Come In Our Hearts To Dwell

As you probably know, it's a new (church) year today as we observe the First Sunday in Advent.  Christmas is coming but it's not here yet, in spite of the unavoidable holiday trappings that have sprung up over the past few weeks.  Here, at least, we can slow down a bit and observe this period of waiting.

Anglican hymnwriter Claudia Frances Hernaman provides today's text.  Like most of her other hymns, this one was originally written for children.  

We are more accustomed to hearing the word "Hosanna" on Palm Sunday, but it is also appropriate at this time of year.  The First Sunday in Advent often includes lessons about the second coming of Christ (also seen in this hymn), and the promised reign of peace and justice. We often think of Hosanna as an exclamation of praise, but it is more exactly an appeal for divine help, certainly among the things we do during this time of expectation.

Hosanna! now through Advent,
With loving hearts we sing,
For Jesus Christ is coming
To be his people's King. 
Hosanna! blessed Jesus,
Come in our hearts to dwell,
And let our lives and voices
Thy praise and glory tell.

Hosanna! let this welcome
Ring out through every heart;
Draw near to us, dear Jesus,
And nevermore depart.
So when we see you coming
With angels in the sky,
Hosanna! loud Hosanna
Shall be your people's cry.

Claudia Frances Hernaman, 19th cent.; alt.
Tune: WEDLOCK (7.6.7.6.)
Traditional American melody, in The Sacred Harp, 1844

This tune from the American Sacred Harp, or shape note tradition, may never have been matched to this text before. However, like the word Hosanna, the tune is probably not what we would associate with an exclamation of praise, but rather with a plea for assistance.



Six (Liturgical) Years Ago: Lo! Christ comes with clouds descending

Five (Liturgical) Years Ago: Jesus came, adored by angels

Four (Liturgical) Years Ago: Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates

Three (Liturgical) Years Ago: The King shall come when morning dawns

Two (Liturgical) Years Ago: Once he came in blessing

One (Liturgical) Year Ago: In the Advent light, O Savior

James Montgomery

Hymnwriter James Montgomery was born today in 1771, in Scotland. His parents were missionaries in the Moravian church, who left young James with friends while they traveled to evangelize the West Indies, and unfortunately both died there. 

He wrote poetry from a young age (even being expelled from school once because of it), and as an adult became a newspaper editor. He wrote several long secular poems, some on political subjects. However, Montgomery correctly believed that his hymns (about 400 in total) would be most remembered out of all his work. Nearly any hymnal index you check today will still contain his hymns, several of which have already been covered here (click on his name tag below).

Sing we the song of those who stand

Around th’eternal throne,

Of every kindred, clime, and land,

A multitude unknown.

Toil, trial, suffering, still await

On earth the pilgrim throng,

Yet learn we, in our earthly state,

The Church Triumphant’s song.

“Worthy the Lamb!” we join to sing,

“Who died for souls to save;

Henceforth, O death! where is thy sting?

Thy victory, O grave?”

Then, Alleluia! power and praise

To God in Christ be given;

May all who now this anthem raise

Renew the strain in heav’n!

James Montgomery, 1824; alt.

Tune: EVAN (C.M.)

William Henry Havergal, 1846

Following his death in 1854, a monument was erected at his gravesite in Sheffield in 1861. The inscription reads in part: Wherever poetry is read, or Christian hymns sung, in the English language, 'he being dead, yet speaketh' by the genius, piety and taste embodied in his writings.

We're still singing -- both Montgomery's hymns and those of the "multitude unknown."

Six Years Ago: James Montgomery

Four Years Ago: James Montgomery

Another Birthday Today: Augustus Montague Toplady

The Feast of All Saints

Today is All Saints' Day though many churches will celebrate it tomorrow.  My own congregation will mark it both days as today we have more than twenty people being confirmed by a visiting bishop, and tomorrow we will have our regular feast-day liturgy, to which many look forward.

Several of the hymns for this day are fairly long, so today's text might be a good alternative, especially for time-conscious worship leaders.  It still covers all the bases, praising saints both known and unknown and expressing our own aspirations to join that heavenly throng.

