Singing Loud With Cheerful Voice

So I'm back home again. My trip was to the West Coast, the Northern California Bay Area where I attended the Annual Conference of the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada. It was a remarkable experience that I'm still sorting out in my head and will probably provide some more material for the blog in the weeks and months to come. It was my first time there, though I had thought about going several times in previous years.
If you can imagine 300 or so people coming together every year to sing hymns for four days, it was just as good as that. They'll sing anything, and if the music or the words are a little tricky at first, they'll keep trying, determined to get it right by the last verse. We sang hymns in all different styles and from many different traditions, from Morning Prayer at 8:30 am to Night Prayers at 9:30pm. Every day included a 90-minute hymn festival around a different theme, as well as numerous other opportunities to sing from new hymnals and smaller hymn collections, often led by the editors, text writers, and/or composers. The schedule was packed!

Meals became a great opportunity for further conversation on the events of the day - you never knew who you might be sitting beside - a fellow enthusiast, the editor of a major denominational hymnal, a writer or composer whose work you've admired for a long time or one whose work you just encountered half an hour before.

I thought I didn't have one particular favorite thing we sang (there was a lot to choose from!) until the last morning, when I found it. The final hymn festival was on The Greening of Hymnody, new and old hymns and songs about God in Nature and our responsibility for the care of the earth. I had never seen or heard this hymn but I loved it immediately.

All things praise thee, God most high,
Heav'n and earth and sea and sky,
All were for thy glory made,
That thy greatness, thus displayed,
Should all worship bring to thee;
All things praise thee: God, may we!

All things praise thee: night to night
Sings in silent hymns of light;
All things praise thee: day to day
Chants thy power in burning ray;
Time and space are praising thee;
All things praise thee: God, may we!

All things praise thee; round her zones
Earth, with her ten thousand tones,
Rolls a ceaseless choral strain;
Roaring wind and deep-voiced main,
Rustling leaf and humming bee,
All things praise thee: God, may we!

All things praise thee, high and low,
Rain and dew, and seven-hued bow,
Crimson sunset, fleecy cloud,
Rippling stream, and tempest loud,
Summer, winter, all to thee
Glory render: God, may we!

All things praise thee: gracious Lord,
Great Creator, pow'rful Word,
Omnipresent Spirit, now
At thy feet we humbly bow,
Lift our hearts in praise to thee;
All things praise thee: God, may we!

George William Conder, 1874; alt.
Tune: TE LAUDANT OMNIA (7.7.7.7.7.7.)
James Frederick Swift, 1903 (?)
George William Conder was an English clergyman who helped compile the Leeds Hymn Book and wrote a number of hymns for a later supplement of that hymnal. I'll be looking through that one for more of his work. The best-known tune of James Frederick Swift was not a hymn, but the secular song Sailing, sailing over the bounding main. I haven't quite nailed down when he wrote this hymn tune.
I'd bet that several people took this hymn home with hopes of using it in worship. More to come on the festival...

The Song That Ne'er Will Die

Today I'm combining two of our summer themes in one: the Holy Spirit, and Gospel songs. Most Gospel songs are about Jesus in some way: his life, his love for us, singing his praises, etc. There are some, however, that are not.

This number in Gospel song style about the Holy Spirit first appeared in 1890 in a hymnal with a great title: Precious Times of Refreshing and Revival. The writer, Frank Bottome, emigrated to the U.S. from England and became a Methodist Episcopal minister in 1850. Composer William Kirkpatrick wrote tunes for just about all the popular text writers of the time.

O spread the tidings ’round, wherever truth is found,
Wherever human hearts and human woes abound;
Let ev’ry human tongue proclaim the joyful sound:
The Comforter has come!

Refrain:
The Comforter has come, the Comforter has come!
The Spirit come from Heav’n, the Savior’s promise giv’n;
O spread the tidings ’round, wherever truth is found—
The Comforter has come!

She comes, and softly sings, with healing in her wings,
To ev’ry captive soul a full deliverance brings;
And through the vacant cells the song of triumph rings;
The Comforter has come!
Refrain

O boundless love divine! How shall this tongue of mine
To wond’ring mortals tell the matchless grace divine—
That I, a child of God, should in God's image shine!
The Comforter has come!
Refrain

Sing till the echoes fly above the vaulted sky,
And all the saints above to all below reply,
In strains of endless love, the song that ne’er will die:
The Comforter has come!
Refrain

Frank Bottome, 1890; alt.
Tune: COMFORTER (12.12.12.6. with refrain)
William J. Kirkpatrick, 1890

Isaac Watts

Today is the birthday of Isaac Watts, often called the Father of English Hymnody. Anyone out there reading this blog undoubtedly knows a number of hymns by Watts, maybe without realizing it, because many of them are still sung today and I think it's a rare hymnal that contains no Watts hymns. Cyberhymnal.org lists nearly 700, and most accounts say that there were about fifty more that he wrote.

Watts showed a talent for poetry at an early age and was challenged by his father to write hymn texts. I'm still travelling this week without a lot of time to blog, but I encourage you to read the biographical material at the links above, since Watts is still so very important to our modern understanding and love of hymns. Too important to skip his birthday!

It's hard to say which one is the most familiar, but I'm choosing this one for today, which has to be right up there at the top.

O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

Under the shadow of thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting thou art God,
To endless years the same.

A thousand ages in thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

Time, like an ever rolling stream,
Bears all of us away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.

