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''Love Divine, All Loves Excelling'' is a Christian hymn by Charles Wesley with a theme of "Christian perfection."〔This is the rubric for the hymn in the 1935 (U.S.) Methodist hymn book.〕 Judging by general repute, it is among Wesley's finest:〔(), according to Hymnary.org.〕 "justly famous and beloved, better known than almost any other hymn of Charles Wesley."〔''An Annotated Anthology of Hymns,'' ed. with commentary by J. R. Watson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 196.〕 Judging by its distribution, it is also among his most successful: by the end of the 19th century, it is found in 15 of the 17 hymn books consulted by the authors of ''Lyric Studies.''〔''Lyric Studies: a Hymnal Guide, containing ... notes critical, historical, and illustrative,'' I. Dorricott and T. Collins (London : J. Toulson and T. Danks, ()), p. 309.〕 On a larger scale, it is found almost universally in general collections of the past century, including not only Methodist and Anglican hymn books and commercial and ecumenical collections, but also hymnals associated with Reformed, Presbyterian, Baptist, Brethren, Lutheran, Congregationalist, Pentecostal, and Roman Catholic traditions, among others including the Churches of Christ.〔http://www.hymnary.org/hymn/FHOP/45〕〔Based on a collation of 80 selected hymn books from 1747 to 2007.〕 Specifically, it appears in 1,328 of the North American hymnals indexed by the online ''Dictionary of North American Hymnology'', comparable to Newton's "Amazing Grace" (1,036), Wesley's "O for a Thousand Tongues" (1,249), and Watts' "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" (1,483), though still well short of Toplady's "Rock of Ages" (2,139) or Wesley's own "Jesu, Lover of my Soul" (2,164).〔()〕 It first appeared in Wesley's ''Hymns for those that Seek, and those that Have Redemption'' (Bristol, 1747), apparently intended as a Christianization of the song "Fairest Isle" sung by Venus in Act 5 of John Dryden and Henry Purcell's semi-opera ''King Arthur'' (1691), on which Wesley's first stanza is modelled. Wesley wrote: ::Love Divine, all Loves excelling, ::Joy of Heaven to Earth come down, ::Fix in us thy humble Dwelling, ::All thy faithful Mercies crown; Dryden had written: ::Fairest Isle, all Isles Excelling, ::Seat of Pleasures, and of Loves; ::Venus here, will chuse her Dwelling, ::And forsake her Cyprian Groves.〔''King Arthur: or, The British Worthy. A Dramatick Opera. Perform'd at the QVEENS Theatre By Their Majesties Servants. Written by Mr. Dryden'' (London : printed for Jacob Tonson, 1691) (D2299 ) p. 48.〕 In Dryden's song, the goddess of love chooses the Isle of Britain over her native Cyprus; in Wesley's hymn divine love itself is asked to choose the human heart as its residence over its native heaven. The last lines of the hymn are likewise adapted from existing material. Wesley's final lines, ::Till we cast our Crowns before Thee, ::Lost in Wonder, Love, and Praise! evidently derive from (and improve on) Addison's opening lines from his "Hymn on Gratitude to the Deity" ::When all thy mercies, O my God, ::My rising soul surveys; ::Transported with the view, I'm lost ::In wonder, love, and praise.〔''The poetical works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq.'' (Glasgow, 1750), p. 198.〕 It has been suggested that Wesley's words were written specifically for the tune by Purcell to which Dryden's song had been set, and to which the hymn's words themselves were later set (under the tune name "Westminster") by John Wesley in his ''Sacred Melody,'' the "annex" to his ''Select Hymns with tunes annext'' (1761 et seq.).〔Watson. ''An Annotated Anthology,'' p. 197; Maurice Frost, ed., ''Historical Companion to Hymns Ancient and Modern'' ((): William Clowes, 1962), hymn 205 (p. 258). The 1675 edition of ''Sacred Melody'' is available through ECCO.