I

III

IS THE GOSPEL SONG A HYMN?

N discussing the Gospel song in a previous chapter,

I abstained from the consideration of its words.

The question now arises whether we shall include the Gospel and the Sunday-school hymn under the general definition of a hymn. Dr. Breed is quite satisfied that "as to the poetic material of these songs this much is certain they are not hymns." But if the writings of Fanny Crosby are not hymns, why should those of Frances R. Havergal be accepted as such? What is the inherent difference between the two sets of verses on consecration,

"Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee,"

and

"I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice,
And it told Thy love to me ;

But I long to rise in the arms of faith
And be closer drawn to Thee."

Certainly the mere matter of meter, the former being in plain 75 meter and the latter peculiar meter, is not of commanding importance! While Miss Havergal's catalogue of gifts to the Lord is quite skillfully developed, it is not sufficiently so to avoid the mechanical monotony fatal to good poetry. The third verse of Fanny Crosby's hymn,

"Oh, the pure delight of a single hour

That before Thy throne I spend,

When I kneel in prayer and with Thee, my God,
I commune as friend with friend,"

is certainly more musical, and more emotional, and more poetical than any of Miss Havergal's verses. As the latter are frequently sung with a chorus, that cannot be the fundamental flaw in the former.

What is the radical distinction between

that the latter is a hymn and the other without the pale? I take the first hymn of a collection of Sundayschool and Gospel songs and quote the first two verses. I also quote two verses of an accepted hymn on the same general theme, Praise to Christ. How many of my readers will be able to say which is the Gospel song and which the standard hymn ?

"To Him who for our sins was slain,
To Him for all His dying pain
Sing we Alleluia !

To Him, the Lamb, our Sacrifice,
Who gave His soul our ransom-price,
Sing we Alleluia !

"To Him, who now for us doth plead,
And helpeth us in all our need,
Sing we Alleluia !

To Him, who doth prepare on high
Our home in immortality,

Sing we Alleluia !"

Is the foregoing or the following the Gospel song?

"Lift up the gates of praise,
That we may enter in,

And o'er Salvation's walls proclaim

That Christ redeems from sin.
God's works reveal His might,

His majesty and grace;

But not the tender Father's love
That saves a dying race.

"The stars may praise the Hand
That decks the sky above;
But man alone can tell the pow'r
Of Christ's redeeming love.

Then let the voice of praise

To heavenly courts ascend,
Till with the songs the angels sing
Our Hallelujahs blend."

I might go on indefinitely quoting the better class of Gospel hymns and comparing them with accepted standard hymns of like sentiment, but I have done so sufficiently to show that there is no dividing line of intrinsic character or merit. Dr. Breed's statement is one of those ad captandum judgments that are undiscriminating and therefore unjust.

Why should we not accept a Gospel hymn? It is often "a sacred poem expressive of devotion, spiritual experience, or religious truth, fitted to be sung by a congregation in public service," is it not?

But it is often urged that these Gospel hymns are undignified, illiterate, and crude. But who dares to say that all of them deserve such a characterization? And who will venture to assert that none of the plain hymns have been crude and in violation of all good taste? To pick out the crudest and most hopelessly banal of the current

Gospel and Sunday-school hymns and to compare them with the best standard hymns, the survival of the fittest, written during the whole history of the Christian Church, is eminently unjust, and indicates a blind prejudice that is as unscholarly and unscientific as it is unfair.

Equally unjust is the constant and cheap accusation of commercialism made against editors and publishers of this class of music. It would seem to apply with as great or even greater force to the promoters of high class hymnals, which have multiplied so greatly in recent years, and which have been pushed by wide advertising and personal canvass of the churches with a business vigour and urgency unknown to the publishers of popular music. May we not rather assume that the Christian men issuing both classes of music are actuated by equally worthy and laudable motives?

It is interesting to note that the same opposition met the Reformers in Germany, France, and Great Britain when the chorals and psalm versions were introduced. Marot's" Sanctes Chansonettes," metrical versions of the Psalms, were popular in the frivolous court of Francis of France, and were sung to ballad tunes that had anything but hallowed associations. They were soon forbidden by the ecclesiastical authorities and their author driven from the court. None the less they furnished Calvin the seed for the harvest of noble psalm singing which is even yet being reaped. Thomas Warton speaks of the interest the people took in these newly introduced metrical psalms as an "infectious frenzy of sacred song. It was a

sign by which men's affections to the work of the Reformation were everywhere measured, whether they used to sing (metrical psalms) or not." The same outcry was heard against the hymns of Watts and a little later

against those of the Methodists. Even now, in Germany there is frequent protest against the use in church service of the simpler "folk" hymns, like "Harre des Herrn," "Ich will streben," "Lass mich gehen," " Hier ist mein Herz," "Sei getreu bis in den Tod," because they are more recent in origin and have not the severe dignity of the ancient hymns and chorals. Yet many of them have a piety and devoutness peculiarly characteristic of the German spiritual life.

I have taken no brief for the defense of the current Gospel and Sunday-school hymn-I am only pleading for a fair, discriminating, unprejudiced consideration of its merits and demerits. Few persons have had better opportunities than I of realizing those demerits.

I remember one book a quarter of a century ago which was brought me by its publisher because it had been seriously criticised, and he wished the necessary corrections made. When I brought him a single page with over sixty corrections that seemed to me peremptorily necessary, he threw up his hands. The book would have had to be entirely reëdited and reset, an expense he refused to consider. Yet that book sold by the hundred thousand and sells to this day despite its faultiness. Other books are not so musically weak, but the texts are vulgar and ill-written. Within a year a book with English as well as American imprint reached my desk containing original hymns of which the following lines are representative:

"I would rather be enlisted to fight the fight of faith,
And give and take no quarter in that war,

Than enjoy religious clatter for a season on the earth
And go down to hell a multi-millionaire."

Even yet many of the collections of these popular songs