Faith lends her realizing light, The clouds disperse, the shadows fly, And God is seen by mortal eye." These are glimpses of our author's manner,-broad indeed, and awful, but signally illustrative, like lightning out of darkness, revealing for a moment the whole hemisphere. Among C. Wesley's highest achievements may be recorded, "Come, O Thou traveller unknown," &c. page 43, in which, with consummate art, he has carried on the action of a lyrical drama; every turn in the conflict with the mysterious Being, against whom he wrestles all night, being marked with precision by the varying language of the speaker, accompanied by intense, increasing interest, till the rapturous moment of discovery, when he prevails, and exclaims, "I know Thee, Saviour, who Thou art," &c.-The hymn, page 364, "Come on, my partners in distress," &c. anticipates the strains, and is written almost in the spirit, of the Church triumphant." Thou wretched man of sorrow," &c. and its companion-piece, "Great Author of my being," &c. page 278-9, are composed with equal strength and fervency of feeling,-feeling, congenial yet perfectly contrasted with that in the former instance; for here, instead of the society of saints and angels, he indulges lonely silent anguish, desiring "to live and die alone" with God, as if creature-communion had ceased with him for ever." Thou God of glorious majesty!" &c. page 158, is a sublime contemplation in another vein;-solemn, collected, unimpassioned thought, but thought occupied with that which is of everlasting import to a dying man, standing on the lapse of a moment between "two eternities."-The hymn on the Day of Judgment, "Stand the omnipotent decree," begins with a note, abrupt and awakening like the sound of the last trumpet. This is altogether one of the most daring and victorious flights of our author. Such pieces prove, that if Charles Wesley's hymns are less varied than might have been desired for general purposes, it was from choice, and predilection for certain views of the Gospel in its effects upon human minds, and not from want of diversity of gifts. It is probable, that the severer taste of his brother, the Rev. John Wesley, greatly tempered the extravagance of Charles, pruned his luxuriances, and restrained his impetuosity, in those hymns of his, which form a large proportion of the Methodist collection; the few which are understood to be John's, in that book, being of a more intellectual character than what are known to be Charles's, while the latter are wonderfully improved by abridgment and compression, in comparison with the originals, as they were first given to the public. Our further notices must be brief. The four hymns attributed to Addison are very pleasing. It is only to be regretted that they are not more in number, and that the God of Grace, as well as the God of Providence, is not more distinctly recognized in them. All that can be imagined deficient in Addison's hymns, will be found to constitute the glory of Doddridge's. They shine in the beauty of holiness; these offsprings of his mind are arrayed in "the fine linen, pure and white, which is the righteousness of saints;" and, like the saints, they are lovely and acceptable, not for their human merit, (for in poetry and eloquence they are frequently deficient,) but for that fervent unaffected love to God, his service, and his people, which distinguishes them. Blessed is the man who can take the words of this devoted servant of Christ, and say, from similar experience, "O happy day, that fix'd my choice On Thee, my Saviour and my God," &c.-Page 224. Or who, sitting down to commemorate the dying love of his Redeemer, can exclaim, "The King of heaven his table spreads," &c. page 221; or sing in higher mood, "Lord of the Sabbath, hear us pray," &c. page 215. And how dwelleth the love of God in that heart, which can hear unmoved, and without praying to be made a partaker of the same spirit, that sweet and humble appeal, "Do not I love Thee, O my Lord?" page 176. The fourth verse presents the touchstone of Christian profession, experience, and practice : "Hast Thou a lamb in all thy flock, I would disdain to feed? Hast Thou a foe, before whose face The hymns of the Rev. Augustus Toplady form a striking contrast with the mild and human tone of Doddridge's. There is a peculiarly ethereal spirit in some of these; in which, whether mourning or rejoicing, praying or praising, the writer seems absorbed in the full triumph of faith, and, "whether in the body or out of the body, caught up into the third heaven," and beholding unutterable things. He evidently kin dled his poetic torch at that of his contemporary, Charles Wesley; and, though inferior in breadth and volume of flame, yet the light which it sheds is not less vivid and sparkling, while it may be said to be more delicate to the eye, and refreshing to the spirits, than that prodigality of radiance which the rival luminary cast alike on every thing it touched. Page 165, "Rock of Ages, cleft for me," &c. is well known and appreciated. "Deathless principle, arise," &c. page 251, is scarcely suitable to be sung; but it may be uttered by "the dying Christian to his soul," with a joy which he alone can feel, and feel only at the height, in the last moment of time, and the first of eternity. Had this poem appeared without name, it might have been confidently set down as the production of Charles Wesley,-as one of Charles Wesley's loveliest progeny has been fathered upon Augustus Toplady: see page 155, "Christ, whose glory fills the skies," &c. Another writer, less known than any of the preceding, yet worthy of honour both for the quantity and the quality of his hymns, was the Rev. B. Beddome, a Baptist minister. His compositions are calculated to be far more useful than attractive, though, on closer acquaintance, they become very agreeable, as well as impressive, being for the most part brief and pithy. A single idea, always important, often striking, and sometimes ingeniously brought out, not with a mere point at the end, but with the terseness and simplicity of the Greek epigram,-constitutes the basis of each piece. Many of these were composed as supplementary applications of the texts, or main topics of his sermons; and they might supply preg nant hints both to ministers and people, who were disposed to turn them to profit in the same manner. His name would deserve to be held in everlasting remembrance, if he had left no other memorial of the excellent spirit which was in him, than the few humble verses, page 359: "Let party names no more The Christian world o'erspread; Are one in Christ their Head," &c. Of Cowper's hymns, the Editor of this volume has already spoken, in the Introductory Essay to his Poems, among the "SELECT CHRISTIAN AUTHORS;" and with respect to the Rev. J. Newton's, he expects to have a future opportunity of delivering his sentiments. He has, however, availed himself of both, to enrich the present collection with characteristic specimens. Hymns of various degrees of merit, (but all in their measure truly valuable for devotional purposes,) by authors, whose names, so far as they could be traced, are attached to their respective compositions in the Index, and others by anonymous writers, will be found in the following pages. Among these, there are not a few which will amply refute the slander, that hymns are necessarily the least intellectual or poetical species of literature. That noble ode, page 365, "The God of Abraham praise," &c. though the essay of an unlettered man, claims especial honour. There is not in our language a lyric of more majestic style, more elevated thought, or more glorious imagery; its structure, indeed, is unattractive; and, on account of the short |