Christianity
Te Deum laudamus, Te Dominum confitemur Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur Tibi omnes angeli, tibi coeli et universae potestates, Tibi cherubim et seraphim inaccessibili voce proclamant Sanctus, sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth.
Laus Patriae Coelestis,--(Praise of the Heavenly Country). Veni, Sancte Spiritus,--(Come, Holy Spirit) Veni, Creator Spiritus,--(Come, Creator Spirit) Dies Irae,--(The Day of Wr...
3. Chapter 3The original of this delightful hymn is one of the devout meditations of Bernard of Clairvaux, a Cistercian monk (1091-1153). He was born of a noble family in or near Dijon, Bur...
1. Chapter 1Te Deum laudamus, Te Dominum confitemur Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur Tibi omnes angeli, tibi coeli et universae potestates, Tibi cherubim et seraphim inaccessibili v...
13. Chapter 13Hymns of the hortatory and persuasive tone are sufficiently numerous to make an "embarrassment of riches" in a compiler's hands. Not a few songs of invitation and awakening are...
5. Chapter 5One inspiring chapter in the compensations of life is the record of immortal verses that were sorrow-born. It tells us in the most affecting way how affliction refines the spiri...
2. Chapter 2John of Damascus, called also St. John of Jerusalem, a theologian and poet, was the last but one of the Christian Fathers of the Greek Church. This eminent man was named by the...
14. Chapter 14This hymn is of doubtful authorship, by some assigned to as late a date as 1680, and by others to the 13th century as one of the Latin poems of St. Bonaventura, Bishop of Albano...
10. Chapter 10The ethnic anthologies growing out of love of country are a mingled literature of filial and religious piety, ranging from war-like pæans to lyric prayers. They become the cheri...
12. Chapter 12In writing this chapter the task of identifying the _tune_, and its author, in the case of every hymn, would have required more time and labor than, perhaps, the importance of t...
7. Chapter 7The sober churches of the "Old Thirteen" states and of their successors far into the nineteenth century, sustained evening prayer-meetings more or less commonly, but necessity m...
8. Chapter 8We are assured by repeated references in the patristic writings that the primitive years of the Christian Church were not only years of suffering but years of song. That the des...
6. Chapter 6Echoes of Hebrew thought, if not Hebrew psalmody, may have made their way into the more serious pagan literature. At least in the more enlightened pagans there has ever revealed...
11. Chapter 11The hymn is not in the collections, and has no tune. Addison paraphrased the succeeding verses of the Psalm in his hymn, "How are thy servants blessed O Lord," sung to Hugh Wils...
4. Chapter 4One of the native kings in the South Sea Islands, who had been converted through the ministry of English missionaries, substituted a Christian for a pagan constitution in 1862....
9. Chapter 9the cities) on steeple-bells--nor is it by any means forgotten today--on the Sabbath and in social singing assemblies. Like "Precious Jewels," it has been, in many places, taken...