Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-08-08
CHRISTIAN HYMNS GIVE
TRUE EXAMPLE OF UNITY
Service Of Song Is Fine Expression
OF Decpcnt and Holiest Union
Among Gods People.


BY Rev. r. II. Pitt, d. D. in the
Religious Herald:
While brethren of various church
connections and turns OF mind are ar
guing about the mechanics Of Chris
tian union. giving, as it seems TO us.
undue Importance to mere identity OF
organization. while others of some
what different temper are urging, or
resisting, as the case may be. enlarg-
ed Christian cooperation, we are for
getting that for many centuries in our
service OF Christian song we have A
fine and notable example of the deep
est and hottest union among Gods
people. Browsing around among Gods
Christian hymns for another and
different purpose, the blessed fact OF
this deep spiritual unity has been
made more 2alpablc and Impressive to
us than ever before.
Picking up from ouk desk tho Rap-
fist Hymnal, surely thoroughly or
! thodox volume, and glancing through
the list of authors. we find representa-
tives Of many races. many centuries
and Of all important Christian bodies
Protestant and Catholic. Anglican
and Non Conformist. Arminian and
Calvinist, English, Welsh. German.
Italian. Hindu, French. American
here they are, singing together with
out a note OF d!scord the praises OF
! the Most High. In another connection
we have noted the ascendency of
Watts in the Baptist Hymnal, but
! Watts was n Presbyterian. We Ban
fist people DO not care for robes and
gowns. for bishops rings and the like
but Heller Is in many respects man
n tar
with real fervor.
''BriChtcst and best OF the sons OF the
morning"
BY cool Siloams shady rill"
II is frequently said that doctr!nally
Bant!sts and Catholics are antipodal
Yet many OF us have heard with de-
light and in our feeble fashion have
helped 10 sing
"Hark bark, my soul. angelic songs
are swelling"
and our souls have from their depths
responded to the cry
J. 20 paradise . paradise.
Who doth not crave for rest?
Who would not seek the happy land,
Where they that loved are blcst?"
Yet both OF these arc by Frederick
| William Faber, the English Catholic
priest.
As 10 tribes and races. we have
with no thought OF these differences.
but with deep and gratifying sense
or spiritual unity with them. OF
! course, the great majority of our
hymns are by Engishmen or Ameri-
cans. Few of these. however, are more
popular than those. for example. by
BERNARD OF Clairvaux, the French
Catholic.
When DR.. John A. Rroadus had fin
ished his great commentary on Mat
thew. he closed his foreword with
lines which we often sing and which
this Bernard wrote
Jesus, the Very thought of thee
With sweetness fills my breast,
But sweeter far thy face TO see
And in thy presence rest"
Then. too. there is Bernard Of Clunv,
OF like faith and like nationality:
Jerusalem. the golden.
With milk and honey blest.
Beneath yhy contemplation
Sink heart and voice opprest.
oh, sweet and blessed country,
Shall Ger see they face?'
And again:
For thee, oh dear, dear country
Mine eyes their vigilS keen"
And so we might go on, but must not
Everybody knows, of course, the sin
gle hymn which is contained in our
collection written by Krishnu Pal. and
everybody knows something OF the
authors history. The hymn books
print his name Krishnu, but the biog-
raphics give it krishna For the sake
of the young people something about
him may be told. He was a native
of Bengal. India. and was by trade a
carpenter. William Carey, after seven
years ministry in the East, baptized
krishna, the first fruits Of his labor,
in the GanSes on the 2Sth OF December
1900. The Bengali translation of this
hymn was sung on this occasion
Jesus and shall it ever be
mortal man ashamed of Theeo"
This hymn was written by Joseph
Grigg, of whom the books at our dis
posal makes no mention. Notice the
sentiment of the hymn and compare II
with the hymn by Krishnu Pal writ.
ten a little later:
"Oh, thou my soul. forget no more
The friend who all thy sorrows bore:
Let every Idol be forgot:
But, oh, my soul, forget Him not"
1t is interesting to note in passing
that in the Baptist Hymnal the two
hymns are put together. though, as
it seems to us. they ought to have been
in reverse order Krishnus hymn IS
445 in that collection. and Griggs'. 446.
But we must desist, We have let
our pen run away with us Here is
the service OF song, in the praise OF
the Most High, when our souls do
magnify the Lord and His goodness to
the children OF men, the prayer Of our
blessed Redeemer that they all may
be one" comes nearer to fulhllment
than in any other CHRISTIAN function
Of which we have any knowledge.
Here. more than anywhere else, PEN
tecost comes again, only In this new
Pentecost we do not speak with other
tongues. but all with the same tongue
-Parthians, Medes and Elamitcs,
strangers Of Rome. Cretes and Ara
bians, all voiclng the deep things OF
fba aon1