Isaac Watts, 1719
Tune: ST. ANNE (C.M.)
William Croft, 1708

This paraphrase of Psalm 90 has had a number of small alterations over the years across the hundreds of hymnals that have published it. Some use Watts' original Our God, our help in ages past, but many have altered it as above. For me, God is bigger than just "ours."

A birthday this important deserves two hymns. The most significant thing about Watts, and why he received the "Father of English Hymnody" title, is that he published and popularized hymns that were not simply transcriptions of the Psalms and other passages from Scripture. Others took up this method of hymnwriting and it eventually overtook the previous one; there are many many more of these kind of hymns than the Scripture paraphrases. Here's one that is not as well known, but I always like hymns that use garden imagery and the people of God as plants tended by a loving gardener.



We are a garden walled around,
Chosen and made peculiar ground;
A little spot enclosed by grace
Out of the world's wide wilderness.

Like trees of myrrh and spice we stand,
Planted by God's almighty hand;
And all the springs in Zion flow,
To make the young plantation grow.

Awake, O, heav'nly wind! and come,
Blow on this garden of perfume;
Spirit divine! descend and breathe
A gracious gale on plants beneath.

Make our best spices flow abroad,
To entertain our Savior God
And faith, and love, and joy appear,
And every grace be active here.

Isaac Watts, c. 1708; alt.
Tune: DAS NEUGEBORNE KINDELEIN (L.M.)
Melchior Vulpius, 1609; harm. J.S. Bach, 1724


So how many of the 700 listed at the above link do you know?

Lift Us to High Resolve

The voice of God is calling

Its summons ever clear;

As once God spake in Zion

So now God speaketh here:

“Whom shall I send to succor

My people in their need?

Whom shall I send to loosen

The bonds of shame and greed?”

“I hear my people crying

In suburb and on hill;

No field or mart is silent,

No city street is still.

I see my people falling

In sadness and despair.

Whom shall I send to shatter

The fetters which they bear?”

We heed, O God, thy summons,

And answer: Here are we!

Send us upon thine errand,

Let us thy servants be.

Our strength is dust and ashes,

Our years a passing hour;

But thou canst use our weakness

To magnify thy power.

From ease and plenty save us;

From pride of place absolve;

Purge us of low desire;

Lift us to high resolve;

Take us, and make us holy;

Teach us thy will and way.

Speak, and behold! We answer;

Command, and we obey!

John Haynes Holmes, 1913; alt.

Tune: KING'S LYNN (7.8.7.8.D.)

Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906

A twentieth century hymn in both tune and text, this is another of the great social justice hymns of the Church Universal. John Haynes Holmes was a Unitarian minister who spent most of his career in New York City following his installation as minister at the Church of the Messiah (photo below). He was a founder of both the NAACP and the ACLU, to name only two of the significant organizations with which he was involved.

During World War I, he strongly supported pacifism in his sermons and other writings, which brought him into serious conflict with the Unitarian denomination. Several of his other hymns, which were eventually published in a collected edition, reflect this commitment to pacifism and world peace and certainly bear further examination.

My Strength and Shield

Depending on where you are right now, you may want to sing along.



Guide me, O thou great Redeemer,
Pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but thou art mighty;
Hold me with thy powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
Feed me till I want no more.

Open now the crystal fountain,
Whence the healing stream doth flow;
Let the fire and cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through.
Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer,
Be thou still my Strength and Shield.

When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Bid my anxious fears subside;
Death of deaths, and hell’s destruction,
Land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises
I will ever give to thee.
William Williams, 1745; tr. Peter Williams 1771
Tune: CWM RHONDDA (8.7.8.7.D.)
John Hughes, 1907

Now that's a hymn that really should be more than three verses long. Actually, there are two more, but I don't think anyone uses them. The three we know fit together quite well, recounting a journey both earthly and spiritual, while the other two verses are more general in nature.

Slow week at the blog - not many birthdays or other commemorations in the first part of July. This works out well because I will be traveling next week, though I do hope to post a little bit (one very significant birthday next week at least). Things should pick up later in the month.

Henry J. Gauntlett

Henry John Gauntlett is another Victorian hymn tune composer who is now only known for a small handful of tunes. Born on this day in 1805, he progressed so far in his musical education and ability that at the age of nine he was appointed the organist at the church in Buckinghamshire where his father served as clergy. However, since he beat out his two sisters for the position it may not be quite as impressive as it seems in some accounts.

His parents then, as many parents still, thought that music was no suitable profession for an adult (child organists were OK), so he became an attorney, not fully realizing his musical aspirations until the age of thirty-nine, when he abandoned the bar and took music on full-time. He was a renowned organist, and obtained patents for applying electrical and magnetic action to the mechanics of the pipe organ. He accompanied the first perfomance of Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah from the full manuscript, as there was no separate organ part to read from. Mendelssohn was very impressed by Gauntlett's wide-ranging musical talents and spoke highly of him in later years.

Gauntlett is often cited as the first composer of four-part hymn tunes as we know them today. Some sources claim that he wrote ten thousand hymn tunes, though others think it seems unlikely, even if older tunes that he only harmonized or arranged (such as STUTTGART) were included. He edited several hymnals, from the first, The Church Hymn and Tune Book (1852) to The Wesleyan Tune Book (1876) on which he was working when he died in 1875. He was consulted on most of the other hymnals published in England during his lifetime (a large number indeed).

