Philip P. Bliss

Today is the 175th birthday of the musical evangelist Philip Paul Bliss (July 9, 1838 - December 29, 1876).  Born in northern Pennsylvania, he made his first profession of faith at age 12 and joined the Cherry Flats Baptist Church. Around the same time he decided to pursue his interest in music, which would eventually lead to his becoming a traveling music teacher before he began composing tunes and writing texts both sacred and secular.

After achieving some success as a songwriter, he and his wife Lucy moved to Chicago where he worked in a music publishing company owned by George Root, the company that had bought Bliss's first song earlier.  While he conducted singing schools and musical conventions for the company, his songs were published in their books.

He met Dwight Moody in 1869, and was encouraged to join the Moody-Sankey evangelical organization, which he finally did in 1874.  He was returning to join the revival tour after Christmas in 1876 when he and his wife Lucy were killed in a train wreck in Ohio.  This song, which tells part of the story of Paul and Silas in prison from Acts 16:20-26, appeared after his death with music by his friend Daniel B. Towner.

Night had fallen on the city,

And the streets at last were still,

Where the noisy throng the day long,

Did the air with shoutings fill.

And the weary wayworn travelers

Preaching Jesus thro’ the land,

Paul and Silas, thrown in prison

At the magistrates’ command.

Many stripes to them were given
Many curses on them cast;
Many bolts and bars surround them,
In the stocks their feet were fast.
While the trusty Roman jailers,
All securely slumbering on,
Little dreamed the mighty wonder
Of the morrow’s early dawn.

Hark the sighing of the prisoners,
Hear their moanings loud and long;
No, again, and louder, clearer,
’Tis the voice of prayer and song.
See, the prison walls are shaking,
And the door wide open stands;
Lo, the earth, the earth is quaking,
Loosed are every prisoner’s bands.

Oh, there’s not a cell so lonely,
But a song may echo there;
Oh, there’s not a night so cheerless,
But there’s potency in prayer! 

Sing, oh sing, thou weary pilgrim,
Song will bring thee heav’nly peace,
Pray, oh pray, thou burdened prisoner,
God will give thee sweet release.

Philip P. Bliss, 1877; alt.

Tune: CALMARTIN (8.7.8.7.D.)

Daniel B. Towner, 1877

After Bliss's death, Towner also wrote the Memoirs of P.P. Bliss (1877) which can be read online.

Philip Bliss is sometimes credited as the person who coined the term 'gospel song' to describe this kind of music that was becoming popular in the 1870s, developing out of the earlier Sunday School songs of people like William B. Bradbury and William Howard Doane. This attribution may be only because a collection he edited in 1874 happened to be titled Gospel Songs.  This book also contained a tune written by Lucy Bliss; now I shall have to see if I can find any more music written by her.



Five Years Ago: Henry J. Gauntlett

Four Tears Ago: Henry J. Gauntlett

Two Years Ago: Philip P. Bliss

An Arch of Promise Bright

Summer Sundays are always a good opportunity for a gospel song. Today's song, while no longer familiar to many, was produced by two very prolific writers, Emily Hewitt and Charles Gabriel.

Charles Gabriel spent most of his career in Chicago, where he worked in music publishing, eventually editing or compiling nearly a hundred songbooks, which generally contained some of his own compositions.   In 1912 he became associated with Homer Rodeheaver, who had a gospel music publishing firm, and was also the music director for Billy Sunday, a phenomenally popular touring revival preacher.  Rodeheaver used many of Gabriel's songs in Billy Sunday's services, which spread them to a wide audience.

Emily Hewitt was active in the Methodist Church in Philadelphia, superintendent of her congregation's large Sunday School.  Many of her songs, possibly including this one, were written for that assembly.

Be not weary or cast down,
When the heavens seem to frown,
There’s a rainbow on the cloud for you!
’Tis an arch of promise bright,
Earnest of unfading light
Pouring from a sky of radiant blue.

Refrain

There’s a rainbow on the cloud for you,
There’s a promise that is sure and true;
Yes, the storm will pass away;
There will dawn a brighter day—
There’s a rainbow on the cloud for you.

