A troop of rustic worshippers would gather around the altar of the god, and sing a hymn in his honour, telling of his victories or sufferings in his progress over the earth.
Already in the Iliad a secular character belongs to the marriage hymn and to the dirge for the dead, which in ancient India were chanted by the priest.
Te Deum laudamus is a very ancient Latin Hymn which may have been already very old when it became associated with the name of S.
It will be well therefore to consider what a Hymn is, and how we arrived at the present arrangement.
We use as a Creed the Hymn Quicunque vult (Whosoever will).
We have, moreover, in the Prayer Book itself, two translations of the Hymn Veni, Creator Spiritus formerly sung at Lauds throughout Whitsun week.
The Capitulum, or Little Chapter, was one or two verses from the Bible specially {62} chosen for the day; and the Hymn was directly connected in subject with it.
When the Hymnfollowed the Capitulum, a Canticle came next.
Illustration: "The first verse of a hymn was dictated to him.
The first verse of a hymn was dictated to him from the prettiest little psalm book imaginable.
Alma now gave Nono the "psalm book," and bade him copy the hymn carefully.
Finally the hymn was sung--at least, the boys tried loyally to sing it--and they stood silent and almost reverent as the team filed out of the gymnasium.
Finally they paused, took off their hats, cheered first their own team, then the Sanford team, and then sang their hymnwhile the Sanford men respectfully uncovered, silent and despairing.
When the hymn was over, the Sanford men quietly left the grand stand, quietly formed into a long line in groups of fours, quietly marched to the college flagpole in the center of the campus.
I gave the hymn commencing, "Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove.
I had never attempted such a thing in my life as to "raise a tune" in public, and the only claim I had ever set up as a qualification was that I could put more tunes to each line of a hymn than any one that I had ever known.
Among the books was a new and enlarged edition of the Nestorian Hymn Book, a Spelling Book, and a Question Book.
The hymnwas composed by Mr. Ibrahim Sarkis and translated by Dr.
The master who looked after the music of the school, and incidentally accompanied the hymn with which prayers at Wrykyn opened, was waiting, puzzled, at the foot of the dais.
Then, with difficulty opening the book, he turned to a passage where the leaf was turned down and a hymn was marked with the letters "H.
The solemn impression of the sermon was greatly deepened by the singing, to a weird wailing sort of tune, of the hymn which followed.
I think good thoughts, whilst other write good words, And like unlettered clerk still cry Amen, To every hymn that able spirit affords, In polished form of well refined pen.
I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death, And from the organ-pipe of frailty sings His soul and body to their lasting rest.
Whiles a wedlock-hymn we sing, Feed yourselves with questioning, That reason wonder may diminish, How thus we met, and these things finish.
The phrase was preserved in the Hymn 'O onogenês, which was inserted in the Mass, and the composition of which is ascribed to Justinian himself.
While this sums up in devotional form the Christian thought as to one of the mysteries of faith, the hymn of a character more distinctly credal, called "Quicunque vult," enshrines it in another aspect.
HYMN TO DIANA Queen and Huntress, chaste and fair, Now the sun is laid to sleep, Seated in thy silver chair State in wonted manner keep: Hesperus entreats thy light, Goddess excellently bright.
Even editors of hymn books do not hesitate to mutilate great hymns to suit their particular notions.
After the majestic instrumental movements had been played came the final one, concluding with Schiller's "Hymn to Joy.
So the Mayflower steams down the four long lines in review; and always the batteries and bands in action, the immortal hymn echoing out like rolling thunder between the flame-lit broadsides.
The English hymnbooks and liturgies of this period are equally destitute of any positive confessional character.
In the present sketches, I have given particular attention to the vocal powers of the different birds, and have endeavored to designate the parts which each one performs in the grand hymn of Nature.
After the close which to that hymn is made, Aloud they shouted, "Virum non cognosco;" Then recommenced the hymn with voices low.
And then the others, sweetly and devoutly, Accompanied it through all the hymn entire, Having their eyes on the supernal wheels.
This hymn do they keep gurgling in their throats, For with unbroken words they cannot say it.
I never heard, nor here below is sung, The hymn which afterward that people sang, Nor did I bear the melody throughout.
I composed the following hymn in German and often sang it, as they did not understand German; a hymn, somewhat to the air of 'Was ist doch auff dieser Welt, das nicht fehlt?
In the margin is added: 'She was so proud of her knowledge of German that when she sang a morning hymn (which, however rarely happened) she interspersed it with German words.
She took her book and read, and I sat down and wrote a hymn upon Christ's sufferings, to the tune 'As the hart panteth after the water-springs.
He sang one hymn after another, went to the stairs, and the time appeared long to him, till six o'clock, when Anna returned with Maren Blocks.
They expected to meet them with tomahawks and scalping knives, but not with Bibles and hymn books; they expected to hear war-whoops, but not the voice of Christian song and earnest prayer.
That was the hymn with which Rose saluted the night.
We close this preliminary essay by giving a very ancient hymn to the Virgin, as a specimen of the once universally-prevalent alliterative poetry.
A dimness comes over the transcendent idea, as though the dark countenance of the ominous figure who sang the proud hymn has dimmed the moon and has cast an austere shadow upon the heart itself.
After the hymn there is silence, a holy silence, solemn and palpable, reaching from the earth to the heavens.
It is in order to celebrate your glory, that Heaven has composed the hymnwhich it thus pronounces in distinct language from afar.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "hymn" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
