To Give Them Songs for Sighing

As we wait during the season of Advent, stories are told of righted wrongs and promised justice, of the prosperity and peace that will prevail in the coming reign of Christ. Psalm 72, often read during Advent, is a prayer for this future.

This paraphrase of Psalm 72 is by James Montgomery. It was written for the British Moravian community at Fulneck and was first sung on Christmas Day, 1821. Montgomery then sent it to George Bennett, an acquaintance who was then in the South Seas, thus beginning its long use as a missionary hymn as well as a prophetic Advent text.

Hail to you, God’s anointed,
Messiah yet to come!
Hail in the time appointed,
Your reign on earth begun!
You come to break oppression,
To set the captive free;
To take away transgression
And rule in equity.

You come with succor speedy
To those who suffer wrong;
To help the poor and needy,
And bid the weak be strong;
To give them songs for sighing,
Their sadness put to flight,
Whose souls, condemned and dying,
Are precious in your sight.

You shall come down like showers
Upon the fruitful earth;
And love, joy, hope, like flowers,
Spring in your path to birth.
Before you, on the mountains,
Shall Peace, the herald, go,
And righteousness, in fountains,
From hill to valley flow.

Kings shall fall down before you,
And gold and incense bring;
All nations shall adore you,
Your praise all people sing;
For you shall have dominion
O’er river, sea and shore,
Far as the eagle’s pinion
Or dove’s light wing can soar.

To you shall prayer unceasing
And daily vows ascend;
Your commonwealth increasing,
A reign that has no end:
The mountain dews shall nourish
The seed which you have sown,
Whose fruit shall spread and flourish,
A garden grace has grown.

O’er every foe victorious,
You on your throne shall rest;
From age to age more glorious,
All blessing and all blest.
The tide of time shall never
Your covenant remove;
Your Name shall stand forever,
That Name to us is Love.

James Montgomery, 1821; alt.
Tune: ES FLOG EIN KLEINS WALDVOGELEIN (7.6.7.6.D.)
German folk tune, 17th c.

More denominations know this hymn to the ubiquitous tune ELLACOMBE, but that's not a favorite of mine. Few hymnals still include six stanzas of this text; often the fourth and fifth stanzas are combined into one by using only the first four lines of each one. Montgomery's original actually has two more, the original third and fifth:

By such shall you be fearèd
While sun and moon endure;
Beloved, obeyed, reverèd;
For you shall judge the poor
Through changing generations,
With justice, mercy, truth,
While stars maintain their stations,
Or moons renew their youth.

Arabia’s desert ranger
To you shall bow the knee;
The Ethiopian stranger
Your glory come to see;
With offerings of devotion
Ships from the isles shall meet,
To pour the wealth of oceans
In tribute at your feet.

Eight eight-line stanzas is probably a bit overlong even for me.


One Year Ago: Hark, the Voice of One That Crieth

Walter Chalmers Smith

Today is the birthday of Walter Chalmers Smith, born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1824. Following his education in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, he was ordained in the Free Church of Scotland on Christmas Day in 1850. He pastored a number of congregations, including one in London for seven years, but afterward returned to Scotland. In 1893, the jubilee year of the Free Church, Smith was named moderator of the denomination (apparently a year-long term).

He once wrote that his own poetry was “the retreat of his nature from the burden of his labors.” He published several collections, including Hymns of Christ and the Christian Life (1876), from which his most well-known hymn is taken.

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessèd, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, thy great Name we praise.

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
Thy justice, like mountains, high soaring above
Thy clouds, which are fountains of goodness and love.

To all, life thou givest, to both great and small;
In all life thou livest, the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish —- but naught changeth thee.

Great Mother of glory, pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
All laud we would render; O help us to see
’Tis only the splendor of light hideth thee.

Walter Chalmers Smith, 1876; alt.
Tune: ST. DENIO (11.11.11.11.)
Welsh melody, Caniadan y Cyssegr, 1839

“Immortal, invisible” comes from 1 Timothy 1:17: To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. The hymn as a whole enumerates the multiple attributes of God.

Smith's original hymn was in six stanzas; these four have become the standard version. One stanza, originally the fourth, has been omitted entirely:

Today and tomorrow with thee still are now;
Nor trouble, nor sorrow, nor care, Lord, hast thou;
Nor passion, nor fever, nor age can decay,
The same God forever as on yesterday.

