Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott (November 29, 1832 - March 6, 1888), novelist, activist, and poet, is still famous enough today to be the subject of today's Google Doodle. 

She was born in Pennsylvania but the family moved to Massachusetts when she was two years old. Her father, Bronson Alcott, was a prominent intellectual of his day, associated with the Transcendentalist movement, but he was not particularly successful at supporting his family, and Louisa began writing to supplement the family income. Her first poem, Sunlight, was published in 1852, and her first book, Flower Fables, three years later.

Her earliest novels were published under a pseudonym because they were not written on "ladylike" subjects, and it was many years before her authorship was revealed. However, they had been financially successful, which was her goal.

Alcott supported several social causes such as abolition, womens' suffrage, and temperance. She knew several of the reformers of the time, including William Lloyd Garrison, Lucy Stone, and Theodore Parker. In 1875 she attended the Women's Congress in Syracuse, NY. She might have written more about these subjects, but following the great success of Little Women (1868) and its successor novels for children, she decided to continue writing what was most lucrative for her (and her family).

Alcott has been quoted in various places as saying that she only wrote one hymn, A little kingdom I possess, which first appeared in a songbook titled The Sunny Side (1875) and later in Alcott's novel Under the Lilacs. However, this quote is taken from a letter she wrote to Eva Munson Smith in 1883 when she gave permission for that text to be included in Smith's monumental Woman in Sacred Song (which was not actually published until 1888). One of the editors of The Sunny Side, Charles Wendte, later published another songbook titled The Carol (1886), in which today's hymn for children appeared. Alcott's name is prominently trumpeted on the book's title page and introduction, and this text appears to have been written at Wendte's request (also, its copyright date is the same as the book's). So, clearly, she did write more than one (and a few of her other poems were matched to tunes by later hymnal editors).

What shall little children bring
As a grateful offering
For the ever-watchful care
That surrounds us everywhere?

Gathered in this happy fold,
Safe from wintry want and cold,
Fed by hands that never tire;
Warmed at Love's unfailing fire.

Sheltered by protecting arms
From the great world's sins and harms,
While a Patience, wise and sweet,
Guides our little wand'ring feet.

Jesus! dearest name of all,
Bless your children great and small;
Faith and hope in God we bring,
These shall be our offering.

Louisa May Alcott, 1886; alt.
Tune: INNOCENTS (7.7.7.7.)
The Parish Choir, 1850;
harm. William Henry Monk, 1861

The postage stamp above was issued in 1940, representing Alcott as one of ten authors in the Famous Americans series of stamps.



Eight Years Ago: John Haynes Holmes

Six Years Ago: Louisa May Alcott

Anne Steele

November 11 marks the anniversary of the death of Baptist hymnwriter Anne Steele (1716-1778), the first prolific female writer of hymns in English. Following the cultural practice of the eighteenth century, her hymns, psalm paraphrases, and poetry were originally published under the pseudonym of "Theodosia." The books above are well-preserved first editions of her Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional (1760), acquired last year by the Boyce Centennial Library Archives at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.

New research on Steele's life over the last decade has cast doubt on some long-reported incidents in her biography, which you can read about here.  Also apparent from that site is that her hymns, no longer as numerous in hymnals of today as they were a century ago, have been taken up by the retuned hymns movement in several instances.

Today's hymn is Steele's version of Psalm 119, which is a long psalm of 178 verses, boiled down into fourteen stanzas by her, and further reduced and rearranged here into five stanzas (a bit more likely for modern congregations, who still might cut a stanza or two).

Blessed be God, our Strength, our Shield,
Amid the dangers of the field;
God's constant love and saving pow'r,
Is our defense, a sacred tow'r.

O let your mighty arm control
These threat'ning waves that round us roll,
Then shall our children, 'neath thy care,
Grow up like plants erect and fair.

Then plenty shall our stores increase,
Plenty, the lovely child of peace;
No more shall cruel plunder reign,
Nor want nor misery complain.

Your Name shall then new songs inspire,
And wake to joy the sounding lyre,
And ev'ry tuneful string shall raise
In various notes, our grateful praise.

