The Story of Our Hymns Part 14

Missionary zeal continued to flourish among the Moravians, and the little colony of Herrnhut became known as one of the most famous missionary centers of Christendom. Every one of its members felt that he possessed no permanent habitation in this world, and was prepared every day to be sent to any part of the globe.

Though still a small organization today, the Moravian Church has never lost its missionary spirit. It is claimed that for every fifty-eight members of the Church at home, there is one missionary in foreign lands.

When Carey went to India, the Moravians already had 165 missionaries in the pagan world.

Zinzendorf was a great lover of music. Even as a boy, he wrote hymns. The first was written at the age of twelve, and he was still producing hymns in 1760, the year of his death. Altogether, he is credited with the authors.h.i.+p of more than 2,000 lyrics. His most famous is "Jesus, still lead on," which is also known as "Jesus, lead the way." John Wesley was a great admirer of Zinzendorf's hymns and has given us the beautiful English translation of "Jesus, thy blood and righteousness." James Montgomery, the noted English hymnist, was a member of the Moravian communion.

A Glorious Hymn of Adoration

Beautiful Saviour!

King of Creation!

Son of G.o.d and Son of Man!

Truly I'd love Thee, Truly I'd serve Thee, Light of my soul, my Joy, my Crown.

Fair are the meadows, Fair are the woodlands, Robed in flowers of blooming spring; Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer; He makes our sorrowing spirit sing.

Fair is the suns.h.i.+ne, Fair is the moonlight, Bright the sparkling stars on high; Jesus s.h.i.+nes brighter, Jesus s.h.i.+nes purer Than all the angels in the sky.

Beautiful Saviour!

Lord of the nations!

Son of G.o.d and Son of Man!

Glory and honor, Praise, adoration, Now and for evermore be Thine!

Munster Gesangbuch, 1677.

TWO FAMOUS HYMNS AND SOME LEGENDS

Every hymn has a story. Ofttimes, however, the origin is obscure, and it is difficult to trace its birth out of the misty past. Again there are so many legends that have gathered around the great lyrics of the ages, many of them generally accepted, that it becomes a painful process to get rid of these excrescences. Two beautiful German hymns, "Schonster Herr Jesu"

and "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!" may serve to ill.u.s.trate these difficulties.

In innumerable hymn-books the former hymn, sometimes translated "Beautiful Saviour" and sometimes "Fairest Lord Jesus," is designated as "The Crusaders' Hymn." The hymn was first introduced to American wors.h.i.+pers by Richard Storrs Willis, who included it in his "Church Chorals and Choir Studies," published in 1850. It was accompanied with this explanation: "This hymn, to which the harmony has been added, was lately (1850) discovered in Westphalia. According to the traditionary text by which it is accompanied, it was wont to be sung by the German knights on their way to Jerusalem. The only hymn of the same century which in point of style resembles this is one quoted by Burney from the Chatelaine de Coucy, set about the year 1190, very far inferior, however, to this."

In a London hymn-book, "Heart Melodies" by Morgan and Chase, the same error is repeated. There it is referred to as "Crusader's Hymn of the Twelfth Century. This air and hymn used to be sung by the German pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem."

"For these statements," writes James Mearns, "there does not seem to be the shadow of foundation, for the air referred to has not been traced earlier than 1842, nor the words than 1677."

The hymn appeared anonymously in the "Munster Gesangbuch" of 1677, where it was published as the first of "Three beautiful selected new hymns." In a book of Silesian folk songs, published in Leipzig in 1842, the text is found in altered form and the beautiful melody to which it is now sung is given for the first time. Both text and melody, it is explained in this book, were taken down from oral recitation in the district of Glaz, in lower Silesia. From these facts we are compelled to draw the conclusion that this glorious hymn of adoration to the Saviour probably dates back to the seventeenth century, while the melody is undoubtedly a Silesian folk song of much later origin.

The English translation, "Beautiful Saviour," has come to us from the pen of Joseph A. Seiss, the noted Lutheran preacher of Philadelphia.

"Silent night, holy night" also is a hymn around which numerous legends have cl.u.s.tered. The most unfortunate of these deals with its origin.

According to this story, the hymn was written on a Christmas Eve by a "Mr. Mohr," whose wife that very day had gone to celebrate Christmas in heaven. In an adjoining room the grief-stricken husband and father could see his little motherless children sleeping. Outside the house of mourning the stillness of the night was broken suddenly by the singing of Christmas carolers. They were singing the very songs his wife and children used to sing. Now, he thought, she is blending her voice with the angels. Then came the inspiration for the hymn, and in a few moments he had penned the now famous "Stille Nacht."

This is a very touching story, but its fatal defect lies in the fact that "Mr. Mohr" was a Roman Catholic priest.

The true story of the origin of the hymn has much less of the emotional appeal. The author, Joseph Mohr, was born at Salzburg, Austria, December 11, 1792. He was ordained as a priest at the age of twenty-three, becoming a.s.sistant at Laufen, near his native city. It was here, three years later, that the beautiful Christmas carol was written.

