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The Springfield Collection of Hymns for Sacred Worship
Publication Date: 1835 Publisher: Samuel Bowles / Leonard C. Bowles Publication Place: Springfield, Mass. ; Boston, Mass. Editors: William B. O. Peabody; Samuel Bowles
The Springfield Collection of Hymns for Sacred Worship
O Father, though the anxious fear
Author: Mrs. Barbauld Appears in 59 hymnals
O Father, though the anxious fear
And will the Majesty of heaven
Author: Doddridge Appears in 8 hymnals
And will the Majesty of heaven
Reginald Heber
1783 - 1826 Person Name: Heber Hymnal Number: 194 Author of "Beneath our feet and o'er our head" in The Springfield Collection of Hymns for Sacred Worship Reginald Heber was born in 1783 into a wealthy, educated family. He was a bright youth, translating a Latin classic into English verse by the time he was seven, entering Oxford at 17, and winning two awards for his poetry during his time there. After his graduation he became rector of his father's church in the village of Hodnet near Shrewsbury in the west of England where he remained for 16 years. He was appointed Bishop of Calcutta in 1823 and worked tirelessly for three years until the weather and travel took its toll on his health and he died of a stroke. Most of his 57 hymns, which include "Holy, Holy, Holy," are still in use today.
-- Greg Scheer, 1995
====================
Heber, Reginald, D.D. Born at Malpas, April 21, 1783, educated at Brasenose College, Oxford; Vicar of Hodnet, 1807; Bishop of Calcutta, 1823; died at Trichinopoly, India, April 3, 1826. The gift of versification shewed itself in Heber's childhood; and his Newdigate prize poem Palestine, which was read to Scott at breakfast in his rooms at Brazenose, Oxford, and owed one of its most striking passages to Scott's suggestion, is almost the only prize poem that has won a permanent place in poetical literature. His sixteen years at Hodnet, where he held a halfway position between a parson and a squire, were marked not only by his devoted care of his people, as a parish priest, but by literary work. He was the friend of Milman, Gifford, Southey, and others, in the world of letters, endeared to them by his candour, gentleness, "salient playfulness," as well as learning and culture. He was on the original staff of The Quarterly Review; Bampton Lecturer (1815); and Preacher at Lincoln's Inn (1822). His edition of Jeremy Taylor is still the classic edition. During this portion of his life he had often had a lurking fondness for India, had traced on the map Indian journeys, and had been tempted to wish himself Bishop of Calcutta. When he was forty years old the literary life was closed by his call to the Episcopate. No memory of Indian annals is holier than that of the three years of ceaseless travel, splendid administration, and saintly enthusiasm, of his tenure of the see of Calcutta. He ordained the first Christian native—Christian David. His first visitation ranged through Bengal, Bombay, and Ceylon; and at Delhi and Lucknow he was prostrated with fever. His second visitation took him through the scenes of Schwartz's labours in Madras Presidency to Trichinopoly, where on April 3,1826, he confirmed forty-two persons, and he was deeply moved by the impression of the struggling mission, so much so that “he showed no appearance of bodily exhaus¬tion." On his return from the service
”He retired into his own room, and according to his invariable custom, wrote on the back of the address on Confirmation 'Trichinopoly, April 3, 1826.' This was his last act, for immediately on taking off his clothes, he went into a large cold bath, where he had bathed the two preceding mornings, but which was now the destined agent of his removal to Paradise. Half an hour after, his servant, alarmed at his long absence, entered the room and found him a lifeless corpse." Life, &c, 1830, vol. ii. p. 437.
