The universe is full of thee, And speaks thy glorious Name. And thee, the Holy Ghost, we bless, Hail! holy, holy, holy Lord, Our heavenly song shall be; But the most remarkable instance of assumed ignorance, for which we find it difficult to account and to retain respect for these compilers, has reference to their hymn No. 1289. They not only do not know who wrote it, but in their introduction they specially refer to it as one of the "hymns which we have not seen in any American manual for worship." The hymn was written by Charles Wesley. In the old Methodist collection it contained six stanzas, as it does now in the Wesleyan Hymn Book. When our new "manual for worship" was prepared in 1849 one half of the hymn was rejected, and three stanzas, the third, fourth, and sixth, were retained as hymn 386. That the gentleman who inserted these stanzas in the Sabbath Hymn Book knew where they came from is to us most manifest; that he had the Methodist Hymn Book before him and copied the lines therefrom is equally clear. The reader shall judge for himself. We print the two in parallel columns: 386 METHODIST HYMN BOOK. Deprecating eternal death. 1. Father, if I may call thee so, Regard my fearful heart's desire: Remove this load of guilty woe, Nor let me in my sins expire. 2. I tremble, lest the wrath divine, SABBATH HYMN BOOK. Which bruises now my wretched soul, 3. I deprecate that death alone,- Who suffer'd, wept, and bled for me. Trembling in fear of hell. 2. I tremble lest the wrath divine 8. Thy wrath I fear, thy wrath alone, Who trembled, wept, and bled for me! If the reader will carefully compare these two versions, and bear in mind that the one was printed precisely as here given nearly ten years before the other, and that the verses were then credited to Charles Wesley, as they continue to be in more than a million hymn books scattered through all parts of the land he will share our astonishment at the statement put forth in the Sabbath Hymn Book. The hymns in this collection are arranged in two grand divisions, and these divisions are subdivided into fifteen different "books." Each book has several parts-book third has as many as sixteen-and the parts are again subdivided into sections ranging in number from two to seventeen, while some of the sections are again subdivided and distinguished by letters of the alphabet. Many of the divisions contain but a single hymn, and many of the hymns would have found a place quite as appropriate in any one of half a dozen other divisions. As a specimen of the minuteness of this arrangement we may refer to book viii. It is entitled, "Hymns pertaining to the Christian Virtues." It has thirteen different "parts." Part iii is entitled, "Feelings of a Christian toward Christ." This part has nine different "sections." Section fifth is called "Trust in Christ," and is thus subdivided: a. Prayers expressive of general trust in Christ. b. Prayers expressive of trust amid sorrow. c. Prayers expressive of trust amid temptation. d. Prayers expressive of trust amid sorrow and temptation. e. Prayers expressive of trust amid weakness. f. Calls to trust in Christ. This classification took a great deal of time, doubtless, in its preparation. Possibly it may be of some use to those who search for hymns on any given subject. It is, at any rate, evidence of painstaking on the part of the compilers; and, after being obliged to find so much fault with the contents of their book, it is a source of some little gratification that we can at least commend their industry in this part of their labors; and that we are enabled to add, also, that in no other hymn book have we met with so complete an "alphabetical index of subjects," or so full an index of the passages of Scripture which are illustrated. ART. IV. THE PRAYER OF HABAKKUK. (CHAP. III.) THIS passage of Scripture has usually been regarded as one of the most difficult of interpretation, not on account of prophetical obscurity, but by reason of its abrupt transition and imaginative fire. At the same time its highly evangelical tone and aptness to many themes of Christian discourse have made it the frequent subject of formal exegetical essays and pulpit exposition. On both these accounts we have selected it as specially worthy a more copious and critical elucidation than is to be found in the commentaries usually accessible, and we hope to be able