Poet and literary critic Ann Taylor Gilbert (1782-1866) was born today in the London neighborhood of Islington. Her mother (also named Ann) had also written poetry and "satiric effusions" as well as seven books of moral and religious advice. Her father, Isaac Taylor, was a metal engraver who later became a Nonconformist minster and moved the family to various towns where he pastored successive congregations.
In her posthumously-published memoir, Ann recalled beginning to write "verses in metre, imitated from Dr. Watts, at that time the only poet on my shelves," at the age of seven or eight. She believed this effort arose from anxiety about her mother's poor health. One early stanza remained in her memory:
Dark and dismal was the weather,
Winter into horror grew;
Rain and snow came down together,
Everything was lost to view.
Ann and her younger sister Jane (best known as the author of Twinkle, twinkle, little star) collaborated on four collections of verse for children:
Original Poems for Infant Minds Volume 1 (1804)
Original Poems for Infant Minds Volume 2 (1805)
Rhymes for the Nursery (1806)
Hymns for Infant Minds (1808)
The sisters may have been inspired by Divine and Moral Songs for Children (1715) by Isaac Watts, perhaps the very book that Ann knew as a child. Their books were extremely popular in the nineteenth century, going through many different editions. An article on children's literature in the Encyclopedia Britannica describes their work (and its popularity) thus: "The Taylor sisters, though adequately moral, struck a new note of sweetness, of humour, at any rate of nonpriggishness." Just which sister wrote each of the poems was not always indicated, and over the years many of Ann's poems were attributed to Jane, though subsequent scholars have sorted most of them out. One of Ann's poems, The Maniac's Song (1810) is thought by some to be the inspiration for La belle dame sans merci by John Keats.
In 1813, Ann married the Reverend Joseph Gilbert, who had proposed to her before they ever met, because he was familiar with her work, particularly her literary criticism published in The Eclectic Review magazine. After marriage, she continued her writing of verse and prose, often on subjects such as abolition and prison reform (though she was staunchly opposed to women's suffrage). At least one more book of children's verse (compiled by Ann alone) appeared, Hymns for Infant Schools (1827).
Today's hymn text comes from the earlier Hymns for Infant Minds, written on the well-known story of story of Jesus' visit to the home of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42), from where the phrases "one thing needful" and "better part" are taken directly. Like various other "children's hymns" of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, it still has something to say to the adults of the twenty-first century (with just a bit of editorial clean-up).
As Mary sat at Jesus' feet
To learn her Maker's will,
We in the Savior's presence meet
To learn his precepts still.
Oh, for that quick, attentive mind
Which happy Mary showed!
May we the one thing needful find
That was on her bestowed.
'Tis here we learn the glorious name
Of God, who reigns above.
How the descending Spirit came
How great the Savior's love.
God, while we thank you for the grace
That sends this happy news,
We still would sit in Mary's place,
Her better part to choose.
Ann Gilbert, 1806; alt.
Tune: SONG 67 (C.M.)
Orlando Gibbons, 1623;
arr. Henry T. Smart, 19th cent.
Today is the birthday of Isaac Watts, surely one of the most widely sung hymnwriters in the Christian world, from his own day right up to the present time. For many years, perhaps as late as the mid-nineteenth century, the hymnbooks of many churches were simply collections of Watts's texts.
Born in 1674 to a staunch Nonconformist minister and his wife, young Isaac later rejected offers from wealthy patrons to send him to a prestigious university such as Cambridge or Oxford, since that choice would have committed him to ministry in the Church of England. Instead he attended the Dissenting Academy in Stoke Newington (now part of London). Following graduation, he became a private tutor for five years before becoming the pastor of the Mark Lane Independent Chapel. By this time he had already begun his hymnwriting career, which is said to have sprung from a challenge by his father. Isaac had complained that congregational song was uninspiring, consisting almost exclusively of psalm paraphrases that he considered unimpressive, and he soon discovered that he could write better texts.
Poor health forced his premature retirement from church leadership in 1712, only ten years later. He was invited to stay with Sir Thomas Abney (Lord Mayor of London and a parishioner at Watts's church) at his Hertfordshire estate. Initially planning a visit of a week, Watts remained with the Abney family until his death (November 27, 1748). Though health issues such as his might have made others cynical and resentful, his best hymns (in my opinion) praise the boundless love and power of God.
My God, how endless is your love!
Your gifts are every evening new;
And morning mercies from above
Gently distill like early dew.
You spread the curtains of the night,
Great Guardian of my sleeping hours;
Your sovereign Word restores the light,
And quickens all my waking powers.
I yield my powers to your command,
To you I consecrate my days;
Perpetual blessings from your hand
Demand perpetual songs of praise.
Isaac Watts, 1707; alt.
Tune: ONEONTA (L.M.)
