Ye nations bow with sacred joy,”
sung to “Old Hundredth,” would be more harmonious with the general purpose of the service. By the time the second hymn is reached there must be some exhilaration of spirit. It will not be desirable therefore to select
“All people that on earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice”;
first, because it is in exactly the same key of feeling as the previous hymn; second, because for that reason no tune is quite so fitting to it as “Old Hundredth,” which is already provided for; and third, because the presumable intensifying of feeling by this time calls for a brighter text and more spirited music. But it must be a hymn of worship, none the less; we choose, therefore,
“Oh, worship the King, all-glorious above;
Oh, gratefully sing His power and His love,”
the interrupted dactylic measure and triple time tune giving both dignity and movement.
If the prelude was a joyfully majestic composition, the anthem one of elevated praise—e.g., a “Venite” or a “Jubilate”—the responsive reading and the choir responses reverent and worshipful, the long prayer of the preacher exalted with genuine adoration (forgetful of the routine catalogue of petty petitions), and the Scripture passage noble with inspiring truth, the service might close at this point as having already realized its prime object of worship. There must have been something radically wrong in the spirit and management of it, if the preacher does not find his people responsive and himself inspiringly attuned to his noble theme. At the close of his discourse on the Divine Omnipotence, his people will presumably be ready to sing
“Let all on earth their voices raise,