Christ whose word rebuked the storm
Now is able to perform
Every word he whispers to your heart;
Wholly lean upon him, then,
For the sun will shine again,
And the shadows evermore depart.

Refrain

There’s a rainbow on the cloud!
Tho’ your soul is sorrow-bowed,
Lift your voice to praise the Lord today;
There’s a rainbow ’round the throne;
In its glory we will own
That he led us in the perfect way.

Refrain

Eliza E. Hewitt, 1914; alt.

Tune: RAINBOW ON THE CLOUD (7.7.8.D. with refrain)

Charles H. Gabriel, 1914

Both Hewitt and Gabriel were proficient at writing either the words or the music, or both.  They each produced so many songs, that, like Fanny Crosby, their publishers would bring out some of their material under pseudonyms so their songbooks would not appear to be overly full of any one person's contributions.

Three Years Ago: Charles A. Tindley

New Mercies Shall New Songs Demand

Independence Day is not observed in all churches, and probably most often there is some acknowledgment of the occasion on the nearest Sunday, even if it's only an elaborate organ postlude of some patriotic song or other.

The Revised Common Lectionary does include scripture readings for the day itself for churches who have such services, so that means we can have a hymn based on a psalm for the day.  In this case, it's a partial paraphrase of Psalm 145, set to an appropriately muscular and majestic tune called NIAGARA (a great Native American name, no?).

Our helper, God, we bless your name,

Whose love forever is the same;

The tokens of whose gracious care

Begin and crown and close the year.

Amid ten thousand snares we stand,

Supported by your guardian hand;

And see, when we review our ways,

Ten thousand monuments of praise.

Thus far your arm has led us on;

Thus far we make your mercy known;

And while we tread this earthly land,

New mercies shall new songs demand.

Our grateful souls on Jordan’s shore

Shall raise one sacred pillar more,

Then bear, in your bright courts above,

Inscriptions of immortal love.

Philip Doddridge, 1755

Tune: NIAGARA (L.M.)

Robert Jackson, 19th cent.

Philip Doddridge, whose June 26 birthday I missed last week, wrote a number of psalm paraphrases among his many hymn texts, as they were much more widely used among the churches of the eighteenth century.  I think it suits this day quite well, a hymn of praise without the patriotic overtones that many people question, though the theme is clearly there in the third stanza.

Five Years Ago: God of creation, whose almighty hand

Three Years Ago: Many and great, O God, are thy things

One Year Ago: O beautiful, for spacious skies

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (July 3, 1860 - August 17, 1935) was not exactly a writer of hymns, but her life and work do intersect in a minor way with hymns and congregational singing of a sort.

In her autobiography, published in 1935, Gilman describes how, as an adult, she taught herself to read music.

I was not in the least musical, hardly able to distinguish 'Yankee Doodle' from 'Old Hundred,' or to sing either.  But I was fond of good hymn-tunes, such as I had been familiar with in church-going days in Providence.  Mrs. Campbell had a Unitarian Hymnbook, and there was the piano.  I did not know the notes, or the keys, and had no ear, but I had eyes, fingers, and brains.  Pointing to the opening note in some well-loved tune, I asked her to show me where it was on the keyboard. (...) In a few months I was not only able to sing some simple tunes correctly, with the piano, but even to carry some of them without it.  'Antioch' is my favorite.  When preaching, if allowed to select a hymn, I always ask for that one, it is so creditable to Christianity.

ANTIOCH is better known to most people as Joy to the world, which was not always confined to Christmastime as it is today.

In 1911, she published Suffrage Songs and Verses, a short collection of feminist poetry, the source of Gilman's previous text seen here (see link below), Day of hope and day of glory.  Some of the poetry has suggested tunes indicated, and it was probably her hope that they would be sung at women's suffrage meetings or other gatherings.  This particular one did not have a suggested tune, but it just happens to fit one of the tunes that Gilman claims she couldn't identify before her musical self-education.  So today's text (with her own distinctive capitalization retained) isn't really a hymn, but Charlotte Perkins Gilman (like Luther, Calvin, and hundreds of others before her) certainly knew the power of words and music sung together for influencing people's beliefs. 