Heber's hymns were all written during the Hodnet period. Even the great missionary hymn, "From Greenland's icy mountains," notwithstanding the Indian allusions ("India's coral strand," "Ceylon's isle"), was written before he received the offer of Calcutta. The touching funeral hymn, "Thou art gone to the grave," was written on the loss of his first babe, which was a deep grief to him. Some of the hymns were published (1811-16) in the Christian Observer, the rest were not published till after his death. They formed part of a ms. collection made for Hodnet (but not published), which contained, besides a few hymns from older and special sources, contributions by Milman. The first idea of the collection appears in a letter in 1809 asking for a copy of the Olney Hymns, which he "admired very much." The plan was to compose hymns connected with the Epistles and Gospels, to be sung after the Nicene Creed. He was the first to publish sermons on the Sunday services (1822), and a writer in The Guardian has pointed out that these efforts of Heber were the germs of the now familiar practice, developed through the Christian Year (perhaps following Ken's Hymns on the Festivals), and by Augustus Hare, of welding together sermon, hymnal, and liturgy. Heber tried to obtain from Archbishop Manners Sutton and the Bishop of London (1820) authorization of his ms. collection of hymns by the Church, enlarging on the "powerful engine" which hymns were among Dissenters, and the irregular use of them in the church, which it was impossible to suppress, and better to regulate. The authorization was not granted. The lyric spirit of Scott and Byron passed into our hymns in Heber's verse; imparting a fuller rhythm to the older measures, as illustrated by "Oh, Saviour, is Thy promise fled," or the martial hymn, "The Son of God goes forth to war;" pressing into sacred service the freer rhythms of contemporary poetry (e.g. "Brightest and best of the sons of the morning"; "God that madest earth and heaven"); and aiming at consistent grace of literary expression.. Their beauties and faults spring from this modern spirit. They have not the scriptural strength of our best early hymns, nor the dogmatic force of the best Latin ones. They are too flowing and florid, and the conditions of hymn composition are not sufficiently understood. But as pure and graceful devotional poetry, always true and reverent, they are an unfailing pleasure. The finest of them is that majestic anthem, founded on the rhythm of the English Bible, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty." The greatest evidence of Heber's popularity as a hymnwriter, and his refined taste as a compiler, is found in the fact that the total contents of his ms. collection which were given in his posthumous Hymns written and adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year. London, J. Murray, 1827; which included 57 hymns by Heber, 12 by Milman, and 29 by other writers, are in common in Great Britain and America at the present time. [Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.]
Of Bishop Heber's hymns, about one half are annotated under their respective first lines. Those given below were published in Heber's posthumous Hymns, &c, 1827. Some of them are in extensive use in Great Britain and America; but as they possess no special histories they are grouped together as from the Hymns, &c, 1827:—
1. Beneath our feet, and o'er our head. Burial.
2. Creator of the rolling flood. St. Peter's Day, or, Gospel for 6th Sunday after Trinity.
3. Lo, the lilies of the field. Teachings of Nature: or, Gospel for 15th Sunday after Trinity.
4. 0 God, by Whom the seed is given. Sexagesima.
6. 0 God, my sins are manifold. Forgiveness, or,
Gospel for 22nd S. after Trinity.
6. 0 hand of bounty, largely spread. Water into Wine, or, Gospel for 2nd S. after Epiphany.
7. 0 King of earth, and air, and sea. Feeding the Multitude; or, Gospel for 4th S. in Lent.
8. 0 more than merciful, Whose bounty gave. Good Friday.
9. 0 most merciful! 0 most bountiful. Introit Holy Communion.
10. 0 Thou, Whom neither time nor space. God unsearchable, or, Gospel for 5th Sunday in Lent.
11. 0 weep not o'er thy children's tomb. Innocents Day.
12. Room for the proud! Ye sons of clay. Dives and Lazarus, or, Gospel for 1st Sunday after Trinity.
13. Sit thou on my right hand, my Son, saith the Lord. Ascension.
14. Spirit of truth, on this thy day. Whit-Sunday.
15. The feeble pulse, the gasping breath. Burial, or, Gospel for 1st S. after Trinity.
16. The God of glory walks His round. Septuagesima, or, the Labourers in the Marketplace.
17. The sound of war in earth and air. Wrestling against Principalities and Powers, or, Epistle for 2lst Sunday after Trinity.
