that his innovation was sensational. That such a charge could be made
against the Ambrosian mode of music, with its slow movement and
unmetrical lines, seems strange to us, but it was _new_--and
conservatism is the same in all ages.

The great bishop carried all before him. His school of song-worship
prevailed in Christian Europe more than two hundred years. Most of his
hymns are lost, (the Benedictine writers credit him with twelve), but,
judging by their effect on the powerful mind of Augustine, their
influence among the common people must have been profound, and far more
lasting than the author's life. "Their voices sank into mine ears, and
their truths distilled into my heart," wrote Augustine, long afterwards,
of these hymns; "tears ran down, and I rejoiced in them."

Poetic tradition has dramatized the story of the birth of the "Te Deum,"
dating it on an Easter Sunday, and dividing the honor of its composition
between Ambrose and his most eminent convert. It was the day when the
bishop baptized Augustine, in the presence of a vast throng that crowded
the Basilica of Milan. As if foreseeing with a prophet's eye that his
brilliant candidate would become one of the ruling stars of Christendom,
Ambrose lifted his hands to heaven and chanted in a holy rapture,--

We praise Thee, O God! We acknowledge Thee to be the Lord;
All the Earth doth worship Thee, the Father Everlasting.

He paused, and from the lips of the baptized disciple came the
response,--

To Thee all the angels cry aloud: the heavens and all the powers
therein.