Prominent among these literary hymns will be that hymn of majestic praise by Sir Robert Grant: “Oh, worship the King, all-glorious above, Oh, gratefully sing his power and his love; Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of days, Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise. Oh, tell of his might, oh, sing of his grace, Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space: His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form, And dark is his path on the wings of the storm.” Here are majesty and beauty of thought, flawless phraseology, and musical numbers. No editor has found excuse to alter or amend it. Even Isaac Watts, who boasted his freedom from literary trammels and who illustrated that freedom all too often and too perversely, proved his latent poetic powers in the noble poetry of “Our God, our Help in ages past, Our Hope for years to come, Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home.” That the literary quality of Adelaide A. Procter’s hymn, “My God, I thank Thee who hast made,” is high no one would deny: “My God, I thank Thee, who hast made The earth so bright, So full of splendor and of joy, Beauty and light; So many glorious things are here, Noble and right.” The minor chord in the third verse but renders more poignant the high glory of her praise: “I thank Thee more that all our joy Is touched with pain; That shadows fall on brightest hours, That thorns remain; So that earth’s bliss may be our guide, And not our chain.” There is a mine of inestimable literary wealth awaiting the search of discriminating taste.[2] _Literary Culture._ But many ministers of limited native susceptibility to literary and poetic beauty, and perhaps of none too efficient literary opportunities, will not be able at once to enter into the delight of the literary qualities of hymns. All the more will it be important for them to study their hymnal for the sake of its opportunity for deepening their capacity for enjoying literary values. Their imaginations need to be stimulated. Their response to the charm of musical phrases, to the clearness and lucidity of the thought expressed, to the fitness of the unexpected and pleasing metaphors used, to the nice selection of the words employed to weave a garb of beauty for the message the hymn is intended to convey, can be and must be developed, if not only the proper appreciation of the hymns but also their highest efficiency as preachers are to be secured. Few preachers realize the importance of this literary culture; yet, apart from his deity, Jesus Christ was the greatest literary man the race has developed. His parables, his similes, his aptness of phrase, his wit, his clearness of style, despite the great topics on which he discoursed, cannot be paralleled in any literature. The literary value of the Gospels is one of the reasons of their agelong and race-wide appeal.