Eternal God, we give you praise and glory
For the bright cloud of witnesses unseen,
Whose names shine forth like stars, in sacred story,
Guiding our steps to realms of light serene;

And for your unknown saints, our praise adoring,
Fount of all sanctity, to you we yield,
Who in your treasure-house on high, are storing
Jewels who luster was, on earth, concealed.

Though, in your service, we have often slumbered,
Like the ten maidens, foolish ones and wise;
Yet with your saints, may we at last be numbered,
And at your call with burning lamps arise.

Mary Ann Thomson, 1889; alt.
Tune: EIRENE (11.10.11.10.)
Frances Ridley Havergal, 1871

The parable of the wise and foolish maidens (or bridesmaids, or virgins) is from Matthew 25:1-13, and although that lesson is most often read during Advent it also speaks to our own hopes of heaven.

Mary Ann Thomson (1834-1923) is still known today in many places as the author of O Zion, haste, thy mission high fulfilling, a missionary hymn that some might find outdated.  I recently encountered it after several  years at a funeral for an Episcopal priest, a woman who was active in the work of the church long before she ever had any hope of ordination.  The gathered congregation, including many priests of an older generation, belted it out with enthusiasm, conveying the significance that it clearly held for them.  I began to understand it in a more general way, taking from it the sense of doing the work of the gospel in the world rather than converting the world to one religion.



Six Years Ago: Who are these like stars appearing?

Five Years Ago: For all the saints

Four Years Ago: The saints of God! their conflict past

Two Years Ago: Hark! the sound of holy voices

Christopher Wordsworth

Bishop Christopher Wordsworth (October 30, 1807, - March 20, 1885) was the son of an Anglican minister and the nephew of England's Poet Laureate William Wordsworth.  He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where his father was also Master.  Successful both in scholarship and athletics, he was nicknamed "Great Christopher" at school for the many honors and awards he received.  

After taking holy orders in 1830 he remained in the education field at Cambridge and Harrow, finally becoming the vicar of the Anglican parish of Stanford-in-the-Vale-cum-Goosey in Berkshire for eighteen years.  He was appointed Bishop of Lincoln in 1869, where he remianed until his death.

He published several books in various areas of scholarship.  Most of his hymns appeared in The Holy Year (1862) a collection he edited which contains hymns for each Sunday of the church's liturgical year as well as for various feast days of the Anglican church.

 O God of heav’n and earth and sea,
To thee all praise and glory be;
How shall we show our love to thee,
Who givest all?

The golden sunshine, vernal air,
Sweet flowers and fruits, thy love declare;
Where harvests ripen, thou art there,
Who givest all.

For peaceful homes and healthful days,
For all the blessings earth displays,
We owe thee thankfulness and praise,
Who givest all.

We lose what on ourselves we spend,
We have as treasure without end
Whatever, God, to thee we lend,
Who givest all.

Whatever, God, we lend to thee,
Repaid a thousand-fold will be;
Then gladly will we give to thee
Who givest all.

To thee, from whom we all derive
Our life, our gifts, our power to give:
O may we ever with thee live,
Who givest all.

Christopher Wordsworth, 1863; alt.
Tune: OLDBRIDGE (8.8.8.4.)
Robert N. Quaile, 19th cent. 

Now this hymn is even more appropriate for the season of stewardship that many churches are currently observing.



Six Years Ago: Christopher Wordsworth 

Five Years Ago: Adelaide Anne Procter

Four Years Ago: Adelaide Anne Procter

No Act Falls Fruitless

In this time of year many churches are emphasizing the theme of stewardship in preparation of their annual budgets.  Unsurprisingly, this is generally considered to be about money, but sometimes there will be discussion about other gifts we can bring to our communities and to the wider world.  This hymn reminds us of the smallest kinds of things that we can do every day in the stewardship of our spiritual mission.

Scorn not the slightest word or deed,
Nor deem it void of power;
There’s fruit in each wind-wafted seed
That waits its natal hour.
.
A whispered word may touch the heart,
And call it back to life:
A look of love bid fear depart,
And still discordant strife.