It seems that a s.h.i.+powner at Oberndorf named Maier and his wife had invited the young priest to be their guest at a pre-Christmas party. As a special surprise for the priest, Maier had invited some wandering minstrels to stage a crude representation of the Christmas story as recounted in the Bible. The thoughtful hospitality of the Maier couple and the touching simplicity of the festival play so stirred the heart of Mohr that, instead of going straightway home, he climbed the so-called "Totenberg," (mountain of the dead) overlooking Oberndorf, and stood in silent meditation.

The silence of the night, the starry splendor of the winter sky, the murmur of the Salzach river thrilled his soul. Quickly he descended to his parish house, and late that night wrote the words of "Stille Nacht."

The next day he hurried to his friend and co-worker, Franz Gruber, organist and school teacher, and asked him to write music for his lines.

The latter eagerly embraced the opportunity, and thus was given to the world one of the most exquisite of Christmas carols.

A Cla.s.sical Harvest Hymn

We plow the fields and scatter The good seed on the land, But it is fed and watered By G.o.d's almighty hand; He sends the snow in winter, The warmth to swell the grain, The breezes and the suns.h.i.+ne, And soft, refres.h.i.+ng rain.

He only is the Maker Of all things near and far; He paints the wayside flower, He lights the evening star; The winds and waves obey Him, By Him the birds are fed; Much more to us, His children, He gives our daily bread.

We thank Thee, then, O Father, For all things bright and good, The seedtime and the harvest, Our life, our health, our food; No gifts have we to offer For all Thy love imparts, But that which Thou desirest, Our humble, thankful hearts.

Matthias Claudius, 1782.

HYMNODY IN THE AGE OF RATIONALISM

In religion, as in other things, the pendulum often swings from one extreme to the other. Scarcely had the Pietistic movement run its course before the rationalistic tendencies which had thrown religious thought into confusion in France and England began to make their appearance in Germany. Rationalism was an attempt to subject all revealed religion to the test and judgment of the human reason. That which seemed to contradict reason was rejected as superst.i.tious and untrue.

Strangely enough, the University of Halle, which had been the citadel of Pietism, became the stronghold of Rationalism in Germany. Christian Wolff and Johann Semler, noted philosophers of Halle, were leaders in the movement. It was not their purpose to establish a new religion of reason, but to "purge" Christianity of the things that seemed unreasonable. But the results of the movement were devastating. The miracles of the Bible that could not be explained by natural causes were rejected as "fables."

Christ was robbed of His glory as a divine Saviour and was regarded only as a teacher of morals. Religion became merely the knowledge of G.o.d and the pursuit of virtue. What remained of Christianity was a mere shadow: a hypothesis concerning G.o.d and immortality, and a teaching of external morality, the attainment of which was largely a matter of man's own efforts.

Rationalism cast its blight over the hymnody of all Europe, but particularly in Germany. It was the golden age of German literature, but such geniuses as Goethe, Schiller, Lessing and Wieland were not filled with the Christian zeal of earlier poets, and they wrote no hymns. Most of the hymns that were produced were so tinged with the spirit of the "new theology" that they contained no elements of vitality to give them permanent value.

The Rationalists were not satisfied with criticizing the Bible; they also sought to "purge" the hymn-books. The old hymns of Luther, Heermann, Selnecker, and Gerhardt were so completely altered that a noted German hymnologist, Albert Knapp, was moved to observe ironically: "The old hymns were subjected to a kind of transmigration of soul by which their spirits, after having lost their own personality, entered into other bodies."

Only a few writers, such as Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, Balthasar Munter, Christian Gellert and Matthias Claudius, wrote hymns of any abiding worth.

Klopstock, the German Milton, whose epic, "Messiah," thrilled Germany as had no other poetic work in centuries, essayed to write a few hymns, but he soared too high. His hymns lacked simplicity of style and were too emotional and subjective to be used for public wors.h.i.+p. Only two English translations are familiar--"Blessed are the heirs of heaven," a funeral hymn, and "Grant us, Lord, due preparation," a communion hymn.

Klopstock spent nearly twenty years of his life at the Danish court, having been invited there by King Fredrik V through the influence of Count von Bernstorff, who had become greatly interested in the epic, "Messiah." The Danish monarch gave the poet an annual pension in order to a.s.sist him in completing his famous poem without being oppressed by financial worries. In 1770 Klopstock returned to Hamburg, where he died in 1803.

Gellert, who was born in Hainichen, Saxony, July 4, 1715, intended to become a Lutheran pastor. After completing his theological course at the University of Leipzig, however, he found it difficult to deliver sermons without the use of a ma.n.u.script, and therefore decided to take up teaching. In 1745 he became a member of the faculty of the University of Leipzig, where he remained until his death in 1769. Among his pupils were many famous men of Germany, including Goethe and Lessing.

Gellert's hymns, although influenced by the age in which he lived, are singular for their genuine, evangelical utterance. It is said that he never attempted to write a hymn except when he was in the proper frame of mind, and only after a season of prayer. His Easter hymn, "Jesus lives!

thy terrors now," has gained great popularity, both in England and in America. In the former country it has been sung at the funerals of some of England's greatest churchmen. His communion hymn also breathes a spirit of true faith in Christ: