The Calvinist International
In Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, the Pequod‘s journey gets underway on Christmas Day. Captains Peleg and Bildad accompany the ship out of harbor. Bildad takes the first watch. As he does so, he sings. Ishmael, the narrator, describes it, in Chapter 22 (“Merry Christmas”): Lank Bildad, as pilot, headed the first watch, and ever and anon, as the […]
“Rock of Ages” was my Memaw’s favorite hymn. It holds a particular place of sentiment in the hearts of many and regularly tops various greatest hymns lists. Its relationship to Augustus Toplady’s (its author) conversion is also widely known. Traveling home from a neighboring village, Toplady found himself caught in a storm and took refuge […]
Last month, I posted a translation of a medieval Advent hymn, Verbum supernum prodiens. Its first stanza is closely alluded to in the first stanza of a eucharistic hymn of Thomas Aquinas. VERBUM supernum prodiens, Supernal Word proceeding, nec Patris linquens dexteram, yet not leaving the […]
Herewith an Advent hymn from probably the seventh or eighth century. As with most hymns of this type, the focus is not only on Christ’s first coming, but also his second. The poet begins with an invocation to Christ the Word, mentioning first his eternal generation in ll. 1-2, and then his Incarnation in time […]
At long last, the last verse of Veni, Veni Emmanuel. The hymn (in the order of verses adopted here) ends with Christ’s status as king of the nations and redeemer of the world, an office he exercises by saving his people from their sin. The poetic English translation of H.S. Coffin seems to combine these two […]