No act falls fruitless; none can tell
How vast its power may be,
Nor what results infolded dwell
Within it silently. 

Work on, despair not, bring your mite,
Nor care how small it be; 
God is with all that serve the right:
The holy, true, and free.

Anonymous, 1845; alt.
Tune: TALLIS' ORDINAL (C.M.)
Thomas Tallis, 1567

The 'mite' in the last stanza refers to the widow's mite, or offering, in Mark 12:41-44;  Generations of Sunday School children filled mite-boxes with small coins each year (and probably still do).

The language of this text is perhaps a bit more formal than necessary, but I still think there's some value in an older text like this, unknown though it may be..

Claudia Frances Hernaman

Hymnwriter Claudia Frances Hernaman was born on this day in 1838, in the English village of Addlestone, the daughter of the Reverend W. H. Ibotson, an Anglican priest. She wrote for a number of church publications at a fairly young ago, turning her attention to religious poetry and hymn texts, primarily for children. She also translated several hymns from Latin. and published several collections of her work.

Her most familiar text (perhaps the only one still regularly in use), sung across many denominations, is the Lenten hymn Lord, who throughout these forty days.  Today's hymn for children was written to mark any saints' day in the church calendar.  While we have seen many hymns written for particular saints, there are others such as this that can be sung for any saint's day. October 19, for example, does not mark any well-known saints, but there are still people on the calendar.

All thy saints adore thee, Lord,
Sing thy praise with one accord;
Magnify thy holy Name,
And thy boundless love proclaim.

Saints in paradise at rest,
Saints, by earthly trials pressed,
One in thee, with one glad voice,
Evermore in thee rejoice.

Now, O God, thy praise we tell,
In this saint who served thee well,
Who was strong in Jesus' might,
Conquering evil in the fight.

Grant us, God, with equal faith,
Thee to follow until death,
And, through all eternity,
With the saints to worship thee.

Claudia Frances Hernaman, 19th cent.; alt.
Tune: ST. BEES (7.7.7.7.)
John Bacchus Dykes, 1862

This simple tune by the prolific Victorian composer John Bacchus Dykes, was apparently named for the village of St. Bees in northern England.

Frederick Lucian Hosmer

Frederick Lucian Hosmer (October 16, 1840 - June 7, 1929), Unitarian minister, hymnwriter and hymnal editor,  was born in Framingham, Massachusetts.  He graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1869, a generation later than Samuel Longfellow, in whose hymnodic footsteps Hosmer would travel.

Today's hymn was written by Hosmer for the January 1891 dedication of the Unity Church of Decorah, Iowa (a Unitarian congregation, building pictured below).  In the nineteenth and early twentieth century there were several different texts written by various poets to be sung to the familiar tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic (or John Brown's Body) such as the one we have already seen by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

From age to age they gather, all the brave of heart and strong;
In the strife of truth with error, of the right against the wrong;
I can see their gleaming banner, I can hear their triumph song;
The truth is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah! The truth is marching on!

The earth is circling onward out of shadow into light;
The stars keep watch above our way, however long the night;
For every martyr’s stripe there glows a bar of morning bright;
And love is marching on!
Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah! And love is marching on!

Lead on, O cross of urgent faith, with thee is victory;
Shine forth, O stars and reddening dawn, the full day yet shall be;
God's dominion quickly cometh, and with joy our eyes shall see,
Our God is marching on!
Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah! Our God is marching on!

Frederick Lucian Hosmer, 1891: alt.  
Tune: BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC (Irregular with refrain)
William Steffe (coll.), c.1856

The theme of the coming reign of God appears in other texts by Hosmer, includimg somewe have already seen here (links below).

Six Years Ago: Frederick Lucian Hosmer

Five Years Ago: Frederick Lucian Hosmer  

Four Years Ago: Frederick lucian Hosmer

Saint Michael and All Angels

Today's feast-day for Saint Michael and All Angels is not celebrated as widely as it once was, but sometimes churches (such as my own) will observe it on the nearest Sunday (which we did yesterday).

