Page:The Methodist Hymn-Book Illustrated.djvu/474

 462 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED

says, St. Ambrose has a style peculiar to himself, clear, sweet, and yet vigorous, grand, and noble ; wonderful closeness of thought, singular brevity of expression. There are no glittering flashes, but his hymns beam brightly with a calm, severe, and spiritual enthusiasm ; there is not much of tender sentiment, but there is the courage of the cross, the power of faith, the victory of the gospel over the world. Archbishop Trench pays tribute to their rock-like firmness, and to the grandeur of the unadorned metre which grows on a student. He points out how suitably the faith which was in actual conflict with, and was triumphing over, the powers of the world, found its utterance in hymns such as these, wherein is no softness, perhaps little tenderness, but a rock-like firmness, the old Roman stoicism transmuted and glorified into that nobler Christian courage which encountered and at length overcame the world.

The Arians accused Ambrose of bewitching the people with his hymns. Multitudes are said to have been converted by them to the true faith. Bede speaks of their influence on England in his own time.

Hymn 904. Christ, whose glory fills the skies. CHARLES WESLEY (i).

Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1740 ; Works, i. 224. A Morning Hymn.

In ver. 2 Charles Wesley wrote, Till they inward light impart.

James Montgomery, who was a keen critic, regarded this as one of the finest of Charles Wesley s compositions.

Seth Bede, the village Methodist, after parting with his brother Adam, walked leisurely homeward, mentally repeating one of his favourite hymns he was very fond of hymns

Dark and cheerless is the morn. Visit, then, this soul of mine.

Adam Bede, ch. xxxviii.

Hymn 905. Thou, Lord, art a shield for me.

CHARLES WESLEY (i).

Psalms and Hymns, 1743; Works, viii. 6. Psalm iii. See, O Lord, my foes increase. Verses 2, 3, 6 are selected.

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