Saint Mary Magdalene

I have written before about Mary Magdalene on the occasion of her feast day today (as usual, you can check the links below), and about the scholarly confusion that has ensued over the years over just which "Mary" we're reading about at various points in the Gospels.

Not everyone agrees that the woman in Luke 7:36-38 is Mary Magdalene, though she often has been depicted as that woman in art and literature, as well as in today's hymn.  However, I decided to use this hymn text because it does go on to recount her witness to Jesus' crucifixion (when most of the disciples were in hiding).  And then I couldn't resist an addition of my own: a stanza honoring her role as "apostle to the apostles" on Easter morning.  This is an ancient concept which seems to have been (mostly) forgotten for a few centuries but is more often recognized in modern hymnody about Mary Magdalene.

The original Latin text was written by Cardinal Bellamine, probably in the fourteenth century, and used as an office hymn for this day ever since.  It begins:

Pater superni luminis,

Cum Magdalenam respicis, 

Flammas amoris excitas, 

Geluque solvis pectoris.

The English translation, constructed in the same meter by Edward Caswall (whose birthday I missed last week) may have first appeared in Lyra Catholica (1851), a prominent book of ancient Latin texts translated into English.

Creator blest! one glance of thine,

Whose eyes the Universe control,

Fills Magdalene with holy love,

And melts the ice within her soul.

Her precious ointment forth she brings,

Upon Christ's sacred feet to pour;

She washes them with humble tears;

And with her hair she wipes them o'er.

Impassioned to the Cross she clings:

Nor fears beside the tomb to stay;

Nought for its ruffian guard she cares,

For love has cast all fear away.

The morning breaks: He calls her name,

The pow'rs of death could not prevail; 

She hastes to tell the fearful twelve,

First to proclaim the glorious tale.

O Christ, thou very Love itself!

Blest hope of earth, through thee forgiv'n!

So touch our spirits from above,

That we may rise to thee in heav'n.

Riccardo Bellarmine, ca. 14th cent.;

tr: Edward Caswall, 1851; alt. (st. 4 C.W.S.)

Tune: PIXHAM (L.M.)

Horatio W. Parker, 1901

If you don't think that the ancient office hymns should be disturbed, feel free to leave out the fourth stanza, but it seems to me that the Cardinal could have included the idea.  However, for many years the primary educational value of Mary Magdalene was considered to be the story of the reformation of a "fallen woman."

P.S. - The statue above is South German in origin, by an unknown fifteenth-century artist, and currently in the collection of The Cloisters, a renowned museum in New York City.  It caught my eye because one of the stained glass windows in my church (depicting the Presentation) is also from the fifteenth century and was supposedly loaned to and on display at The Cloisters for several years in the 1930s and/or 40s.

Four Years Ago: Saint Mary Magdalene

Three Years Ago: Emily E. S. Elliott

Two Years Ago: Saint Mary Magdalene

God Mend Thine Every Flaw

The debate over the use of patriotic songs in church (and then calling them "hymns") has probably been going on for a very long time, as part of a larger tension between the desires of and allegiances to the church and those of and to the state.  Even Jesus was sometimes seen in opposition to Caesar, and the Old Testament recounts various events where God and earthly rulers were not, shall we say, on the same page.

Whether or not you sang the following on Sunday, in recognition of Independence Day here in the US, there was likely some discussion about it, either among those planning the service, or later, among those who attended.  Maybe both,  I sometimes fear that this is becoming an American equivalent to the UK's Jerusalem, something used in a vaguely patriotic way without any deeper examination.  And yet, a closer reading of the full text (rarely sung outside of churches, where everyone has the words in their hymnals) suggests that it's really a sort of prayer -- not a blindly patriotic and jingoistic song.  The text really looks to the future, where things will, with God's help, be better than they are today.

So, I guess I am just running it up the flagpole to see who salutes.

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain;
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood,
From sea to shining sea.

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness
America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine.

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood,
From sea to shining sea.