The next stanza was the first two lines of the final one, then:

But of all thy good graces, this grace, Lord, impart --
Take the veil from our faces, the veil from our heart.

Some subsequent hymnals changed that line to “the vile from our heart.” Then the final stanza began with the lines starting “All laud we would render,” then concluded:

And now let thy glory to our gaze unroll,
Through Christ in the story, and Christ in the soul.

Most of those lines do not fit well within the meter of the tune, which is probably at least part of the reason for their omission.

ST.DENIO (sometimes called JOANNA) is a Welsh tune, believed to have been taken from a folk song called Can Mlynnedd i ’nawr (A hundred years from now). The hymn tune in its familiar form was first published in an 1839 collection by John Roberts. The tune was first joined to Smith's text in The English Hymnal (1906) and was gradually accepted as the definitive one over the first half of the twentieth century.


One Year Ago: Christina Georgina Rossetti

Clara Scott

Songwriter and composer Clara Scott was born today in 1841 in Elk Grove, Illinois, near Chicago. She apparently lived in the Midwest for her whole life. In 1897 she was visiting friends in Dubuque, Iowa when she was thrown from a carriage that was hit by a runaway horse and died.

This tragedy came only one year after the publication of her first hymnal.
Truth in Song, for the Lovers of Truth Everywhere was published by a Chicago firm in 1896. Of the seventy-nine selections in the book, thirty-three have music by Scott, and many of those have lyrics by her as well. The majority of the selections are by women, in fact: three other composers and several more lyricists.

Scott composed primarily in the gospel song style, though some of her tunes feel like more standard four-part hymn tunes, and some are only refrains without the accompanying stanzas, meant to be sung in repetition. This one almost seems like a sort of camp song, where only one word changes in each verse (you may know I've got peace like a river).

God is Love; that Love surrounds me,
In that Love I safely dwell,
’Tis above, beneath, within me,
Love is mine, and all is well.
God is Love, pure Love,
God is Love, sweet Love,
That Love is mine -— mine,
And all is well.

God is Life; that Life surrounds me,
In that Life I safely dwell,
’Tis above, beneath, within me,
Life is mine, and all is well.
God is Life, pure Life,
God is Life, sweet Life,
That Life is is mine -— mine,
And all is well.

God is Health; that Health surrounds me,
In that Health I safely dwell,
’Tis above, beneath, within me,
Health is mine, and all is well.
God is Health, pure Health,
God is Health, sweet Health,
That Health is mine -— mine,
And all is well.

God is Peace; that Peace surrounds me,
In that Peace I safely dwell,
’Tis above, beneath, within me,
Peace is mine, and all is well.
God is Peace, pure Peace,
God is Peace, sweet Peace,
That Peace is mine -— mine,
And all is well.

God is Strength; that Strength surrounds me,
In that Strength I safely dwell,
’Tis above, beneath, within me,
Strength is mine, and all is well.
God is Strength, pure Strength,
God is Strength, sweet Strength,
That Strength is mine -— mine,
And all is well.

God is Joy; that Joy surrounds me,
In that Joy I safely dwell,
’Tis above, beneath, within me,
Joy is mine, and all is well.
God is Joy, pure Joy,
God is Joy, sweet Joy,
That Joy is mine -— mine,
And all is well.

God is Truth; that Truth surrounds me,
In that Truth I safely dwell,
’Tis above, beneath, within me,
Truth is mine, and all is well.
God is Truth, pure Truth,
God is Truth, sweet Truth,
That Truth is mine -— mine,
And all is well.

Clara H. Scott, 1895
Tune: GOD IS LOVE (8.7.8.7.5.5.5.4.)

After looking through Scott's work in Truth in Song, I described it as “Unitarian gospel songs” (as if there was such a thing) to some friends. The musical style is largely gospel, but the texts are not. Actually, the “Health” verse here suggests to me that she was perhaps acquainted with the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, though I haven't seen any of Scott's songs in the hymnals of that denomination.


