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/TO ORIGIN AND ITS ROMANCE

BY

ALLAN SUTHERLAND

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

THE REV. HENRY C. McCOOK

D.D., LL.D., So.D.

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NEW YORK

FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1905 By The Butterick Publishing Co., Ltd.

Copyright, 1906 By Frederick A. Stokes Company

THE LIBRAR BRIGHAfv; YOUNG UMVERSIT PROVO, UTAH

INTRODUCTORY

BY THE

REV. HENRY C. McCOOK, D.D.,LL.D., Sc.D.*

ROM the earliest eras of history, religion has been wedded to song. In every stage of civilisation and in well-nigh every form of worship this has been true. From the rude ululations of savage medicine-men, with the monotonous beat of tum-tums, to the splendid Levitical choir of the Hebrew temple that rendered the psalms to the accompaniment of stringed and

* President of the Presbyterian Historical Society ; Chaplain of the Forty-first Regiment, Illinois Volunteers, 1861-62 ; Chaplain of the Sec- ond Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, during the Spanish- American War ; Founder of the National Relief Commission, in Spanish- American War; Author of "The Latimers : A Scotch-Irish Historic Romance of the Western Insurrection," "Women Friends of Jesus," "The Last Days of Jesus," " The Gospel of Nature," " Tenants of an Old Farm," "American Spiders and their Spinning- work," "Old Farm Fairies," "The Agricultural Ant of Texas," "The Honey and Occident Ants," and "Martial Graves of our Fallen Heroes in Santiago de Cuba: A Record of the Spanish- American War."

INTRODUCTORY

brazen instruments, the record does not vary.

How rhythm and melody react upon the religious sentiment, and why religious experience naturally flows in rhythmic utterance, one need not here inquire. Such inquiries belong to the natural his- tory of sacred psalmody. But there are our sacred books to attest the facts. A large part of them are poems. The poets of ancient Israel were true prophets. The core of the Hebrew religion and worship lay within its religious songs ; and these are the portions of its ritual that have lived ; and one may safely predict that they shall run the whole cycle of being with our race.

As far back as the days of Moses, we read of Miriam under a prophetic im- pulse breaking forth into song to com- memorate the deliverance of Israel from the Egyptians on the peninsular shore of

INTRODUCTORY

the Red Sea. A refrain of that hymn has come down to us :

" Sing unto the Lord for He hath triumphed gloriously ; The horse and his rider He hath whelmed within the sea."

That such religious songs were not rare and that their musical utterance was even then organized as a part of worship, appears from the fact that Miriam's countrywomen accompanied her with their guitars, and joined in the chorus.

The Songs of Deborah illumined the period of the Judges. They have been given a place by competent critics among the noblest lyrics of antiquity. One of these, Heinrich Ewald, speaks of them as so artistic, with all their an- tique simplicity, that they show to what "refined art poetry early aspired, and what a delicate perception of beauty breathed already beneath its stiff and cumbrous soul."

INTRODUCTORY

The Gospel era dawned in the midst of holy songs, hymned by angels, by holy men and women, and by the Mother of our Lord. From that day on the Church of Jesus has been vocal with psalmody. The primitive Church had her spiritual songs. The saintliness of the early Christian ages survives in the Greek and Latin hymns, and the pleas- ant task of translating and assembling the choicest of these has occupied many gifted minds.

The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century was borne forward on waves of sacred song. The sweet voice of the student lad that appealed from the snowy street to the heart of Dame Ursula Cotta, and opened her doors to Martin Luther, was a type of the new time. The new songs of the Reforma- tion and the old psalms renewed in the vernacular and in popular musical forms,

INTRODUCTORY

prepared the way of multitudes for the revived truths of the Gospel.

Luther's musical taste and talent im- pressed itself upon Germany, and thence upon Europe. His free spirit found utterance outside of the Biblical forms of praise in metrical renderings of his own and other religious experiences. Calvin saw the value and authority of popular praises, and encouraged and pro- cured their use in the new organisation of reformed worship of which he was the chief agent. But his more conserv- ative spirit in such matters held to the ancient psalms ; and this influenced all Europe outside of Germany. The Church of England used the version of Sternhold and Hopkins, and these will be found appended to the early prayer- books. Rous's version was substantially that best liked and approved by the Church of Scotland.