Katharine Lee Bates, 1904
Tune: MATERNA (C.M.D.)
Samuel A. Ward, 1882

Katharine Lee Bates wrote the original version of this text in 1893, inspired by an excursion to the top of Pikes Peak, near Colorado Springs.  Originally titled America: A Poem for July 4, it was quite different from the text we know today.  She revised it extensively in 1904 and it soon began appearing in hymnals., coupled with a number of different tunes no one sings any more.  In 1910 it was first matched with the now-familiar MATERNA by Samuel Augustus Ward.  Ward's tune was originally written for the hymn O mother dear, Jerusalem, which is where the tune gets its name.

In 1880 Katharine Bates graduated from Wellesley College, then as now a college for women.  She returned to Wellesley as an instructor, then full professor, and then head of the English department.  She also had a long career as a writer of poetry, travel books and stories for children.  Bates lived for twenty-five years with Katharine Coman, who also taught at Wellesley (the first woman professor of statistics), and was later the dean.  Coman died of breast cancer in 1915, and Bates said of their relationship: So much of me died with Katharine Coman that I'm sometimes not quite sure whether I'm alive or not.  Seven years later she published Yellow Clover, a book of poetry "to or about my Friend."  

Bates is still remembered at Wellesley, as you can see from the college's homepage. Apparently they still sing America the beautiful at graduation, but with the line "and crown thy good with sisterhood."


Four Years Ago: God of creation, whose almighty hand

Two Years Ago: Many and great, O God

For You Have Set Me Free

One of the readings for this particular Sunday from the Revised Common Lectionary (used in many churches across various denominations) is Psalm 30.  In some places, the psalms are sung in metrical paraphrases (what most people would consider hymns) rather than read or chanted.

The following paraphrase of Psalm 30 is from The Psalter (1912), a collection chosen and assembled by several different subdivisions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States and Canada, working together. 

God, I will praise your name,
For you have set me free,
Nor suffered foes to claim
A triumph over me;
O Lord, my God, to you I cried
And you have health and strength supplied.

You have my soul restored
When I was near the grave,
And from the depths, O Lord,
You graciously did save;
O blessed saints, sing to the Lord,
God's holiness with thanks record.

God's wrath is quickly past,
God's favor lives for aye;
Though grief a night may last,
Joy comes at break of day;
In my prosperity secure
I said, “My peace shall still endure.”

The Psalter, 1912; alt.
Tune: GOPSAL (H.M.)
George Frederick Handel, c. 1750

The tune GOPSAL was indeed written by Handel, and is apparently not an arrangement from one of his other works.  In 1826, the composer Samuel Wesley (son of Charles Wesley and father of Samuel Sebastian Wesley) was cataloguing the music in the library of the Fitzwiliam Museum at Cambridge, and he discovered three tunes by Handel still in manuscript, never published.  Samuel described them in a letter to his wife:

"...fine Hymn-Tunes from Handel's own manuscript, and what is uncommonly fortunate, they are all set to my father's own words, so that my dear father's poetry must have highly delighted Handel."

GOPSAL, originally called THE RESURRECTION, accompanied Charles Wesley's hymn Rejoice, the Lord is King, and is still sometimes sung with that text.  Its new(er) name comes from Gopsal Hall, the former residence of Charles Jennens, who wrote the texts for some of Handel's choral works, including Messiah.

John Pyke Hullah

John Pyke Hullah, born on this day in 1812, is primarily remembered as a music educator, bur he was also a composer and editor. His mother encouraged his musical education when he was young; she had studied with the composer John Danby (who, in turn, was a pupil of Samuel Webbe)..

Hullah entered the Royal Academy of Music in 1833.  One of his fellow students was Fanny Dickens, whose brother was not yet a famous novelist.  A few years later, Hullah would write the music for an operetta with a libretto by Charles Dickens, The Village Coquettes.  The work was not successful, and Dickens reportedly attempted to buy all the copies of the score to keep it from being presented again, but some of the songs by Hullah were published separately as sheet music.  He later wrote two more operatic works which were presented at Covent Garden, but most of his compositions were glees, a particular type of song popular in England, written for at least three voices.

Hullah believed that musical education, particularly in choral singing, fostered an important type of community.  Singing schools in England had grown especially popular in the nonconformist churches of the eighteenth century, and he encouraged this sort of education.  This became known as the choral revival, or the Psalmody Movement.  Hullah also wrote popular books on music theory, such as his Rudiments of Musical Grammar, which were used for many years.  He was one of the founders of Queen's College, the first English institution of higher education for women.