One Year Ago: Clara Scott

Still Held In Thine Own Hand

Today is the twenty-first "official" commemoration of World AIDS Day established by the United Nations in 1988. It is not only a day of remembrance but also of activism, commitment, and still, sometimes, anger. Many government and private agencies (collected here by Google) hold special events today, but they would like us all to remember that they are in business the other 364 days of the year as well.

The Metropolitan Community Church organized their first World AIDS Day commemoration two years before the UN, in 1986, an international response that was joined by thousands of congregations outside that denomination. Thousands of churches will still mark the occasion today, many in interfaith services.

I have used this hymn here before, but it has come to resonate powerfully for me for this particular occasion of remembrance. It was first published in 1920, and I suspect that the author, George Wallace Briggs, wrote it at least partially in response to World War I. The theme of a generation lost in circumstances not of their making was popular in those years (the poem In Flanders Field perhaps the most well-known expression) and it was reborn in the last years of the twentieth century in response to the AIDS epidemic.

Creator, by whose people
Our house was built of old,
Whose hand hath crowned thy children
With blessings manifold,
For thine unfailing mercies
Far-strewn along our way,
With all who passed before us,
We praise thy Name today.

The changeful years unresting
Their silent course have sped,
New comrades ever bringing
In comrades' steps to tread;
And some are long forgotten,
Long past their hopes and fears;
Safe rest they in thy keeping,
Who changest not with years.

They reap not where they labored;
We reap what they have sown;
Our harvest may be garnered
By ages yet unknown.
The days of old have dowered us
With gifts beyond all praise;
Creator, make us faithful
To serve the coming days.

Before us and beside us,
Still held in thine own hand
A cloud unseen of witness,
Our elder comrades stand:
One family unbroken,
We join, with one acclaim,
One heart, one voice uplifting
To glorify thy Name.

George Wallace Briggs, 1920; alt.
Tune: ST. ANSELM (7.6.7.6.D.)
Joseph Barnby, 1869

I was a member of MCC churches in New York and San Francisco between 1984 and 2000, both cities central to the crisis. A 1988 article published in The Christian Century described the impact of AIDS on our San Francisco congregation in those early years (the hymn from which the article's title is taken can be seen here). Within a year of that article the situation would be even more threatening; imagine a church where the clergy staff performed up to five memorial services every weekend. For those who remember those years, their impact is still felt, almost daily for some, for others sometimes a sudden shock of recollection that can be triggered by an unexpected association.

I remember Tim, Craig, Johnny, Jim, Paul, Bruce, Scott, both Jeffs and the many many others who are no longer here, but not just today. They still come to me often in times of prayer as part of the great communion of saints, the cloud unseen of witness from this final stanza. I also remember the countless more who cared for them and loved them and still miss them today. One family unbroken...

Jeremiah Clarke

English composer Jeremiah Clarke died on this day in 1707. Like many people of his day, his exact birthdate (perhaps around 1674) was not recorded, nor much about his early life.

By 1785, the year of the coronation of James II, he was a boy chorister at the Chapel Royal. As an adult he sang at St. Paul's Cathedral in London and studied with John Blow. In later years, he was the organist at the Chapel Royal and Master of the Choristers at St. Paul's. He composed mostly choral music and some hymn tunes, but also pieces for keyboard and instruments, and at least one opera with Daniel Purcell (brother of Henry).

Despondent at the refusal of his marriage proposal by a “titled lady,” he killed himself on that December day. 302 years ago. Accounts differ as to whether he is buried in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral (unlikely for a suicide) or in unconsecrated ground outside the cathedral graveyard.

Clearly not planning ahead, I have already used Clarke's most familiar tunes here:

ST. MAGNUS (Lo, what a cloud of witnesses)

BISHOPTHORPE (Immortal love, forever full)

BROMLEY (O thou, whose gracious presence shone)

Clark's most familiar composition is undoubtedly his Trumpet Voluntary or the Prince of Denmark's March, which you will probably recognize as soon as you click on the video below. It is frequently used at weddings, which seems ironic given the circumstances of Clarke's suicide.

When Our Hearts Are Bowed With Care

Today is the beginning of the church year, which begins with the first Sunday of Advent. This season of preparation is made up of several different threads: the prophetic voices of hope from the Old Testament, the witness of John the Baptist, the visit of the angel Gabriel to Mary, the approaching birth of Jesus, and even the return of Christ in the Second Advent.

