The Singing Church: The Hymns It Wrote and Sang

by Edmund S. Lorenz

The didactic value of the hymn is too great that we should refuse its help in laying a foundation of doctrine in the hearts of the people of God. Never was it more necessary than now. It is significant of John Wesley’s appreciation of its didactic value that in his announcement of his hymnal of 1780, The Large Hymn Book, he refers to his grouping of the hymns under subjects, making the hymnal “a little body of experimental and practical divinity.”

Many of our most frequently used hymns are unfeignedly didactic. Bishop Wordsworth’s “O day of rest and gladness” is a resume of the arguments for the validity of the Christian Sabbath. “The Church’s one foundation” is one of a series of hymns by Samuel J. Stone expounding the Apostles’ Creed. Heber’s hymn, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty” is suffused with poetical feeling, but is none the less a didactic hymn emphasizing the doctrine of the Trinity.

At the same time, this religious truth must have a poetic element. It is the great value of a hymn as a teaching method that it puts heart and feeling into the doctrine it expresses, and so gives it reality and appeal. Despite Dr. Austin Phelps’ rejection of Montgomery’s “Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire” as “without the wings of song,” the Church at large has been singing it for a century. Even if the last stanza were omitted, it would still be a good hymn, because the doctrine of prayer is clothed in such beautiful and inspiring language that it is eminently fitted for the expression of a congregation in song.

The Doctrinal Hymn.

The doctrinal hymn is simply a limited form of the didactic hymn in that it is devoted to the promulgation of the leading Christian doctrines, while the general didactic hymn may be used to inculcate any truth or duty, whether of a fundamental character or not.

The use of the hymn to teach the doctrines of the Church has numerous advantages. It is clear and succinct, not obscuring the truth with philosophical or metaphysical subtleties. It is dogmatic and not argumentative. It has the mnemonic advantage of rhythm and rhyme and is easily remembered. It has the inspiration of collective singing. Above all it is vivid and poetical, emotionalizing and vitalizing what in the philosopher’s hands becomes abstract and dry.

America’s most distinguished hymnologist clearly differentiates the doctrinal theologian and the doctrinal hymn writer: “The theologian and the hymn writer traverse day by day the same country, the Kingdom of our Lord. They walk the same paths; they see the same objects; but in their methods of observation and in their reports of what they see, they differ. So far as theology is a science, the theologian deals simply with the topography of the country: he explores, he measures, he expounds. So far as hymn-writing is an art, the writer deals not with topography, but with the landscape: he sees, he feels, he sings. The difference in method is made inevitable by the variance of temperament of the two men, the diversity of gifts. But both methods are as valid as inevitable. Neither man is sufficient in himself as an observer or a reporter. It is the topography and the landscape together that make the country what it is. It is didactics and poetry together that can approach the reality of the spiritual Kingdom.”[2]

It follows that the doctrinal hymn is not simply reluctantly admissible, it is actually peremptorily necessary if the doctrines of the Christian faith are to be impressed upon each rising generation. This function of the hymn is all the more important because of the decline of doctrinal preaching. It is the “substance of doctrine” the hymns supply rather than the rigid philosophical shell which the creeds and the catechism offer. It is this shell that is “dry,” not the realities it too often hides.

The Homiletical Hymn.

The homiletical hymn is a homily, as its name implies—a sermonette. The term refers to its form, not to its content, for that is usually doctrinal and always didactic. It is sermonic because it proceeds from point to point, leading the way to a practical application. This form of hymn makes up the great body of the older hymnody, because it was written by sermonizers who applied homiletical methods to their hymns.