Some of these things suggest that he must have had some interest in congregational singing as well, and indeed he did write several hymn tunes.  He also edited two collections, A Hymnal, chiefly from The Book of Praise (1868) and Hymns for the Young (1872).  Today's tune by Hullah, BENTLEY, was perhaps his longest-lasting tune (one of only two of his available at the Cyber Hymnal) though it probably is not very well known today. The short text by James Edmeston has a musical theme which makes it appropriate for Hullah's birthday (though I am not the first to join this tune and text).

When shall the voice of singing

Flow joyfully along?

When hill and valley ringing

With one triumphant song,

Proclaim the contest ended,

And Christ, who once was slain,

Again to earth descended,

In righteousness to reign.

Then from the craggy mountains

The sacred shout shall fly,

And shady vales and fountains

Shall echo the reply;

High tower and lowly dwelling,

Shall send the echo round,

All hallelujahs swelling

In one eternal sound.

James Edmeston, 1822

Tune: BENTLEY (7.6.7.6.D.)

John Pyke Hullah, 1867

In later years John Hullah was appointed a national musical inspector for training schools, a post which he held for a decade until two years before his death, in 1884.

Two Years Ago: Julia Anne Elliott

Nativity of John the Baptist

The birth of John the Baptist is commemorated in some churches on June 24 (or June 25 this year, to move it away from a Sunday).  Many churches might only mention John during Advent, or perhaps at the Baptism of Jesus, but some additionally mark the day of his martyrdom by beheading (in the famous story of Salome) on August 29.

Today's hymn comes from The Holy Year (1865), a book of hymns by Christopher Wordsworth, delineated for each Sunday of the church year and many saints' days.  Wordsworth wrote eleven stanzas, but I can't imagine a modern congregation singing many more than four.

In the wilderness prepare ye
For our God a way to go,
Ev'ry valley shall be lifted,
Ev'ry hill shall be made low;
Straight shall be the crooked places,
And the rough be level made,
And all flesh shall see the glory
Of the Lord of Hosts displayed.

In his mother's womb exulting
Did the Voice salute the Word,
In the wilderness the Servant
Gladly did proclaim the Lord;
When the Spirit came upon him
Whom the Maker's love did send,
Christ the Savior sent from heaven,
John on earth the Savior's friend.

John the Baptist, our Elijah,
Preached thee in his mother's womb,
In the desert, in the palace,
In the prison's narrow room;
Greater than the holy prophets,
For he did the Christ baptize;
Greater than the holy prophets,
For he did evangelize.

In our hearts thy way preparing,
May we, Christ, thy grace obtain,
Level hills, fill up the valleys,
Crooked straight and rough make plain;
Haste, O haste thy second coming!
May thy everlasting Word
Bloom and flow'r through generations,
And be glorified, O Lord!

Christopher Wordsworth, 1865; alt.
Tune: BEECHER (8.7.8.7 D.)
John Zundel, 1870

The familiar tune BEECHER, by John Zundel, was named for Henry Ward Beecher, pastor of Brooklyn's Plymouth Church, where Zundel was organist.  I chose it for this text in honor of Beecher's birthday, which is also today.



P.S. The painting above, John the Baptist Preaching (1733) is by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Four Years Ago:  Henry Ward Beecher

Three Years Ago: Nativity of John the Baptist

Five for Five

This doesn't happen very often, but for some reason it turned out that all five hymns we sang in worship this morning were hymns I have already written about.  Usually there are at least one or two that are more modern and thus still under copyright.  It was a good batch to sing.

Processional:  Praise be to God, the Almighty

Sequence (before the Gospel): We walk by faith, and not by sight

Offertory: O what their joy and their glory must be

Communion: God's time shall come (better tune here than the one we sang)

Recessional: Light's abode, celestial Salem

It is a good thing that even though our services are shortened a bit during the summer we still manage to sing five hymns!





Four Years Ago: Helen Maria Williams

William Chatterton Dix

William Chatterton Dix (June 14, 1837 - September 9, 1898) was named by his father, John, a surgeon who was also a writer.  John had written a biography of the poet Thomas Chatterton and had written poetry himself; it has been speculated that he wanted his son to write also.