O happy people! favored state!
Whom such peculiar blessings wait;
Happy! who on God's pow'r depend,
Our God, our Guardian, and our Friend.

Anne Steele, 1760; alt.
Tune: SHARON (L.M.)
Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley, 1875

In the final stanza we find the word "peculiar," which may remind you of Jesus shall reign by Isaac Watts (unless your modern hymnal has altered that line). Of course, in the eighteenth century, people understood the word to mean "unique," but you can also read a discussion of how it might still mean "strange" in a Christian context.



Eight Years Ago:  Anne Steele

Six Years Ago:  Anne Steele

Four Years Ago: Anne Steele

One Year Ago: Anne Steele

Augustus Montague Toplady

Today is the birthday of Augustus Montague Toplady (1740-1778), author of one very well-known hymn (Rock of ages, cleft for me - found in more than two thousand American hymnbooks alone, as enumerated at Hymnary.org) and several others which have lapsed into obscurity. He has been described as an "Anglican Calvinist," ordained in the Church of England but firmly believing in many of the tenets of the Reformed tradition, founded by John Calvin in the sixteenth century. Years later, he compiled and published Historic Proof of the Doctrinal Calvinism of the Church of England (1774).

Toplady became a Christian while attending Trinity College in Dublin, after a sermon by a Methodist lay preacher named James Morris. There were various theological disputes in Methodism at this time, and eventually these were to put Toplady in direct conflict with John Wesley, one of Methodism's founders. During one published exchange, he wrote:

"I do not expect to be treated by Mr. John Wesley with the candour of a gentleman or the meekness of a Christian, but I wish him, for his reputation's sake, to write and act with the honesty of a heathen."

Most, if not all, of Toplady's hymns were eventually gathered into a collection he published, Psalms and Hymns for Public and Private Worship (1776). The opinion of them in his day (which persists to our time) was decidedly mixed, which probably explains why he is only remembered for one hymn today. One contemporaneous critic dismissed his hymn texts, summing up his work with the statement: "He is a fervent preacher, not a bard." Perhaps his protracted dispute with John Wesley also had something to do with this reputation.

He contributed to the Gospel Magazine and served for a time as its editor. Today's hymn was published there in December 1774. More than twenty years ago we included this in the hymnal project which I participated in because we liked the fact that it called God by several different names.

Inspirer and Hearer of prayer,

Redeemer and Guardian divine,

My all to your covenant care,

Forever I freely resign.

If you are my Shield and my Sun,

The way brings no terror to me;

When enemies seem to have won,

My Comforter true you will be.

A mighty Protector I have,

Unseen, yet forever at hand;

Unchangeably faithful to save,

Almighty to rule and command.

You smile, and your comforts abound,

Your grace, as the dew, shall descend;

And walls of salvation surround

The soul you delight to defend.

Augustus Montague Toplady, 1774; alt.

Tune: TIMNA (8.8.8.8.)

Lowell Mason, 1841

Toplady died of tuberculosis on August 14, 1778, at the relatively young age of 37.

Something that interests me (but perhaps not many others) is that while this text is written in stanzas of four lines of eight syllables, it isn't really a Long Meter text because the emphasis in each line is on the second syllable rather than the first, so most LM tunes do not fit it. Years ago we matched it to a tune called DONCASTER OLD, but I couldn't find that one online and had to pick a substitute (which took a long time!).



Eight Years Ago: James Montgomery

Six Years Ago: James Montgomery

Two Years Ago: James Montgomery

Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley

Born into Great Britain's upper classes on this day in 1825, composer Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley grew up the son of the ambassador to Russia and godson to the Dukes of Wellington and York. His musical talents were obvious from an early age, and he wrote an opera (L'isola disabitata or, The Uninhabited Island) when he was eight years old.

