The Story of the Hymns and Tunes Part 58

Lo the King of Life, the guiltless, Dies my guilty soul to save; Who can choose but think upon it, Who can choose but praise and sing?

Here is love, while heaven endureth, Nought can to oblivion bring.

This is called "The great Welsh love-song." It was written by Rev.

William Rees, D.D., eminent as a preacher, poet, politician and essayist. One of the greatest names of nineteenth century Wales. He died in 1883.

The tune, "Cwynfan Prydian," sung to this hymn is one of the old Welsh minors that would sound almost weird to our ears, but Welsh voices can sing with strange sweetness the Saviour's pa.s.sion on which Christian hearts of that nation love so well to dwell, and the shadow of it, with His love s.h.i.+ning through, creates the paradox of a joyful lament in many of their chorals. We cannot imitate it.

"RHYFEDDODAU DYDD YR ADGYFODIDD."

Unnumbered are the marvels The Last Great Day shall see, With earth's poor storm-tossed children From tribulation free, All in their s.h.i.+ning raiment Transfigured, bright and brave, Like to their Lord ascending In triumph from the grave.

The author of this Easter hymn is unknown.

The _most_ popular Welsh hymns would be named variously by different witnesses according to the breadth and length of their observation. Two of them, as a Wrexham music publisher testifies, are certainly the following; "Heaven and Home," and "Lo, a Saviour for the Fallen." The first of these was sung in the late revival with "stormy rapture."

"O FRYNAU CAERSALEM CEIR GIVELED."

The heights of fair Salem ascended, Each wilderness path we shall see; Now thoughts of each difficult journey A sweet meditation shall be.

On death, on the grave and its terrors And storms we shall gaze from above And freed from all cares we shall revel (?) In transports of heavenly love.

According to the mood of the meeting this was pitched in three sharps to Evelyn Evans' tune of "Eirinwg" or with equal Welsh enthusiasm in the C minor of old "Darby."

The author of the hymn was the Rev. David Charles, of Carmarthen, born 1762; died 1834. He was a heavenly-minded man who loved to dwell on the divine and eternal wonders of redemption. A volume of his sermons was spoken of as "Apples of gold in pictures of silver," and the beautiful piety of all his writings made them strings of pearls. He understood English as well as Welsh, and enjoyed the hymns not only of William and Thomas Williams but of Watts, Wesley, Cowper, and Newton.[43]

[Footnote 43: The following verses were written by him in English: Spirit of grace and love divine, Help me to sing that Christ is mine; And while the theme my tongue employs Fill Thou my soul with living joys.

Jesus is mine--surpa.s.sing thought!

Well may I set the world at nought; Jesus is mine, O can it be That Jesus lived and died for me?]

"DYMA GEIDWAD I R COLLEDIG."

Lo! a Saviour for the fallen, Healer of the sick and sore, One whose love the vilest sinners Seeks to pardon and restore.

Praise Him, praise Him Who has loved us evermore!

The little now known of the Rev. Morgan Rhys, author of this hymn, is that he was a schoolmaster and preacher, and that he was a contemporary and friend of William Williams. Several of his hymns remain in use of which the oftenest sung is one cited above, and "_O agor fy llygaid i weled_:"

I open my eyes to this vision, The deeps of Thy purpose and word; The law of Thy lips is to thousands Of gold and of silver preferred; When earth is consumed, and its treasure, G.o.d's words will unchanging remain, And to know the G.o.d-man is my Saviour Is life everlasting to gain.

"Lo! a Saviour for the Fallen" finds an appropriate voice in W.M.

Robert's tune of "Nesta," and also, like many others of the same measure, in the much-used minors "Llanietyn," "Catharine," and "Bryn Calfaria."

"O SANCTEIDDIA F'ENAID ARGLWYDD."

Sanctify, O Lord, my spirit, Every power and pa.s.sion sway, Bid Thy holy law within me Dwell, my wearied soul to stay; Let me never Rove beyond Thy narrow way.

This one more hymn of William Williams is from his "Song of a Cleansed Heart" and is amply provided with tunes, popular ones like "Tyddyn Llwyn," "Y Delyn Aur," or "Capel-Y-Ddol" lending their deep minors to its lines with a thrilling effect realized, perhaps, only in the land of Taliessin and the Druids.