I realized that the hymn I posted last week was really perfect for today, but fortunately there are dozens to choose from, as this partial list indicates.

High on a hill of dazzling light
As first creation’s glory shone,
Vast troops of angels stretched for flight,
Stand waiting round God’s heavenly throne.

Go, says the Lord, "my Gabriel, go --
Salute the Virgin's fruitful womb; 
Make haste, you seraphs down below,
Sing and proclaim the Savior come."

Here a bright squadron leaves the skies,
And thick around Elisha stands;
Again a heav’nly soldier flies,
And breaks the chains from Peter’s hands.

Your wingèd troops, O God of hosts!
Wait on your wandering church below:
When we are sailing to your coasts;
Let angels be our convoy, too.

Are they not all your servants, Lord?
At your command they go and come;
With cheerful haste obey your word,
And guard your children to their home.

Isaac Watts, 1709; alt.
Tune: SALISBURY (L.M.)
Thomas Ravenscroft, 1621

This text reminds us of only a few of the scriptural stories of angels: Gabriel's visit to Mary (Luke 1: 26-38). the heavenly host that appeared to Bethlehem's shepherds (Luke 2:8-14), the angels with flaming chariots that protected the prophet Elisha (2 Kings 6:17), and the liberation of Peter from prison (Acts 12:4-11).

Isaac Watts wrote other hymn texts specifically about Saint Michael's war in heaven, from Revelation 12:7-12, so it may have been a particular interest of his, but not all of them are still likely to be sung in many places.  Texts like From heav'n the sinning angels fell and Down headlong from their native skies are perhaps better left in the past. 



Two Years Ago: O Captain of God's host

Four Years Ago: They are evermore around us

Five Years Ago: Stars of the morning, so gloriously bright

Six Years Ago:  Around the throne of God

Leading Into Life

God will send the angels to the earth anew,
Bringing joyful tidings, songs the whole world through;
They who first, at Christmas, thronged the heavenly way,
Then, beside the tomb-door, sat on Easter Day.

Refrain
Angels sing his triumph, as you sang his birth,
"Jesus Christ is risen!. Peace, goodwill on earth."

In the lonesome desert, where the Lord was tried,
There the faithful angels gathered at his side;
And when in the garden, grief and pain and care
Bowed him down with anguish, they were with him there.
Refrain

Yet the Christ they honor is the same Christ still,
Who, in joy and sorrow, did his Father's will;
And the tomb deserted shines just like the sky,
Since he passed out from it into victory.
Refrain

God has still these angels, helping, with the Word,
All God’s faithful children, like their faithful Lord;
Soothing them in sorrow, shielding them in strife,
Opening wide the tomb-doors, leading into life.
Refrain

Phillips Brooks, 1877; alt.
Tune: ARMAGEDDON (6.5.6.5.D. with refrain)
Luise Reichardt, 19th cent.; adapt. John Goss, 1871 

The Feast of Pentecost

Happy Birthday to the Church!  One more Pentecost - a day that I have not yet missed here for the last six years (so there are plenty of hymns to explore again below).  You have to look closely at the picture above to see the tongues of fire on the heads of Mary and the apostles.

Spirit of grace and health and pow'r,
Fountain of life and light below,
On us your healing influence show'r
O'er all the nations let it flow.

Inflame our hearts with perfect love;
In us the work of faith instill;
So not heavn's host shall swifter move
Than we on earth to do your will.

In faith we wait and long and pray
To see that time by prophets told,
When nations, new-born into day,
Shall be ingathered to your fold.

We cannot doubt your gracious will,
O Spirit, merciful and just;
And you will speedily fulfill
The word in which your people trust.

Charles Wesley, 1742; alt.
Tune: HEBRON (L.M.)
Lowell Mason, 1830

This text, which I found in the Mission Hymnal (1929) of the Unitarian Laymen's League, is at least partly taken from Charles Wesley's Son of thy Sire's eternal love,  The text as amended seems to have appeared first in a later edition of A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion, which was originally compiled in 1844 by our old friends Samuel Longfellow and Samuel Johnson, so it's likely that they adapted it from Wesley's original words. 