His lifelong interest in Anglican church music was sometimes seen by his social peers as odd, but he persisted, founding the College of Saint Michael and All Angels in 1856. This was a choir school which gained a sterling reputation for excellence, and the library, started with Ouseley's own collection was renowned well into the twentieth century. When the school closed in 1985, the books were transferred to the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

Ouseley's anthems and hymn tunes are not well known these days, though they turn up now and then. Today's tune was first published in the influential Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861.

Where is your God, my soul?
Is God within your heart,
Or ruler of a distant realm
In which we have no part?

Where is your God, my soul?
Only in stars and sun?
Or have the holy words of truth
God's light in every one?

Where is your God, my soul?
Confined to Scripture’s page?
Or does the Spirit check and guide
The spirit of each age?

O Ruler of the sky,
Come rule within my heart;
O great Adorner of the world,
Your light of life impart.

In you have I my help,
As all my forebears had;
I’ll trust you when I’m sorrowful,
And serve you when I'm glad.

Thomas Toke Lynch, 1855; alt.
Tune: ABERYSTWYTH (Ouseley),(S.M.)
Frederick A. Gore Ouseley, 1861

This text by Thomas Toke Lynch (recently discussed here) is another hymn from The Rivulet, his controversial collection. You can see how some of its ideas were not exactly in line with much of the theology of his day (particularly the third stanza).  "Adorner of the world" is a name of God that I have not encountered before.



Eight Years Ago: Joseph Barnby

Seven Years Ago: Frederick A. Gore Ouseley

Six Years Ago: Joseph Barnby

Four Years Ago: Frederick A. Gore Ouseley

Three Years Ago: Joseph Barnby

Another Birthday Today: Katharine Lee Bates

Christina Forsyth

English hymnwriter Christina Forsyth (1825-1859) died on this date; her birthday remains unknown. She was born in Liverpool, and a brief biographical sketch published in Lyra Britannica: A Collection of British Hymns (1867) claims that, from childhood on, 'she was deeply impressed with religious truth, and devoted to her Saviour.'  Like a number of other female hymnwriters of her day, she was in poor health and considered to be an invalid for most of her life.  All but forgotten today, Forsyth and her hymns may bear some re-examination today.

Some of her hymns were published in pamphlets during her lifetime, and after her death a collection was published as Hymns by C.F. (1861), her full name not appearing anywhere in the book.  Several of the forty-three texts included were based on specific passages from scripture, and some clearly reflected her own life, such as one titled Sabbath Hymn for One Confined to the House by Sickness.

This text is probably the one most often published in hymnals of the nineteenth century, though only four of the original nine stanzas were used.  I've changed the selection of stanzas a bit.

O Holy Spirit, now descend on me
As showers of rain upon the thirsty ground;
Cause me to flourish as a spreading tree;
May all thy precious fruits in me abound.

Be thou my Guide into all truth divine;
Give me increasing knowledge of my God.
Show me the glories that in Jesus shine,
And make my heart the place of thine abode.

Be thou my Comforter, when I'm distressed,
O gently soothe my sorrows, calm my grief;
Help me to find upon my Savior's breast
In every hour of trial a sure relief.

Be thou my Intercessor -- teach me how
To pray according to God's holy will;
Cause me with deep and strong desire to glow
And my whole soul with heavenly longings fill.

Be thou my Quickener, thy graces give;
Do for me more than I can ask or think;
Help me on Jesus day to day to live,
And daily deeper from thy fulness drink.

Christina Forsyth, 1861; alt.
Tune: ELLERS (10.10.10.10)
Edward J. Hopkins, 1869

Six Years Ago: William Henry Monk

Our Morning and Our Sun

O God, your world is sweet with prayer;
The breath of Christ is in the air;
We rise on your free Spirit’s wings,
And every thought within us sings.

You are our Morning and our Sun,
Our work is glad, in God begun;
Our foot-worn path is fresh with dew,
For you created all things new.

O God, within us and above,
Close to us in the Christ we love,
Through him, our only guide and way,
May heavenly life be ours today!

Lucy Larcom, 1892; alt.

Tune: MORNING HYMN (L.M.)
Francois H. Barthelemon, 1785

Hymnwriter Lucy Larcom overcame a difficult youth of manual labor to become a
teacher, editor, and a widely-published poet and author. In this text she widens the
concept of God with the names of "Morning" and "Sun."