INTRODUCTORY

The historic "Huguenot Psalter" was the joint work of Clement Marot and Theodore Beza, the former having ren- dered into French metre the first fifty psalms, and the latter the remaining one hundred. These, set to popular music, caught the ear and heart of the people of all ranks. They ran rapidly through- out French-speaking nations, and be- came as well known as the "Gospel Hymns " in the palmy days of Moody and Sankey.

The Hebrew Psalter embodies the re- ligious experiences of the chosen people, whose faith, more spiritual than that of any other nation of antiquity, was in- breathed and nurtured by the Holy Spirit. It is not to be supposed that the one hundred and fifty psalms in- cluded within the canonical psalter were the only ones that the poets of Israel hymned. But these, in the process of

INTRODUCTORY

an inspired selection and a devotional development, were the ones that filled and satisfied the religious consciousness of that most spiritual people, and be- came the vehicle of not only a national but of an international praise.

For the Book of Psalms is a book for all nations. The very divinity of its origin insures its catholic humanity. It has proved its high ethnic qualities by ages of world-wide usage. A cloud of witnessing praises, rising from the Church of every age and name through- out centuries of testing, testifies to its fitness. If the taste of this era — much to the regret of some of us — has largely rejected metrical versions in the vernac- ular, yet their use, after the manner of the ancients, in chants, still holds and even widens in the Church's service of praise.

It is significant that the hymns which

INTRODUCTORY

have fastened themselves upon the hearts of the devout in any one branch of the Church are those which are loved and used by all who honor and love the name of Christ. In all ages the truly devout are one in spiritual sympathy, and therefore the forms of praise which utter the devotions of one heart bear alike to God the aspirations of another. The Calvinistic Toplady, Watts, and Bonar; the Methodist Wesley s; the Anglican Heber, Ken, and Keble; the Romanist Faber and Newman, and all the goodly company of the sons and daughters of Asaph, when uttering the devotions of their souls, speak in one tongue.

There is something divine in the flame of sacred poesy that burns out there- from the dross of sect. The hymns of the most rigid denominations are rarely sectarian. There is not a presbyter or

INTRODUCTORY

priest in this whole land, who, with due tact and good faith, could not con- duct a mission or service of song as chaplain of a congregation of soldiers or sailors made up of Protestants and Roman Catholics, of all phases of eccles- iastical opinions, without one discordant note and with perfect approval and en- joyment of all. This the writer, as a Government chaplain in two wars and for a quarter of a century in the Na- tional Guard, has repeatedly done and seen done.

Such great catholic missions as those of Moody and Sankey, Whittle and Bliss, Torrey and Alexander, which have appealed to all classes, conditions, and creeds, and have made their services so largely a service of song, have been and remain impressive witnesses of the substantial unity of the devout when they engage in the worship of praise.

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ROCK OF AGES

EVONSHIRE, the beau- tiful, has inspired at least three hymns that will always be treas- ured by spiritually minded people: 'Just As I Am," by Charlotte Elliott; "Abide with Me," by Henry Francis Lyte; and "Rock of Ages," by Augustus Montague Top- lady. The last of these Dr. Charles S. Robinson declares to be " the su- preme hymn of the language"; and Colonel Nicholas Smith says, " No other hymn has swept the chords of the human heart with a more hallowed touch."

In August, 1756, in a barn in a rural district of Ireland, an English youth of sixteen, who had been carefully reared by a widowed and cultured mother, lis- tened with rapt attention to an impas- sioned sermon from the text, " But now:

FAMOUS HYMNS OF THE WORLD

in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." — Ephesians 2 : 13. The speaker was James Morris, an illiterate layman, a disciple of the Wesleys; the boy was the future author of " Rock of Ages."

