EPIPHANY HYMNS

PIPHANY, one of the oldest of the Christian festivals, is the generally accepted festival today for commemorating the manifesting of Christ to the three Wise Men of the East. As these Wise Men were Gentiles and heathen, the festival and the season have more and more come to be recognized among us as the time when Christian people lay to heart the extending of the knowledge of the newborn Saviour to the heathen world.

The festival of the Epiphany itself always falls on January 6th, which is the twelfth day after Christmas. It originally was the festival of the Nativity, and was looked upon as the feast of the manifestation of Christ to man, which took place at His baptism and not at His birth, the nativity originally being observed only as an introduction to His epiphany.

When we know these facts we will readily understand the beautiful blending of the Christmas and the missionary idea in some of the most appropriate hymns of the Epiphany.

A hymn which very naturally comes to mind when we think of this festival is the product of the pen of a layman, William Chatterton Dix, a man trained for mercantile life and who held a position in a marine insurance office at the time when he wrote several hymns which rank high among modern examples of hymnody. He wrote his Epiphany hymn in 1860. We quote three stanzas, the remaining being a prayer for guidance and light from Christ

A LAYMAN'S EPIPHANY HYMN
As with gladness men of old
Did the guiding star behold;
As with joy they hailed its light,
Leading onward, beaming bright;
So, most gracious God, may we
Evermore be led by Thee.

As with joyful steps they sped
To that lowly manger-bed,
There to bend the knee before
Him whom heaven and earth adore;
So may we, with willing feet,
Ever seek Thy mercy-seat.

As they offered gifts most rare
At that manger rude and bare;
So may we, with holy joy,

Pure and free from sin's alloy,
All our costliest treasures bring,

Christ, to Thee, our heavenly King.

The beauty of the Church Year is that it provides for the presentation of every phase of the life and the teachings of Christ. Bishop Wordsworth, who, like Luther, looked upon hymns as a valuable means of stamping permanently upon the memory the great doctrines of the Christian Church, has beautifully demonstrated the truth of these facts in a book of hymns called "The Holy Year." An excellent illustration of the fitness and the instructive character of such hymns is his hymn in which he recapitulates the themes of the Epiphany season and shows how these are preparatory to that future great and glorious Epiphany of Christ when He shall be manifested to all as the Judge of the world. A careful reading of the verses of this hymn will illustrate the educational value of it.

BISHOP WORDSWORTH'S EPIPHANY HYMN

Songs of thankfulness and praise,
Jesus, Lord, to Thee we raise,
Manifested by the star

To the sages from afar;
Branch of Royal David's stem,
In Thy birth at Bethlehem;
Anthems be to Thee addrest,
God in man made manifest.

Manifest at Jordan's stream,
Prophet, Priest and King supreme;
And at Cana, wedding-guest,
In Thy Godhead manifest;
Manifest in power divine,
Changing water into wine;
Anthems be to Thee addrest,
God in man made manifest.

Manifest in making whole
Palsied limbs and fainting soul;
Manifest in valiant fight,
Quelling all the devil's might;
Manifest in gracious will,
Ever bringing good from ill;
Anthems be to Thee addrest,
God in man made manifest.

Grant us grace to see Thee, Lord,
Present in Thy holy word;

May we imitate Thee now,

And be pure, as pure art Thou;

That we like to Thee may be,

At Thy great Epiphany;

And may praise Thee, ever blest,

God in man made manifest.

Bishop Heber in 1811 wrote a hymn which, although

criticised as to its words as well as its melody, has attained

great favor among many Christian people. We refer to that hymn which is full of imagery and expressive of liveliest devotion, namely:

"Brightest and best of the sons of the morning,

Dawn on our darkness and lend us Thine aid;
Star of the east, the horizon adorning,

Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid."

A fine illustration of the combination of the Epiphany fact with the principle of personal consecration is seen in that Epiphany hymn from the German, which was written by Johann Franck in A. D. 1669. The hymn is based on the account of the presentation in the temple, as recorded in the second chapter of St. Luke. Critics have pronounced this "the finest hymn on the subject of the Epiphany."

JOHANN FRANCK'S EPIPHANY HYMN

Light of the Gentile nations,
Thy people's joy and love!
Drawn by Thy Spirit hither,

We gladly come to prove
Thy presence in Thy temple,
And wait with earnest mind,
As Simeon once had waited

His Saviour God to find.

Yes, Lord, Thy servants meet Thee,
Even now, in every place

Where Thy true word hath promised

That they should see thy face.
Thou yet wilt gently grant us,
Who gather round Thee here,
In faith's strong arms to bear Thee,
As once that aged seer.

Be Thou our Joy, our Brightness,
That shines 'mid pain and loss,
Our Sun in times of terror,

The glory round our cross;
A glow in sinking spirits,
A sunbeam in distress,
Physician, Friend in sickness,
In death our happiness.

Let us, O Lord, be faithful
With Simeon to the end,
That so his dying song may

From all our hearts ascend:
"O Lord, let now Thy servant
Depart in peace for aye,
Since I have seen my Saviour,
Have here beheld His day."

My Saviour, I behold Thee

Now with the eye of faith,
No foe of Thee can rob me,
Though bitter words he saith.
Within Thy heart abiding,

As Thou dost dwell in me,
No pain, no death hath terrors
To part my soul from Thee!

It is interesting to note, since we have read this hymn and observed its devotional spirit and beauty of thought, that its author, like the writer of "As with gladness men of old," was a layman. Johann Franck was a lawyer at Guben, Brandenburg, Germany. He was a student at the University of Koenigsburg during the time of the Thirty Years' War. His religious spirit and his devotion to his mother prevented him from sharing in the excesses of his fellow-students, and were responsible for his return to his home, where he held places of trust and usefulness among