The Story of the Hymns and Tunes Part 14

SIR JOHN BOWRING.

"In the Cross of Christ I Glory."

In this hymn we see, sitting humbly at the feet of the great author of our religion, a man who impressed himself perhaps more than any other save Napoleon Bonaparte upon his own generation, and who was the wonder of Europe for his immense attainments and the versatility of his powers.

Statesman, philanthropist, biographer, publicist, linguist, historian, financier, naturalist, poet, political economist--there is hardly a branch of knowledge or a field of research from which he did not enrich himself and others, or a human condition that he did not study and influence.

Sir John Bowring was born in 1792. When a youth he was Jeremy Bentham's political pupil, but gained his first fame by his vast knowledge of European literature, becoming acquainted with no less than thirteen[9]

continental languages and dialects. He served in consular appointments at seven different capitals, carried important reform measures in Parliament, was Minister Plenipotentiary to China and Governor of Hong Kong, and concluded a commercial treaty with Siam, where every previous commissioner had failed. But in all his crowded years the pen of this tireless and successful man was busy. Besides his political, economic and religious essays, which made him a member of nearly every learned society in Europe, his translations were countless, and poems and hymns of his own composing found their way to the public, among them the tender spiritual song,--

How sweetly flowed the Gospel sound From lips of gentleness and grace When listening thousands gathered round, And joy and gladness filled the place,

--and the more famous hymn indicated at the head of this sketch.

Knowledge of all religions only qualified him to worship the Crucified with both faith and reason. Though nominally a Unitarian, to him, as to Channing and Martineau and Edmund Sears, Christ was "all we know of G.o.d."

[Footnote 9: Exaggerated in some accounts to _forty_.]

Bowring died Nov. 23, 1872. But his hymn to the Cross will never die:

In the cross of Christ I glory, Towering o'er the wrecks of time; All the light of sacred story Gathers round its head sublime.

When the woes of life o'ertake me Hopes deceive, and fears annoy, Never shall the cross forsake me; Lo! it glows with peace and joy.

When the sun of bliss is beaming Light and love upon my way, From the cross the radiance streaming Adds new l.u.s.tre to the day.

Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure By the cross are sanctified, Peace is there that knows no measure, Joys that through all time abide.

_THE TUNE._

Ithamar Conkey's "Rathbun" fits the adoring words as if they had waited for it. Its air, swelling through diatonic fourth and third to the supreme syllable, bears on its waves the homage of the lines from bar to bar till the four voices come home to rest full and satisfied in the final chord--

Gathers round its head sublime.

Ithamar Conkey, was born of Scotch ancestry, in Shutesbury, Ma.s.s., May 5th, 1815. He was a noted ba.s.s singer, and was for a long time connected with the choir of the Calvary church, New York City, and sang the oratorio solos. His tune of "Rathbun" was composed in 1847, and published in Greatorex's collection in 1851. He died in Elizabeth, N.J., April 30, 1867.

CHAPTER III.

HYMNS OF CHRISTIAN DEVOTION AND EXPERIENCE.

"JESU DULCIS MEMORIA."

"Jesus the Very Thought of Thee."

The original of this delightful hymn is one of the devout meditations of Bernard of Clairvaux, a Cistercian monk (1091-1153). He was born of a n.o.ble family in or near Dijon, Burgundy, and when only twenty-three years old established a monastery at Clairvaux, France, over which he presided as its first abbot. Educated in the University of Paris, and possessing great natural abilities, he soon made himself felt in both the religious and political affairs of Europe. For more than thirty years he was the personal power that directed belief, quieted turbulence, and arbitrated disputes, and kings and even popes sought his counsel. It was his eloquent preaching that inspired the second crusade.

His fine poem of feeling, in fifty Latin stanzas, has been a source of pious song in several languages:

Jesu, dulcis memoria Dans vera cordi gaudia, Sed super mel et omnium Ejus dulcis presentia.

Literally--

Jesus! a sweet memory Giving true joys to the heart, But sweet above honey and all things His _presence_ [is].

The five stanzas (of Caswall's free translation) now in use are familiar and dear to all English-speaking believers:

Jesus, the very thought of Thee With sweetness fills my breast, But sweeter far Thy face to see, And in Thy presence rest.

Nor voice can sing nor heart can frame Nor can the memory find, A sweeter sound than Thy blest name, O Saviour of mankind.

The Rev. Edward Caswall was born in Hampshire, Eng., July 15, 1814, the son of a clergyman. He graduated with honors at Brazenose College, Oxford, and after ten years of service in the ministry of the Church of England joined Henry Newman's Oratory at Birmingham, was confirmed in the Church of Rome, and devoted the rest of his life to works of piety and charity. He died Jan. 2, 1878.

_THE TUNE._

No single melody has attached itself to this hymn, the scope of selection being as large as the supply of appropriate common-metre tunes. Barnby's "Holy Trinity," Wade's "Holy Cross" and Griggs' tune (of his own name) are all good, but many, on the giving out of the hymn, would a.s.sociate it at once with the more familiar "Heber" by George Kingsley and expect to hear it sung. It has the uplift and unction of John Newton's--

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds In the believer's ear.

"G.o.d CALLING YET! SHALL I NOT HEAR?"

Gerhard Tersteegen, the original author of the hymn, and one of the most eminent religious poets of the Reformed German church in its early days, was born in 1697, in the town of Mors, in Westphalia. He was left an orphan in boyhood by the death of his father, and as his mother's means were limited, he was put to work as an apprentice when very young, at Muhlheim on the Ruhr, and became a ribbon weaver. Here, when about fifteen years of age, he became deeply concerned for his soul, and experienced a deep and abiding spiritual work. As a Christian, his religion partook of the ascetic type, but his mysticism did not make him useless to his fellow-men.

At the age of twenty-seven, he dedicated all his resources and energies to the cause of Christ, writing the dedication in his own blood. "G.o.d graciously called me," he says, "out of the world, and granted me the desire to belong to Him, and to be willing to follow Him." He gave up secular employments altogether, and devoted his whole time to religious instruction and to the poor. His house became famous as the "Pilgrims'

Cottage," and was visited by people high and humble from all parts of Germany. In his lifetime he is said to have written one hundred and eleven hymns. Died April 3, 1769.

G.o.d calling yet! shall I not hear?

Earth's pleasures shall I still hold dear?

Shall life's swift-pa.s.sing years all fly, And still my soul in slumber lie?

G.o.d calling yet! I cannot stay; My heart I yield without delay.

Vain world, farewell; from thee I part; The voice of G.o.d hath reached my heart.

The hymn was translated from the German by Miss Jane Borthwick, born in Edinburgh, 1813. She and her younger sister, Mrs. Findlater, jointly translated and published, in 1854, _Hymns From the Land of Luther_, and contributed many poetical pieces to the _Family Treasury_. She died in 1897.

Another translation, imitating the German metre, is more euphonious, though less literal and less easily fitted to music not specially composed for it, on account of its "feminine" rhymes:

G.o.d calling yet! and shall I never hearken?

But still earth's witcheries my spirit darken; This pa.s.sing life, these pa.s.sing joys all flying, And still my soul in dreamy slumbers lying?

_THE TUNE._