Never perhaps is a saint
more in danger of giving way to impulse, let it be anger or what it may,
than in the moment when he has just descended from this mount of
contemplation.
We find ourselves now in the zone of _hymn_-writing. From this period,
that is, from towards the close of the seventeenth century, a large
amount of the fervour of the country finds vent in hymns: they are
innumerable. With them the scope of my book would not permit me to deal,
even had I inclination thitherward, and knowledge enough to undertake
their history. But I am not therefore precluded from presenting any hymn
whose literary excellence makes it worthy.
It is with especial pleasure that I refer to a little book which was once
a household treasure in a multitude of families,[156] the _Spiritual
Songs_ of John Mason, a clergyman in the county of Buckingham. The date
of his birth does not appear to be known, but the first edition of these
songs[157] was published in 1683. Dr. Watts was very fond of them: would
that he had written with similar modesty of style! A few of them are
still popular in congregational singing. Here is the first in the book:
A GENERAL SONG OF PRAISE TO ALMIGHTY GOD.
How shall I sing that Majesty
Which angels do admire?
Let dust in dust and silence lie;
Sing, sing, ye heavenly choir.
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