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Kitabı oku: «Hymns of the Early Church», sayfa 2

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How it has fared with Latin hymns in Protestant service-books from Reformation times to the present day is too wide a field of inquiry to enter upon at the close of this brief introduction. This it is safe to affirm, that no hymnal with any claim to completeness will be found to omit such sacred and classic pieces as, “Brief life is here our portion,” “Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,” “Jerusalem the golden,” “Jesus! the very thought of Thee,” “Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts,” “O come, all ye faithful,” “O Jesus, King most wonderful;” and all these are translations or paraphrases of early Latin hymns.

With the increase of interest in all that concerns the praise of God’s children, which is so marked a feature of recent times, there has come an ever-growing appreciation of the grandeur and beauty, the spiritual depth and longing wistfulness that characterise the great body of Latin hymnology; and, as the result of this appreciation, the finest and sweetest products are finding a larger place in quarters from which, at no very far back point of time, they were altogether excluded. Of this we have a striking illustration in the contents of the most recent attempt to construct a hymnal for use in Presbyterian Churches. In the “Draft Hymnal,” prepared by a joint-committee of the three leading denominations in Scotland, there are 557 hymns. Of these, five are confessedly translations from the Greek, and twenty-six from the Latin. With the Latin renderings the names of Bishop Cosin, Dryden, Sir Walter Scott, Caswall, Chandler, Neale, and Ray Palmer stand honourably associated.

Ayr, October 12, 1895.

Sundays and Week Days

SUNDAY MORNING
DIE, DIERUM PRINCIPE

By Charles Coffin, born at Ardennes in 1676; Rector of the University of Paris, 1718; died, 1749. The most of his hymns appeared in the Paris Breviary of 1736. In that service-book this is the hymn for Sunday at Matins.

I

O day, the chief of days, whose light
Sprang from the dark embrace of night,
On which our Lord from death’s grim thrall
Arose, True Light, to lighten all.

II

Death trembling heard the mighty Lord,
And darkness quick obeyed His word; —
O shame on us! our tardy will
Is slow His summons to fulfil.

III

While Nature yet unconscious lies,
Come, let us, sons of light, arise,
And cheerful raise our matin lay
To chase the dark of night away.

IV

While all the world around is still,
Come, and with songs the temple fill,
Taught by the saints of bygone days,
Whose words were song, whose songs were praise.

V

Loud trump of Heaven, our languor shake,
And bid our slumbering spirits wake;
Teach us the nobler life, and give,
O Christ, the needed grace to live.

VI

O Font of love! Our steps attend;
Those needed gifts in mercy send;
And where Thy word is heard this day,
Give Thou the Spirit’s power, we pray.

VII

To Father and to Son be praise,
To Thee, O Holy Ghost, always,
Whose presence still the heart inspires
With sacred light and glowing fires.

O NATA LUX DE LUMINE

The oldest text known of this hymn is from a tenth-century MS. It is in the Sarum Breviary (1495), also in that of Aberdeen (1509), which is substantially that of Sarum, and one of the very few surviving service-books of the Pre-Reformation period in Scotland.

I

O Light that from the light wast born,
Redeemer of the world forlorn,
In mercy now Thy suppliants spare,
Our praise accept, and hear our prayer.

II

Thou who didst wear our flesh below,
To save our souls from endless woe,
Of Thy blest Body, Lord, would we
Efficient members ever be.

III

More bright than sun Thine aspect gleamed,
As snowdrift white Thy garments seemed,
When on the mount Thy glory shone,
To faithful witnesses alone.

IV

There did the seers of old confer
With those who Thy disciples were;
And Thou on both didst shed abroad
The glory of the eternal God.

V

From heaven the Father’s voice was heard
That Thee the eternal Son declared;
And faithful hearts now love to own
Thy glory, King of heaven, alone.

VI

Grant us, we pray, to walk in light,
Clad in Thy virtues sparkling bright,
That, upward borne by deeds of love,
Our souls may win the bliss above.

VII

Loud praise to Thee our homage brings,
Eternal God, Thou King of kings,
Who reignest one, Thou one in three,
From age to age eternally.

TU TRINITATIS UNITAS

Attributed by some, but with a small degree of probability, to Gregory the Great. The hymn occurs in all the editions of the Roman Breviary, as also in the Sarum, York, and Aberdeen Breviaries.

I

O Thou Eternal One in Three,
Dread Ruler of the earth and sky,
Accept the praise we yield to Thee,
Who, waking, lift our songs on high.

II

Now from the couch of rest we rise,
While solemn night in silence reigns,
And lift to Thee our earnest cries,
To give Thy balm to heal our pains.

III

If in the night by Satan’s guile
Our souls were lured by thought of sin;
O bid Thy light celestial smile,
And chase away the night within.

IV

Purge Thou our flesh from every stain,
Let not dull sloth our hearts depress;
Nor let the sense of guilt remain,
To chill the warmth our souls possess.

V

To Thee, Redeemer blest, we pray,
That in our souls Thy light may shine;
So we shall walk from day to day,
Unerring in Thy way Divine.

VI

Grant it, O Father, in Thy love,
Grant it, O One-begotten Son,
Who with the Spirit reign above,
Now, and while endless ages run.