William, like his father the surgeon, embarked on a "legitimate" career at an insurance firm, but also found time to write, as an avocation.  He published four volumes of hymns and poems between 1861 and 1878.

Today's hymn for peace comes from Dix's collection A Vision of All Saints (1871) which does also include several texts on the saints of the church.  The story of Noah's Ark does not often come up in hymnody but I like how it is used here.

Is it in vain we pray for peace
While signs and notes of strife abound,
In vain we ask that war may cease,
While hostile forces camp around?

Rough billows, waters wild and dread
Still bear the Ark upon their breast,
But God's fair rainbow overhead
Is sign of peace and pledge and rest.

Say, will the winged prayers we send
Forth from the Ark return again?
Yes, some have come to point the end,
To tell of sunshine after rain.

They bear the olive-branch to show
That flood and storm are passing o'er;
Our hearts are strong, for well we know
The waters shall o'erwhelm no more.

William Chatterton Dix, 1871
Tune ERHALT UNS, HERR (L.M.)
from Joseph Klug's Geistliche Leider, 1543

Two Years Ago: William Chatterton Dix

Three Years Ago: Harriet Beecher Stowe

Another Birthday Today: Miriam Therese Winter

Saint Barnabas

June 11, the feast-day of Saint Barnabas, is probably mostly celebrated these days only by churches that bear his name.  An early convert to Christianity, his story is mostly told in the Acts of the Apostles.

Henry Alford, in the second hymnbook he complied, Psalms and Hymns (1844), appoints the following hymn for this day.  It appears that it was chosen simply because it includes the word consolation, and Barnabas is traditionally called the Son of Consolation.  In his later collection, The Year of Praise (1867), Alford wrote his own hymn for the day (see the second link below) which is, perhaps, somewhat more appropriate.

Author of mercies, in thy Word
What endless glory shines!
Forever be thy name adored
For these celestial lines.

Here the fair tree of knowledge grows
And yields a free repast;
And richer fruits than nature shows
Invite the longing taste.

Here springs of consolation rise
To cheer the weary mind,
And thirsty souls receive supplies,
And sweet refreshment find.

Here the Redeemer’s welcome voice
Spreads heavenly peace around
And life and everlasting joys
Attend the blissful sound.

Oh, may these hallowed pages be
Our joy by day and night,
And still new beauties may we see,
And still increasing light.

Anne Steele, 1760; alt.
Tune: TALLIS' ORDINAL (C.M.)
Thomas Tallis, c. 1567

This text, by hymnwriter Anne Steele, was almost certainly written with no thought of Saint Barnabas, but you never know what a hymnal editor will do with your work years later. This was actually one of her better-known hymns for many years.


Four Years Ago:  Saint Barnabas

Two Years Ago: Saint Barnabas

The Feast of Corpus Christi

The Feast of Corpus Christi is observed in some churches today, transferred from its true position on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday.  It commemorates the Eucharist, or Holy Communion, as the body of Christ.  It is a national holiday in several countries, and is sometimes celebrated with a procession.

The monstrance, seen in the illustration here, is a special vessel used to hold the consecrated host, particularly in special liturgies such as for Corpus Christi or for the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

This hymn is known and loved by many who observe the feast on this day.



Sweet Sacrament divine,
hid in thine earthly home;
lo! round thy lowly shrine,
with suppliant hearts we come;
Jesus, to thee our voices raise
In songs of love and heartfelt praise
Sweet Sacrament divine,
Sweet Sacrament divine.

Sweet Sacrament of peace,
dear home of every heart,
where restless yearnings cease,
and sorrows all depart.
there in thine ear, all trustfully,
we tell our tale of misery,
Sweet Sacrament of peace,
Sweet Sacrament of peace.

Sweet Sacrament of rest,
Ark from the ocean's roar,
Within thy shelter blest
Soon may we reach the shore;
Save us, for still the tempest raves,
Save, lest we sink beneath the waves:
Sweet Sacrament of rest,
Sweet Sacrament of rest.

Sweet Sacrament divine,
Earth's light and jubilee,
In thy far depths doth shine
The Godhead's majesty;
Sweet light, so shine on us, we pray
That earthly joys may fade away:
Sweet Sacrament divine,
Sweet Sacrament divine.