to set it in a somewhat clearer light even than those who have heretofore expressly treated it. Of the personal history of the prophet Habakkuk very little is known. From a comparison of chap. i, 6, with chap. ii, 3, of his own prophecy, it appears that he lived and wrote not long before the Babylonian invasion of Judea, therefore about B.C. 608, near the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim. The Jewish state at this time was tottering to its fall under the long accumulation of public and private guilt, and the prophet vividly describes the impending overthrow by the Chaldeans as the divine retribution. He then (chap. ii) predicts the humiliation in turn of the cruel and impious instrument of their chastisement, at a date distant in comparison with the inflictions upon Judah; and in the concluding chapter celebrates Jehovah's ancient interferences in his people's behalf, and implores a similar intervention for them in view of their desolation, now depicted as already complete. His style is highly vigorous and poetical throughout, and has been greatly extolled, especially by Eichhorn, (Einleitung ins Alte Testament, Reutlingen, 1790, iii, 292 sq.) Lowth (De Sacra Poësi Hebræorum, Oxon., 1763, p. 282) pronounces the last chapter "oda quæ inter absolutissimas in eo genere merito numerari potest." Besides the numerous introductions, commentaries, and general works on the entire prophecy, the following are the principal special treatises on this chapter in particular: C. H. Bahrdt, De equitatione Dei in mari [ad ver. 15,] (Lips., 1749, 4to. ;) J. M. Feder, Canticum prophetæ Habacuc, (Wirceb., 1774, 4to. ;) G. Perschke, Comment. in cap. iii Habacuci, (Frankf., 1777, 4to. ;) J. C. Busing, De fulgoribus e manu Dei, [ad ver. 3, 4,] (Brem., 1778, 4to. ;) W. A. Schröder, Canticum Habacuci, (Groning., 1781, 4to. ;) C. F. Schnurrer, Carmen Habacuci, (Tubing., 1786, 4to. ;) G. A. Ruperti, Obss. in Habacuci cap. iii, (in his Symbolæ ad interpretat., etc., Gött., 1792, fasc. ii;) Mörner, Hymnus Habacuci, (Upsal, 1794, 4to. ;) Habakuk's lyr. Gesang, (Lpsg., 1796, 4to.;) C. G. Anton, Capitis iii Habac. Versio, etc., (Goerlic., 1810, 4to. ;) J. K. Nachtigal, Ueb Habakuk iii, 3-15, (in Henke's Magaz., iv, 180-190;) G. C. Steiger, D. 3te Kap. Habak., (in Schwarz's Jahrbüch, 1824, Nachr., p. 136 sq.;) G. Stickel, Interpretat. cap. iii, Habacuci, (Neost., 1827, 8vo.;) J. V. Reissmann, De Cantico Habacuci, (Herbipol., 1831, Svo. ;) Simon de Muis, Selecta Cantica V. T., (in his Opera.) In the preparation of the present essay, the following hermeneutical works have been chiefly consulted: M. Poli, Synopsis Criticorum, (Francof. ad M., 1694;) E. F. C. Rosenmüller, Scholia in Vet. Test., (Lips., 1814;) F. J. V. D. Maurer, Commentarius in Vet. Test., (Lips., 1836;) F. Delitzsch, Exeg. Handb. z. a. Propheten, (Leipz., 1843;) E. Henderson, The Minor Prophets, (Lond. 1845;) F. Hitzig, Die Kleinen Propheten erklärt, (Leipz. 1852.) NEW TRANSLATION. A Prayer, by Chabakkúk, the Prophet. I. O Jehovah, I have heard thy report,― I feared. O Jehovah, On hymns. Thy work-in the midst of the years revive thou it; God from Teymán would come, Even the Holy One from Mount Parán. II. His glory covered over the heavens, And the earth was full of his praise. (Pause.) Then a glitter like light there would be, But he made a hiding of his power. And there would issue Fever at his feet. III. He stood, and shook the earth; He looked, and made the nations tremble: Then broke asunder the perpetual mountains, The ancient paths are his. IV. Under trouble I saw the tents of Cushán, Would flutter the curtains of the land of Midyán. With rivers was Jehovah enraged; With the rivers was thy anger, With the sea was thy fury? V. For thou wouldst ride upon thy horses, Quite bared would be thy bow: As oaths are the rods of thy word. (Pause.) VI. With rivers thou wouldst cleave the land; The deep gave forth its voice, Aloft its hands it raised. Sun, Moon stood in its dwelling, At the light of thy arrows that would flit, VII. With indignation wouldst thou march through the land, With anger wouldst thou trample the nations: Thou wentest forth for the deliverance of thy people, Thou crushedst the head from the house of the wicked, VIII. (Pause.) Thou piercedst with his own spears the head of his leaders, Their exultation is but to devour the humble in secret: |