18. The world is grown old, her pleasures are past. Advent; or, Epistle for 4th Sunday in Advent.
19. There was joy in heaven. The Lost Sheep; or, Gospel for 3rd S. after Trinity.
20. Though sorrows rise and dangers roll. St. James's Day.
21. To conquer and to save, the Son of God. Christ the Conqueror.
22. Virgin-born, we bow before Thee. The Virgin Mary. Blessed amongst women, or, Gospel for 3rd S. in Lent.
23. Wake not, 0 mother, sounds of lamentation. Raising the Widow's Son, or, Gospel for 16th S. after Trinity.
24. When on her Maker's bosom. Holy Matrimony, or, Gospel for 2nd S. after Epiphany.
25. When through the torn sail the wild tempest is streaming. Stilling the Sea, or, Gospel for 4th Sunday after Epiphany.
26. Who yonder on the desert heath. The Good Samaritan, or, Gospel for 13th Sunday after Trinity.
This list is a good index of the subjects treated of in those of Heber's hymns which are given under their first lines, and shows that he used the Gospels far more than the Epistles in his work.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Reginald Heber
Augustus Toplady
1740 - 1778 Person Name: Toplady Hymnal Number: 452 Author of "When bending o'er the brink of life" in The Springfield Collection of Hymns for Sacred Worship Toplady, Augustus Montague, the author of "Rock of Ages," was born at Farnham, Surrey, November 4, 1740. His father was an officer in the British army. His mother was a woman of remarkable piety. He prepared for the university at Westminster School, and subsequently was graduated at Trinity College, Dublin. While on a visit in Ireland in his sixteenth year he was awakened and converted at a service held in a barn in Codymain. The text was Ephesians ii. 13: "But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." The preacher was an illiterate but warm-hearted layman named Morris. Concerning this experience Toplady wrote: "Strange that I, who had so long sat under the means of grace in England, should be brought nigh unto God in an obscure part of Ireland, amidst a handful of God's people met together in a barn, and under the ministry of one who could hardly spell his name. Surely this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous." In 1758, through the influence of sermons preached by Dr. Manton on the seventeenth chapter of John, he became an extreme Calvinist in his theology, which brought him later into conflict with Mr. Wesley and the Methodists. He was ordained to the ministry in the Church of England in 1762, and in 1768 he became vicar of Broadhembury, a small living in Devonshire, which he held until his death. The last two or three years of his life he passed in London, where he preached in a chapel on Orange Street. His last sickness was of such a character that he was able to make a repeated and emphatic dying testimony. A short time before his death he asked his physician what he thought. The reply was that his pulse showed that his heart was beating weaker every day. Toplady replied with a smile: "Why, that is a good sign that my death is fast approaching; and, blessed be God, I can add that my heart beats stronger and stronger every day for glory." To another friend he said: "O, my dear sir, I cannot tell you the comforts I feel in my soul; they are past expression. . . . My prayers are all converted into praise." He died of consumption August 11, 1778. His volume of Psalms and Hymns for Public and Private Worship was published in 1776. Of the four hundred and nineteen hymns which it contained, several were his own productions.
If on a quiet sea 446
Rock of ages, cleft for me 279
Hymn Writers of the Church, 1915 by Charles S. Nutter
===============================================
Toplady, Augustus Montague, M.A. The life of Toplady has been repeatedly and fully written, the last, a somewhat discursive and slackly put together book, yet matterful, by W. Winters (1872). Summarily, these data may be here given: he was born at Farnham, in Surrey, on November 4, 1740. His father, Richard Toplady, was a Major in the British array, and was killed at the siege of Carthagena (1741) soon after the birth of his son. His widowed mother placed him at the renowned Westminster school, London. By-and-by circumstances led her to Ireland, and young Augustus was entered at Trinity College, Dublin, where he completed his academical training, ultimately graduating M.A. He also received his "new birth" in Ireland under remarkable conditions, as he himself tells us with oddly mixed humility and lofty self-estimate, as "a favourite of heaven," common to his school:—
"Strange that I who had so long sat under the means of grace in England should be brought right unto God in an obscure part of Ireland, midst a handful of people met together in a barn, and by the ministry of one who could hardly spell his own name. Surely it was the Lord's doing and is marvellous. The excellency of such power must be of God and cannot be of man. The regenerating spirit breathes not only on whom but likewise, when and where and as He listeth."