The singular history and inspiring cause of one old Welsh hymn which after various mutilations and vicissitudes survives as the key-note of a valued song of trust, seems to ill.u.s.trate the Providence that will never let a good thing be lost. It is related of the Rev. David Williams, of Llandilo, an obscure but not entirely forgotten preacher, that he had a termagant wife, and one stormy night, when her bickerings became intolerable, he went out in the rain and standing by the river composed in his mind these lines of tender faith:

In the waves and mighty waters No one will support my head But my Saviour, my Beloved, Who was stricken in my stead.

In the cold and mortal river He would hold my head above; I shall through the waves go singing For one look of Him I love.

Apparently the sentiment and substantially the expression of this humble hymn became the burden of more than one Christian lay. Altered and blended with a modern gospel hymn, it was sung at the crowded meetings of 1904 to Robert Lowry's air of "Jesus Only," and often rendered very impressively as a solo by a sweet female voice.

In the deep and mighty waters There is none to hold my head But my loving Bridegroom, Jesus, Who upon the cross hath bled.

If I've Jesus, Jesus only Then my sky will have a gem He's the Sun of brightest splendor, He's the Star of Bethlehem.

He's the Friend in Death's dark river, He will lift me o'er the waves, I will sing in the deep waters If I only see His face.

If I've Jesus, Jesus only, etc.

A few of the revival tunes have living authors and are of recent date; and the minor harmony of "Ebenezer" (marked "Ton Y Botel"), which was copied in this country by the New York _Examiner_, with its hymn, is apparently a contemporary piece. It was first sung at Bethany Chapel, Cardiff, Jan, 8, 1905, the hymn bearing the name of Rev. W.E. Winks.

Send Thy Spirit, I beseech Thee, Gracious Lord, send while I pray; Send the Comforter to teach me, Guide me, help me in Thy way.

Sinful, wretched, I have wandered Far from Thee in darkest night, Precious time and talents squandered, Lead, O lead me into light.

Thou hast heard me; light is breaking-- Light I never saw before.

Now, my soul with joy awaking, Gropes in fearful gloom no more: O the bliss! my soul, declare it; Say what G.o.d hath done for thee; Tell it out, let others share it-- Christ's salvation, full and free.

One cannot help noticing the fondness of the Welsh for the 7-6, 8-7, and 8-7-4 metres. These are favorites since they lend themselves so naturally to the rhythms of their national music--though their newest hymnals by no means exclude exotic lyrics and melodies. Even "O mother dear, Jerusalem," one of the echoes of Bernard of Cluny's great hymn, is cherished in their tongue (_O, Frynian Caerselem_) among the favorites of song. Old "Truro" by Dr. Burney appears among their tunes, Mason's "Ernan," "Lowell" and "Shawmut," I.B. Woodbury's "Nearer Home" (to Phebe Cary's hymn), and even George Hews' gently-flowing "Holley." Most of these tunes retain their own hymns, but in Welsh translation. To find our Daniel Read's old "Windham" there is no surprise. The minor mode--a song-instinct of the Welsh, if not of the whole Celtic family of nations, is their rural inheritance. It is in the wind of their mountains and the semitones of their streams; and their nature can make it a gladness as the Anglo-Saxon cannot. So far from being a gloomy people, their capacity for joy in spiritual life is phenomenal. In psalmody their emotions mount on wings, and they find ecstacy in solemn sounds.

"A temporary excitement" is the verdict of skepticism on the Reformation wave that for a twelvemonth swept over Wales with its ringing symphonies of hymn and tune. But such excitements are the May-blossom seasons of G.o.d's eternal husbandry. They pa.s.s because human vigor cannot last at flood-tide, but in spiritual economy they will always have their place, "If the blossoms had not come and gone there would be no fruit."

CHAPTER XII.

FIELD HYMNS.

Hymns of the hortatory and persuasive tone are sufficiently numerous to make an "embarra.s.sment of riches" in a compiler's hands. Not a few songs of invitation and awakening are either quoted or mentioned in the chapter on "Old Revival Hymns," and many appear among those in the last chapter, (on the _Hymns of Wales_;) but the _working_ songs of Christian hymnology deserve a special s.p.a.ce _as_ such.

"COME HITHER ALL YE WEARY SOULS,"

Sung to "Federal St.," is one of the older soul-winning calls from the great hymn-treasury of Dr. Watts; and another note of the same sacred bard,--

Life is the time to serve the Lord,

--is always coupled with the venerable tune of "Wells."[44] Aged Christians are still remembered who were wont to repeat or sing with quavering voices the second stanza,--

The living know that they must die, But all the dead forgotten lie; Their memory and their sense are gone, Alike unknowing and unknown.

And likewise from the fourth stanza,--