This tune (and hymn) are still used in many churches.

Jesus lives! no longer now
Can thy terrors, death, appall us;
Jesus lives! by this we know
Thou, O grave, canst not enthrall us.
Alleluia!

Jesus lives! for us Christ died;
Then, alone to Jesus living
Pure in heart may we abide,
Glory to our Savior giving.
Alleluia!

Jesus lives! our hearts know well
Naught from us God's love shall sever;
Life, nor death, nor powers of hell
Tear us from God's keeping ever.
Alleluia!

Jesus lives! to Christ the throne
Over all the world is given;
May we go where Christ has gone,
Live eternally in heaven.
Alleluia!

Christian Gellert, 1751; tr. Frances E. Cox, 1841, alt.
Tune: ST. ALBINUS (7.8.7.8. with Alleluia)
Henry J. Gauntlett, 1852

Gauntlett has one even more familiar tune, IRBY, used for Once in royal David's city, but we'll get to that at a more appropriate time of year. Here at the blog, we've heard his ST. BARNABAS, which hymnologist Erik Routley called "astounding" (though he didn't mean it in a good way). Routley says of Gauntlett "At his best he is a true and inspired master of the commonplace..." One tune, ST. ALPHEGE, is said to have been composed at a dinner, while a messenger waited for the manuscript.

However many Gauntlett tunes there are, the twenty-four listed at cyberhymnal.org are a very small fraction, and I'm not sure I want Erik Routley -- no fan of the Victorians -- to have the last word unchallenged. Gauntlett was widely respected in his time, much in demand for his skills. Though his time has come and gone, a backhanded "compliment" cannot completely diminish his accomplishments.

Fresh Supplies of Love

O Source of life divine,
Who hast a table spread,
Supplied with mystic wine
And everlasting bread,
Preserve the life thyself hast giv'n,
And feed and train us up for heav'n,
And feed and train us up for heav'n.

Our thirsting souls sustain
With fresh supplies of love,
Till all thy life we gain,
And all thy fullness prove,
And, strengthened by thy perfect grace,
Behold without a veil thy face,
Behold without a veil thy face.

Charles Wesley, 1745; alt.
Tune: RHOSYMEDRE (6.6.6.6.8.8.8.)
John David Edwards, 1840

Charles Wesley occasionally wrote short hymns, too. They weren't all fourteen verses long, like Come, O thou Traveller unknown, or eighteen verses, like O for a thousand tongues to sing. This one really was only two verses long, first published in 1745 in his collection titled Hymns on the Lord's Supper. The minor changes made (mostly before we got to it) were to help it fit this particular tune better.

RHOSYMEDRE was one of three Welsh hymn tunes that Ralph Vaughan Williams arranged into organ preludes in 1920 (the other two were HYFRYDOL and BRYN CALFARIA). You can find performances of them on YouTube though I can't vouch for them - using dial-up right now.

P.S. The illustration above is a communion table from Elizabethan times, from Sunningwell Church in Bristol.

Thy Paths Our Chosen Way

God of creation, whose almighty hand
Leads forth in beauty all the starry band
Of shining worlds in splendor through the skies,
Our grateful songs before thy throne arise.

Thy love divine hath led us in the past,
Through every land by thee our lot is cast;
Be thou our Ruler, Guardian, Guide and Stay,
Thy Word our law, thy paths our chosen way.

From war’s alarms, from griefs that seem immense,
Be thy strong arm our ever sure defense;
Thine inspiration in our hearts increase,
Thy bounteous goodness nourish us in peace.

Refresh thy people on their weary way,
Lead us to heaven's never-ending day;
Fill all our lives with love and grace divine,
And glory, laud, and praise be ever thine.

Daniel Crane Roberts, 1876; alt.
Tune: NATIONAL HYMN (10.10.10.10.)
George W. Warren, 1892

This hymn was written for the U.S. Centennial celebrations in Brandon, Vermont, but sung to a different tune. Roberts later submitted it to the committee that was compiling the Episcopal hymnal of 1892. George Warren then chose the text for a celebration of the centennial of the Constitution and wrote his tune for it.

It's been slightly rewritten, which admittedly takes the national elements out of it, but remember that we were adapting it for the use of an international denomination. Inclusivity means everyone, not just those of us in the U.S. There's always a debate about the appropriateness of patriotic songs and hymns in worship; I'm wary of them, though I know they are important for many people.

Anyway, happy Fourth to my U.S. readers, and to those outside the country, here's a hymn of praise you can use too.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, born on this day in 1860, is perhaps best known today for her short story The Yellow Wallpaper, an account of severe depression written from her own experience. She was a member of the extended Beecher family and grew up aware of her prominent great-aunts Harriet Beecher Stowe, Catharine Beecher, and Isabella Beecher Hooker, all famed for their involvement in progressive causes.

Gilman's book Women and Economics (1898) argued that women must attain economic independence of their husbands in order to attain true equality of the sexes. Though her writing supported feminist causes, she preferred not to be called a feminist, but a humanist.

In 1911 she published Suffrage Songs and Verses, from which today's selection is taken. It's been adapted from a women's suffrage anthem into a text about freedom and equality for everyone, with a tune I think you will recognize. (You can see her original five-verse text here.)

Day of hope and day of glory! After slavery and woe,
Comes the dawn of human freedom, and the light shall grow and grow
Until every man and woman equal liberty shall know,
In freedom marching on!

