The Hymnology
I know the Latin hymns of the Church of Rome; and I am aware of the high praises lavished on them by their advocates and admirers in Protestant lands and Churches. Indeed, the eulogies bestowed on them by sesthetic outsiders are much higher than those of Romanists themselves.
I mean neither to praise nor dispraise them. My object in referring to them has no reference to their merits.
What I mean to say in connection with them is that they are in a dead language, and are not understood by the millions of France, peasant or citizen, in the parish church or the cathedral. Many of the priests themselves, who chant them daily, know nothing of their meaning.
In such a case, there can be no worship except that of the organ and the unintelligible sounds: if these can be called by that name. Religion is reduced to a performance, — service done by proxy, and supposed to be accepted by God, because acted canonically by accredited priestly performers, who have undertaken the responsibilities of the worshipper.
The hymns of the Paris Mission are not of this kind, nor devised for such purposes. They are meant to be joined in by the audience; and are, of course, understood by those who sing them. They are not sounds to be listened to, but words to be sung; not musical notes to produce a physical impression, but true utterances of the soul, in which all the singers join, — fitted to lift the soul to God.
This is a new thing for the ouvriers of France. They can understand all that is said; they can join in all that is sung. This part of the E-oman bondage is now laid bare. The Church had doomed them not to comprehend a word of its worship: or rather it had made worship impossible. But the chain is breaking; the bondage of the unknown tongue is disappearing; and ‘’ liberty of worship,” in this sense as well as in others, is beginning to be known. Few think of this part of the old bondage; or are alive to the profanity that thus indirectly but effectually closes the lips of worshippers.
The reaction from this, no doubt, is at present telling upon Paris. Men see the difference between listening to a performer, as if they were at a cafe chantant, and taking part in sacred song. A church is not a theatre nor an 02:)era. Prayer and praise
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are things personal to each worshipper. Kome has always denied this, offering to undertake the praises of the worshipper as well as the responsibilities of the sinner; and France has hitherto been one of the nations that have been content to listen to the musical performances of Rome, and to accept its offer of performing religion for her.
These Mission cantiques have suggested the question to thousands, ought we not personally to take part in religious service?
It is not merely that the hymns are pleasant, and the tunes soothing; there is something deeper than this, in the influence which they are exercising both in the house and in the reunion salle. They have led to the discovery that the people themselves have a true part in worship, from which the tyranny of Romish sacerdotalism has shut them out. They are entitled to worship God, each one for himself.
Of the hymns we have already given several specimens. But we must ask our readers to get copies of the hymn-book for themselves, and to practise the singing in their families. Even with a slight knowledge of French the hymns can easily be followed; and the alternation of a French and English cantique is as lively as it is pleasant, round the Sabbath evening fireside or table.
From the Reformation era, the French Protestants had given both hymns and psalms a place in public worship; and the different editions of their Psalter, with the music, are innumerable. Some ten or twelve of these small volumes, — so far back as the beginning of the seventeenth century, — are in our possession: and there have always been French Protestant hymns down to our own day.“^ The noble volume of Felix Bovet, “Histoire du Psautier des Eglises E^formees,” published in Paris in 1872, gives the largest amount of information that has been given in connection with any psalter. He gives a complete list of the various editions, beginning with the year 1541, and ending with 1870. They are 800 in all. In 1837, there appeared an article in a well-known religious periodical, — Le Semeur, on ‘’ Hymnology in France.” This I have not seen. But the following paragraph from it, quoted in the life of Dr. Csesar Malan, in reference to the hymns of that revered divine, is worth quoting here: —” Among ourselves, with the revival of faith has come the revival of its song; and that, too, after a silence of more than a hundred years. God has taught His servants to perpetuate the
* A French priest attempted a volume of hymns, under the title of “Cantiques de I’Ame devote,” in 1786. His name was Durand; and, strange to say, he has set his verses to common tunes, — “accommods i des airs vulgaires.” Part of his volume is filled up with the usual Latin hymns for the seasons and festivals.
language of His praise, and has given them new hymns through the instrumentality of this truly Christian poet. M. Malan has reawakened the lay. His hymns belong already to history, because they have interwoven themselves, and while the revival lasts, will interweave themselves with the joys and sorrows of the Church.” ‘“”
The hymnology of the Mission is thus one of its most important and effective parts, and the cantiques loopulaires, with their lively tunes, are doing immense service, carrying the Gospel, as on the wings of a gentle breeze, into every recess of the city; not only drawing out the crowd to listen to the happy melodies, but sending it back laden with the Divine truth to which these melodies are joined. The songs go everywhere; and with them the truth goes everywhere. Can Rome meet this irresistible influence? Hearts are taken captive, and minds instructed; and men ask, How have we never seen all this before?
The Mission hymns are most suitable to their purpose, both in tone and in substance. They are not frivolous nor jaunty, like some of our English ones. They are cheerful but solemn. They do not sacrifice sense to sound or rhyme. They are tasteful as well as thoughtful, with more of a classic air about
* “Life and Labours of Caesar Malan,” p. 183.
them than is usual with revival hymns; yet simple and direct; filled with Bible truth, and conveying the good news in many a varied form. They are not “full of sound and fury,” and they all “signify something.” The first selection was found too small; and a larger one was published: of which there is preparing a new and cheaper edition, in a stronger binding to withstand the peculiar usage of the Parisian oiivrier, who invariably doubles bach his hymn-book, when he employs it in singing.
Some of the hymns are translations; a large number are new. Mr. M’AU himself has no les& than thirty-eight of his own; M. Saillens, forty-three; the other hymn-writers contributed fewer; but among these sweet singers appear the names of three Monods. A glance at the Table Alphabetique will show the variety, both in hymns and hymnists.
As I have interspersed throughout this narrative several specimens of the hymns, I need not add any here. The selection is admirable; and will, I am sure, commend itself to our readers, who ought by all means to procure a copy of the cantiques for themselves. In them they will find the creed of the Mission; and learn what truths are now circulating through the nation, through the medium of sacred song. In the absence of creed and catechism, these hymns will furnish an answer to the question of an inquirer, “What do these evangelists teach?” They teach what they sing. They have embodied their Gospel in happy verse and melody; and that Gospel, thus enshrined in song, is quite in accordance with the ‘* Confessions” of the Reformation Churches. It may be that by these hymns many in France will be led to study these ancient declarations of a faith, once widely held on both sides of the Rhine, — a faith which has never wholly died out, and which is now manifestly beginning to revive, and which, in its revival, promises to unite the nineteenth with the sixteenth century in an unexpected way and at a most unlikely time, turning back the era of unbelief and error to the era of faith and truth.