g.

Fair is the sunshine,
Fair is the moonlight,
Bright the sparkling stars on high;
Jesus shines brighter,
Jesus shines purer
Than all the angels in the sky.

Beautiful Saviour!
Lord of the nations!
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor,
Praise, adoration,
Now and for evermore be Thine!

Muenster Gesangbuch, 1677.

TWO FAMOUS HYMNS AND SOME LEGENDS

Every hymn has a story. Ofttimes, however, the origin is obscure, and it
is difficult to trace its birth out of the misty past. Again there are so
many legends that have gathered around the great lyrics of the ages, many
of them generally accepted, that it becomes a painful process to get rid
of these excrescences. Two beautiful German hymns, "Schoenster Herr Jesu"
and "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!" may serve to illustrate these
difficulties.

In innumerable hymn-books the former hymn, sometimes translated
"Beautiful Saviour" and sometimes "Fairest Lord Jesus," is designated as
"The Crusaders' Hymn." The hymn was first introduced to American
worshipers by Richard Storrs Willis, who included it in his "Church
Chorals and Choir Studies," published in 1850. It was accompanied with
this explanation: "This hymn, to which the harmony has been added, was
lately (1850) discovered in Westphalia. According to the traditionary
text by which it is accompanied, it was wont to be sung by the German
knights on their way to Jerusalem. The only hymn of the same century
which in point of style resembles this is one quoted by Burney from the
Chatelaine de Coucy, set about the year 1190, very far inferior, however,
to this."

In a London hymn-book, "Heart Melodies" by Morgan and Chase, the same
error is repeated. There it is referred to as "Crusader's Hymn of the
Twelfth Century. This air and hymn used to be sung by the German pilgrims
on their way to Jerusalem."

"For these statements," writes James Mearns, "there does not seem to be
the shadow of foundation, for the air referred to has not been traced
earlier than 1842, nor the words than 1677."

The hymn appeared anonymously in the "Muenster Gesangbuch" of 1677, where
it was published as the first of "Three beautiful selected new hymns." In
a book of Silesian folk songs, published in Leipzig in 1842, the text is
found in altered form and the beautiful melody to which it is now sung is
given for the first ti