The Hymn-Book of the Modern Church

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ill Early Modern Hymns I.?Sixteenth Century BEFORE the Reformation England was rich in ballads, but had practically no hymns. Yet there are in that earlier period a few great names?Csedmon, Aldhelm, Bede, Alfred?which are beginning to appear in some modern hymnals.1 It is usual to date English hymnody from the days of Dr. Watts. Before his time, however, a considerable number of hymns had been written in English, a fair proportion of which were of high poetic character, and not unsuitable for public worship. But the idea of a hymn-book had hardly entered the mind of the Church. Many longed for 'godly ballads' to supplant the vain songs of the Court, the camp, and the street, but for the most part they longed in vain. We must not, however, overlook the preparation made during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The English Reformation had no poet, no one who could give the common people songs such as Lutherhad provided for the Germans. Myles Coverdale (1487-1569), Bishop of Exeter, saw how great the need was; but he could not supply it, though he did hia best His 'Ghostly Psalms and Spiritual Songs, drawn out of the Holy Scripture for the comfort and consolation of such as love to rejoice in God and His Word, ' is an unsuccessful attempt to render into English some of the German hymns. He confesses that the verses are ' rude in song and rhyme.' Yet there is not wanting that yearning after God, that quiet trust in Christ, that turning to Him with hope and penitence and love which is the note of all Christian psalmody. I quote a few verses?modernizing the spelling?from what is, I think, his best effort. 1 Church Hymnt, 586, Credmon, Tr. B. M. Moorsom; 212, Cede, Tr. C. S. Calverly. I call on Thee, Lord Jesu Christ, I have none other help but Thee: My hea...