Freely May We Learn to Give

Jesus Christ, eternal Savior,

Source of life and truth and grace,

Word made flesh, whose birth incarnate

Hallows all our human race,

Thou, our head who, throned in glory,

For thine own dost ever plead,

Fill us with thy love and pity;

Heal our wrongs, and help our need.

Bind us all as one together

In thy church’s sacred fold,

Weak and healthy, poor and wealthy,

Sad and joyful, young and old.

Is there want, or pain, or sorrow?

Make us all the burden share.

Are there spirits crushed and broken?

Teach us how to soothe their care.

Jesus, thou hast lived for others,

So may we for others live;

Freely have thy gifts been granted,

Freely may we learn to give.

Thine the gold and thine the silver,

Thine the wealth of land and sea,

We but stewards of thy bounty,

Held in solemn trust for thee.

Come, O Christ, and reign among us,

Fount of love and strength and peace,

Hush the storm of strife and passion,

Bid its cruel discords cease:

Thou who hopest, thou who willest,

That thy people should be one,

Grant, O grant our prayer’s fruition:

Here on earth thy will be done.

Somerset Lowry, 1893; alt.

Tune: TON-Y-BOTEL (8.7.8.7.D.)

Thomas J. Williams, 1890

It's generally agreed that the first thirty years or so of the twentieth century was the first great flowering of hymns in support of social justice and our obligation to the world around us, from the hymns of Frank Mason North, Walter Russell Bowie, and John Haynes Holmes to Harry Emerson Fosdick's God of grace and God of glory. Here's one that was written a bit earlier, in England, that those men may have known, though I don't think it's as well known today as their later hymns.

In order to make a hymn like this spread to a wider audience it needs a strong, somewhat familiar tune that people will remember and want to sing again. I like picking my own tunes for less-familiar texts so I usually don't look at what's been used before. I went first to this page (for the 8.7.8.7.D. meter) and listened to several of the 143 possible tunes there (which have sound files so that you can hear them too -- I have lists of many more that I don't use because you can't hear them). I finally chose this one for its muscular drive and was pleased and surprised to find that it's one of the tunes already used at the Cyber Hymnal. Even stranger, my second-choice tune (WEISSE FLAGGEN) was one of theirs as well. Odd.

TON-Y-BOTEL is a tune by Welsh composer/organist Thomas Williams. The tune comes from an anthem he had written, Light in the Valley (the great Welsh title is Gloeu yn y Glyn), adapted into a hymn tune a few years later. There was a legend, since proven false, that the tune was found on a beach washed ashore in a bottle, which is where its name comes from ("tune in a bottle"). Hymns for the Celebration of Life, the Unitarian hymnal of 1964, claims that the tale was "improvised by a fun-loving youth at a party," which suggests that there's more to the story. Who was at that party that then put that tune name into a hymnal? Nowadays they call the tune EBENEZER, but here on the blog I'm sticking to the "discredited" earlier name. At least it's a Welsh name, unlike EBENEZER. Plus, it's a good story, like Purcell and the chocolate poisoning.

The Freshness of Thy Grace

Where cross the crowded ways of life,

Where angry people's cries are heard

Above the noise of selfish strife,

We hear thy voice, O living Word.

In haunts of wretchedness and need,

On shadowed thresholds filled with fears,

From paths where hide the lures of greed,

We catch the vision of thy tears.

From tender childhood’s helplessness,

From woman’s grief, man’s burdened toil,

From famished souls, from sorrow’s stress,

Thy heart has never known recoil.

The cup of water given for thee,

Still holds the freshness of thy grace;

Yet long these multitudes to see

The sweet compassion of thy face.

O Savior, from the mountainside

Make haste to heal these hearts of pain;

Among these restless throngs abide;

O tread the city’s streets again;

Till all on earth shall learn thy love

And follow where thy feet have trod,

Till, glorious from thy heav'n above,

Shall come the city of our God!

Frank Mason North, 1903; alt.

Tune: GERMANY (L.M.)

From William Gardiner's Sacred Melodies, 1815

Methodist minister Frank Mason North was Corresponding Secretary for the New York City Missionary and Church Extension Society when he was asked to write a missionary hymn for the Methodist Hymnal of 1905. He had never written a hymn before, but this one came out of a sermon he was writing on Matthew 22:9 - Go ye therefore unto the partings of the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the feast. The "partings of the highways" became the first line of North's hymn, which he followed with images found in cities around the world.

North went on to write several more hymns, though in later years he claimed in a letter that he was "not a hymn writer, as that term is ordinarily used." Perhaps he meant that he was not as prolific as many, or that it was not a primary avocation of his, but this one hymn at least-- the first one he wrote -- has crossed over to many hymnals and denominations in the last 100 years.