Excerpt from Hymns of the Christian Centuries
"A Hymn," says S. Augustine, "consists of praise to God and that with song."
The dawn of the Christian Era was ushered in with the Angelic Hymn at Bethlehem; the Gloria in Excelsis, still sung in all branches of the Church, and from the fifth century (perhaps the fourth) forming part of our Eucharistic Service. After the Angels" Hymn follow in a glorious succession the Magnificat, the Benedictus, the Nunc Dimittis, the Acclaim of the children in the streets of Jerusalem.
These, in their majesty and beauty eclipsing all others of all times, are the only known hymns of the first century.
Two of the Evangelists point to the Highest of all as our Authority for the use and love of hymns in recording the singing of a hymn by our Lord and His Apostles after the institution of the Lord"s Supper.
Glorious indeed must have been that strain as the voices of our Blessed Lord and the Eleven rose on the night air from that upper room in Jerusalem.
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