(3) The non-Christian religions are now regarded with a more sympathetic feeling than in Bishop Heber's time. Has the growth of this feeling had any effect upon our estimate of the appropriateness and usefulness of this hymn? Compare it in this respect with Bishop Coxe's missionary hymn, "Saviour, Sprinkle Many Nations" (The Hymnal, No. 399). (4) Bishop Heber lived at a time when English lyrical poetry had a great development under Walter Scott, Byron, and others. His aim in writing hymns was to get something of this new lyrical grace and charm into the hymns of the Church. Of his original hymns there are nine in The Hymnal (see its Index of Authors). Do they show that he succeeded in his purpose? One of them Lord Tennyson thought the greatest hymn in the language. In the opinion of others Heber's style was somewhat too ornate and flowing for hymn writing. (5) The hymns of the Church may be called the flowers of the Church's history. The hymns of any epoch grow out of the spiritual life of that epoch, and express its best thought and feeling. Of this Bishop Heber's hymn is an example. The hymn itself is the outgrowth of that missionary movement in England whose influences had surrounded him while growing up. The movement arose with the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Baptist Missionary Society was founded in 1792, the London Missionary Society in 1795; within the Church of England an active Society for Missions to Africa was started in 1799, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel began a new career with the new century. It was only in 1813 that the obstacles to missionary work in Heber's beloved India were overcome and the way declared open by Parliament. The aroused conscience and quickened pulse of England have a witness in this and other hymns of the time. And is it not somewhat surprising that the increased missionary enthusiasm of the latter part of the century did not more freely embody itself in hymns that should gain the ear and heart of the Church? The new missionary literature has attained great proportions, but in it all hymnody plays a rather inconspicuous part. Yet there would seem to be room in our hymnals for fresh missionary hymns; and without increasing the size of the books, from which, one would think, some few of the more prosaic hymns on that theme might go without serious loss. VII MY FAITH LOOKS UP TO THEE THE TEXT OF THE HYMN I My faith looks up to Thee, Saviour Divine: Now hear me while I pray, 2 May Thy rich grace impart My zeal inspire; As Thou hast died for me, Pure, warm, and changeless be, 3 While life's dark maze I tread, Wipe sorrow's tears away, From Thee aside. 4 When ends life's transient dream, Blest Saviour, then, in love, Fear and distrust remove; O bear me safe above, A ransomed soul. Ray Palmer, 1830 NOTE. The text is taken from his Hymns and Sacred Pieces, 1865. As regards a different reading in the original printing of the hymn, see under "Some Points for Discussion," (3). THE STORY OF THE HYMN "Look in thy heart, and write," said the muse to Sir Philip Sidney: and no language could reveal more clearly the source of this hymn. Its words were born of my own soul," the author said long afterward to Dr. Cuyler. It becomes at once evident, therefore, that we must be altogether dependent upon such disclosures as the author chose to make for any real knowledge of the origin of the hymn. Happily for us the publication of inaccurate and apocryphal accounts of the matter (already alluded to in the preface to this book), together with a wish to escape from "the necessity of replying to letters of inquiry which have been received in inconvenient numbers," led Dr. Palmer (in an appendix to his Poctical Works, 1876) to narrate the circumstances and experience out of which the hymn arose : "Immediately after graduating at Yale College, in September, 1830, the writer went to the city of New York, by previous engagement, to spend a year in teaching for two or three hours each day in a select school for young ladies. This private institution, which was patronized by the best class of families, was under the "direction of an excellent Christian lady connected with St. George's Church, the rector of which was then the good Dr. James Milnor. It was in Fulton Street, west of Broadway, and a little below Church Street on the south side of the way. That whole section of the city, now covered with immense stores and crowded with business, was then occupied by genteel residences. The writer resided in the family of the lady who kept the school, and it was there that the hymn was written. "It had no external occasion whatever. Having been accustomed almost from childhood, through an inherited propensity perhaps, to the occasional expression of what his heart felt in the form of verse, it was in accordance with this habit, and in an hour when Christ, in the riches of His grace and love, was so vividly apprehended as to fill the soul with deep emotion, that the piece was composed. There was not the slightest thought of writing for another eye, least of all of writing a hymn for Christian worship. Away from outward excitement, in the quiet of his chamber, and with a deep consciousness of his own needs, the writer transferred as faithfully as he could to paper what at the time was passing within him. Six stanzas were composed, and imperfectly written, first on a loose sheet, and then accurately copied into a small morocco-covered book, which for such purposes the author was accustomed to carry in his pocket. This first complete copy is still-1875-preserved. It is well remembered that when writing the last line, ‘A ransomed soul,' the thought that the whole work of redemption and salvation was involved in those words, and suggested the theme of eternal praises, moved the writer to a degree of emotion that brought abundant tears. |