itself, and all a perfect unity, a harmony of praise. Praise. It seems safe to say that from the time when one of mankind first looked up with a gleam of intelligence in his eyes, this matter of ascribing worthship has been an important concern of his life; according to the records, it has occupied much of the time and attention of various peoples-it is in most languages the first syllable of recorded thought. And it has doubtless been one of man's most practically useful occupations. For praise is looking up with admiration and love to an ideal. It is prizing superior might, intellect, or beauty. It is a contemplation of perfection, or of the best ascertained idea of perfection, with a firing of the emotion to delight and acclamation, and a stirring of the will to approach, to emulate, and to find union with that perfection. Contemplation calls the ideal Truth. The will names it Duty. The emotion calls it Beauty as the high object of its delight. And the use of praise-the practical effect of this contemplation and acclamation of what is higher, this finding of something to raise the eyes unto, to wonder at, and to rise toward-has been to furnish a desirable end to otherwise confused and divergent trails of life, to raise a unifying standard, and to give to mankind a common view of what Plato calls "the road of their longing and the quality of their souls." Contemplation of higher perfection with love and delight, that is praise, and that is what the hymnal images as the highest employment of the soul; and that is the heart of the hymn-book. The symbol of praise in the form of song looks especially toward emotion which man puts into melody of tone and rhythm. Song is the blossoming of emotion. Here the whole is typified by its flower, joy in the contemplation of all-pervading Good raising the voice into lyric beauty. Significant, too, is the detail picturing the lyric acclaim as being also choric. This is a most social and catholic figure conceiving souls at the highest employment and in joyful concord. The details of the figures, gold and precious stones, white garments, palms, and crowns, have been dimmed by custom; yet they have thrilled people for ages, and are still to sensitive imaginations full of richness and splendor of meaning. The hymn means by jewels, doubtless, freedom from all conceivable poverty; by white garments, the cleanness which humanity really has in mind for itself and longs for; by palms, the triumph of the soul's faculties; by crowns, the hope of the earth toward which democracy is stretching its hands— the hope that every man shall be free, absolute rightful monarch of his own being, respecting his neighbor's kingship as his own-a divine democracy where all are crowned royalty. This is not the citizenry of old begging friars and anemic clerks that the young cavalier feared to find in heaven; the lowest of this citizenry is grander than all medieval knights and ladies and kings and queens whatsoever. And the holy city is no outpost, but the capital center of all might, holy benevolence, spotless grace, and immortal joy. These dreams and visions of the hymn-book are so plausible and beautiful that unlettered folk take them as words of truth and hope, and hold them always in their memory; yet there is no mind so strong of wing that it is not challenged by these songs to soar to heights beyond its reach. The harmony of the hymnal voices, too, is symbolic of the harmony it would foster among men. In the hymn-book the parties, the Anglicans, Baptists, Unitarians, Methodists, Roman Catholics, Eastern Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and some members of no church, are together in deep accord. Its greatest contributor is a Jewish king. Augustine, Bernard of Cluny, Isaac Watts, and John Mason Neale were far apart in time and circumstance, but very near together in "Te Deum Laudamus," "Urbs Beata Hierusalem," "Jesus Shall Reign," and "Jerusalem the Golden." Wesley and Toplady did not agree in some dogmas; but they sing with wonderful harmony in "Rock of Ages" and "Jesus, Lover of My Soul." Newman the Roman Catholic and Mrs. Adams the Unitarian were far apart in circumstance but near together in "Lead, Kindly Light" and "Nearer, My God, to Thee." Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther are side by side in sweet accord when they sing songs of prayer and praise to God. The hymn-book is a great book for faith, hope, and charity-and especially for charity, the greatest of these. Now to summarize the teachings of this elect book of lyric poetry-this popular lyric manual of philosophy, ethics, and esthetics—about the beginning and end of all things: The beginning and end is God, and God is infinitely good, and the universe is therefore ordered and safe. He images forth his nature and will in the spheres that move to music and in the harmonies of a wind-flower beside the road; but above all other images of Him is man himself. And man, says the hymn-book, has the duty of fulfilling the will of God concerning him. But he is so Godlike as to be free. He may go right or wrong, toward death and destruction or toward life and endless freedom and felicity. This is the body of the hymn-book. Its terse and apt injunctions to duty, its harmonious phrases speaking calmness of mind and steadiness of purpose, its gentle and graceful verses winning folk to peace and charity with their neighbors, its prayer for all sorts and conditions of men as brothers, its stern warnings, its ringing calls to uprightness and purity of life, its sweet rhythms of consolation and hope-all these things, sung by mothers to their children, learned, as our fine English idiom says, by heart, illuminated and colored by memorable airs and by recollections of scenes familiar and dear, hallowed often with memories of solemn and exalted experiences-make the hymn an invaluable force for good, and an ever-fresh inspiration to grace and comeliness of life. BIBLIOGRAPHY The author desires to make acknowledgment to the following authors and publishers whose books he has consulted. 1845 Marsh, Wilmot. Biblical Versions of Divine Hymns. Hamilton, Adams & Co., London. 1846 Keble, John. Lyra Invocentium. Wiley & Putnam, N. Y. 1851 Latin Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church. Surtees Society. Edited by J. Stevenson, London. Neale, Rev. John Mason. (Translator). Joseph Neale, John Mason. Medieval Hymns and Se- 1853 Burgess, Henry. Hymns of the Ancient Syrian Christians. Blockader, London. 1854 Montgomery, James. Sacred Hymns and Poems. D. Appleton & Co., New York. 1856 Winkleworth, Catherine. Lyra Germanica. Longmans, Brown, Green & Longmans, London. 1858 Oxford Essays. Hymns and Hymn Writers. J. W. Parker & Son, London. 1860 Hymns of the Ages. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston. Muhlenberg, W. H. I Would Not Live Alway and |