The Singing Church: The Hymns It Wrote and Sang

by Edmund S. Lorenz

CHAPTER IX

[1]“The Greek language lived long and died slowly, and the Christian hymn writers wrote in its decadence.” (Rev. John Brownlie, in his preface to Hymns of the Greek Church.)

[2]The canon is an elaborate service consisting of nine odes or hymns of different forms.

CHAPTER X

[1]“Jesus, the very thought of Thee” (Caswall) or “Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts” (Palmer).

[2]“O sacred Head, now wounded,” translated by James W. Alexander from Paul Gerhardt’s “O Haupt voll Blut and Wunden,” a German version of the Latin hymn above.

[3]Imagine a poem of such length in the difficult “Leonine hexameter” of which the following translated lines will give an inkling:

“These are the latter times, these are not better times, let us stand waiting!

Lo, how with awfulness, He, first in lawfulness, comes arbitrating.”

Dr. Neale wisely reduced his centos to a plain meter, giving them practical usefulness.