The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-08-21
THE HYMNS OF Old.
How Dear to the Heart
Those Melodies.
A Writer Grows Reminiscent and Tells
of Strains That Thrilled Him
in ChiIdhood's Happy
Days.
Especial correspondence

a rev words upon a subject concern
ing which I know nothing technical,
and therefore have no right to eX-
press any positive oDinions-the sub
ject of popular hymns. What l write
is in the nature of "Reminiscences more
than criticism.
Before the great civil war in the
good old times" when men held 9TH
ers in bonds. themselves bound to
Christ for the discharge of sacred
obligations, both to servant and to
society, the negroes We're very fond of
thyme chunes' and could sing them
with JUNCTION on all occasions Often
in my boyhood did / hear their melo-
dious voices raised in praise of our
common Maker. They liked such
white folks hymns as ''On Jordan's
Stormy Banks and There is a Foun-
tain Filled With Blood" But they
also delighted in curious hymns and
sacred rhymes of their own compost
ton, and these they sang when they
We're going about their daily work. as
we'll as at church on the Lords day.
The plantation negro of the happy
days of African slavery in North Car
olina and Virginia was the jolliest soul
that ever lived on this EARTH / do
not believe there are any thoroughly
happy and at the same time thorough
~ respectable negroes existing in any
large numbers any where now. Free
dom has given unrest and un6tneSs.
would not restore slavery I'm any quar-
ter of the enlightened world. but
nave no illusions as to the blessings
OF freedom to such a race as the
African.
must not ramble from my topic
o. popular hymnology. When I was
o poy IN old Granville, the northern
portion of it. among the tobacco
planters who came from Southside
virginia and who were mostly Pres
byterians, like the Venabies, the Nor
tons and the Daniels, or else Episco-
pallans, like the Gregorys, 7 heard
some good singing both at Shiloh and
at Little Grassy Crack. The pastor of
the former congregation in those DAYS
ehoW IN the enjoyment of his reward)
Was the Reverend Edward Hines. who
nVed near SassafraS Fork, the present
Stovall. My father resided at "The
FORK Little Grassy Creek was the
Oldest Presbyterian church in that
section, and was for a while minis
tered unto by Rev. Mr.. Ferren if 1
DO not misSDell the venerable man s
name, who lived somewhere on Tar
River. dilapidated red church.
with place for n bell, but no bell.
ana tangle of bushes and unkempt
trees III front land all around it. The
communion days We're impressive I
recoiiected that one of the elders was
Mr. Sandy" Cooper, father of nv
sehoolmates. Jimmie. Dave ana john
ME Cooper The congregation who
were members i'm good standing in any
Protestant church, came forward and
sat around a long and narrow table.
where the elements were handed from
person to person by the elders of the
church. 1t was all very primitive.
I'm, Il
impression on the mind of the son of
Methodists and grandson and nephew
OF Methodist ministers. Here the sing
ing was excellent-.not quite so loud
as at old Midway, where the Metho-
dists held services, but strong and
clear Mr.. Hines favorite hymns
seemed to be the old familiar ones
used at country churches Of all de-
nomination. One of these was my
mothers prime favorite--
'1here is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins,
Where sinners plunged beneath that
flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.'
Not only did Mr.. H. draw Metho-
dists to Shiloh, he sometimes joined
them in their meetings He was a
popular and admirable man whom
we all loved.
At the Methodist meetings there AMI
elsewhere in North Carolina that ia
vorite of my own, Coronation" was
frequently sung. To mention all of
the popular church songs of the day
might be tedious. Watts the Wes-
leys ana their compeers were the
peoples preference as hymn writer's
1t has seemed to me in my middle
and later life that while these ola
favorites have lost not a particle of
their power over my spirit, a different
sort of hymns have acquired a strong
influence over my imagination AMI
feelings. One of the lamented and
sanity Bishop Atkinson's invariable
hymns. for evening service, was Lyte's
beautiful abide with me. fast falls
the even tide" Surely never lines
written to be sung in a place of wor-
ship have had truer power to soothe
the human spirit and place it in SYM
pathy with the Divine Spirit since the
royal Pslamist sang. The Litany
Hymn, Sc of the Protestant Episcopal
collections, has always, with it's plain
tive refrain, "Hear our solemn litany,'
seemed to me one of the best conn
positions in existence for church wor-
ship. AS a Presbyterian, have never
had any objection to litany.
The favorite hymn, I think. Of one
of my brothers, and one frequently
used. was that. the first line of which is
Awake, my Soul. Stretch Every
Nerve" Others We're "a Charge to
Keep I Have" children of the
Heavenly King" "Come Thou Fount
of Every Blessing" Jesus. Saviour
of my Soul" From Greenland's Icy
Mountains" "Come. Holy Spirit
Heavenly Dove" and that universal
favorite 'Rock of Ages A little
later than that day I derived great
pleasure from reading in the autholo-
gies the boy poet Chattertons sublime
production written. if / do not forget
in his fifteenth year:
80. Thou whose thunder shades the
sky.
Whose eye this atom globe surveys!"
But never heard it sung. Bishop
Muhlenburg's glorious hymn. 81 would
not live always" contains some of the
most comforting and at the same time
thrillingly poetical lines in all Eng
lish hymnology Such thoughts as
'The few lurid mornings that dawn
on us here" and
"Where the rivers of pleasure flow is
the brightest plains.
And tha nOOnti0e of glory antprD9JIv