Six Years Ago: Joy! because the circling year

Five Years Ago:  O prophet souls of all the years

Four Years Ago: Above the starry spheres

Three Years Ago: Hail thee, festival day

Two Years Ago: Hail festal day! through every age

One Year Ago: O God, the Holy Ghost

Not (yet?) a Liturgical Observance

I hardly know what to write about the article at this link, so just go read it.

(I think my favorite of the hymns listed is the fourth of the suggested recessional hymns.)

Ir's unlikely that your church celebrated May Fourth in this way, but apparently there were a few...

Peter Hallock

Word is spreading that composer and church musician Peter Hallock died on Sunday at the age of 89.  Hallock was for 40 years (1951-1991) the music director at St. Mark's Cathedral in Seattle.  One of his most lasting contributions to St. Mark's (and to the wider Episcopal church) was his development and promotion of the weekly service of Compline on Sunday nights, which he began in the 1950s and continued to direct until 2003.  During the second half of the twentieth century, when evening worship was disappearing in many places, St. Mark's Compline service grew and grew and continues today, inspiring many other churches to offer this kind of service.

Hallock's choral music and his psalm settings are widely sung in different denominations. If you have 30 minutes to spare, you can listen to the St. Mark's Compline service from January 12 of this year, which includes his setting of Psalm 89 and his anthem The Baptism of Jesus (1980), which I've chosen because my own choir sings this anthem every year at our Advent Lessons and Carols service.  The text is from a medieval carol, in both Latin and English.

Jesus autem hodie regressus est a Jordane. (But today Jesus emerges from the Jordan.) 
When Jesus Christ baptized was, the Holy Ghost descended with grace;
the Father’s voice was heard in the place:
Hic est filius meus, ipsum intende. (This is my Son, listen to him.) 
There were Three Persons and one Lord, the Son baptized with one accord,
the Father said this blessed word:
Hic est filius meus, ipsum intende. (This is my Son, listen to him.) 
Now, Jesus, as thou art both God and man, and were baptized in from Jordan,
At our last end, we pray thee, say then:
Hic est filius meus, ipsum intende. (This is my Son, listen to him.)

I heartily recommend taking the time to listen -- it could be a pleasant way to end the day. (we also sing Compline every week at my church, though our service is somewhat simpler than Seattle's.). 

 We remember Peter Hallock today and give thanks for his ministry in music, which will surely continue through his many works.

A World Renewed to Life

The season of Easter links resurrection with new life and rebirth,  and sometimes with the season of spring as well.  It's been a long winter in many places in the US and we're ready for all these things, so I like that we have several more weeks of the Easter season.

A trip to a local library book sale yesterday yielded two interesting hymnals, one of them being Hymns of the Kingdom of God (1910), edited by Henry Sloane Coffin and Ambrose White Vernon.  This was a nondenominational hymnal, described in the Preface as "a small collection of large hymns" (small in its own time, perhaps, but it includes 488 hymns, which we probably wouldn't call small today).  Coincidentally, the Preface is dated Easter 1910, and so I looked for something new and different (to me) for the season.  The thing I like about today's text is that it's not just about the Easter story, it's about going out and telling the good news of the resurrection.

Proclaim to all, both far and near
That Christ is ris'n again;
That he is with us now and here,
And ever shall remain.

And what we say, let all this morn,
Go tell it to their friends,
That soon in every place shall dawn
Christ's reign, which never ends.

The earthly paths that Jesus trod
To heav'n at last shall come,
And all who hearken to the Word
Shall reach God's promised home.

He lives! His presence has not ceased,
Though foes and fears be rife;
And thus we hail in Easter’s feast
A world renewed to life!

Friedrich von Hardenberg, 1799;
tr. Catherine Winkworth, 1858; alt.
Tune: MAGNIFY (C.M.)
Calvin W. Laufer, 20th cent.

OK, the word "rife" is probably not the most user-friendly of terms, and I'm not sure modern hymnwriters should use it, but I do like the rest of that stanza.

