NEW YEAR.
Two representative hymns of this class are John Newton's—
While with ceaseless course the sun,
—and Charles Wesley's—
Come let us anew our journey pursue;
the one a voice at the next year's threshold, the other a song at the open door.
While with ceaseless course the sun
Hasted thro' the former year
Many souls their race have run
Nevermore to meet us here.
* * * * * *
As the winged arrow flies
Speedily the mark to find,
As the lightening from the skies
Darts and leaves no trace behind,
Swiftly thus our fleeting days
Bear we down life's rapid stream,
Upward, Lord, our spirits raise;
All below is but a dream.
A grave occasion, whether unexpected or periodical, will force reflection, and so will a grave 556 / 494 truth; and when both present themselves at once, the truth needs only commonplace statement. If the statement is in rhyme and measure more attention is secured. Add a tune to it, and the most frivolous will take notice. Newton's hymn sung on the last evening of the year has its opportunity—and never fails to produce a solemn effect; but it is to the immortal music given to it in Samuel Webbe's “Benevento” that it owes its unique and permanent place. Dykes' “St. Edmund” may be sung in England, but in America it will never replace Webbe's simple and wonderfully impressive choral.
Charles Wesley's hymn is the antipode of Newton's in metre and movement.
Come, let us anew our journey pursue,
Roll round with the year
And never stand still till the Master appear.
His adorable will let us gladly fulfil
And our talents improve
By the patience of hope and the labor of love.
Our life is a dream, our time as a stream
Glides swiftly away,
And the fugitive moment refuses to stay.
The arrow is flown, the moment is gone,
The millennial year,
Rushes on to our view, and eternity's near.
One could scarcely imagine a greater contrast than between this hymn and Newton's. In spite of its eccentric metre one cannot dismiss it as rhythmical jingle, for it is really a sermon shaped into a popular canticle, and the surmise is not a 559 / 495 difficult one that he had in mind a secular air that was familiar to the crowd. But the hymn is not one of Wesley's poems. Compilers who object to its lilting measure omit it from their books, but it holds its place in public use, for it carries weighty thoughts in swift sentences.
O that each in the Day of His coming may say,
“I have fought my way through,
I have finished the work Thou didst give me to do.”
O that each from the Lord may receive the glad word,
“Well and faithfully done,
Enter into my joy, and sit down on my throne.”
For a hundred and fifty years this has been sung in the Methodist watch-meetings, and it will be long before it ceases to be sung—and reprinted in Methodist, and some Baptist hymnals.
The tune of “Lucas,” named after James Lucas, its composer, is the favorite vehicle of song for the “Watch-hymn.” Like the tune to “O How Happy Are They,” it has the movement of the words and the emphasis of their meaning.
No knowledge of James Lucas is at hand except that he lived in England, where one brief reference gives his birth-date as 1762 and “about 1805” as the birth-date of the tune.
“GREAT GOD, WE SING THAT MIGHTY HAND.”
The admirable hymn of Dr. Doddridge may be noted in this division with its equally admirable 560 / 496 tune of “Melancthon,” one of the old Lutheran chorals of Germany.
Great God, we sing that mighty hand
By which supported still we stand.
The opening year Thy mercy shows;
Thy mercy crown it till its close!
By day, by night, at home, abroad,
Still we are guarded by our God.
As this last couplet stood—and ought now to stand—pious parents teaching the hymn to their children heard them repeat—
By day, by night, at home, abroad,
We are surrounded still with God.
Many are now living whose first impressive sense of the Divine Omnipresence came with that line.