Page:The Methodist Hymn-Book Illustrated.djvu/194

 l8z THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED

by this masterful Pope, who commanded the monks of Canter bury to elect Stephen Langton as Primate and brought King John to his knees as the Pope s man.

The great Whitsuntide Sequence, of which translations by Dryden and Cosin are given in hymn-book, held its place on Whit Sunday till the revision of the Roman Missal, 1568-70. The Golden Sequence was used on one or more of the following week-days. In 1570 it was appointed for use on Whit Sunday.

Clichtovaeus says in 1516, Nor, indeed, in my opinion, can this piece be sufficiently praised ; for it is above all praise, whether by reason of its wonderful sweetness along with a most clear and flowing style, or by reason of its agreeable brevity along with wealth and profusion of ideas, especially as almost every line expresses one idea, or finally by reason of the elegant grace of its structure, in which things contrasted are set over against each other, and most aptly linked together. And I well believe that the author (whoever he was), when he composed this piece, had his soul transfused by a certain heavenly sweetness, by which, the Holy Spirit being its author, he uttered so much sweetness in so few words.

Archbishop Trench thought it the loveliest of all the hymns in the whole circle of Latin sacred poetry, which could only have been composed by one who had been acquainted with many sorrows, and also with many consolations.

It is an early example of the transition from rhythmic prose to rhyming verse of the most varied metres. Whoever com posed the Veni, Sancte Spiritus, he was a master of his art, as well as a devout and enlightened soul. The scheme of versification is simple, but possesses considerable metrical charm. The hymn is of ten stanzas, each consisting of three lines of seven syllables, of which the last but one is always short. The third lines rhyme throughout, producing a pleasing effect by the recurrence of the same sound at stated intervals from the beginning to the end.

There are more than thirty-seven English versions. Miss Winkworth s is from the German version by Martin Moller in Meditationes sanctomm patrum, Gorlitz, 1584, headed A very beautiful prayer to God the Holy Ghost. Mr. Macdonald says, The result is an English hymn of great excellence gracious, tender, and truly supplicatory, charged throughout with holy longing expressed in pure and simple language.

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