CHAPTER VIII
[1]There is frequent lament that in the translations of Greek, Latin, and German hymns into English much of the original beauty is lost. But the converse is also true: that such translators as Neale, Brownlie, and Palmer have taken the uncut diamonds of the Greek and Latin Fathers and so transformed them by their lapidarian skill that the world-wide Christian Church is rejoicing in their beauty.
[2]The Te Deum has only slight claims to Greek origin and is postponed to a later chapter.
[3]In like manner the rationalists of the age of Frederick the Great of Prussia sought to prevent the use of the Lutheran hymns; the Arians in the pre-Wesleyan times contended for the psalm versions without doxologies recognizing the Trinity; in our own day, extreme Modernists belittle Christian hymns as dogmatic and unpoetical and urge the use of sociological hymns.
[4]This transfer of the song to clerical singers soon had its inevitable result. Jerome begins to be apprehensive that the form of singing would come to have too exclusive consideration. He complained that those who led the song, like comedians, “smoothed their throats with soft drinks in order to render their melodies more impressive, and that the heart alone can properly make melody to God.“