Seven Years Ago: Harriet Auber

Six Years Ago: Saint Francis of Assisi

Five Years Ago: Harriet Auber 

John Newton

Hymnwriting giant John Newton was born today in 1725 in London. From a very early age his mother taught him from the Bible, but she died when he was seven. His sea captain father was not at all a religious man, and young John joined his father at sea after only two years of formal schooling. This would lead to his infamous six-year career as captain of a slave ship before his well-documented conversion experiences.

Years later, as an Anglican minister in the parish of Olney, he produced his influential Olney Hymns (1779) with his friend and collaborator William Cowper. Newton wrote most of the 348 texts included in the collection (280 to Cowper's 68). Hymn singing was still not widespread in the Church of England; like the hymns of Philip Doddridge, Newton's were often written to illustrate a particular sermon he was delivering. For some reason, this was apparently considered more acceptable. But they were definitely written for public worship, "for the use of plain people," according to Newton's preface to Olney Hymns, and not as mere poetic reflections.

Today's hymn is perhaps his second most familiar, though miles behind his first (and some might argue that his Glorious things of thee are spoken should be second). The scripture verse that appears with this text in Olney Hymns is Song of Solomon 1:3, your anointing oils are fragrant, your name is perfume poured out, and from there Newton derived his first line, going on to add several other names from both the Old and New Testaments:

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In every person's ear!
It soothes our sorrows, heals our wounds,
And drives away our fear.

It makes the wounded spirit whole,
And calms the troubled breast;
’Tis manna to the hungry soul,
And to the weary, rest.

Dear name! the Rock on which I build,
My Shield and Hiding Place,
My never failing Treasury, filled
With boundless stores of grace!

Jesus! my Shepherd, Guardian, Friend,
My Everflowing Spring,
My Love, my Life, my Way, my End,
Accept the praise I bring.

John Newton, 1779; alt.
Tune: ST. PETER (C.M.)
Alexander R. Reinagle, 1836

Alexander Reinagle's popular tune ST. PETER was first matched with Newton's text in the first edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861) and like so many other combinations from that book, has become the most often-used.

The window below is from Newton's Olney parish, the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, and depicts both Newton (on the left) and Cowper.

Two Years Ago: John Newton

One Year Ago: John Newton

John Darwall

Today is the anniversary of the baptism of clergyman, composer and poet John Darwall, in 1731 (date of birth unknown). For some unknown reason, of the many tunes he wrote only one has been in general use for the last 200 years.

Since writing about him here last year, I've had another year to look through nineteenth century hymnbooks, and I still haven't seen any more of his tunes published. Still seems odd to me that none of them were more widely used. But the one that we do know is so popular and so grand that many texts have been sung to it and written for it, at least one in most hymnals. We can use it every year for quite a while without running out of hymns.

This text is a paraphrase of Psalm 84 (the tune was originally matched with Psalm 148) by Isaac Watts, first published in his collection The Psalms of David (1719).

God of the worlds above,
How pleasant and how fair
The dwellings of thy love,
Thine earthly temples are!
To thine abode,
My heart aspires
With warm desires
To see my God.

O happy souls that pray
Where God appoints to hear!
O happy souls that pay
Their constant service there!
They praise thee still;
And happy they
That love the way
To Zion’s hill.

They go from strength to strength,
Through all this vale of tears,
Till each arrives at length,
Till each in heaven appears;
O glorious seat!
God, whom we sing,
Shall thither bring
Our willing feet!

God is our Sun and Shield,
Our Light and our Defense;
God's hands with gifts are filled;
We draw our blessings thence.
Thrice happy we,
O God of hosts,
Whose spirits trust
Alone in thee.