With God Above–Beneath–Beside–
Without–Within–and Everywhere;
Rising with the resistless tide
Of life, and Sure of Getting There. 

Patient with Nature's long delay,
Proud of our conscious upward swing;
Not sorry for a single day,
And Not Afraid of Anything! 

With Motherhood at last awake–

With Power to Do and Light to See–
Women may now begin to Make
The People we are Meant to Be!

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1911
Tune: OLD HUNDREDTH (L.M.)
 Louis Bourgeois, 1551 (attrib.)




 Five Years Ago: Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Edward J. Hopkins

Composer Edward John Hopkins, born today in 1818, is known for his long tenure (fifty-five years!) as organist and music director at the Temple Church in London.   His first organist position was at a church in Surrey, in 1834, and after a few other posts he came to the Temple Church in 1843.

He described the choir he found there on arrival: 

When I first went (to the Temple) there were only two ladies and two gentlemen in the choir, and they used to sing in the organ gallery. The curtain would be drawn aside for a few minutes, the singers would sing, and everyone would turn west to look at them; then the curtain was banged to with a rattle of brass rings. What queer ideas they had of music and organists in those days.

As it happened, others at the church were also interested in improving the choir, though it would be another year before Hopkins was given control over the choir and the music.  Before long, the Temple Church and its choir of boys and men was known as a model for other churches in the choral services which were becoming popular in the Church of England. In 1869 Hopkins even published The Temple Church Choral Service Book, which remained in print for many years.

Few of Hopkins's hymn tunes are familiar today, but this one seems usable to me.  The text is a partial paraphrase of Psalm 77, one of the appointed psalms for today in the Revised Common Lectionary.

Thy deeds, O God, will I relate
And on thy wonders meditate;
Thy way, O God, is just and right,
None other is like thee in might.

Among the nations thou hast shown
Thy wondrous power and made it known;
Thou art the God that mightily
Redeemed and set thy people free.

At sight of thee the waters fled,
The quaking clouds their torrents shed,
The lightnings flashed, the thunder pealed,
The trembling earth its fear revealed.

Thy way, O God, was in the sea,
But, though thy paths mysterious be,
Thy people thou didst safely keep
As shepherds lead their wan'dring sheep.

The Psalter, 1912; alt.
Tune: SHROPSHIRE (L.M.)
Edward J. Hopkins, 1844

Now, Hopkins and his choir would have been more likely to sing Psalm 77 to Anglican chant, perhaps to one of the several chants also written by Hopkins (one of which you can see and listen to here).

On Sunday, May 8, 1898, Hopkins marked his final service at the Temple Church.  All of the music sung by the choir that day was composed by him.  Nearly three years later he died, only two weeks after the death of Queen Victoria.

Five Years Ago:  Edward J. Hopkins

Three Years Ago: Edward J. Hopkins

Bless Your Little Lamb Tonight

One theme that has been largely unexplored here is hymns for children.  We have seen hymns that were originally written for children that are now considered general hymns, such as Mrs. Alexander's Once in royal David's city and There is a green hill far away, and some Sunday School music (which developed into the gospel song), but have not looked at the vast number of hymns written for children.

Most denominational hymnals from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century contained a section of children's hymns, and there were also probably hundreds of separate children's hymnals published during those years as well.  The archive of my own church contains an 188os edition of The Sunday-school Hymnal edited by Charles Hutchins, an Episcopal minister in Medford, MA, and most denominations had similar books.

This text and tune combination came to America when it appeared in the 1871 Episcopal hymnal edited by J. Ireland Tucker, and went on to appear in many others over the next 75 years at least.

Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me;
Bless your little lamb tonight;
Through the night be always near me;
Watch my sleep till morning light.

All this day your hand has led me,
And I thank you for your care;
You have clothed me, warmed and fed me,
Listen to my evening prayer.

Let my sins be all forgiven;
Bless the friends I love so well;
Take me, when I die, to heaven,
Happy there with you to dwell.

Mary Lundie Duncan, 1839; alt.