〕 Like many hymns, ''Love Divine'' is loosely Trinitarian in organization: Christ is invoked in the first stanza as the expression of divine love; the Holy Spirit in the second stanza as the agent of sanctification; the Father in the third stanza as the source of life; and the Trinity (presumably) in the final stanza as the joint Creator of the New Creation. Like many hymns, too, this one is a tissue of Biblical quotations, including "Alpha and Omega" (st. 2) as an epithet of Christ, from Revelation 21:6; the casting of crowns before God's throne (st. 4), from Revelation 4:10; the promise that Christians shall be "changed from glory into glory" (st. 2 and 4), from 2 Corinthians 3:18; as well as other, more general allusions.〔() Candy Gunther Brown, "Singing Pilgrims..." in ''Sing them over again to me: Hymns and Hymnbooks in America,'' ed. by Mark A. Noll and Edith Waldvogel Blumhofer (University of Alabama Press, 2006), p. 200.〕 ==Textual history== At its first appearance, the hymn was in four stanzas of eight lines (8.7.8.7.D), and this four-stanza version remains in common and current use to the present day, being taken up as early as 1760 in Anglican collections such as those by Madan (1760 and 1767), Conyers (1772), and Toplady (1776); in hymn books associated with Whitefield (1767, 1800) and the Countess of Huntingdon's Connection (1780, and 1800); and in Methodist hymn books slightly outside the mainstream (the ''Select Hymns'' of 1783; Spence's ''Pocket Hymn Books'' of the early 19th century; and the American "Wesleyan" Methodist hymn books).〔Julian, ''Dictionary of Hymnology,'' p. 698; ''A Collection of Hymns for the use of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection in America,'' compiled by Cyrus Prindle (Syracuse, N.Y. : Lucius C. Matlack, 1845), p. 236.〕 A second, abridged version (with the second stanza omitted), appeared as early as 1778 in ''Hymns and Psalms for the Service of Fitz-Roy Chapel'' (London, 1778), then in the Wesleyan "Large Hymn Book" of 1780, and thence in many others, chiefly British and predominantly Anglican, but including also many later official Methodist hymn books. A sample collation of 85 hymn books containing some version of this hymn suggests that the abridged version appears in roughly 25% of Protestant hymn books; the full four-stanza version in most of the remainder.〔Among the many collections that omit the second stanza are ''Hymns and Psalms for the Service of Fitz-Roy Chapel'' (London, 1778); John Wesley, ''A collection for hymns for the use of the people called Methodists'' ("The Large Hymn Book"), 3rd ed., 1782; ''The Hartford Selection'' (Hartford, Conn., 1802); John Rippon's popular and much reprinted ''Selection,'' consulted in the 'Comprehensive Ed.' (London, c. 1840); ''Parish Hymns'' (Philadelphia, 1848); Thomas Aylward's ''Sarum Hymnal'' (London, 1869); the successors to The Large Hymnal, e.g. ''A collection of hymns for the use of the people called Methodists'' (London, 1877); ''Common praise : Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs for use in the Church of England'' (London, 1879); ''Our own Hymn-book : a Collection of Psalms and Hymns...,'' compiled by C. H. Spurgeon (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1883; ''A Publication of Hymns by William & Christopher Batty, to which are added a selection from various authors'' (13th ed.; Kendal : Thompson Brothers, 1896); ''The English Hymnal'' (1906 and rev. ed., 1933); ''Hymns ancient and modern,'' std. ed. (London, 1924); The Presbyterian and Reformed ''Church Hymnary,'' rev. ed. (1927); ''Songs of Praise,'' enlarged ed. (1931); ''The Methodist hymn-book'' (London, 1933); ''The Pilgrim hymnal,'' rev. ed. (Boston, 1935); ''The BBC hymn book'' (Oxford, 1951); ''The Hymn Book of the Anglican Church of Canada'' (1971); ''Hymns Ancient & Modern revised'' (London: William Clowes, ()); ''The Hymnal 1985 according to the use of the Episcopal Church'' (New York, 1985); ''Hymns and Psalms'' (London: Methodist Publishing House, 1983); and ''Baptist praise and worship'' (Oxford, 1991).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Love Divine, All Loves Excelling」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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