Refrain
Glory, glory hallelujah!
Glory, glory hallelujah!
Glory, glory hallelujah! In freedom marching on!

Not for self but larger service has our cry for freedom grown,
There is crime, disease and warfare as we face the world alone,
In the name of love we're rising now to serve and save our own,
Together marching on!
Refrain

We will help to make a pruning hook of every outgrown sword,
We will help to knit the nations in continuing accord,
In humanity made perfect every freedom is restored,
As Peace goes marching on!
Refrain

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1911; adapt. 1990
Tune: BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC
William Steffe (coll.), c.1856

This tune will be sung all over the place this Independence Day weekend, though with a much more familiar text. William Steffe was almost certainly not the composer of the tune, though; he included it in a collection of campmeeting songs he published in 1856. But I don't want to get sidetracked with a discussion of the Battle Hymn or its tune - it's Gilman we're commemorating today. You can learn even more about her at the site of the Charlotte Perkins Gilman Society.

Edward J. Hopkins

Edward John Hopkins (June 30, 1818 - February 4, 1901) was an acclaimed organist and composer of his time. As a boy, he was a chorister at the Chapel Royal, then, beginning at age 16, held a number of organist positions until he took the post at the Temple Church in London, a church dating back to medieval times with an acclaimed music program then and now. He remained in that post for more than fifty years, while composing anthems, chants and hymn tunes. Two of his anthems won the annual Gresham Prize, awarded by the Professors of Music of Oxford University and Gresham College for best original composition in sacred vocal music.

Like most of his Victorian church musician contemporaries, his music is little known today. This is his one remaining hymn tune that would still be recognized by many people.

Savior, again to thy dear Name we raise
With one accord our parting hymn of praise;
We thank and bless thee ere our worship cease;
And still our hearts to wait thy word of peace.

Grant us thy peace, throughout the coming night;
Stay with us till the morning brings its light;
From harm and danger keep thy people free,
For dark and light are both alike to thee.

Grant us thy peace — the peace thou didst bestow
On thine apostles in thine hour of woe;
The peace thou broughtest, when at eventide
They saw thy piercèd hands, thy wounded side.

Grant us thy peace throughout our earthly life;
Our balm in sorrow and our stay in strife;
Peace to our land, the fruit of truth and love;
Peace in each heart, thy Spirit from above.

Thy peace in life, the balm of every pain;
Thy peace in death, the hope to rise again;
Then, when thy voice shall bid our conflict cease,
Call us, O Christ, to thine eternal peace.

John Ellerton, 1866; alt.
Tune: ELLERS (10.10.10.10.)
Edward J. Hopkins, 1869

I found no reference to any collection of Hopkins's complete hymn tunes, as were published for some of his colleagues. Hopkins did edit at least four hymnals for different denominations, where many of his tunes undoubtedly appeared. Cyberhymnal.org lists only 15 tunes, though I have found more than forty in various older hymnals, so there probably are several more than that. Previously on the blog I used his tune CULFORD, and there must be a few others that could still be sung today without amusement or feigned horror.

Two books on which Hopkins collaborated are still in print today: The Organ: Its History and Construction and The Temple Church Choral Service Book.

P.S. We will see John Ellerton (the author of today's hymn text) again, no doubt. He wrote many hymns, several of which we know today, such as this one. I restored the third verse here, which I had never seen before.

To Fairer Worlds On High

It appears to be Gospel Song Weekend at Conjubilant With Song, perhaps to counter the opinions of some that I don't like gospel songs. Admittedly I do favor hymns; they are the music of the churches I grew up in (though recent examination has uncovered something interesting - a story for another time). It's true that I don't care for bad gospel songs -- some are the nineteenth century equivalent of today's praise choruses, and even Fanny Crosby wrote a number of "Jesus-is-my-boyfriend" songs long before that term was coined. And not all the tunes are particularly noteworthy. But there are uninteresting hymns too, and dull hymn tunes.

This is an early sort-of gospel song I like very much.

Come, we that love the Lord,
And let our joys be known;
Join in a song with sweet accord,
Join in a song with sweet accord
And thus surround the throne,
And thus surround the throne.

Refrain
We're marching to Zion,
Beautiful, beautiful Zion;
We're marching upward to Zion,
The beautiful city of God

The heirs of grace have found,
Glory begun below.
Celestial fruits on earthly ground,
Celestial fruits on earthly ground,
From faith and hope may grow,
From faith and hope may grow.
Refrain

The hill of Zion yields
A thousand sacred sweets
Before we reach the heav’nly fields,
Before we reach the heav’nly fields,
Or walk the golden streets,
Or walk the golden streets.
Refrain

Then let our songs abound,
And every tear be dry;
We’re marching through Immanuel’s ground,
We’re marching through Immanuel’s ground,
To fairer worlds on high,
To fairer worlds on high.
Refrain

Isaac Watts, 1707; Robert Lowry (refrain) 1867; alt.
Tune: MARCHING TO ZION (6.6.8.8.6.6. with refrain)
Robert Lowry, 1867

A great tune that really does march (it kind of swings too). When we compiled a hymnal for local church use, I slotted this one in as the final selection, #600. The subject of the final group of hymns and songs was "The Life to Come," and it seemed appropriate to end the book with a song that talks about continuing onward and upward.

