Williams Pantycelyn is chiefly known for his sweet and
soul-searching Welsh hymns, but he also published around 130 hymns through the
medium of English. While he may undoubtedly be considered as the Charles Wesley
of Wales as far as his Welsh language hymnody is concerned, his English hymns
are something of a disappointment to the modern reader. A weakness Williams fully
acknowledged in the preface to his elegy on George Whitefield: ‘I do not
pretend in the least to any share in English Poesy; and therefore am out of the
reach of criticism’. He may not share in
English poesy, as literary critics would no doubt agree, but the hymns
certainly merit some historical and theological criticism. Williams published
his English hymns in two volumes: Hosannah
to the Son of David (1759) and Gloria
in Excelsis (1772). Reading through these collections of his English hymns,
two themes in Pantycelyn’s hymnology have caught my attention: the language of
‘blood and wounds’, and the eschatological significance of ‘O’er the Gloomy
Hills of Darkness’.
‘Blood
and Wounds’
Both collections of his English hymns reveal the distinctive
Moravian influence concerning the ‘blood and wounds’ of Christ. Howell Harris
was certainly not alone in this theological niche among Welsh Methodists with
his Moravian inclinations. The agony of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, his
bloody sweat, and the wounds upon the Cross are vividly described by Williams
in various hymns as ‘a bloody crimson hue’, in which Christ’s blood ‘drops
thickly unto the ground’, and where ‘blood and water issued forth in streams
from every wound’. While Williams does not share the same obsession seen in
some Moravian hymnody with Christ’s ‘little side hole’, he nonetheless writes
with a similar relish for blood and gore:
His temples with the prickling thorn,
The veins in numbers flow;
His numerous wounds of every hue,
Some black or livid, red or blue,
His deeper passion show.
Occasionally, the language is reminiscent of the kind of
Patripassianism of which Howell Harris had been accused. For example, ‘Omnipotence
itself’ is described as experiencing ‘bloody sweat and gore’, and Pilate's
minions are said to ‘crucify the God of love’. The wounds, suffering, and death
are sometimes connected with the divine nature and stress is placed on the
uncommonness of Christ’s suffering:
No wounds, no pain, no common blood,
But that of an Eternal God
Will gain divine esteem.
The language could easily be misinterpreted to imply that the
suffering of the Son is attributed to Father or simply to God in general. However,
Williams is usually cautious enough to stress that these sufferings belong to the
Son of God incarnate in the state of humiliation, and not in any way to the
Father or the Spirit. The language of his English hymnody nonetheless anticipates
questions in modern theology concerning divine impassibility and the extent to
which God can be said to participate in human suffering and emotional pain.
While the excessive language of ‘blood and wounds’ has often been edited out
of modern hymnals, it serves to remind the reader of the centrality of Christ crucified
in early evangelical theology. Though the Gospels do not enter into such
graphic description concerning the crucifixion of Christ, they certainly
emphasise his death upon the Cross as the most significant fact in human
history. Indeed, the New Testament considers his death – the shedding of his blood
– to be the propitiation for human sin. Williams’ hymns, in spite of their literary
and theological flaws, serve as a reminder of early evangelical crucicentrism.
Eternity, though infinite,
Is short enough to trace
The virtues of His healing wounds,
The wonders of His Grace.
‘Blessed
Jubil’
‘O’er the Gloomy Hills of Darkness’ is one of Pantycelyn’s most
well-known hymns in the anglophone world and arguably the best of his English
language hymns. Despite the opening line, the hymn is actually an expression of
early evangelical optimism in the success of the Gospel and the worldwide
expansion of the Kingdom of Christ – an example the ‘Puritan Hope’ redivivus, this time for an age of enlightenment. The text of the hymn as it first appeared
in Gloria in Excelsis (1772) is a
rallying crying for the success of the Gospel, expressed eschatologically as
millenarianism – specifically as postmillennialism or the belief that Christ
will return following the flourishing of his Kingdom for a thousand years.
Notice the emphasis on enlightenment and the success of the Gospel in the
original text of the hymn:
O’er those gloomy Hills of Darkness
Look my Soul, be still and gaze,
All the promises do travel
On a glorious Day of Grace,
Blessed Jubil, &c.
Let thy glorious Morning dawn.
Let the Indian, let the Negro,
Let the rude Barbarian see
That divine and Glorious Conquest
Once obtain’d on Calvary;
Let the Gospel, &c.
Word resound from Pole to Pole.
Kingdoms wide that sit in Darkness,
Let them have the glorious Light,
And from Eastern Coast to Western
May the Morning chance the Night,
And Redemption, &c.
Freely puchas’d win the Day.
May the glorious Day approaching,
From the eternal Darkness dawn,
And the everlasting Gospel
Spread abroad thy holy Name.
Thousand Years, &c.
Soon appear, make no Delay.
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Lord, I long to see that Morning
When thy Gospel shall abound,
And thy Grace get full Possession
Of the happy promis’d Ground;
All the Borders, &c.
Of the great Immanuel’s Land.
Fly abroad, eternal Gospel,
Win and conquer, never cease;
May thy eternal wide Dominions
Multiply, and still increase;
May thy Sceptre, &c.
Sway the enlight’ned World around.
O let Moab yield and tremble,
Let Philistia never boast,
And let India proud be scatt’red
With their numerable Host;
And the Glory, &c.
Jesus only be to thee.
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The image of ‘light’ and ‘dawn’ in contrast to the ‘darkness’ of
‘night’ evidently suggest the idea of spiritual enlightenment and illumination.
While the eschatological phrases anticipate ‘a glorious Day of Grace’, a
‘Blessed Jubil’, a ‘glorious Morning’, a ‘Thousand Years’ or a Millennium, and
the coming of ‘Immanuel’s Land’. Notice also the international, transatlantic,
and cross-cultural dynamics in which ‘the Indian’, the ‘Negro’, and the ‘rude
Barbarian’ will fully participate as spiritual equals – values that would
eventually motivate evangelicals to campaign for the abolition of slavery. Pantycelyn
desires the success of the Gospel to be globalised from ‘Pole to Pole’ and
‘from Eastern Coast to Western’, conquering ‘wide Dominions’, and winning the ‘enlightened
World around’.
While modern evangelicals may not always share Williams’ particular eschatology,
his optimism and faith in the success of
the Gospel of Christ are themes of enduring relevance in Christianity – a worldwide redemption of people from every tribe, and
tongue, and nation to the praise of God’s glorious grace. ‘O’er those Gloomy
Hills of Darkness’ anticipates with joy the resurrection of the body and
glorious life of the world to come – a theology of hope in a risen and
exalted Christ.
Sources
James, E. Wyn, ‘“Blesséd Jubil”: Slavery, Mission and the Millennial
Dawn in the Work of William Williams of Pantycelyn’, in John Kirk, Michael
Brown, and Andrew Noble (eds), Cultures
of Radicalism in Britain and Ireland (London & New York, 2013), pp.
97–113.
Jones, R. Brinley (ed.), Songs
of Praises: English Hymns and Elegies of William Williams, Pantycelyn 1717–1791
(Felinfach, 1991).