SUNDAY EVENING
DEUS CREATOR OMNIUM

By St. Ambrose, born at Lyons, Arles, or Trêves in 340; consecrated Bishop of Milan in 374; died on Easter Eve, 397. He introduced antiphonal chanting into the Western Church, and laid the foundation of Church music, which Gregory systematised.

I

Thy works, O God, Thy name extol,
Thou Ruler of the worlds that roll;
The day is clad in garments bright,
And grateful sleep pervades the night,

II

That weary limbs from labour free,
By rest for toil prepared may be;
And jaded minds awhile forget
The anxious thoughts that pain and fret.

III

Fast fades the sunlight in the west;
Thy hand we own our day hath blessed;
Now from the accuser’s power we flee,
And lift our prayers in song to Thee.

IV

O Thou hast stirred our hearts to sing,
Hast tuned the praise our voices bring;
From earth’s vain loves our love hast won,
Hast lured our thoughts that heavenward run.

V

So, when the rayless gloom of night
Hath quenched in dark the expiring light,
Faith waves the ebon clouds away,
And dark is light, and night is day.

VI

That sin may ne’er an entrance make,
May slumber ne’er our souls o’ertake;
Faith, wakeful, keeps the soul secure,
And sleep is sweet, and deep, and pure.

VII

The mind from sin’s enticements free,
O let our dreams be thoughts of Thee;
And by no envious foe oppressed,
Vouchsafe to Thy beloved rest.

O DEUS, EGO AMO TE, NEC AMO TE, UT SALVES ME

Attributed to Francis Xavier. Born at the Castle Xavier, near Pampeluna, Spain, in 1506; graduated at the Paris University, where he became acquainted with Ignatius Loyola; as a Jesuit missionary visited India, Travancore, Ceylon, Malacca, and Japan; died, when near Canton, in 1552. The original of this hymn is supposed to be a Spanish sonnet. All that can be said of the Latin version is that it is probably by Xavier, or by some German Jesuit, and is at least as early as 1668.

I

O God, I love Thee, not alone
Because Thou savest me,
And those who love not in return
Are lost eternally.

II

Thou art mine own, O Christ; Thine arms
Embraced me on the Cross;
Thou didst endure the nails, the spear,
The bitter shame and loss.

III

O sorrows numberless were Thine,
And all were borne for me —
The bloody sweat, the cruel death
Of bitter agony.

IV

Why, therefore, should I love Thee now,
O Jesus, ever blest?
Not lest in hell my soul be cast,
Not that in heaven it rest.

V

No other hope my love inspires,
And wins my heart for Thee —
I only love Thee, Christ, my King,
Because Thou lovest me.

LUCIS CREATOR OPTIME

By Gregory, surnamed the Great, born at Rome about 540; succeeded Pelagius in the Papal Chair, 590; sent Augustine on a mission to Britain in 596; died in 614. He ranks among the Four Latin Doctors, and because of the services he rendered to the ritual of the Church, he was styled Magister Cæremoniarum. The Gregorian tones or chants are the fruit of his study of sacred music.

I

Thou, blest Creator of the light,
From whom the day its splendour brings,
Thy word the earth to beauty woke,
When light came forth on glowing wings.

II

The circle of the day is Thine,
The morn, and night in one are bound; —
O hear our earnest prayer as now
The gloomy shades are gathering round;

III

O free our souls from guilty stains,
That we Thy favour still may know;
And let no thought the mind possess,
To bind the heart to earth below.

IV

That we may beat at heaven’s fair gate,
Where safely stored our treasure lies,
Purge us from every filthy stain,
Teach us all evil to despise.

V

Hear us, O Holy Father, hear,
And Thou the Everlasting Son,
Who with the Holy Spirit reign’st
While the eternal ages run.

MONDAY MORNING
AURORA JAM SPARGIT POLUM

Placed by Duffield in a class which contains hymns formerly called Ambrosian, but now known to be the work of other hands. George Cassander, the liberal Catholic collector (1556), writes “Incognitus auctor” after the hymn, which has a place in several old Hymnaria, such as the Durham, the Cottonian, and the Harleian.

I

Now daylight floods the morning sky,
And earthward glides the approaching day,
The dancing rays of sunlight chase
The gathered fears of night away.

II

Hence dreams that cloud the soul! away,
Ye terrors grim of midnight born!
Whate’er the dark of night hath bred,
Die in the light that greets the morn!

III

So when the day eternal breaks, —
That day for which our spirits long, —
Its light may fall to bless our souls,
E’en while we raise our morning song.

IV

To God the Father throned in heaven,
To Christ the one begotten Son,
And to the Holy Ghost be praise,
Now, and while endless ages run.

MONDAY EVENING
JESU, DULCIS MEMORIA

Generally, and there seems little reason to doubt correctly, ascribed to Bernard of Clairvaux. Born in 1091 at his father’s castle near Dijon in Burgundy; died, 1153. The monk of Citeaux, the first Abbot of Clairvaux, the Papal controversialist and the preacher of the Second Crusade, is better known in our day as the author of a hymn regarded by many as the sweetest and most Evangelical in mediæval hymnody. The poem from which the hymn is taken consists of nearly fifty quatrains on the name of Jesus, known as the Joyful Rhythm of St. Bernard. In the Roman Breviary three hymns are taken from the Rhythm, Jesu dulcis memoria, Jesu Rex Admirabilis, and Jesu decus angelicum.