which, once heard, are remembered without effort, remembered involuntarily, yet remembered with renewed and increasing delight at every revival! It may be safely affirmed, that the permanent favourites in every collection are those, which, in the requisites before-mentioned, or for some other peculiar excellence, are distinguished above the rest. This is so remarkably the case with the compositions of Watts, Wesley, and Newton, the most prolific writers of this class, that no farther illustration is needful than a recurrence to their pages, when it will be found, that the most neglected are generally inferior in literary merit to the most hackneyed ones, which are in every body's mouth, and every body's heart. It may be added, that authors, who devote their talents to the glory of God, and the salvation of men, ought surely to take as much pains to polish and perfect their offerings of this kind, as secular and profane poets bestow upon their works. Of these, the subjects are too often of the baser sort, and the workmanship as frequently excels the material; while, on the other hand, the inestimable materials of hymns,-the truths of the everlasting Gospel, the very thoughts of God, the very sayings of Christ, the very inspirations of the Holy Ghost, are dishonoured by the meanness of the workmanship employed upon them; wood, hay, straw, and stubble, being built upon foundations which ought only to support gold, silver, and precious stones; work that will bear the fire, and be purified by it. The faults in ordinary hymns are vulgar phrases, low words, hard words, technical terms, inverted construction, broken syntax, barbarous abbreviations, that make our beautiful English horrid even to the eye, bad rhymes, or no rhymes where rhymes are expected, but above all, numbers without cadence. A line is no more metre because it contains a certain concatenation of syllables, than so many crotchets and quavers, pricked at random, would constitute a bar of music. The syllables in every division ought to ripple like a rivulet," one producing another as its natural effect, while the rhythm of each line, falling into the general stream at its proper place, should cause the verse to flow in progressive melody, deepening and expanding like a river to the close; or, to change the figure, each stanza should be a poetical tune, played down to the last note. Such subservience of every part to the harmony of the whole, is required in all other legitimate poetry, and why it should not be observed in that which is worthiest of all possible preeminence, it would be difficult to say; why it is so rarely found in hymns, may be accounted for from the circumstance already stated, that few accomplished poets have enriched their mother tongue with strains of this description. From the foregoing remarks, (if correct,) it may be gathered, that though we have hymns without number, few of them lay claim to great literary merit. There are, however, unequivocal examples of every species of excellence desirable or attainable. In the present collection, among the older specimens, No. 131, page 139,"In Thee I live, and move, and am," &c. is nervous and full of thought, though there are some homely phrases. Two stanzas may be quoted :— "The daily favours of my God I cannot sing at large: "O let my house a temple be, That I and mine may sing And praise our heavenly King." No. 213, page 199, "Thousands of thousands stand around," &c. is of the same character, in a higher degree,―inore energetic, but more quaint and rugged: "How great a being, Lord, is thine, "Thine upper and thy nether springs "Thy arm of might, most mighty King, But what should prove Thee weak." Bishop Kenn has laid the Church of Christ under abiding obligations by his three hymns, Morning, Evening, and Midnight. Had he endowed three hospitals, he might have been less a benefactor to posterity. There is exemplary plainness of speech, manly vigour of thought, and consecration of heart, in these pieces. The well-known doxology, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow," &c. is a masterpiece at once of amplification and compression:-amplification, on the burthen," Praise God," repeated in each line; -compression, by exhibiting God as the object of praise in every view in which we can imagine praise due to Him;-praise, for all his blessings, yea, for "all blessings," none coming from any other source;— praise, by every creature, specifically invoked, "here below," and in heaven "above;"—praise, to Him in each of the characters wherein He has revealed Himself in his word-" Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." Yet this comprehensive verse is sufficiently simple, that by it "out of the mouths of babes and sucklings praise might be perfected;" and it appears so easy, that one is tempted to think hundreds of the sort might be made without trouble. The reader has only to try, and he will quickly be undeceived, though the longer he tries, the more difficult he will find the task to be. There are two volumes of Bishop Kenn's works in prose and verse, which the writer of these strictures has never seen. It is probable that they contain at least three more hymns like those which we have: if so, it is lamentable that such lights should remain hid under a bushel. Passing by Mrs Rowe, and the mystical rhymers of her age, we come to the greatest name among hymnwriters,-for we hesitate not to give that praise to Dr Isaac Watts, since it has pleased God to confer upon hiin, though one of the least of the poets of his country, more glory than upon the greatest either of that or any other, by making his "Divine Songs" a more abundant and universal blessing, than the verses of any uninspired penman that ever lived. In his "Psalms and Hymns," (for they must be classed together,) he has embraced a compass and variety of subjects, which include and illustrate every truth of revelation, throw light upon every secret movement of the human heart, whether of sin, nature, or grace, and describe every kind of trial, temptation, conflict, doubt, fear, and grief; as well as the faith, hope, charity, the love, joy, peace, labour, and patience of the Christian, in all stages of his course on earth; together with the terrors of the Lord, the glories of the Redeemer, and the comforts of the Holy Spirit, to urge, allure, and strengthen him by the way. There is in the pages of this evangelist, a word in season for every one who needs it, in whatever circumstances he may require counsel, consolation, reproof, or instruction. We say this, without reserve, of the materials of his hymns: had their execution always been correspondent with the preciousness of these, we should have had a "Christian Psalmist" in England, next (and that only in date, not in dignity) to the " Sweet Singer of Israel." Nor is this so bold a word as it may seem. Dr Watts's hymns are full of " the glorious Gospel of the blessed God;" his themes, therefore, are as much more illustrious than those of the son of Jesse,-who only knew "the power and glory" of Jehovah as he had " seen them in the sanctuary," which was but the shadow of the New Testament church,- -as the face of Moses, holding communion with God, was brighter than the veil which he cast over it when conversing with his countrymen. Dr Watts may almost be called the inventor of hymns in our language; for he so far departed from all precedent, that few of his compositions resemble those of his forerunners,-while he so far established a precedent to all his successors, that none have departed from it, otherwise than according to the peculiar turn of mind in the writer, and the style of expressing Christian truths employed by the denomination to which he belonged. Dr Watts himself, though |