Studies Of Familiar Hymns

STUDIES FAMILIAR HYMNS LOUIS F. BENSONJD FIRST SERIES PREFACE WHEN Dr. Ray Palmer, late in life, came to narrate the origin of his youthful hymn, My Faith Looks Up to Thee he explained that he would feel no little delicacy in so doing, were it not that in one way and another it has happened that very inaccurate, and in some instances wholly apocryphal, things have been reported concerning it It has furnished quite a striking illustration of the difficulty of transmitting verbally, with entire accuracy, a few simple facts, from one person to another. Slight inaccuracies, rhetorical statements, and the imaginations of writers or speakers, he goes on to say, have some times combined to form quite an unauthcntic history of its origin Dr. Palmers chagrin over the literature setting forth the history of his own hymn appears to have been shared, measurably, by many readers of the popular literature setting forth the history of the hymns in which they themselves happen to be interested. The frankness also of Dr. Palmers criticis. m has been emulated by them a frankness which has fulfilled itself one would hope in vii v iii PREFACE expressing the opinion that the desire to tell a good story, the ambition to furnish a racy anecdote for homi letical purposes, is coupled, at times, with a weakening hold upon the realities, Twere pity if twere true and the present writer is not solicitous to defend all that he has read upon the history of our hymns. Yet he would venture the remark though it be no more than a pica of confession and avoidance that the telling of the true story of a hymn is not so simple a task as some readers may have assumed it to be, but is, on the contrary, an undertaking requiringpatient investigation at first hand, One does not know the history of a hymn till he has traced it to its source and studied its original text and surroundings till he has worked over its bearings, bio graphical and hymnological, and has tracked its subse quent career, textual and liturgical, by actual handling of the hymnals and other books in which it appears till he has sought out and scanned such landmarks as remain to testify to its spiritual history, its use and influ ence over men. Such investigations involve the pains of gathering, or of finding access to, extensive collections of hymn books, books of poetry, biographies, fugitive publications, and material of many sorts. A tedious task, no doubt, unless lightened by love That some who have felt the call to narrate the story of our hymns have sought the goal by a shorter road affords, it may be, an explanation of PREFACE ix the apocrypha and the anecdotage of popular hymnology. Contemplating the simplicity of the results of his studies of familiar hymns as set forth in this book, the writer is almost ashamed thus to hint at the care of his prepara tion. It had been better, possibly, simply to say that while he has tried to be interesting, he has tried yet more to be trustworthy. The general character and purpose of these Studies is explained by their origin. This book grew out of a series of six papers expanding, under encouragement, to twenty-five written for Forward and The Wdlspring, the admirable periodicals of the Presbyterian and Congrega tional publishing houses, designed for young people and the family. For the book these Studies have been re written to a somewhat larger scale, but with an effort not to sacrifice toomuch of their original simplicity. The fact of their origin explains also the appending to each Study of Some Points for Discussion the hope having been it still abides that groups or societies of young people might be led to think over and discuss the message of the hymns they so often sing, sometimes, it may be, too thoughtlessly...