Walter H. Hall, 1918
Nearly 850 of his hymns are currently listed at the Cyber Hymnal site, and more every year are available to see there.
One Year Ago: Isaac Watts
The name of Thomas Toke Lynch is not very well known on his birthday today, nor are his hymns, but in his own time he was rather infamous in some circles as the author and compiler of one of the most controversial hymnbooks ever published.
Born in Essex in 1818, he later withdrew from college without graduating due to poor health, which stayed with him through life. After continuing his education through self-study, he became a Nonconformist minister and led small congregations in London. In November of 1855 he published The Rivulet: A Contribution to Sacred Song, containing one hundred hymn texts.
Before long, the collection (as well as Lynch himself) was viciously attacked by writers in some influential church magazines. His hymns were considered devoid of doctrine, and quotes denouncing them included "...containing not one particle of vital religion or evangelical piety," and "...might have been written by a man who had never seen a Bible." Other writers (in different publications) staunchly defended the book, declaring that Lynch was writing a new kind of hymn and that, according to one author, "there is no minister in London... who has a firmer belief in the very doctrines he is charged with denying." The resulting furor eventually threatened the very existence of the Congregational Union, a federation of Nonconformist and Congregational churches in England and Wales. The organization was careful never to endorse the use of the collection, which had so divided its members.
Lynch himself waited nearly a year before responding to his critics. Under the pseudonym of "Silent Long" he published another collection of fifteen satirical poems titled Songs Controversial. One representative stanza:
With Doddridge, Watts, and Cowper, too,
Whoe'er casts in his lot,
Presuming for the Church to sing,
We'll let him know what's what.
Of better hymns than we deserve
We've quite enough provided;
And no man now shall innovate,
Of that we're most decided.
(I think there are probably some contemporary hymnwriters who can feel some affinity for Lynch and the criticism he endured.)
Lynch's autobiography, Memoirs of Thomas T. Lynch (1874) was published after his death, and he addresses the matter there at length. He includes the first hymn text that he wrote (#17 in The Rivulet), on the Monday before Christmas in 1854, which will serve as our hymn for the day.
Christ in the Word draws near;
Hush, lonely voice of fear,
Christ bids thee cease;
With songs sincere and sweet
Let us arise, and meet
Him who comes forth to greet
Our souls with peace.
For works of love and praise
Christ brings thee summer days,
Warm days and bright;
Winter is past and gone,
Now he, salvation’s Sun,
Shineth on everyone
With mercy’s light.
From the bright sky above,
Clad in his robes of love,
’Tis he, our Lord!
Dim earth itself grows clear
Wondrous light draweth near;
O let us hush and hear
God's holy Word.
Thomas Toke Lynch, 1855; alt.
Tune: KIRBY BEDON (6.6.4.6.6.6.4.)
Edward Burnett, 1887
Sardonically referring to this "Christless" hymn (which is anything but), Lynch then goes on to relate the beginnings of the campaign against him and his hymns. Clearly deeply affected by the criticism, he explains how he remains as committed to the church as ever, but denounces the "utterly inverted moral state of many professed religionists."
In the second edition of The Rivulet, published the following year, Lynch adds a note after the preface which begins:
The reader is requested to observe that The Rivulet is not issued as in itself a sufficient book of song for Christian churches. Its only public use could be as supplemental [...] and knowing that the book would not come into public use, I have included several compositions which otherwise I should have omitted.
The "Rivulet Controversy" continued to simmer for several years, and books were published which laid out the arguments for both sides. In the Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) by John Julian, the issue is described as "one of the most bitter hymnological controversies known..." but Lynch's hymns are called "valuable contributions to cultured sacred song." However, in the Dictionary of National Biography, published in 63 volumes between 1885 and 1900, Lynch's entry was apparently written by someone on the other side. Some characteristic comments:
"[His] congregations were always small, and he was not attractive as a preacher."
"...[the hymns] express too exclusively an admiration of nature to be suitable for Christian worship."
"...none of them are popular in the churches."
In our day, we are quite accustomed to hymns which "admire" nature (such as the one text by Lynch that I have previously used) and don't expect all of our hymns to be deeply rooted in doctrine. If the language of Lynch's hymns was not so very much of his time, I suspect that they would be ripe for rediscovery in modern hymnals (and maybe they are, in some instances).
Moving on from the fray, Lynch also wrote tunes for several hymns in The Rivulet, which were also published after his death. The preface to the book, found among his papers, was again written under a pseudonym, this time "Theodore Burkeson." There he writes of his musical efforts:
If the members of the Mornington congregation will do me the honour of examining these tunes, I shall be pleased: if they like them, still more pleased. But I must admit that I shall never be a person of much note, or of many notes, in the musical world. My occupations are meditative rather than musical, yet music helps me.
Unfortunately, Lynch's tunes have remained undiscovered by the online hymn sites, which have only documented some of his texts.