Now some will say that I'm cheating a bit because the main part of the text is by Isaac Watts, but when Robert Lowry composed a new tune and added a refrain he spread this hymn to a wider audience than would have ever known it otherwise. The original Watts text, without the refrain, is still sometimes seen in hymnals. Watts wrote ten verses, so different hymnals will choose different verses. One that never gets used:

The sorrows of the mind
Be banished from the place;
Religion never was designed
To make our pleasures less.

Too controversial! But the eighteenth century may not have been as conservative as we imagine it to have been.

So, gospel songs: another summer Sunday theme for the blog. And maybe I'll get around to telling that story.

More Voices Found: Eliza Hewitt

Eliza Edmunds Hewitt, born on this day in Philadelphia in 1851, was bedridden with a spinal injury for many years, during which she began her hymnwriting career. Her writings were discovered by fellow Philadelphians John Sweney and William Kirkpatrick, composers of gospel songs who together edited and published their own collections, and included many of Hewitt's pieces in their books (and provided the tunes in many cases). One of her best-known songs was Will There Be Any Stars in My Crown.

Eliza Hewitt has already shown up here back on May 24, due to her collaboration with Emily Divine Wilson, When We All Get to Heaven. Hewitt was also a good friend of Fanny Crosby. Of her many songs, I chose this one for today.

Bear the good tidings all over the world,
Let the bright banner of love be unfurled,
Wherever sorrow and pain shall be found,
There let the news of salvation resound.

Refrain
All over the world,
All over the world,
Let the bright banner of love be unfurled,
All over the world.

Plant in the wilderness Sharon’s sweet rose,
Blessing will follow wherever it goes;
Onward, led onward by God’s guiding hand,
Open fresh springs in the dry, thirsty land.
Refrain

Oh, what a song shall in heaven be sung!
By every nation and kindred and tongue;
Saints reunited by grace shall be there,
Joy everlasting together we’ll share.
Refrain

Eliza E. Hewitt, c. 1896; alt.
Tune: SHARON'S ROSE (10.10.10.10. with refrain)
William J. Kirkpatrick, c. 1896

Hewitt was a prolific writer, and her publishers must have felt that she needed a pseudonym so she didn't appear to be crowding out other writers (a distinction she shared with Fanny Crosby), so some of her gospel songs were attributed to "Lidie Edmunds." She does have 73 listed at cyberhymnal.org, which means that there may even be several more out there. She also wrote the music for at least three of her songs.

In later years, Eliza Hewitt partially recovered from her injury and was a Sunday School superintendent, both at the Northern Home for Friendless Children and the Calvin Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia.

Philip Doddridge

Philip Doddridge was an English Nonconformist, meaning that he felt that church and state should be separate in England, which the Church of England was not. He opened his own academy for the training of Nonconformist clergy, teaching many of the classes himself. He was a friend of Isaac Watts and an admirer of Watts's hymns, as well as those of Charles Wesley. He wrote nearly 400 hymns himself, many of which were sung in his own congregation. They were based on specific Scripture passages and were intended to be sung following one of his sermons on that particular text, as reinforcement of the theme.

The hymns were not published until after his death, first collected by Job Orton in Hymns Founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures in 1755 (374 hymns). His great-grandson, John Doddridge Humphreys, added 23 more in Scriptural Hymns by the Rev. Philip Doddridge in 1839. Several of them have survived into the present, including this one.

Great God, we sing that mighty hand
By which supported still we stand;
The opening year thy mercy shows,
That mercy crowns it ’til it close.

By day, by night, at home, abroad,
Still are we guarded by our God,
By thine incessant bounty fed,
By thine unerring counsel led.

With grateful hearts the past we own;
The future, all to us unknown,
We to thy guardian care commit,
And peaceful leave before thy feet.

In scenes exalted or depressed,
Thou art our joy, and thou our rest;
Thy goodness all our hopes shall raise,
Adored through all our changing days.

Philip Doddridge, published 1755; alt.
Tune: WAREHAM (L.M.)
William Knapp, 1738

Since there is a wide gulf between the language of the early eighteenth century and the common usage of today, I would guess that nearly any text you sing of Doddridge's will be rewritten in some way. This one, however, remains fairly intact.

Henry Ward Beecher

Henry Ward Beecher (born June 24, 1813) was the most famous clergyman of his time, a Civil War-era media star of a type we might recognize today. He'd get himself on television in this century, although unlike today's well-known television preachers his views were mostly liberal: favoring abolition, evolution, and women's suffrage.

He pastored the Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn NY from its inception in 1847 until his death in 1887. Under his leadership the church was one of the largest in the country, with regular attendance in the thousands, and occasional guests such as Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain came to hear Beecher's acclaimed sermons.

He's here today because he actively promoted congregational singing in worship. The first hymnal he compiled was Temple Melodies in 1851, which included about 500 hymns and 200 tunes. He soon decided that was inadequate, and in 1855 brought out the Plymouth Collection of Hymns and Tunes, with 1374 hymns and 367 tunes. Since he could get no publisher to bring out anything that extensive, the congregation raised the money themselves to have the first edition privately printed for their use. Both these hymnals were among the first in this country to include both words and music on the same page. Beecher also deliberately chose the texts from several different traditions, from psalm paraphrases, from the Englishmen Wesley and Watts, and (shockingly to some) from Unitarian and Roman Catholic sources. Before long the Plymouth Collection was being used in many other churches, no longer considered a publishing risk.

