American poet William Cullen Bryant was born today in 1794, in Massachusetts. His boyhood home, where he also spent summers later in life, is now a historic site. After a brief period as a lawyer in the western part of the state he moved to New York City to pursue a literary career.
For many years in the mid-nineteenth century he was the editor in chief of the New York Post, when it was known as the New York Evening Post and had a much different reputation than it enjoys nowadays.
In his day he was considered one of the most prominent American poets, though more people probably knew his name than actually read his poetry. He also wrote several hymns, most of which were privately published in 1869.
Bryant was a political activist on several topics, and the Evening Post gave him an excellent platform for disseminating his opinions. He was against slavery, a supporter of organized labor and other human rights. He was also one of the founders of the Republican Party in the 1850s, and introduced Abraham Lincoln to New York at Lincoln's famous Cooper Union speech in 1860.
Another cause which he apparently supported was the temperance movement, which campaigned for the abolition of alcoholic beverages. The following hymn, which appeared in several hymnals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, begins as another saints' day hymn about the imprisonment of Peter (from Acts 12), then develops into a strong denunciation of the perils of drink, which can be overcome by the power of God.
When, doomed to death, th'Apostle lay
At night in Herod's dungeon cell,
A light shone round him like the day,
And from his limbs the fetters fell.
A messenger from God was there,
To break his chain and bid him rise;
And lo! the saint, as free as air,
Walked forth beneath the open skies.
Chains yet more strong and cruel bind
The victim of that deadly thirst
Which drowns the soul, and from the mind
Blots the bright image stamped at first.
O God of love and mercy, deign
To look on those with pitying eye
Who struggle with that fatal chain,
And send them succor from on high!
Send down, in its resistless might,
Thy gracious Spirit, we implore,
And lead the captive forth to light,
A rescued soul, a slave no more!
William Cullen Bryant, 19th cent.
Tune: BRESLAU (L.M.)
As Hymnodus Sacer (Germany), 1625
This hymn was not confined to the separate temperance songbooks used by many local and national groups such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union, but also appeared in the denominational hymnals of the Methodist Episcopal Church (1878), the Protestant Episcopal Church (1892) and the United Evangelical Church (1897).
Today is the birthday of composer and songwriter Flora Hamilton Cassel (August 21, 1852 - November 17, 1911). She was raised in the Baptist church in Illinois (where her father was a minister) and learned to play the piano at a young age.
In 1873 she graduated from the Maplewood Institure in Pittsfield, MA (now a collection of condo-miniums), where she had studied music, including piano and composition. She returned to Illinois and found a teaching position at Shurtleff College, where she later met and married her husband, Elijah Taylor Cassel.
The Cassels collaborated on several songs for Sunday School children, he writing the words and she the music. Later, Flora would go on to write song texts of her own. This song was written by the duo for the first convention of the Baptist Young People's Union in 1894.
From over hill and plain there comes the signal strain,
’Tis loyalty, loyalty, loyalty to Christ;
Its music rolls along, the hills take up the song,
Of loyalty, loyalty, yes, loyalty to Christ.
Refrain
“On to victory! On to victory!”
Cries our great commander, “On!”
We’ll move at this command,
And spread across the land,
In loyalty, loyalty,
Yes, loyalty to Christ.
O hear, ye brave, the sound that moves the earth around,
’Tis loyalty, loyalty, loyalty to Christ;
Arise to dare and do, ring out the watchword true,
Of loyalty, loyalty, yes, loyalty to Christ.
Refrain
The strength of youth we lay at Jesus’ feet today,
’Tis loyalty, loyalty, loyalty to Christ;
The Gospel we’ll proclaim, throughout the world’s domain,
Of loyalty, loyalty, yes, loyalty to Christ.
Refrain
Elijah Taylor Cassell, 1894; alt.
Tune: LOYALTY TO CHRIST (6.6.12.D. with refrain)
Flora Hamilton Cassel; 1894
The Cassels had moved to Nebraska by this time, where Flora became the president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) chapter in Edgar, NE. She compiled and edited White Ribbon Vibrations (1890), a popular temperance hymnal, which included many of her own songs.
Flora died in 1911, killed in a buggy accident (like Clara Scott before her).
Three Years Ago: Civilla Durfee Martin (another wife-husband team of collaborators)
Two Years Ago: Alexander Reinagle
Eighty years ago today, composer Emma Louise Ashford died in Nashville, Tennessee. As described here two years ago, she had written about 600 works for voice, chorus, or organ. Though I have learned little more about her life, I have dug up some brief nuggets of information about some of her compositions.
In addition to the two hymn tunes that appeared in the 1905 Methodist Hymnal, I've also found a song called Christmas Bells in Triumphant Songs (1890), as well as two older gospel songs, none listed yet at the Cyber Hymnal. I also discovered a reference to her writing tunes for temperance songs, but thus far none of the temperance hymnals I've looked at has anything by Ashford.
In every human mind we see
A temple made for Deity,
And righteous thoughts and acts declare
The Holy Spirit's presence there.
The Living God who Moses saw,
Whose pow'r revealed the ancient law,
Within the reason and the will
Makes known God's truth and goodness still.
In every age the hallowed light
Of revelation shines more bright;
Our creeds, like meteors, rise and fall;
Faith, Hope, and Love survive them all.
T. L. Harris, 19th cent.?; alt.
Tune: SUTHERLAND (L.M.)
Emma L. Ashford, 1905
Today is the birthday of Mary Lathbury, born in 1841 in northern New York state. She attended art school after high school graduation, and went on to teach art for some years before turning more to writing, primarily for childrens' magazines and then books, which she illustrated herself.
She became the associate editor of Sunday School publications for the Methodist Episcopal Church where she continued writing and illustrating. John Heyl Vincent, a Methodist minister and later bishop, was a friend and Lathbury regularly attended the summer sessions at the Chautauqua Institution, which Vincent founded in the 1870s. Lathbury began writing hymns for worship and sometimes for Bible study classes at Chautauqua, often based on particular requests from Vincent, and sometimes set to tunes by the Institute's music director, William Fisk Sherwin. She became known as the poet laureate of Chautauqua, and her songs are still sung there today. In her own time, several were published in Chautauqua Carols (1878) though she continued to write new texts practically every year for many years after that, often for special occasions (such as when President Grant visited Chautauqua) or anniversaries.
Her two most familiar hymns have already been covered here on previous birthdays, and they each have appeared in hundreds of hymnals. Today's hymn is not nearly so well-known; Hymnary.org has only found four appearances of it thus far. Worship at Chautauqua was (and is) always nondenominational, and it may be that the theme of unity expressed here accounts for its scarcity.
O Shepherd of the Nameless Fold,
One promised church to be,
Our hearts with love and longing turn
To find their rest in thee;
And even now its heav’nly walls
Unseen around us rise,
And deep in loving human hearts
Its broad foundation lies.
From out our old, divided state,
And centuries of strife,
Thy hand, O Shepherd of the flock,
Is lifting us to life.
O blest dominion, happy fold,
The unity to be,
Our hearts in love and worship turn
To find themselves in thee!
Its bounds are known to God alone,
For they are set above;
The length, the breadth, the height are one,
And measured by God's love.
Mary Lathbury, 1881; alt.
Tune: ST. STEPHEN (C.M.)
William Jones, 1789
Though people had often requested it, Lathbury published no single collection of her verse in her lifetime. Two years after her death in 1913, Poems of Mary Artemesia Lathbury, Chautauqua Laureate was finally issued. including a foreword by Bishop Vincent and a brief sketch of her life by Frances Willard.