Tune: BROCKLESBURY (8.7.8.7.)

Charlotte Alington Barnard. 1868

Mary Lundie Duncan (1816-1840) was a young mother when she wrote this and other hymns especially for her own little children.  Like many similar hymns that have been written since, the text reflects the specific concerns of a child.  Duncan''s hymns were published after her death, first in a memoir written by her mother, then in a separate volume, Rhymes for My Children (1842).

Charlotte Barnard was one of the first women composers profiled here.  In addition to this hymn tune, she wrote several secular songs under the pseudonym of Claribel.  When J. Ireland Tucker edited The New Children's Hymnal (1892), he included more tunes credited to Claribel, and since he had first used BROCKLESBURY some years earlier, it may be that these tunes are also by Barnard and not someone else using the Claribel pseudonym, though there does not seem to be much scholarship on this subject.

Samuel Longfellow

Poet and hymnist Samuel Longlellow was born today in 1819, in Portland, Maine.He attended the Portland Academy, following his elder brother Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and apparently showed a talent for literary writing from a fairly young age.
 I have already recounted his days at Harvard Divinity School, where, with his classmate Samuel Johnson he compiled the Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion (1844).  In this book, as well as another they worked on later, Hymns of the Spirit (1864), several hymns we know today appeared for the first time, both those of Longfellow and Johnson, as well as some taken from the poetry of others that had not been originally conceived for congregational singing.

Longfellow's birthday does not quite fall during summer's official dates, but the weather is generally here by the eighteenth of June.

The summer days are come again;
Once more the glad earth yields
Its golden wealth of ripening grain,
And breadth of clover fields,
And deepening shade of summer woods,
And glow of summer air,
And winging thoughts, and happy moods
Of love and joy and prayer.

The summer days are come again;
The birds are on the wing;
God’s praises, in their loving strain,
Unconsciously they sing.
We know who gives us all the good
That makes our cup o’erflow;
For summer joy in field and wood
Songs lift from all below.

Samuel Longfellow, 1859; alt.
Tune: FOREST GREEN (8.6.8.6.D.)
Traditional English melody;
arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906

After living in various parts of New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, Longfellow died in the city of his birth, while on a visit back to Portland on October 3, 1892.

Longfellow remains one of my own favorite hymnwriters, and many of his texts have appeared on the blog, not just on his birthday.  You can click on the tag at the very bottom for more beyond the birthday links.

Five Years Ago: Samuel Longfellow

Four Years Ago: Samuel Longfellow

Two Years Ago: Samuel Longfellow

William Chatterton Dix

William Chatterton Dix, born today in 1837, was a lay person who wrote hymns, rather than ordained clergy.  He was an official in a maritime insurance agency in Glasgow, but published four volumes of hymns and poems in his lifetime. 

Today's hymn is a bit out of season, being a harvest hymn, a theme no longer much celebrated in this country.  It's very similar to a harvest hymn that we do still sing, Come, ye thankful people, come. However, in former times, our grandparents and great-grandparents would likely have known this hymn, with its tune written by Arthur Sullivan specifically for this text.
 

To thee, O Lord, our hearts we raise in hymns of adoration,
To thee bring sacrifice of praise with shouts of exultation.
Bright robes of gold the fields adorn, the hills with joy are ringing,
The valleys stand so thick with corn that even they are singing.

And now, on this our festal day, thy bounteous hand confessing,
Upon thine altar, Lord, we lay the first-fruits of thy blessing.
By thee all human souls are led with gifts of grace supernal;
Thou, who gives us our daily bread, give us the bread eternal.

We bear the burden of the day, and often toil seems dreary;
But labor ends with sunset ray, and rest comes for the weary.
May we, the angel-reaping over, stand at the last accepted,
Christ’s golden sheaves, forevermore to garners bright elected.

O blessèd is that land of God where saints abide forever,
Where golden fields spread fair and broad, where flows the crystal river.
The strains of all its holy throng with ours today are blending
Thrice blessèd is that harvest song which never hath an endng.