Francis Stanfield
Tune: DIVINE MYSTERIES (6.6.6.6.8.8.6.6.)

Four Years Ago: Here, O my Lord, I see thee face to face

The Feast of Pentecost

O God, the Holy Ghost,
In this accepted hour,
As on the day of Pentecost,
Descend in all thy power.

Like mighty rushing wind
Upon the waves beneath,
Move with one impulse every mind;
One soul, one feeling breathe.

The young, the old inspire
With wisdom from above;
And give us hearts and tongues of fire,
To pray, and praise, and love.

Spirit of light, explore
And chase our gloom away,
With luster shining more and more
Unto the perfect day.

Spirit of truth, be thou
In life and death, our guide;
O Spirit of adoption, come!
May we be sanctified!

James Montgomery, 1819; alt.
Tune: PETERBOROUGH (S.M.)
William H. Monk, 1868



Four Years Ago: Joy! because the circling year

Three Years Ago: O prophet souls of all the years

Two Years Ago: Above the starry spheres

One Year Ago: Hail thee, festival day!

The Feast of the Ascension

On Olivet a little band

Around their risen Savior stand:

And after charge and blessing giv’n,

He passes from them into heav’n.

Wistful their eyes, but angels twain

Cheer them with glorious words: “Again

One day shall Jesus even so

Return, as ye have seen Him go.”

Whom have we, Christ, in heav’n but thee?

Like ships safe moored on stormy sea

Our souls in peril, with thee there

Find anchorage of hope and prayer.

Set loose from earth, and evermore

Fast bound to that eternal shore,

So all our life and love shall be,

Ascended Savior, ris'n with thee!

Samuel J. Stone, 1866; alt.

Tune: MENDON (L.M.)

German melody; arr. Samuel Dyer, 1828

Four Years Ago: Alleluia! Sing to Jesus

Two Years Ago: A hymn of glory let us sing

One Year Ago: Hail the day that sees him rise

Samuel Webbe

The birthdate of composer Samuel Webbe is unknown, and the date of his death is apparently also uncertain, but several sources do list it as May 15.  He had a son by the same name who was also a composer, but not of any hymn tunes that survived to the present day.

The tunes of Webbe that we do know mostly appeared first in his Essay on the Church Plain Chant (1782), and thus were not harmonized as we know them.  Webbe was a Roman Catholic in England, writing for their liturgy and not for the Church of England.  

Today we have what is probably Webbe's best known tune, MELCOMBE, the melody of which came from that first book, and is still included in modern hymnals.  The tune gained popularity in a relatively short period of time; it next appeared in a 1791 collection called Sacred Harmony (where it received its name).  Webbe then included it in his later Collection of Motets (1792) with a rudimentary harmonixation.  Ir probably arrived in America through the efforts of Lowell Mason; it appeared in early as 1828 in one of his collections, where it was called NAZARETH.

Like so many other familiar text and tune combinations, this one comes from the first edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861), where music editor William H. Monk harmonized the tune as we now know it.  In addition to today's well-known text by John Keble, that hymnal also matched MELCOMBE to Lord, speak to me that I may speak by Frances Ridley Havergal, but that pairing did not prove popular.

New every morning is the love
Our wakening and uprising prove;
Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restored to life and power and thought.

New mercies, each returning day,
Hover around us while we pray;
New perils past, new sins forgiven,
New thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.

If, on our daily course, our mind
Be set to hallow all we find,
New treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.

The trivial round, the common task,
Will furnish all we ought to ask;
Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be,
As more of heav'n in each we see.

Only, O God, in thy dear love,
Fit us for perfect rest above,
And help us, this and every day,
To live more nearly as we pray.

John Keble. 1827; alt.
Tune: MELCOMBE (L.M.)
Samuel Webbe, 1782
harm. Willliam H. Monk, 1861

This text is from John Keble's The Christian Year (1828), part of a sixteen-stanza poem entitled Morning. Of course, some modern hymnals cut it even further to four stanzas.  In The Christian Year, this poem was preceded by a quote from Lamentations 3:22-23: "God's compassions fail not. They are new every morning," which may also remind you of a more recent hymn, Great is thy faithfulness.