These things don't proceed in a linear sequence; in fact, the story of the end times usually comes at the beginning of Advent. John the Baptist foretells the ministry of Jesus but that's many years after the birth in Bethlehem; John is still a baby when Mary and Joseph take their difficult journey.

This Advent hymn encompasses the beginning and the end as well as the promises of hope.

Jesus came, adored by angels,
Came with peace from realms on high;
Jesus came for our redemption,
Lowly came on earth to die.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Came in deep humility,
Came in deep humility

Jesus comes again in mercy,
When our hearts are bowed with care;
Jesus comes again in answer
To an earnest, heartfelt prayer;
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Comes to save us from despair,
Comes to save us from despair.

Jesus comes to hearts rejoicing,
Bringing news of sins forgiven;
Jesus comes in sounds of gladness,
Leading souls redeemed to Heav’n;
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Now the gate of death is riv’n,
Now the gate of death is riv'n.

Jesus comes on clouds triumphant,
When the heav’ns shall pass away;
Jesus comes again in glory;
Let us then our homage pay,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Till the dawn of endless day,
Till the dawn of endless day.

Godfrey Thring, 1864; alt.
Tune: CWM RHONDDA (8.7.8.7.D.)
John Hughes, 1907


One (Liturgical) Year Ago: Thousand Thousand Saints Attending

One (Calendar) Year Ago: John Haynes Holmes

William Cowper

William Cowper, sometimes called the greatest English poet of his age, was born today in 1731 in Berkhampstead. Some sources continue to list his birthday as November 15, but this is under the Old Style Gregorian calendar, abandoned in England in 1752 for the Julian calendar.

He was educated for a career in law, but felt unequal to the pressure of the necessary examinations for a position as a clerk to the House of Lords and attempted suicide three times. This led to his first confinement in an asylum for the insane at St. Alban's. Modern diagnosis of his condition generally supposes it to be manic depression or bipolar disorder. Upon his recovery, he moved to Huntingdon to be near one of his brothers, and took lodgings with the Unwin family. Two years later the Reverend Unwin was killed in a fall from a horse, but Cowper continued to live with the widow and her children. During this time, Cowper and the Unwins met John Newton, who suggested that they move to Olney, the parish where he was now curate.

Cowper and Newton shared an interest in hymnwriting, and each helped to encourage the other. Their influential collection, Olney Hymns, was eventually published in 1779. Cowper's sixty-eight contributions to that volume include a good number that are still sung today. Today's hymn takes its themes from the Sermon on the Mount (today's Gospel reading for Thanksgiving in my church) and from Habakkuk 3:17-18. Though this one may not have remained among his most popular, it is still one of my favorites.

Sometimes a light surprises
The child of God who sings;
A light from One who rises
On gentle, healing wings:
When comforts are declining,
God grants the soul again
A season of clear shining,
To cheer it after rain.

In holy contemplation
We sweetly then pursue
The theme of God's salvation,
And find it ever new;
Set free from present sorrow,
We cheerfully can say,
Let the unknown tomorrow
Bring with it what it may,

It can bring with it nothing
But God will bear us through:
Who gives the lilies clothing
Will clothe all people, too:
Beneath the spreading heavens
No creature but is fed;
And God who feeds the ravens
Will give all children bread.

Though vine nor fig tree neither
Their usual fruit should bear,
Though all the fields should wither,
Nor flocks nor herds be there;
Yet, God the same abiding,
Whose praise shall tune my voice;
For, while in God confiding,
I cannot but rejoice.

William Cowper, 1779; alt.
Tune: LLANGLOFFAN (7.6.7.6.D.)
Scottish Psalter, 1615

The critic Hugh L'Anson Faussett, who later edited a collection of Cowper's poetry, claimed that Newton's influence on Cowper only served to “indulge and inflame his sensiblity in the dark ecstasies of Calvinism, while at the same time affronting all that was reasonable and humane in his nature.” It seems unlikely that Cowper would have agreed. At any rate, this hymn is surely as joyful an expression of hope and certainty as one could find.

Cowper suffered at least two more periods of severe depression and confinement. The first, in 1773, seems to have ended his plans to wed Mary Unwin, though she remained his close friend and cared for him after his release from the asylum on that occasion. After her death in 1796 he never quite recovered, and died himself in 1800.

