Come, Pure Hearts, in Sweetest Measures

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Come, pure hearts, in sweetest measures

Author: Adam, de Saint-Victor; Translator: Robert Campbell (1850)
Published in 54 hymnals

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Audio files: MIDI

Piano/Organ
	Communion Hymns for Organ, Vol. 2

Representative Text

1 Christians, come, in sweetest measures
Sing of those who spread the treasures
In the holy Gospels shrined;
Blessèd tidings of salvation,
Peace on earth their proclamation,
Love from God to lost mankind.

2 See the rivers four that gladden
With their streams the better Eden,
Planted by our Savior dear.
Christ the Fountain, these the waters,
Drink, O Zion’s sons and daughters;
Drink and find salvation here.

3 Here our souls, by Jesus sated,
More and more shall be translated
Earth’s temptations far above;
Freed from sin’s abhorred dominion,
Soaring on angelic pinion,
They shall reach the Source of love.

4 Then shall thanks and praise ascending
For Thy mercies without ending
Rise to Thee, O Savior blest.
With Thy gracious aid defend us,
Let Thy guiding light attend us,
Bring us to Thy place of rest.

Source: Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #411

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Author: Adam, de Saint-Victor

Adam of St. Victor. Of the life of this, the most prominent and prolific of the Latin hymnists of the Middle Ages, very little is known. It is even uncertain whether he was an Englishman or a Frenchman by birth. He is described by the writers nearest to his own epoch, as Brito, which may indicate a native of either Britain, or Brittany. All that is certainly known concerning him is, that about A.D. 1130, after having been educated at Paris, he became, as quite a young man, a monk in the Abbey of St. Victor, then in the suburbs, but afterwards through the growth of that city, included within the walls of Paris itself. In this abbey, which, especially at that period, was celebrated as a school of theology, he passed the whole of the rest of h… Go to person page >

Translator: Robert Campbell

Robert Campbell was an advocate residing in Edinburgh. He is not much known as an author, but some of his hymns have been adopted in several hymnals. He was Roman Catholic. His death occurred in 1868. --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872.… Go to person page >

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First Line:	Come, pure hearts, in sweetest measures
Title:	Come, Pure Hearts, in Sweetest Measures
Latin Title:	Incumdare, plebs fidelis
Translator:	Robert Campbell (1850)
Author:	Adam, de Saint-Victor
Meter:	8.8.7.8.8.7
Source:	Latin cento;
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Come, pure hearts, in sweetest measures. R. Campbell. [Feasts of Evangelists.] This is a translation of a Latin cento. Campbell's original manuscript is headed "Psallat chorua corde mundo." Paraphrase upon three stanzas of Adam of St. Victor's two hymns, "De SS. Evangelistis." The cento is thus composed:—
Stanza i. Psallat chorus corde mundo. "Come, pure hearts, in sweetest measures." This was taken from the text of Clichtoveus, as in Trench's Sacred Latin Poetry, 1849, and not from the original, which reads, "Plausu chorus laetabundo."
Stanza ii. Paradisus his rigatur. “See the rivers four that gladden," is stanza 8 of “Jucundare plebs fidelis," as in Daniel, ii. p. 84.
Stanza iii. Horum rivo debriatis. "Here our hearts inebriated," is stanza 9 of "Jucundare," &c, as above.
This paraphrase was published in his St. Andrews Hymns & Anthems, 1850, p. 96. It was repeated with slight alterations in Rorison's Hymns & Anthems, 1851, and one or two others, but its use was limited until 1861, when tho compilers of Hymns Ancient & Modern adopted stanzas i., ii. from Campbell, and replaced stanza iii. with one of their own. In the Hymnary, stanzas i.-iii. are from Campbell, slightly altered, and stanza iv. is new. The text of Laudes Domini, N. Y., 1884, is from Hymns Ancient & Modern. Full Latin texts are in Gautier, ii., 1859; Wrangham, iii., 1883 (with translation); Daniel, ii. 84-88.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Tune

ALLES IST AN GOTTES SEGEN

ALLES 1ST AN GOTTES SEGEN is a splendid tune that matches Gaunt's text well, giving it a lot of lift. Sing it in unison on stanzas 1 and 3 and in harmony on stanza 2. Use a cheerful trumpet stop, and keep the articulation crisp on repeating tones. Johann Löhner (b. Nuremberg, Germany, 1645; d. Nure…

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LAUDA ZION (Cobb)

BONAR (Calkin)

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