Toplady writes as follows of this in- cident in his career: " Strange that I, who had so long sat under the means of grace in England, should be brought nigh unto God in an obscure part of Ireland, amidst a handful of God's peo- ple, met together in a barn, and under the ministry of one who could hardly spell his name. Surely, it is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous. The excel- lency of such power must be of God, and cannot be of man."

In thus blessing the work of Mr. Morris by the conversion of the gifted boy we have an admirable illustration of how the Master can use the humblest of men in the salvation of others.

ROCK OF AGES

Shortly after, Toplady became a student in Trinity College, Dublin, from which institution he was in due course graduated. At the age of twenty-two he was made a priest, and became curate of Farleigh, and in 1768 he was appointed to Broad Hembury, in Devonshire. Here the first signs of the dread disease, consumption, mani- fested themselves. In 1775 he went to London, hoping that a drier atmosphere would prove beneficial, and while there he preached for a time in a French Cal- vinistic church; but his health con- tinued to fail, and he died on the 11th of August, 1778, at the age of thirty- eight. He had lived long enough, how- ever, to give to the world one of its most highly treasured heart-songs.

When " Rock of Ages ' was writ- ten is not known, but we may be sure that it was nothing less than the voice of the Almighty that inspired the au- thor to write words of such soul-stirring

FAMOUS HYMNS OF THE WORLD

power. The hymn first appeared, in an unfinished form, in the Gospel Maga- zine of October, 1775, and more fully the succeeding year in the March num- ber of the same periodical.

The Rev. William Reeside Kirk- wood, D.D., LL.D., writes:

" This hymn has been very dear to me from my childhood. It was a great help to me in the days when I sought rest and found none, while seeking par- don for sin. It, like Wesley's ' Jesus, Lover of My Soul,' is a very direct and personal appeal to God, but it has a statelier flow. It recognises the chasm and the cause of it — not so much in words as by implication. It is personal, but it notes the Rock of Eternity, and the Cleft in the Rock. It suggests Moses at Sinai. It does not lose sight of the Law, the Lightning, the Judg- ment; yet, when its spirit is appre- hended and entered into, how secure one feels! For it is not merely the loving

ROCK OF AGES

man Jesus who appears alone, but c Jesus, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,' so that seeing Him we see the Father, and realise the whole glory of the present Godhead as our security. At least, this is the way it appeals to me.

" In this connection let me tell you of a version I had in my boyhood of the circumstances under which these two hymns were written. I have never seen it in print. It was told me by a man many years my senior, and a close and careful student: Wesley and Toplady met under circumstances which led to heated theological and doctrinal contro- versy; and, of course, the debate was on one or more of the ' Five Points.' They argued until after midnight, but neither could convince the other. They separated, each filled with spiritual ex- altation. Full of joy and comfort from his view, Wesley wrote ' Jesus, Lover of My Soul,' before he slept. In like

FAMOUS HYMNS OF THE WOULD

manner, Toplady, exultant in his view, wrote ' Rock of Ages ' before he sought rest. Thus out of hours of spirited controversy on the ■ Five Points ' grew two of the noblest hymns of our language."

Mr. W. T. Stead makes the follow- ing interesting reference to this theo- logical controversy: " Toplady was a sad polemist whose orthodox soul was outraged by the Arminianism of the Wesleys, and he put much of his time and energy into the composition of con- troversial pamphlets, on which the good man prided himself not a little. The dust lies thick upon these his works, nor is it likely to be disturbed now or in the future. But in a pause in the fray, just by way of filling up an interval in the firing of the polemical broadsides, Top- lady thought he saw a way of launching an airy dart at a joint in Wesley's ar- mour ; so, without much ado, and with- out any knowledge that it was by this

ROCK OF AGES

alone he was to render permanent ser- vice to mankind, he sent off to the Gospel Magazine the hymn ' Rock of Ages/ When it appeared, he had, no doubt, considerable complacency in re- flecting how he had winged his oppon- ent for his insolent doctrine of entire sanctification, and it is probable that be- fore he died — for he only survived its publication by two years — he had still no conception of the relative impor- tance of his own work. But to-day the world knows Toplady only as the writer of these four verses. All else that he laboured over it has forgotten ; and, in- deed, does well to forget."