The members of Beecher's extended family were among the intellectual elites of the country, most of them acclaimed in their own fields. Like other Beecher ventures, the Plymouth Collection was a bit of a family affair. Novelist sister Harriet Beecher Stowe, then particularly famous following the publication of mammoth bestseller Uncle Tom's Cabin, contributed three hymns, and younger brother Charles was one of the music editors. Charles and his fellow music editor, John Zundel (longtime organist at Plymouth Church) both contributed several tunes to the hymnal. Zundel later wrote the hymn tune BEECHER, named for Henry Ward, and still used today for a few different texts.

This hymn is by Mrs. Stowe, with a tune by Charles, from Henry Ward's Plymouth Collection:

When winds are raging o’er the upper ocean,
And billows wild contend with angry roar,
’Tis said, far down, below the wild commotion,
That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore.

Far, far beneath, the noise of tempests dieth,
And silver waves chime ever peacefully,
And no rude storm, how fierce so e’er it flieth,
Disturbs the Sabbath of that deeper sea.

So to the heart that knows Thy love, O Purest!
There is a temple, sacred evermore,
And all the babble of life’s angry voices
Dies in hushed stillness at its peaceful door.

Far, far away, the roar of passion dieth,
And loving thoughts rise calm and peacefully,
And no rude storm, how fierce so e’er it flieth,
Disturbs the soul that dwells, O Lord, in Thee.

O Rest of rests! O Peace, serene, eternal!
Thou ever livest, and Thou changest never.
And in the secret of Thy presence dwelleth
Fullness of joy, forever and forever.

Harriet Beecher Stowe, c.1855
Tune REST (Beecher) (11.10.11.10)
Charles Beecher, c.1855


Harriet's text is very much of its time and would probably not go over well today, though I think there's a lot to like in it (you may notice - no alt.). Charles's tune is pretty rangy (that second line!) and a bit hard to match up with the text, written in an American style that would be largely supplanted by the English Victorian tune writers and their more stately stepwise-moving tunes, meaning that Charles's several other tunes had little chance to migrate to other, later hymnals. And there's another, much better-known tune called REST by Frederick C. Maker.

P.S. The Plymouth Collection was the first American hymnal to include Abide with me. It was on the facing page to the above hymn, indicating that it could be sung to the same tune. Luckily, a few years later, W. H. Monk wrote the tune that we know today (EVENTIDE) and saved us from singing it to Charles Beecher's REST (not really -- with REST it would never have survived until today)

Hymns In the News

And how often does that happen?

From the Times of London:

"Should these or any other activists attempt to breach the security around the conference at the Renaissance Hotel in west Jerusalem the 1,100 delegates have been instructed to start singing the hymn All hail the power of Jesus' name."

But do they all know which tune they should use if the emergency arises?

UPDATE: Naturally this news story has provoked some discussion on the internets -- see "What hymn (or other song) should be sung when YOU disrupt GAFCON?" (contains the usual online mix of thoughtful and irreverent answers)

Samuel Longfellow

Samuel Longfellow (born June 18, 1819) was the younger brother of famed American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Samuel's fame was and still is less broad than his brother's, but many of his hymns are as good as any that we sing today.

While still a student at Harvard Divinity School, he and his particular friend, classmate Samuel Johnson, compiled and published the Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion, which was used by many liberal churches of the era and went through several editions. Noted Unitarian minister Theodore Parker teasingly referred to it as the Book of Sams. Longfellow and Johnson had gone outside the usual scope of material considered for hymnals and included contemporary poets such as John Greenleaf Whittier and Oliver Wendell Holmes, adapting their verse into hymns.

Following his ordination in the Unitarian church, Longfellow served congregations in Fall River MA and Brooklyn NY (where he met Walt Whitman). He supported abolition, women's suffrage, and was an avowed pacifist. His sermons were described as "serene contemplations, not white and cold, but glowing with interior and suppressed radiance." In 1864, he and Johnson collaborated on another hymnal, Hymns of the Spirit, which contained many of their own hymns. This new book reflected their personal spiritual views as had the previous collection, but in the intervening years their positions had become even more liberal. They were theists and refused to include any texts regarding the divinity of Christ. The hymns under the heading "Christianity" in Hymns of the Spirit only numbered seventeen (out of 717) and there were no communion hymns. The new hymnal was not as successful as their first had been, and might be little more than a footnote today if its name had not been re-used for a combined Unitarian-Universalist hymnal in the 1930s.

But, as Louis Benson writes in Studies of Familiar Hymns (1903):

"There are, no doubt, hymns written by Dr. Holmes, Mr. Longfellow, and other "liberals" which contain their peculiar personal beliefs, some that even sound a note of protest against other peoples' beliefs; and those are passed by, as a matter of course, by churches which profess the Orthodox faith. But the fact of their writing such sectarian hymns does not spoil the quality of such of their hymns as are not sectarian, but are simply religious. Is it not properly a matter of rejoicing that there are so many hymns that religious people of all shades of belief can agree to love and to sing?"

As you may be able to tell, I like Longfellow's hymns. It was actually a challenge to pick just one to present today, so I settled on this one which was reportedly his own favorite, and one that I have known and sung for many years, long before I knew who Samuel Longfellow was.

I look to thee in every need,
And never look in vain;
I feel thy strong and tender love,
And all is well again.
The thought of thee is mightier far
Than sin and pain and sorrow are.

