The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1894-11-10

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up to higher plane, to make us live
better and truer lives, to become more
spiritual and more inclined to "do
unto others as we would they should
do unto U.S."
1 haye only attempted to sketch
some of the familiar and favorite
hymns OF our church; for the subject
there is no end. So many of the
worlds great minds have been gifted
with the poets vein. / have tried to
think of the hymns that have been
helps to better life. The good in
fuence of Christian hymns as part
of divine service is marvellous. They
have had as much to do, and still
have toward spreading the Gospel of
good news, as the sermons and pray
ers, for when well read and we'll sung
they touch chord in every human
heart that vibrates. They bring COM
fort to the afflicted; they stir our
hearts to greater zeal and Christian
fervor. We never suspected they
held SO deep meaning.
A cotemporary calls attention to
the fact that infdelity has no hymn
book. 1t has nothing about Christ
to sing. Neither can we sing cruel
doctrines with any heart. though we
know the thing is attempted in some
sad lines in few hymn books. These
hymns lessen in number year by
year.
1t is a fact, and how could it be
otherwise, that the hymns most used
in all churches, among all denomina-
tions, are the more liberal ones of all
writer's. Our faith has been coming
down the ages in song as we'll as in
story. Martin Luther's grand old
hymn, written in the sixteenth CEN
tury, "a mighty fortress is our God,"
has been called the Marseillaise of
the Reformation. / heard it sung at
the first Peace Jubilee in Boston by
ten thousand voices, with an accom-
paniment of hundreds of instruments.
It was my ideal of grandeur in mu-
sic. 1t is said the joyful stanzas of
Luther's hymns, many of them set to
popular melodies, furthered his in
terests to an extraordinary degree.
The papacy was powerless before
this great outburst of sacred song.
More than two centuries have pass
ed since the birth of Isaac Watts.
He was called the bard of Southamp-
ton, and the greatest among hymn
writer's. Many of his hymns are too
full of the cruel doctrines for our
church, yet there must have been
moments when.
Through clouds of doubt and creeds of fear,
A light was breaking calm and clear.
for some of his hymns are priceless.
They are full of the Fatherhood of
God and the brotherhood of man.
among them "Joy to the World"
which has been popularized by being
set to a fragment of melody from
Handel's messiah" Most of DIR.
Watts's hymns are paraphrase of a
passage of Scripture: "God is Spirit
Just and wise;" "Blest are the sons
of peace;" "The heavens declare thy
glory Lord;" "There is a land of
pure delight" DR.. Watts was great
lover of nature; the latter hymn was
written at the home of his father in
Southampton while seated at an open
window, gazing at the fields of living
green.
The General Association of Con-
necticut at their annual meeting in
June 1885, appointed committee to
confer with Joel Barlow, of Hartford,
to revise the Psalms of David by DIR.
Watts, altered and applied to the
state of the Christian church in gen.
eral and not to any particular coun-
try. Barlow complied with the re-
quest. Great indignation was felt
and expressed. AS an illustration,
Oliver Arnold, cousin of Benedict
Arnold, being in booksellers shop in
New Haven, was introduced to Barlow,
who presently asked for a specimen
of his talent as an impromptu rhymer.
The wandering poet Immediately re-
peated the following stanza:
"You've proved yourself sinful creature;
You've murdered Watts, and spoiled the metre;
You've tried the word of God to alter
And for your pains deserve a halter"
"Nearer My God to Thee," was
written by Sarah Flower Adams and
first published in 1910. This hymnis
doubtless sung oftener, by all classes
and creeds, than any other; it seems
to touch the divine in all hearts, and
yet several churches have objected to
the theology of the hymn, and have
endeavored to improve it, but no sub
stituta waa ever received with favor