I've had a copy of this hymnal downloaded from the internet for some time, but there's really no more convenient substitute for holding the book in your hand and leafing through it.

In the spirit of Eastertide I hope to bring some new life of my own to the blog here.  Hope someone out there is still listening.

Emma Mundella

Emma Mundella, a somewhat obscure British composer, died on this day in 1896, but her birth date in 1858 seems to be unknown.  She is described in Otto Ebel's Women Composers (1913) as "a highly gifted lady" who had written part-songs, piano pieces, and "some church music."  She also wrote an oratorio, Victory of Song, for female voices and strings which was published by Novello.

Among her music instructors were Arthur Sullivan and John Stainer, and she attended the Royal College of Music, becoming one of the first students to receive the Associate of the R.C.M. degree.

I mention her here because she was the editor of The Day School Hymn Book (1896)., which was also published by Novello.  She writes in the foreword that it was her aim to

...provide a Hymn Book for school use which should combine throughout an elevated tone of thought and feeling, both in the words and the music, with sufficient sympathy of ideas to make it acceptable to the young people for whom is is especially intended

Of course, dozens, if not hundreds, of other hymnbooks for the use of young persons had already claimed and would continue to express similar intentions.  At any rate, this book included hymns in German, Latin, and French in addition to many standard Church of England hymns.

In the foreword she also thanks her former teacher John Stainer for "his invaluable help and the unfailing interest he has shown throughout the preparation of this book." Stainer had provided her with a previously-unpublished tune by John Bacchus Dykes as well as composing six new tunes for the book.  

Twelve of Mundella's own tunes appear in the book (remember, the best way for women to get their tunes or texts into a hymnbook was to edit it themselves).  Several of these tunes are in unusual meters that would make them unlikely to be used today, but there are a few possibilities. Unfortunately, none of her tunes are available to hear online.  The Cyber Hymnal does not list Mundella at all, and Hymnary.org only acknowledges her as the editor of a hymnbook, without listing any of her tunes.  Maybe someday.

A Hush of Expectation

In some traditions we are still in the liturgical season of Epiphany, which will run until the Sunday before Lent -- March 2 this year (when we hear the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus).  It's a long season in 2014; often we have already passed Ash Wednesday by this time.

There are still hymns that can be used for the season without singing about the three kings and the star over Bethlehem, even though some worship planners are out of ideas.  Light is a recurring Epiphany theme, as well as the spreading of the awareness of Jesus.  Today the light comes from the dawn of the coming day of God, which seems appropriate for Epiphany, and also for other times of the year as well.

I encountered this text in an interesting collection I recently found, Social Hymns of Brotherhood and Aspiration (1914), though I suspect it was not first published there.

There’s a light upon the mountains,
As we greet the coming morn;
When our eyes shall see the beauty
And the splendors of the dawn;
Weary was our heart with waiting,
And the night-watch seemed so long,
But the jubilee is breaking
And we hail it with a song.

There’s a hush of expectation
And a quiet in the air
And the breath of God is moving
In the fervent breath of prayer;
Then we hear a distant music
And it comes with fuller swell;
’Tis the triumph-song of Jesus,
Promised One, Immanuel!

Christ is breaking down the barriers,
He is casting up the way;
He is calling for his angels
To build up the gates of day:
But his angels here are human,
Not the shining hosts above;
For the drumbeats of this legion
Are the heartbeats of our love.

Henry Burton, 1910; alt.
Tune: TON-Y-BOTEL (8.7.8.7.D.)
Thomas J. Williams, 1890

Thomas Turton

Bishop Thomas Turton (February 5, 1780 - January 7, 1864) was born in the town of Hatfield, in South Yorkshire, the son of Thomas and Ann Turton.

He graduated from St. Catherine's College (part of the University of Cambridge) in 1805, and treturned there to teach, eventually serving as Professor of Mathematics (1822-1826) and of Divinity (1827-1842). In 1834 he published a pamphlet opposing the admission of non-Anglicans for univerity degrees.  During his teaching career, he also served in various clerical capacities following his ordination in the Church of England in 1813, which led to his inclusion in The Extraordinary Black Book (1832) by John Wade, a catalog of corruption and abuse in church and state. After leaving St. Catherine's, he became Dean of Westminster Abbey for three years, and in 1845 he was made Bishop of Ely.