Discouraged in the work of life,
Disheartened by its load,
Shamed by its failures or its fears,
I sink beside the road.
But let me only think of thee
And then new heart springs up in me.

Thy calmness bends serene above,
My restlessness to still;
Around me flows thy quickening life,
To nerve my faltering will.
Thy presence fills my solitude,
Thy providence turns all to good.

Enfolded deep in thy dear love,
Held in thy law, I stand;
Thy hand in all things I behold,
And all things in thy hand.
Thou leadest me by unsought ways,
And turn'st my mourning into praise.

Samuel Longfellow, 1864
Tune: O JESU (8.6.8.6.8.8.)
Evangelisches Gesangbuch, 1741

Now, though never stated, Longfellow was obviously addressing God in this hymn. But I have to wonder whether a later editor chose this particular tune to subtly suggest that Jesus was not altogether absent. Nowadays people don't pay much attention to tune names but I'm not sure that was always true. Longfellow and Johnson had not matched tunes to texts in Hymns of the Spirit - it was a text-only hymnal - and so someone else got to pick an "appropriate" tune when they included it in another hymnal some time later.

Longfellow left his Brooklyn church when he felt that his views were becoming too controversial. It was several years until he led another congregation, in Germantown PA. He continued to write hymns that were published in various places. Following Samuel Johnson's death in 1882, Longfellow edited a collected edition of Johnson's works and added his own biographical memoir of his lifelong friend.

You may guess that you'll be seeing more hymns by Samuel Longfellow as time goes on. Correct. "Is it not properly a matter of rejoicing that there are so many hymns that religious people of all shades of belief can agree to love and to sing?"

More Voices Found: Helen Maria Williams

Today is the birthday of Helen Maria Williams, born in 1761. She was well-known in the literary circles of her time, particularly after the poet Wordsworth addressed a sonnet to her. She took up several causes, including abolition and feminism in her poetry and her published letters. In later years she lived in Paris, where she was briefly imprisoned during the French Revolution for her writing. Her popularity declined as literary England felt she had abandoned them for France, and her poetry was little published for many years after her death. This hymn, however, appeared in many hymnals in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

While thee I seek, protecting Power,
My earthly cares be stilled;
And may this consecrated hour
With better hopes be filled.

Thy love the power of thought bestowed;
To thee my thoughts would soar:
Thy mercy o’er my life has flowed;
That mercy I adore.

In each event of life, how clear
Thy guiding hand I see!
Each blessing to my soul more dear,
Because conferred by thee.

In every joy that crowns my days,
In every pain I bear,
My heart shall find delight in praise,
Or seek relief in prayer.

My lifted eye, without a tear,
The gathering storm shall see:
My steadfast heart shall know no fear;
That heart will rest on thee.

Helen Maria Williams, 1786; alt.
Tune: CRIMOND (C.M.)
Jessie Seymour Irvine, 1872; arr. David Grant

When I first found this hymn several years ago, I was looking for texts that referred to God in different ways, and was a little surprised to find this one all the way back in 1786. "Protecting Power" was not a standard name for God in Williams's time - note that it's the only name she uses in the text - it sounds much more modern.

CRIMOND, by Jessie Seymour Irvine, actually does appear in Voices Found, as well it should - it's the oldest known hymn tune by a woman that is still in use today in several hymnals.

O Come, Great Spirit, Come

The Sundays after Pentecost go on for quite a while until we get back to Advent and the beginning of another church year. I've chosen a few favorite themes to fill in these Sundays if there is no other commemoration to be marked. Sometimes I think that hymns of the Holy Spirit get overlooked a bit, but all the ones I know I generally like, so that's going to be one of the possible themes this summer and fall.

Spirit divine, attend our prayers,
And make our hearts thy home;
Descend with all thy gracious powers;
O come, great Spirit, come!

Come as the light; to us reveal
Our emptiness and woe;
And lead us on those paths of life,
Whereon the righteous go.

Come as the fire, and purge our hearts
Like sacrificial flame;
Let our whole souls an offering be
In Love’s redeeming name.

Come as the dew, and sweetly bless
This consecrated hour;
Earth's barren places will rejoice
In thy renewing power.

Come as the dove, and spread thy wings,
The wings of peaceful love;
And let the church on earth become
Blest as thy Church above.

Come as the wind, with rushing sound,
And Pentecostal grace,
That all of humankind may see
The glory of thy face.

Spirit divine, attend our prayer,
Make all this world thy home;
Descend with all thy gracious powers,
O come, great Spirit, come!

Andrew Reed, 1829; alt.
Tune: GRAFENBERG (C.M.)
Johann Crüger, 1647

You can't really cut any of the verses here because which of the attributes of the Spirit would you choose to leave out?

Praying Twice

I don't usually link to other people's blog posts, though it is a particularly bloggy thing to do. This one is kind of a book review, but ends up bigger than that, and on a subject you're probably interested in if you're here at all: congregational song.

Choral Reef: Music under the surface

She likes Brian Wren a bit more than I do, but otherwise she's pretty spot on. Of course, when you link to another blog, you take the chance that your readers will like the new one better.

Saint Barnabas

Barnabas was one of the earliest converts to Christianity, first appearing in the Book of Acts. Called "the Levite" and born Joseph, his name was changed at his conversion when he sold his belongings and gave the proceeds to the church; the new name means "son of encouragement" or, as frequently named in a number of hymns about him, the "Son of Consolation."

