Omaha daily bee., 1909-12-12

" the author Of the "stabat
0 Mater" IT is not generally
B4N known that this singer was the
A8 author Of a Christmas carol
written in the same strain as his beautiful
hymn for Psssiontide. 1t runs this:
sta bat Mater speciosa
JuXta foenum gaudiosa
Dunn pacebat parvuius.
which DR.. J. NJ. Neale renders:
Full Of beauty stood the Mother
BY the mangeI, best Ger other,
Where her little one she lays.
Il is a pathetic incident in connection
with this carol that It's author breathed
his last on the holy night of the Nativity
as the choir was chanting the old Christ
mas carol Gloria In Excelsis' in the
church close by. His last words were
''Jesu nostra fidanzs." He was buried in
the cemetery Of the Minorites at Callozone,
and on his tomb Is Inscribed "Stultus
propter Christm nova mundum arte delusit
ct cselum rapult"
II is strange that while Reginald Heber
vas actually engaged in the compilation
OF a Church Hymnal" at the time that he
was appointed bishop of Calcutta, neither
his Easter hymn nor his Christmas carol
finds a place in the Church Hymnal,"
And yet the following verses seem sin
gularly suited to a money making age like
the present:
II gsyly clothed and proudly led,
In dangerous wealth we dwell,
Remind us Of Thy manager bed
And lowly cottage cell.
II prest with poverty severe,
In envious want TO pine,
oh, may the Spirit whisper near,
How poor a lot was Thine
The most ancient Christmas hymn in the
American Church Hymnal!' Is that by
Aurelius Clemens Prudeptius, who was
born in Spain and was a very distin-
guisbed jurist in his day. 1t is rendered
by ID Neale:
OF the Fathers will b~esotten
Ere the worlds began to be.
His hymn found under those assigned
for the Epiphany is also a Christmas carol,
beginning:
Earth has many a noble city
Bethlehem thou dost all excel.
The English version of the hymns is by
an American hymnologist, Edmund Gag
well, to whose pen we are indebted for
the carol, Come hither, We faithful, ."
which cannot be traced further back than
the close of the sixteenth century, al
though it has an ancient ring about it
which would place it much earlier. Father
oakley, who left the Church Of England
at the time Of the Tractarisn movement.
has given us a carol running very much
in the same strain. "Oh, come, all ye
faithful, joyful and triumphant which on
account Of it's spirited refrain is one of the
most popular Christmas hymns.
John Byron, a poet and e~ssayist of some
distinction, who lived in Manchester, Eng
y land frOn 1901 IN 1TG9 and Whn9a apad
daughter, the present writer, had the honor
Of meeting in her home in DeRnsgate OF
that city about 1868, Is the author Of what
is probably the best OF the Christmas
songs:
Christians, awake, salute the happy morn
Whereon the Saviour of mankind was born
Mr.. Byrom's private Journal and Cor.
respondence" are of peculiar interest, fol
he was not only a scholar, but a man o.
wit and observation
Two well-known Christmas carols In the
Church Hymnal'' are from the pen of d
Unitarian minister, DR., Edmund Hamilton
Sears, a man of a devout and splrltua
mind and a graceful and vigorous writer
The first is the popular hymn beginning
1t came upon the midnight clear
That glorious song OF old.
And the other begins:
~AHNA 90 hAa will N1A - AAEaA
Comes heavens welcome strain.
The beautiful carol so popular in boti
school and home which DIR, Phillips Brook
wrote as he stood in the fields of Bethle
hem and looked down on the little city
viii 1--we In history, There is nothing
finer IN the whole circle Of Christina
carols;
oh, little town Of Bethlehem.
How still we see thee lie;
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting light.
Another American clergyman who liza
given us a good Christmas carol is ID
Augustus Muhlenberg, the founder of tn
Church of the Holy Communion, New
York; ST. Luke's hospital and the set
Element at st. Johnsland on Long island
It's spirited refrain makes it very popular
Shout the glad tidlngs, exultingly sing
jerusalem triumphs, Messiah is King!
There are two more carols by America
authors, Mrs. AleXander's "Once In David
Royal city" and John Cawood's 'Harl
the Sound of Holy Voices
Fifty years ago the great Christina
hymn was that by Charles Wesley. 1
fact, no Christmas day was celebrate
without II. Its strains are still familiar:
Hsrk the herald angels sing
Glory to the new born King.
But this well known hymn is antedate
by that from the pen of Nahum, Tat,