Isaac Watts, 1719; alt.
Tune: DARWALL (H.M.)
John Darwall, 1773

This text is written in the unique Hallelujah Meter (6.6.6.6.4.4.4.4.), sometimes also written as (6.6.6.6.8.8.). The first four lines are each six syllables, the last lines are either four lines of four syllables or two lines of eight syllables (the difference is generally where the rhymes are). Though there are many other tunes written to this meter, I'd guess that most of them are joined to texts that have also been sung at some time to DARWALL.


One Year Ago: John Darwall

No Price I Bring

This rock by the side of the road in Burrington Combe, Somerset, has become famous for inspiring one of the most loved hymns in our repertory. The story goes that during a bad thunderstorm, Augustus Montague Toplady (whose birthday I missed earlier this week), then the curate of a nearby village, sought shelter in the cleft of the rock. There is now a plaque installed on the side of the cliff which recounts the legend for tourists.

The story has been the subject of debate for the last hundred years, with many scholars now rejecting it for one reason or another, but it will go on nevertheless. Whether or not there was an actual sheltering rock, Toplady may also have taken his inspiration from 1 Corinthians 10:4: For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure;
Save me from its guilt and pow'r.

Should my tears forever flow,
Should my zeal no languor know,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and thou alone.
In my hand no price I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling;

While I draw this fleeting breath,
When mine eyes shall close in death,
When I soar to worlds unknown,
And behold thee on thy throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee.

Augustus Montague Toplady, 1776; alt.
Tune: TOPLADY (7.7.7.7.7.7.)
Robert Hastings, 1830

Toplady's text has been much altered in many hymnbooks since its first appearance in the Gospel Magazine in April 1776. Probably the first change was in the final verse, which originally read "when my eye-strings break in death." The tune by Robert Hastings is nearly always used in the US, but in other parts of the world they sing it to REDHEAD. Regardless of text or tune changes, this hymn has ranked at or near the top of many hymn surveys over the last hundred years.

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!

Alexander Reinagle

Alexander Robert Reinagle (August 21, 1799 - April 6, 1877) was born into a musical family. His grandfather had been "trumpeter to the king" in Austria and his father was a cellist and friend of Haydn. His uncle, also named Alexander Robert, emigrated to the United States where he wrote instrumental pieces and much music for the theatre in Philadelphia and Baltimore.

Our Reinagle became an organist at St. Peter-in-the-East, Oxford in 1822 and remained in that post for more than twenty years. He was also much in demand as an organ teacher; John Stainer and Stainer's wife were both his pupils at one point. He wrote sacred music and two collections of hymn tunes:

Psalm Tunes for the Voice and Pianoforte (1830)
A Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Chants, and other Music, as sung in the Parish Church of St. Peter's in the East, Oxford (1840)

This tune, which probably still appears in nearly every denominational hymnal today, originally appeared in Reinagle's first collection, where it was sung to a paraphrase of Psalm 118. In his second collection it was named ST. PETER, after his Oxford church, and it was he who harmonized it in the form we know it today for the first edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861).

Have mercy on us, God most high,
Who lift our hearts to thee;
Have mercy now, most merciful,
Most Holy Trinity.

When heaven and earth were yet unmade,
When time was yet unknown,
Thou, in thy bliss and majesty,
Didst live and love alone.

Thou wert not born; there was no fount
From which thy Being flowed
There is no end which thou canst reach
For thou art simply God.

How wonderful creation is,
The work thou didst bless;
And O, what then must thou be like,
Eternal Loveliness!

Most ancient of all mysteries!
Low at thy throne we lie;
Have mercy now, most merciful,
Most Holy Trinity.

Frederick W. Faber, 1849
Tune: ST. PETER (C.M.)
Alexander Reinagle, 1830

The upward leap on the second note of the tune is part of its distinctive appeal, I think; it's a forceful jump that makes the melody cry out, lending itself to texts of supplication (like this one). While you may never have sung this particular hymn, you probably know at least two other texts used with this tune (and maybe more). I think we will be seeing it again; it's almost surprising it hasn't come up before.

One Year Ago: Civilla Durfee Martin

The Feast of Pentecost

Many churches observe the day of Pentecost to mark the descent of the Holy Spirit on the followers of Jesus, as told in Acts 2:1-17. We remember the rushing wind, the tongues of flame that came to rest on them, and their speaking and understanding many different languages.

