'and introduced the custom of singing Psalms in plain song, ordering the reader to pronounce them with such inflections, that it was nearer to reading than to singing:' but this, probably, was when one person chanted them alone to the congregation. In the sixth century, St. Gregory gave great attention to the subject of chanting, and having arranged the ancient melodies which had been used in the Church from the time of St. Ambrose, he added others to them, making up the number of eight, which tones have ever since been in use in the Church, under the name of the Gregorian tones.' They were retained in our own Church at the Reformation, under the direction of Archbishop Cranmer, and were generally used in our cathedrals, and also in parish churches, until the end of the seventeenth century. Chants, as time went on, were composed in imitation of them, but aiming rather at variety and sweetness than the grandeur and holy severity of the ancient Church music; and these by degrees superseded the early plain song. It is not unlikely that this prevalence of music which seeks rather to be beautiful than to be holy, may have had somewhat to do with the banishment of chanted Psalms from our churches. When music becomes too worldly, it untones men's minds from devotion, rather than raises them to it, and sustains them in it. From this cause, however, or from mere negligence, the practice of chanting the Psalms to the ancient tones of the Church was, until of late years, fast becoming obsolete; and the Psalms themselves, which are only rightly used when they are rightly chanted, were too much disregarded as a means of devotion and prayer. It is clear that the Psalter should be always sung when it is used for the worship of God. The reading it when it is part of the service, and then singing rhyming translations in addition to the service, are miserable substitutes for the full glory of the inspired Psalms, chanted by Christian mouths to the old melodies of the Christian Church, from the fullness of Christian hearts, glowing with the rapture of praise and the joy of thanksgiving. Truly the due saying and chanting of the Psalms is a noble and a holy thing!-'A thing,' as judicious Hooker has truly said", which all Christian Churches in the world have received; a thing which so many ages have held; a thing which the most approved councils and laws have so oftentimes ratified; a thing which was never found to have any inconvenience in it; a thing which, heretofore, the best men and wisest governors of God's people did think they never could commend enough; a thing which, as Basil was persuaded, did both strengthen the meditation of those holy words which were uttered in that sort, and serve also to make attentive, and to raise up the hearts of men; a thing whereunto God's people of old did resort with hope and thirst, that thereby especially their souls might be edified; a thing which filleth the mind with comfort and heavenly delight, stirreth up flagrant desires and affections. correspondent unto that which the n See Ecc. Pol. V. xxxix. 4. words contain, allayeth all kinds of base and earthly cogitations, banisheth and driveth away those evil and secret suggestions which our invisible enemy is always apt to minister, watereth the heart to the end it may fructify, maketh the virtuous in trouble full of magnanimity and courage, serveth as a muchapproved remedy against all doleful and heavy accidents which befall men in this present life; to conclude, so fitly accordeth with the Apostle's own exhortation, "Speak to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, making melody, and singing to the Lord in your hearts," that surely there is more cause to fear lest the want thereof be a maim, than the use a blemish, to the Service of God.' § 5. THE GLORIA PATRI. THE Prayer-book in prescribing the order in which the Psalter is to be read, directs that at the end of every Psalm, and of every part of the cxixth Psalm, shall be repeated this hymn: : Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen.' : This short ascription of glory to the blessed Trinity is of very great antiquity, and has always been used in the Christian Church in connection with the Psalms. The Church of England has acted with discretion in making it her only antiphone, or anthem. The antiphone was a short sentence, or verse of Scripture, which was chanted in earlier ages after every verse, but in later times after each Psalm, or portion of the Psalms, and it varied according to the nature of the festival, and assigned a peculiar character to the Psalm appropriate to the time. Thus the antiphone which followed Psalm i. would shew whether its meaning for the time was to refer to a saint, to a martyr, or to our Lord Himself; and so with other Psalms. The use of these antiphones had, in process of time, become confused, and they rendered the services difficult and intricate; and, therefore, at the reforming of the Prayer-book they were all left out, and the Gloria Patri alone was retained. This gives to every Psalm a Christian meaning, and makes every Psalm as we sing it a Christian hymn; while it teaches the members of the Church that the praise and glory which was imperfect in the Jewish Church, is made perfect in the Church of Christ, by the full revelation which the Son of God has made to man of the Father, of Himself, and of the Holy Ghost. THE THIRD DIVISION OF THE BOOK } PSALMS LXXIII.-LXXXIX. THIS third Book of the Psalms may be well supposed to have been compiled, like the preceding one, during the reign of Hezekiah, and under his directions. It comprehends seventeen Psalms or Hymns, of which eleven are the composition of the Psalmists of the name of Asaph, four are by the sons of Korah, one is entitled 'A Prayer of David,' and the last is 'An Instruction of Ethan the Ezrahite.' It is closed by the words 'Blessed be the Lord for evermore. The Psalms in this book differ much in their style and in their subjects. Some-as, for instance, the seventy-fifth and seventy-sixth-refer particularly to the danger which hung over Jerusalem at the time of the Assyrian invasion, or are expressions of hearty thanks for that marvellous deliverance from it which God granted to the prayers of Hezekiah and his people. The seventy-eighth and eighty-first appear to be festival Psalms, appointed, it is probable, to be used in the celebration of the Passover, and the Feast of Trumpets or of Pentecost. The Psalms in this book have generally a national character, and bear the marks of having been composed for the public service of the temple, either in times when B |