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Chapter VI.

HYMNS OF OLD ENGLAND'S CHRISTIAN BIRTH-TIME.

"And the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord."

HEN I lived at Lichfield," said a lady to a clerical friend, "I used, now and then, to attend the ordination service; and I learnt one thing at least."

"What was that?"

"Why, that there are some hymns which, though they are known to be mere human compositions, are scarcely ever sung without touching the soul in a manner very like that of inspired truth."

"Pray, what impressed you with that thought?"

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Well, I observed that there were always some among the candidates for ordination who seemed disposed to go through the service without seriousness, if not in a style approaching to levity, even during the time allowed for silent prayer; but that as soon as the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus' was begun, a solemn hush and reverent feeling appeared to rest on each and all."

"Which of the hymns do you refer to? There are two in the ordination service."

"The first. And now let me read it. And if I can read so as to give you the feeling with which it always impresses me, I think you will believe as I do, that the Holy Ghost honours the hymn by which He is honoured, and breathes a holy power into its gracious lines. Let me read."

Come Holy Ghost our souls inspire,
And lighten with celestial fire.

Thou the anointing Spirit art,
Who dost thy seven-fold gifts impart.

Thy blessed unction from above,
Is comfort, life, and fire of love.

Enable with perpetual light
The dulness of our blinded sight.

Anoint and cheer our soilèd face
With the abundance of thy grace.

Keep far our foes, give peace at home:
Where Thou art guide no ill can come.

Teach us to know the Father, Son,
And Thee of both to be but One;

That through the ages all along,

This may be our endless song;

Praise to Thine eternal merit,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

The lady was right; and her clerical friend confessed to the feeling in which many, many have shared, a sense of the spiritual unction which attends this as well as several other hymns of like primitive simplicity and power. And he was reminded, he said, of Keble's Ordination Hymn, in which this feeling is so sweetly

expressed. The hymn is founded on that passage in the rubric in the "Office for Ordering Priests," "After this the congregation shall be desired, secretly in their prayers, to make their humble supplication to God for all these things; for the which prayers there shall be silence kept for a space. After which shall be sung or said by the bishop (the persons to be ordained priests all kneeling)' Veni Creator Spiritus.'"

"Twas silence in thy temple, Lord,

When slowly through the hallowed air,
The spreading cloud of incense soared,
Charg'd with the breath of Israel's prayer.

'Twas silence round thy throne on high,
When the last wondrous seal unclos'd;
And in the portals of the sky

Thine armies awfully repos'd.

And this deep pause, that o'er us now
Is hovering-comes it not of Thee?
Is it not like a mother's vow,

When with her darling on her knee,

She weighs and numbers o'er and o'er
Love's treasures hid in her fond breast;

To cull from that exhaustless store
The dearest blessing and the best?

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And when it comes, so deep and clear

The strain, so soft the melting fall,
It seems not to th' entranced ear

Less than Thine own heart-cheering call.

Spirit of Christ-Thine earnest given

That these our prayers are heard; and they
Who grasp, this hour, the sword of heaven,
Shall feel Thee on their weary way.

The "Veni Creator Spiritus" was introduced into the ritual of the Western Church about the end of the eleventh century; and with beautiful consistency, as an utterance, probably, from the lips of one whose name marks an era in the history of church music; and it was gracefully retained in the service of the English Church as a contribution from the man to whom England owes her first lesson in Christianity. This was Gregory the Great, a man whose name is one of the landmarks of history, and whose character, in grand outline, will ever remain as the most distinguished honour of his generation. He was a man for his times. Shut up in Rome, with savage hordes at the gates, and pestilence, famine, and flood within; with heresy in the provinces, and the care of every department weighing heavily upon him at home; he never "bated jot of heart or hope," but met every demand in turn; always ready, always prompt, always decided, and generally successful. He was modest and simple in his dress, plain in his household, severe to himself, but ceaselessly kind to others. He was at once the domestic economist, the vigilant landowner, the municipal overseer. Now, he is the watchful diplomatist; then the soldier, superintending his own commisariat, planning his own defences, and directing his troops. Now in the pulpit, passionately rousing

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his flock to spiritual life and action; in the cloisters, keeping his monks to their discipline; or in his closet, writing "morals " on the book of Job, or keeping up a wide correspondence with kings and queens, ecclesiastics and scholars. Then, in the choir, reforming the church service, and giving that musical impulse to the Christian world which will be felt as long as the Gregorian chant," continues to charm a human soul. Indeed, he was everything which his church and his times required. If to us he seems over credulous, he was only conformed to the fashion of his day and it is a remarkable fact, that the same reproach, if reproach it be, has been cast upon almost every man who has been a leader of his generation. In his time the Teutonic tribes had cut out their "marks" in this island, and had fairly taken possession of the soil. They were as yet heathen, but they were the chosen instruments of heaven in renovating and reorganizing the western world, and in preparing Christendom for her benevolent mission

"to the farthest verge Of the green earth."

:

But who first ministered to them the truth which touched, and purified, and consecrated their minds and hearts to the nobler service of Him by whose providence they had so far been trained? It was Gregory the Great. Let no Protestant be alarmed; his religion is not in danger. Protestantism must never be blind to truth, nor do its interests ever require us to be unfair. The scattered remnants of the unfaithful British Church had proved themselves unable or unwilling to evangelize the rude Teutons, and the first Christian mission to these Teutons was

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