THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 147
Brightly beams our Father s mercy.
Free from the law, O happy condition.
Have you on the Lord believed ?
The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin.
Tenderly the Shepherd.
Hymn 170. Christ the Lord is risen to-day !
CHARLES WESLEY (i).
Hymns and Sacred Points, 1739; Works, \. 185. Hymn for Easter Day. Five weak verses are omitted, to the great advantage of the hymn. Ver. 6 borrows from Young s Last Day, published in 1713
Triumphant King of Glory ! Soul of bliss ! What a stupendous turn of fate is this !
John Wesley did not insert it in the Large Hymn-book, 1780, though Martin Madan included it in his Psalms and Hymns, 1760, and changed Dying once, He all doth save into Once He died our souls to save. It appeared in the Supple ment of 1831. Samuel Wesley wrote a hymn for Easter, which supplied his brother with some hints for ver. 3
In vain the stone, the watch, the seal
Forbid an early rise To Him who burst the bars of hell
And opened Paradise.
The use of Hallelujah after every line represents an old Christian custom. Vigilantius, one of the reformers of the fifth century, is denounced by Jerome : He rejects the vigils ; only at Easter should we sing Hallelujah. That shout of praise had been used by the Christian ploughman at his work, and by sailors as they encouraged each other to ply the oar. It became the recognized salutation on Easter morning, and has left its stamp on the English liturgy in the Praise ye the Lord, which is simply the old Hebrew Hallelujah.
Hymn 171. He dies! the Friend of sinners dies!
ISAAC WATTS, D.D. (3).
Horae Lyricat, 1709, 2nd edition. Christ dying, rising, and reign ing. Wesley included it unaltered in Se!<xt Hymns for the use of Christians of all Denominations, 1753.
Watts wrote
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