I think this hymn by the Unitarian Frederick Lucian Hosmer combines the prophetic passage from the book of Joel that Peter alludes to in Acts ("...I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy...") with Hosmer's own favored theme of unity (i.e., the multitude of languages that are all understood as one). This Pentecost experience did not only happen long ago but is still open to us today.

O prophet souls of all the years,
Speak yet to us in love;
Your far-off vision, toil and tears
To their fulfillment move.

From tropic clime and zones of frost,
They come, of every name;
This, this our day of Pentecost,
On us the tongues of flame.

One Life together we confess,
One all-indwelling Word,
One holy call to righteousness,
Within the silence heard.

One Law that guides the shining spheres
As on through space they roll,
And speaks in flaming characters
On Sinais of the soul.

One Love unfathomed, measureless,
An ever-flowing sea,
That holds within its vast embrace
Time and eternity.

Frederick Lucian Hosmer, 1893
Tune: GRAFENBERG (C.M.)
Johann Cruger, 1653

You may recall that the tune GRAFENBERG was already used here for another hymn of the Holy Spirit.

P.S. The painting above, depicting Jesus' mother at the center of the first Pentecost event, is by Jean Restout II, dating from the 18th century and currently held by the Louvre.

One (Liturgical) Year Ago: The Feast of Pentecost

One (Calendar) Year Ago: The Feast of the Visitation

Washington Gladden

Washington Gladden was born on this day in 1836 in Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Williams College (where he wrote the school's alma mater), and also beginning a career in journalism, he was ordained a Congregational minister in 1860. He pastored a number of churches in New York and New England, then spent thirty-two years at the First Congregational Church in Columbus, Ohio, where he more than doubled membership (to more than 1,200) during his time there.

Gladden was an early leader in the social gospel movement and was one of the most well-known liberal ministers in the US. He supported labor unions and helped settle a strike in Cleveland, and spoke and wrote often on the evils of segregation. While serving as the Moderator of the National Council of Congregational Churches, he denounced a $100,000 gift to the denomination from industrialist John D. Rockefeller, believing that the money was "tainted."

He wrote nearly forty books, many of which can now be seen online thanks to Google Books. One of his most influential books was Who Wrote the Bible? (1891). In an online excerpt, he discusses his conviction that scripture must be reinterpreted for the times in which it is read, and its teachings not limited by the customs of the times in which it was written.

This hymn by Gladden, written a few years later, is a favorite of mine, written on that same theme.

Behold a Sower! from afar
Who goeth forth with might;
The rolling years as furrows are,
As seed, the growing light;
For all the world the Word is sown,
It springeth up alway;
The tender blade is hope’s young dawn,
The harvest, love’s new day.

O Source of life, to thee we lift
Our hearts in praise for those,
Thy prophets, who have shown thy gift
Of grace that ever grows,
Of truth that spreads from shore to shore,
Of wisdom’s widening ray,
Of light that shineth more and more
Unto thy perfect day.

Shine forth, O Light, that we may see,
With hearts all unafraid,
The meaning and the mystery
Of things that thou hast made;
Shine forth, and let the distant past
Beneath thy beam grow bright;
Shine forth, and touch the future vast
With thine untroubled light.

Light up thy Word; the fettered page
From killing bondage free;
Light up our way; lead forth this age
In love’s large liberty.
O Light of light! within us dwell,
Through us thy radiance pour,
That word and life thy truths may tell,
And praise thee evermore.

Washington Gladden, 1897; alt.
Tune: SALVATION (C.M.D.)
Kentucky Harmony, 1816

SALVATION is a muscular American folk tune, good for sowing fields and freeing things from bondage (though this synthesizer version tones that down a bit). Gladden wrote other hymns and poems, some of which were published in a weekly magazine he edited called Sunday Afternoon.

In another of his books, Parish Problems (1887) he includes a chapter on hymnbooks, laying out his own ideas on good hymnody and practice around congregational singing.