William Chatterton Dix, 1861
Tune: GOLDEN SHEAVES (8.7.8.7.D.)
Arthur Seymour Sullivan, 1874



Four Years Ago: Harriet Beecher Stowe

Three Years Ago: William Chatterton Dix

One Year Ago: William Chatterton Dix

Another Birthday Today: Miriam Therese Winter

Saint Barnabas

The Son of Consolation!
Of Levi’s priestly line,
Filled with the Holy Spirit,
And fervent faith divine,
With lowly self-oblation,
For Christ an offering meet,
He laid his earthly riches
At the apostles’ feet.

The Son of Consolation!
Drawn near unto his Lord,
He won the martyr’s glory,
And passed to his reward;
With him is faith now ended,
For ever lost in sight,
But love, made perfect, fills him
With praise, and joy, and light.

The Heirs of Consolation!
O what their bliss shall be
When Jesus Christ shall tell them,
“Ye did it unto me”
The merciful and loving
The Lord of life shall own,
And as his priceless jewels,
Shall set them 'round his throne.

Maud Oswell Coote, 1871; alt.
Tune: AURELIA (7.6.7.6.D.)
Samuel Sebastian Wesley, 1864



Five Years Ago: Saint Barnabas

Three Years Ago: Saint Barnabas

One Year Ago: Saint Barnabas

Minot Judson Savage

Minot Judson Savage (June 10, 1841 - May 22, 1918) was first ordained as a Congregationalist minister (his family background) but later became a Unitarian, having 'struggled with his orthodoxy,' according to one source.

We see, perhaps, some evidence of this in today's hymn by Savage.  While ordinarily I prefer to select hymns that, while often little-known, could still be sung in churches today, this one would probably not be very useful.  It may never really have been sung anywhere; it was published in Savage's own collection of hymns in 1899.

Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was in circulation by the mid-nineteenth century, and different religious denominations had different reactions to it, many of which continue to this day.  Not all those reactions have been negative; there certainly have been people of faith who accepted evolution as part of the story of creation.  Minot Savage wrote a book titled The Religion of Evolution (1876) in which he sought to reconcile faith and evolution rather than to declare them incompatible.  He dedicated the book to the Boston Unitarian congregation he was then leading, the Church of the Unity, which was, as he wrote:

"...willing to bear the pain of thought, brave enough to hear what is new, and having faith that God will lead the free and the earnest to himself..."

This is Savage's (perhaps unsung) hymn on the sublect of evolution.

The one life thrilled the star-dust through,
In nebulous masses whirled,
Until, globed like a drop of dew,
Shone out a new-made world.

The one life on the ocean shore,
Through primal ooze and slime,
Crept slowly on from less to more
Along the ways of time.

The one life all the ages though
Pursued its wondrous plan,
Till, as the tree of promise grew,
It blossomed into man.

The one life reaches onward still:
As yet no eye may see
The far-off fact our dreams fulfil --
The glory yet to be.

Minot Judson Savage, 1899
Tune: MARTYRDOM (C.M.)
Hugh Wilson, 1800;
arr. Ralph E. Hudson, 1885

Even for those that accept the theory of evolution, this is probably a bit too much.



Two Years Ago: Minot Judson Savage

Before Thy Mercy Seat

In honor of the anniversary of the consecration of my own church's current building (June 9, 1930). we have today a hymn of dedication.  Unfortunateky, we do not know what hymns they sang on that day.  One possibility might have been Christ is made the sure foundation (sung to the well-known tune REGENT SQUARE), but the parish at that time considered itself rather "high church," and unfortunately the more likely possibility from their hymnal of that time (Christ is our Cornerstone) does not have an available sound file for the tune they would have sung.

Thou, whose unmeasured temple stands,
Built over earth and sea,
Accept these walls that human hands
Have raised, O God, to thee.

And let the Comforter and Friend,
Thy Holy Spirit, meet 

With those who here in worship bend
Before thy mercy seat.

May all who seek be guided here
To find the better way;
And they who mourn, and they who fear,
Be strengthened as they pray.

May faith grow firm, and love grow warm,
And pure devotion rise,
While 'round these hallowed walls the storm
Of earth-born sorrow dies.

William Cullen Bryant, 1820; alt.

