HYMN

a song, or ode, composed in honour of God. The Jewish hymns were accompanied with trumpets, drums, and cymbals, to a ist the voices of the Levites and people. The word is used as synonymous with canticle, song, or psalm, which the Hebrews scarcely distinguish, having no particular term for a hymn, as distinct from a psalm or canticle. St. Paul requires Christians to edify one another with “psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs.” St. Matthew says, that Christ, having supped, sung a hymn, and went out. He recited the hymns or psalms which the Jews were used to sing after the pa over; which they called the Halal ; that is, the Hallelujah Psalms.