I've already admitted that MELCOMBE is not a favorite of mine but someone must like it if it continues to appear in hymnals today. Archibald Jacob, in Songs of Praise Discussed (1933), calls it "an extremely well-balanced tune, of great dignity," which just shows what I know.

Three Years Ago: Samuel Webbe

Two Years Ago: Austin C. Lovelace

Phebe Hanaford

Universalist minister, activist, author and poet Phebe Hanaford was born on May 6, 1829 in Massachusetts.  I have already covered several aspects of her biography in previous entries (linked below), but she led a long and active life.

Her early concern with social justice issues led her to write an anti-slavery novel, Lucretia the Quakeress in 1853, the same year that Harriet Beecher Stowe's more well-known Uncle Tom's Cabin appeared.   After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln she wrote a popular biography of the president.  Her most popular book, however, was Daughters of America (1883), an encyclopedia of renowned and accomplished women from colonial times to her day.

Today's communion hymn by Hanaford is taken from a poem in one of her collectiions, From Shore to Shore (1871).

The feast of life is sweet;
I am a willing guest,
And joyful, at my Savior's feet
I heed his high behest.

I eat the living Bread,
I drink the Cup divine;
And love within my heart is shed
And light shall 'round me shine.

With what exultant joy
My Savior, I shall sing!
Thy praise shall be my soul's employ
Till heav'n's high arch shall ring,

My soul feeds on thy Word
And strength receives from thee
I weary not of thee, O Lord,
O weary not of me!

Still at the feast of life
For strength let me sit down
Till victor, through thee, in the strife
I wear the glorious crown.

Phebe Hanaford, 19th cent.; adapt.
Tune: FESTAL SONG (S.M.)
William H. Walter, 1872

The tune FESTAL SONG is most often associated with the hymn Rise up, O men of God, by William Pierson Merrill, but that's not a text I would ever be writing about.  Contemporary hymn writer Ruth Duck has written a modern text for this tune as a sort of replacement: Arise, your light is come!, which appears in some newer hymnals.  I think you should seek it out if possible; it's quite good (and more grounded in scripture than Merrill's).

The picture below depicts Phebe Hanaford in the pulpit of the New Haven Universalist Church which she pastored in the 1870s.  Since I first wrote about her a few years ago, a biography of her (the first!) has been published, A Mighty Social Force.  One of the contributors, Sarah Barber-Braun, is a long-time scholar of Hanaford and her work, and successfully campaigned for a headstone to finally be placed at Hanaford's unmarked gravesite in 1998.

Three Years Ago: Phebe Hanaford

Two Years Ago: Phebe Hanaford

Saint Philip and Saint James

Today is the double celebration of the feast day of Saint Philip and Saint James in some churches.  We know that Philip was one of the Twelve Apostles, but the identity of this James has shifted over the years.  For a long time he was believed have been the James who was called the brother of Jesus, which is how Christopher Wordsworth identified him in this hymn for the day, published in Wordsworth's hymnal The Holy Year (1865).

O Jesus, blest the grace of Love
Shed on our hearts by thee;
Which makes us to another's soul
Dear as our own to be.

"Follow thou me?" that question dear
Thou once to Philip said;
He followed thee, and on the way
To heav'n he others led.

Today with thine own brother, Lord,
Philip is linked in love;
As kindred, to each other joined
By graces from above.

O bring us to that holy place,
That heav'nly home above;
Where kindred shall as angels be,
And ev'ry word be Love.

Christopher Wordsworth, 1865; alt.
Tune: BEATITUDO (C,M,)
John Bacchus Dykes, 1875

P.S. - Last summer, a group of Italian archaeologists believe that they found the tomb of Philip the Apostle in Turkey.



Three Years Ago: Saint Philip and Saint James

Two Years Ago: Joseph Addison

I Drink From Their Plenty

As discussed before, we're back again to Good Shepherd Sunday, celebrated in many churches on the Fourth Sunday of Easter.  If it was observed in your church, you undoubtedly heard Psalm 23, perhaps in more than one format or setting.  It's certainly the most paraphrased psalm I've presented here, and we have not run out of them yet!  This one may not be as complete a paraphrase as some others, but deserves a look anyway.


Beside the still waters, my Shepherd, my Lord,
There lead me, there feed me, there show me your Word;
There give me your counsel, there grant me your peace,
There make all my sorrows and wanderings cease.