Toplady received orders in the Church of England on June 6, 1762, and after some time was appointed to Broadhembury. His Psalms and Hymns of 1776 bears that he was then “B.A." and Vicar of Broadhembury. Shortly thereafter be is found in London as minister of the Chapel of the French Calvinists in Leicester Fields. He was a strong and partizan Calvinist, and not well-informed theologically outside of Calvinism. We willingly and with sense of relief leave unstirred the small thick dust of oblivion that has gathered on his controversial writings, especially his scurrilous language to John Wesley because of his Arminianism, as we do John Wesley's deplorable misunderstanding and misrepresentation of Calvinism.
Throughout Toplady lacked the breadth of the divine Master's watchword "Forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us" (St. Luke ix. 50). He was impulsive, rash-spoken, reckless in misjudgment; but a flame of genuine devoutness burned in the fragile lamp of his overtasked and wasted body. He died on August 11, 1778. The last edition of his works is in 6 vols., 8 vo., 1825. An accurate reproduction of most of his genuine hymns was one of the reprints of Daniel Sedgwick, 1860. His name occurs and recurs in contemporary memoirs and ecclesiastical histories, e.g., in Tyerman's Life of John Wesley. The reader will find in their places annotations on the several hymns of Toplady, and specially on his "Rock of Ages,” a song of grace that has given him a deeper and more inward place in millions of human hearts from generation to generation than almost any other hymnologist of our country, not excepting Charles Wesley. Besides the "Rock of Ages" must be named, for power, intensity, and higher afflatus and nicer workmanship, "Object of my first desire,” and "Deathless principle arise." It is to be regretted that the latter has not been more widely accepted. It is strong, firm, stirring, and masterful. Regarded critically, it must be stated that the affectionateness with which Toplady is named, and the glow and passion of his faith and life, and yearning after holiness, have led to an over-exaltation of him as a hymnwriter. Many of his hymns have been widely used, and especially in America, and in the Evangelical hymnbooks of the Church of England. Year by year, however, the number in use is becoming less. The reason is soon found. He is no poet or inspired singer. He climbs no heights. He sounds no depths. He has mere vanishing gleams of imaginative light. His greatness is the greatness of goodness. He is a fervent preacher, not a bard. [Rev. A. B. Grosart, D.D., LL.D.]
Toplady's hymns and poetical pieces were published in his:—
(1) Poems on Sacred Subjects wherein The Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity, with many other interesting Points, are occasionally introduced. . . Dublin: Printed by S. Powell, in Crane-lane, MDCCLIX.; (2) his Psalms & Hymns for Public and Private Worship, 1776; (3) in The Gospel Magazine, 1771-1776; and (4) in Hymns and Sacred Poems on a variety of Divine Subjects, &c. D. Sedgwick's reprint, 1860. His Works, with a Memoir by W. Row, were published in 6 volumes, in 1794. Walter How was also the editor of the 2nd and some later editions of the Psalms & Hymns. He was a most careless editor, and attributed several hymns by C. Wesley and others to Toplady.
The following additional hymns in common use together with centos indicated in the sub-lines, are from:—
i. His Poems on Sacred Subjects, 1759.
1. Can my heaven-born soul submit? All for Christ.
2. Come from on high, my King and God. Holiness desired.
(1.) 0 might this worthless heart of mine.
3. Earnest of future bliss. The Witness of the Spirit.
4. From Thy supreme tribunal, Lord. Christ's Righteousness a Refuge.
(1.) The spotless Saviour lived for me.