Cowper's primary fame as a poet in his own time came after the bulk of his hymnwriting, with the publication of works such as The Diverting History of John Gilpin (1782), The Task (1785) and his blank verse translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey (1791). However, his hymns have reached a much larger and broader audience, even though many thousands of singers may have never remembered his name.

The Song of Harvest Home

Our American Thanksgiving coincides with the end of the traditional harvest time. Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation, which established the national holiday (thanks in part to the lobbying of Sarah Josepha Hale), made reference to the “blessings of fruitful fields.”

Harvest festivals of one kind or another have been celebrated in many nations and cultures. In England, the custom goes back several centuries, and was originally a secular holiday. The Reverend Robert Hawker was apparently the first to bring the celebration into church, on October 1, 1843. As these Harvest Festivals developed (especially popular in rural churches), hymns and prayers were written for them, and church buildings were decorated with home grown produce. This hymn which dates from those early years, by our old friend Henry Alford, was sung in many churches today (or at least this week).

Come, ye thankful people, come,
Raise the song of harvest home;
All is safely gathered in,
Ere the winter storms begin.
God our Maker doth provide
For our wants to be supplied;
Come to God’s own temple, come,
Raise the song of harvest home.

All the world is God’s own field,
Fruit unto God's praise to yield;
Wheat and tares together sown
Unto joy or sorrow grown.
First the blade and then the ear,
Then the full corn shall appear;
God of harvest, grant that we
Wholesome grain and pure may be.

For the Living God shall come,
And shall take the harvest home;
From the field shall in that day
All offenses purge away,
Give the angels charge at last
In the fire the tares to cast;
But the fruitful ears to store
In God's garner evermore.

Even so, God, quickly come,
Bring thy final harvest home;
Gather thou thy people in,
Free from sorrow, free from sin,
There, forever purified,
In thy presence to abide;
Come, with all thine angels come,
Raise the glorious harvest home.

Henry Alford, 1844, 1865; alt.
Tune: ST. GEORGE'S WINDSOR (7.7.7.7.D.)
George J. Elvey, 1858

In the words of the Presbyterian Handbook to the Hymnal (1935), this hymn “sweeps broadly through the whole regime of God's grace manifest in present worldly blessings and eternal salvation.”

Alford's text was first matched with this grand tune in the first edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861), though the editors of that book changed the text in ways that he did not approve, leading him to revise it for a collected edition of his own works. Naturally, there have been other revisions over the years. Some modern hymnals omit the third verse.

The tune by George Elvey, named for St. George's Chapel in Windsor, where he was organist for more than fifty years, was not written for this tune but they have stayed together in most hymnals for the last 150 years.


One Year Ago: All Good Gifts Around Us

Thomas Tallis

Today is the anniversary of the death of English composer Thomas Tallis, in 1585. Almost nothing is known of his early life, not even the exact year of his birth (best guess seems to be around 1505), let alone the date.

In 1532 he became the organist at the Benedictine priory in Dover, and this seems to be the first date recorded in association with his life. Other organist positions followed until 1543, when he received a royal appointment as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, a musical job in which he sometimes sang in or led the choir, played the organ, and composed music for the services there.

Though Tallis did compose some works for keyboard, most of his compositions are sacred choral music. Due to the changes in the monarchs of England during his lifetime, he had to compose both in English for the services of the new Church of England, and at other times had to compose in Latin for the Catholic liturgy. Tallis himself was Catholic, and some scholars believe that his Latin pieces show his sympathy for that side.

The hymn tunes of Tallis (some of which are still used today) mostly come from an edition of the Psalter that was translated in 1561 by Matthew Parker, who was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Queen Elizabeth I. Tallis wrote nine tunes for Archbishop Parker's Psalter, eight of which were used for multiple psalms (the ninth was solely used for a translation of the hymn Veni sancte spiritus). This particular tune, probably the most well-known by Tallis, was adapted from the eighth tune of the psalter.

All praise to thee, my God, this night,
For all the blessings of the light!
Keep me, O keep me, King of kings,
Beneath thine own almighty wings.