Tune: ST. FULBERT (C.M.)

Henry J. Gauntlett, 1849

To Do and to Endure

This Sunday begins the long journey to the end of the church year, with few particular commemorations or feast days falling on a Sunday until late November.  The Sundays after Pentecost do go on a bit.

As in previous years I am thinking about a few different themes to explore in hymns for this period, some new, some not.  I always think that hymna of the Holy Spirit are approprioiate for this time, as they are sometimes overlooked during the earlier part of the church year as the life of Christ is explored.

Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what thou dost love,
And do what thou wouldst do.

Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with thee I will one will,
To do and to endure.

Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Till I am wholly thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with thy fire divine.

Breathe on me, Breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with thee the perfect life
Of thine eternity.

Edwin Hatch, 1878
Tune: TRENTHAM (S.M.)
Robert Jackson, 1888

Edwin Hatch was ordiained in the Church of England and also spent time in Canada.  Some of his hymns and poetry were published after his death in 1889 as Towards Fields of Light (1890).  This pariuclar hymn remains in several hymnals today.

Of course, new hymns of the Holy Spirit are still being written and sung today.  One of these  more modern texts was introduced to my own church at last week's Thursday Celtic Eucharist service, Soaring Spirit, set us free by Carl P. Daw.  You can find it at the Hope Publishing Company website.

Trinity Sunday

Mighty Creator, merciful and tender;

Jesus our Savior, co-eternal reigning;

Spirit all-kindly, Advocate, Defender,

Light never waning;

Trinity sacred, Unity unshaken;
Deity perfect, giving and forgiving,
Light of the angels, Life of the forsaken,
Hope of the living;

Maker of all things, all your creatures praise you;
Lo, all things serve you through the whole creation:
Hear us, Almighty, hear us as we raise you
Heart’s adoration.

To the all-ruling Triune God be glory:
Highest and greatest, help our souls' endeavor;
We, too, would praise you, giving honor worthy
Now and forever.

Latin, 10th cent.;

tr. Percy Dearmer, 1906; alt.

Tune: CHRISTE SANCTORUM (11.11.11.5.)

French church melody; Paris Antiphoner, 1619

Five Years Ago: Lead us, great Creator, lead us

Four Years Ago: Holy! Holy! Holy!

Three Years Ago: I bind unto myself today

Two Years Ago: O Trinity of blessed light

The Feast of Pentecost

Hail, festal day! through every age divine,
When God's fair grace from heav'n to earth did shine.
Lo! God the Spirit to th'apostles' hearts
This day in form of fire herself imparts.

Hail, Breath of Life! Hail, Holy Fount of Light!
Life-giving Fire of radiance ever bright!
Thou Good all good containing, Peace Divine!
Fill with thy sweetness all these hearts of thine.

Some foretaste grant us of thy secret things,
The overshadowing of angels' wings;
To love divine our lips and hearts inspire,
By flying seraph touched with altar fire.

Venantius Fortunatus, 6th cent.;
tr. Theodore A. Lacey, 1884; alt.
Tune: FIELD (10.10.10.10)
Calvin W. Laufer, 1918

This ancient hymn for the birthday of the church is is similar to one seen before heretwo years ago, but this is a different translation and musical arrangement.  As often discussed here, the concept of the Holy Spirit as female is not a modern one.



Five Years Ago: Joy! because the circling year

Fout Years Ago: O prophet souls of all the years

Three Years Ago: Above the starry spheres

Two Years Ago: Hail thee, festival day!

One Year Ago: O God, the Holy Ghost

On Eagles' Wings Up To The Sky

As fewer and fewer churches conduct any sort of midweek services, the Thursday celebration of the Feast of the Ascension (forty days after Easter) is more and more often moved to the following Sunday (that is, today).

This text may be by Henry More (1614-1687), appearing in a collection with the very long title: Divine Hymns. Upon the Nativity, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, &c. Written By the late Reverend and Learned Dr. Henry More ... At the Request of a Person of Quality.  Some sources indicate that this was originally a German carol that was only translated by More. (The tune here, though also German, is my own choice.)