5. Great God, Whom heaven, and earth, and sea. For Peace.
6. I saw, and lo! a countless throng. Saints' Days. Revised form in the Gospel Magazine, 1774, p. 449.
7. Immovable our hope remains. Divine Faithfulness.
8. Jesus, God of love, attend. Divine Worship. Pt. ii. is "Prayer can mercy's door unlock."
9. Jesus, Thy power I fain would feel. Lent.
10. Lord, I feel a carnal mind. Mind of Christ desired.
11. My yielding heart dissolves as wax. On behalf of Arians, &c.
(1.) 0 Jesus, manifest Thy grace.
12. Not to myself I owe. Praise for Conversion,
(1.) Not to ourselves we owe.
(2.) The Father's grace and love.
13. 0 that my heart was right with Thee. Dedication to God desired.
14. 0 Thou that hearest the prayer of faith. Christ the Propitiation.
15. 0 Thou Who didst Thy glory leave. Thanksgiving for Redemption.
16. 0 when wilt Thou my Saviour be. Trust in Jesus.
(1.) Jesus, the sinner's Rest Thou art.
17. Redeemer, whither should I flee? Safety in the Cross.
18. Remember, Lord, that Jesus bled. Pardon.
19. Surely Christ thy griefs hath borne. Redemption. Revised text in Gospel Magazine, 1774, p. 548.
(1.) Weary sinner, keep thine eyes.
(2.) Weeping soul, no longer mourn.
ii. From the Gospel Magazine.
20. Compared with Christ, in all besides. Christ All in All. Feb. 1772.
21. Eternal Hallelujahs Be to the Father given. Holy Trinity, Dec. 1774.
22. From whence this fear and unbelief. Reviving Faith, Feb. 1772.
23. How vast the benefits divine. Redemption. Dec. 1774. From this "Not for the works which we have done" is taken.
24. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? Christ All and in All, Feb. 1772. From this "If my Lord Himself reveal" is taken.
25. Jesus, immutably the same. Jesus, the True Vine. June, 1771.
All these hymns, together with "O precious blood, 0 glorious death" (Death of Christ), are in D. Sedgwick's reprint of Toplady's Hymns, &c, 1860. We have met with several other hymns to which Toplady's name is appended, but for this we can find no authority whatever.
-- Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Augustus Toplady
Saint Patrick
372 - 466 Person Name: Patrick Hymnal Number: 505 Author of "While Shepherds watched their flocks by night" in The Springfield Collection of Hymns for Sacred Worship Patrick, St., the 2nd Bishop and Patron Saint of Ireland, was the son of Calpurnius, a deacon, and grandson of Potitus, a presbyter, and great grandson of Odissus, a deacon, was born most probably near Dumbarton, in North Britain, in 372. According to his epistle to Coroticus, his father was also a decurio, a member of the local town council, and a Roman by descent. Hence probably the name Patricius. St. Patrick alludes in Coroticus, § 5, to his having been originally a freeman, and of noble birth. His birthplace is termed in his Confession, § 1, Bannavem Taberniæ. Some have identified that place with Boulogne-sur-Mer, in France. His mother's name was Concessa, said to have been sister of St. Martin of Tours. According to Tirechan's Collections (circa A.D. 690), Patrick had four names—-(1) Magonus, which Tirechan explains by clarus, illustrious; (2) Sucat (Succetus), god of war, or brave in war, said to have been his baptismal name; (3) Patricius; and (4) Cothraige (Cothrighe), given because he had been a slave to four masters. At the age of 16 he was carried off with many others to Ireland, and sold as a slave. There he remained six years with Milcho, or Miliuc. He was engaged in feeding cattle (pecora), though the later writers say that he fed swine. In his captivity he became acquainted with the Irish language. His misfortunes were the means of leading him to Christ, and be devoted himself to prayer, and often frequented, for that purpose, the woods on Mount Slemish. Having escaped after six years, he spent some years with his parents, and then was stirred up, when still a youth (puer), to devote himself to the evangelisation of Ireland. According to Secundinus's Hymn (St. Sechnall), which is probably not much later than the age of St. Patrick himself, the saint received his apostleship "from God," like St. Paul. No reference is made in that hymn, or in the later so-called Hymn of St. Fiacc, to any commission received from Pope Celestine, as is asserted by later writers. St. Patrick does not in his own writings allude to the external source whence he obtained ordination, and, as he speaks of his Roman descent, it would be strange for him not to have mentioned his Roman consecration, if it had been a fact.
