XXIV THINE FOR EVER! GOD OF LOVE THE TEXT OF THE HYMN I Thine for ever! God of love, 2 Thine for ever! Lord of life, Shield us through our earthly strife; 3 Thine for ever! O how blest 4 Thine for ever! Saviour, keep These Thy frail and trembling sheep; Let us all Thy goodness share. 5 Thine for ever! Thou our Guide, All our wants by Thee supplied, All our sins by Thee forgiven, Lead us, Lord, from earth to heaven. Mary Fawler (Hooper) Maude, 1847 NOTE. Five verses of the original seven. Some features of the text are referred to under "Some Points for Discussion." THE STORY OF THE HYMN A sensational or sentimental hymn may catch the ear of the public and at once gain a short-lived popularity. But a hymn of solid merit makes its way more slowly. It is not often that the writer of such a hymn lives to see it take its place in the permanent hymnody of the Church. Such, however, is the happy experience of Mrs. Maude, who wrote "Thine for Ever! God of Love." And it is certainly an additional happy circumstance that we now have the story of the hymn in her own words. Mrs. Maude has lately written it for the Rev. John Brownlie, as follows: "In 1847 my husband was minister of the Parish Church of St. Thomas, Newport, Isle of Wight. We had very large Sunday-schools, in which I taught the first class of elder girls, then preparing for their confirmation by the Bishop of Winchester. Health obliged me to go for some weeks to the seaside, and while there I wrote twelve letters to my class, which were afterward printed by the Church of England Sunday-School Institute. In one of the letters I wrote off, almost impromptu, the hymn Thine for ever." It should be explained, perhaps, that in the confirmation service in the Church of England the prayer spoken by the bishop in the act of laying on his hands begins, "Defend, O Lord, this thy Child with thy heavenly grace, that he may continue thine for ever." These words furnished the theme for the hymn. In the hymn they are taken up by catechumens and congregation, and made the words of their own prayer. Mrs. Maude goes on to say: The hymn must have "been in some way seen by the committee of the Chris- Thine for Ever ! God of Love Stear us from the throne above; through our earthly strife . Then the Life, the Truth, the Way, Guide us to the realms of day. AUTOGRAPH VERSES came in from all quarters. Little did I imagine that it "It was our custom in Chirk Vicarage to sing a hymn, chosen in turn, at our evening family prayer on the Lord's Day. On Sunday, February 8th, 1887, it was my husband's turn to choose, and he gave out Thine for ever, looking round at me. On the 11th he was singing with saints in Paradise. . . . "Now, in my eightieth year, whenever I meet my hymn, there seems written across it, to my mental vision, non nobis Domine." Mrs. Maude's hymn is so admirably suited to a confirmation service that its early adoption in the Church of England can readily be understood. In this country the hymn does not seem to have been used in the Episcopal Church until 1872. By that time it was already getting to be familiar in such Presbyterian and Congregational churches as were using Dr. Robinson's Songs for the Sanctuary, published in 1865. In accounting for the wide use into which this hymn. has come, one finds a reminder of the actual distinction between a collection of lyrical or even devotional poetry on the one hand and a hymn book on the other. If he were considering this hymn as a candidate for inclusion in a book of lyrics he would feel that it was lyrical in the sense of being eminently singable, but he would look in vain through its verses for any special structural beauty, for a thought or even a turn of expression that had anything of the charm of the unexpected. Nothing in it is far removed from the commonplace in a poetic He might feel toward it in much the same way, considered for a place even in a book of devotional poetry. He would recognize a real tenderness of feeling and a perfect refinement of expression. Why, even then, should it gain favor as against a vast body of verse as true in religious feeling and equally poetic, to say the least? But who, on the other hand, has ever heard Mrs. Maude's hymn sung heartily in connection with the act of admitting catechumens to the Table of their Lord without feeling something of the satisfaction sense. that comes with the right word, to the occasion true because exactly expressive of the feeling which the occasion evokes? Mrs. Maude's verses, it would seem, find their proper place not in a book of poems, but in a service book. They are poetry in the sense of being liturgical verse, whose art consists in entering into the feelings of those participating in a certain service, and giving to them expression in perfect truth and in perfect taste. To bring out the poetry in them they must be sung, and sung in connection with the service to which they belong, and sung by those whose hearts respond to what the service means and stands for. There is abundant room for lyrics of high art in the hymn book, but there is also an inevitable demand for proper liturgical poetry. In estimating the readiness of welcome which Mrs. Maude's hymn has found, one has also to remember that it did not have to make its way through a very formidable body of competitors. Even now it stands. somewhat isolated on a bare spot of the domain of our hymnody. We have Bishop Wordsworth's conscientious and careful "Arm These Thy Soldiers, Mighty Lord" (The Hymnal, No. 315). But the hymn itself belongs to the Heavy Artillery, and rarely gets into active service. We have also President Davies's "Lord, I am Thine, Entirely Thine" (The Hymnal, No. 320), but many who have heard it sung by a great congregation must have felt that it should have remained rather as a secret between an individual soul and its Master. There are no other hymns for this occasion with the liturgical excellence of Mrs. Maude's. And that fact greatly strengthens its title to the place it now holds. |