There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Immanuel’s veins; but nothing could long preserve in common use Watts’s verse— His dying crimson like a robe Spreads o’er His body on the tree; Then am I dead to all the globe, And all the globe is dead to me. 3. Closely allied to reverence is _Dignity_, the elevation and refinement of thought and language which beseem the worship of God. Nor is it any disadvantage to the less enlightened or less educated in the Christian assembly that they should learn to speak the language of the family of God. Dignity is not necessarily obscure or pompous. It represents what is worthy of man’s thought when it is engaged on the highest of all themes. The intrusion into the most sacred moments of what is mean or vulgar in sound or association is a grievous offence. Hymns belong to the _belles lettres_ of the literature of devotion; to be familiar with them should be in itself a liberal education. 4. _Beauty._—‘Intercourse between God and the human soul,’ said Dr. Johnson, ‘cannot be poetical’—a characteristically dogmatic assertion for which there might be some excuse in his day, but which succeeding years have overwhelmingly disproved. A hundred years ago it was necessary to include in a hymn-book compositions that compensated for their lack of poetry by their undoubted piety, but we have such a wealth of song at our disposal that there need be nothing poor, prosaic, commonplace in our hymnals. Watts’s greatest error was his excessive tenderness for ‘vulgar capacities.’ 5. _Simplicity._—We may say of great hymns what Tennyson said of great men—they are In their simplicity sublime. Heavy words are rightly to be regarded as fatal to a good hymn. Charles Wesley was peculiarly prone to use words which make hymns impossible in public worship. Who desires in prayer or praise to use such words as ‘consentaneous,’ ‘implunged,’ ‘choral symphonies’? The best hymns are made up of short words, and have a large preponderance of monosyllables. The words, too, should be such as men use in the more serious intercourse of daily life. It goes without saying that colloquialisms and words with mean associations are not fit for the sanctuary, but the finest hymns are often those which the plain man recognizes as written in his own tongue. Bishop Ken’s great hymns are models of simple directness of thought and expression, and so are some verses of Pope’s _Universal Prayer_. What conscience dictates to be done, Or warns me not to do; This, teach me more than hell to shun, That, more than heaven pursue. If I am right, Thy grace impart, Still in the right to stay; If I am wrong, oh teach my heart To find that better way! Teach me to feel another’s woe, To hide the fault I see; That mercy I to others show, That mercy show to me.