German Hymnology [pp. 574-602]

German Hymnology.
fore from imagination, memory, and reverent affection, are
here combined in behalf of the national religious song. Hence
the rigorous demarcation, even among a most musical people,
between the music of God's house, and the music of the stage
and the drawing-room. The two operate only in an indirect
way on each other. The church borrows no lilting measures
from the opera or the streets, and never violates the sanctity
of communions or funeral rites by the intrusion of song-tunes
redolent of secular or licentious remembrances.
How far the riches of German hymnology has been transferred into the Dutch and Scandinavian languages, we are
unprepared to say; but many of their favourite productions
have been translated into English. The deep impressions
made upon John Wesley, in favour of German piety, first by
his voyage to Georgia and residence there among the Salzburgers, and then by his visit to Herrnhut, in 1738, may have
had a more direct bearing on the musical zeal of the early
Wesleyans, than is commonly thought. Of those who sing
the Methodist hymns, in different parts of the globe, there are
few who know that some which they most approve are early
translations from the German. Thus, for example,'Commit
thou all thy griefs,' is Paul Gerhardt's famous Bef ehl du deine
Weyc; and' O God thou bottomless abyss,' is Lange's 0 Gott du
Tiefe sonder Grund. It is a most interesting fact, little known
by our foreign brethren, that twenty-two of the Methodist
hymns were translated from the German by John Wesley.*
They include some of the most touching effusions of a collectionl as widely used as any in the world.
With all our predilections for the poets of our own tongue,
we are forced to admit that our treasury of sacred song is less
ample and varied than that of our neighbours. We could
single out hymns in English, which in our judgment are fully
equal to the best ever produced abroad; in matter, spirit,
unction and lyrical completeness. In a purely literary view,
the proportion of excellence is on our side. Correctness, elegance, and a certain pomp of verse, not without fire of passion,
exist in the master-pieces of Watts, Wesley and Steele. But
* These are given in detail, in Creamer's Methodist Hymnology, p. 103.
1850.]
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