By some accounts, Barnabas was the cousin of Mark, the Gospel writer. After Paul's conversion, it was Barnabas who introduced him to the twelve disciples. Later, Paul and Barnabas traveled togather, converting many others to the church in Antioch and in Cyprus (where Barnabas is the patron saint). Eventually he was stoned to death for his beliefs (accounts differ as to where this happened).

O Jesus Christ, our Captain of salvation,
Thyself by suffering schooled to human grief,
We bless thee for thy heirs of consolation,
Who follow in the steps of thee their chief.

Those whose bright faith makes weary hearts grow stronger,
And those once silent sing in joyful strain,
Bids the lone convert feel estranged no longer,
And wins the sundered to be one again.

Such was thy Levite, strong in self oblation,
To cast his all at thine apostles’ feet;
He whose new name, new faith, and new vocation,
From age to age our thankful strains repeat.

Jesus, thy blessèd saints in memory keeping,
Still be thy church’s watchword, “Comfort ye,”
Till in our promised home shall end all weeping,
And every want be satisfied in thee.

John Ellerton, 1871, alt.
Tune: ST. BARNABAS (11.10.11.10.)
Henry J. Gauntlett, 1875

Gauntlett's tune is one of those high Victorian arrangements that's a little hard to follow without seeing the music, but as soon as I heard it I knew I wanted to use it today. He wrote the tune for this particular text after it had appeared in another hymnal with another tune.

P.S. The Barnabas window above is again by Edward Burne-Jones, traditionally depicting the saint with an olive branch and a book (by some accounts the Gospel of Matthew).

Ephrem, Deacon and Hymnwriter

Ephrem of Edessa (also called the Syrian) is commemorated on this day for his hymns and other writings that are widely known in the Eastern church, where he is known as the Harp of the Holy Spirit. Over four hundred of his hymns are known to exist, and many are assumed to be lost.

Many of these hymns are grouped by theme (some are linked here) . He is credited for showing the church that theology could be spread and reinforced through music and verse in congregational worship. He wrote a group called Hymns Against Heresies, sometimes taking popular melodies of the time to set his instructional verses against doctrines comsidered false at the time. (I agree that more people learn theology through hymns than through sermons.)

The hymns were chanted, and usually included refrains. Many are thought to have been used by nuns, accompanied on the lyre. Exact translations of his hymns into English do not produce "hymns" as we think of them, and much of the poetry and nuance is probably lost. For whatever reason, we are less familiar with his writings than with many hymns originally written in Greek or Latin, translated and adapted into verse over the last few hundred years. This one was translated and made into metrical verse in 1906, but the original would have been very different.

Receive, O Christ, in heav'n above
Our prayers and supplications pure;
Give us a heart all full of love
And steady courage to endure.

Thy holy Name our mouths confess,
Our tongues are harps to praise thy grace;
Forgive our sins and selfishness,
Who in this vigil seek thy face.

Let not our song become a sigh,
A wail of anguish and despair;
In lovingkindness, O most high,
Receive this day our joyful prayer.

O raise us in that day, that we
May sing, where all thy saints adore,
Praise to the Maker, and to thee,
And to thy Spirit, evermore.

Ephrem the Syrian, 4th century
(tr. Francis Crawford Burkitt, 1906; alt.)
Tune: ROCKINGHAM (L.M.)
Edward Miller, 1790

It took some time for me to settle a tune for this text. Oremus Hymnal uses ST. AMBROSE, which I don't think I have heard before. More chant-like tunes might include TALLIS' CANON and OLIVE'S BROW (played at more moderate speeds), but I also looked at BROMLEY, WAREHAM, and WINCHESTER NEW. They all seem to work in one way or another. Which one do you like for these words? (this would be an appropriate time for all (ha ha) my silent readers to say something - or not)

No Night, Nor Need, Nor Pain

O holy city, seen of John,
Where Christ, the Lamb, doth reign,

Within whose foursquare walls shall come

No night, nor need, nor pain,

And where the tears are wiped from eyes

That shall not weep again.

Hark, how from men whose lives are held

More cheap than merchandise,

From women struggling sore for bread,

From little children’s cries,

There swells the sobbing human plaint

That bids thy walls arise.

O shame to us who rest content

While lust and greed for gain

In street and shop and tenement

Wring gold from human pain,

And bitter lips in deep despair
Cry “Christ hath died in vain!”

Give us, O God, the strength to build

The city that hath stood

Too long a dream, whose laws are love,

Whose crown is servanthood,

And where the sun that shineth is

God’s grace for human good.

Already in the mind of God

That city riseth fair:

Lo! how its splendor challenges

The souls that greatly dare --

Yea, bids us seize the whole of life

And build its glory there.

Walter Russell Bowie, 1909; alt.
Tune: MORNING SONG (8.6.8.6.8.6.)

The Union Harmony, 1848

The holy city of the first line is from Revelation 21:1-7. Beautiful, but far-off. In this hymn Walter Russell Bowie wants us to understand that existence here on earth requires us to bring some of the promise of that future into the present time and place: Give us, O God, the strength to build... This hymn was written around the time of Bowie's ordination as an Episcopal priest, shortly after his graduation from seminary, but in later years he went on to a long career in New York City as rector of Grace Church and professor at Union Seminary, where the words of this hymn must sometimes have come to mind.