John Bakewell, and John Wesley, especially in certain translations. James Montgomery may be added, not specially remarkable for pathos, but occasionally pouring it forth as from a full heart. In the next place they were intensely personal. That was alleged as a great fault. When it can be proved that David was not personal, that Paul and all the New Testament writers were not personal, then it will be time enough to defend our hymns against a charge which is the crowning merit of the hymns of Isaac Watts-the only name to be mentioned in comparison with that of Charles Wesley; the productions of the best hymnists of the middle ages; of Montgomery, Thomas Olivers and of the best writers of our times. These hymns, too, had a remarkable blending of reverence and boldness not often found, and almost always, when found, connected with a substratum of belief in Arminian theology. Some of the Socinian hymns appear to be very reverent; but close inspection shows under them all a tone of selfassertion, growing naturally out of their whole scheme of religion. On the other hand, the Calvinistic hymns are so regardful of Divine Sovereignty as to dwarf and destroy them. Take the sublime hymn of Dr. Watts: "Eternal Power! whose high abode How does it end? "God is in heaven and men below, D D Compare with this Charles Wesley's hymn on the same subject, beginning: "O Thou, whom all Thy saints adore, Now when he says, he also says, "Tremble our hearts to find Thee nigh," "To Thee our trembling hearts aspire ;" and then, having seen the pillar and the flame of fire, he exclaims:"Still let it on the assemblage stay, And all the house with glory fill; To Canaan's bounds point out the way, He closes with a sublime reference to the heavenly "Assembly of the Church of the first-born," where we are to sing God's everlasting love. I ask, what feelings under those circumstances were engendered before "Mount Sinai, which is in Arabia"? But Wesley was singing of the innumerable company of the general "Assembly of the Church of the first-born;" and, while he revered, he also felt within him the Divine aspiration which God had given him, and dared to express it. Again, these hymns were, many of thein, argumentative, sparks struck out in the midst of the battle. The marvellous thing in Charles Wesley is that he should turn from pathos that melted the heart at once, to an argumentative hymn that sent the "Unitarian fiend back to his own hell," to a character which showed that his soul was at white heat. Then these hymns were wonderfully experimental. They were required by a new experience, and they marvellously expressed it. Furthermore, these hymns were introspective-a very dangerous thing. Woe to the man who spends his time in considering his own feelings, who writes a diary, and states that on Monday he found himself intensely peevish, and on Tuesday very dogged and very obstinate. He is a dangerous man to live with, and a dangerous man to be in the Church of Christ. Our introspective hymns began in that way; but how were they modified? Because they appealed to common experience. When a man looked into his own soul to see if he could truthfully sing the hymns, he went to the prayer and class meetings and found others having the same experience, and with them singing, he was drawn away from himself to Christ, the source of his hopes. These hymns, in addition to the introspective, were literal, as distinguished from being truly figurative. Some of the hymns in Charles Wesley's fourteen volumes would have done no credit to the Methodist denomination if we had put them in our books for promiscuous use. Charles Wesley was occasionally inclined to go a little too far in that direction "Jesu, lover of my soul, Let me to Thy bosom fly," is just as far as we can safely go. Read some of the old Moravian hymns, and see how much further they can go. These hymns were pervaded by a subtle yet self-revealing unction, which gave them much power. Lastly, they had strong common sense. If one hymn is a little mystical, the same author gave us one to bring us back into active life-" Son of the Carpenter, receive," for example. These are the characteristics of Methodist hymns. What have they done for unity of doctrine? It is still true now, as Bishop Simpson mentioned in his sermon, that they have conserved unity of doctrine. Though preachers have sometimes gone a little astray, the hymns have brought the people back. Then, what have they done for refinement? No Methodist can know and love our hymns and remain utterly coarse. What have they done to give us a forcible spiritual vocabulary? That many a man who never had a University training speaks better than some who have had such a training, is to be attributed to the influence of these hymns upon his style, to which many here and elsewhere can testify. Then, what have these hymns done to enkindle, sustain, and express emotion? Now, we can see why no great poets have arisen in Methodism since its early days. There be many that are called poets; but no really great poet has arisen to furnish hymns to Methodism subsequent to Charles Wesley and his colleagues. Why? The whole field has been gone over by a master. Many practical questions now absorb the energies of the Church which were unknown to the fathers. The atmosphere is less stimulating, as army life is more stimulating, than the quiet pursuits of commerce and agriculture, after opposing forces are withdrawn. The right to exist in working our own way is granted. Why? Because Methodism is not so exclusive nor so excluded as formerly, and assimilates the growths from other vineyards. This shows what the future of Methodist hymnology will be. The hymns of Charles Wesley and the other early Methodist composers must be the foundation. Methodism will go on producing once in a great while a new hymn, which will be assimilated, and assimilate hymns from other creeds. That is to be the future of Methodist hymnology, the basis of which we receive from the fathers, with such additions from time to time as circumstances may require. Are there then no perils? Surely there are. The first is choir singing, whenever it suppresses congregational singing. The next peril is the substitution of doggerel hymns in prayer-meetings :"Oh, you must be a lover of the Lord, Or you won't go to heaven when you die :" - -hymns of that class. The third and last is the substitution of a regular service of hymns that do not contain our distinctive doctrine, nor describe our experience. Mark this: Methodism dies when |