Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/361

 HYMNOLOGY OF THE CHURCHES.

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��HYMXOLOGY OF THE CHURCHES.

��BY ASA McFARLAXD.

��The purpose of this and the preced- ing article (Monthly for July), is only to make mention of a few of the hymns which hold a permanent place in the books in use by most churches, ac- companied by a statement of the cir- cumstances under which some of them were written. With this brief statement we proceed to speak of Isaac Watts, D. r>., whose metrical productions occupy large space in .books clevoted'to sacred song. Watts died in 1748, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. He was one of the dis- senting clergymen of England, and sev- eral years pastor of a church in London. He was a better versifier than poet ; but his productions are full of scripture, abound with individual life and reality ; were written in pure English, and are adapted to the experience of all Chris- tiarrpeople ; are correct in rhyme, and came from a devout heart. He was an earnest and eloquent preacher, and the congregation greatly increased under his ministration. But his health failed, and he was compelled to cease preach- ing. He was then invited by Sir Thomas Abney, one of the aldermen of London, to visit him at his residence in the country. This visit, intended to be of only a few weeks, was extended to more than thirty years. The country abode of the London alderman was upon the shore of that arm of the sea known as " Southampton Water. " Living upon the margin of that body of water, and looking across it, how natural that hymn of Watts :

•• Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood, Stand dressed in living green; So to the Jews old Canaan stood. While Jordan rolled between/*

Mrs. Sarah Flower Adams, wife of an English civil engineer, was the auth- or of a hymn that is in as general use

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��as any metrical production in our lan- guage, for it is sung in the churches of all denominations. This is the well known production of which the follow- ing is the first stanza :

" Xearer, my God. to thee.

Nearer to thee ! E'en though it be a cross

That raiseth me ! Still all my song shall be. Xearer, rny God, to thee,

Xearer to thee."

Mrs. Adams was a Unitarian, and her celebrated hymn was written for an English magazine, with no expectation that it would find a place in the hymn- ology of the churches. Another in- stance of an author " building better than she knew."

Rev. Philip Doddridge, d. d., wrote much that holds a permanent place in the books of the present day. He was a native of London ; was author of the •' Family Expositor," and " Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul." He died in Lisbon, whither he went for the benefit of his health, Oct. 13, 1 75 1 . He was a laborious and successful preach- er of the gospel, and was in the habit, occasionally, of writing and appending a hymn to his discourse, suggested by its topic. Preaching on one occasion from the text, " There remaineth, there- fore, a rest for the people of God," he appended a hymn which has come down to us, and is found in a multitude of books, of which the following is the first stanza :

" Thine earthly Sabbaths. Lord, we love.

But there's a nobler rest above : To that our longing souls aspire.

With cheerful hope and strong desire."

Church hymnology is not wanting in productions of heroic or triumphant

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