He was also a composer of some church music, and two hymn tunes (including today's) were included in Hymns Ancient and Modern.

O thou, in all thy might so far,
In all thy love so near,
Betond the range of sun and star,
And yet beside us here.

What heart can comprehend thy Name,
Or searching, find thee out,
Who art within, a quick'ning Flame,
A Presence 'round about.

Yet though we know thee but in part,
We ask not, God, for more,
Enough for us to know thou art,
To love thee, and adore.

Frederick Lucian Hosmer, 1876; alt.
Tune: ST. ETHELDREDA (C.M.)
Thomas Turton, 1860

This tune was named for Saint Etheldreda, the patron saint of the Diocese of Ely, while Turton's other tune in Hymns Ancient and Modern was called ELY.

Turton was in poor health during much of his term as Bishop and died in 1864, leaving much of his estate to charity.  He was buried next to his friend Dr. Thomas Musgrave, Archbishop of York.

This text, by Frederick Lucian Hosmer, written while he was pastor of the Unitarian congregation in Quincy, Illinois, is described in Hymn Lore (1932) by Calvin Laufer as suggestive of Psalm 139.



Five Years Ago: Joy is like the rain

Four Years Ago: Roger Williams

The Feast of the Presentation

 Joy! joy! the Mother comes,
And in her arms she brings
The Light of all the world,
The Ruler of all things,
And in her heart the while
All silently she sings.

Saint Joseph follows near,
In rapture lost, and love,
While angels 'round about
In glowing circles move,
And o'er the Mother broods
The everlasting Dove.

There in the temple court,
Old Simeon's heart beats high,
And Anna feeds her soul
With food of prophecy;
And see! the shadows pass,
The world's true Light draws nigh.

Frederick William Faber, 1854; alt.
Tune: BACA (6.6.6.6.6.6.)
William Henry Havergal, 19th cent.



P.S - The illustration above is from The Presentation of Christ in the Temple by Albrecht Durer.


One Year Ago: In the temple now behold him

Three Years Ago: In peace and joy I now depart

Four Years Ago: O Jerusalem beloved

Five Years Ago: Hail to the Lord who comes

Six Years Ago: O Zion, open wide thy gates

The Baptism of Christ

The Sunday after the Feast of the Epiphany sometimes commemorates the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by his cousin John, as told in Matthew 3: 13-16.  Infant or adult baptisms are often performed today in churches which mark this day, but even if there are no such celebrations the people of the congregation may renew their baptismal vows together.

O God, our strength in weakness,
We pray to you for grace,
Patience to trust your promise,
And speed to run the race;
When your baptismal waters
Were poured upon our brow,
We then were made your children
And pledged our earliest vow.

So we on earth are blessèd
For we shall see the Lord,
Forever and forever,
By seraphim adored;
And we shall drink the pleasure
Such as no tongue can tell
From heav'ns clear crystal river,
And life’s eternal well.

Then sing to our Creator,
Who formed us with great love;
And sing to God the Savior
Who leads to realms above;
Sing we with saints and angels
Before the heavenly throne,
To God the Holy Spirit,
Sing to the Three in One.

Christopher Wordsworth, 1881; alt.
Tune: STOKE (7.6.7.6.D.)
Mrs. G. E. Cole, 1889

Christopher Wordsworth wrote this text toward the end of his life, long after his major collection The Holy Year (1862).  He was Bishop of Lincoln from 1868 until his death in 1885, and apparently wrote this hymn for the handbook of the Lincoln Girls' Friendly Society.   Many of his other hymns have already appeared here (click on the tag below).

I am unable to find anything more about Mrs. G. E. Cole, whose tune first appeared in the 1889 supplement of Hymns Ancient and Modern (not even her name!).  It's likely that the initials belong to her husband.



Five Years Ago: 'I come,' the great Redeemer cries