.), they were known as the
O Anthems. Similarly on The Epiphany, S. Matth. ii. 1, 2, 11 was sung
as an Antiphon to Magnificat; and on Whitsunday S. John iv. 23. {147}
These are instances of the use of simple Anthems in the Services before
1549. The following illustrates the purpose for which they were
appointed. It will be observed that the Advent thought was made to
pervade the whole Psalm.

ADVENT SETTING OF VENITE.

Behold the King cometh. Let us go to meet our Saviour.

O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us heartily rejoice in the
strength of our Salvation. Let us come before his presence with
thanksgiving: and shew ourselves glad in him with Psalms.

Behold the King cometh. Let us go to meet our Saviour.

For the Lord is a great God: and a great King above all gods. In his
hand are all the corners of the earth: and the strength of the hills is
his also.

Let us go to meet our Saviour.

The sea is his, and he made it; and his hands prepared the dry land. O
come, let us worship, and fall down: and kneel before the Lord our
Maker, for he is the Lord our God: and we are the people of his
pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

Behold the King cometh. Let us go to meet our Saviour.

To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts: as in the
provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness. When
your fathers tempted me: proved me and saw my works.

Let us go to meet our Saviour.

Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said; It is a
people that do err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways.
Unto whom I sware in my wrath: that they should not enter into my rest.

Behold the King cometh. Let us go to meet our Saviour.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it
was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.

Let us go to meet our Saviour.

Behold thy King cometh. Let us go to meet our Saviour.

{148}

THE COMPOUND ANTHEM.

The Prioress, in Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_, relates that a

Litel child his litel book lernynge,
As he sat in the scole in his primere,
He _O alma redemptoris_ herde synge,
As children lerned her antiphonere:

From this we understand that _O alma redemptoris_ was an "Antym" out of
the Antiphonere, or Anthem Book. This Anthem has six hexameter lines
followed by a Verse and Respond, and the Collect which we now use for
Lady Day. This,