The Rev. Edward Milton Page, D.D., says: " * Rock of Ages' was taught me by my mother when a child upon her knee. It is the first hymn or song of any kind my heart ever knew or my lips ever t ie< to lisp. My Chris- tian life bega i w Ji 'Rock of Ages/ and may it end in being hid in Him."

FAMOUS HYMNS OF THE WORLD

An English friend has kindly fur- nished the following interesting inci- dent: " Many years ago, during a heated discussion in the House of Com- mons, an opponent of William E. Glad- stone was attacking him with words of unusual severity, and he was observed to be writing diligently, apparently framing a reply. A friend, seated near him, was curious to learn how it was that his leader so successfully preserved his calm repose under such a torrent of invective. Looking over Mr. Glad- stone's shoulder, he found him busily engaged in translating into Latin ' Rock of Ages,' his favourite hymn. Fortunately, this translation has been preserved.

" ' lesus, pro me perforatus, Condar intra tuum latus, Tu per lympham profluentem, Tu per sanguinem tepentem, In peccata mi redunda, Tolle culpam, sordes munda.

ROCK OF AGES

" ' Coram te nee iustus forem, Quamvis tota vi laborem, Nee si fide nunquam cesso, Fletu stillans indefesso; Tibi soli tantum munus; Salva me, Salvator unus!

" 6 Nil in manu mecum fero, Sed me versus crucem gero; Vestimenta nudus oro, Opem debilis imploro; Fontem Christi qucero immundus, Nisi laves, moribundus.

" ' Bum hos artus vita regit; Quando nox sepulchro tegit; Mortuos cum stare tubes, Sedens index inter nubes; lesus, pro me perforatus, Condar intra tuum latus.' "

Gladstone also translated this hymn into Greek and Italian. At the end of a noble life, which had been devoted to the best interests of his fellowmen, he had this hymn sung to him, and found his most comforting hope in the lines :

" Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to Thy cross I cling.5'

FAMOUS HYMNS OF THE WORLD

All who attempt to translate this beautiful hymn into other languages are not so happy in their effort as was Mr. Gladstone. A missionary in India writes that he employed a Hindoo scholar to assist him in translating " Rock of Ages " into the vernacular. His surprise may be imagined when he read, as the result of the effort of the learned Oriental, the first two lines:

" Very old stone, split for my benefit, Let me get under one of your f ragments."

This hymn was a favourite with Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, and when he lay dying in Windsor Castle in 1861, almost his last words were : " I have had wealth, power, and fame, but if these were all that I had had, what would I have now?' And then he was heard repeating softly and reverently,

" Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.*

ROCK OF AGES

When the steamship " London " went to her doom in the Bay of Biscay in 1866, the last sounds borne over the waters to those who succeeded in mak- ing their escape were not wails of de- spair, but the brave, hopeful prayer voiced in the words of this immortal hymn.

Dr. S. S. Pomeroy states that in an Armenian church in Constantinople he was deeply moved by hearing a Turk- ish translation of this hymn sung, and by seeing many of the worshippers singing with eyes filled with tears.

An incident somewhat similar is re- lated of the celebration of the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria, when rep- resentatives from every land came to congratulate her on her long and pros- perous reign. Among these was a native of Madagascar. After conveying his good wishes to the Queen, he suggested that, if agreeable, he would like to sing to her. Naturally, it was expected that

FAMOUS HYMNS OF THE WORLD

he would sing one of his native songs, but, to the surprise of all, he sang " Rock of Ages." The Rev. Duncan Morrison, of Owen Sound, Canada, who was present, writes:

" There was profound and awkward silence which was difficult to break, for many were affected to tears in seeing the coming back of seed sown on the waters in missionarv faith and zeal. All were taken by surprise, little expecting to hear from the lips of the Hova on this grand occasion the sweetest of all the songs of Zion. The venerable man took delight in telling his hearers that this one song had been very close to his heart and had enabled him to while away many a weary hour in his pilgrim- age through life."