God is ascended up on high

With merry noise of trumpet’s sound,

And princely seated in the sky,

Rules over all the world around.

In human flesh and shape he went,

Adornèd with his Passion’s scars,

Which in heav'n’s sight he did present

More glorious than the glittering stars.

Lord, raise our earthly minds therefore

Up to our promised country dear,

And purify us evermore,

To fit us for those regions clear;

So we may mount to heav'n's bright hosts

On eagles’ wings up to the sky,

And be conducted to the coasts

Of everlasting bliss and joy.

Henry More, 17th cent.; alt.

Tune: SO LANGE JESUS BLEIBT DER HERR (L.M.)

Gemein­den Russ­lands, 1914

More's text was originally in twelve stanzas, but several of them are very unlikely ever to be sung again, such as these two:

Captivity he captive led, 
Triumphing o'er the pow'rs of hell, 
And struck their eyes with glory dread 
Who in the airy regions dwell. 

Let our converse be still above, 
Where Christ at thy right hand doth sit; 
And quench in us all worldly love, 
That with thy self our souls may knit.

Five (Liturgical) Years Ago: Alleluia! sing to Jesus

Four (Calendar) Years Ago: Frances E. Cox

Three (Liturgical) Years Ago: A hymn of glory let us sing

Two (Liturgical) Years Ago: Hail the day that sees him rise

One (Liturgical) Year Ago: On Olivet, a little band

It's Also Mother's Day: Motherhood, sublime, eternal

In New, Bright Raiment Clad

Another hymn for Rogation Sunday and a general celebration of the Eastertide themes of spring and renewal:

The glory of the spring, how sweet!
The new-born life, how glad!
What joy the happy earth to greet
In new, bright raiment clad!

Divine Redeemer, thee I bless;
I greet thy going forth;
I love thee in the loveliness
Of thy renewèd earth.

But O! these wonders of thy grace,
These nobler works of thine,
These marvels sweeter far to trace,
These new births more divine:

This new-born glow of faith so strong,
This bloom of love so fair,
This new-born ecstasy of song,
And fragrancy of prayer!

Creator Spirit, work in me
These wonders sweet of thine;
Divine Redeemer, graciously
Renew this heart of mine.

Still let new life and strength upspring,
Still let new joy be given;
And grant the glad new song to ring
Through the new earth and heaven.

Thomas Hornblower Gill, 1867

Tune: SUNNINGHILL (C.M.D.)

George Job Elvey, 1887

P.S. - In my church today,. one of the scripture readings included the story of Lydia (Acts 16: 11-15), which always brings to mind this hymn and the additional stanza that I once wrote for it.

Two (Liturgical) Years Ago: For the beauty of the earth

Three (Liturgical) Years Ago: O day of light and gladness

Four (Calendar) Years Ago: T. Tertius Noble

Four (Liturgical) Years Ago: O Jesus, crowned with all renown

Five (Cslendar) Years Ago: T. Tertius Noble

By Quiet Streams You Lead Me

 As you can see below, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, also known in many churches as Good Shepherd Sunday, has been observed here several times.  And, as promised some years back, we have not yet run out of paraphrases of Psalm 23 to sing.

This one comes from The Psalter (1912) a hymnal that was compiled by and shared among many of the different Presbyterian denomination in the United States at that time.

My Shepherd, you will hold me

Within your tender care,

And with your flock you fold me,

No want shall find me there.

In pastures green you feed me,

With plenty I am blest;

By quiet streams you lead me,

And make me safely rest.

Whatever may befall me,

You will restore and bless;

For your name’s sake you guide me,

In paths of righteousness.

Your rod and staff will cheer me

In death’s enfolding shade,

For you will then be near me;

I shall not be afraid.

My food you will supply me,

In presence of my foes;

With oil you will anoint me,

My cup of bliss o’erflows.

Your goodness, God, shall guide me,

Your mercy cheer my way;

A home you will provide me

Within your house alway.

The Psalter, 1912; alt.

Tune: LLANGLOFFAN (7.6.7.6.) 

