A living hymn-writer of no small fame—the present Archbishop of York—has given us one of the very finest of the hymns for this season. Though not popular in the sense that Dr. Watts' celebrated hymn is, yet there are few more charmingly beautiful lines, suggestive of Good Friday and Easter thoughts, than are found in Dr. Maclagan's hymn, "Lord, when Thy Kingdom comes, remember me!"
This hymn is one of the best-known of the Archbishop's, though, of course, his most famous one is the ever-beautiful "The Saints of God, their conflict past."
We cannot pass by without notice the Rev. John Ellerton's "Welcome, happy morning," and the Rev. F. W. Faber's very sweetly sad "O come and mourn with me awhile," which, of course, is a hymn for Good Friday. The tune to this was written by the celebrated Durham man to whom the Church of England (and all denominations) will ever be in debt for some of the sweetest hymn-tunes the world has ever known—Dr. J. B. Dykes. And it was fitting that he who composed the beautiful tune to "Our blest Redeemer," for Whitsuntide, should then give us another ever-famous tune to Faber's grand words.
(Photo: T. Heaviside, Durham.)
THE LATE DR. J. B. DYKES.
Let me close this brief account of some of our finest Easter hymns by just recalling one or two of our finest Easter anthems. Of course, the first, par excellence, is the immortal "I know that my Redeemer liveth"; and equally with it, from the same "oratorio of oratorios," is the "Hallelujah" Chorus. Of these what shall be said? Shall it be told again how Handel thought he was in heaven when he wrote them? Or shall we note that the "Hallelujah" Chorus is one of the three pieces of music in the world on hearing which every Briton stands up and doffs his hat? These are the National Anthem, the "Dead March" in Saul, and the "Hallelujah" Chorus. In the first he pays his tribute to his earthly sovereign; in the second he pays his last tribute to the venerated dead; in the third he acknowledges the tribute due to his Almighty Lord, the Sovereign of Heaven.
(Photo: Hills and Saunders, Oxford.)
John Stainer