HYMNOLOGY.

I. Introduction.

Definitions and Terms (§ 1).

General Survey (§ 2).

II. Hebrew Hymns,

III. Early Christian Hymns.

IV. Hymns of the Eastern Church.

V. Hymns of the Latin Church.

The Earlier Period (§ 1).

The Middle Ages (§ 2).

Individual Hymnists (§ 3).

VI. German Hymns.

The Reformation Period (§ 1).

Since the Reformation (§ 2).

VII. French Hymns

VIII. Scandinavian Hymns.

Danish Productions (§ 1).

Norway and Sweden (§ 2).

IX. English Hymns.

Before the Reformation (§ 1).

The Psaltere (§ 2).

The Rise of the Hymnals (§ 3).

Individual Hymnists (§ 4).

Recent Hymnology (§ 5).

X. American Hymns.

General Description (§ 1).

Individual Hymnists (§ 2).

I. Introduction

1. Definitions and Terms.

A hymn is a spiritual meditation in rhythmical prose or in verse, the chief constituents of which are praise and prayer to God. It is the communion of the soul with God. The modern conception of a hymn is, therefore, larger than that of Augustine, who says: "[A hymn] is a song with praise of God. If thou praisest God and singest not, thou utterest no hymn; if thou singest and praisest not God, thou utterest no hymn; if thou praisest aught else, . . . although thou singest and praisest, thou utterest no hymn. A hymn, then, containeth these three things, song, and praise, and that of God" (on Ps. cxlix.; NPNF, 1st ser., viii. 677). On the other hand, the Greek and Latin churches, differing here from the Protestant churches, include among hymns metrical songs to Mary and the saints. The writers of the New Testament employ three terms, psalmos, hymnos, and ode pneumatike (Eph. v. 19; Col. iii. 16). The word hymnos was common to Greeks and Romans, who sang songs to their divinities and in honor of men of renown. The poems of Homer contain such hymns, and Hesiod represents the Muses as singing hymns to the gods. Pindar calls his odes hymns. Egyptian literature also contains hymns, one of the most noted of which, to the rising and setting sun, is found in the Book of the Dead (chap. cxxv.; cf. P. le Page Renouf, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, as Illustrated by the Religion of Ancient Egypt, London, 1880). Paul, on Mars Hill, quoted from a hymn of Aratus of Cilicia (third century B.C.) the words "for we are also his offspring" (Acts avii. 28) . The Christian hymn differs from the hymn of heathen antiquity in its spirit and object of worship, but not necessarily in form. It is addressed to God, or to one of the three persons of the Trinity, and admits nothing unchaste.