Anglican Hymnology. By the Rev. James King. (Hatchards.)— This is
an ingenious and interesting book. Mr. King has collated fifty-two. hymnals, all of them belonging to churches in the Anglican communion. From this he deduces an ,order of hymns, dividing them into first, second, and third classes, according to the frequency with which they occur. All that are found in thirty hymnals and more are put in the first rank; twenty votes (the occurrence in a hymnal being reckoned as a vote) puts a hymn in the second rank ; fifteen in the third ; fewer than fifteen do not count. The results are, as we have said, interesting, but not entirely satisfactory. Recent date and difficulties of copyright embarrass the choice, excluding some that have an unquestionable right ; others have a place by a sort of prescription to which they are scarcely entitled by their merit. When we come to the places in these ranks which the hymns occupy, we question still more the justice of the decision. The first four, each with fifty-one marks (not a single hymn carries the suffrages of all the collection), are,—" All praise to Thee, my God, this night," "Hark, the herald angels sing," " Lo ! He comes, with clouds descending," and "Rock of Agee, cleft for me." Then come six more, each with forty-nine—viz., "Abide with me, fast falls the eventide," "Awake, my soul, and with the sun," "Jerusalem the golden," "Jean, lover of my soul," "Sun of my soul, then Saviour dear," and" When I survey the wondrous Cross." Three of these are evening hymns, and one a morning. Something of their favour they probably owe to their suitability to the occasion. The third of the first set we should not be inclined to put so high ; but then, it is an Advent, as the one before it is a Christmas hymn ; every work must contain them, and merit, is hardly considered. The eleventh in order is Heber's very fine "Holy, Holy, Holy !" As a hymn, it is unsur- passed. No. 13, "Nearer, my God, to Thee," on the other hand, is rather a meditation, as is the fifteenth, "Row sweet the name of Jesus sounds." The "Old Hundredth" stands twenty-first, and the funeral hymn, "Brief life is here our portion" (by Neale, from Bernard of Cluny), Wines next. No. 69 is that very fine hymn, con- structed on the line of the " Benedicite," " The strain upraise of love and praise." "Lead, kindly Light," comes in the second rank, and not high up. This, if it were of older date, would probably have found its way more extensively into hymnals. Bishop Wordsworth's beautiful harvest hymn, "We plough the fields, and scatter "—quite a model of what such a composition should be—does not find a place in even the third rank ; nor does the editor include it in his supplementary
list of "Hymns of the Future." exhibited :—
Charles Wesley
As to the authors, they may be thus
1st Rank. 2nd Rank. 3rd Rank.
10 8 Watts 8 7 6 Neale
7
4 6 Montgomery 4 8 4 Heber 7 2 3 Keble
2 4 1 The first rank numbers 105; the second and third, 110 each. We do not think the better of the collections that Frances Havergars name does not occur in any one of the three.
Previous page
