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Art . III . —Hymns , written and adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year . By the Right Rev . Reginald Heber , late Lord Bishop of Calcutta . London . John Murray , 1827 . As a collection of Poems , by the late lamented Bishop of Calcutta , this volume is interesting and valuable—as a selection of Hymns fitted for the public services of the Church , it surely cannot be held in high repute by any party . The want of simplicity in style , the jingling metres occasionally
adopted , and the inattention to accuracy of measure in the several stanzas of the same Hymns , forbid the idea of their universal adoption . We have a better opinion of the taste and science of the Church of England . Even as poems , there is in some of Bishop Heber ' s pieces a vehemence , and in others an airy lightness , by no means consistent with the calm character of Sacred Poetry . But taken as Hymns , our objections would be much more
. However , there are some beautiful and striking specimens in the collection—more especially among those by the Bishop himself . His imagination was lively , his style bold and vigorous , often passing the bounds of perfect sobriety , but always forcible and original ; and the devotion of his mind appears to have been tinctured with a romantic enthusiasm , which gives an appearance of freshness and sincerity to every thing he wrote . In all belonging to the services of that Church of which he was a member , he took an intense interest , and the present collection took its rise from the double desire of reviving a more particular observance of her days of solemn remembrance , and of rendering that observance efficacious in promoting the increase of devout feelings . By the attempt itself , and still more by his
manner of executing it , it may be gathered that Bishop Heber held in some estimation the Catholic plan of dramatizing the whole year by connecting every day with the image of some event memorable in the Christian annals . The field of remark into which this propensity might lead , cannot be entered upon here ; but let it be observed , that if some Christians have nearly lost sight of the plain duties of this world , by constantly contemplating the past and the future , we , on the other hand , are too apt to bring the spirit of a
calculating selfishness into our religion . It is positively good to contemplate the glories of the Christian dispensation in the spirit of pious adoration . In dwelling on the touching passages of the gospel history , the matchless character of Jesus Christ , the labours of his primitive followers , in ascending with the beloved disci p le in the spirit towards that " new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness , " we forget for a time the directness at least of our selfishness . We acquire a taste for happiness , not exactly as it is opposed to our notions of pain and suffering and mortal infirmity , but as it is holiness and participation in the faith and love of those who are gone before . It is a compound feeling , made up of veneration , for virtue in its highest forms , mixed with a desire to be what we admire , and so , —and not merely because it is the possession of physical or intellectual enjoyment , —to
be happy . Many of bishop Heber ' s hymns are very devotional , but , of course , they will not meet with the approbation of Unitarians when they turn on such points as are considered contrary to the spirit and doctrine of the gospel . Of these is the following on Trinity Sunday , which we quote more as a specimen of his manner of dealing with a difficult theme , than for any other
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1827, page 681, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1800/page/49/
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