ADESTE FIDELES. Tune of the Original. O COME, ye believers, come from ev'ry nation, O come, let us adore Him! O come, &c. O come, &c. Bright beam of Jehovah, of light unabated, The virgin “that travail'd" is swathing a Son: O come, let us adore Him! &c. &c. The Holy One! Now choirs of sweet cherubs, attune your glad voices, Christ our King! Presuming upon your courtesy for a medium of communication, S. MR. EDITOR.-At the request of your correspondent in the last number of your Miscellany, I take the liberty of forwarding the following, in hopes of becoming rich by the handsome remuneration offered. HASTE, haste, ye faithful, speed your way Angels proclaim our King to-day; There let us worship Christ the Lord. Him let us worship, Christ the Lord! Thee will we worship, Christ the Lord! Now let us worship Christ the Lord! Yours, L. C. MR. EDITOR.-Through the medium of your pages, I have endeavoured to meet the wishes of your nameless correspondent, by sending my version of his favourite hymn; but fear I have few claims upon the promised "annuity." HERE, O ye faithful, here triumphant bring To Bethlehem your steps with glad accord; T. God of God, true Light in light arrayed, For thou becamest flesh and man this day, Sing now inhabitants of heav'n's high floor! MR. EDITOR.-Your last Number was accidentally thrown in my way this evening, in which I find a correspondent desiring a version of the "Adeste Fideles." The following attempt, if adequate to his expectation, is quite at your service. Yours respectfully, Wadham College, Nov. 4th, 1834. O COME! ye saints, rejoice and sing, O come! adore the Lord with me. O come! adore the Lord with me. O come! adore the Lord with me. O come! adore the Lord with me. CLERICUS OXONIENSIS. MR. EDITOR. You did me the favour to insert an original hymn on Christmas Day, in the Number for January, 1827, of your valuable periodical. Whether you will think the following versification of the Portuguese Hymn, "Adeste Fideles," good enough to claim the annuity of thanks, proposed by a correspondent in your last number, I will not presume to say; such as it is I send it you, to do with it as you may think proper. I am your constant reader, CLERICUS RUSTICUS. YE faithful, come, triumphant sing, Him, God of God, him, Light of light, Of birth; O come, let us adore. O come, the Lord let us adore! Angelic choir, full court of heaven, Glory to God above be given; O come, the Lord let us adore! MR. EDITOR.-I have no pretensions to poetical fame, nor do I claim the promised annuity of your correspondent in the last number of the "CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER; but admiring his taste in the choice of his subject, I have made an attempt to gratify him by a feeble effort in translation of his "Adeste Fideles," which I leave in your hands, to do with it as seemeth good. I am, Mr. Editor, Your obedient servant, IN strains triumphant your glad voices raise, Behold with joy th' incarnate Prince of Peace, Mercy and truth the tuneful choir shall guide, J. C. The above translations of "Adeste Fideles," we have received at the request of our nameless correspondent since the publication of our last number (p. 696.) Were we to offer an opinion upon their respective merits, as matter of course, we should claim a share in the contested "annuity;" but not being ourselves desirous of plucking one leaf from the palm of the adjudged victor, we must leave others to determine the lawful claimant; which, when done, we hold ourselves responsible that the annuity shall be duly paid, by our Publisher, on the 1st of every December, until further notice. For ourselves, we may add, that our friends will lay us under infinite obligations if they will favour us with translations of any of the follow ing Psalms for our projected volume :-12, 14, 35, 49, 58, 109, 118, 120, 129, 140. We wish the whole spirit of each Psalm to be embodied within four, or, at the most, five verses, and that in language the most simple. Of the numerous volumes (90) we are consulting, none contain versions of the afore-named Psalms that fully accord either with our taste or judgment. MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS, From the unpublished MSS. of the late Rev. S. Isaacson, B. A. 1719, Rector of Frickenham. TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER. MR. EDITOR. Amongst the papers of the Rev. S. Isaacson, who was of Magdalen College, Cambridge, and Patron and Rector of Frickenham, Suffolk, I have discovered several sermons, worthy of the age in which he lived, as well as some curious observations, original and selected, entered into an old common-place book. Of the former, I will shortly enclose a Sermon on the Martyrdom of King Charles, which may, I think, be advantageously read in this country. And I now send you a first portion of what I consider entitled to be called "Collectanea Curiosa," which, if approved, shall be occasionally continued. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, An Old Correspondent, S. I. THE SACRAMENT.-The blessed sacrament was thought anciently to have a peculiar efficacy in preparing our bodies for an immortal state. Thus Irenæus says of it, "Quemadmodum enim qui est a terra panis percipiens invocationem Dei, jam non communis panis est, sed eucharistia, ex duabus rebus constans, terrena et cœlesti: sic et corpora nostra percipientia eucharistiam, jam non sunt corruptibilia, spem resurrectionis labentia." (Iren. 1. iv. adv. Hær. c. 34.) "For as the bread, which is of the earth, after the blessing of God has been invoked upon it, is no longer common bread, but the sacrament, so also our bodies receiving the sacrament, are no longer corruptible, having been invested with the hope (nay, the certainty) of a resurrection (to immortal life, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption)." At the celebration of the eucharist in the ancient Church, the Bishop cried out, "These holy things must be taken only by holy persons.' Ὁ ἐπίσκοπος προσφωνήσατο τῷ λαῷ, οὕτα, τὰ ἅγια τοῖς ἁγίοις. (Constit. Apost. 1. viii. c. 13, p. 484. Tom. prim. Concil. Ed. Par. Lab.) ABRAHAM.-Abraham signifies the father of a multitude, which, as Hottinger says, is a composition of Ã3, a father, and the old word RAHAM, which still in Arabic signifies a great number. Abram is interpreted, commonly, high father: so that the reason why God altered his name is manifest. THE CLERGY.-Anciently the Clergy were held in such veneration, that they were not only ἀτελεῖς, free from paying taxes, and δευτερεύοντες μéta tòv Baoiλea, next to the king in honour and power, but received a third of the royal revenues. (Diod. Sic. lib. i.) And Constantine the Great in part imitated this constitution, by making all the professors of learning free from all public charges of any sort, besides the salary he allowed them, that so they might the more cheerfully follow their several studies. THE EARLY CHURCH IN ENGLAND. It is not only probable, but sufficiently evident from the testimony of ancient writers, "That there was a christian Church planted in Britain during the apostles' times." Eusebius affirms, that some of the apostles preached the gospel in the British Islands.-(Lib. iii. cap. 7, Of Evangelical Demonstration.) Theodoret says, St. Paul brought salvation to the islands that lie in the ocean. (Tom. I. in Psal. cxvi.) St. Jerom testifies that St. Paul, after his imprisonments, preached the gospel in the western parts. (In Amos. c. v.) Lastly, Clemens Romanus tells us, that St. Paul preached righteousness through the whole world, and in so doing went to the utmost bounds of the west, which necessarily includes the British islands, as is plain to those who know how the phrase, "the utmost bounds of the west," was used by the historians and poets of those times. (Epist. ad Corinth.) HUMAN LIFE.—The life of man, by reason of its uncertainty, has, by the wise men of all ages, been compared to things of the shortest duration. Lucian tells us all the world is a storm, and men rise up in their several generations like bubbles, descending from God and the dew of heaven, from nature and providence; and instantly some of these bubbles sink into the deluge of their first parent, and are flattened in a sheet of water, seeming to have no other business in the world but to be born, that they may be capable of dying; others float up and down for a while, and disappear all on a sudden, giving place to such others to succeed them. And those that continue longest are in perpetual motion, restless and uneasy, till being crushed with a greater drop of a cloud, they sink into flatness and froth; the change in this case not being great, it being hardly possible for it to be more a NOTHING than it was before. Homer calls a man a leaf, which is the smallest and weakest part of a short-lived plant. Pindar, "the shadow of a dream." Another writer, "the shadow of smoke." The ancients made use of many devices to remind them of their mortality. Saladine, though a great emperor, had a black shirt carried before him, as a banner, in the midst of his triumphs, to mind him of his dying hour. The Greek Emperors, on the day of their coronation, had brought them, by a mason, several samples of stone, to know of which they would have their tomb framed. And even the Popes at this time, on the day they are crowned, when they ride in the greatest pomp and splendour, have a piece of flax |