Beside the still waters, oh bountiful store,
I drink from their plenty and thirst nevermore;
No more I am weary when there I may rest,
And feel with your mercy and love I am blessed.

Beside the still waters, your goodness is there,
Protects me from danger, preserves me from care;
For pain has no terror and death has no sting,
While you are so near me, my thanks will I sing.

Inge E. Diekinga, 1896
Tune: BROTHERTON (6.5.6.5.D.)
English folk melody, arr. 1905


This text originally appeared in Uplifting Songs (1896), but with a rather uninteresting tune.  BROTHERTON suits it better, though perhaps it should be played a bit more gently than the sound file here.

I have lost count of all the Psalm 23 paraphrases presented here (more than just the four below) but you may be able to see them by clicking on the "Psalm 23" tag below.

Four Years Ago: My Shepherd, you supply my need

Three Years Ago:  Since God is my Shepherd

Two Years Ago:  Thou art my Shepherd

One Year Ago:  I shall not want, in deserts wild

The Earth Arrayed in Green

We have talked before about hymns with a spring theme that sometimes tie into Eastertide.  This one actually doesn't, but still contains some nice images.  It was published anonymously in this country in 1799, in The Hartford Selection of Hymns, from the Most Approved Authors : To Which are Added a Number Never Before Published (I always love those long titles), a Congregationalist hymnal edited by Nathan Strong, though that may not have been the text's first appearance. In fact, the first stanza sometimes appears with completely different succeeding stanzas, and is attributed to John Newton, but that seems like an inexact credit from the days when hymnals were not indexed well, if at all.  Copyright law was also non-existent, and writers rewrote other people's texts all the time.

At length the wished for spring is come;
How altered is the scene!
The trees and shrubs are dressed in bloom,
The earth arrayed in green.

I see my Savior from on high,
Break through the clouds and shine!
No creature now more blest than I,
No song more loud than mine.

Your Word will all my hope revive,
It overcomes my foes;
It makes my thirsting spirit thrive,
And blossom like a rose.

And now, a monument I stand,
Of what your grace can do,
Uphold me by your gracious hand,
Each changing season through.

Text anonymous, 1799; alt.
Tune: ARLINGTON (C.M.)
Thomas Arne. 1762;
arr. Ralph Harrison, 1784

ARLINGTON, a tune which is still known in modern hymnals, would likely have been familiar to those who sang from the Hartford Selection of 1799.   Thomas Arne was an English composer of opera and instrumental music and this tune was arranged by Ralph Harrison from a minuet in Arne's opera Artaxerxes, which was a very successful work in its day.  Though Arne did not write any sacred choral music, perhaps because he was a Roman Catholic in a time when that was not considered acceptable in England, he has two very familiar tunes to his credit, even today: Rule, Britannia is a patriotic song from his opera Alfred, and his particular arrangement of God Save the King (or Queen) was adopted as Great Britain's national anthem (which also appears in UK hymnals).

Steps Unto Heav'n

Nearer, my God, to thee,
Nearer to thee!
E'en though it be a cross
That raiseth me;
Still, all my song shall be,
Nearer, my God to thee;
Nearer to thee,
Nearer to thee!

Though like the wanderer,
The sun gone down,
Darkness be over me,
My rest a stone;
Yet in my dreams I'd be,
Nearer, my God, to thee;
Nearer to thee,
Nearer to thee!

There let the way appear,
Steps unto heav'n;
All that thou sendest me,
In mercy giv'n;
Angels to beckon me,
Nearer, my God, to thee;
Nearer to thee,
Nearer to thee!

Then, with my waking thoughts
Bright with thy praise,
Out of my stony griefs,
Bethel I'll raise;
So by my woes to be
Nearer, my God, to thee;
Nearer to thee,
Nearer to thee!

Or if on joyful wing,
Cleaving the sky,
Sun, moon, and stars forgot,
Upwards I fly,
Still all my song shall be,
Nearer, my God, to thee;
Nearer to thee,
Nearer to thee!

Sarah Flower Adams, 1841
Tune: PROPIOR DEO (6.4.6.4.6.6.4.4.)
Arthur Sullivan, 1872

Context is here at the bottom of the entry.