Today, there is a Washington Gladden Society that hopes to continue his social gospel ideals. They meet each year during the Annual Meeting of the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches. At this year's meeting in June, they will present a workshop titled There will be no World Peace until there is Peace among the World's Religions.

William Marion Runyan

William Marion Runyan was born on this day in 1870. Ordained in the Methodist church in 1891, he served congregations in Kansas for several years.

Various sources report that he wrote his first gospel song in 1915, and he wrote both texts and tunes in the years to come, his works straddling that divide between public domain and copyrighted material (most anything published after 1923 in this country is copyrighted).

In 1918 he co-edited a songbook with Daniel B. Towner, another gospel songwriter, Songs of the Great Salvation, which has many selections by both men, far more for Runyan at least than are listed at his Cyber Hymnal page. Later, Runyan also co-edited The Service Hymnal for Hope Publishing.

He is most well-known as the composer of the tune used for the (still copyrighted) hymn Great is thy faithfulness.

This earlier (?) text by Runyan is not a gospel song but a hymn text in Common Meter, so we don't know if it was written before the 1915 date, and apparently no one knows if it was written after 1923 either, though no source seems to show it as copyrighted.

“Like as a mother comforteth,”
O words of gentle worth!“
So will I comfort you,” declares
The Mother of the earth.

She bends in faithful watchfulness;
She slumbers not nor sleeps;
Above her trusting child, our God
A constant vigil keeps.

She patient is, as mothers are
Who love their children well;
Our faults and failings she forgives;
Her mercies—who can tell!

“Like as a mother,” grant, O God,
This likeness e’er may be
A holy symbol to declare
The love that dwells in thee.

William Marion Runyan, 20th c.; alt.
Tune: BEATITUDO (C.M.)
John Bacchus Dykes, 1875

The revision to cast the entire text into the feminine gender was done several years ago. Looking at it today I also like the tension between the masculine articles and the motherhood theme in the original text, so I'm not sure which way I would go in case of eventual publication.

More Voices Found: Bessie Porter Head

Elizabeth Ann Porter was born in Belfast on January 1, 1850. Very little is known about her younger life, but at some point she became involved with the Young Women's Christian Association and was the secretary of the Swansea branch in 1894. From 1897 to 1907 she served with the South Africa General Mission in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and Johannesburg, helping to found South African branches of the YWCA. In 1907 she married the chairman of the SAGM, Albert Alfred Head, and returned to England. She and her husband, both evangelical Anglicans, were also members of the annual Keswick Convention.

Bessie, as she was known, wrote much religious verse as well as prose articles about her missionary experiences for the publications of the Convention and the SAGM. A collection of her verses, Heavenly Places and other Messages (1920) contained this one, a renewal hymn by a New Year baby.

O Breath of Life, come sweeping through us,
Revive your church with life and power;
O Breath of Life, come, heal, renew us,
Prepare our hearts to meet this hour.

O Wind of God, come thrill us, wake us,
Till humbly we confess our need;
Then in your tenderness remake us,
Revive, restore, for this we plead.

O Breath of Love, come breathe within us,
Renewing thought and will and heart;
Come, Love of Christ, afresh to win us,
Strengthen us now in every part.

O Heart of Christ, once broken for us,
Where we shall find our strength and rest;
Our broken, contrite hearts now solace,
And let our waiting souls be blest.

Revive us, God! Is zeal abating
While harvest fields are vast and white?
Revive us, God, the world is waiting,
Help us go forth to spread the light.

Bessie Porter Head, 1920; alt.
Tune: SPIRITUS VITAE (9.8.9.8.)
Mary Jane Hammond, 1920

Bessie continued to write religious verse until her death in 1936. More of her hymns appeared in the Keswick Hymn Book (1937). Unfortunately, almost nothing is known about composer Mary Jane Hammond.

More Voices Found: Eliza Scudder

Eliza Scudder (November 14, 1821 - September 29, 1896) was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, and lived in the eastern part of that state for most of her life. Her uncle was Edmund Hamilton Sears, author of It came upon the midnight clear, and he included today's hymn in a book of his own before it was published in any hymnals.

