Oliver Wendell Holmes

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (August 29, 1809 - October 7, 1894) was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and lived there for most of his life. Educated as a physician, he was for many years a professor or anatomy at Dartmouth College and Harvard Medical School, his alma mater.

There is always a "however" when Holmes's life is recounted, because his legacy has little to do with his education and occupation.  He is much more known today in the field of American literature and as a founder of the Atlantic Monthly magazine, which published many of his poems and essays.

Several of his poems have been adapted as hymns over the last century. Holmes is generally associated with the Unitarian faith, though his views on theology were perhaps even more broad than that denomination's reputation might suggest.  He once claimed that he "believed more than some and less than others."  The Episcopal Hymnal 1940 Companion says that several of his poems (sung as hymns in many churches) were "written in revolt against the merciless dogmas of his Calvinistic forefathers."

Today's hymn (the closing stanzas of a much longer poem) is certainly one of those texts in revolt.  Holmes presented it for the first time at the Unitarian Festival on June 2, 1882. Its theme of universal salvation (that everyone, regardless of religious belief, will be reconciled to God) renders this hymn unsingable in many places, and Hymnary.org finds it in only two hymnals published in the early twentieth century, but I think there are certainly churches where is could still be sung today.

Though scattered far the flock may stray,
Your own as Shepherd you shall claim -—
The saints who never learned to pray,
The friends who never spoke your name.

When shall the gathered church rejoice
Your word of promise to recall -—
One shelt'ring fold, one Shepherd's voice,
One great Creator over all?

Dear Savior, while we hear your voice
That says, "The truth shall make you free,"
Your people still by loving choice,
Help us sing praise eternally.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1882; alt.
Tune: WAREHAM (L.M.)
William Knapp, 1738



Four Years Ago: Oliver Wendell Holmes

The Many Names of God

God's many names as expressed in the hymns we sing is one of the ongoing themes here, though I've never made this too explicit. The poetic expressions of hymnwriters through the ages use many different names for God, some found in scripture, some not.

We know the familiar names: Father, Creator, Maker, Son, Redeemer, Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, Comforter. Love is a name given to God in many hymns. Modern hymnwriting is especially fond of “new” names for God, but I hope we've seen here that “modern” ideas are often not as modern as we think. Some of the hymns we've seen here already have named God in these other ways:

Wisdom

Shield and Defender

Protecting Power

Breath of Life

Sower

Eternal Loveliness

Grace Divine

and the sometimes controversial (elsewhere, but never here)
Mother

Here's another one, by the Unitarian Seth Curtis Beach, primarily known for his book Daughters of the Puritans (1905) a collection of biographical essays on women writers of New England.

Mysterious Presence, Source of all --
The world without, the soul within,
O Fount of life, hear thou our call,
And pour thy living waters in!

Thou breathest in the rushing wind;
Thy Spirit stirs in leaf and flower;
Nor wilt thou from the willing mind
Withhold thy light and love and power.

Thy hand unseen to accents clear
Awoke the psalmist’s trembling lyre,
And touched the lip of holy seer
With flame from thine own altar fire.

That touch divine, O God, impart;
Still give the prophet’s burning word;
And, vocal in each waiting heart,
Let living psalms of praise be heard.

Seth Curtis Beach, 1866; alt.
Tune: WAREHAM (L.M.)
William Knapp, 1738

Mysterious Presence may not be considered sufficiently orthodox a name for some, but this hymn has not been confined solely to Unitarian Universalist hymnals (the list at that link is actually incomplete; the rest of them are here). We will revisit this theme again, perhaps with more emphasis, but if you think about it, you can probably come up with a few uncommon names from hymns you already know. Please feel free to mention them in the comments section!

The Feast of the Transfiguration

The Feast of the Transfiguration, observed today in some church calendars, is a relatively new addition, having only been "officially" observed since the fifteenth century in Western traditions.

In more recent times, some denominations mark the occasion on the last Sunday before Lent, so I suppose there are churches where both dates are observed. Observing the Transfiguration on the final Sunday in the Epiphany season also brings together the theme of light which is part of both: the Epiphany star and the light from above that transfigures Jesus (as in Gustave Dore's woodcut here which will expand if you click on it). For some unremembered reason I didn't present a Transfiguration hymn back in February so here's another chance.

This hymn is also from the fifteenth century, originally in Latin and translated in the nineteenth century.

O wondrous sight! O vision fair
Of glory that the church may share,
Which Christ upon the mountain shows,
Where brighter than the sun Christ glows!

The law and prophets there have place,
Two chosen witnesses of grace,
And God's own voice from out the cloud
Proclaims the Savior Christ aloud.

With shining face and bright array,
Christ deigns to manifest that day
What glory shall be theirs above
Who joy in God with perfect love.

And faithful hearts are raised on high
By this great vision’s mystery;
For which in joyful strains we raise
The voice of prayer, the hymn of praise.

Sarum Breviary, 1495; tr. John Mason Neale, 1851
Tune: DEO GRATIAS (L.M.)
English melody, c. 1415

The tune DEO GRATIAS is adapted from a famous melody known as the Agincourt Carol, which originally accompanied a song recounting the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, in which the English defeated the French. It seems ideally suited for this hymn, though some hymnals prefer the somewhat more ordinary WAREHAM (even the Episcopalians, who supposedly have a reputation for more interesting musical settings).

Philip Doddridge

Philip Doddridge was an English Nonconformist, meaning that he felt that church and state should be separate in England, which the Church of England was not. He opened his own academy for the training of Nonconformist clergy, teaching many of the classes himself. He was a friend of Isaac Watts and an admirer of Watts's hymns, as well as those of Charles Wesley. He wrote nearly 400 hymns himself, many of which were sung in his own congregation. They were based on specific Scripture passages and were intended to be sung following one of his sermons on that particular text, as reinforcement of the theme.

The hymns were not published until after his death, first collected by Job Orton in Hymns Founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures in 1755 (374 hymns). His great-grandson, John Doddridge Humphreys, added 23 more in Scriptural Hymns by the Rev. Philip Doddridge in 1839. Several of them have survived into the present, including this one.

Great God, we sing that mighty hand
By which supported still we stand;
The opening year thy mercy shows,
That mercy crowns it ’til it close.

By day, by night, at home, abroad,
Still are we guarded by our God,
By thine incessant bounty fed,
By thine unerring counsel led.

With grateful hearts the past we own;
The future, all to us unknown,
We to thy guardian care commit,
And peaceful leave before thy feet.

In scenes exalted or depressed,
Thou art our joy, and thou our rest;
Thy goodness all our hopes shall raise,
Adored through all our changing days.

Philip Doddridge, published 1755; alt.
Tune: WAREHAM (L.M.)
William Knapp, 1738

Since there is a wide gulf between the language of the early eighteenth century and the common usage of today, I would guess that nearly any text you sing of Doddridge's will be rewritten in some way. This one, however, remains fairly intact.