From some “sayings" of his, preserved on a separate page of the Book of Armagh, it is probable that he travelled through Gaul and Italy, and that he was ordained in Gaul as deacon, priest, and, afterwards, as bishop. He was probably a bishop when he commenced his missionary labours in Ireland. There were, however, Christians in Ireland before that period. Palladius, the senior Patrick, who preceded our saint by a few years, was, according to the chronicle of Prosper (the secretary of Pope Celestine), "ordained and sent to the Scots (the Irish) believing in Christ, by Pope Celestine, as their first bishop." Palladius's mission was a failure, while that of the second Patrick, which was quite independent of the former, was successful in a high degree. Its success, however, has been greatly exaggerated; for St. Patrick, in the close of his Confession, or autobiography, written in old age, speaks of the high probability of his having to lay down his life as a martyr for Christ. The date of St. Patrick's mission is not certain, but the internal evidence of his writings indicate that it was most probably about A.D. 425. The day and month of his death (March 17), but not the year [466] is mentioned in the Book of Armagh.
St. Patrick's claim to a record in this Dictionary is associated with the celebrated hymn or “Breastplate," a history of which we now subjoin.
1. St. Patrick's Irish Hymn is referred to in Tirechan's Collections (A.D. 690). It was directed to be sung in "all monasteries and churches through the whole of Ireland," "canticum ejus scotticum semper canere," which is a proof that it was at that time universally acknowledged to be his composition. That regulation was very naturally lost sight of when the old Celtic Church lapsed into the Roman, (a) The expressions used in the hymn correspond entirely with the circumstances under which St. Patrick visited Tara. (b) Moreover, although all the ancient biographies of St. Patrick (with the exception of his own Confession, and of Secundinus's Hymn) speak of him as a worker of miracles, and as having performed miracles at Tara, there is no trace of such a fact in St. Patrick's Hymn, (c) Further, the phrase, "creator of doom," which twice occurs in it, according to the most approved translation, curiously corresponds with another fact that, "my God's doom," or “the doom," or "judgment of my God," was, according to the ancient biographies, one of St. Patrick's favourite expressions.
2. The first notice of the existence at the present time of an ancient manuscript copy of St. Patrick's "Hymn or Breastplate," was made known by the late Dr. Petrie in his Memoir of Tara, published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 1839, vol. xviii. Dr. Petrie gave the original in Irish characters, an interlineary Latin version and an English translation by himself, together with copious notes. Dr. Petrie found the original in the Liber Hymnorum, in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin (iv. E. 4, 2, fol. 19 b). “The tradition respecting its primary use by the saint is that he recited it on Easter Sunday, when proceeding to encounter the droidical fire-worshippers, with their pagan king, Laoghaire, and his court, at Tara, the royal residence." (Lyra Hibernica Sacra, 1878, p. 2.)
3. Dr. Todd in his work, S. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, 1864, gives a metrical rendering of the “Breastplate” which begins:—
"I bind to myself today,
The strong power of an invocation of the Trinity,
The faith of the Trinity in Unity,
The Creator of the elements."
The translation, which extends to 78 lines, was mainly the work of Dr. Whitley Stokes. A more correct version by the same scholar is given in the Rolls's edition of the Tripartite Life, 1887; and that revised version, with a few modifications, accompanied with critical notes, explanatory of the alterations made on the former version, is given in the 2nd and 3rd editions of the Writings of St. Patrick, by Dr. V. H. H. Wright. Dr. Whitley Stokes, therefore, is to be regarded as the real translator from the original Irish. Dr. Petrie's translation, though highly meritorious as a first attempt, has been proved in many particulars to be erroneous. There is no mention of Tara in the hymn. An uncertainty yet exists as to the meaning of a few words.