Unlike many other hymnwriters, she was not associated with one single denomination; she was a Congregationalist for a time, then associated herself with the Unitarians. A number of her hymns were included in Longfellow and Johnson's Hymns of the Spirit in 1864. Still later she was captivated by the preaching and ministry of Phillips Brooks at Trinity Church in Boston and became an Episcopalian. (Continuing an inadvertent Christmas theme, Brooks wrote O little town of Bethlehem.)

In 1880 Scudder published Hymns and Sonnets, a small collection of her work.

Thou Grace Divine, encircling all,
A shoreless, soundless sea!
Wherein at last our souls shall fall
O love of God most free!

When over dizzy heights we go,
Thy strong hand guides our eyes,
The other leads us safe and slow
O love of God most wise!

And if we turn us from thy face,
And wander wide and long,
Thou hold’st us still in thine embrace,
O love of God most strong!

But not alone thy care we claim,
Our daily path to win,
We know thee by a dearer Name,
O love of God within!

And filled and quickened by thy breath,
Our souls are strong and free,
To rise o’er grief and fear and death,
O love of God, to thee!

Eliza Scudder, 1857; alt.
Tune: MANOAH (C.M.)
Gioacchino Rossini; adapt. Henry Greatorex, 1851

I'm not exactly sure where in composer Rossini's work this tune is found, but hymnal editors of the mid-nineteenth century liked to adapt melodies from the work of secular composers (operas, oratorios, chamber music, etc.) into hymn tunes. There are very few of these that we sing anymore, but MANOAH has survived better than most, even though it's a bit of a waltz.

I will be looking further into the hymns of Eliza Scudder; though I like and have sung this one I'm seeing some other interesting ones as well.

Sir John Bowring

On October 17, 1792, John Bowring was born in Exeter, England, into a Unitarian family (this seems to be a week for Unitarian hymnwriters). He wanted to enter the clergy, but his family persuaded him to go into trade -- his father was a cloth merchant. Due to a natural ability with languages that he had exhibited quite early, (he was eventually fluent in at least eight, and conversant with several more, though perhaps not the two hundred he claimed at one time) he began his own merchant business and often traveled internationally. However, his business ventures were not successful, either at this time or later in life.

He turned to politics, becoming editor of the Westminster Review, a "radical journal." He was elected to Parliament, and went on some international trade missions. He was knighted in 1854, and also was made Governor of Hong Kong in that year.

Bowring wrote and translated much poetry as a sideline to his trade and political occupations. His hymns mostly appeared in two collections of his work: Matins and Vespers, and Hymns, as a Sequel to the Matins. He also wrote books from some of his Asian travels, as well as The Decimal System in Numbers, Coins and Accounts (exciting, I'm sure).

His most popular hymn is surely In the cross of Christ I glory but I have always liked this one:

God is Love, with mercy bright'ning
All the paths in which we rove,
Waking bliss and sorrow light'ning,
God is Wisdom, God is Love.

Chance and change are busy ever,
Randomly the ages move;
But God's justice waneth never,
God is Wisdom, God is Love.

E'en the hour that bleakest seemeth
Will God's changeless goodness prove;
O'er the world God's mercy streameth
God is Wisdom, God is Love.

Always with our cares entwining
Hope and comfort from above,
Everywhere in glory shining,
God is Wisdom, God is Love.

John Bowring, c.1825; alt.
Tune: SUSSEX (8.7.8.7.)
English folk melody; arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906

(Musically we're back to Vaughan Williams; this is one of the English folk songs that he arranged into a nice little hymn tune in The English Hymnal.)

For all Bowring's success and accomplishments in many areas, he was not always well-liked personally, and his finances were apparently a mess. Though he had remained a practicing Unitarian all his life and was active in Unitarian causes, his Autobiographical Recollections, edited by one of his sons in 1877, five years after his death, makes no reference to his faith. Regardless of all that, many of his hymns lived on in many hymnals, and we still know a few today.