Jonathan Myrick Daniels

Jonathan Myrick Daniels, a martyr for the civil rights movement in this country, is remembered today in the calendar of the Episcopal Church.  Daniels was a seminary student in 1965 when he heard a televised appeal by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for more clergy of all denominations to become involved in voter registration of African-Americans  in Southern states.  Daniels wrote that he was inspired by the words of the Magnificat, Mary's prophetic song of liberation from the Gospel of Luke, and became convinced that he was being called to engage in this work.

Daniels was working in Alabama when he and other protesters were arrested and jailed for six days.  On August 20, upon release, they were looking for transportation out of town when they were confronted by a man with a shotgun, who aimed at Ruby Sales, a sixteen year old girl.  Daniels pushed her aside and was shot in the chest himself, dying immediately. His killer was later acquitted at trial on the grounds of self-defense.

This murder of a young seminarian brought more attention to the civil rights struggle.  In 1991 Daniels was declared "a martyr and witness to the Gospel" by the Episcopal Church, to be commemorated on this day, the anniversary of his arrest (because August 20 was already marked for another saint). I have used this hymn before, several years ago, but it seems appropriate again on this day.

O pure reformers! not in vain
Your trust in humankind;
The good which bloodshed could not gain,
Your peaceful zeal shall find.

The truths you urge are borne abroad
By every wind and tide;
The voice of nature and of God
Speaks out upon your side.

The weapons which your hands have found
Are those which heav'n has wrought:
Light, truth, and love -- your battleground,
The free, broad field of thought.

Press on! and if we may not share
The glory of your fight,
We'll ask at least, in earnest prayer,
That God will bless the right.

John Greenleaf Whittier, 1843; alt.
Tune: MARTYRDOM (C.M.)
Hugh Wilson,1800; arr. Ralph E. Hudson, c.1885

A fellowship in his name has been established at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Daniels was a student.  Next fall, the Episcopal diocese of Rhode Island plans to open the Jonathan Daniels House in Providence, where Daniels also engaged in ministry before traveling south.

Ruby Sales, the girl whose life was saved that day, has continued her involvement in the civil rights struggle up to the present day.



Four Years Ago: Samuel Sebastian Wesley 

Two Years Ago: Samuel Sebastian Wesley
 

Steadfast Toward Jerusalem

See what unbounded zeal and love

Inflamed the Savior's breast,

When steadfast toward Jerusalem

His urgent way he pressed.

With all his suff'rings full in view,

And woes to us unknown.

Forth to the work his spirit flew,

'Twas Love that urged him on.

Prepare us. Lord, to view your cross,

Who all our griefs has borne;

To look on you, whom nails have pierced,

To look on you, and mourn.

While thus we mourn, may we rejoice,

And as your cross we see,

May each exclaim in faith and hope,

"The Savior died for me!"

Thomas Cotterill, 1810; st. 2 William Cowper, 1784

Tune: MARTYRDOM (C.M.)

Hugh Wilson, 1800

This text first appeared in a hymnal complied by Thomas Cotterill, A Se­lect­ion of Psalms and Hymns, for Public and Private Use, Adapt­ed to the Fes­tiv­als of the Church of England (1810). However, it is based on, or perhaps inspired by, an earlier text by William Cowper, using one stanza from The Savior, what a noble flame, which appeared in the influential Olney Hymns (1779), Book II, #55.

Four Years Ago: Green Palms and Blossoms Gay

Three Years Ago: The Victor Palm Branch Waving

Two Years Ago: To See the Approaching Sacrifice

One Year Ago: Hosanna in the Highest

Harriet Auber

Anglican hymnwriter Harriet Auber was born today in 1773. In 1829 she published The Spirit of the Psalms, a collaboration between herself, only referred to in the book as "the Author," and the editor, who wrote the preface of the book, and was only referred to as "A Clergyman of the Church of England." Years later it was learned that the unnamed editor was a Reverend Mr. Harvey (first name apparently still unknown) of Bristol, who was married to Auber's niece.

Harvey and Auber produced this book to offer a more modern look at the Psalms, which in many places in the Church of England were still being sung to the seventeenth-century verses of the New Version by Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady. Harvey writes in the Preface to The Spirit of the Psalms:

Of the Authorized versions of the Psalms it is generally admitted, that they are unworthy appendages to (the) admirable Book of Common Prayer (...) deficient in poetical merit, often faulty in doctrine (...) alike unsatisfactory to the educated, the ignorant, and the devout.

In some cases, Auber took the Tate and Brady psalms and partially rewrote them, though mostly she wrote her own original texts. Generally her paraphrases were shorter and in more modern language, and the syntax was somewhat less convoluted. Still, she was clearly not trying to produce close paraphrases of the original.

Today's hymn is Auber's version of Psalm 61, 'in the spirit' of the original, at least.

O gracious Source of every good,
Our Savior, our defense,
Thou art our glory and our shield,
Our help and confidence.

When anxious fears disturb our rest,
When threatening foes are nigh,
To thee we pour our fervent prayer,
To thee for help we fly.

Blest Tow'r of strength, exalted Rock,
Whence living waters flow,
O Jesus Christ, the blessed hope
Of every soul below.

To thee we heavy laden come,
To thee our sorrows bring;
O hear! and save us from the storm
Beneath thy shelt'ring wing.

Harriet Auber, 1829; alt.
Tune: MARTYRDOM (C.M.)
Hugh Wilson, 1800

Though some of her texts did appear in many other hymnals (a few until the present day), The Spirit of the Psalms did not supplant the older paraphrases. However, she was neither the first nor the last hymnwriter to believe that better versions of the psalms were desirable, and even today, hymnwriters are still producing their own paraphrases for modern congregations to sing.

Two Years Ago: Harriet Auber

One Year Ago: Saint Francis of Assisi