THE
SINGING CHURCH

THE HYMNS IT WROTE AND SANG

By
Edmund S. Lorenz, LL.D., Mus. Doc.

AUTHOR OF
MUSIC IN WORK AND WORSHIP
PRACTICAL HYMN STUDIES
PRACTICAL CHURCH MUSIC
CHURCH MUSIC

COKESBURY PRESS
NASHVILLE

THE SINGING CHURCH
Copyright, MCMXXXVIII
By WHITMORE & SMITH

All rights in this book are reserved. No part of thetext may be reproduced in any form without written permissionof the publishers, except brief quotations usedin connection with reviews in a magazine or newspaper.

Set up, electrotyped, printed, and bound by the Parthenon Press at Nashville Tennessee, United States of America

“Be filled with the Spirit; speaking toyourselves in psalms and hymns andspiritual songs, singing and makingmelody in your heart to the Lord.”(Eph. 5: 18, 19.)

PREFACE

In preparing this discussion of the Christian hymn, it has beenmy ambition, not to be pre-eminently scholarly, but rather tobe pre-eminently helpful. The current treatment of this phaseof church worship is quite sufficiently thorough in its literaryanalysis and historical research; there is nothing but praise forthis aspect of the study of the hymn in the many excellenttreatises in America as well as in England.

The fathers of American hymnology, Professors AustinPhelps and Edwards A. Parks and Rev. Daniel L. Furber, seta good example to later hymnologists in their Hymns andChoirs in laying stress on the thought and sentiment of thehymns and in devoting nearly one-third of their study to “TheDignity and the Methods of Worship in Song,” discussingchoirs, congregational singing, organs, and many other practicalphases in the use of hymns. They gave little considerationto the historicity of individual hymns; that viewpoint hadnot risen above the horizon.

Later works have given more attention to the historicalbackground. The work of Dr. Louis F. Benson, the greatesthymnologist America has produced, cannot be too highly commendedfor its scholarly thoroughness and indefatigable research.His The English Hymn and The Hymnody of theChristian Church should be found in the library of everyminister. Other valuable American treatises on hymns areNinde’s Story of the American Hymn, Gilman’s Evolution ofthe English Hymn, Reeves’ The Hymn as Literature, Marks’Rise and Growth of English Hymnody, and Tillett’s OurHymns and Their Authors, all of which are most helpful andilluminating discussions bearing on the literary and historical8aspects of Christian hymns. On the other side of the sea areother most valuable studies of the hymn. Horder’s TheHymn Lover is particularly fresh and inspiring. Others areinstructive regarding the individual hymns, such as JosiahMiller’s Singers and Songs of the Church, John Telford’s TheMethodist Hymn-Book Illustrated and Evenings with theSacred Poets, and W. T. Stead’s Hymns That Have Helped.Supreme above them all is Julian’s D