General J. E. B. Stuart, the famous Confederate cavalry leader, received a mortal wound at Yellow Tavern, Vir- ginia, and died in a hospital in Rich- mond on the 12th of May, 1864, at

ROCK OF AGES

the age of thirty-one. When his old minister, to whom he was devotedly attached, came to see him, he requested that " Rock of Ages " be sung. The young General joined in the hymn, but soon his voice faltered and failed. " I feel," he whispered, " that I am going fast. I am ready. God's will be done." And with the words of the precious hymn still ringing in his ears, he passed on to join the heavenly com- pany who have " washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

The following incident admirably illustrates the spirit of the hymn: " The noble old song has had a new meaning to me since an experience a friend and I had one summer evening going from Grand Portage, Lake Superior, to Isle Royal, twenty miles out in the lake. We started with a fair breeze, and our two boatmen assured us that we would have a short and pleasant ruji to the

FAMOUS HYMNS OF THE WORLD

island. But when about half way over, the wind failed ; and calm, like the peace of God, was in the air and on the lake. Evening was coming on, and the only thing to do was to take the oars, if we did not wish to spend the night on the water. But it was slow work, even for the four of us, to row that heavy sailboat. The sun went down, leaving a great glory of red and gold on lake and sky that presently faded away, and darkness came on. Far away to the northeast a light gleamed in the dark- ness like a star; it was the light at Thunder Bay.

" The boatmen began to worry. ' We are right in the track of the big boats to and from Port Arthur/ they said, ' and we have no lights and may be run down at any time.' Here was cause to be anxious, indeed. Presently, one of the men said, ' If we can only get inside the Rock of Ages, we '11 be all right.'

ROCK OF AGES

a <

Rock of Ages? ' my friend and I both asked ; ' what is it and where is it?'

" ' It is a big rock three miles west of Washington Harbour, on the island. The big boats all keep outside of it.'

" We were silent for a time, the only sound being the noise of the oars in the rowlocks and in the water. And then my friend began to sing softly:

" ' Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.'

" Suddenly one of the men said : ' There it is; we 're all right now! ' By looking closely, I could make out in the darkness, on the right, a darker spot. The boatmen said it was the rock, and that we were now safe.

' c What is that verse,' said, my friend, ' in Isaiah about the Rock of Ages? Trust ye in Jehovah forever: for in Jehovah, even Jehovah, is a Rock of Ages. We have had a fine illustra-

FAMOUS HYMNS OF THE WORLD

tion of that text. Outside that rock yonder we were in constant danger; in here, we are in perfect safety, and get- ting nearer the harbour every moment. So we are safe or unsafe as we trust or distrust our Rock of Ages.' "

The Rev. Edwin M. Rice, D.D., Editor of the American Sundav-school Union, has this interesting statement to make concerning the school attended by Toplady: " Several of the hymn- writers of the widest fame and popu- larity in the past century or two have been educated at one institution — the Westminster School, England, chiefly St. Peter's College, Westminster. That sweet singer, George Herbert, entered the school as a ' King's scholar ' in 1604. The famous author of ' Jesus, Lover of My Soul,' Charles Wesley, entered the school in 1721, as a ' Town boy,' and became captain of the school in 1725. The author of ' Rock of Ages,' A. M. Toplady, was a scholar there in 1756.

ROCK OF AGES

John Austin, who in his youth wrote ' Hark, My Soul,' was in the same school in 1640. The great poet laure- ate, John Dryden, carved his name on a form there when a lad, the name and form being still carefully preserved. But the more durable impression was made when he wrote, ' Creator, Spirit By Whose Aid/ The author of ' God moves in a mysterious way,' William Cowper, was also a student here. Bap- tist W. Noel, Joseph Anstice, G. E. Cotton, Gerald Phillimore, William Waterfield, and others, who have made helpful contributions to hymnology, have attended this school; indeed, so many writers of hymns have attended St. Peter's College that it has been called a ' School of Hymn-writers,' and it well deserves the name."

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

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