ΤΕ E Deum laudamus: te Dominum confitemur. Te æternum Patrem: omnis terra veneratur. Tibi omnes Angeli: tibi cœli, et universæ potestates. Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim; incessabili voce proclamant, Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus: Dominus Deus Sabaoth; Pleni sunt cœli et terra: majestatis gloriæ tuæ. Te gloriosus: Apostolorum chorus. Te Prophetarum: laudabilis numerus. Te Martyrum candidatus: laudat exercitus. sia; Patrem: immensæ majestatis; Venerandum tuum verum: et unicum Filium. Tu Rex gloriæ: Christe. Tu Patris: sempiternus es Filius. Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem: non horruisti Virginis uterum. Tu devicto mortis aculeo: aperuisti credentibus regna cœlorum. Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes: in gloria Patris. Te ergo quæsumus, tuis famulis subveni: quos pretioso sanguine redemisti. Æterna fac cum Sanctis tuis: in gloria numerari. Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine: et benedic hæreditati tuæ. Et rege eos: et extolle illos, usque in æternum. Per singulos dies: benedicimus te. Et laudamus nomen tuum in sæculum: et in sæculum sæculi Dignare, Domine, die .isto: sine peccatis nos custodire. Miserere nostri, Domine: miserere nostri. Fiat misericordia tua, Domine, supernos: quemadmodum speravimus in te. In te, Domine, speravi: non confundar in æter num. Very shortly before her decease, Mrs. Charles, the author of the "Schönberg-Cotta Family," "Songs, Old and New," and "The Voice of Christian Life and Song," wrote me, in reply to my inquiry as to which hymns had helped her, saying: "The Te Deum, with its glorious objectiveness, its tender humility, and its note of hope, has, perhaps, helped me and inspired me through life more than any other hymn." As some Nonconformists may possibly object to the inclusion of such pieces as the Te Deum and the Magnificat in a collection of hymns, I may quote a line from the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes' letter to me, in which he says: "I hope that in any book you publish you will include the Te Deum, in many respects the most majestic as well as the most venerable hymn of the Christian Church." There is, of course, another side to this. If the Te Deum has been used to express the gratitude of man for crowning mercies, it has often been used as a kind of Christian war-whoop over fallen foes. If our forefathers sang it with full hearts when England was delivered from the fell menace of the Armada, it was also chanted at Rome in honour of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. If, as an ancient heathen poet declared,— "Unholy is the sound Of loud thanksgiving over slaughtered men," impious indeed must have been the exultant strains that have gone up on high over the hecatombs of the battlefield. But this prostitution of the great Christian hymn in the service of un-Christian statecraft and sceptred murder has probably never been better exposed than by Kinglake in his memorable description of the Te Deum in Notre Dame, "that historic pile which stands mocking the lapse of ages and the strange checkered destiny of France." Napoleon, fresh from the massacre of the Boulevards, his lips reeking with perjury, and his hands all red with blood, came "into the presence of God." "When the Church perceived that the swearer of the oath and all his associates were ready, she began her service. Having robes whereon all down the back there was embroidered the figure of a cross, and being, it would seem, without fear, the bishops and priests went up to the high altar and scattered rich incense, and knelt and rose, and knelt and rose again. Then, in the hearing of thousands, there pealed through the aisles that hymn of praise which purports to waft into heaven the thanksgivings of a whole people for some new and signal mercy vouchsafed to them by Almighty God. It was because of what had been done to France within the last thirty days that the hosannas arose in Notre Dame. Moreover, the priests lifted their voices and cried aloud, chanting and saying to the Most High, Domine, salvum fac Ludovicum Napoleonem,' O Lord! save Louis Napoleon. "What is good, and what is evil? and who is it that deserves the prayers of a nation? If any man, being scrupulous and devout, was moved by the events of December to ask these questions of his Church, he was answered that day in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Paris." 1 2 THE ENGLISH TE DEUM. IF the Te Deum be the Hymn of Praise set apart by the Universal Church as the supreme expression of gratitude and adoration, the hymn which serves the same purpose in English congregations is "All Hail the Power of Jesu's Name." It is one of the ten hymns most used in English-speaking lands. It was written 1 History of Crimean War, vol. i. p. 335. near the close of last century by E. Perronet, a minister of Lady Huntingdon's Connection, but was subsequently much revised by Dr. Rippon and others. The form most commonly used is as follows: LL hail the power of Jesu's name! Bring forth the royal diadem, Let high-born seraphs tune the lyre, Before His face who tunes their choir, Crown Him, ye martyrs of your God, And crown Him Lord of all. Ye seed of Israel's chosen race, Sinners! whose love can ne'er forget Let every kindred, every tribe, O that with yonder sacred throng And crown Him Lord of all! 3-THE SCOTCH TE DEUM. THE Scotch Church for nearly three hundred years refused to have anything to do with human hymns, papistical Te Deums, and the like. But in the metrical version of the Hundredth Psalm, the men of North Britain found a practical substitute which stood them in good stead as a vehicle for the expression of their usually repressed emotions. It was written by W. Kethe in 1560-61, to fit the tune in the Genevan Psalter now known as the Old Hundredth. It is one of the few Psalms to which Shakespeare makes reference in his plays. 66 LL people that on earth do dwell, AL Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice: Him serve with mirth, His praise forth tell; Come ye before Him and rejoice. Know ye, the Lord is God indeed; Without our aid He did us make; For why? the Lord our God is good, His truth at all times firmly stood, And shall from age to age endure. TUNE- "OLD Hundredth." Longfellow refers to the New England settlers Singing the Hundredth Psalm, that grand old Puritan anthem." |