Welsh melody

Five Years Ago: My Shepherd, you supply my need

Four Years Ago: Since God is my Shepherd

Three Years Ago: Thou art my Shepherd

Two Years Ago: I shall not want, in deserts wild

One Year Ago:  Beside the still waters

Everlasting Easter Day

The Easter season continues in many churches, though not all will extend it all the way to  Ascension Day, forty days after Easter Sunday.  This little-known text first appeared in Carols Old and Carols New (1916), a collectuon edited by the Reverend Charles Hutchins.  That book was primarily Advent and Christmas hymns and songs but there were many for other seasons of the year as well.

Alleluia! Sing the triumph
Of the Victor in the strife,
Who, thro’ death, himself has brought us
To the resurrection life.
Lo! the bars of death are riven,
Now forever open stand;
Nevermore shall close the portals
Of the Resurrection Land!

Alleluia! Night's long bondage
Breaks in everlasting dawn,
Fled forever in the radiance
Of the resurrection morn.
Now is past the night of weeping,
With the morning comes our joy;
By his glorious resurrection
Death’s cruel pow'r did Christ destroy.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He has triumphed gloriously:
Now, through Christ may we, triumphant,
Joyful gain the victory.
Alleluia! Savior, keep us
By your heav’nly grace, we pray,
That we keep with those in heaven
Everlasting Easter Day.

Alleluia! Christ, we hail you!

Join the chorus of the skies,
And with angels and archangels
May our hymn of praise arise.
Alleluia! praise and glory,
Laud, thanksgiving, honor, might,
Worship, blessing, adoration,
To the Victor Infinite.

E. Mabel Dawson, 1916; alt.

Tune: IN BABILONE (8.7.8.7.D.)

Dutch melody, 18th cent.;

arr. Julius Rontgen, 1906

Calvin W. Laufer

Today we celebrate the birthday of Presbyterian minister and hymnologist Calvin Weiss Laufer (April 6, 1874 -September 21, 1938).  I have been reading his book Hymn Lore (1932) which tells the stories of fifty different hymns which he considered significant at that time.  

The introduction of the book, by the Reverend Park Hays Miller, tells a bit more about Laufer's biography than I had encountered previously.

The author of this book has been peculiarly fitted for his take.  At the age of nine he learned to play the reed organ in his home.By the time he was eleven he was organist in his Sunday School.  At twelve he took lessons on the piano, and later on the pipe organ.  During his student days he paid his way by teaching music.  He presided at the organ in the college chapel and was also a church organist.  Later, as a pastor he  gave special attention to the development of music and worship in his church.

Miller goes on to cover the facts of Laufer's career which we have already covered here, including his writing of hymns and composition of hymn tunes, and of course his editorial work for the Presbyterian Board of Christian Education.

Today's tune by Laufer was published in 1918.  It is perhaps a bit too much of its time to be used again in a modern setting, but it's not wholly without merit either.

Eternal One, thou living God,
Whom changing years unchanged reveal,
With thee their way our forebears trod;
The hand they held, in ours we feel.

The same our trust, the same our need,
In sorrow’s stress, in duty’s hour;
We keep their faith, by thee decreed,
That faith the fount of all our power.

We bless thee for the growing light;
Th’advancing thought, the wid’ning view,
The larger freedom, clearer sight,
Which from the old unfolds the new.

With wider view, come loftier goal;
With fuller light, more good to see;
With freedom, truer self control,
With knowledge, deeper reverence be.

Anew we pledge ourselves to thee,
To follow where thy truth shall lead;
Afloat upon its boundless sea,
Who sails with God is safe indeed!

Samuel Longfellow, 1876; alt.
Tune: LITTLEFIELD (L.M.)
Calvin W. Laufer, 1918

Unfortunately, Laufer's work overall has not survived well.  The new Presbyterian hymnal, Glory to God, which will be published later this year, apparently only contains one of his tunes (HALL) and none of his texts.  It was disappointing to hear, a few years back, that the committee producing the new hymnal  had only looked back as far as The Hymnbook, published in the 1950s, for their material.



Three Years Ago: Calvin W. Laufer

Five Years Ago: Calvin W. Laufer