4. In Dr. W. MacIlwaine's Lyra Hibernica Sacra, 1878, Dr. Todd's translation was repeated (with notes), together with a second translation by James Clarence Mangan, the opening lines of which are:—
"At Tara to-day, in this awful hour,
I call on the Holy Trinity!
Glory to Him Who reigneth in power,
The God of the elements, Father, and Son,
And Paraclete Spirit, which Three are the One,
The everlasting Divinity."
5. A popular version of the hymn for congregational use was written by Mrs. Cecil F. Alexander, for St. Patrick's Day, 1889, and sung generally throughout Ireland on that day. The opening lines are:—
"I bind unto myself to-day
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
”I bind this day to me for ever,
By power of faith, Christ's Incarnation;
His baptism in Jordan river;
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spiced tomb;
His riding up the heav'nly way;
His coming at the day of doom;
I bind unto myself to-day."
Mrs. Alexander's version is given, along with that of James Clarence Mangan, in the Appendix to the Writinqs of St. Patrick, edited by Dr. C. H. H. Wright (R.T.S.), 1889.
6. Another metrical version of this hymn was given in the Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette for April 5, 1889. It is by Joseph John Murphy, and the opening lines are:—
"I bind as armour on my breast
The Threefold Name whereon I call,
Of Father, Son, and Spirit blest,
The Maker and the Judge of all."
7. The translation in Stokes and Wright's edition of St. Patrick's writings was set to music as a cantata by Sir R. Stewart, and was performed for the first time in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, on St. Patrick's Day, 1888.
8. Mr. Thomas French, Assistant Librarian of Trinity College, Dublin, writes as follows respecting this hymn:—
"The manuscript called the 'Liber Hymnorum' belonged to Archbishop Ussher, and forms one of the volumes of the Ussher Collection now in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. There is no interlineary Latin translation in the original. It was given by Petrie in his account of the hymn 'for the satisfaction of the learned’ [The St. Patrick authorship is tradition only, so far as I know.] Dr. Todd in his S. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, p. 426, says ‘It is undoubtedly of great antiquity, although it may now be difficult, if not impossible, to adduce proof in support of the tradition that St. Patrick was its author.'...... Petrie and Todd make the age of the manuscript 9th or 10th century, Whitley Stokes 11th or 12th."
We may add that St. Patrick's Latin works were published by Sir James Ware, 1656, in the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandist Fathers, 1668, by Villanueva, 1835, and by others, as B. S. Nicholson, 1868, Miss Cusack, 1871, and, above all, by Dr. Whitley Stokes, in the Rolls' Edition of the Tripartite Life, 1887. The latter three works contain also translations. Translations of the whole, or a portion of St. Patrick's writings, have been published by Rev. T. Olden, 1876; Sir S. Ferguson, LL.D. Transactions of Royal Irish Academy, 1885, and more completely in the Writings of St. Patrick, edited by Prof. G. T. Stokes and Dr. C. H. H. Wright, 1st ed. 1887, 2nd ed. 1888, 3rd ed., edited, with notes critical and historical, and an introduction by Dr. C. H. H. Wright revised and enlarged. London: Religious Tract Society, 1889. [Rev. Charles H. H. Wright, D.D., Ph.D.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
====================
Patrick, St., p. 885, ii. (l) In the Oxford University Herald of April 6, 1889, is an anonymous paraphrase in 7 stanzas of 4 lines of a portion of "St. Patrick's Hymn," beginning-
"Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
May Thine overshadowing might
Be as armour to my soul,
Be my weapon in the fight."
(2) Note concerning § 3, on p. 885, i., that Dr., W. Stokes's translation appeared in its original form in the Saturday Review, Sept. 5, 1857. In his Goidilica, Calcutta, 1866, p. 66, in an altered form to that of 1857 and 1864.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)
Saint Patrick