When in the night I sleepless lie,
My soul with heavenly thoughts supply;
Let no ill dreams disturb my rest,
No powers of evil me molest.

Teach me to live, that I may dread
The grave as little as my bed.
That with the world, myself, and thee,
I, ere I sleep, at peace may be..

O may my soul on thee repose,
And with sweet sleep mine eyelids close,
Sleep that may me more vigorous make
To serve my God when I awake.

Thomas Ken, 1693; alt.
Tune: TALLIS' CANON (L.M.)
Thomas Tallis, 1561

This hymn by Bishop Thomas Ken, originally had eleven stanzas (and he added one more a few tears later), but most of them have not been sung in the last two hundred years or so. One that I find interesting, though it was perhaps a bit too vivid for the Victorians:

Dull sleep, of sense me to deprive!
I am but half my days alive;
Thy faithful lovers, Lord, are grieved,
To be so long of thee bereaved.

P.S. This hymn was Number Four on the list of The Best Church Hymns seen here last week.

Saint Cecilia

November 22 is the feast day of Saint Cecilia, traditionally the patron saint of music and musicians, and certainly an appropriate subject for this blog.

She lived in either the second or third century (accounts differ) and was martyred along with her husband and brother-in-law, whom she had converted to Christianity. Her sainthood was conferred as early as the fifth century, when a church named for her was built in Rome. Her connection to music is also attributed to different stories; one states that she sang a hymn to God in her heart during her wedding ceremony to block out the profane worldly music of the Roman rite, while another tells of her singing boldly while she was martyred (by beheading). She is often depicted playing the organ, with an angel present.

Many pieces of music, particularly sacred choral music, have been written in her honor, including masses by Gounod and Scarlatti, extended odes by Purcell, Britten, Handel, Howells, and Parry, and many shorter works.

Older Catholic hymnals contain a handful of hymns for her feast day, and there are probably untranslated hymns from the Eastern Orthodox churches. This particular one comes from the St. Mark's Hymnal (1910), published by St. Mark's Parish in Peoria, IL. Julia C. Dox, one of the hymnal's compilers, also wrote this text.

Saint Cecilia, you who sing
Praises ever echoing,
Make our hearts your instrument
In God's service ever spent.

E'er to music give your pow'rs
Thus to aid in troubled hours;
Music, the divinest art,
Ever of our lives a part.

Inspiration still it brings,
Earthly words are given wings;
May we sing, when heav'n is won,
Praise to God, great Three in One.

Julia C. Dox, 1910; adapt.
Tune: EVELYN (7.7.7.7.)
Emma L. Ashford, 1905

Today is the last Sunday of the church year -- Advent begins next week! In many churches, today is marked as the Feast (or Solemnity) of Christ the King. But I do know of a few places where they are including one of the choral anthems to Saint Cecilia in addition to the traditional Christ the King music. I wonder what they're singing in Peoria?

One (Liturgical) Year Ago: The Feast of Christ the King

One (Calendar) Year Ago: If Jordan Above Me Shall Roll

More Voices Found: Ada Cambridge

Ada Cambridge was born today in 1844 in the eastern English town of Norfolk. Her education was taken in hand by a succession of governesses, which she apparently did not like, and by one maiden aunt, whom she later credited with much of her intellectual development.

In 1870 she married the Reverend Mr. George Frederick Cross, and only a few weeks later they moved to Australia, where he was to lead several missionary parishes of the Church of England over the next forty-three years. A few years, later, to supplement his small income and support their growing family, Ada began to write novels, many of them first serialized in magazines. Her reputation grew and her works became popular in England and the US as well as in Australia. She eventually published twenty-five novels, a few books of poetry, and two memoirs, including Thirty Years in Australia (1903). Her novels and other books were published under the name of Ada Cambridge (or, earlier, A.C.) rather than under her married name.

Her views were modern and somewhat unorthodox, especially as expressed in her poems. One of her poetry collections, Unspoken Thoughts (1887) was withdrawn from sale at her request only three days after its publication. Apparently, some of the poems were challenging to the religious and sexual attitudes of the day, and would not have been considered proper from the wife of an Anglican clergyman.

However, her first literary attempts were published a few years before her marriage and emigration. She had written verse as a girl, but her first two books were of hymns:

Hymns on the Litany (1865)
Hymns on the Holy Communion (1866)

The second of these books contained this hymn, which I believe was not taken up by very many hymnals, though I find it interesting. The exclamation points in the first two stanzas give an ecstatic feeling to the communion theme.

Food of heaven! Feast of angels!
On this holy altar spread;
Symbol of the life immortal,
In our sight unfathomèd.

Love celestial! Hope undying!
Here unto our faith revealed;
Light, whose mystery we know not,
Truth, which lips divine have sealed.

Gate of the Eternal City,
Where the angel-echoes ring,
Where our Mediator standeth
With a smile of welcoming.

Jesus stands in light and glory,
Patiently disburdening:
Strength divine, and peace and blessing
On the captive soul to bring.

And the promise stands forever
That each faithful one shall be
Guarded by this grace and power,
By this love, eternally.

Once the gift was freely offered
Now may we its blessing take
Drink the chalice of salvation,
Eat the bread that Jesus brake.

Ada Cambridge, 1866; alt.
Tune: MERTON (8.7.8.7.)
William H. Monk, 1850

The Crosses returned to England in 1912 upon his retirement. Though their early years in Australia had been difficult, Ada returned there after George's death in 1917 and remained until her death in 1926.

The Best Church Hymns (1899)

Since it's been a slow week for hymnic birthdays and such I have been looking though some old books on hymnody that I've downloaded from the internet. Today I'll talk a bit about one that some of you may find interesting.

The Best Church Hymns was published in 1899 by the Presbyterian Board of Publication. It was compiled by Louis F. Benson, who was the editor of that denomination's Hymnal of 1895. In his introduction, he lays out the criteria:

The hymn is the people's share in God's praise, and is intended for congregational use. It can be tested only in actual use in the worship of the Church; and to propose any other test (such as the opinions of critics) is to confound literature with liturgics. (...) The “best church hymns” are those... which have come into actual use over the widest area, and by consent of the largest number of Christians in the different churches.

Benson then lists these thirty-two hymns which appeared most often across 107 different US and UK hymnals of the late nineteenth century, spanning several denominations, and ranked from most frequent to least (all were in at least 80% of the hymnals).

1. Rock of ages, cleft for me (106)

2. When I survey the wondrous cross (104)

3. Jesus, lover of my soul (104)

4. All praise to thee, my God, this night (103)

5. Jesus, I my cross have taken ** (103)

6. Sun of my soul (103)

7. Awake, my soul, and with the sun (101)

8. Hark! the herald angels sing ** (101)

9. Abide with me (101)

10. Jerusalem, my happy home ** (101)

11. How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds (101)

12. Nearer, my God, to thee (100)

13. From Greenland's icy mountains ** (100)

14. O God, our help in ages past (100)

15. Jerusalem the golden (99)

16. Lo, he comes with clouds descending (94)

17. Jesus shall reign wher'er the sun (94)

18. Glorious things of thee are spoken (93)

19. Hark! the glad sound, the Savior comes (92)

20. Come, let us join our cheerful songs (92)

21. All hail the pow'r of Jesus' name ** (92)

22. Hail to the Lord's anointed (91)

23. O worship the King (91)

24. Christ the Lord is ris'n today (90)

25. Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (90)

26. Just as I am, without one plea (90)

27. God moves in a mysterious way (90)

28. Jesus, the very thought of thee (89)

29. Children of the heavenly King (87)

30. There is a land of pure delight (87)

31. Thou whose almighty Word (86)

32. Brief life is here our portion ** (86)

The ones I have previously written about (for some reason, mostly from the middle of the list) are linked; those which I have at least mentioned are marked with (**). Several of them will be coming up in the next few months, and there are only a handful here that I would be unlikely ever to write about.

The next two, which Benson assumed would pass his 80% guideline when a few more hymnals appeared, were Holy! Holy! Holy! (which would certainly still be on the list today) and Lead, kindly Light (which would certainly not be). Were someone to compile a similar list today, 110 years later, others from the list would definitely be replaced by newer ones.

Following the list, the text of each hymn is printed, with notes on many of the various text changes that had occurred since the text was first published, and also Benson's brief thoughts on each hymn (almost like little blog entries!). The book is only 99 pages long, a good size for easy downloading and a good length for reading.